Faith in Me

Chapter 3 - A Difference in Perspectives

As Yue followed closely behind Yang Sao, Dylan flashed her a peace sign and mouthed the words "good luck" as he pointed at Yang Sao's retreating back and repeatedly feigned a sawing motion at his neck.

"I saw that, Didi," Yang Sao announced without even so much as sparing a glance in his direction.

Dylan winced. "How –" he began but the spry old woman quickly cut him off.

"Silly boy, I see everything."

She smoothly disappeared onto the next set, leaving him to ponder her outrageous remark.

Dylan grinned - he almost believed her.

***
Several hours later, Yue carefully cleaned off her makeup and yawned. Her van was still about twenty minutes out so she curled up on the couch and tucked her feet beneath her. Pulling out her sketchbook, she turned to the last page and continued her doodle from earlier that afternoon.

"Are you sure you don't need me to go with you, Yue?" Yangjin-jie asked, popping her head back into the trailer for the third time.

Yue smiled and shooed her off. "I am fully capable of waiting for the van and getting into the van, Yangjin-jie. I might even be capable of getting out of the van and walking to my apartment... all by myself."

Yangjin-jie rolled her eyes at Yue's unnecessary emphasis on the last three words. "Yes, but can you do it without tripping on the way or losing your keys?"

The throw pillow in Yue's hand made it to the door about two seconds after Yangjin-jie had laughingly slammed it shut.

"Eh, I'm not that bad," Yue muttered to herself as she filled in the front paws of the animated dog she was drawing. A frown suddenly crossed her face. Where were her keys anyway? She could have sworn she had them when she left her apartment earlier that morning. Setting her sketchbook aside, she rummaged through her purse and gave a frustrated sigh when she couldn't find them.

Yue picked up the phone to call Yangjin-jie but was distracted when she saw that she had several unread QQ messages - five from Xiaowen and three from Jia Qi. Curiously, she selected the most recent message.

Avoid Weibo if possible.

A sense of dread began to unfold as Yue reread the words and contemplated the ramifications of ignoring its warning. After hesitating for a brief moment, she quickly opened her Weibo app and navigated to her notifications.

"Shen Yue" was trending on hot search again.

Her fingers hovered over the phone as she considered whether to proceed any further. Like a glutton for punishment, she pressed a highlighted link near the top of her screen.

She's so fat and ugly. How can this be the new Shancai?

Look at those stumpy legs – they look like tree trunks.

Why the hell did they cast her? Barbie was so much prettier!

She's too ugly for the male lead. No one will buy them as a couple.

Can she even act? Her face just looks stupid all the time.

One after another, the stinging insults and harsh criticisms lined up in little comment boxes that seemed to go on forever. As if the angry posts were not enough, the netizens made certain that the Internet knew exactly who they were unhappy with by tagging her full name and linking her social media accounts. She swallowed the lump in her throat. They were nothing if not thorough.

Yue scolded herself for feeling bad. It wasn't as if this was some new occurrence. These types of comments first appeared after she did some light modeling work, significantly increased in number after A Love So Beautiful premiered, and finally reached an awful peak after that scandalous voice recording came out. She never thought to ask him if it was true, if that was really his voice on the recording, because she didn't want to know; but days later, his apologetic voicemail all but confirmed it.