The Movie Queen And Her Rival Just Went Public! - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Night fell silently, and the thick darkness enveloped everything, including Su Cancan.

She lay sideways on the bed, her head resting on her bent arm. Her long hair hung down, covering part of her face, revealing only a pair of bright eyes that fluttered gently. Her expression, hidden behind her hair, was unknown, but she was curled up into a small ball under the blanket, which was quite heartbreaking.

Netizens and fans were excited, saying all sorts of things. She scrolled down expressionlessly. With her energy completely depleted, her state of mind became calm. She felt no emotional reaction when seeing malicious personal attacks.

The more she looked, the more a sense of boredom emerged.

The screen suddenly displayed a low battery notification, and at the same time, a drop of physiological tear spilled from her dry eye. Su Cancan put down her phone, groped in the dark for the eye drops on the bedside table, and skillfully dropped them into her eyes.

She closed her eyes and rolled her eyeballs, enjoying the cooling comfort. Before she opened her eyes, the phone next to her buzzed.

With advanced internet, most people use various social media applications to communicate. She hadn’t received a phone call in a long time. She squinted her eyes, scanned the number, and vaguely recognized the prompt below indicating it was a local call. Alertly, she pressed the connect button.

“Hello, may I ask who is calling?”

The other party did not answer. Only the sound of gentle breathing against the earpiece penetrated her eardrums one after another.

Su Cancan was confused, guessing that the person had most likely dialed the wrong number. She was about to ask again and hang up: “Hello. Who are you looking for?”

Silence. Along with the sound of breathing, there was the sound of her own heartbeat. Just as Su Cancan picked up her phone and her index finger moved infinitely closer to the red button, the person finally spoke.

“Hello.” A gentle female voice flowed out slowly. She seemed a little uneasy, cleared her throat, and continued, “I’m sorry for calling you so abruptly without asking.”

As soon as the voice came out, Su Cancan’s finger froze in mid-air.

The gradually dimming phone screen sensed an object approaching and suddenly brightened. She was stunned for a few seconds: “How did you get my number?”

Shen Luoyan didn’t hide it and admitted: “You didn’t accept my friend request, so I asked your assistant for it.”

Upon learning that she had specifically sought out Liu Yimin for her number to contact her, Su Cancan’s first reaction was that something tricky had happened. She quickly sat up after just lying down: “What’s wrong?”

The earpiece amplified the rustling sound of her sitting up. Shen Luoyan quickly said: “Nothing, don’t worry. I heard you mentioned a slight bump yesterday, and I wanted to ask how you are and if you were injured.”

“Oh, oh.” Su Cancan’s suspended heart settled down. “The bump wasn’t serious. I twisted myself a little. It’s nothing, it won’t affect the filming in a few days.”

Her tone was flat as she repeated the content she had mentioned during the video conference. In her opinion, Shen Luoyan was an old fox, and her concern was fake. Since others were just going through the motions, she would see it through, ensuring she didn’t reveal any flaws both on and off-camera.

“That’s good.”

Su Cancan suspected she had heard a long sigh of relief. She thought Shen Luoyan was happy that the show could start smoothly and said dismissively: “You know my condition now. If there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up first.”

“Wait a moment.” It was rare to hear panic in Shen Luoyan’s voice, as if she was afraid Su Cancan would hang up immediately. “Then, can you please accept my friend request.”

“…”

Su Cancan didn’t know that her friend slot was so coveted, with the famous actress Shen vying to be on her list, but there was no reason to refuse.

“I’ll accept it later.”

Su Cancan secretly praised herself for being broad-minded, able to tolerate being friends with her archenemy. She waited haughtily for the other party to thank her for her favor, but after several tens of seconds, Shen Luoyan remained silent.

What is she doing?

Is Shen Luoyan bored or sick?

Did she call just to tease her?

A fierce anger instantly flared up. She brought the phone to her eyes and poked the screen twice to quickly end the call and the humiliation, but the phone gave her no feedback under the violent operation.

Her fleeting sanity temporarily returned. She suddenly remembered the previous notification; her phone battery had run out and shut down, it wasn’t Shen Luoyan’s fault.

Vaguely hearing a conversation in the courtyard, she charged her phone and stepped into her slippers to go downstairs to check. As she walked, she thought: she could only blame Shen Luoyan for calling at the wrong time; it had nothing to do with her, hmph!

…

The storm, once it started, would not subside so quickly. People’s views on FOR U could not affect the normal filming of FOR U.

Su Cancan’s parents, hearing that their daughter had returned to Ning City for business, rushed back to see her. After seeing them off and returning to her bedroom, Su Cancan’s phone booted up, and she accepted Shen Luoyan’s friend request.

The FOR U production team sent the filming schedule in the group chat. Filming and broadcasting simultaneously meant the timeline was quite long for confidentiality of the ending, but fortunately, they didn’t have to stay at the filming location all the time and could take on other work.

The two days of vacation flashed by. Early on the fourth, Xiao Wu drove the three of them to Hang City.

“Cancan, are you really willing to film with Shen Luoyan?”

“Cancan, do you have a heart?”

“Are you that short of money? Or are you just asking for trouble?”

…

Upon reaching the booked hotel, as soon as Xiao Wu stopped the car and before Su Cancan could step out, a group of girls suddenly rushed out from the shadows. They were all young, in their teens and twenties, and they surged toward the car door like mad, trapping her inside the car.

With one foot suspended in the air, she reluctantly pulled it back, facing the almost frantic girls.

“Say something, why don’t you answer us?”

Su Cancan looked at the speaker following the sound. She stood out as more mature than the other girls who were crowding around. Her questioning was also stricter; she glared at Su Cancan, with no affection, only ferocity remaining.

“Exactly, are you too scared to admit what you’ve done?”

“Seriously, did someone hold a knife to your neck and force you to accept this show?”

“We liked and trusted you so much. When we heard your role and endorsement were snatched, we were the ones who sought revenge for you, the ones who fought for you on the front line. What else can you do besides break our hearts?”

Listening to the chatter, it could be initially judged that this was an organized fan backlash and revenge, likely planned by the mature girl. Su Cancan pursed her lips. Liu Yimin in the passenger seat realized the situation was wrong and pressed the button to automatically close the back door.

Just as the car door was about to close, a roar echoed through the empty underground parking lot: “Slut, can you stop being disgusting.” Simultaneously, an elaborately packaged box appeared, roughly forced into the car. The beautiful bow tie was pulled loose, swaying and landing at Su Cancan’s feet. A dull thud reminded everyone of its presence.

Su Cancan was shocked by the rude name, and Liu Yimin quickly instructed Xiao Wu: “Go, drive away first, find another hotel.”

Xiao Wu restarted the car. Unable to step on the gas abruptly, he passed the lift gate and accelerated onto the main road. The sight of the girls running frantically after the car in the rearview mirror gradually shrank and disappeared.

“Can- Cancan-jie.” Xiaoke saw a pool of vivid red snaking out from the box, the bright, direct sight stimulating her nerves.

Su Cancan and Liu Yimin hadn’t noticed. Following Xiaoke’s pointed direction, they were both startled. Su Cancan unbuckled her seatbelt and moved to the back seat to hug the trembling Xiaoke.

Xiaoke in her arms was as fragile as a frightened chick, uncontrollably shaking and anxiously looking around. Su Cancan gently covered her eyes, slightly pushing her head against her shoulder, and softly comforting her.

“Don’t be afraid. It’s just a prank by a sasaeng fan, meant to scare us. We’ll deal with it, and it will be fine.”

Liu Yimin watched the interaction between the two, her thoughts suddenly drifting to three years ago.

When Shen Luoyan burst onto the scene, the first thing she snatched was the movie female lead role that Su Cancan had her heart set on.

If that was all, it would have been acceptable, but as if manipulated by a hidden hand, Shen Luoyan’s career advanced like a storm, and resources that belonged to her peers all started to favor her.

Su Cancan was the one who had enjoyed the spotlight before. As her glow dimmed, dirty water was splashed on her, one bucket after another. Someone dug up that she and Shen Luoyan attended the same high school and that Shen Luoyan was the top scorer in the provincial science college entrance exam that year. Hundreds of articles were written comparing them negatively, causing many fans to unfollow and turn into antis.

Antis making noise online was not scary. What was scary was one late night after work, also in a hotel parking lot, a young girl hugged a box, solemnly confessed her feelings to Su Cancan upon seeing her, and handed the box to her.

After giving the box, she left laughing and skipping, while Su Cancan opened the box and saw a mass of bloody, dark purple fragments.

The faces of the little girl and the girl who led the trouble today appeared before Liu Yimin. The two faces suddenly merged. Her heart skipped a beat, and a call suddenly came from the back seat.

“A’Min.”

Liu Yimin snapped back to reality and answered, “Yes,” turning to look at them. Xiaoke seemed better, resting in Su Cancan’s arms.

Su Cancan’s brow was furrowed with worry, and she sighed: “Let’s find a hotel to stay in first, and then ask Xiao Wu to deal with the car.”

“Mhm, I’ll book one close to the filming location, no, close to the police station. I’m truly scared of these people now.” Liu Yimin was helpless, taking out her phone to filter for star-rated hotels that met the conditions on the app.

The car sped along, and the scenery outside the window rapidly retreated. Nothing could be seen clearly, only red, red everywhere. Su Cancan didn’t dare to close her eyes, staring steadily out the window even though she couldn’t see clearly.

“Hello? Producer Wei?”

Liu Yimin, who was looking for a hotel, suddenly spoke, slightly distracting Su Cancan.

The producer urgently said: “Sorry for the interruption, but we just received a call from Teacher Shen’s team. They encountered sasaeng fans at the hotel, and Teacher Shen was splashed with blood all over. I wanted to ask how Teacher Su is doing.”

Liu Yimin frowned. She didn’t know how these sasaeng fans got their information. She was even more shocked to hear that Shen Luoyan was splashed with blood. She relayed their situation: “We also encountered something and are looking for a hotel to move to.”

The producer was distraught, with one annoying incident after another before the filming began: “We have contacted the hotel and hired bodyguards. We can absolutely guarantee the teachers’ safety. How about this, I’ll send you the address, and you all come over too!”

Hearing about the security, Liu Yimin immediately agreed. After receiving the address, she entered it into the car navigation, and the group moved over in the shortest possible time.

With the previous trauma, everyone was extra cautious when getting out of the car, avoiding the filth. The producer met them at the elevator entrance and handed over the room cards. Su Cancan, Liu Yimin, and Xiaoke stepped into the elevator together.

There were mirrors on both sides of the elevator. Su Cancan, looking at her weary face, noticed something was wrong.

“Did the production team contact the hotel?”

Liu Yimin was afraid that mentioning Shen Luoyan would upset Su Cancan, so she stammered: “Yes, they booked it for us after hearing about the incident.”

“That’s not right.” Su Cancan recalled the phone conversation. “You said you also encountered something. Did someone else get chased by sasaeng fans too?”

Although Su Cancan was not a top scorer in the college entrance exam, her intelligence was online. Liu Yimin couldn’t hide it from her and relayed what she had heard from the producer. Su Cancan stared at her white clothes.

What if she was the one who got splashed with blood?

She dared not imagine it; just seeing the bloody scene made her nauseous.

The few of them walked with heavy steps out of the elevator to find their room. Next door, they saw Shen Luoyan’s assistant squatting by the door, softly sobbing.