After leaving the airport, she sent a message to Lao Ping, who had been hitting a wall all day, saying she’d return to work tomorrow and to send her the schedule.

Lao Ping’s reaction could be called heaven-sent gratitude. He asked why she’d finally agreed. She replied: Saving money to buy a house.

However, some things couldn’t be achieved just through sudden awakening and diligence. On the third day back at work, Fan Mi came to visit the set again. This time she went straight to the break room. As soon as she arrived, she tossed the lighter she was carrying onto the vanity table in front of Long Qi. She also leaned against the edge of the table with her arms crossed, a cigarette between two fingers that hadn’t been lit yet, staring at her—clearly meaning for Long Qi to light it for her.

“Sister Fan…”

“Go pour me some water.”

Fan Mi dispatched the female assistant who was trying to mediate without even lifting her head, then tossed a line at the stylist: “The director is looking for you.”

Fine, everyone left.

Long Qi was chewing candy.

In her hands, she was playing with a puzzle toy similar to a nine-ring puzzle that Hao Shuai had given her to pass the time. As Fan Mi appeared so aggressively, she just raised her eyes and glanced at her. The candy in her mouth moved smoothly from the left side of her mouth to the right, evening out the sweetness.

At that moment, Lao Ping was at the launch press conference for another artist under his management’s new series, leaving Long Qi alone here filming the music video. She looked at Fan Mi calmly, remaining composed. Only two parts of her entire body moved—her fingers slowly solving the puzzle, her cheeks slowly chewing candy.

Fan Mi said, “Want one?”

Then the cigarette between her two fingers spun around, the filter aimed at Long Qi, the lit end facing herself.

Long Qi’s gaze drifted downward, her attention returning to the puzzle game.

“Don’t smoke.”

“I’ll teach you.”

Long Qi didn’t respond to her.

“Lao Ping says you’re obedient, the director says you’re quiet.” As Fan Mi said this, the cigarette filter spun back to her side. She grabbed the lighter from the table, lit it, took a drag, then exhaled. Smoke dispersed around her mouth. She leaned down a bit toward the seated Long Qi. “I don’t quite believe it.”

Having said that, she straightened back up, tapped the cigarette with her finger, and a thin line of ash fell.

Long Qi had solved one metal ring in her hand and placed it on the table, unhurriedly solving the next one.

At this moment, Fan Mi gently pressed her hand onto Long Qi’s hands. The lights around the makeup mirror shone through the smoke between the two. When Fan Mi moved her hand away, a small stack of photographs lay silently on Long Qi’s lap.

In the photos, Long Qi stood at yesterday’s hotel entrance holding a cigarette and lighting it. A wide-brimmed hat shaded half her face, yet the clearly recognizable lower half of her face was visible. Her technique for lighting the cigarette was skilled, captured frame by frame.

In the second-to-last photo, she held a cigarette in her mouth while looking at her phone.

In the last photo, she and Jin Yiken were talking. Jin Yiken’s body blocked half her profile. The lens didn’t capture their faces, but the hotel sign above them was photographed very clearly.

The overall pixels were blurry, but none of the key points that should be captured were missed. Long Qi looked at them quietly. Fan Mi quietly smoked her cigarette.

“I’ve never believed there could be any good girls entering this industry,” she said slowly.

Lao Ping usually not letting her touch cigarettes still had some merit.

“Let me think what positioning your manager gave you—idol? An idol who smokes and books hotel rooms overnight with men at such a young age? Acting so high and mighty, but when it comes to actually being on camera, this isn’t allowed, that isn’t allowed. Using student status as an excuse, making me think your upbringing was so good.”

Fan Mi spoke bluntly, her tone genuinely condescending, with an air of “since I’ve got dirt on you, accept my humiliation.” Long Qi raised her head to look at her. Fan Mi stared back at her with the same gaze.

“It’s not that I want to bully you, little sister. The songs are mine. My songs weren’t written for you. I don’t want you appearing in what I create. No matter how you climbed up—whether you hooked up with our stupid boss or have something going on with some investor’s son—I want you out. If you won’t do it voluntarily, I’ll make you do it passively. Right now I’m negotiating a deal with you. Do you understand?”

Smoke swirled, lights glared.

After this long string of words, after the prolonged eye contact, a click sounded from Long Qi’s hands.

Fan Mi glanced down at the sound, then quickly returned to the eye contact line with Long Qi.

At this moment, Long Qi had solved the second iron ring.

The iron ring clicked as she placed it on the table. She tilted her head slightly, removed the earphone hidden behind her hair, still chewing candy, calmly looking at Fan Mi.

“Go ahead.”

She said.

“What you photographed isn’t something I care about, nor is it my shameful secret. Show it to whoever you want.”

…

“So go ahead. Up to you.”

…

The tobacco between Fan Mi’s fingers burned. Long Qi chewed her candy. On the line of eye contact between the two, neither backed down.

During this past period, Lao Ping had suppressed her, not letting her have direct contact with Fan Mi. She had reluctantly absorbed various sarcastic remarks like a sponge. Now they really thought she was easy to bully, brazenly bypassing Lao Ping to negotiate a deal with her. Little did they know she was famously unyielding. Lao Ping could still consider the big picture, but her?

Bring it on.

For a few seconds, Fan Mi was clearly processing this. Then several urgent knocks came from the dressing room door. Staff came to call them. Fan Mi immediately leaned close to her and said in a lowered voice, “You may not care, but the public cares, netizens care, whoever made you famous cares!”

“It’s just a ruined reputation.”

Long Qi replied instantly.

Almost at the same time as the words fell, the dressing room door opened. Fan Mi pressed the cigarette into the pile of photos, sending up a foul smell of burnt plastic.

She left with a vicious air.

Passing by Fan Mi was the completely oblivious Hao Shuai. As the door slammed shut with a bang, Hao Shuai’s shoulders shook. Long Qi took a new soft candy from the candy box, put it in her mouth, and then stuffed the earphone back in her ear.

Hao Shuai asked what happened, whether they should call Lao Ping to ask.

She closed her eyes and said, “Nothing.”

After a good while, she pulled out her phone from her pocket and edited a text message to send to Jin Yiken.

In the afternoon, Lao Ping didn’t call. From this, one could see that Fan Mi hadn’t yet talked to him about the so-called deal. This indicated two possibilities. First, Fan Mi didn’t want to directly confront Lao Ping. She didn’t want to blow things up—she wasn’t confident about this matter. Second, Fan Mi was crazy and planned to skip negotiations altogether and throw the photos online, making the company withdraw the image-damaged Long Qi under public pressure.

But this didn’t necessarily mean Jian Yizhen could be swapped in.

Removing one person with a stinking reputation and putting another person with a souring reputation in their place—this logic was problematic. According to Lao Ping, with Jian Yizhen’s current status, there was no way she could qualify for this job. The record company wanted Long Qi to add luster to the music video, but Jian Yizhen’s goal was to use the music video for a comeback—that was sending coal in snowy weather, and no one wanted to be tainted by that black coal.

Fan Mi wanted to send a lifeline to her close friend. The sentiment was touching, but no one wanted to play along.

“Sister Mi is a musical genius,” a band member mentioned during a filming break. “Too bad she’s too stubborn.”

Long Qi had heard people sigh like this more than once.

Lao Ping had also mentioned that if Fan Mi weren’t so impulsive, with her talent she would have gone far by now. What a pity.

“If only we could invite her to write a song for you.” When they’d just received the music video invitation, he had even imagined this.

And by evening, before filming ended, Jian Yizhen herself arrived.

Times had indeed changed. In the past when seeing this female artist in the news, she was always surrounded by a large group of reporters with their cameras and flashing lights, with a dozen bodyguards clearing the way. Now she was much more low-key, with only a small assistant beside her. Her bag and coat hung on her own arm. Her hair was up, she wore sunglasses, her skin was very good. She only wore deep red lipstick for makeup, carrying a somewhat hollow aura of faded glamour.

But she really was quite beautiful.

When she arrived, Long Qi was leaning against a stone pillar in the filming warehouse reading the script for the next scene. Jian Yizhen chatted with the director and Ban Wei and the others for a while, then came over to Long Qi.

Long Qi’s styling was still in the youthful delinquent phase of the music video, her jacket falling off one shoulder, her whole demeanor casual and careless, looking not very friendly. Even so, Jian Yizhen still proactively said the first sentence to her.

“You’re really beautiful.”

One beauty saying to another beauty: You’re really beautiful.

Long Qi glanced at her. The corners of Jian Yizhen’s lips held a slight smile, then she lowered her gaze to look at what was in Long Qi’s hands: “Is that tomorrow’s script? You’re reading so intently.”

Long Qi said, “Today’s.”

She said, “How far have you filmed? I heard the youthful phase scenes are almost done.”

“Almost.”

She said, “Keep it up.”

Saying this, the smile at the corners of her mouth didn’t fade.

She didn’t remove her sunglasses either.

“Thank you,” Long Qi said.

This seemingly ended the conversation, but precisely when Long Qi was withdrawing her attention, Jian Yizhen suddenly removed her sunglasses, stepped forward, and reached out to grip Long Qi’s chin. Her high heels were only half a step away from Long Qi’s boots. Long Qi instinctively retreated a step. The breath between the two clashed against each other. Both their assistants were startled.

“I saw the photos of you being secretly photographed,” she said in a low voice. “You’re really like me in the past.”

“Young, beautiful, and impetuous.”

The two looked at each other at close range in this small corner where no one paid attention. She got closer and closer to Long Qi, until finally she leaned to her ear: “Mi’er wants to make your photos public to exchange for my role, but I said forget it. I think we should all take a step back. After all, there are so many win-win methods in the world.”

Then the hand stroking Long Qi’s chin slowly moved to Long Qi’s shoulder and patted it: “Keep it up. Happy cooperation, little beauty.”

After Jian Yizhen finished this long whispered speech, she flung the handbag and coat in her hands with a thump into her assistant’s arms. The assistant retreated a step, caught off guard. After Jian Yizhen put her sunglasses back on, the assistant hurriedly followed her master.

They left!

Long Qi turned back to ask Hao Shuai behind the pillar: “Does she have a mental illness?”

“Is your face okay?” Hao Shuai was afraid Jian Yizhen’s nails were poisoned, deliberately disfiguring her.

At this moment, the phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated. Long Qi’s emotions were about to explode. Hao Shuai, afraid it was Lao Ping calling, timidly reminded her to look. She pulled the phone from her pocket with a swift motion and glanced down.

After this glance, Long Qi’s slightly restless breathing gradually stabilized. The words about to come out also stopped. She stared at the screen without moving, silent and quiet.

Three hours ago, she had sent Jin Yiken a message.

—What’s the other half of that gossip about Jian Yizhen you mentioned last time?

Three hours later, at this moment, Jin Yiken sent two images.

Both images had shooting dates marked in the lower right corner, showing they were taken on the same day, just one in the morning and one in the afternoon. As Long Qi looked at them, she swept her long bangs back from her forehead. Hao Shuai asked her what it was. She shook her head and stuffed the phone in her pocket, taking a breath.

…

This Jian Yizhen—what all had she done to make a comeback?