Chapter 76 Take Some Time to Think It Over

Late at night, Xu Fangyuan dialed the phone countless times without success, but finally, on this attempt, someone picked up.

Seeing that the call had finally gone through, all the anger Xu Fangyuan had bottled up throughout the night erupted in a torrent, unleashed entirely at the other end of the line.

“Damn it, are you paparazzi trying to lose your pay?!”

“I told you to dig up dirt on Su Chen. What the hell have you been shooting?!”

“You even dared to insult me in the livestream? You really have guts! Forget about getting paid for the past few days!”

“And if you don’t come up with any dirt on Su Chen, don’t bother working with Starry Sky anymore. I’ll blacklist your entire group of shameless dogs across the industry!”

A string of curses poured from Xu Fangyuan’s mouth without pause.

After venting, she finally felt a bit of relief. If she couldn’t disgust Su Chen, at least it was easy enough to disgust these two paparazzi.

On the other end, the paparazzi had held the phone far away as soon as the call connected, sitting in the car nibbling on the crispy starch sausages Su Chen had bought for them.

After acting as dogs for so long, the two paparazzi couldn’t resist a rare chance to act as humans; in the end, they accepted Su Chen’s generous fifty-thousand yuan.

Su Chen instructed them to continue undercover under Xu Fangyuan’s supervision, passing her “dirt” about him, preparing to strike and, hopefully, bring down this old woman in one fell swoop.

So, after finishing their sausages, the paparazzi leisurely brought the phone back to their ear, acting the sycophant.

“Sister Yuan, all those moves were just smokescreens to get close to Su Chen!”

“You have no idea how cautious he is, not a single flaw to exploit! After much deliberation, we realized our only option was to approach him, gain his trust, and look for an opening.”

“You don’t know how torturous it is to force ourselves to get close to someone so sickening! But for you, Sister Yuan, it’s worth it!”

The paparazzi spoke with extreme grievance, as if everything they did was for Xu Fangyuan, and she had wrongly accused them.

They even drew on acting skills honed from years of covert filming, their voice trembling with emotion, moved by their own performance.

Xu Fangyuan was caught off guard by this scene, rendered speechless on the other end, her anger trapped inside, nearly suffocating her.

After some time, she managed to ask stiffly, “Have you collected any dirt on Su Chen?”

“Not yet…”

The paparazzi laughed awkwardly and quickly added, “But I guarantee we’ll have it soon!”

“We’ve already gained Su Chen’s trust. He even wanted to take us for a foot massage tonight, but it got too late, so he went home. Otherwise, we’d have finished the job tonight, sigh!”

Upon hearing this, Xu Fangyuan’s eyes lit up, her breathing quickened. “No worries, just take it slow! Once you get the dirt, I’ll unleash the water army to drown him!”

“Exactly, we want to be thorough, but there’s this matter of operating expenses…”

Hinting at her, the paparazzi's meaning was instantly clear to Xu Fangyuan.

“Expenses aren’t an issue, I’ll send you some now, and I’ll throw in an extra two hundred—go have a nice meal tonight!” she said cheerfully, as if she’d given them a fortune.

“As long as you do the job well, there’ll be no shortage of money from me!”

The paparazzi: “……”

Two hundred… These days, what kind of meal can you get for two hundred? Stingy as hell! Compared to Brother Chen, she’s nowhere near!

Still, two hundred is money, so the paparazzi happily accepted.

“Thank you, Sister Yuan! We won’t let you down!”

After the call ended, Xu Fangyuan was in high spirits.

“Su Chen, oh Su Chen, you’d never guess that the paparazzi getting so chummy with you are actually mine, would you?”

“Hahaha! When they stab you in the back, you’ll probably cry out loud, hahaha!”

Hearing her laughter, Lin Yanran stepped out of her room.

“Sister Yuan, what’s making you so happy? Come, share it with me so I can join in!” Lin Yanran laughed.

Xu Fangyuan smiled and explained everything that had happened. Lin Yanran’s face brightened as well.

With Su Chen’s sudden rise to fame in recent days, she hadn’t slept well, barely had an appetite, always fearing her stardom would evaporate into nothing.

So, hearing that Su Chen was about to be exposed, she felt immensely relieved.

“Alright, enough about that dead man walking—bad luck! Let’s talk about your plans to break into the film industry.”

“As far as I know, the general manager in charge of films at Wanda is quite optimistic about you. If you’re willing to have dinner with him…”

Lin Yanran’s mood soured at Xu Fangyuan’s words.

“Sister Yuan, I’ve said, I… I don’t want to do those things.”

“What’s the big deal? Hidden rules are commonplace in our circle.”

Lin Yanran replied, “When I was with Su Chen, he always respected my wishes—he never forced himself on me…”

“He’s him, which is why I say he’s useless. Still, thanks to him, your first time is intact, so it’s even more valuable—you can trade it for something better!”

“If you want to climb up in this industry, you have to use your body!” Xu Fangyuan declared.

“Can’t it be about the work?” Lin Yanran looked up and asked.

Xu Fangyuan paused, waving her hand impatiently.

“Work? Where are you going to find so many good projects? And plenty of people have good work—why should it be you? I’m doing this for your own good!”

“Think about it carefully!”

With that, she strode out of the room, annoyed.

Staring at the empty room, Lin Yanran felt inexplicably irritable.

“But… Su Chen rose to fame through his work…”

“If we hadn’t broken up, would all of this have been mine?”

She picked up her phone, where Su Chen’s song “Courage,” written for Zhang Fuyu, was playing…

Meanwhile, after returning to the hotel, Su Chen found Han Jiangxue had dragged a small stool and was sitting outside his room, waiting for him.

Who knew how long she’d been there? Her little head drooped, dozing off, oblivious to the curious glances of passersby.

“…Boss Han, are you practicing performance art?”

Su Chen walked to the door and tapped Han Jiangxue’s head.

She woke with a start, and seeing Su Chen in front of her, the panic in her eyes faded.

“I… Didn’t you say you’d get me Yan Mi’s autograph? So… I waited here!” Han Jiangxue tried to sound calm.

“Oh? Is that so…”

Reeking of alcohol, Su Chen suddenly leaned in close to Han Jiangxue.

Their eyes met, and her cheeks flushed crimson.