Forced to Act out a Strange Script with a Rival - Chapter 84

Li Ting gripped the phone, her fingertips icy. A complex, indescribable sensation seized her heart—a churning mix of bitterness, guilt, and absurdity that made it nearly impossible to breathe.

She had never imagined that one day she would actively strike out to snatch a role that belonged to Si Xiaoxiao.

To her, acting had once been a sacred temple, far out of reach; now, it had become a survival tool forged through calculated manipulation.

But immediately, a colder, more pragmatic thought suppressed that sliver of guilt: using underhanded tactics to steal a role was, in every way, a thousand times better than Yan Guan discovering Si Xiaoxiao had turned into a flower—which would lead to suspicions of Li Ting kidnapping or even murdering the star.

That was the true, bottomless abyss.

Choosing between two evils, she could only grit her teeth and opt for this seemingly “gentle” path.

[Deep down, you’re just terrified. That’s why you’re using Si Xiaoxiao as a shield of courage to force yourself to act. Someone like you, who calculates even their own passions so coldly, is truly pathetic.]

The voice in her mind spoke again.

This isn’t calculation, Li Ting thought, gently stroking the flower at her chest as her emotions stabilized. She told that cruel version of herself: This is the determination to become better for the sake of the person I love.

Of course, her own determination wasn’t enough.

The key was handling Si Xiaoxiao’s mother-hen of a manager.

Facing the sudden loss of the role, Yan Guan was clearly fuming. Her messages arrived fast and aggressive, every word seemingly ground out through clenched teeth: “Bad news. Your role has been snatched.”

Li Ting stared at the text, took a deep breath, and instantly submerged herself into Si Xiaoxiao’s emotional persona.

The next second, her fingers flew across the screen. Cloaked in Si Xiaoxiao’s identity, she began a “breakdown” performance worthy of a Best Actress award:

“AAAAHHHHH——!!!” First came a barrage of screaming emojis to set a tone of total collapse.

“Why?! How is this possible?! I worked so, so hard! I almost wore out the script! I practiced every expression and line a thousand times in the bathroom mirror! I even acted the part in my dreams! Why was it taken?! I won’t accept this! I won’t! I won’t!!!”

It was a total message blitz.

She perfectly replicated the exaggerated, world-ending reaction Si Xiaoxiao would have to failure. Then, she moved to the next phase: desperate pleading.

“Sister Yan! My dearest Sister Yan! The best and most powerful manager in the whole world! Please! I beg you to find a way to help me! You can burn my dresses! You can cut my allowance! You can take all my income for the next year—no, three years! Just help me get the role back!”

“Life has no meaning without that role! I’ll wither away! I really will!! (╥﹏╥)”

This move—retreating to advance—was a masterclass in manipulation. The essence was to drown the opponent in a tidal wave of irrational emotion before they could even start lecturing, seizing total control of the conversation.

By lowering herself so drastically and offering things that were vital to Si Xiaoxiao, she conveyed a turbulence of emotion that amounted to pure emotional blackmail.

Faced with this, even the “Devil Manager” Yan Guan felt a twinge in her meager conscience.

She could immediately picture Si Xiaoxiao crying until her face was a mess of tears and snot, huddled pathetically over her phone—even though the real person behind the screen was Li Ting, expressionless and calmly reading a script.

Furthermore, in Yan Guan’s eyes, a resource being snatched wasn’t just about Si Xiaoxiao; it was a direct challenge to her own power and status.

To move against her person and steal her “meat” right under her nose was an insult to her entire career.

Unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable.

“Alright, alright! Stop wailing! Does crying solve anything?” Yan Guan replied irritably, but her tone had shifted from annoyance to a competitive fire. She had fallen into Li Ting’s trap. “Look at you, so spineless! Just wait! I want to see exactly who thinks they have the guts to touch Yan Guan’s property!”

“Sister Yan!! I won’t let you down!” Li Ting added fuel to the fire. “I heard from some girls that this deal isn’t simple! Someone used ‘special methods’—something about a gambling agreement or a lawsuit! It sounds really scary…”

Thanks to Si Xiaoxiao’s established persona as a naive airhead, Yan Guan believed her instantly.

Heaven knows what Yan Guan imagined, but her fury intensified: “I see! Someone is definitely stirring up trouble behind my back! Don’t leave the house for the next two days. I’ll push back your other schedules. Be careful! Don’t let anyone catch you off guard.”

Success. Things were moving exactly as Li Ting hoped; the warning had made Yan Guan cautious.

Thus, an invisible war broke out between two managers.

Her fighting spirit ignited, Yan Guan began pulling strings and calling in favors. A flurry of phone calls, interest exchanges, and veiled threats played out in the shadows.

Meanwhile, Li Ting’s own manager, Gao Mengya, was receiving a request from her artist for the first time. Knowing this was the crucial first step for Li Ting’s return to the industry, she also pulled out all the stops.

The two managers battled from a distance, inadvertently buying Li Ting several precious days of vacation.

Though the situation remained critical, there was one piece of good news: the cultivation of the “Xiaoxiao Flower” finally showed a glimmer of progress.

It started with the sudden vibration of a phone.

It wasn’t hers, nor was it Si Xiaoxiao’s.

The sound came from a hidden compartment in a travel bag.

Li Ting froze, then remembered: that was the phone belonging to Yu Yilin, the Special Police officer who was one of the few mutual friends she and Si Xiaoxiao shared.

During that lavish but chaotic island party, they had accidentally provoked Gong Zhiyuan, a deep-pocketed, dangerously obsessed socialite.

While they had escaped, Yu Yilin seemed to have fallen into Gong Zhiyuan’s hands and had been missing ever since.

Because they had met under emergency circumstances on the island, Si Xiaoxiao had carefully kept Yu Yilin’s phone in her luggage, hoping one day to hear from her friend.

Now that Si Xiaoxiao was… incapacitated, her luggage was in Li Ting’s possession.

Li Ting had been studying her new script in front of the mirror, trying to distract herself from her inner anxiety.

Hearing the urgent vibration, her heart leaped. She dropped the script and scrambled to dig the forgotten phone out of the bag.

The screen flashed with an unfamiliar international number.

Without hesitation, Li Ting pressed answer and held it to her ear.

The voice on the other end was hurried and weak, carrying a suppressed sob and unmistakable terror. It was indeed Yu Yilin: “Xiaobao! Xiaobao! Is that you? I need your help! Are you free?”

Li Ting’s heart sank, but she forced her voice to remain extremely calm. She could feel the little flower at her chest tighten in response to Yu Yilin’s plea: “Xiaoxiao isn’t here. It’s me, Li Ting.”

“She gave my phone to you?” Yu Yilin sounded surprised for a moment. In her memory, these two friends of hers were hardly on good terms. “I have something to discuss with her; I’ll just call her personal number.”

“No need to call her,” Li Ting replied.

Yu Yilin: “Huh? Why not?”

“Because,” Li Ting said, glancing at the flower that used to be Xiaoxiao, “I have her phone, too.”

“What?! Are you two that close now?” For a second, Yu Yilin even forgot her own urgency. Her instinct for gossip momentarily overrode her panic. “Spill! Give me the details!”

“I wouldn’t call it close,” Li Ting answered coldly. She almost felt like hanging up; if Yu Yilin still had time to gossip, her situation couldn’t be that life-threatening.

“No way… You didn’t imprison Xiaobao too, did you?!” Yu Yilin’s voice nearly cracked.

“What do you mean ‘too’?” Li Ting arched an eyebrow, sensing that her friend had clearly been through quite a lot.

Yu Yilin lowered her voice. “Oh, never mind, you misheard. Anyway, help me get in touch with Xiaoxiao. Tell her she needs to attend my wedding.”

“A wedding? Between you and who?” Li Ting asked, double-checking that she hadn’t misheard.

Yu Yilin became awkward on the other end, merely saying, “Just tell her. Someone will be sent to pick her up!”

“Why? And with whom?” Li Ting’s expression instantly turned cold. Yu Yilin wasn’t just Xiaoxiao’s friend; she was Li Ting’s friend as well. Naturally, she cared about this rare, genuine companion.

Sensing Li Ting’s concern, Yu Yilin sighed and finally confessed a name: “Gong Zhiyuan.”

That paranoid, obsessive heiress who was prone to fits of madness?

Li Ting was surprised, yet somehow not entirely shocked. The real question was why.

Yu Yilin had clearly disliked Gong Zhiyuan before; how had the progress bar suddenly jumped all the way to marriage?

And why was she so insistent on Si Xiaoxiao attending?

Thus, Li Ting could only answer: “I’m sorry, Ar-Lin, but Xiaoxiao can’t make it.”

“What?! Why not?! Then I’m totally screwed, aren’t I?!” Yu Yilin didn’t sound like a joyful bride sharing news; she sounded like someone facing the end of the world.

Something was wrong. This was definitely not a “wedding” in any normal sense of the word.

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