2ndchances 10: Something Eerie

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Chapter 10: Something Eerie

Chen Yijun almost died in embarrassment when Rong Yan walked back on set wearing only the suit jacket and a black strapless bra on her upper body, but thankfully, that was the last set of the shots Wei Mingxin took of her.

Chen Yijun only had to awkwardly bow with the rest of the staff, seeing her, her agent, and her two bodyguards off after she had changed back into her street clothes.

They couldn’t keep a busy top model to themselves all day – Wei Mingxin had arranged the shooting schedule in order to finish all of Rong Yan’s photos first in order to let the busy woman leave earlier.

As for the other two models?

Ann-Xia and Du Lingyu’s agents would rather them waste time making an impression on Rong Yan and her people!

Regardless, the rest of the solo shots and duo shots of Ann-Xia and Du Lingyu went well as well without Chen Yijun putting his foot in his mouth again.

Well, Wei Mingxin had a more concrete image of Ann-Xia and Du Lingyu’s shots compared to Rong Yan’s, so it’s inevitable that Wei Mingxin had a better handle on their shots, even if the models were more immature than Rong Yan.

But … it was as if fate wanted to teach Chen Yijun that it wasn’t only good things that could come his way.

As they were wrapping up Ann-Xia and Du Lingyu’s duo shots in good spirits, just about done with the entire photo shoot in under 5 hours, a commotion occurred outside the photo studio room.

Wei Mingxin’s good mood from managing to turn the shoot’s level up to 11 crashed down in an instant.

Now that Rong Yan had gone, Wei Mingxin didn’t hesitate to show his displeasure as he flung open the door to the studio.

“What is going on?” he demanded, moustache twitching as he glared into the tiny corridor.

Chen Yijun also peeked into the hallway, and his heart froze in terror as he saw people crowding around Lanlan, her face full of tears.

“What’s going on here?” Wei Mingxin demanded again.

There was something very wrong with the atmosphere in the corridor.

He saw his partner and co-boss, Min Zhen, standing there with an upset look on his face.

Min Zhen spoke coldly, “It seems this little girl stole something.”

“That’s right, this girl was stealing Ann-Xia’s earrings!” a young woman said, pointing dramatically at Lanlan.

As she fixed her eyes on them, a fluffy feeling invaded Chen Yijun’s head, and he looked at Lanlan, his brows furrowed.

The poor girl could only shake her head, so scared and upset she couldn’t speak.

When he saw her distressed appearance, the fluffy feeling in his head disappeared, and Chen Yijun became angry.

Like hell his little niece would steal!

“I don’t believe you. Where’s the proof?” he asked, his voice low as he tried to control it. Chen Yijun didn’t like confrontation, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to just stand by, and quite honestly, he was furious.

“The earrings were missing, and she was found with them,” another staff member said, glaring down at Lanlan.

“That’s right, I just left the changing room and saw her with them,” the young woman from before said, her tone coquettish and sweet, a little odd for the situation.

“Good job, Lu Qiu, you stopped a thief from getting away with it,” Ann-Xia’s agent cooed, patting the young woman’s arm.

Lu Qiu?

Chen Yijun’s brows furrowed with increased suspicion, but he decided to ignore this strange and disgusting display as he walked over to Lanlan.

“Lanlan,” Chen Yijun said, his voice gentle as he cradled his trembling niece, “What happened.”

“F-found them… didn’t… didn’t steal…” Lanlan sobbed, burying her face in his shoulder.

“Yeah, you found them in Ann-Xia’s makeup bag!” Lu Qiu sneered, a smirk on her face.

“Where did you find them?” Chen Yijun ignored Lu Qiu.

“H-hallway…” Lanlan pointed behind her.

“Yeah right! Don’t lie!” Lu Qiu yelped, and Chen Yijun trembled a bit as he heard the ugly muttering as the crowd sided with this woman.

There’s nothing more terrifying than not having anyone on your side, and Chen Yijun was beginning to feel dread settling in as it seemed everyone seemed to inexplicably side with Lu Qiu.

“So you saw her steal them? If that’s the case, why did you just watch her do it?” he finally asked, keeping his voice even as he challenged her.

“I-I didn’t watch her do it, I found her with them!” A hitch in Lu Qiu’s voice made her yelp come out an octave higher, and Chen Yijun began to feel some doubt.

“So you didn’t see her steal it.”

Chen Yijun’s thumping heart calmed as he heard Wei Mingxin’s cold voice backing him up.

“She had the earrings -”

“Doesn’t this place have security cameras? What’s the use of this bickering? Show them.”

Lu Qiu’s whine was cut off as Ann-Xia’s sharp voice pierced through the hallway, like she couldn’t believe this fucking circus.

Those earrings were precious to her, a last gift from her grandmother, and she was so pissed off that she didn’t even bother trying to temper her words.

This little girl stole her precious earrings? Like fucking hell.

That shifty-eyed bitch that came out of nowhere, Lu Qiu – like hell Ann-Xia would believe she didn’t have ANYTHING to do with THIS.

Not only that … Ann-Xia was feeling really uncomfortable.

Before, weren’t all these people from Blue Bird Studio fawning over that guy surnamed Chen?

Why, all of a sudden, were they acting so aggressively to his little niece?

Something, something, something… something felt abnormal.

A shiver ran up Ann-Xia’s spine.

Even though she had thought her second chance at life was going to be a breeze since she should know the future, there was something here that wasn’t the same as before.

Why was her agent suddenly acting so indifferent to her and Fan Li this time? Who was this Lu Qiu?

And now, why were people so partial to Lu Qiu, this last tier talent that only looked a little cute and had trouble keeping up with the other trainees in her course?

Fucking hell, did she have to worry about some other slut alongside Mei Bingbing now?!

Goddammit, who’s golden thigh is this Lu bitch hanging off of, that would cause people to be so biased towards her?

Even as Ann-Xia was fuming inside, she watched the security footage with a stony face.

Sure enough, that little girl remained in the break room almost the entire time. It was when she went to the bathroom that she seemed to pause like she had heard something as soon as she opened the door.

The door to the changing room Ann-Xia and Du Lingyu were sharing seemed to just swing shut, and some small, sparkling things were lying there on the ground.

The little girl looked at them in obvious confusion before she went over and knelt down, picking them up.

Then, when she picked them up, Lu Qiu burst out of the changing room and began to yell at her.

Ann-Xia’s brows furrowed.

Chen Yijun’s brows also furrowed.

Something about this scene didn’t feel right, but it felt like his head was full of fuzz and he couldn’t quite figure out what was wrong.

But, whatever.

At least it was clear that Lanlan had nothing to do with however the earrings ended up from wherever Ann-Xia had stored them to the corridor.

He hugged her even closer, whispering words of comfort, as Wei Mingxin and a few people who had been working in the studio with them glared at the others who had been accusing Lanlan.

“Look, the little girl didn’t do anything wrong, and you guys all ganged up on her! You call yourselves adults?!” Li-ge, the lighting guy who had worked most closely with Chen Yijun, said in dissatisfaction.

“… I believe it would be wise to not judge others before having evidence,” Wei Mingxin finally said, his eyes staring directly at Min Zhen, who looked distinctly uncomfortable.

At his words, it was like a spell had broken over the people gathered there.

They were all suddenly feeling very awkward, looking at every direction except towards Lanlan and Chen Yijun.

The ones who had been working in the studio, like Li-ge and the other lighting guys, were beginning to glare at Lu Qiu for the one who raised the fuss.

“I-I just thought the earrings were missing, so… I just … overreacted…” Lu Qiu’s lower lip quivered and her eyes filled with tears, her body wiggling a bit as she trembled, tilting her head down in order to give an upwards glance, “I mean… I saw her with the earrings, so I just…”

The atmosphere softened a bit as Lu Qiu continued to cry and give excuses, but Ann-Xia could only scoff inside.

Fucking bitch. None of that was an apology, you cunt.

But Ann-Xia couldn’t bring herself to say anything, aware that the winds were against her.

Again… all that woman had to do was wiggle coquettishly and bat her eyelids and everyone seemed to lose their edge against her.

She could only sigh inside and turn to face the poor little girl who had been badly bullied by these imbeciles who called themselves ‘adults’.

“Are you alright?” she asked, and seeing the absolutely adorable little girl’s face full of tears, even the indifferent-to-children Ann-Xia wanted to beat that bitch over the head with a blunt object. How had any of these other people been able to resist and even accuse her?

Now that there was much less hostility focused at her, Lanlan had stopped trembling, grasping at Chen Yijun’s shirt as she tried to stop crying.

Oh geez…

‘Just call me Ann-jiejie’ Ann-Xia was able to stop herself from saying that, but she did say, “Thank you very much for finding my earrings. I would have been upset if I had lost them.”

The little girl only nodded, but accepted the sweet biscuits Ann-Xia gave her as an apology (sorry they’re tofu biscuits, but Ann-Xia was on a diet).

Her gentle uncle smiled, although a bit stiffly, in some gratitude, since the show of goodwill seemed to greatly stabilize the child’s mood.

It was only after everything was said and done, when Ann-Xia coldly called a suspension car after finishing the shoot, leaving her traitor of an agent and that ‘innocent and lovely’ trainee Lu Qiu who made such a mess behind, that she suddenly had a thought.

How did Lu Qiu automatically know that the little girl had my earrings? How would she know that my earrings were even missing?

Ann-Xia’s blood ran cold.

In her past-future, Mei Bingbing had framed her as having an affair by sneaking these exact earrings into the dressing room of a male heartthrob she had been working with. Could it be that Lu Qiu had the same idea … no, what was she even thinking… ….

But even with the disbelief coursing through her veins, Ann-Xia felt true terror welling up inside of her.

She didn’t know if the terror was from these idiosyncrasies from the future she thought she knew, or this dangerous thing that was right next to her side.

Or perhaps it was that she hadn’t kicked up a fuss when all the evidence pointed to Lu Qiu? That was very unlike herself, especially in this second life where she swore not to put up with two-faced bitches, wasn’t it?

Or was it the fact that nothing had shown up on the footage that showed how those earrings had ended up outside the changing room?

Or maybe it was why she hadn’t thought to question any of this until now?

—

A single suspension car made its way from Blue Bird Studio to Dinghua’s trainee dormitory, and a single woman was sitting within it.

If there had been anyone else within the car, they would have seen her mouth moving, but no sound coming out of it.

If there had been anyone else within the car who could lip-read, they would have seen her say things like, “You ALREADY told me that higher suspicion levels will make it more difficult to raise affection levels, why do you keep saying it?” and “Why would I waste my once-a-day on Rong Yan? I’ll surpass her in no time!”

And if there had been anyone who could be within the scary confines of her mind, they might have been able to hear a defeated electronic ding of exasperation.

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<a/n: … the first time I felt actual pity for a System…
Don’t hate BB Studio too much. They don’t know wtf happened either.

Changed the name notations because the special character for Ann-Xia was screwing up a lot of formatting when I transfer the text from libreoffice to wordpress>