Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Pei Chuzhi’s mood was extremely complicated.
When many film and television dramas are released, investors often instruct actors who play couples in the show to hype their CP to create more buzz.
Now, before the actors had even joined the production, readers were already giving such strong approval based on just two styling photos. Originally, this was something worth celebrating.
But could she openly market toward the Xi-Nan CP direction?
She was currently bound by a contract—breaching it meant paying money!
Pei Chuzhi held her phone and sat on the sofa, nervously refreshing to see a new comment.
“Hello Zhizhi, our Zhong Li is acting in emotional scenes for the first time and may lack experience. Please give him plenty of guidance.”
This should be Zhong Li’s fan. Perhaps fans resembled their idol, as the tone was very polite.
And they had apparently done their homework, knowing to address her affectionately as “Zhizhi,” just like her own fans.
But after reading it, Pei Chuzhi only felt a headache.
After thinking for a moment, she dialed Tang Dong’s number.
Tang Dong had clearly already received the news and was frantically arranging for people to suppress comments under her Weibo, though the effect wasn’t visible yet.
Tang Dong also tremblingly instructed her, “This situation happened too suddenly. I’ll inform Song Shiqing. It’s best if you also go and soothe Xing Ye. Don’t make him angry.”
“…”
Pei Chuzhi felt that she and Tang Dong were like two underlings watching the big boss’s expression, afraid that one misstep would anger him and make them bear a huge penalty.
Helpless, she clicked into her chat with Xing Ye and slowly typed: “Today ‘Quietly Falling in Love With You’ released styling photos. Some netizens might be a bit excited. But don’t worry—we’ll talk to the production team and won’t appear to hype CP with Zhong Li.”
After the message was sent, there was no reply for a long time.
·
Xing Ye came out of the recording studio late at night.
Although he was on vacation during this period, it only meant he could stay in Yan City long-term without joining a production.
Song Shiqing arranged many scattered jobs for him, like the ribbon-cutting ceremony last time, or like today—re-recording lines for a film shot in the first half of the year.
During filming, several emotionally intense scenes had poor on-site audio.
He had to adjust himself back to the original state, relive the pain of life-and-death separation from the drama, and only then finally re-record the lines with full emotion.
When he went to rest, he still hadn’t completely left the state. His entire aura was extremely low.
“Brother Ye, drink some water.”
Assistant Xiao Zhou carefully handed him a cup and placed throat lozenges beside him.
Xing Ye took the water but didn’t drink it, nor did he reach for the lozenges.
He rubbed his temples tiredly, his eyes still bloodshot from the emotional outburst.
A few loose strands of hair fell down, barely covering the corners of his eyes. Under the bright lights of the lounge, they cast a layer of decadent shadow over him.
After a while, he finally recovered slightly.
When he spoke, his voice was hoarse: “What happened today?”
Xiao Zhou had come in once during recording, looking hesitant.
But at that time, Xing Ye had to fully immerse himself in the lines and couldn’t interrupt the carefully built state to deal with trivial matters.
Xiao Zhou swallowed instinctively. “Miss Pei… seems to…”
He didn’t quite dare to say the rest.
Compared to professional managers, assistants had high turnover and weaker confidentiality.
Xiao Zhou had only become Xing Ye’s life assistant at the end of last year, so he couldn’t be considered an insider. Naturally, he didn’t know that Xing Ye and Pei Chuzhi were only a contract couple.
When filming “Who Is the Murderer” before, he had personally witnessed Xing Ye arguing with someone for Pei Chuzhi.
In the blink of an eye, netizens now thought the boss’s girlfriend matched well with another man.
As a man himself, Xiao Zhou felt no one could tolerate this.
But Xing Ye hadn’t completely come out of character yet, and Xiao Zhou was afraid he would get angry after hearing it. After all, in the drama he played a moody character.
Xing Ye lifted his eyelids. Seeing him still hesitating, he simply extended his hand. “Phone.”
After Tang Dong’s unremitting efforts, the situation under Pei Chuzhi’s repost had improved greatly.
However, searching on Weibo still showed many netizens happily “shipping first out of respect,” and some even edited the two styling photos together, so excited as if it were a wedding photo.
Xing Ye’s face showed little expression. After a pause, he clicked into WeChat and saw the message Pei Chuzhi had sent earlier.
Just that official, formulaic paragraph—and nothing more.
“…”
Xing Ye felt a bit displeased. Was this the attitude of a fan speaking to her idol?
·
Pei Chuzhi had just been about to sleep when her phone rang.
She struggled for a few seconds, stretched a hand out of the blanket, felt for the phone by the bedside, and drowsily pressed answer.
“Hello? Hello.”
Her voice was thick with sleepiness, the ending tone lazier than usual.
The breathing on the other end paused for several beats.
Just as she thought it was a prank call, a low, hoarse male voice sounded close to her ear, slightly hesitant: “…You asleep?”
It was Xing Ye.
Pei Chuzhi turned over under the blanket, the rustling sounds clearly transmitted through the phone.
She half-opened her eyes, half her thoughts still immersed in drowsiness, and even her tone became more casual: “Oh, it’s you. What’s up?”
On the other end, a black business car sped through the deserted midnight streets.
The passing streetlights reflected in Xing Ye’s pupils, making his gaze darker.
His slender fingers curled, lightly tapping the armrest.
Before the call connected, he probably had a subtle dissatisfaction.
But the faint, lingering tone that came through the static—soft to the bone—made him unconsciously lower his voice. “Just asking, when do you join the production?”
“Join the production…” Pei Chuzhi spoke half a beat slower than usual, her voice softer. “Not until next Thursday.”
“Next Thursday?”
Xing Ye turned his head, had Xiao Zhou confirm his schedule, then continued, “Free Tuesday night? Come out on a date.”
He used a declarative sentence.
As if he wasn’t asking for her opinion, but directly informing her of the result.
Pei Chuzhi froze, her sleepy mind finally waking. “A—A date?!”
She suddenly sat up in bed and rubbed her messy hair.
Xing Ye gave an “Mm,” his voice lazy, as if he found her surprise amusing, teasing her with a half-smile: “What, you can act as a couple with others, but can’t go on a date with me?”
Pei Chuzhi’s sleepiness vanished with a “bang.”
Yan City in November hadn’t turned on heating yet. The late autumn night room held a trace of chill. She wrapped the blanket tighter and asked softly, “You saw Weibo?”
“Mm.”
Pei Chuzhi pressed her lips together, thinking—no wonder Xing Ye urgently informed her to prepare for a date.
Given that objective circumstances were now obstructing their hype plan, they naturally had to adapt and add more fuel to the fire.
“No problem. Just notify me after the time and place are set.”
She adopted a professional attitude and forced herself to stay alert as she asked, “Will someone be arranged to take photos or record video? After this, will our couple relationship count as semi-public?”
Xing Ye answered decisively: “Yes. First we’ll stir up the scandal…”
His tone carried a subtle warning, “So you don’t step on two boats after you join the production.”
Pei Chuzhi: “???”
·
However, plans never keep up with changes.
Before the two could even reach their date, another disturbance quietly arrived.
—The final episode of “Who Is the Murderer” that Pei Chuzhi recorded aired.
This episode invited a good lineup of celebrity guests. Viewers who had been waiting in front of their computers for the new episode soon noticed that one NPC looked quite familiar.
A bullet comment floated by: “Isn’t that secretary the actress who’s going to play Jiang Nanyan?”
After this reminder, many people’s attention shifted for a second.
The NPC originally didn’t have many scenes, but in that brief moment, everyone discovered a cruel fact.
Against Pei Chuzhi’s beauty, Sun Yuxin, who appeared in the same frame with her, looked…
far too unremarkable.
“Did the production team do this on purpose? Letting two people who both ride Xing Ye’s popularity appear at the same time?”
“This comparison is crushing, and Pei Chuzhi’s secretary role isn’t bad—she really has that fox-like charm.”
“Taking my Yuxin sister away. A proper celebrity guest shouldn’t be compared with extras.”
“Uh… isn’t it even more embarrassing if she loses to an extra?”
Sun Yuxin’s fans had always been highly combative. Before long, the bullet comments turned into a new battlefield.
But it wasn’t only her fans watching today. With this commotion, fans of other celebrity guests and show fans became unhappy.
Some people were already dissatisfied that Sun Yuxin performed poorly yet had many scenes. In anger, they rolled up their sleeves and criticized the production team for inviting someone who contributed nothing except screaming and acting silly.
Fan fights also had their routines.
Not long after, Sun Yuxin’s rival fans got the news. When they came and saw it, they were delighted.
They directly diverted trouble, mixing into the bullet comments and mocking: “Sun Yuxin’s nose implant should be remade, right? If I were Xing Ye, I’d rather let a pretty little sister ride the popularity—fake-face monster should get lost.”
“Pei Chuzhi is really too pretty. Just for that face, I declare I’m turning from passerby to fan.”
This made Sun Yuxin’s fans explode with anger.
Usually Wildfire’s fans mocking them openly or secretly was one thing, but where did this nobody come from daring to step on their Yuxin sister to climb up?
To make matters worse, marketing accounts that thrived on chaos smelled the buzz. They quickly captured screenshots of the two in the same frame, added comparison pictures from similar angles on their Weibo, formed a nine-grid collage, and even maliciously launched a poll asking who looked better.
Sun Yuxin had a huge number of fans, and her votes quickly took a distant lead.
In comparison, Pei Chuzhi’s pitiful number of fan votes plus friendly passerby votes looked like a desperate last stand.
Not only that, Sun Yuxin’s fans arrogantly tagged Pei Chuzhi by name and directly insulted her on Weibo as “an eighteenth-tier pheasant with ambitions higher than the sky and a fate as thin as paper,” uniformly attaching the “If I’m going to hit you, do I need to pick a day?” meme.
When all this happened, Pei Chuzhi and Qiao Na, who had come over to her place, were each holding a bowl of salad and watching the show in front of the computer.
Qiao Na, having seen too many bullet comments during her livestreams, now felt a headache whenever she saw them.
As soon as the program started, she casually turned off the bullet comments.
Thus, Pei Chuzhi was completely unaware of the quarrels. Only after finishing the show and discussing the plot with Qiao Na for a while, when she opened Weibo, did she realize a new storm had already formed.
However, things were different now. She was someone who had seen big scenes before, so she didn’t panic over this small scuffle.
“Oh right, what about the autograph you promised me?”
Qiao Na put the salad bowl in the kitchen, shuffled over in slippers, and glanced at her phone screen. “What’s this?”
Pei Chuzhi: “Seems like people watching the show started arguing, then someone made a poll asking everyone to choose who looks better—me or Sun Yuxin.”
“…Does this even need choosing?” Qiao Na nonchalantly took out her phone, switched to her alternate account, and cast a precious vote. “Anyone with eyes knows it’s you.”
After saying that, she looked at the poll results and nearly threw her phone in anger.
Pei Chuzhi herself didn’t care. She was still tangled up in Qiao Na’s previous question.
Xing Ye’s autograph.
After a moment, she cleared her throat and decided to first inform Qiao Na of bad news.
“The autograph might not be possible for a while, because earlier…”
Pei Chuzhi told the misunderstanding about that piece of paper in full detail. Under Qiao Na’s half-laughing gaze, she honestly lowered her head. “You get it, right? In this situation, how can I still ask him for it?”
Qiao Na felt puzzled and sat cross-legged on the carpet. “But doesn’t he like you? No need to stay angry so long over such a small matter, right?”
Pei Chuzhi froze for a moment. In the version of the story she told Qiao Na, she and Xing Ye met through filming a commercial, developed mutual feelings, and were currently in an ambiguous stage, likely to become boyfriend and girlfriend at any time.
As for exactly when that “any time” would be, that depended on how smoothly the hype plan progressed.
“Mm…”
Pei Chuzhi suddenly had an idea. She curved her lips, lowered her head, and put on a shy look. “You know our situation. At a time like this, it wouldn’t be good for me to bring up something that makes us both unhappy again. What if he gets embarrassed and angry and stops liking me—what then?”
Qiao Na thought about it and vaguely felt it made sense.
She couldn’t ruin her best friend’s future with her ambiguous partner just for her own autograph.
“Alright then, we’ll talk about the autograph later. When you two…”
Qiao Na shifted her gaze back to the phone screen and casually refreshed it. Her expression froze for a moment.
Her movements suddenly became extremely quick. Almost in the blink of an eye, she shoved the phone in front of Pei Chuzhi, so excited her voice changed pitch. “H-he-he-he—what does this mean? Help me analyze?”
The phone was too close. Pei Chuzhi leaned back before she could see the content clearly.
Xing Ye had reposted the promotional Weibo for this episode of “Who Is the Murderer,” and typed three words:
“Worked hard.”