Topic: Little Tricks for Love Guest Gossip
Main Post: Jian You
1L
???
2L
Is the OP kidding me?
3L
Is this the same Jian You I know???
4L
There are rules for starting rumors…
5L
Some marketing accounts were already floating this rumor about the variety show, and they got flamed so hard by Jian You’s fans! Our group should prepare to be attacked.
6L
I remember this OP. They post real gossip.
7L
Holy crap.
8L
Jian You likes women? Give me a chance.
9L
I’m more shocked that she’d actually participate in a variety show than I am about her sexual orientation… I remember a role-acting competition show invited her to be a judge last year and she didn’t even go.
OP
Since everyone’s so curious, I’ll say a bit more.
Jian You wants to shoot a film after the new year. This film doesn’t have much commercial value, the script is rather avant-garde, and it has a very strong personal style. Even if it were sent to a film festival, it wouldn’t necessarily win an award. There’s a ninety-percent chance it’ll lose money, so she hasn’t been able to secure investors or sponsors.
10L
Got it, she’s going on a variety show to make money.
11L
Then she could’ve picked any reality show. Why did it have to be a dating show!
12L
Jian You’s fans are going to lose their minds.
13L
This reminds me of a really outrageous piece of gossip I heard before.
14L
Elaborate, user above.
15L
Putting an ear out.
16L
I’ll just say it casually, don’t take it seriously. I heard that someone approached Jian You and said they were willing to invest in her film with no expectation of a return, as long as Jian You participated in Little Tricks for Love.
17L
Ah, this…
18L
The implications are terrifying.
…
“Yun Chu, you’ve really outdone yourself. You actually managed to use money to snag Jian You!” On the video call, Zhou Zhitao was in a place with bright sunshine, blue seas, and a clear sky. She pushed her sunglasses up, her pretty face filling the screen. “She doesn’t know it was you, right?”
Zhou Zhitao was Yun Chu’s childhood best friend, a wealthy socialite from Bei City, currently vacationing in Hawaii.
“I had Xiao He go.” Yun Chu pulled a pair of snow boots from the shoe cabinet. The variety show would start recording the day after tomorrow, and she had to go for a fitting tomorrow, so she was packing her luggage in advance. She tossed the boots into the suitcase. “If she knew it was me…”
Zhou Zhitao declared, “You’d be finished!”
Yun Chu shot her a look. “Can’t you wish me well for once?”
Zhou Zhitao lay back on the lounge chair and took a sip of juice. “How am I not wishing you well? Ever since you started crushing on Jian You in your freshman year, I’ve told you that you two are not from the same world. And you? Did you listen?”
“I did listen!” Yun Chu said righteously. “That’s why I just had a secret crush on her!”
Zhou Zhitao was rendered speechless.
“And I even slept with her at her graduation dinner!”
“That was you offering yourself up.”
“It’s more or less the same thing,” Yun Chu waved her hand dismissively, stuffing a face mask into a compartment of her suitcase and muttering under her breath, “…I just don’t know how much she remembers from being drunk.”
“What are you muttering about?” Zhou Zhitao asked. “Are you still going to your grandma’s place to sleep tonight? Has Grandma let you in yet?”
Yun Chu’s grandmother, Ding Linping, was a national first-class stage actress.
As the saying goes, stage actors look down on film actors, and film actors look down on television actors. When Yun Chu applied to the film academy, Ding Linping had hoped she would follow in her footsteps and shine on the stage.
Unexpectedly, Yun Chu started taking roles in her sophomore year, and her first role was in a web drama.
The old lady was furious. She rushed to the set overnight and gave Yun Chu a harsh scolding on site, saying that if she didn’t leave with her, she should never acknowledge her as her grandmother again.
Yun Chu was stubborn too. She argued that the contract was already signed, so how could she leave? And why look down on web dramas? Everyone watches web dramas now; who still watches stage plays?
The two couldn’t see eye to eye and parted on bad terms.
Yun Chu had thought her grandmother would be angry for a while and then forgive her. But when filming wrapped up and she prepared to go back to her grandmother’s for summer break, she was met with a locked door and was bitten by mosquitoes all night. The old lady never opened the door for her. Only then did Yun Chu realize that her grandmother was serious about disowning her.
But being disowned was one thing. With decades in the entertainment industry, the old lady’s connections and methods were formidable. She exerted pressure behind the scenes. Every time a script was sent over, the initial talks would go well, but just before the contract was signed, the deal would fall through. It got to a point where Sister Jing began to doubt her own abilities, asking Yun Chu, “Is my business acumen failing? How come every deal we negotiate falls apart?”
Yun Chu could only sigh inwardly. It wasn’t Sister Jing’s fault; it was her own ruthless grandmother, trying to force her back to stage acting.
Despite this, before every long trip, she would still go to her grandmother’s place to stay for a night. It was just that her grandmother didn’t particularly care to see her, and she was always met with a cold shoulder.
Thinking of this, Yun Chu closed her suitcase and said, “If she won’t let me in, I’ll just climb the wall, won’t I?”
Zhou Zhitao: “I’m begging you, act like a female celebrity for once…”
Yun Chu: “Don’t have such high expectations for an 18th-tier nobody.”
Zhou Zhitao: “…”
Her mistake.
“Yes, the contract was signed today.”
In front of a steam-fogged mirror, Jian You put down the hair fragrance spray. The scent of lychee and rose diffused through the air. She tied the belt of her bathrobe and pushed open the bathroom door. “But the recording date hasn’t been set yet.”
The woman on the other end of the phone sighed, her voice gentle. “You silly child, if you’re short on money, you can borrow from me and your teacher. Why do something you don’t like?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it; it’s just recording a variety show.” Jian You went downstairs, her soft cotton slippers making a slight sound on the wooden staircase. She smiled. “Teacher’s wife, if I needed to, I would definitely ask you and Teacher for a loan. I wouldn’t be a stranger with you two.”
Her voice lilted upwards at the end, a hint of playful complaint in her eyes, almost like she was acting spoiled.
The Samoyed downstairs wagged its tail and came to greet her. Jian You bent down to pet its head, spoke a few more words to her teacher’s wife, and then hung up. She took off her earpiece and asked, “Wen Yi, what’s for dinner today?”
Wen Yi was the live-in housekeeper Jian You had hired. She was an excellent cook, and when Jian You was away filming for two or three months at a time, she deeply missed her cooking.
“It’s all your favorites!” Wen Yi brought the dishes out. They were served on small, exquisite plates and arranged on the dining table, looking incredibly appetizing. She wiped her hands and asked, “There’s still pork rib soup simmering in the courtyard. What side ingredients would you like to add?”
Jian You thought for a moment and said, “Seaweed, I guess.”
Wen Yi: “Alright!”
Ultimately, it was an employer-employee relationship, and Jian You had no intention of getting too close to Wen Yi, so the two didn’t eat together. The Samoyed, however, had no awareness of being a kept pet and shamelessly squatted on the chair next to her, begging for food.
Jian You gave it two pieces of meat and said, “Can you learn some restraint from Ludeng?”
Ludeng, her cat, was a delicate and precious Ragdoll, currently sleeping on the sofa with its belly exposed.
On the day she adopted him, the streetlights in the alley were broken on her way back, and her phone was dead. Jian You was afraid of the dark and stood at the entrance of the alley waiting for Wen Yi to rescue her. While waiting, she came up with a name for the Ragdoll.
The Samoyed’s name was even more random. He was brought home in June, so he was named Liuyue.
Liuyue was clever and nuzzled into Jian You’s arms. The large Samoyed had been washed clean by Wen Yi and was incredibly fluffy and wonderful to cuddle. After Jian You finished her meal, Wen Yi was about to serve her some soup, but she stood up and said, “I’ll eat in the courtyard.”
It was still cold. Compared to the dry cold of the north, the humidity in the south was more intense. After several days of rain, it had slowly turned into large snowflakes. In the typical southern courtyard, the water vat that held a pool of lotus flowers in the summer had frozen over and was covered in snow.
Next to the water vat stood a stove, with a clay pot gurgling away, the aroma of pork ribs drifting far and wide.
Jian You ladled a bowl and left it under the eaves to cool.
“Grandma-” Someone was knocking at the neighbor’s door, the sound of the banging carrying on the wind, distorted and intermittent. “…come all this way… don’t be… so heartless!”
Jian You listened to the bits and pieces and pieced it together: “I’ve come all this way, don’t be so heartless!”
She scrolled through the guest photos sent by the show’s director and casually asked, “What’s going on next door?”
Most of the neighbors in the alley were familiar with each other, their interactions giving the place a more human touch than living in an apartment building. Jian You was often away filming and couldn’t be bothered to maintain these relationships. Wen Yi had been there longer and knew all the neighborhood gossip.
Sure enough, Wen Yi began to fill her in. “The granddaughter next door did something wrong, and the old lady refuses to acknowledge her. So she comes to visit every so often, but she can’t even get in the door.”
Listening to the persistent knocking from next door, Jian You curled her lip. “She expects to get in with that much aggression?”
Wen Yi laughed. “She doesn’t look aggressive at all. She’s very quiet and gentle, and very pretty and cute.”
Jian You asked, “You’ve seen her?”
Wen Yi paused for a moment, then said, “You should be able to see her soon, too.”
“Hm?” Jian You was about to ask why when she heard the knocking stop. Footsteps approached, stopping at her front door. She frowned, a bad feeling creeping over her.
The next second, there was a knock on her door. “Wen Yi! Wen Yi! Are you home?!”
Jian You picked up her bowl and took a sip.
The pork rib soup, having simmered all afternoon, was rich and flavorful, a treat for her taste buds. Wen Yi stood up, hesitating slightly. “Well then, Xiao Jian, I’m going to open the door for her?”
Jian You grunted in affirmation.
Her house had a double-leaf door. The spring couplets pasted on the wooden door last year had already yellowed. A corner was lifted by the wind, torn off, and fell onto the snow, only to be trampled underfoot by the fiery arrival. “Good evening, Wen Yi! Long time no see! I’m just going to borrow your wall to climb over again! Thanks, thanks!”
Like a gust of wind, the person ran past Jian You and straight for the corner of the wall.
She looked a little familiar.
Jian You glanced down at the photo on her phone. As the person scrambled up the wall with a technique she couldn’t comprehend and was about to flip over, she stood up. “Wait a minute!”
Jian You walked to the base of the wall, looked at her phone, then at the person, then back at her phone, and said hesitantly, “…Yun Chu?”
Hanging on the wall, her hair a mess in the wind, Yun Chu went: “?”
She struggled to lower her head, meeting Jian You’s calm, unfazed eyes.
Yun Chu: “…”
Seeing that she didn’t speak, Jian You grew slightly impatient. “Is it you or not?”
Yun Chu blinked and tilted her head. “Yun Chu?”
Jian You: “?”
Yun Chu: “That name sounds so familiar.”
Jian You: “…”
