The two of them froze. “You’re on trending search.”
They both picked up their phones and started refreshing at the same time.
Sure enough, it was number one on the trending search.
The first few entries were all about him.
『New rising starlet Su Nuan’s romance exposed, suspected to be past-his-prime artist Li Lu.』
『Secret midnight meeting, left at 3 AM.』
『Su Nuan’s studio responds: completely false.』
『Su Nuan speaks out personally: We acted in a drama together. He’s a very caring brother.』
……
“Shit, I knew it.”
Sun Xiang couldn’t help cursing. There was only one reason Li Lu could still hit the trending search: a scandal.
“You two are real, aren’t you? Your old assistant told me you were together.”
The assistant the company had assigned to him half a year ago had still been with him, but later she had taken the initiative to ask for a transfer to another artist.
How much did an assistant’s base salary even pay? When an artist made money from events of all kinds, the real bulk of it was the bonus red envelopes.
But he had barely had any income for years. What assistant could put up with that?
After she left, he didn’t apply for another one, and the company didn’t take the initiative to assign him a replacement either.
Even though his contract included a full-time driver and assistant.
In that respect, he really was pretty sensible.
When Sun Xiang saw that he still wasn’t speaking, he knew it was true.
He went on:
“This is reality.
Back when you were just getting popular, it was always other companies that mainly wanted to do fake couple hype with us.
Now Su Nuan has only just blown up, and she’s already drawing a clear line between herself and you.”
Li Lu only smiled and didn’t get angry.
The other side’s agent had already spoken to him. No exposure.
Xiao Nuan coming out to deny it at the first opportunity was understandable too.
After all, her career had only just started to take off. Getting tangled up with a has-been blackened artist like him at this point would definitely hurt her fanbase.
Though it stung a little, he couldn’t be too selfish and think only of himself.
His Weibo was full of her fans coming over to curse at him.
『Trash. Stay away from our Xiao Nuan.』
『Please let Xiao Nuan go. Go find your Liu.』
『Aren’t you ashamed? How old are you, and you’re still leeching off a young girl’s popularity?』
『Why is this loser Lu still around? I’d even forgotten about him.』
……
Li Lu skipped over them decisively. He had been getting smeared for years already.
By now his mentality was rock solid. This was all small stuff.
“Little Lu, if nothing unexpected happens, it won’t take long before she breaks up with you.”
Sun Xiang brought up his gossip with interest, and the atmosphere lightened a little.
“No, we have a great relationship.”
Li Lu had great confidence in Xiao Nuan. He had just spent two whole days and nights acting clingy at her place, and they had even agreed that the next time she got a break, he would take her to the amusement park.
Around this time last year, he had taken a cameo job.
He hadn’t worked for more than a year and couldn’t be bothered to be picky anymore.
But when he got to the set, no one paid him any attention. The others looked at him like he was a plague.
The female lead of that drama was Xiao Nuan, and she was different from the rest.
She took the initiative to hand him a drink and add him on WeChat.
Afraid he would feel awkward, she often came to chat with him while they were filming.
Just like her name, she was too warm.
After knowing her for a long time, he found out she was actually his fan.
She had followed him for years. Unexpectedly, she was discovered by a talent scout and ended up taking this path too.
Her first second-female-lead role became a small hit, and the company saw that momentum was good, so they directly gave her a lead role.
She became a rising powerhouse starlet in the industry.
At that time, he had just gone through a breakup, and his career had taken a heavy blow as well. He was in a bad mood.
How could he resist such warm companionship? The two of them quietly got together.
He had no popularity, and they had kept it secret for half a year. He never expected they would still get photographed.
But they had only been caught coming out of her residential complex, and the damn paparazzi had already started making up stories from a picture.
“Don’t lie to yourself. You’re not some naive kid.
At a time like this, how could she possibly still keep dragging things out with you?”
Sun Xiang chuckled and poured him another cup of tea.
“That said, you really don’t discriminate. You take whatever comes your way.
We won’t even mention Lin Lin and Zhang Xinyao from way back. Lately there’s Su Nuan and Liu Mian.
One is five years younger than you, one is five years older.
You really don’t pick and choose, do you?”
Sun Xiang was teasing him, but inside he was dying of envy.
This kid, even if his brain was a little off, was absurdly lucky with women.
From his debut until now, whether they were young starlets, mid-tier actresses, or top actresses, he had somehow gotten tangled up with them all.
Liu Mian was now a true queen, with both talent and works.
She had opened her own company, and word was that a lot of investors were backing it. They were even preparing to go public.
“Brother Xiang, if there’s nothing else, I’ll head off first.”
Li Lu didn’t want to keep talking about this topic. It was too sleazy.
Dating was his own private matter, not something for them to gossip about.
Besides, Liu Mian was also the one person he least wanted to mention.
The hurt had been too deep, and only after he met Xiao Nuan did he warm up again.
“Come on, come on, we haven’t even talked about your contract yet.”
Sun Xiang felt a bit of contempt. This kid had done all sorts of things, and still loved pretending to be righteous.
So damn hypocritical.
“Actually, the contract isn’t impossible to change.
Your popularity base is still there. As long as you behave, we can absolutely stage a comeback.”
Li Lu sat back down as well. After dragging things out for so long, they had finally gotten to the main topic.
“This is what I’m thinking. If they can make the first move, we can answer in kind.
Back then other people leeched off your popularity. Now it’s your turn to do it.
Take Xiao Nuan. You must have some material on hand, right?
Chat logs, videos, photos… anything works.
The spicier the better, you know what I mean.
It’ll be easy to pull you back into people’s sight.”
“Heh, Brother Xiang, no.”
Li Lu shook his head firmly. How could he possibly do something like that?
“Fine, fine. Then let’s not talk about Xiao Nuan.
What about Liu Mian? She’s not exactly a good woman.”
Sun Xiang hadn’t expected him to agree anyway. He was just laying the groundwork.
If he wanted to ride trending heat, no woman was more suitable than Liu Mian.
“No. I won’t do that kind of thing.
We don’t have any relationship anymore. It’s all already in the past.”
Li Lu’s expression darkened a little. He understood what Old Sun meant.
If he exposed his past relationship with them at this point, it would cause an absolute earthquake.
Even if he got cursed at and blackened, that would still be better than being ignored completely.
But doing that would be too low-class. He disdained it.
“Are you stupid? Liu Mian is no good.
Your assistant said it was her who dumped you, right?
How do you think she got to where she is today? By constantly doing fake couple hype with other artists.
Do you even know? To her, you were just entertainment when she was lonely. A stamp sitting in her collection album.”
“Don’t you talk nonsense. No one knows better than I do.
She’s not the kind of person you say she is. All of that is just her disguise.”
Before Sun Xiang could finish, Li Lu slammed the table and stood up.
“You’ve been brainwashed, haven’t you?”
Sun Xiang’s face darkened. This brat dared to slam the table in front of him? He had really gone too far.