After the Agreement, the Aloof Movie Queen is Chasing Me All Over the Internet - Chapter 28

Du Yaozhi wished more than anything that she was dreaming.

If she were, she could have simply vanished into the floorboards instead of sitting at the dining table, hacking and coughing like her life depended on it. Because she’d been caught completely off guard, she had inhaled a mouthful of water; her sinuses stung, her throat felt scratchy, and a wave of acute embarrassment and annoyance washed over her.

Was her tolerance for alcohol always this pathetic?

She knew she was sensitive to it, but surely, she shouldn’t have been that drunk, drunk enough to actually go and say those things to Shen Qing!

How utterly mortifying.

Yaozhi felt as though she were on fire. Her fingertips subconsciously gripped the edge of the tablecloth, bunching the fabric into a messy heap in her palm. Her face. beautiful without being gaudy, was flushed with a mix of shame and irritation.

Gu Lin patted her on the back, offering a small, conciliatory smile to lighten the mood. “Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing you. Why such a massive reaction the moment the subject comes up?”

Yaozhi waved a hand dismissively while still coughing. “I’m fine… just went down the wrong pipe.”

She propped herself up against the table and sat down, immediately reaching for her phone. Gritting her teeth and clinging to a desperate shred of hope, she fired off a message.

Du Yaozhi: You didn’t hear that, did you?

Yaozhi stole a few glances at the screen before Shen Qing finally replied.

Shen Qing: I’m busy.

Yaozhi breathed a sigh of relief.

Then Shen Qing added: Aside from the part about your ‘type,’ I didn’t hear anything before that.

Du Yaozhi: Is there a breeze in your ears? You’re being selective now?! Yaozhi was fuming, her nails clicking sharply against the screen as she typed.

Shen Qing (coldly): No breeze.

Shen Qing: Everything after that, however, I heard perfectly.

Du Yaozhi:

Even through the screen, Yaozhi could picture Shen Qing picking up a cup of tea, elegantly brushing away the steam, and taking her sweet time to reply.

Shen Qing was always like this. On the surface, she was cold and aloof, but once you got close, you realized she was actually full of mischief!

And she did it on purpose every single time.

Du Yaozhi: Goodbye.

Yaozhi didn’t want to deal with her anymore and moved to end the call.

Shen Qing: Miss Du, you seem rather cold toward your girlfriend.

Du Yaozhi: I learned from the best. Do you like it?

Yaozhi was too annoyed to say another word. She finished typing, set Shen Qing to ‘Do Not Disturb’, and with a flick of her wrist, slammed the phone face-down on the table in a fit of pique.

Shen Qing’s expression remained unchanged. Her pen moved across the paper. She calmly crossed out “Reverse Psychology” and circled the words “Acting Vulnerable.”

Seeing her look so incensed, Zhou Yue and Gu Lin froze in place, neither daring to speak.

The hot food on Zhou Yue’s small plate had already gone cold. She moved her chopsticks awkwardly, looking at Yaozhi with caution. “Was I… was I a bit too blunt?”

“No, being blunt is a good thing.” Yaozhi loosened her grip on the tablecloth and smoothed back a few stray locks of her long, wavy hair. Her movements regained their usual poise.

Sometimes she overthought things and ended up causing a massive mess. She took a deep breath; her spat with Shen Qing had reminded her that hiding things wasn’t the answer. It was better to just be upfront.

She didn’t want to repeat past mistakes.

Yaozhi looked at Zhou Yue, finding a way to start the conversation and come clean to them both.

“Remember that ‘miracle cure’ we talked about?” Yaozhi asked.

Zhou Yue looked bewildered. “What?”

“The one where a certain someone made a grand gesture of finding me, told me there was a sword hanging over my head, and insisted we tie ourselves together as a contract couple? The ‘miracle cure’ where we have to post ‘sweet’ moments online and stay glued to each other to fix everything?”

What kind of medicine is that?!

“To put it simply,” Yaozhi said with a sense of reckless abandon, “Shen Qing and I are together.”

“But we haven’t officially got back together.”

Yaozhi immediately followed up before Zhou Yue and Gu Lin’s shock could reach its peak.

“What do you mean ‘together but not back together’?” Zhou Yue’s jaw practically hit the floor. “You didn’t… you didn’t have a one-night”

Before she could finish the sentence, Gu Lin rushed forward to cover her mouth. “What on earth are you blathering about? Don’t go making wild guesses. Let Yaozhi explain.”

And so, Yaozhi began explaining the whole situation using the leaked photos that had been blowing up on Weibo. She explained how Xu Wanxin was conspiring with various factions to sabotage her and the massive PR war being waged against her.

She also explained how Shen Qing had lured her back, how she’d used a single contract to pull Yaozhi back to her side.

“Fortunately, it’s only for fourteen months,” Yaozhi said, taking a sip of water. “Roughly around the time of our second anniversary of breaking up, Shen Qing and I can finally call it quits for good.”

“So, you’re saying Shen Qing is technically your partner now?”

Zhou Yue still hadn’t processed the shock. She scrolled through Weibo, pausing at a photo that had gone viral. “No wonder that leaked photo looked like you two were kissing. Was that part of the plan too?”

“That was an accident,” Yaozhi said helplessly.

It only looked like a kiss; it wasn’t a real one. Though, the upcoming kissing scenes in the script were another matter entirely.

Yaozhi rested her chin on her hand, wondering how she was supposed to handle kissing her ex-girlfriend on camera.

Her train of thought was interrupted.

“The Xu Wanxin situation is no small matter,” Gu Lin said seriously, having listened to the whole story. “As far as I know, the top brass at Huasheng Entertainment and Tianrong Media are very close. They haven’t just co-produced several film projects; their business sectors are seamlessly linked.”

“The actress who took the third female lead in your new show—the ‘nepo baby’ Tianrong is pushing—I wonder if she’s involved in this,” Gu Lin added.

“I honestly don’t know much about her.”

Yaozhi’s fingers tightened. She’d had very little one-on-one time with the third lead, Gu Rong’er; so far, they’d barely interacted outside of script readings. Her impression of her was that of a well-bred young lady with excellent line delivery and a harmless appearance.

But after the precedent set by Xu Wanxin, Yaozhi was wary of that “type.” Offending a pampered starlet backed by investors could mean losing access to related resources or even damaging her reputation.

Then again, not everyone was like Xu Wanxin—arrogant, spiteful, and obsessed with proving their status by isolating and bullying others. If she could learn a bit more, it would be much easier to handle.

Yaozhi lowered her head, lost in thought.

“Wait, that doesn’t make sense,” Zhou Yue interrupted, her tone naive. “If things keep going this way, and Shen Qing officially announces your relationship and takes your side, would people still dare to mess with you? They’d just be asking for trouble, wouldn’t they?”

Hearing this, Yaozhi tilted her head up, a casual smile spreading across her lips.

“If I just used her as a pillow to lean on, wouldn’t that be boring?” Yaozhi laughed. She had never been interested in being a canary in a gilded cage; she hated being restrained. She also didn’t want to experience that feeling again—the feeling of being forced to become docile to please someone or to try and win them back.

Zhou Yue still couldn’t wrap her head around Yaozhi’s logic.

Yaozhi simply said, “I want to make things a bit more exciting.”

“We won’t make an official announcement; we’ll just ‘act.'”

“How far will we go? That depends entirely on the public’s reaction. We’ll provide updates and ‘sweet’ moments just in time to keep everyone guessing. Let those with bad intentions try to figure out exactly what the relationship between Shen Qing and I is,” Yaozhi said.

“The more invested they are in guessing, the more mistakes they’ll make.”

“And when that happens” Yaozhi held her glass, which bore a faint mark of her lipstick, swirling it as if it were red wine, “I’ll play the long game and catch the big fish.”

At the Xu Residence

“What a performance.”

The screen reflected the two of them smiling tenderly. Xu Wanxin scrolled through her phone, letting out a scoff as she sat in a cloud of cigarette smoke.

A servant knelt on the floor with their head bowed, submissively catching the falling ash with their hand.

“She’s quite capable, isn’t she? Even managing to hook Shen Qing.”

Wanxin held her cigarette, speaking slowly. “Du Yaozhi, you aren’t as ‘pure and innocent’ as you pretend to be. I wonder what cheap tricks you used to get Shen Qing wrapped around your finger.”

“What kind of schemes did you use to have the nerve to flaunt yourself in front of me, hmm?”

Wanxin’s thumb slowly pressed down on Yaozhi’s face on the screen, as if crushing an inferior. Her tone was hard to read—not quite angry, just full of mockery and contempt.

To say she wasn’t angry would be a lie. Of course she was fuming. She had been offended by a “wildflower” with no power or status.

Du Yaozhi. A nobody she could have once crushed at will. Now, by clinging to Shen Qing, she was managing to turn the tables time and again. She’d even transformed into the lead actress Wanxin had dreamed of being, living a glamorous life.

Wanxin had spent years sucking up to Shen Qing just to beg for a few minutes of her time, and the woman had never even looked at her!!

She was the eldest daughter of Huasheng! How could she endure such humiliation?!

In her irritation, Wanxin flicked her hand, and the cigarette butt landed directly on the expensive carpet.

The servant’s face went pale with fright. Wanxin’s temper flared instantly. “Do you want to die?! If you don’t want the job, get out!”

“Forgive me, Miss… forgive me… I really know I was wrong, I won’t do it again…” The servant stammered, trembling as Wanxin ground her foot against their forehead.

“Get lost!”

Wanxin kicked the person aside. Watching them scramble for the door handle, she leaned back lazily on the leather sofa and gave an order. “And get my assistant in here. Ask her if there’s any progress on what I asked her to look into.”

“Yes, yes, right away.” The servant nodded frantically and fled to find Qin Qian.

Qin Qian lowered her head respectfully, but a cold glint flashed in her eyes when she looked up. “Miss, there’s news.”

“Du Yaozhi is suspected of using a middleman to secretly meet an executive for a late-night tryst. The information is solid, even the middleman admitted it, saying their relationship is far from ordinary.”

Hearing this, a meaningful smirk finally tugged at the corner of Wanxin’s mouth. “Not bad, Du Yaozhi. I’ve finally caught you out.”

“Contact those scandal-hungry media outlets. Tell them we have a massive scoop and make sure they bring their best equipment. Get our people in there too. I want her disgrace exposed from every single angle.”

With Jiang Yunjian’s help, the information had come incredibly fast, almost suspiciously easy.

Wanxin thought she already stood high enough, but she had still underestimated the power of the Shen family. They had deep capital and a network that spanned the entire entertainment industry; they could manipulate resources and monopolise anyone’s career path.

Even though Shen Qing had taken over most of the power, Jiang Yunjian could still easily track any movement.

Wanxin had naturally doubted the credibility of the news at first, since the evidence came from an insignificant middleman. But even if it was a setup, so what?

With absolute power and control over the media, a lie could become the truth. She had been looking for a breakthrough, and the other side had practically handed her a knife. It would be a waste not to use it.

Qin Qian: “Understood. Shall I inform the Jiang family?”

Wanxin waved her hand arrogantly. “No need. If I have to report every little thing, I’ll look incompetent.”

With so many forces at play, whether Yaozhi was actually innocent didn’t matter at all. Wanxin would make a huge deal out of it, blacken her name completely, and pin her to a pillar of shame, discrediting Shen Qing in the process for publicly defending her.

She had someone backing her now. She’d show them exactly what happened to those who dared to make an enemy of her.

The bedroom was pitch black. Yaozhi lay on the bed, her long, elegant legs crossed, lazily holding the phone to her ear.

“She took the bait,” Gong Lin said on the other end. “Are you sure she’d fall for such a simple trap?”

“Xu Wanxin might not fall for it, but she will definitely use every opportunity to make a scene,” Yaozhi replied. “So, I have to use her too—to strike a blow to her momentum.”

That way, once she started filming, she could focus on her acting.

Gong Lin quickly caught on. “Alright then. I’ll notify Professor Shen’s side and sync up with them.”

“No need to notify her. Professor Shen will be there in person,” Yaozhi said.

Gong Lin: What are these two playing at now?

Yaozhi chuckled and told Gong Lin to wait a moment. After hanging up, she tapped into the chat with the blue profile picture.

Her previous anger had mostly dissipated, though the ‘Do Not Disturb’ icon was still at the top. Shen Qing hadn’t replied.

So reserved. Is she busy? Or did I actually upset her? Why hasn’t she said a word?

She really does love her silence.

Yaozhi felt a bit bored. Staring at the little icon, a mischievous idea suddenly struck her. Since she was going to test her, she might as well invite her along for the “misdemeanour.”

She smirked and typed a line of text.

Du Yaozhi: Don’t you just love it when I’m proactive? When I’m a bit more… enthusiastic?

Du Yaozhi: How about I give you a little opportunity?

With a playful grin, Yaozhi held down the voice message button. She deliberately lowered her voice into a sultry, lingering tone.

“Fancy a bit of dinner… Girlfriend?”

So, you don’t like talking? Fine. I’ll lure you out myself.

To bite or not to bite, the choice is yours.