After Being Dumped by the Film Empress, My Acting Skills Soared - Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Cantonese cuisine has always emphasized original flavors. Broths take a long time to simmer until they turn a milky white; the sea cucumber soup was tender and delicious, carrying a light touch of salt. The lingering bitterness from the mugwort cake and Bansha tea was instantly washed away by the warm sea cucumber and vermicelli soup.

The table was covered in Cantonese dishes, mostly seafood, and they had even served a steamed grouper. For just two people, the amount of food was admittedly a bit much.

Shao Niannian’s silent confusion must have radiated toward Jiang Yan, because the woman, who was busy handling matters on her phone, looked up. “Don’t worry, others are coming.”

“Oh?” Niannian lightly bit the edge of her spoon, her heart settling back into place.

That makes more sense. If Jiang Yan had invited her alone to a feast like this, it wouldn’t quite fit her character. Niannian still couldn’t decipher Jiang Yan’s current attitude toward her. Previously, Jiang Yan had been quite clear about her rejection, yet the signals she was sending now were like pieces of bait floating on the surface, tempting the shrimp to bite.

Even knowing that beneath the succulent meat was a hook that could pierce her throat, Niannian couldn’t help but want to snap up the meat being delivered to her mouth.

“Relax and eat. You know the two people who are joining us.”

“Oh, okay.”

Hearing this, Niannian stopped holding back. She ate and drank as she pleased. After all, this table already cost over seven thousand yuan; it would be a waste not to immerse herself in the freshness of the seafood and the salty crunch of the fried ribs just to worry about who was coming.

Actually, every dish on the table had been specially ordered by Jiang Yan for Niannian.

Jiang Yan didn’t even need to work hard to find out what Niannian liked; a quick scroll through Niannian’s Weibo revealed everything—she ate almost any cuisine and wasn’t picky, but she had a slight aversion to cold, raw foods. Consequently, Jiang Yan hadn’t ordered things like white-cut chicken or chilled raw oysters.

Jiang Yan put on the disposable gloves provided by the restaurant and began peeling fresh river shrimp. She placed the meat into a bowl of fresh soy sauce seasoned with bird’s-eye chili, then used her pinky to lightly nudge the glass lazy Susan, rotating the peeled shrimp in front of Niannian.

“Eat them quickly, or they’ll get too salty once the soy sauce soaks in.”

“Thanks.” Niannian didn’t stand on ceremony. Usually, if Niannian sat there while someone served her like this, her mother would have rolled her eyes and told her to get lost.

—“Are you handless or a paraplegic? You want your old lady to serve you? Are you wondering which of your legs I’ll break first?”

Jiang Yan sat beside her, not eating, just helping her peel shrimp. It must be said, seeing a Best Actress condescend to do such menial service was a sight to behold. At the very least, the two managers being led in by the hostess simultaneously wore the same expression.

Yang Yang and Gao Hui: o.0

The two managers looked at each other. Gao Hui frowned slightly and signaled Yang Yang with an incredulous look: Is that your artist?

Yang Yang hesitated for a moment and nodded: I think so…

She didn’t look like herself. It was as if she’d been possessed by something unclean; they might need to observe further.

Niannian was stuffing her mouth with lobster meat coated in cheese sauce. As she saw the door open, she looked up from her full bowl and saw Gao Hui. She nearly spat out the lobster.

Gao Hui’s “neither-smiling-nor-frowning” gaze terrified her.

In for a penny, in for a pound—Niannian chewed twice quickly, swallowed the meat, wiped the sauce from the corner of her mouth with a tissue, and tried to act composed. “Can we pretend you didn’t see that?”

“What do you think?” Gao Hui grit her teeth. “Do you have any idea how much weight you’ve gained since you got back? And you’re still eating! You dare eat that much! You don’t want to pick up any more roles, do you?”

Niannian scrambled to say, “Sister Hui, I can explain… no, I mean, justify—hic—”

“…”

Niannian put down her chopsticks and looked mournfully at the half-bowl of peeled shrimp and the untouched steamed crab. She forced a smile. “Sister Hui, why are you here? Weren’t you supposed to be negotiating a contract for Huo Lv today?”

“Her business is settled, small potatoes.” Gao Hui and Yang Yang were polite to each other as they sat down simultaneously, rinsing their utensils with tea. Gao Hui then tapped her knuckles twice on the glass turntable. “I’m here to talk about your problem.”

“Mine?” Niannian was confused, but she was sharp enough to realize Gao Hui’s taps were “pointing” at someone—specifically, noticing that the bowl of shrimp Jiang Yan had peeled was still by her side. She didn’t trust Niannian.

With a heart-wrenching sigh, Niannian picked up the bowl of shrimp and placed it on the turntable. Before she could even let go, Yang Yang rotated the table, trying to bring the shrimp toward herself.

Then, Niannian felt a scent of soft white spring water pass by. Jiang Yan, who had been sitting, took off her gloves, pressed down the hem of her clothes, and stood up to take the shrimp back, placing them firmly in front of herself.

Yang Yang: “?” What gives? You invite me to dinner but won’t let me eat the shrimp!

With years of professional rapport, Yang Yang didn’t need to speak for Jiang Yan to know what she was thinking. Jiang Yan used one hand to eat the shrimp she had worked so hard to peel, while using the other to rotate a different dish of fresh shrimp toward Yang Yang.

“What, am I not allowed to eat the shrimp I peeled?” Jiang Yan said, popping them one by one, clearly having no intention of sharing the peeled ones with Yang Yang. “If you want to eat, peel them yourself. Hard work brings a full life.”

“Fine.” Basically, don’t be too much of a jerk.

Fortunately, Yang Yang remembered her main goal for being there. She pulled a tablet from her bag, found her chat history with a producer, and after downloading the concept PPT and video, shared it with everyone in the group chat.

Yang Yang introduced while eating, “This is a small web variety show being developed by Lvjiang Station. No script, it’s a semi-real life-style variety show.”

“Invited guests participate under their real professional identities. During the process, they’ll be assigned into ‘cohabitation fake couples’ by the program team.” Yang Yang quickly found similar shows to use as examples. “If you’re still confused, surely you’ve seen We Got Married, The One I’m Marrying Tomorrow, or Marriage at First Sight.”

Jiang Yan, who disliked variety shows, wasn’t interested. She gave the PPT a shallow glance and continued eating her shrimp.

Niannian, however, was intrigued. She had followed all three of those shows; regardless of whether the CP was real or fake, the “sugar” of the romance was always good to consume. But looking at the small group chat that included all four of them, question marks filled her brain.

A bit weird, not sure yet, let’s keep watching.

Niannian raised her hand quietly and asked, “Sorry, does this have anything to do with me? Why am I in the group?”

“Is the show trying something new and having the managers go on instead of the stars?” Niannian’s eyes sparkled, her brain working at lightning speed. She clapped her hands. “If an artist sends their manager on a show, is the commission based on the artist’s contract?”

“So Sister Hui gets 7 and I get 3?” Niannian did the math in her head. “Oh, Sister Hui has six artists including me. That means the 3 has to be split six ways. Does everyone get twenty thousand yuan? If so, I think we can consider this show.”

Niannian looked sincerely at the two managers. “When are you going? Just have the money sent to my card.”

Gao Hui covered her face in agony. D*mn it, is my artist a moron?

Jiang Yan couldn’t help it; she let out a soft laugh through her chopsticks. She really hadn’t expected Niannian’s train of thought to be so hilarious. She leaned back in her chair, waiting for the dependable manager to explain this massive blunder.

Yang Yang looked at Niannian’s “pure and foolish” face and silently retracted the evaluation she had made about Gao Hui’s management skills long ago. Back then, she thought Niannian was stuck in the second tier because Gao Hui lacked the ability to grab good resources; now, it seemed that keeping Niannian in the second tier wasn’t just to lower the difficulty of her work—it was to protect her.

Otherwise, for an artist this “simple,” as soon as her exposure increased, anti-fans would find a million ways to tear her apart.

Yang Yang fell silent for a moment, then nodded toward Gao Hui. “You’ve worked hard.”

“It’s not hard work; it’s a hard life.”

“Miss Shao, this variety show is inviting you and Jiang Yan. It’s not the managers signing away their lives to make money. We sell our art, not our bodies,” Yang Yang joked dryly. She ignored the light fading from Niannian’s eyes, replaced by disappointment, and continued: “Because of the duration, each pair of guests only needs to film two episodes. After the whole season finishes airing, there will be a vote for the guests to return.”

Niannian finally understood Yang Yang’s subtext. “So, if the artist doesn’t benefit from it, we can secretly manipulate it so we don’t return?”

“Essentially. The production team can definitely control the final voting results,” Yang Yang said. “This is an extremely good thing for us. We’re all industry insiders, so I won’t beat around the bush with you, Miss Shao.”

“Jiang Yan’s previous chaotic scandal reports have begun to affect our commercial image, so we need a ‘positive’ person to offset the impact.” Yang Yang pulled up her collected data and placed the phone on the turntable to rotate it toward Niannian.

“It might sound offensive to say this, but this cooperation offers the maximum benefit for you. From your debut until now, besides your fluctuating acting skills, you have no major negative points. Your public image and fan loyalty are very high.”

“Your popularity has also stayed steadily at the edge of the second tier for years. Compared to Jiang Yan, you won’t be too far behind, but you won’t be overly eye-catching either. Since the start of this year, the data for your CP with Jiang Yan has surpassed that of all the other actors who have worked with her. For a pair whose only real screen time together was a movie ten years ago, this is clearly a goldmine with huge potential.”

“We hope you and Jiang Yan can become a ‘bound CP’ for a long-term cooperation of one year. We provide you with resources, and you help us dissolve negative influences. It’s mutually beneficial, so why not?”

Besides, don’t you like Jiang Yan?

Yang Yang didn’t say that last part aloud. But the confident tone in her voice made it so that the now-silent Niannian didn’t even need to use her brain to figure it out.

Yang Yang was certain that Niannian would not refuse.