Chapter 23
The original poster was someone with the username ‘Sleeping Kitty'{See: Sleeping Beauty}. The title was: [A Surprising Look at What Happens Behind the Scenes ?]{I took some liberties with the emoticon. The text just described it as a fearful face but I figured this would portray it better} The content was a video of Shi Sheng slapping Lin Shanshan but what happened before and after were both cut out.
There were quite a few ‘V’ accounts[1] who re-posted it. When some people dug up that the two of them were currently shooting for a TV drama as well as the pictures in the trailers and used them to find the novel the movie was adapted from, these people thought they had found out the truth. Below were countless posts condemning her for the sake of ‘righteousness’. Lin Shanshan’s fans also charged towards Jiang Wan’s Weibo and started scolding and cursing her.
[Why is there such an evil woman? I thought her acting sucked when I watched that drama she acted in. Now I find out her character sucks too; She actually dared to bully our Shanshan! Jiang Wan get outta the entertainment circle!]
[Face slapping was required for the script. Even if goddess Shanshan really slapped you it was for the sake of better effects! What right do you have to hit back off screen? You can’t even differentiate between on and off scree, what kind of an actor are you? Jiang Wan get outta the entertainment circle!]
[Newbies nowadays don’t show enough respect for their seniors, they don’t have character quality at all. I’m turning into a hater.]
[Jiang Wan apologise! Jiang Wan get outta the entertainment circle!]
It was pretty brutal to read all those. Those questioning her whole family were already the relatively tame ones. These people hid behind a screen so they just said whatever they wanted. They didn’t care what the truth was, they would just hold on to a point and use it to spout rubbish. They could even ‘fill in’ your background and ‘motives’ for you.
In around half an hour’s time, Weibo was pretty much dominated by posts of #Jiang Wan apologise! Jiang Wan get outta the entertainment circle!# and was one of the most searched posts.
More and more people headed to her Weibo account to curse her. The imagination of the online community is infinite…
To quote Jiang Wan, ‘The most malicious thing in the world is the human heart. It can send you to Heaven yet at the same time can also knock you into Hell in a single night.’
Shi Sheng didn’t reply to the posts online. She knew the more she replied the happier these people got. Besides, there was always the company.
And, as expected, Milan called soon after. Her tone was stiff and unwelcoming as she spoke her request very unwillingly. The gist of it was to not reply no matter what as the company would handle it.
Shi Sheng expressed that if there were resources to use, then why shouldn’t she?
……
Lin Shanshan’s matter was resolved very quickly but Shi Sheng could tell that Milan didn’t truly have her interests at heart. This could be seen from how she hadn’t done anything to clear up her name but had simply used someone else’s news to cover up the matter. Shi Sheng was now even more certain she wanted to leave Dongfang Entertainment.
The duration of the contract was for three years and only about half a year’s worth of time had passed. There were still two and a half years left. If she wanted to leave she would have to pay a compensation fee which she couldn’t afford right now.
‘I really want to be a rich person.’
The next day, Shi Sheng met with another agent employed by the company.
“Ms Jiang, you are currently an actress under Milan. Her resources and contacts are the best so why do you want to come under a newbie agent like me?” A young man pushed his spectacles back up as he spoke unhurriedly.
“I require an agent who takes their responsibilities seriously.” Though she was unable to leave Dongfang Entertainment as of right now, she could at least maximise her interests. She definitely didn’t dare to continue using Milan.
“Why does Ms Jiang believe that I would be able to steal someone from Milan?” Although his speech wasn’t rushed, it brought a few hints of probing.
With smiles in her eyes and a slight smile on her lips, she spoke in a certain tone, “I believe you. You’ll be able to do it.”
He raised his head slightly and met her gaze. Her eyes were calm without the slightest ripple. When placed together with her smiling face, there was always this dissonance.
He hadn’t even entered the company for a month so what made her so sure he would be able to snatch her from a gold-level[2] agent
He subconsciously pushed against his glasses as his tone took on a more questioning air, “Then what cards does Ms Jiang have that would convince me to carry you?”
“One day I’ll be standing at the top of the pyramid. Mr Tang Yin, I once again sincerely offer you an invitation to join me. Are you willing?”
Tang Yin looked at the girl extending her hand with sincerity in front of him. The gaze behind the glasses darkened a bit before he spoke in the same unhurried tone as always, “My apologies, I have no way to carry you.”
Shi Sheng “…” ‘Damn this guy is as hard to convince as I’d thought!’
The most important reason Shi Sheng wanted Tang Yin to be her agent was because this fellow would be an existence who exceeded Milan in the future. Back then, the first person to follow Tang Yin ended up very glamorously.
“What will it take for you to become my agent? Name a condition.” Having failed in acting cool, Shi Sheng’s aura took a sudden change. If before she had been a noble and elegant goddess, then right now she was just a female gangster.
Tang Yin looked at Shi Sheng who had managed to switch so quickly between the two personas. His eyes flashed as the deep colour in his eyes thickened.
“If Ms Jiang can get the company to transfer agents for you, I would naturally oblige.”
Shi Sheng “…”
‘The hell you just tossed the ball back to me! I feel like I wasted my breath just now.’
“Fine, just you wait.” Shi Sheng agreed through clenched teeth. Besides, even if Tang Yin didn’t become her agent, she was definitely not going to remain under Milan any longer anyways.
……
Tang Yin hadn’t held too much hope; After all, Milan was the company’s gold-level agent. She wouldn’t just let out an actor or actress she had already taken charge of.
However, that afternoon, he was called to the director’s office and handed Jiang Wan’s materials as well as a top-notch support team.
All the employees knew that the company had recently given Milan a support team, which had been earned through he contributions to the company. However, he hadn’t expected that the team was actually prepared especially for Jiang Wan. Since he was now in charge of managing Jiang Wan, he very quickly entered his role. The first thing he did was to deal with Lin Shanshan’s matter.
Lin Shanshan’s history was not clean. All he needed was a little bit of work to clean Shi Sheng’s name. This wasn’t hard at all for someone who had a crack support team. Milan had this team yet she hadn’t done much to help Jiang Wan. ‘No wonder she didn’t want to stay under Milan.’
The company had given this team to Jiang Wan yet Milan dared to do as she liked with it, showing that she didn’t put Jiang Wan in her eyes. This made Jiang Wan’s true identity much harder to guess. ‘Anyways, no matter what happens, she’s an actress under my management now.’
“Since you’re under my management then I hope you will at least listen to my rules.” Tang Yin pushed his glasses out of habit.
Shi Sheng sat without a care for her image on the sofa. “What rules?”
“Number one, I must be the first to know whenever anything happens. Number two, I hope you will discuss your future plans with me. And number three, I hope you will listen to me on what roles to play.”
Other than the first rule, the other two weren’t as important. It was obvious that he felt the first to be the most important. This was natural as an agent had to be the first to know about their actor’s movements.
Otherwise, how would he be able to prepare in advance if there was an issue? Quite frankly, even if the actor decided to stay in a hotel room with someone it had to be reported to their agent.
Shi Sheng agreed without much sincerity in her tone. Tang Yin could feel that she wasn’t very interested but he didn’t say anything.
[1] Weibo verified accounts.
[2] This is used whenever somebody has the capability to be respected. See also: Golden bachelors.
Author’s note:
Thank you all for the well wishes yesterday~ *executes AoE flying kisses*
Translator’s Corner:
I decided to experiment with the texts in the {} by making it blue. Hopefully you guys can differentiate it better from the actual story? Let me know. Also, I think I’ve decided on all computer-based texts being in square brackets, []. System’s speech is in bold.
Well, while I didn’t really know what Weibo was last chapter (I still don’t know Twitter either), I created an account just now so I have a somewhat better understanding of what it is. Somewhat. It’s like a hybrid between Twitter and Facebook. It’s got the Twitter ‘follower’ system but it’s like Facebook in that there’s a personal page where you post stuff that looks more like the Facebook version? I don’t have Twitter so I can’t really compare.
Also… I really wanna be rich person too Shi Sheng…