Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

[Actress Luo Susu: I’ve always strived to let my work speak for itself, hoping everyone would focus more on my projects and less on me. For that reason, I’m very sorry for not sharing my joy with you all sooner. I’m married and will soon be welcoming a new life as we begin the next Chapter of our lives. I’m grateful for this journey. With you in my future, everything is beautiful. Marriage_Certificate.JPG]

The post stirred up a massive storm online, and Weibo practically crashed!

[Holy crap. I just... holy crap!]

[So, when you say ”you,” are you talking about your husband and kid, or your fans? An insincere person can’t even write a Weibo post without it sounding insincere, haha!]

[Is this an official announcement? A clarification? An apology? Damn, don’t tell me she’s just showing off her happy relationship? /s. I’ve heard of getting four meals out of one fish, but I never thought I’d see a single Weibo post with four different flavors. I guess if you live long enough, you see all kinds of weird stuff. /s]

[So can you tell us? When did you get married? We didn’t even get to give a wedding gift, how embarrassing. Aren’t we your family? /s]

[Asking rationally: She’s not a teen idol who lives off fan traffic, so did she really need to hide her marriage? Other celebs are open about it, but she’s all secretive. Did she steal her husband or something? Why can’t he be seen in public? /s]

[Kept it under wraps really well! I feel like such a huge idiot after all these years! HAHAHAHA! What a happy day. The last time I was this happy was on April Fools’ Day!]

[Playing the single ’wife’ to the public for so many years while your manager-husband works silently in the background... you made your own marriage feel like a secret affair. Must have been so tough for you!]

[HAHAHAHA, I’m so brilliant! My eyes are clearly top-of-the-line! HAHAHAHA! Just look at the piece of trash I was a fan of!]

[I watch other fandoms collapse every day, and now it’s our turn. So... did our house just get shaken, did half of it fall down, or is it completely demolished? Can anyone tell me?]

[Ten years of my youth wasted on this. Goodbye, and good riddance!]

[Married by night, single by day, flirting with hot young guys right in front of her husband. All I can say is, Sister Luo is on another level! The average person shouldn’t even try to copy her. Without her superb skills, you can’t pull it off and might just get beaten to death by your husband. /s]

[I owe An Xin an apology. I wasn’t thinking straight yesterday, my bad. I feel like a total joke, haha.]

[And here I was, worried you were being bullied. Turns out this was the truth. Yeah, I’m laughing too. Sarcastically.]

[I fought for my queen, she said I was too mean. She had a husband all along, while I didn’t know what was going on.]

[My life as a fan has turned into a spy thriller. How freaking amazing. Heh... Don’t worry about me, I’m doing just fucking great!!]

...

After a long period of public mockery online and fans leaving the fandom in droves, once everyone had more or less vented their spleens, Luo Susu’s team finally managed to get the situation under control:

[Honestly, if you look at it rationally, she’s not a celebrity who relies on fan traffic. She’s always been a down-to-earth actress, so it’s understandable that she didn’t want her private life exposed.]

[She must have brought up her personal affairs because she felt bad that An Xin got dragged into it! They’re at the same company, so they see each other all the time. It must have been a difficult position for her. Susu has always been kind-hearted.]

[You can do it! Looking forward to the baby’s arrival and your return. Can’t wait for your new drama!]

[Susu has always been like this, she never uses her private life for clout. If it were someone else, wouldn’t they have milked their relationship for trending topics? And their marriage? One actress even got endorsements for her wedding gown and diamond ring for her wedding! I think this is much better. Just support her career and stay out of her private life!]

[Just focus on your acting and don’t pay attention to the negative comments.]

[You can like the eggs without having to like the chicken that lays them. Be rational!]

[Go, Susu! I’ve always loved the you who just quietly focuses on her work! I hope she has fewer obsessive fans and more career-focused fans.]

[It’s rare these days to be a fan of a female celebrity who isn’t completely obsessed with romance and actually puts her career first. That’s not easy! Wishing you all the best!]

...

It seemed as though the matter had been perfectly resolved.

Except Luo Susu had lost nearly ten million followers.

And they were all active fans.

They had been wholeheartedly devoted to her, only to be dismissed as obsessive fans in the PR cleanup. It was truly disheartening.

Ni Bingyan watched it all unfold, speechless.

It wasn’t that she was worried about Luo Susu. Even after losing so many, she still had a little over eighty million followers!

’Someone like me who hasn’t even scraped together ten million followers should probably keep her mouth shut.’

’I used to think Luo Susu was pretty easy to get along with, but now it seems she’s full of petty schemes.’

’Comparatively, her character is even worse than An Xin’s.’

’At least An Xin didn’t kick her when she was down during the critical moment or resort to such vile behavior.’

Ni Bingyan suddenly had an epiphany.

’When you’re just a small-time extra, you can make friends in the industry. But once you start to make a name for yourself, it’s best to treat other actresses as colleagues, or even competitors.’

’If I keep being as sincere and trusting as before, I’ll probably get sold out and still be counting the money for the person who sold me.’

With this change in mindset, she looked at Luo Susu’s situation again and gained a new perspective.

’Luo Susu’s pregnancy and the year or two after childbirth don’t mean she can’t work at all.’

’She could do magazine shoots and endorsements. After a few months, once the pregnancy is stable, she could probably even take a script with only dialogue-heavy scenes and play a pregnant woman. It would be both memorable and allow for a very realistic performance. She might even win an award or something.’

’Furthermore, Luo Susu has a huge backlog of unreleased projects. If she scheduled them well, the public might not even realize she hasn’t been working for a long time unless she said something.’

’If An Xin hadn’t been cyberbullied, or if the company hadn’t pressured her, with Luo Susu’s personality, the public probably wouldn’t have found out she was married with a child for a long, long time.’

As for An Xin, she acted as if nothing had happened. She returned to the set the very same day, filming when she needed to film, and pulling all-nighters when the schedule demanded it.

However, it wasn’t long before Ni Bingyan heard from her manager that An Xin was about to launch her own personal studio. It was being established with the company’s support, meaning she would call the shots on her own affairs from now on, and the company would continue to provide her with resources.

That outcome was likely the result of some intense strategic maneuvering.

All of this was too complicated and had nothing to do with her, so Ni Bingyan didn’t want to waste brain cells thinking about it.

Aside from filming, she now had a new problem—thanks to her hard work, she had saved up another ten million in less than half a year.

The bank was calling her all day, asking if she wanted to buy this fund or make that investment, which got her thinking.

’With inflation being so high, just letting the money sit there would only make it lose value. It had to be put in motion to have a chance to grow.’

’But for one, she had no time, and for another, she didn’t know enough about investing. If she jumped in rashly, she would likely suffer losses.’

’Maybe I should buy a house?’

’But I already have a place to live. Buying one just to rent it out isn’t a great deal, and if I buy now, it might even depreciate in value.’

’Should I give it to my dad and let him use it to expand his business?’

’But he said he had sufficient capital and didn’t need my small contribution, telling me to keep it for myself.’

As she mulled it over, Ni Bingyan had a sudden flash of inspiration.

’Didn’t I just meet someone who works in investment? I can totally ask a professional for their opinion.’

’I just helped him make a connection and saved his favorite work from being horribly butchered. It wouldn’t be too forward of me to go ask for some advice.’

She decided to act on it at once.

Ni Bingyan called Sang Yuan during her lunch break.

He answered almost instantly.