Chapter 43 (1/3): Chasing shadows, the price of fame

Seeing how fanatical they were, the girl shook her head and decided not to remind them anymore.

Now that she thought about it, it felt strange—after encountering Ruan Nian today, it was like all her previous impressions had been wiped clean.

It was as if all the filters she had about Ruan Nian had vanished—not just in the way that people lose interest in celebrities over time, but more like there had truly been a filter over her eyes before, making everything look good.

And now, that filter was gone.

At the same time, inside the restaurant, Ruan Nian, who was busy preparing ingredients, suddenly received another alert: her “Affection Value” had dropped again.

The system sounded a bit worried: [Nian Nian, we just detected another person who used to provide you with a lot of Affection Value suddenly dropping off. Isn’t this happening a bit too often lately? We need to pay attention.]

Ruan Nian froze when she heard this.

Her face changed instantly, and she could no longer focus on handling the ingredients.

What was this supposed to mean?

Whose Affection Value dropped again?

She remembered the system had given her a reminder earlier when she was talking to Chu Yanze—was it him?

Why?

Ever since Chu Yanze started hanging around Gu Zhaoping, he had been acting so defensive and cold toward her, like he was guarding against her every move!

Granted, Chu Yanze had never been particularly warm to her, but she could sense he used to hold back and go easy on her.

This wasn’t right. Why had his feelings turned negative all of a sudden?

Ruan Nian felt it was ridiculous—there had to be a reason.

Seeing her attractiveness points dropping steadily, she began to panic and couldn’t sit still.

She looked into the fish tank in front of her—still full of live, jumping fish—and felt a surge of resentment.

She, a top-tier female star for years, was now crouching in a kitchen, cleaning seafood.

Meanwhile, those rich kids were outside, lounging in luxury, commenting on the scenery like they owned the place.

The resentment and indignation in Ruan Nian’s heart had reached a boiling point.

She knew exactly why this was happening.

It was because her relationship with Gu Zhaoye was only rumored; it wasn’t even real.

She hadn’t truly married into the Gu family.

Only if she officially married into the Gu family and became Madam Gu would people start to respect her.

Look at Gu Zhaoping—even with her horrible reputation, others still talked behind her back and looked down on her.

But did anyone dare mess with her face-to-face?

Even if the production team didn’t bother to warn her about the contract, even if they edited footage unfairly, would they dare challenge her openly if Gu Zhaoping herself brought it up on camera?

Ruan Nian gritted her teeth and said,

“I need to make a new plan. I can’t just sit here and wait for the worst.”

She had to go on the offensive—this new replacement, Gu Zhaoping, was way too slippery.

Waiting around would only make things worse.

As for what this replacement was planning, Ruan Nian could already guess.

This new Gu Zhaoping probably wanted to use the show to clean up her reputation and return to the glamorous life of a high-society heiress.

Maybe she even wanted to marry off her close bestie to Gu Zhaoye—securing more influence in the Gu family in the process.

To Ruan Nian, Gu Zhaoping was never the real enemy.

Her true rival was Gu Zhaoye’s fiancée.

She and Gu Zhaoping were at odds because they both wanted that role—controlling Gu Zhaoye’s fiancée position.

Whoever controlled Gu Zhaoye, controlled the Gu family.

He was the core of its power, and everyone wanted a piece.

But thinking about it that way…wasn’t Liang Zhiwei, who was now partnered with Gu Zhaoping, someone she should be more wary of?

A bit of relief flashed through Ruan Nian’s mind.

She actually felt pleased—she hated that girl who always tried to imitate her.

Now that she was paired with Gu Zhaoping, who knew how Gu Zhaoping would make things difficult for her?

Even though Gu Zhaoping hadn’t shown any bad temper over the past few days, Ruan Nian figured it was just because the new Gu Zhaoping had gotten smarter—she knew not to act out in public.

But once Liang Zhiwei showed any ambition to climb up the social ladder, Gu Zhaoping would definitely put her in her place.

Ruan Nian figured she could just let Gu Zhaoping help her crush that competitor.

As all these thoughts churned in her mind, her hands didn’t stop—she kept violently scraping fish scales.

Li Xunxi, wearing a coat and arms crossed, heard the frantic thrashing of fish behind him and turned around to look.

After seeing Ruan Nian’s movements, he leaned toward Li Xunwen and whispered,

“She looks like she’s gone nuts.”

Li Xunwen nodded silently.

He thought so too—Ruan Nian suddenly seemed a bit scary.

***

“Our restaurant,”

Li Xunxi was saying, “is all about brand effect. We want our guests to understand they’re not getting something they could find at a regular place. We’re using traditional Italian slow-cooking methods, carefully selected Brittany blue lobsters from France…and 24-step hand-carved, hammered 108 times, rested 7 times…plus ancient Spanish charcoal grilling techniques…boiled 8 times, filtered and purified 5 times…”

He spoke passionately, while Li Xunwen nodded repeatedly. But after listening for a while, something occurred to him.

He asked,

“Does Ruan Nian even know how to do any of this?”

Li Xunxi paused.

Both of them turned to look at Ruan Nian, who was furiously de-scaling fish in the kitchen out of pure rage.

After a long silence, Li Xunxi said,

“…She can be trained.”

Ruan Nian had no idea she was about to be forced into this whole situation.

Meanwhile, Liang Zhiwei had just finished studying all the dishes for the day.

Satisfied, she placed the last plate on the table, wiped her forehead, her eyes sparkling.

She turned to her teammates: “Eat up! Everyone full? How’s the taste? Anything I need to change?”

Gu Zhaoping looked at the table—it was so full they had to push two tables together to fit all the dishes.

She was briefly silent.

It seemed Liang Zhiwei had really discovered her passion, and now she was unstoppable.

“That’s enough, it’s already a lot,”

Gu Zhaoping said, trying to rein her in.

“If we keep going, we won’t have enough space on the menu.”

“Is it really enough?”

Liang Zhiwei looked a bit disappointed.

She took off her gloves, washed her hands, and quickly came over to sit at the table.

She tasted one of her dishes, then had an idea—she combined two dishes with a new sauce, making a whole new fusion version.

She grabbed some serving chopsticks and a small plate, plated the new combo, and eagerly held it up to Gu Zhaoping.

“Zhaoping-jie, try this one—it should be really good!”

Her eyes were full of anticipation.

Gu Zhaoping paused.

She looked down.

Being fed so enthusiastically by someone was a little strange to her.

But it wasn’t a big deal—this was her teammate’s passion, and Liang Zhiwei had worked so hard today.

Taking a bite was no problem.

So the aloof, cold, emotionally distant Gu Zong gave a tiny nod and lowered her head slightly.

Liang Zhiwei gently fed her the bite.

Then picked up a spoon and stared at her with shining eyes, eagerly waiting for her reaction.

Gu Zhaoping nodded:

“It’s good. We can make this our featured dish tomorrow.”

Liang Zhiwei beamed.

She’d gotten another compliment from Zhaoping-jie!

This made her happier than any praise she’d ever received before.

Meanwhile, Chu Yanze, watching the two of them, pressed his lips together.

After a moment, he walked over with a new bowl.

He carefully ladled in a meatball he made himself, then poured in soup.

His movements were light, but there was a quiet determination in the way he placed the bowl in front of Gu Zhaoping.

“Zhaoping-jie, try this one too—what do you think?”

He said lightly,

“This is my secret recipe. You definitely won’t find it anywhere else.”

Liang Zhiwei glanced at him, not sensing any hidden competitive intent.

She was genuinely curious and said,

“This looks really impressive. How did you make it, Mr. Chu?”

Mentioning the topic, Chu Yanzhe’s expression unconsciously revealed a trace of proud satisfaction.

“My grandfather was a Sichuan cuisine chef. I grew up around him and even helped entertain foreign guests.”

“That’s really impressive.”

Chu Yanzhe was flattered and looked toward Gu Zhaoping, a bit nervous as he waited for her evaluation.

Seeing that her bowl of soup was almost finished, he looked a little uneasy, but the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but curl up into an irrepressible smile.

“Not bad. High marks,”

Gu Zhaoping complimented.

There really was something special about their team.

No one expected that two top-tier chefs could emerge from the entertainment industry—and even end up on the same team.

Gu Zhaoping suddenly remembered that Fang Yining had once told her that Chu Yanzhe went to the same school as her third younger brother.

At that moment, she also belatedly recalled that Liang Zhiwei had once been a stand-in for Gu Zhaoye.

Because Gu Zhaoye was so disliked and utterly useless, she often forgot about people around her having connections to him.

For example, she frequently overlooked the fact that Fang Yining was his fiancée.

She didn’t expect that both her teammates would have ties to her two brothers.

What a coincidence.

Gu Zhaoping thought of something and, after a pause, suddenly asked,

“When you were studying music abroad, did you often cook for yourself? Your skills haven’t declined at all.”

It was a natural compliment toward a younger person, but Chu Yanzhe was caught off guard and suddenly became uncomfortable, unable to stop his thoughts from wandering.

Sister Zhaoping knows he studied abroad?

And that he majored in music?

Did she follow his updates?

Chu Yanzhe’s heart skipped a beat.

He couldn’t quite hear what she was saying anymore.

His face warmed up, and he kept thinking back to how he performed during university.

Were there any bad comments about him that she might have heard?

His online reputation had never been great—people often said he was rebellious and immature, that he dropped out of college to pursue music and couldn’t handle pressure.

He started overthinking.

Would Gu Zhaoping think that too?

There was a reason he dropped out—should he find a way to explain it to her?

He heard she valued education when supporting male models—would that matter to her?

Gu Zhaoping had only said one line, but Chu Yanzhe had already spiraled into this entire train of thought.

The other two weren’t paying much attention to his reaction.

Gu Zhaoping thought for a moment and turned to Liang Zhiwei.

“Are you currently in a relationship?”

Liang Zhiwei’s eyes, which were just shining moments ago, suddenly dimmed, and the smile vanished from her face.

Was this it?

Was the moment finally here?

Was Sister Zhaoping going to ask about her and Gu Zhaoye?

Even though Sister Zhaoping was so easy to get along with—and despite the short time, she already really liked the cool and dependable Zhaoping—her past with Gu Zhaoye was like a ticking time bomb.

If Zhaoping found out about it, would she still be so tolerant?

Her heart raced.

She lowered her head and nervously twisted her fingers, unsure how to respond.

Finally, she hesitantly said: “…”

Gu Zhaoping only meant to warn her—if she was still entangled with Gu Zhaoye, it would be better to clear things up now.

In a few days, Gu Zhaoping would be heading to a conference in Los Angeles, and the old master of the Gu family might send Gu Zhaoye to join the show.

If that happened, and with Ruan Nian—his possibly madness-inducing white moonlight—also present, the show’s dynamics could get complicated.

Since they were teammates, she wanted to give Liang Zhiwei a heads-up not to get dragged into the mess.

Chu Yanzhe hadn’t processed the shift in conversation.

It took him a while to realize why Gu Zhaoping suddenly asked Liang Zhiwei about her love life.

She didn’t seem like the gossiping type.

But the next moment, Liang Zhiwei’s pale face made it clear she’d been asked something very difficult to answer.

After a long silence, she finally confessed:

“I’m sorry, Sister Zhaoping. I hope you won’t misunderstand me. Although I did have a past relationship with your younger brother, we were never truly boyfriend and girlfriend. We ended everything completely over a year ago. I have no contact with him anymore and won’t let him affect me again…”

She was sincerely explaining to her.

It seemed that in her heart, Gu Zhaoping’s opinion of her mattered more than anything about Gu Zhaoye.

“I know he and Miss Ruan are very close. When I was with him, they were broken up. I didn’t interfere…”

As she spoke, her nose tingled, and she couldn’t help but feel choked up.

In fact, she hadn’t interfered at all.

She hadn’t even wanted to be involved with Gu Zhaoye.

He had forced his way into her life.

At the time, he knew she was short on money, so he used coercion and manipulation to control her.

Then, when he got bored and Ruan Nian returned, he discarded her just like that.

Liang Zhiwei didn’t really care about the relationship—it was the potential misunderstanding that worried her.

Especially being misunderstood by Zhaoping.

Chu Yanzhe was dumbfounded.

He stared wide-eyed.

What?

What was all this?

Wait a minute—did Liang Zhiwei just say she dated Zhaoping’s younger brother??

Zhaoping’s brother…wasn’t that Gu Zhaoye?

Wasn’t he always tangled up with Ruan Nian?

What kind of drama was this?

Chu Yanzhe’s pupils dilated as he emerged from his bashful daze, realizing he’d just stumbled into a major scandal!

Gu Zhaoping raised an eyebrow.

She hadn’t expected Liang Zhiwei’s first reaction to be apologizing.

What was there to apologize for?

Was her image that scary?

Seeing Liang Zhiwei lower her head and tremble, almost on the verge of tears, even the usually composed and cool-headed Gu Zhaoping felt a bit at a loss.