The Movie Queen And Her Rival Just Went Public! - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The nanny van slowly drove along the main city road with the flow of traffic, turned at an intersection, scanned the ETC, and entered the highway section.

Su Cancan rubbed her throbbing temples. The alcohol from the night before hadn’t fully dissipated, and she had caught a chill in the afternoon. She hadn’t eaten a bite all day, and the churning in her stomach and the nausea made her feel unwell and listless.

Listening to the soothing light music in the car, she closed her eyes to rest. She hadn’t paused to reflect in a long time. The recent events flashed through her mind like a slideshow.

She finished another drama, signed a dating reality show contract to be a couple with Shen Luoyan, drank out of spite, provoked her, and had intimate contact with her… Su Cancan evaluated her own actions as too impulsive, but she didn’t feel she was wrong.

What’s the fun of being young if you’re not a little impulsive?

Liu Yimin was looking through the scripts that had been sent recently. Since the lead cast of Nian Qing was announced, Su Cancan had gained a significant number of anti-fans. Many teams were concerned about the project’s reputation, afraid of being targeted by anti-fans with malicious bad reviews and low ratings upon release. They chose to send their scripts to actors who might not be as famous.

Fewer scripts were submitted, making her job easier. She never thought it was a bad thing. If there were no shows, they would wait patiently and choose carefully. She believed in Su Cancan; the new drama’s release would be enough to completely change people’s perception of her.

She quickly reviewed the ancient costume web drama she had in hand. The character was too “silly, white, and sweet” for her taste, so Liu Yimin politely declined. Just as she pressed the send button, she heard Su Cancan’s emotionless voice drift over.

“Should I post on Weibo when Nian Qing wraps up?”

Liu Yimin slightly turned her head to look at her through the rear-view mirror. It was a dark mass, and only the lights from passing vehicles briefly illuminated her face. After thinking, she replied, “Post one.”

Su Cancan hummed, took out her phone, mechanically selected a picture, edited the content, and sent it after confirming it was correct. As soon as it showed “sent successfully,” she immediately exited the page. She had a group of professional anti-fans who were more active in commenting on her Weibo posts than her actual fans. Years ago, seeing them would genuinely upset and distress her, but now she hadn’t gained enlightenment, she just chose not to look.

“Oh, right, don’t look at the trending topics.”

Liu Yimin suddenly remembered something and warned Su Cancan, but unfortunately, it was a little late.

“Shen Luoyan Su Cancan Leaked Photos, Movie Queen Tries Too Hard, Shen Luoyan Run.” Su Cancan saw these few lines before even clicking into the main page. She slowly read them aloud.

Liu Yimin looked toward Xiao Ke with a hint of reproach. She was about to ask why she didn’t intervene, but seeing her sound asleep, she couldn’t bring herself to be angry. She gritted her teeth: “Shen Luoyan’s fansite photographed you two this afternoon, and later your fansite rushed over too. There was no physical fight, but they had a huge online battle.”

“What’s the situation?” Su Cancan pondered. She had seen the fan wars before; the level of intensity was no less than an explosion site. A lively person could browse the tag and be half-dead with anger, let alone those who participated.

“It’s hard to say,” Liu Yimin frowned. “I think the strength is similar. A few of your biggest fans joined in, and they’re fierce.”

Minor friction in the fan community is common, but the strong and relentless firepower of their two fanbases is rare. A search would reveal that both studios have filed multiple lawsuits and issued many appeals on Weibo, but the effect has been minimal. The two groups of fans have even been nicknamed “battle fans.”

Su Cancan sank into her seat and casually clicked into one of the topics. The number one trending topic was actually a marketing account.

Entertainment CP Awards V: Deep Water Hot Fire? What kind of dark CP is this? Not sure, let’s wait and see.

Su Cancan herself wasn’t sure. Was this the name of her and Shen Luoyan’s CP? With a belly full of confusion and curiosity, she scrolled down. The conclusion she drew was: non-combatants, please keep away.

Shen Luoyan’s Change Purse: Are the fan club and studio people crazy? Why accept this variety show for our darling and with her? Didn’t you see “Rejection” written on our darling’s face in the leaked photos? Stop playing dead, terminate the contract immediately!!

This was from one of Shen Luoyan’s major fans. The accompanying picture was the one from the beginning of the shoot, where the two were strangers with distance between them. It was so far away that the clarity was at most 360p. Su Cancan zoomed in again and again, finding absolutely no “Rejection” written on Shen Luoyan’s face. She was about to ask if anyone cared about the “Speechless” written on her own face, but the next post gave her great concern.

[My Wife is a Great Beauty: I’m fainting, can you please stop embarrassing yourselves? I only see a certain Movie Queen trying too hard. My wife is also unlucky to collaborate with this kind of person. Oh no, anyone who collaborates with the Great Movie Queen is unlucky. /Smile]

There were countless similar Weibo posts, some even more unbearable. They were piles of insulting words, where every word except the two women’s names would need to be censored.

Su Cancan scrolled for a few minutes. As one of the parties involved, her feelings were complex. The feeling of being liked and defended by a group of people was indescribable. But then she thought of how these people were being insulted because of her, and how they were attacking others for her sake, which felt so helpless.

The endlessly updating content felt like a giant rock pressing down on her heart. A feeling of suffocation enveloped her. Su Cancan quickly exited the topic.

When she first entered the industry, she would be excited to trend on the hot search, but these high-ranking topics related to her now only made her breathless. Su Cancan took a few deep breaths and clicked on the “Deep Water Hot Fire” super-topic, which was likely their CP name.

Being in the entertainment industry, Su Cancan had also been a CP shipper before. In her understanding, shipping a CP required material and content to inspire imagination. She and Shen Luoyan had only had this one on-camera interaction. Could people ship them just based on this?

Her gaze followed her finger. When a large number of post-production pictures drilled into her eyes, Su Cancan realized: creating something out of nothing was also feasible.

This super-topic had just been established, a chaotic mix of solo fans, CP fans, and passersby. After looking around, Su Cancan realized that her and Shen Luoyan’s CP had existed for a long time, and it was formed during the years when she was most frustrated. She felt like laughing. So, while she was being suppressed to the point of not being able to breathe, these “sisters” were intensely shipping them here?

She scrolled through with a cold laugh until a comprehensive analysis post caught her attention.

Title—A Look Back at Cancan & Luoyan’s Romance

Mustering up the courage to read it, Su Cancan felt so heart-clenched that she wanted to pound her chest. Their fansites really did have talent. After a verbal spat between loose fans, they each compiled videos and pictures with timestamps, elevating the simple insults to the height of “stating facts and telling the truth.”

Shen Luoyan’s fansite believed Su Cancan moving her chair was her taking advantage of Shen Luoyan, and her intentions were evil.

Su Cancan’s fansite refuted this and threw out a GIF of Shen Luoyan hooking Su Cancan’s hair, labeling Shen Luoyan as perverted and indecent.

The war escalated again, and in their anger, they each uploaded the long video of their intimate moment at the folding chairs.

…

The solo fans were arguing fiercely, even selecting specific phrases for mass commenting to dominate the comment sections. How did it become “a little couple flirting with each other” in the mouth of this CP fan?

There was no point in reading any further. Su Cancan hesitated for a moment and uninstalled Weibo, giving herself some peace and quiet.

However, the peaceful days didn’t last long. The production team noticed the toxic atmosphere on Weibo and sent a link inviting her and Shen Luoyan’s team to a video conference.

Night had quietly descended. A few stars in the sky emitted faint light, vaguely dotting the lonely darkness. Since it didn’t affect Xiao Wu’s driving, Liu Yimin and Su Cancan each put on Bluetooth headsets, and one person took out one device. The video connected, and the screen was divided into several equally sized frames. By the faint light of the screen, the two women appeared vaguely.

“Sorry to call the two teachers for a meeting at this hour,” the producer spoke first. He was constantly rubbing his hands and looked very uneasy.

Su Cancan pursed her lips: “Not at all. It’s still early on my end. The lighting conditions on the highway are poor, so please bear with us.”

Minnie’s profile picture appeared in the bottom left corner of the video. She must have been pulled in for temporary overtime; her hair was casually tied up, and she was wearing oversized black-rimmed glasses.

“How could that be? The incident happened so suddenly, otherwise, we wouldn’t disturb the two teachers’ rest. We should be the ones apologizing.”

After exchanging a round of pleasantries, only Shen Luoyan’s team remained muted. Everyone focused on her frame.

Su Cancan pretended not to care and glanced over, brazenly observing her under the cover of the darkness. She was sitting far away, occupying only a small part of the screen. It was faintly discernible that she was in a hotel. Her lips moved, but no sound came out.

Su Cancan turned her head and chuckled softly. The sound was accurately transmitted to everyone’s earpieces through the headset. Realizing this, she lightly coughed: “Excuse me, Teacher Shen, your mic seems to be off.”

The gloominess from before vanished. Happy hormones rushed through her body, bubbling up like the carbonation in a soda. They constantly rose and burst forth upon reaching the surface. Unable to suppress it, she muted her mic and burst into laughter.

“Hahahahahaha!”

A burst of loud laughter simultaneously sounded in the earpieces. It was a little familiar, it sounded like her…

Su Cancan was startled, her face flushed as she covered her mouth and poked Liu Yimin’s back. The latter was speechless. It was hard to manage artists these days, and it was hard to be a manager!

Liu Yimin quickly muted her mic. Xiao Ke woke up, her eyes blurry with sleep, and she opened her mouth to ask a question. As soon as Su Cancan heard the first syllable, she quickly turned around and covered her mouth. The tablet dropped to the floor, the camera shook, and her figure was no longer visible.

Liu Yimin gritted her teeth and told Su Cancan: “Enough, I’m muting my mic.”

Su Cancan immediately relaxed, slumping down. She felt a dampness on her palm and quickly wiped it with a wet wipe.

“Ugh, so embarrassing!”

“Oh, oh, thank you for the reminder, Teacher Su. It’s my first time attending a video conference, so I’m not familiar with all the controls.”

Shen Luoyan spoke before Liu Yimin. Her voice was laced with a slight electric current, and even without looking at Su Cancan, one could detect a hint of nervousness.

Shen Luoyan was indeed attending her first video conference. Her assistant, whose home was in the same city, had gone back to be with her parents. After signing the contract, she had booked a hotel to make do. She downloaded the software but didn’t check the equipment, which led to this embarrassing moment. Fortunately, the warm light didn’t reveal her flushed cheeks.

“Shall we officially begin then?”

The producer’s tone was full of laughter. The fighting between the two fanbases was so unpleasant that although the show’s attention could be significantly boosted, there was a risk that a rift would form between Shen Luoyan and Su Cancan, making normal filming impossible. Seeing that the two were unaffected by the public opinion and were even joking and laughing, he relaxed and prepared to heavily market the show.

“Okay,” Shen Luoyan said, and Su Cancan chimed in simultaneously.

Liu Yimin dropped her expression and mimicked Su Cancan’s tone: “Excuse me, Teacher Su, your mic seems to be off.”