The most important thing is to protect Lina from that villain, Sven!

Rita agreed on the spot. If people asked her for help with something else, she might not be able to do much about it. However, if it was about being someone"s bodyguard, that was no problem at all.

As Rita herself said, "You have found the right person for this task! Our family specializes in this kind of shady busin…ahem, work."

As soon as Sheng Jiaoyang got off the plane, she received a call from Rita. Rita angrily asked her, "Jiao, why didn"t you tell me that the bad guy was the young master of the Gudilesi Family?"

Sheng Jiaoyang stopped walking. "What happened?"

"Things are not looking good. My father once took me to a banquet organized by the Gudilesi Family, so that guy has seen me before. I only saw his back view, and I saw that he was pestering Lina, so I gave him a hard push. I"m… I"m done for…"

"You normally fear nothing and no one. Why are you so afraid of him?"

"It"s different this time. In front of the Gudilesi Family, our family is nothing. It"s like comparing a small fis.h.i.+ng boat with an ocean liner. If they want to crush our family, it"s only an easy matter that would take three seconds to complete. Jiao, I"m in big trouble now."

"Don"t worry."

"How can I not worry? If my father finds out I caused trouble as soon as I sneaked out, he"s never going to allow me to step outside ever again!"

At this moment, Sheng Jiaoyang could tell that Rita was very scared. She pondered over it for a moment before saying, "If you tell Lina about it, she will help you resolve the situation." It"s better for Lina to step in now that things have turned out so badly.

Rita suddenly lowered her voice and asked curiously, "Jiao, is the young master of the Gudilesi Family really chasing after Lina? Could it be that he still doesn"t know that Lina is a married woman?"

"Rita, Lina and George have already signed the divorce papers." Sheng Jiaoyang sighed and told Rita the truth.

"What? How"s that possible? I still remember the two of them being all lovey-dovey last year." Rita obviously couldn"t believe what she just heard.

Anyone who had seen the loving relations.h.i.+p Lina and George were in, would find it hard to believe that the couple had ended their marriage in such a short period of time.

"It"s all because of Sven."

"You mean they separated because Sven stepped in between them?" Rita asked with an inexplicably excited tone.

"Well, if you need anything, just talk to Lina. I probably won"t be able to get away from work in the coming days."

"Wait! Quickly tell me more about their story! You might not know this, but Sven is actually famous for being a distinguished and accomplished bachelor. The socialites all want to win his heart, and many even want to have a short affair with him. Although Sven has seen countless women, he"s very picky when selecting his partners. In our socialites" circle, there is a saying that whoever wins his heart will be able to…"

Sheng Jiaoyang hurriedly interrupted Rita"s chatter, "I don"t care about him, even if he drops dead. All I know is that he is a b.a.s.t.a.r.d who destroyed Mei Niu"s happiness. Alright, I"m hanging up now. I still have some things to handle over here."

Sheng Jiaoyang hung up.

Meanwhile, Rita looked regretful since they couldn"t continue their gossip. Then, she went to look for Lina.

At the same time, Lina had just come out of the laboratory after finis.h.i.+ng the final round of the experiment. As soon as she returned to her office and took a few sips of water, she saw Rita rus.h.i.+ng in.

"Lina, please help me!" Bang! Rita threw her hands on the desk, and everything swayed on the desk due to her excessive strength.

Lina raised her hand and motioned for her to calm down. "Slow down, what"s wrong? Why did you rush here so urgently?"

"Before she returned home, Jiao told me to protect you from the bad guys. So this morning, when someone was pestering you, I pushed him away. But OMG, the person I actually pushed was the young master of the Gudilesi Family. I even pushed him so violently that he was slammed against the wall, so I"m sure that he won"t let me get away with this," Rita explained quickly.

Lina listened quietly to Rita. She drank a few mouthfuls of warm water and declined to respond immediately.

When she saw Lina"s calm demeanour, Rita became even more anxious. "Jiao said that I should ask you for help."

"Rita, calm down. I understand. This happened because of me, so don"t worry, I won"t let you get implicated in this matter," Lina responded with a smile.

With Lina"s a.s.surance, Rita heaved a sigh of relief. She sat down in the chair and leaned forward while casting a curious glance at Lina. "Lina, how do you know the young master of the Gudilesi Family?"

The smile on Lina"s face dimmed instantly. "I met him due to an accident."

"This is the first time I have seen Sven take the initiative to pursue a woman. At a previous banquet, I saw a lot of women flocked to him on their own accord, without him lifting a single finger. I have to admit that he"s indeed very charming. Will you accept him, Lina?" Rita was rather dense, so she hadn"t noticed that Lina actually didn"t want to continue talking about this topic.

This was also the reason why Sheng Jiaoyang didn"t tell Rita about Lina"s problems earlier. She was afraid that Rita would thoughtlessly rub salt over Lina"s wounds by asking her about this and that.

However, they had known each other for many years, so even though Lina found the conversation quite awkward, she didn"t blame her friend for it.

Lina didn"t answer Rita"s question, but replied with a question instead, "Why do I have to accept him?"

Rita was stupefied. She tilted her head and pondered over it before nodding, "Indeed, maybe he"s only chasing you on a whim. I heard that he has never kept a woman by his side for longer than a week."

Although Lina gave Rita a faint smile, there were no traces of a smile in her eyes.

"Rita, you helped me out of kindness, so I won"t let you get implicated in this matter," Lina said gently.

Rita sized Lina up all of a sudden.

"What"s the matter?"

"I feel like you"ve changed," Rita said bluntly.

"Everybody will change at some point in time. Rita, did I change in a positive or negative way?"

"I don"t know how to describe it, but you just seem different."

A slight smile formed on Lina"s lips.

Rita clapped her hands. "I see! You"re becoming more and more like Jiaoyang. Especially that expression! I see it from time to time…it"s exactly the same as Jiaoyang"s face whenever she"s up to mischief."

"…Really?" Lina raised her eyebrow.

Rita pointed at Lina with a fl.u.s.tered look. "Yes, that"s exactly the expression I"m talking about. Don"t tell me that Jiaoyang didn"t go to heaven and possessed your body instead?"

Lina was amused by her words, but she couldn"t tell Rita about Jiaojiao"s rebirth. She suddenly got up and propped her hand on the table as she leaned closer to Rita. She looked deeply at Rita and said in an eccentric tone, "Rita, it"s time for you to lend me your strength."

Rita s.h.i.+vered, and leaned back subconsciously. Then, she asked with a slightly confused and startled look, "Did Jiaoyang really possess your body?"

Lina burst out in laughter at the sight of Rita"s frightened expression.

"You are so gullible! How can you believe something like that?"

Now that Lina was acting normal again, Rita tapped the table and said, "You"re asking me? Who told you to imitate Jiaoyang? You are a natural-born actress. Even I mistakenly thought that you were possessed by Jiaoyang."

Lina laughed.

"Lina, if you don"t accept Sven, won"t he keep pestering you to no end?" Rita returned to the previous topic that she was most interested in.

Lina retracted the smile on her face and responded faintly, "I"m also curious to know how much time he can waste on me and how long he can keep this up."

"If you want to get rid of him as soon as possible, you might as well agree to date him. In any case, his girlfriends never last longer than a week. Thus, once you go out with him, he will break up with you after a week. Moreover, he will even pay you a huge sum of money when he breaks up with you. That"s why many women want to climb on his bed."

"I see." Lina declined to comment any further.

Since Sheng Jiaoyang only made the decision to return home at the last minute, her fans weren"t aware that she was coming back, and thus they didn"t come to see her at the airport. A few fans who were pa.s.sing by the airport recognised her and asked her to take a group photo. Afterwards, she boarded the car that came to pick her up and hurried to meet Gu Zhou at the designated restaurant.

Aside from Gu Zhou and his manager, there were three other people present in the private room. One was a slightly plump man in his thirties, and the other two were women.

When Sheng Jiaoyang entered the private room, she immediately apologized, "Sorry, there was a traffic jam on the way here, so I arrived later than expected."

Everyone stood up to greet her.

Gu Zhou first introduced the three people to Sheng Jiaoyang. The man in his thirties was the director of the new drama that Gu Zhou had invested in. The woman standing closest to the director was the screenwriter, and the other woman was the original author of "Empress".

Sheng Jiaoyang shook hands with each of them, and then everyone took their seats.

Shui Yiyi, the author of "Empress", had secretly been observing Jiaojiao as soon as she entered the room.

Why was that? Previously, Shui Yiyi was actually quite upset about the fact that they had changed the story and ending of the second female lead in the drama "Empress". In her original setting, the second female lead, Imperial Consort Wu, was a domineering and jealous character who took advantage of her earlier meritorious deeds to act with audacity. In the drama, however, Imperial Consort Wu not only got extra scenes, but her story and ending were also changed, and she was not even notified prior to the changes. This made her feel that the production crew was being very disrespectful towards her, the original author.

However, since the rights to the drama were sold to the production company legitimately, even the original author had no right to interfere with how the script was changed and how different it was from the original novel. When the fans of the original novel learnt about the changes, they could only protest about it, and nothing more.

However, at that time, the director withstood the pressure and still proceeded with his decision. Thus, Shui Yiyi was quite disgusted with Jiaojiao, who played the role of the second female lead.

Later, when the drama came out, the voices of the people who protested and claimed that they wouldn"t watch the drama gradually grew softer and softer. Many people started to watch the drama after watching the trailer, and some started watching it because of recommendations from their friends and family. Even many fans of the novel confirmed that the drama adaptation was good, and that the acting skills of the actors were all on point. Furthermore, they said that although the story of the second female lead was changed, she was still a brilliant character that made one detest and love her at the same time.

When Shui Yiyi read those positive evaluations, she became curious and restrained the unhappiness in her heart as she started watching the drama. Finally… She had to admit that the character of the second female lead was better developed in the drama.

So when Gu Zhou contacted her and asked her to write a sequel, she didn"t reject him outright even though she hesitated.

After thinking about it for a while, she finally accepted the proposal.

Now that she met Jiaojiao in person, she realised that Jiaojiao was neither finicky nor arrogant. Rather, she was amiable and casual, so all the remaining ill-feelings she felt towards Jiaojiao disappeared in an instant.Previous ChapterNext ChapterPlease go to to read the latest chapters for free