28 Go to Sleep

Qiaoqiao: Thank you.

That night, Su Qiao didn't rest. There were wines and spirits in the mini-bar but she ended up calling in fried chicken and two cans of beer for a binge. Sure, her face will be puffy tomorrow morning from the salt and alcohol and Makeup would have a field day trying to fix it but she needed a break.

She didn't receive any more messages from Lin Zixun after, which was surprising, considering the lengths he'd gone to to make contact with her in the first place. She'd expected him to ask for a favour in return for his assistance but there was nothing but radio silence on his end after her text went through.

Whatever. Su Qiao wasn't ungrateful. She could owe him one, as long as he didn't cook up a ridiculous payback, like marrying his brother again to steal DFE's corporate secrets or something equally inane. At some point, Lin Zixun would make his intentions clear, and Su Qiao could weigh up the pros and cons then and decide whether it was worth suggesting an alliance with him. But she wasn't going to be anyone's pawn, so if that was what he had in mind, then he could take that idea and stuff it.

Su Qiao gulped down the remaining beer and tore into her last chicken wing. One of Mo Chen's movies was showing on TV at the moment. Normally, she would use this as an opportunity to dissect his abilities and see how she could improve from them. But she was too restless and uneasy for this.

This wasn't the last she saw of Xue Junxie's bullshit, she was sure. She hadn't noticed any paparazzi lurking on the corridor just now but that didn't exclude hidden cameras and all sorts of other underhanded tactics that the tabloids were fond of using. Every ten minutes or so, she would cave and check the trends on Weibo. Peng Lili was still sleeping and Su Qiao didn't want to wake her up just for this because she'd had an equally taxing day.

But Manager Yu had been told of course. She took pride in the stellar management of her artists and Su Qiao was certain that she would want to know about any disasters the second they happened. This made all the difference with damage control. Manager Yu didn't scold Su Qiao for disturbing her so late at night but she gave Su Qiao a stern lecture about not answering the door past a certain time, regardless of who was knocking.

"I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, Yu Jie." Su ran a hand through the tangles at the ends of her curls. "I was careless when he said it was about work. It didn't seem right to send him away when he said he'd come over to hand me a script from Director Ma."

"I'm going to call Director Ma the second we put down," Manager Yu said darkly. "But Su Qiao, you need to remember, no male colleague who respected you would go over to your door at this hour of the night. That's not professionalism, that's being dodgy. The climate of the entertainment industry in our country is very sensitive, one wrong rumour about a relationship could have half your fan base deserting you tomorrow. If Xue Junxie wanted to be considerate about your reputation, there were plenty of ways he could have handed you that script without showing up on your doorstep."

Manager Yu had a good point. "So next time, I don't answer the door even if it were Film Emperor Mo?" Su Qiao said, only half-jokingly.

"The difference being, Film Emperor Mo's probably even more terrified of being caught alone with you than you with him." Manager Yu chortled at the mere suggestion. "I'll let it slide this time around because you're young and still unused to dealing with the dirty business that comes hand-in-hand with this career path you've chosen. But don't let this happen to you again."

All in all, it was a fair rebuke. Su Qiao deserved it. She'd been over-confident in her judgement after rebirth but luckily this was a small price to pay for a lesson well learnt.

Shortly after putting down the call, Su Qiao received an update from Manager Yu via text, proving once again that she was the most efficient person that Su Qiao had ever met.

Yu Jie: I tried obtaining the security footage for your level but as expected, someone had already deleted it

Yu Jie: Luckily, I managed to track down the two security guards on your floor and they have agreed to provide testimony that Xue Junxie was harassing you.

Yu Jie: Still, this proves that the whole thing was a setup. Someone's out to get you, Young Mistress Su. You've offended a whole host of people lately from the sounds of it, any idea who we're dealing with this time?

Su Qiao sighed. The better question would be, who weren't they dealing with this time? Bai Meixin, Lin Zizhou, the Su Family. They were all more or less on the same side, not to mention Bai Meixin's army of suitors and knights in shining armour, all who were just gagging for the opportunity to prove themselves in front of the maiden of their heart.

She could formulate a whole list of romantic cannon fodders who had fallen at the hem of Bai Meixin's virtuous maxi skirts but as far as she knew, none of them was present on the set of 'Diamond in the Rough'.

This didn't mean that Bai Meixin couldn't gain a new following here though. If this was Xue Junxie's new role in the novel, then surely he only had himself to blame for catching the attention of the antagonist.

She poured the rest of the second can of beer down her throat before wiping the stray drop on the corner of her lips with the back of her hand. It was unladylike but there was no one around to watch her manners for and with a careless toss, she chucked it back into the empty takeaway plastic bag. Peng Lili was big on recycling and would be more than happy to take it to the nearest appropriate disposal tomorrow.

Time crawled. It was only at 5:45 in the morning, Su Qiao's eyes bloodshot from fatigue and back aching from her uncomfortable curl up on the couch, when her name finally showed up on Weibo. The poster was a big 'V' account with tons of followers. It often disseminated news about celebrities and was 'famous' for having insider information, which raised its credibility. In part, this was because the juicy goss it often leaked about so-and-so's secret marriage or so-and-so's solicitation of prostitutes tended to turn out accurate.

Today, this account's target was Su Qiao.

BigBrotherWon'tTellYou: Rich Heiress Plays with Little Fresh Meat? This Young Mistress Su is so shameless, relying on so many rounds of plastic surgery for her looks only to use it to catch poor innocent boys who don't have any backing in the industry. Little Brother Xue, quick, run! Don't go into the witch's lair!

The photographs attached to the post were taken from behind Xue Junxie but they had a head-on view of Su Qiao, from her dishevelled ponytail all the way down to the mismatched combination of her clothes. The post had barely been up for a minute when the comments section started flooding with jeers about her dressing and appearance.

Su Qiao's smile was ugly. Triple digits comments at 6 am on a weekday? Which industrious internet navy (1) did they hire to insult her?

The comments poured in, each one nastier than another.

She deliberated creating an alt account just to argue with them for the sake of it to vent off some steam. But one new comment that was starting to gain a lot of likes caught her eye. It was a video of Xue Junxie and her, sitting close together on set. In it, Su Qiao's expression was cold and aloof but Xue Junxie's was earnest as he held out a hand. Their dialogue couldn't be heard and they were angled in such a way that it was hard to lipread.

After a long, reluctant while, Su Qiao finally offered her hand and Xue Junxie squeezed it.

This was where the video ended.

The commenter wrote: Insider on the set, I'm a Xue Junxie fan and couldn't believe that they had a thing going on until I saw it. The only problem with Big Brother is that he has such bad taste! I'm so sick of seeing the way Su Qiao acts all high and mighty on the set, giving my big brother attitude! Who does she think she is? And not only does she bully Big Brother, but she also treats that new actress, Bai Meixin like trash! Su Qiao, you're a piece of shit and should quit the industry!

Su Qiao watched the video again and had to laugh at herself. She'd anticipated some sort of backlash then but Xue Junxie had decided to wait until now, she supposed she should applaud him for his patience. She didn't think he had it in him to attempt a long con.

Except she hadn't been conned. She had dressed down to mitigate the impact of any potential videos or photographs, had taken note of the date and time Xue Junxie had innocently asked to hold her hand as part of rehearsing the scene. In the morning, if Manager Yu hadn't gotten there first, she was going to march up to Director Ma and demand he did damage control.

Otherwise, they could find another Yuan Siqi. And she was confident that they would have to find Wei Yunian too.

She changed her mind about the alt account. In her last lifetime, she had spent a good portion of her evenings fighting back against haters online. She wasn't going to stoop to their level now. She didn't have a huge abundance of money at her disposal and couldn't pay to remove her name from trending on hot topics but this was an issue for Manager Yu—

Wait.

She blinked. Closed the app and opened it one more time.

Was Manager Yu that efficient?

The hashtags that contained Su Qiao's name were gone. They had been wiped off the list completely by a whole host of other scandals, of which two or three of them included Xun Junxie's illicit drug history and knocking up an ex while still in high school.

Su Qiao tried to enter BigBrotherWon'tTellYou's page but the account didn't exist anymore.

This couldn't be the work of Manager Yu. She wouldn't have been able to get approval from DFE's finance department this easily. Unless…

Her phone buzzed again. Lesser of Two Evils finally replied.

Lesser of Two Evils: You're welcome.

Su Qiao's hands trembled. Why did Lin Zixun—? What was in it for him? She wanted to ask but didn't know how to phrase it, typing and undoing her words repeatedly until maybe Lin Zixun grew bored of waiting for her to compose her message.

He replied first.

Lesser of Two Evils: Go to sleep, little girl, it's way past your bedtime.