Scattering IQ —— Chapter 19 [2.7]

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Chapter 19 | Arc 2.

The script which had just been forcibly revised was once again forcibly revised for a second time. Because the changes were rather large this time round, and also concerning the main plotline, every major actor received a new script.

When Lu Manni received the revised script, she just thought that the willful President was arrogantly throwing his weight around again and forcing the director to modify the script as he saw fit. Lu Manni was quite happy about that, laughing condescendingly as she knew that this kind of action would only alienate the director.

But when she saw that the modified areas included her own final scene, Lu Manni couldn’t smile anymore. A pair of pretty eyes burned with strong resentment and anger. Zhao Qingsong actually wanted to bring their feud public, and even had the director modify her scene!!

She could not stand for this!

Infuriated, Lu Manni directly contacted Zhang Jin; however, in the end, she still restrained her anger because she knew she couldn’t afford to offend the director. “Director, I just read the new script. I think the other plot changes were very good, but regarding the 3rd female lead… Director, hadn’t you said before that the highlight of this role is in the last scene? Now that the last scene’s been changed, wouldn’t this greatly affect the importance of the role itself?”

Lu Manni cleverly did not outright complain that her part was arbitrarily modified, but rather, she deliberately approached the problem from Zhang Jin’s point of view as the director. This way, not only would she extract herself cleanly from the situation, but she would also increased Zhang Jin’s dissatisfaction with Zhao Qingsong.

Although Lu Manni has the golden finger of rebirth, she also understood that at the moment, she was still a little no-name starlet. Going against Zhao Qingsong directly is basically akin to hitting a rock with an egg. Not only did she have no chance of winning, but she could also ruin herself in the process.

However, Zhang Jin is also not a fool – how could he not guess Lu Manni’s thoughts? And so he only coldly said to her, ” The changes to the script were made to fine-tune the overall production. I know you feel aggrieved, but your contract clearly states that you are obligated to accept and cooperate with any plot changes.”

Lu Manni couldn’t help but be slightly choked at this – she had already approached this issue with such a soft and understanding attitude, and yet Zhang Jin didn’t give her any face at all. Instead, he spoke so straightforwardly and bluntly… wasn’t this deliberately bullying others?

Also, she felt like the modification to her own part had nothing to do with fine-tuning the overall production?! And, in the previous life, this drama’s script had not been revised at all!

Thinking to here, Lu Manni’s heart suddenly skipped a beat and a few seemingly innocuous tidbits of information suddenly pieced together to form a scary thought.

Why did things that hadn’t happened in the past life suddenly start happening now?

Why did Zhao Qingsong suddenly choose to enter the entertainment circle? Why did he choose to participate in this drama? Why did he insist on acting with Qi Chen? Could it be that….

A scary thought came to mind, causing Lu Manni’s face to turn pale and her body to start trembling.

If things had started to diverge after she came back in time and started changing things, then it could be attributed to the butterfly effect. However… she had never met or spoken with Zhao Qingsong before!!

Therefore, no matter which angle she considered the problem from, there seemed to only be one answer to these questions….

“Lu Manni, did you have anything else to say? I am very busy here.” The sound of Zhang Jin’s impatient voice came through the phone, and Lu Manni was jerked back to reality.

At the moment, her thoughts were a mess and she had absolutely no energy left to deal with Zhang Jin, and so she quickly hung up the phone.

Lu Manni’s entire person felt unwell. Why had Zhao Qingsong also been reborn? He wasn’t toyed with until he met a miserable end – what right did he have to experience rebirth?!

She should have been the only special one in this world!

Though, this was not the most concerning thought for Lu Manni. Although she felt Zhao Qingsong’s rebirth was unfair, the two of them didn’t have any past dealings and therefore the other shouldn’t have had any reason to act against her.

However, the fact that she had had a small altercation with the other on set was very troubling, since she had exposed herself as a potential enemy.

Lu Manni still didn’t feel her actions at the time were wrong, but if Zhao Qingsong was also reborn, then her actions were indeed too reckless and dangerous.

If she had known that Zhao Qingsong had also experienced rebirth, then she definitely would not have provoked him!

The lingering suspicion of Zhao Qingsong’s identity became more pronounced when upon the next day, Lu Manni saw that the anonymous article she had submitted to the small publishing company not only didn’t speculate on the President flaunting his status, but rather, exposed herself as being partial to bullying newcomers.

So what should she do now ah?!

While Lu Manni was feeling complicated over Su Yu, Su Yu on the other side was also discussing the woman with Round Ball.

“Is Master Host planning to use the same strategy as in the previous world, slowly exposing the woman’s true colours so that the male protagonist will stay away from her?” It wasn’t that the little ball felt worry over whether Su Yu would accomplish his task, but rather, it felt it needed to mentally prepare itself for whatever Su Yu had in mind. Having such a manipulative, black-hearted master was really difficult ah!

Su Yu didn’t even raise his head as he flipped through various documents. “I’m afraid not. I intend to have the woman expose herself, and naturally the male protagonist will then stay away.”

“Will the female protagonist really act so stupidly?” Round Ball couldn’t quite follow Su Yu’s train of thoughts.

“This world’s female protagonist does indeed have some IQ. However, isn’t there a saying that goes ‘smart people eventually get played by smart people’? This maxim is perfect for Lu Manni.” Su Yu signed a document with a giant flourish, tossed the pen aside, stretched, and leaned back against his chair. “Instead of pushing her off, isn’t it more interested to watch her jump down by herself?”

As he said this, Su Yu gave the little ball a devilish grin. This scared Round Ball so much it cried out in its heart, “Ying ying ying [2], my Master Host is way too scary!”

“Don’t cry just yet, first help me find out what the woman’s doing right now.” Su Yu heartlessly ordered the little ball to get back to work.

Round Ball could only split its focus to half cry on the side, and half follow Su Yu’s orders and start observing the woman’s situation. “She’s at home right now, though her complexion doesn’t seem too good. It’s as if she’s been scared by something.”

Su Yu blinked, and then his slight smile gradually curved bigger, “Oh is that so, then it should be happening soon.”

“Soon? What’s going to happen soon?” The little ball flashed a 360° question mark. Why couldn’t it understand its master’s words?

However, Su Yu didn’t say anything more and just stood up and headed for the door. “I want to go out and exercise a bit, get some fresh air. You help me finish the rest of the paperwork.”

“.……” The little ball really started to ‘ying ying ying’ this time.

Three days later, Su Yu received a call from a person he expected – the person who called was Lu Manni.

“Yes? Hello.” Su Yu answered the phone, pretending he didn’t know who was calling.

Lu Manni’s forced softly-sweet voice came through. “President Zhao, hello, it’s Lu Manni.”

“Lu Manni? I don’t remember ever having heard this name before.” Su Yu drummed his fingertips on the table, his face showing an extremely guileless expression.

Lu Manni was choked by his words. She knew the other party was obviously  deliberately giving her a hard time, but she couldn’t afford to get angry. She could only re-introduce herself with a hint of grievance, “Has President Zhao already forgotten? We met while filming <Jian Jia of the Inner Palace>.”

“Oh, you’re the actress who was giving me a hard time on the set. Ah, speaking of that, I saw a news article on that matter just earlier today.” Su Yu continued to speak extremely infuriating words.

Lu Manni’s face had already become red due to pent-up anger. It was fortunate that this was just a phone conversation – otherwise, she might not have been able to restrain her urge to reach over and slap the other person. “President Zhao, that really was my fault the other day. I’ve been thinking about it a lot these days, and I still feel quite bad, hence I decided to contact you today.”

“So you called just to apologize to me?” Su Yu asked.

Lu Manni was backed into a corner and had no choice but to verbally agree. More hatefully, she also had to sound soft and sincere while saying it. “Yes, and if President Zhao is free sometime, I’d like to take you out for a meal as an apology.”

“Looking at how sincerely apologetic you are, I will reluctantly agree just this once. However, I’m very busy lately, and I’m not available. I will contact you once I have more free time.” Su Yu replied very refreshingly.

Lu Manni completely did not expect Su Yu to just straightforwardly agree. While she breathed a sigh of relief, she also felt a bit of disdain. Look at how fast this person’s attitude swung around, could it be that he’s enamoured with her beauty?

“Since President Zhao is willing to give me this chance, I am very happy. When President Zhao is more free, don’t forget about me!” Lu Manni smiled and flattered Su Yu some more, and then hung up.

As soon as he hung up the phone, Su Yu started ordering Round Ball around. “Check for Qi Chen’s upcoming social engagements, preferably in a private venue sometime in the next 10 days.”

“Yes, I’ll check right away.” As it accepted the task, Round Ball couldn’t help but complain bitterly in its heart. Why was it that in every other case with systems and hosts, it was the system giving out tasks for the host to complete. And yet with itself, it was always the host giving orders to the system?!

It felt like it had been deceived. Perhaps it wasn’t an invincible system at all, but in actuality just a little cabbage that nobody loved.

“You still haven’t found it yet?” Su Yu’s tone was full of annoyance and disappointment.

Round Ball remained silent, becoming more certain that it was actually just a tragic little cabbage. Destined to be forever alone, with no one to love it, and constantly oppressed by a mean host with bad hobbies. Its life was simply too sad QAQ.

“I’ve found it. In five days, Qi Chen and a director will eat together at the Drunken Moon. They’re meeting at 6:30pm in the evening.” After Round Ball answered Su Yu’s question, it floated to a remote corner and started to depressingly draw circles.

Su Yu did not care about the little ball’s emotional state and just directly called Lu Manni upon receiving the news. “Five days later, at the Drunken Moon, at 6 o’clock in the evening, is there a problem with this time?”

“No… no problem, of course not a problem.” Lu Manni felt pretty baffled. Just now, which devil was it that said that he was very busy and had no free time? She’d only just hung up the phone five minutes ago, okay?!

“Alright, I’ll see you then.” Su Yu didn’t care at all for what Lu Manni was thinking, and just simply hung up the phone.

Putting down the phone, Su Yu slowly smiled as he stroked his chin. Don’t know…. what kind of interesting things will happen in five days??

[1] – 聪明反被聪明误, “smart people eventually get played by smart people” – Basically, if one is plotting constantly, trying to manipulate the people around them, one day their payback will come and someone will plot against them. And when that day comes, they might lose big (be it money, fame, fortune, their life, etc)

[2] – 嘤嘤嘤, “Ying ying ying” – sound effects of it crying, lol. Poor Round Ball

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Roamer @LoneWolfTranslations–

I realized that ‘Round Ball’ is actually the little ball’s name. Another system gets introduced at some point and it calls our bullied lil bb “Round Ball.”

SPOILER the other system’s name is Black Egg – roughly meaning ‘bastard’ – named by Round Ball who was very annoyed at Black Egg at the time hahaha, but Black Egg is in love with Round Ball, so…… You will find someone who loves you one day, poor little cabbage!!

See ya next week!

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