Chapter 28

Wu Xue was just beside her, reading the two pieces of news with her.

When she saw the headline, Su Yi had already thought about how to rebuke it when reposting, but she did not expect the contents of the post to differ from the headlines altogether.

The picture attached was one taken by the paparazzi in the hotel the night before, making it very clear how Su Yi slapped him.

Then it started carefully counting the scripts Liang Bo’s team had sent to the commercial bloggers, and even adding the chat logs between two of the said commercial blogs and Liang Bo’s team. There was even a certain boss with Liu surname who came clean with how that night when he went to find Su Yi it was for a private party, and they were photographed only because they went downstairs drunk. To sum it all up, the whole article was centred around ‘Liang Bo went to the commercial blogs looking for a way to get the spotlight’ and in the end, it even spent a third of the article praising Su Yi from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, even adding a mention about ‘the mystery man from last night suspected to be the new boss of the Chu Corporation’.

Su Yi was confused.

Wu Xue commanded her from behind. “Scroll down to the comments section below.”

[Liang Bo XX Province Fans Group: Impossible, rubbish media, headline dog!]

[Hahaha did the above happily rush in and end up having to leave limping and relying on the wall?]

[Yi’s fans clarifying that they came in with knives and after helping the poster clean up their nails, they have left.]

[Is it strange that I’m more interested in this new boss of the Chu Corporation? He seems to be pretty good in a fight.]

This had garnered almost a hundred replies, discussing Chu Ying. A few were talking about his height, a few his build , and there were a few waiting for Baidu Baike to help them find Chu Ying’s photos.

Su Yi clicked on the reply box.

“He already has…”

She had just entered half the sentence when her phone was snatched out of her hand by the person behind her.

Wu Xue said, “It’s confiscated, hurry up and do your make-up.”

Su Yi tsked. “How about I don’t post that, you just return that phone to me so I could reblog and ask Liang Bo, is he really that overjoyed about what he did last night?”

Wu Xue asked, “Why didn’t you tell me about such a huge occurrence yesterday?”

“How could I say it?” Su Yi bent towards the mirror, rubbing off the excess lipstick. “…tell you that I slapped Liang Bo twice? I was afraid you’d toss me out of the window.”

“Not exactly.” Wu Xue took the phone and scrolled down the list of hot topics, saying, “Liang Bo really is done for this time. Never mind the Chu Corporation, his competition are going crazy putting up articles at the moment. So far they have revealed that when he hosted the parties, he had invited seven female celebrities.”

Su Yi was in a good mood as she closed her eyes, allowing the make-up artist to put the foundation on.

The first scene was not hers. After she was done with make-up, and continuous reassurances to Wu Xue about not replying impulsively online, she left the make-up room with her phone.

The make-up rooms were assigned based on how important the actors were. In the whole crew there are only three private make-up rooms, one for each of the primary leads and the remaining one for Su Yi. She had just left the room when she saw Wu Ke return to his, with an unhappy face.

When he saw her, Wu Ke smiled and called out in a friendly manner. “Little Yi, your figure – the more I see it, the more I find it beautiful.”

There was a reason Wu Ke could bed these many female celebrities. He’s really a flirt, and every time they met he would never fail to shower praises on her.

Su Yi smiled. “Thanks, Ke-ge[1] is done with filming?”

“Not yet,” Wu Ke said. “Cut a few times, Director Li is upset at the moment and asked me to come back to redo my make-up.”

Li Min was notorious for her temper. The first time Su Yi filmed, she was scolded until she went back to her bed and cried into her pillow a few times, so she was not at all surprised. As expected, she had barely taken a few steps when she faintly heard Li Min’s voice.

“That expression you had just now, it’s such a pity you came over here, you should go to the set next door and be a little fairy girl,” Li Min said, hands on her hips. “I want you to be soft on the outside and hard on the inside, I did not ask for a pretty white flower that blows over with the wind!”

Cheng Anan’s eyes were brimming with tears. She nodded, saying softly, “Got it Director.”

“You tell me, how many shots it’s been? How many man-hours have been wasted by you? And those few times you could not remember your lines…. it’s just a few lines, you can’t even memorise it properly?”

Su Yi was about to walk over when she heard a small mumble from the side.

“It’s good to have a background, she doesn’t even need skills to be the female lead.”

Sitting to the side was Tu Jinglan, her hands hugging her waist, a smile of ridicule on her lips.

Su Yi shot a quick glance at her and prepared to go, but did not expect the other to call her out instead.

“Yi-jie!” Tu Jinglan stood up and suddenly held onto Su Yi’s hands “I’m sorry.”

Su Yi pulled her hands out unobtrusively. “What?”

“Actually, I was the one who shared the hotel address with Liang Bo,” she said. “I really didn’t know that that was your relationship.”

“I have no relationship with him.” Su Yi found it hilarious, and was too lazy to say any more. “Alright, apology accepted.”

When she had finished, she ignored Tu Jinglan’s gaze and walked out straight.

Li Min must have finally scolded out all her anger and was sighing. “Can we do this properly? If we can, let’s just do this one more time, if not you can go back and look at the script again, I’ll take the next scene first.”

Su Yi silently walked in front of the camera and asked the team for a replay.

She was barely into it when Li Min saw her and waved her hand. “Never mind, your scene will be left to the afternoon, go work on your emotions. Or you can go ask Little Yi to explain the scene to you, I’m busy right now, I’ve got to prepare for the next scene.”

Su Yi paused. “Me?”

Cheng Anan was obedient and came over pitifully with the script in hand. “Yi-jie, are you free?”

“I’m free, but I’m not that good,” Su Yi said. “I’ve never even acted as a female lead, how am I supposed to explain it to you?”

“There’s no difference, change a character and you can’t act anymore?” Li Min turned around to look for the art direction team when she’d finished speaking.

Looking at the Cheng Anan standing before her, Su Yi was a little uncertain. “Anan, I’ll really not be able to talk about that.” She’d never really explained a scene to anyone before.

“It’s fine.” Cheng Anan sniffed, sat down beside her and suddenly asked, “Yi-jie, why is it that you always act as the vicious female supporting lead?”

“There’s no why,” Su Yi said. “The first character I played as in my first show was that kind, and the ones who came looking for me afterwards wanted an actress for that sort of role too.”

Cheng Anan asked, “Don’t you want to try something else?”

In fact Su Yi had no real intentions to be a female main lead. She said, “There’s no want or not, it depends on the script… how is it up to me to play what I want?”

“Listen to her talk rubbish.” Li Min came back sometime. “Before I had a great script, I’m not talking about which one it was. Anyways, before I wanted her to play that character, but she refused adamantly. The female lead of that show won quite a few awards last year and is quite famous now.”

Su Yi didn’t explain herself, smiling, “Then if you have any good scripts this year come find me, I’d definitely take it.”

Just as she finished speaking, her phone rang, sharp in the silent set.

She looked at the incoming call. It was an unfamiliar number, but the area it was calling from was one she knew.

She switched her phone to silent mode, stared at the screen for a while, then slowly got up. “I’m going to go pick up a call.”

The wind in the corridor was strong. Her hair was set, so only the end of her Qipao was gently lifted by the wind.

She leant against the railing, a hand hugging her waist as she picked up. “What is it?”

“Little sister, you’re dating?” The woman on the other end had a loud voice.

Su Yi repeated. “What are you looking for me for?”

“Aren’t I asking you now?” the woman said. “You’re dating? Is it a big celebrity or a boss…”

Su Yi rolled her eyes and prepared to hang up.

“When are you coming back, your sister I will help you look at him.” The woman giggled. “Also, Little Bao wants to see you these few days, he’s asking when are you coming back to see him.”

Su Yi’s finger, that was prepared to press the red button to hang up, paused. “Where’s Little Bao?”

“He’s beside me, hey! I told you not to touch that! It’s expensive!” The woman screeched, then there came the sound of a heavy slap.

“Su Qin!” Su Yi raised her voice.

She could hear some faint sobbing.

Su Qin came back then, continuing, “If a child’s disobedient, he deserves to be beaten; how old is he already, still adding burden to everyone’s life? Besides, I’m taking care of my own son, you can stop interfering!”

“Alright!” Su Yi was so angry she started laughing. “Then you can take care of it yourself, don’t ask me to send you money anymore.”

The moment Su Qin heard that, she immediately put the phone to the ear of the person beside her. “Stop crying, your aunt’s phone, hurry and pick it up.”

Little Bao took a few fitful sobs. “Yi Yi, are, are you busy, busy or not re… recently?”

Su Yi’s heart softened, and her voice turned gentle. “Not busy, is Little Bao busy?”

“Little Bao is, is a little busy,” he said haltingly. “Sch… school has, homework.”

“Then Little Bao should study hard, I’ll go back when I have time.” Su Yi thought about it and asked, “Is there anyone in school bullying Little Bao?”

There was a long silence before an uncertain voice came, “No, No…”

They were barely a few sentences in, when the phone was snatched away by Su Qin.

Su Qin said, “Are you done, I just called over to tell you I’m not having luck with playing Mahjong recently, I accidentally lost all of Little Bao’s school fees for next semester, send some more money over.”

“Fifty thousand, how long has it been, you’ve spent it all?!” Su Yi stood up.

“I’ve had a bad streak, hurry up and send the money over, it’s going to be the holidays soon, the school wants to collect school fees before the holidays start,” Su Qin said. “Are you done, I’m going to go make food, next time when you come back you can talk to him, the telephone bills are quite strangely expensive.”

After hanging up, Su Yi was huffing with anger, her chest rapidly rising and falling.

Right now, she really wanted to go back to the make-up room and snatch Wu Xue’s cigarette over for a few smokes.

Little Bao was her nephew. When Su Qin was pregnant with him, she was not careful with what she ate, resulting in him being born with a lower IQ than regular people and a stutter. He was ten this year, and while others were in primary four, he had just entered primary one.

This silly little fool hugged her leg tightly that time she ran into trouble, trying not to let anyone drag her away; in the end he got kicked by his blood mother and wound up rolling down the hill

Such a silly little fool, hugging her leg tightly when Su Yi ran into trouble trying not to let people drag her away. In the end he got kicked by his blood mother, ending up rolling down the hill.

Thinking about the sound of that slap made her feel as if something was stuck in her heart.

After a moment, she sent Wu Xue a message, asking her to transfer another twenty thousand to Su Qin. Once she sent that message, she hesitated for a while before making a call.

The guy picked up fast. “Hmm?”

Her voice was muffled. “Chu Ying.”

Chu Ying placed his pen down. “What is it?”

“Nothing.” For some reason, just hearing his voice made her calmer. “Busy?”

“Not busy.” Chu Ying glanced up. His assistant got the hint and turned, leaving the office and silently closing the door behind him.

Su Yi let out a low ‘uh’.

There was a silence on the other end of the line.

“Take leave on Friday.”

Su Yi paused. “Huh?”

Chu Ying looked at the game progress on the screen and said, “I’ve booked a hotel, let’s go earlier.”

[Notes]

[1] since i think i haven’t clarified this before i’ll include here that 姐 (jie) is used when addressing someone as ‘sister’; similarly 哥 (ge) is used when addressing someone as ‘brother’. In both cases it’s used tacked onto either the surname or the name of the addressee, making it something like ‘sister Yi’ or ‘brother Ke’.

this chapter was edited by larkspur!