Chapter 264 - He Planned to Use XinYun and Zhong Yi to Become Famed? That Audacity! (1)
On the other side, Fang JunRong, too, saw Li Xuan who was running behind. He was the latest to arrive among all the guests. He smiled and greeted the others. The smile on him made others have second thoughts before expressing their disgruntlement toward him.
"I apologize. Something else came up. I'll treat everyone to dinner after the competition." He looked over at Fang JunRong as he talked and was stunned. Fang JunRong looked younger and prettier than he had imagined. She was particularly charming when she glanced over at someone. He had asked around some of the workers after talking to Jiang DeXian and learned that Jiang DeXian, lo and behold, was Fang JunRong's assistant and the two of them were almost inseparable.
He recalled the 50-million-yuan bonus that Jiang DeXian had mentioned earlier. That was no assistance, he was obviously a kept lover. Never would he had expected that all those years of pretending to be high and mighty, Jiang DeXian had finally walked down this path. And he had the audacity to act all high and mighty in front of him. That being said, comparing Jiang DeXian's keeper with the ones in his past, the gap between them made him uncomfortable.
He did not let his blue feeling lingered for long. He turned them into a sort of determination. He was much more famed than Jiang DeXian. There was no reason why he would fail at something that Jiang DeXian could achieve. If Jiang DeXian found out that he had snatched his keeper from under his nose, he would certain not be able to maintain that nonchalant look for much longer.
The smile on him deepened when he thought about that. His eyes curved and his canine teeth visible. He had them made purposefully to give himself the naïve look of a young man. Many were in to that and he had been doted on for years because of it. He had been falling out of favor recently as his face had become more stiffed.
"Miss Fang. I didn't think I will have the opportunity to meet you today. What an honor."
His smile was bright, without a shred of gloominess.
It would have been very difficult had Fang JunRong not had any ideas of what he had done in the past. Now that she knew about them, his face disgusted her. She looked as nonchalant as usual but her tone was impolite. "Seems like it is an unlucky day for me."
Li Xuan's smile froze on his face a little. He hadn't expected that Fang JunRong wouldn't play along at all. He was a guest just like her. Even if she didn't like her, wouldn't she at least put up a front? Noticing that everybody was looking over at them, his face began to burn, mostly from anger. He was a celebrity after all and Fang JunRong had embarrassed him in front of everyone.
He was certain that Jiang DeXian had badmouthed him in front of her!
Thought Li Xuan to himself angrily. That being said, he dared not unleash on Fang JunRong. The gap between the two of them was only too significant. He finally lowered his head and he couldn't be angrier.
He pulled out his cellphone and looked for a specific text. Staring at the text for a little while, he finally had his mind made. Had Fang JunRong been better to him, he might still be on her side and let her in on something. Now... hah, he only wanted to see misfortunes befell on her.
Had Fang JunRong knew what was going through Li Xuan's mind, she would have snickered. Who did he think he was? And he thought that she would need to put up a front for him?
Being where she was today, she no longer had the need to put up a front for anyone.
She looked through the stack of document in her hands.
Today was the final round of the competition. The two remaining candidates were #12 - Ren Dongzhi and #7 – Dong Junming. Ren Dongzhi was handsome in an ostentatious kind of way and his features prominent. His cherry-blossom eyes mellowed out his cold temperament and added a hint of seductiveness. Dong Junming, on the other hand, was the everyday docile and handsome little fresh meat type. He looked very naïve when he smiled, like a little harmless animal.
The reason that XunYin and Zhong Yi's competition had grown to their current popularity was partly luck. They had high-quality candidates. These two, in particular, were as good as many interns who had been professionally trained.
From the documents, Ren Dongzhi was a creative type as well. He had composed and written every song that he had sung during this competition. He was certainly a talent that one would not run into very often. No wonder Zhong Yi had her heart set on him and wanted to sign him into their company.
The name Ren Dongzhi, however, was very familiar. He even looked familiar to her.
Chapter 265 - He Planned to Use XinYun and Zhong Yi to Become Famed? That Audacity! (2)
Fang JunRong wasn't going to dismiss her own hunch. She snapped a photo of Ren DongZhi and send it over to He JianBing.
[Do you recognize this child?]
He JianBing's reply came quickly.
[Eh? Isn't this the little of the Ren's family? I seemed to recall that you have attended his 18th birthday party. He sure is getting more handsome by the day.]
Fang JunRong's lips twitched. No wonder she thought he looked so familiar! He was part of their circle. Ren DongZhi. The man reminded many of winter solstice. Back in Ren DongZhi's hometown, it was customary to have tangyuan on winter solstice, which was where his nickname came from. In addition to that, he had a around face when he was young and, indeed, resembled a cute tangyuan.
She pulled out her cellphone and finally found a group photo that she had taken over at the Ren's. Ren DongZhi was just 18 years old back then and was a little on the chubby side. He might have looked cute but had nothing to do with being handsome. Now that he had lost some weight, he was a pretty boy. All she could say was, every chubby person has their potential?
She recalled her daughter XinYun's half-hearted complain. Many had said that Ren DongZhi was kissing up to Zhong Yi for the purpose of winning this competition.
She found that laughable. The Ren's family owned several cinema lines and Ren DongZhi was a textbook Second Generation Rich. And, being the youngest child in the family, he was well doted upon. He needed to brown nose someone in order to move up? That was probably the funniest joke that she had heard today.
That being said, it was obvious that if a rumor like this had fallen upon the ears of someone like XinYun, who didn't usually pay attention to gossips of this sort, it was certainly a malicious act with someone behind it. After all, the public detested matters involving unspoken favors. It was easy for one to lose their general fondness from the public when one was in this sort of a scandal. And, the general fondness from the public was rather important in competition like this.
Suddenly, Fang JueMing, sitting two spots down from her, frowned. He turned and gave Fang JunRong a look before he quickly typed away on his cellphone. After a little while, Zhou Yang, her old friend and host of The Fate of Antiques, stood up and said to her, "Ah, JunRong. I suddenly recalled that I had brought you something but had left it in the backstage."
Fang JunRong was just about to say that it could wait until after the competition but, before she had said anything, she realized that for someone who had been in the entertainment circle for as long as Zhou Yang had, she knew what was appropriate and what was not. This was probably just an excuse to talk to her privately.
What was so important that they must talk about right before the start of the competition?
She stood up and smiled tenderly. "That's right. I've almost forgotten all about it till you have brought it up. Let's go."
"We shall be back shortly," said Zhou Yang.
Then she turned and said whispered to Fang JunRong. "I just received some not-so-good news."
When they were alone, Zhou Yang carried on in a low voice. "Fang JueMing had just informed me of a chat log that he had received from a friend.
"You know. He's a pretty solid guy and had decent relationships with the media and paid accounts."
That Fang JunRong must admit was true. Nevertheless, owing to the fact that she was not a fan of his, she didn't want to listen to Zhou Yang praising him either.
"The chat log came from Gao Lin, an agent from Begonia Entertainment. She reached out to quite a few paid accounts and paid them to publish an article."
Fang JunRong, too, could now tell that this sure sounded ominous. Begonia Entertainment was well known in the circle and even Fang JunRong had heard of them in the past. Nevertheless, they were infamous. This company's strategy was to gain exposures for their actors and they would use anything that they could get their hands on. Let it be scandals, tarnished past, or leeching off of other's popularity... as long as it would get them exposures, they would go to the extreme in applying them.
"There were two different versions. One of then being Dong JunMing winning the competition and that it was well deserved. He was the strongest winner in the history of talent shows.
"The other version mentioned how he had lost the competitor because he refused to provide unspoken favor."
Fang JunRong's face dropped. "I take it that Begonia is about to sign Dong JunMing?"
"I have heard in passing that Gao Lin had reached out to him in the past. That being said, Dong JunMing had met up with a lot of agents as of late so I didn't give that much thought," said Zhou Yang. She had a good relationship with Fang JunRong, which was why she wanted to warn her as soon as she heard the news. She was, however, surprised that Fang JueMing too had chose to be on Fang JunRong's side.
Fang JunRong snickered, "They wanted to move up by walking over XinYun? That audacity."
She was really angered this time.