The war between the fans was far from over; the two sides were openly hostile, tearing at each other relentlessly.
When Zhong Yue found out that Li Chu had landed a role in Director Ji’s drama, she was practically fuming. She had always looked down on Li Chu, considering her an insignificant, unknown actress. A little over a year ago, she had mocked Li Chu, who hadn’t even dared to retaliate. Now, Li Chu seemed poised for a complete turnaround, ready to surpass her entirely. How could Zhong Yue accept that?
Regarding Zhong Yue’s spiteful act of hiring internet trolls to smear Li Chu, Tang Congnan called Li Chu, telling her to focus on her acting and ignore the situation. He would handle everything.
In fact, Tang Congnan wasn’t boasting. He genuinely found Zhong Yue’s actions laughable. She was digging up Li Chu’s past performances to criticize her, but any comparison clearly showed Li Chu’s immense improvement. Zhong Yue, on the other hand, wasn’t even as good as she was when she was younger and more vibrant.
Tang Congnan not only counterattacked in the court of public opinion but also took action in the real world.
He sent a flower basket to Zhong Yue with a passive-aggressive card.
—Sincere thanks to Ms. Zhong Yue for the opportunity.
And wasn’t that the truth? If Zhong Yue hadn’t snatched the female lead role from Li Chu, Li Chu might have ended up acting in an idol drama. She wouldn’t have had the chance to work with Director Ji.
Zhong Yue didn’t realize it at first, but when she did, she smashed a bunch of her cosmetics in anger.
When Qian Duoduo relayed this to Li Chu, Li Chu laughed so hard her face mask almost cracked.
He truly is her mama-ger!
However, just as Tang Congnan had said, Li Chu didn’t need to waste any more attention on Zhong Yue. Performing her role well was the most important thing.
After nearly a month of sweltering heat, the coastal city where they were filming finally welcomed rain.
Li Chu was able to start filming the very first scenes of the story.
She wore a white dress and carried a blue umbrella embroidered with freesias. This was the director’s usual method of symbolism. After all, the audience couldn’t smell pheromones through the screen, so some symbols were needed as substitutes.
For the story’s introduction, Ji Yun wanted to film a long take. Li Chu walked through the narrow alley twice, facing the camera, trying to find the feeling Ji Yun wanted.
On the day the story began, it was raining. The road was muddy. A young woman with an umbrella came from afar. The umbrella hid her features, revealing only her pale, pointed chin and light-colored lips. Her legs beneath the white dress were slender, and the gloomy sky behind her added a sense of oppression to the scene.
Li Chu started walking from a distance, her pace unhurried. But as she approached the foreground, she began to speed up, even breaking into a small run. The mud splashed up by her shoes stained them, and the sound of her footsteps made people anxious.
The male police officer at the reception desk poured her a glass of water and softly asked what had happened.
“Officer, I want to report a missing person. My sister has been missing for two days. I can’t reach her.”
The camera moved from the police officer to the hand holding the glass on the table, then up to a pale, beautiful face.
After drinking the hot water, the face was still pale, but her lips had regained their color.
Deathly white and blood red, like a tragic painting.
Ning Manqing watched the young woman in the monitor, her expression calm, but with a gentleness hidden deep within her eyes.
“Alright, stop staring. You’ll have plenty of time to watch later. Come with me to handle the documents. There’s also a web conference you need to attend.”
The short-haired alpha woman standing next to her spoke, breaking Ning Manqing’s reverie.
Ning Manqing gave her a death glare, then looked at Li Chu, who was already acting opposite Zhao Zhichun. She turned and went to the lounge with the other woman.
Li Chu saw the short-haired woman standing next to Ning Manqing in the evening.
She looked mixed-race, with a high nose bridge and deep-set features, full of exotic charm.
Ning Manqing introduced her: “This is my friend, Bai Wu.”
“Hello, I’m Li Chu.”
Li Chu greeted her, feeling that the name Bai Wu sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it.
“Hey, hi! Lao Ning and I are going to grab dinner. Want to join us?”
Bai Wu extended a warm invitation to Li Chu, her enthusiasm making Li Chu think she was just a friendly and lively person.
Li Chu didn’t want to intrude on Ning Manqing’s time with her friend and was about to decline when Bai Wu added, “Come on, it’s my treat. Don’t be polite. Lao Ning’s friend is my friend.”
Bai Wu’s attitude was so straightforward that Li Chu couldn’t refuse. She glanced at Ning Manqing, who nodded, and readily agreed.
They got into Bai Wu’s car and left the filming location.
Bai Wu was very good at setting the mood. After a few exchanges in the car, the atmosphere became relaxed.
“Lao Ning is usually quite reserved. I didn’t expect her to have a friend like you.”
Bai Wu kept an eye on the road while teasing Ning Manqing to Li Chu.
As a Ning Manqing fan, Li Chu immediately defended her: “Teacher Ning is very nice, she just doesn’t talk much.”
“She’s just too lazy to open her mouth. To put it nicely, she’s concise. People who don’t know her well might be intimidated, but if you get to know her, you’ll realize she’s not that serious at all. She’s got a bit of a mischievous streak.”
“No one thinks you’re mute when you don’t talk.”
Ning Manqing retorted sarcastically. Bai Wu was a perfectly fine person, except for her mouth.
It was the first time Li Chu had heard someone describe Ning Manqing this way, and the side of Ning Manqing she showed in front of her friend was particularly interesting. She suppressed a laugh and asked, “Ms. Bai, how long have you known Teacher Ning?”
“About twenty years. We grew up together. We’ve fought over snacks and toys. No one knows her true colors better than I do.”
Li Chu was surprised: “Teacher Ning fights?”
“Of course, and she’s quite sneaky. We’d be fighting over food, she’d kick me aside, eat it all, and then when I started crying and the adults came over, she’d say she was reading and ate it absentmindedly. She’s been clever since she was little, and the adults always believed her.”
Bai Wu recalled her childhood, a nostalgic smile appearing on her face.
Li Chu laughed: “Teacher Ning was so mischievous as a child?”
“Yeah, she might seem all serious now, but she’s a master manipulator.”
Li Chu, a steadfast Ning Manqing supporter, remained unmoved: “Teacher Ning is just intelligent.”
Bai Wu teased, “Wow, Lao Ning, you’ve really got her wrapped around your finger, haven’t you?”
Ning Manqing scoffed: “Shut up.”
Li Chu was thoroughly amused by their playful interaction. Seeing a different side of Teacher Ning and learning about her childhood antics made her feel inexplicably closer to her!
“Alright, alright, I’ll focus on driving.”
Bai Wu turned on the music. As she continued to reminisce, her smile faded as she thought about Ning Manqing’s life after they grew up.
Precisely because Ning Manqing was intelligent and talented, surpassing her siblings, the Ning family had high expectations for her. Everyone in their circle regarded Ning Manqing as the perfect child. However, at eighteen, Ning Manqing’s test results revealed she was a beta.
The Ning family couldn’t believe it and had her retested several times, but the result remained the same.
The former genius had differentiated into a beta, while her siblings, who had always lived in the shadow of her brilliance, differentiated into alphas with superior physical qualities and higher brain domain development, or omegas with high value for arranged marriages. The higher the expectations Ning Manqing had faced, the greater the disappointment she endured.
Furthermore, Ning Manqing hadn’t chosen a career in business but instead pursued an acting career, which the Ning family saw as self-sabotage. They stopped paying attention to her, and in the eyes of outsiders, Ning Manqing became a discarded piece.
Bai Wu, who was abroad at the time, rushed back to comfort her friend upon hearing the news.
She knew what Ning Manqing’s parents were thinking. They prided themselves on being a superior alpha-omega pairing, believing their offspring should inherit excellent genes. Ning Manqing had been the focus of everyone’s attention, but their most promising child turned out to be a beta. It was a slap in the face. If Ning Manqing had chosen to enter the family business and outperformed her siblings, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But Ning Manqing refused their arrangements and chose to enter the entertainment industry, which they perceived as defiance.
But Bai Wu felt that, regardless, Ning Manqing was still their child. How could they treat her so differently just because of her secondary gender? It was incredibly materialistic and heartless. At the time, Ning Manqing listened to her complaints without agreeing, simply accepting it calmly.
Bai Wu remembered telling Ning Manqing that she recognized her talent, that being a beta didn’t necessarily mean she was inferior to an alpha. Not all alphas could utilize their genetic gifts, and many betas could carve their own path through hard work. They could start their own business.
Ning Manqing had simply replied with a hint of surprise, asking why Bai Wu assumed she would make a random choice.
Bai Wu understood then. Ning Manqing chose the path she wanted, not a path forced upon her by others’ coldness, contempt, or ostracization.
When Ning Manqing differentiated into an alpha at twenty-five, the Ning family was shocked, but Ning Manqing expressed her desire to continue acting. Bai Wu wasn’t surprised.
However, Ning Manqing contacted her afterward, asking if their eighteen-year-old promise to start a business together still stood.
Bai Wu said of course. She rekindled her eighteen-year-old passion, told her mother she’d inherit the family business a few years later, and took all her savings to embark on a new journey with Ning Manqing.
She thought Ning Manqing didn’t return to the Ning family out of disappointment, but Ning Manqing frankly stated her own considerations. Returning home would indeed regain her parents’ attention and allow her to enter Ning Corp., but her alpha brother and sister had already established their own power bases within the group. Her parents hadn’t fully relinquished control, and entering the company might lead to her being caught between several factions. She needed her own leverage before taking control of the Ning family.
Bai Wu thought, Ning Manqing is still the same Ning Manqing. So damn cunning.
She didn’t need to come personally this time, but when she thought of the mysterious person saved in Ning Manqing’s phone as ‘Tao Tao,’ she immediately came.
Bai Wu glanced at Li Chu in the rearview mirror. Li Chu met her gaze and smiled shyly.
Bai Wu thought, Quite shy.
Only Li Chu knew that she wasn’t shy, but rather guilty.
She had suddenly remembered that Bai Wu was the second female lead in this book, the one who made the overbearing CEO male lead incredibly jealous.
Bai Wu was an alpha and had a long-standing relationship with Ning Manqing. After Ning Manqing’s differentiation, Bai Wu paid close attention to her, which led to her being labeled as the CEO’s number one rival in love.
Li Chu recalled that Bai Wu seemed to genuinely fall for Ning Manqing later on but ultimately chose to let go.
But now… Li Chu thought guiltily, This love story probably won’t blossom.
This is… sisters becoming brothers?
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