This Best Actress is a Bit Annoying - Chapter 10

[Shocking!!! Xia Qingye’s Sugar Daddy appears in Hengdian; the two act intimately without concealment!]

The person who took the photos had high-level skills. They captured the moment Xia Yanbo intimately pinched her cheek, and that flashy, classic gold limited-edition Porsche became the ultimate “evidence” of Xia Qingye securing her role through the casting couch.

“Qingye, couldn’t your brother clear this up with just one sentence? As long as he clarifies, this will all go away.” Wei Xianghong was nearly worried to death over this artist of hers. Only a month after debuting, she had trended twice—both times because she was being smeared.

Xia Qingye listened with her phone in one hand while scrolling through Weibo with the other.

—MyIdolIsRouBao: Xia Qingye, that Green Tea B*tch. She’s clearly being kept, yet she framed our Rou-Bao. Here’s the hard evidence; do you yield now?

—RouBaoDontCry: +1

—SugarDaddyDoYouNeedAKeyChain: Such a handsome guy and a beautiful woman. Hey handsome, do you still need a bedmate?

—CarLover: That limited-edition Porsche… there are only ten in the entire country. Who is this guy? To be lucky enough to own one, he’s a true tycoon. I kneel.

—IThinkThereforeIAm: Asking weakly, who exactly is Xia Qingye?

…

She scanned the comments symbolically. Most were Chu Rou’s brain-dead fans coming out to cause trouble; the various levels of verbal abuse were eyesores. Yet, she smiled nonchalantly. “Sister Xiang, isn’t trending a good thing?”

The script of complaints Wei Xianghong had prepared was choked back by this single sentence. It died in the womb.

Many celebrities spend money to buy a trending spot and still fail. Xia Qingye was just a rookie, yet her name had been hung on the trending list twice in one month. In a way, she was already a “mini-hit.”

In short, Xia Qingye’s stance was: only a fool doesn’t take advantage of free publicity.

Xia Qingye spoke in a very slow tone. “Sister Xiang, when my brother and I went to eat, I saw Chu Rou’s manager sneaking around the lawn as we were heading downstairs. I imagine these photos were released by him on purpose.”

Wei Xianghong understood after a moment of thought. “And your brother is just letting this kind of news stay on the trending list?”

Xia Qingye replied willfully, “Who knows.”

Wei Xianghong didn’t know either and considered calling Xia Yanbo. After thinking it over, she decided against it. After handling some business, she checked Weibo again, only to find that Xia Qingye’s two trending topics had been pushed down by even more explosive information.

No, they had been completely deleted.

[A generation’s Heavenly King suspected of coming out.]

[While filming “Love You for 1001 Nights,” Chu Rou opened a hotel room with a man late at night; the Pure Maiden turns into a Lustful Maiden.]

As soon as these two back-to-back explosive news items dropped, Xia Qingye’s scandal was directly suppressed.

Xia Qingye didn’t mind. She clicked on the clear photo of Chu Rou kissing a man and said gloatingly, “Looks like someone is about to have a run of bad luck.”

Yu Lan glanced at the person on the screen from the side, silently lighting thirty-two candles for Chu Rou.

Far away in Hollywood, USA, Nie Zhuying was swinging her fair, tender feet while eating grapes that Zhou Ling had found for her. She tapped on the screenshot Yao Wei had saved for her, looking at the handsome man next to the luxury car tenderly pinching a beauty’s face. She could almost feel the sickly-sweet doting through the screen. “Deleting the info… what do you call that again?”

Yao Wei added quickly, “A guilty conscience.”

Nie Zhuying tossed a grape into her mouth without regard for her image. After chewing a few times, she said, “I’ll say this: the first time I saw this woman, she looked like a fox spirit. With just a slight upward curve of her eyes, she could hook a man’s soul. Yao Wei, look—this guy’s looks aren’t bad either. He clearly looks like his soul has been hooked away.”

Yao Wei nodded vigorously. She realized their recent topics of conversation had shifted from Film Queen Zhong to this “fox spirit” Xia Qingye. After thinking it over, she spoke her mind. “Sister Nie, you’re right. If she didn’t rely on a sponsor to get resources, how could she have replaced you?”

Nie Zhuying’s hand reaching for a grape paused slightly. She let out a dissatisfied snort and asked back, “She? Replaced me?”

Yao Wei caught the hint of displeasure in her tone and immediately changed her tune. “Sister Nie, I mean she used unsavory methods to steal the role that originally belonged to you.”

At the thought of such filthy tactics in the industry, Nie Zhuying immediately lost interest in the grapes. She tossed them aside and stood up barefoot. “She only got a role by taking a shortcut. Based on her alone, she thinks she can surpass me? In her dreams.”

Yao Wei watched Nie Zhuying slam the door shut with a bang and silently stuck out her tongue. She had said the wrong thing.

“Aaaah!”

A series of crashing sounds came from inside the room. Chu Rou’s little assistant stood outside the door, trembling with fear at the hysterical screaming within.

Chu Rou clawed at her scalp, her jet-black hair becoming a messy tangle. She paced around the room, discovering that everything—whether it was meant to be smashed or not—had been thrown to the floor. The ground was a complete wreck. “You said before that as long as there was a huge leak, the public’s attention would shift from me to somewhere else! So why did it turn out like this?”

Fang Xiang took a deep drag of his cigarette and then exhaled a cloud of smoke. The entire room was filled with the smell of nicotine. “Someone is out to get you.”

Chu Rou’s eyes widened. “Who!” she asked tensely.

Fang Xiang had intended to bribe the “water army” to force the Heavenly King out of the closet, thinking things would develop in the direction they planned. Instead, while he was messing with someone else, Chu Rou was also being smeared. “I wanted to buy back those negatives from them, but they said the negatives had already been bought at a high price by someone else. This post on the trending list is just an appetizer; there are bigger leaks coming. They refused to reveal who the buyer is.”

Sometimes, power represents strength.

Chu Rou slumped onto the sofa, staring blankly ahead. She murmured, “It’s over. If everything is leaked, it won’t be as simple as losing fans. I’ll lose everything. Both you and I are finished.”

Fang Xiang thought long and hard. Chu Rou’s path in the industry had always been smooth sailing. When did things start becoming so unlucky? It seemed to start ever since the falling out with that woman Wei Xianghong; things had developed to an uncontrollable point. Currently, they had only offended one person—and that person was Xia Qingye.

He finished his cigarette, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it until the filter was flattened. “I think I know who is out to get you.”

Chu Rou stood up abruptly, her expression tense. “Who?”

Fang Xiang gave a cold laugh. “Xia Qingye’s Sugar Daddy.”