There was so much gossip online every day that the crowd chasing scandals quickly moved on to fresher ones. Something as minor as An Juexiao’s issue died down very soon, but the person who had started it all did not get off so easily.
Xin Yan’s manager roared in anger, “Those leaks about An Juexiao, you were the one who released them?!”
Sitting in front of her vanity mirror, Xin Yan lazily drew her brows and said, “Without evidence, Mark-ge, you should not go around making wild accusations.”
“Keep pretending,” the manager snapped, throwing a stack of documents in front of her. “They have already found out!”
Xin Yan glanced at them and said indifferently, “So what?”
“So what?” Seeing her careless attitude, the manager was so angry his hands trembled. “Do you think what you did was just some small matter? That the only person you offended was a college classmate?”
Xin Yan said dismissively, “I know what kind of person An Juexiao is. She is just sharp-tongued, that is all. No father, no mother, no backing. Even if she knows I did it, what can she do?”
“Besides, did she not actually benefit from this disaster and get a little famous?” Xin Yan shrugged. “She should be thanking me.”
The manager was furious. “I think you really will not cry until you see the coffin. All your scenes in Three Realms have been cut!”
Xin Yan’s hand, which had been painting her nails, froze. Then she heard her manager continue, “Your follow-up work has also all been suspended. For this period of time, you should just rest well.”
Xin Yan finally understood. Enraged, she demanded, “You are shelving me?”
In a cold, businesslike tone, the manager replied, “This is the company’s decision.”
Xin Yan shot to her feet, grabbed her phone angrily, and said, “I am going to call Brother Chao. I am going to tell him you are all bullying me!”
Hearing that, the manager thought she was unbelievably stupid.
“Save it. He has already blocked you.”
“Blocked?” Xin Yan could not believe it. Just a few days ago, the boyfriend who had been holding her and calling her baby would block her? She refused to believe it, pulled out her phone, and called him. All she got was a busy tone.
She called seven or eight times in a row, and no one picked up. When she sent a WeChat message, it really did show that she had been blocked. Having lost her backer, all the color drained from Xin Yan’s face at once. “How could he do this? How can he be so heartless? I stayed with him for so long, and he blocked me without even saying a word!”
The manager rolled his eyes helplessly. Hearing Xin Yan say that, it seemed she had forgotten exactly how she herself had risen to her current position in the first place.
Xin Yan vented by smashing everything on the table onto the floor. She even started throwing stools and clawing at her own hair.
Her manager had no interest in watching Xin Yan throw a tantrum and lose her mind. He straightened his clothes and prepared to leave. Seeing this, Xin Yan rushed over and grabbed him like a drowning woman clutching at a lifeline, holding on desperately.
“Brother Mark, do not go. I can only rely on you now. What should I do? What am I supposed to do?”
The manager glanced at her. The regret in his eyes was not pity. He simply felt that the investment made in Xin Yan had not yet brought any return, and abandoning her just like that would be a waste. So he pointed out a way for her.
“If you really want to stay in this industry, then go apologize to An Juexiao. Once this blows over, you can still survive in the circle.”
“And let me give you one more piece of advice. If you cannot even stand steadily on both feet in this industry yet, then stop thinking about crooked shortcuts all day long,” the manager said coldly. “Go apologize first, then come back to me.”
When An Juexiao received Xin Yan’s call, it was early in the morning. Miserable sobbing came through the phone, startling her so badly she almost hung up.
“Juexiao, I was wrong. For the sake of our four years as classmates, please let me off. Besides, you did not really lose anything this time, did you?”
“I also did not know those reporters had so little professional ethics, twisting my meaning however they wanted…”
As An Juexiao listened to Xin Yan’s utterly insincere apology and rambling excuses, a trace of impatience appeared in her eyes. She cut Xin Yan off.
“You have said so much, yet you have not even uttered a single ‘sorry.’ Instead, you keep trying to excuse yourself. You even think that because I made it through this, you deserve some credit for it. Xin Yan, you are not apologizing, and you do not think you did anything wrong. You are only upset that this time, you failed to crush me completely.”
An Juexiao’s words immediately twisted Xin Yan’s expression.
“An Juexiao! Are you refusing to let me off?”
“I have never refused to let you off. You are the one who has never let yourself off, from university until now, always the same.” An Juexiao said evenly, “There are mountains in my eyes, and seas, and a road full of stars. There is no place for you there. Take care of yourself.”
An Juexiao put it very politely. Put less politely, it meant, who do you think you are? You are not worth my notice.
Xin Yan froze. By the time she came back to herself, all that remained on the line was the busy tone. Her nails dug deep into her palm, her eyes full of resentment.
After An Juexiao hung up, Zhang Xiaowan curiously leaned over.
“I have never heard you speak so seriously before. Who was it?”
“A former classmate, the one who leaked those stories about me this time.” In An Juexiao’s view, Xin Yan was far too vicious. This exposé had not just been an attempt to kick her while she was down, it could very well have cost her the chance to work with Director Zhang.
So when Xin Yan cried and pleaded over the phone, An Juexiao remained unmoved from beginning to end.
“Wow, and she still dared to call you? Does she have no shame?” Zhang Xiaowan said. “All her work has been suspended, and as for Three Realms, they are cutting whatever scenes of hers they can. Tsk. That drama already had Yaohui as one of its investors, and she still wanted to stir up trouble by stepping on someone from Yaohui. She really has no brains.”
“I heard she got into a fight with her manager in the dressing room today and nearly smashed the whole place up.” Zhang Xiaowan spoke animatedly, sharing the latest gossip she had just received.
The entertainment industry could be huge, but it could also be very small. A little bit of gossip could spread like wildfire. Something that happened in the morning could reach somewhere else by the afternoon. As an old hand, Zhang Xiaowan naturally had sharp ears and plenty of sources.
“No wonder she called to beg for mercy.” An Juexiao thought for a moment, then asked, “Did Sister Xi really go all out on her?”
Zhang Xiaowan shook her head. “Sister Xi was furious, sure, but she does not have that kind of reach. At most she could release some information unfavorable to Xin Yan, stir up trouble for her resources a bit. She could not blacklist her to that extent.”
Once that guess was ruled out, another person immediately appeared in An Juexiao’s mind.
Gu Zhanran’s strike had really been steady, precise, and ruthless, hitting Xin Yan right where it hurt most, and doing it all without a sound.
Thinking about it, she owed Gu Zhanran yet another one.
Even though Gu Zhanran was repaying a debt of gratitude, why did she, the so-called benefactor, feel more and more like a loan shark? She kept taking one benefit after another from him.
No, she absolutely had to thank Gu Zhanran properly.
Once An Juexiao made up her mind, she deliberately borrowed the hotel kitchen and busied herself there for half a day.
Very soon, on the other side of the city, Gu Zhanran once again received a gift from An Juexiao, an iced drink packed in a thermos bottle.
On the cap of the bottle, in flamboyant handwriting, were the words: “Try your luck again for another bottle.”
Beside those four big characters was also a goofy little doodle. Gu Zhanran could not help but smile when he saw it.
Along with the drink came a faintly fragrant card. The fresh and graceful handwriting was unmistakably An Juexiao’s.
I learned this from Chef Zheng. It cools you down and quenches thirst, no coloring, no artificial flavoring, safe and tasty. Hope you like it.
Gu Zhanran gently rubbed the card between his fingers as its light fragrance drifted up to him. He opened the bottle and took a sip. It was sweet and tart, with a slight chill to it, and tasted wonderfully good.
Gu Zhanran happily took several more sips, cherishing every mouthful as if he were enjoying the finest delicacies. After drinking, he even praised it, “This drink is amazing. After only a few sips, all the summer irritability vanished instantly.”
The old butler standing nearby found it amusing. “Young Master, that is just a psychological effect.”
Ignoring the old butler’s teasing, Gu Zhanran rose and stood by the window. Holding the drink with both hands, he gazed out with his dark eyes. Cicadas were chirping merrily in the trees, while his gaze seemed to rest somewhere much farther away.
Watching this scene, the old butler could not help but sigh. In the past, what the young master held in his hands were Italian crystal goblets, French ceramic cups, even tea bowls from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Standing by the window like that, he looked as beautiful as an oil painting in an auction house.
And now, he was cradling a thermos worth only a few dozen yuan.
And looking especially reluctant to put it down.
Life really was impossible to predict.
Meanwhile, An Juexiao was in training. Phones were not allowed under the rules, so she did not see Gu Zhanran’s message until after work.
It was a picture of the words “Try your luck again for another bottle.”
Gu Zhanran: Time to claim the prize.
An Juexiao froze for a moment. She had already been exhausted to the point of collapse after a full day of training, but she still managed to burst out laughing with the last bit of strength she had left.
Seeing An Juexiao sprawled on the sofa in complete disarray, Zhang Xiaowan asked in concern, “What is it? Do not scare me. Did people start cursing you online again?”
“…” An Juexiao laughed helplessly. “Do I look brain-dead to you? Would I be laughing this happily if people were roasting me online?”
“Mm…”
“Hey, what is with that look on your face that says I really am brain-dead?” An Juexiao indignantly hurled a cushion at her.
Zhang Xiaowan caught it deftly, hugged it to her chest, and asked curiously, “Then what are you laughing at?”
That laugh had already drained the last of An Juexiao’s energy. Her body slumped sideways and she collapsed back onto the sofa.
“I am laughing because my sugar-daddy big brother is such an interesting person.”
In An Juexiao’s eyes, Gu Zhanran was a cold and aloof little prince most of the time, but every now and then he would reveal an unexpectedly unusual sense of humor.
Or perhaps it was precisely because he was normally so serious and proper, so easy to misread, that his childlike earnestness and stubbornness felt especially amusing.
The more An Juexiao thought about it, the funnier it became. It was as if she could already sketch out Gu Zhanran’s face on the other side of the screen just through the phone.
Zhang Xiaowan watched helplessly as An Juexiao laughed her way from the sofa onto the bed, then rolled around on the bed.
“Stop giggling like an idiot.” Zhang Xiaowan patted the pillow and said, “Your follower count has gone up a lot lately. I already set up a fan group for you. When the drama airs, we can promote it in the group.”
An Juexiao froze, and a sudden nervousness rose in her chest. “A fan group? Are people joining?”
Zhang Xiaowan answered briskly, “Not many.”
“…”
“Do not be discouraged. You are only just starting out. You will slowly get more fans in the future,” Zhang Xiaowan comforted her.
An Juexiao asked for the group number and quietly joined her own fan group. She discovered that Zhang Xiaowan’s “not many” really was not just an attempt to comfort her. There were indeed only a dozen or so fans in the group.
Sigh, being a female celebrity was hard.
Puffing out her cheeks, An Juexiao said gloomily, “The group is so quiet.”
“It will get lively once there are more people.”
An Juexiao thought that made sense. Only with actual works to show could she gain more fans. Right now she had no finished works yet, so naturally she had no real fan base and no topics to chat about. Of course the group would be quiet as a chicken.
Her eyes swept across the fan group member list, and suddenly she noticed an interesting name. “This person’s ID is kind of funny, ‘Prize Inside When Opened,’ haha.”
Zhang Xiaowan said, “Oh, her. She was the very first person to join your fan group after we posted the group number today.”
After hearing that, An Juexiao felt even more fondness for this fan.
Author’s Note:
Gu Zhanran: Be the kind of longtime fan the idol actually remembers ^_^