Once they were done recording, the two hosts invited their guests for a midnight snack. Unless they were in a hurry, all the actors would give them due respect and accept. In this circle, it was always better to have good connections. Knowing more people and fostering better relations.h.i.+ps was always a good thing. Having a midnight snack together would make them closer as they all merrily chatted and ate, adding each other in their contacts and promising to get in touch some day.

After the show ended, Zhou Le pulled Tian Wenhuan aside.

"Huanhuan, why did it feel like you were specially targeting Xu Jiaojiao tonight?"

"How so?" Tian Wenhuan didn"t admit anything.

"We"ve been partners for so many years, you think I can"t tell? Don"t deny it!" Zhou Le said seriously.

Tian Wenhuan laughed. "Haha, you"ve seen through me. In fact, it"s nothing major. Somebody just doesn"t like Xu Jiaojiao and wanted me to stir up some rumours with her."

Zhou Le frowned. "Don"t casually do these things and get used as a tool."

"I know. You also saw it right? I didn"t do much against Xu Jiaojiao, and since she"s so clever, she didn"t fall for my tricks."

"At the end, why did you deliberately prevent her from deleting that photo? If she wanted to delete the photo, it would mean that she"s definitely broken up already. Posting it now will make her embarra.s.sed."

"Didn"t you already let her photoshop it? Furthermore, it"ll increase interest in her, isn"t that a good thing? Her manager didn"t say anything about it, either." Tian Wenhuan didn"t care.

"Sigh, do whatever you want. In any case, I"m just warning you, don"t agree so easily if someone wants you to target a guest. The pendulum will always swing back in this industry, and who knows who"ll win in the end."

"I know!"

Meanwhile, in the van, Sheng Jiaoyang was sleeping in the back seat.

Her manager, Xu Ping, and a.s.sistant, Zeng Huan, were quietly chatting in the front. Oh, right, now that there was a full time driver, Zeng Huan was finally freed from the driver"s seat.

"Sis Ping, the current situation isn"t good!" Zeng Huan tapped her phone.

Xu Ping sighed. "I know."

"Who"s trying to hinder Jiaojiao? Why are there so many people criticising Jiaojiao all the time? Right now, Jiaojiao has only acted in one drama, and it was one supervised by the company. She hasn"t even done any commercials or anything, so why are there so many haters for every tiny thing she does?"

"I used my connections to ask around, and the person who hired those people to make comments isn"t someone from our circle. Due to this, the culprit is still unclear."

Zeng Huan was shocked. "Huh? It"s someone outside our circle? Jiaojiao normally just attends cla.s.s, so how did she offend somebody so badly? They"re even spending so much money to hire fake haters!"

Xu Ping sighed and turned to look at the sleeping Jiaojiao. "Alas, the observers are more anxious than the actual person. I say, nevermind Jiaojiao"s other talents, just her calmness alone is incomparable."

Zeng Huan laughed quietly as she nodded in agreement. "Yeah, if it were me, I"d be too worried to eat or sleep."

"But, that"s also a good thing. In this industry, the best thing to do is to keep calm and not lose control. A scandal actually isn"t that big of a deal, and it can even increase publicity. If there"s a negative in all this, it"d be her age. Too many scandals will influence her reputation and damage her future prospects. Brands won"t want an amba.s.sador with a bad reputation, and film crews won"t want such an actress to play their lead character."

"Sis Ping, you don"t have to worry. Time will prove how outstanding our Jiaojiao is. She"s still young and can bear it," Zeng Huan said confidently.

Xu Ping sighed again, still filled with worry. In fact, like Zeng Huan had said, Jiaojiao was young and could bear it. She"d originally planned for Jiaojiao to stay out of the news for a while, but President Li wanted her to arrange more work for Jiaojiao. This would give her even more media exposure, which wasn"t a good thing for Jiaojiao right now.

As for President Li"s change in att.i.tude, Xu Ping felt that it was all because of that Mr Shen. President Li"s previous preferential treatment should"ve been due to Mr Shen, and now that they"d broken up, he wanted to use Jiaojiao as a money making tool.

Ning Xiaoruan, who was constantly paying attention to Jiaojiao, saw what had happened to her Weibo and jumped up in fright, hurriedly calling his cousin.

When the phone was answered, Shen Zhining seemed to be in a rather bad mood. However, Ning Xiaoruan paid no notice to that as he said, "Xu Jiaojiao confessed to you on Weibo! You used to like her so much, so what misunderstanding did you two have that can"t be cleared up? I think Xu Jiaojiao"s a very good person. She"s sincere, and even posted a picture saying that she liked you. Why did you guys breakup?"

"You called me so late at night for this?" an unhappy and deep voice said from the phone.

"Cousin, I"m telling this for your own sake. Look at yourself! You finally found that somebody you like, and you"re not even treasuring it!" Ning Xiaoruan scolded.

"It looks like I"m not the one who likes her, it"s you!"

Ning Xiaoruan was stunned, not daring to believe that his cousin had said that.

"Cousin?"

"Don"t disturb me over insignificant people again."

Beep, beep, beep…

Ning Xiaoruan looked at his phone, startled. Wasn"t the world changing too fast? When did his cousin become like this?

"It seems like Cousin and Xu Jiaojiao have really broken up…" Ning Xiaoruan"s eyes lit up. "Then, does that mean I have a chance?"

At a certain somebody"s home, it took awhile for that person to fall asleep again.

It had only been a night, yet there were already several media companies reporting on Xu Jiaojiao"s confession. With such speed, they"d clearly prepared in advance.

Some of the bigger media companies even criticised Xu Jiaojiao, saying how such a young girl wasn"t studying properly, but rather, clinging onto somebody influential to corrupt the whole entertainment industry. She was clearly dumped by her backer, yet she still insisted on shamelessly clinging without any sense of honour or dignity. Xu Jiaojiao was severely criticised for treating her studies as unimportant, and instead, creating scandals all day long. They even requested for Xu Jiaojiao"s university to punish her as an example to the other students.

That night, Xu Jiaojiao was a big topic of discussion. Many people swayed by public opinion denounced Xu Jiaojiao for her actions. Because it was online, many people spoke viciously without worry. Some people, who wanted more drama, even took the opportunity to create more rumours.

But, for Sheng Jiaoyang, none of that mattered. She had no time to pay attention to these things because she was meeting up with Mei Niu!

In the early morning, Sheng Jiaoyang called Xu Ping and Zeng Huan over as she"d be taking the high speed rail to S City to catch the movie premiere ceremony.

Utterly confused, Xu Ping and Zeng Huan walked behind Shen Jiaoyang as she headed towards the backstage area. Without knowing anything beforehand, they were called by Jiaojiao earlier that morning and brought to a movie premiere. They weren"t told what the movie was either. When they finally saw a poster backstage, they were stunned.

It was actually the movie premiere of a big foreign film making its debut in China.

"The Day G.o.d Disappeared" starred many famous celebrities, and the actor playing the male lead was an international superstar. The director, Steve, had also directed many popular movies. All in all, there was a very strong group behind the film.

The two recovered when they saw Lina on the poster, believing that Jiaojiao had come on Lina"s invitation. Everyone knew that Jiaojiao and Lina were friends.

"Jiaojiao, you"re here!" Lina, who"d been fixing her makeup, saw Sheng Jiaoyang and smiled.

"I said I wouldn"t be late." Sheng Jiaoyang smiled back.

Lina looked at her bare face and pulled her over to the makeup artist to get her makeup done.

"What about clothes? You didn"t bring any formal attire?" Lina looked at the two following Sheng Jiaoyang and frowned when she saw that they weren"t holding anything.

"I"m not going on stage, so why do I need formal attire?"

"I already spoke with the director. Later, you"ll be coming on stage and standing beside me." Lina turned around and urged her a.s.sistant to bring over her spare dresses.

Seeing that Lina cared so much, Sheng Jiaoyang followed her directions.

Xu Ping and Zeng Huan, who were standing by and watching Lina drag Jiaojiao away to change clothes, looked at each other.

"Jiaojiao is also going on stage?"

"Isn"t it supposed to be just the main leads on stage?"

Both of their faces were filled with confusion, but they didn"t think that Jiaojiao had acted in the movie, just that Jiaojiao and Lina were really close. Otherwise, Lina wouldn"t have taken care of Jiaojiao so much and even let her get publicity from the movie premiere.

When the movie premiere ceremony started, the reporters in the audience were even more stunned than Xu Ping and Zeng Huan to see Lina standing on the stage with Sheng Jiaoyang.

Why is Xu Jiaojiao here, at China"s movie premiere of "The Day G.o.d Disappeared"? Everybody who recognised her questioned in their minds.

Director Steve saw the commotion when the audience noticed Sheng Jiaoyang and Lina standing on the stage together, and merely thought that it was because everyone was surprised he"d used an Asian actress. Before the TV host could introduce them, he took the initiative to say, "Lina and Joy are both talented actresses and performed beautifully on screen." He said that, of course, with the hopes that Chinese people would like it and the movie would have good box office results in China. He knew that many people would watch the movie since someone from their own country was in it.

The translator behind him dutifully translated his words into Chinese for the audience.

Off the stage, the reporters were in an uproar.

Xu Jiaojiao partic.i.p.ated in the movie?

"Did Xu Jiaojiao also act in this? She wasn"t on the promotional posters!" one of the reporters asked.

A translator quickly translated the question into English.

Director Steve was startled. He vaguely remembered that Joy"s full name was the one the reporter had used. All the reporters a.s.sembled here were famous, yet they actually knew who Joy was. It seemed that Joy was quite famous in China.