The Movie Queen And Her Rival Just Went Public! - Chapter 57

Chapter 57

In the conversation, Su Cancan found herself, then lost herself again.

To be honest, she never expected to make a true, soul-baring friend in the entertainment industry, and she couldn’t quite distinguish which category her feelings for Shen Luoyan fell into.

Reason placed Shen Luoyan in the “friend” slot, so for now, she treated her with the courtesy she imagined a friend deserved. Friends help each other; they care about each other’s lives. She was learning to do just that.

Su Cancan: Have you eaten yet?

Shen Luoyan had just fished out her keys and opened the door. She lightly pressed the switch in the entryway, and the entire house suddenly brightened.

During the days Su Cancan was away, Shen Luoyan hadn’t left the “Love Cottage” for a single day. First, because she had cleared all her work for the next few months for this show and was quite leisurely; second, because staying here allowed her to chew over those brief memories and catch lingering traces of Su Cancan’s scent.

They had left in a hurry that morning. Su Cancan’s cat slippers were scattered—one lying to the east, the other to the west. Shen Luoyan curled her lips into a smile, changed into her own shoes, and without a hint of disdain, picked them up and lined them up neatly.

The unique notification sound for a message from her “Princess” rang from her pocket. The pads of her fingers, pressing against the inner lining of the plush slippers, felt as if they had been brushed by fire—burning hot.

Busy replying, she didn’t move. Standing straight and leaning against the glass wall, she hid one hand in her pocket, rubbing her fingers in circles, while the other gripped her phone. Her thumb swiped up, and the screen unlocked.

The dialogue box with Su Cancan appeared instantly.

It’s good.

Her fingertips paused over the empty space for a few seconds before she started typing.

Shen Luoyan: Not yet, I just arrived and haven’t cooked. However, I’ve accepted a script. I plan to control my weight a bit before joining the cast for filming, so I’ll look better on camera.

Su Cancan: A movie or a drama? What genre?

Su Cancan asked naturally, but realizing many projects require confidentiality, she re-edited her message.

Su Cancan: I’m just curious, you don’t have to tell me. Leave the suspense for the official announcement later.

After a peaceful exchange, both parties felt refreshed. Within minutes, Su Cancan felt her head grow heavy and her blinking frequency increase. She said goodnight and fell into a deep sleep.

Shen Luoyan remained leaning there for a long time. The cameras in the living room, which hadn’t been turned off, blinked with red lights, recording her every expression.

The phone screen went dark, and the light on her face vanished. Her gaze landed somewhere in the distance; a stray lock of hair fell against her cheek, half-shrouding her delicate, palm-sized face.

After a long while, her body gave a slight shudder. Her lowered head slowly lifted. When the camera first caught her, everything looked so beautiful—a faint smile spread from the corners of her eyes and brows, like a graceful tuberose in a secluded valley, releasing a rich fragrance as a breeze passed by.

But in the next second, as her limbs shifted and blood rushed back to her extremities, the aloof and cold flower instantly withered. Shen Luoyan performed a literal “Sichuan Opera face-change” for the staff behind the monitors.

She narrowed her eyes, let out a long hiss, and her features twisted together.

She moved her limbs cautiously, confirming it was just numbness from staying still too long. Only then did she relax slightly, though her expression returned to its usual cold indifference. Favoring the leg she couldn’t touch, she hopped into the living room and threw herself eyes-closed onto the sofa.

The cushion Su Cancan had used still carried a faint hint of orange—a scent that purposefully wound its way into her breath.

Shen Luoyan closed her eyes and reached out, hooking the edge of the cushion with her index and middle fingers. She pulled it back, and the soft object landed in her palm, appearing in her arms a second later.

The neglected phone lying on the sofa vibrated and buzzed resentfully, attempting to reclaim its owner’s attention.

Ignoring the noise, Shen Luoyan waited until almost the last second before the call timed out to grab the phone and press accept.

“Hello?” Her voice carried a trace of imperceptible laziness and contentment.

The person on the other end seemed very urgent, frantic…

Su Cancan slept until dawn, completely unaware that the internet’s smoke and mirrors had ignited over and over because of her.

Waking up naturally the next morning, she gave a massive stretch. When she reached for her phone to check the time, she found her lock screen buried under notifications from various platforms—so many that she couldn’t even see the bottom after scrolling for a while. The last time this happened was three years ago when she was being “blacklisted” by the entire internet.

Su Cancan pondered; surely last night’s livestream couldn’t have had such a world-shaking effect? She grabbed a random bathrobe from the closet, threw it on, and opened the bedroom door to find Liu Yimin and Xiao Ke to get the details.

Liu Yimin and Xiao Ke were the same, but the living room had been completely transformed.

The light-blocking curtains that had been drawn for the livestream last night had never been reopened. The entire living room was so dim there wasn’t a sliver of light. Su Cancan sniffed; a strong smell of alcohol hit her brain. For someone with night blindness, every step in the pitch-black environment was a major trial.

Suspicious, she turned on her phone’s flashlight. The faint beam illuminated most of the area. Within her line of sight, two people were lying on the long sofa. Just a step away on the coffee table, seven or eight wine bottles were piled up. Some bottles still had liquid in them before they fell, leaving a puddle of dark red liquid across the surface. Wine glasses lay tipped over as well.

Su Cancan wanted to scream. The scene was too wild; she couldn’t believe her steady, mature manager would do something like this.

The gasp was at her lips, but she covered her mouth just in time.

Slippers and some clothes were piled on the floor. Su Cancan navigated around them like she was dodging landmines, walking to the edge of the sofa to stare down at the two of them.

Excellent. They were sleeping so soundly they didn’t notice Su Cancan’s focused, puzzled gaze, which looked like she was trying to solve a complex math problem.

“Time to get up! If you don’t get up, you’ll be late! Wake up, wake up!”

Su Cancan hadn’t opened her mouth, yet her voice filled the room.

It was a bit creepy. Su Cancan watched as Xiao Ke instinctively reached behind her for her phone, eyes still tightly shut, and accurately pressed the “stop” button on the alarm without moving an inch.

Despite the noise, the accustomed Xiao Ke continued her slumber, but Liu Yimin was startled awake. Frowning, she rolled over, then stretched her limbs and squinted as if searching for something.

Her hazy eyes scanned the area. Unable to find what she wanted, she rolled over again, her hands reaching out blindly while her vacant eyes followed. Her hands were still empty, but when two “pillars” (Su Cancan’s legs) appeared in her vision, her pupils suddenly dilated. She sat up in a fright, seeing Su Cancan holding her phone with an expression like she was visiting a zoo.

“Ah!”

Su Cancan didn’t scream; Liu Yimin did.

“Ah!”

Startled, Xiao Ke joined the chorus in perfect harmony.

Su Cancan bit her lip. “You guys… last night?” She trailed off.

Liu Yimin cleared her head and realized it was Su Cancan standing there. She exhaled a breath of turbid air and sat up composedly, rubbing her swollen eyes.

“Seriously, I said I’m quitting drinking, and you two got so happy you drank every bottle in the house? Was that necessary?” Su Cancan sat down between them.

The only light source in the living room was Su Cancan’s phone, but because it had received too much information overnight, it was overworked and nearly out of power. In the silence, the bright light dimmed bit by bit until the room fell into darkness.

Xiao Ke’s tolerance for alcohol was truly low; she was still dazed. But out of two years of habit, she instinctively felt her way to the floor-to-ceiling window and pulled open the curtains.

It was a glorious sunny day. The sunlight pierced through the glass and slammed into her eyes; after a moment of discomfort, she covered her eyes and sat back in her place.

Su Cancan looked at their dark circles, which almost reached their chins, and their four bloodshot eyes, asking a silent question. Liu Yimin avoided her gaze. Seeing an unopened soda on the table, she bent over, cracked it open with one hand, and tilted her head back to chug it.

“Sister Cancan, you went to sleep quite early last night,” Xiao Ke said timidly since no one else was talking.

Su Cancan was confused. “Yeah, didn’t you guys know I was tired?”

Xiao Ke lowered her head and tried to shrink herself. “Then… do you want to see what happened after you fell asleep?”

Hearing this, Su Cancan’s heart skipped a beat. Thinking of her phone that had shut down from “overwork,” she worried that Viky had taken advantage of her sleep to post baseless info—no, rumors—making the situation she had salvaged even worse.

She held out her hand to Xiao Ke.

Liu Yimin finished half the soda and let out an ill-timed burp.

Xiao Ke quickly unlocked her phone, opened Weibo, and handed it to Su Cancan.

After a night of fermentation, the real-time trending list had updated several times, but the one thing that remained constant was the top-ranked hashtag:

#SuCancanShenLuoyan#

Su Cancan didn’t click into it yet. She scanned the page and saw no English words. Knowing the situation had nothing to do with Viky, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Now grounded, she checked the trending topics related to her one by one. Aside from the top spot, the second highest was about the conservative pajamas she wore last night.

Assuming the topic paired with Shen Luoyan was just about their Weibo interaction from the day before, Su Cancan resolutely chose to check the netizens’ comments on her clothes. She found that besides netizens, even her own fans were teasing her about the outfit; she was both annoyed and amused. Usually, when she wore slightly revealing clothes to events, insulting words would be hurled at her; this time, she was conservative, and not only did they mock her, some even called her a “hypocrite pretending to be pure.”

Xiao Ke moved closer to see the content on the screen. “Sister Cancan, it’s not all anti-fans this time. Most of the trolls are water armies (paid bots). Sister Liu had someone check; it was Viky’s side.”

When Su Cancan turned to look at Liu Yimin, she looked like she couldn’t care less, lounging back on the sofa and scrolling through her own phone, not even bothering to look up.

Pouting, Su Cancan exited that topic and scrolled down. Near the tenth spot, she encountered a topic related to the FOR U production crew. The show hadn’t even aired yet and the guests were already clashing online; presumably, the crew was doing damage control. Uninterested, she paused over the topic for only a second before moving on.

“Sister Cancan, you’re not going to click and look?”

Judging by her tone, Xiao Ke knew exactly what was in there—it was an invitation. To please Xiao Ke, Su Cancan clicked in without much expectation. When the Weibo posts from relevant people appeared, her eyes widened.

While Su Cancan had been focused on her livestream last night, she hadn’t noticed that Youyou, Zhouzhou, Xia Yue, and Cheng Lewei had all visited her stream using their public accounts. In the netizens’ screenshots, the four appeared only to offer praise. After the stream ended, all four had posted blogs, ostensibly recording their day’s schedule but also praising Su Cancan to the heavens.