A week later, Su Xiaofei finally managed to return to Qiying City, much to her relief. She hadn’t expected that their schedule would be pushed too far back to her liking. What she had thought would be a day or three delay had turned into a week of enduring the wait to go home.

Thankfully, the photoshoot had been successful this time, as Bellissima made a drastic decision to fire Liao Yang’s whole photography crew and file necessary legal charges against them.

Su Xiaofei had no doubt that Liao Yang’s reputation would suffer from it, as it would make companies like Bellissima wary of hiring him because of the attempted assault he committed against her and the fact that his crew was trying to mess with the company’s model.

Luo Cheng didn’t dare to mess up for the second time as she was harshly reprimanded by Bai Qingyue for starting such a mess which could drag her name to the mud. It was one of those rare times that Luo Cheng witnessed the gentle mannered Bai Qingyue speak harshly out of anger.

“But I did it for you…” Luo Cheng would never admit that she was in the wrong here. It was Tang Liyan’s fault for even thinking that she was in the same league with Bai Qingyue.

“I don’t care!” Bai Qingyue snapped at her. “Do you see it now? Bellissima isn’t pleased with us at the moment, and I would have no doubt if they reported this event to the company.”

“Didn’t the CEO say that you should beat Tang Liyan and harm Su Xiaofei’s reputation in the process?” Luo Cheng insisted.

This somewhat angered Bai Qingyue further as she looked at her manager, her eyes ablaze.

“Luo Cheng, do you think I am someone who would allow another person to use me as a blade? Do you think that just because Golden Star has been the one I’m working with at the moment, I am bound to listen to whatever they say?”

“N-no… I didn’t mean it that way…” Luo Cheng didn’t expect that Bai Qingyue would react like this. She used to ignore things like this before.

“If you know, then please stop giving me problems. It would be my reputation that would be at stake, not yours. You should know better.” Bai Qingyue frowned, before turning her back to her manager.

Luo Cheng lowered her head in shame, because she knew what Bai Qingyue just said was right. By scheming against Tang Liyan, others might think that it was Bai Qingyue who initiated it and her talent would have to take the blame.

Because of this, Luo Cheng didn’t try to stir any more trouble and allowed the new schedule of photoshoot to proceed with another photography crew that Bellissima sent. However, Luo Cheng couldn’t understand the sudden interest Bai Qingyue had in Su Xiaofei, as if she knew the young woman, but she didn’t dare to question Bai Qingyue about it.

Now that the photoshoot for the campaign was done, both parties returned to Qiying City and proceeded with their own schedules. From the corner of her eye, Luo Cheng noticed that Bai Qingyue had been staring at Su Xiaofei longer than usual. It really makes her wonder what was going on with her talent.

Su Xiaofei’s team was walking ahead of them, but was quite slowed down by the sudden flock of fans that heard the news of Tang Liyan and Bai Qingyue arrival that day.

Su Xiaofei lifted her right arm to cover her face from the blinding light of the camera flashes aimed at them. For Tang Liyan and Bai Qingyue, this was a good thing since it could hype up the interest on the campaign they were collaborating with Bellissima, but for Su Xiaofei, this was nothing but an annoying part of being a popular celebrity.

No matter how exhausted or sick celebrities were, they could only smile and pretend to be okay whenever cameras were pointed towards them.

“Miss Su, let’s separate here.” Su Xiaofei heard Tang Liyan say as they walked to the arrival area of the airport. “I know you’ve been waiting to come home. Zhao Jingmei and I would be fine from here. We’ll just be waiting for our ride to come pick us up.” She said, as they tried to push through the crowd. 

Behind them, Bai Qingyue’s team were following closely. Bai Qingyue overheard what Tang Liyan just said to Su Xiaofei. Her eyes then turned to the young woman, curiosity flashing across her face.

Su Xiaofei didn’t respond for a moment, considering Tang Liyan’s offer. She didn’t trust that Bai Qingyue’s team won’t try anything during her absence and bully Tang Liyan once again.

“Miss, I can stay with them until their ride arrives. You and Lan Jie can go without me. I will follow once I’m done here.” Zhang Ling suggested, knowing that Su Xiaofei had been on edge about something they didn’t know.

“Alright.” Su Xiaofei nodded in understanding. “We will part from here then.” She said, before allowing Zhang Lan to take the lead, leaving the younger Zhang sister with Tang Liyan and the rest of their group.

Su Xiaofei could only sigh in relief once she was seated at the backseat of the car waiting for them. She was glad that she didn’t have to be on guard for the meantime and could relax before meeting her mother. She didn’t even realize that she had dozed off from exhaustion during their drive back to home.

“Miss, we are here.”

Su Xiaofei felt someone gently shaking her shoulder to wake her up and recognized the voice as Zhang Lan’s. She opened her eyes and saw that they had indeed arrived home safely. It was already dark outside, indicating that they had been on the road longer than expected.

“Thank you, Zhang Lan. The rest of you may also take a break after taking the luggage inside..” She told her personal bodyguard, before alighting from the car.