Volume One, Chapter 17: Indirect Pressure? Sorry, I Never Play by the Rules

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“Really? I heard we were shooting something cyberpunk,” Su Yan said, raising an eyebrow.

“Who told you that?” Su Nianxi asked, assuming he was making it up.

“Him.” Su Yan stretched out a hand and pointed toward the director crouching in the corner.

“That’s how it is, Ms. Su,” the director hurriedly chimed in after being singled out. “We had several preliminary versions of the music video, but the script finally confirmed with your agency should be this futuristic one.”

The song Su Nianxi was recording today, “Land Without Wind,” had a fairly neutral style. It could work with a fresh, lighthearted concept just as well as with a handsome, striking set.

At that, Su Nianxi glanced toward Xiao Qu, who wore an equally bewildered expression, and immediately understood what had happened.

Fine. It seemed the company had finally grown restless and decided to come after her.

“What does the current stage design look like?” Without dwelling on it, Su Nianxi asked directly.

“Here.” Before the director could answer, Su Yan had already pulled the script from beside him and handed it to her.

“How do you manage to have everything?” Su Nianxi arched her brows, teasing him as she accepted the script and began flipping through it.

“It was no trouble.” Su Yan ran a hand through the loose hair over his forehead, sounding smug.

Su Nianxi clicked her tongue. As she familiarized herself with the script, she said to Xiao Qu, “Take screenshots and save all your correspondence with Wang Linshan. I have something to say to her later.”

“Oh, all right.” Xiao Qu nodded, only half understanding, and obediently backed up every message.

In her previous life, Su Nianxi had started out as an idol before switching to acting, so filming music videos was second nature to her.

After a quick look through the script, she could already recite its contents backward.

“Let’s begin.” Having changed into the prepared costume, Su Nianxi lifted her chin at the director.

“You’ve already finished reading it?!” The director was awed by her ability to learn.

“Of course.” Su Nianxi allowed herself a rare moment of pride. “When I was a student, I was at least a top scholar, all right?”

Su Yan, who had been playing with his phone, wore a complicated expression when he heard her boast.

Had his little sister simply chosen to forget her legendary twelve-point performance in high-school mathematics?

Fortunately, the set and camera positions had already been arranged. Once the director gave the order, every department moved into shooting mode.

And Su Nianxi proved through her actions that she truly had the right to be so confident.

Watching the muse before him reproduce every design in his mind perfectly, the director was moved to tears.

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Was this what it felt like to encounter an old friend in a foreign land?

If Su Nianxi could hear his thoughts, she would certainly have dispelled the notion at once.

A kindred spirit was out of the question. She had simply filmed this sort of stage routine too many times; her body remembered it by instinct.

The music video for “Land Without Wind” told the story of a twenty-first-century girl who accidentally pushed open an unknown door. Passing through the tunnel of time and space beyond it, she arrived in the future, where she encountered a gynoid who looked exactly like her yet had been abandoned and forgotten in a deserted laboratory. As the two came to know and understand each other, they embarked on a journey to save one another.

Su Nianxi filmed the modern girl’s scenes first. Highly cooperative, she finished shooting the entire look in less than an hour.

When she returned to the dressing room to change her makeup, Xiao Qu was the first to hurry over, anxiously holding up her phone.

“Nian-nian, I sent Director Wang several messages asking about the coordination details, but she hasn’t replied to any of them.”

“Is that so?” Su Nianxi was not surprised. “All right, I’ll deal with it.”

“Oh...” Xiao Qu answered. She was just about to ask how Su Nianxi planned to handle it when Su Nianxi opened her contacts and launched straight into a call.

Xiao Qu fell silent.

Could this be the legendary principle that the finest ingredients require only the simplest cooking—and that when masters cross swords, they likewise resort to the most straightforward methods?

“Beep... beep...”

Su Nianxi lounged in the director’s chair, waiting lazily for the call to connect while letting the makeup artist work across her face.

Meanwhile, in the conference room of Starwave Media—

A middle-aged man with a beer belly sprawled in an armchair and looked at Wang Linshan across from him.

“Are you sure there won’t be any problems if we release this press piece?”

“Don’t worry. Who doesn’t know what Su Nianxi is like? Even if we fabricated a story from thin air and said she was throwing her weight around, people would believe it. Besides...” The corners of Wang Linshan’s red lips curled upward as she waved the phone displaying a recording. “We even have proof that she never read the script.”

“Little Wang, you really know how to scheme.” Another middle-aged man, taller and thinner, took a leisurely sip of tea, thoroughly pleased with her actions. “You deliberately kept the filming details from Su Nianxi, then had someone at the set record the conversation as evidence. Once this smear piece goes out, her reputation will never recover.”

“Exactly. That way, she’ll have no choice but to stay with our company and make money for us. What does it matter when her contract expires? Who would dare sign her once she leaves us?” The beer-bellied executive chuckled, the folds of flesh beneath his chin bobbing with the motion.

“We owe it all to the guidance of you two, gentlemen. If you hadn’t come up with this roundabout pressure tactic, I might still have been begging her to renew her contract.” Wang Linshan laughed along, her voice filled with contempt for Su Nianxi.

“Hmph. With that temper of hers, who would indulge her if the whole company weren’t relying on her to make money?” The taller executive snorted.

“But... Director Chen, it seems Su Nianxi’s family has some influence. Are you sure nothing will go wrong?” Wang Linshan hesitated before asking.

“What is there to worry about? Have you ever seen anyone from Su Nianxi’s family interfere with her all these years? They let her obediently endure five years here and were not even willing to pay her breach-of-contract fee. How powerful could a family like that be?” Director Chen blew on the steam rising from his thermos, completely unconcerned.

Seeing their reaction, Wang Linshan finally put her mind at ease. “All right. I’ll contact the gossip accounts and have them release the material...”

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Before she could finish, her phone began vibrating violently. In an instant, the entire conference room was filled with the cheerful strains of “The Most Dazzling Ethnic Style.”

Seeing the name “Su Nianxi” on the screen, Wang Linshan was seized by an inexplicable sense of foreboding.

“Su Nianxi? What do you want?” To be safe, Wang Linshan switched the call to speakerphone.

“Old Wang, what sort of mischief are you cooking up now?” Su Nianxi got straight to the point. “Have you decided how to publish that press piece?”

Her attitude hardly sounded like someone calling to demand an explanation. She sounded more like a neighbor dropping by for a casual chat.

“What... what are you talking about?” Wang Linshan glanced at the two executives, her voice turning unusually tense.

How had she guessed? Had she installed surveillance cameras in the conference room?

“We’re all old foxes here. Let’s not beat around the bush, shall we?” Hearing Wang Linshan’s attempt at outright denial, Su Nianxi advised her earnestly. “As a good-hearted person, I’m calling to offer you a warning. First, Xiao Qu and I have kept records of every piece of correspondence between us and you, including our phone calls. What was said and what wasn’t said is all perfectly clear. So if you’re thinking of publishing something that twists right and wrong, you’d better first consider whether it might come back to bite you. After all, if news gets out that a crooked manager framed her own artist, you could easily lose your job, couldn’t you?”

Su Nianxi spoke quickly. After unleashing that entire barrage, she left Wang Linshan no chance to get a word in, though her heartbeat had inexplicably quickened.

“Second, those two old gentlemen—still in the mood for tea?” Su Nianxi raised her voice slightly.

The two oily executives’ hands trembled, and they nearly spilled their drinks.

Director Chen looked from side to side. Su Nianxi seemed like some damp, sinister ghost with clairvoyant powers, somehow knowing what they were doing from miles away.

“As the saying goes, pay the taxes you owe, and don’t sleep with anyone you shouldn’t. Did you two happen to mix up the two meanings?” Su Nianxi whistled. Her gloating was unmistakable even through the phone. “Your background information is quite something. One search, and everything comes to light.”

Both executives darkened with anger. Director Chen slammed his hand on the table and began shouting into the phone.

“Su Nianxi! Don’t push your luck! Where did you learn all this about us?”

“Oh, look at that—the dog’s cornered and biting.” Su Nianxi’s choice of words was always remarkably precise. “Well, how should I put it? I happen to know a few excellent people in the civil service. Shall I introduce you?”

“You dare threaten me?” Realizing that she intended to have someone investigate him, Director Chen flew into an even greater rage, spraying spittle across the table as he spoke.

“Oh, you figured that out? You were being so arrogant just now, I thought you hadn’t understood.” Su Nianxi yawned, her voice turning cold. “Since you understand, abandon those filthy schemes while you still can. Otherwise... if you want to tear off the mask and make this a real fight, I, Su Nianxi, will see it through to the end.”

With that, Su Nianxi did not wait for a response. She ended the call in one swift motion, leaving the other side no opportunity to say another word.

Xiao Qu looked at her with a complicated expression, worry written across her face.

“Nian-nian, aren’t you afraid the company will retaliate and set a trap for you after you spoke to them like that?”

“Have I ever been afraid?” Su Nianxi toyed idly with her phone. “Besides, set a trap for me? Sorry, but I never play by the usual rules.”

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