Chapter 469 - 468: Forced Sweetness

"Hello," Melody Monroe said. ’Is the young woman on camera even an adult?’ she wondered.

"Melody, I love you so much! Your performance as Willow Lynch was incredible! I cried my eyes out!"

Melody felt the temperature around her drop, and she sensed a hint of animosity from Shawn Fisher.

No one was allowed to make his wife cry.

But the show Melody starred in made his wife cry buckets!

’What could he do about it?’

’He could only blame Evan Fairchild for this.’

"Melody, would it be too forward to ask for your contact info? Can I meet you when I’m on winter break? I’m a really, really huge fan."

Shawn Fisher’s brow furrowed even deeper.

"Okay," Melody Monroe nodded.

"Okay! I won’t keep you then. Bye!"

"Bye."

Someone snapped a photo of Shawn Fisher holding a phone for Melody, the two of them looking intimately at the screen.

To grab headlines, some of the bolder media outlets went ahead and posted the photos online.

Netizens, who moments ago were enthusiastically shipping Master Rockwell and Melody, were completely floored.

In the new photos, Master Rockwell was reduced to a background prop. Shawn Fisher was personally holding the phone for Melody, and though no one knew what they were looking at, she kept a smile on her face the whole time.

Although Shawn Fisher looked somewhat impatient, netizens were still determined to find something sweet in the interaction.

Melody Monroe completely dominated the hot search rankings today!

And the male leads kept changing—all of them top-tier figures!

...

The hot search topic Aya Winters had been preparing for a week was completely buried, nowhere to be found.

She was supposed to be promoting her new drama. Her entire team had spent half a month preparing to dominate the hot search rankings, but they ended up running straight into Melody Monroe.

"Can’t we even secure a single spot on the trending list?" Aya Winters’s agent asked.

"No. Melody’s ’traffic’ is too immense right now. With both Master Rockwell and President Fisher backing her, this buzz probably won’t die down for at least a day."

’Even getting one spot right now would be great exposure. It would be like riding Melody’s coattails.’

But he’d already tried negotiating. Even when he offered to pay their absolute maximum, he was told it couldn’t be done.

"Is Melody two-timing them?" Aya Winters’s face twisted with jealousy.

"I doubt it. Think about it. For two top-tier figures like them to appear at the same time, and for the scene to be so harmonious... If Melody really dared to two-time them, there probably wouldn’t even be ashes left of her."

"Then what’s going on?"

"That question is probably on everyone’s mind."

Aya Winters let out a heavy sigh. A strong sense of crisis washed over her. She wasn’t young anymore, and for the past year or two, she’d been focused on cashing in, not producing any quality work.

Her reputation was already slipping, and her popularity had declined as well.

However, she had a good management team to support her. Plus, after so long in the industry, she had some connections. It wasn’t as if she would wither away the moment her brief season of fame was over, like so many other once-popular stars.

Melody Monroe was truly her greatest threat.

Moreover, her new drama and Melody’s new drama would probably be released around the same time.

If she rushed it now, she should be able to get it released beforehand.

She absolutely could not go head-to-head with Melody.

This was the first time in many years that Aya Winters had rushed a release schedule just to avoid a newcomer.

...

Wayne Payne had hired someone to discreetly investigate Keith Coleman, but before he got back any useful information, he saw the news that was flooding the internet.

Melody Monroe’s rumored boyfriend and her supposed sugar daddy had actually appeared in the same frame, and so openly in a public place.