Acting as the Vicious Second Lead [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 28

The Manager: I have a problem—my artist just won’t take things seriously.

Two days ago, Lin Yu had reaped the benefits of her “deal” with Qu Li. By handing Qin Xiaoxiao over for a night and utilizing… ahem… “unconventional” means, she had secured the girl’s first lead role. Yet, when she presented this magnificent resource to Qin Xiaoxiao with a joyful heart, all she received in return was a heartless sneer and a massive eye-roll.

“I said I’m not doing it, and I mean it.”

Currently, Qin Xiaoxiao was leaning lazily against the sofa, scrolling through Weibo. She was looking at Qu Li’s personal homepage, her gaze landing on the “Mutual Follow” notification in the bottom left corner.

I didn’t follow her.

So, who clicked it…?

Qin Xiaoxiao rubbed her chin, instantly transforming into a primary-school version of Sherlock Holmes. Her brain whirred as she deduced the truth based on existing clues. Two days ago, they weren’t mutual follows. Therefore, it happened within the last 48 hours. Recently, she had only been in contact with two people: her manager, who had her login credentials and was the prime suspect, and the starlet herself, whom she had spent the entire night with. It wasn’t out of the question that the woman had made her move while Qin Xiaoxiao was dead to the world.

Thinking of this, Qin Xiaoxiao’s expression darkened. While Lin Yu was morally flexible and highly suspicious—especially with her exaggerated act of “Oh! You two are mutual follows!” earlier—there was a second possibility. If Qu Li was the culprit, would she really go through the trouble of stealing a phone just for a follow? Did she tamper with anything else?

Qin Xiaoxiao exited Weibo and began a “carpet-style” search of her other apps. This search actually turned up something else.

In her call logs, there was an outgoing call from yesterday evening. The recipient was clearly labeled: Lin Yu.

“Lin Yu, who called you yesterday?” Qin Xiaoxiao asked abruptly, looking at the manager sitting across from her. Her tone was cold. “Are you hiding something from me?”

The manager, who was currently agonizing over how to convince her artist to play the male lead, suddenly stammered in fear. She averted her gaze, her eyes darting around.

“N-N-No! I don’t know anything!” she said guiltily.

“Oh?” Qin Xiaoxiao obviously didn’t believe her. “You can choose not to tell me,” she said, her voice turning exceptionally chilly and threatening. “But if I find out you sold me out… you should know exactly what the consequences will be.”

Lin Yu felt a shiver run down her spine. She could tell that the girl was genuinely angry.

“You can’t put it like that,” Lin Yu said, regaining a bit of her gravity as she spoke in a muffled voice. “How could I sell you out? Everything I do is for your own good.”

Her face was the picture of sincerity. However, the phrase “for your own good” was incredibly hollow.

Qin Xiaoxiao had a bad feeling. “What did you do?”

Lin Yu took a deep breath and said weakly, “Promise you won’t hit me.”

Qin Xiaoxiao narrowed her eyes. “Tell me first.”

“Sigh, alright.”

Fire cannot be wrapped in paper forever, and hiding it wasn’t the way. Since the girl had already noticed the clues, she would eventually track down the truth. It was better to confess now. Perhaps, seeing her honesty, Qin Xiaoxiao wouldn’t hold it against her too much.

Lin Yu thought optimistically. She then laid out the whole story—though she conveniently omitted the embarrassing detail of how she mistook Qu Li for Qin Xiaoxiao on the phone and bragged to her face about “hooking up.”

As she spoke, she watched Qin Xiaoxiao’s face. It was not a pretty sight. It looked as bitter as if she had just eaten raw bitter melon.

“Does your conscience not hurt?” Qin Xiaoxiao reproached. “If Qu Li had bad intentions and something happened to me, you, as the accomplice, would be looking at a lawsuit.”

“Sorry about that,” Lin Yu admitted. She knew it hadn’t been wise; she had been blinded by the starlet’s terms. But she still tried to struggle: “But look, you’re fine, aren’t you?”

“Things have already reached this point. You two spent the whole night together, Qu Li got her way, and if you refuse the benefits she gave you, wouldn’t that be a total loss?”

“What’s that term again?” Lin Yu fumbled for words. After a moment, she said, “Gamer-tagging.” (Translator’s Note: She uses a term for “getting something for nothing” or “freeloading”).

Lin Yu knew Qin Xiaoxiao hated being at a disadvantage. She glanced at the woman cautiously. “Are you willing to be freeloaded upon?”

“None of your business.”

Without comparison, there is no harm. Compared to her pride, Qin Xiaoxiao was much more afraid of getting close to Qu Li. Therefore, she didn’t care at all about the manager’s logic. “I actually admire you. Even at death’s door, you’re still trying to get me to take the role—and opposite Qu Li, no less.”

“I don’t want to say this a third time: I don’t agree.”

“Give up. Let whoever wants it take it.”

As soon as she finished, the manager put on a look of deep sorrow and began a new round of “scriptural” persuasion, droning on like a mantra.

Qin Xiaoxiao, acting like an unmoved statue, coolly retracted her gaze and went back to playing on Weibo. After two days of chaos, she was finally enjoying a moment of leisure and decided to manage her personal account. She noticed her follower count had jumped by 190,000.

She refreshed: twenty more. Refreshed again: eight more.

After two minutes, she got bored. She clicked into her comment section to see what the world thought of her.

[Wise One V]: Like this if you’ve never hated on Yin Ni. Let’s see how many of us there are! [Baldy V]: Sister, I’m a fan of your face. Hehe, I used that lace skincare liquid you recommended, and now my spots are gone! It’s super effective! [Seventeen-18]: …I’ve never seen an actor this “cold.” Even her fans can’t beat the marketing accounts.

The top comments were mostly fluff. Qin Xiaoxiao scrolled for a bit and then switched to view the latest comments. The most recent one was from ten minutes ago.

[Li’s Little Sister]: So angry! Auntie, have you had enough of clinging to her thighs for clout? My little fairy wouldn’t deign to associate with a shameless person like you.

The avatar for this angry student was a white cat. Soon, replies appeared under her comment.

[Lili’s Little Tail V]: Don’t bring hate to Qu Li. Like we said… the Qing Dynasty is over. Changing boyfriends doesn’t mean someone is shameless. [Yin Yin Yin]: Whose mad dog is this? Drag it back home. [Protecting Xiao Yin]: Get it straight! It’s clearly your side蹭ing (clinging to) our Yin Yin’s heat. Every time, your side brings our Xiao Yin onto the trending searches.

From here, the topic went completely off the rails.

[Li’s Little Dimple]: Our side clinging to your heat? (#OceanLaugh) That’s the funniest joke I’ve heard all year. [Li’s Little Curly]: Agreed. Yin fans should look at their idol—a C-lister with less than 500k followers. What is there to cling to? [Yin Yin Yin]: Our girl is the daughter of a business tycoon. Your girl is just a little mistress being kept by ours.

Qin Xiaoxiao was half-clueless. Transsexual? Qu Li is my kept mistress? How come I didn’t know? And she actually had a small handful of fans defending her now, even if they were few in number.

She kept reading, but eventually, regardless of the topic, every thread devolved into a war between fans and antis. The “fandom circle” slang was full of abbreviations she didn’t understand, so she gave up.

She closed the comments and, while listening to her manager’s resentful nagging, aimlessly wandered through Weibo. Before she knew it, she found herself on Qu Li’s personal homepage.

She thought about exiting, but then changed her mind. Know your enemy, know yourself, and you will never be defeated. The reason the starlet had her backed into a corner was because the woman understood her and knew her secret of playing the “wicked woman.”

Even though she hoped they would never meet again, the entertainment circle was small. Unless she hid in her hometown, there seemed to be no way out. Thus, to avoid always losing to Qu Li, she felt it necessary to understand her—starting with her Weibo activity.

She began scrolling through Qu Li’s posts. There weren’t many, only about 300 in total. It was clear she wasn’t very active online; most posts were professional, with no daily trivia or selfies. Realizing this, Qin Xiaoxiao felt that the selfie she had saved from their chat had just gone up four stars in value.

Five minutes passed. She finally found a post that wasn’t about work or holiday greetings.

[Qu Li V]: The newest member of the family.

The attached photo was a cute kitten with snow-white fur and pink paw pads. It tilted its head, looking at the camera with large, clear blue eyes.

…So cute. I really want to pet it.

Qin Xiaoxiao took a critical hit of cuteness. She suddenly realized this cat was Qu Li’s QQ avatar. She couldn’t help but feel a surge of pure jealousy toward “people with cats.”

On the other side of the room, the manager had talked herself thirsty. She drank some water and looked at the beautiful woman who didn’t seem to be listening at all. She was in despair. No matter how she appealed to emotion or logic, the girl remained as unmoved as a mountain.

“I have a question. Since you’re so indifferent to fame and fortune, treating resources like dirt as if nothing matters… what was your original intention for entering the entertainment industry?” Lin Yu asked suddenly, her eyes fixed on the woman. This was her final struggle.

She was gambling. A rich heiress entering the industry must be doing it for a hobby or to reach the top and be admired by millions. Water flows down, but people climb up. She wanted to awaken the girl’s ambition.

Qin Xiaoxiao looked up and put down her phone. In the process, she accidentally “liked” Qu Li’s post about the cat, though she didn’t notice.

She curled her lips into a smile that outshone the sun—bright, dazzling, and perfectly unapologetic. “Me? I’m here to wreak havoc on the entertainment industry, obviously. My goal is to eventually be able to walk sideways through this circle.” (Translator’s Note: “Walking sideways” means to be so powerful you can do whatever you want).

Lin Yu: “…” Believe in yourself. You can do that right now.

She was utterly hopeless regarding this stubborn artist.

Just then, Qin Xiaoxiao’s QQ notification rang. She picked up her phone and entered the app to find a message from Qu Li.

[Qu Li]: I just received your like. You’re looking at my Weibo~ (#Blush) [Qu Li]: If you like my cat, you can come over to my place to see him after I’m done filming. [Image] [Image] [Image]

The images were cute shots of the Ragdoll cat in various poses. One showed the cat lying on its back on a mattress, looking adorable. Its two paws were held to its chest, revealing a fluffy little belly, its head tilted and eyes half-squinted.

It was as if the cat were winking across the screen. It was lethally cute.

There is nothing more awkward in this world than “secretly stalking” someone’s Weibo only to be caught and called out the next second. But the moment she saw those “cat photos”—seeing the kitten’s blatant seduction—Qin Xiaoxiao’s heart shamefully wavered.