The Male Lead's Sister Reborn (GL) - Chapter 10

After being taken to yet another high-end restaurant by Shen Xiruo for a meal, Jiang Qian verbally signed a management contract with Li Hong.

However, Li Hong was not from Qingcheng Entertainment. She was the director of another deep-seated but powerful company.

After the incident on the set, Shen Xiruo had become conscious of the need to hide her relationship with Jiang Qian. She didn’t want to bind Jiang Qian to her company in a domineering way, like her brother in the previous life, as that would be very detrimental to Jiang Qian’s future development.

Therefore, she specifically sought out her good friend Li Hong to sign a contract with Jiang Qian, ensuring Jiang Qian would not become an artist under the Qingcheng banner.

Of course, Shen Xiruo wouldn’t share these thought processes with Jiang Qian. She simply smiled and told Jiang Qian, “She is a good friend I trust very much. She will definitely spare no effort in cultivating you, so don’t worry.”

Jiang Qian didn’t know Li Hong’s background, but she knew that the original female lead’s manager, as written in the book, was not very capable. The original female lead only got some resources thanks to Shen Xizhou’s help. For the original female lead, having a manager or not was essentially the same.

Regardless, Li Hong seemed much more reliable than that previous manager, so Jiang Qian happily signed the contract.

Anyway, she knew the plot of the book, and she knew which dramas would become popular and when opportunities would arise. Becoming a superstar was just a matter of minutes, as long as the manager didn’t hold her back.

After the contract was signed, Shen Xiruo thoughtfully drove Jiang Qian back to school.

Jiang Qian got out of her discreet Mercedes-Benz and returned to her dorm, attracting sidelong glances from everyone along the way.

A new post was constantly being pushed up on the campus forum: “The campus belle has a new car again—this time a Mercedes-Benz! The campus belle has such a wide network!”

The replies below were a string of comments: “Are you insane,楼主 (Poster)? The female CEO of Qingcheng Entertainment personally came out to slap your face yesterday, and you’re still at it?”

“Seriously, I don’t care about the campus belle, I just want the contact information for the female CEO of Qingcheng Entertainment. Please, she is so beautiful!”

“Poster above, what does her beauty have to do with you? She only interacts with people on the campus belle’s level! Are you as good-looking as the campus belle? Do you have a better figure than the campus belle?”

Chi Lulu was scrolling through this post, taking a deep breath, preparing to type out two hundred characters to curse out these idle people. However, the next second, after refreshing, the post was gone.

“Ah? 404! Jiang Qian, Jiang Qian, did your CEO angrily hack the campus forum for you? The CEO is furious for her beauty, wow, I’m so jealous!”

Jiang Qian: “There’s no such thing. Shen Xiruo is very busy.”

To reassure Chi Lulu, she sent Shen Xiruo a WeChat message: “President Shen, was the post on our campus forum deleted by you?”

Shen Xiruo quickly replied: “No, it wasn’t me.”

Jiang Qian showed Chi Lulu: “See, look!”

Chi Lulu looked confused and continued to scroll through the forum: “But all the other posts are fine; only yours is gone…”

Meanwhile, the moderator of the campus forum’s gossip section was deleting all campus belle-related posts while on the phone.

“I’ve deleted them all as you requested… I will continue to monitor it, so please don’t worry!”

After hanging up, the moderator was ecstatic: “Sure enough, managing the forum for so many years has paid off! A director from Qingcheng Entertainment personally called me and asked me to delete the post, and even promised me a priority interview slot! Thank you, Campus Belle! Thank you, gossip-loving netizens, for giving me this opportunity to get promoted and get rich!”

After Shen Xiruo received the “done” reply from her subordinate, she looked at the conversation box with Jiang Qian and thought: “The person who deleted the post was indeed not me, but the moderator.

But there’s no need to tell Jiang Qian about this small matter.”

Shen Xiruo casually browsed the fashion news for the year and suddenly saw an outfit that stirred a memory.

“Sure enough… calculating the time, it should be now.”

Once filming got busy, the concept of time disappeared, and soon a month had passed.

During this month, Jiang Qian became good friends with Zhang Cheng, became like sisters with Director Zhu Yu, and called everyone on the crew “brother” or “sister.”

Only the second female lead, Zheng Yang, remained cold and distant toward Jiang Qian. Except for scenes they had together, she stayed hidden in her nanny van and rarely spoke to anyone on the crew.

Considering Zheng Yang’s background and her tragic end in the book, Jiang Qian wasn’t bothered. Instead, she occasionally showed her concern.

Buying her bubble tea, giving her warmers when it was cold, doing these small things casually.

After receiving things from Jiang Qian multiple times, Zheng Yang finally couldn’t help it. She came up to Jiang Qian and said, “I don’t drink bubble tea, I don’t eat late-night snacks, I don’t need warmers. I don’t need anything. Thank you for your kindness, but I don’t need it.”

Jiang Qian was puzzled, looking at Zheng Yang who ran off after speaking, completely baffled.

It wasn’t until one evening when filming wrapped up very late. Most of the staff had already left, only Jiang Qian was still there, being held back by the director for a lecture on the script.

She was yawning constantly during the discussion and was finally let go. It was very late, and the streetlights in the alley behind the set were all out, leaving only faint, shadowy light.

Jiang Qian was about to leave this unsafe area when she suddenly heard Zheng Yang’s voice coming from inside: “Don’t come here again. It’s so unsafe to travel here.”

Jiang Qian slowed her steps after hearing a couple of sentences. She then heard the sound of a woman crying, mixed with Zheng Yang’s annoyed voice: “Oh, why are you crying again? Please don’t cry. Didn’t I give you this month’s money?”

An older female voice came through: “Yangyang, Mom just misses you. It’s not about the money…”

“That woman, was she Zheng Yang’s mother?”

Zheng Yang suddenly became agitated and raised her voice: “It’s all about the money, what else is there?”

Scared by her, the woman’s crying was immediately choked back, and she started coughing loudly.

The coughing sound made Jiang Qian feel unbearable sympathy, as if the woman was coughing out her heart and lungs. She thought for a moment and then deliberately put more weight into her steps, walking towards the back alley.

Her footsteps echoed “thump-thump” in the alley. Jiang Qian said in a light voice, “Who’s in there? Why are you coughing like that? Do you want some water?”

Zheng Yang emerged from the darkness, her face pale and her expression constrained. She said to Jiang Qian, “It’s nothing. Don’t walk this way, it’s very dark.”

Jiang Qian looked behind her and indeed saw a middle-aged woman half-hidden in the darkness, being tightly held by Zheng Yang.

She smiled at Zheng Yang: “Who is that behind you?”

Zheng Yang glanced back. Since she had already been exposed, she couldn’t hide it and gently pushed the woman out.

Jiang Qian looked at the woman. She was wearing a bulky, unfashionable work uniform, her face was covered in wrinkles, her hair was tied up casually like dry grass, and she looked anxious and timid. She was also wearing cloth shoes stained with mud.

“This… doesn’t look like the family of a glamorous actress like Zheng Yang…”

Seeing this scene, Jiang Qian finally remembered that this scene seemed to be in the original book too.

At that time, the original female lead saw Zheng Yang arguing and struggling with this woman. She went back to the set, called security, and drove the woman away. But after chasing her off, Zheng Yang became angry, cursed the female lead for nosiness, and left the original female lead completely bewildered.

Now, Jiang Qian looked at the hands of Zheng Yang and the woman, which were tightly clasped, and suddenly understood the whole story.

There can be fierce arguments between family members, but after the argument, they won’t let go of each other’s hands.

Zheng Yang didn’t need the self-righteous actions of the original female lead. What Zheng Yang needed was… that others wouldn’t look at her or her family with strange eyes.

Zheng Yang was very nervous, watching Jiang Qian’s face, staring at her every reaction.

Zheng Yang knew Jiang Qian was good to her, but she didn’t know what Jiang Qian would do now.

Would she, like others in the entertainment industry, scornfully mock her when they found out she was from the mountains?

Would she, like the other actresses on set, see her mother and, as if seeing something unclean, cover her mouth and call security?

Would she, like all the glamorous city people, look at her and her mother with disgust?

Zheng Yang felt an unprecedented anxiety in her life. She had always had a good impression of Jiang Qian, but she didn’t dare to bet on Jiang Qian’s reaction.

“Ahem… We’ll be going now.” Saying that, Zheng Yang tried to pull her mother away.

But suddenly, she saw an extremely sincere smile blossom on Jiang Qian’s face.

“Is this your auntie? You didn’t even introduce me! Hello, Auntie, my name is Jiang Qian, and I’m Zheng Yang’s friend from the set!”

Jiang Qian reached out her hand, took the calloused hand of Zheng’s mother, and spoke to her warmly and affectionately.

Zheng Yang watched her mother’s expression transform from initial shock and fear to relief and joy, thanks to Jiang Qian’s continuous chatter.

While Zheng Yang was still stunned, Jiang Qian simply suggested they go out for a casual meal.

“Let me take you to experience A-City’s late-night snack culture! Let’s go, let’s go!”

Jiang Qian took the two of them to a street food stall outside the set, ordered a pile of food and drinks, ordered soy milk and a beverage for Zheng’s mother, and poured it for her.

After Zheng’s mother finished eating, Jiang Qian asked if she had a place to stay and, while at the night market, picked out some clothes for Zheng’s mother, specifically making Zheng Yang pay for them herself.

It was the perfect etiquette for treating a friend’s mother: warm yet appropriate.

Finally, Jiang Qian and Zheng Yang took Zheng’s mother back to the hotel.

“Mom… my room is here. You go in first.”

Zheng Yang gave the room card to her mother, turned to Jiang Qian, wanting to say something but not knowing what. Her face was flushed from the effort.

Jiang Qian looked at her and laughed: “What’s wrong? Hurry back and spend time with your auntie.”

Zheng Yang opened her mouth, and a thousand words finally condensed into a single one: “Thank you.”

Jiang Qian laughed heartily, patted her on the shoulder, and told her, “Actually, I don’t have parents anymore.”

This was true. In her previous world, both of her parents died when she was in junior high school, and she was raised by relatives in her family.

In the book’s world, the original female lead did have parents, but they were both terrible relatives.

Zheng Yang, of course, didn’t know her family background and widened her eyes upon hearing this.

“So, you should treat your family well and don’t feel any psychological burden.

You know, there isn’t much time to be able to be filial to your family.”

After saying this, Jiang Qian turned and left without looking at Zheng Yang’s expression.

“A true hero, brushes off their clothes and leaves, hiding their merits and fame!” Jiang Qian thought smugly.

Back at the hotel, she received a call from Shen Xiruo.

Shen Xiruo: “It’s so late, and you’re still not asleep?”

Jiang Qian: “Hahaha, I just did a good deed. I’m in a good mood and don’t want to sleep.”

Shen Xiruo: “What good deed?”

Jiang Qian told her the whole story.

Shen Xiruo was silent for a moment, then said, “When are you going to meet my parents? They would definitely like you very much.”

Jiang Qian: “???”

“The topic seems to have changed a little too fast. I’m getting carsick! I want to jump out of the car!”