Chapter 18

Chapter 18: 018: Not Playing by the Rules

The venue erupted.

Backstage staff scrambled the moment the surveillance footage appeared. Hands flew over control panels. Someone shouted for tech. Someone else shouted for security.

Nothing worked.

It was as if the entire backstage system had been seized by an invisible hand. No matter what they clicked, the footage kept playing—again and again, looped like a curse.

There was only one way left: cut the power.

But no one dared.

A blackout with this many artists, this many veteran figures, this many cameras? Panic would be immediate. A stampede was a real possibility. If someone got hurt, whoever ordered it would be finished.

Onstage, amid the chaos, Qiao Qing Yan bent slightly and hugged Ms. Qian—careful, respectful.

“Thank you,” she said, and for once it wasn’t performance.

Ms. Qian had known exactly what kind of storm surrounded her. She’d still stepped forward without hesitation. The pressure she’d absorbed tonight was obvious.

Qiao Qing Yan felt that kindness.

Ms. Qian lifted her arms, wanting to hug her back—wanting to ask why she was quitting, wanting to stop her.

But Qiao Qing Yan was already turning away.

By the time Ms. Qian hurried down from the stage, the woman in red heels had disappeared into the crowd like smoke.

Only the footage remained—replaying on the giant screen while the hall roared with arguments and shocked laughter.

Maybe everyone was too shaken to notice the stage itself.

When they finally did, Qiao Qing Yan was gone.

Even Ms. Qian had quietly left.

The hosts rushed up to salvage the scene, voices strained as they tried to claw order back into place.

—

The Jin Ying Festival lit the entire entertainment industry on fire overnight.

But the hottest topics weren’t Best Newcomer, Best Actor, or even Best Actress.

It was the washed-up Best Actress—Qiao Qing Yan—announcing she quit showbiz.

And it was the morning bombshell—”A famous director used unspoken rules on a Xiao Hua”—finally laid bare.

This time, the truth sat in front of everyone in high definition.

Director Liu. Xu Shu Jing. Qiao Qing Yan’s agency.

All of them shot straight to the top of trending.

“I suddenly feel like Qiao Qing Yan is kind of miserable. Her agent actually traded her for resources.”

“So she was the real victim.”

“It’s probably the agency saw she had no heat, so they used her to help a Xiao Hua rise.”

“Why do I suddenly feel sorry for her?”

“If she hadn’t acted like that herself, how could people take advantage? Maybe she agreed. Who knows.”

“Exactly. Who knows if she did it on purpose to frame my Jingjing.”

The internet was a warzone—sympathy and contempt colliding with equal fury.

In a nanny van, a man in the back seat scrolled through his phone, brows drawn together.

“If that video is real, then Qiao Qing Yan really is pretty pitiful,” Agent Brother Yang said, the words slipping out like a sigh.

Beside him sat a man still dressed in the black suit from the ceremony. He stayed in the shadows, eyes half-lidded, one hand propping up his head. Streetlights slid over his sculpted face in flashes of light and dark.

After a moment, he spoke, voice low and cold.

“Ju Hui has always done things without shame. It’s not surprising they’d pull something like this.”