WBSGVS Chapter 222 V1

Su Zhen was momentarily speechless. He didn’t doubt whether his sister was telling the truth—he just felt a little guilty, so he didn’t have much confidence in his tone.
“Su Yan’s still just a kid. Sure, he messed up, but did you have to demand that much in penalty fees? Forty million!”

“Being twenty-seven or twenty-eight is still pretty young,” Qingli commented with a sigh.

“Su Qingli!” Su Zhen shouted, his face turning red with embarrassment.

Qingli gave a playful tsk-tsk and an innocent smile.
“I didn’t think he’d pay it. I just wanted him to admit he was wrong and back down. I didn’t expect him to fork over that much money for Zhao Muyun, someone he’s only known for a month. Maybe that’s what they call love.”

Su Zhen’s temples throbbed with frustration. He was boiling inside but couldn’t let it out. Gritting his teeth, he could only ask weakly,
“So… Qingli, is there any way you could return the penalty fee?”

Qingli shook her head.
“Nope. The money has already gone into the production account. If I just pulled it out at will, that’d be illegal.”

“What!” Su Zhen panicked.
“Then can I get Su Yan back as the male lead?”

“Bro, it’s too late for that. Do you know how many people were fighting for that role? The moment he left, the producer signed someone new. There’s nothing I can do now.”
Qingli looked like she was helpless, but her face was all smiles, clearly enjoying stringing him along.

So this was the family the original Qingli cared so much about.

It had already been hours since the incident, and the whole family clearly knew what Su Yan had done. They also knew how badly their daughter/sister had been treated, but not a single person had asked how she was doing.

Qingli didn’t know how the original’s parents would react, but judging by how they always expected her to support her brother no matter what, they weren’t the type to treat their children equally.

Perfect. Now she didn’t need to care about the original’s family anymore.

Su Zhen, meanwhile, was still stewing in regret—only now, his anger was directed at Su Yan. He didn’t understand the entertainment industry, but he did know his sister’s scripts were in high demand. How could Su Yan just toss aside such a golden opportunity for someone he’d only just met? He must’ve lost his mind.

When Su Zhen could no longer form coherent sentences, his wife, Xu Fang, grabbed the phone and spoke with a cheerful tone.
“Qingli, this whole mess is Su Yan’s fault. Don’t take it to heart, okay? I’ll make him apologize to you later. That silly boy must’ve been fooled by that woman. When it comes down to it, of course, he’ll choose his aunt over some outsider.”

“Oh, sure,” Qingli replied sweetly, already getting ready to hang up.

She didn’t want to argue with this family—what would be the point? That little back-and-forth had only been to test their personalities and stir the pot a bit.

But Xu Fang quickly added,
“Also, I heard you and your husband fought? Your brother-in-law called us—said he knew he was wrong. But airing out marital problems like that in public… it’s embarrassing. As your sister-in-law, I just have to say: you’re married. Don’t go overboard.”

That was how Xu Fang felt.

Men, after all, were the pillars of the household. Keeping their pride intact was important—even though Su Zhen was a bit of a pushover, she still made sure to respect him in public.

In her opinion, Qingli had been downright stupid—she’d stomped all over her husband’s pride. If her brother-in-law were some nobody, then fine. But He Tianzhuo was a famous director! Their son, Su Yan, still needed to rely on him in the future. The last thing she wanted was a falling-out between the two families.

Qingli looked genuinely surprised.
“Really? I thought the comments under my Weibo were all pretty sympathetic. Looks fine to me.”

Xu Fang didn’t get it. Why was her sister-in-law acting so clueless today? She snapped,
“What’s fine about it? You think He Tianzhuo isn’t humiliated? You’re the one who has to live with him. If he starts holding a grudge, you think your life’s gonna be easy?”

Qingli smiled.
“Don’t be so sure about that. Plenty of loving couples end up divorced. Right now we’re just putting on appearances. For all we know, we might get divorced tomorrow.”

“You want a divorce?” Xu Fang gasped.
“No, no, no—that would be way too humiliating! And besides, what did he do wrong? He just didn’t want you to change the female lead. He’s the director—normally, he’d be attached after a month of filming!”

Qingli replied seriously,
“That’s not the issue. The issue is, he’s not even a real man anymore. What do I need him for—just to keep pretending day after day?”

Xu Fang’s face turned red. She tried to reason with her gently.
“You two have been together for years. Why get hung up on something like that?”

Qingli raised an eyebrow.
“Then, how about I slip something into my brother’s drink and make him like He Tianzhuo? Could you accept that?”

“Of course not!” Xu Fang snapped without thinking.

Snort.

Qingli let out a short laugh. Xu Fang’s face turned crimson again, her scalp prickling. She rushed to end the call.
“You’ve been married so long—no need to get a divorce over this. And if you do, it’ll ruin our parents’ reputation. You’ll be out of the family!”

Then she hung up quickly, terrified Qingli might say something else she couldn’t respond to.

As soon as she did, she fired off a message to He Tianzhuo:

[Brother-in-law, Qingli’s pissed this time. Everyone’s siding against her, and she still hasn’t backed down.]

As for the whole “divorce” thing, she didn’t mention it.

She might not think of Su Qingli as one of her own, but she wasn’t dumb. If those two got divorced, He Tianzhuo would cut the family off completely. Their only chance at maintaining a connection was through Qingli.

On the other end, when He Tianzhuo saw the word “hasn’t backed down” glaring on the screen, his chest tightened. He rubbed his forehead and sighed, giving up on hoping the Su family could help him at all. He turned to his assistant, throat hoarse with irritation after a full day of stress.
“Did we get the trending topic suppressed?”

“It’s down,” the assistant said, visibly relieved.

From the moment he opened his eyes this morning, he’d been handling this mess. After hours of PR work, the buzz finally started to die down, mainly because everyone who wanted to see it had already seen it. Today’s drama was one for the books.

He Tianzhuo exhaled deeply.

Earlier that morning, once he realized the trending tag couldn’t be buried, he had someone leak his medical records to the media. The doctor’s report confirmed he had recovered physically.

The reason he hadn’t touched Su Qingli was simply because—well, they were like an old married couple. He didn’t want to risk complications, so he kept to himself.

But the moment that report dropped, things went from bad to worse. Some had previously speculated Qingli had faked everything to ruin his image, but now? Now it looked totally real. His comment section was flooded with mockery—he couldn’t block people fast enough.

He deleted the post in a panic and started dumping money into scrubbing the topic from the web. All the while, he kept asking himself why the hell he’d gotten involved in the first place.

But now, it was too late.

He really should’ve just stayed out of it.

With him and Su Yan both gone, finding a new male lead wouldn’t be easy.

Meanwhile…

It wasn’t just He Tianzhuo who was panicking.

In any production, the lead actor and director are critical.

He had assumed shooting would be paused for at least two days. But to his shock, that very afternoon, everyone got the notice: filming would resume as normal the next day. Everyone is back in position.

Producer Zhang was stunned.

When he asked again about the new director and lead actors, the only answer he got was: “You’ll find out tomorrow.”

Zhang, the producer, couldn’t stop thinking about it all night. His mind ran through all the familiar faces in the entertainment industry, eliminating one after another. Most of the suitable directors were already booked. As for the lead roles, there were plenty of options, so he wasn’t too worried about that. The real mystery was the director—he couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out who it could be.

Filming was scheduled to start at 8 a.m., but most of the crew usually arrived around six to prepare. Zhang made a point to get up just after seven and head over early. He wanted to be there the moment the mystery was revealed.