Chapter 77 - 76: The Fourth Retainer, Summoning Wind and Rain!
Chapter 77: Chapter 76: The Fourth Retainer, Summoning Wind and Rain!
This was clearly a premeditated trending topic. It had suddenly parachuted to the number one spot on the entertainment charts, igniting the fury of Bai Shuyi’s fans.
[Does Lu Qingyuan have paranoia? You’re terrified of water but insisted on filming a water scene anyway. Your wire snapped, you fell into the lake, and now you want to pin the blame on our Shuyi? Have you become so jealous that you’ve suffered a psychological breakdown?]
[I’m just asking, Lu Qingyuan, where’s your evidence? Throw the proof in my face if you have the guts. If not, apologize to Shuyi!]
[Our little Bai has always respected Lu Qingyuan as a senior. But what did Lu Qingyuan do? Just because you fell out of favor, what gives you the right to use our little Bai as your punching bag?]
However, her fans were smart. Instead of swarming Lu Qingyuan’s account to cause trouble, they played the victim to garner sympathy from other netizens.
Qingyuan didn’t get angry after reading the comments. Instead, she laughed. "Look, Sister Xu. The company is knocking me down a peg. They’re warning me not to go against them, or this is what happens when I refuse to bow my head."
"A Yuan..." Sister Xu felt terrible. "That’s why I told you to just bear with it. You still have to break into the international entertainment industry. If something goes wrong at this critical juncture, your career will be ruined!"
Shi Changying asked calmly, "The surveillance footage was destroyed. Is there no way to recover it?"
"There is, but we can’t get in touch with anyone who has that kind of technology." Sister Xu had a splitting headache, but more than that, she felt a chilling disappointment. "Mr. Gu has gone too far. Xingyi Entertainment was brought back to life entirely because of A Yuan!"
"Sister Xu!" Qingyuan suddenly called out. Sister Xu looked at her in confusion.
Shi Changying also smiled, her tone meaningful. "Yes, once you outlive your usefulness, you have to make way for someone else. Excellent."
Sister Xu didn’t understand, but Qingyuan knew that Shi Changying’s words weren’t just referring to her ordeal today. She was also talking about the Xiping Incident from four hundred years ago, involving the murder of a father and brother. That was perhaps the deepest, most unhealable scar in Empress Taichu’s heart.
"Sister Ying, go get some rest," Qingyuan sighed. "You don’t need to worry about such trivial matters. It’s not a matter of life and death, I—"
Shi Changying gave her an impassive look. Qingyuan shut her mouth. She could be arrogant and unyielding anywhere else, but in front of Empress Taichu, she genuinely didn’t dare cross the line.
Shi Changying asked again, "So as long as someone has sufficient computer skills, the surveillance footage can be recovered?"
"That’s true, but it’s never that simple," Sister Xu sighed. "The Gu family is a prominent clan in Mingjing, and they have connections with foreign conglomerates. We can’t afford to clash with them head-on."
"I understand." Shi Changying murmured in acknowledgment. She tilted her head and glanced at Qingyuan again. "Don’t ever let me hear the words ’life and death’ from you again."
Qingyuan was extremely obedient. "Got it, Sister Ying. Take care, Sister Ying."
After watching Shi Changying leave, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. Yet, her heart felt scorching hot, accompanied by a bittersweet ache. She had been struggling in the entertainment industry since she was sixteen. Starting as an extra, she had hit a wall countless times and had even endured a period where she was cyberbullied by the entire internet. But she never gave up, because what she had experienced in the past was far more painful than any cyberbullying. After all, what could be more agonizing than seeing your homeland shattered and your country destroyed? To her, even death wasn’t fearsome. How could these baseless rumors possibly hurt her? But her Your Majesty... She had only arrived in this modern era half a month ago and wasn’t even fully accustomed to life here yet, but she still wanted to protect her.
Qingyuan pressed her fingertips to the corners of her eyes, wiping away a few glistening tears before quickly regaining her composure. "Sister Xu, I’ll have to trouble you this time."
"What are you saying? I’m your manager. If I don’t help you, who will?" Sister Xu suddenly realized something was off. "Wait, what did you... what did you just call Miss Changying?"
Qingyuan repeated, "Sister Ying."
Sister Xu looked at her with a complicated expression. "Lu the Superstar, do you know how many years older you are than her?"
Qingyuan replied without changing her expression, "I’m eighteen every year. Go ask my fans; they’ll all tell you the same thing."
Sister Xu was speechless.
Qingyuan stretched lazily. So what if she called Shi Changying "Sister"? In her past life, she had inherently been one year younger than her Your Majesty. But four hundred years ago, she wouldn’t have dared to address Shi Changying like that. She was afraid Zhuge Mingyue would chase her down and beat her up. After all, she was just a weak woman with no martial arts skills.
"I was wondering why Bai Shuyi suddenly came looking for you earlier. It turns out she already had a backup plan and knew the company would definitely take her side." Sister Xu stomped her feet in anger again. "Who knows where she’s hiding right now, laughing at your misfortune. Has she never thought that if the company can abandon you today, they could easily abandon her for a newcomer tomorrow?"
Bai Shuyi genuinely hadn’t thought about that. In her view, she was the future pillar of Xingyi Entertainment. At this moment, she was comforting the big fan who had sneaked into the props team for Dragon Flying Phoenix. "Don’t worry, all the surveillance footage has been destroyed. Without evidence, Lu Qingyuan’s team can’t sue you. I know you did it for me, but please don’t do something like this again in the future."
The fan’s eyes were red. "Sister Bai, you’ll definitely become more famous than Lu Qingyuan in the future. She just got lucky!"
Bai Shuyi said flatly, "I used to look forward to becoming someone like her, but she disappointed me too much. She’s already out of mortal danger, so why must she insist on ruining you?"
"Lu Qingyuan isn’t as kind as she acts in front of the cameras anyway. She’s just a petty, vindictive person!" The fan became even more indignant, speaking without thinking. "It would have been better if she had just drowned and hadn’t been saved that day!"
"Don’t say that." Bai Shuyi frowned. "Don’t become someone like her. All right, go back and continue with your classes."
The fan wiped her tears and smiled. "Thank you for helping me, Sister Shuyi. The one panicking right now should be Lu Qingyuan." She was still a university student, and she absolutely couldn’t let Lu Qingyuan ruin her future.
The name Lu Qingyuan inherently carried immense popularity. The trending topic didn’t even need Xingyi to fuel the flames behind the scenes; it firmly secured its position at the top of the entertainment chart, followed by the tag "Explosive." Qingyuan, however, wasn’t anxious in the slightest. She even had the leisure to prepare a stack of autographed photos to give to Shi Changying.
Her phone rang right then. It was her private number, one that not even Xingyi knew about. Qingyuan’s eyes narrowed slightly as she pressed the answer button.
A clear, crisp female voice echoed from the receiver. "Miss Qingyuan, you really are a magnet for popularity. You’re trending every day, but why is it negative publicity today?"
"It’s nothing compared to how Miss Hua commands the wind and rain at Mingjing University. So many people want to be your student." Qingyuan raised an eyebrow and replied unhurriedly, "I’m sorry, I almost forgot. I shouldn’t call you Miss Hua. Your name isn’t Hua Shao anymore."
She was one of the Twelve Masters of Mingjing, Master of Arts, Hua Shao, the compiler of the Arithmetic and Science Volume of the Taichu Holy Scripture.