CH 90

Chapter 90: The Real Scheme

After seeing Gongxi Qiao appear, Gu Nan almost thought he would be out of luck this time. If he were Gongxi Qiao, he would never let go so easily when faced with someone who had backstabbed him and was doomed to be unable to fight back.

When he was abroad, he heard from his agent that there was a small artist in China who had caught Xi Qing’s eye. At the time, he was disdainful and even had an inexplicable distaste for him.

Later, when he returned home and saw the real person, his distaste disappeared, but he became curious about this newcomer, wondering what kind of ability it was that made Xi Qing, a person with almost no emotions, call him a friend.

The day of the premiere of “National Industry”, he saw Gongxi Qiao’s acting skills for the first time. He was both impressed and wary of the other person’s superb acting skills, impressed by the other person’s strength and wary of the threat he might bring to himself in the future.

At that moment he even wondered if he should use tactics to press down the momentum of his growth. He thought about using Zhou Huaisheng, Liang Yumeng and even Zheng Lei. After so many years of ups and downs in the circle, he had the status, connections and means to discredit a newcomer who hadn’t quite made a name for himself. It couldn’t be easier.

On the night he was about to strike, he thought a lot about it, and even deliberately sought out Gongxi Qiao’s few works to view. He watched the whole night until dawn, and then he canceled the plan that was so vicious that Gongxi Qiao wouldn’t even be able to wash himself clean if he jumped into the Yellow River.[1]

He never thought that he would spend the whole night watching someone else’s work and even appreciate them so much. He couldn’t bear to ruin such an inspiring actor.

Perhaps his inner conscience hadn’t completely died, or perhaps he had stayed up too late that day, causing his brain to twitch. Inadvertently, he watched Gongxi Qiao slowly change from the Best Supporting Actor of the Thousand Flowers Award to one of the Best Actor nominees of the Golden Leaf Award.

The matter of comparing Gongxi Qiao to him for hype wasn’t actually led by him, but planned by his staff. He only found out about it after the plan had started, and it was too late for him to undo it.

Ever since he won the Thousand Flowers Film Emperor Award at the age of 19, he had rarely been hit in the face like that. Gongxi Qiao became the Golden Leaf Award Film Emperor, and his team’s previous promotions comparing the two of them were like the biggest mockery of him.

Only later did he find out that the one who made the plan had taken money from Liang Yumeng, his rival in the company, and deliberately used this method to screw him over. Anyway, in the end, whether Gongxi Qiao was able to win the award or not, Qiao fans and his fans would turn against each other. He was popular, but there was still a Master Xi behind Gongxi Qiao.

If the two of them fought to the death, Liang Yumeng, who was hiding behind the scenes, would be able to reap the benefits.

Liang Yumeng’s brain had been stupid for so long. It was rare for him to be smart for once, and he actually managed to pit him.

However, at this time, if he wanted to push the blame on Liang Yumeng’s head, who would believe it? Or even if someone believed it, who would care? Others would only laugh behind his back that he was a sore loser and shouldn’t play the game if he couldn’t afford to lose.

So in front of Xi Qing today, he could only stiffly shoulder this matter, and wait for the other person’s anger to subside before mentioning the matter of being framed. He couldn’t let the other side feel that not only was he not taking responsibility, but he was also good at passing the buck.

The atmosphere in the room was much lighter after Gongxi Qiao spoke. Gu Nan rubbed his forehead, suppressed his dizziness, and smiled apologetically at Gongxi Qiao. “The previous incident was my oversight. I didn’t realize that the team’s planner was bribed by someone else to tamper with the publicity and involve you in it.”

Gongxi Qiao was such a smart person that he immediately guessed that there was something fishy about the previous incident when Gu Nan said this. Thinking about it, the previous method of hype really wasn’t very clever. Gu Nan was at least considered a superstar, and shouldn’t be willing to use such means to strengthen his popularity.

Moreover, the relationship between Ringstar and Senhe wasn’t bad. If Gu Nan really wanted to create hype, he should have discussed it with Senhe’s side and come up with a win-win hype plan, instead of taking the risk of suggesting to other netizens that Film Emperor Gu was much stronger than Gongxi Qiao, a tender youth, before the Golden Leaf Award results were out.

In fact, wasn’t that just attracting hatred?

“I wonder…… who came up with such a good method?” Gongxi Qiao put down his chopsticks with a smile and wiped the corners of his mouth clean unhurriedly. “He killed two birds with one stone, he’s really good.”

“Otherwise he wouldn’t have become a film emperor.” Gu Nan sighed. “I heard that Liang Yumeng was on good terms with you, I didn’t expect him to use such tactics.”

That was nonsense. Others might not have known, but with Gu Nan’s connections in the circle, how could he not know about the feud between Liang Yumeng and Gongxi Qiao?

Without exposing Gu Nan’s careful thoughts, Gongxi Qiao said, “Ever since he was injured and hospitalized, Brother Liang’s behavior has become more and more perplexing.” It was no wonder that Liang Yumeng wanted to deal with Gu Nan. Gu Nan was the mountain above Liang Yumeng. As long as Gu Nan was there, Liang Yumeng would never be able to become the top male star in the younger generation.

“That’s not true.” Gu Nan smiled bitterly. “It’s my fault for getting Qiao Shao involved in this unwarranted disaster.”

“You’re also just a victim.” Gongxi Qiao raised his wrist and looked at the time. “We’ve had enough wine and food, and the misunderstanding has been cleared up. Why don’t we all go home early and rest?”

“Yes, yes, yes, we won’t disturb you two from resting.” Mr. Huang could see that Xi Qing’s position on this matter was entirely up to Gongxi Qiao, so he was very polite when facing Gongxi Qiao.

Special Assistant Gou, who didn’t say a word from the beginning to the end, silently lowered his head and wiped his mouth. Did it need to be said thrice at that time?[2]

Assistants also had dignity.

Once everyone left Bai Wei Xuan, Mr. Huang, Gu Nan, and the others personally sent Gongxi Qiao and Xi Qing to their car. After the car that the two people took was far away, Mr. Huang said with emotion, “Those two have such a good relationship.” They both rode in the same car.

Gu Nan glanced in the direction that Mr. Huang looked, and had an inexplicable feeling in his heart. Even he himself didn’t know where this strange feeling came from.

It was like seeing a novelty toy in a toy store when he was a child. He couldn’t help but look at it a few more times, only to come back the next day and the toy was no longer available.

“Fortunately, Qiao Shao is a reasonable person. Otherwise, this matter really wouldn’t be easy.” After sending Little Uncle Xue to his car as well, Mr. Huang breathed a long sigh of relief. “With Master Xi around, no one would dare to offend this Qiao Shao.” Even more frightening was that, with Gongxi Qiao’s current development trend, soon he would become one of the top superstars in the circle even if Xi Qing no longer helped him. Even Gu Nan was no match for him.

Being in the right place at the right time was fate. Xiang Hong must have been born under a lucky star[3]. He was a lucky bastard to have signed such a good artist.

“Liang Yumeng won’t be able to jump around in a few days.” Mentioning Liang Yumeng, Mr. Huang’s tone immediately cooled down. “He fell out with Sun Jingxue, causing Sun Jingxue to be very unhappy with him. He’s already semi-blocked in the circle. Today, since you explained the origin of the situation to Qiao Shao, then we will have to do something.”

Gu Nan nodded. “I know.” Liang Yumeng had fallen to the point where everyone was shouting at him, but he was still thinking of scheming against others. If he didn’t return the favor, people would still think that he, Gu Nan, was a soft white steamed stuffed bun[4].

After suffering such a big loss, how could he not return the favor.

Two days later, the major entertainment media reported the news of Gu Nan’s upcoming guest appearance in “Dream Corridor”. Everyone knew that “Dream Corridor” was a suspense film that Gongxi Qiao was going to invest and star in, and a lot of his friends in the circle were joining him. The fact that Film Emperor Gu was making a cameo appearance showed that the two had a good relationship.

When Qiao fans and Nan fans saw this news, even if they didn’t see eye to eye with each other, they were no longer at each other’s throats. Inside, they were secretly pleased that their male god and XX were also good friends.

A few days after the news that Gongxi Qiao and Gu Nan turned out to be close friends was released, on a certain forum, a person in the know used an anonymous account to break some news. The name of the post was “Big Gossip, some secret things about a certain film emperor”.

T/N:

1. wouldn’t even be able to wash himself clean if he jumped into the Yellow River: an idiom meaning that you will never be able to prove your innocence or rid yourself of suspicion.

2. Not sure about the meaning of this sentence: 这个时候不应该说三位吗？

3. Born under a lucky star: In chinese it says “ancestral grave had green smoke” which has a similar meaning but I don’t think translates well to English 向宏真是祖坟冒了青烟

4. steamed stuffed bun: a weak and useless person