Once his call was answered, Cai Qinghua angrily shouted, “Leng, how dare you trap me? Aren’t you ashamed?”
Master Leng was struck dumb for a second when Cai Qinghua shouted at him. “What are you talking about?” he asked.
He already forgot that he had trapped Cai Qinghua.
“You told me Gu Ning is your granddaughter-in-law and you threatened me into sending you the painting. If I didn’t do that, you wouldn’t allow Gu Ning to study in the Capital University. I just met Gu Ning and I asked her whether she would give up the Capital University for any reasons. She told me she wouldn’t. The Capital University was her only target. Even if I didn’t give you the painting, she would still study in the Capital University! I don’t think you could stop her,” said Cai Qinghua.
Cai Qinghua didn’t realize that he was easily fooled until now. He couldn’t even help, but disdain himself.
“Well.” Master Leng made a few coughs, but didn’t deny it. “Yes, it’s true, but it’s too late for you to find out the truth now.”
Saying that, Master Leng sounded very proud.
“You…” Cai Qinghua was angered by Master Leng’s honesty.
“Alright, let me buy you a meal another day to make it up for you, but I won’t return the painting to you,” said Master Leng.
“Great, I’ll choose the place! I promise I’ll make you pay a lot for the meal,” said Cai Qinghua. He understood that he couldn’t get the painting back now, and he had no intention of getting it back. He simply called Leng Weihua to complain about it.
Since Master Leng wanted to buy him a meal, Cai Qinghua wouldn’t reject.
…
After Gu Ning arrived at the canteen, she ordered a few dishes. After a few minutes, the class was over.
Baili Zongxue showed up first. As soon as she saw Gu Ning, she joked. “I thought you won’t come until the exam day.”
Gu Ning smiled and said, “Even if I have a photographic memory, I won’t be able to understand the questions if I don’t learn at all. I’m going to study very hard in the following days. I’ll leave again after the exam is over.”
“It’s not a problem at all. I believe you can acquire the knowledge of the whole semester within several days,” said Baili Zongxue. She never questioned Gu Ning’s abilities.
Actually, Gu Ning wasn’t absent from classes all the time. She went to the school once in a while, and could quickly catch up on all the knowledge. Even Baili Zongxue was amazed by her efficiency, but she soon got used to it. Therefore, she believed it wouldn’t be a problem for Gu Ning to master the knowledge.
Gu Ning smiled, but said nothing because what Baili Zongxue said was the truth. It was indeed very easy for her, but she still needed to spend some time on studying.
After a while, Song Miaoge and Zhang Zikai came.
Once they saw Gu Ning, Song Miaoge gossiped. “Gu Ning, I read the rumor about Chu Peihan and Han Chenglin. Are they really a couple?”
When they met last time, she could see that Han Chenglin treated Chu Peihan differently, but she didn’t think further about that back then. However, she got curious about it now after hearing the rumor about them.
“No, they’re just friends. They met by chance that day, so they walked around together. Famous people can easily get into rumors as long as a man walks together with a woman,” said Gu Ning in a resigned tone.
If it was possible, Gu Ning didn’t want the rumor to go around.
It wasn’t uncommon in the entertainment industry and some stars even deliberately made rumors for publicity. If no one admitted or clarified it, people would lose interest in it and it wouldn’t affect their work.
Artists with fame might not care about that, but it wasn’t good news for new faces.
For a new face, the audience’s first impression of him or her was very important. How the audience got to know him or her the first time would deem him or her to be a certain kind of person. Therefore, if people got to know Chu Peihan from her rumor with Han Chenglin, many people would believe that she got famous on Han Chenglin’s coattails.
Although Han Chenglin wasn’t one of the A-list, he enjoyed a lot of fame now and had dozens of millions of followers on Weibo.
Chu Peihan didn’t target fame or wealth after joining the entertainment industry, but she had to be careful with her reputation and image. If she left a bad first impression on the audience, the audience would ignore her abilities no matter how she performed in the future.
Many artists in the entertainment industry had that problem. They were talented and skilled, but had to give in to unspoken rules or publicity stunts or even scandals.
Even though they became popular afterwards, their career would still be affected by their unpleasant history.
“You’re right. Well, it’s really difficult to survive in the entertainment industry. Chu Peihan hasn’t made her debut yet, but she’s already amid criticism now.” Song Miaoge felt sympathy for Chu Peihan. Chu Peihan was innocent, but she was dragged into rumors with Han Chenglin and was strongly criticized by his fans. Han Chenglin’s fans even said that she didn’t deserve him.
She knew that Han Chenglin was born in a rich family, but she thought love was much more important than money. Did people nowadays become so unrealistic?
“Since they aren’t a couple, why didn’t they clarify it. Chu Peihan won’t be criticized then,” said Zhang Zikai.
All of a sudden, she had a bad impression of Han Chenglin now. Chu Peihan was innocent, but he said nothing and left her to be targeted by his fans.
“Right!” Song Miaoge agreed.
Baili Zongxue, however, felt they chose not to clarify it for a reason, but she didn’t know what the reason could be. She knew very little about the entertainment industry.
“There are too many crazy fans and haters on the Internet now, so it might not be a good choice to clarify it. It might arouse more criticism of Chu Peihan. People will lose interest in it within a week and it’ll be gone,” said Gu Ning. Chu Peihan had said the same thing to her, so Gu Ning agreed that a clarification wasn’t necessary.
“You’re right.”
After hearing Gu Ning’s explanation, they gave a nod. They actually didn’t know much about the entertainment industry and they also felt it was very complicated. Besides, cyber-violence was really scary.
“Well, I just feel that Chu Peihan is so pitiful,” said Zhang Zikai and gave a resigned sigh.
