Now that this year's Sommet International Film Festival was officially over, Iris Long and Jin Liwei along with the others were making their way home. Many were looking forward to their triumphant return and were constantly on the lookout for any updates about them.
This was especially true for Iris Long and Yin Meixing, the two women who brought the greatest honours to their country from the prestigious international film festival. It felt like they won the two awards for all the Chinese people. The news kept on featuring the two women. As a result, their prestige in their respective fields grew so much in just a day. And it only continued to grow as more and more people talked about them on the streets or online.
The general public's attitude was mostly proud, excited and enthusiastic. However, the attitude in the country's high society was the exact opposite. These haughty creatures, who always thought that they were better than everyone else, disdained Iris Long's constant news features.
"She's going to be so full of herself again," they said.
"I don't even know what the judges in that competition were thinking in choosing Iris Long to be the winner. I hated the music in that depressing movie! Every time I hear it, I become depressed!"
After belittling her achievements, these members of high society would then go on to say that no matter how successful Iris Long was becoming lately, she could never be a suitable partner for someone as powerful as Jin Liwei.
Who was Jin Liwei?
He was the current President-CEO of Jin Corporation, the number one company in the country. He was also a billionaire on a global scale with power and influence that reached far and wide not only in the country but also abroad, especially in Asia. He was a formidable man who should deserve only the best in everything, including a wife.
But who was Iris Long?
A celebrity with a beautiful face and sexy body.
A multi-award winning musician.
So what? She only started winning awards earlier this year. What if this year was a fluke and she couldn't repeat her musical success in the next few years?
A genius polyglot. A skilled translator and interpreter.
Fine, they would give her that. Indeed, she displayed her talents and skills in languages in the recent international business conference. Her language skills shone once again during the Sommet International Film Festival.
However, it was extremely unfortunate how foolish she was for not pursuing a career in translation instead. Yes, she would do some freelance translations on the side for Long Industries and Jin Corporation, but her showbiz career remained her main priority. What a stupid decision! If only she would abandon her showbiz career for a more stable career in the field of business translations, then she would become a little more suitable for Jin Liwei. Only a little bit, though. To the envious members of high society, she would still be quite not good enough for Jin Liwei.
This kind of disparaging attitude among the members of high society towards Iris Long was fueled by rumours saying that some Jin branch families were very unhappy with her as their next Madam.
"Iris Long? She's too young! Only twenty-one. She's basically still a teenager! Will she even be able to fulfill all the duties and responsibilities associated with being the madam of us, the Jins, the current number one business family in the country?" a member of a Jin branch family was heard saying to some of his friends.
"Someone like Miss Rose Young is a far better match to our family head than that young celebrity. Miss Rose is successful and holds a high executive level position in Jin Corporation, not to mention that she's around the same age as the family head. What's more, she gets along to many of us in the branch families. She's perfect for the family head and is more suitable to become the next madam than that Iris Long," another was heard saying.
These disgruntled members of the Jin branch families were close to Rose Young's maternal family. They were also the one who pushed for her promotion as the next CMO of Jin Corporation. It was only natural that they preferred her to become their next madam than Iris Long who always had a bad reputation in high society since a long time ago. In addition to this, if Rose Young married Jin Liwei and became the next madam, it was almost a sure thing that she would elevate their branch families' status within the Jin clan because of their support for her.
With the mother and daughter's recent rise to prominence abroad during the Sommet International Film Festival, many members of high society stewed in envy, resentment and hatred towards the two.
These deep-rooted bias against both Iris Long and Wei Lan would be difficult to change. The two would need to achieve something phenomenal in order to sway their opinions of them. Something that would make these snobs make them eat their own words.
It would be easier for Wei Lan because she had the Spanish nobility backing her. China's high society might be haughty but they didn't want to lose face and offend any member of the Spanish nobility.
For Iris Long, however, it was more difficult. She needed to reach Jin Liwei's level first before she would be openly accepted by high society as a suitable match for him.
Could she do it?
They doubted it.