You Guys Wouldn’t Have Taken My Casual Acting Seriously, Right Chapter 40

Recently, endorsement deals had been pouring in for Shen Fu.

Traffic was heavy on the road, so she hadn’t arrived yet. Her assistant, Little Xiao, reached the filming location first.

One of the advertising company’s senior executives personally came over to greet him and escorted him to a shaded canopy.

“Teacher Shen Fu is still on the way, right?”

Assistant Little Xiao quickly replied, “Yes, there’s some traffic. Don’t worry, I’ll call and hurry her along.”

“No need, no need,” the executive hurriedly said.

“At this hour, traffic is completely normal. Don’t disturb Teacher Shen Fu’s rest. The camera tracks haven’t even been set up yet. We’ve prepared drinks for both you and Teacher Shen Fu. Why don’t you come rest for a while first?”

Then he personally led the way.

Little Xiao had worked with Shen Fu for a full three years.

This was the first time he had ever received treatment like this.

Someone even came over offering to carry the backpack on his shoulder.

Startled, he quickly said, “It’s okay, it’s okay. I can carry it myself.”

Inside were Shen Fu’s cosmetics and various personal items. He wasn’t comfortable letting someone else look after them.

The executive led him over to the canopy area.

There, several background actors were squatting in the shade.

The temperature was high today and the sun was blazing. They had simply come over to cool off.

“Is this where they’re supposed to be staying?”

The executive immediately frowned and turned to a nearby staff member.

“How are you people organizing things? They’ve already been given boxed lunches, and their wages were even paid in advance. How do they not understand basic rules?”

The staff member quickly said, “I’ll go move them right away.”

Little Xiao hurriedly intervened. “No need, no need. There’s plenty of space down there. Shen Fu and I won’t take up much room. Just let them stay here and get out of the sun.”

“That won’t do,” the executive replied. “What if Teacher Shen Fu arrives and isn’t pleased?”

As he spoke, he instructed people to drive the young extras away.

Little Xiao: “…”

When Shen Fu finally arrived, Little Xiao quietly told her what had happened. “It’s a shame those young actors already moved to the building next door. Otherwise, we could’ve invited them back to share the shade.”

Shen Fu’s rise over the past few weeks had been unbelievably fast.

At first, Little Xiao hadn’t fully processed it.

He had only noticed that magazines were selling out and endorsement deals were piling up, and had simply been happy for Shen Fu.

But today, he truly experienced firsthand what people meant by the world of fame and profit.

These people changed sides way too quickly.

A month ago, if he and Shen Fu had come to a place like this, they probably would have received treatment no different from those background actors.

How could Shen Fu herself not have noticed it as well?

But after calculating how much money she had already saved up, Shen Fu wasn’t nearly as happy as Little Xiao was.

The rest of the shoot went exceptionally smoothly as well. There were no more “please wait a little longer” or “it’s not your turn yet” situations.

The advertiser completely accommodated Shen Fu’s schedule, and the entire shoot was finished in a single day.

Advertiser: “We’ll have post-production edit the main commercial and behind-the-scenes footage as quickly as possible and send it to you for review. When the time comes, we’d appreciate your cooperation in promoting it on your publicity platforms.”

“Okay,” Shen Fu replied.

Even when she got into the nanny van, she was escorted there personally by a senior executive from the advertiser.

After making a trip to the hospital, Shen Fu returned to the company.

The company’s big boss was waiting for her in Liang Xiaochun’s office.

Several people looked at the recent trending topics and artist popularity rankings. Although they tried hard to hide it, they couldn’t stop themselves from grinning.

Senior executive: “I told you long ago she’d become a breakout star sooner or later.”

Hearing this beside her, Liang Xiaochun rolled her eyes.

What hindsight nonsense. When she first signed Shen Fu, these same people had said that while Shen Fu was beautiful, she didn’t talk much and it was hard to predict whether she’d ever become popular.

Now that they were making money off Shen Fu, they wanted a piece of the pie.

After carefully reviewing several new endorsement contracts in Liang Xiaochun’s office and confirming there were no issues, Shen Fu signed them.

One executive had also been following the livestream and had watched the latest episodes. He was dying of curiosity.

Now that Shen Fu had finally returned to the company, he immediately ran over with his phone and cornered her near the stairwell.

Executive: “What’s actually going on?”

He showed her several Weibo posts that were currently spreading wildly online.

One was being reposted frantically by Chu Wei fans. It contained several GIFs from the show, apparently from the day they got off the plane.

In the GIFs, Shen Fu and Chu Wei were standing very close together, noticeably farther away from the others.

CP fan comment: “Ahhh I’m shipping them! Everyone else is standing like people-people-people-people, but those two are standing so close they’ve practically turned into a single character!”

Shen Fu: “…”

“That’s just a camera-angle issue.” Shen Fu herself didn’t even know they’d stood that close.

Executive “Then what about this one??” He opened another trending post from a blogger called @LimitedHeartbeatAgeGap.

After dinner, Shen Fu stood behind Wen Zhenghan and absentmindedly reached out her hand, as if she wanted to touch his back, before pulling it back.

Comments: “Putting my head here, Shen Fu definitely has some feelings for the Film Emperor.”

“Love is the hand that reaches out and then pulls back.”

Shen Fu nearly choked on these random shipping comments.

Shen Fu: “There was a fly on his back. I instinctively lifted my hand to shoo it away, then remembered that a fly landing on him had nothing to do with me, so I withdrew my hand.”

The executive: “…”

Executive: “And this one.”

Xiang Lingyun was sitting on the sofa while Shen Fu stood on the balcony, looking in his direction through the glass.

Comment: “These two interact the least, but honestly, the more feelings there are, the more likely they are to avoid suspicion on camera, right? I’m starting to ship them first. Top-tier cool guy x expressionless beautiful actress, isn’t that more appealing than the young master with the weird brain?”

Shen Fu gave a complicated look.

Shen Fu: “I was just spacing out. I wasn’t looking at him at all.”

The executive’s CP-loving heart was instantly shattered by Shen Fu herself.

Executive: “Then what about this one? It’s been reposted over eight thousand times.”

Without even looking, Shen Fu knew it was about her and Jiang Shu.

Still, her gaze lingered briefly on the GIF. It was from the Spring Date episode: when they got out of the car, a passerby nearly bumped into her, and Jiang Shu quietly raised his hand to block them. If it hadn’t been isolated in a GIF, she never would have noticed the detail herself.

Shen Fu said nothing more, picked up her bag, and quickly headed downstairs.

No feelings for that one either?

Watching her retreating figure, the executive felt his heart turn cold.

No way. Could all four wildly popular CPs online actually be fake?

Who would have thought that their company’s actress was cultivating the path of emotionless dedication, single-mindedly focused on making money?

Meanwhile…

Zuo Mei also took advantage of the program’s suspension to return to the company. She tossed her bag onto the sofa, seething with anger.

Zuo Mei: “Is this supposed to be a dating show or Shen Fu’s personal showcase?”

Her manager tried to comfort her. “Even though Shen Fu is drawing more attention, our popularity has also increased a lot since joining the show.”

As she spoke, she picked up a data report to show Zuo Mei.

But Zuo Mei didn’t even glance at it. “Do you think I care about this little bit of popularity? *Limited Heartbeat* trends every day now. Even a random cat or dog could gain fans from appearing on it. The corgi brought by the production team gained over a hundred thousand followers! Do you know what I actually want? Without a major breakout event, how am I supposed to make a comeback?!”

The manager’s expression stiffened slightly. “Mei Jie, I already told you that making a comeback isn’t easy. Rather than hoping Wen Zhenghan will push us back to our former position, it’s better to face reality sooner and start looking at TV dramas. We may not be getting big film projects right now, but we can still choose from television scripts…”

“Shen Fu is already getting film resources…” Zuo Mei gritted her teeth. “And now you want me to lower my status and go back to filming TV dramas?”

The manager sighed. “Then what do you want us to do?”

There were also some things she hadn’t told Zuo Mei: ever since joining this variety show, Zuo Mei hadn’t just failed to gain fans, her follower count had been dropping rapidly.

Young fans today worship strength. Who could tolerate watching Zuo Mei lose to Shen Fu every single competition?

“You know the head planner for the show, right? Did they say when Male Guest Five is appearing?”

The manager paused. “I think it’s Episode 6.”

“Episode 6? That’s too late.”

According to the production team’s earlier schedule, the show had nine episodes in total.

1. Spring Date
2. Gift Choice
3. Hide-and-Seek
4. Limited Edition Photoshoot
5. Family Meeting
6. Travel Cohabitation
7. Free Confession

By Episode 7, the show would basically be almost over, because Episode 8 was the Final Choice Night.

After that, Episode 9 was rumored to be a honeymoon trip for the couples who successfully matched. Any guest who failed to form a couple naturally wouldn’t even have the opportunity to participate.

If Male Guest Five only appeared in Episode 6, how was anyone supposed to turn things around?

Wouldn’t Episode 5 just end up being another one-woman show starring Shen Fu?

Zuo Mei lowered her head and thought about it. Surely she wasn’t the only one feeling anxious right now.

The other two women had practically had all their spotlight stolen by Shen Fu as well.

She had her manager contact the agencies representing Xu Tiaotiao and Gu Qingshuang. Soon, she added both women on WeChat and created a group chat.

Xu Tiaotiao: “Wow, you’re still daring enough to start a group chat, Zuo Mei Jie? Do you want to socially die like the male guests did?”

Gu Qingshuang: “I’m using my private phone, so it’s fine. It won’t end up on the show. Mei Jie, is there something you want to talk about?”

Zuo Mei sent: “Don’t you two have any thoughts about what’s going on?”

They had come onto a dating show, yet all the male guests were revolving around Shen Fu.

She refused to believe these two women could sit still about it.

If anything, they were probably even more anxious than she was and just too embarrassed to say it.

Xu Tiaotiao: “What thoughts would I have? Men are just toys.”

She really did have feelings for Xiang Lingyun. In fact, she’d liked him even before joining the show.

But looking at the current situation, Xiang Lingyun clearly didn’t have any feelings for her.

And she couldn’t be bothered competing for him.

It wasn’t as if she lacked men around her.

“I’ll finish filming the show because I haven’t received all my appearance fees yet. But don’t expect me to participate in whatever schemes you’re planning.”

As soon as she sent the message, Xu Tiaotiao left the group chat.

Zuo Mei was already furious, and Xu Tiaotiao’s attitude only made her even angrier, leaving her chest tight with frustration.

At this point, it wasn’t even about who Wen Zhenghan cared about anymore.

A man could no more be relied upon than a pig could climb a tree.

What mattered was her career.

She had originally thought that after joining the show, she could boost her popularity by creating a CP with Wen Zhenghan and make a perfect comeback.

Instead, the CP hype never took off, while all the spotlight was stolen by Shen Fu.

If this continued, where would she get a second chance?

Whether large-scale variety shows like Limited Heartbeat would even invite her in the future was questionable.

And there was more.

There had been the Kuang Yueyi incident. She had approved of her fans spreading rumors, and the company had taken the blame for her.

If she failed to rise again, would the company really not turn around and sell her out?

Even through the silence on the screen, Gu Qingshuang could practically feel Zuo Mei’s anger and anxiety.

Gu Qingshuang: “I understand your current predicament, Mei Jie. What exactly are you planning to do?”

Seeing that Gu Qingshuang was still on her side made Zuo Mei feel slightly better. “I’ve been thinking. Is there any way to arrange for someone we know to become Male Guest Five? If Male Guest Five supports me, then no matter what PK challenges come afterward, I’ll have a chance to win.”

If she won, she’d get highlight moments.

And if she got highlight moments, she’d have opportunities.