When the Stars Tremble

The Eighth Star

If Jiang Chuyi had sinned, may the heavens directly strike her with lightning and kill her, rather than having her alt account exposed and the celebrity himself stepping in to reply, causing her to continuously stay on the top of the hot search to die socially.

Jiang Chuyi’s blood pressure soared. After calming down for a few minutes, she clutched her phone and calmly asked, “What did Sis Ning say?”

“Sis ning said to wait and see the public sentiment.” Little Zhong was cautious, “If it doesn’t work out, we’ll take down the hot search later.”

Right now, the onlookers on Weibo were generally in a state of excitement. Hearing that a female celebrity’s alt account was exposed was a bit shocking at first, but when they saw that the protagonist was a nobody, a small portion of people lost interest. Moreover, looking at this nobody’s account, it was all just a messy jumble of rabbit daily life posts, and their interest waned even further. The remaining people were not interested in Jiang Chuyi, but rather in Zong Ye, who was involuntarily dragged into this.

It’s just that her method of riding on his popularity was quite unique, leaving Zong Ye’s fans temporarily at a loss for words.

The moderate faction thought: Behind the glamorous appearances, some female celebrities in the entertainment industry are actually my bro’s brainless fans in private. This could be considered as material for bragging.

The radical faction felt: Ever since my bro debuted, too many small-time actresses have been clinging to him. All you wild chickens, don’t try to get involved. Zong Ye is independently beautiful.

But since Zong Ye himself had “politely” interacted on Weibo, some fans guessed at the attitude of his studio. After all, it was a female actress he was collaborating with for the first time, so it wasn’t good to tear up the pretense. They could only take the lead in the comment section to maintain peace and tranquility.

Fortunately, Jiang Chuyi’s public image had been quite decent over the long term. Although recently, due to the airing of “Blades of Reflection,” she was frequently scolded as a green tea, aside from the rumors in her early years, the impression she left on the public was generally one of a mild-tempered, gentle, uncontentious and uncompetitive beauty.

So currently, she hadn’t been cursed too badly.

Jiang Chuyi clicked into her main Weibo account homepage.

The latest post had just been liked by Zong Ye.

She had been on the fringes of the circle for a long time and rarely did promotions. She had no endorsements, so her previous Weibo posts basically didn’t have water armies to boost likes. Even if she posted selfies, there would only be a meager one or two thousand comments. But the comments on this Weibo post were approaching 30,000, and the number of likes had even reached over 100,000.

Although she knew she was just a collaborator Zong Ye followed out of courtesy, Jiang Chuyi still couldn’t help but feel a secret sense of being overwhelmed by the favor.

At this time in the meeting room.

Xin He played with her phone for a while and suddenly asked Ji Kai, “Can I switch seats with you?”

Fu Cheng glanced at her.

The seating arrangement for this script reading had name tags. The crew members such as the props and art departments sat on one side, the director and producers sat in the middle, and the main cast sat on the other side, from left to right: Jiang Chuyi, Zong Ye, Ji Kai, Xin He, Fu Cheng, and Wang Tan.

Ji Kai was surprised by Xin He’s sudden proposal to change seats, “Huh? What?”

“Change seats.” Xin He pursed her lips, “There’s a draft here. It’s making me a bit cold.”

Ji Kai looked at her expression and immediately understood, “Oh, okay.”

Xin He stood up, thanked him, and sat down next to Zong Ye.

*

Jiang Chuyi paced outside the meeting room for a few minutes. Seeing everyone else gradually entering, she had no choice but to harden her scalp and return to her seat.

Although just now, she was directly informed by Zong Ye himself that he had taken the initiative to follow her Weibo, Jiang Chuyi’s mood when sitting next to Zong Ye again could be said to be vastly different from when she left earlier.

Jiang Chuyi quickly recalled the insincere compliments she and Little Star had given that day.

They were all fan circle praise templates she had temporarily searched on Baidu, like: Is this level of handsomeness truly real? It’s hard to believe even after seeing with my own eyes; A true shoujo manga male lead; an arsonist of hearts and a sniper of young girls; Seems to have looks that can toy with others without taking responsibility.

She didn’t dare to think about it in detail.

Jiang Chuyi opened her script, dispelling the urge to explain to Zong Ye.

Since things had turned out this way, it was better to say nothing at all. The fact that he publicly responded on Weibo was already giving her a lot of face. At least he didn’t make her situation too embarrassing. Jiang Chuyi was already very grateful.

Throughout the entire script reading, Jiang Chuyi tried hard to get into work mode.

Until near the end, after she finished reading her lines, the director suddenly asked, “Littleyi, how does it feel to work with your idol?”

The meeting room fell silent for a moment, then everyone cast meaningful smiles at her.

Jiang Chuyi pretended to be calm, tugging the corners of her mouth and self-deprecatingly accepting this joke, “It’s my honor.”

No matter what everyone really thought about this matter, on the surface, they were all courteous and didn’t tease her too much.

Jiang Chuyi put on a smile on her face, but inside, she was desperate.

From now on, she might have to carry the persona of Zong Ye’s brainless fan all the way to the end.

*

Facts have proven that celebrities are not afraid of being hated; being unknown is the most miserable.

Ever since the official announcement of “Catching Stars,” Jiang Chuyi, a small supporting actress, kept making it to the hot search every few days. Today, she even created an inexplicable piece of news that became a laughingstock for everyone.

However, that very night, Gao Ning received a message from a producer, inviting Jiang Chuyi to participate in the joint live broadcast event for “Blades of Reflection.”

“Blades of Reflection” was an S+ project of Xunfei. Even before filming began, it had been constantly marketed, and the leads’ public fights had lasted for half a year. Recently, the discussion surrounding it was quite high. Jiang Chuyi was surprised to hear this news, “I’m invited too?”

Gao Ning: “They’re giving you face.”

Jiang Chuyi: “…”

“This is what they call: When poor and living in a bustling city, no one asks; when rich and deep in the mountains, distant relatives appear.” Gao Ning sighed, “Chuyi, you better hold onto Zong Ye’s thigh tightly and never let go, understand?”

Jiang Chuyi: “That goes against my professional ethics.”

Her tone was serious, and Gao Ning almost spat out a mouthful of blood upon hearing it.

Knowing that she was a block of wood, Gao Ning didn’t continue on this topic and instead started to instruct her on another matter, “Bu Xiangchen will also be participating in this live broadcast event. Remember not to interact with him, so that those CP fans won’t start making a fuss again. If you want to break free, draw a clear line.”

Jiang Chuyi didn’t take it seriously, “Our CP fans probably don’t exceed a hundred people.”

“Two 18th-tier nobodies hyping each other up will never have a good outcome. If you want to hype, you have to hype with a top star, directly shooting to the sky, hyping into the universe, hyping into the new generation’s top popular young actress.”

“Alright, enough. Get some rest early.”

Jiang Chuyi hung up the phone, interrupting Gao Ning’s dream.

At night, while resting, she lay in bed and flipped through her Weibo private messages as usual.

There were more messages today than usual, all unread.

With such a big commotion, it was inevitable that Jiang Chuyi received many “warning letters.”

She glanced at a couple of them. They were mostly telling her not to cling, to honestly film, not to have any inappropriate thoughts, and even more so, not to take Zong Ye fans’ tolerance as capital for her shamelessness and such.

The curses weren’t too harsh.

The central meaning could be summed up as: Those who leech off Zong Ye, no matter how much, must be punished.

Jiang Chuyi sighed.

Fortunately, she had always been a sensible person.

*

The filming progress in Venice during this period was quite smooth, but Jiang Chuyi’s body clearly couldn’t adapt to the climate despite having been here for a while.

On set, even the makeup artist was worried she had caught some kind of flu, seeing how pale her face was.

In one morning, within just two or three short scenes, Jiang Chuyi had already run to the restroom four, five times. The stomach cramps caused by menstrual pain made the last thing she could vomit just acid water.

A young props crew member couldn’t bear to watch and kindly boiled her a corn cob to pad her stomach.

It was the rainy season in Venice. Due to scene requirements, they had to take breaks after filming a few shots.

A few set designers were gathered in front of the monitor, discussing the just-filmed footage with the assistant director.

The wind picked up in the evening, accompanied by a drizzle. Jiang Chuyi put on a coat and took advantage of the free time to take a stroll with her assistant to the beach.

After wandering around for a while, they found everyone lying down or resting.

Jiang Chuyi and the young assistant also found a random spot to sit down.

The two chatted for a while when the young assistant suddenly made a shushing gesture.

Jiang Chuyi was puzzled, “What’s wrong?”

Little Zhong pointed behind her, indicating for her to look.

Jiang Chuyi turned her head, the words on the tip of her tongue swallowed back.

Not far away, near the edge of the set, Zong Ye lazily sunk into a black folding chair, sleeping. His posture was relaxed, wearing headphones, his arms crossed and pillowing his head, the shoelaces on his right foot slightly loose. The sea breeze gradually picked up, flipping the script resting on his knees page by page with a rustle. The sky was cloudy, the sea fog hazy, seagulls gliding by. Undeniably, Zong Ye perfectly blended into this picturesque background, as if the opening scene of a movie.

Jiang Chuyi and Little Zhong exchanged glances.

Under Jiang Chuyi’s gaze, Little Zhong sneakily raised her phone and tentatively asked, “It shouldn’t be illegal to secretly take photos of other celebrities, right?”

Jiang Chuyi reminded, “…Remember to turn off the shutter sound.”

Little Zhong held up her phone, searching for angles up, down, left, and right, using different filters to take quite a few photos. She showed the results to Jiang Chuyi.

Out of basic professional instinct, Jiang Chuyi couldn’t help but give low-voiced guidance, “The camera should be shifted down a bit. Don’t align the portrait too perfectly. That way, the frame is too full.”

While Jiang Chuyi was providing on-site teaching guidance to Little Zhong, a laugh suddenly came from above their heads, “What are you doing, taking photos of our Zong Ye?”

This laughter made the two of them freeze instantly.

Wang Tan had his hands in his pockets, bending down to take a closer look. He commented, “Not bad photos.”

Before they knew it, Wang Tan and Fu Cheng were also standing behind them.

Jiang Chuyi hastily said they were photographing the scenery and quickly flipped Little Zhong’s phone over, trying to gloss over it.

Who knew that the usually silent Fu Cheng would suddenly speak up, not giving them any face at all, “Weren’t you taking photos of your idol?”

Jiang Chuyi choked for a moment.

The rumors were indeed correct. Fu Cheng was the biggest thorn in BloodxGentle. It was best not to provoke him for no reason.

Jiang Chuyi was silent for a while before squeezing out a sentence, “Yeah, idols are part of the scenery too.”

As they were talking, the commotion woke Zong Ye up.

He took off his headphones and looked around.

Wang Tan slowly spoke, “You’re finally awake. You weren’t pretending to be asleep, were you?”

These words were said with a hidden meaning. Jiang Chuyi secretly glanced at Zong Ye. He was looking over, his voice gentle, “Taking photos of me?”

Little Zhong tried to salvage the situation, “Ms. Jiang was teaching me how to photograph the scenery.”

Zong Ye lightly raised his eyebrows.

Little Zhong squeezed out another sentence nervously, “And incidentally, unintentionally captured you.”

Zong Ye looked at her, smiling and asking, “How many photos did you take?”

It was probably around twenty or thirty.

Little Zhong didn’t dare to tell the truth. She gestured with her hand, trying to smile, “Probably around five or six.”

After a brief silence, Zong Ye asked Jiang Chuyi with an inquiring look, “Can you send them to me on WeChat to take a look?”

Jiang Chuyi picked up her phone.

She rummaged through and selected the photos Little Zhong had sent her, getting ready to send them to Zong Ye when her elbow was nudged several times.

Jiang Chuyi raised her eyes, just in time to see Zong Ye holding up his phone towards her.

She hesitated but still smiled politely.

Their gazes crossed, and Zong Ye signaled for her to look down.

Immediately after, WeChat vibrated consecutively as the other party sent over a few photos.

Jiang Chuyi clicked to open them and suddenly froze, not daring to move at all.

These few photos were all of her that he had just taken.

Zong Ye: “Courtesy demands reciprocity.”

Jiang Chuyi stared at these photos in a daze, flipping through several of them. Her lips parted and closed, but in the end, she couldn’t say a word.

Lost in thought, her thumb swiped to the right, and the last photo came into view.

— It was her just now, squatting beside the set designer, gnawing on corn in a dejected manner.

Strands of her hair were almost sticking to her mouth.

Jiang Chuyi felt slightly embarrassed, her heart even a bit flustered.

Why did he take this one?

Seeing her looking over, Zong Ye slightly tilted his head, narrowing those beautiful eyes to gaze back at her, the sea breeze blowing his hair into a slight mess.

Jiang Chuyi couldn’t help but avert her gaze first.

Fu Cheng coldly observed his nearly cringey performance from the side, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly, “I don’t know what Zong Ye is being dramatic about.”

Wang Tan put an arm around his neck and said slowly, “Don’t ask. If you must know, it’s the mutual chase between a fan and their idol.”