Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Xu Zhong Qin’s Test

Qiao Qing Yan’s gaze slid to Wu Lan, languid and sharp at once.

“What does that have to do with me?” she asked lightly. “Or did Senior Agent Wu forget what I said at the awards ceremony?”

Wu Lan sneered. “Quit the industry? Qiao Qing Yan, if you really have that ability, I’ll write my name backwards.”

Wu Lan knew better than anyone how much Qiao Qing Yan liked this circle—how much she craved the spotlight, how vain she could be. Otherwise she wouldn’t have been cursed across the internet for four years and still refused to leave.

She’d endured infamy. Even black-red was fine.

Over the years, hadn’t she done plenty that made everyone hate her?

If not for that face, Wu Lan would’ve dropped her long ago.

Qiao Qing Yan looked at her as if she could see straight through those thoughts. Her voice held a hint of amused pity.

“So in the end, Senior Agent Wu still has to use my looks to get Xu Shu Jing a second female lead.”

She tilted her head slightly. “By that logic, it seems the newcomer the company is pushing isn’t even as good as me—the one everyone mocks and hates online.”

Wu Lan’s eyes widened. She pointed, ready to curse.

“Shh.” Qiao Qing Yan raised a finger, smile sharp as a blade. “Anger means guilt. Guilt means truth.”

Wu Lan choked, stuck in place with humiliation burning her throat.

Qiao Qing Yan turned her gaze back to Xu Zhong Qin. “Manager Xu, I think the company will definitely find a win-win solution.”

“You agree, right?” Her tone was light, but every word pressed down with quiet authority.

“After all,” she added, “after I quit, I can go home and inherit my family estate—just like Manager Xu. Isn’t that so?”

She sat there calm as ever, yet every movement carried a noble, untouchable air that made people instinctively hesitate before opposing her.

Then she rose.

Graceful. Unhurried.

She left behind a single sentence and walked out of their sight.

“I believe the company can do it. Then I’ll trouble you two.”

A faint cool fragrance lingered in the air after she was gone, circling like a ghost.

Xu Zhong Qin didn’t follow immediately. What caught him wasn’t her refusal—it was that line.

After I quit, I can go home and inherit my family estate, just like Manager Xu.

His brow furrowed.

He left the conference room without another word.

It seemed Qiao Qing Yan wouldn’t compromise easily.

He would need another plan.

Downstairs, Qiao Qing Yan stepped openly into the company’s nanny van. She leaned back and looked at the Ju Hui building as it rose before her.

A silent smile curved her lips.

There were problems with the original host’s memories. Qiao Qing Yan had noticed that early on.

She had refused the mission and only wanted to laze around until she got through this world.

So she’d chosen, for a time, to ignore the mission itself—but she had accepted the original host’s memories fully.

That was how she’d discovered the holes.

The original host’s memories before eighteen were blurry.

They weren’t much different from what could be found online. She remembered entering the industry at fourteen, winning a grand slam at eighteen.

But there were no specifics.

She couldn’t even clearly remember the dramas she’d acted in or the variety shows she’d joined. Everything was vague, smeared like wet ink.

So in the original host’s memories, there was no Senior Brother. No Master. Even Old Madam Qian felt unfamiliar.

That was why, when Xie Yu Qian had suddenly called her “Junior Sister” back then, Qiao Qing Yan had blanked for a heartbeat.

Those memories didn’t exist in the original host at all.

The original host’s clear memories started at nineteen.