The Rich Ex-Husband Cries and Begs to Remarry
Ruan Tian had been in love with Shen Shu for a long time. She pursued him fiercely while they were young, and was crazy for his love.
Ruan Tian always knew that Shen Shu still had a white moonlight inside his heart, but she was still willing to be the disposable stand-in if it meant she could be by his side.
However, no matter how hard she tried, she was always just an unwanted and scheming white lotus girl in Shen Shu's eyes.
She was a notorious actress who lingered down near the eighteenth tier of the entertainment industry.
.
.
Then, in their second year of marriage, Ruan Tian was hit on the head and was surprised to realize that her life was a novel, and she was only the girl the domineering CEO was using as a substitute.
She was just an insignificant stepping stone in the story for Shen Shu and his white moonlight. A tool that would be used up until there was nothing left but a miserable smear of blood.
Thoroughly sobered by this realization, Ruan Tian hurriedly filed for divorce and didn't hesitate to kick Shen Shu to the curb.
【Male Lead and assorted slag hangers on will be thoroughly abused until the last chapter!】
The heroine is heartless and beautiful~
A refreshing story in the entertainment circle. Everyone feels refreshed to meet the female lead and the fans love her
Entertainment Circle Book
Fast-moving plot
Ruan Tian squatted quietly on one corner of the set, holding a dry steam bun that had gone cold in her hand. She took a bite, and found that the bun was a bit hard.
Her mind was still feeling muddled even up until now.
She just sat there and ate in a daze.
Ruan Tian was a small 18th line star in the entertainment industry. Recently, she had finally gotten the role of the nth female lead but she didn't expect that one day after filming had started, there had been a terrible bam! sound, and then one of the stage lights hit her head. After that, she fell into a coma for half a day and had a long and unpleasant dream.
After waking up, Ruan Tian had been very shocked: It turned out she was living in a book! Also, ****, she was actually a girl who was only used as a substitute in the book!
Before she had turned seventeen, Ruan Tian had always felt as if she was a particularly unlucky soul, as if she had been singled out by the heavens for punishment. Her life had been very unsatisfactory. She never had the opportunity to go to school or study and she had never gotten to eat until her stomach was full or wear new clothes. She could only live by picking up junk.
That was all until her seventeenth birthday, when a luxuriously dressed couple appeared in front of her and told her that they were her parents.
The seemingly young woman had been wiping tears away while she told Ruan Tian that she had been negligent and accidentally got separated from her back when she was three years old, which let a trafficker abduct her.
After one-sidedly shedding tears, the woman asked her if she would go home with her?
Ruan Tian took a look at this pair of parents who had suddenly appeared, and agreed to go back with them without much thought.
After that, Ruan Tian went to the imperial capital to live as a member of the Zhou family. Mother Zhou arranged for her to go to school and she worked hard in her studies. However, possibly she was not very smart by nature, because she had to practically kill herself studying and she only barely managed to be admitted into an art school.
At the same time, Ruan Tian learned that she had a sister who was two years older than her. That sister was said to be more beautiful than an immortal fairy, but she was frail and sickly, so she had been abroad seeking medical treatment in recent years.
Ruan Tian knew that all of the other kids in the rich circle didn't like her very much, thinking that she was a country bumpkin. Every time they would look at her, there would be obvious contempt in their eyes.
They were always reluctant to take her along for anything and they always treated her poorly. However, occasionally a trace of sympathy would flash through their eyes when they looked at her.
Fortunately, Ruan Tian never cared about what other people thought of her. For her, since she had enough food to eat and beautiful clothes to wear, she was happy every day.
And, since those people seemed to like to look at her with both contempt and sympathy, Ruan Tian would often silently slander them as being damned crazy!
However, as she thought back to those eyes now, Ruan Tian could only feel that she was the one who was damned crazy.
Ruan Tian, who had smashed her head and then had a dream about the future, finally understood the reason why they all looked at her sympathetically like that.
She turned out to be living in a book called 'The President's Beloved Wife', an extremely sweet and refreshing book about a CEO falling in love.
The female lead was her elder sister, Zhou Xiaoqiao, a frail, considerate, talented, and intelligent beauty.
The male lead loved her, the second male lead loved her, the third, four, fifth, etc… as long they were male, they loved her!
These men could never forget Zhou Xiaoqiao during all these years while she was sickly and recovering.
She was the softest existence in their hearts, an irreplaceable white moonlight.
And she, Ruan Tian, was the standard substitute character. Completely and utterly a cannon fodder. The only reason her parents even found her was so that she could donate blood to Zhou Xiaoqiao in the future.
Fuck.
Halfway through the plot of the book, thanks to a random drug incident, Ruan Tian had ended up sleeping with the male lead. Because she looked a little like Zhou Xiaoqiao, the male lead took her as a substitute and married her. From there, she slowly fell in love with him day by day.
Unfortunately, their marriage was in-name-only. They lived together for two years and during that time the male lead never got close to Ruan Tian or even met with her, and very few people even knew that they were married.
Finally, after Zhou Xiaoqiao recovered from her illness, the male lead dumped the divorce papers in front of Ruan Tian.
After that, Ruan Tian learned that all the dandy young men from the Zhou family social circle who had always been very contemptuous and disdainful of her changed their faces like flipping books. They all treated Zhou Xiaoqiao as a precious treasure to be cupped in the palms of their hands and loved.
The parents who had never been very close to her turned out to only have Zhou Xiaoqiao in their eyes.
And her husband, oh, rather her ex-husband, transformed from a chilly iceberg to a warm and sunny man whenever he faced Zhou Xiaoqiao.
In this sweet and refreshing love story, the heroine Zhou Xiaoqiao never suffered a bit of grievance from beginning to end. Her golden fingers practically broke through the heavens, and all the people who offended her came to bad ends. She had a cool life of being loved by men and slapping the faces of cannon fodders.
Thus Ruan Tian, the unlucky substitute, blackened because of the obvious double standards of everyone around her and the male lead's demand for divorce. She lashed out viciously and stupidly, and spent all of her time constantly making trouble for the male and female leads.
She was the catalyst that sparks the love between male and female leads, and also a stepping stone for their careers.
In the end, she enraged the male lead to the point that he tortures and humiliates her before driving her out of the house, where she fell down in the street and got hit by a huge damned truck, turning into a smear of blood on the spot.
Ruan Tian angrily took the last bite of her steamed bun and swallowed it down. She was a feeling little melancholy because she had already had a one-night stand and then married the male lead, Shen Shu.
Two years.
Separated.
Everything was going according to that damned book, 'The President's Beloved Wife'.
What an amazing fricking coincidence.
In all this time, Ruan Tian had never even gotten a phone call from Shen Shu. She would only occasionally be able to see his handsome and indifferent face when it appeared in the financial news.
And now, when she thought that Shen Shu had only used her as Zhou Xiaoqiao's substitute, she really wanted to curse.
However, perhaps because she had grown up picking up junk for the side of the road, Ruan Tian was actually rather broadminded and easy to satisfy.
She took a sip of water and seriously considered her next move.
"Ruan Tian, you're in the next scene, hurry up and get your makeup on! Do you have time to sit around in a daze?!" The deputy director glared at her and shouted in an unfriendly tone.
With that, she came back to her senses and mumbled a response before walking over to the simple temporary dressing room that was made from a few tin sheets. She calmly sat down and waited quietly for the makeup artist to come and apply her makeup.
In the past half month, the Hengguo film and television base had two heavy snowfalls, which was rare for the area. The winter weather was wet and cold, and the thin ancient costumes didn't do much to keep a body warm, so Ruan Tian was shivering as she waited. After a while, the makeup artist arrived, but she was very late.
This time, Ruan Tian was acting in a costume drama called 'The Replacement Princess' in which she played a paranoid and extreme princess. She hadn't worked on many dramas, so the roles she could get were never very good or flattering.
But that was not a problem! Ruan Tian only cared about the salary that was worth hundreds of thousands of yuan.
Actually, rumors that she and Shen Shu were at odds had spread in the circle for a long time now and, because of that, she had trouble getting resources at first. Also, after being squeezed and pinched by those dandy young men from the Zhou family's social circle, she had become even more pitiful until she had reached her current state, where she didn't even have an assistant to follow her.
After her makeup was finally applied, Ruan Tian took off her coat and walked out of the dressing room. At the same time, the set suddenly became lively.
"Teacher Xu there you are, ah, Teacher Xu you've worked hard. It's very cold outside, would you like to sit and have some warm water?"
"Teacher Xu, is it fine if we shoot the next scene in half an hour? If you feel too cold, we can always use a stand-in for you."
Ruan Tian stopped and glanced over at Xu Jing, who was standing in the middle of a big crowd, and their eyes happened to meet. She had long become accustomed to the deep contempt that Xu Jing looked at her with and his cold attitude toward her.
He was Xu Jing. The biggest star in the entire crew of 'The Replacement Princess', the male lead of the show, and also an investor.
Ruan Tian stood in a corner in a daze, suddenly remembering the time when she had first come to the capital. Back then Xu Jing had hated her for seemingly no reason.
He had been younger, ignorant, and a bit more naive back then. In order to attack her, his method had simply been throwing small stones at her and saying: "Don't you dare try to replace Xiaoqiao or bully her, she's our sister."
Back then, Ruan Tian had always thought he was sick in the head.
And, nowadays, she still felt that Xu Jing had a brain problem.
"All departments, get ready. We will start filming today's last scene in five minutes." The director said over the intercom.
After the filming started, Xu Jing NG several times in a row, and Ruan Tian's face was pressed into the cold lake water over and over again. She would struggle to raise her head only to be pressed back down again.
It was a drowning scene, and they ended up reshooting it several times.
Ruan Tian could only keep her mind focused on her pay while resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
During a break, she remembered some more of her dream. The drama they were filming now had become popular as it was broadcast. Xu Jing had quickly become popular with the fans for his affectionate yet domineering personality, his popularity soared, and all of the other actors on the crew more or less rose with him. Meanwhile, she was the only one who was scolded from the first episode all the way to the last episode and was always greeted by fans saying '**** your mother' every day.
In the dream, Ruan Tian had thought optimistically that even though she was being scolded quite badly, it was still considered heat!
In the end, Ruan Tian managed to get something from being in 'The Replacement Princess'. By relying on her superb villainous acting and her beautiful appearance, she at least gained a few face fans* which was a small success.
However, now, she felt that if in the future she really couldn't mix in the entertainment industry anymore, she could just go back to the countryside and open a stall to sell food. After all, she couldn't let herself starve to death.
While she was still distracted, Xu Jing had finished adjusting his state. He glanced over at her, and then said to the director: "Let's do it one last time."
Xu Jing was really surprised today. He didn't expect that Ruan Tian, this white lotus bitch, would really be able to withstand this 'water play'. And so, after being dunked in the water over and over again until he was satisfied, she was finally fished out with a face that was whiter than paper.
The last take was finally over.
Ruan Tian breathed a sigh of relief and didn't think much of it. She had long understood the truth that money was hard to make and shit was hard to eat.
Xu Jing suddenly walked towards her through the crowd.
Ruan Tian silently rolled her eyes and before Xu Jing could open his mouth she said: "I know, I know. Don't ever think about harming Xiaoqiao, don't dream of grabbing her possessions, she's much better than I'll ever be, and I'm not even worthy to be compared with her."
Ruan Tian had long memorized the only things that Xu Jing would want to say to her.
Xu Jing, who had been blocked by her, felt very upset in his heart. However, seeing that she was self-aware, he snorted coldly, then turned his head and left.
After removing her makeup, Ruan Tian changed back into her own clothes. She sat down in the lounge and swiped through her phone for a while. Eventually, she opened Moments and saw that she had been tagged.
Her sister Zhou Xiaoqiao, whose operation had been a complete success, had moved back to her villa on the outskirts of the capital.
Before Ruan Tian exited WeChat, her phone screen suddenly lit up, and a bunch of familiar numbers appeared in front of her.
Although she had never dialed this number, she still recognized that it was probably Shen Shu's.
Her intuition told her that this call from Shen Shu was definitely so he could negotiate a divorce.
Ruan Tian wasn't too upset.
She only cared about how much money she could get from the divorce! ! !
—-
Actually.
Ruan Tian had liked Shen Shu quite a bit.
Even back when she and he were plotted against and forced to have their one-night stand, there had been a little bit of joy in her heart.
After getting married, she had foolishly wanted to be a model couple with Shen Shu, and she even had naive dreams of having a beautiful love with Shen Shu.
Then reality gave her a series of hard slaps to the face, making her wake up again and again.
Shen Shu was his father's eldest son and the eldest grandson of the Shen family. Ever since childhood he had always been the most stunning man in the crowd, with a cold and exquisite face that a person would never forget after seeing once.
After graduating from college, compared with the other uninspiring men his age, he had an excellent reputation and was very pleasing to his elders' eyes.
At the beginning of the marriage, Ruan Tian struggled to pretend to be intellectual and elegant in front of him. Later… well, that boat was overturned a large number of times and she became too lazy to pretend to be in front of him.
Shen Shu had always been cold and indifferent to her, and he would look at her with the same eyes he would use to look at a stranger, as if to say 'You have nothing to do with me, even if you are my wife' or 'Your life or death has nothing to do with me'.
Ruan Tian hadn't cared back then, after all, she had very thick skin! She had repeatedly fought and been defeated again and again. Thought she knew that he didn't like her, she couldn't help but rush to his side.
Then one time, Ruan Tian accidentally broke into his study and happened to see a photo from high school where he was alone with Zhou Xiaoqiao. She had picked it up in her hands and looked at it several times while sighing.
"Zhou Xiaoqiao is so damned beautiful." Back then, she couldn't help but make that admission aloud even as she felt a slight pain in her heart.
Youth without this kind of painful plot wasn't worthy of being called youth!
Ruan Tian had been busy thinking that she had a real penchant for the melodramatic when her hand suddenly loosened, and the glass frame fell to the ground and shattered.
She swore a few times and then squatted down to pick up the photo, but before she could the door of the study was kicked open by Shen Shu.
The man's face was blue, his eyes were icy, and he glared at her coldly.
Ruan Tian was so startled by Shen Shu that she jerked and her fingers accidentally grazed the broken glass, and her blood spattered over Zhou Xiaoqiao's face in the photo.
Ruan Tian endured the pain, stood up slowly, and smiled, "Although you may not believe it, I really didn't mean to."
It was a standard white lotus line.
Shen Shu's eyes grew colder, and he stretched out his hand and pushed her away. Then he picked up the photo carefully and said in a cold tone, "Who allowed you to come in?"
"How were you educated? Don't you know you can't just come into someone else's study?"
Ruan Tian, who had been pushed, fell on the ground. There were many small shards of broken glass in the spot where she caught herself with her palm, and she didn't even need to look to know that her palm was full of blood.
Shen Shu didn't care whether she was hurt or not, he only seemed to be concerned about his memories with Zhou Xiaoqiao being spied on.
Only two words had popped into Ruan Tian's mind at the time: **** ***.
She endured the tingling pain in her palm, stood up, hid her hands behind her back, lowered her head, and said: "I'm sorry."
Life wasn't easy, she felt really damned angry, but her mouth said sorry.
After that day, Ruan Tian moved out of the Shen residence and solemnly vowed to herself that she would die before she ever went back to that place.
But then, just as she was gearing up to show off her skills in the entertainment industry, she lost her savings of 60,000 yuan to scammers.
When Ruan Tian found herself too poor to eat, she selectively forgot the solemn vow she had made and, embarrassedly, planned to ask Shen Shu if she could borrow some money for emergency provisions.
However, it was then that she remembered that she didn't even deserve Shen Shu's phone number.
Skipping to the present.
Ruan Tian was sitting in the living room of the Shen residence.
This was the first time she had seen her nominal husband in two years.
Looking at Shen Shu's face, what flashed through her mind was those two words that she hadn't said two years ago: **** ***.
Shen Shu wore a black shirt and leaned lazily back in his chair. He folded his long legs and tapped his thin, white fingers carelessly against the table.
Under the glass floor-to-ceiling windows, he was bathed in sunlight.
He had a fair complexion and exquisite features, so handsome that he seemed almost otherworldly.
Shen Shu pushed the divorce paper in front of her, "Take a look, if there are no problems, sign it." After a pause, he added: "If you have any questions, you can find my lawyer."
Ruan Tian looked at his face. It was strange to think that in the future, this same Shen Shu would kill her for his precious white moonlight.
She was very calm. Much calmer than Shen Shu expected actually.
Her two round eyes stared at him unblinkingly, as if she was seriously thinking about his proposal.
Shen Shu stared into those crystal-clear eyes, and a strange emotion that he couldn't quite grasp flashed through his heart.
Ruan Tian picked up the divorce papers and stared at them for a full five minutes.
The words were dense, numerous, and complicated to the point that looking at them hurt her eyes.
Ruan Tian gave up looking through all the pages one by one, and turned directly to the last page. When she saw that all the money she would get, she felt as if she had finally seen the true value of this marriage, and felt it was very worthwhile!
She took a deep breath and didn't even have to think, "I have no objection! I'll sign!"
She was so cheerful it was abnormal.
Shen Shu's gaze changed, he raised an eyebrow, and his lazy eyes gradually condensed with some seriousness. As if he hadn't expected her to agree so readily and suspected that there might be some trick.
He sneered and chuckled coldly. Hadn't Ruan Tian spent a lot of time and effort trying to marry him back then? So why didn't she cry or make trouble during the divorce? Could it be that she had some other trick?
Ruan Tian was frightened by his strange gaze and blinked her eyes innocently.
Shen Shu asked: "You have no opinion?"
Ruan Tian shook her head, "None!"
As long as the money was in place, everything else was easy.
Shen Shu had given her seven-figure compensation. When she saw the six zeros after the number on the divorce paper, Ruan Tian suddenly felt as if she had become a living bodhisattva who could forgive the whole world.
When she agreed, Shen Shu didn't say much anymore, he just lightly over at her, casually took out a pen, and neatly signed his name on the divorce papers.
Ruan Tian followed suit and wrote her name in the woman's column with a single stroke.
After she signed the paper, Ruan Tian asked: "Then…when will we get the divorce certificate?"
In fact, what she was more concerned about is when her money would arrive.
When Shen Shu saw her heartless yet expectant look, he felt a bit unhappy.
"Today is Saturday so the Civil Affairs Bureau is closed. Let's meet another day."
Ruan Tian stood up and said, "Alright, you can tell me when you've picked a day and we'll go get the certificate."
She didn't have any other work except for being on the crew of that garbage costume drama, and she didn't have that many scenes, so she wasn't busy.
After she walked out of the Shen residence, Ruan Tian received a call from her agent Jiang Lili. Her first sentence was: "You're finally getting the hang of it! Now you know how to post hype!"
Ruan Tian's little head was filled with great confusion. It had already been two years since her debut and she hadn't been on hot search once.
"What do you mean? What did I do?"
"You're on the hot search." Jiang Lili was silent for a few seconds before she continued, "You and Xu Jing were secretly filmed while you were working on the crew, and people are saying that you two are in love."
Ruan Tian subconsciously blurted out: "When did I go blind? When did a hole develop in my brain? Am I so sick that I would fall in love with Xu Jing?"
After hanging up the phone, she opened Weibo and her directly froze after being overwhelmed by thousands of private messages.
After the phone recovered, Ruan Tian found that she had gained 20,000 followers, and her private messages and comments were full of insults and ridicule.
"Where did this 18th tier pheasant come from to try to leech some of Lord Jing's heat? Disappear bloodsucker."
"Xu Jing doesn't even follow her Weibo, so what kind of thing is she?!"
"Heat is something metaphysical, but we don't need the nth-tier woman who only thinks about fame trying to stick herself to Lord Jing. Us fans of Lord Jing are not vegetarians."
"NMSL! You're really garbage!"
"You stay away from Xu Jing! My brother is kind, simple, and gentle. He is kind to everyone so don't try to take advantage of his kindness."
Ruan Tian swiped through hundreds of comments and felt extremely frustrated. Even among so many people, not one of them spoke for her! ! !
The hot search finally stopped at fifteenth place and, after the popularity dropped off, fewer people came out to scold her.
Netizens had a lot of magical powers, and they could easily turn black to white.
"Isn't this the young miss of the Shen family? Why does a rich lady from a big family have to make a living as an actress? Could it be that the head of the Shen family doesn't like you? You are a very unpleasant person to look at, so I guess it's not a surprise."
"2333 Her husband doesn't love her at all. They haven't even had a photo taken after two years of being married. I heard that she's a scheming bitch who had to plot to get married."
After reading these comments, Ruan Tian resisted the urge to retort.
At 7 o'clock that evening, Xu Jing posted a Weibo: 【I'm unfamiliar with this person, I don't know her, don't care about her, and, most importantly, I have nothing to do with her. 】
He practically came out and said that Ruan Tian was using him for hype.
This Weibo successfully made his fans rave with joy.
Ruan Tian was not surprised that Xu Jing would post like that. He had never thought that she was pleasing to the eye, and it hadn't been for just a day or two.
In fact, Xu Jing had always admired Shen Shu very much. When they were young, their group had regarded him as the boss and bowed their heads as if they were court officials and he, the emperor. So when the drug plot happened, they all thought it was her scheme to force Shen Shu to marry her and hated her even more.
Jiang Lili sent a lot of messages to comfort her and tell her not to be sad.
Ruan Tian smiled and replied that she didn't care.
But she wasn't a person who would let herself get scolded for nothing and, after knowing him for so many years, she knew very well how to piss Xu Jing off.
So, a little later, Ruan Tian went online and posted a cheeky Weibo of her own: 【You're so famous that you can rub your hands together and make money, so sucking your blood makes me very happy. 】
Sure enough, on the other end of the phone screen Xu Jing saw that and felt as if there was something stuffy in his chest and he needed to spit up blood.
【Is Ruan Tian crazy? 2333】
【This is really shameless. 】
【Why do I think this straightforward sister is a bit cute? She looks pretty, and her costume is really beautiful. 】
While the comments were exploding, Ruan Tian noticed that her follower count seemed to be on a rocket and was blasting up.
She took a screencap and sent it over to Jiang Lili, showing off from the bottom of her heart, "Look, someone praised me for being straightforward and cute! They really have a discerning eye."
Jiang Lili: …
The next day on set, Xu Jing had a gloomy face, and didn't say a word to her. Their rivalry was the same as ever.
The filming went smoothly for a week, and eventually, the stars trundled back into their nanny vans and dispersed. At the same time, the net calmed down.
Ruan Tian was just happy she didn't have to suffer through all those NGs anymore.
In fact, Ruan Tian loved acting, otherwise she would never have jumped into the entertainment circle to begin with. But now that she had finished this drama after a little less than half a month, she hadn't set up her next gig.
She was eating her lunch box and thinking seriously, pondering if maybe it was time for her to set up a stall and sell noodles.
But just then, Jiang Lili brought her good news.
"A variety show has come to you!"
Ruan Tian's eyes lit up, "What show?"
"Star Transformations." Jiang Lili hesitated before she continued, "Although this variety show is a bit hard and likes to torture the artists… now is a good time for you to brush up people's impression of your face."
Ruan Tian knew about this variety show. It showed on Fruit Station on Saturdays at 10 o'clock. It specializes in inviting currently topical celebrities to go to poor or remote areas to 'transform' their lives. It was also known for designing many difficult plots for the stars to wade through.
The ratings of this program were very low, and the audience was known to be extremely demanding, picky, and very difficult to serve.
Jiang Lili hesitated and said, "If you can't do it, we won't pick it up."
Although they had no other work right now.
Ruan Tian remembered a certain stage where the program group of 'Star Transformations' would ask the guests to pick their own vegetables and cook their own meals.
She said decisively: "It's fine, I'm good at this!"
After being an orphan for so many years, this much was nothing to her.
That night, the program group of 'Star Transformations' announced the next guests that would appear on the show. Ruan Tian's name seemed small and inconspicuous when stuck between the crowd of big-name guests. However, not long after the announcement was posted, Xu Jing's girlfriend-fans discovered her and began hurling abuse.
"Wait, Ruan Tian, it's that Ruan Tian, right?"
"What did she do to allow her to participate in this kind of show? Even though she is so stupid, she thinks she can act like a Movie Queen. Now she wants to come on this show and leech the other guests. It really makes a person speechless."
"What is the program group thinking? Speechless +1."
"'Star Transformations', please think of the fans of your other guests. You are just letting that woman leech off of them and suck their blood. I feel bad for them."
"At first I was angry, but when I think of how Ruan Tian will be messed up by the show's perverted difficulty level until she's crying for her parents, I actually feel happy."
"Feel happy. +1"
Ruan Tian hadn't even started recording the show yet but there were already tons of people looking forward to seeing her make a joke of herself. Also, Xu Jing's girlfriend-fans were geared up and ready to smear her name until she was afraid to ever show her face again.
Ruan Tian went on Weibo and read the comments, but there were no ripples in her heart. By now she was used to being scolded.
Jiang Lili didn't understand what she was thinking and just told her helplessly, "Don't look at it, don't look at it."
Ruan Tian closed out of Weibo without her face changing an iota. She put her chin in her palm and said in a relaxed tone, "Ugh, all they know are these same few words to scold people. I'm already tired of reading them."
Jiang Lili: "…"
She rolled her eyes and asked in a puzzled tone, "Anyway, why does Xu Jing have so much dislike for you?"
Ruan Tian said, "That's a long story."
"Then why don't you make the long story short."
"Eh, it's all because he's an idiot."
"…"
Even a half-baked agent like Jiang Lili knew it was better not to offend this kind of person if you wanted to get ahead in the entertainment industry. That was why she had asked that question, she wanted to see if there was any way that Ruan Tian could make peace with Xu Jing. However, it seemed hopeless.
She said helplessly: "The company doesn't care about you and, with that reputation of yours… it's a bit difficult for you to get a role." With no other choice, she asked: "But isn't your husband the big boss of Huanshi Entertainment?! It's already been two years and you haven't gotten any benefits from him! I'm so disappointed in you!"
Ruan Tian nibbled on her bread, not caring about the cribs on the corner of her mouth, and said, "He doesn't like me, you've known that since the first day of our marriage!"
She pulled out a tissue and wiped the corners of her mouth before continuing calmly, "And, besides, I divorced him."
There were a few seconds of silence.
Jiang Lili's eyes widened, and then let out an ear-splitting roar, "What did you say?!"
Ruan Tian silently stepped backward to avoid the racket and said, "He mercilessly kicked me to the curb." She pretended to sigh, "I've become an abandoned woman."
Jiang Lili was shocked silly but soon her eyes filled with a trace of compassion, "I seem to remember that you quite liked that Shen Shu, and even did some stupid things to marry him."
The more she thought about it, the more she felt that Ruan Tian definitely hadn't been willing to get a divorce, and her eyes grew even more sympathetic. She even felt that Ruan Tian must just be pretending to be strong right now, with her current light-hearted seemingly indifferent demeanor.
Ruan Tian retorted, "Who hasn't done some stupid things in their youth?"
The two of them were actually currently hidden away in a small corner while they talked nonsense, which forced Hu Kan, the show's deputy director, to come over looking for them. When he finally spotted Ruan Tian, he wasn't polite at all and growled, "You hurry up and get ready, you're in the next scene."
All the people in the crew were people from the entertainment circle, so they were used to worshipping the high and stepping on the low. Since Ruan Tian had no background, wasn't famous, and looked very shabby when she came in every day without even an assistant, no one took her seriously at all.
Today Ruan Tian was filming her last scene in 'The Replacement Princess'. In the scene, when the arrogant and paranoid princess couldn't get her beloved man, she simply tried to kill him so that no one else could have him either.
Ruan Tian went to the makeup department. Soon she had her ancient costume on along with her exquisite makeup that made her look gorgeous and unparalleled. She wore a deep and amorous smile and held the prop knife in her hand. And when she thought of 'killing' the male lead played by Xu Jing, her lips couldn't help but curl into a smile.
The director sat behind the monitor and made a gesture.
"Act one, scene Thirteen, begin!"
The gorgeous woman was like a blooming lotus and she walked step-by-step to the man's side. Her eyes were fixed on the man's face, burning with something crazy, a terrible mixture of extreme love and hate all at once.
A breeze rippled through her black hair and rustled her wide sleeves.
She placed the tip of the knife against the man's heart and slowly smiled. She leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Should I kill you?"
Her tone seemed cheerful, but there was a trace of sadness if you listened closely.
"That way you will love me."
"You will belong only to me."
As she finished the line, a few warm tears rolled down from the woman's reddened eyes.
The tears stained and marred her beautiful cheeks.
Then, suddenly, there was a stinging pain in her chest. However, all she did was smile slightly, as if she wasn't surprised at all.
She looked down, and saw that the man had stabbed her before she could stab him.
"Cut!"
"Well done Ruan Tian, excellent work!"
The director poked his head out from behind the monitor after the scene finished and was completely unable to hide his smile. He praised her in front of everyone: "Ruan Tian, your performance just now was very good."
Ruan Tian returned a pleasant smile, "Thank you for saying so, director."
Xu Jing, who had already been surrounded by his assistants, had an unpleasant look on his face and deeply furrowed brows. He really didn't want to admit that, for a moment, he had been dumbfounded by Ruan Tian. To the point that he had almost forgotten his part in the scene.
Xu Jing hesitated for a while. He wanted to leave, but it was as if his feet were not obedient to his will, and soon he found himself walking in Ruan Tian's direction.
Ruan Tian had already removed her makeup and changed back into her street clothes. She had a big scarf wrapped around her head and covering half of her face, only revealing a pair of round eyes.
She was in the dressing room holding a cup of milk tea that Jiang Lili had bought for her but, the moment she pulled back the curtain that served as a door and stepped out, she ran into Xu Jing head-on. The milk tea in her hand immediately spilled everywhere, it splashed onto Xu Jing's suit jacket and even a little bit went on his face.
Veins popped out of Xu Jing's forehead. He tried to endure, but soon his pampered young master temperament couldn't bear it and he snarled. "Ruan Tian, did you fucking do it intentionally!?"
Ruan Tian blinked innocently, "No."
Xu Jing felt he must have been ill, why would he think to come and chat with Ruan Tian? She was a jinx!
Ruan Tian was afraid that he might want to settle the score, and even more afraid that he would ask her to compensate him for his clothes, so she silently snuck away while he was distracted.
By the time Xu Jing had recovered from his temper, Ruan Tian had already run away long ago.
—-
After she finished filming, Ruan Tian returned to the dim and small apartment that she rented to sleep.
Then, when evening fell the next day, she received a call from her mother.
Mother Zhou's voice was soft and gentle like water, "Tian Tian, your sister came back, do you want to come home and have a meal together tonight?"
Ruan Tian struggled to drag herself up from the bed.
Oh, fuck.
She had almost forgotten that her Mary Sue heroine of a sister had already been discharged from the hospital and was coming home.
Ruan Tian really wanted to refuse.
She suddenly remembered the dream she had after hitting her head. It seemed that this time Father Zhou and Mother Zhou asked her to come home because they wanted to tell her that they planned to give Zhou Xiaoqiao all the shares of the Zhou Group, even the ones they had said belonged to her.
"I got it."
#heartless author#
#what a broken book, if you can't write, just scram#
Ruan Tian strongly felt that, although she didn't have the halo of the female lead and couldn't be loved by everyone, she had no desire to just lie down and be a stepping stone for her.
Later that evening, she appeared at the Zhou Residence on time.
Unexpectedly, she saw her ex-husband in the living room.
Ruan Tian scratched her head uncomfortably. She really didn't want to see Shen Shu right now if she could help it.
After all, he was someone who she had truly loved! In order to show her deep respect for true love, her heart even politely ached for a second.
She only glanced at Shen Shu briefly before looking away from him and sitting on the sofa. She had no expression on her face but wild thoughts in her mind.
The female lead was indeed Shen Shu's true love it seemed. He had come to personally visit Zhou Xiaoqiao as soon as she recovered enough to greet guests despite his usual icy temperament. It was obvious that he treated her differently from other women.
Zhou Xiaoqiao seemed much purer and more delicate in real life when compared with her picture. Her face was small and white, and her body seemed sickly, weak, and delicate. Just looking at her really aroused a person's sympathy and desire to protect.
Mother Zhou had started cooking earlier and soon served a few light dishes.
Ruan Tian just immersed herself in shoveling rice into her mouth. The matters of other people had nothing to do with her.
Zhou Xiaoqiao didn't seem to have much of an appetite and she quickly put down her chopsticks after taking a few bites. Then she said, "Sister Tian Tian is eating so well."
Ruan Tian, who was suddenly addressed: (o_o)
It's nothing to do with you, right?
Mother Zhou looked over at her lovingly and said, "Qiao Qiao, you should eat more, you're too skinny."
Ruan Tian only felt that Zhou Xiaoqiao's smile was even more pure and innocent than the school flower she had known in high school.
Then, as soon as she took another bite, she heard Zhou Xiaoqiao say: "I'm really happy that sister was able to come home and take care of our parents these past few years."
Ruan Tian wanted to roll her eyes.
It turned out that she was still very manipulative under that pure smile.
Ruan Tian coughed out two dry laughs, "Haha."
At the same time, she watched from the side as Mother Zhou added vegetables to Zhou Xiaoqiao's bowl, her eyes filled with warmth and concern, and somehow felt a bit sour in her heart.
She inadvertently glanced over at Shen Shu's face. The man was very calm, as if he had only come over to see his favorite little sister's face but had no intention to speak.
She really wanted to ask him, what was he doing at the Zhou Residence? Just here for dinner? Was the food in his own home no good?
"Tian Tian, mom and dad have something to discuss with you."
Ruan Tian paused, "Say it."
Mother Zhou didn't know that she had already signed the divorce papers with Shen Shu, so she didn't treat him as an outsider at all and said directly: "Your sister is weak, and we don't know what will happen to her in the future, so your father and I are going to leave all the shares to her."
Ruan Tian lowered his eyes and said, "I see."
Mother Zhou was pleased to see her acting so sensible, so she continued, "Also, there's another thing. We may need your help. Your sister needs to have a minor operation and the doctor says she may need someone to donate blood. So I hope you can stay in the hospital during that time, so you can help her in case something happens."
Ruan Tian heard her 'mother' out.
There was only one thought left in her mind.
What kind of life was she living?
This was really too much.
Shit.
She might as well go back to picking up junk.
Her heart was full of mixed feelings. Although she had known what Mother Zhou was going to say in advance, it still felt uncomfortable to actually hear her say it.
After Mother Zhou had brought her back to the Zhou family she had never been short of food or clothing. However, it was also clear that she had never really cared for her as a daughter.
Ruan Tian was aware that she was just a tool for these people, and none of them really liked her.
That was why she entered the entertainment industry back then. She had loved acting and she had wanted to find people who would really like her.
After a long silence, Ruan Tian agreed, "That's fine."
When she stepped out of the Zhou Residence, Ruan Tian felt terrible. She was tired all over and she just stood alone in the snow for a while. After a while, she sneezed, her nose turned red, and her head felt dizzy.
She realized that she seemed to have developed a cold.
Not far from her, Shen Shu was leaning lazily against the doorway. After a moment, the flame of a lighter appeared and he lit a cigarette, his exquisite face hidden in the darkness of the night.
"Why did you come?" Shen Shu suddenly asked in a low voice.
Shen Shu remembered that, after Ruan Tian had insisted on entering the entertainment industry and the things that had happened with him, Ruan Tian's relationship with the Zhou couple had become very cold.
Shen Shu's eyes flickered, and there was contempt in his tone, "Did you come to see me?"
Ruan Tian was speechless.
"You think I came back because you were here?" She retorted.
Shen Shu also remembered that Ruan Tian liked him very much, otherwise she wouldn't have done something like drugging him back then. He put out his cigarette and said, "You don't have to try so hard."
Ruan Tian was really speechless from the bottom of her heart!
Since she had caught a cold she was in a bad mood. She wrapped her scarf tightly around her face and said, "Fine, fine. Just treat it like I'm a stalker who loves you deeply."
Shen Shu couldn't really understand what he was feeling. He had always hated the things she had done, and hated the way she had forwardly loved him back then without ever hiding it. However, right now, he felt slightly moved by her small and fragile back for some reason.
However, after saying her piece, Ruan Tian didn't bother to care about him anymore and turned around to head over to the pharmacy that was near the gate of the community. She bought some cold medicine and then staggered off towards the station carrying her plastic bag.
After a while, she stopped in front of a parked car and used the tinted window as a mirror to examine her reflection as she pulled out her phone to call Jiang Lili. As she examined herself, she began to mutter: "Hah, that Shen Shu dares to ask me why I went to the Zhou Residence? How can he ask such an idiotic question? It's my house, why shouldn't I go back? What if I just wanted to take a look at that pure and innocent white lotus, Zhou Xiaoqiao?"
"Just look at him. He's really narcissistic enough to think that I still have feelings for him."
"Then again, maybe he'll use that pen of his to add a few more millions for me after the divorce since he now knows about my 'true feelings'."
Shen Shu sat quietly in the driver's seat. His hands were on the steering wheel and his thumbs were lightly and rhythmically tapping against it. He looked out through the glass and saw that woman standing there, her voice traveling through the window that was open a crack and into his ears.
Shen Shu raised his eyebrows and laughed angrily.
—–
After that, Ruan Tian developed a high fever and ended up falling asleep very quickly after taking the medicine when she got home. Because of that, she missed the message that Jiang Lili sent her telling her that the program group of 'Star Transformations' would come and fetch her from her home in the morning.
The next day, the weather in the capital was actually pretty good.
There was bright sunlight reflecting off the snow, and the sky was clear and bright.
And, at dawn the next day, the director and filming crew from 'Star Transformations' found the small and remote apartment that Ruan Tian rented and knocked on her door.
Ruan Tian was tired and in a daze after being woken up by the sound of someone knocking on the door. Confused about why her sleep was being disturbed she crawled out of bed and groggily went to open the door while still in her pajamas.
When she opened the door, her face was frosty and expressionless, and her eyes swept over the gather people in front of her coldly.
The director was stunned for a moment by her chilly and listless appearance. He uncomfortably tugged at his collar and said, "You're Miss Ruan Tian, right? We are the film crew that is filming the sixth season of 'Star Transformations'. We're recording now, so could you please quickly pack your luggage and come with us? You're only allowed one suitcase, and we need to set off soon."
"Also, we're recording live right now, as a pre-release for the pilot."
Ruan Tian was stunned for a long moment. And, although her face looked icy and stern, actually she was just feeling muddled and confused.
However, after a while, she seemed to remember that she had indeed agreed to film such a variety show.
"Wait a moment." She said tiredly.
Ruan Tian went back to her bedroom and quickly changed her clothes. Then she dragged out a small suitcase from under her bed and stuffed it with some winter clothes. She packed some pants, sweaters, and a few thick down jackets but, other than that, she didn't pack anything else.
Meanwhile, the director was sitting in the living room and enduring his desire to complain.
Ruan Tian could at least be considered a small star, right? So why was she living in such a small and shabby place?! This apartment was way out on the edge of the city and it only had two rooms total! Just how poor was she?
Wasn't she supposed to be the wife of Huanshi Entertainment's CEO!? This place was really just too shabby.
However, seeing this place with his own eyes, the director really started to feel that the rumors outside were true.
Ruan Tian and her husband, the CEO of Huanshi Entertainment, were not on good terms at all.
Putting it bluntly, it seemed that the Shen family didn't like her so much that, even after she married into the family, they still treated her like this.
In fact, the director was completely relieved when he saw this. It meant that this small star had no one to help her backstage and no background to speak of, so he could push her as hard as he wanted to on the show! After all, the audience liked nothing better than to watch stars making fools of themselves.
As the director was wrapped up in his happy daydreams, Ruan Tian was already dragging her suitcase out of the bedroom.
The director felt that she actually moved pretty quickly and his impression of her improved slightly. He said, "Please hand over your phone and your wallet for the show."
Ruan Tian obediently gave him her phone and her wallet.
"Is the car downstairs?"
"Right."
There was no elevator in an old apartment like this one and Ruan Tian lived on the fifth floor. The director quickly signaled the other crew members with his eyes to let them know not to help Ruan Tian carry her luggage. The director hoped that she could struggle a bit and put on a sad and miserable appearance trying to get her luggage down the stairs on her own. After all, that would be excellent material for the show.
But reality seemed to be a bit different from what he imagined.
Because, the next second, Ruan Tian hefted her suitcase in one hand without changing her expression at all. She even turned to look at one of the cameramen who was sweating uncomfortably, pointed at the camera bag in his hand, and asked, "Need help?"
Director: ?
Cameraman: ?
Ruan Tian indifferently grabbed the camera bag with her free hand and said, "My apartment is on the fifth floor, you guys should be pretty tired from carrying all this stuff up here, right?" She genuinely felt a bit embarrassed and sympathetic, "Anyway, I'll help you carry it downstairs, don't worry about it."
Cameraman: o((﹏))o
Then, without even breathing heavily, she carried it all down from the fifth floor.
The director was stunned. That isn't right, ah! That's not how the script is supposed to go!
Normally no one would usually watch this sort of early morning live broadcast, however, Ruan Tian had recently offended Xu Jing's brain-dead girlfriend-fans, so they were all squatting in the chat of the live broadcast and throwing out all kinds of mocking words.
【My God, Ruan Tian lives in a place like this?】
【Shen Shu really was tricked into marrying her, wasn't he? 23333】
【Whoever marries this kind of poisonous woman is really unlucky. Her expressionless face just now was like the whole world owed her a million bucks. Really scared me to death. 】
【I want to see how this pheasant is going to try to cling to the other stars this time. 】
【The director of 'Star Transformations' has a well known trick where he likes to take the star's phone and wallet and then tell them to make their own way to the filming location. Ruan Tian is just waiting for death, I can't wait to see her crying and regretting look. 】
Of course, Ruan Tian had no idea about the live chat.
After she picked up her suitcase in one hand and the camera bag in the other, the chat seemed to freeze for a moment before exploding like crazy.
【WTF.】
【Am I seeing things? Is that Ruan Tian? That's Ruan Tian, right? Was she so strong? 】
【She's so strong. Is she a monster? I'm really scared. 】
【Uuuuuu, mama save me! Ruan Tian is even stronger than King Kong, I'm so scared. 】
【She had better stay far away from my Lord Jing, I'm afraid Lord Jing might be killed by her! ! ! 】
【If Lord Jing got hurt because of her, I'll kill her myself. 】
【That woman is really scary.】
After getting into the car, the director briefly scanned the live chat before turning it off with mixed feelings.
Like that, the live broadcast was shut down immediately.
However, he still felt that this was just a fluke. In fact, from the time the show had started airing all the way until now, there had never been a guest who had returned from 'Star Transformations' without first breaking down and crying.
During the four-hour drive that followed, Ruan Tian slept the whole time.
This time the program team had picked a remote town in the northwest part of the country to film in. The area was poor and miserable, and the weather was cold and dry.
When they arrived in the city, the director woke Ruan Tian up.
"Miss Ruan, we've arrived in the city but your final destination is Xiaobei Village. It's about thirty miles away from here, and you'll need to get there on your own. Good luck."
Ruan Tian said, "I have no money."
The director smiled and said: "Well, you'll have to think of a way."
Ruan Tian looked into the director's eyes uncomprehendingly for a moment. Now, she finally understood why this show 'Star Transformations' could bring decent guests on but always still got terrible ratings.
At the same time, Ruan Tian's stomach growled loudly. She hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch, so she noticed now that she was very hungry.
However, seeing the director's beady eyes, she knew that he would definitely not give her any money.
"Miss Ruan, are you hungry? Actually, it's not impossible for us to lend you some money. We'll just have to trouble Miss Ruan write us an IOU promising to pay us back ten times the amount." This was a trick that the show always pulled on its guests and it had never failed.
Ruan Tian was silent for a long moment, and then said: "If you want to scam me out of my money, it would be better to just go and dream instead."
There was no way she would pay the crew money. Wasn't that backward?
The director was shocked by her stern retort.
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