Marry by Relying on Favor: Chapter 58 - Hit the Hot Search
Chapter 58: Hit the Hot Search
For the next whole month, He Qingchi truly entered a closed-off filming schedule at Hengdian. Because of repeated hiccups earlier, the crew had been forced to suspend filming several times. Now that all the main cast members were finally present, Director Guo only wanted to finish shooting quickly, without any more trouble.
Time slipped by fast. First they celebrated the wrap-up of the third female lead, and a few days later, even the male lead’s scenes were nearly finished.
During the day, He Qingchi stayed with the crew shooting until late at night. Then she would return to the hotel, wash up, and sleep. If she needed daily necessities, she just ordered them online. During her rare breaks, when she saw the text messages Wen Shuchen sent, she would reply at her own unhurried pace.
Earlier, once or twice, Wen Shuchen had managed to find time to visit the set.
But since He Qingchi didn’t want to make their relationship public, and with the crew so busy, even when he came, the most he could do was sit in the car for two or three hours, just to see her briefly. Before they could even exchange a few words, the crew’s staff would call her back.
Later, Wen Shuchen also became tied up with business trips. Their contact gradually dwindled to just exchanging WeChat messages, limited to things like whether filming was tiring, reminders to go to bed early, or not to skip meals.
He Qingchi handled it calmly, staying in Hengdian without leaving for nearly a full month.
Until the day the male lead, Duan Jinfan, wrapped up his scenes.
Director Guo specially booked a large private room and invited all the cast members with name recognition to a celebratory dinner.
Normally, He Qingchi disliked such occasions, but since she got along fairly well with Duan Jinfan, that evening, after changing out of costume and removing her makeup, she went along with the assistant director and a few others to the club.
In the private room, the atmosphere was buzzing. Even Director Guo, usually strict on set, had dropped his sternness, his face flushed red from drinking. One of the actresses, who could really hold her liquor, boldly declared she’d drink all the men under the table.
He Qingchi, who could also hold her alcohol, didn’t join the rowdiness. She only drank a single glass of wine, and that was in a toast to the male lead.
Duan Jinfan, unsurprisingly, was the most relaxed person there. Without his mother watching over him tonight, and with a good ten days to half a month of break after this film wrapped, he was in high spirits. He had already booked a flight for tomorrow morning and asked He Qingchi cheerfully, “Your scenes are nearly wrapped too, right? Has your company arranged any upcoming schedules for you?”
With her red lips resting against the rim of her glass, He Qingchi thought of how Li Ling had indeed called her twice recently, hinting at some plans.
She wasn’t too sure though, and hadn’t asked in detail.
Duan Jinfan went on answering his own question: “After my half-month vacation, I’ll be joining a costume drama crew. Once that’s done and Director Guo’s film is released, we’ll get to work together again.”
Sitting close to him, He Qingchi responded softly.
Just then, the assistant director switched his phone to camera mode and called out excitedly, “Everyone look over here! Tonight is Xiao Fan’s wrap-up party, let’s take a group photo!”
Everyone knew the drill—posting a few photos on Weibo after a wrap-up banquet would bring extra attention to the film. So, one after another, they gathered around Duan Jinfan at the center, wearing their practiced smiles.
Besides He Qingchi, there was another woman in the room so quiet she seemed almost invisible.
The assistant director took two shots, but still felt something was off.
Suddenly, he called out toward a corner, “Movie Queen Shu, why don’t you go sit next to Xiao He?”
As soon as the words fell, everyone’s eyes instinctively turned toward He Qingchi and Shu Tongyi.
Just a month ago, a huge scandal had erupted online, forcing Shu Tongyi to take a half-month leave before she returned to filming. That storm had initially dragged He Qingchi into the mess too. The crew had already gossiped endlessly about it, with countless versions of the story spreading.
During this period, both He Qingchi and Shu Tongyi had continued filming normally, but in private, had zero interaction.
No one could quite tell if the two women were secretly at odds. At the very least, they didn’t seem close.
The assistant director, however, had his own plan—by seating Shu Tongyi and He Qingchi together for the photo, he could indirectly dispel the online rumors about discord between the film’s female lead and second female lead.
Once Shu Tongyi stood up, the actress seated beside He Qingchi quickly vacated her spot.
The two women, both strikingly beautiful, instantly outshone the other actresses in the room.
Everyone smiled for the camera. As the assistant director finished arranging the shot and pressed the shutter, both He Qingchi and Shu Tongyi lifted the corners of their lips ever so slightly—only to let their expressions fade again quickly.
But nobody noticed such subtle details. After the group photo, everyone went back to snapping selfies.
Nearby, Duan Jinfan suddenly pulled out his phone too and said to He Qingchi and Shu Tongyi, “Let’s take one together as well.”
Tonight he was the star, and the boldest of the lot.
He Qingchi and Shu Tongyi didn’t have time to refuse before Duan Jinfan, free from his mother’s control, bounded over like an overexcited child. Without hesitation, he wedged himself between them, lifted his phone high, and snapped several rapid-fire selfies.
All three of them were photogenic, the kind that looked great on camera. Duan Jinfan hadn’t even turned on filters, yet he was pleased with the results, bragging: “I look good paired with anyone as a CP!”
His words made the assistant director, eavesdropping nearby, laugh. “Xiao Fan, funny thing—your name didn’t even make it onto the fans’ top CP rankings online.”
“That’s only because my mom won’t let me pair up with female celebrities. I had to give up the spot,” Duan Jinfan defended himself.
Even Shu Tongyi tugged at the corner of her lips at that.
Under the lights, leaning back in her chair, He Qingchi smiled faintly and teased, “And yet you still dare take pictures with us?”
“Isn’t this all for posting on Weibo?”
Duan Jinfan tapped away on his phone, editing his post, and uploaded three selfies from different angles.
The assistant director then chimed in: “…Movie Queen Shu, Xiao He, why don’t you both post something on Weibo too?”
He kept his tone cautious, not daring to sound too forceful, afraid of being turned down.
But He Qingchi didn’t refuse. After all, posting a Weibo congratulating Duan Jinfan on finishing his shoot was perfectly normal. She didn’t bother about whether Shu Tongyi would post or not. Taking out her phone, she tapped the screen, and a string of unread WeChat messages popped up.
She didn’t even need to check to know who they were from, so she ignored them, switched to the camera, and snapped a side-profile photo of Duan Jinfan.
Two or three minutes later.
He Qingchi posted a very simple Weibo: one photo, with the caption—“Congratulations on wrapping up.”
The assistant director, who had been secretly peeking at his phone the whole time, refreshed and saw her post. He immediately burst out laughing: “Xiao He, that Weibo of yours looks exactly like a relationship announcement, hahahahaha…”
Instead of posting a picture of herself, He Qingchi had shared Duan Jinfan’s unbelievably handsome side profile for fans to see.
Within ten minutes, a flood of female fans had swarmed into the comments:
— “My Brother Xiao Fan’s god-tier looks!! Why is he showing up on her Weibo, ahhh?!”
— “WTF!! What did He Qingchi use to take this?? How can she be so close to my male god!! I can see his eyelashes so clearly—so long! I’m jealous!”
— “Anyone else think this post looks exactly like a dating announcement when you blur out the text?!”
— “Count me in!!”
— “Has Brother Xiao Fan’s mom allowed him to date yet? Even if she has, we fangirls won’t allow it!!”
— “Reminder, folks—check Xiao Fan’s own Weibo. He just posted too! He Qingchi’s candid shot is making me kneel again. Go look!”
Just from a single side-profile picture, fans were already in a frenzy, rushing over to Duan Jinfan’s Weibo to check.
In less than half an hour, compared to the other cast members desperately posting congratulatory Weibo updates hoping to piggyback on the trending heat, it was obvious: the female lead’s posts always drew far more attention.
Fans quickly split into two warring camps. After rushing to read Duan Jinfan’s Weibo, they started to quarrel with each other in the comment section.
One camp shipped He Qingchi and Duan Jinfan as a couple—after all, they played lovers in the movie. Plenty of fans fantasized about their on-screen chemistry turning real, feeding everyone’s romantic dreams.
The other camp shipped He Qingchi with Shu Tongyi. The two had trended together twice before—first with rumors about them coming out, which the production team happily used to stir up buzz. Later, when Shu Tongyi was hit with plastic surgery scandals, rumors spread that He Qingchi had bribed the media to smear her. That storm eventually blew over, but most assumed the two would never appear together again.
Now that Duan Jinfan had posted his selfies, those rumors were shattered. CP fans of He Qingchi and Shu Tongyi came roaring back to life, insisting that the only rightful place beside He Qingchi belonged to Shu Tongyi.
Some fans even edited Duan Jinfan out of the group selfie and posted in the comments:
“Ahhhh, He Qingchi belongs to MY goddess! Men can all go to hell. Without Duan Jinfan… the picture feels so much more harmonious!”
Blotting out Duan Jinfan’s face?
That enraged the “gorgeous couple” fans, who retaliated by cropping Shu Tongyi out instead: “I declare this photo to be He Qingchi and Brother Xiao Fan’s marriage certificate picture!!”
In less than an hour, two hashtags shot onto the Weibo trending list.
At the very top: “The Gorgeous Couple’s Marriage Certificate Photo.”
Ranked fifth: “He Qingchi and Shu Tongyi Appear Together Again.”
“He Qingchi, you didn’t hire a water army, did you?”
Back in the private room, the lively chatter had died down. Everyone was silently glued to the trending list until the assistant director finally voiced what they were all thinking.
She was just a rookie who hadn’t even officially debuted, yet she had unexpectedly blown up on Weibo. Fans were fighting over which CP to ship her with, and the buzz she generated completely overshadowed both the established movie queen Shu Tongyi and the hugely popular fresh idol Duan Jinfan.
Calmly, He Qingchi took a sip of water. Under everyone’s gaze, her red lips clearly formed the words: “Probably not.”
She hadn’t left the room at all. How could she possibly have had time to hire paid bots?
The assistant director’s eyes lit up: “Even before you joined filming, I knew you were born to be a trending queen.”
“…” He Qingchi hadn’t forgotten how, during the time she refused the role, the production team had manipulated online opinion, letting drama fans viciously tear her apart.
But the assistant director had clearly forgotten. Excited, he raised his glass and toasted her in advance, wishing her a bright future in the entertainment industry.
He Qingchi accepted the flattery and had just sat down again when her phone began to ring.
Glancing at the caller ID, she looked up at the crew and offered a polite smile: “Excuse me, I’ll just step out to take this call.”
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