In the living room of a high-end apartment, a man and a woman sat facing each other.
The man spoke with a cold, detached tone:
“One million to break off the engagement.”
“……”
Faced with his icy words, the woman opposite him simply lowered her gaze in silence, unconsciously fiddling with a pen in her hand, making it impossible to discern her current emotions.
“What, now you’ve got nothing to say? Weren’t you just asking me for 500,000 over the phone earlier?”
Seeing her remain silent, Lu Heng frowned impatiently, his face showing undisguised disgust:
“I’ll give you an extra 500,000. Stop using this engagement to disgust me!”
“……”
It wasn’t that Jiang Qiyu didn’t want to speak; she was just afraid the words “Damn, I hate pretentious people the most” might slip out.
Honestly, last night, she had only said “Rich guy, send me 50 to show me what you’ve got” casually because the person on the phone sounded too pretentious.
Who would have thought this guy would actually show up at her door the next day and even offer her a million?!
Do romance novel male leads only focus on acting pretentious and never surf the internet?
Her name was Jiang Qiyu. Originally, she was a little-known stand-up comedian who was diagnosed with breast cancer before she could realize her comedy dreams.
Late stage.
Fortunately, she had just been diagnosed and hadn’t even started suffering before she transmigrated into a book.
She transmigrated into a romance novel she had once read, set in the entertainment industry, titled The Movie Emperor’s Beloved Darling.
Unfortunately, she transmigrated into the cannon fodder female supporting character who shared her name but met a tragic end—
the infamous “pretty face with no talent” in the entertainment industry, the illegitimate cousin of the true and fake heiresses.
In the original story, she was the villain who got slapped, the obstacle that was overcome.
She was option E, plan B, the random passerby trampled underfoot.
How to put it…
As the villain, she just hoped the author would take turns keeping watch with both eyes while sleeping at night.
Although this was somewhat absurd, adhering to the positive mindset of “where you fall is where you settle,” Jiang Qiyu quickly accepted this reality.
After all, she had been alone in her previous life, and being able to live again was entirely thanks to her balanced diet and avoiding waste—she had even worn out her electronic wooden fish.
This was what she deserved.
Besides, if she had the script, what did it matter if she was the villain?
No big deal, she’d handle it.
Just as Jiang Qiyu was brimming with confidence, ready to reclaim everything that belonged to her, a phone call suddenly came in—
“Jiang Qiyu, have you had enough of this nonsense?!”
“……Who is this?”
“Stop playing dumb! Do you think I’d marry you just because of a verbal engagement? Dream on! You’re not even worth one of Jiang Mian’s fingers! Your persistence only disgusts me!”
“Are you okay?”
“Hmph… I get it. You want money, right? Name your price.”
“No, dude, are you really putting on an act? Rich guy, why not send me 50 first to show me what you’ve got?”
“Jiang Qiyu, remember what you said!”
“……”
After hanging up, the confusion on Jiang Qiyu’s face lasted only three seconds before her eyes widened as she suddenly realized something.
Yikes… this didn’t seem right.
She quickly sorted through the plot of the book in her mind, wishing she could carve every detail onto smoke and inhale it into her lungs.
Soon, she discovered a potentially fatal problem:
She had arrived too late.
In the original novel, this particular plotline should have occurred in the middle to later stages of the story—
The cannon-fodder female supporting character faced collapse on all three fronts: career, family, and love. Only when she had nowhere left to turn did she resort to using the engagement to threaten the male lead.
As for how she reached such a desperate state…
She was framed by the fake heiress, the second female lead, and forced to take the blame for secretly harming the female protagonist. She was then driven out of the Jiang family home by Old Master Jiang, removed from the trust fund, and completely stripped of her eligibility to inherit the Jiang family fortune.
At work, anonymous sources exposed her scandals: she was accused of clinging to the film emperor Lu Heng, bullying newcomers, engaging in workplace harassment, and throwing her weight around. Now, with her public image shattered and scandals piling up, she couldn’t even land acting roles anymore.
……
Whatever. She’d just attend her own funeral.
Thus, Jiang Qiyu (the mouse version, washed up to the brink), adhering to the principle of “where you fall, there you shall be buried,” simply chose to give up.
When in doubt, sleep it out; tomorrow’s troubles can wait.
But before she could even wake up naturally from this nap, she was roused by the arrogant man standing before her.
Lu Heng, 27 years old, currently the hottest top-tier film emperor in the entertainment industry, and the male lead of this Mary Sue romance novel.
He was also the fiancé the original host had been betrothed to since childhood.
Well… soon, he wouldn’t be.
“Jiang Qiyu!”
A sharp reprimand snapped her out of her drifting thoughts. The man’s tone grew even colder:
“I’ll transfer one million to you. Remember what you promised me.”
Jiang Qiyu merely lazily lifted her eyelids in response. “What?”
“Break off the engagement and stay away from me and Mianmian!”
“What you’re asking…”
She raised her gaze, her expression indifferent. “I can’t do it.”
“You…”
Lu Heng’s eyes suddenly turned sharp, as if he wished he could tear the woman before him apart with his glare:
“You asked for five hundred thousand, and I’m giving you one million. What, now you’re trying to raise the price on the spot? Be careful—greed knows no bounds…”
“Then what can I do?”
Faced with the implicit threat in his words, Jiang Qiyu simply leaned back casually on the sofa, her expression calm as she said:
“Why don’t you call the police? Tell them I’m… extorting you?”
“……”
Watching the man freeze on the spot, speechless, she narrowed her long, slender eyes slightly and waved her hand with a smile:
“Just kidding.”
No, of course she wasn’t kidding.
If she really accepted Lu Heng’s one million, it wouldn’t be long before the recording of their meeting today spread across the entire internet.
Extortion. One million.
That was a serious crime.
By then, she would become a legal pariah, nailed to the pillar of shame, with no chance of ever recovering.
Jiang Qiyu firmly believed that no one could be completely free of foolishness.
If you thought someone was flawless, they were definitely acting foolishly somewhere you couldn’t see.
And Lu Heng was precisely that kind of ruthless, heartless fool.
Not only did he hire people behind the scenes to smear her reputation,
He was even willing to spend one million to ruin her acting career.
How despicable.
“If Mr. Lu has too much money and nowhere to spend it, you could pay more taxes to the country…”
Jiang Qiyu’s smile was sincere, as if she were merely offering friendly advice:
“Or, use that money to visit a neurology hospital and book an expert appointment.”
“Emergency department.”
“……”
Lu Heng wasn’t foolish either. He immediately realized that his plan had been uncovered by her. A flicker of panic crossed his mind before he quickly regained his composure.
He looked at Jiang Qiyu, who suddenly seemed different, and his gaze of disgust gradually shifted to one of scrutiny.
After a long while, he rose unhurriedly, his face still wearing the same arrogant and indifferent expression from when he first arrived:
“I’ll be joining that dating show with Mianmian. You’d better not get in the way, or I’ll make sure you regret it.”
“……”
Watching quietly as his figure strode away, Jiang Qiyu remained lazily reclined on the sofa.
Only when the man’s silhouette vanished at the entrance did she slowly withdraw her meaningful gaze. Twirling the pen in her hand, she spoke softly:
“What to do? I, for one, love nothing more than making trouble for others.”