Chapter 197: Lu Huanong is Pulling Something

Yun Xiangxiang thought only she and Li Man would be judges in place of their agents. She was surprised that Wen Lan asked Lu Huanong to replace her.

Putting aside the clout gained by Huan Yu over the years, the fact that Li Man and Yun Xiangxiang made an appearance in today’s event was already enough to draw the eyes of many.

Now other agents asked the actors they wanted to support to replace them, giving them a chance at exposure.

By asking Lu Huanong to appear now, was Wen Lan planning to support Lu Huanong again?

“Why? You have something against her?” Li Man was standing together with Yun Xiangxiang. At this moment, their a.s.sistants huddled around them.

But Li Man was not avoiding Coco or her a.s.sistant at all. She asked Yun Xiangxiang while letting her a.s.sistant smooth out the crease on her s.h.i.+rt.

When she saw Yun Xiangxiang’s gaze changing as she saw Lu Huanong, she couldn’t help but recall the news about Lu Huanong. She thought Yun Xiangxiang’s change was because of that.

“Wen Lan is stuck between a rock and a hard place. She is a gold-tier agent after all. It’s a shame that one of her trump cards is dead, and the other is sidelined,” Wen Lan left a decent impression on Li Man.

“Since Hua Xiangrong’s pa.s.sing, she has signed two new actresses. Their image is decent, but they don’t have that air to them. Also, they aren’t really perceptive.”

Yun Xiangxiang had met Bo Yan, but not the other one. Both had little to no fame currently.

But Wen Lan should not be in a hurry. New actors typically wouldn’t s.h.i.+ne before at least two or three years had pa.s.sed.

Of course, there were exceptions, but those were rare. Wen Lan was no newbie to this industry. What pushed her to take the risk of pus.h.i.+ng Lu Huanong up there?

It was barely three years after Hua Xiangrong’s death. The backfire on Lu Huanong might have receded over the last two years, but it was far from dead.

“Sister Lan seems to be in a hurry,” Yun Xiangxiang asked tentatively.

“Can she afford not to be?” Li Man smirked. “Two years ago, the company released a new contract. An agent can be demoted if their performance doesn’t hit the given target.”

That must be a contract that was released prior to her reentry into Huan Yu Century Entertainment. She wouldn’t be in the dark about it otherwise.

He Wei didn’t tell her because he had Xue Yu under him. Unless Xue Yu were to fall, he wouldn’t be demoted.

“Sister Man, Xiangxiang,” Lu Huanong saw Li Man and Yun Xiangxiang too. She walked up to greet them with a smile.

Lu Huanong was gorgeous. It wasn’t impactful, but it was difficult to ignore either. She was great in using this affable look to get close to anyone easily.

Hua Xiangrong’s distaste for Lu Huanong stemmed from the fact that she saw Lu Huanong practising her smile in front of the mirror every day when they were in the same dorm after they entered the company.

She practised the way to smile harmlessly and kindly so she could ingratiate herself with new groups quickly.

Everyone would wear a facade in the office. Hua Xiangrong would do it too. She wasn’t averse toward such camouflage.

If she had only used this camouflage to protect herself, Hua Xiangrong would only feel admiration toward Lu Huanong. But Lu Huanong loved to use this camouflage as a cover for her own claws.

She would have her own agenda every time she got close to someone. When that someone had their guard down, she would take them out in one blow.

In the beginning, there were four of them under Wen Lan. Lu Huanong had forced the other two out from the acting industry.

Lu Huanong never wanted to let Hua Xiangrong go either. It was just that Hua Xiangrong saw the complexities of the human heart from a young age, so Lu Huanong’s plans failed every time.

Lu Huanong would later set her eyes on Ruo Feiqun. Until now, one thing still eluded Yun Xiangxiang: Did Lu Huanong really love Ruo Feiqun, or was he only a p.a.w.n to use against her?

“I shudder every time you smile at me like that,” Li Man wasn’t going to be courteous to Lu Huanong.

After saying that, she dragged Yun Xiangxiang away. She even reminded Yun Xiangxiang, “This woman is a scheming wench. You better look out.”

“Sister Man, you were so powerful,” Lu Huanong probably rarely got shamed in public like that.

In her past life, Yun Xiangxiang was b.u.t.ting heads with her. But since they were in the same company, under the same agent, and were on the same list, they had to be careful when they spoke against each other in public.

“You can too. You are his actress. You’ve got Xue Yu and me behind you. You don’t have to cower to anyone in the company,” it was love me love my dog for Li Man.

“Don’t worry, Sister Man. I am not a docile prey,” Yun Xiangxiang put on a fierce look.

“Pfft,” Li Man thought that this girl was adorable. “You aren’t someone that can be bullied by anyone. But she’s an old fogey that has been in this industry for ten years.”

“I know,” Yun Xiangxiang couldn’t do anything but put on a look of obedience.

Lu Huanong never won against Yun Xiangxiang in her past life. She wouldn’t be afraid of her in this one.

“Why do you think Wen Lan can’t see any hope from the actresses she just signed?” Li Man gave her a hint out of concern.

Of course Yun Xiangxiang knew why. Once again, Lu Huanong used the same tactics in Yun Xiangxiang’s past life to keep on standing out this time too.

Lu Huanong was an extremely selfish woman. She would hurt anyone and everyone just for her to gain something, Wen Lan included.

If Wen Lan was not pushed to the point where she could only use Lu Huanong, Lu Huanong wouldn’t have the chance to rise again. The contract Huan Yu released to motivate actors and agents to grow just happened to give Lu Huanong a loophole to use.

It would be impossible for Wen Lan to accept being demoted. For her whole life, she had been a prideful person. Demoting her would be worse than killing her.

The new actresses under Wen Lan’s wing knew nothing. They were probably still helping Lu Huanong out even when she had tricked them.

She had her lunch in the company. The grand finals would start its live stream at one o’clock. The twelve contestants would have to go through an individual talent performance, a group performance where they would take on cla.s.sic characters to act together, individual acting performance, playing as a designated character, and other comprehensive segments before being given marks by each judge for each segment. The contestant with the highest total mark would win.

Contestant number three from the seven female contestants was called Liang Xinrong. For her individual talent performance, she displayed a show of acrobatics. When Lu Huanong was commenting, she suddenly broke into tears.

Yun Xiangxiang and Li Man were confused. Looking at how authentic her tears were, Yun Xiangxiang flipped through the info again to confirm that there was no relations.h.i.+p between Liang Xinrong and Lu Huanong.

“Are you okay, Huanong?” The MC asked concernedly. It was a live stream after all. There were a lot of people in the industry and from the media outlets in the spectator seats.

Lu Huanong composed herself as she wiped her tears away carefully. She finally apologized sobbingly, “Sorry, I just thought of an old friend. That’s why I was sad. Liang Xinrong, your performance of acrobatics is splendid. You even have the outlook of the star. I have high hopes about you. Do your best!”

Yun Xiangxiang’s heart sank as soon as Lu Huanong said that. She was in hair’s breadth of losing her temper.

Yun Xiangxiang knew Lu Huanong was going to pull something, but she did not expect Lu Huanong to use Hua Xiangrong as a card. Hua Xiangrong and Liang Xinrong shared the “Rong” p.r.o.nunciation in their names. They might not be the same characters, but they were p.r.o.nounced the same way.

With that vague comment of hers, and how sorrowful she was when she mentioned an old friend, countless people would start to doubt the story of Hua Xiangrong’s suicide after this footage was released.

Hua Xiangrong was already dead. Lu Huanong could say anything she wanted, and n.o.body could disprove her.