After The Top Actress Was Smeared And Trended On Social Media - Chapter 4

Before Wen Xi could decide what to say, Pu Tao’s phone chimed several times with WeChat notification tones.

The chimes interrupted Pu Tao, who glanced down at her screen and said, “It’s messages from those other studio peers. They probably saw the trending search about you and Shen Yu and are coming to feel things out.”

“Alright, take care of your business first,” Wen Xi replied.

Watching Pu Tao’s fingers fly across the screen as she typed, Wen Xi felt her mind falling into disarray.

With an almost imperceptible sigh, she picked up her phone in near resignation.

Opening Weibo, she weighed her words carefully before typing out a reply:

Twilight: Thank you for the kind words, Teacher Shen Yu. If the opportunity arises, I would love to collaborate.

After replying to Shen Yu’s comment, Wen Xi slid her finger across the screen to switch over to WeChat, where she accepted Shen Yu’s friend request.

She was throwing caution to the wind now.

Wen Xi couldn’t quite put her feelings into words. Ten years, it had truly been far too long. So long that her heart, which had initially been numb with pain, was almost back to beating normally.

Still, there had to be closure for the past; she couldn’t keep dragging it out and running away from her problems forever.

If Shen Yu confronted her, she would say nothing.

And if Shen Yu hated her… then so be it. Hating her was far better than feeling nothing for her at all.

A few days passed.

Things turned out somewhat differently from what Wen Xi had anticipated. After she accepted Shen Yu’s friend request, Shen Yu didn’t initiate a conversation, causing Wen Xi’s initial state of constant anxiety to gradually fade into indifference.

At the very least, she no longer spent every waking moment pulling up Shen Yu’s chat page to wait for a message.

Besides, what was the point of caring so much anyway?

She was the one who had decided to abandon Shen Yu in the first place, so she had no right to dream that Shen Yu would still harbor special feelings for her ten years later.

Pu Tao had also noticed that Wen Xi was off over the past few days. For instance, when called from a short distance, Wen Xi wouldn’t respond; or she would sit completely still, staring blankly at her phone, refusing to say a word when asked what was wrong.

Pu Tao assumed the root cause of this odd behavior was Shen Yu reaching out on her own initiative to propose a collaboration with her boss.

Pu Tao figured her boss must just be overjoyed. After all, she knew firsthand how much Wen Xi liked Shen Yu; for instance, Wen Xi had bought multiple sets of every single magazine or brand collaboration associated with Shen Yu.

Meanwhile, in order to stay home over the past few days, Wen Xi had heeded Yu Qiao’s advice and postponed all the collaborations she could. For those that couldn’t be delayed, she had tried every possible means to find other skilled peers to take her place, burning through quite a few favors in the process.

At the same time, to express her apologies, she had also promised those clients free photo shoots in the future.

Wen Xi viewed this as granting herself a much-needed, heavy-duty vacation.

She had been too poor in earlier years, taking on as many orders as she could handle with virtually no time to rest. As she gradually gained popularity, the offers only multiplied.

Although she had taken fewer bookings over the past two years, she had been deeply mired in anxiety over her plateauing skills, leaving her with no fewer tedious matters to deal with than before.

Now, she couldn’t tell if this was a blessing in disguise, giving her a valid excuse to rest for a few days.

She had been feeling completely dazed these past few days, her mind a bit scrambled as she indulged in a stint of retaliatory rest.

Today, however, was destined to offer no peace.

She had just received a message from Pu Tao saying that she wouldn’t be able to come over to Wen Xi’s place to work today. Something had gone wrong with an outdoor location set for a shoot next month, and she had to go check on it in person.

Wen Xi acknowledged it with a word of assent and sent a red envelope over to Pu Tao.

T.T: Thanks for the hard work. Once you’re done, go straight home and rest.

Tao Tao Tao: Got it! Thank you, Boss!!

Not long after, a call came through from the studio.

Her studio didn’t have a large team. Aside from her two assistants, there were about ten people handling client communications, indoor and outdoor set design, makeup, and post-production photo editing.

The caller was Little Du, the person in charge of communicating with clients, a very meticulous girl.

Only this time, Little Du’s tone carried a hint of urgency. “Boss, have you finished editing Teacher Xu’s photos from last time?”

Wen Xi creased her brows slightly, recalled the details, and said, “Not yet. Isn’t there still plenty of time before the final deadline?”

Even though the studio employed dedicated retouchers, Wen Xi preferred to give all the photos a preliminary edit according to her own artistic judgment before passing the fine-detail work off to the editing team.

The “Teacher Xu” Little Du referred to was Xu Shuili, a currently popular young actress. Her photos had been shot at the beginning of this month, but the agreed-upon delivery date was the twentieth. Today was only the eleventh, so there was still plenty of time, and Wen Xi hadn’t gotten around to editing them yet.

Little Du’s voice sounded helpless. “Right, but for some reason, their side is suddenly rushing us for them. They said they’d pay a rush fee.”

Wen Xi felt a slight headache coming on and asked, “When do they want them?”

Little Du: “Tomorrow.”

Wen Xi offered a soft grunt of assent, lifting a hand to rub her temples.

She kept many of her working files directly on the studio’s computers. If she really had to rush to meet tomorrow’s deadline, she would have to make a trip to the studio in person.

Knowing her boss had been resting at home recently, Little Du hesitated before suggesting, “Brother Feng is at the office right now. How about I have him copy the files onto a drive and bring them over to you?”

“Brother Feng” was Wen Xi’s other assistant, Feng Lexian.

Wen Xi replied, “That probably won’t work. There are too many files on my computer, and he won’t be able to find what I need in a short time.”

Little Du felt troubled as well, but it was the truth. The studio had a massive volume of material to handle; setting aside daily incoming files, the archives of past work alone were huge.

Fortunately, the computers in the studio were high-spec machines.

Wen Xi said decisively, “I’ll head over to the studio a bit later.”

She could push back unstarted work, but only after offering compensation and alternative solutions. Since Xu Shuili’s photos had already been shot, they couldn’t easily be delayed.

Besides, her rush fees were anything but cheap, and Wen Xi wasn’t about to turn down money.

Little Du let out a long sigh of relief. “Great, Boss! I’ll give them an answer right away. They were honestly terrifying, spamming my messages nonstop. My computer’s notification chime hasn’t stopped ringing!”

Wen Xi chuckled softly. “Thanks for your hard work. I’ll give you a bonus this month.”

After hanging up, an unexplainable sense of unease settled in Wen Xi’s heart, though she quickly chided herself for making a fuss over nothing.

She was taking herself far too seriously. Who was she, anyway? Was a mega-star whose schedule was packed to the brim really going to keep tabs on her every move?

Wen Xi lowered her gaze, thinking with a touch of self-deprecation.

It was afternoon now, and the temperature outside was beginning to rise.

Wen Xi picked out a long dress, casually pulled her hair up into a low messy bun, put on a face mask, and stepped out the door.

Wen Xi had never learned to drive, but her apartment was quite close to the studio, about a fifteen-minute walk. She sometimes chose to walk, but given today’s heat, taking a taxi was more convenient.

Meanwhile, outside the residential complex, Shen Yu was sitting in a car parked by the curb, having played the waiting game for a long time.

Just as Wen Xi understood Shen Yu well, Shen Yu understood Wen Xi just as thoroughly.

From the fact that Wen Xi had hesitated for so long before accepting her friend request that day, Shen Yu knew she was trying to avoid her.

Sure enough, Wen Xi hadn’t stepped foot out her door for several days.

Shen Yu couldn’t help but think: Is she really that afraid of me?

It wasn’t as though she hadn’t considered reaching out on WeChat, but Shen Yu knew all too well that if Wen Xi didn’t want to come out, she could invent a thousand excuses to turn down her invitations.

Shen Yu didn’t want to force her either.

Over the past few days, she had subconsciously opened Wen Xi’s chat window countless times, only to feel annoyed and embarrassed upon catching herself, hurriedly clicking into her Moments instead to cover it up.

Yet Wen Xi’s Moments were extremely professional, filled with nothing more than a few reposted articles from her studio’s official account.

At the time, Shen Yu didn’t know that the account she had added was actually Wen Xi’s work WeChat.

Though it didn’t make much of a difference either way.

Thus, Shen Yu’s only way of keeping track of Wen Xi’s recent updates was through her Weibo.

In earlier years, Wen Xi used to post little snippets of her daily life, but recently there were only formal, work-related promotional posts.

Boring, and not like Wen Xi at all.

In Shen Yu’s memory, Wen Xi was someone who loved sharing her life, a chatterbox who would tell her everything that happened in a day.

Phone camera resolutions hadn’t been great back then, but Wen Xi loved posting image-and-text updates on her QQ Zone. Most of those photos captured moments of their time together.

There were stray cats and dogs they had fed together, flowers they had admired together, lunches they had shared together…

It was only later, when Wen Xi deleted her WeChat and QQ accounts, that those posts vanished in an instant, leaving behind only an endless history of chat logs.

Today, Shen Yu was waiting outside the gate closest to Wen Xi’s studio. Whether Wen Xi chose to take a taxi or walk, Shen Yu was bound to catch her.

Ke Han had chimed in earlier: “How do you know she won’t leave from the underground garage?”

Shen Yu glanced at her. “There are no cars registered under her name.”

Ke Han looked back at her with a knowing expression. “That’s where you’re naive. How do you know Yu Qiao didn’t gift her one?”

Shen Yu fell silent, her gaze gradually turning cold.

Ke Han laughed, patting Shen Yu’s shoulder. “Just kidding, just kidding.”

Shen Yu pursed her lips, her voice somewhat subdued. “I don’t like that joke.”

Looking back now, Shen Yu’s judgment had been spot on.

Watching the figure approach in the distance, her very first thought was surprisingly: She’s too thin. How did she get so thin?

Holding a sun umbrella, she looked as if a gust of wind could easily blow her over.

In truth, they were quite far apart right now, but the moment Shen Yu caught sight of that silhouette, she knew it was her.

No matter how much a person changed, certain subtle details remained constant, like her gait, her posture, and her mannerisms.

Shen Yu had watched Wen Xi leave countless times, and she had waited for her on street corners just as often.

Shen Yu had assumed her memories from ten years ago were safely locked away, but that turned out to be nothing more than what she thought.

Seeing Wen Xi again, those locked-away memories felt as though a thick layer of dust had been swept off them in an instant, transforming into yellowed vintage film reels that replayed inside Shen Yu’s mind.

The memories of the past and the figure before her eyes overlapped across time.

Shen Yu’s voice was somewhat raspy: “She’s out.”

Her assistant, Yu Yan, was in the driver’s seat, while Ke Han sat in the passenger seat.

Upon hearing this, Yu Yan quickly lowered the driver-side window.

Having never met Wen Xi, Yu Yan leaned over and asked, “Who is it?”

Shen Yu stared fixedly at Wen Xi, remaining silent for a long moment.

Ke Han, on the other hand, followed Shen Yu’s gaze with a light chuckle and said, “The girl in the black dress holding the umbrella.”

Yu Yan craned her neck, locking onto the target. “What do we do now?”

“What else can we do?” Shen Yu watched as Wen Xi drew closer and closer to her, a faint smile gracing her lips. “We catch her.”

With that, Shen Yu ignored the two of them and opened the car door, stepping out with swift, decisive movements.