Chapter 26

Zhai You hadn’t appeared on the trending searches for a long time.

It was as though she had suddenly vanished. There hadn’t been any news about her anywhere in the entertainment industry, and netizens were actually starting to feel a little unaccustomed to it.

Before, Zhai You could make the trending searches just by going shopping. With her innate ability to stir up bloody storms wherever she went, even the smallest incident could spark an earth-shattering argument. There was absolutely no need to spend money buying publicity.

Recently, even her pitifully small number of fans couldn’t resist asking beneath her posts: Sister, what are you doing these days~

Naturally, they received no reply.

Other celebrities had fansites and official accounts, and their managers and assistants would keep in touch with fans, occasionally leaking a little news.

But Zhai You’s side was completely free-range!

Or rather—

Zhai You actually still had fans?

Under all kinds of trending topics, you practically never saw Zhai You’s fans speak up.

There was only one small detail: downloads of Zhai You’s beautiful photos ranked among the top three for desktop wallpapers.

Zhai You’s fans normally didn’t like speaking much.

Their idol herself didn’t care, so why should they go online outnumbered and invite abuse?

Let people curse if they wanted.

Save the pretty pictures that needed saving, admire the face that needed admiring, and just lie flat and enjoy it.

But after Zhai You stayed quiet for more than a week, nearly half a month, people finally started feeling that something was wrong.

At first, they had even been relieved, thinking the entertainment industry had finally become peaceful.

Later, they started wondering whether she was preparing something big.

Was Zhai You planning some massive move to disgust them again?

Sure enough!

Ha, they knew it!

#ZhaiYouAudition# shot straight into the top ten trending searches.

The video had been posted by a marketing account. It showed the audition room for Deliberate Love. After Zhai You selected the scene she wanted to audition with, she stepped onto the stage.

Even in the dark environment, she was still breathtakingly beautiful. None of the things people said online seemed to affect her at all. She simply stood there, radiating her own light.

The instant her face appeared, countless netizens, though reluctant to admit it, felt a faint trace of anticipation.

Until Zhai You started running.

No dialogue.

No changes in expression.

Sometimes she even ran into the camera’s blind spots.

She was simply running.

Everyone knew that Alphas had excellent stamina. From the muscle lines visible as Zhai You ran, she looked like a powerful beast sprinting across a nature documentary, smooth and beautiful.

Especially those faint, intermittent pants—

they were damn sexy.

She ran for a full three minutes.

Before the director could even call stop, she had already brushed her hair back and walked to the center of the stage, smiling toward the judges. “Enough?”

Not enough.

They wanted to watch a little more action—

No!

Not that kind of action!

Netizens desperately defended themselves internally, then irritably exited the video and headed [unauthorized copy]for the comments to find out what the hell this was supposed to mean.

The marketing account thoughtfully pinned a comment:

This is an audition video from Deliberate Love. I didn’t expect so many people to watch it. I heard Zhai You was auditioning for Yu Er. [Shocked] [Shocked]

Fans of the novel immediately exploded.

Why did it have to be Yu Er?!

Of course, Zhai You’s appearance didn’t fit their image of Kong Yubai either.

Kong Yubai was the kind of character whose emotional explosions were still filled with restraint.

But Zhai You was an Alpha!

How was she supposed to play an Omega?!

“If you want to get fucked, you don’t have to be this scheming about it.”

“What an embarrassment to Alphas!”

“I hereby declare that we Alphas are not like this. [Abs photo] [Abs photo]”

“Brother above, add me as a friend.”

“Are you fucking insane, Zhai You? Your mother [friendly greeting], your brain [friendly greeting].”

“Director, can you have some backbone? And Luo Yin, did you crawl out just to make dirty money too? Haven’t you earned enough from your novel sales? Can you please not ruin Kong Yubai and Yu Er for us?!”

“……”

Zhai You gnawed on an apple while happily bouncing around the comments section, using a secondary account to like netizens’ comments.

As long as their Chinese was good enough, they all received her approval.

She laughed so hard she slapped her thigh, as though the person being cursed wasn’t her at all.

“Some netizens are seriously talented. They can express anger and dissatisfaction in several lines of poetry.” Zhai You clicked her tongue admiringly and casually liked another one.

Jiang Bailu looked at her strangely. “Aren’t you upset?”

Zhai You looked over, excitement from laughing still bright in her eyes.

She let out a puzzled “Huh?” before realizing what Jiang Bailu was asking.

Oh, that.

Zhai You took another bite of her apple. The crisp crunch even made Jiang Bailu want one.

Zhai You shared, “At first, I was so scared I closed my eyes. Later, I couldn’t help making a secondary account. After that, it started feeling like they weren’t cursing me.”

Her thinking back then had been very simple.

If logging into her main account meant seeing all kinds of filthy private messages, then she would just make another account.

For the profile picture, she used a free illustration that an artist had told fans they could use however they wanted.

For the username, she chose the most generic thing possible: Pink Little Bunny.

After that, she didn’t post anything.

She just searched for things she was interested in.

For example:

How does an Alpha mark an Omega?

What should I do if my Omega hurts after being marked?

How do you go on a date?

What does Jiang Bailu like?

……

Naturally, Zhai You would never volunteer any of that.

Nor would she mention the strangely distant feeling she had experienced when the app started recommending topics related to “Zhai You.”

It was in that moment that Zhai You began to feel that all those things had nothing to do with her.

It was all online.

Hey, it was all empty.

Fake.

Intangible.

Back then, she had turned her head and looked at Jiang Bailu.

This is what’s real.

So now she viewed everything from the perspective of a third party, almost like when she had been reading the novel.

It still felt somewhat strange, but once she accepted the reality of it, she could enjoy watching everything unfold.

Zhai You put down her phone and recalled the angle from which the audition video had been filmed.

“It wasn’t secretly recorded. Someone stole the footage.”

“A staff member?”

“Leave that to Sister Ji. She’s probably contacting Director Guo right now.”

Zhai You was correct.

The moment Sister Ji learned what happened, she immediately concluded that it had something to do with a staff member and called Director Guo without any politeness whatsoever.

“I didn’t expect your production team to be this kind of people.” Sister Ji’s tone was cold.

“Even if you wanted publicity, all you had to do was tell us. Zhai You would have cooperated. You didn’t need to release something behind our backs without so much as a word.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Director Guo still had no idea what had happened.

“Stop pretending you don’t know. Take out your phone and search ‘Zhai You audition.’ Do you understand now? Director Guo, I’ve always respected you, and it turns out you’re this kind of person too.”

Director Guo panicked.

Sister Ji’s tone sounded terrifying.

He obediently took out his phone and started searching to see what the hell had happened.

When he saw the video, his eyes sharpened.

Remembering he was still on the phone, he said furiously, “There’s a mole on the crew!”

Sister Ji gave a cold “Mm.” “Right. Whenever something goes wrong, blame some temporary worker. So how are you planning to deal with this, Director Guo? Fire them?”

“And what about the grievance our Youyou suffered? If you can’t even handle something this small, does that mean things like this will keep happening? Is this what Zhai You’s investment is paying for—a mole?”

“No, Sister Ji, listen to me explain.”

“I’ll give you three seconds. One, two—”

“I’ll post an apology on Weibo.”

“……Just a Weibo post? Director Guo, Youyou invested in you because she trusted you.”

“If you have any other requests, just say them!” Director Guo let out a long, weary sigh.

How had something like this happened in his production?

He rubbed his face, already preparing himself for whatever Sister Ji would demand.

“Fine. I’ll tell Youyou about this. Hopefully she won’t be angry.”

Director Guo paused, and guilt began creeping in.

He had only quickly skimmed the comments earlier.

People were saying all kinds of things, including insulting him. They had cursed him so badly that his old face could barely take it.

In that instant, he had felt deeply wronged.

Yet he couldn’t exactly explain things.

Yes, Zhai You had gotten the role partly because she had brought investment into the production.

But after reading the revised script, they had all started genuinely approving of her.

Zhai You hadn’t done anything wrong.

She hadn’t interfered with the script or ordered Luo Yin around.

She hadn’t forced Luo Yin to rewrite her into a lovable character.

Instead, she had willingly become something of a tool person used to highlight the female lead’s charm.

Perhaps Director Guo’s prejudice had simply been too strong before.

Once he set that prejudice aside, Zhai You’s image in his mind actually improved considerably.

Seeing so many netizens curse her without knowing the whole story made Director Guo unexpectedly uncomfortable.

Zhai You normally endured this much abuse?

Yet she was still so carefree and unconcerned, joking easily with everyone.

Whenever she smiled, that genuine happiness was infectious.

“I’m sorry.” Director Guo apologized seriously. “This was our production team’s mistake. I’ll have the official account explain it later. As for Zhai You, I owe her a favor.”

The corner of Sister Ji’s mouth lifted.

She was nearly unable to suppress her laughter.

She really hadn’t expected Director Guo to be this easy to fool.

She had only said all that to put a little pressure on him so he would identify the mole and fire them as quickly as possible.

This outcome satisfied her greatly.

“Fine, then. Fire that temporary worker as soon as possible. I don’t want there to be a second one.”

After hanging up, Sister Ji slapped the desk repeatedly while laughing wildly.

Then she sent Zhai You a message about what happened.

Might as well let that brat—who would definitely forget the whole thing the second she finished reading it and wouldn’t care anyway—have something to be happy about.

Zhai You and Jiang Bailu rehearsed together for a while longer.

Jiang Bailu was obviously still thinking about what had happened.

She was clearly thinking far more deeply about it.

Zhai You noticed. “You don’t need to be nervous. This is only your first drama. Just perform as well as you can.”

Exactly because it was her first drama.

Jiang Bailu didn’t have much experience.

She truly loved this industry, but that didn’t mean she could guarantee she would do well.

So many fans of the novel were looking forward to this adaptation.

If she ruined it, wouldn’t she be letting them down?

Would people curse her as viciously as they cursed Zhai You?

At the thought, even every strand of Jiang Bailu’s hair seemed to droop dispiritedly.

She looked exhausted.

The more desperately she wanted to seize this opportunity and do well, the more she began doubting herself.

Right now, news about her casting hadn’t even been released yet.

Once it was…

A newcomer getting such excellent resources for her very first drama.

Jiang Bailu became increasingly uneasy, and the thought of retreating began to surface.

Maybe she should start with background roles instead.

She wasn’t in a hurry.

Zhai You snatched the script out of her hands.

With her hands suddenly empty, Jiang Bailu breathed a sigh of relief.

Then she remembered the breach-of-contract issue and said, “I’ll talk to Director Guo myself.”

“Talk about what?” Zhai You looked over in confusion.

“I just want you to rest properly. Stop thinking so much for now.” Zhai You put the script into a drawer and told Jiang Bailu to get back into bed.

“I… want to break the contract.”

Jiang Bailu spoke so quietly, but Zhai You still understood her.

“Scared?”

“……”

“Why does being a newcomer mean you absolutely have to start as an extra? Jiang Bailu, what kind of person do you think Director Guo is? He’s made so many dramas of decent quality. Do you think he’s useless?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Exactly. He isn’t useless. Both he and Luo Yin are satisfied with you, so you don’t need to worry. You’re qualified.”

Zhai You coaxed her.

After showering, the scent of Jiang Bailu’s pheromones had faded somewhat, replaced by the fragrance of body wash.

Zhai You and Jiang Bailu used the same kind, so when they were close together, their scents were similar.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Zhai You leaned closer.

“Jiang Bailu, I’m very satisfied with you too.”