Chapter 87

Chapter 87

After the opening was recorded, the host finally introduced everyone.

The idol Lù Yīfēi's friend is the bank clerk Xiè Xiǎolíng, the comedian Yáo Ruò's friend is the BBQ restaurant owner Zhāng Sēnlín, the singer Zhào Pī's friend is the graduate student Zhào Qióng, and the rest are Diāo Tóng's boss Guān Shèngyǔ and Ān Yě's lawyer Chí Tuō.

These friends are aged between 26 and 33. Apart from Zhāng Sēnlín, who looks a little older due to his smoky and rugged vibe, the others look about the same age.

The priority for the afternoon's group selection was given to the first person who guessed their friend correctly, Guān Shèngyǔ, and the second person, Xiè Xiǎolíng, who guessed the idol's friend correctly. These two would become the team leaders for the two cooking groups in the afternoon.

Lunch was a gathering. The entire restaurant floor in the resort was filled with staff and performers. The cameras were off, and several performers, directors, and screenwriters sat in the private room at the back. Ān Yě sat on the left of Chí Tuō, with Diāo Tóng sitting on her right.

Guān Shèngyǔ was not present, claiming to be busy with official duties. He would only join for meals if filming required it, but otherwise, he wouldn’t eat with everyone.

Qí Wéi, who knew more behind-the-scenes details, mentioned that Guān Shèngyǔ couldn’t handle farmhouse food. He disliked that the chef didn’t wear an apron and, after glancing at the kitchen, left.

Ān Yě didn’t react much when she heard this gossip.

In fact, before breaking the contract, she never even figured out who Guān Shèngyǔ was. The three sons of the Guān family all looked alike, and all had the same generational name "Shèng." She had never distinguished them.

Now, she was in the stage of extreme embarrassment. The production team had tactfully turned her impression of Chí Tuō into "dad."

The way these two words sounded when spoken by Chí Tuō, with a smile on his face, made it all the more awkward.

So, in the following recordings, she became a mere background figure, dutifully clapping and smiling, but she didn’t dare to make eye contact with Chí Tuō again.

“The grilled fish from their house tastes pretty good,” Chí Tuō noticed Ān Yě’s discomfort as her eyes wandered and didn’t tease her further. “Do you want some?”

“No, I’ve gained four pounds since the wrap-up,” Ān Yě chewed on a cucumber, staring at the fish belly.

Chí Tuō used the communal chopsticks to grab a piece of fish belly, then some of Ān Yě’s favorite dishes, placing them into his empty bowl. When he saw no one looking in their direction, he pushed the bowl in front of Ān Yě and took the empty one she had placed in front of herself.

“This bowl shouldn’t be too high in calories. You just don’t eat rice,” Chí Tuō added, pouring a bowl of hot water in front of her. “Wash it before eating, their food is a little salty.”

Ān Yě was the type to only eat the dishes in front of her when there were many people around. The farmhouse-style dishes were not served on large turntables, and she had a bowl of cucumbers in front of her, having already eaten four or five pieces.

Watching Chí Tuō prepare the dishes for her, she felt that the "dad" title he had used wasn’t unearned after all.

She didn’t know what other people's parents were like, but her own never treated her like this. In such settings, it was a win for her if she was just left to drink water and not mess around with the food.

"Chí Lǜ is really great," Diāo Tóng, who had been silent next to her, suddenly spoke up.

Ān Yě looked at her.

Diāo Tóng smiled at her.

Although Ān Yě and Diāo Tóng had been colleagues at Huànzhòu for nearly five years, they didn’t have much interaction outside of work due to different managers. Apart from once on the red carpet, they hadn't crossed paths much privately.

There was one time, though. That was when Ān Yě, who didn’t shoot any films, went to Huànzhòu for a monthly meeting at the beginning of the month. She ran into Diāo Tóng in the elevator. Diāo Tóng, who might have really seen her as an idol at the time, was excited to exchange WeChat and invited Ān Yě for dinner the next day.

Ān Yě didn’t think badly of Diāo Tóng. Diāo Tóng’s eyes were very clean when looking at others, so she agreed.

However, Ān Yě ended up falling asleep the next day and slept for nearly twenty days.

The planned dinner was missed, and Diāo Tóng didn’t contact her again. As for Ān Yě, she had been swamped with things due to her absence for twenty days and didn’t have time to explain to Diāo Tóng. Later, even when they saw each other in the company, they only nodded and said a simple hello.

Today, she was surprised to find Diāo Tóng sitting next to her, and now, Diāo Tóng had even found a somewhat awkward way to start a conversation with her.

“Mm,” Ān Yě replied stiffly.The two of them stared at each other, both racking their brains about what to say next.

Diāo Tóng hadn’t really changed much in the past few years. She was more conventionally beautiful than Ān Yě. While Ān Yě had a gentle personality, her features were naturally alluring. If she didn’t deliberately tone it down with makeup, she had a face that could easily overshadow the entire screen, the kind of beauty that could captivate any audience.

But Diāo Tóng was different.

Diāo Tóng had the kind of beauty that was "just right."

Her features and aura weren’t particularly striking, but once the camera added a bit of character depth, Diāo Tóng became very stable.

She was the type of person who could play any role, but she was still a little immature, unable to carry fully fleshed-out roles yet.

Ān Yě was actually quite surprised that Diāo Tóng was participating in this kind of variety show. She always thought Diāo Tóng was the type of person who focused entirely on acting and wouldn’t get involved in these messy things.

“You…” Diāo Tóng’s voice was very soft, only Ān Yě and Zhāng Sēnlín, who sat next to her, could hear.

However, Zhāng Sēnlín moved his chair slightly towards Yáo Ruò, clearly signaling his disinterest in their conversation.

“Do you still dislike me?” Diāo Tóng finally asked.

Ān Yě was momentarily stunned. “What?”

Diāo Tóng looked at Ān Yě, her fingers nearly embedding into the edges of the chopsticks. She pursed her lips, lowered her head, and then, as if summoning her courage, raised her head and spoke the rest in one breath, with a very light but clear voice: “I really didn’t know that the role was originally meant for you. They said you didn’t attend the audition because the company put pressure on you, and that they gave the role to me. I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I didn’t know the company’s positioning for us was the same.”

Ān Yě was a little stunned.

Chí Tuō, who had been listening closely from the side, placed his right hand on the table and gently squeezed Ān Yě’s hand that was hanging by her side.

The warmth of his hand made Ān Yě snap back to reality.

“Was it that drama Every Single Thing?” she asked.

Diāo Tóng bit her lip and nodded.

It was a suspenseful drama, a genre that Ān Yě was particularly good at, so she had been scheduled for an audition. In truth, Ān Yě wasn’t very interested in the film. It was very similar to roles she had done before, and the director’s approach wasn’t her style.

But the movie was produced and funded by Huànzhòu, and she couldn’t turn it down.

As a result, she fell asleep and, naturally, missed the audition.

The company then let Diāo Tóng take her place.

Such a simple thing, but Huànzhòu told Diāo Tóng that the company had pressured Ān Yě to make room for her.

This happened almost three years ago.

Ān Yě didn’t know what to say at this moment, and so Diāo Tóng never contacted her again.

“The character in Every Single Thing was very similar to the roles I had done before,” Ān Yě said slowly. She didn’t want to tell Diāo Tóng about her sleepiness, so she could only vaguely explain, “I didn’t want to play it. Huànzhòu never pressured me.”

Diāo Tóng opened her mouth.

Ān Yě, however, had already changed the subject: “Why did they let you join this variety show?”

She asked so directly that Chí Tuō glanced at her.

Diāo Tóng was still standing there, mouth agape.

Ān Yě didn’t push her, continuing to fight with the piece of fish belly in front of her. It was really tasty, but since Chí Tuō was holding one of her hands, eating became a bit inconvenient."I..." Diāo Tóng opened her mouth for a long time, "My manager told me to go live and sell bird's nest..."

Ān Yě: "..."

"Then Mr. Guān told me that if I participated in this variety show, he'd give me the resources for those two movies this year." Diāo Tóng said it very directly, "He said if I beat you, the company would heavily promote me."

Guān Shèngyǔ's exact words were simple and straightforward: there could only be one Best Actress.

Chí Tuō stopped using his left hand to eat since it was too obvious, so he put down his chopsticks and started looking at his phone. Upon hearing this, he turned to glance at Diāo Tóng.

This was the first time he seriously looked at Diāo Tóng.

After looking at her, he felt that Ān Yě probably wouldn’t ignore her situation anymore.

Ān Yě couldn't help but want to help anyone with qualities similar to hers.

Even that deaf white cat, Lǎo Bái.

"So, you..." Ān Yě paused for a second and asked Diāo Tóng, "Why are you telling me all this?"

Diāo Tóng stopped talking.

She lowered her head and started fiddling with her phone, first sending Ān Yě a "wishing you all the best" red envelope.

Ān Yě was somewhat familiar with this move, as she had used the same tactic to test if Chí Tuō had blocked her before.

Then, Diāo Tóng started sending her files.

The titles of the files were timestamps.

Ān Yě casually opened one. It was meeting minutes, detailing what Diāo Tóng needed to do regarding her opposite-gender friend, what Guān Shèngyǔ would do, which members of the production team were part of Huànzhòu, and personality analyses of the main creative team.

These things were too familiar to Ān Yě, and Qí Wéi had prepared a similar one.

But Huànzhòu, being a large company, had detailed meeting minutes — a total of seven files.

Ān Yě quickly typed a question mark to Diāo Tóng.

However, Diāo Tóng didn’t say anything. She winked at her and, right in front of Ān Yě, cleared the chat history in her phone. Then, she went into settings and cleared it again. As if that wasn’t enough, she directly deleted Ān Yě from her contacts.

"Ān lǎoshī," Diāo Tóng said after finishing this series of actions. With her well-proportioned features, she casually said to Ān Yě, "Let’s add each other on WeChat."

Ān Yě: "..."

The things Diāo Tóng had said earlier weren’t deliberately said in private. If anyone with a mind listened to their conversation, they would think Diāo Tóng was declaring war on Ān Yě. After all, she had given a bunch of reasons just to pave the way for the company to heavily promote her.

But Diāo Tóng quickly sent all the information about what Huànzhòu was planning for the variety show to Ān Yě and swiftly deleted all evidence from her side. She acted so fast that Ān Yě didn’t even have time to react.

This favor was so big that Ān Yě didn’t even know whether she should accept it.

"Ān lǎoshī," Diāo Tóng smiled and put down her phone, "After the show, could you sign something for me? I have a photo of you when you played Lín Luò in a drama. I've always wanted to get your autograph."

Ān Yě: "...Sure."

After that, Diāo Tóng didn’t say anything to her again.

Ān Yě hesitated for a moment, then withdrew her hand from the one that Chí Tuō had been holding. She still sent the files to their workgroup, which only included the four of them, explaining how she got the files.

Qí Wéi disappeared after sending a fullscreen exclamation mark, and ten minutes later, he reappeared, typed "Damn, it's the real deal," and then completely vanished.Ān Yě looked at Diāo Tóng, who was focused on eating, and suddenly lost her appetite.

Her phone beeped, and she looked down.

Chí Tuō: [The favor is noted, we’ll pay it back together in the future.]

Xiǎo É: [It’s too heavy, she didn’t even ask anything from me.]

Chí Tuō: [If Huànzhòu changes the track, she will definitely terminate the contract early, we’ll help her then.]

Ān Yě pursed her lips.

Chí Tuō: [Baby, cheer up. jpg]

Ān Yě: "......"

She searched for an emoji and sent it over.

Xiǎo É: [Thanks, Dad. jpg]

Chí Tuō: "......"

Before the live broadcast at 4 PM, the director held a meeting with all the participants.

The gist of the meeting was that since some guests had appeared on other shows and some celebrities had mentioned their friends during interviews, in order to prevent information leaks, during the first two hours of the live broadcast, the names, ages, and occupations of the amateur friends were prohibited from being disclosed. So, the director handed out number plates to everyone, starting with Guān Shèngyǔ as number one, and Chí Tuō got number three.

Except for Guān Shèngyǔ, most of the others had chatted a bit during the meal, and the relationships were slightly warmer than at the beginning. Only Diāo Tóng, after the meal, had been wearing headphones, sitting alone in a corner. When Guān Shèngyǔ arrived before the meeting, she quietly followed behind him.

Ān Yě noticed that Guān Shèngyǔ handed a stack of papers to Diāo Tóng. After she took them, she kept reading while memorizing them.

They were probably materials related to Guān Shèngyǔ, things that would be used later in the show.

Ān Yě thought back to the files Diāo Tóng had given her.

People's hearts were darker than she had imagined.

Huànzhòu's goal was simple. Yán Wàn's trial would start next week, and after the trial, much of the information would be made public. In order to protect themselves, Huànzhòu would shift all the blame onto Yán Wàn. To prevent him from speaking out, in just four months, Yán Wàn's younger brother was caught for a hit-and-run while driving drunk, and Yán Wàn's mother, whose heart disease worsened, was sent abroad for treatment by Lián Yáng.

With both carrot and stick methods, Yán Wàn finally became a scapegoat, admitting to all the charges.

As for Ān Yě, their attitude towards her was almost the same as towards Yán Wàn.

The scandal about "incest" was just to create public disgust towards Ān Yě and Chí Tuō's relationship from the start, to attract attention.

What they truly focused on was accusing Chí Tuō of manipulating Ān Yě to leave Huànzhòu.

To prove this, Guān Shèngyǔ became Ān Yě's invisible boyfriend, and participating in this show was to try and win her back.

The seven files were all about Guān Shèngyǔ’s deep, affectionate persona. He reported Yán Wàn to protect Ān Yě, and he almost caused the Guān family to be expelled from the Huànzhòu shareholders' meeting in order to provide resources for Ān Yě.

Otherwise, how could Ān Yě, after so many years, not have a single confirmed scandal, no controversy, and win awards just by acting?

If the "evil editing" succeeded, Ān Yě would become the ungrateful person who cheated, a fake Best Actress who relied on backstage connections for awards, and Chí Tuō, who had always stood behind her, would be ruined as well.

A lawyer who had just returned to the country, who helped Ān Yě successfully terminate her contract and gained entertainment industry resources, was also mentioned in these files.

This was a plan that would make it impossible for Ān Yě to explain herself, no matter if she admitted to dating Chí Tuō or not, she couldn’t deny that she had once had a romantic relationship with Guān Shèngyǔ.She couldn’t prove the things she hadn’t done.

And as a lawyer, Chí Tuō also couldn’t take any legal action against these scattered, unsubstantiated verbal manipulations without concrete evidence.

At least not in this variety show, he couldn’t do anything.

The live broadcast was about to start. In the four-person workgroup chat, Qí Wéi only told Ān Yě not to self-incriminate. She would handle the editing, and Ān Yě just needed to focus on being real.

Wéi Qí: [I don’t believe the world can really turn black into white.]

Mǎ Lán Tóu: [I don’t believe it either!]

The countdown for the live broadcast began.

Ān Yě applied a bit more lipstick and exchanged a smile with Chí Tuō.

They didn’t believe it either.

There might be a lot of injustice in this world, many dark clouds that overshadow the truth, burying it out of sight.

But, there will always be people who struggle.

Like her, like Diāo Tóng.

Struggling is hard, but not lonely.