After Being Dumped by the Film Empress, My Acting Skills Soared - Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Jiang Yan had stopped scrolling only because the time in the corner of her screen warned her it was late. Had it been earlier, she might have read all one thousand posts before turning off her bedside lamp.

Outside, the internet—which never truly sleeps—was in a state of high-voltage excitement. The moment Jiang Yan hit “Repost,” fans traced the link back to Shao Niannian’s secret Weibo alt account.

—“? That had to be a slip of the finger… Jiang Yan almost never uses the repost function.”

—“Not sure… I just want to know if the Movie Queen will live to see the sunrise tomorrow. I’m dying. Who scrolls through their girlfriend’s finsta at midnight and accidentally ‘broadcasts’ it to the entire nation?”

—“I used to think they were just ‘industrial sugar’ (fake marketing), but now? This is pure chaos. I can see Jiang Yan’s name being written in the Book of the Dead as we speak.”

—“Where’s Niannian? Where’s PR? Someone save them! The trending search jumped from #36 to #18 in the middle of the night!”

Shao Niannian slept until 9:00 AM. By the time she woke up, Jiang Yan had been awake for hours and had already ordered breakfast delivery.

“Why are you up so early today?” Niannian asked, yawning as she walked out of the bathroom, her face still damp from washing.

“Um… I just couldn’t sleep.”

A guilty Jiang Yan pushed a cup of coffee—extra sugar, extra milk—toward Niannian. She then pulled a fresh facial towel from the storage cabinet and draped it over Niannian’s face. “Eat quickly. Once we’re done, we can call the ‘big sucker’ to come pick us up.”

“Oh right! Did you set a time? It’s already nine; did I wake up too late?”

Jiang Yan waved it off dismissively. “Don’t worry. The person picking us up is a chronic late-comer anyway, so I didn’t schedule it early.”

“Besides, the place we’re going doesn’t open that early. Take your time eating, or you’ll get indigestion.”

“Okay.” Focused on her food, Niannian didn’t notice Jiang Yan biting her straw nervously or the fact that the “big sucker” was currently sitting in a car downstairs, cursing Jiang Yan’s entire lineage.

Jiang Yan had discovered the disaster the moment she woke up. Her phone was nearly dead from the bombardment of messages from her manager. She had pieced together what happened through Yang Yang’s frantic texts.

Jiang Yan: “I feel like this situation can still be saved. What do you think?”

Yang Yang was practically hyperventilating. She created a group chat with herself, Jiang Yan, and Gao Hui. But before anyone could speak, the member count dropped.

Jiang Yan: [Confused Penguin.jpg]

Yang Yang dragged Gao Hui back in.

Gao Hui: “I can’t help you with this… If Niannian asks, tell her we never met. You never asked me about the alt account.” Gao Hui: “Seriously, if she asks if I was in a group chat to handle this, tell her I was in a car accident and I’m currently in the ICU. I didn’t pick up the phone.”

Jiang Yan/Yang Yang: “?”

Was it really that serious?

Before they could ask, Gao Hui exited the group again. Yang Yang dragged her back one more time, promising that the person who caused the mess (Jiang Yan) would be the one to clean it up.

“Is it really that terrifying?” Yang Yang asked. “Niannian doesn’t seem like she has that kind of temper.”

Gao Hui sighed. “You don’t understand. The hot search was up all night; everyone who needed to see it has seen it. It’s too late for damage control. We just have to hide it as long as possible.”

Jiang Yan, looking at her delivery app, muttered to herself, “You can’t wrap fire in paper. She’ll find out eventually.”

The final consensus: The Great Cover-Up.

This resulted in Jiang Yan handing out red envelopes (bribes) to the camera crew the moment they arrived. Everyone in the industry loves gossip; if a “good Samaritan” on the crew spilled the beans to Niannian, it was game over.

Because of her guilt, Jiang Yan didn’t even wake Niannian at the scheduled time. Instead, she tipped Mina to drive around the block a few extra times.

Mina, who was supposed to leave at 9:30, looked at her watch hitting 10:00 while playing Candy Crush in the driver’s seat, wondering what she had done in a past life to deserve a friend like Jiang Yan.

At 10:05, Niannian was finally ready. As she put on her shoes, she noticed the camera crew looking at her with… playful smirks?

Strange. Why is everyone looking at me like that?

Niannian touched her cheek and looked at Jiang Yan. “Is there something on my face? I only applied sunscreen today. Did I not rub it in?”

Jiang Yan quickly grabbed Niannian’s hand to stop her from touching her face. “No, nothing at all. It’s not about that.”

“Then what is it about?”

“Ugh, it’s late! We can’t keep the person downstairs waiting any longer.” Jiang Yan pushed Niannian out the door, shooting a warning glare at the photographers to keep their faces neutral.

Downstairs, Niannian recognized the “big sucker” immediately. Mina was leaning against her car, bored, eating a sandwich with a coffee cup balanced on the roof.

“Mina! You’re here?” Niannian hurried over. “I thought you went away for a race!”

Mina, mouth full of sandwich, glared at Jiang Yan. She wanted to curse, but seeing the cameras, she swallowed her anger along with the bread. “I didn’t go. Someone took my spot,” she muttered evasively. “What took you two so long?”

“Get in. I’m paying for your fun today, so prepare yourselves to be good ‘companions’ for your golden benefactor.”

Jiang Yan smirked. “Can we spend as much as we want?”

“How much of my money could you possibly spend?” Mina rolled her eyes. The entire resort they were going to belonged to Jiang Yan’s mother’s conglomerate; paying to use your own family’s facilities was ridiculous, but Mina kept that to herself. Jiang Yan rarely discussed her family background publicly to avoid controversy.

“Of course,” Mina smiled through gritted teeth. “Who are you looking down on? I’m a rich second-gen too, you know.”

Mina drove fast and steady. Once on the highway, the speedometer needle stayed pinned at the limit until they reached the “Yunqing” Leisure Resort.

“Yunqing” was an exclusive members-only club. Niannian had heard of it but never visited. Her parents had memberships, but they weren’t the type to take their daughters on family vacations. Shao Niannian’s own assets hadn’t cleared the membership threshold yet. Among her friends, only Gu Yizhi was a true third-generation socialite who could get in easily—but Gu preferred dark bars and dancing to outdoor activities.

“So this is what it looks like,” Niannian said, admiring the swans on the lake and the lush greenery. The coastal summer had arrived, with temperatures rarely dipping below 28°C. The air here felt fresh and crisp.

“We’re at the North Gate. This area has the animals and the glass conservatory,” Jiang Yan explained, leading Niannian inside while Mina handled the registration.

“Today, I thought we’d try horseback riding and the grass slide. Later, we can stay overnight for a field dinner and hot springs in the room.”

“Really?!” Niannian’s eyes lit up, then dimmed. She looked embarrassed. “But… I’m not good at riding horses. And dancing… well…”

She remembered her disastrous ballroom dancing at the anniversary gala. Too embarrassing.

“Can we do something else?” Niannian whispered. “Like fishing, feeding swans, or… doing Tai Chi at the activity center?”

Activities that don’t require coordination are 10,000 times safer! No risk of losing face on a live stream!