Chapter 43: The Civet Running Happily in the Melon Field

In the official large group chat, many people were busy consuming the drama.

Members of the boy band March Sky rarely checked the official group, but they couldn't resist Chen Lin, a curious baby in the group who loved scrolling through messages and watching videos whenever he was bored.

This time, as everyone sat on the sofa watching the variety show together, Chen Lin noticed the camera wasn't giving much screen time to the group. He picked up his phone, wanting to see how netizens were reacting to this episode.

As soon as he picked it up, he saw Sui Lingfang directly calling out Lu Shanjie in the group chat.

"Wow, Sui Lingfang is Jin Li's manager, right? This manager is intense! This is the first time I've seen a manager with such a fierce personality!"

Chen Lin was greatly impressed and immediately shared the news with others.

After listening to the recording, Yan Xingdong said with certainty, "Lu Shanjie did it on purpose. I remember it was stated three days before the rehearsal that time was specifically reserved for the guest mentors to adjust their schedules."

Gu Cheng mused, "When I heard Lian Baozhi, who is also from LP, invite Senior Jin Li to be her partner, I felt something was off. Why wasn't Sister Qinglian the one inviting her? Now it seems the source is Lian Baozhi; she clearly wanted to use Jin Li as a stepping stone."

Gu Cheng didn't speak, but instead began searching to see if there was any history of animosity between Jin Li and Lian Baozhi.

After all, from what he had seen and heard, the two should have had no intersection.

Not only was he confused, but everyone else was too. Even the omnipotent internet couldn't find any evidence of a grudge between the two.

Finally, it was Chen Lin, who frequently read entertainment news, who saw through the mystery: "Lian Baozhi wants to step on one to lift another. Haven't netizens been saying lately that she doesn't deserve to be an A-list star because she has no works?

Moreover, looking at Lian Baozhi's stage, it's standard girl group style. If Sister Qinglian and Sister Jin Li performed that kind of stage, it would make sense, since they are standard girl group alumni."

It wasn't just the March Sky boys eating up the drama; Ji Qinglian was also watching, and she even shared Sui Lingfang's confrontation with Lu Shanjie to the Pink Girls group.

Lotus: [This is the manager of the Carp—Thumbs Up.jpg]

Tongtong: [666, so cool!]

Pearl: [Aren't they afraid of burning bridges and being targeted later?]

Lotus: [No fear. Lian Baozhi can't even stabilize her own A-list status, so she specifically sought out the Carp, wanting to kill the Carp to prove her own path!]

Mengmeng: [Then should we give them a little push from behind and kick the fallen dog?]

NANA: [Tsk, if we're talking about ruthlessness, our Mengmeng is the most ruthless!]

Mengmeng: [So, are you guys in or not? Smile.jpg]

Everyone else sent a [+1].

Thus, without Jin Li's knowledge, the former members of the Pink Girls group simultaneously posted updates on their blogs.

At the same moment, they were all the same kind of drama-seekers.

While others were like free-running badgers in a melon field, Lian Baozhi and Lu Shanjie were the chickens being used to warn the monkeys.

Lian Baozhi was currently out on a schedule, attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a brand's new store opening.

Lu Shanjie accompanied her and was the first to notice the abnormality in the large group chat.

Lian Baozhi stood at the entrance of the new store, taking photos with the store manager and brand executives. As soon as she stepped down from the entrance, Lu Shanjie pulled her into a small corner with a nervous expression.

Lian Baozhi frowned. "What's wrong with you? Why are you so flustered?"

Lu Shanjie said quickly, "Sui Lingfang leaked it! Jin Li's manager leaked my phone recording!"

Lian Baozhi hadn't processed it yet. "What phone recording?"

"The recording where we intentionally hid the rehearsal date. Sui Lingfang posted the whole thing in the variety show's large group."

Lian Baozhi's face instantly turned ugly. She hurriedly followed her to the backstage to listen to the recording first.

***

On the other side, at Jin Li's apartment.

After sending the message, Sui Lingfang didn't continue looking at her phone; she didn't care how the people in that group were discussing it.

Given the tendency in the entertainment industry for everyone to play it safe, she doubted anyone would dare to speak up.

But that didn't matter. Not speaking in the large group didn't mean they wouldn't speak in other groups; in fact, some clever ones had probably already sold the recording to entertainment reporters.

Jin Li turned her attention back to the variety show, glancing at Sui Lingfang out of the corner of her eye while lost in thought.

Through this incident, she had gained a clearer understanding of her manager's temperament.

Sui Lingfang was the type who couldn't tolerate even a grain of sand in her eye, and she handled matters decisively.

It was better to be clear with her face-to-face than to bring things up hesitantly and indirectly later.

Take He Yixuan, for example; if she had been open with Sister Fang earlier, Sister Fang wouldn't have lost her temper with her.

And from this incident, she could see that her manager was not afraid of trouble at all.

Being afraid of trouble is bad; if a manager is cowardly, the artist lacks confidence.

But not being afraid of trouble isn't good either; it can lead to recklessness and offending people without knowing it.

However, Sister Fang was clearly the type who was both fearless and intelligent.

She knew which direction to strike. If this matter had been pinned on Lian Baozhi, it likely wouldn't have turned out like this.

But since it was pinned on Lu Shanjie, she wouldn't be able to argue back even with ten mouths.

Jin Li liked communicating with such straightforward people.

The two of them calmly watched the entire variety show.

During this time, Sui Lingfang's phone rang and stopped, stopped and rang again. The buzzing vibration was like a symphony, but she simply didn't answer, sitting calmly and composed.

After the show finished, Jin Li thought for a moment and said, "Sister Fang, I want to go to the Taoist temple."

Sui Lingfang hesitated. "Is it a must?"

Jin Li smiled. "It's not a must, but I still want to go. I want to ask the gods to protect my health."

As soon as Sui Lingfang heard it was related to health, she didn't care about superstition anymore—spiritual strength is a form of strength, after all. She immediately said, "Go. I'll go with you!"

"Which temple do you want to go to?" she asked.

Jin Li originally wanted to say the nearest one, but she suddenly remembered that Gu Cheng wanted to play the scratch-off lottery, and Ji Qinglian wanted to as well. She might as well go to the "Temple of Mingwu Hongdao Zhenjun"; there happened to be a lottery station nearby.

After hearing this, Sui Lingfang asked casually, "You're not planning to go there to scratch lottery tickets, are you?"

Jin Li's eyes drifted slightly, and she didn't answer immediately.

Sui Lingfang laughed. "So you are! Fine, fine. When we get there, you can help me pick a few."

After deciding on the temple trip, Sui Lingfang finally picked up the phone leisurely.

The call was from the company, and she put it on speakerphone.

As the intermediary, Zou Da briefly explained the situation—

"Lian Baozhi's side wants to make peace. They want you to step forward and say it was all a misunderstanding. Lu Shanjie received the notice from the production team but forgot to read it, and only discovered the message after your reminder."

He paused and lowered his voice: "LP's intention is that as long as you are willing to explain, LP is willing to hand over some of Lian Baozhi's resources to Jin Li."

Sui Lingfang snorted. "You believe that?"

Jin Li's voice also came through, slow and steady: "I don't believe it either."

The weather had been getting a bit hot lately. She took a watermelon out of the fridge and sliced it in half; it was a yellow-fleshed one.

She took half for herself and handed the other half to Sui Lingfang, first picking up a spoon to scoop out the very center.

So sweet!

Jin Li narrowed her eyes slightly, letting out a comfortable sigh of appreciation, feeling incredibly content.

"Brother Zou Da, Qinglian told me that LP is not easy to get along with. They are only ever the ones taking advantage, never the ones being taken advantage of.

If our company were also A-list, I wouldn't worry. But given our company's size, it's better not to get entangled with LP."