Resolution

“How’s it going?” Yu Ling said over the phone, brimming with swagger. “Is your shoot going smoothly?”

Li Lan put the call on speaker and tossed the phone aside. Frowning, she stared at the computer screen, which was crowded with open pages. Zhu Qing couldn’t make sense of what she was doing, so she stayed quietly at her side.

“Yu Ling, I’m telling you this for your own good: stay away from President Liu,” Li Lan said without taking her eyes off the screen. Her voice and expression seemed to belong to two different people; she didn’t appear to care what Yu Ling was saying at all. “What kind of person is Director Yang? Yang Huayi is brilliant and ruthless. She discovered you, and then you turned around and went to her sworn enemy, President Liu. Yang Huayi won’t let you off easy.”

Maybe the name “Yang Huayi” had struck a nerve, because Yu Ling’s voice sharpened. “If she hadn’t handed the copyright over to you, this project would’ve been mine! I’ve had my eye on this script for years. Why the hell did it end up in your hands?”

Li Lan’s tone turned mocking. “Because you’re stupid. If you hadn’t deliberately set me up in Africa, Director Yang really was planning to let you play the other female lead.”

“Frame you? So what?” Yu Ling gave a light laugh. “Do you have proof? I really don’t get it. Director Yang clearly already made a deal with you, so why can’t she go back on her word and let me keep filming? It’s obviously because she favors you. Quit pretending you’re some kind of righteous victim.”

Li Lan’s gaze paused for a beat. Yu Ling actually didn’t know she had a backup of the evidence.

It was the GoPro Li Lan had hidden in the grass nearby in advance; it had clearly caught Yu Ling tampering with the car. She had never handed that evidence to Yang Huayi. She had simply struck a deal with her: Yu Ling would back out of this drama, and in exchange Li Lan would not release the footage publicly.

Yu Ling really thought Li Lan had nothing at all.

Something flashed through Li Lan’s mind so quickly she almost couldn’t catch it.

Yu Ling laughed gleefully. “Let’s see how you’re going to keep this going. Your savings are probably only enough to cover the rent, right? Hahahaha—”

“I hear President Liu likes playing some very exciting games,” Li Lan said flatly. “Good luck.”

With that, she hung up and blocked Yu Ling’s new number.

Zhu Qing asked worriedly, “What do we do now?”

Li Lan turned the computer toward her and pointed at a few lines on the screen. “Look. Aren’t the legal representatives of these companies all the same person?”

Zhu Qing nodded.

“The actual controller of these companies is President Liu. They were brought under President Liu’s control five years ago and three years ago respectively,” Li Lan said, each word crisp and forceful. “Do you see the problem?”

Zhu Qing had studied foreign trade and knew a little company law. She stared at the public records for a while, then said uncertainly, “Related-party transactions to transfer profits?”

In simple terms, they would inflate the film’s production costs and funnel the money into shell companies, artificially making the parent company look like it was operating at a loss.

Zhu Qing said, “We only suspect it. It’s hard to say for sure.”

President Liu had apparently set up a pile of shell companies for no reason; there was definitely something fishy about it, but this kind of scheme probably wouldn’t be easy to investigate.

Li Lan nodded. “I wasn’t planning to investigate that in the first place.”

Zhu Qing was puzzled. “Then what are you looking for?”

Li Lan’s eyes were bright. “I’m looking for reasonableness.”

Zhu Qing still didn’t understand.

Li Lan didn’t explain further. Qian Chu mobilized all the contacts around her and reached out to a batch of crew staff, but their experience was all fairly limited.

Just then, Hu Xu called.

“I heard you’ve run into trouble?”

Li Lan was a little surprised. “Teacher Hu? How did you know?”

Hu Xu chuckled. “Don’t ask how I know. How bad is it?”

In front of an elder, Li Lan was a little sulky. “There aren’t enough people on the crew. A lot of the advertisers who promised to come have backed out too, and the other female lead has quit as well. We can’t start filming right now.”

Hu Xu laughed heartily. “I thought your funding had fallen apart. Those are all small problems. As for the crew, I’ve got a team I know well; I’ll send them your way in a bit. But some of them are older, experienced but maybe not up to a lot of physical strain, so you’ll need to find more people and not wear the old folks out.”

Li Lan and Zhu Qing were both delighted. “Okay!”

Hu Xu thought for a moment. “As for the advertisers, you can ask Xu Yuzhi. She has those kinds of connections and can probably line up a few for you.”

Li Lan thanked her profusely and immediately contacted Xu Yuzhi.

Xu Yuzhi saw farther than Hu Xu had. During the show’s shoot, she could tell Li Lan was worth investing in, and that Li Lan had a close relationship with Director Yang behind her. A lot of the publicity and hype around the rumors was invisible to other people, who only thought it was Yu Ling and Qi Yao going head-to-head. But Xu Yuzhi saw it clearly: no matter how those two fought, Li Lan was protected from start to finish, completely clean and uninvolved. Even Zhu Qing, the most ordinary civilian there and the easiest target among the eight of them, hadn’t been attacked much at all. That was absolutely no coincidence.

After thinking through all those layers of connection, Xu Yuzhi happily contacted several advertisers for Li Lan.

Li Lan let out a long breath. After a full day of chaos, two of the three major problems had been solved at once.

That night, lying on the hotel bed, Zhu Qing massaged Li Lan’s shoulders and legs. “What about the other female lead?”

Li Lan looked exhausted. These days she tired easily, and when she was dazed, her mind didn’t work very fast. Zhu Qing’s voice from behind her made her vaguely remember a scene buried deep in her memory.

Before she and Yan Jin debuted, they had often run into problems too.

Yan Jin didn’t have many ideas; when she got anxious, she would only ask Li Lan what to do. Li Lan was rather afraid of Yan Jin getting anxious, so every time, she would always be the first to rush forward.

Almost without thinking, Li Lan murmured, “Let’s go find Sister Huayi.”

Zhu Qing: “What?”

Li Lan snapped back to herself, stared blankly for a few seconds, then said self-reproachfully, “No, my brain short-circuited... I was planning to film my solo scenes first, then shoot hers once the other female lead is in place.”

Zhu Qing hesitated. “Doesn’t a movie need pre-shoot training before filming starts? I heard this one’s still a qingyi role.”

“Change the character type,” Li Lan said smoothly. “She can be a qingyi, or she can be a cigarette girl. The script isn’t focused on that. Women in that era were all victims; it had nothing to do with their occupation.”

Zhu Qing gave a long “oh.” “If the script can be changed, then there’s a lot more room to maneuver.”

Li Lan agreed. Thinking back to when Yang Huayi had handed over the copyright and the screenwriter to her for a bargain price, she hadn’t realized just how important the copyright was. Looking at it now, having a mature screenwriter who could adjust the script at any time was incredibly important.

Everything was ready; they were only waiting for the final push.

A few days later, the crew of Unknown to Others finally got filming underway smoothly.

Yu Ling nearly smashed her phone when she heard the news.

“That damn Li Lan, and she can still keep filming like this!” Yu Ling seethed.

President Liu’s voice came from the bedroom. “Xiao Ling, where are you going?”

Yu Ling gritted her teeth and swallowed her rage, then put on a flattering smile and walked over.

At the bedside, she sat half on the bed and half on the footboard, resting her head on President Liu’s knee. In a soft, sticky voice she said, “I just saw it. Li Lan’s movie actually started filming.”

President Liu’s voice was light and airy, her body out of shape, but her eyes still flashed with shrewdness.

She said casually, “So it did get filmed after all. No wonder that bitch Yang Huayi values her so much.”

Yu Ling seized the chance to echo her. “Then you absolutely can’t let her get what she wants.”

President Liu lowered her head slowly. Her malicious gaze landed on Yu Ling’s pretty face, and she reached out to pinch it hard.

“You little disobedient dog. Don’t think I don’t know what you’re plotting,” President Liu said, patting her face as if disciplining an unruly pet. “That script is good, but whatever Yang Huayi can have, I can have too. This kind of script isn’t some once-in-a-thousand-years rarity. Why do you have to be in it?”

Yu Ling lowered her head and said nothing.

Why did she have to be in it?

That was a long story. The script had been written five years ago. Ever since Yu Ling learned there was such a project, Yang Huayi had said she would let her play another role. Over the years, whenever she had time, she had practiced opera relentlessly, just to train the posture of a qingyi. In Yu Ling’s heart, this was the first gift Yang Huayi had given her. It had to be hers.

How could Yu Ling stand Li Lan taking it away just because she wanted it? Two female leads, and she wouldn’t even get one of them!

President Liu lifted her chin and coaxed in a flat voice, “Stop fixating on this. Follow me, and I can still make you famous. As long as you’re obedient.”

Yu Ling’s body stiffened for several seconds before finally going soft again. She pressed herself against President Liu’s thigh.

-

On the trending list, #Li LanJoinsTheCast had been hanging there for half a day.

A lot of netizens had initially questioned a model crossing over into acting, but after seeing that the film was being entirely funded by Li Lan herself and that she was joining the project as a full investor, there wasn’t much left to say. Instead, people started looking forward to it.

Compared with a crossover artist like Li Lan, who bore all the risk herself, those stars who claimed they “wanted to be actors” while leaning on behind-the-scenes capital and fake traffic to steal resources, squeezing out the actors already in the cast, all while turning in terrible performances and being average-looking to boot, with neither face nor figure, were far more deserving of criticism. (No real-life prototype; don’t rush to identify yourselves.)

For the past few days, Yu Ling had watched those posts with the feeling of ants gnawing at her heart.

But President Liu had figured out her temperament and simply locked her up at home. She couldn’t do anything and could only cooperate with President Liu in playing those “games.” President Liu was also obsessed with her body and still hadn’t grown tired of it after all these days.

One day, President Liu received a call. The person on the other end lowered their voice and said something anxiously.

President Liu flew into a rage and stood up at once. “Yang Huayi, that bitch! What did she find out?!”

The person on the other end seemed to try to calm her down a few times, but President Liu only got angrier. She grabbed her phone and stormed out.

Just before leaving, President Liu seemed to think of something. She turned back, walked over to Yu Ling, and unlocked her handcuffs.

“I’ll have my assistant bring you something to eat. Stay home by yourself for a while. I’ll come back after I’m done with things.”

Yu Ling nodded quietly, looking extremely obedient, but the moment President Liu shut the door, her gaze turned vicious.

She tore off the “clothes” on her body, quickly changed into her normal outfit, and after the assistant delivered the meal and left, she immediately slipped out the door and took a taxi to a small villa somewhere.

Qi Yao was standing by the window, lost in thought, when she suddenly caught sight of Yu Ling’s figure and almost thought she was hallucinating.

Yu Ling signaled for her to come down. Qi Yao glanced at the cameras everywhere in the house, gritted her teeth, and ran out.

“What do you want with me? I can only get out for a few minutes; someone will realize I’m not home very soon.” Qi Yao was a little breathless after running downstairs.

Yu Ling’s face was pale, but her eyes were burning strangely bright.

“Do you have dirt on Li Lan?”

Qi Yao looked at her suspiciously. “What do you want to do?”

Yu Ling gave a cold, mocking laugh. “Look at you now, then look at me now. We were both brought to this by Li Lan. Aren’t you going to swallow that?”

Qi Yao was unkempt, and her mental state was poor too. Yu Ling wasn’t wrong. Because of what happened on the variety show, she had been scolded by Qi Zong, and when she tried to release dirt on Li Lan in retaliation, she was caught red-handed by Qi Zong.

Qi Yao couldn’t understand why Qi Zong was protecting Li Lan. She argued with her, and the result was being banished here, watched around the clock.

Yu Ling handed Qi Yao a phone. “Contact me by phone.”

The two of them looked at each other, and each caught in the other’s eyes a certain self-serving, venomous madness.

————————!!————————

Thanks, everyone, for the support [heart] (Mondays are no fun)