Chaper 16
“Cut!”
At the director’s command, the shot was officially finished.
Wang Hexing smiled at Qin You. “It’s only natural for Li Ruixi to be dazed. Anyone in his shoes would be.”
Indeed, the more Ling Yu claimed her interest in Li Ruixi was purely for profit, the more Li Ruixi believed her heart was sincere. And the rare sincerity of an egoist was always particularly heart-stirring.
However, if Qin You had to say, Ling Yu’s move was likely calculated as well.
Li Ruixi was different from Fang Ziyu’s boyfriend. With the latter, she could simply flirt to get what she needed and then leave without a second thought; she wouldn’t lose anything by offering a bit of illusory affection for a short time. She couldn’t handle Li Ruixi the same way. By handling him like this, she both cut off his romantic delusions and made him believe her rejection was the true mark of her sincerity. It was a clever way to maintain his special regard for her without having to actually give him anything.
Qin You felt that this was probably what Ling Yu was thinking—or perhaps she wasn’t thinking at all, and it was simply an instinctive action.
Director Wang’s writing regarding the dynamic between Ling Yu and Li Ruixi was quite ambiguous. Even ten years after *Vanity Fair* had aired in her previous life, people were still constantly debating whether Ling Yu’s feelings for Li Ruixi were entirely feigned or if she had actually been moved.
Qin You had originally thought she would finally be able to solve this unsolved mystery since she was playing Ling Yu this time. She expected Director Wang to explain Ling Yu’s true thoughts to her, but he never did. She couldn’t tell if he felt it wasn’t important or if he was deliberately keeping the actors in the dark to push that sense of ambiguity to the extreme.
***
As the days on the film set passed, Qin You felt time flying for the first time. Perhaps it was because, for the first time, she didn’t have to wait bitterly for hours on set just to perform for a few minutes before stepping down.
These days, the cameras revolved almost entirely around her.
It made her feel better than ever before.
Director Wang was very satisfied with Qin You’s state and acting, and the staff were equally happy. Since the focus of the scenes had shifted to Ling Yu, the frequency of Director Wang’s outbursts on set had dropped significantly.
Furthermore, the sets at Magic Box Company were high-ceilinged and spacious, which was beneficial for everyone’s mental health. For a time, the atmosphere within the crew was incredibly peaceful.
But such a peaceful atmosphere was destined not to last.
This morning, as soon as Qin You arrived on the film set, she heard Director Wang’s roar.
“Which idiot did this?!”
“Who did it?! Step forward right now!”
Qin You was startled, unsure of what had happened.
As far as she could see, every staff member looked terrified. Frowning, Qin You grabbed a staff member who was hurrying past.
“What happened? Why is Director Wang so angry?”
The person looked up at her in surprise. “Don’t you look at your phone?”
Qin You froze. She really wasn’t used to using her phone much. Her adolescence had been spent with computers, and although smartphones had become the norm later on, leading to widespread addiction, she had always found looking at small screens uncomfortable. Consequently, she didn’t suffer from the common “smartphone addiction” of the modern era.
She took out her phone. There were no new messages; it seemed Director Wang hadn’t sent a mass notification about what happened. She then opened Weibo.
And then she knew exactly what was going on.
Her name was hanging right at the top of the Trending Search list.
She clicked on the first post.
“…Even if Qin You’s reputation is already this trashed, the entertainment industry truly is a place where any popularity is good popularity. Infamy is still heat. Now there’s actually a production looking for Qin You to play a lead role. Everyone, remember the name of this drama—*Sleepless City*. Let’s all boycott it together once it’s released.”
The second item on the Trending Search list was “Boycott *Sleepless City*.”
Someone had leaked the news that she was in this production.
Qin You frowned. Although the news of her casting would have to be released sooner or later, the timing was wrong. For a control freak like Director Wang, having his promotion plan disrupted like this was bound to make him fly into a rage.
Director Wang’s confidentiality agreement was extremely strict. Before the drama aired, no one was allowed to reveal any content related to the plot or the production, including the cast list.
Qin You had read the contract carefully. Once someone violated the NDA, the compensation started at a minimum of one hundred thousand yuan. The cast was mostly newcomers; none of them should be able to treat a hundred thousand yuan as a trivial amount.
Who exactly had done it?
***
Zhao Anya felt her heart pounding. Director Wang’s roars echoed in her ears as she rapidly scrolled through Weibo.
She stood up, walked to a visual blind spot, and dialed a number she knew by heart.
“Xiao Qiu?”
The voice on the other end sounded like it hadn’t woken up yet. “Anya…”
This was the first time Yang Qiu had answered her call since returning to school. Normally, this would be the sign that their cold war was over, which should have made Zhao Anya sigh in relief. But now, she only felt an ominous premonition growing stronger in her heart.
“Xiao Qiu, was it you?”
“What nonsense are you talking about? If it’s not me, then who?”
“The news about Qin You… did you leak it?”
There were two “creaking” sounds from the other end of the line, likely the bed frame groaning as Yang Qiu climbed up. Then, she let out a yawn and said indifferently, “It was me. What about it?”