Thanks to an explosion of word-of-mouth popularity, the press conference and actor meet-and-greet for the premiere of 'Obscurity' gathered a lot of attention. Plus, thanks to Director Cheng's many contacts, many big stars were also invited to help out, so the event was huge.
After all, many of these actors and actresses were big names that had been retired for several years who only came out of retirement as a favor to Director Cheng.
Around half an hour before the premiere, a staff member in the theater posted a commemorative Weibo: "I just got a small bit of news. It seems that today's premiere of 'Obscurity' will be attended by the big bosses of the two largest investment groups that backed the film. I was just inside the VIP lounge and I happened to see them there."
The two biggest investment groups behind the movie 'Obscurity' were Huanshi Entertainment and Qin Pictures.
It was partly because of this that so many 'backstage dealing' conspiracies were created after Ruan Tian was selected for the role as the second female lead and also why she was scolded so much by the netizens.
The news that Shen Shu would also be attending the premiere was like a shot of chicken blood for all those ShenxTian fans.
One by one they popped back up, seemingly full of new energy.
"Unexpectedly, I can still see a chance for these two people in my lifetime."
"Ah, a couple that has loved deeply, and a couple has hated deeply."
"This might be the moment that the broken mirror is finally be fixed and made whole, or perhaps the moment where they realize that they can only choose to let go. Whatever, either way, I will ship them."
However, for many of Ruan Tian's fans, Shen Shu's name was already their reverse scale, so seeing it pop up again had them full of anger.
They had no good feelings for this cold CEO.
"How does Shen Shu, this dog who allowed his ex-wife to leave the house with absolutely nothing, have the face to appear in front of Sister Tian again and again."
"He really pisses me off."
"Hopefully, after this time, Sister Tian will never interact with him again."
Jiang Lili was Ruan Tian's agent, but even she had been blindsided by this news. Only when she saw the netizens online making a commotion about it did she find out that Shen Shu was also at the premiere.
She looked at her phone with dark eyes, and she ground her teeth unhappily.
After all, even though Ruan Tian had asked her last time to make sure that she wouldn't have to see Shen Shu anymore, Jiang Lili had really found out the news too late. Because of that, her hands were tied and she couldn't help her friend avoid Shen Shu this time.
Jiang Lili eventually went to Ruan Tian and explained what had happened bitterly.
As she listened, that same familiar word appeared in Ruan Tian's heart:
****!
Jiang Lili comforted her: "He should only be sitting in the guest seats below the stage, he won't be part of the program."
Ruan Tian replied in a dull tone, "Alright, I got it."
Bleh. She could only put up with it.
For the start of the premiere, the main creator, the director, and all the actors were invited to the stage.
Ruan Tian looked around and spotted Shen Shu in the first row of guest seats. He was wearing a black suit. His expression was calm, and his eyes seemed indifferent as usual.
Meanwhile, Shen Shu had been resting his hands on his legs, but they unconsciously clenched into fists. Back on his grandfather's birthday, after he had heard Ruan Tian personally say that their marriage was a mistake, he had fallen ill.
While he was sick, he had the illusion that there had been someone by his side.
Whenever he looked up, he seemed to be able to see a young girl sitting on the bed reading an English book to him.
But then he would blink, and there would be no one around.
In a daze, Shen Shu had gone to find the maid and asked her, what did Ruan Tian used to like to eat at home?
But the maid had only looked at him like she was looking at a fool before telling him that the Madam had never lived in the house.
Right.
They had separated soon after they got married.
Ruan Tian had left his world very early.
Resolutely, unrelentingly, unhesitatingly, she had withdrawn from his world.
Meanwhile up on stage, Ruan Tian's gaze didn't linger, and she coldly moved her eyes away.
But, unluckily, she happened to meet Qin Yu's smiling eyes.
Her face turned even more frosty.
Indeed, misfortune never came alone!
It seemed that two Plague Gods had descended together today.
A reporter from the audience suddenly asked: "Director Cheng, I wanted to ask, how was it decided to let Ruan Tian play this role?"
Director Cheng paused, and then said: "Because she performed very well during the audition. Her performance was amazing, and I felt that no one else was more suitable for the role than her. And I feel that it turned out I was right, she completed her work very well and didn't let the audience down. I really admire her, and I hope that I will have the opportunity to work with her again in the future."
For Director Cheng to say this, his words had a certain sort of weight, and it caused the listeners to perk up.
After all, all of his movies had been very good.
However, no actor or actress had been able to star in his movies twice in a row so far, so this could be a big piece of news.
After that, the reporter's questions mostly revolved around the starring actors that played the male and female leads.
Only when the premiere was about to end did someone finally toss Ruan Tian a question, "Ms. Ruan Tian, did you encounter any problems while filming this movie?"
Ruan Tian smiled and replied, "In fact, it was okay."
The reporter suddenly didn't know how to continue this line of questioning!
At the end of the question session, all the big name guests left the venue one after another.
Meanwhile, the lounge backstage had been surrounded by two rows of bodyguards in black suits.
The atmosphere inside had become unusual.
Backstage, Qin Yu was lazily sprawled in the same seat that Ruan Tian had been sitting before, and his fingers were leisurely toying with her bag. As for Shen Shu, once the premiere had ended he had directly left.
Ruan Tian just pretended that there wasn't anyone there. She picked up her bag and turned to leave.
However, while she was inside one of the bodyguards outside had firmly occupied the doorframe, so she couldn't easily get by.
Qin Yu smiled at her, "Teacher Ruan Tian, you aren't even going to greet me?"
Ruan Tian's mouth snapped shut like a gourd.
What was this psycho up to this time? ! Whatever it was, she wanted no part of it.
In fact, Ruan Tian had been using this move to deal with Qin Yu ever since high school. When she was really mad at him, she would just run away whenever she saw him, and if she couldn't run away she would just shut up and refuse to say a word to him.
But Qin Yu's mouth was very cheap, so he quickly had quickly come up with response for whenever she used this move.
Thus, whenever she closed her mouth and ignored him, he would always just call her 'little mute'.
Ruan Tian looked down at her toes and considered this situation. Her mind turned rapidly, and all sorts of thoughts flashed by.
Suddenly, it was as if there was a flash of light in her mind.
Qin Yu, this person, had never appeared in front of her on his own initiative even once during the two years while she and Shen Shu were married.
However, ever since the day of their divorce, he had suddenly started appearing around her with terrible frequency.
Ruan Tian suddenly had a certain idea. She raised her head and opened her mouth.
Qin Yu raised an eyebrow and immediately seemed pleased. "You don't want to act like a little mute today?"
Ruan Tian replied nonchalantly, "Did you see where Shen Shu went?"
The temperature in Qin Yu's eyes dropped a degree at a time, and a strange hysteria seemed to surface in the depths.
His smile gradually disappeared, and he sneered, "Are you still going to see him?"
Ruan Tian said, "Yes, I'm going to talk to him about remarriage."
As soon as her voice fell…
Ruan Tian felt his relaxed aura disappear in an instant, replaced by something suffocating and full of rage.
Qin Yu stared at her silently without saying a word. The gleam in his eyes made him look like a madman suddenly struggling to hold back his emotions.
Qin Yu's whole aura became extremely tense. A hoarse growl seemed to be brewing from the depths of his throat. His cold and pale face turned another shade whiter, and his dark eyes burned fiercely as they stared at her.
—–
Even until a few days later, Ruan Tian was still seeing that fierce expression in her dreams.
In the end, she went and told Jiang Lili about what happened.
Jiang Lili flatly responded that it was clear that Qin Yu just liked her.
Ruan Tian's mind was full of question marks. Was there really someone in this world that was so distorted?
He loved her so he bullied her?
She was reminded of those domineering CEO novels she had read before.
The one with the characters that would say: Although I'll dig out your kidneys, dig out your heart, and beat up your baby, I actually love you!
Ruan Tian was shocked.
The shock level she felt now was about the same as the time when she had read that novel where the evil secondary female lead had dug out the female lead's kidney and put it into her belly and used it to pretend to be pregnant.
Ruan Tian didn't believe that Qin Yu liked her. Probably, Qin Yu just didn't want to deal with her, and it had nothing to do with love.
In the end, she spent a few days at home in a bad mood and getting restless sleep. Usually, when she was in a bad mood she would do chores at home, so she ended up cleaning up her whole apartment and finding the trinkets from high school that Shen Shu had returned, which only brought another wave of unhappiness.
As this was going on, at 11 o'clock in the morning on June 31st, the first group of audience members to see 'Obscurity' all walked out of the cinema.
On a certain website, the movie received a high score of nine out of ten points.
This was almost the highest score that any Chinese-language movie in the past ten years had gotten.
At the same time, the premiere was breaking records! By the time the morning was over, if you included pre-sales, the film had already broken 100 million yuan at the box office.
The film reviewers were raving.
"The lead roles were well chosen, and the supporting role was chosen even better. The despair of the girl played by Ruan Tian and her final act of decisiveness all surprised me."
"The story is good, the actors are chosen well, and the acting is good! When Ruan Tian was crying… I-I also cried, and it felt like my heart was being squeezed."
"It's really hard to imagine. Just a few months ago, I was also one of the people slandering Ruan Tian and accusing her of only landing the role because of her backstage connections."
"When heard the news from the premiere that Ruan Tian had acted so well, I didn't believe it at all. But now that I saw the movie for myself today, I've realized that my barren vocabulary can't even encompass one ten-thousandth of the acting skill she displayed. So I'll just say that it's really good."
Before the morning was over four or five hot searches revolving around the movie all shot to the top of the chart.
At the same time, there were endless discussions about the film, and more and more people were beginning to pay attention to the issue of human trafficking.
And like this, Ruan Tian jumped up from just being an actress that was slightly famous among her own fan circle to being a real star that had formally stepped into the public eye.
On Ruan Tian's Weibo, after three years in the industry and nothing but small ups and downs to show for it, the followers suddenly soared by over 600,000 in just one morning.
Actually, even before 'Obscurity' was released there had been superstitious people posting all sorts of 'prophetic posts' guessing about the movie's content and who had been frantically following every new update on the film since it was announced. In one corner of the internet, a group of such people had been discussing the film before the premiere:
【I'm buying stocks, will it blow up big or flop? 】
"I feel this movie can only flop. Ruan Tian's presence has triggered my sixth sense."
"It isn't so easy for a movie to blow up, or else there wouldn't be so many flops every year."
"The word-of-mouth from the pre-screenings all seems to be good, person above, are you an idiot?"
"Does anyone still believe in word-of-mouth? Who doesn't know that all those so-called professional film critics are just being paid to talk up new films? Generally, movies that make a lot of fanfare at the beginning tend to quietly flop by the end."
"Hahahahahaha, I look forward to the day when Ruan Tian is thrown out of the film industry as well."
However, when 'Obscurity' made 200 million at the box office on the first day and broke all sorts of records, this thread was dug up by the netizens and roundly mocked.
"Hahaha, these guys are really rebellious."
"They like to dig graves for other people so much, but now that they've been face slapped by reality. I wish I could see their faces right now."
"Sure enough, it's impossible to predict what will get big and what won't. Especially when Ruan Tian is involved, she seemed to make these kinds of predictions even less likely to be accurate."
No one had expected that Ruan Tian would suddenly become so popular but it seemed that it was real.
Plus, the heat generated by starring in a film and being acclaimed for her excellent acting skills was completely different from heat that might be generated by some random scandal.
Three days after it was released, the box office performance of 'Obscurity' continued to trend steadily upward, quickly breaking the 500 million mark and coming out with a strong start for the summer season.
This was because, while the box office trend had already been excellent on the weekend of the premiere, it continued to spike higher and higher even during the following weekdays.
In the end, the people who actually went into theaters to watch films and the keyboard warriors who were always complaining online were actually two separate groups without much overlap.
Most ordinary audience members had never even heard of Ruan Tian's messy scandals before. Thus, after these people watched the film they would only see that this actress was acting well and, after inquiring about her name, they would look her up online and then click to follow.
Thanks to that, after three short days, Ruan Tian's total number of Weibo followers had already risen to 6 million.
And while the movie overall was receiving rave reviews, Ruan Tian's role was also gaining a lot of recognition.
'Born actress', 'light of the big screen', 'the last actress in the entertainment industry who can meld beauty and strength', and so on… People were raving and many media outlets and bloggers were using exaggerated words of praise to blow up her name.
And the TianTian Group was even happier than Ruan Tian herself was. They were all excited and full of joy. Taking advantage of this opportunity, they began to organize and hand out tickets to showings of 'Obscurity' to passersby so that more people could see their idol for free.
There was even a certain fan who had been following Ruan Tian ever since she had first joined the circle and had been playing tiny side roles for big productions. Seeing her favorite star finally break out and get the recognition she deserved, this fan couldn't help but cry excitedly.
Back then, Ruan Tian had just been one of many small actors and actresses with less than five minutes of screentime, but even so she had captured this fan's heart.
After that, the fan had used various channels to chase Ruan Tian. She had secretly gone to the airport to follow Ruan Tian, watched when she had gone to an audition by herself, watched whenever she would occasionally participate in a small variety show or two, and even watched as Ruan Tian would fall asleep out of sheer tiredness while she waited to board her flights. Back then there had been many times when Ruan Tian would be forced to the corners. Times when, even though Ruan Tian was obviously standing on the stage with the other stars, she would somehow seem even more like a member of the audience than the audience members did.
After she cried for a while, the fan wiped away her tears and made a post titled "In this world, effort is really rewarded in the end."
"Two years ago, I saw a certain little girl. Without any support from her company, she had to fight for everything on her own. She would go to auditions alone and come back with nothing to show for it, but she would never complain, she would just continue trying and trying again. For a long time she had always taken small stand-in parts where she couldn't even show her face, and this time she finally took on small nth female lead parts with a single line, but she was still willing to come out and act. The role had her running around so much that she was so tired that she was even sleeping in the airport terminal. And then when she arrived on set the crew informed her that the role had already been cut! In the end there was nothing she could do, and she had no choice but to book the cheapest flight back the next morning. I've always been watching her, and she's always been working hard."
"TianTian got to this point, not because of luck or the blessings of the heavens, but because she was willing to endure hardship and loneliness and wade through a darkness that people outside wouldn't ever be able to see from a casual glance."
This sensational post was quickly forwarded over ten thousand times.
Of course, for the fans who followed the entertainment industry, there were no perfect stars.
However, thanks to her recent exemplary work, Ruan Tian had at least won a certain degree of goodwill among the public.
Very soon countless media outlets came to offer olive branches and request interviews, and several of the season's popular variety shows also tried to invite her to come on their shows.
On top of that, Ruan Tian's phone suddenly exploded with hundreds of people trying to friend her on WeChat, and many of them were people from the industry.
At first, Ruan Tian's newfound fame had no sense of reality for her, but when she looked at the number of comments and notifications on her Weibo she began to have a clear sense that she had really finally managed to break out and had officially become one of those lucky stars who exploded from one big break.
Thanks to her newfound popularity, many more scripts landed in front of Ruan Tian. However, most of them were still questionable scripts with titles like 'The Cold Prince's Second Wife', 'The Second Wife of President Gao Leng' or 'My Wife Is My Sweetheart'.
Ruan Tian glanced over the opening paragraphs these scripts, and as she read her arms broke out in goosebumps.
【The prince said coldly: "You are not worthy to give birth to this prince's child!" The princess burst into tears: "No, please, at least let the child off."】
【Three years ago, the CEO mercilessly sent her to prison as a scapegoat for his beloved woman. But then after she was released from prison, he came back and said: "Sleep with me until I am satisfied, and I will let you go."】
O! M! G!
Ruan Tian felt as if her three views had taken a blow.
These CEOs and princes didn't seem to be very smart, ah.
Jiang Lili also felt very helpless. It was undeniable that the scripts that had been coming to them recently weren't very high quality, but there was nothing she could do about it. She could only wait and try to find a good script.
However, even if there was no good script on hand, it wasn't like they could just do nothing, right?
Thus, Jiang Lili decided to mention some of the variety shows that had been throwing olive branches Ruan Tian's way recently: "There are two cooking variety shows, one that features an acting competition, and one with a quiz-type competition. Shall we choose one?"
Ruan Tian spoke from the bottom of her heart: "I don't want to cook anymore."
Jiang Lili was leaning toward the show with the acting competition, because she felt that a show like this would be more likely to become a hot topic and attract big names from the circle. She told Ruan Tian her thoughts and then looked at her questioningly.
Ruan Tian thought about it for a while before saying, "Eh, I'm not interested in this kind of thing."
After all, wouldn't it end up embarrassing for everyone involved if she ended up acting better than the actors sitting on the judges' bench could?
"So, does that mean you want to do the quiz show? Or do you not want to do anything at all? Don't you have any ambition in your heart!?" Jiang Lili almost roared.
Ruan Tian shook her head, "I never even passed math, so what would I go to that kind of show for!? In order to be humiliated?"
She was completely uninterested. She had already been humiliated enough because of her schoolwork, okay?
Jiang Lili asked again: "Then do you want to rest at home? Just not do anything?"
But Ruan Tian had already made a different decision, "I'm going to participate in an escape room show. It's the same director that I worked with last time on 'Star Transformations'. Back then he even tried to give me a five-figure red envelope, but I didn't dare to take it wuwuwu…"
Jiang Lili: "…"
She sighed.
Okay, we can just do whatever makes her happy then.
—
When Zhou Xiaoqiao saw the news that Ruan Tian seemed to be blowing up in the entertainment industry, she couldn't eat or sleep well, and in just a few days she lost a lot of weight.
She wanted to enter the entertainment industry as well, but she knew that her parents would never approve.
And Zhou Xiaoqiao couldn't do things that her parents didn't approve of. After all, she had always been playing the part of their "perfect little girl".
Thus, Zhou Xiaoqiao could only post a few photos of herself online from time to time and occasionally host a live broadcast that didn't show her face.
But recently she had gone outside in order to take more photos, and she had ended up smashing her foot so badly that her ankle had swelled up to the point that she couldn't go out again for a week.
Thus, when Shen Shu showed up at the Zhou residence, Zhou Xiaoqiao thought he was visiting because he was worried about her.
She was laying on her bed and she smiled up at him gently, "Big Brother Shen Shu, you don't have to worry, I'm okay."
However, Shen Shu actually hadn't known about her injury before he had come.
He looked at the gentle-looking girl in front of him. She was the same little girl that he had been looking after and caring for since they were both children.
She looked delicate and vulnerable, but was that really the case?
Looking down at the girl laying in the bed, Shen Shu asked faintly: "What happened to your leg?"
Zhou Xiaoqiao's eyes turned red, "It's all my fault, I was just too careless. I rushed out to chase after TianTian but I took a misstep on the stairs by the door and didn't manage to catch myself. So now it's like this."
Zhou Xiaoqiao would never directly take the initiative to harm or accuse Ruan Tian of anything, but 'coincidentally' she would always be able to twist her words a bit until things were pushed off on Ruan Tian in a logical-seeming way.
Shen Shu frowned, and his face turned slightly cold.
He knew that Zhou Xiaoqiao was lying.
After all, Shen Shu had been watching Ruan Tian closely in the past few months. Because of that, he knew that the two sisters had never met.
Zhou Xiaoqiao felt a bit uncomfortable under Shen Shu's unreadable gaze, but she remained calm and asked: "Big Brother Shen Shu is something wrong?"
Shen Shu looked at her with eyes full of meaning. He had always thought that Zhou Xiaoqiao was a weak and delicate flower that needed care and protection. She had always been beautiful, generous, sensible, knowledgeable, and gentle. And, indeed, she seemed to perfectly meet his requirements for the woman in his life.
But these days, Shen Shu had discovered that Zhou Xiaoqiao was not as delicate as he had thought.
She also had her own way of scheming.
"It's nothing." Shen Shu rubbed the Buddhist beads on his wrist in a careless manner, and then asked: "Do you remember back in our third year of high school? Where did you find me back then?"
Zhou Xiaoqiao's heartstrings tightened, but she managed to reply in a normal tone, "Halfway up the mountain."
Shen Shu made a 'hmm' sound, and didn't seem to doubt the authenticity of her words.
Zhou Xiaoqiao squeezed his hand tightly and her eyes reddened as she said, "I was really scared that time, I almost thought I wouldn't be able to find you."
Shen Shu replied faintly, "Rest well, I'll go for now. "
He could see that Zhou Xiaoqiao had lied again.
Shen Shu felt very disappointed.
—-
After Ruan Tian found the director and signed the contract, they ended up chatting for a bit and went to have drink together.
The director told her that there were no hard feelings and that he had only treated her a bit roughly back then because that was the kind of show 'Star Transformations' was, and he even added that even back then he had seen her potential to become famous!
They carried on like that for a while, and Ruan Tian ended up drinking a little too much.
Thus, a bit drunk, she stumbled out to the street to find a taxi. But when she stepped outside, there seemed to be a ghost in front of her. For some reason, she could actually blurrily see two ghostly Shen Shus standing there!
The cold wind blew across her face, and she began to sober up a little bit.
Because of that Ruan Tian managed to realize…
****, it wasn't just her illusion!
Shen Shu seemed to really be standing over there, about three meters away. What was more, he also noticed her and seemed a bit shocked to see her.
This distance between them somehow caused Ruan Tian to reminisce about the past.
She hiccuped drunkenly, and before Shen Shu could say anything, she said: "Eh, Shen Shu, do you remember that time when I was being bullied by a thug?"
Shen Shu froze in place.
Ruan Tian gestured to the distance between them with her hands, "Back then, you were also probably about this far away from me."
Shen Shu's fingers tightened on the doorframe of his car, as if for support, and his whole body seemed to lose strength.
"Back then, you just smiled, said four words, and then left."
They had been four words that made so much sense that Ruan Tian couldn't even think to refute – 'It's not my business.'
Ruan Tian had just drunk some wine so her temper was a bit softer than usual. If she had been a bit soberer and this topic had been raised, she probably would have acted like a man and beaten Shen Shu black and blue before sending him packing.
When Shen Shu responded, his voice was hoarse and so soft that it could barely be discerned, "Stop talking."
Don't say it.
Don't remind him again.
Don't remind him that the arrogance and prejudice that he had carried around with him back then had hurt her so deeply…
Ruan Tian sneered, "What's the matter? What's wrong? You don't dare to listen, you bastard?"
Then she yawned, "Whatever, just forget it. I'm sleepy now, I don't want to talk to you."
"I want to go sleep with one of my five boyfriends."
Shen Shu reached out and caught her thin wrist. His teeth were clenched and he seemed to want to say something, but after a moment he swallowed it back.
Ruan Tian rolled her eyes at him, "Let go of me, don't interrupt me from going to my young fresh meats!"
Shen Shu's hand on her wrist gripped her so tightly that it hurt a bit, and his eyes turned bloodshot as he asked, "You've already found a new boyfriend so fast?"
Ruan Tian's temper started to come online: Or what? Am I supposed to save myself like I was your widow?"
Whether she had a boyfriend or not, she would just pretend to have one for now!
Of course, Ruan Tian didn't really go sleep with some fresh meat, instead, she ended up lying in bed alone trying to fight the insomnia brought on by the alcohol.
However, even by three o'clock in the morning, her eyes were still open and staring up at the ceiling.
Whenever Ruan Tian was bored like this, her hands would somehow leave her control and find their way to her phone and Weibo. Obviously, she felt nothing but disgust when she thought of Zhou Xiaoqiao, but for some reason, she would always come back to take another look at her Weibo.
Xiaoqiao: Ah, I took another picture at home today, so happy (*^▽^*).
Of course, beneath the photo there was nothing but people praising her beauty in the comments, comparing her to a fairy that had descended to the earth.
Many of the comments would also incidentally step on Ruan Tian's head in their eagerness to praise her sister. One commented: You must look so much better than your sister! Although I've never seen her before, her ugly character must be reflected on her face.
Ruan Tian sneered, and there was the sound of intense clattering from the keyboard for a moment before a new comment appeared: "That photo had been edited to a ridiculous degree. In real life, Zhou Xiaoqiao doesn't look anything like that."
After venting her feelings a bit, Ruan Tian happily fell asleep with her phone in her hands. However, she didn't realize something important…
Beside the most recent comment on her sister's photo, there was a large gold V and associated real-name authentication.
(tl note: For 'gold V' just think like a blue checkmark on twitter. aka: an account with a verified identity by the platform and probably not the account someone would want to use to flame their relatives with)
—-
In actuality, Zhou Xiaoqiao was not as good-looking as Ruan Tian. Her facial features were not as refined as Ruan Tian's, and her while appearance gave off a 'pure and untouched-by-the-world' vibe, her looks were overall inferior to Ruan Tian's.
And it was for this reason that, back during that year when Ruan Tian had been found, Zhou Xiaoqiao had felt a little bit jealous of this newfound little sister who had a face that was five points similar to her own but that was also inexplicably more beautiful than her own.
On top of that, Ruan Tian's arrival had meant that, by right, half of the affection she had received until then would have to be given to her sister instead.
Of course, Zhou Xiaoqiao hadn't been willing.
Fortunately, it seemed that their mother favored her.
Fortunately, Shen Shu and the group of boys also didn't seem to like this new girl very much.
Because of these things, Zhou Xiaoqiao had gotten used to thinking that Ruan Tian would just forever be lowly and beneath her. However, recently, she began to feel a sense of threat from Ruan Tian.
There had been Shen Shu's questioning, there had been Qin Yu's warning, and also many of the others had more or less begun to think, 'Huh, Ruan Tian actually seems to be a good person?'
With all this happening, Zhou Xiaoqiao couldn't sit still anymore.
Whatever Ruan Tian could do, she could also do, and she could do it better!
—-
The next morning Ruan Tian was awakened by her grumbling belly, so she dragged her body out of bed and made herself a simple breakfast. After she finished the meal, she stretched and yawned.
Looking outside, the weather seemed to be excellent, so Ruan Tian walked over and pulled open the curtains to let in a little sunshine.
That done, she nestled into her living room sofa and watched a movie to pass the time.
But just as the movie was reaching its climax, she suddenly received a frantic phone call from Jiang Lili that smashed her peaceful morning: "Ruan Tian! Could it be that you have dozens of alternate Weibo accounts? Why is Zhou Xiaoqiao's account being blown up by so many people?!"
Jiang Lili's phone had been ringing off the hook ever since early this morning.
Her colleagues from both inside and outside the company were all calling or sending messages to ask: Was there some sort of conflict between Ruan Tian and that white-rich-pretty on Weibo? Why was her artist suddenly attacking some random person out of nowhere? (tl note: the term comes up a lot 'baifumei/白富美' and it literally means white-rich-pretty. It's sort of like a genderflipped 'tall, dark, and handsome'? Just a generic term for a rich and attractive woman. Anyway it's a popular slang term online in China)
When Jiang Lili saw all the notifications on her phone, she began to have a bad feeling.
After doing a cursory search, she discovered that this matter between Ruan Tian and Zhou Xiaoqiao had already rocketed up the list of trending hot searches.
Ruan Tian was also dazed by this twist.
She took out her phone and checked to see what had happened. After a moment, she realized that she seemed to have forgotten to log into an alternate account the night before.
"Whatever, everything I said was true. If you want me to delete it, sorry, but no way!"
Zhou Xiaoqiao might be the heroine beloved by all the men in the book, but Ruan Tian wasn't a man, so why should she keep holding back with her?
Jiang Lili also didn't try to persuade her to delete the post, but she warned: "Well, for now just don't read Weibo anymore. I'm afraid you won't be too happy with what you see."
Ruan Tian pondered it for a moment and replied, "It's alright, I have thick skin."
But, unexpectedly…
The tone of the conversation online was a bit different from what Ruan Tian and Jiang Lili had imagined!
Ruan Tian had thought that countless keyboard warriors would be rushing to her Weibo in order to scream and curse.
But this time Zhou Xiaoqiao's halo seemed to have broken.
The netizens online had their own thoughts.
FanCircleGirl: 【I spent the whole night searching and I think I've finally figured out why Ruan Tian suddenly lashed out at this Zhou Xiaoqiao! I think it should be because Ruan Tian is the sister who often appears in this white-rich-pretty's Weibo…】
Ruan Tian and Zhou Xiaoqiao were sisters, but not many people outside of their personal circle knew about it.
And, inevitably, a dramatic confrontation between sisters in the entertainment industry was always something that would pique the interest of the public.
Thus, the number of people who appeared to watch the show and eat melon seeds from the sidelines was not just a few.
"Wow, is this the legendary white-rich-pretty? She's such a bitch."
"Hahahaha, this little sister Qiao must be a fox spirit who has cultivated for a thousand years. Her methods are all so cliche. From her posts, it looks like she's saying how much she cares about Ruan Tian, but reading the subtext isn't she actually belittling her?"
"No wonder Ruan Tian would want to lash out at her. If it was me, I wouldn't be able to bear living with someone like this who says one thing to my face and another behind my back. I would probably have beaten her to death long ago."
"Hahahaha, I'm laughing to death here. Mainly because Ruan Tian is right! How can she be a white-rich-pretty when the 'pretty' is so distorted by photo editing?"
"Poster above, you're eyes are so piercing."
"I advise all the real white-rich-pretties out there not to read too many dog blood dramas. There's no need for this sort of nonsense, okay? Uploading a picture of this week's new bag or new cosmetics is already enough!"
"Ruan Tian is already practically a cow, so I'm very curious about what her sister looks like in real life. There's no way she looks decent."
Zhou Xiaoqiao, who was being criticized like crazy, felt very upset.
If she had been more or less pretending to be sick all of those times in the past, this time she really felt ill.
She had never been scolded like this before in her entire life. Some people were saying that she was very fake, and that she was deliberately dragging Ruan Tian's name into her posts to trample on her. Some were calling her ugly, and some were calling her pretentious.
Zhou Xiaoqiao had her facade torn down and then received a merciless scolding from the netizens, and before long it was more than she could bear
Thus, that morning, Zhou Xiaoqiao deleted everything on her Weibo account in tears.
But even after doing that, she still felt choked and breathless. When the maid at home found Zhou Xiaoqiao in this state she hurriedly called a car to take her to the hospital.
When Ruan Tian found out about this, she was surprised to hear that Zhou Xiaoqiao had literally been scolded so badly she needed to go to the hospital.
And, according to Ruan Tian's understanding of Mother Zhou, the woman would definitely blame her for this incident. Further, it was very likely that she would even ask Ruan Tian to apologize to Zhou Xiaoqiao.
So Ruan Tian decided to move a step ahead of her demanding mother. She went out and bought a bouquet of flowers and then headed to the hospital on her own initiative.
In the hospital ward, Zhou Xiaoqiao seemed haggard. Her eyes were red and swollen as if she had been crying for a long time, and Mother Zhou was sitting at the side comforting her.
And the two of them weren't alone in the ward. There was also Qin An, who had come to visit his goddess, and Shen Shu, who had come on behalf of his mother.
Ruan Tian saw the scene inside the ward through the glass, sighed internally, then knocked once briefly before pushing the door open and waltzing into the room.
Mother Zhou looked at her expressionlessly, "You still know to come here…"
Zhou Xiaoqiao gently pulled her mother's arm and said softly, "Mom, don't blame her…"
Ruan Tian chuckled." Of course you can't blame me, I'm not the one who called you ugly, nor am I the one who called you pretentious."
Zhou Xiaoqiao choked, and her next words got stuck in her throat, unable to go up or down.
Her face turned red, then white, and then red again. It was wonderful.
Ruan Tian enjoyed watching this version of Zhou Xiaoqiao who looked like she was almost suffocating.
After a moment, she casually set the bouquet at the head of the bed, and then she began to speak without restraint, not bothering to filter herself the way she usually would.
"Just obediently lie down in the hospital and recover. Don't spend all your time thinking about how to come out and harm people. After all, people who scheme too much often have short lives. For someone like you, whose body is already bad, scheming is like willingly putting one foot in the grave. If you keep it up, maybe before long our dear mother will have to send you off, and how sad that would be." (tl note: she actually uses the idiom "grey hair sending off black hair", which is more poetic sounding but which I can't think of a way to properly fit into the line)
Ruan Tian decided to fully act out her role as a vicious secondary character this time.
Her happiness index seemed to double.
After all, whether Zhou Xiaoqiao was the heroine or not…
Whatever people might think about her…
The most important thing was for her to enjoy herself!
Shen Shu stood to one side, a deep frown on his face.
Zhou Xiaoqiao immediately defended herself: "I've never thought of scheming against you. I don't know when you started to misunderstand me this way…"
Ruan Tian reached up and ruffled her hair before responding with an indifferent smile: "Perhaps back in high school? Back when you secretly tore up my summer homework and nearly caused me to be unable to enroll? Did you think I didn't know?"
Zhou Xiaoqiao's delicate fingers tightly gripped the white bedsheets, but her mouth was unable to refute.
At the same time, the way Shen Shu looked at Zhou Xiaoqiao gradually changed.
Mother Zhou snorted, "Ruan Tian, haven't you done enough? Will you only be satisfied when you force your sister to death?"
"Is she dead now?" Ruan Tian replied in a frosty tone.
Hearing Ruan Tian's retort, Mother Zhou sucked in a cold breath and then spat, "If I had known it would turn out like this, I would never have brought you back."
This ****.
Listening to these words, Ruan Tian just felt exhausted. But there was no hurt, no ripples in her heart, and she almost even wanted to laugh.
"In fact, I also still regret boarding your pirate ship of a family."
Had she ever asked the Zhou family for anything? For money?
She even donated so much blood to Zhou Xiaoqiao for nothing! ! !
Why did it seem like she was actually the one being taken advantage of here! ?
Mother Zhou couldn't believe what Ruan Tian said. A pirate ship?
How dare she compare the Zhou family to pirates?
"This is how you speak to the parents that gave birth to you? This is your upbringing? Apologize now, and I'll pretend I didn't hear anything just now."
"So long as you apologize, I will not blame you for the mistakes you've made before, and as long as you are willing to change and sincerely admit your mistakes, the Zhou family will once again be open to you."
Ruan Tian fell silent.
Slowly, she took out a certain card from her bag and placed it in front of Mother Zhou. Then she said, "This is the bank card you gave me. Although it was always usually frozen for around twelve months out of the year, I think I'll just give it back to you."
"This is the only thing the Zhou family has ever given me, and it feels dirty in my hand when I hold it."
In books and TV dramas, there were many scenes where parents and children would dramatically break up.
Usually, it would be the child who would dramatically cry and then scream at their parents: 'Just treat it as if I, your daughter, am dead!'
But Ruan Tian didn't do that.
She changed the script deftly.
"From today, I will treat you all as if you are dead."
"I will again be an orphan with no father, no mother, and no sister."
Ruan Tian paused for a moment to looked over at the delicate and weak Zhou Xiaoqiao, and saw that a new round of tears already seemed to be brewing in her eyes.
Ruan Tian swore in her heart and was about to continue…
But, unfortunately, there was no time to say anything more…
Because Mother Zhou suddenly fainted!
The woman just collapsed right there in front of her.
Before Mother Zhou's consciousness became hazy and her world turned dark, she pointed a shaking finger at Ruan Tian and sputtered out some incomprehensible words.
Seeing her like this, Ruan Tian idly wondered if maybe this woman might really die of anger.
With cold eyes, Ruan Tian watched a swarm of doctors and nurses rush into the room, and then turned and left.
Qin An had never seen this kind of scene and he was so frightened that he couldn't move. He muttered, "Brother Shen, I'm a little scared."
Today's Ruan Tian was so fierce!
Shen Shu almost wanted to laugh but found that he couldn't.
Qin An whispered again, "But I also think that Auntie Zhou is really being too much. She's also too eccentric."
Shen Shun hummed.
He lowered his eyes and suddenly felt a bad mood take him. In his memories, it seemed that Ruan Tian's situation had always been like this. She was not valued or favored in the Zhou family, and at some point, it seemed as if it had become just a matter of course to bully her.
Shen Shu slowly raised his eyes and his cold gaze fluttered down to Zhou Xiaoqiao's tearful face. Seeing this, a strange kind of boredom suddenly rose in his heart.
He had always thought he had liked Zhou Xiaoqiao.
But it turned out to be nothing more than this.
In reality, he just didn't much want to look at her.
Today when he saw her endless tears, his heart didn't move at all. Rather, for the first time, her tears only roused odd feelings of boredom and impatience.
Meanwhile, Zhou Xiaoqiao wiped her tears and said in a panicked voice, "Big Brother Shen Shu, my mother will be fine, right?"
The corners of Shen Shu's mouth twitched, and he replied without emotion, "You'll have to ask the doctor."
After that, he didn't stay much longer.
In the end, he arrived at the hospital at about the same time as Ruan Tian, and also left at about the same time as she did.
Shen Shu loitered in the hospital parking lot for a while after leaving the ward. Whenever his mood was low, his need for cigarettes seemed to gradually increase. Thus, he was currently taking out a cigarette and putting it in his mouth. But the moment he was about to light the cigarette, he suddenly recalled how Ruan Tian had boasted to him that she already had a new boyfriend from the industry, and the lighter in his hand trembled. The bright flame flickered and shook, and then went out.
Ruan Tian was actually feeling a bit relieved after unilaterally severing her ties with the Zhou family.
A bit later Director Liu called to inform her that she would need to come and record 'Role Play: Escape From The Secret Chamber' next Wednesday.
Supposedly this was actually Fruit Station's key project for this year. It was rumored that there was an S-level investment behind the project, and that Fruit Station was pouring in everything it could to make the show the next big hit.
On Saturday, the program group announced all of the guests who would be on the show.
They hyped up that both Xu Jing and Qin An were on the list, and that the show was being created by the same team behind 'Star Transformations'.
Having several topical figures all suddenly announcing that they would be working on the same project together raised excitement to a boiling point.
"Could this be the fabled fields of death? It will be the ultimate showdown between the TianXJing CP and the QinXTian CP."
"Rename this show! The title should be: 'Ruan Tian And Her Men'!"
"It's the same director from 'Star Transformations'? It's already over. This show will be a miserable slog."
"The director has a bad hobby of torturing his guest stars, I can only wish them good luck."
"What a high IQ move. Whichever person who is working on the show that decided to invite Ruan Tian is really smart."
The CP fans were all clamoring again.
The TianTian Group could only close one eye to this and, so long as the CP fans didn't do anything too over the line, they decided to endure it for the time being.
Like that, a hit movie featuring Ruan Tian had just been released and now there was a hot variety show that also had her on the way.
In a short period of time, Ruan Tian had become a hot new star.
Meanwhile, Liu Yilee, who had previously auditioned for the same role with Ruan Tian, was so angry her teeth itched. She felt that if Ruan Tian hadn't "robbed" her of that role, then she would have already have stepped into the circle of movie stars by now and would no longer just be a small star with a bit of fame.
Of course, after the warning from Qin Pictures last time Liu Yilee didn't dare to arbitrarily make any moves. However, during the recent period, that person hadn't made any more moves.
Because of that, she also gradually relaxed.
And envy could really blind a person's eyes.
Why did she have to sacrifice so much, but wasn't able to get the same resources?
Why did she have to spend nearly ten years in the industry clawing her way up to get to where she was today, but Ruan Tian only took three years and surpassed her? !
Liu Yilee was determined to pull Ruan Tian down.
Thus, after spending a lot of time and energy, she found Ruan Tian's weakness.
So then, only four hours after the official announcement of 'Role Play: Escape From The Secret Chamber' went live, a picture of Ruan Tian's notice of expulsion from her film academy suddenly exploded online.
…
【…Ruan Tian, a member of our school's class of 2017, was absent for 22 of her course hours without reason, and also missed the final exam without reason. This behavior is a serious violation of school rules and regulations, thus, Ruan Tian is hereby expelled… 】
The document was written in plain black and white with the official seal of a certain prominent school emblazoned across the bottom.
It didn't look fake at all.
Ruan Tian could only feel that this person who had dug out this nearly three-year-old incident to attack her was quite unscrupulous.
This was precisely the feeling of having salt rubbed in the wound, ah!
Ruan Tian felt that the pain she was feeling in her heart after seeing this was probably roughly equivalent to the pain those heroines in dog blood dramas felt after their kidneys were dug out.
Seeing all of the clamor online, Ruan Tian couldn't help but reflect on the story of why she had been expelled back then. After pondering for a while, she confirmed once more that she had truly been a crazy woman who had been driven mad by love.
As she considered the situation, she incidentally took a few moments to drop a few choice words for the author that had written this dog blood novel: **** your mother!
The novel the author had penned was truly a masterpiece that brought together all the familiar elements of dog blood dramas and played them completely straight.
These elements didn't only include the standard fare such as a character being used as a stand-in for another character's white moonlight or a tumultuous one night stand that snowballs out of control, but also other factors such as amnesia, car accidents, and abuse.
Back then Ruan Tian had been admitted to Capital Film Academy with the highest marks of any person in the country that year. Then she naturally went on to be the top scorer in the final exam of the first semester of the freshman year.
Her teachers and classmates all liked her, and without the haze of high school hanging over her, she was enjoying her school life and getting along well with her classmates.
But the good times didn't last. Back then, Ruan Tian still hadn't gotten smashed in the head, so she still didn't know that she was only a vicious supporting character whose destiny as a cannon fodder had already been written out.
She had still been lost in a haze of love.
At that time, Shen Shu had gone to a foreign country for his university exams, and in the end, he was admitted to a foreign university before he even graduated from high school.
However, not long after he enrolled he had gotten into a car accident while on the road and ended up hospitalized.
Ruan Tian had been anxious to the point she was almost dying.
Of course, looking back on it now, she only felt that people all over the world who had nothing but love in their brains should probably be decapitated for their own good.
But what had happened in reality was: She had rushed to that foreign hospital and found Shen Shu lying in the ICU and only breathing with the assistance of a ventilator. The doctor told her that he had fallen into a coma, and whether or not he could wake up again wasn't certain.
Of course, the lovestruck Ruan Tian had no shame, and without anyone asking her to do so she had worked tirelessly as Shen Shu's nurse, purely out of love.
After she took care of Shen Shu for a month he was transferred from the ICU to the general ward. By then, he would occasionally briefly open his eyes before fainting again within a few seconds.
Ruan Tian looked after him for two months without any complaints. When the weather was good, she would open the curtains in the ward so that Shen Shu could get some sunlight and then she would sit beside his bed and read books to him aloud.
Her teacher back at school called her many times and, after Ruan Tian explained what was going on, her teacher expressed her understanding, but also told Ruan Tian that she wouldn't be able to break the rules just for Ruan Tian.
In the end, when Ruan Tian was even absent from her final exams, she was finally sent a notice of expulsion.
Ruan Tian took care of Shen Shu for over three months, but he never woke up.
However, as soon as Zhou Xiaoqiao came over, Shen Shu immediately opened his eyes.
This was the excessive power of the heroine's shining golden halo at work.
In hindsight, Ruan Tian felt that somehow she had ended up doing all the work the heroine should have been doing, while Zhou Xiaoqiao only needed to show up at the end to collect the benefits!
Of course, after Shen Shu regained consciousness Ruan Tian had subtly hinted to him many times about what had really happened. For example, she would say something like: 'Wow, the weather is really nice today, just like it was during those months when I was taking care of you.'
Or: 'Wow, isn't the world out there just like the world in that book I was reading to you before.'
But Shen Shu just treated her as a clown dancing around and didn't believe her at all.
From his cold eyes, Ruan Tian could see that she had been judged guilty in his heart of pretending and trying to deceive him.
Of course, she had been very upset because of this. It was one thing if he didn't want to give her the credit she deserved, but it was another thing for him to silently accuse her of lying!
Thus, Ruan Tian had righteously spoken out.
However, Shen Shu just thought that she was acting crazy and lying.
And now, as Ruan Tian looked at the plain expulsion notice that had been exposed online, she suddenly felt an urge to print this notice out and smack Shen Shu's face with it!
To yell at him: 'Open your dog eyes wide and see if I, your grandmother, was lying!'
But she resisted that urge.
Instead, she cleared her mind and focused on becoming one with the breeze, free and comfortable.
Of course, the netizens were not so easy-going:
"She missed 22 class hours? It seems Ruan Tian didn't focus on studying at all, right?"
"Children, don't follow her example, okay? And to you stars in show business, please only come out to perform after finishing college, thank you."
"Just looking at her usual behavior anyone would be able to guess that she wasn't a good student."
"Her fans now have a new point to brag about: Their star is the first person in the entertainment industry that was expelled from school hahahaha."
"So, does this mean Ruan Tian only has a high school diploma? hahaha."
"What a crazy twist. It seems that the Capital Film Academy doesn't want to admit that they ever took in a student like her. Probably the admissions office regrets ever letting her in and wasting a spot."
Ruan Tian: Just more salt on the wound!
When Jiang Lili saw this news breaking online, she was even angrier than Ruan Tian, and her heart felt suffocated.
After all, in all the time she had known Ruan Tian she had always given Jiang Lili the impression that she was a very tough person who would never shed tears.
And in all that time, Jiang Lili had only seen Ruan Tian cry twice, and one of those times was the day she had been expelled from school. On that day Ruan Tian had come to find her and cried heartbrokenly.
Jiang Lili immediately suspected that this matter was done by that cheap woman Zhou Xiaoqiao, who had a long history of scheming against Ruan Tian, so she instantly began drawing up plans to go find her and settle the account.
This dead white lotus had shamelessly taken credit for Ruan Tian's actions back then, and even now she was still up to the same old tricks?
Thus, after learning that Zhou Xiaoqiao was about to be discharged from the hospital, Jiang Lili dragged Ruan Tian along to head her off and stop her from escaping.