Chapter 58: Headlines
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Although this could have turned out to be a scandalous event that affected the film’s reputation right when the production was completed, it was fortunate that the media had put their own twist on things and there had been no mention about Yao Xiang’s attempted vile act. Therefore, the production team was not overly affected by this.
On the contrary, the people grew more curious about Jiang Se as the days went by. Gu Jiaer’s Weibo page was bombarded with s asking him about the truth behind the incident.
Jiang Se noticed that Gu Jiaer did update his Weibo, but he did not address the netizens’ questions directly. This made them all the more curious about the matter.
Somebody asked if the production team had been hiding an actress whose beauty surpassed Zhao Ruoyun’s. He merely posted a smiling emoji and replied, “You’ll find out in the cinemas.”
Naturally, this stirred more netizens into restlessness. They pestered him with questions asking if “Pretense to Reality” would be aired during the summer vacation next year.
Naturally, many of Zhao Ruoyun’s fans were convinced that this was merely a publicity stunt the production team pulled. They would not believe that there was another actress who was more beautiful than Zhao Ruoyun.
Jiang Se scrolled through the s for a while longer. She found that the incident was not dying down at all. In fact, it seemed to be picking up heat.
Many curious netizens started guessing about the alleged victim, producer Yao Xiang’s identity. Some of the reporters even sneaked into the hospital and tried to interview some of the doctors there.
Yao Xiang was in bad shape. His rib bones were broken, and he showed signs of concussion. He would have to be hospitalized and observed for now.
Although things were quite serious, Jiang Se was not worried. It was too easy for the Pei family to make this go away with their resources.
When she looked at the time, it was already eleven. She switched off her computer, blew dry her hair, and went to bed. When she reached for her phone to switch it off, her old phone rang.
It was a member of the “Pretense to Reality” production team. The crew member was vaguely trying to find out about Pei Yi and Nie Dan’s identities from her.
News reports about this incident were getting serious online. The production team must have been worried that things might take a turn for the worse for them, so they were trying to get their stories straight even if they had to work through the night.
However, the production team had no way of establishing the identities of the assailants. When the production team reached out to the hotel management to request the security camera footage, the latter had told them that the police had taken the footage away.
Gu Jiaer had been in the industry for many years. Naturally, he had his connections. On top of that, the production team did not want to let the entire incident blow up in their face. Therefore, they were coming up with a plan to retrieve the footage.
However, the police seemed to be under pressure by someone else. Gu Jiaer and the major investors of “Pretense to Reality” production team tried everything they could, yet they could not get their hands on the footage.
By this time, the production team could naturally guess that Pei Yi and Nie Dan, the duo who beat Yao Xiang up, had come from unordinary backgrounds.
When the crew member could get nothing out of Jiang Se, he had no choice but to let the matter go. At the end of the call, he vaguely instructed her to not contact any entertainment media outlets to hype this up. He told her to wait for this matter to die down.
In truth, the crew member who made the call did not think that Jiang Se would agree to this request before he brought it up.
After all, Jiang Se needed to be the topic of the day’s conversation and maintain some degree of popularity if she wanted to enter the entertainment industry.
Now that the incident was hyped up with various major entertainment news outlets writing about it, the production team was not sure that Jiang Se would let this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slip through her fingers.
To his surprise, the words had barely left his mouth when Jiang Se agreed to his request. He had not even begun to persuade her.
“I know what to do.”
This outcome surprised the person on the other end of the phone call very much. After a moment of stunned silence, the crew member seemed to have difficulty in believing what he had just heard. He asked her again, “Miss Jiang, are you sure?”
Jiang Se replied surely, “Yes, I am.” Although she wanted to enter the entertainment industry, she had never thought of shooting to fame with a method such as hyping up an incident.
Moreover, the Pei family would be doing all they could to make this matter go away as quickly as possible. Even if she wanted to hype this up, she might not be able to.
If she was not reasonable about this, she would easily offend the production team and end up in Gu Jiaer’s bad books. Instead, if she behaved herself this time, she might be able to gain something in the future.
After Jiang Se gave a definite answer, there was some noise from the receiver. Jiang Se could vaguely tell that the crew member had covered the microphone on his end and was talking to someone else.
Sometime later, the crew member spoke into the phone again.
“Miss Jiang, sorry for the wait. Director Gu is grateful for your cooperation. Director Lin Xiwen is preparing for an upcoming movie. He’s a friend of Director Gu’s. They’ve discussed the matter briefly before this and he thinks that there’s a role that suits you very well.” It was clear that the production was returning her favor of cooperating with the production team’s request, and they were now recommending her for an audition of their own accord.
“I’ll give you the number. Just call it tomorrow to inquire about the audition.”
Jiang Se grunted in reply. The crew member read the number and had Jiang Se repeat it. When he confirmed that she had gotten the correct number, he ended the call.
Jiang Se proceeded to save the number into her phone. She had just pressed the first few numbers when her phone rang, interrupting her actions.
She quickly rejected the call.
Her phone was an old model, so when she rejected the call, the numbers that she had just typed were not saved. She retyped the numbers, and before she could save it, the rejected caller made another attempt to contact her.
Jiang Se rejected the call again. She wanted to retype the phone number again. This time, the caller was quicker. With a sigh, she got off her bed to look for her pen. She scribbled the phone number down on a piece of paper and accepted the call.
“Jiang Se!” came the caller’s voice through gritted teeth. Jiang Se searched her memory for a long time before remembering Nie Dan, the person who had been beside Pei Yi.
He had been Pei Yi’s accomplice in beating Yao Xiang up. She guessed that he was calling her to deal with the aftermath.
“Speak.” She returned to her bed.
On the other end of the phone, Nie Dan paused before asking, “Aren’t you going to ask who I am?”
“You’re the one who beat the guy up in the elevator just now.”
Jiang Se’s answer made Nie Dan touch his own nose. He turned and glanced at Pei Yi who was seated beside him. “Brother Yi, the girl’s smart.”
Pei Yi said nothing.
It was almost as Jiang Se had expected. Pei Yi was responsible for beating the person up while Nie Dan was responsible for dealing with the aftermath. He had called her to tell her not to stand out before the media for the time being.
Unlike the production team who called her to discuss this, his words were more of a notice than anything else.
Jiang Se knew about Nie Dan’s background. However, when Nie Dan saw her in the past, he had always been polite and reverent. He never put on this arrogant air before her. Nie Dan hung up after saying what he wanted to say.
Nie Dan had originally invited his friends to gather at Ruiji Hotel tonight. However, due to the incident whereby Pei Yi beat someone up, they naturally changed the location of their gathering.
Cheng Runing was among those invited to the gathering. Perhaps because Pei Yi had vented his anger onto Yao Xiang, Cheng Runing sat in fear and trepidation for a long time and was not hit by Pei Yi yet.
Visit freewe𝑏nov(e)l.𝗰𝐨𝐦 for the 𝑏est n𝘰vel reading experience