Ding Yuxi was about to say something when a white flash flickered outside the window. He looked across the road beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows and saw a man dressed from head to toe in heavy clothing pointing a camera lens at them.
Yu Shuxin also noticed the paparazzo outside taking sneaky shots. “Hey, we’re in trouble!”
The thought of having to ask her manager for funds to buy the paparazzo’s photos made her face scrunch up pitifully.
Yu Shuxin took a deep breath and calmly told her assistant, “Xiao Yang, could you go ask that paparazzo outside for his contact info? We’ll need to buy the photos from him later.”
Ding Yuxi knew that in many cases, celebrities would buy up photos of potential scandals. Those whose rumors ended up trending on hot search were usually either unable to reach a price agreement with the paparazzi or simply couldn’t be bothered to manage it anymore.
He found it somewhat amusing. “No need to buy them. We haven’t done anything—we’re completely innocent. Even if they spin stories from pictures, they can’t fabricate a rumor out of nothing.”
Yu Shuxin said to him seriously, “But you work behind the scenes. You shouldn’t be dragged into something like this. I’m worried it might affect your normal work in the future.”
Ding Yuxi smiled, a hint of roguish defiance flickering in his eyes. “It’s fine. Let him post whatever he wants. If it hits hot search, just post the photos I took of you today, clarify that you were working with staff, and then sue their account. After all that, everyone will know you’re filming Moonlight Waltz. You get your buzz, and once the rumor about us is cleared up, we’re both spotless. Isn’t that a win-win?”
Actually, a similar idea had flashed through Yu Shuxin’s mind. Since joining the production, her buzz had died down considerably. She had debuted as an actress, but the label of an idol-show star had stuck to her, and she couldn’t help but feel anxious about the waning attention.
But considering that Ding Yuxi worked behind the scenes and was practically a civilian, he shouldn’t be swept up in such a storm of controversy. Her first instinct had been to have her assistant contact the paparazzo and buy the photos.
Yu Shuxin looked at Ding Yuxi with a complicated expression as he casually suggested using the rumor to generate buzz. “Aren’t you afraid of being cyberbullied?”
The internet was a mixed bag of all sorts. As a female star who had blown up this year, anyone linked to her in a rumor would inevitably be subjected to public scrutiny. The mix of well-meaning and malicious stares was more than the average person could bear.
Ding Yuxi raised an eyebrow. “I just don’t think people like that deserve to make money off this.”
Yu Shuxin hesitated, then nodded. “Alright, then I owe you one.”
…
That evening, after Ding Yuxi finished editing the photos, he packaged them and sent them to Yu Shuxin on WeChat. He had edited two sets—one of Yu Shuxin on the overpass, and one of Chu Li on the avenue of fallen leaves.
After Yu Shuxin unzipped the files and looked at the photos, she couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
Hahahaha! This guy!
Ding Yuxi’s visual language was really easy to read.
The two photos he had posted on the “silence | Yu Shuxin” account were both desperately trying to showcase her aloof, cold, and detached side. This was how Ding Yuxi, as her “anti-fan,” saw Yu Shuxin—a calculating, worldly, exceptionally clear-headed yet utterly greedy female star.
In the lens of “silence | Yu Shuxin,” she either tilted her chin up slightly with an icy, piercing gaze, flicking her hair as if she couldn’t care less about everything around her, or she was clearly upset yet shed only a single tear, making it impossible to glimpse her true thoughts.
She deliberately created an aloof, standoffish aura, as if she were an unapproachable iceberg—cold and distant.
How could this person even turn the tears she shed on stage out of genuine emotion and reluctance into crocodile tears? She had clearly cried two streams of tears that day! She was truly, sincerely reluctant to leave the training camp.
But it worked out by accident. The photos he took of her were too much like a female lead, and that unique, unconventional vibe hit the bullseye for fans who weren’t into her cute image.
And now, perhaps because Yu Shuxin’s sincerity toward others on set had paid off, Ding Yuxi had let go of his prejudice against her, and his impression of her had greatly improved.
This was directly reflected in the photos Ding Yuxi took—he not only captured Chu Li’s most innocent and adorable moments after work.
The shot he took of Yu Shuxin looking back on the pedestrian bridge was especially striking.
In the photo, Yu Shuxin stood on the stairs of the bridge, surrounded by a surging crowd. She turned her head, her gaze deep and serene, revealing no hint of joy or sorrow. But it was precisely this calm detachment, free of grief or happiness, that made her radiate a maternal, all-embracing aura, like a goddess loving all of humanity. Her gaze seemed to pierce through the lens, reaching everyone on the other side, and the love in her eyes fell equally upon this beautiful, bustling mortal world.
Yu Shuxin stared at this photo for a long time, typing in the WeChat chat box and deleting it, going back and forth several times before finally sending a message.
“Thank you, Ding Zhoujie.”
When Ding Yuxi received the message, he couldn’t help but curl the corners of his mouth. She called him Ding Zhoujie.
Since starting work, few people had called him that. Most assumed his name was Ding Yuxi. Seeing the name Ding Zhoujie, Ding Yuxi felt a faint ache in his shoulder blades.
On the day he burned bridges with his family, he knelt on the ground, and the old man’s cane struck his back several times before Ding Yuanjie, quick as a flash, stopped him.
To be fair, the old man was still vigorous in old age. With the strength he used to beat people, he could probably keep working at the Ding Group for another ten or twenty years, maybe even lead it to new heights.
Ding Yuxi twitched the corner of his mouth. What had the old man said? “Your wings are hard now, you’re rebelling”?
But his wings seemed slow to grow. Without resources or connections, and with the old man ordering the familiar uncles in the industry not to help him, he still hadn’t gotten a foot in the door of any major director’s film crew. Sure, he could use Director Zhang Zui’s recommendation to join a film crew as a script supervisor, but he felt that was too slow. His plan required quickly accumulating capital. Right now, the most important thing for him was to race against time.
Ding Yuxi replied with “You’re welcome.” and closed the chat window.
Putting on his glasses, he opened the movie he hadn’t finished watching yesterday and began analyzing it frame by frame, taking notes.
As a director, Ding Yuxi wasn’t exactly a genius.
But that was fine—practice makes perfect.
…
Late that night, the paparazzi account “Wang Wang Team Drops Big News” posted a Monday-teaser right on time: A popular young flower’s secret relationship exposed, sweet with her civilian boyfriend on the streets!
After leaving a message for Yu Shuxin’s studio and seeing no response, they released a silhouette of Yu Shuxin, hoping to pressure the studio into paying to make it go away.
But Yu Shuxin’s studio seemed to have made up its mind to let it go and do nothing about it.
Others did reach out to them, offering money to push this relationship gossip onto the trending searches.
This kind of situation is fairly common—to put it simply, there are only so many good resources in the entertainment industry. The number of TV dramas and films that can be produced in a year is limited, and each drama has only one male and one female lead. Top-tier resources are scarce, not to mention that even the battle over billing order between the male and female leads can turn people’s brains into mush.
Yu Shuxin had blown up this year thanks to a variety show, and her subsequent resources included a lead female role in a drama, so there were always people thinking ahead and plotting to drag her down.
When a popular actor or actress’s relationship is exposed, it hits fans the hardest. Now that the news that Yu Shuxin was holed up on set, not focusing on her acting but secretly dating, was out there, who knows how many career-focused fans she’d lose.