After the secret marriage to my top star partner

Chapter 48

Just as Mu Nan had predicted, the fans from both sides didn’t achieve some grand reconciliation just because their idols had made peace.

On the contrary, the fans were busy concocting theories that the two had been forced to reconcile due to various unavoidable circumstances, convinced that their respective brothers were victims of persecution.

Mu Nan took this development rather philosophically. Fans easily immersed themselves in worlds of their own creation, and all he could do was guide them more, hoping they’d gradually adapt.

But beyond that, there was still Ai Qian Qian to “handle.”

There was absolutely no way Mu Nan would swallow this insult, and even less chance that Cheng Han would.

Figuring out exactly what Ai Qian Qian was trying to accomplish didn’t take them much effort.

It turned out that Ai Qian Qian had been maintaining an improper relationship with her company’s boss, and just before the variety show started filming, the boss’s wife had discovered their affair.

The wife came from a family of equal standing to the boss, with money and influence, and the boss had always been under his wife’s thumb.

Now that the legitimate wife was furious and out to destroy Ai Qian Qian, the mistress, Ai Qian Qian knew that once this came to light, no one would protect her. Her carefully maintained pure image would crumble, fans would abandon her, she’d never get another role, and ultimately she’d fade into complete obscurity.

But she had struggled in the entertainment industry for so many years to reach her current position. She wasn’t willing to see it all turn to nothing overnight, so she needed to create a big scandal to serve as a scapegoat.

When the variety show started filming, she had set her sights on these two top stars. Originally, she thought Du Ling and Mu Nan might have some exploitable story, but unexpectedly, her random attempt had struck gold—she’d discovered the secret between Mu Nan and Cheng Han.

She knew this was her ace in the hole, so she’d held back, waiting for the most critical moment to play it.

Releasing such news right when Cheng Han’s company was going public would inevitably trigger the maximum chain reaction. When her own scandal broke afterward, the attention would naturally be diminished.

It was a desperate move, but Ai Qian Qian had no choice. She just hadn’t expected Cheng Han to defuse it with such an effortless counter-move.

• Ai Qian Qian hadn’t slept well for days. When she received the boss’s call, she was lying drowsily in bed, habitually scrolling through Weibo.

Seeing the caller ID, she instantly shot up from bed, switching to a somewhat aggrieved voice: “Boss Zhuang, you…”

Boss Zhuang’s voice on the other end was very low and rushed, as if he was hiding from someone.

Boss Zhuang hadn’t contacted her in a long time. Ai Qian Qian knew it was all because of that tigress at home.

Whenever she was in front of Boss Zhuang, she always put on a pitiful act, saying she just wanted to be with him and didn’t ask for anything else.

But every time she said those words, what she was really thinking was: why shouldn’t she be able to rise to the top? Compared to that tigress, she was so much better in every way.

But after this incident, Ai Qian Qian would never dream such dreams again. She knew that men’s sweet words couldn’t be trusted. No matter what, he would never divorce his wife for her.

And for Ai Qian Qian, realizing this now was already too late.

She would inevitably have to pay the price for her actions.

She heard Boss Zhuang interrupt her, demanding: “Who told you to mess with those two untouchables?”

Ai Qian Qian sneered coldly, but her voice remained pitifully aggrieved: “Boss Zhuang, I really had no choice. You understand my situation, don’t you?”

Boss Zhuang sighed on the other end: “You chose this path yourself. Don’t blame me for not warning you. Those two are untouchable. Now you’ll have to fend for yourself.”

“Boss Zhuang, but what else could I do?” Ai Qian Qian gritted her teeth, glaring. “I don’t want my reputation completely destroyed. I want things to work out too!”

“You could have thrown anyone under the bus, but you had to pick them! I can’t protect you anymore. You’re on your own.” Boss Zhuang roared angrily and hung up.

Ai Qian Qian let out a cold laugh at the phone, then threw it aside.

She walked to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Just a few months of anxiety and panic had turned her carefully maintained skin sallow and even caused some wrinkles to appear.

Looking at the lines around her eyes, her features gradually became twisted. She looked around, grabbed a lipstick, and wrote Boss Zhuang’s and his wife’s names on the mirror, then violently crossed them out. The bright red color etched into the mirror left traces that couldn’t be completely wiped clean.

The lipstick broke under the excessive force. Ai Qian Qian used the rough, uneven tip to smear it back and forth across her lips.

Her mouth ended up looking like a clown’s. Staring at her reflection, she burst into a fit of maniacal laughter.

• In complete contrast to Ai Qian Qian’s madness, Mu Nan’s days were as carefree as a pig ready for slaughter.

He held a bowl of cubed cantaloupe, stuffing his mouth full, while Wilder sat across from him watching him eat.

“You eat some too, don’t be polite.” He pushed the fruit bowl toward Wilder, who waved his hand, unable to bear stealing food from a pig’s mouth.

“I won’t hide it from you.” Mu Nan said after swallowing the melon in his mouth, “kind person that I am, I even tried to find excuses for her.”

“Like what—too desperate to get famous, or maybe I stole her resources and accidentally made an enemy of her, or even just that she found me unpleasant?”

Wilder replied: “But you failed.”

“Yeah.” Mu Nan slapped his thigh, managing to project genuine heartbreak, “who would have thought she was a mistress—and such a self-righteous mistress at that. Really didn’t see it coming.”

Wilder felt speechless at his dramatic performance. He asked: “So we’re going after her?”

“Mm.” Mu Nan nodded. “We don’t need to do anything else. She seems to care a lot about whether she’s popular or not, so we’ll just make sure she never gets another role.”

“Alright.” Wilder readily agreed. “I’ll discuss this with Cheng Han’s team.”

Mu Nan frowned: “Why discuss it with them?”

“Who are you going to give her resources to after you ruin them? We can’t waste time and effort just to steal her resources and then throw them away, right? His company has so many actresses under contract, plenty of people are waiting to film.”

“I see.” Mu Nan was somewhat reluctant. He didn’t really want to get entangled with Cheng Han again. After all, their relationship was still somewhat delicate, and the more they were involved with each other, the more it would affect Mu Nan’s ability to make his own judgments.

But Wilder’s reasoning was sound, and he couldn’t refuse.

However, he had a sudden inspiration: “What do you think about us starting our own studio and signing other artists?”

“Of course we could.” Wilder said. “If you want, I’ll talk to the company. The company has been open to it for years—if you want to start a studio, it can be affiliated with the company, and they can send people to help with operations.”

Mu Nan thought deeply for a full minute: “Don’t you have to handle a lot of registration documents and equity stuff to start a studio? Seems very complicated.”

Wilder said: “There would be people to handle those things for you. You’d be busier, but not that much busier.”

“Forget it, forget it.” His lazy instincts once again won out in Mu Nan’s heart. “Look how exhausted Cheng Han is—like a dog. I don’t want to be a boss.”

Wilder didn’t have the heart to tell him that even if he started a studio, he wouldn’t necessarily reach Cheng Han’s scale, and wouldn’t have the opportunity to be that busy even if he wanted to.

But he wouldn’t say this to Mu Nan. Even though Mu Nan was already in his twenties, because he’d been so well-protected, his way of thinking was sometimes still like a child’s.

As for himself, he often felt like a kindergarten teacher.

“Eat less.” Wilder said. “Don’t you have a concert coming up?”

“Oh.” Mu Nan remained unmoved. “Just the last two pieces.”

Cheng Han’s team worked quickly. Dealing with a “discarded pawn” like Ai Qian Qian was child’s play.

They didn’t even need to take action themselves. Boss Zhuang’s wife directly released a pile of evidence: hotel records of the two together, explicit chat logs, photos of them together—all kinds of evidence, directly burying Ai Qian Qian in the mud.

Her original plan to use Cheng Han and Mu Nan to divert attention also failed. The two were willing to actively add fuel to the fire, making it burn even brighter.

Instantly, the topic of Ai Qian Qian being a homewrecking mistress swept across the internet.

[Never saw this coming! Always thought she was that pure flower type, constantly playing up her first love image. Who knew she was not only being kept, but actively playing the mistress?]

[I feel like I’ve eaten shit, so disgusting. Who would have thought a seemingly pure and innocent star would be like this behind the scenes? Celebrity personas really are all fake.]

[Forget personas—how many people in the entertainment industry are actually clean? Anyway, if I ever genuinely stan a celebrity again, I’m a dog.]

[I really never want to see her on TV again. When “Absolute Terror” was airing, I already found her annoying—so fake and nasty. I never understood why so many people liked her.]

[Same here. She had perfectly good dramas to act in, but had to go on variety shows. Now look what happened—her persona is completely destroyed.]

[I will never watch any drama she’s in again. I hope producers see public demand and stop casting her.]

In no time, the advertising and film/TV resources in Ai Qian Qian’s hands were all canceling their contracts with her.

And because she was the party at fault, they didn’t even have to pay compensation. Ninety percent of her tens of millions in resources instantly evaporated.

The remaining few—maintained due to long-term partnerships, good relationships with resource providers, or productions that had already started filming and didn’t want to reshoot her scenes—hadn’t yet terminated their contracts.

For these, Cheng Han and Mu Nan’s teams had solutions too.

Very simple: directly promote cheap and capable newcomers from their own companies.

This graduation season, Cheng Han had signed two students from the Film Academy. They had strong professional abilities, good looks, and could take off with just a little resources. Now they could replace Ai Qian Qian at less than half the fee—any production team with brains would agree.

Mu Nan didn’t have signed artists himself, but Cheng Han’s company did. The two sides split the resources, and even Ai Qian Qian’s few remaining scraps were divvied up completely.

In short, within just one week, Ai Qian Qian had completely vanished from the entertainment industry.

Most fans abandoned her, all resources were lost. The fall of a first-tier starlet happened in the blink of an eye.

There had been stars exposed for being mistresses or having affairs before, and some of them had later rehabilitated their images and continued to be active in the entertainment industry.

But Ai Qian Qian would definitely not be one of them. Everyone knew she would never make a comeback.

And the broadcast of the final two episodes of the variety show would likely be her last chance to appear on television in this lifetime.

Before the final episode aired, Cheng Han came home.

But this time was different. He was followed by delivery staff bringing hotpot takeout, and the location was their shared villa.

“What are you up to now?” Mu Nan asked.

Cheng Han smiled and said: “Same as the premiere, eating hotpot.”