Don’t Want a Divorce (7)
Jiao Powerless
When Feng Qingyu entered the lounge, she happened to see Xu Jiao finishing a phone call and preparing to leave. The two were very close in distance, causing Xu Jiao to walk right into that bitter orange blossom sea, as if an animal in nature had wandered into the territory of a large carnivore. As a result, Xu Jiao took a few steps back in the next moment.
She took the initiative to widen the distance between them.
Feng Qingyu only felt that the honey-like sweetness gently brushed past her, without having time to carefully discern it, it had already drifted away like the wind. She belatedly realized that it was because Xu Jiao had well-contained her pheromones.
Xu Jiao didn’t know why Feng Qingyu came over, but it didn’t stop her from speaking first, “I really appreciate your help today. If you don’t mind, can we arrange a time for me to treat you to a meal?”
“Of course, if this invitation troubles you, then forget it.”
With just these simple words, she had already thoughtfully given Feng Qingyu a way out.
Feng Qingyu met her gaze; the look in Xu Jiao’s eyes during the audition had not yet faded from her mind, but at this moment, she could clearly feel the difference—
In the drama, Xu Jiao’s eyes carried emotions, whether it was at the beginning under the willow trees by the lake or later when mentioning the Empress with the palace maids by her side. The emotions in her eyes were full and constantly changing.
But now, her eyes were like two clear springs, crystal clear. Beautiful as they were, they no longer held the deep affection and hidden calculations they once had when looking at her.
She seemed to genuinely just want to thank her.
Feng Qingyu couldn’t tell for a moment whether this person had become more adept at pretending or if she was genuinely, as she had previously assured, not planning to entangle herself with her anymore.
Just as Feng Qingyu was hesitating whether to accept, Xu Jiao had already lowered her head to glance at her phone again and gave her a polite smile: “If you decide, you can send me a message. I’ll wait for your schedule—”
“Now, I have a lunch appointment, so I won’t continue to disturb you. Goodbye, and once again, thank you for your help today.”
After saying this, Xu Jiao sidestepped past Feng Qingyu, her well-contained Omega pheromones lightly drifting away with the breeze she stirred, disappearing without a trace in no time.
When Feng Qingyu’s gaze followed her, Xu Jiao’s figure had already vanished from her field of vision.
Only the cold wind in the corridor swirled by her side.
……
“So soon back again? Perfect timing, Qingyu, tell us, did you secretly coach her? That improvisation at the end, she instantly elevated Rong Qing’s ruthlessness to a new height, yet you could still see her deep affection for the Empress. All that love, hidden within her murderous methods…”
Zhen Tiao squinted his eyes, rubbing the edges of the script’s pages in his hand, rolling and twisting the corners at his fingertips, clearly feeling unsatisfied.
Seeing his reaction, Shangguan Yan knew that this role had already been decided.
Unless someone else comes along to completely overturn Xu Jiao’s performance, in Zhen Tiao’s mind, the role of Rong Qing would only have Xu Jiao’s version.
Now, hearing Zhen Tiao’s question to Feng Qingyu, Shangguan Yan wanted to use this opportunity, from a fair perspective, to see if he could get Zhen Tiao to give another chance to those who performed well.
But before he could speak, he saw Feng Qingyu raise her hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Her bright makeup highlighted her features, with a blush on her cheeks so subtle it was almost invisible, making her star-like eyes appear deeply affectionate.
She slowly curled her lips into a smile and said to Zhen Tiao: “Director Zhen, to be honest, I don’t have the confidence to discuss any roles other than Qi Yunshang with others—”
“《The Palace Wall Willows》 isn’t one of those adapted scripts. Besides, we who have been cast don’t have a complete script. What if I misunderstand something and lead her into a pitfall?”
Zhen Tiao was taken aback: “You mean, she figured out that scene by herself?”
Feng Qingyu recalled how Shi Weiya had told her that Xu Jiao spent all her time locked in a room studying the script. Thinking about it now, at least Xu Jiao was taking this job seriously this time.
She had always respected colleagues with a professional attitude. Seeing Xu Jiao showing signs of improvement now, she naturally felt relieved and nodded to Zhen Tiao, adding one more sentence:
“Yes.”
“Recently, I’ve had many activities and haven’t really checked on her progress. To be honest, today was also the first time I saw her in this scene.”
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Zhen Tiao and Shangguan Yan had interacted with Feng Qingyu on many occasions and knew her to be a calm and steady person. In the noisy and superficial entertainment circle, she was one of the rare few who could maintain inner peace.
Despite her young age, she did not possess the arrogance and overbearing attitude of other Alphas. Many directors and actors who had worked with her had a good impression of her. Now that she had a nomination for the Jinsheng Award, she was just one solid win away.
Regarding her words, even if Zhen Tiao found them incredible, he would still treat them with respect. He smiled immediately and said, “It seems you were also amazed by that scene just now—”
“I’ve recorded all today’s performances with a camera. My decision alone isn’t enough. I need to take it home and let my partner review it. Sometimes her inspirations come out of nowhere. Sometimes it might be a gesture, a look, and she insists on that person playing the role, even if it means arguing with me.”
Feng Qingyu nodded, “I know your habit.”
Hearing this, Shangguan Yan felt it was inappropriate to say what he initially intended. He could only secretly hope that Xu Jiao’s performance wouldn’t meet the screenwriter’s expectations. He then glanced at his watch and suggested, “It’s just about lunchtime. You don’t have any appointments, do you? How about we have lunch together?”
……
Xu Jiao had an appointment for lunch with her agent, Ni Hong.
In the hotpot restaurant.
The steam from the mandarin duck pot rose in front of them, and the fragrance of beef tallow wafted through the air. Ni Hong was just an ordinary Beta. Just by looking at her black-rimmed glasses, it was hard to associate her with the glamorous profession of an agent.
In front of Xu Jiao, Ni Hong didn’t bother with too many formalities. She stretched out her long chopsticks, fished out the freshly dipped fat beef from the spicy pot, and swished it back and forth in the broth. The first sentence Ni Hong uttered was:
“How is it? Can Feng Qingyu help you secure this role?”
Xu Jiao used a soup ladle to add some broth to the sauce in her bowl. She didn’t blame Ni Hong for looking down on her, considering the original owner was indeed an overgrown baby who couldn’t navigate the entertainment industry independently and had to rely on Feng Qingyu to move forward.
She stirred the sauce in her bowl with her chopsticks and said with a light smile, “I wanted to talk about this. I used to be too perfunctory in my acting and didn’t respect the profession much.”
“But this time, after getting the script for 《The Palace Wall Willows》, although I can’t say I was so absorbed as to forget to eat and sleep, I did ponder the character and scenes for a long time. Feng Qingyu helped me secure the audition opportunity, and now I’ve done my part. The rest is up to fate.”
Ni Hong blew on the fat beef roll and put it in her mouth. After a few chews, she realized the implication behind Xu Jiao’s words: “What do you mean? Feng Qingyu didn’t put in a good word for you with the director? Then… then this role is lost?”
Although she didn’t show disdain for Xu Jiao’s poor acting skills on her face, the assumption that Xu Jiao could never get the role based on her acting alone made Xu Jiao feel a bit helpless and amused.
One had to admit—
Ni Hong and the original owner were indeed cut from the same cloth.
Moreover, Xu Jiao’s performance today couldn’t be said to be entirely due to her own efforts. She had already immersed herself in the earlier scenes dozens or even hundreds of times, so they came naturally. But for the added scenes later, she used the skill ‘Immersion’ to compensate for her shortcomings in lines, actions, and expressive tension.
Thinking of it this way, she really couldn’t claim that she got this role purely based on her own abilities.
Seeing that Xu Jiao didn’t give a definitive answer, Ni Hong’s heart sank a bit. But as a manager, she had to care for the artist’s mental and physical well-being, providing appropriate encouragement and support. She immediately comforted her:
“It’s okay. Even if we don’t get it, we can still use marketing accounts to plant cakes. We’ll release some rumors first, making the gossipers and fans preemptively associate you with this role. This way, we can still ride the wave of this show’s popularity.”
The so-called “planting cakes” usually involves marketing accounts or some fan accounts releasing information, hinting at some vague and ambiguous resources that a celebrity might be getting, sparking discussions among the public. The purposes behind this vary.
For instance, when popular IP works are being adapted into TV dramas, the lead roles often attract the attention of the book fans. Before any official announcement is made, some marketing accounts would jump in to ride the wave, creating buzz by suggesting that a certain idol might be starring in it.
There are also cases where studios would “plant cakes” for their rivals, spreading big news like an actor becoming the global ambassador for a brand, or an actress landing a major director’s script. This gets the fans excited, but when the official announcement is made, it turns out to be false information.
Hearing Ni Hong’s words, Xu Jiao brought her chopsticks to her lips, lightly licked them, and tasted the sauce she had just mixed. After a while, she put down her chopsticks satisfactorily and nonchalantly dismissed Ni Hong’s idea.
“No need.”
She casually fabricated, “Before Feng Qingyu helped me with this, she made me promise that, regardless of success or failure, I wouldn’t use her for hype without her consent in the future.”
Ni Hong pushed her black-rimmed glasses up, looking at Xu Jiao with an incredulous expression, as if to say, ‘Are you out of your mind?’ She said, “Don’t tell me you agreed to that?”
Xu Jiao’s head was halfway nodding when she saw Ni Hong suddenly regain her calm, as if she had thought of something: “Even if you agreed, it’s no big deal. At worst, we can just backtrack—after all, she doesn’t have evidence to say we bought the marketing. By then, we can just say it was the rival camp trying to smear you.”
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Xu Jiao: “…” It seemed she had underestimated the original owner’s moral baseline.
Xu Jiao discreetly took a breath, steadied her voice, and emphasized, “No need.”
After thinking for a moment, she intensified her tone, looked Ni Hong in the eyes, and said word by word, “I have a premonition that this role will be mine. If I end up in the same crew with her, and she gets annoyed by the hype, what if she deliberately suppresses my scenes?”
“For the sake of our future, Sister Hong, it’s better not to buy any more trending topics about me and her.”
Ni Hong looked at her skeptically, then picked up a piece of beef tripe and put it into the pot: “Really? Feng Qingyu doesn’t seem like that kind of person, does she? Isn’t she very gracious? Look, last time you secretly left a lipstick mark on her red carpet dress, she didn’t even do anything to you.”
Xu Jiao felt a moment of suffocation.
The original owner had done such a foolish thing?
From Ni Hong’s few sentences, she only extracted one important piece of information: Feng Qingyu is indeed… a good person who gets bullied.
Xu Jiao looked at Ni Hong’s honest face for a long time and then decided to make her stance even firmer.
“Sister Hong, I’ve been reflecting on something lately.”
“Do I have to rely on Feng Qingyu to survive in this industry?”
“My splendor is built upon the structures others have erected. Have you ever thought that, even if I become immensely popular in the future, no one will remember my works and my efforts? The name Feng Qingyu will forever hang above my head, reminding me that my success today is all because of her.”
Ni Hong looked at her blankly for two seconds, as if she didn’t recognize her. After a while, she said, “You… have you suddenly fallen for her?”
Xu Jiao: “?”
Ni Hong poured out her doubts in one breath: “Isn’t the current tied-up marketing (捆-綁炒作, a marketing strategy where two celebrities are promoted together) all about accumulating enough fame? Once you become famous and have your own works and fans, as long as your status rises one day, your fans will naturally tear off the label of ‘Feng Qingyu’s wife’ for you.”
Fans are indeed a very perceptive group.
When their idol is still a minor celebrity (十八線, literally “eighteenth-line”, meaning a very minor or unknown celebrity), no matter who they collaborate with, they will want to leverage the other party’s fame to promote their idol and increase their visibility. The polite ones will do so courteously, while the more unscrupulous ones will resort to porcelain bumping (碰瓷, a scam where someone fakes an accident to extort money).
And when their idol’s status rises, in the fans’ eyes, the idol becomes like the sky, like a deity descending to the mortal world, not someone who can be casually associated with any random person. The dedicated fans will never accept any binding partnerships.
Don’t be fooled by how Xu Jiao’s fans are now going all out, even naming their super-topic (超話, a dedicated fan forum on Weibo) “Feng Jiao Day Warm”, and vigorously praising Feng Qingyu. Once Xu Jiao soars to great heights, as long as she shows a slight unwillingness to be tied to Feng Qingyu, they can turn hostile without hesitation and let you experience the drastic changes of the blue sea turning into mulberry fields (滄海桑田, meaning great changes over time).
“Jiaojiao, have you fallen for her? Is that why you’ve softened?” Ni Hong asked again.
Xu Jiao didn’t want to discuss lofty principles like dignity with her. Suddenly losing interest in the lunch, she pushed the prepared sauce aside and simply said, “In short, she is already very disgusted to me using her for publicity, and now I also don’t want to rely on her to become famous. Sister Hong, I hope you can understand what I mean.”
If she couldn’t understand…
Then Xu Jiao would have to immediately put changing agents on the agenda.
Ni Hong waved her hand dismissively, “I get it, I get it. When have I ever not gone along with you? If you want to rely on yourself, I have no objections. But if you end up doing worse and worse, you can only blame my bad judgment back then for picking the wrong person. When you can’t make it, I’ll remember to choose more wisely when I take on the next person.”
Hearing her pessimistic prediction, which echoed the system’s, Xu Jiao couldn’t help but smile.
“If I land this role—”
She said, “Then please, Sister Hong, trust me a bit more in the future. Believe that I can find my place in this industry.”
……
The drama 《The Palace Wall Willows》 was daringly aired while filming due to its strong cast and the director Zhen Tiao’s stringent standards for selecting actors and ensuring their lines were flawless.
When Xu Jiao’s role was confirmed and she received the script, she hadn’t yet had time to feel happy before she heard the news.
Immediately, she looked at the scheduled airing time for the entire drama, flipped through the script, and discovered that the screenwriter had only written the content for the first thirty episodes. Although the ending was decided, it was said to be just a concept, and the specifics would depend on the audience’s feedback.
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In short, if the drama received good reactions, the number of episodes would definitely increase, and the ending would also incorporate some audience opinions.
The currently confirmed airing time was a month and a half away.
The time wasn’t exactly ample, nor was it too tight, providing the actors with enough time to prepare. Meanwhile, the release press conference was scheduled for next week.
Of course, none of this was Xu Jiao’s main concern at the moment… She once again lowered her head and flipped through the script to her first scene.
She now recalled that Feng Qingyu’s role is Qi Yunshang.
And this first scene was with Empress Qi Yunshang.
The two of them soaked in a hot spring together at the summer palace (郊外行宮, a temporary palace used by royalty to escape the summer heat).
How did they bathe together?
Two lines from 《The Song of Everlasting Sorrow》 can be used to describe this scene:
“The warm spring water smooths the creamy skin. The maid helps her rise, delicate and weak.”
Xu Jiao gently touched the brand-new cover of the printed script, furrowing her brows slightly in some difficulty:
It seemed she had not yet practiced intimate scenes?