The Tigress cursed Xiao Rongrong, her choice of words becoming increasingly nasty in her seemingly never-ending rant. But her voice eventually faded away as the men dragged her out of the set.
Even after the Tigress had left, no one moved to help Xiao Rongrong cover up. Her pale, naked flesh remained exposed for everyone to see; even the men began to find the sight repulsive.
Ke-chack! Suddenly, there was the sound of a camera shutter.
Yi Ling quickly pulled Yan Huan around a corner, and then lifted her coat to shield Yan Huan’s face with it, in case someone was trying to take unauthorized photos of her..
Director Zheng jumped out of his skin when he heard the camera shutter. He immediately stepped in front of Xiao Rongrong to shield her from view; some distance away, a young man realized that he had been discovered, and took off with his camera. He was a tall, lanky man who seemed to be a professional paparazzi; he ran like the wind, and was gone before the director had a chance to yell: “Get him!”
Luo Lin finally emerged from the resting room, looking groggy. She slapped herself on the head a few times to clear it. Her jaw dropped when she saw Xiao Rongrong lying naked on the floor, but she was a professional manager who knew how to deal with every situation: she removed her coat and hurried to cover Xiao Rongrong with it. After that, she called for several of the production staff to help carry the actress into the resting room so that the doctor on the production team would be able to check her injuries.
Luo Lin hugged her head in despair; she hoped that she would not have to take Xiao Rongrong to the hospital. She had to be discreet, or risk having Xiao Rongrong become famous for all the wrong reasons.
But it was too late: the following day, Xiao Rongrong had become famous in the whole country, thanks to her high-resolution nude photo, which left nothing to the imagination. Every single person in the country—over 1 billion people—had seen Xiao Rongrong in her birthday suit.
It was game over for Xiao Rongrong.
The scandal was a massive headache for Luo Lin, but her troubles were nothing compared to Director Zheng’s—how was he supposed to continue shooting his show now? It was impossible to get another actress to replace Xiao Rongrong so late in the game, but he knew could not keep Xiao Rongrong on the project either.
He had no choice but to continue with the shoot. He mentally kicked himself for casting Xiao Rongrong as the female lead, and then again for not switching her out as soon as he realized she was incompetent and a huge liability to the production.
But Xiao Rongrong’s scandal brought about certain benefits as well: the more discussion it generated, the more publicity it created for the show. In fact, the show had become the talk of the town before it had gone on air, or even finished filming.
Director Zheng was not happy about it, however. He would gladly give the “extra publicity” to any other director who wanted it. He found it horrifically embarrassing to have his ambitious, big-budget project become famous overnight because of the female lead’s scandalous news.
There was a doctor among the production crew, on standby to deal with accidents on the set. The doctor checked Xiao Rongrong’s injuries, and declared that she was not seriously injured: she had merely fainted due to the force of the Tigress’s slaps.
In truth, the doctor suspected that the actress may have fainted from anger because no one had rushed to her aid, but he kept his suspicions to himself.
The doctor’s assumptions were correct, but he had actually underestimated the number of enemies Xiao Rongrong had made.
She had sabotaged a large number of actresses over the years, but had never suffered any consequences for her actions until now, because none of her earlier victims had been as fortunate as Yan Huan. In fact, if Yan Huan did not have Lu Yi looking out for her, she would have sunk like a ship as well, never to resurface in showbiz.