The Reconciliation Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – To Mock

After Yu Xi returned from Hu Xiaojing’s house, she did not leave her place anymore. She only stayed in her apartment every day, studying the script.

During that time, the criticisms towards her were gradually pushed down by other news. But along with the criticisms, her popularity was also slowly pushed down as well. Although she just received three grand awards and became the industry’s youngest grand slam winner, the scandal truly had a big influence.

Its influence was so big that it was at the point where it directly affected whether she had anything to film anymore.

Bai Yutang called her many times throughout this period, either telling her which opportunities for which films and dramas fell through, which programs declined her, or which of the previously discussed advertisements were canceled. Although there were many people that supported her online, the situation was still at its peak where comments and online struggles were the harshest, so there were no capitalists willing to invest on her anymore.

Because the moment anything goes wrong, then the entire investment would be in vain.  

Yu Xi listened to Bai Yutang talk. Contrary to her expectations, she’s actually been pretty contented about staying at home these days, resting and cultivating her mind while occasionally going on Weibo and reading the script.

Of course, if she was able to send this nagging assistant back, she’ll be much more contented.

Zhong Chen watched Yu Xi, who was currently lying on the couch, and said, “Xixi, have you looked at the script yet?”

Yu Xi felt her head hurt.

Zhong Chen would ask the same three questions every day.

Xixi, did you look at the script yet?

Xixi, do you want to eat something?

Xixi, are you going to go work out?

It was akin to torture. However, Bai Yutang was worried that if she stayed in the apartment alone, she would start to let her imagination run wild so she insisted on letting Zhong Chen come over to take care of her. But Yu Xi believed it was definitely Bai Yutang’s way of retaliation.

Complete retaliation.

Not hearing a reply from her, Zhong Chen turned around, “Xixi?”

Yu Xi’s voice lacked energy, “I looked already, I don’t want to eat, I don’t want to exercise.”

Zhong Chen, “……”

Yu Xi stood up and Zhong Chen quietly said, “Xixi, if you don’t exercise, you’ll actually get fat.”

“When it comes time for you to get on screen, it’s not going to look that good.”

The just risen figure staggered and almost fell back down. Yu Xi turned around to look at Zhong Chen, thinking about the screen test the next afternoon and the actress that would act opposite of her, Tao Yitong. She gritted her teeth.

Stabbing another knife, Zhong Chen added, “Although you won’t really need to appear on screen anymore.”

Originally heading towards the bathroom, Yu Xi’s figure turned and entered her bathroom instead. Within minutes, she walked out again. Noticing her hair up and looking as if she’s ready to walk out, Zhong Chen hurriedly asked, “Xixi, what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to go work out!”

Zhong Chen, “……”

Half an hour later, the two walked through the company door. Yu Xi specifically has a fitness coach assigned to her. In the past, no matter how busy she was, she’ll still find a time to work out. However, during this period of time, due to being ordered to stay at home and rest, not only has she not worked out at all, she didn’t even control herself at all in front of food, so Zhong Chen was not at all wrong.

She really did gain four jin¹.

Seeing the truthful number on the scale, Yu Xi could only think to herself how she shouldn’t have eaten that roasted chicken last night. 

Oh- maybe she should’ve eaten two less pieces of the red braised pork yesterday noon as well.

Zhong Chen watched Yu Xi stand on the scale without a sound. She inched closer and asked, “Xixi, what is it?”

Yu Xi quietly got off the scale and pursed her lips together, “Is this scale broken?”

Zhong Chen, “……”

As the two talked, they started walking towards the inside of the building.

This place was Bai Yutang’s office. After Yu Xi made a name for herself, the company specifically assigned Bai Yutang to her alone. As she only had to be Yu Xi’s manager, Bai Yutang was unlike the other managers who needed to take care of many artistes at the same time so she had relatively less frustrations because she only needed to take care of Yu Xi.

Her office was separated into two rooms with one given to Yu Xi to be used as a training room. It contained all kinds of exercising equipment and had a relatively bigger space than ones outside. Yu Xi stood inside doing her warm-ups when she asked, “Where’s Bai-jie?”

Zhong Chen shot her a glance and lowered her head, “Don’t know.”

Tilting her head, Yu Xi looked at her before nonchalantly looking away.

The sound of footsteps running resounded from within the room. Yu Xi was wearing her earbuds and had a dry towel hung on top of her neck. Her fair skin seemed to have a luster. She wore a tank top and a short shorts, showing off her slim waist, long and slender legs, defined and fine muscles, and smooth and flowy curves.

Not before long, her body was covered by a thin sheath of sweat. That sight combined with the light that spilled in through the French windows just emitted sexiness.  

Normally when Yu Xi’s exercising, Zhong Chen wouldn’t be able to take her eyes off of her at all. But today, she was completely out of the norm.

Her expression was hesitant the whole time, as if she wanted to tell Yu Xi something but was at a lost as to whether she should say it or not.

To be honest, Yu Xi already knew where Bai Yutang went.

Since early in the morning, Bai-jie took the company’s new artiste to her work schedule. Actually, most of Bai-jie’s efforts were placed on the new artiste this whole week. Although Zhong Chen understood that it’s because it really isn’t suitable for Yu Xi to appear right now, but seeing her run after another person really made her a tad bit unconformable.

Especially since that person, Yu Xi doesn’t seem to like very much.

Thinking about it, Zhong Chen lifted her head and looked towards Yu Xi. She called out, “Xixi.”

Yu Xi was currently running while wearing her earbuds so she didn’t hear Zhong Chen’s voice. When the other patted on her arm, Yu Xi took off her earbuds and turned her head over, “What is it?”

Right as Zhong Chen was about to say something, a sound came from behind her.

“Then let’s just call it good on the schedule for now. I’ll go take a look at it again and if I have any problems with it, I’ll give you a call.”

Tao Yitong stood behind Bai Yutang, her appearance warm and soft, “Okay, thank you Bai-jie.”

Watching Tao Yitong nod to her words, Bai Yutang was grateful that this new artiste really spared her from any additional worries. Throughout this week’s short-term interaction, she followed whatever she arranged and didn’t ask for any excessive conditions. On top of that, her personality was pretty good as well so Bai Yutang’s impression of Tao Yitong was really good.

“Oh right, I found you a fitness coach as well. Wait until tomorrow after the screen test, you’ll come back to the company and meet them.”

“And also-“

As the two people talked, they headed inside the office. As they opened the door, Bai Yutang’s words were stuck in her throat. Seeing Yu Xi, she froze for a second before quickly recovering, “Xixi.”

“Why are you here?”

Yu Xi already took off her earbuds and was casually using the towel to wipe off the sweat on her face. The light rested on her forehead and long eyelashes. Blinking, she smiled, “I’m working out right now. Zhong Chen said I gained weight.”

And so Zhong Chen was betrayed just like that. Zhong Chen widened her innocent eyes, as they glanced from side to side, but not at all looking at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang nodded, “You really should start exercising. Are you ready for the screen test tomorrow noon?”

Yu Xi sat down casually, “Almost ready.”

Watching her act like this, Bai Yutang was almost about to scold her but then she remembered the person standing behind her. She restrained herself and turned around to introduce her, “This is the new artiste the company just signed, Miss Tao.”

“This is Yu Xi.”

Tao Yitong still carried a gentle smile as before, her attitude polite as she asked, “Bai-jie, didn’t you know that were classmates before?”

Her tone was a little playful. Bai Yutang froze for a few seconds, “You used to be classmates?”

This she truly didn’t know, especially since Tao Yitong was not considered famous before, even to the extent that she didn’t even know her. She also just transferred over to her hands this week so there were a lot of things she still doesn’t understand.

However, she remembered she asked Yu Xi before.

And Yu Xi said she didn’t know her.

Her gaze laced with suspicion shifted over to Yu Xi. Yu Xi was calm and still wore a light smile like before, “Right, I almost forgot about that. We were classmates before.”

Tao Yitong’s expression didn’t have any changes, still gentle as before, “Xixi, you’re a noble and they tend to easily forget things².”

The tone of her voice was very intimate, as if her intentions were to forge a closer relationship.

However, not reciprocating, Yu Xi did not give her a further chance to pull their relationship closer. She immediately smiled, “I don’t think it’s because nobles forget things easily. It’s just that my brain automatically filters out unimportant people, so no matter what, I won’t remember them at all.”

The atmosphere in the room abruptly changed and time seemed to freeze.

Bai Yutang had already been working with Yu Xi for this long already, so she knew her temperament well. It wasn’t considered good yet it wasn’t considered bad either. She wouldn’t take initiative to throw hate at people but if someone personally climbed in front of her gun, she would also not hesitate and open fire.

At this moment, Tao Yitong was that person who personally sent herself in front of Yu Xi’s gun.

However, she still hasn’t figured out why the two people’s relationship was this bad.

Was it because something happened when they were at school together?

Bai Yutang frowned, her face filled with puzzlement. Tao Yitong lightly coughed and took initiative to break through the awkward mood, “Xixi, your temper is still the same as before.”

“It hasn’t changed at all.”

Talking as if they had a pretty good relationship before.

Yu Xi couldn’t help but laugh, “It’s not that I haven’t changed.”

“It’s only because you don’t understand me well enough.”

And thus, the room’s atmosphere that was just alleviated once again started to show signs of escalation. At this time, following Yu Xi’s words, Zhong Chen’s little heart started to jump faster, fast enough that she was worried it might accidently jump out of her chest.

Bai Yutang thought about it for a bit before speaking up, “Yitong, I’ll let the assistant send you back. I still have something to talk with Xixi about.”

Tao Yitong smiled lightly, “No need to cause troubles for you, Bai-jie. I still have to go upstairs for something. There’ll be someone to send me back later.”

“Please take your time.”

Bai Yutang forced a smile, “Okay, great. If anything happens, feel free to contact me.”

After humming in agreement, Tao Yitong left the office.

Right as the door closed, Bai Yutang pulled over a chair and sat in front of Yu Xi. Expression serious, she asked, “Tell me, what exactly happened?”

“Didn’t you say you don’t know her?”

Yu Xi’s expression was frank as she replied, “We really aren’t close.”

Bai Yutang was choked for a bit, “Why didn’t you tell me you two used to be classmates?”

Yu Xi casually wiped at her face with her towel, “I really did forget about that.”

Bai Yutang carefully scrutinized her before pursing up her lips, “Don’t tell me you’re angry because I have to help manage someone else other than you now?”

Yu Xi raised both of her hands up, “Am not.”

“I swear.”

In fact, a manager like Bai Yutang who only manages one artiste is very rare in the entertainment industry. Normally, managers would always manage several alternate artistes, so in the case anything unexpected happens, there would still people they can replace them with so even during the worst case scenario, their resources won’t all dwindle away.  

However, when the company specifically assigned Bai Yutang to be Yu Xi’s manager only, she immediately agreed without any objections. Carrying a mentality that Yu Xi would definitely succeed in the future, she poured all her care into her.

It was due to this, at the bottom of her heart, Yu Xi’s actually very grateful to Bai Yutang so she wasn’t actually that against her looking after another artiste. Although in other people’s eyes, her resources and jobs will be shared by another person, Yu Xi instead believed that this will also be pretty good. At least Bai Yutang will have another bet in her hands, so that in the future, if a crisis like this happens again, the resources she found wouldn’t be wasted.

Of course, the only prerequisite to Yu Xi’s presumption was if the new artiste wasn’t Tao Yitong.

Bai Yutang stared at Yu Xi very seriously. She knew what her personality was like. Yu Xi didn’t like lying and was very straightforward. At times, she would seriously be infuriated by her personality, but then at other times, she was also pretty glad her personality was like this.

It was because of this she didn’t need to excessively analyze what Yu Xi was actually thinking about.

“So, what’s the reason then?”

With a grave expression, Bai Yutang stared into Yu Xi’s eyes, her attitude indirectly implying if Yu Xi doesn’t explain things properly, she wouldn’t give up. Sitting next to them with both hands grasping a water bottle tightly, Zhong Chen was also holding her breath and waiting for her answer. Seeing both of their highly nervous appearance, Yu Xi couldn’t help but let her mouth corners rise. She said, “There isn’t any special reasons.”

“It’s just that she stole my ex-girlfriend.”

Her expression was gentle and indifferent when she said that. The room fell into a short moment of silence before all of a sudden, there was a sharp crashing sound. Zhong Chen looked down at water bottle she was holding. It was already wrung by her so hard that it deformed and started sprouting out water onto the nearby Bai Yutang.

Zhong Chen slowly turned her head little by little and saw the droplets of water on Bai Yutang’s face, who looked like she was on the verge of collapse.

---

1 Jin is a unit of measurement used in China equivalent to 0.5 kg. I don’t think there is really an English translation for this besides maybe catty but that’s not used much.

2 贵人多忘 idiom literally translating to nobles forget things which was used to criticize nobles for being arrogant and not missing old friends, but then later used as a satire to describe people forgetting things.

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