Chapter 173: Chapter 173: Filming ’Rivers and Mountains
[This has to be a hater. The video is already out, how could it be fake?]
[First of all, Chloe Sinclair had no reason to fake it. Second, knowing her personality, she would never just stand by and do nothing. There’s no need for the OP to be such a blatant hater. After all, we’re not blind.]
[Yeah, seriously, the OP is way too vicious. Hands off our Chloe.]
[All you talk about is celebrities. You must be some other star’s sock puppet, pissed that Chloe Sinclair’s news bumped yours off the trending list.]
[I think the commenter above is onto something. Of the top ten trending topics, only two are about the entertainment industry, and they’re both about the cast of *Begonia Red* wrapping up filming.]
The netizens instantly put two and two together.
In less than an hour, the comment from Nina Sinclair’s sock puppet account had garnered over a thousand replies.
Listening to the constant PING of her notifications, Nina Sinclair was so furious she trembled all over.
"They’re all a bunch of fucking idiots. Getting tricked by Chloe Sinclair and they don’t even realize it."
But she had almost been exposed, so she didn’t dare use the sock puppet account again. She had no choice but to delete her comment and then deactivate the account.
Everything was quiet in an instant, but Nina Sinclair still felt a sense of unease.
Just then, her phone started ringing.
Nina Sinclair was already on edge. When she picked up her phone and saw an incoming call from an unknown number, her anger flared.
"Hello, is this Miss Nina Sinclair?"
The moment Nina Sinclair heard this, she thought of her recent comment, and her blood ran cold.
’Could Chloe Sinclair’s fans have tracked my IP address?’
At that thought, for some reason, a surge of anger washed over her. She snapped into the phone, "Is this ever going to end? So what if I’m Nina Sinclair? What are you going to do, show up at my house?"
The person on the other end was clearly taken aback.
After a long hesitation, the person on the other end slowly said, "Miss Nina Sinclair, I’m Paul Lancaster, the director of *Rivers and Mountains*. I saw your behind-the-scenes footage from *Begonia Red* and I feel your personality is... quite similar to Vivian’s. I was wondering if you might be available to come in for an audition?"
For a moment, Nina Sinclair couldn’t process what she was hearing.
Her first instinct was that it had to be a scam.
After all, *Rivers and Mountains* was a series backed by the Zenthian government. It had a realistic theme and was scheduled to air in CTV’s primetime slot.
Most importantly, landing a role in this series would guarantee incredible career opportunities down the line.
She could finally pursue a serious career as an actress, instead of following her manager’s plan to debut in a girl group as an idol.
After all, while an idol could get lucky and become wildly popular, being a true actress carried a different kind of weight.
With that in mind, Nina Sinclair didn’t care if it was real or a scam—she immediately agreed.
—
「On the outskirts of Emberfall University」
Paul Lancaster hung up the phone, a hint of disappointment in his eyes.
He murmured, "Nina Sinclair might not be the leading lady I’m looking for."
He had spent a full six years preparing for *Rivers and Mountains*. Every single line of the script was meticulously polished. When he was looking for investors, he hadn’t expected to be picked up directly by CTV, and the network was extremely supportive of the genre.
From the start of filming until now, everything had gone smoothly.
He had managed to cast Gabriel Sinclair, an actor with both talent and massive star power.
The main cast was in excellent form at the beginning, with very few retakes needed. He had been quite satisfied.
However, he never expected that his leading actress would take on another project halfway through filming!
Not only did the quality of her performance plummet, but she even had the audacity to subtly—and not-so-subtly—pressure him to halt production and wait for her schedule to clear up.
