Chapter 4
Support the original translation team by reading on Chaotic Frog Scan Novels~
Gu Feining had made her debut quite early. She was only fifteen when she debuted in an artistic film about a young rebellious girl. At the time, she was still young and her acting had a lot of issues, but it was acceptable regardless. When the movie aired, although the ticket sales weren’t exceptional, she was nominated for quite a few best female lead awards.
Her luck, however, was not good. That year, her competitors were all established seniors with lucrative experience and status. Although she did not manage to snag any awards, she was praised by the media as the beacon of the new generation of actresses.
She could boast about those results for a few years.
Who would have expected after that, the entertainment industry would become increasingly superficial? In the past, everyone studied the script and polished their acting as much as they could but gradually, it became such that popularity took precedence over everything.
Even if you had the skills, it was no longer considered an advantage.
When Gu Feining turned twenty, her company helped her get a role in an idol drama. The reason was that idol dramas earned them money, and they were easy to film. The company felt she could not keep filming those art films that made little profit.
The industry was like that. Even if you had dreams, you needed to bow down to reality.
Furthermore, at that time, Gu Feining was unsure of what kind of actress she was.
She and Yuan Jinyan were the main leads of the show. Yuan Jinyan hadn’t yet become the famous film emperor that he was now. He was an actor who had just started to gain popularity.
The filming for an idol drama was indeed easier than an art film. Gu Feining, who had often been forced in front of the camera by the director and tortured till she broke down, even managed to get the nickname ‘one-take pass’1.
When that drama aired, although the viewership ratings were not as high as expected, the interactions between Gu Feining and Yuan Jinyan in the drama and in real life made the drama quite popular. In the show, the two of them were lovers, and out of the show, there were a lot of rumors they were together.
These comments were not created on purpose. While they were filming, the relationship between the two of them was very good. When they went to eat together one time, they happened to get photographed, and the media exposed them and claimed the two of them had gotten together for real after acting as a couple in the show. This caused an uproar online.
The promotional team for the drama started to promote them as an on-screen and off-screen couple, using their sweet moments as promotional material. The behind-the-scenes videos released were mostly of them joking around.
While the drama was being aired, the actors had to cooperate for the promotion of the film. This increase in popularity was due to the rumors that had started at the right time so the show continued to make use of these dating scandals. They did not admit nor deny them.
During promotional events for the drama, as soon as they were asked these kinds of questions, Gu Feining would push them to Yuan Jinyan. Gu Feining did not have the ability to deal with variety shows at all and when she was on stage, she would be very stiff. On the other hand, Yuan Jinyan would be very active. He was able to play around on variety shows, and even understand the jokes. He helped her in all kinds of ways. When Gu Feining had to face punishment, he would cover for her and when other people interacted with Gu Feining, Yuan Jinyan would jump out as well pretending to be jealous. Yuan Jinyan handed out fanservice and led her on at the same time in this manner.
While that thin barrier between friendship and lovers had not been destroyed yet, the fans were kept happy watching the drama and enjoying the CP. The viewership ratings made the production team happy. Her company was very happy when they saw the popularity of the two rise quickly. Gu Feining herself also felt very happy while she was being taken care of and at that time, she had so many events and shows to attend that she was only able to sleep just a few hours a day, but she was still very happy.
Although Yuan Jinyan did not explicitly tell Gu Feining he wanted to get together with her, his attitude was obviously telling everyone Gu Feining belonged to him.
However, just when Gu Feining thought that she would be able to have her first relationship, Yuan Jinyan went public with his real relationship. This was just one month after the drama finished airing.
At that point in time, Gu Feining had just entered the film group for her next show. She was very busy so her phone had been switched off the whole day. She was the last person in the entire production team to see the news. The people in the production team had joked with her, and even asked her how things were coming along, but now that her rumored boyfriend had gone public with his relationship, when was she going to find her other half?
Gu Feining smiled awkwardly, not responding. Yuan Jinyan did not pick up her calls so she searched online about who Yuan Jinyan was dating. The other person was the ‘Young Miss’ of the entertainment circle, Mi Ke, who had a lot of resources and a good family background.
Compared to Gu Feining, who could only rely on herself, Mi Ke’s family background could be considered very good. Her father was an important figure in the entertainment industry and her mother was the best manager in the entertainment industry, who even had her own entertainment agency.
Gu Feining ran off from the production set that night. It was her first time running away irresponsibly since she had debuted. She flew back overnight but was unable to even meet Yuan Jinyan.
He refused to see her, regardless of his guilt and how he had wronged her.
Gu Feining waited under Yuan Jinyan’s apartment block until midnight. After midnight, she entered a very small bar at a road intersection.
It was that night that she met Shi Xi who had just turned eighteen.
Her memory of that night was fragmented. Gu Feining had drunk a little too much and had been dealing with things as though she’d given up on herself. The next day, when she woke up, Gu Feining looked at the mess on the bed and the man buried in the blankets, a little stunned. The other person was deeply asleep. Under his soft hair, she could get a glimpse of a handsome side profile, the muscles were prominent on his naked back, and it was obvious that he had a very good figure. There were still scratch marks on his back that painted Gu Feining’s face red.
It was obvious everyone was happy the night before.
Although she felt she had been too impulsive, things had already happened, so she had to face it. It was too late for regrets.
Her only regret was that this night had happened because of Yuan Jinyan, not because she found someone she wanted to spend the night with nor because she’d met someone suitable. This was the thing she could not accept, losing her rationality because of Yuan Jinyan and letting such a night happen as a consequence. Hence, after she escaped, she chose to wipe the events of that night from her memory.
However, she had not expected she would meet the person from that night after several years had passed, and moreover, that person would turn out to be the most popular celebrity in the entertainment industry.
When she thought of things this way, she felt fate must be playing tricks on her.
Gu Feining had only spent two days thinking through the whole matter before directly removing Yuan Jinyan from her life back then.
But the fans did not think that way. At the time, there were a lot of comments on the Internet and the fans felt alienated by Yuan Jinyan’s actions. It felt to them like just seconds ago, the two of them were a cute CP with real emotions, but the next second, a girlfriend appeared that broke apart the CP.
There were a number of netizens who found the videos and photos from the past saying Gu Feining’s eyes when she looked at Yuan Jinyan were full of love. They even came up with all sorts of wild scenarios, all of them pointing towards the conclusion that she’d been ditched, and wanting to seek justice for her, openly dissed Yuan Jinyan and his girlfriend.
Many fans were comforting Gu Feining and analyzing the situation, but most of the netizens were not fans. Once they were done watching the drama unfold, they left, leaving Gu Feining to become a lone target who would get flamed horribly by Yuan Jinyan and Mi Ke’s fans.
Gu Feining had underestimated the fighting power of the fans of those two people. She was the innocent party in the situation yet she’d gotten scolded by those fans continuously for a few years. Even when Yuan Jinyan and Mi Ke had started to appear in public together showing off their love, she was still getting scolded.
Gu Feining had been unable to imagine the malice of anti-fans before this. After these few years, they had finally died down but at the start, not only herself but her family had also been affected to a certain extent. This was why every time she heard Shi Xi’s name now, she just wanted to hide in a hole and avoid him.
Faced with the same kind of situation, if she forgets the pain within just a few years of her wound being healed and embraces it, she must be truly bad at learning her lesson.
Therefore, when Yue Mei mentioned this matter again, Gu Feining told her decisively, “I can’t let go of that matter. I won’t be able to get over it even if I die.”
Although she no longer had feelings for him, it was impossible for her to let go of that matter. They were two separate things. Her career in recent years had deteriorated very quickly and it definitely had something to do with Yuan Jinyan and Mi Ke. When she went for auditions, people hinted to her a few times, asking her if she had offended anyone. At the start, she hadn’t been able to understand what was going on. But at one point, she came across Miss Mi at an audition and after they took a look at her, Gu Feining lost her chance to even audition for the role.
Because of Miss Mi’s interference, she lost a lot of opportunities. To make up for the losses, she started to accept roles in various shows like crazy. Whether the production was big or small, as long as they were willing to use her, she would accept the role. No matter how powerful Miss Mi was, she couldn’t cover the whole entertainment industry, right?
It was only after both her company and herself grew that the situation took a turn for the better.
In stark contrast to what Gu Feining was forced to face, Yuan Jinyan had been doing very well within two years of the event, directly rushing to the top of the industry. Perhaps he had rushed too high because in the two years following, he started to decline. It was very hard to guess what the audience liked. Suddenly, they no longer liked Yuan Feiyan’s ‘nice guy’ character and they started to care more about looks, preferring young actors who were both handsome and pretty.
Yue Mei was also helpless. To be honest, Gu Feining was a celebrity who was very obedient, willing to work hard, and possessed great acting skills. It was not hard to manage her at all. It was only on this matter with Yuan Jinyan that Gu Feining was extremely stubborn, refusing to compromise no matter what.
“If you want me to let go of what happened, I will only agree when I’m more popular than those two,” Gu Feining ate her food and added, “the kind of popularity that doesn’t rely on making use of other people’s popularity.”
Yue Mei held down the hand that Gu Feining was holding out to pick up more food. “This will be different from what happened back then. In the past, you were an active participant but this time, you’re the passive party. You can wriggle out any time you want.”
Gu Feining didn’t make a sound, put down her chopsticks and looked at Yue Mei.
Yue Mei continued to try and convince her, “The CP was brought up by the fans right? Shi Xi’s side didn’t clarify the truth, right? And he’s the one who switched his agency? He’s also the one who followed you and he’s the one who’s pushing your CP. It has nothing to do with you.”
“That’s true. Why are they letting this rumor spread without taking any action?”
In fact, Gu Feining found it very strange. When the fans find out their idol had a rumored girlfriend, shouldn’t they leave in anger? Why are these people supporting it instead?
“Shi Xi is almost twenty-two this year. Could he continue not acting in romance shows his whole life?” Yue Mei smiled coldly. “Based on your current status in the industry, you don’t have a lot of opportunities to work together with him. But before he works with other female celebrities, he can at least help you gain a bit more popularity. If you take this opportunity to work with him, his team might even help increase the popularity of the dating rumors.”
“How would you know?” Gu Feining did not really believe those words.
Yue Mei smiled, “It’s an old tactic of his manager. There are many tricks in this. Ask yourself, if this CP did not exist, would you reject this chance?”
Gu Feining shook her head. Right now, it was not the matter of her trying to make use of his popularity. The current situation was that she and Shi Xi really had a relationship they needed to hide. If it was possible, she thought it would be best she never met him again.
She had just raised that flag2 when she ended up meeting Shi Xi directly not long after anyway, in a manner that was impossible to avoid.
Chapter 4
Support the original translation team by reading on Chaotic Frog Scan Novels~
Gu Feining had made her debut quite early. She was only fifteen when she debuted in an artistic film about a young rebellious girl. At the time, she was still young and her acting had a lot of issues, but it was acceptable regardless. When the movie aired, although the ticket sales weren’t exceptional, she was nominated for quite a few best female lead awards.
Her luck, however, was not good. That year, her competitors were all established seniors with lucrative experience and status. Although she did not manage to snag any awards, she was praised by the media as the beacon of the new generation of actresses.
She could boast about those results for a few years.
Who would have expected after that, the entertainment industry would become increasingly superficial? In the past, everyone studied the script and polished their acting as much as they could but gradually, it became such that popularity took precedence over everything.
Even if you had the skills, it was no longer considered an advantage.
When Gu Feining turned twenty, her company helped her get a role in an idol drama. The reason was that idol dramas earned them money, and they were easy to film. The company felt she could not keep filming those art films that made little profit.
The industry was like that. Even if you had dreams, you needed to bow down to reality.
Furthermore, at that time, Gu Feining was unsure of what kind of actress she was.
She and Yuan Jinyan were the main leads of the show. Yuan Jinyan hadn’t yet become the famous film emperor that he was now. He was an actor who had just started to gain popularity.
The filming for an idol drama was indeed easier than an art film. Gu Feining, who had often been forced in front of the camera by the director and tortured till she broke down, even managed to get the nickname ‘one-take pass’1.
When that drama aired, although the viewership ratings were not as high as expected, the interactions between Gu Feining and Yuan Jinyan in the drama and in real life made the drama quite popular. In the show, the two of them were lovers, and out of the show, there were a lot of rumors they were together.
These comments were not created on purpose. While they were filming, the relationship between the two of them was very good. When they went to eat together one time, they happened to get photographed, and the media exposed them and claimed the two of them had gotten together for real after acting as a couple in the show. This caused an uproar online.
The promotional team for the drama started to promote them as an on-screen and off-screen couple, using their sweet moments as promotional material. The behind-the-scenes videos released were mostly of them joking around.
While the drama was being aired, the actors had to cooperate for the promotion of the film. This increase in popularity was due to the rumors that had started at the right time so the show continued to make use of these dating scandals. They did not admit nor deny them.
During promotional events for the drama, as soon as they were asked these kinds of questions, Gu Feining would push them to Yuan Jinyan. Gu Feining did not have the ability to deal with variety shows at all and when she was on stage, she would be very stiff. On the other hand, Yuan Jinyan would be very active. He was able to play around on variety shows, and even understand the jokes. He helped her in all kinds of ways. When Gu Feining had to face punishment, he would cover for her and when other people interacted with Gu Feining, Yuan Jinyan would jump out as well pretending to be jealous. Yuan Jinyan handed out fanservice and led her on at the same time in this manner.
While that thin barrier between friendship and lovers had not been destroyed yet, the fans were kept happy watching the drama and enjoying the CP. The viewership ratings made the production team happy. Her company was very happy when they saw the popularity of the two rise quickly. Gu Feining herself also felt very happy while she was being taken care of and at that time, she had so many events and shows to attend that she was only able to sleep just a few hours a day, but she was still very happy.
Although Yuan Jinyan did not explicitly tell Gu Feining he wanted to get together with her, his attitude was obviously telling everyone Gu Feining belonged to him.
However, just when Gu Feining thought that she would be able to have her first relationship, Yuan Jinyan went public with his real relationship. This was just one month after the drama finished airing.
At that point in time, Gu Feining had just entered the film group for her next show. She was very busy so her phone had been switched off the whole day. She was the last person in the entire production team to see the news. The people in the production team had joked with her, and even asked her how things were coming along, but now that her rumored boyfriend had gone public with his relationship, when was she going to find her other half?
Gu Feining smiled awkwardly, not responding. Yuan Jinyan did not pick up her calls so she searched online about who Yuan Jinyan was dating. The other person was the ‘Young Miss’ of the entertainment circle, Mi Ke, who had a lot of resources and a good family background.
Compared to Gu Feining, who could only rely on herself, Mi Ke’s family background could be considered very good. Her father was an important figure in the entertainment industry and her mother was the best manager in the entertainment industry, who even had her own entertainment agency.
Gu Feining ran off from the production set that night. It was her first time running away irresponsibly since she had debuted. She flew back overnight but was unable to even meet Yuan Jinyan.
He refused to see her, regardless of his guilt and how he had wronged her.
Gu Feining waited under Yuan Jinyan’s apartment block until midnight. After midnight, she entered a very small bar at a road intersection.
It was that night that she met Shi Xi who had just turned eighteen.
Her memory of that night was fragmented. Gu Feining had drunk a little too much and had been dealing with things as though she’d given up on herself. The next day, when she woke up, Gu Feining looked at the mess on the bed and the man buried in the blankets, a little stunned. The other person was deeply asleep. Under his soft hair, she could get a glimpse of a handsome side profile, the muscles were prominent on his naked back, and it was obvious that he had a very good figure. There were still scratch marks on his back that painted Gu Feining’s face red.
It was obvious everyone was happy the night before.
Although she felt she had been too impulsive, things had already happened, so she had to face it. It was too late for regrets.
Her only regret was that this night had happened because of Yuan Jinyan, not because she found someone she wanted to spend the night with nor because she’d met someone suitable. This was the thing she could not accept, losing her rationality because of Yuan Jinyan and letting such a night happen as a consequence. Hence, after she escaped, she chose to wipe the events of that night from her memory.
However, she had not expected she would meet the person from that night after several years had passed, and moreover, that person would turn out to be the most popular celebrity in the entertainment industry.
When she thought of things this way, she felt fate must be playing tricks on her.
Gu Feining had only spent two days thinking through the whole matter before directly removing Yuan Jinyan from her life back then.
But the fans did not think that way. At the time, there were a lot of comments on the Internet and the fans felt alienated by Yuan Jinyan’s actions. It felt to them like just seconds ago, the two of them were a cute CP with real emotions, but the next second, a girlfriend appeared that broke apart the CP.
There were a number of netizens who found the videos and photos from the past saying Gu Feining’s eyes when she looked at Yuan Jinyan were full of love. They even came up with all sorts of wild scenarios, all of them pointing towards the conclusion that she’d been ditched, and wanting to seek justice for her, openly dissed Yuan Jinyan and his girlfriend.
Many fans were comforting Gu Feining and analyzing the situation, but most of the netizens were not fans. Once they were done watching the drama unfold, they left, leaving Gu Feining to become a lone target who would get flamed horribly by Yuan Jinyan and Mi Ke’s fans.
Gu Feining had underestimated the fighting power of the fans of those two people. She was the innocent party in the situation yet she’d gotten scolded by those fans continuously for a few years. Even when Yuan Jinyan and Mi Ke had started to appear in public together showing off their love, she was still getting scolded.
Gu Feining had been unable to imagine the malice of anti-fans before this. After these few years, they had finally died down but at the start, not only herself but her family had also been affected to a certain extent. This was why every time she heard Shi Xi’s name now, she just wanted to hide in a hole and avoid him.
Faced with the same kind of situation, if she forgets the pain within just a few years of her wound being healed and embraces it, she must be truly bad at learning her lesson.
Therefore, when Yue Mei mentioned this matter again, Gu Feining told her decisively, “I can’t let go of that matter. I won’t be able to get over it even if I die.”
Although she no longer had feelings for him, it was impossible for her to let go of that matter. They were two separate things. Her career in recent years had deteriorated very quickly and it definitely had something to do with Yuan Jinyan and Mi Ke. When she went for auditions, people hinted to her a few times, asking her if she had offended anyone. At the start, she hadn’t been able to understand what was going on. But at one point, she came across Miss Mi at an audition and after they took a look at her, Gu Feining lost her chance to even audition for the role.
Because of Miss Mi’s interference, she lost a lot of opportunities. To make up for the losses, she started to accept roles in various shows like crazy. Whether the production was big or small, as long as they were willing to use her, she would accept the role. No matter how powerful Miss Mi was, she couldn’t cover the whole entertainment industry, right?
It was only after both her company and herself grew that the situation took a turn for the better.
In stark contrast to what Gu Feining was forced to face, Yuan Jinyan had been doing very well within two years of the event, directly rushing to the top of the industry. Perhaps he had rushed too high because in the two years following, he started to decline. It was very hard to guess what the audience liked. Suddenly, they no longer liked Yuan Feiyan’s ‘nice guy’ character and they started to care more about looks, preferring young actors who were both handsome and pretty.
Yue Mei was also helpless. To be honest, Gu Feining was a celebrity who was very obedient, willing to work hard, and possessed great acting skills. It was not hard to manage her at all. It was only on this matter with Yuan Jinyan that Gu Feining was extremely stubborn, refusing to compromise no matter what.
“If you want me to let go of what happened, I will only agree when I’m more popular than those two,” Gu Feining ate her food and added, “the kind of popularity that doesn’t rely on making use of other people’s popularity.”
Yue Mei held down the hand that Gu Feining was holding out to pick up more food. “This will be different from what happened back then. In the past, you were an active participant but this time, you’re the passive party. You can wriggle out any time you want.”
Gu Feining didn’t make a sound, put down her chopsticks and looked at Yue Mei.
Yue Mei continued to try and convince her, “The CP was brought up by the fans right? Shi Xi’s side didn’t clarify the truth, right? And he’s the one who switched his agency? He’s also the one who followed you and he’s the one who’s pushing your CP. It has nothing to do with you.”
“That’s true. Why are they letting this rumor spread without taking any action?”
In fact, Gu Feining found it very strange. When the fans find out their idol had a rumored girlfriend, shouldn’t they leave in anger? Why are these people supporting it instead?
“Shi Xi is almost twenty-two this year. Could he continue not acting in romance shows his whole life?” Yue Mei smiled coldly. “Based on your current status in the industry, you don’t have a lot of opportunities to work together with him. But before he works with other female celebrities, he can at least help you gain a bit more popularity. If you take this opportunity to work with him, his team might even help increase the popularity of the dating rumors.”
“How would you know?” Gu Feining did not really believe those words.
Yue Mei smiled, “It’s an old tactic of his manager. There are many tricks in this. Ask yourself, if this CP did not exist, would you reject this chance?”
Gu Feining shook her head. Right now, it was not the matter of her trying to make use of his popularity. The current situation was that she and Shi Xi really had a relationship they needed to hide. If it was possible, she thought it would be best she never met him again.
She had just raised that flag2 when she ended up meeting Shi Xi directly not long after anyway, in a manner that was impossible to avoid.
