Capítulo 27: Lesser of Two Evils

That day, Lin Zizhou didn't return after leaving the set. After an assistant had reported that his car had left the building, Director Ma resumed work without further delay.

As for Bai Meixin, perhaps she was so distraught by her Big Brother Lin's sudden departure but the number of mistakes she made that afternoon piled on and on until it wore out everyone's patience.

"Sorry, I'll try harder" tended to stop being effective after two hours of hearing it on repeat.

Su Qiao considered everything that had happened so far and decided that she was satisfied. Was it mean that she was relishing in someone else's misery? Sure, she conceded as much. But she wasn't a saint, had no reason to pity others when they hadn't spared her any pity before.

A whole week of filming passed uneventfully. Apart from brushing up on her acting with helpful tips from Mo Chen, Su Qiao didn't do much else. Often, she holed up in her hotel room during the rare interval of free time, relying on Peng Lili to handle her meals for her as she practised her part over and over again. With each interpretation of the script, she felt like she discovered a new layer to Yuan Siqi that hadn't been there before. To fully flesh out the character, she needed to be able to bring out more than Yuan Siqi's ambition and forward-thinking mindset. She had to contemplate Yuan Siqi's difficult position as a woman in modern times, who was expected to juggle a high-flying career with the role of a wife and mother.

Su Qiao…had no such experience. 21-year-old her was a blank slate whose ideas of marriage were will the stuff of romance novels. She had mistaken Lin Zizhou for her prince charming and had envisioned a grand wedding where he would sweep her off her feet and they would ride off into the sunset together for an intimate honeymoon.

25-year-old Su Qiao…could only scoff at those old dreams. She'd been so caught up in trying to put food on the table that romance hadn't even been an option.

So no, Su Qiao still had a ways to go before she could relate to Yuan Siqi's predicament.

The doorbell interrupted her thoughts. She frowned. It was already close to 11 pm and Peng Lili had gone back to her room, which was on another floor altogether because this entire corridor only had suites.

She slipped her feet into her slippers and shuffled over to the door, peering out the peephole to see who could be visiting at this hour. She was half-expecting it to be Bai Meixin because, for someone who had a lot of unfavourable opinions about Su Qiao, Bai Meixin did an excellent job of emulating cling wrap.

It was Xue Junxie. She looked down at the silk negligee she was in and then back at the door in frustration. There was no way she was answering it dressed like this.

The doorbell rang again while she was in the bedroom, rummaging through the closet for something to throw on. At the same time, her phone buzzed with an incoming call. It was Xue Junxie too.

Was it something important? She was tempted to pretend to be asleep but knew that her curiosity would keep her awake if she didn't find out what he wanted. His behaviour these couple of weeks had been nothing less than normal and Su Qiao was almost convinced that she had falsely blamed him for acting suspiciously a while back. Peng Lili had told Manager Yu about Su Qiao's request to monitor social media and Manager Yu had taken it seriously. The entire PR team had been eyeballing Weibo ever since but so far nothing unsavoury cropped up yet.

Su Qiao decided to pick up in the end.

"Senior Su?" Xue Junxie sounded apologetic. "I'm sorry for calling so late, I hope I didn't wake up?"

"No. What's the matter?" Su Qiao pulled on a pair of sweat pants and an oversized T-shirt. They were her 'comfort clothes' so as to speak, ugly loungewear that was so soft from thousands of machine wash cycles that their colour had faded. It was the least glamorous thing she could find but that was the whole point.

"I'm outside your door at the moment, would you mind collecting a copy of the amended script? Director Ma handed it to me just now when I was filming the last take of the day, there are last-minute changes to our scene tomorrow afternoon."

Director Ma had texted Su Qiao earlier that evening to let her know that this might happen. He hadn't mentioned sending Xun Junxie over with a copy but that in itself wasn't unusual either. Perhaps she really was overthinking things.

For good measure though, she threw on a hoodie over her T-shirt and bundled her hair up in the most unsexy ponytail she could think of. No one could accuse her of seducing her co-stars in the middle of the night in this getup.

Evidently, Xue Junxie thought the same because a funny look crossed his face when Su Qiao yanked the door open. She didn't care though, just took the script and thanked him with the most polite smile she could muster.

"If that's all, I'll go and read it now—" she tried to dismiss him but Xue Junxie reached out suddenly with a frantic, "Wait!" His arm slotted into the gap in the doorway and Su Qiao had to halt or risk injuring him.

Her polite front was replaced by a distant coolness. "What are you doing?" His body language made her uncomfortable. He had shifted a foot forward like he was about to enter her room and that was the last thing Su Qiao wanted.

"Senior Su, I was hoping we would be able to run through this scene together now," he said, his genial tone at odds with how aggressive his stance was. In terms of physical strength, she wasn't his match. If he wanted to burst into the room without her permission, she wouldn't be able to stop him. This would jeopardise his entire career, sure, but it would drag hers into the mud too. If someone had paid him enough, she could envision him doing this.

The hand that was blocked by the door and out of Xue Junxie's reach was holding her hand. It was still unlocked from his call earlier and she tried to rely on memory to open the page with dialled numbers. She didn't often take or make calls, which meant that all the caller IDs listed would be someone close to her like her manager or her assistant. Without looking, she pressed down on one, hoping that the call did go through.

All this while, she tried to continue making conversation with Xue Junxie, to get him to reveal as much as possible about his intentions.

"What are you doing?" she asked disapprovingly. "Peng Lili is sleeping already, it's not appropriate for me to invite you in to practice. Do you have any idea what time it is right now? We can work on this on set tomorrow."

At the mention of Peng Lili, Xue Junxie hesitated and stopped pushing against the door. But he didn't leave either. "The scene is an important one though," he said. "I'm worried that we won't be able to get it ready in time for tomorrow, would Senior Su consider working with me somewhere else? We could even go to the bar downstairs if necessary."

Su Qiao hadn't had good vibes about Xue Junxie before but now she was certain that there was something wrong with him. He might be a newbie to the industry but should have seen enough in acting school and from the rules his management company lay down for him that no decent actress would be caught dead in public at this time of the night in a hotel with a man. It didn't even matter that they were colleagues, the tabloids would take the photograph and put an uncontrollable spin on it. Working with her in a 'safe' public space might make him appear thoughtful but the reality was quite the opposite.

"No thank you," Su Qiao replied coldly. "Director Ma is aware that these edits are last minute and will provide us with ample time to run through the blocking tomorrow. If I'm not wrong, we also have multiple breaks in the morning and can work on it then."

Xue Junxie's 'nice guy' facade started to fray at the edges and she could tell he was holding himself together with great effort. She refrained from pushing him too far in case he snapped and became violent but her outrage was also mounting. How dare he? Although she had already rejected him, he was shamelessly remaining here with no fear that she would retaliate by punching him in the face or kicking up a huge fuss, just because she was a girl and her safety and reputation were both at stake?

The look she gave him was cold as ice. Before today, she'd been rather impressed with his acting on set. He was still a bit green but very promising compared to the disaster that was a lovelorn Bai Meixin. The same way Mo Chen had provided mentorship to Su Qiao these couple of days, she had also done the same for Xue Junxie on set whenever he had approached her with questions. Su Qiao had been confident that he had a future ahead of him.

Now, she was debating the odds of her destroying that future for him. After all, as the saying went, the dog that bit the hand that fed it didn't appreciate the kindness shown to it (1).

The sound of the lifts opening was like music to Su Qiao's ears. It was made even better by the arrival of two burly security guards in suits, their faces grim as they approached her directly.

Xue Junxie started and visibly turned ashen when he caught sight of them.

"How—" he asked but Su Qiao didn't let him finish his sentence.

"Did my assistant call the reception?" she asked, still sticking to the story about Peng Lili sleeping inside. "This is my co-star but he has been harassing me. I would like him removed please."

"You can't—wait—" Xue Junxie started to panic. He shot Su Qiao an incredulous look. "I just came up to hand you your script, you're falsely accusing me of something that I didn't do!"

"Don't worry, Ma'am, we'll handle it. Just go back in and keep the doors locked this time."

Su Qiao thanked them gratefully. "I won't make the same mistake twice, thank you for your assistance." The second Xue Junxie was dragged out of her doorway, she shut the door behind her and double-bolted it.

Then she looked down at her phone to see who she'd called. There was no one on the line anymore but before she could check, a message popped up on the screen.

It read: Be more careful next time, little girl.

It was from 'The Lesser of Two Evils'.

Su Qiao covered her eyes and groaned. Of course she'd had to dial the one person on that list she was hoping to avoid.

Of course.