Why was this happening to her? Steffanie was certain that what happened that night never got exposed to any third parties aside from her father. So why was it leaked?
Her previous manager, Shi Lian hid herself away as soon as the deed was done, she was even scared of seeing the sunlight and had all the drapes pulled to close so the outside world could not be seen by her own eyes.
Steffanie didn't suspect Shi Lian and didn't think that she would leak what she had done to Ran Xueyi to the media either. That would be suicidal.
As for her father, he would never put his own company down and would be the first to step forward to deny the allegations if the media decided that it was done by Steffanie. Even if he was angry at her own daughter, he would never give her up either!
Steffanie became more erratic as she reached the restroom and saw Jia Yi smoking a cigarette.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"You..."
Jia Yi noticed her and offered a cig to her. "Want to take a drag?"
Steffanie frowned. "You smoke?"
"Everyone can drink and smoke. It's a person's choice to do it or not. Besides, in our stressful life as an entertainer, isn't it only natural for us to have one or two stress-relievers?" Jia Yi laughed at her as if the question was too obvious. "Well? Do you want one?"
Steffanie didn't refuse anymore and took one cigarette stick from the small box before putting it between her lips. Jia Yi smiled at her and offered to lit the end of the cig with a lighter. Steffanie leaned forward and took a long drag. It was just what she needed.
But now that she thinks about it, was Jia Yi this talkative before? As far as she remembered, Jia Yi was the silent type and never got too close with any other stars. She always kept a distance and that's also the reason why many actresses didn't really like her and became pretentious whenever they interacted with her.
It was the same for Steffanie, who looked down on Jia Yi, a third-tier actress, who had to beg her company for resources.
However, that silent and unsociable actress was inside the restroom with her right now, taking a drag from her cigarette stick as if it was something very natural to her. This made Steffanie think that Jia Yi was yet another pretentious actress who kept another image of herself in front of other people to hide her real nature.
Jia Yi saw her sweaty forehead and pulled a tissue from the tissue box against the wall. Then, acting as if she didn't notice Steffanie's inquiring gaze, she said, "I've seen the news. That video is all over the internet around the world. It makes you think that Ran Xueyi is really a superstar, isn't she?"
Steffanie was once again reminded of the humiliating video she saw. Although her face wasn't in the video, Shi Lian was still her manager and people could easily connect the links from there.
Jia Yi continued to speak: "It makes everyone envious of her. She already had a wealthy family, a good educational background, at her career's peak, and the country hailed her as this industry's savior even though she just returned. Isn't it ridiculous that everything was handed out to her as if it was very natural for her to live like this."
"Well, if this is a film, she'd be the female lead while both of us are the villains and cannon fodder, right?"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmSteffanie stared at her, her nose flaring with anger. Hadn't Jia Yi reminded her, she might have not thought about it, but her words really hit the target.
"But if I'm definitely the cannon fodder and you are the villain," Steffanie suddenly said, making Jia Yu turn her head at her.
Jia Yi narrowed her eyes on her. "What do you mean?"
Steffanie took a step forward. "Stop acting like you don't know what I'm talking about. Just remembering it makes me want to slap your face. Wasn't you who accidentally told me that Ran Xueyi stole Sister Jingjing's role through a sugar daddy? It was also you, who released the photos of Ran Xueyi getting inside that car, riding on my cloak after I posted that post in my status. Thinking about it, everything that happened to me would've never happened if you hadn't said those 'harmless' words you said to me at the party."
Jia Yi's eyes flashed coldly. She scoffed in a mocking manner and said, "Are you trying to transfer the blame on me? I never said those words. Stop accusing me." She paused for a bit before continuing, "And even if I said those words to you, it's not up to me what you do after that. You took advantage of my words to ruin a person's image in public and because you're losing, you're now shifting the blame to me. Isn't that a bit too much, Steffanie?"
Steffanie had nothing to say to that. Jia Yi was right. Even if Jia Yi harmlessly said those words to her without any other intentions, it was still her own initiative to ruin Ran Xueyi because she was upset that she couldn't work together with Bai Jingjing in a TV drama.
And even if she confessed to everyone about this, nobody will blame Jia Yi. They will treat it as ladies chatting and gossiping amongst themselves and that's it. They won't pursue Jia Yi because Steffanie did post that status and accused Ran Xueyi of being kept by a sugar daddy. It was all her own actions that led to this ending.
Jia Yi smiled, feeling satisfied seeing the despair starting to fill in Steffanie's eyes. Ah, this was what she wanted to see in Ran Xueyi's beautiful eyes. Unfortunately, she can only make do with Steffanie now that she's not in any position to go after Ran Xueyi with her past still being used as hostage.