Su Qingqing wore a mask, sunglasses, and a cap on the subway, but whether it was her uniquely striking aura or the fact that she had provoked too many fans of her idol oppas, some young girls on the train still recognized her.
Someone secretly snapped a photo of her and posted it on Weibo, saying: “Quick, look who I just saw—the heiress of the Su Group, our big star Su Qingqing, riding the subway?! Is this even possible? Didn’t she used to bring bodyguards and take a private car everywhere to avoid anti-fans?!”
That post quickly received replies.
“Come on, come on, does anyone still not know by now that Su Qingqing is the adopted daughter of the Su family? Once the real heiress was found, they kicked her out because she was too much of a troublemaker, right?”
“She’s nothing but a nobody now—at best a D-list actress with terrible acting and singing skills, drowning in scandals. Getting kicked out means she has to take the subway. Serves her right!”
“Exactly, exactly. This is all karma for that trashy woman!”
“…”
Within just ten minutes, the post had accumulated hundreds of replies, all of them insults.
The young girl who took the photo glanced at her Weibo comments, then looked at Su Qingqing, who was leaning against a pole not far away, eyes closed in quiet repose, exuding a cool, aloof air. She inexplicably felt a bit embarrassed.
What’s more, they happened to get off at the same stop. The station was crowded, and as the girl got off, she was jostled. She stumbled and nearly fell, but a tall young woman behind her caught her firmly.
The woman was half a head taller than her and thinner, with hands that were slightly cool yet strong, steadying her in one smooth motion.
Her voice matched her appearance—clear and crisp: “Careful.”
After steadying her, the woman strode off, leaving the girl standing there, her face flushed red.
The person who had just caught her was none other than Su Qingqing—the D-list scandal-ridden actress she had just mocked on Weibo!
Once the girl snapped out of it, she looked down at her phone and saw the increasingly vile comments about Su Qingqing. She tried to explain to people that Su Qingqing didn’t seem that bad in person.
But no one listened. Someone even sneered, asking if she was a paid shill Su Qingqing had hired to stir up publicity in a new way.
In the end, she quietly deleted the post.
From then on, she thought she would never casually gossip about anyone on Weibo again.
Meanwhile, Su Qingqing, having helped someone and walked away, curled the corners of her lips slightly.
Changing a terrible reputation starts with forming karmic bonds along the way—who doesn’t know the tricks of image rehab in the modern entertainment industry?
When she arrived at the company, her head agent was already waiting for her in the office.
Sister Xu was there too, though her expression wasn’t great.
The head agent managed all the artists in the company and was also one of the partners. He was a greasy middle-aged man with triangular eyes and a beer belly.
The moment Su Qingqing walked in, he hurled a stack of documents viciously at her face: “Look at what you did last night! In one night, all these contracts are being terminated because of your ruined reputation. Can you even afford the penalties?!”
As the documents flew toward her, she sidestepped slightly, dodging them nimbly.
She casually reached out, snatching one of the contracts mid-air before it could fall. A section was highlighted in bold red.
It basically stated that Su Qingqing had failed to protect her own reputation, and due to the anticipated severe negative impact, the brand was invoking emergency risk avoidance to terminate the contract, with her bearing eighty percent of the penalty fees.
Clauses like this existed in almost every contract, but if no one pursued them, they were nothing. If someone seriously pushed for enforcement, it could drag into a long lawsuit, and she would almost certainly lose.
Back when the original owner was still with the Su family, everyone gave face to the Su name, and no one bothered to enforce such terms.
But now that the original owner had been cast out of the Su family, everyone was piling on, figuring that since she had no future in entertainment and would never become a star, they might as well squeeze out one last payday.
Su Qingqing knew this was all the original owner’s doing, and even she couldn’t change that.
She asked simply: “So how much do I owe? Just give me the total.”
The head agent let out a cold laugh at Su Qingqing’s unflappable, generous demeanor: “How much in total? You’re pretty free with money, huh? Used to being the young miss of the Su family, aren’t you?
Let me tell you—it’s eighty million. You’ve caused the company this much trouble. Can you even afford that now?!”
This head agent was particularly sleazy and lecherous. Because Su Qingqing was better-looking than most female celebrities in the industry, he had secretly lusted after her plenty.
But back then, Su Qingqing had the Su family backing her, and he couldn’t afford to mess with her. Now that she’d been kicked out, his scheming mind was already working overtime.
He wanted to first crush her pride, beat her down until she was utterly worthless, and then, in order to repay the massive debt, she would have no choice but to let him arrange and manipulate her, begging him for work and various gigs.
Su Qingqing had cultivated for two hundred years, devoting herself wholeheartedly as a Dingdong Person on the mountain for two hundred years, so she couldn’t see through the twisted, underhanded schemes in these people’s hearts.
But she could read faces—she saw at a glance what kind of person this head agent was, and what he intended to do wasn’t hard to guess either.
She seemed completely unfazed by the head agent’s threat of eighty million. She just stood there, her clear, bright eyes quietly fixed on him.
For no reason, the head agent felt a chill run down his spine under her gaze, which was so clean it was almost excessive.
When he snapped out of it, he suddenly flew into a rage, puffing himself up with a blustering shout: “What are you staring at me for? You got a problem?
Let me tell you, you’ve caused us so much trouble, and we haven’t even terminated your contract—that’s already generous of us. You’re not really expecting the company to clean up your mess, are you?”
He suddenly smirked as he spoke, then glanced at Sister Xu beside him and said, “Of course, you’ve been with the company for a year now, so you’re not exactly rookies anymore.
You know our company does have some fast-money business—it just depends on whether you’re willing to take it.”
Sister Xu’s face was ashen, but facing her superior, she didn’t dare say anything too harsh. She could only endure it with a grim expression.
At the same time, she desperately signaled Su Qingqing with her eyes, hoping she would hold it in and not blow up right there. If she did something rash first and gave the head agent a legitimate reason to terminate her contract, then they’d truly be completely at the company’s mercy.
Su Qingqing, who had been silent all along, suddenly smiled.
She readily accepted the eighty-million debt: “Fine, eighty million it is. You can sort out the details and give them to Sister Xu later. It’s just a measly eighty million—who can’t pay that off?”
The head agent was taken aback. Her attitude actually made him feel uncertain.
Hadn’t they said the Su family had kicked Su Qingqing out with nothing? Could they have given her money after all?
With that, Su Qingqing turned gracefully to leave.
Just before she walked out the door, she flashed the head agent a radiant smile, her striking face looking utterly innocent: “Oh, right. I can see your brow is darkened with bad luck—you’ll hit a bloody disaster today, and within three days, you’ll be dead. Be careful—you’ve made so much dirty money, but you might have the luck to earn it, not the luck to spend it.”
“You—!!” The head agent was furious.
He slammed the table hard, trying to stand up, but the chair he was sitting on suddenly gave way with a loud crack.
The central post of the swivel office chair drove straight into his rear.
A blood-curdling scream tore through the air.
The very next second after Su Qingqing finished speaking at her leisure, the head agent’s flower was ruined.
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