Fall In Love With A Substitute

TL Note: 

Summer break is finally here! And grades are gonna be finalized soon woohoo! Anyways, now that i’ve got more time on my hands i can finally start to stock up on chapters, especially after seeing on JJ the character counts for some of them. This will mean that updates will probably be steadier and of more consistent quality. Tho i’ll still be busy doing some stuff… like summer hw and studying for the SAT… it’s still more time than before!

TLDR: summer break = more TL time = steady and consistent quality updates (hopefully)

Hope you enjoy the chapter!

The Movie Queen’s Little Fortune Butterfly (14)

Qinglu, may I sit here?

Luo Chun hung up the phone with a somewhat subtle expression on her face.

“HY wishes for you to go to the flagship store’s opening ceremony and be present for the official announcement.”

“You’ve talked about this before,” Lin Qinglu said while holding the tablet and swiping through Weibo, not even bothering to raise her head.

The entire process of the endorsement talks was so efficient that it might as well have flown off. Luo Chun had carefully inquired about it a bit more, and at the time Li Fei had merely said that it was for the sake of allowing China’s first global ambassador to have a smooth debut at the flagship store’s opening ceremony, thus why it was handled with such urgency.

“But HY invited the cast and crew members to go together.”

Lin Qinglu raised her head: ?

“Oh, that’s right. Song Zhe will also be there.”

Lin Qinglu frowned: ??

Even after much thought, Luo Chun was still puzzled: “How come they’re inviting the entire team…”

Lin Qinglu pinched the edges of the tablet tightly.

This incident clearly confirmed there was a relationship with Song Zhe!

They said that they were inviting the team to go, but they certainly could not have the whole team move there. Except for the actors and actresses, each department had a quota of only one or two people. The most special one was Jian Yixin.

Yu Bo had not released the news yet, first calling over Jian Yixin: “Pianxian, for the activity this time, you’re going with them.”

“Eh?” Jian Yixin was baffled.

Yu Bo glimpsed at her with a complicated look. He explained the matter in a simple manner and ultimately said, “When HY’s side was inviting people, they mentioned your name…”

It should actually be said that, besides the words of courtesy, only Song Pianxian was invited via roll call.

What else was there for him to not understand? For the cast and crew to inexplicably receive a luxury brand’s invitation, it was most likely because someone wanted Song Pianxian to go there.

The team was leeching off of the other’s luster!

Jian Yixin just then realized what was going on.

When she went back to ask Song Zhe, sure enough, it was that Song Zhe wanted to see his little sister, so he told Li Fei to handle it.

Li Fei was also very quick-witted and simply invited the miss over, making it appear as if it wasn’t the same issue. By calling over the whole team and mixing the miss with them, it would then seem fair and reasonable.

She’s quite the clever little imp.

It resulted in an outcome where Ye Zixuan also served as the first of the actors and actresses to receive HY’s invitation.

A day before the opening ceremony, HY made an announcement on their official Weibo.

HY: Tomorrow, B City’s second flagship store[1] from HY will have a grand opening. Furthermore, this will also be China’s largest flagship store. Other than the ribbon-cutting ceremony, we will be announcing some major news! For more details, please follow us closely.

When Gao Min swiped to this Weibo post, she hurriedly handed it to Ye Zixuan to read.

“This means they’re announcing who the spokesperson is, right?” Gao Min was grinning from ear to ear but soon after that recalled, “Even so, apart from inviting us over, HY hasn’t made any further contact with me.”

“Ji Jing already said it himself. How could something still go wrong?”

“That’s also true.” Gao Min relaxed.

Ye Zixuan firmly believed that this was the pleasant surprise that Ji Jing was going to give her. Moreover, Lin Qinglu would be there as well—

It’s definitely Ji Jing! So as to let all of the cast and crew members witness my brightest moment, he arranged this wonderful performance.

Ye Zixuan was feverishly immersed in the fruits of victory, a giddy happiness continuously rushing through her head.

She was acting as if she had already seen the moment when HY would announce the news and Lin Qinglu would suffer a shock with an expression of pure disbelief on her face.

A light of desire mixed with hatred was flickering within Ye Zixuan’s eyes. She instructed, “Big Sister Gao, buy some water troops.”[2]

“Just have them say that Lin Qinglu is going to obtain HY’s endorsement.”

Gao Min often assisted Ye Zixuan with dragging down and trampling on popular female stars using various types of scams[3], so she responded almost immediately.

She laughed, her voice caustic: “I’ll handle this at once.”

The news about Lin Qinglu’s endorsement for HY spread like a virus. Speaking as if it were the truth, they claimed that Lin Qinglu would soon leave for B City and that those who didn’t believe them should just wait and see.

Lin Qinglu had too many fans. As if a bomb had been thrown into the middle of a crowd, the internet was in an uproar, lively discussing the issue. Everyone had their own views and verbally sparred one another to the point that “Lin Qinglu’s endorsement” surprisingly swept up onto the hot search.[4]

“Seriously? Big Sister received the endorsement for HY?”

“Fuck could it be that the major news the official blog was talking about is actually this!”

“I believe it! If one were to choose someone from China to be the spokesperson for HY’s Asia-Pacific Region, other than Lin Qinglu who else could it be! Who else!”

“Don’t trust unofficial announcements aaaah looks like brainless fans can’t tell that it’s high-level slandering. If there’s nothing else, don’t @ me”

The other side praised Lin Qinglu all the way to the heavens, elevating her very high. Veteran fans who had experience could feel that something fishy was going on at first glance.

But the gossip about Lin Qinglu was too widespread and the fervor surrounding it could not be quelled. On top of that, someone burst forth with “My relative is in Lady Zhao‘s group, and Lin Qinglu really will be going to B City!”, immediately causing this matter’s credibility to increase once again, and the heat surrounding it raged on.

When Luo Chun swiped on Weibo to the news Lin Qinglu wanted to see about the endorsement, she almost mistakenly believed that it was information she had instructed someone to release.

The gold-level manager, who had fought countless battles, also currently couldn’t help but be frustrated.

Who was on the other side?

Spending money to ask the Water Army to help publicize Lin Qinglu. What were they planning?

Lin Qinglu leisurely said, “Whatever demons, ghosts, or evil people will all be dealt with cleanly by tomorrow.”

“No need to bother doing anything.”

“That’s true.” Luo Chun let go of the issue, not concerning herself with it anymore.

It’s not easy to take care of either. What am I supposed to do?

Deny the rumor? Deny it how? Don’t tell me I have to say, “Oh, it’s not the Asia-Pacific Region but an international endorsement for the whole line”?

After she had thrown aside this matter, the cast and crew members had finished tidying up and then set off.

HY took care of the whole journey to get there and booked business-class seating for them.

Liu Lele followed behind Lin Qinglu and spoke with Jian Yixin: “Did you finish preparing your formalwear? I contacted a shop and rented a set.”

Her voice was unavoidably heard by Lin Qinglu.

She instinctively recalled the high-end brands that she had collaborated with, the ones that were in B City and would let her borrow formalwear.

Jian Yixin’s voice was still as gentle and soft as before: “It’s been prepared.”

“Ah, that’s good.”

Lin Qinglu discontinued her train of thought.

How dull.

Later, it was only Liu Lele who was chattering constantly, and the little dance understudy would occasionally laugh in response.

Lin Qinglu was wearing sunglasses that covered most of her face. While her expression was distant and indolent, in her heart she shunned her assistant.

Why did I never realize before that Liu Lele talked this much?

Boarding the plane, Ye Zixuan was all smiles and the first to sit down. She gently greeted, “Pianxian, come on, let’s sit together.”

Lin Qinglu was sitting on the other side next to the window, and the hand that was about to take off the sunglasses stopped.

“No thanks.” Jian Yixin smiled faintly to maintain proper etiquette.

At first, Jian Yixin was uncertain whether or not Lin Qinglu knew of Ye Zixuan’s animosity, but after Ye Zixuan expressed warmth toward herself, Lin Qinglu seemed to have become somewhat unhappy.[5]

Jian Yixin had responded on the spot after seeing how Lin Qinglu definitely more or less knew about the matter a little bit.

Therefore, getting close with Ye Zixuan will absolutely lower Lin Qinglu’s impression of me.

Even more so, Jian Yixin was honestly unable to bring herself to like Ye Zixuan, that girl.

Both reason and emotion made Jian Yixin keep away from Ye Zixuan. She looked for a while, intending to sit in the back row with Lin Qinglu and adjacent to Luo Chun.

Lin Qinglu suddenly uttered, “Big Sister Luo, don’t forget to explain things to Liu Lele.”

Luo Chun: ……

For the actress who was like a fairy that has lived eight hundred years without touching the secular world to abruptly drop a hint, how could she not understand what it meant?

Luo Chun accepted her fate and heaved a sigh: “Lele, come this way.”

“Oh.” Liu Lele lifted her bag and obediently vacated the seat next to Lin Qinglu.

Lin Qinglu looked out the window in an incredibly serious manner.

“Qinglu, may I sit here?”

The author wants to say something:

Movie Queen Lin: I definitely don’t care at all.

TL Notes:

What a tsundere :p

[1] flagship store: the lead store in a retail chain acting as a showcase for the brand or retailer

[2] 水军 (shui3 jun1), short for 网络水军 (wang3 luo4 shui3 jun1): literally “water troops” or “Internet Water Army“/”Internet Navy”; English equivalent is “astroturfer“, slang for a person employed to post messages on the Internet (i never knew there was a term for this in English before searching it up)

[3] 碰瓷 (peng4 ci2): “bumping into porcelain”; didn’t really know what to TL this as so i just went with “scams”, but it more accurately means “insurance fraud”. For example, one kind of scam could have a scammer jump in front of a slow-moving car and then demand money from the scam victim

[4] 热搜 (re4 sou1): “hot search”; similar to a “trending page” or a page with popular search results/topics

[5] it’s more clear in Chinese, but the “herself” here refers to Jian Yixin