Too Many Coincidences
Only Mu Wan and Gao Mei remained.
Gao Mei stared after Mi Yu.
Then she snorted.
“What was that supposed to mean?”
“She invested in the production, kicked Mu Qing out, and made herself the female lead?”
“If she had that much money, why would she have spent all these years playing second female leads?”
Then Gao Mei paused in confusion.
She turned toward Mu Wan.
“Wait.”
“Why did she come over just to tell us that?”
Mu Wan had wanted one thing.
For Mu Qing not to be the female lead in the drama she was acting in.
Now that wish had come true.
And yet it did not feel quite the way Mu Wan had imagined.
She remembered Liu Qianxiu’s expression over breakfast.
Looking at everything that had happened lately, perhaps she had been wrong about some things.
But there were simply too many coincidences.
One coincidence was only a scattered point.
Another was another point.
But once enough points appeared, connecting them began to reveal the outline of the truth.
Gao Mei was still trying to work out how Mi Yu had gotten the role.
Eventually, she decided Mi Yu must have found a rich patron who had invested in the production for her.
Yet even Gao Mei could not fully convince herself.
Why would Mi Yu deliberately take a role from the girlfriend of Shen Entertainment’s young master?
Thousand Threads of Snow was a good property.
But it was not so extraordinary that Mi Yu should risk offending the Shen family just to get it.
If her mysterious backer disappeared in the future, having offended the Shens could make her career in the entertainment industry extremely difficult.
While Gao Mei was still talking, several people emerged from the makeup room.
Men and women.
Tall and short.
Thin and heavy.
They surrounded one slender, elegant woman in the center.
Mu Qing had already finished her makeup and hair.
She had not changed into costume.
Her face looked terrible.
Her posture remained composed.
But the anger rolling through her eyes could not be concealed.
It cast a gloomy shadow over her normally elegant appearance.
Most of the crew did not know what had happened.
But with so many people surrounding Mu Qing, there was an unmistakable air of someone being escorted out.
As they passed, Mu Qing suddenly lifted her eyes.
Her gaze landed directly on Mu Wan.
Hatred flashed through them.
She stared at her.
Then gave a cold laugh.
Mockery and contempt returned to her expression.
Finally, Mu Qing looked away and left.
Thousand Threads of Snow officially began filming.
The production also released an announcement about the casting change.
A drama that had changed its female lead three times before filming properly began immediately attracted enormous attention.
Perhaps that was not entirely a bad thing.
Mu Wan scrolled through the comments beneath the production’s official Weibo post.
Some casual viewers did not particularly like Mi Yu and were not enthusiastic about the change.
But Mi Yu’s fans were fiercely loyal.
They quickly took control of the comment section.
Among the towering threads from her fans, Mu Wan also spotted comments from Tang Qin’s supporters.
Most of them were celebrating.
Mu Qing had stolen Tang Qin’s role, only to have someone else steal it from her in turn.
To them, it was poetic justice.
Tang Qin could finally hold her head high again.
Mu Qing’s own fans were almost nowhere to be seen.
Whenever one appeared, the other two fanbases immediately overwhelmed it.
They had virtually no fighting power.
Mu Qing’s first project had been Red Embroidery.
It had not been released yet.
She had no actual body of work.
Her entire public profile had been built by Shen Entertainment feeding her resources.
But force-feeding resources did not necessarily make someone a star.
Mu Qing had no professional acting training.
Her acting was poor.
For now, the films and dramas she had shot had not aired, so the problem remained hidden.
Once they were released, there would inevitably be another storm of criticism.
“Mu Wan, you’re up!”
The assistant director called.
“Coming.”
Mu Wan put away her phone.
She had not yet reached the filming area when her phone rang.
Mu Wan checked the screen.
Auntie Wu.
Normally, Auntie Wu simply came to see her.
She rarely called unless something urgent had happened.
Mu Wan remembered the look Mu Qing had given her when she left.
Her brows tightened.
She answered.
“Auntie Wu, what happened?”
“Wanwan.”
Auntie Wu’s voice was already thick with tears.
After calling her name, she said,
“I just overheard Mu Qing talking to Madam.”
“They want to move your mother’s grave out of the ancestral cemetery.”
Auntie Wu was so anxious she could barely keep still.
She had never imagined that the Mu family could do something so heartless.
No matter how much they disliked Mu Wan, Mu Wan’s mother was still one of the Mu family’s own.
How could they remove her from the ancestral cemetery?
What kind of cruel idea was that?
Auntie Wu wiped at her tears.
There had been no sound from the other end of the call for a long time.
Carefully, she called again.
“Wanwan…”
“Mm.”
Mu Wan’s voice revealed almost no emotion.
Then she said,
“I’m going to the Mu house now.”
She ended the call.
When Mu Wan looked up again, her vision had darkened slightly.
She stood outside the set.
Her face was pale.
The assistant director said something to her.
But all Mu Wan could hear was a loud ringing in her ears.
Her eyes felt dry.
So did her throat.
When the assistant director called her again, Mu Wan finally came back to herself.
“I’m sorry, Director.”
She forced the words out.
“I need to take leave.”
“Can we postpone this scene?”
Before he could answer, Mu Wan turned and walked toward the exit of the production base.
Outside, she lifted her eyes toward the sunlight.
It was four in the afternoon.
Originally, once she finished that scene, she had planned to pick Liu Qianxiu up from work.
Mu Wan raised a hand and stopped a taxi.
After giving the driver the address, she took out her phone.
Her first instinct was to call Liu Qianxiu.
Before she pressed the button, her hand stopped.
Her finger moved across the screen.
She exited the dialer.
Then opened their messages instead.
Mu Wan: Liu Qianxiu, I can’t come pick you up today. I have to go to the Mu house.
Her fingers paused only briefly.
Then she continued.
Mu Wan: They’ve bullied me all these years. Now they want to touch my mother’s grave.
Mu Wan: I’m going to fight them to the end.
— End of Chapter 39 —
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