The Movie Queen And Her Rival Just Went Public! - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The heavy curtains were drawn tight, letting not a single sliver of light through. Lying on her own warm and comfortable bed, Su Cancan had slept soundly all night, except that the quilt her grandparents had prepared was a bit thin, leaving her head slightly fuzzy and her voice muffled when she woke up.

She lay flat on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, feeling as if light footsteps were circling outside the door. After a few minutes of easing up, she pulled back the covers and walked straight over to open the door.

The person outside clearly hadn’t anticipated her sudden movement. Their actions froze, rigid in place. After a long stare, a trembling hand reached out to cup her face. The hands were warm and soft, holding her face as if it were a precious gem, with meticulous care and incomparable love.

The moment she felt that affection, Su Cancan could no longer hold back. All the grievances poured out instantly. Su Cancan pouted, tears welling up in her eyes, and her hand covered the other person’s: “Grandma, I’ve missed you so much.”

The elderly woman in front of her, with silver hair but a vigorous spirit, also had reddened eyes: “Why didn’t you tell us you were coming back? We didn’t even leave a light on for you. Is work hard? Look at you, you’ve lost weight again.” Su Cancan shook her head, and Grandma Su gently tucked the wisps of hair from her forehead behind her ear.

Since starting work, she had always only reported good news and concealed the bad. When her grandmother asked, she just said everything was fine.

After months apart, the two had endless things to talk about, chatting non-stop, one sentence after another. Just as they were engrossed in their conversation, a sudden cough echoed from downstairs. Su Cancan leaned over the banister and saw that the source of the sound was her grandpa, sitting in the middle of the drawing-room, reading a newspaper.

The harsh sunlight was blocked by thin gauze, casting a gentle light into the room through the French windows. Grandpa Su wore reading glasses, meticulously reading the Metropolitan Morning Post in his hands, appearing serious and focused, but she caught his eyes secretly glancing upward. The glare reflected off the lenses as the old man quickly withdrew his gaze, continuing to read the newspaper as if nothing had happened.

Grandma Su fully understood her husband’s intention. She subtly signaled to Su Cancan not to expose him and lowered her voice: “Your grandpa actually misses you a lot too. He went out for his morning exercise and saw your suitcase, then told me you were back. He even came up a few times himself. Come on, let’s go down and have breakfast together and talk to him.”

Nian Qing (The title of the project) had been rushed since the start of filming, often requiring all-nighters. To steal an extra ten or twenty minutes of sleep, she had rarely eaten breakfast. Since her grandma brought it up, and she was already intending to, she didn’t refuse, but said she needed to wash up first and asked her to go downstairs ahead of her.

Watching her grandma enter the elevator, Su Cancan rubbed her itchy nose and walked into the room, drawing back the curtains to let in a roomful of warm sunshine, and stretching on the bedside.

The screen of the phone by her pillow flashed a few times just then. She grabbed it to unlock it while heading to the bathroom to wash up.

The friction at the expressway entrance the night before had been recorded by a passerby and posted online. Recently, there had been so many strange trending topics that many uninformed netizens in the comments section were making unfounded guesses and talking nonsense, causing quite a controversy. She herself didn’t really care, but a while ago, the Ning City Traffic Police’s official Weibo had issued a notice, and Liu Yimin (presumably her manager/agent) had messaged her, asking her to respond as soon as possible.

Su Cancan, toothbrush in mouth, opened Weibo, found the original notice post, followed the account, and drafted a caption to repost it.

After the operation was complete, she spat out the spicy foam in her mouth and rinsed her mouth and face with warm water.

As a handful of clear water moistened her face, her phone rang again with a message notification. Su Cancan casually grabbed a cotton towel to pat away the water droplets, and couldn’t help but laugh when she looked at the screen.

Dearest, dearest Old Su: Breakfast is getting cold.

The old man was quite trendy; he used his smartphone more smoothly than most middle-aged people. Su Cancan had registered a WeChat account for him the year she registered hers, and occasionally they video-called and chatted when they missed each other while she was working away from home.

She replied with a ‘received’ emoji, tossed the cotton towel into the trash can, and as she headed downstairs with her phone, she exited the chat interface and accidentally tapped, seeing the friend request again.

So it wasn’t a dream, she mused.

Hesitating whether to accept, another message from Old Su arrived. She paused her thoughts, put away her phone, and headed light-footedly towards the downstairs dining room.

The entire four-story house was only inhabited by Grandpa Su, Grandma Su, and Aunt Zhou, the housekeeper who looked after the two elderly people’s daily needs. Su Cancan’s return brought a lot of vitality to the empty house. Stepping into the dining room, she immediately spotted her grandpa sitting at the head of the table, peering towards the doorway.

“Grandpa, I’m home.” Su Cancan sat down to the left of the old man.

Grandpa Su silently scooped a spoon of vegetable congee, swallowed it, and said, “Mm, hurry up and eat.”

Su Cancan and her grandma exchanged a look and began eating their nutritious breakfast.

A very quiet breakfast ended twenty minutes later. The old man returned to the sofa to read the newspaper, and Su Cancan and her grandma followed, surrounding him, one on each side.

“Cancan, how many days are you staying home this time?” Since the old man wasn’t speaking, Grandma Su spoke to Su Cancan as if he wasn’t there.

“I’m going to Hangzhou to join the crew on the fourth. Until then, I’ll be home.”

Grandma Su counted on her fingers: “Only three days left, ah. Oh, why is this vacation so short? It used to be a week or two. Sigh. Later, I’ll ask Aunt Zhou to buy more of your favorite dishes…”

“No need, Grandma!” Su Cancan said with a smile, “I’m going to film a variety show this time, so I won’t have to be stuck there every day. It’s so close, I might be able to come back once a week. Don’t you dare get tired of me then.”

The moment Su Cancan finished speaking, the hand of the old man flipping the newspaper paused. He was about to ask if it was true, but Grandma Su cut in. Feeling a surge of irritation, he folded the newspaper, placed it on the coffee table, picked up his tablet, turned it on, and navigated to a certain short video app, attempting to disrupt their conversation.

“Entertainment New Insights, Little Wa has something to say. Many fans have asked Little Wa: Is it true that Best Actress Shen Luoyan and Su Cancan are pairing up for a dating reality show? Little Wa is here to say: It’s true! The public impression is that the two are arch-rivals, and that’s correct, but as far as I know, Su Cancan’s reputation has been extremely poor recently. To salvage her image and create buzz, the company has forced her to sign the contract. As for Shen Luoyan’s side…”

…

The man on the screen, wearing a bear head mask and using a voice changer, abruptly stopped his actions and words. The old man had intended to interrupt their conversation, but unexpectedly heard a piece of gossip. He didn’t have entertainment software like Weibo, so he was unaware of the recent storm between the two, but he felt the name sounded very familiar. He chewed on the three characters repeatedly:

Shen Luoyan?

Memories buried deep were unearthed and resurfaced. He remembered; this person was exactly the villain who had caused his precious granddaughter to suffer from depression and a breakdown three years ago. He frowned. His wife beside him also remembered this part.

“Cancan, this bear is lying, right?” Grandma Su was a little anxious, standing up abruptly to ask her.

Su Cancan shook her head while fidgeting with her hands. Grandma Su mistakenly thought she was denying the bear’s content. Just as she was sitting down, she heard Su Cancan softly say: “It’s true. It’s the ‘lighter’ work I just mentioned.”

“My sweet girl, did the company force you? Tell Grandma, we’ll terminate the contract. We won’t be with that villain Shen Luoyan. Grandma will pay the liquidated damages.”