Chapter 124: Your Stuff Is Good Enough, Too

“Everyone from Director Bai’s unit used to say that working opposite Yunfu was the easiest thing, and now it proves true.”
During lunch, several crew members had gathered and could not stop talking about the day’s shooting.

“Yeah, there were almost no retakes at all. If the other actor doesn’t cause trouble, she gets through everything day after day. If all we had were actresses like Yunfu, we’d be going home early every single day.”
“Come on, how can there be so many really good actresses? I have to say Yunfu genuinely deserves all this praise.”
“Right. Since my friend followed her on that last project, she’s turned into a Yunfu fan. What do you think?”

Qiu Fangfei happened to hear exactly this.

In table-readings before, everyone praised her. A former child star, her acting had outshone younger performers. Whatever flaws she had, her age was enough to excuse.
But now a younger and even more brilliant Yunfu had appeared, and nothing seemed to belong to her anymore.

She leaned her hand against the wall, her nails carving deep gouges into it. Her eyes, poisoned and sharp, were unnerving.

Fangfei returned to the lounge with rage boiling in her chest. She had barely sat down when her assistant rushed up in alarm.
“Fei… Fei-fei, Sister, that Q necklace is—well, it’s missing!”

The necklace was for her newest endorsement, a skincare campaign that had inexplicably been shelved. She had asked Zhou Heng about it, and he had just handed it to her. It was worth more than a million, and she had only just taken possession of it. If it were truly gone…

Fangfei’s voice turned high and sharp, no longer caring about her image.
“I told you to put it down properly! How did you place it?”

“I’m sorry, Fei-fei… I— I…” Her assistant’s eyes were red with panic.

Such a precious thing—if Fangfei had really lost it, she couldn’t afford to buy a replacement. Fangfei dug desperately through her memory.

At last one image surfaced.
“Fei-fei, I think I saw Yunfu’s manager just take a black box back into the lounge just now.”

Fangfei’s face changed instantly. “What did you say? Yunfu’s that vile woman took it?”

Anger flooded her mind so violently she lost every vestige of judgment.
The assistant, pale, shook uncertainly. “I… I’m not sure. It might have been something else.”

“Impossible!” Fangfei snapped. “Yunfu wants me ruined, doesn’t she? She’s carrying evil in her heart. That’s why she sent her manager to do such a filthy thing!”

She swept back her sleeves and stormed, furious, toward Yunfu’s room.

Yunfu had been quietly savoring a new dish recently developed by Juke Zhai, and Lian Hanqi had just told her she was the first to taste it and comment.

“It’s really good,” she said, “just a bit light on meat. Juke Zhai is always stingy with portions.”

The door banged open with a hard crack.
Yunfu frowned and turned toward the noise.

Fangfei didn’t care what Yunfu was doing. She came in and grabbed objects from the table, flinging them about.
“Yunfu! How can you be so shameless? Give that thing back right now!”

Yunfu watched the woman in front of her—like a cruder, louder mirror of herself. Her gaze shifted; the air around her seemed to harden to ice.
Yet she remained seated, as if looking down on an ant at the edge of the earth.

Blinded with fury, Fangfei tried to grab the black box from the table and hurl it onto the floor despite her assistant’s attempt to restrain her. Before it left her hand, her entire arm felt as if it had snapped; a wave of numbness, then a stabbing pain like an awl.

Yunfu caught her wrist and, with effortless force, pushed her back several meters away.
A trace of lethal intent had entered her expression. The air itself seemed frozen; all the light in her bright eyes had turned into blades.

“No one taught you that you can’t handle other people’s things, did they?” Yunfu stepped forward. Fangfei, suddenly seeing the fury in her eyes, took an involuntary step back.

Still, she kept her chin up, refusing to yield. “It was your people who took mine first!”

“What kind of person are you, that your things would be worthy of that word?” Yunfu’s eyes narrowed; a cold laugh escaped her.
By then she had moved to Fangfei’s side. She pressed a hand to Fangfei’s neck, forcing her face toward the wall, her breathing coming in rough jolts.
“Even touching you makes my hands feel soiled, let alone touching your things.”

“Don’t you dare provoke me,” she said, voice edged with winter, “or I’ll make you beg for a death you won’t get.”
She shoved hard. Fangfei fell to the floor.

Everything happened too quickly. Both their assistants and agents stood rooted in place.
When others hurried over on the noise, all they saw was Fangfei sitting on the ground, terrifiedly staring at Yunfu.
Yunfu stood before her, every line of her face set in a cold, killing stillness. She stepped closer, one pace at a time.

Each step made the room tremble.

At last Qiao An understood, and fearing that Yunfu might do something irreversible, she grabbed Yunfu’s arm. “Xiao Fu, calm down. Calm down.”

She knew Yunfu had acted only because Fangfei had moved that box. Yunfu had never once handed over any object with such solemn care; that box had to be precious to her.
Yet Fangfei had barged in like a lunatic, clearly intent on smashing her things.
“Get out!”

Fangfei sat there dazed. Only moments ago, she had truly thought she was going to die.
How could Yunfu do that? how dare she?!

Director Liu arrived too, his brow tight with anger as he took in the scene, already convinced Fangfei had stirred trouble.
“What happened?”

Qiao An didn’t understand either, but because it was in Yunfu’s lounge, she needed to explain.
“We were just having our little meal and reading the script,” she said. “This is a pure misfortune.”

Liu turned his skeptical eyes on Fangfei. “What do you have to say?”

Then Yunfu and Qiao An heard the most outrageous claims.
Even the usually easygoing Qiao An could not help but lunge at Fangfei in cutting words:
“Miss Qiu, please think before you act from now on. Our little Fu may not be that famous yet, but she is not the kind to do something as petty and sordid as theft.
Besides, even a necklace from Q, we could afford one. In fact, I’d like to know why we would ever touch yours when ours is not even in the same league.”

Fangfei had recovered a little sense and bit her lip hard, but she remained seated on the floor, stubbornly posing as a victim.
Her assistant came forward and took the blame.

“I’m sorry, Miss Yunfu. I’m sorry, everyone. I misread it, and that made Fei-fei misunderstand.”