Chapter 17: My Head Was Buzzing

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Ever since her troubles had been cleared up, Zhou Ying had been busier than ever. Even after two days had passed, she was still running herself ragged, so busy that the two of them could barely exchange a word.

Although Qi Fei had now been cleared of suspicion, her contract was still in the hands of Santu Entertainment, which meant she was technically still unemployed.

She was no longer the clueless newcomer who had just arrived in this world. If she wanted to find work, she had to obtain a contract termination agreement. Without one, she could not accept jobs behind the company’s back.

Santu Entertainment was currently too busy dealing with its own troubles to remember her, but that might not last. The contract was a hidden danger, and she needed to get it back as soon as possible.

Otherwise, she had no idea when they might trick her again.

As the saying went, the moment you worried about something, it happened.

When Zhou Ying returned that afternoon, she brought Qi Fei some news. Before Qi Fei’s scandal had erupted, the agency had signed her on for a web drama and a livestream sales event. What made Qi Fei even angrier was that she would not be paid a cent. They were expecting her to work for free.

Zhou Ying had only learned about this when she went to the company to discuss Qi Fei’s contract. She had called both parties to verify it, and it was indeed true.

The contracts had been signed just a few days before Qi Fei’s scandal broke. It was obvious that this had been planned in advance.

She had looked over the contracts herself. The jobs had been arranged for Qi Fei privately by her manager, but the contracts were legally valid.

Qi Fei had been in such a poor state before that no one had mentioned them. Now that her name had been cleared, both parties had naturally come looking for her.

After Zhou Ying explained everything to her, Qi Fei felt as though darkness was closing in around her. The frustration was unbearable. In all her life, she had never suffered such a tremendous loss.

She had known the original owner’s company was shameless, but she had never imagined it could sink so low. Not only had they joined forces to frame the original owner, they had also taken the opportunity to cheat her one last time before her career collapsed. They were determined to squeeze every last bit of value out of her.

The most infuriating part was that, even though she knew she had been set up, she still had no choice but to fulfill the contracts.

“Can’t I just refuse to acknowledge them?” They had not been signed by her personally. Accepting them without question was simply too maddening.

“You can.”

Before Qi Fei could celebrate, Zhou Ying continued, “You’ll just have to pay the penalty.”

At the mention of those three words, Qi Fei’s head began to buzz. Was she destined to be haunted by contract penalties for the rest of her life?

She had sold everything of value, including her house, and had only barely scraped together enough to pay the previous penalty. Where was she supposed to find the money for another one now?

She drew a deep breath.

When you are beneath another person’s roof, you have to bow your head. No matter how unwilling she was, she could only accept the conclusion: this was a loss she would have to swallow.

Seeing Qi Fei’s long face, as though she had just eaten something revolting, Zhou Ying felt a little sorry for her—but she truly could not hold back her laughter. She tried to comfort her. “The contracts have already been signed.”

“Besides, we aren’t the only ones who got cheated. The web drama production team was duped too.”

Santu Entertainment had not only tricked Qi Fei; it had also dragged the web drama’s production team into the mess. If Qi Fei had not been capable of clearing her own name, then with her reputation in tatters, both sides would have had no choice but to accept the loss.

Since Qi Fei had no intention of leaving show business, she would have to fulfill the contract even knowing she had been set up. Most importantly, they simply could not afford the penalty.

With so many debts hanging over her, and knowing how much money there was to be made in the entertainment industry, Qi Fei naturally had no intention of quitting.

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Since she had no plans to quit, using the web drama as a stepping stone and a chance to gain some experience was not a bad choice.

As for her acting skills, she honestly was not worried in the slightest. In the early days, a woman’s ability to survive steadily in the apocalypse depended almost entirely on her acting. After all these years, her skill had long since reached perfection.

In fact, shortly after arriving in this world, she had wondered what she could do—what kind of work she could find to support herself.

But once she placed murder and breaking the law at the top of the list, she realized that, aside from killing people, she seemed to know how to do nothing at all. In the end, acting appeared to be the only job available to her.

Even though she did not know much about it, she understood that the acting skills honed through surviving the apocalypse and acting in films or television were two entirely different things. For now, using a web drama for practice seemed like a decent option.

After thinking it through, she did feel much better.

“When does filming start?”

That was what Qi Fei cared about most. After all, she still had important matters to deal with.

“I’ve already contacted the director. They’ll get in touch with us ahead of time before filming begins. But there’s one more thing…”

“Tell me.”

Zhou Ying fell silent.

Seeing how hard Qi Fei was trying to suppress her anger, she hurriedly added, “The livestream starts in five days.”

Only then did Qi Fei learn that the company seeking her for the livestream was a domestic laundry-detergent manufacturer. With sales so poor that it was on the verge of bankruptcy, hiring a celebrity spokesperson was its last desperate struggle. Who could have guessed that Santu Entertainment would cheat them as well?

Qi Fei did not care whether the company was domestic or whether it went bankrupt. She was already struggling to take care of herself.

When the scandal had first broken out, everyone she knew had cut off contact with her, afraid that staying close would get them dragged into the disaster.

Whether it was the livestream or the web drama, no one had said a word after Qi Fei’s downfall, even though the contracts had already been signed. Now that her name had just been cleared, they had immediately come looking for her.

Zhou Ying, however, was in an entirely different mood. She was nothing but excited.

Although it was only a livestream, and Qi Fei would not even be paid, it would be her first public appearance since the scandal.

Zhou Ying had already made up her mind. She was going to make sure Qi Fei dazzled everyone.

Qi Fei herself did not care whether she dazzled anyone. At present, she only wanted to settle these matters as quickly as possible. Otherwise, every day felt as though she had a time bomb resting on her head.

As long as the contract remained in someone else’s hands, they held her by the throat, and she would have no freedom.

Listening to Zhou Ying ramble on beside her, Qi Fei simply collapsed onto the sofa.

The grudge against the scumbag man and the vile woman who had framed the original owner had been settled, but her feud with the entertainment company’s boss was not over yet. As things stood, whether she could obtain evidence of his crimes would depend entirely on what he did next.

Qi Fei hated the feeling of having no control over the situation.

Back in the apocalypse, she had looked forward every day to the end of the disaster. Yet now that she had truly left the apocalypse and arrived in a world governed by law, she found herself constrained at every turn.

If this had happened in the apocalypse, she would not have needed evidence. As long as she was certain the person was responsible, Qi Fei would have led her companions straight to his door. No one would have been able to hold her fate in their hands, and anyone who tried to threaten her into accepting work would have ended up with weeds growing three meters high over their grave.

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She let out a soft sigh.

No matter how much she wished otherwise, this was not the apocalypse. The methods she had once used would not work here. Unless she wanted to spend the rest of her life on the run, she could not stain her hands with another human life.

Just after dinner, a message appeared on Qi Fei’s computer.

The hacker had never expected that the woman’s guess would prove correct. There really were two sets of account books. What shocked him even more was their contents, which were truly horrifying.

By then, the hacker had begun to suspect that Qi Fei might be working for the government.

He had discovered that the company not only used dual contracts, but might also be involved in money laundering.

And the deeper he dug, the more alarmed he became.

If his employer had not been backing him up, he would have stopped investigating long ago. This was not something the owner of an entertainment company could accomplish alone. There might well be someone behind the scenes whom they absolutely could not afford to offend.

[All the files have been sent to you. My work is done.]

[You knew this company was suspected of money laundering, so that is why you had me steal the account books?]

Qi Fei: “...?”

“You”? Qi Fei had no idea what the hacker had imagined, but she did not bother correcting him.

After the chat window disappeared, she noticed that two new folders had appeared on her desktop.

And that was it.

Wait. Why had he not mentioned payment?

Only then did Qi Fei realize that the chat window was gone.

She did not believe the world contained such a thing as a free lunch.

But it was already too late to ask the hacker. She would ask Tong Sheng about it later. He had been helping her, after all, so she had to pay him herself.

She could think of no other explanation. Once she had reached that conclusion, she stopped dwelling on it.

Looking at the files she had received, Qi Fei could not say that she understood only a little. She understood absolutely nothing.

Not understanding them did not stop her from printing them out, however.

Holding the documents in her hands, Qi Fei hesitated for a moment before adding Tong Sheng on WeChat through the group.

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