Chapter 184 - Are You Just Going to Meet Your Love Rival Like This?

…

Though it was already very late at night, Vera was still wide awake in her own apartment as she was waiting for news from Ku Jie about the identity of Yao Fan’s opponent.

The actress was known as Lin Mei and she was using her gentle and pleasing appearance to gain recognition in the entertainment industry. This was because Lin Mei’s appearance was very demure and this would not provide her many routes to take on her road to stardom.

However, Lin Mei’s team was very powerful and they knew how to play their cards very well. This was proven by the numerous roles that Lin Mei had successfully played in several popular domestic dramas. Lin Mei team would always take the first step to deal with whoever that was standing in Lin Mei’s way to securing a role.

Therefore, this was not the first time that Lin Mei’s team had tried to bring another actress down by using all sorts of underhanded means.

There were also rumors circulating around the entertainment circle that Lin Mei had somehow managed to intercept the role of the first female lead from another actress, even after the actress had been officially casted.

Lin Mei’s encounter with Yao Fan this time could be regarded as a competition between two major factions.

Though Yao Fan’s agency background was undeniably stronger, her team was definitely weaker in comparison to Lin Mei’s.

As both sides had their own strengths, they should have therefore competed fairly. Instead, Lin Mei’s team had resorted to using despicable methods to remove Yao Fan from the picture.

Moreover, aside from offending Yao Fan, they had even involved Song Chenxing and Jiang Yuning.

Yao Fan’s agency was not one to withstand this sort of bullying without taking any actions. Moreover, Song Chenxing also had a very high and well-established status in the entertainment industry. In addition, Jiang Yuning was blessed with the support of both Guangying Media and X Society.

As soon as Vera received this information and material about Lin Mei, she immediately shared the information that she had received with Yao Fan and Song Chenxing’s agency respectively.

Lin Mei’s team had been dominating the entertainment circle for so long. It was time to stop them and teach them a lesson.

Yao Fan’s agency was the first to take action without any delay. They immediately released the information on Lin Mei, including how she had managed to successfully robbed her opponents of their resources in the past.

Yao Fan’s agency also paid a huge sum of money to ensure that the news about Lin Mei would be on the hot search.

After that, Vera also took the opportunity to share more information that she had received about Lin Mei to the public. Who asked the other party to bully her little Jiang Yuning?

Early the next morning, the netizens were blessed with a very good show to watch.

[It turns out that Lin Mei released news about Yao Fan’s scandal only because she wanted to make sure that Yao Fan would not be able to fight her for the role of the first female lead. That’s so disgusting!]

[Hehehe. This is retribution. I have already known that Lin Mei has always been stealing other people’s resources. She was the one who stole my idol’s resources in the past!]

[My idol was the one who had been kicked out of the cast because Lin Mei had intercepted and stolen the role from her. At that time, I was already utterly disgusted by her, but my idol’s agency and team were unable to compete with Lin Mei. Lin Mei deserves it. Justice is served, now that she has finally met an opponent such as Yao Fan!]

[It’s no wonder why Yao Fan and Jiang Yuning could be such good friends. They are both very persistent in fighting for their own justice. That is why I like them!]

[Lin Mei should have just competed fairly against Yao Fan. Now, everyone knows just how despicable Lin Mei’s team is!]

Lin Mei’s team saw the news that was splattered all over the internet early the next day. Initially, they had wanted to spend some money to get rid of the news and remove it from the hot search on the internet. However, they were not as well-off as Yao Fan’s company in terms of their financial resources. Furthermore, the other hot search had also been taken by Guangying Media and X Society. Therefore, Lin Mei’s team had really met their match this time.

They wanted to embarrass Yao Fan?

Then, they might as well be all embarrassed at the same time.

As things escalated on the internet and amidst the huge commotion caused by the news about Lin Mei, Yao Fan’s agency took the opportunity to come forward and explain the entire situation about Yao Fan’s apparent gold sponsor. It turned out that the man photographed with Yao Fan was merely one of her classmates. Yes, Yao Fan did borrow some money from him during her early years, but there was no inappropriate relationship between the two of them. They had no romantic feelings, nor did anything happen between them. Their relationship was purely that of a classmate and a benefactor.

The agency also released the news that Yao Fan had borrowed 1,360,000 yuan from her classmate when she first started out as an actress. However, after a few years, Yao Fan had earned her own share of money and had wanted to repay 2,720,000 yuan to her classmate, but the other party had refused to accept it.

Therefore, Yao Fan had then decided to use that amount of money to build a local hospital under the name of the other party.

This could count as repaying her benefactor’s kindness towards her.

After clarifying the matter to the public, Yao Fan was very happy and relieved. Therefore, she logged onto her public social media account and posted: @FairyYao: I want to thank my little disciple @JiangJiangLovestheScenery and also my dear friend @SongChenxing for supporting me and standing by my side during the crisis. Thank you for defending me and not allowing anyone to bully me! I will also ensure that nobody gets to bully both of you!

@JiangJiangLovestheScenery: Replied @FairyYao: I’ll be waiting for you to treat me to a meal!

Song Chenxing did not replied to Yao Fan’s post because he knew that things had already subsided and everything was fine now. Moreover, he was still busy filming his scenes on set. It was difficult for the production crew and cast to guess his inner thoughts because he always appeared so cool and indifferent.

After the news about Lin Mei was shared on the internet, the production team for the new drama that Yao Fan was auditioning for contacted Ada immediately to announce that they had already made their decision. They had decided on collaborating with Yao Fan instead of Lin Mei because they did not like what Lin Mei would do to fulfill her own selfish needs. Besides that, Yao Fan’s frankness was also a key sign of integrity and the director of the new drama was immediately attracted to her personality.

As for those people who had criticized and insulted Jiang Yuning and Yao Fan, they had already lost their credibility because nobody would ever trust anything that they had to say.

The three of them gained quite a lot of new fans who were initially just passers-by because of this incident.

Whoever said that there was no true friendship in the entertainment industry?

Were they blind?

After filming their scenes that day, Yao Fan approached Song Chenxing because she wanted to thank him in person. “Although what you did was really very manly, I hope that you will not stand out and defend me again in future. I know how difficult it has been for you to finally get to where you are today.”

Song Chenxing looked at Yao Fan as he held onto his script and quickly nodded his head. “Okay then, I will not cause you any more trouble in future.”

“That…that is not what I meant!” Yao Fan cried out immediately. “I just…just think that both of you are really precious to me and I do not want the netizens or anyone in the entertainment industry to attack both of you.”

Song Chenxing could not help but laughed when he heard Yao Fan’s words. “You are just as cute and honest as your little disciple now.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s have a meal with the little disciple soon. Isn’t she already waiting for you to treat her to a meal?”

“But…I do not think I have the time to do that at the moment,” Yao Fan replied sadly.

“Alright then. I got it. I will treat her to a meal on your behalf then,” Song Chenxing responded to Yao Fan immediately. When Song Chenxing uttered this sentence, he appeared so calm and composed that the hint in his sentence was not obvious. However, after thinking through his words, Yao Fan started blushing immediately.

“Why…why are you treating her on my behalf?”

“Isn’t she our disciple?”

Ah! Ah! Ah! Yao Fan blushed even more. “Are you still the Song Chenxing that I know of? No, you must be fake! What happened to you?”

“Silly girl.”

After calling Yao Fan silly, Song Chenxing then continued focusing on the script in his hand.

As for the reason why he had changed so much over the past few months, he had thought about it a lot. He finally understood why Lu Jingzhi would come all the way to Shuofeng Film City just to let him know that Jiang Yuning was his woman. He was also starting to understand the relationship between a man and a woman. He finally knew the answer to the question that his assistant had previously asked him.

In the beginning, Jiang Yuning had misunderstood him although he never had any other intentions. However, he had to admit that he had not been sensible at that time and he only now noticed how he had overstepped his boundaries through some of his actions. After several warnings and advice by different people, he finally recognized the importance of acting within his boundaries. He also realized that he had never once rejected the idea of starting a romantic relationship with Yao Fan. Even though they were lucky enough to be casted in the last two dramas together, he had always taken her for granted.

He was not a romantic person and although he discovered his own feelings a little too late, he finally understood who he had in his heart all along when Yao Fan fell into the well.

This was what it felt like to be worried about someone.

He did not know what the future held for the both of them. However, he thought that it was not a bad idea to try to get along and fall in love, since it had not been easy for him to find someone that he truly liked and admired.

…

Later that day, Vera picked Jiang Yuning up from the villa to send her to press conference for .

When Vera saw that Jiang Yuning was merely wearing a black A-line dress without even putting on any jewelry or accessories, she was a little taken aback. “Are you just going to meet your love rival like this?”

When Jiang Yuning heard Vera’s words, she took a red lipstick out of her purse and started applying it on her lips. “Hm. Do you really think I need to dress up for her?”

Vera was shocked and she quickly replied, “Fine…just pretend that I did not say anything at all.”

There was absolutely no need to overdress or apply extremely thick makeup. Wouldn’t that make her looked less confident?

There was really no need to compare how they dressed up. The important thing was how they were going to face each other.

Jiang Yuning was already facing less judgment and criticism because of the incident involving Yao Fan. Therefore, when she arrived at the location where the press conference was to be held, the reporters and fans gathering at the entrance were also gentle and kind towards her.

The Ginger Candies had even printed out a banner to support her.

Before things changed, Jiang Yuning would never have received this kind of treatment from the public. In the past, when she was still with Emperor Entertainment, it would have been considered her lucky day if no one had thrown a rotten egg at her.

“Little Ningning, you are so skinny! Please eat more,” one of the fans waiting at the entrance shouted.

“Okay,” Jiang Yuning subconsciously replied.

When the fans heard Jiang Yuning replying, they immediately screamed in excitement.

Jiang Yuning did not have any fans in the past and she was already used to people scolding her and hating on her. She also never had anyone who cared about her in the past. However, now that she had the Ginger Candies, it was the first time that she actually had fans who cared about her and even prepared a banner to welcome her as she attended an event.

This was because Jiang Yuning was worth it.

“Miss Jiang, please enter,” the head of the production team said as she brought Jiang Yuning and Vera to the designated dressing room.

“Both the expert group and the celebrity group will be participating in the press conference today. I have heard that the amateurs will not show up until the official recording date of the program. I guess the production team still has some hidden tricks up their sleeves,” Vera informed Jiang Yuning.

“That would be quite interesting,” Jiang Yuning smiled as she walked towards the door of the dressing room.

“Your love rival is in the other dressing room,” Vera said as she pointed at the dressing room right next to Jiang Yuning’s designated dressing room. “I am also very curious to find out what she looks like. I cannot seem to figure out why she would have the courage to challenge you.”

Jiang Yuning listened to Vera’s words as she set her eyes on the door of the other dressing room with the words ‘expert team dressing room’ emblazoned…