The Movie Queen And Her Rival Just Went Public! - Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Su Cancan’s announcement caught the production team completely off guard, but since the decision did not violate the contract terms, the production team confirmed and allowed her to leave.

Su Cancan felt suffocated being in the same space as Shen Luoyan. After stating her decision, she returned to her room first to pack a few changes of clothes to take to the rented apartment.

When she finished packing and contacted Liu Yimin, Liu Yimin was busy selecting scripts and was startled out of her wits by the sudden phone call.

Su Cancan got straight to the point: “Where are you? Shanghai?”

“Yes,” Liu Yimin replied distractedly, using her free hand to flip pages. “What’s wrong? Is the recording not going well?”

Su Cancan glanced out the window. Summer had arrived so subtly. The angled sunlight was no longer soft and warm; the scorching rays penetrated the thin clouds, illuminating everything and plating every object with a gold edge. Only when it shot into her eyes did it cause painful irritation.

“Help me rent an apartment near the recording studio. Price is not an issue, it doesn’t need to be big, a two-bedroom apartment will do. Make it quick, preferably so I can move in by noon.” She retracted her gaze to look at the slippers on her feet, but what she was really thinking about was whether Viky wore these when she came in.

Her thoughts were a mess, and she sighed. On the other end, Liu Yimin exploded. A loud thud sounded in Su Cancan’s ear, and she moved the phone away from her head.

Su Cancan’s words were too sudden. Liu Yimin’s hand trembled, dropping her iPad to the floor, but she didn’t bother to pick it up. She forgot that her office was only separated from Qian Yiyi’s by a wall and raised her voice to ask, “What is going on?”

“Nothing much. It’s just very inconvenient commuting to the city center every day from here. The time wasted on the road is too long, and I’m a little tired…”

“Tell me the truth.”

Liu Yimin’s familiarity with Su Cancan exceeded her imagination. After just half a sentence, she knew that tiredness wasn’t the main reason. Su Cancan was someone who could pull all-nighters for a week straight without complaining. How could a one or two-hour daily commute defeat her? She frowned and interrupted Su Cancan.

Su Cancan sniffled her sore nose and said with difficulty, “It’s inconvenient. I don’t want Shen Luoyan to drive me every day. It’s too much trouble.”

Liu Yimin walked to the window: “The truth?”

Su Cancan said, “Yes.”

Liu Yimin said deeply, “What did she do to upset you?”

Su Cancan replied, “Nothing.”

Her tone was utterly aggrieved. Anyone with a bit of sense could tell she was being dishonest. Liu Yimin impatiently took a couple of steps, then calmed down and first offered comfort to Su Cancan.

“She didn’t physically harm you, did she?”

“No.” Su Cancan shook her head. If it came to that, she would definitely call the police.

Liu Yimin breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a bit more relaxed: “Good, as long as you’re not hurt. You pack your things first. I’ll contact Xiao Wu immediately to come and pick you up. Xiao Ke and I will book tickets now. I’ll look for an apartment on the way. We’ll discuss the specifics when we meet.”

Su Cancan looked at the tightly closed door: “Mhm.”

With Liu Yimin’s firm support, she felt much more confident. While waiting for Xiao Wu to pick her up, she did nothing but sit on the room’s sofa and stare blankly.

A moment later, her phone vibrated in her palm. Just as she was thinking Xiao Wu was arriving quickly, she opened her palm and froze at the caller ID in the center of the screen.

Why is Qian Yiyi calling?

If she remembered correctly, ever since Shen Luoyan debuted and stole all her thunder, the two had stopped direct contact, with all communication passing through Liu Yimin. Could it be that Shen Luoyan played the victim first?

With patience, she pressed the connect button. A violent male voice, no less intense than a firecracker explosion, pierced her eardrum, making her mind fuzzy.

“Su Cancan, what kind of drama are you stirring up now? You can’t be happy unless you cause trouble every single day, can you? Before the shoot, didn’t you promise to be obedient? What is the meaning of this now? The other person hasn’t said anything, and you’re the first to give attitude? Tell me, is this the attitude an actor should have? Or do you think you’re such a big shot that you can disregard everyone and casually break the rules?”

Su Cancan: “…”

She could offer no other reaction than silence. Qian Yiyi hadn’t asked for the background details and just started railing at her. What could she say? Nothing.

Qian Yiyi roared: “Speak up! Am I the boss or are you the boss? You won’t even reply to me?”

Su Cancan remained silent. She heard a clicking sound from the receiver, followed by the sizzle of a cigarette being lit. Imagining Qian Yiyi’s frantic and enraged appearance, she couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Naturally, provoking the boss only made him angrier. Qian Yiyi choked on the smoke. After a bout of coughing, he continued his tirade.

“Do you believe I can make you disappear from the entertainment industry?”

Su Cancan smiled, sounding casual: “Yes, why wouldn’t I believe it?”

“Why wouldn’t I believe what you, General Manager Qian, say? If I didn’t believe you, I wouldn’t have signed with the company when you were struggling to start your business alone. If I didn’t believe you, I wouldn’t have signed for seven years. If I didn’t believe you, I wouldn’t have entrusted everything to you to manage. Do you think I believe you?”

Su Cancan spoke carelessly. She had always disliked dwelling on the past and picking fights. She would never dig deep into things that could be smoothed over. Her series of questions now formally tore away the veil between them, exposing all the existing problems.

Confronted by Su Cancan for the first time, Qian Yiyi took a long time to recover before forcefully resorting to sophistry: “It was a mutual choice, that’s all. Among so many students back then, you were just a very ordinary one. Isn’t it your good fortune that I chose you? Besides, the company’s resources are currently skewed toward you. Any script or endorsement that comes in is prioritized for you to choose first. Haven’t I been good enough to you?”

“Stop.” Su Cancan said coldly. “I admit the mutual choice, but if scripts and endorsements seek me out, who should choose first if not me? Should they be left for those insignificant internet celebrities you recently signed?”

As soon as she mentioned “internet celebrities,” Viky’s face flashed in her mind. She held back the urge to throw up, her expression frigid.

“Stop with the self-righteous talk. You and I have reached this point, and we both know we can’t go back to the beginning. Wouldn’t it be better to leave some dignity for each other and part amicably? Yes, you are the boss, and I am an artist under the company, but I am not your dog, to be summoned and dismissed at will. My move out of the FOR U production set is compliant and legal. The rent will be paid from my own account. You have no right to interfere. I will also actively participate in the subsequent filming. Please sit comfortably in your high position and count your money. Don’t contact me again unless it’s necessary!”

After venting, Su Cancan decisively hung up the phone. Qian Yiyi didn’t have time to retaliate. The dial tone’s buzz was like kindling to his anger. He immediately redialed, but the only response was a cold, mechanical female voice.

Su Cancan had blocked him. His authority challenged, he savagely extinguished the cigarette in the ashtray.

Still not satisfied, he picked up the gold-plated ashtray and hurled it at the glass wall opposite him. The tempered glass was tough and durable, with only a small dent where the impact hit.

The moment the anger subsided, Qian Yiyi was about to inwardly celebrate not having to pay for repairs, when suddenly, cracks spread outwards from the small dent until the entire glass wall exploded into a snowflake pattern and shattered on the floor.

Liu Yimin and Xiao Ke were already on the high-speed rail to Hangzhou and missed this thrilling scene. An employee near the window, looking down at the landscaped garden beneath the building, secretly changed their personal signature to: The wind is rising.

…

After hanging up on Qian Yiyi, Su Cancan sank back into the sofa, panting for a while. Since choosing to enter the entertainment industry, even during her student years, she had restrained her temper, trying to make herself a smooth circle, leaving no sharp edges or vulnerabilities.

Except when required for a role, she had almost forgotten the last time she engaged in such a satisfying “battle” with someone. After the victory, the genuine feeling of exhilaration from the intense nervous activity filled her entire body.

Xiao Wu, who was waiting in Hangzhou, had already turned into the small road leading to their little house of “love.” Receiving the notification, Su Cancan composed herself, grabbed her suitcase, and opened the room door.

The moment the door opened, Su Cancan stumbled two steps backward.

Shen Luoyan was standing at the doorway, head lowered, her shoulders slumped and listless. When the door was opened from the inside, she quickly looked up and met Su Cancan’s terrified eyes. The hand that reached out to steady her faltered when it read disgust on Su Cancan’s face, weakly clenching and unclenching in the air before dropping.

“Done packing?”

Su Cancan stared at her without speaking, wondering how long Shen Luoyan had been standing there and how much of her conversation with Qian Yiyi she had heard.

Shen Luoyan guessed the nature of her suspicion and pursed her lips: “You couldn’t hear it. The bedroom was soundproofed. Unless someone screams inside, you can’t hear anything from the outside.”

Hearing this, goosebumps temporarily rose on Su Cancan’s back. With such excellent soundproofing, the fact that she could still hear Viky and Miky’s sexual romping showed how openly they played.

Then, did Shen Luoyan do the same with Viky…

Feeling the urge to vomit, Su Cancan quickly pulled her thoughts back, and in a defensive posture, questioned with her eyes.

“I wanted to ask if you need me to drive you to the city. It’s hard to get a taxi here.”

Shen Luoyan was like a child who had done wrong, humbling herself and pleading for forgiveness. Su Cancan was momentarily dazed, but the sting of her nails digging into the soft flesh of her palm brought her back to reality. Her softening heart solidified again, becoming even harder.

This is her usual tactic of feigning weakness. I cannot be misled by her!

“No need. My driver will be here soon.”

“Then, then.”

Shen Luoyan stuttered twice without completing her thought. Su Cancan’s eyebrows twitched. Impatience welled up in her, and she decided to say everything she needed to say at once.

“There are no ‘thens’ or ‘buts.’ We are colleagues, so let’s do what colleagues should do and respect each other’s boundaries. If the production team has any requests, you can consult with me, but.”

She met Shen Luoyan’s wounded eyes, her heart giving a start, and she gritted her teeth: “From now on, please do not contact me for any personal matters. I don’t need your concern, I don’t need your care, and I don’t care about anything related to you. Let’s just be colleagues, follow the script, and when the show ends, return to our true identities.”

Su Cancan was perfectly capable of saying hurtful things, but she chose not to. She knew how difficult it was to build a relationship. She had genuinely invested and been truly hurt, so she chose to cut her losses and retreat to her original position while she still had control.

Shen Luoyan remained motionless. Su Cancan didn’t wait for her reply. She loosened her clenched hand, bypassed Shen Luoyan with her suitcase, and walked toward the door.

Before leaving, she couldn’t help but leave one final sentence.

“Please don’t bring her into the house, at least not into the bedroom. I find it disgusting.”