Sometime later at night, Xiao Lei was at a BBQ restaurant with the rest of the crew, and she was surprised that the director had actually booked the entire restaurant for the dinner party.
"Come on, Ms. Xiao, have some beer with us," said one of the male crew members. He quickly poured a glass of beer and handed it to her. When Xiao Lei was hesitant to take it, his expression soured a little as he said, "Come on, just a glass. It's clean!"
Xiao Lei smiled gently and shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I don't really like to drink."
"Ah, come on!" the male crew said with a loud sigh. Perhaps because he was somewhat drunk, he raised his voice as he said, "I know I'm just a lowly worker, but we have been working together for a while now. You won't even give me face?"
"I'm sorry," Xiao Lei said as she tried to diffuse the tension. "I'm just not into drinking..."
"Oh, come on," another male crew with blond hair muttered under his breath as he looked over at Xiao Lei from a distance away. "I've always known that she's a stuck up b*tch. She's always with her assistant and rarely talks to anyone else."
Another female crew nodded, and she said to the blond-haired male crew, "I heard that she only talks to high profile people. Did you see how many men she had been seen with?"
"Ssshh," a nearby male crew shushed the female crew before adding, "she's dating President Du's assistant. I heard that the assistant is also a high-profile man. If words of you talking about her gets out, you'd be eating porridge for the rest of your life."
"Ah, it can't be that bad," the female crew snorted. "Even if he's very powerful, he's still just an assistant. There's no way he can do those kinds of things."
"I'm just saying, I'd be careful if I were you," said the male crew who warned the female crew earlier. He then turned to his friends.
The blond-haired male crew member glanced at Xiao Lei, who was still trying to refuse the drink offered by his older colleague. Xiao Lei's assistant even stood between the two and offered to drink the beer for her. Unfortunately, the older male crew did not accept it at all.
The blond-haired male crew member then slammed his beer glass onto the table as he snapped, "Oh, Ms. Xiao, if you dislike us normal people who don't have f*cking rich boyfriend so much, why did you even come to dinner with us?"
Upon hearing the commotion, the director who was sitting at the other table, which was a few tables away, frowned and looked their way. He then stood up and warned the blond-haired male crew member, "Talk disrespectfully to Ms. Xiao one more time and you can consider yourself fired!"
The blond-haired male crew member then sat down disgruntingly as he downed another glass of beer. Vivian Siew suddenly sat down next to the blond-haired crew and said in a kind manner, "Now, now... Don't be mad. I'm sure Sister Xiao did not mean anything. Maybe she just doesn't feel safe drinking with so many people."
"Oh, Ms. Siew..." The blond-haired male looked at Vivian Siew with l.u.s.t in his eyes. The woman was dressed in a very s.e.xy purple, deep V bodycon dress, and it accentuated all the curves on her body.
Vivian Siew smirked when she realized that she had gotten someone on her bait. To kill an enemy with another's hand was something that she had learned while starting her career in this scary world. She spent the next hour treating the blond-haired male politely while using careful words to affect his judgment.
Meanwhile, Xiao Lei was having a lot of problems as she declined the alcohol that was constantly offered to her. While some of them were understanding enough, there were always a few of them who could be quite pushy. Assistant Yoon had helped her down so many glasses of beer and shots that she could not help but be worried over the woman.
No matter how much training she had, Assistant Yoon was still a woman, and now, she was drinking more than some of the guys here.
"Enough..." Xiao Lei said as she took the glass of beer from Assistant Yoon's hand. She could not bear to watch anymore. She looked at the guys who were waiting to drink with Assistant Yoon and said sternly, "She's done for tonight. I really dislike drinking, so please stop this..."
She did not care that she might offend anyone with her words. After all, the filming was about to be done, so she probably wouldn't meet most of them after this.
Fan Shaohang, who was sitting on another nearby table, looked over and saw that Xiao Lei had barely touched her food. He had seen her eat before, and he could tell that she loved to eat. "Why isn't she eating?" he muttered under his breath. He wanted to go and dismiss the guys for her, but he felt that she would be angered by it. Hence, he decided to just take a seat back and see how everything unfold.
Meanwhile, his actions did not go unnoticed. Vivian Siew noticed it and had secretly captured a few photos of him looking over at Xiao Lei. She felt that there was something wrong going between those two. She had heard about how Fan Shaohang would often talk to Xiao Lei, only to be either ignored or treated brusquely. That, and the photo frame that she found in Xiao Lei's changing room made her suspicious.
"Were those two old lovers?" Vivian Siew thought. It was not unheard of for an older more distinguished gentleman to be with a younger woman, especially in their industry where this kind of thing was more than common. Furthermore, Fan Shaohang and Xiao Lei both had somewhat hidden past.
No one really knew where or what Fan Shaohang was doing whenever he was out of the country, and as for Xiao Lei, her past was just... unclear.
After she planted the "evidence" of Xiao Lei's infidelity in her changing room, Vivian Siew then set a meeting with Angela Zhang, and she showed the photo of the framed photo to Angela Zhang, wanting to know her opinion of the matter.
When she did so, there was a weird look in Angela Zhang's eyes, but the latter dismissed it saying that it was unimportant. However, Vivian Siew had a feeling that there was something deeper between those two. Whatever it was, Vivian Siew was adamant to dig it out.