“So he likes melodramatic dramas.”
Zhao Yinuo suddenly had an epiphany.
She had been wondering why the events at the banquet had felt strangely familiar.
She had definitely seen those TV plots before—someone getting drunk at a banquet, being drugged, and then what usually came next was mistaken identities, one-night stands, a sugar-daddy arrangement, running away while pregnant, a groveling ex trying desperately to win his wife back…
“And not only does he help fund all those terrible dramas in the entertainment industry, he actually acts them out himself.”
She had only ever seen comments online along the lines of, “It’s easy to make jokes about it online, but who wouldn’t want to jump in and act out an entire melodrama themselves?”
But people said things like that just for fun. She never imagined someone would actually do it.
Still, if it really had been an act, Zhao Yinuo had to admit that Lu Chi’s acting was pretty good.
When he tugged at his tie and complained that he was “so hot,” he had looked genuinely convincing.
Unfortunately, the two women present hadn’t been paying him any attention.
Tang Wan had been too busy checking herself in the mirror and fixing her appearance, hoping to charm her target the moment they met and immediately secure her position.
As for Zhao Yinuo, she had been preoccupied with figuring out how to get Tang Wan, this enormous headache, out of there.
Forget anything that could be described as inappropriate happening between them—the two women had ended up joining forces and sending Lu Chi straight to the hospital.
The way the story had unfolded was probably just as absurd to Lu Chi as it was to her.
Thinking about it, Zhao Yinuo couldn’t help laughing.
“He just likes messing around with melodramatic plots and has a bit of a bad temper. Deep down, he should still be a decent person. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to call doctors to treat my wound, or given me a million-yuan check just because I wanted to take him to the hospital. And on top of that, he’s young, handsome, rich, and generous. If Tang Wan dumps Su Muyang and gets together with Lu Chi, I guess it wouldn’t exactly be jumping from one fire into another.”
Young people in this industry who were both rich and good-looking tended to live pretty freely. Relationships came and went all the time.
Even if Tang Wan managed to move on to a better opportunity, Zhao Yinuo didn’t expect her next relationship to last. Most likely, both sides would get what they wanted and then move on to someone else.
She didn’t care who Tang Wan ended up with.
As long as she stopped messing with Su Muyang, that was all Zhao Yinuo cared about.
Tang Wan had called Zhao Yinuo over to help her, but after waiting in the room until the very end, Tang Wan received nothing more than a message from an assistant informing her that President Lu had something come up unexpectedly and that she was free to leave.
She had used someone’s help without getting the result she wanted.
After her attempt to find a better opportunity had failed, Tang Wan didn’t dare message or call Zhao Yinuo.
Instead, she took out all her frustration on her own manager.
“Why didn’t you answer when I called you? Was your phone dead?”
“And what kind of dress did you borrow for me? It was hideous!”
“And who told you to arrange another dinner for me? Since President Lu of Shengxing Entertainment is interested in me, I’m only waiting for him now!”
With the name of Shengxing Entertainment’s President Lu behind her, Tang Wan suddenly became much more forceful when speaking to her manager.
Her manager was also someone who knew how to bend when necessary. Thinking that his artist might be about to climb onto a branch far beyond his reach, he swallowed all his dissatisfaction and kept smiling apologetically.
“My fault, my fault. It’s all my fault. Tangtang, calm down…”
Tang Wan hadn’t been very famous before.
She had depended on the company for work and opportunities, so how could she have dared yell at her manager? Most of the time, she had simply endured his scolding.
After being suppressed for so long, she had finally found an opportunity to turn the tables, and couldn’t resist venting a little while she had the chance.
She hadn’t even met President Lu yet. There was only a possibility that he was interested in her, so she didn’t openly tear into her manager or attack him where it really hurt.
She merely picked at little things here and there.
Even though she had only thrown out a few insults, seeing her manager’s obsequious expression and the way he didn’t dare argue back made Tang Wan feel incredibly satisfied.
It was downright exhilarating.
Just looking at her manager’s opportunistic face, Tang Wan secretly swore to herself that she would climb higher.
She would climb all the way to the top and become someone in the industry whom nobody dared bully.
When that day came, she wouldn’t just point at this disgusting manager’s nose and curse him. She would step on him and grind him beneath her feet.
But right now, she was still too insignificant.
Su Muyang alone couldn’t lift her high enough.
She needed Shengxing Entertainment. She needed Lu Chi.
Only then could she take another step upward.
So after Tang Wan finished everything and returned home, she did exactly what Zhao Yinuo had done.
She began frantically gathering information about Lu Chi.
Her unscrupulous manager was surprisingly useful at times like this. He mobilized every connection he had to help Tang Wan make arrangements, and that very night, he had already started spending money on publicity.
Tang Wan was still in the middle of removing her makeup when she suddenly discovered that she had landed on the trending searches.
She immediately panicked and called her manager.
“Brother Liu Ming, what’s going on? Why has that ‘Number-One Beauty in Ancient-Style Fashion’ nickname been dug up again? Can the company pay to suppress it?”
“Pay to suppress it? How could we? I specifically paid to get you onto the trending searches. Otherwise, with your current level of fame, how could you possibly rank that high?”
Tang Wan was speechless.
Back when the company had deliberately used that nickname to stir up controversy and generate buzz for her, they hadn’t consulted her at all.
And now her manager, Liu Ming, was using the exact same topic to push her onto the trending searches without consulting her either.
The title was simply too heavy for a newcomer like her.
Even though she was genuinely beautiful, she wasn’t famous enough to carry a title like that.
Most of the comments online—and in her private messages—were from rival fans or haters cursing her entire family or mocking her for being ugly and attention-seeking.
When she had first encountered that kind of hostility, she had been unable to sleep night after night.
Now she was used to being insulted. She could sleep normally again, even sleep soundly.
But whenever she saw those vicious comments and curses, she still couldn’t help feeling her blood boil and her heart race.
Not knowing what the company was trying to accomplish this time, Tang Wan gritted her teeth and asked as calmly as she could,
“Why did you pay to put me on the trending searches?”
“To get President Lu’s attention, of course.”
Liu Ming explained proudly, “I looked into it, and I reckon President Lu was drawn in by your ‘Number-One Beauty in Ancient-Style Fashion’ title. So we need to capitalize on that. Come to the company tomorrow morning and shoot another short video in an ancient-style setting. Then the company will help promote it across the platforms and push it onto the hot lists.”
They were really willing to spend money.
And they were pushing it across multiple platforms at once.
The company rarely invested this heavily in promoting her. Since they were both aiming for the same thing, Tang Wan no longer cared about the negative comments or the fact that nobody had consulted her.
She immediately replied, “Okay, I understand. I’ll come to the company tomorrow morning to shoot the video.”
“That’s more like it. Let’s work together. If you manage to get close to President Lu, whether he helps you pay an astronomical termination fee or simply pours resources into you, we’ll both benefit. Isn’t that right?”
Tang Wan gave a fake laugh.
“Of course. A win-win partnership.”
As long as they could work together, emotions and everything else could come later.
Zhao Yinuo and Tang Wan had much the same kind of relationship.
During Tang Wan’s attempt to find a better opportunity, the two could cooperate temporarily, but they had no personal friendship.
In fact, both of them knew perfectly well that the other person disliked them and had plenty of opinions about them.
Afterward, they didn’t contact each other.
But when Zhao Yinuo saw Tang Wan trending online, followed by the ancient-style short video she posted, she immediately understood what Tang Wan was trying to do.
The speed of her response made Zhao Yinuo admire her.
“With that kind of ambition and ability to take action, she’s bound to succeed at whatever she does.”
Zhao Yinuo had a feeling that Tang Wan was definitely going to pull it off this time.