“Look at you, face like thunder. I can’t even say anything. But between you and me, who’s more impressive?”
Summer gave him a good kicking under the comforter. She did not want to discuss the “who-is-more-impressive” topic with him.
He chuckled and fell back to sleep.
Summer browsed the list of trending topics. Topping the list was “The Mighty President Jones”. The runner-up was “Jessica-Laura Shouting Match”. Third on the list was “I’ve Got Money”.
Summer did not read the details, but she could sense that the three topics were related. Taking a look, she found one commenter giving his piece of conclusion.
“For the benefit of the cyber rubberneckers, I’ll recap the topic here. Things started when Laura posted something weird on her Weibo, saying that XN, the founder of Tip Top Entertainment was a fabrication. She went on to insinuate that a female artist, whose surname starts with ‘S’ and who’s a new artist of Tip Top, is having an affair with a top executive in the company. The female artist later started an online shouting match with Laura. Lastly, that top executive bit back by saying, “I’ve got money. I can sign anyone I want…”
The Weibo user added, “As all of you know, the artist in question is Jessica, the relatively new actress who seems to be playing the second lead role forever, and the top executive is none other than Tip Top’s CEO, Carl Jones. I must say that this is a catfight you don’t want to miss. I feel like following the female artist with the surname that starts with ‘S’.”
The poster had left three emoticons at the end of the sentence, which indicated that he was so freaking amused he was almost tearful.
After reading the “conclusive” post, Summer hopped over to Laura’s Weibo.
“Since everyone is eager to know who that female artist is, I will tell all of you. That artist is Jessica, who has stayed a second lead actress her entire career. She was signed by Tip Top for a huge fee.”
It was not a secret in the industry that Tip Top Entertainment head-hunted Jessica for an enormous sum of money. Jessica never wanted to gain that publicity, so the media did not report it. But still, many people knew about it. Most of Jessica’s loyal followers knew.
The post that Laura uploaded had caused a storm in a teacup. Jessica’s followers, just like Jessica herself, would not hesitate to come down on you like a ton of bricks if you provoked them. They were all fighters. When Jessica’s followers occupied Laura’s Weibo post, all she could do was play dead. Followers from both sides started a gang fight online, and Jessica’s side came out victorious.
At that time, Carl suddenly wrote a post, “After all the ranting and raving, why don’t you tell everyone that you have been fired by Tip Top Entertainment? I’ve got money, I can sign whoever I like. Business is business; so long as you are valuable to the company, I can still take you back at a high price!”
Looking at the mobile phone, Summer could sense the hypocritical tone of the post. Business was business? Who would believe that? Carl head-hunted Jessica mostly because of his own selfish motive. Otherwise, when he called Leonardo last night, Leonardo would not have told him to clean up his own mess.
…
After surfing Weibo for a while, Summer was now totally awake. She got out of bed and found her mobile phone lying under the bed. It had shut down by itself after running out of juice. Letting out a sigh, she connected it to the charger.
Jessica had sent a ton of Weibo messages to her the night before, but she did not manage to read them. Opening them up and reading them all, she found that she had asked about XN before Laura fired her shot.
She called Jessica, and it was only after a long while that Jessica answered.
“Hello…” Jessica’s voice was groggy. She was obviously still in bed.
“It’s me, Summer.” Summer could nearly see Jessica answering the phone with her eyes closed.
There were some ruffles on the other end, then Jessica’s voice got a tad louder. “I only fell asleep at dawn. I’m very much asleep now. What’s XN all about, by the way?”
“XN is Leonardo. Are you alright?” Summer sounded concerned.
“I’m fine!” Jessica knew that Summer was talking about Laura. She sighed. “I tell you what, if my manager hadn’t changed my Weibo password, I would have torn that b*tch into pieces!”
It was no wonder when Summer saw the two posts on Jessica’s Weibo page, the second one did not match her style.
“You have a wonderful manager there,” Summer said.
Jessica groaned inwardly before she uttered, “I think you must have a desire to be blacklisted.”
“I’ll buy you lunch.”
“I’ll forgive you today, but I’m going to blacklist you next time.”
…
Summer and Jessica were having lunch at the Golden Cauldron.
After last night’s online catfight with Laura, Jessica had garnered a fresh wave of followers. Her popularity was skyrocketing. Afraid of being secretly photographed, they decided to meet in the Golden Cauldron.
When Jessica saw Summer, she remembered it was a weekday and asked, “It’s your off day today?”
“I quit.”
“What?”
“Two days ago. It was a last-minute decision, so I didn’t manage to tell you earlier.” While she spoke, she pushed the menu in front of Jessica.
Jessica did not look at the menu. She was looking at Summer in surprise. “Why? Don’t you need to give prior notice or something?”
“Leonardo helped me with that.” Thinking of Leonardo, Summer could not help but smile.
“Look at you… You look so sweet right now…” Jessica shook her head.
“A single lady like you won’t understand,” Summer said jokingly. She was in a good mood.
Jessica rolled her eyes. “Judging from your tone of voice, you must have closed ranks with the big boss.”
After lunch, Summer used the Black Card to pick up the bill. Jessica leaned closer and asked, “Big Boss gave you this?”
“No, it was his grandpa.”
“Holy moly! Big Boss has finally brought you to see his parents?” Just then, Jessica sensed something wrong with her wording. “No, you two are already married. Maybe I shouldn’t put it that way…”
“But hey, you’re a little wealthy woman now!” As she spoke, Jessica counted with her fingers. “The daughter-in-law of the Emersons, the wife of Tip Top Entertainment’s CEO… Wow, every title seems equally impressive!”
Summer smiled but said nothing. All the titles she had were only because she was Leonardo’s wife. She knew very well that she was only herself. After stripping away those grandiose titles, she was only Summer, who had a passion for screenwriting.
“They are not that important. Getting a job is more practical for me…” As soon as her voice trailed off, her mobile phone rang. Leonardo was calling.
“Where are you now? Do you have time to come to my office?”
“What is this about?” She wondered what had happened.
Leonardo was silent. After a moment, he said, “I left a file at home. I need you to bring it to me.”