Low IQ Supporting Female, Waiting for Death Online

Sheng Zhiming returned to his sickroom expressionlessly, having even forgotten his motive for seeking out Ye Wei in the first place.
He wanted her to stop looking for him in the future, and tell her that their relationship was over.
All it took was a word from his assistant, but he changed his mind on a whim to go himself so he could hear what Ye Wei had to say.
Who knew he’d end up overhearing her true thoughts instead?

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He long knew this woman was a coward who feared death and loved herself.
She only followed him because of his money and used him to climb her way up in the entertainment world.
How much sincerity could she offer him? But he never expected her to still say “I won’t!” after all that!

Dunce!

There were plenty of women who couldn’t live without him and people who would throw away their lives for him.
He’d seen his share of females making a row whenever he broke up with them, too.
But Ye Wei was the only woman he knew who rejected him so firmly regardless of whether she got a second chance.
This was the first time he’d met someone so wholly interested in his money and not himself! Admittedly, their relationship had always been a business deal and she had never shown him any special care.

He lit a cigarette and listened to the sounds outdoors. Liu Jia actually chased me all the way here?

Hmph. 

Sheng Zhiming couldn’t describe his feelings beyond “as expected.” They weren’t normal girlfriend and boyfriend to begin with.
If anything, he and Ye Wei were simply a man and woman who shared intimate relations.
Later on, when Ye Wei borrowed his name to claim she was his girlfriend, he had only smiled and let it pass.
He was always generous with his women, so he could spoil them a bit when he was still interested.
For some reason, he felt it rather tasteless now.

He thought back to the day of the incident.
After Wang Ruoyan blocked the knife for him and put her life in danger, he had helped her into an ambulance before Ye Wei flashed in his head.
Remembering her, he had looked back and saw something he took to heart.
The woman was simply standing there while waiting for the policemen to undo her bonds.
Her beautiful face lacked any of its previous panic and fear, but it wasn’t crying tears of joy at their rescue either.
Instead, it was an exceptionally calm and indifferent face, almost as if she hadn’t escaped a near-death experience at all. 

…was it really indifference?

Why did he feel like she was thinking, “Ah! I can finally collect my salary and rest at home?”

He couldn’t confirm it, because it’d only lasted a second until the policeman started talking to her.
She blinked her eyes and her beautiful face adopted a pitiful expression of weakness as tears glimmered in her eyes.
Thinking back now, he could hardly believe it himself.
Had that brief glimpse come from a trick of his mind?

Sheng Zhiming next thought back to Ye Wei’s reaction when the kidnapper asked if she and Wang Ruoyan were Sheng Zhiming’s girlfriends.
Ye Wei had shook her head with teary eyes and cried, “It’s not me.
I’m not Sheng Zhiming’s girlfriend, I’m not…don’t kill me!”

Wang Ruoyan had said, “Sheng Jr.
and I are friends.” Her tone had been righteous and analytical.
“Do you know you guys are breaking the law? None of us are ordinary people.
If we suddenly disappear like that, they’ll notice right away and call the cops.
Justice has a long arm, so do you think you guys will get away with it? If you let us go now, we promise not to call the police.
We’ll even give you some money.”

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Sheng Zhiming had admired Wang Ruoyan’s calm and courage even as he scorned Ye Wei as a bungling oaf.
He had glanced at her then, only to see her curled up and crying in a corner in fear.
She was so far away from him that it seemed like they were strangers. 

In the present, Sheng Zhiming only smiled coldly.
He must have been seeing things.

“President Sheng, Miss Ruoyan is here.
She says she feels like she’s growing mold in the sickroom and wants to take a walk outside.
Will you accompany her?” the assistant asked carefully from the door.
He knew that Wang Ruoyan was now an exceptional existence for Sheng Zhiming.

Sheng Zhiming’s expression softened slightly before he followed the assistant out of the sickroom.
There, a delicate, pretty girl with a slightly pale complexion sat in a wheelchair.
Although she looked weak, she was in good spirits and wore a big smile like a vibrant sun.
“Zhiming, the weather’s good today.
Let’s take a walk outside.”

—

Liu Jia was already panicking, but now she felt worse after being overheard.
A few strands of her hair had already turned white as she muttered ‘we’re doomed, we’re doomed’ at Ye Wei’s ear everyday.
She used to call on Sheng Zhiming’s sickroom daily, but now went during every meal and even evening snack times.
Unfortunately, she didn’t catch so much as a shadow of the man.
The guards in front of his room had long since recognized her and would step forward to block the door as soon as she drew near.
Liu Jia had endured her share of scornful looks after being put on Sheng Jr.’s blacklist.

“….” said Liu Jia.

She returned to Ye Wei’s sickroom to cry over the fact that her career as an agent was ruined just as it begun, that her future looked pathetic and bleak.
Ye Wei was pretty happy herself until Liu Jia’s tears made her feel sorry.
The two of them were supposed to be college classmates that had been in cahoots for ages.
They were working happily together before, so she comforted the woman, “It’s fine.
An agent’s not the only job in this world.
They say all roads lead to Rome, so you gotta know how to be flexible.
Alright now, don’t cry anymore.”

“……??” Is that how you comfort someone? “You should just stop talking!”

“Alright,” Ye Wei demurred.

Even if she shut up, there was no helping things, ah.
As the agent to the evil supporting female character who helped to bully the female lead, she suffered setbacks as well.
Naturally, no artists dared to sign her on and she was eventually forced to withdraw from the entertainment world.
But compared to the original host’s death, which was a tragic fall off a building, Liu Jia still ended up alright.
Since she made so much money in the past few years, her return to ordinary life was backed by astronomical sums that others would struggle to earn in multiple lifetimes.

As an agent, Liu Jia had done her share to smear other female stars including: buying a water army,1 snatching resources, and gaining interests and profits.
She and the original host had a few inklings of true sentiments between them.
After the original host’s death, she had done her best to seek out the truth–but the “words of the lowly carry little weight.” Someone stuffed her head into a burlap sack before others beat her up for her efforts, causing her to break a leg and nearly lose her life.
Traumatized by the encounter, Liu Jia could only ease off to save her own skin.
Though such details were only encapsulated in a few brief strokes of the pen, it did show that the woman had true feelings for her.

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Thus, Ye Wei felt rather amiable towards Liu Jia.
Now that she was crying so much, she couldn’t help consoling her, but it only made Liu Jia mad.
Her agent complained for a while before rallying herself up to declare, “We need to attack obliquely.
Right now Wang Ruoyan is Sheng Zhiming’s favorite so come on, we’ll find her to put in a few good words for us.
I hope she’ll forgive past grudges to help you out.”

“Sister Liu, would you let bygones be bygones in her place? We’ve smeared her a lot in the past.”

“….” Liu Jia hesitated.
“….I wouldn’t.
But we can’t just do nothing, right? ‘Treat a dead horse like a live one,’ let’s try it first.”

“Forget about it, I’m not going to beg her for help.
Does she think she’s all that just because she’s a lifesaver?”

“Then what do you think we should do?”

“…..” Ye Wei said nothing. Nothing at all, ah.
I’ve got such an outstanding track record that it’s a given I’ll be amazing.

“….?” Liu Jia wondered.

“……….?” Ye Wei echoed. 

“……..?” Liu Jia thought.
“Strange, why do I feel like you’re not in a hurry at all?”

….is Sister Liu a bloodhound2 or something? Why is she so perceptive?

Ye Wei explained, “What’s with the rush? Don’t worry, I’m still a celebrity with tens of millions of fans.
It’s impossible for me to really leave show business–at most I’ll lose the advantages that Sheng Zhiming gave me.
Fans these days have such short memories that they’ll forget about all this after a while.
Then we’ll get someone to wash my reputation clean and I’ll go back to work like usual.
Remember all the fuss over that so-and-so that ended up being someone else’s mistress? It hasn’t been long but she’s already been sanitized to a goddess now.”

Her words made sense.
The director involved in that love affair had also been caught up in a big scandal.
Netizens had exploded on line, cursing him and demanding his wife, another professional artist, to divorce him.
But not only did he not divorce, his movie was raising waves as usual. 

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Liu Jia finally understood. Ye Wei’s not anxious, but she’s definitely brainless!

“You’re in a different situation because you offended Sheng Zhiming! You know Shengshi Entertainment’s3 status in the entertainment world.
Even if he doesn’t find trouble for you, what about the people afraid of offending him? Do you think they’ll have any guts to use you in their projects?4

“Do you know how many termination agreements I’ve received in the past few days? All the scripts we set before were revoked! And those brand endorsements, they’re even asking me for indemnity fees now.
Just paying all that off is enough to make you suffer! This is the reality of our business.
It’s better to fly on the wings of a scandal than affront the wrong people!

“Why else do you think I’m so desperate? Isn’t it just because you offended Eldest Young Master Sheng!?

“And you know that Shengshi Entertainment owns Royal Harem. The only reason you beat Zhao Qing (赵青) for the role is because you’re the object of Sheng Jr.’s affections! That Zhao Qing is the film empress,5 you know! She’s plenty impressive! If you offend Sheng Jr.
and Wang Ruoyan takes your place, do you think he’ll let you keep the role of female lead? Would he let his lifesaver play second fiddle to your acting?”

The original plot went like this: Ye Wei’s career suffered a drastic decline as she was replaced for all her product endorsements and script roles.
The brands she already represented were boycotted by the masses, while magazines with her photoshoots sold poorly.
Even her former acquaintances and peers in the circle who were on good terms before began to avoid her like the plague, afraid that she would affect them too.
At that point, anyone who didn’t try to prey on her suffering was already acting decent enough.

Naturally, the present Ye Wei knew all this as well since she wasn’t actually an idiot.
Sheng Zhiming had taken the high road and didn’t cause her any extra trouble, but the people afraid of offending him or vying to flatter him were a different matter.
This was why the original host could only manage to land a role as a servant girl offering tea after wrecking havoc for Wang Ruoyan and completely irritating Sheng Zhiming.
By then the entire Internet had turned against her.
Or perhaps her very role as a hated cannon fodder was to blame.

In any case, all of these incidents laid the foundation for her death later on. 

Very good.
My role as cannon fodder’s taken another big step forward.

—

In the end, Ye Wei ended up seeking out Wang Ruoyan with Liu Jia, but ended up running into Royal Harem’s lead actor Zhou Jia (周嘉) instead.
He was much more famous than Ye Wei and had won the three major honors in the acting world: the White Magnolia, Feitian, and Golden Eagle.
As a grand slam film emperor, he didn’t go down the popularity route, which relied on visibility, but still had as much impact as the top-trending stars.
His fans were all diehard types who loved his looks, were loyal to his acting, and admired his moral values.
In the entertainment world, his standing was quite high.

At the same time, he was the female lead’s Bo Le (伯乐).6 When the female lead had first tried out at Royal Harem’s auditions, her nimble acting had left a deep impression on Zhou Jia.
Because he vouched for her skills, her talent shone through and landed her the second female lead role in the show.
Zhou Jia admired Wang Ruoyan and took special care of her during filming.
The two of them were a mix of teacher-student and regular friends. 

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In media interviews, he never glossed over his appreciation of Wang Ruoyan’s talents and praised her outright, often inciting the male lead Sheng Zhiming to eat vinegar.
That’s right–Zhou Jia’s true role in the story was the catalyst to bring the male and female lead closer! 

Of course, her role exceeded his in that department.

As expected, the male lead and his assistant soon arrived on the scene, his gaze supercilious towards everyone and everything beyond a brief pause on Zhou Jia. 

“President Sheng,” Zhou Jia acknowledged.

“Why does a celebrity like Superstar Zhou have time to visit the hospital?”

“I’m here to see Ruoyan.”

Sheng Zhiming smiled ambiguously.
As the assistant pushed open the door to the hospital room, Sheng Zhiming slipped inside.
Zhou Jia immediately followed after him.
The scene made Liu Jia’s heartbeat quicken as she gnashed her teeth in apparent envy.
She pulled Ye Wei after her to go inside.

Ye Wei patted Liu Jia on the hand. Take it easy, the really aggravating part comes later.

Liu Jia patted her back. Mhm, we’re gonna kill that biyatch Wang Ruoyan!

 

Slang for “shills,” basically people/bots you pay to post stuff for you/praising you on the Internet, commonly seen in Chinese weibo post wars. The actual Chinese here is just “dog,” but the connotation means “bloodhound” fits better as Ye Wei’s commenting on Liu Jia’s sharp senses. Forgot to mention this but “Shengshi” (盛世) can mean “World of Sheng” or more commonly, “flourishing age/heyday.” Going to be a long rant from Liu Jia here so the quote goes on past multiple paragraphs.
Punctuation rules state I need to leave the closing quote “open” until the end of her lines.
Weird but true. Those of you who’ve read Chinese showbiz novels have heard of this term a thousand times. Film empress (影后), or yinghou, is a moniker for the most popular actress in movies, aka an A-list superstar.
Film “queen” also works, but I used empress instead because its male equivalent is film emperor (影帝), or yingdi. Okay, quick history lesson.
Bo Le was a legendary connoisseur of horses who could judge a fine horse by appearances alone.
Basically, Zhou Jia saw a quality actress in Wang Ruoyan the same way.