Jiang Tian nervously swallowed, her fingers gripping the phone so tightly they turned pale.
Her large eyes were fixed directly on the man storming toward her.
“Miss Jiang… this…”
Lu Xin also felt the pressure.
He couldn’t help but worry about Jiang Tian.
Jiang Tian felt her scalp go numb.
She was so nervous she wished she could slip away right now and run, but she couldn’t lose face even if she lost the fight!
She smiled at Lu Xin and said, “You go back first.”
Then she turned to the car door, closed her eyes, and steeled herself.
Taking a deep breath, she lifted her head, straightened her neck, opened the car door, and stepped out. She stood up straight, chin slightly raised, her gaze cold and proud.
Gu Jinyan watched her get out of the car and stand there, his eyes fixed on her.
Jiang Tian understood his meaning. She turned around and waved, signaling that Lu Xin could leave.
Lu Xin, understanding the situation, immediately turned the steering wheel, stepped on the gas, and quickly left the scene.
Once he was gone, only Gu Jinyan and Jiang Tian were left on the roadside, a full ten meters apart.
Gu Jinyan stared at Jiang Tian, his face cold, and suddenly sneered, “Why aren’t you running now? You were running pretty fast earlier, weren’t you?”
He took a step forward, slowly walking toward the woman.
Jiang Tian’s feet nearly gave way, and she almost backed down out of fear, but she stood firm, maintaining her expression of aloof disdain.
Gu Jinyan narrowed his eyes.
All of Jiang Tian’s small movements fell under his gaze.
Clearly terrified, yet stubbornly pretending to be calm.
Hmph, women.
“Run? Why should I run? Earlier, I just didn’t want to cause trouble. Now, the trouble isn’t mine. Why would I run?” Jiang Tian said stiffly.
“Heh, the trouble isn’t yours? Jiang Tian, you really know how to act.”
The way she cried so genuinely in the private room earlier—he almost believed it.
Almost thought she truly loved him but couldn’t have him.
Almost thought her indifference over the past few days was fake.
But look at this woman now!
Clearly, she had been messing with him in the private room earlier!
Gu Jinyan was about to explode with anger.
This woman was truly a master of deception.
So scheming!
“If I couldn’t act, why would I be an actress?”
Jiang Tian watched as Gu Jinyan’s eyes blazed with fury, stepping closer with each stride. She couldn’t help but retreat, but her mouth remained stubborn. “Gu Jinyan, let me tell you—if you want to shake off this reputation, I can smear my own name to help clear yours. As long as you promise to talk to your mother and break off the engagement, I’ll immediately release a statement saying we ended it long ago, that I was the one who couldn’t let go and had no choice but to give up.”
Jiang Tian’s reasoning was clear, making Gu Jinyan a bit suspicious. “You planned this on purpose, didn’t you? Was today all arranged by you just to make me break off the engagement with you?”
Jiang Tian licked her lips, her eyes darting away. Actually, she really wanted to say that it wasn’t her plan at all—it was all the system’s doing—but she couldn’t say that.
Frowning, she was just about to say something when she realized she had been forced back to a tree by the roadside. Her back pressed against the trunk, with no room to retreat, while the man stood right in front of her, their bodies nearly touching, less than ten centimeters apart.
She could even see the fine hairs on Gu Jinyan’s face, feel his slightly warm breath, and catch the faint scent of men’s cologne on him.
Mmm~
So alluring.
Jiang Tian couldn’t help but remember the scene from when she first transmigrated into this body.
At the time, she had been terrified, but now, thinking back, the man’s physique under his clothes was actually quite impressive…
Jiang Tian couldn’t quite describe the feeling, only that she was so nervous she kept swallowing.
Her bright eyes trembled slightly, like a little rabbit, panicked and uneasy.
It was a stark contrast to the cold pride she had been forcing earlier.
Gu Jinyan pressed close to her, his gaze sweeping from her forehead down to her chin.
In the past, Jiang Tian didn’t like dressing up. Her clothes were outdated, her personality timid. Her face always wore a bitter, melancholic expression, like a bitter gourd.
But the Jiang Tian now wore light makeup, her eyes lively and spirited, her features delicate and striking. Her lips, painted with a bold red lipstick, were full and glossy, quite enticing.
Gu Jinyan raised an eyebrow, then placed a hand on the tree trunk, trapping her in his embrace.
And kissed her…
Jiang Tian: !!!
…
Jiang Tian was stunned.
Her big eyes didn’t even dare to blink. She wondered if she was dreaming—what kind of heavenly dream was this?!
After kissing her, Gu Jinyan surprisingly found it unexpectedly sweet.
The woman’s lips were soft, like jelly.
Whether it was the taste of the lipstick or her natural flavor, it held a sweet fragrance in his mouth.
Not unpleasant.
In fact, it was a bit addictive, making him want to kiss her again.
But Gu Jinyan didn’t intend to continue. While Jiang Tian was still dazed, he parted his lips, straightened up, and gave a wicked smile. “Jiang Tian, I didn’t expect you to be the type who says one thing but means another? You claim you don’t like me anymore, want me to break off the engagement, yet you get lost in a kiss? Actually, you still like me, don’t you? You got jealous seeing me have dinner with Xiying?”
Jiang Tian: …
It took her a long moment to snap out of it.
Damn it, she’d been taken advantage of!
Immediately, she turned her face away and spat a few times.
She rummaged through her bag for tissues and frantically wiped her lips, as if wanting to scrub off several layers of skin.
Glaring at Gu Jinyan in frustration, she said, “I think you’ve lost your mind, gone crazy. Gu Jinyan, even if every other man in the world were dead, I, Jiang Tian, would never fall for you.”
A scumbag from a novel—she’d have to be out of her mind to like this bastard.
“Cut the crap. Are you breaking off the engagement or not?”
Jiang Tian was almost out of patience, just wanting to draw a clear line between herself and Gu Jinyan.
But the man opposite her curled his lips into a smile.
Utterly wicked.
“Break off the engagement? Impossible. Just wait.”
With that, he turned and walked toward the Land Rover, preparing to drive away.
Jiang Tian: …
Jiang Tian felt like she was going to go crazy. Why wouldn’t Gu Jinyan just let her go?
In the original story, it was the female lead who was desperately in love with the male lead, refusing to let go no matter what. The male lead used every means but couldn’t drive her away. So why, in her case, was Gu Jinyan the one changing his tune? Why was he the one refusing to leave now?
What kind of logic was that!
The more Jiang Tian thought about it, the more frustrated she felt. Watching Gu Jinyan’s retreating figure, her anger grew.
Impulsively, she took off the high heels on her feet, sprinted over a few steps, and kicked the man squarely in the butt.
“Thud—”
Gu Jinyan, caught off balance, was kicked hard and bumped into the car, his head spinning from the impact.
His face instantly darkened.
He turned to look and saw the culprit holding a high heel in each hand, sprinting all the way to the roadside, flagging down a taxi, and speeding away.
Gu Jinyan: …
Jiang Tian took the taxi back to her rented apartment. Cheng Fang was so anxious she was about to burst into flames. Seeing Jiang Tian return, she was about to interrogate her when she noticed Jiang Tian rushing straight to the bathroom without a word, grabbing a new toothbrush, squeezing toothpaste onto it, and brushing her teeth frantically, as if trying to brush off two or three teeth.
Cheng Fang: ???
After brushing her teeth, Jiang Tian took a shower.
She changed into a nightgown, wrapped her hair in a towel, applied a facial mask, and only after finishing all that did she emerge from the bathroom.
Cheng Fang finally got the chance to ask, “Tian Tian, what’s wrong with you?”
Jiang Tian fumed at the thought. “I got bitten by a dog!”
Cheng Fang: …
“What about the red wine incident today? How do you explain that?”
Mentioning that, Jiang Tian felt a bit guilty. She fidgeted, scratching the face mask on her chin, and forced herself to explain, “Well, Gu Jinyan is my fiancé. So when I saw him having dinner with Zhao Xiying, I couldn’t help it… I acted impulsively, impulsively.”
Cheng Fang: !!!!
“What did you say?! Fiancé?! Why are you only telling me now?! I had no idea before.”
Jiang Tian smiled bitterly and mumbled, “Not just you, even I only found out the day before yesterday that I have a fiancé.”
…
“What did you say?” Cheng Fang didn’t catch it clearly.
Jiang Tian stuck out her tongue, wanting to change the subject, but Cheng Fang was still worried.
“Alright, even if you and Gu Jinyan really are engaged, aren’t you afraid of his fans coming after you?” Cheng Fang felt she was worrying herself bald.
“Sigh, what’s there to be afraid of? It’s not like I haven’t been scolded before.”
Jiang Tian stuck out her tongue again. She picked up her phone and started scrolling through today’s trending topics.
The three top trending topics she saw earlier had all turned into explosive purple “BURST” status, and the #Jiang Tian# topic had successfully risen to the fourth hottest trend.
The most popular Weibo post already had over ten thousand comments.
Netizens were going wild.
In just one short hour, Jiang Tian’s own account had skyrocketed from its original ten thousand followers to over two million.
Her Weibo account’s private messages were flooded, with unread messages showing 999+.
They were all questioning her relationship with Gu Jinyan and whether she was trying to use the award-winning actor Gu to hype her debut.
Some brainless fans were even hurling insane insults and curses.
After all, in this world, just like in her previous one, Gu Jinyan was young and accomplished, only twenty-five this year but already a two-time award-winning actor.
His acting skills were impeccable, and his character was one in a million.
Just looking at his Sina Weibo fan count, it had already surpassed a hundred million. Even a minor update could attract millions of comments and hundreds of thousands of reposts.
What was even more exaggerated was perhaps because this was a fictional world, and Gu Jinyan was surrounded by the male lead’s halo, making this world even more extreme than the real one.
In the real world, fans were generally more rational, but in this world, perhaps to match the “male lead” title, Gu Jinyan’s fans were even more frenzied, all clamoring to idolize this lofty award-winning actor.
Whenever Gu Jinyan had any connection with a female star, those brainless fans would go all out, attacking until the person quit the industry.
Gu Jinyan’s status in the entertainment industry was so solid he could crush millions of Jiang Tians right now.
So those fans believed Jiang Tian had bribed reporters to release the photo of her throwing birth control pills just to gain fame.
Jiang Tian felt exhausted, even thinking she might not survive to see tomorrow’s sun after being attacked by these fans tonight.
Cheng Fang sat beside her, sighing repeatedly. Even if she worried all her hair off, she couldn’t find any way to salvage the situation. After all, they were nobodies, just starting out—where could they find the connections or resources to fix this?
“Maybe you should just avoid looking at those negative comments. You’ve just debuted; they don’t know you yet. Just pretend you didn’t see these messages.”
Cheng Fang reached out to snatch the phone, but Jiang Tian dodged her.
Only then did Jiang Tian notice Cheng Fang’s red-rimmed eyes.
She had probably checked the trending topics before Jiang Tian returned and cried because of the backlash. Jiang Tian couldn’t help but feel a warm glow in her heart.
Whether in her past life or this one, Cheng Fang had always firmly stood by her side, protecting her.
Cheng Fang was still a newly debuted small-time manager, but Jiang Tian was already the “Queen” who had endured three years of being blacklisted online. A little scolding like this wouldn’t bring her down.
“Don’t worry, I’m used to it.”
Jiang Tian reached out and patted Cheng Fang’s head, acting as if it were no big deal.
But somehow, Cheng Fang felt a pang of sadness.
Seeing Jiang Tian’s unusually calm demeanor and remembering her earlier words, she felt an inexplicable heartache. It was as if Jiang Tian had already grown accustomed to the curses and hatred, having built a thick layer of armor around her heart to become so fearless.
Cheng Fang sighed helplessly.
But suddenly, Jiang Tian’s eyes widened in surprise. “Fang Fang, it seems things aren’t as bad as we thought.”
“Huh?”