Isn’t money good?

Chapter 30

Ji Yunnian glanced at him and admitted frankly, “Yes, it was me.”

Hearing the answer, Yan Shiqiu showed no surprise whatsoever and nodded calmly and composedly, “I knew it was you.”

Over the past two days, he had gone through the original owner’s social network again and truly couldn’t find anyone else who fit the criteria.

He had called Wen Chen to ask, but he knew nothing about it.

Wen Chen currently had several cases to handle, and with court hearings approaching, he was so busy his feet barely touched the ground. When he heard his inquiry, he thought something had happened and wanted to rush over. It took a lot of explanation to dissuade him.

As for the others, their impression of him was still stuck in the original owner’s phase, they hadn’t updated their view at all. Only Sheng You had eaten hotpot with him once and had somewhat changed his opinion.

But Sheng You was completely impossible, because after the hotpot, they hadn’t been in contact again.

Only Ji Yunnian remained.

As for Ji Yunnian’s quick and straightforward admission, he wasn’t surprised either. After all, Ji Yunnian wasn’t the type to silently do good deeds without leaving his name.

He was just tsundere, always finding excuses whenever he did good things.

Having gotten his answer, Yan Shiqiu didn’t immediately ask for the reason. He shook his bubble tea cup, and adjusted the straw angle to eat the taro balls inside, savoring them with relish.

Ji Yunnian’s gaze lingered on his bulging and disappearing cheeks for several seconds.

Only after eating every last taro ball did Yan Shiqiu ask, “Why?”

Ji Yunnian shifted his position, leaning against the doorway, “Ye Corporation lost.”

Yan Shiqiu understood immediately, “Oh, the results are out?”

“You won the bid?”

“Of course.”

He nodded, “So the trending topic was a thank-you gift?”

Ji Yunnian was silent for two seconds, “More or less.”

More or less?

And there’s more?

A natural breeze swept by, dispelling some of the heat. Yan Shiqiu looked at him with confusion, tilting his head.

Ji Yunnian tapped the railing and explained leisurely: “Ye Corporation’s loss in this bidding means Ye Peiyuan’s position within the company has become even more precarious. He won’t let this go.

He had you frame me twice, and both times failed. If you were in his shoes, would you believe in two consecutive coincidences?

He didn’t suspect before for two reasons: first, you were indeed very foolish and lovesick in the past, listening to everything he said without any independent personality or ability to think for yourself, which clouded his judgment; second, he didn’t have the time and energy to look back and examine things carefully.”

“Now that Ye Corporation has failed in the bidding, he has time and energy. As long as he looks into your recent situation, he’ll quickly discover something’s wrong with you.” He looked over, “So for you, the greater the exposure, the safer you are.”

Yan Shiqiu became serious. This was something he hadn’t considered, otherwise, he wouldn’t have told Fang Yuhua not to buy trending topics that day… He would have had Fang Yuhua buy him several more.

That day, he had only thought about how buying trending topics was a huge loss, especially since he was a newcomer mixed in among a bunch of big names that netizens didn’t even know. Whether they’d even click on his content was another question entirely.

Moreover, in his previous life, he had lived on trending topics year-round, bringing his own storm of controversy. Every time there were fan-hater wars, they were particularly frightening. Having a second chance without the pressure of earning 10 billion, he just wanted to act steadily and enjoy the pleasure of acting.

He hadn’t thought it through completely.

“Thank you.” Yan Shiqiu sincerely expressed his gratitude.

“I’ll pay you back.” He paused, rarely embarrassed, “It’s just… can I write you an IOU first?”

Ji Yunnian waved his hand, “I don’t lack this bit of money.”

He raised his eyelids slightly and continued, “Being able to anger him makes it quite worthwhile. Didn’t he deliberately try to suppress your trending topic that night? He failed to suppress it, he must be quite angry.”

Yan Shiqiu looked at him and shook his head with a smile, “I know you’re a good person.”

Ji Yunnian crossed his arms and looked at him sideways, “Are you giving me a nice guy card?”

“I’m clearly praising you!” Yan Shiqiu pointed to his own large eyes, “How sincere.”

Ji Yunnian’s gaze lingered on his eyes for a second before looking away.

After contemplating for a moment, he said in a low voice, “At most half a year and you’ll be safe. During this half year, Liu Xi will stay with you, and you should be more careful yourself.”

Yan Shiqiu was stunned, “Half a year?”

So the timeline in the novel only spanned eight months total?

Ji Yunnian hummed in acknowledgment and said nothing more.

Yan Shiqiu didn’t ask further questions either.

Not far away, Lu Sihan’s scene had begun filming.

She played the Third Princess who, due to the emperor’s incompetence, officials fighting among themselves, and the crown prince’s selfishness, had to be sent away for a political marriage as the dynasty faced enemies on all sides. She died in a foreign land within just one year.

This scene depicted her learning that she was about to be sent away for the political marriage.

Like An Mo, the Third Princess lived only in others’ memories. By the time the story began, they were already dead.

Because of the tragedy and desolation of the character, every time the Third Princess appeared in others’ memories in the drama, she was beautiful.

Beauty was used to contrast her tragedy.

Flower petals rained down in the courtyard as Lu Sihan leaned against the railing, the wind lifting her skirt and hair.

Suddenly, hurried footsteps came from outside. A palace maid rushed into the room in panic, forgetting to bow as she anxiously reported the news she had gathered.

After listening, the Third Princess didn’t turn around or speak, silently continuing to gaze out the window, deeply watching those petals falling into the soil.

After a long while, when she turned around, she gave the palace maid a comforting smile and said softly, “Don’t be sad. It’s simply my destiny.”

…

The scene wasn’t very difficult and passed after two NGs. Chen Hangsheng checked the time, saw it was about right, and had his assistant call Ji Yunnian and Yan Shiqiu.

They were preparing to film their second scene together.

Yan Shiqiu saw the assistant approaching from afar, finished the last sip of his bubble tea, and said to Ji Yunnian, “Let’s go, Director Chen is looking for us.”

Ji Yunnian nodded and walked ahead of him.

This evening scene was the argument they had rehearsed that morning.

Because An Mo had investigated too deeply, the people behind the corruption case had someone impeach him on trumped-up charges as a warning, and the emperor punished him with a half-month salary deduction.

Chu Yuexuan heard the news in the palace and hurriedly left to go to his house, asking if it was because of the corruption case.

But An Mo refused to discuss what had happened.

Chu Yuexuan felt hurt, thinking An Mo didn’t trust him enough, and angrily questioned him.

An Mo wouldn’t stop investigating to uncover the truth, otherwise, he would feel guilty and couldn’t face the people.

But knowing he would get into trouble if he continued investigating, and that he had grown too close to Chu Yuexuan, he worried about implicating him. So he used this opportunity to drive Chu Yuexuan away.

The two had a fight, and Chu Yuexuan left angrily in the end.

In this scene, Yan Shiqiu’s emotions needed to be expressed outwardly, while Ji Yunnian’s were restrained.

Having already performed the scene with dialogue that morning, which had shocked onlookers, standing in front of the camera now would naturally be no worse than their first attempt.

Everyone was once again left dumbfounded.

This was their second scene together, and there were still plenty of observers. This time, the people standing behind Chen Hangsheng watching the monitors were Shen Lishan and Liu Lan.

Both Shen Lishan and Liu Lan were veteran actors and award winners who understood very well the difficulty of argument scenes. For them, this type of scene wasn’t hard to grasp, but for newcomers, they often couldn’t control the rhythm and would over-act, making it look terrible.

But Yan Shiqiu didn’t.

Not only did he grasp the rhythm perfectly, but his performance showed no trace of acting. It was as if he was Chu Yuexuan himself.

They even felt that Yan Shiqiu had, for some portions of the scene, overshadowed Ji Yunnian.

“This kid has a promising future.” Liu Lan said.

Shen Lishan nodded, both gratified and moved, “We have another good actor.“