Thinking of this, Su Zhu suddenly felt that the heavens were actually treating her quite well.
Although she was brought across by transmission without her consent, being thrust without warning into the body of the most miserable cannon fodder character in the entire book with a baffling start and suffering a major loss out of sheer helplessness, at least her life seemed to still have room for salvation.
As long as she stayed far away from Song Yuran in the future, those two lives would become diverging intersecting lines. After yesterday’s brief intersection, the future would only drive them further apart with no further overlap.
Yet setting aside the factor of Song Yuran, the person she transmigrated into possessed quite decent conditions.
While internet-celebrity styles fade out very quickly, at the very least she still retained a certain level of fame, which was far better than her previous life.
Under these circumstances, work would not be an issue, and the provided compensation was fairly decent as well.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, she should diligently pick up some work and earn more money. By the time her popularity faded, her retirement fund should be nearly set.
Then she could happily retire and live the life she had dreamed of in her past life.
Furthermore, although most things in this world were identical to her previous world, certain details remained distinct.
For instance, the cultural domain was completely different.
In her former world, she stayed cooped up at home every day during her free time chasing anime, browsing back and forth until she could hardly find any good shows left to pass the time.
Yet in this world, countless wonderful series awaited her viewing. Pondering this, Su Zhu felt that her current situation was not bad at all, and even when adopting a different mindset, everything that happened yesterday did not seem like such a heavy loss.
After all, the person who had her way with her was recognized across this world as an unreachable, peerless beauty.
Although the experiential feeling during the process was not particularly good, she did not exactly suffer a total loss either.
In just a short moment, Su Zhu adjusted her mindset and coaxed herself into feeling better.
Having settled her mind, she began pulling from the original owner’s memories to understand the rules and common sense related to this world, as well as what kind of person Song Yuran truly was.
And what about Song Yuran?
The moment this thought crossed her mind, scene after scene of memories poured forth from her mind, and the peerless, alluring image of a woman dressed in red silk felt as though it were carved deep into her very soul. The mere thought sent a heavy shudder straight through her heart.
This figure and these memories originated from the first film starring Song Yuran.
Song Yuran’s face possessed a beauty that was bold, uninhibited, and struck with intense impact.
Her brow bones were sharp as a blade, the outer corners of her eyes naturally tilted upward, and her high bridge of the nose sat just right. Her features nearly fused Eastern and Western aesthetics into perfection, leaving observers unable to pick out a single flaw.
The moment she debuted, a renowned director in the circle spotted this face and immediately cast her as the Scarlet Pearl Fairy, a love demon who stood above the mortal realm and toyed with obsessed mortals.
Dressed in layers of scarlet gauze, she glanced back amidst a mountain stream, lifting her gaze slightly with reddened eye corners that appeared both tearful and bewitching.
When her sleeve brushed against a person’s cheek and she leaned in to softly ask, “Does the young master know the bitterness of yearning?”
That momentary splendor enchanted countless men and women, willingly laying down everything they possessed.
Yet, as beautiful as the Scarlet Pearl Fairy was on the outside, she was equally ruthless on the inside.
Her beauty was heart-shattering, and her cruelty pierced straight to the bone.
Whenever defied, she instantly bared sharp fangs.
She fed upon human hearts, and when her crimson robes stained with fresh blood, they appeared all the more dazzling and demonic.
The Scarlet Pearl Fairy stripped away her victims’ lives and obsessions for her own use.
There is a popular superstition in the entertainment industry: the character a person plays in their first breakout drama shares some destined affinity and coincidence with the actor’s real self.
The Scarlet Pearl Fairy held precisely that significance for Song Yuran.
That soul-stirring yet cold-blooded and ruthless demeanor mirrored Song Yuran herself.
Following a single film, Song Yuran stole away countless hearts and souls. Innumerable fans grew infatuated with her, driving themselves mad out of a love carried to extremes that remained unrequited.
The original owner, Su Zhu, was simply one among them.
She loved to the point of losing all control, which gradually caused her to lose her reason and walk a path to extremes.
Reaching this point in her memories, Su Zhu could not help closing her eyes and pressing a hand over her chest.
Her heart was filled with shock.
She understood very little about Song Yuran, and even the brief encounter after transmigrating had not left behind any favorable impression.
Yet even so, when she began recalling content related to Song Yuran, she was startled to discover that she was influenced by those memories, finding her heart fluttering because of that intensely alluring smile in her thoughts.
If one were to actually experience it all firsthand, it was hard to imagine anyone capable of resisting her charm.
Su Zhu genuinely felt a sense of sympathy from the bottom of her heart toward the original owner whose body she now inhabited.
Falling in love with her was not the original owner’s mistake.
It was simply that the method of loving was wrong and the tactics were far too extreme.
However,
Su Zhu rubbed her chest, suppressing that uncontrollable flutter of emotion.
She was an experienced person after all, and knowing the script naturally meant knowing what kind of lethal poison lay hidden beneath that beauty, where touching it meant instant death.
Therefore, her own little life mattered most, and such a tiny bit of attraction appeared completely insignificant compared to her life.
“Do not let yourself appear in my sight ever again.”
Recalling Song Yuran’s threatening words, Su Zhu could not help curling her lip, as she was not foolish.
Rest assured, she did not even need the threat; she would actively avoid her on her own accord.
She would never give Song Yuran a chance to see her again in this lifetime!
As Su Zhu muttered these thoughts to herself, a phone suddenly rang. Her heart skipped a beat, and looking closely at the caller ID on the screen, she took a deep breath and answered the call.
The caller was the original owner’s manager, Ding Yiwen.
The original owner called her Sister Ding, a name that sounded gentle and soft, yet she handled matters with decisive execution and absolute finality.
As a very famous manager within the company handling multiple artists, her status meant she had no reason to treat the original owner with any special favoritism.
Consequently, the two were not very close, a detail that actually allowed Su Zhu to breathe a slight sigh of relief.
After all, having just arrived, even with partial memories from the original owner to assist, she still feared that people closely acquainted with the original owner might discover anomalies.
“Hello, Sister Ding?” Su Zhu answered the phone.
“Where are you right now?” Ding Yiwen asked straight to the point.
“At home,” Su Zhu said, her gaze flickering slightly.
“You came back after attending the banquet last night, right? Have you been home the whole time?” Ding Yiwen asked.
Instinctively, Su Zhu felt that the fewer people who knew about last night’s events, the better, especially since the relationship between the original owner and this manager was only ordinary.
“Yes,” Su Zhu responded vaguely.
“Listening to your voice, are you sick?” Ding Yiwen detected the abnormality in her tone, though she did not suspect much.
Su Zhu gave a light cough and cleared her throat, “I caught a bit of a cold, but it is nothing serious.”
“Alright, as long as it is not serious. Remember to take good care of yourself over the next couple of days. The travel variety show that was decided upon previously starts filming next week, so get yourself well-prepared since we are leaving soon.” Over the line, Ding Yiwen flipped through newly received messages while speaking to Su Zhu, “I have already sent you the information regarding the show’s guests, so pay attention to it. Your status on the show is not very high, so mind your posture and attitude when filming.”
“That distinguished senior teacher on the program is a veteran artist, and people of your age might not have watched their work. I suggest you take advantage of these next few days to learn about them in advance, so you do not look awkward or cause the audience to accuse you of putting on airs.”
“Additionally, the production side disclosed that this time the variety show will feature a mystery guest whose status and honor surpass even that senior teacher. Because of a last-minute change, there has been no external marketing, and even when I inquired, that side revealed no information, so you must know how to adapt flexibly when you meet the senior teachers.”
Su Zhu listened quietly, noting down every instruction Ding Yiwen gave.
Once the phone call ended, Su Zhu finally exhaled in relief. Her performance just now should not have given her away.
As for how the variety show would go afterward, she was not worried about that.
Having served as an underground idol in her past life, she knew how to interact with all sorts of people. While she could not claim to love it, she could certainly fake it convincingly.
Especially since,
This upcoming work happened to be a travel variety show.
In other words, she would be leaving this city.
This made Su Zhu breathe a long sigh of relief from the bottom of her heart. After all, according to records in the original text, the female protagonist Song Yuran had never participated in any variety show throughout her life.
If she went on this show, for the next half month or so she would constantly be on the road recording, and by the time she returned and resumed active life in this city, Song Yuran would likely have already entered another film crew.
A perfect evasion with zero intersection, very nice.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Song Yuran was driven home by her assistant. Once the door closed, Song Yuran caught sight of the assistant’s hesitant expression repeating several times in her peripheral vision.
“Want to say something?” Song Yuran asked.
“Sister Ran, yesterday’s incident must have been a trap deliberately designed by someone,” assistant Jia Dou explained hesitantly.
Halfway through the banquet last night, paparazzi suddenly released a scoop featuring nothing more than a blurry silhouette of an unknown person paired with unfounded remarks. Through a round of hype, they instantly pushed Song Yuran into the spotlight.
At that moment, Song Yuran’s new movie was right in the middle of its pre-promotion phase. For this kind of leak, even if it were mere rumor, the impact would be massive if not handled properly.
Consequently, including herself and Song Yuran’s backing management team, everyone treated it like a formidable enemy, working overtime to resolve the issue.
As a result, nobody remained by Song Yuran’s side at that moment, leading directly to what happened.
Deeply ashamed, Jia Dou felt that everything was her fault, which caused…
“I know,” Song Yuran said.
With a calm voice, she stood by the window looking out at the lawn, “Being able to resolve the public opinion issue so quickly proves that the other party did not take the matter seriously either, which means this action was nothing more than luring the tiger away from the mountain.”
A chill struck Jia Dou’s heart.
“I am sorry, I did not react immediately at that moment and arrived late,” Jia Dou said with a trace of shame.
By the time she realized what was happening, it was already when Song Yuran proactively messaged her to bring a change of clothes over.
Fortunately, Sister Ran possessed decent physical resilience and sobered up quickly enough to prevent any more severe issues.
“Then regarding this matter…”
Jia Dou did not know how to handle it and ultimately had to listen to Song Yuran’s thoughts.
“When you get the chance, investigate who set up this trap,” Song Yuran said, turning back toward the direction of the bedroom as she left behind these words.
Jia Dou froze in surprise.
Did those words mean Sister Ran suspected that the person who orchestrated these events was not the person inside the room last night?