Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Brother Zheng: Yao, I’ve submitted another request to the company for you. They’re choosing a new assistant, but it’ll take a few days. Things will be a little harder for you until then.

Lu Yao received the message from her manager.

She happily replied: Thanks, Brother Zheng, but there’s no need. I’ve already found a new assistant.

Less than two minutes later, her phone rang.

Zheng Yushu had a pleasant voice, gentle and tolerant, and he was widely known in the industry for his good temper. Handsome and extremely well regarded, he had amassed a sizable fan base despite being a manager who should, in principle, have remained behind the scenes.

Nearly every fan dissatisfied with the team supporting their favorite male or female celebrity had cried out at some point, “Heavens, please give my idol a Zheng Yushu!”

“Yao,” Zheng Yushu said, “you found a new assistant? Who is she? Can she be trusted?”

“An artist’s assistant is extremely important. You can’t choose one carelessly.”

Something felt a little strange to Lu Yao.

But she did not suspect Zheng Yushu. After all, he had always treated her well. He had not taken on a newcomer in two years, yet he had personally managed Lu Yao from the moment she entered the industry. Who knew how many people at Landi envied her?

She smiled. “Don’t worry. Zhu Yin is my cousin. There’s no one I trust more than her.” She was an immortal who had descended from the stars into the mortal world because of Lu Yao’s wish!

“In that case, I can stop worrying,” Zheng Yushu said with a smile.

After ending the call, the smile vanished from his lips.

He sat quietly for a while, then dialed a number. “Investigate the new assistant at Lu Yao’s side.”

A cousin? His little Yao did not need any cousin. He alone was all she needed to trust and depend on.

Zhu Yin had been beside Lu Yao throughout the call. The phone was not on speaker, but with Zhu Yin’s hearing, she could easily make out everything they said.

“That was your manager? Does he treat you well?”

Lu Yao nodded. “Brother Zheng lived next door when I was little. He’s responsible, thoughtful, and takes very good care of me.”

“If he treats you so well, why don’t you have an assistant?” Zhu Yin asked.

A troubled look appeared on Lu Yao’s face, and she told Zhu Yin what had happened.

After she signed with Landi, Zheng Yushu assigned her an assistant named Bolun. A longtime Landi employee who had once worked as an assistant to a Best Actress winner, Bolun was highly capable.

But he was overbearing and extremely busy. Much of the time, Lu Yao could not even find him, and whenever she needed something from him, she often saw him on the phone with other people.

Outside of essential work arrangements, he hardly spoke to her in private. He would not even reply when Lu Yao asked him questions about work arrangements.

Feeling both hurt and bewildered, Lu Yao tried to talk to him. He merely said in a frosty voice, “If Miss Lu is dissatisfied with me, you can ask the company for a different assistant.”

Lu Yao had been doted on by her family all her life. How could she bear such treatment?

She asked for another assistant. When Zheng Yushu asked why, she only said their personalities were incompatible. Zheng Yushu made no comment and agreed.

The new assistant was a young woman about Lu Yao’s age named Wenwen, who had graduated recently. She was mild-tempered and got along very well with Lu Yao.

Unfortunately, it did not last. Lu Yao joined the cast of The Swordsman to play the female lead, Chi Lian.

The director seemed deeply dissatisfied with her, and the male lead acting opposite her disliked her too. Outside of filming, no one on the crew spoke to her.

Lu Yao was at least an actress, and rumors said she had powerful connections, so everyone exercised some restraint around her. Wenwen, however, was truly a pitiful young woman.

An assistant with no connections, she was openly targeted on set. People gossiped and mocked her to her face. Sometimes she was not even given a boxed meal.

Wenwen could not endure it for even a week. With red-rimmed eyes, she resigned from her position with Lu Yao.

Before leaving, she seemed hesitant. Several times, she started to speak and stopped. In the end, she merely hugged Lu Yao. “Lu Yao, be careful around the company and the crew.”

Zhu Yin knew about the two assistants, although the plot had not gone into this much detail.

Lu Yao looked a little embarrassed. “I feel like assistants and I are somehow incompatible.”

No, Zhu Yin thought. That clearly wasn’t the problem. Someone had arranged all of this deliberately.

That person was naturally the first of those beasts: Zheng Yushu.

He had signed her with great fanfare, then cast her, a complete newcomer, as the female lead in a major production. It was practically an open declaration to everyone: This newcomer has powerful backing. I intend to make her a star.

But if Lu Yao had been an ordinary newcomer with powerful support, her company would certainly have coordinated with the production in advance. Since it was her first role, several competent assistants would have been stationed at her side and protected her from every direction.

Instead, they had simply painted a target on her back and provided no protection whatsoever.

Bolun was the company’s star assistant. A veteran who had originally worked with one of Landi’s senior Best Actor winners, he had suddenly been ordered to carve out time for a newcomer. Shrewd as he was, he quickly realized something was wrong. Unwilling to wade into those muddy waters, he simply stopped making an effort. It did not take long before Lu Yao asked to have him replaced herself.

Wenwen had likewise been “carefully selected” by Zheng Yushu. She was a sweet, softhearted young woman fresh out of college. Apart from her ready smile and good temper, she had essentially no professional ability or tolerance for pressure.

Zheng Yushu knew everything that happened on the set of The Swordsman. One could even say the current situation was the result he had deliberately engineered.

He wanted Lu Yao to learn how treacherous the entertainment industry was–and to believe that only he, Zheng Yushu, could help and comfort her.

Lu Yao knew nothing of this treacherous world and foolishly continued to believe he was a good man.

Zhu Yin offered her assessment. “From the sound of it, your manager is remarkably useless.”

Lu Yao’s eyes widened. “Huh?”

She hurried to protest. “Don’t say that. The problem is me.”

“No, it isn’t.” Zhu Yin handed her a glass. The pale, jade-green liquid inside gave off a faint, pleasant fragrance of grass and leaves.

Lu Yao stared at it curiously. “What kind of drink is this?”

“My secret recipe. It’s good stuff.” Zhu Yin patted her head. “It’s good for your health.”

Then she returned to the previous subject. “How old are you, and how old is he? You just entered the industry. He has spent years in it and made such a name for himself, yet he can’t manage a simple thing like finding you a suitable assistant.”

Zhu Yin added with cool derision, “What is that if not useless?”

Lu Yao’s nose inexplicably began to sting.

She had heard those people talking behind her back. They said she had used connections, that she had a sugar daddy, that she had stolen someone else’s role, and that she could not act.

She had been so upset that she could not sleep all night.

When her parents called, she still had to smile and tell them everything was fine, asking them to wait for the show she starred in to air.

Brother Zheng had first assigned her an experienced assistant, then chosen the young Wenwen at her request. Brother Zheng had already done so much for her. She could not trouble him any further.

So it had to be her fault.

Yet no one had explained any of this to her in the first place.

When she first heard the rumors, she went to Zheng Yushu and told him she no longer wanted the role.

Zheng Yushu had laughed. “Silly girl, the role hadn’t been decided in the first place. It was only a rumor the other actress spread to drum up publicity for herself. Your Brother Zheng slept badly for several nights in a row to secure this role for you.”

“Besides, now that the casting is settled, do you know how much we’ll owe for breach of contract if you suddenly pull out?”

Lu Yao could only abandon the idea and keep encouraging herself.

Sometimes, she felt as though she had sunk into a pool of cold, clinging sludge. Every breath brought the same powerless sense that there was no escape.

But now, someone was reaching out to her and telling her:

“It’s not your fault.”