What Should I Do If the Aloof Movie Queen Is Too in Love With Me? - Chapter 4

Progress was far smoother than Ji Youyi had imagined. She got into the car and reviewed everything in her mind, thinking that her pool of vomit had been a stroke of genius.

She moistened her aching throat and asked the person in the driver’s seat while leaning on the back of the passenger chair, her voice sweet: “Sister, how should I address you?”

Fang Ruohan buckled her seatbelt and set the navigation: “My surname is Fang.”

“Okay, okay, Sister Fang.”

Through the rearview mirror, Fang Ruohan could see Ji Youyi smiling at her with crinkled eyes. Coupled with that voice so sweet it made her heart melt, she couldn’t suppress the upward curve of her lips.

Having handled the easy one, Ji Youyi didn’t forget the high-difficulty one beside her.

The other woman had taken off her mask after getting into the car. Without the obstruction, her exquisite features were fully revealed, making her aura of coldness even stronger.

Ji Youyi unlocked her phone, searched around, and pulled up her electronic ID card.

“I didn’t have a chance to introduce myself just now.” She proactively handed the phone to the person on her left to see. “My name is Ji Youyi. You can just call me Little Ji.”

Meng Xingshu looked at the screen.

A native of S City, 23 years old, born on January 1st.

Ji Youyi didn’t expect the other woman to look at those few short lines for several seconds. Since she was asking for a favor, she couldn’t rashly pull the screen away, so she turned her body and tilted her head, squeezing her own face into the other’s line of sight, her eyes blinking: “What about you, Sister? Is it convenient to tell me your honorable surname?”

The air was silent for two seconds.

In the front row, Fang Ruohan felt as if she’d been struck by lightning. Her finger froze on the address input, and her smile solidified.

She actually liked Ji Youyi quite a bit; the girl was good-looking, pleasant to talk to, and had a pitiful background. But this way of striking up a conversation was too ridiculous!

How could anyone in the industry pretend not to recognize Meng Xingshu?

She debuted at sixteen and became an overnight sensation; three years later, she swept the Triple Gold awards for Chinese cinema. Though she kept a low profile, her strength was undeniably high-profile. For over a decade, she had been the universally recognized White Moonlight for various celebrities—countless people were desperate for that title, and Ji Youyi didn’t know?

Could it be that for the sake of being unconventional, she wanted to establish a clueless about the outside world persona?

Meng Xingshu, however, had no reaction, only replying simply: “My surname is Meng. The ‘Meng’ with a child over a vessel.”

“Oh, Sister Meng!” A smile blossomed on Ji Youyi’s face.

Her articulation was very clear and sweet, possessing a magic that made people happy just by hearing her speak. Hearing it, Fang Ruohan’s tense face gradually relaxed again.

Ji Youyi was completely unaware of the twists and turns in the other’s heart, smiling as she continued: “Sister Meng, you are so beautiful. You look just like a big star.”

Meng Xingshu said calmly: “I am not a star.” Just an ordinary actor.

That’s good then, looks like she’s just an ordinary rich person. Ji Youyi felt relieved.

“That’s a pity.” She finished speaking with a regretful tone and switched apps on her phone. “Sister, let’s add each other on WeChat. I’ll scan you.”

As she spoke, she opened the scan interface. The green line slid up and down repeatedly; like her smile, it was clearly a patient wait, yet it felt like a silent urge, as if leaving no room for refusal.

Meng Xingshu looked back at her quietly for two seconds, took out her phone, and opened her QR code.

The scan was successful, the interface jumped, and Ji Youyi immediately saw the other person’s profile picture—a lake surface under moonlight, shimmering with ripples.

The name was a foreign name, “Ersilia,” the signature was blank, and the Moments feed didn’t even have a background image.

Bad news. She’s the type where even after adding her, you can’t find a topic for conversation.

Ji Youyi didn’t let it show. In front of Meng Xingshu, she typed a sweet friend request and changed Meng Xingshu’s remark to “Most, Most, Most, Most Dearest Sister Meng~.”

After adding Meng Xingshu, Ji Youyi reached her phone forward and added Fang Ruohan as a friend.

The social activity concluded there; Ji Youyi finished her work. She sank into the comfortable seat and opened her phone.

In a while, she would have to bicker with the boss at the company, and since she knew very little about Little Ji, she had to use this time for a crash course.

She first opened Weibo.

Reposts, comments, and private messages had exploded. Ji Youyi took a rough glance; they were all insults directed at her. She wondered how long Little Ji had endured such days.

She clicked on her personal homepage and skimmed through, learning about Little Ji’s life path through her Weibo posts.

Little Ji’s resources were quite poor. Since her debut, she had been playing supporting roles in web dramas and web movies.

Although the roles and acting weren’t outstanding, she had gained a few fans early on based on her looks.

However, the company didn’t want her to develop further; they treated her as a fast-moving consumer good for quick money, rushing her into variety shows with clown scripts or into live-stream rooms as a guest.

However, at the beginning of this year, Little Ji, who usually had terrible resources, suddenly appeared on the same variety show as the top star Zhou Wenchen. At that time, Zhou Wenchen was rumored to be in love with the daughter of the real estate tycoon Meng Yuting.

On the show, Zhou Wenchen, who was usually known as a warm man, uncharacteristically acted aloof, confirming the dating rumors. Meanwhile, she was given the “lick-dog” persona, following Zhou Wenchen in every way and trying to please him in a thousand ways. This incited the netizens’ fury, and they cursed her as a vixen.

The variety show became a massive hit, and all the guests rose to the next level, except for Little Ji, the cannon fodder. Her personal Weibo was like a trench being unilaterally bombarded, reduced to a trash can for venting negative emotions.

As for her, after being squeezed dry for consumption, she was thrown into the trash can along with the rest.

Ji Youyi switched to the latest trending page. The trending searches from top to bottom were:

#EldestMissMengSpends800MilliononLoveNest

#WhoDoesn’tWanttoBetheChangfengMatrilocalSon-in-Law

#IsSuicidetheOnlyWaytoForceSomeoneifLoveIsNotReciprocated

#HowHappyItIstoBeaFanofZhouWenchen

#YuJinhuiSaysZhouWenchenHasGreatCharacter

After five consecutive entries, the sixth one was directly related to her: #JiYouyiSuicide. It didn’t mention a single word about the cyberbullying that had been deliberately orchestrated.

This world was similar to her original world; behind entertainment news was always a game of capital. Just by looking at the keywords, she could guess which powers were involved and for what purposes they were hyping things up.

They wanted fame, money, traffic, fans, resources, status, and power—they just didn’t want a conscience or shame.

Ji Youyi clicked into her related trending search, her finger scrolling fast.

“Didn’t she fail to die? Notify me when she’s dead; I’ll go stomp on her grave twice to count as incense.”

“Fake as hell == A selfish person like her wouldn’t dare to actually die. It’s just hype!”

“Useless except for a face, yet she still morally kidnaps netizens every day. I wouldn’t even bother cursing her if she wasn’t such a bitch.”

“Her face isn’t even that good; she’s not just plain, she’s ugly. I want to Vomit just seeing her.”

Ji Youyi scrolled a few times when she suddenly heard the person on her left speak: “How do you plan to negotiate the termination?”

Ji Youyi looked over. Meng Xingshu was watching her, half of her face in shadow, her expression unreadable.

“Just… talk like that.” Ji Youyi couldn’t say specifics. “I’ll find the boss, we’ll talk, and then terminate. Like that.”

“And the termination fee?”

Ji Youyi sniffled and said weakly: “If he insists on me paying, then I can only pay…” Pay him my ass! No way I’m paying!

Meng Xingshu’s voice was low, falling by Ji Youyi’s ear like cold flowing water:

“I suggest you find a lawyer to go with you. You aren’t good at negotiating; you’ll be led by the nose. When they demand compensation from you, you can refuse, because it is the company, not you, that is in breach of contract.”

“First, their accusation that you damaged the company’s reputation is groundless. Respecting a senior in the same company is your good upbringing; triggering widespread public opinion was your professional requirement; and choosing to seek death was the only way out under the high-intensity pressure from the company.”

“Second, you can counter-sue the company for breach of contract. A company has duties and obligations toward its artists, including but not limited to taking public relations measures to protect your reputation when you suffer from cyberbullying. Clearly, they did not do this, which caused great harm to your physical and mental health.”

“Third, in terms of fulfilling economic obligations, paying acting remuneration, and planning your acting career, the company is also very likely in breach of contract. You must collect evidence as comprehensively as possible to have an advantage during negotiations. Going there in a hurry today might not be a good choice.”

“Additionally, if they insist on compensation, I suggest following legal procedures. On one hand, if your contract’s rights and obligations are truly excessively unequal, the court can directly annul it for you. On the other hand, even if you have to compensate, the amount will be relatively small, and the litigation cycle is long, giving you more time to raise funds. Think about it.”

Ji Youyi was more than a little surprised by this long speech.

She didn’t know what profession this sister had, but she was actually very knowledgeable about this area. Furthermore, her articulation was clear and pleasant, her speed was neither fast nor slow, and her delivery skills were excellent. It would be a waste if she didn’t go into acting.

After being surprised, she pretended not to understand and gave a troubled smile: “Sister Meng, thank you, but forget it. That’s too hard for me.”

Too hard? Meng Xingshu looked at Ji Youyi.

“I have a simpler path.” Ji Youyi blinked.

Too hard, wants to take a simple path.

Meng Xingshu thought of something; she nodded slightly and spoke no more.

She caught a glimpse of that exposed, slender ankle that was still white from the cold since getting into the car and turned the air conditioning up by two degrees.

The cabin fell back into silence, with only warm air blowing out continuously. The temperature inside rose a bit more, but for some reason, the atmosphere felt even colder than before.

Ji Youyi’s instinctively curled body relaxed. She exited Weibo and opened WeChat.

Little Ji had very few friends on her account, all of whom were business relations or superficial friends. They rarely contacted her before the incident, and after it, they avoided her like the plague.

Aside from the manager Xu Pin’an and that brain-damaged Manager Zhang, the only one who frequently contacted her recently was a person remarked as Manager Li.

Over a dozen new messages were sent this morning, all filled with rebukes and scoldings in sixty-second voice notes, ending with a text summary: “Pay up!”

This wasn’t the first time he’d asked Little Ji for money.

In the past, when he demanded Little Ji go to drinking parties and she was unwilling, he would find some random excuse a few days later to accuse her of breach of contract and demand a massive termination fee.

The millions of debt on the silly girl’s account had almost all gone into this Manager Li’s pocket.

Ji Youyi searched online. The founder of Little Ji’s management company, Wantao Entertainment, was named Li Niantao. It should be this Manager Li.

With all these “Zhangs” and “Lis,” Ji Youyi really wanted to block them, but since the termination hadn’t been handled, she could only tell herself to endure for another half day.

The pinned contact was that garbage scumbag. In February, he was still rehearsing scripts with Little Ji, but as soon as the variety show ended, he deleted her.

Looking at the rows of exclamation marks in the chat box, Ji Youyi’s anger began to flare up. Holding back her fire, she quickly scrolled through five years of their chat records; the amount of information was not small.

Little Ji’s original name was Chen Xi; “Ji Youyi” was a name she gave herself after she became an adult.

She came from a poor family and had been doing laundry, cooking, and working like a slave for her alcoholic, gambling father since she was a child. She started working before finishing middle school, and her wages were all squandered by her blood-sucking father, while all she received in return was hunger and beatings.

When she was 18, she met Zhou Wenchen. He was gentle and handsome, said nice things, smiled at her, and bought her chicken legs, so she believed everything he said.

Zhou Wenchen said he was short of money and needed her to help him take out a loan; she agreed.

Zhou Wenchen said the entertainment industry made money fast and asked her to sign with Wantao; she signed.

Zhou Wenchen said he had met his true love, but as a traffic star, he was afraid of being scolded for dating and needed her to help; she helped.

Then, she got 5.3 million in debt that crushed her, a homepage filled with filthy language and funerary photos, and received Zhou Wenchen’s cold bystander treatment in front of the camera and rows of exclamation marks behind the scenes.

Ji Youyi had no prejudice against Little Ji.

She had seen many similar girls.

They hadn’t received any care since childhood, so when they grew up, if someone treated them even slightly well, they would treat that person as their salvation.

An excessively low sense of self-worth made her easy to control; as long as the other party occasionally gave her a bit of sweetness, she was willing to give everything.

It wasn’t her fault.

People who live in the eighteenth level of hell for a long time do not know the existence of the surface. She was brought to the seventeenth level and thought that was happiness.

Even if one day she caught a glimpse of what heaven looked like, she wouldn’t dare climb up, because she would be afraid of falling back to the eighteenth level.

Ji Youyi’s gaze was freezing. Her finger moved quickly to unpin the contact and throw him into the blacklist.

Looking at dirty things for too long was tiring. She rubbed her eyes, stretched her neck, and instinctively looked to the left.

Meng Xingshu was using her phone. From Ji Youyi’s perspective, she could only see her profile. Her skull was full and three-dimensional, and her facial contours were clear and tight.

Even though Director Ji had filmed all sorts of beauties when she was a director, she couldn’t think of a single head that was more perfectly shaped than this one.

Director Ji propped her chin on one hand, intending to enjoy a good look at this skull, when the owner of the skull seemed to notice and looked over at her.

A pair of peach-blossom eyes was calm and deep. When their gazes met, Ji Youyi’s breath hitched slightly, and she reflexively curved the corners of her lips in an instant.

“Don’t smile like that. It’s very fake.” A faint evaluation fell, and Meng Xingshu withdrew her gaze.

“??” Ji Youyi’s eyes widened.

She touched the corners of her mouth, disbelieving—

What part of it is fake? This smiling face of mine is clearly loved by everyone!