iao He never expected that Tong Junhui's withdrawal from the entertainment circle back then was entirely arranged by Liu Rulan!
To be precise, Liu Rulan forced Tong Junhui to withdraw.
From the entire incident involving Tong Junhui, she had keenly sensed something wasn't right.
Actually, even if Tong Junhui hadn't taken those weight loss medications, he would likely have faced trouble anyway—perhaps even worse. In the face of capital games, they were as insignificant as ants. The moment Tong Junhui accepted that script, everything was already predetermined.
If they wanted to protect Tong Junhui, withdrawing from the industry was the only choice.
So she didn't hesitate at all, cutting through the chaos decisively. Right after Tong Junhui received his Award-Winning Actor trophy, she promptly handled his withdrawal procedures.
The only fortunate thing was that Tong Junhui's mind hadn't been completely consumed by the situation. After a painful night of consideration, he ultimately accepted Liu Rulan's decision.
Then everything unfolded as the public saw—Tong Junhui withdrew from the industry, completely disappearing from public view, while Liu Rulan, after going through a very depressed career low period, began managing Su Shengxi and returned to her career peak.
As for why Tong Junhui, who had already gone through rehabilitation, now appeared among those people again... Liu Rulan wasn't very willing to interfere.
—She couldn't handle it anyway.
"I'll deal with Tian Heng myself. You absolutely must not get involved in this matter—those people are terrifying."
Liu Rulan's expression was unprecedentedly serious.
Xiao He immediately nodded: "Okay, Sister Liu, don't worry!"
Definitely won't need you to step in!
...
In the morning, Xiao He got up as usual for makeup.
However, he arrived slightly later today. The makeup room already had people finishing their makeup one after another, and even Guo Xinya greeted him before leaving with her phone.
Fortunately, they had already completed the elderly makeup shooting sessions. Regular modern makeup didn't require much time—just styling the hair.
But shortly after Xiao He sat down, he heard cheerful laughter and chatter coming from diagonally behind him.
Xiao He couldn't help but turn to look.
In the position diagonally behind him, two actresses—one sitting and one standing—were gathered together chatting and laughing while waiting for the makeup artist, just like him.
One of the girls looked somewhat familiar...
Xiao He narrowed his eyes and remembered who she was.
The one sitting—wasn't she the girl who was gossiping with Yuan Sitong last time? Seems like her name was Zhang Xiaoyu.
Xiao He quickly glanced over them before withdrawing his gaze. His makeup artist arrived and began applying his makeup.
The artist's movements were very skilled. Xiao He didn't use this time to check his phone, instead staring straight at his own makeup mirror, letting his mind go blank.
The originally somewhat lively makeup room gradually returned to tranquility.
"Qingqing, I want to go to the restroom."
Zhang Xiaoyu, who was sitting, suddenly stood up.
"Okay, then I'll go with you." Sun Qingqing, who was standing, immediately said affectionately.
Xiao He's mirror happened to reflect the two girls behind him, and their conversation clearly reached his ears.
Originally, it was nothing special—just the typical story of young girls holding hands to go to the restroom.
But suddenly, Xiao He's previously blank gaze refocused, his wandering soul abruptly returning to reality—
He personally witnessed Sun Qingqing adjust her position when Zhang Xiaoyu stood up, then support Zhang Xiaoyu's arm with one hand while moving her other hand behind her back, swiftly swapping her own paper cup with the other's, before casually brushing the hair by her ear and putting on a gentle smile.
"Xiaoyu, let's go!"
Xiao He: "..."
He seemed to have witnessed something quite extraordinary.
Mainly because the angle was extremely tricky.
Based on the earlier conversation, the girl who swapped the paper cups was called Sun Qingqing, and the girl whose cup was swapped was naturally Zhang Xiaoyu.
Earlier, Sun Qingqing was half-sitting against the makeup table while Zhang Xiaoyu was sitting normally in the makeup chair. Just as Zhang Xiaoyu actively stood up to leave, Sun Qingqing very cleverly used her body to block Zhang Xiaoyu's line of sight while completing her entire operation.
Not only would Zhang Xiaoyu not notice, but her swapping movements probably went unnoticed by everyone else.
However, what made the angle particularly tricky was that Sun Qingqing's entire series of cup-swapping movements were clearly reflected in the mirror behind her, which Xiao He then clearly saw through his own mirror reflecting that mirror's image... truly a reflection within a reflection.
Xiao He wasn't quite sure now whether his "criminal halo" was attracting similar incidents, or if this girl was just that unlucky, with the mirror reflection angles aligning so perfectly that he could see everything clearly.
Even the makeup artist working on Xiao He didn't notice this scene.
Xiao He felt somewhat helpless.
What kind of situation is this!
Just yesterday he was muttering with Sister Liu, hoping these crew members would behave themselves recently until that tattletale—ahem, that Assistant Director returns, so these people wouldn't dare make big moves.
And now look—these guys probably got wind of the news and want to cause trouble before that, afraid of missing their chance, right?
Xiao He rubbed his forehead.
—What a hassle.
"Xiao Chen—"
Xiao He called for Xiao Chen.
Xiao Chen was sitting on a small stool not far away and immediately jogged over upon hearing Xiao He's call.
"There's quite a bit of trash around these makeup tables. Could you tidy up a bit?" Xiao Chen scanned the area and blinked at Xiao Chen. "If you see unused tissues, paper cups, or water bottles on the tables, please throw them away, and prepare new water bottles. Be careful not to discard anything others need."
Anyway, most people had already left the makeup room, and this area would be cleaned up later anyway. Having Xiao Chen handle it a bit earlier now wouldn't seem too abrupt.
Xiao Chen didn't quite understand Brother Xiao's intention, but his strength was asking few questions and doing more work, so he promptly agreed: "Okay, Brother Xiao."
His movements were very efficient as he directly picked up a nearby trash bag and began cleaning up the miscellaneous items in the area.
Xiao Chen was quite careful in his work. If there were many items on a makeup table, he would ask the nearby makeup artist, but if the table was relatively tidy, clearly already organized by the makeup artist, he would directly clean up the leftover water bottles and paper cups.
Xiao He watched him clean his way through until he finally stopped at the makeup table diagonally behind him.
The makeup artist waiting for Zhang Xiaoyu and Sun Qingqing had just moved over from another makeup table and was reorganizing her makeup kit. Xiao Chen casually asked her about the paper cups on the table, and the makeup artist glanced at them before shaking her head, assuming they were left by previous people.
So Xiao Chen directly collected the paper cups and didn't forget to replace them with new water bottles.
When Zhang Xiaoyu and Sun Qingqing returned, they discovered their paper cups were gone, replaced instead by water bottles.
"Where's my water?"
Sun Qingqing's expression changed slightly when she saw the missing paper cups, her voice unconsciously rising.
Xiao Chen, who was distributing water bottles one by one, stopped his task upon hearing the commotion and hurried over to apologize.
"Sorry about that, I had my assistant change them."
Xiao He's lazy voice came from behind them.
Sun Qingqing froze for a moment before immediately turning to look.
Xiao He didn't turn to face them, instead making eye contact through his makeup mirror, wearing a slightly perfunctory apologetic expression: "I noticed there's quite a lot of powder flying around during makeup here. If any dirty stuff falls into the paper cups, drinking from them wouldn't be very hygienic, so I had my assistant help replace them with water bottles. You don't mind, do you?"
And if you do mind? Keep it to yourselves.
Hearing Xiao He's seemingly concerned words, Zhang Xiaoyu felt somewhat flattered and immediately replied gratefully: "It's fine, it's fine, we don't mind. Thank you so much, Brother Xiao! You're so thoughtful to notice such details."
"Just happened to notice, that's all."
Xiao He smiled, then looked at Sun Qingqing with slightly cold eyes: "How about you? You don't mind, do you?"
Meeting Xiao He's shadowy gaze, Sun Qingqing broke out in cold sweat.
Wasn't Xiao He's implication clear that he had seen everything!
He actually saw?
Sun Qingqing's gaze fell on the makeup mirror in front of Xiao He, then she suddenly turned to look in the direction of the makeup mirror where they had been earlier—
Damn it! Forgot about that mirror!
Xiao He must have seen everything!
Damn Xiao He, it's none of his business! Such a busybody!