The Movie Queen And Her Rival Just Went Public! - Chapter 61

Chapter 61

Su Cancan put all her effort into that one call. It was as if she had summoned every technique she’d ever learned in drama school—the sound was seductive but not vulgar, gentle but not weak, carrying thousands of tiny hooks that made one’s entire body go numb.

Sitting in the car, Shen Luoyan felt a literal electric shock. A nerve at the base of her spine was triggered, sending a signal straight to her brain. In an instant, fireworks exploded in her mind, each burst more brilliant than the last, leaving her too dazzled to think.

As if possessed, she nodded. “I understand.”

Even though the woman before her was clearly a “princess cat,” Shen Luoyan felt as though she had been hit with a fox spirit’s love potion—unable to control herself, unable to be herself.

Su Cancan’s childish nature couldn’t stay hidden for long. Once she achieved her goal, her metaphorical tail wagged, and the seductive charm vanished, replaced by pure, adorable silliness.

“Exactly, exactly!” She chuckled, taking out the little yellow duck sun-protection shirt and shaking it open. Dense patterns of tiny ducks covered both the front and back. “Teacher Shen needs to change her style more often to give the fans a sense of freshness.”

“This style is perfect. I’m sure everyone is looking forward to a ‘cute’ version of Teacher Shen.”

She was talking pure nonsense with a straight face, but Shen Luoyan was the only person willing to be brainwashed by her. Anyone else would have quit on the spot.

Shen Luoyan took the sunglasses from the box and put them on. “Is that so?” she asked tentatively. The tea-colored lenses hid her smiling eyes, leaving the visible half of her face looking somewhat cool and aloof.

Su Cancan dropped the sun shirt, unceremoniously unbuckled her seatbelt, and in the next second, her restless fingers appeared on Shen Luoyan’s cheek.

Her index finger pressed against the corner of Shen Luoyan’s mouth, applying slight upward pressure. Seeing the straight line pulled into a curve, she withdrew her hand, satisfied with her masterpiece.

She crossed her arms and nodded slowly. “Very nice.”

Reassured by the repeated affirmations, Shen Luoyan believed this outfit was actually good and that her fans would like it. She calmly put on the rest of the gear, while Su Cancan happily covered herself up completely.

It was noon, and the sun was brutal. As time passed, the sun shifted, and the temperature was only set to rise over the next two hours. Thinking of the upcoming game, the two hurried out of the car. The beach area cordoned off by the crew was marked with colorful ribbons, with child-sized shovels and rakes placed in a corner. The area was large; at first glance, it looked like a grueling task.

Su Cancan glanced around. The camera operators were controlling their equipment from the shade of coconut trees but still couldn’t escape the heat. Worried they might get heatstroke, she quickly turned back to the car to grab several bottles of mineral water for them.

Since the sponsored car didn’t have a built-in fridge like their usual vans, the water was only cool because the AC had been on and the bottles weren’t in direct sunlight. The men were grateful for the “charcoal in the snow.” One younger cameraman tried to whisper the location of the cards to them, but Su Cancan strictly refused.

“Brother, we’re all just doing our jobs. Don’t get yourself in trouble for our sake.” Su Cancan sincerely appreciated the tip, but as a supporter of the rules, she wouldn’t abandon her bottom line. Overcoming the difficulty was part of the fun. With that, she walked toward Shen Luoyan, her body wrapped in pure white.

Up close, the “Little Yellow Duck” look wasn’t too funny, but from a distance, Su Cancan found it quite strange. As she got closer, it clicked: ducks are supposed to be chubby and short, but this lady?? She was too tall and stood too straight, creating a hilarious mismatch.

While Su Cancan was distributing water, Shen Luoyan had been standing in front of the square zone observing. Su Cancan asked if she had found anything, but she didn’t answer. It wasn’t until they stepped onto the soft sand near the tools that Shen Luoyan spoke.

“Your shoes get sand in them easily. Just stay here with the small shovel as a sunshade and wait for me.” She took a rake in one hand and a shovel in the other. After weighing them, she left the flat-surfaced shovel for Su Cancan to use as a shield.

No one dislikes being taken care of. Su Cancan took the shovel blankly, then realized Shen Luoyan’s mesh sneakers were even more prone to catching sand than her own shoes. She was even more confused.

What kind of self-sacrificing way of showing off is this? Just as she was about to speak, Shen Luoyan continued.

“Don’t worry. Count to a hundred in your head, and I’ll find those three cards. I won’t let you get burned.”

So arrogant. Such a show-off, Su Cancan thought.

The staff monitoring the microphones were shocked. On one hand, they believed their carefully buried cards couldn’t be dug up that easily; on the other, they were stunned by her groundless confidence.

Yet, a seed of worry grew. Shen Luoyan was usually gentle and polite, well-versed in social graces. For her to say something so absolute meant she was 100% sure. Their confidence in their hiding spots plummeted.

If she really found three cards in 90 seconds, their screen time wouldn’t increase. If the segment was too short, they’d be scolded by both the stars and the higher-ups. They bit their lips and prayed Shen Luoyan would fail.

Su Cancan, who sweated easily, already had beads of perspiration on her nose from the extra jacket. Shen Luoyan wiped them away with her thumb. “You don’t believe me?”

Su Cancan’s nose wrinkled sensitively. Shen Luoyan was the one who made the boast; if she failed, she’d be the one losing face. Su Cancan had nothing to lose. At most, she’d just join in after 100 seconds. She did as told, using the shovel to block the sun and hiding her face in the shade. “I believe you. I’ll believe whatever you say.”

“Then start counting.” Shen Luoyan didn’t argue. She let her actions speak for her.

As soon as Su Cancan started counting, Shen Luoyan clutched the rake and walked straight into the ribboned area as if she already had a destination. She didn’t look left or right; her footprints formed a perfect straight line behind her.

Behind the monitors, the staff clenched their fists, watching her stride forward. Seeing her direction, they kept chanting, “Don’t stop, turn, turn!”

As if hearing them, Shen Luoyan stopped. A lot of sand had leaked into her shoes through the mesh. She shook her feet, letting a spray of gold fall.

Su Cancan had just reached ten. Seeing Shen Luoyan stop, she thought her judgment had failed. Not wanting to see her friend lose face, she stopped counting, intending to resume once Shen Luoyan moved again so that even if she went over time, it wouldn’t look too bad.

Once the sand was out, Shen Luoyan unhurriedly repeated the motion with the other foot. She didn’t change her location; she crouched right where she stood and brushed away the surface sand with the rake.

Fine grains were moved aside, and soon she had dug a small pit. A few seconds later, a flash of light blue that didn’t belong there appeared.

“NO!” a staff member screamed in despair behind the monitor. This reverse-jinx was too powerful. Shen Luoyan had found a card in less than twenty seconds. At this rate, forget 90 seconds—this whole segment would be over in a minute. Even with close-ups and slow motion, it wouldn’t last three minutes on screen.

They refused to face this reality, telling themselves it was just a fluke.

Su Cancan was equally incredulous. She dropped the hand holding the shovel and craned her neck, completely forgetting to count.

Shen Luoyan pulled out the card, shook off the sand, and remained calm and steady. She didn’t show off; she simply moved her hand one fist’s length away from the first hole and started digging again.

The second card appeared even faster than the first. At this point, only thirty seconds had passed.

“Who leaked the locations to them?” The staff couldn’t sit still. They had confirmed the sand looked identical everywhere before leaving. Is Shen Luoyan a human radar? How could she find two in a row?

The props manager was pacing in front of the monitor, riddled with anxiety. Clearly, his anxiety was justified.

On screen, Shen Luoyan stood up with two cards, walked three steps, crouched, and dug. The third card was in her hand.

During the entire process, Shen Luoyan never looked up, never looked at the camera, and definitely never looked at Su Cancan. Because under Su Cancan’s gaze, she would get nervous and feel the need to make every single movement perfect.

The “arrogant” boast was proven by facts.

“So amazing,” Su Cancan said, dumbfounded as she watched Shen Luoyan return with the spoils.

She took the cards but didn’t look at them yet. “How did you do it? Superpowers? Or ‘Money-powers’?”

The cards hadn’t tripped Shen Luoyan up, but the word “Money-powers” (buying the crew off) did. After thinking about it, she gave a helpless smile. “It’s a superpower. I have X-ray vision.”

“Hard work, everyone! We’re going to find the contact person now.” She intentionally avoided answering Su Cancan directly, greeted the camera crew, and headed back toward the car.

Su Cancan followed her, full of curiosity while checking the hints on the cards. “Okay, you’re super capable, a human radar. But can the human radar tell me how she did it?”

Being followed and nagged by Su Cancan didn’t feel like being pestered by an unfamiliar classmate or an annoying assistant. Honestly, she quite enjoyed it.

“Ow!” With her brain busy sorting clues and her mouth busy talking, Su Cancan didn’t watch her step and walked straight into a “human wall.”

Shen Luoyan had stopped in front of the car and hadn’t turned around yet. A sharp pain hit her back shoulder. Within a millisecond, she turned, cupped Su Cancan’s chin, and pulled down the sun-mask covering the lower half of her face.

As expected, that famous “top-tier entertainment industry” nose had a tip that was strangely red, contrasting sharply with her snow-white skin.

“Does it hurt?” Her gaze remained fixed on the center of Su Cancan’s face.

Su Cancan awkwardly turned her face away. It was numb; she couldn’t feel anything. She shook her head.

Seeing her dodge, Shen Luoyan assumed her own actions had been too intimate and caused discomfort. She withdrew her hand and clenched it into a fist at her side.

Secretly overthinking always leads to conclusions that deviate from the truth. Su Cancan might have had a subconscious desire to avoid intimacy, but she was mostly thinking of another female celebrity who had recently trended on Weibo.

It was a similar angle on a show, but that actress hadn’t managed her nostrils well. She was mocked by anti-fans as a “dirty woman” until she hit the top of the trending searches. Su Cancan dodged because she hadn’t checked her appearance before filming and wanted to prevent the same fate.

She didn’t say it, so Shen Luoyan didn’t understand.

The two entered the car. Su Cancan took off the stuffy sun hat and jacket, fanning herself with her hands. Shen Luoyan remained silent, mechanically transforming from a “Little Yellow Duck” back into a “Cool Goddess.” Only then did Su Cancan sniff out the awkwardness in the air.

“Sorry, I was just joking earlier. I know you wouldn’t do something like bribing the crew.”

Later, when Liu Yimin heard about this and learned that Su Cancan had actually softened up and apologized first, she was petrified for several minutes.

Shen Luoyan looked down. So, she wasn’t angry about the physical contact. Her fluctuating emotions settled, but she didn’t have the heart to agree. After all, she had done things behind the scenes before. She couldn’t look into Su Cancan’s sincere eyes and lie.

Looking at the honest Su Cancan, Shen Luoyan felt ashamed and her face flushed.

“Let’s go. Let’s find the contact person and do the task,” Su Cancan sighed. She’s a bit hard to please. She decided to skip this part and move on.

Just as she spoke, an anxious female voice came through their earpieces.

“Teacher Su, Teacher Shen, don’t leave yet! You two were way too fast. We don’t have enough footage. Please stay a moment.”

Su Cancan was confused. “Do we need to go back and find them again for a re-shoot?” She looked at Shen Luoyan with a pained expression.

Shen Luoyan didn’t care about their screen time. She was about to agree with Su Cancan and refuse the re-shoot when the staff proposed a new plan.

“No, no! Just have some more dialogue and interaction in the car.”

Dealing with one “Zen-like” guest was okay, but a pair of them was going to be the death of the crew.

“Just a few minutes, please!”

It was all for the sake of earning a living. Su Cancan didn’t want to make things hard for others over a few minutes. She gave an “OK” sign to the camera and asked Shen Luoyan while fiddling with the cards:

“So, Teacher Shen, how exactly did you find three cards so quickly and accurately? Tell me.”

Shen Luoyan had intended to tell her after they got in the car and cooled down anyway. The little interlude had messed up her rhythm, but Su Cancan asking again was the perfect chance to answer.

“It wasn’t that hard. Finding them in such a small area is guaranteed if you look hard enough. I just observed for a bit longer to save time.”

Su Cancan and the staff both clicked their tongues. “Saving a bit of time” was an understatement. If she were any faster, there wouldn’t even be enough footage for a teaser.

Shen Luoyan explained: “When burying cards, people usually don’t make mistakes because it’s the first thing everyone considers. Habitual thinking makes people look for small mounds of sand. I chose to look at the footprints. To place each card, someone has to walk on the sand, so there will definitely be footprints. The crew was very careful and thought of this, so they used tools to smooth over the footprints before leaving. Unfortunately, they only smoothed the footprints, which made those spots look distinctly different from the surrounding area. Finding them so fast was just a bit of good luck.”

The props crew, hearing this reason, sat in a row and shook their heads in unison. Carelessness had defeated the working class. They learned their lesson: they’d be more careful when setting up props in the future.

“You’re so smart,” was all Su Cancan could say in admiration.

“No, no,” Shen Luoyan said modestly. “Let’s go to the next task.”

Su Cancan lined up the three hint cards and analyzed the location and characteristics of the contact person. Shen Luoyan shifted into gear and drove to a nearby bathhouse park.

The contact person was a park employee. There were many people of similar ages and outfits, so it took them over ten minutes to find the right person. Once they exchanged the secret code, the employee took out the game card.

The contact person had been trained and read the rules with great emotion. The chemistry task was an old cliché: a three-person version of “Charades.” It was the first variety show for both Su Cancan and Shen Luoyan, but even if they hadn’t “eaten the pork,” they had “seen the pig run.”

Under the contact person’s guidance, they twisted their bodies and used physical language to convey words. After five minutes, they finally guessed six questions correctly and received the hotel room card and a “Privilege Card” for the next day’s group game.

On the way to the hotel, Su Cancan’s curiosity got the better of her, and she pulled out the Privilege Card. The card, the size of a playing card, had only four words written in bold black: “Skill Transfer.”

She didn’t understand it, and since Shen Luoyan had already parked, she didn’t overthink it and pressed the card into Shen Luoyan’s palm.

“You keep it. I can’t hold onto things; I’ll probably lose it by tonight,” Su Cancan confessed.

Shen Luoyan accepted the task, put the card in her pocket, and while unbuckling her seatbelt, told Su Cancan to take the room card while she went to the trunk for the luggage.

Su Cancan’s assessment of herself was accurate. The room card had been in her hands for only five minutes, but she had to flip through two bags and three pockets to find it. She felt a bit embarrassed about her forgetfulness.

Shen Luoyan went to get the bags. Su Cancan pulled out the room card and raised an eyebrow.

Good luck. It’s a presidential suite.

The star-rated hotel had bellhops to handle the luggage. The two checked in according to the process and took the elevator to the top floor together.

It was strange. They had known each other for so long, yet this was the first time they had shared an elevator. They caught each other’s eyes in the mirror and smiled faintly, a moment captured by the miniature cameras in the corners.

The suitcases had already been delivered. The similar reddish-brown door of the hotel room reminded Shen Luoyan of the day she was splashed with blood, causing a surge of bitterness in her heart. Su Cancan only felt her calves aching; she swiped the card and headed straight for the large sofa in the living room to collapse.

After being the exclusive driver for half the day, Shen Luoyan felt exhaustion hit her. She unpacked in her room, changed into pajamas, and planned to take a nap. Just as she was about to rest, room service called to ask if she wanted food. After a struggle, she asked Su Cancan and accompanied her for a lunch.

“The crew said today is free time. You rest. I’ll message you if I’m out, or call you if there’s an emergency.” Seeing the fatigue under Shen Luoyan’s eyes, Su Cancan pushed her into her room, watched her lie down, and then took out her tablet to binge-watch a drama.

Shen Luoyan nodded. The curtains were heavy and light-proof. Her body had been extremely weak lately as she prepared for a new project, and in the darkness, she soon fell into a deep sleep.

It was a groggy sleep, and time seemed warped. When she opened her eyes, it was pitch black. She thought she had only napped for an hour, but pressing her phone screen, she saw that most of the day had passed. It was almost dinner time.

Her head was cloudy. She softly called Su Cancan’s name. Guessing the hotel’s soundproofing wouldn’t be too bad, she threw off the covers, found her slippers, and felt her way toward the door in the dark.

Shen Luoyan thought Su Cancan would still be in the living room. She walked through the dark hallway with anticipation and pulled open the door, only to be met by more darkness.

She knew Su Cancan wouldn’t run away during filming, but her absence made her heart feel chaotic and uneasy. She reached for her phone, her hands trembling several times before she successfully got it into her pocket. Finding it empty just like Su Cancan’s presence, she hurried back to the room.

She didn’t have night blindness, but for the first time, she felt helpless in the dark. The carpet was soft—originally a thoughtful touch—but it tripped her, sending her crashing into the wall.

Losing her balance, she flailed her arms for support and hit the wall switch. The lights for the entire suite snapped on. The cold light hit Shen Luoyan’s eyes. She steadied herself, pretending nothing had happened, walked into the room, sat down, and unlocked her phone.

Three hours ago:

Su Cancan: Are you still resting?

Two and a half hours ago:

Su Cancan: Keep resting. I’m a bit bored. Youyou and Zhouzhou are here. I’m going to their room to play. Room 8818. Message me or knock if you wake up.

Oh. Just visiting.

Shen Luoyan felt a wave of relief. The breath caught in her chest was released. Once her heart relaxed, she felt the pain in her elbow.

Before the fall, she had been too panicked; her arm had swung wide and hit the indestructible wall. The protruding bone was now red, swollen, and had a small bump.

She pressed her thumb against it. The swelling dented slightly and then quickly bounced back, seeming to grow even larger.

Two floors down, Su Cancan naturally had no idea what Shen Luoyan had experienced. After finishing a two-hour movie, her eyes were too sore to look at another electronic device. Just then, Youyou messaged saying they had arrived and asked if she wanted to hang out. Without thinking, she grabbed her bag and phone and took the elevator.

There were few activities for three people, so after a quick chat with Youyou, they hurriedly called Xia Yue and Cheng Lewei.

Young people’s games were nothing more than board games and mobile games. They played a full round of Monopoly. Cheng Lewei’s IQ crushed the three “half-arts” students; she led the entire way, owning more than half the properties on the board.

Xia Yue was the first to “go bankrupt.” She pouted, unhappy. Cheng Lewei quickly said that “family doesn’t charge family,” which made Xia Yue happy, but left Youyou, Zhouzhou, and Su Cancan dissatisfied.

In this situation, they would go bankrupt as soon as they stepped on Cheng Lewei’s property. Su Cancan followed the two younger girls in being a “sore loser,” insisting it was a draw and they had to change games.

Cheng Lewei was the oldest of the group. She treated the three (besides her wife Xia Yue) like younger sisters. Plus, since she had technically “cheated” with the family rule, she easily agreed to change games.

The five tried a card game Youyou and Zhouzhou brought. Cheng Lewei won by a huge margin.

After the card game, they switched to a poker game. Cheng Lewei coached Xia Yue, helping her win against the other three.

Just as Su Cancan was feeling desperate and helpless, her phone lit up.

Shen Luoyan: I’m coming down to find you.

Su Cancan held her phone and gloated: “Hehe, my savior is coming!”

Xia Yue and Cheng Lewei saw the content of the chat and openly started whispering to each other.

Youyou didn’t want to be a “shipper” on the job, but how could she resist when the star was actively showing it off? Seeing the message from Shen Luoyan, her eyes sparkled, and she shook Zhouzhou’s arm back and forth.

This is too sweet! Can the stars please have some sense of boundaries and not dance right in front of the CP fans!!