WBSGVS Chapter 182V1

After that day, Qing Li officially entered the inner circle of the Chi family’s business empire. Father Chi and Mother Chi personally guided her every step of the way.

Because she was their daughter-in-law, she had a wedding just days after joining the company. They even invited all the employees from the corporate headquarters and booked out an entire restaurant for the celebration. Naturally, within the company, she met no resistance and easily gained real power.

Even though she was now busy managing the Chi Group, Qing Li didn’t loosen her grip on Tiansheng Entertainment. About a month after Mandate of Heaven began airing, Pursuit, starring Yi Xue—the actress who’d once stolen a role out from under her—also premiered.

The month before the premiere had been the promotional period. Coincidentally, Qing Li had just appeared on a popular variety show, gotten married, and Mandate of Heaven was enjoying rave reviews. Her name was trending everywhere. So the Pursuit PR team kept using her name and Mandate of Heaven for clout during their promotions.

Her agent was fuming and called to complain.

“She’s the boss now! Yi Xue’s out there cozying up to other companies, and we’re just letting it slide?”

Qing Li’s response was calm:
“Help them with the promotion. Be generous about it. Say Pursuit is a TV drama that far surpasses Mandate of Heaven.”

“What are you trying to do?”
The agent was suspicious.

It didn’t add up. Was Qing Li trying to boost Yi Xue’s popularity just so she could later let her rot in place, stuck with nowhere to go?

Qing Li chuckled.
“Did you forget what we heard earlier? Yi Xue brought in a new screenwriter halfway through filming. Let the audience’s expectations skyrocket. Once the show airs, they’ll see that riding my coattails wasn’t such a great idea after all.”

The agent hesitated.
“But the original novel was a hit. The plot’s solid, the female lead is compelling, and the romance is strong. I’m just worried…”

If this backfired, they’d look like fools.

Qing Li was firm.
“Just go with the plan.”

The agent had no choice but to carry out her orders. He immediately regretted tattling to the boss in the first place. To make sure the job was done right, he pulled out all the stops. Since Mandate of Heaven was a surprise spring-season hit and they were the main production company, they’d made a lot of money and had cash to spare.

The Pursuit team had been happily riding the wave of Mandate of Heaven’s buzz. When someone suddenly began helping them piggyback even more, they were a bit confused. But then word came from Yi Xue’s side:
“It’s probably Yi Xue’s doing—she’s on good terms with Tiansheng. Don’t worry about it.”

Reassured, the team continued full speed ahead with the promotion.

With the popular original novel as a foundation and such aggressive marketing, public expectations grew rapidly. In everyone’s mind, Pursuit was airing on a satellite TV network—it had to be better than Mandate of Heaven, right?

Anticipation was sky-high.

Then, after a month of hype, Pursuit finally aired.

Viewers’ reactions were basically: “???”

They were completely confused.

The plot felt familiar, but not quite right. It wasn’t clear if their memory was off or if the show had taken a wrong turn.

And that was just the beginning.

As more episodes aired, the differences from the original story became more glaring. Some parts were designed to show off the female lead’s coolness, some to spotlight the male lead. As a result, the plot was compressed, and to make room to explain one case clearly, they had to cut many important supporting character moments.

Worse still, this was supposed to be a female-centric drama.

But since the male lead was a high-traffic celebrity, his screen time had been massively increased. He’d gone from being a mild-mannered doctor to a genius-level psychiatrist assisting in solving crimes. Many of the female lead’s highlight moments were shifted to him.

Yi Xue couldn’t hold him back.

After the first case wrapped, the show’s reputation collapsed. Book fans who had tuned in for the original story were furious and left one-star reviews. New viewers who came in expecting a superior crime drama to Mandate of Heaven were disillusioned to find a series where the investigative aspect had been sidelined. Outrage exploded online. Fans of the male and female leads joined in—female fans were upset their idol barely had any screen time, while male fans fought to defend their guy. Full-on fan war ensued.

By the time the second case aired, ratings had plummeted. Streaming views also nosedived, and nothing could save the show.

The platforms that had bought the rights to air it were bleeding money.

Yi Xue had pinned all her hopes on this drama launching her into the A-list. She’d planned to use her new leverage to switch agencies and let her new backers pay the breach-of-contract fees.

But she waited… and waited… and watched the show’s rating drop to 4.5.

And that was only because some viewers were being kind, out of respect for the original novel.

The show flopping didn’t just ruin her chance at a breakout—it tanked her commercial value too. She’d turned down numerous jobs to avoid letting Tiansheng profit off her success.

Now it had all backfired.

Yi Xue was pale, trembling with fear, thinking she’d be shelved for good. She’d offended the boss, the show had bombed, and she had no bargaining power left.

Then she got her usual work schedule from her agent.

“???”
She was dumbfounded.

Her agent rolled his eyes.
“She’s your boss. As long as you keep working and making money, part of that profit goes to her. Just for that, she couldn’t care less about arguing with you.”

Yi Xue: “…”

Frustrated. Humiliated.

But the agent wasn’t wrong. Qing Li was the boss. So she could play the long game, completely out in the open. Yi Xue still had to work, because if she didn’t, her career was over.

So she worked.

But karma came for someone—Yi Yang was fired. He had tried to steal the boss’s man, and the boss wasn’t having it. If Yi Xue wanted him to keep working as her assistant, she would have to pay his salary.

Yi Xue felt like she’d swallowed a fly and couldn’t spit it out.