After Being Dumped by the Film Empress, My Acting Skills Soared - Chapter 68

Chapter 68

Gao Hui woke up to messages from the marketing team and couldn’t stop smiling. Because they had leaked information beforehand and anticipated the public’s reaction, their efforts to guide the narrative had paid off. The public didn’t show much resistance to the “exposure” of Jiang Yan and Shao Niannian.

This was a major win.

Several brands and variety show producers, hearing the buzz, immediately contacted Gao Hui and Yang Yang, hoping to book the duo as a “package deal.” Jiang Yan had the massive traffic, and Shao Niannian had a consistently positive public image. Whether the “CP” was real or fake, it was a goldmine of a topic. Brands knew that even if it were fake, the companies would make it look real enough to sell.

Yang Yang’s specialty was subtle influence. She never used loud, over-the-top marketing; she preferred to find a “pain point” and slowly, silently infiltrate the audience’s mind until the couple became a trend people remembered and loved.

Gao Hui and Yang Yang maintained a strategic silence regarding these offers—neither accepting nor refusing. They let most of them simmer while waiting for better deals, being careful not to offend anyone.

As the news spread from online to offline, the rumors evolved: people were now saying Jiang Yan was “serious” this time and intended to marry her new scandal partner.

Meanwhile, Shao Yun (Niannian’s mother) was working on a government-commissioned period drama. She was currently deep in the countryside with her team to collect historical data and experience local life. The cell signal was abysmal; a single message took ages to send.

Shao Yun eventually lost her patience. Usually, even if she didn’t contact her family for a few days, nothing went wrong. Little did she know, Shao Niannian had delivered a “giant gift” right to her doorstep.

Having finished her data entry, Shao Yun’s mind was buzzing with plotlines. The glow of the laptop illuminated her tired face, but her eyes shone with excitement. However, the historical data she had gathered wasn’t quite enough to support her vision yet; the plotline needed more weight to match the history.

A colleague in the same office finished their work and, despite the bad signal, insisted on holding their phone high to browse Weibo.

Just as Shao Yun hit “save” on her document, her colleague let out a loud gasp. “Holy crap!”

“Jiang Yan is in a relationship again.”

Shao Yun blinked. She wasn’t particularly interested in Jiang Yan’s love life. She had worked with Jiang Yan several times and had been on set during a few of her previous “scandal” breakups. She kept her thoughts to herself, but she didn’t find the news surprising.

Is Jiang Yan dating again really news? Shao Yun thought. Based on her history, it had been about six months since her breakup with Wen Jing—practically a record for her.

Shao Yun patted her cheeks to focus, renamed her file, and prepared to back it up to her private email. Suddenly, the colleague yelled again:

“Jiang Yan is with Shao Niannian?! This is insane! How do they even know each other?”

“Hiss… but wait, look at this photo. They actually look quite…”

Before the colleague could finish, the phone was snatched out of their hand.

The colleague looked up to see Shao Yun’s face looking grim, her eyes fixed on the phone screen as if she were trying to bore a hole through the enlarged photo of the two women.

“Shao… Teacher Shao?”

“Where is the best signal around here? Somewhere I can make a call?” Shao Yun’s lips were pressed into a thin line, her expression unreadable.

The colleague stammered, “Oh! The guide said the house across the yard has a landline. The signal is better there. If you need it, you could probably go borrow it.”

“Good. Thank you.”

Shao Yun handed the phone back and bolted across the yard to knock on the neighbor’s door to call Li Yuan.

This was a full-blown emergency.

The new web-based variety show had a clear plan. This “dating show” was different from the usual ones: the guests formed their own pairs beforehand. Upon joining, they would draw secret “role cards.” The two had to hide their assigned roles from each other, and after two weeks of living together, they had to guess each other’s “occupation.”

The show had an unwritten rule: the guests only received the beginning and end of their role’s story. What happened in the middle was up to the two guests to develop together. In the final episode, after the identities were revealed, whoever provided the most complete and logical narrative would be crowned the “Most Compatible Couple” and win a seven-day luxury trip plus a special spin-off episode.

“Please draw your role cards, teachers.” A staff member held out four identical envelopes.

“Just pick?”

Since sharing a makeup artist, Niannian and Jiang Yan’s looks had become more cohesive—clean, fresh, and captivating. To many, Niannian looked like a pure white jasmine flower.

“Yes. Before you pick, there are two colors: white and pink. You can choose which one you’d like to aim for.”

Niannian looked at Jiang Yan. “Do you have a problem with white?”

“I don’t want white this time.” Jiang Yan, sitting on the same sofa, declined. “Let’s pick based on our clothes. You’re wearing a white dress, so take the white card. My T-shirt is pink, so I’ll take the pink one.”

“Fair enough.”

Niannian hesitated for a moment before picking the envelope that felt right and handing it back to the staff.

“Role cards drawn! The endings of your stories have been sent to your phones. Your task for the next 12 hours is: Help your partner move in for your cohabitation!”

“We hope that after two weeks together, we can witness your sweet love story!”

The staff cleared the area. Previously, under the cameras, Niannian and Jiang Yan might have kept their distance. But Yang Yang and Gao Hui weren’t stupid—they were selling a “real” relationship now. Being cold would just give critics ammunition.

So, before the show started, the two had been forced to practice how to act like a normal couple on screen.

The training was effective. As soon as the staff left, Niannian—genuinely exhausted—let her legs rest on a small blanket and slumped toward Jiang Yan. She was so tired she could barely keep her eyes open, yawning repeatedly.

“Sleepy?”

“Mhm,” Niannian mumbled, her eyes tearing up from a yawn. “Stayed up too late the last two days. And this morning I was woken up by the cats and dogs…”

It was exhausting. Previously, she lived with just one Ragdoll cat. Even if it scratched at the door, she could sleep through it. But ever since Li Yuan and Shao Yun talked, they had “insisted” she move back home.

The combination of a smart German Shepherd, a loyal Bernese Mountain Dog, and a clingy, vengeful Ragdoll had nearly broken her. At night, she had to walk the dogs and then hop on a video call with Jiang Yan to maintain the “dating” facade for their teams. It was so awkward that Niannian had been tempted to hide in her sister’s room and study high school entrance exam prep books just to escape the feeling.

The lack of sleep had caught up to her. Lying on Jiang Yan’s lap, her eyes fluttered shut. She answered Jiang Yan’s questions in a daze, relying purely on instinct.

“Sleep then.” Jiang Yan let her rest. She shushed a staff member who tried to come in to move them along. “The first task has a 12-hour limit. A short nap won’t hurt.”

“Could you bring another blanket? And please close the curtains; the sunlight is a bit too bright.”

Jiang Yan’s voice was a low whisper. Once the room was dimmed, only the sound of Niannian’s steady breathing remained. Jiang Yan folded her tablet on the arm of the sofa and began skimming a script she had recently received.

Because the show was being live-streamed before the edited version came out, many netizens witnessed this quiet, domestic scene. Even if the CP was fake, many people now wished it were real.

Wen Jing was one of those viewers. Even though she was in a remote border region surrounded by sandstorms, she didn’t forget to use her bank account to hire “water army” trolls to manipulate the live chat.

“If you see anyone insulting Shao Niannian, just help suppress it,” she instructed.

The young Miss Wen was the type to want revenge but have a soft heart underneath. She paid extra to the troll company to protect Niannian.

The head of the company asked, “What if someone insults Best Actress Jiang? Do we need to manage those comments too?”

Wen Jing sneered. “Manage my ass! Kick her while she’s down! Give it to her hard!”

Let her drown in it! Wen Jing thought. Idiot trolls, trying to use my money to protect my ex. Jiang Yan is nothing compared to Niannian!

Wen Jing rolled her eyes, leaning against a Jeep in her costume while staring at the stream. In a way, she had to admit: Jiang Yan and Niannian looked stunning in the same frame. The other guest pairs paled in comparison. There was a subtle, flickering tension between the two that felt… real.

Even Wen Jing began to doubt her own assumptions. Is Jiang Yan actually in love with her this time?

She frowned, looking at the screen filled with “Sweet! Sweet! Sweet!” comments. She turned off the bullet chat, thought for a long time, and then switched apps to text Niannian, carefully fishing for the truth about their relationship.

If it were real, wouldn’t she be doing them a favor by stirring the pot?