Chapter 5
Support the original translation team by reading on Chaotic Frog Scan Novels~
The entertainment circle was truly a small circle, the people who should meet would always meet.
After Gu Feining rejected Yue Mei’s proposal, she peacefully finished the rest of her filming.
Upon finishing the filming and returning to the city, she would finally be able to take a break. These few years, she had been so busy with work that she hadn’t been able to accompany her parents properly. Thus, she was planning to travel with her parents this month, which would allow her to avoid the recent rumors that were gaining popularity as well.
The hot topic about Shi Xi signing to a new company had just died down a bit when his first television drama was announced. For Shi Xi’s first drama, it was definitely a big IP1. The original book was very popular with a lot of fans, and when people heard the male lead would be played by Shi Xi, there were instantly two sides with conflicting opinions that started to argue.
In terms of popularity, Shi Xi’s status in the entertainment industry did meet some of the requirements of a male lead for the fans of the original novel, but the issue of his acting skills remained a problem. After all, Shi Xi was a complete newbie with no experience in acting so they were worried that he would ruin the show.
This whole uproar went on for a few days.
When Gu Feining looked at Weibo recently, she would practically see Shi Xi trending every time. In the past, she did not care about such things so she didn’t realize, but now that she paid slightly more attention, she realized that the whole world was amazingly filled with Shi Xi.
The advertisements, the endorsements, the trending page, they were all about him.
When Shi Xi followed her, she had only hesitated for two days when the number of comments under her Weibo had reached a few thousand from three-digit numbers. They were all from Shi Xi’s fans, helping their idol ask for a follow back, scared that their idol might lose out. In the midst were quite a few CP fans, asking her why she was not following Shi Xi back.
Her private messages also exploded. In the past, she would respond to a few messages from her fans, and now, she couldn’t even find the messages from her die-hard fans.
Gu Feining felt troubled just looking at it and threw her phone to Xiao Mang, getting her to follow him.
Xiao Mang was so happy that she could fly. If it was not for the fact that she was scared that Gu Feining would scold her, she would’ve probably sent a private message to Shi Xi too.
As soon as she followed him, the CP fans celebrated. The CP that they’d kept trying to connect had finally interacted with each other.
They were already following each other, so wasn’t working together a possibility now?
While the Internet was in an uproar, Gu Feining felt very frustrated. In the past, she would search up her name from time to time, to see what everyone thought about her. Now when she searched her name, she would often see Shi Xi’s name beside hers. And there were many edited clips and drawings of the two of them that fans made. The most absurd thing was those fanfictions. In the fans’ stories, their children were already grown up, and they had already done all kinds of things together.
Gu Feining felt her head ache. It made her lose the will to look at Weibo for a few days.
Of course, there were some who scolded her. The other was a popular celebrity, while Gu Feining was not even an A-lister. From the netizens’ standpoint, whether two celebrities were a good match or not depended on their respective statuses. They were saying all kinds of things, but all these things were nothing to Gu Feining as she had already experienced this once from Yuan Jinyan’s matter.
Nonetheless, seeing such things so often online annoyed Gu Feining a lot and she felt that she really needed a holiday to comfort herself after experiencing all these overwhelming matters lately.
At the end of the month, Gu Feining finished filming her show, and on the day she returned, it just happened to be the fiftieth birthday of the company’s CEO and his wife. The birthdays of this couple only differed by a day, so they celebrated their birthdays together every year. This year was their fiftieth birthday, which was a large milestone in life, so they definitely needed to hold a big celebration. It was said that they had even started preparing a few months in advance, so it was quite obvious how large of an event it was going to be.
In the past, Gu Feining wasn’t able to participate in their birthday celebrations due to her work schedule. This year, she happened to be free so Yue Mei asked her to attend. She had no reason not to, plus if she did not go although she was free, it would be hard for her to explain.
From debut till now, Gu Feining had signed with Le Cheng for almost ten years. The CEO and his wife were both very nice to her, and at the start, whatever resources they had, they would give them to her. However, at that time, the scale of Le Cheng was not as big as it was now.
Now, Le Cheng had grown into a giant in the entertainment circle and was no longer the same as before. Not only were there quite a number of A-listers in the agency now, there were also many trainees preparing to debut. In this industry, there would always be newcomers pushing the older celebrities out, often making the rise, maturity, and decline of celebrities quite short.
On top of this, the agency’s limited resources could only be split by one’s ability. The people above with high statuses got the best resources, while people like Gu Feining were the type who could only get their leftovers, although it was still not as bad as the people further down the line.
This was why it was said that the industry was incredibly competitive. Not to mention competing with people from other agencies, the competition among those within the same agency was enough to rival a palace drama. Although Gu Feining was not considered a top actress in the agency, people still showed her respect as she was one of the senior members.
Despite all this, no matter how hard one worked, the audience tended to love the new and hate the old. Yesterday, they might have called someone ‘sweetie’, but today, they could be calling someone else ‘pretty lady’.
On the day of the birthday party, Xiao Mang sent Gu Feining to the venue of the party. Gu Feining repeatedly warned her not to run around, to prevent the same thing occurring as the previous time Xiao Meng could not be reached when she needed her. Xiao Mang nodded her head vigorously but her eyes had already begun to stray. There were many celebrities coming today, and all of them were quite high up.
This birthday party was totally different from the previous years’. In the previous years, it would only be a celebration held privately with the people in the agency, the CEO, and his wife. The scale of the party this year was much grander. All the people in the entertainment circle who had fairly good relationships with the couple were present. The celebrities who were able to attend a party held by the Le Cheng CEO and his wife were naturally celebrities of high status.
Gu Feining had chosen to wear a black strapless dress this day, exposing her beautiful collarbones. She was wearing a playful-looking choker on her neck, with little stars hanging from it. Her long hair had been styled into large elegant curls. The belt on her waist made her look very slim, and to maintain that, she couldn’t eat anything tonight. She was wearing thin high heels on her feet as usual, making her long legs particularly eye-catching. Tonight, Gu Feining was low-key, but still looked a little lively, ensuring she wasn’t too flashy nor too simply dressed.
After saying goodbye to Xiao Mang, Gu Feining stepped out of the car gracefully, holding wrapped gifts and a small handbag.
The birthday party was being held at the CEO’s villa. From the number of cars outside the door, one could tell how many people came tonight. Just looking at the entrance, she could already feel how crowded it would be inside.
There was a stone path upon entering through the gates. Although she did not have a problem with her balance, she couldn’t help but feel on edge when she stepped on the slabs of rocks with her thin high heels so she took extra care walking down the path. It was quite dark at night, and the streetlights were a dull yellow, so she lowered her head and watched the ground as she walked very carefully.
She was walking with much concentration when suddenly, someone appeared from behind her, laughing quietly, “Are you so afraid of falling?”
Gu Feining raised her head and saw Shi Xi in a crisp suit that made him look extremely dashing as he stood by her side. He was smiling as he extended his arm, motioning for her to hold on.
As always, Shi Xi was the center of people’s attention no matter where it was. When he reached out his arm and stood by Gu Feining, Gu Feining felt the gazes of people passing by, landing on her. But she couldn’t be bothered to think too much and said thank you before reaching out to hold his arm.
With the help of Shi Xi, Gu Feining walked fast and steadily, arriving at the main house quickly. Before entering the banquet hall, she wanted to retract her hand, but was stopped by Shi Xi, who turned to the side and looked at her, “You want to throw me away as soon as you finish using me?”
As soon as she heard those words, Gu Feining’s eyes widened as she kept feeling like those words held a double meaning.
“I… didn’t,” Gu Feining quickly denied it, “It’s just…”
But she couldn’t think of a suitable reason to explain herself.
“Since you don’t have a partner and nor do I, let’s go in together,” Shi Xi issued an invitation.
Gu Feining did not dare to reject his invitation, worried that he would throw out the words of ‘throwing him away after using him’ again, so she nodded her head and followed Shi Xi into the banquet hall.
As soon as they entered, Gu Feining got a taste of the power of being an A-lister. The gazes of everyone inside turned towards Shi Xi. Shi Xi waved and escorted her further into the banquet hall. She wasn’t sure whether it was because everyone’s attention was on her, but she suddenly felt nervous and her body shook a little while standing by his side. Shi Xi’s reaction was prompt and considerate, he reached out his hand to lightly hold onto her waist.
Gu Feining had tried to carefully put some distance between the two of them but Shi Xi took the initiative to hold her closer and walked inwards, “Let’s go and greet CEO Le and his wife first.”
This was basic courtesy and Gu Feining had no reason to decline.
As expected, the CEO and his wife were surprised to see Shi Xi and Gu Feining appear together. After Gu Feining and Shi Xi gave them their well-wishes, CEO Le jokingly said Shi Xi was her junior so Gu Feining had to take good care of him.
Shi Xi complied with the boss’s words and told Gu Feining, “Senior, please take care of me in the future!”
Gu Feining felt a little awkward. It seemed like during the two times they’d met, he was the one taking care of her, not the other way around.
After chatting idly for a bit, Mrs. Le took Gu Feining’s hand and said, “Come over here and chat with me for a little while!”
Mrs. Le had always liked Gu Feining a lot. She truly wanted to help Gu Feining rise to fame. In the earlier years, Gu Feining had been doing alright, but with the current situation in the entertainment circle, along with how unlucky she was, she had never managed to grow more popular.
Gu Feining also breathed a sigh of relief. Standing alongside Shi Xi, she felt tense all over. Even her back was straighter than usual. Mrs. Le brought Gu Feining into a side lounge. Although the elegant woman was now fifty, her aura was still unmatched by Gu Feining and the rest of the young women in their early twenties. It was an aura that she had cultivated as she aged and what she had experienced throughout her years. In addition to elegance, there was also a certain flamboyance to her.
“I heard Yue Mei say that you rejected a role in Shi Xi’s new show?” Mrs. Le had always been the direct kind. She did not bother beating around the bush with Gu Feining and went straight to the main point.
Gu Feining was able to trick Yue Mei, but she did not dare to do the same to Mrs. Le. She honestly explained the reason why she rejected the offer. She also knew that a large part of her giving up such a good opportunity was due to her personal reasons.
Yue Mei also told her, “There’s a shortcut, but you aren’t willing to take it. If you miss this opportunity, who knows how much longer you’ll need to walk to get to your destination.”
After Yue Mei left, she thought seriously about whether what she was doing was worth it. These past few years, it wasn’t like there weren’t any opportunities for her. On the contrary, she did have quite a lot of opportunities. Almost every time she attended a dinner party, someone would give her hints2 but she’d reject them every time. In the end, she had Yue Mei stop arranging sponsor meals for her, and even if they were arranged, she did not attend. The stubbornness she held deep inside had persisted since she debuted.
She had offended a lot of people due to this but had also gotten to know a quite few good people. In this entertainment industry, she had a good reputation. However, a good reputation was useless, and all one needed was to be popular. And she had ended up forgoing many shortcuts to achieving this.
Those who were willing to use their body had long left her behind. But the opportunity now of going along with popular trends seemed to be better than bowing one’s head towards those horrendous deeds3.
However, when she remembered the incident that took place after she’d gone crazy a few years ago, she felt that if she really went for it, things could get very troublesome.
“I do feel it can be good for you to reject this offer.” Mrs. Le did not blame her. “It’ll lower your status if you snatch for a role from those young actors, given the number of resources you have at your disposal. Anyway, the female lead had already been decided a long time ago, Yue Mei was being a little too anxious.”
Gu Feining felt a little awkward. Actually, she was only twenty-five this year. She wasn’t as old as Mrs. Le implied, right? “Sister Yue Mei was also doing it for me.”
“Mhmm… But I have a better proposition for you. If you reject this too, I won’t be able to help you,” Mrs. Le participated in the management for the company. Shi Xi’s show was a large project, so she definitely needed to handle it. Naturally, she had the decision-making power as well. The company was the one producing the show, so it was reasonable to have people from their company inserted into the show, “You can go and be a mentor!”
“Ah?” Gu Feining was stunned. “A mentor?”
“Yes, with your qualifications, it shouldn’t be a problem for you to guide other actors right?”
Support the original translation team by reading on Chaotic Frog Scan Novels~
Translator’s Notes:
It stands for ‘Intellectual Property’ which is a big term within the Chinese film industry, doesn’t mean the exact same thing as it does in English.
Chapter 5
Support the original translation team by reading on Chaotic Frog Scan Novels~
The entertainment circle was truly a small circle, the people who should meet would always meet.
After Gu Feining rejected Yue Mei’s proposal, she peacefully finished the rest of her filming.
Upon finishing the filming and returning to the city, she would finally be able to take a break. These few years, she had been so busy with work that she hadn’t been able to accompany her parents properly. Thus, she was planning to travel with her parents this month, which would allow her to avoid the recent rumors that were gaining popularity as well.
The hot topic about Shi Xi signing to a new company had just died down a bit when his first television drama was announced. For Shi Xi’s first drama, it was definitely a big IP1. The original book was very popular with a lot of fans, and when people heard the male lead would be played by Shi Xi, there were instantly two sides with conflicting opinions that started to argue.
In terms of popularity, Shi Xi’s status in the entertainment industry did meet some of the requirements of a male lead for the fans of the original novel, but the issue of his acting skills remained a problem. After all, Shi Xi was a complete newbie with no experience in acting so they were worried that he would ruin the show.
This whole uproar went on for a few days.
When Gu Feining looked at Weibo recently, she would practically see Shi Xi trending every time. In the past, she did not care about such things so she didn’t realize, but now that she paid slightly more attention, she realized that the whole world was amazingly filled with Shi Xi.
The advertisements, the endorsements, the trending page, they were all about him.
When Shi Xi followed her, she had only hesitated for two days when the number of comments under her Weibo had reached a few thousand from three-digit numbers. They were all from Shi Xi’s fans, helping their idol ask for a follow back, scared that their idol might lose out. In the midst were quite a few CP fans, asking her why she was not following Shi Xi back.
Her private messages also exploded. In the past, she would respond to a few messages from her fans, and now, she couldn’t even find the messages from her die-hard fans.
Gu Feining felt troubled just looking at it and threw her phone to Xiao Mang, getting her to follow him.
Xiao Mang was so happy that she could fly. If it was not for the fact that she was scared that Gu Feining would scold her, she would’ve probably sent a private message to Shi Xi too.
As soon as she followed him, the CP fans celebrated. The CP that they’d kept trying to connect had finally interacted with each other.
They were already following each other, so wasn’t working together a possibility now?
While the Internet was in an uproar, Gu Feining felt very frustrated. In the past, she would search up her name from time to time, to see what everyone thought about her. Now when she searched her name, she would often see Shi Xi’s name beside hers. And there were many edited clips and drawings of the two of them that fans made. The most absurd thing was those fanfictions. In the fans’ stories, their children were already grown up, and they had already done all kinds of things together.
Gu Feining felt her head ache. It made her lose the will to look at Weibo for a few days.
Of course, there were some who scolded her. The other was a popular celebrity, while Gu Feining was not even an A-lister. From the netizens’ standpoint, whether two celebrities were a good match or not depended on their respective statuses. They were saying all kinds of things, but all these things were nothing to Gu Feining as she had already experienced this once from Yuan Jinyan’s matter.
Nonetheless, seeing such things so often online annoyed Gu Feining a lot and she felt that she really needed a holiday to comfort herself after experiencing all these overwhelming matters lately.
At the end of the month, Gu Feining finished filming her show, and on the day she returned, it just happened to be the fiftieth birthday of the company’s CEO and his wife. The birthdays of this couple only differed by a day, so they celebrated their birthdays together every year. This year was their fiftieth birthday, which was a large milestone in life, so they definitely needed to hold a big celebration. It was said that they had even started preparing a few months in advance, so it was quite obvious how large of an event it was going to be.
In the past, Gu Feining wasn’t able to participate in their birthday celebrations due to her work schedule. This year, she happened to be free so Yue Mei asked her to attend. She had no reason not to, plus if she did not go although she was free, it would be hard for her to explain.
From debut till now, Gu Feining had signed with Le Cheng for almost ten years. The CEO and his wife were both very nice to her, and at the start, whatever resources they had, they would give them to her. However, at that time, the scale of Le Cheng was not as big as it was now.
Now, Le Cheng had grown into a giant in the entertainment circle and was no longer the same as before. Not only were there quite a number of A-listers in the agency now, there were also many trainees preparing to debut. In this industry, there would always be newcomers pushing the older celebrities out, often making the rise, maturity, and decline of celebrities quite short.
On top of this, the agency’s limited resources could only be split by one’s ability. The people above with high statuses got the best resources, while people like Gu Feining were the type who could only get their leftovers, although it was still not as bad as the people further down the line.
This was why it was said that the industry was incredibly competitive. Not to mention competing with people from other agencies, the competition among those within the same agency was enough to rival a palace drama. Although Gu Feining was not considered a top actress in the agency, people still showed her respect as she was one of the senior members.
Despite all this, no matter how hard one worked, the audience tended to love the new and hate the old. Yesterday, they might have called someone ‘sweetie’, but today, they could be calling someone else ‘pretty lady’.
On the day of the birthday party, Xiao Mang sent Gu Feining to the venue of the party. Gu Feining repeatedly warned her not to run around, to prevent the same thing occurring as the previous time Xiao Meng could not be reached when she needed her. Xiao Mang nodded her head vigorously but her eyes had already begun to stray. There were many celebrities coming today, and all of them were quite high up.
This birthday party was totally different from the previous years’. In the previous years, it would only be a celebration held privately with the people in the agency, the CEO, and his wife. The scale of the party this year was much grander. All the people in the entertainment circle who had fairly good relationships with the couple were present. The celebrities who were able to attend a party held by the Le Cheng CEO and his wife were naturally celebrities of high status.
Gu Feining had chosen to wear a black strapless dress this day, exposing her beautiful collarbones. She was wearing a playful-looking choker on her neck, with little stars hanging from it. Her long hair had been styled into large elegant curls. The belt on her waist made her look very slim, and to maintain that, she couldn’t eat anything tonight. She was wearing thin high heels on her feet as usual, making her long legs particularly eye-catching. Tonight, Gu Feining was low-key, but still looked a little lively, ensuring she wasn’t too flashy nor too simply dressed.
After saying goodbye to Xiao Mang, Gu Feining stepped out of the car gracefully, holding wrapped gifts and a small handbag.
The birthday party was being held at the CEO’s villa. From the number of cars outside the door, one could tell how many people came tonight. Just looking at the entrance, she could already feel how crowded it would be inside.
There was a stone path upon entering through the gates. Although she did not have a problem with her balance, she couldn’t help but feel on edge when she stepped on the slabs of rocks with her thin high heels so she took extra care walking down the path. It was quite dark at night, and the streetlights were a dull yellow, so she lowered her head and watched the ground as she walked very carefully.
She was walking with much concentration when suddenly, someone appeared from behind her, laughing quietly, “Are you so afraid of falling?”
Gu Feining raised her head and saw Shi Xi in a crisp suit that made him look extremely dashing as he stood by her side. He was smiling as he extended his arm, motioning for her to hold on.
As always, Shi Xi was the center of people’s attention no matter where it was. When he reached out his arm and stood by Gu Feining, Gu Feining felt the gazes of people passing by, landing on her. But she couldn’t be bothered to think too much and said thank you before reaching out to hold his arm.
With the help of Shi Xi, Gu Feining walked fast and steadily, arriving at the main house quickly. Before entering the banquet hall, she wanted to retract her hand, but was stopped by Shi Xi, who turned to the side and looked at her, “You want to throw me away as soon as you finish using me?”
As soon as she heard those words, Gu Feining’s eyes widened as she kept feeling like those words held a double meaning.
“I… didn’t,” Gu Feining quickly denied it, “It’s just…”
But she couldn’t think of a suitable reason to explain herself.
“Since you don’t have a partner and nor do I, let’s go in together,” Shi Xi issued an invitation.
Gu Feining did not dare to reject his invitation, worried that he would throw out the words of ‘throwing him away after using him’ again, so she nodded her head and followed Shi Xi into the banquet hall.
As soon as they entered, Gu Feining got a taste of the power of being an A-lister. The gazes of everyone inside turned towards Shi Xi. Shi Xi waved and escorted her further into the banquet hall. She wasn’t sure whether it was because everyone’s attention was on her, but she suddenly felt nervous and her body shook a little while standing by his side. Shi Xi’s reaction was prompt and considerate, he reached out his hand to lightly hold onto her waist.
Gu Feining had tried to carefully put some distance between the two of them but Shi Xi took the initiative to hold her closer and walked inwards, “Let’s go and greet CEO Le and his wife first.”
This was basic courtesy and Gu Feining had no reason to decline.
As expected, the CEO and his wife were surprised to see Shi Xi and Gu Feining appear together. After Gu Feining and Shi Xi gave them their well-wishes, CEO Le jokingly said Shi Xi was her junior so Gu Feining had to take good care of him.
Shi Xi complied with the boss’s words and told Gu Feining, “Senior, please take care of me in the future!”
Gu Feining felt a little awkward. It seemed like during the two times they’d met, he was the one taking care of her, not the other way around.
After chatting idly for a bit, Mrs. Le took Gu Feining’s hand and said, “Come over here and chat with me for a little while!”
Mrs. Le had always liked Gu Feining a lot. She truly wanted to help Gu Feining rise to fame. In the earlier years, Gu Feining had been doing alright, but with the current situation in the entertainment circle, along with how unlucky she was, she had never managed to grow more popular.
Gu Feining also breathed a sigh of relief. Standing alongside Shi Xi, she felt tense all over. Even her back was straighter than usual. Mrs. Le brought Gu Feining into a side lounge. Although the elegant woman was now fifty, her aura was still unmatched by Gu Feining and the rest of the young women in their early twenties. It was an aura that she had cultivated as she aged and what she had experienced throughout her years. In addition to elegance, there was also a certain flamboyance to her.
“I heard Yue Mei say that you rejected a role in Shi Xi’s new show?” Mrs. Le had always been the direct kind. She did not bother beating around the bush with Gu Feining and went straight to the main point.
Gu Feining was able to trick Yue Mei, but she did not dare to do the same to Mrs. Le. She honestly explained the reason why she rejected the offer. She also knew that a large part of her giving up such a good opportunity was due to her personal reasons.
Yue Mei also told her, “There’s a shortcut, but you aren’t willing to take it. If you miss this opportunity, who knows how much longer you’ll need to walk to get to your destination.”
After Yue Mei left, she thought seriously about whether what she was doing was worth it. These past few years, it wasn’t like there weren’t any opportunities for her. On the contrary, she did have quite a lot of opportunities. Almost every time she attended a dinner party, someone would give her hints2 but she’d reject them every time. In the end, she had Yue Mei stop arranging sponsor meals for her, and even if they were arranged, she did not attend. The stubbornness she held deep inside had persisted since she debuted.
She had offended a lot of people due to this but had also gotten to know a quite few good people. In this entertainment industry, she had a good reputation. However, a good reputation was useless, and all one needed was to be popular. And she had ended up forgoing many shortcuts to achieving this.
Those who were willing to use their body had long left her behind. But the opportunity now of going along with popular trends seemed to be better than bowing one’s head towards those horrendous deeds3.
However, when she remembered the incident that took place after she’d gone crazy a few years ago, she felt that if she really went for it, things could get very troublesome.
“I do feel it can be good for you to reject this offer.” Mrs. Le did not blame her. “It’ll lower your status if you snatch for a role from those young actors, given the number of resources you have at your disposal. Anyway, the female lead had already been decided a long time ago, Yue Mei was being a little too anxious.”
Gu Feining felt a little awkward. Actually, she was only twenty-five this year. She wasn’t as old as Mrs. Le implied, right? “Sister Yue Mei was also doing it for me.”
“Mhmm… But I have a better proposition for you. If you reject this too, I won’t be able to help you,” Mrs. Le participated in the management for the company. Shi Xi’s show was a large project, so she definitely needed to handle it. Naturally, she had the decision-making power as well. The company was the one producing the show, so it was reasonable to have people from their company inserted into the show, “You can go and be a mentor!”
“Ah?” Gu Feining was stunned. “A mentor?”
“Yes, with your qualifications, it shouldn’t be a problem for you to guide other actors right?”
Support the original translation team by reading on Chaotic Frog Scan Novels~
Translator’s Notes:
It stands for ‘Intellectual Property’ which is a big term within the Chinese film industry, doesn’t mean the exact same thing as it does in English.