The voices outside gradually grew softer and more distant, until finally, they couldn’t be heard at all.
Rong Guang licked her lips. Even though there were only the two of them in the room, she felt like she couldn’t even dare to lift her head.
What in the world was this!
She was clearly the one avoiding Chu Feiliang, yet it was Chu Feiliang who ended up being misunderstood because of it!
The small room was quiet, so quiet that even the sound of the fan overhead occasionally starting to turn and the rustling of their thick clothes rubbing against each other seemed incredibly distinct.
After a long moment, Rong Guang heard Chu Feiliang let out a long, slow sigh that seemed tinged with endless loneliness.
Rong Guang’s heart skipped a beat.
Chu Feiliang’s eyes were dark, glinting with a profound light in the room. Her eyelashes were lowered, making her look very dejected as she slowly said, “So this is the kind of image I have in their minds.”
For some reason, Rong Guang suddenly detected three parts heartache and seven parts melancholy in that sentence, along with a faint, unspoken self-doubt.
Rong Guang quickly raised her head, her heart tight with anxiety and a pang of sympathy. She said in a small voice, “Sister, don’t listen to their nonsense. You’re not that kind of person… I, I know…”
Chu Feiliang looked at Rong Guang and sighed slowly again, seemingly not believing Rong Guang’s comforting words at all.
After a moment, she thought about it carefully. Her brows furrowed slightly, creating a few lines between them that made Rong Guang’s heart ache. With endless melancholy, she said, “But I feel that what they said might not be entirely without reason.”
Rong Guang froze.
“You’ve been so busy lately, and not only did I not understand, but I also kept seeking you out. You have to deal with your company, you’ve been mired in infamy for so long, and all your scenes are major ones. You’re not in a good state of mind yourself, and yet I still pushed you like this.” As Chu Feiliang spoke, she actually covered her eyes and shook her head in great disappointment, as if she was very let down by herself.
How could Rong Guang bear to see this!
She was instantly overcome with anxiety, wishing she could just pull Chu Feiliang into her arms and soothe her for a whole day!
But their relationship hadn’t reached that stage yet, and this tiny, shabby storage room didn’t even have enough space for Rong Guang to pace around in circles!
Rong Guang was terribly conflicted, clutching the corner of Chu Feiliang’s clothes with both hands, looking utterly pitiful.
The corner of Chu Feiliang’s lips curled up slightly, then immediately vanished, so quickly that Rong Guang wondered if she was seeing things. But just then, a curious voice came from outside the door. “That’s strange, why is the storage room door locked? Have all the canopies inside been taken out? You guys go on ahead, I’ll open it and check—”
The moment the door opened, the voice stopped abruptly.
Chu Feiliang lowered the hand covering her face, raised an eyebrow, and glanced at the door, which was no wider than a person’s shoulders, and at the girl standing outside.
Rong Guang was also half-frozen, thinking, It’s over, it’s over, it’s over. Now Chu Feiliang is going to be misunderstood even more.
Then, the two of them, practically chest to chest, watched as the storage room door was opened before their eyes.
Neither of them moved or spoke.
The props crew member outside, caught off guard, saw the two figures pressed together in the storage room. She gasped, stumbled back a few steps, and barely managed to stifle the scream that was about to erupt.
“T-Teacher Chu…” The crew member’s eyes widened. She glanced at the ambiguous posture of the two people inside, looking rather flustered herself. She said, “And Teacher Rong… What are you two doing in here… uh… what is it… Oh, right, rehearsing lines?! Or… or are you looking for inspiration?”
Rong Guang’s expression was one of utter mortification.
One of Chu Feiliang’s hands was still loosely wrapped around Rong Guang’s waist. Taking advantage of their proximity, which prevented Rong Guang from seeing her expression, she simply said nothing, her face clearly asking—What do you think?
Rong Guang didn’t hear Chu Feiliang speak for a long time. She felt a little flustered and didn’t dare look up, afraid of seeing Chu Feiliang looking upset.
She thought for a moment and decided that Chu Feiliang couldn’t be misunderstood like this any longer!
So she cleared her throat and said, “We… anyway, we had something to talk about!”
The crew member nodded along with Rong Guang’s affirmative gesture.
After a moment, she looked left and right, her tone a bit floaty as she said, “I… I didn’t see anything…”
After she left, Rong Guang finally turned her head and met Chu Feiliang’s gaze.
They were both silent; neither said a word.
Chu Feiliang leaned against the wall for a moment, then suddenly let out another long, slow sigh. With her hands behind her back and her head lowered, she slowly walked back toward where they had come from.
Rong Guang was left behind. As a gust of wind seemed to rise, lifting her jacket slightly, she heard the passing crew members fall back into heated discussion. She finally sniffled slowly.
…Something’s not right.
Really not right.
There was something really off about the way Chu Feiliang was acting.
She had seen this kind of pitiful act too many times.
But every time she felt something was off, she could never quite put her finger on what it was…?
Ever since returning from the storage room, Chu Feiliang seemed to have fallen into a state of ‘self-isolation’.
Rong Guang felt something was wrong, but she was at a loss, having no idea what to do.
The rumors grew more and more intense, gradually developing into an uncontrollable situation.
Just as Rong Guang was still worrying about how to clarify the matter so that Chu Feiliang wouldn’t be so misunderstood, she received a video call from Duan Nong.
When Rong Guang saw Chacha holding the phone up to her, she had a feeling that something bad was about to happen.
Chacha, her eyes full of innocence, held up the phone and asked, “Sister Guangguang, should I answer it?”
Rong Guang took the phone. Everyone on set was busy with their own tasks, but she was still afraid of prying ears—especially since the production was almost completely closed off to the public, the only entertainment for everyone each day was the gossip within the crew.
Whether it was true or false didn’t matter; as long as there was something to talk about, even lies could be talked into truth!
Rong Guang gritted her teeth and said, “Give me an earphone.”
It was better to be safe.
The moment the video call connected, Duan Nong’s voice exploded in Rong Guang’s mind like a string of firecrackers.
Rong Guang winced, took off the earphone, and held it a little further away. “Lower your voice…”
Duan Nong launched into a tirade, and Rong Guang couldn’t even hear clearly what she was yelling about.
Duan Nong cursed for a while. Seeing that Rong Guang had finally put the earphone back on, she took a deep breath and said, “What’s wrong with you? What in the world is wrong with you? What is going on with you and Chu Feiliang?!”
“What do you mean, what’s going on?” Rong Guang frowned and lowered the volume.
“You have the nerve to ask me?!” Duan Nong’s face was filled with disbelief. “Your scandal is flying everywhere, and you have the nerve to ask me now?!”
Rong Guang’s expression soured, choked by Duan Nong’s two accusatory questions.
What did she mean, have the nerve to ask her?
She pinched the bridge of her nose and said, “Duan Nong, speak properly. You just came at me with a barrage of questions, I didn’t hear anything clearly.”
Duan Nong gritted her teeth, her eyes red with anger. “I heard them say you only joined the cast because of Chu Feiliang, is that right?”
Rong Guang didn’t deny this at all. Her answer would be the same no matter who asked. She nodded crisply and said, “Yes.” Hearing such a definite response, Duan Nong bit her lip and said, “You like her that much? It’s not enough that your whole room is covered in her posters, now you have to run this far for her? Do all these things? When did you become like this? Is it worth debasing yourself for her? Huh? You’re being bullied like this and you’re still fawning all over her? What are you thinking?!”
Rong Guang was speechless.
What kind of rumors had Duan Nong heard this time? She wasn’t even at the film base, so how were the rumors she heard even more exaggerated than the ones here at Deer Creek?!
She paused, feeling a bit weary.
After a moment, she said, “Nongnong, rumors stop with the wise. Don’t believe everything you hear. I know very well what I’m doing and what I want to do.”
After saying that, she hung up before Duan Nong could continue yelling.
After hanging up, Rong Guang clutched her chest, looked up at the tent above, and let out a long breath, unable to resist rolling her eyes in exasperation.
Chacha timely came over and gently patted Rong Guang’s chest. “What’s wrong, Sister Guangguang? Can’t you breathe?”
Rong Guang looked at Chacha, sighed in frustration, and said in a muffled voice, “You might not believe this, but whenever I see a message from Duan Nong, I feel a wave of suffocation, like I can’t catch my breath.”
Chacha tilted her head, not quite understanding.
After a moment, she tried to imagine it and finally said tentatively, “Is it like the heart-pounding feeling I get when I see my head teacher sending you a message? And I feel a little like crying? Afraid of getting a spanking and having my allowance docked?”
“…Something like that, but I’ve never spanked you.” Rong Guang was speechless, her spirits a little dampened. “When will she ever experience a real taste of society’s harshness? In my past life, that little girl became incredibly humble later on…”
As she spoke, Rong Guang herself couldn’t help but feel a bit wistful.
In her previous life, not long after her grandmother’s accident and Rong Guang’s contract termination, Duan Nong seemed to have completely shed her former little princess temperament, becoming much more humble and low-key.
Rong Guang didn’t want to delve into whether there was a necessary connection between her change and her grandmother’s accident. But if her grandmother’s accident was the price for Duan Nong’s growth, Rong Guang would rather cut ties with Duan Nong completely and have nothing to do with her ever again.
Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but recall the Weibo post Duan Nong would send out not long after, a post that was like a bomb and directly led to her grandmother’s accident. She frowned and asked, “Chacha, did Yuanyuan contact you today?”
“Yes,” Chacha nodded. “She called me first, but I was sleeping and missed it. Then Yuanyuan sent me a lot of text messages, saying I should pass them on to you when you’re free.”
“Let me see.” Rong Guang’s spirits lifted a little.
After scanning through Tang Yuan’s messages at a glance, Rong Guang paused, the corners of her lips involuntarily curling into a cold smile.
Star Cluster had been inactive for so many days; it was impossible that they truly intended to be good people and do nothing.
As expected, in these final days, they finally couldn’t hold back any longer.
They had previously assumed that as a young girl who had just come of age, with no connections and no background, it would be very difficult for her to find a new company on her own. Her only reliance was the company.
So Star Cluster had been waiting for the day her contract would automatically renew, so they could package her up and sell her to Universe Entertainment—after squeezing out her last bit of value.
They were so certain she would renew that they had already started haggling with Universe Entertainment.
No one could have expected that with less than half a year left on her contract, Rong Guang would manage to successfully join the cast of The Eldest Princess on her own merit, and thus become active in the public eye once again.
If it were only that, Star Cluster wouldn’t have been so nervous. They might even have been happy to see it, as this wave of popularity could have made Universe Entertainment offer more money.
But the problem now was that Rong Guang had not only become active again, but she had also gained the appreciation of many industry veterans. Moreover, her performance in her own field was already perfect enough that poaching her at any price would be a surefire profitable deal.
Universe Entertainment wouldn’t lose money, but they would.
With new packaging, Rong Guang could be a top star for another three years. With an appearance on a variety show and the release of a new single, she could easily return to the peak of popularity. What’s more, she now had a foot in the door of the film and television industry, allowing her to establish a firm standing.
No one could have imagined that Rong Guang had so many sides that no one had ever seen.
In a brand new field, relying solely on herself, she was thriving.
Star Cluster’s wishful thinking had come to nothing, and they felt like they had been played by Rong Guang!
She must have been secretly developing her career in the film and television industry all along, hiding it and waiting to laugh at everyone. She didn’t tell anyone and just used Star Cluster as a stepping stone!
Thinking this way, how could Star Cluster be willing to suffer such a huge, silent loss? They had been quiet for so long precisely because they were planning to use every possible means to squeeze the last drop of blood from Rong Guang before her contract was terminated!
Even if they couldn’t bleed her dry, they couldn’t possibly let her terminate her contract so easily!
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