Chapter 9

Chapter 9: 009 – Queen Beauty Qiao

The award gala venue buzzed like a hive.

Reporters packed the entrance with cameras and long lenses. Fans crowded behind barricades, waving support signs, screams rising in waves that crashed over the red carpet.

The carpet wound toward the doors in a gleaming ribbon.

Male entertainers strode in tailored suits. Female entertainers floated in gowns that shimmered under the lights. Everyone knew where to look, how to angle, how to smile for the best shot.

When the van stopped near the entrance, Wu Lan came over immediately, leaning in through the open door with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“In a moment, you’ll walk the red carpet with Jing Jing.” Her voice turned sharp with warning. “Don’t drag Jing Jing down. Behave. Don’t think about making trouble.”

She didn’t get inside. She didn’t need to.

“I don’t care what accident happens later. If you still want to survive in this industry, then cooperate with Jing Jing.”

Her gaze hardened. “Otherwise, think about that massive penalty fee in your contract.”

Wu Lan didn’t want them to walk together either. The company had originally arranged for a popular male idol to escort Xu Shu Jing.

But at a moment like this, after this morning’s mess, plans cracked.

To calm the scandal, Wu Lan could only use the resemblance between the two women. Let the public see them side by side. Let confusion do the work.

Later, it might even help confirm that the woman in the morning scandal had been Qiao Qing Yan.

Qiao Qing Yan didn’t bother reacting. From beginning to end, her emotions barely shifted. She rested lazily against the seatback, eyes half-lidded, as if the threats were nothing more than background noise.

She was a tasker from the Quick-Transmigration Bureau. She’d lived through plenty of entertainment-industry worlds.

Compared to the Bureau, this place barely counted as a cage.

The original host, Qiao Qing Yan, had debuted at fourteen. By eighteen, she’d won a grand slam.

Four years. Hit after hit. Award after award. She’d swept through the industry like someone born with a cheat code, reaching heights most people couldn’t even imagine.

Then, somehow, everything changed.

No one knew what happened. Overnight, it was as if she became a different person.

From eighteen onward, her life slid downhill.

Over the next few years, she burned through the goodwill and fan support she’d built. Every project she touched flopped. Her acting seemed to evaporate.

Bad acting. Bad relationships. A terrible temper.

Negative news clung to her like smoke.

No one wanted to cast her. Endorsements vanished. Invitations dried up.

By twenty, she was universally mocked and universally hated—told every day to quit and stop poisoning the entertainment world.

As for the penalty fee Wu Lan kept waving like a knife, it was probably the original host’s oppressive contract.

Qiao Qing Yan didn’t even blink at it.

—

Half an hour later, the master of ceremonies by the entrance tapped the window and said, “It’s your turn to enter.”

Xu Shu Jing got out first.

The moment her heels hit the ground, the crowd erupted—cheers, screams, a sea of bright signs lifted high.

“Jing Jing, fly bravely—Shui Jing will follow forever!”

Xu Shu Jing wore a short white formal dress and a matching half-veil hat. She looked like a bud on the edge of blooming.

She smiled sweetly, waving at everyone, eyes shining as if she were made for this.

Then the second door opened.

The cheers stuttered.

For one heartbeat, the red carpet went unnaturally quiet.

Qiao Qing Yan stepped down in high heels, expression calm beneath the flashing lights. She adjusted the wide skirt of her dress as if she had all the time in the world, and walked forward without haste—

straight into the silence.