Chapter 4

After dealing with Jia Qianmei, He Lingxing pulled up the stats panel to check.

“The heroine’s friendship value toward me… negative fifty? 520, how is this calculated?”

She clearly had never offended Shu Minglan before, right?

【It’s like this, Sister Xing. The heroine Shu Minglan’s impression of you is her impression of the identity “He Lingxing.” It is not about you personally, but the original owner. Shu Minglan has very severe face blindness, so she didn’t recognize you as “He Lingxing” at the time. From her perspective, she also doesn’t know that you came to help tonight.】

He Lingxing clicked her tongue.

She did not have the habit of doing good deeds without leaving her name. The feeling of silently giving from behind the scenes was extremely unpleasant.

However, now was clearly not a good time to tell Shu Minglan, because in Shu Minglan’s impression, President He probably was not a good person.

After hesitating slightly, He Lingxing first returned to the car and headed in the direction of the company.

One thing she had said to Jia Qianmei had not been a lie. She really had come to discuss something with the chief director, but it had taken less than half an hour from start to finish, and she had left immediately after they finished talking. Although Director Zhu was also an Alpha, it was still not very polite for a lone man and woman to be alone together late at night.

The route from here to the company was quite short. There was no traffic jam in the middle of the night, so it only took twenty minutes. Looking at the tall building submerged in the night, He Lingxing suddenly felt inspired and took a photo, sending it to Shu Minglan on WeChat with the caption:

【Late-night brick-moving is truly lethal.】

Shu Minglan replied very quickly: 【Still working overtime?】

【Yeah.】

【By the way, which department are you from? I don’t think I’ve seen you much before.】

Since she had to act the part all the way, He Lingxing thought back to which departments might still be working overtime late at night and vaguely replied, “Logistics.”

There were many logistics departments in an entertainment company, and she could not think of exactly which one to specify at the moment, so she did not go into too much detail. However, Shu Minglan clearly did not intend to keep asking. After sending her a cute cat sticker, she said goodnight, indicating that she still had to wake up early tomorrow to film.

The reply came very quickly. It seemed Shu Minglan had not gone over there at all.

In the original book’s plot, Shu Minglan should bailiantales.com have gone to Jia Qianmei’s room unwillingly. Before anything could happen between the two of them, Jia Qianmei would be called away by an urgent phone call.

He Lingxing’s impression of this heroine was not bad, and she could not quite bear to watch an innocent girl be forced like that. Earlier, He Lingxing had more or less calculated the timing and planned to warn Jia Qianmei first, but she had not expected Shu Minglan to not follow the plot at all.

Things would be interesting after this.

**

Shu Minglan slept well through the whole night without the slightest psychological burden over standing someone up. The overnight mask made her complexion look clear, smooth, and hydrated, without the slightest sign of exhaustion. So when her assistant came over the next day and saw her, she could not help showing a strange expression.

The woman adjusted her collar in front of the mirror. The collarbone exposed beneath was fair and smooth, but what surprised the assistant was not Shu Minglan’s enviable skin, but her completely unmarked body.

Although Shu Minglan was famously good-tempered in the industry, when the assistant’s meaningful gaze swept across her face for the third time, she still could not help asking. An Omega’s voice was originally soft and gentle, but at this moment, it was tinged with coldness.

“What are you looking at?”

The assistant instinctively denied it with a “Nothing,” but when the corner of her eye caught sight of the notification that popped up on Shu Minglan’s phone, her attention was immediately drawn to it. Although Shu Minglan picked up her phone very quickly, the assistant had sharp eyes and instantly saw the remark name on it.

“Xingxing?”

Now the assistant had enough reason to ask. She subconsciously wanted to snatch Shu Minglan’s phone, but Shu Minglan nimbly flung her away. The assistant missed and almost crashed into the cabinet.

Meeting those beautiful eyes filled with confusion, the assistant suddenly felt anger rise in her heart. Her voice was even a little louder than usual. “Are you dating someone?”

Before artists entered the company, they signed privacy contracts. For young and beautiful artists like this, whether or not they took the vase route, companies generally would not allow them to date. Shu Minglan’s action just now had made the assistant feel humiliated, so now was the perfect chance to seize control.

“Dating is a breach of contract. I think you want to—”

“You’re fired.”

The assistant thought she had misheard. “What did you say?”

“You’re fired. From now on, you don’t need to follow me anymore.”

Shu Minglan repeated each word clearly. Her red lips parted slightly, and although her voice was gentle and graceful, it carried undeniable firmness. Looking at the assistant’s shocked and doubtful gaze, she suddenly felt a burst of satisfaction. She really had been too easy to talk to before, giving these people the chance to push their luck.

Her manager controlled her lifeline, so she temporarily could not touch her. But once filming was finished, she would resign and say goodbye. Putting everything else aside, replacing an insignificant [stolen content]assistant was something Shu Minglan could still do.

“Are you sick or something?”

Shu Minglan had always had a good temper—so good that the people around her even felt she was somewhat cowardly. After the assistant cursed at her, she flushed red with anger and called Sister Bai. Shu Minglan could not be bothered to pay attention to her and strode toward the set.

At the same time, He Lingxing, who was eating breakfast while looking at a new design proposal, felt her phone vibrate.

【Shushu】: There’s a breakfast shop in the west district. Their corn shrimp porridge and beef egg-drop porridge taste especially good, and the portions are just right. If you don’t like eating meat for breakfast, they have other vegetarian options too. I’ll send you the address. You can order delivery.

Not long ago, He Lingxing had sent Shu Minglan a picture of today’s breakfast.

In truth, she herself was not picky about food at all. She had only sent the message casually to get more familiar with her. But seeing Shu Minglan respond so enthusiastically made her mood improve a little, and most of the resentment from having to wake up early to deal with work vanished.

So she went along with the flow and replied: “I’m not used to delivery. We can go together when there’s time.”

After waiting for a while, the other side did not reply. She had probably started filming. But He Lingxing did not know what had happened to her this time. She had just finished a phone call about a new project and was typing rapidly on the keyboard when she inexplicably received a notification that her favorability had decreased.

【System friendly reminder: The heroine’s current friendship value toward you, Read on BaiLianTales He Lingxing, is -60.】

【The heroine’s current friendship value toward you, Xingxing, is 60.】

One after the other, one positive and one negative.

The huge contrast made He Lingxing somewhat annoyed, and she had no idea where exactly she had offended this heroine again. 520 had been cooperating with her for a long time and naturally understood He Lingxing’s temper, so it quickly explained and soothed her.

【It’s like this. Today, Shu Minglan went to the set, and Bai Mu scolded her. She also brought up your name to try to frighten her. Shu Minglan probably thought Bai Mu was abusing power by relying on you, so she vented her anger on you along with her.】

520’s tone when it said “vented her anger” was a little uncertain and floating, which immediately made He Lingxing notice the key point.

Although she could receive the original owner’s memories when she transmigrated in, they were, after all, more than twenty years’ worth of memories. As an ordinary person, He Lingxing had no way to immediately sort out the parts she needed. So she took this chance to ask the system:

“What did ‘I’ do before this?”

One morning quickly passed. In the gaps between answering calls, making calls, handling emails, and processing documents, He Lingxing roughly sorted out from the system’s narration what she—no, what the original owner—had done before.

This included, but was not limited to, assigning a cunning, old-hand manager like Bai Mu to Shu Minglan, hinting to [unauthorized copy]the people below to give Shu Minglan’s resources to others, having a young pretty boy bundle himself with Shu Minglan for hype and then letting her be cursed bloody by his girlfriend fans without doing any PR, and other childish maneuvers.

In the script, the incident of “the male lead marking Shu Minglan” counted as a turning point. After this major event occurred, the original owner’s dislike for Shu Minglan transformed into hatred.

She began crazily targeting Shu Minglan, and even started making personal attacks, looking for several Alphas to try to force themselves on her. When He Lingxing transmigrated over, it happened to be a period before Shu Minglan was accidentally marked, so the original owner had not yet reached that level of madness.

He Lingxing let out a long breath.

Even if it was only those previous incidents, if she were Shu Minglan, she probably would not have any good feelings toward herself either.

【Host plans to…】

After understanding the reason, He Lingxing raised her brows, took a bottle of nail polish from the drawer, and carefully touched up the shine on her nails. “We’ll see. In any case, I’m here to complete a mission, not to coax women.”

She only needed to bring the two leads together at the critical moment and preserve the plot’s HE. It was not as if she had to use the identity of “He Lingxing” to do it. Earlier, she had been the one overcomplicating things.

**

She had not expected Jia Qianmei’s revenge to come so quickly.

After casually resolving Jia Qianmei’s sexual harassment incident that day, He Lingxing was afraid Jia Qianmei would retaliate against Shu Minglan, so she deliberately gave Director Zhu a reminder and asked him to help look after the person under her company.

Director Zhu had very good character and was an old acquaintance of the original owner. He was also very proper in how he conducted himself. He Lingxing felt quite assured about him. Later, there really was no news of Shu Minglan being retaliated against or bullied. Instead, there was only a request to change her assistant.

He Lingxing acted swiftly and decisively, directly having Bai Mu transferred away and assigning a few normal people to Shu Minglan, which did restore a bit of favorability. But a few days later, she received news that her company’s stock price had declined. At the same time, corresponding with this was the dirt on several of the company’s artists floating on the trending searches.

The popularity remained stubbornly high.

It was undoubtedly Jia Qianmei’s handiwork.

To say Jia Qianmei was particularly afraid of He Lingxing was not necessarily true. At the time, she had merely been instinctively frightened by He Lingxing’s sudden powerful aura. Once she came back to her senses, that feeling was gone.

He Lingxing’s company, Yaoxing Entertainment, was not really a major company either. Especially in recent years, it had already begun to show signs of decline and was not as glamorous as it appeared on the surface. Many capable artists had been poached away, and most of those remaining were living off past glory.

Among them, the most popular one they had promoted was probably an Alpha young actress, but due to her appearance, her acting range was rather narrow. She had nearly reached the end of the road as an actress and could barely be considered at the tail end of the first tier.

The slightly better ones among the others were second-tier artists such as Shu Minglan. Before He Lingxing transmigrated in, the original owner had already planned to recruit trainees and develop toward girl groups, but she was still completely clueless about it. Jia Qianmei had shares in a large [bailiantales.com]company and was also related to the boss. If she wanted to target He Lingxing, it was not exactly difficult.

He Lingxing’s phone was almost blown up with calls.

Her gaze first landed on the eighteenth trending topic, slightly lower down the list: “#ShuMinglan, MurongFeng.” After clicking in, she saw a GIF posted by a marketing account. It was from the scene of an awards ceremony.

Shu Minglan originally had the kind of harmless appearance that made people feel comfortable. The thin air bangs hanging over her forehead made her aura look even fresher.

The black lace-patterned spaghetti-strap gown and retro Hong Kong-style fiery red lips made her look both pure and seductive. The slender diamond-studded high heels made up for her slight lack of height just right, but standing beside the tall Murong Feng, she was still more than half a head shorter than him.

Murong Feng said something to Shu Minglan, and Shu Minglan smiled. Her rippling starry eyes were lively and adorable as she placed her hand on the sleeve at his wrist. But it was precisely this final action, combined with the marketing account’s provocation, that caused Murong Feng’s extreme girlfriend fans to begin hurling abuse on a large scale.

He Lingxing frowned.

The tall, straight man before her, who looked handsome and extraordinary, was the stallion harem novel male lead from the original book—the one who, after accidentally marking Shu Minglan, abused her to the point of life and death and made countless women fall for him: Murong Feng.

In the script’s description, Murong Feng had started from nothing. When he was just beginning, many people had humiliated and looked down on him. Later, those men who looked down on him either submitted one after another or had their families ruined, while the women all knelt beneath his suit pants. He could be called a “model example” of face-slapping literature.

At this time, Murong Feng’s career had already achieved some small success. Calculating it, this incident seemed to be the beginning of his upcoming connection with Shu Minglan.

【Detected that [Male Lead Murong Feng] is about to appear. A new plotline has begun!】

The system suddenly broadcast dutifully:

【“Shu Minglan and Murong Feng are reported by the media to be hyping a CP. At this time, Murong Feng still remembers the woman who stunned him at first glance. In reality, he has developed a good impression of her without realizing it.” Host, please complete the following mission to stimulate the male lead’s recognition of his favorable feelings toward the female lead.】

【Lead the female lead to the banquet. Take the opportunity to make things difficult for the female lead and give the male lead a chance to rescue the beauty. You may also appropriately make the male lead jealous. PS: Do not break character.】

“Make the male lead jealous?” He Lingxing caught the key phrase, and even her action of flipping through the schedule paused. She clearly did not understand the meaning of this sentence. “Shu Minglan and I are both women. How am I supposed to make him jealous?”

【That depends on your performance, Host. If you need anything, 520 can provide support at any time.】

He Lingxing: “…” Fine.

There happened to be a banquet on the schedule three days later.

**

The dirt on the three artists that had gone on trending searches at the same time was quickly clarified under He Lingxing’s direction. The publicity department reacted faster than before, and a new wave of marketing accounts launched a strong counterattack against those accounts spreading dirt.

Buying marketing accounts was one of the most common methods in the industry. From top first-tier celebrities to eighteenth-tier nobodies, everyone used it. At certain moments, it could serve as a key force in reversing public opinion.

Buying better marketing accounts also cost a considerable sum of money.

Having struggled in the entertainment industry for several years, Shu Minglan could not possibly be unaware of all these twists and turns. Especially after learning from other people that He Lingxing had gone to find Jia Qianmei at the time, her heart became even more unsettled.

Why had He Lingxing gone to find Jia Qianmei?

Were the two of them scheming again about how to trap her?

But if that were the case, things should not have developed in this direction. If Jia Qianmei wanted to take revenge on her, she could have used other methods or directly pushed fabricated dirt about her onto the trending searches. Dragging the company’s other artists down with her was practically a clear declaration of war against He Lingxing.

Only a fool would fail to understand this point.

Unless…

Thinking back to the crazy manager and assistant who had suddenly been transferred away, an absurd thought that nevertheless seemed to have factual basis suddenly formed in Shu Minglan’s mind. In an instant, it broke through the clouds and mist, linking everything that had happened recently clearly together.

But why had He Lingxing suddenly helped her?

That was clearly not what was written in the script.

Before Shu Minglan could figure out why, a message popped up on WeChat. Recently, this “Xingxing” seemed to like chatting with her quite a bit, but the frequency was appropriate and not annoying. When Shu Minglan had free time, she would exchange a few words with her.

“Xingxing” was asking whether she was free two nights from now.

Two afternoons from now, the filming would enter a solo scene for the male lead. She did not have many scenes over those two days. Director Zhu was not strict with restrictions, and the filming schedule was not kept confidential the whole time either. If she wanted to go out, she could do so at any time.

However, Shu Minglan herself had a habit of maintaining her acting state. She had thought the other party was inviting her out for a meal and originally wanted to politely decline and wait until after filming was finished. But just as she was typing, she received a contact card pushed over by the other party.

The three words she least wanted to see appeared clearly before her eyes.

【Xingxing】: President He wants you to add her account. She said she has somethin[bailiantales.com]g to discuss with you.

【Xingxing】: What is it? Seems like something about a banquet.

Shu Minglan braced herself and added that very proper-looking work account. The other party replied quickly, but every single punctuation mark seemed to carry an uncomfortable stiffness and coldness.

He Lingxing had both her phone and computer accounts online at the same time, switching seamlessly as her fingers flew in replies.

【Xingxing】: Huh? I’m not sure about the purpose either.

【Xingxing】: Why “dress prettily”? Probably…

He Lingxing bit the bullet and struck the keyboard heavily.

【Xingxing】: Probably because she wants to pursue you.