Chapter 451: Two Parallel Lines That Never Intersect

"Long time no see~"

Running into Shuangzi like this was genuinely pretty sudden.

Bai Liang had come to shoot a fashion magazine, but he never expected to bump into Shuangzi in the studio, who was also there to shoot a magazine.

This kind of chance encounter was very unusual.

Not that anyone was deliberately lying in wait for him or anything, but why on earth would Shuangzi come to shoot some fashion magazine?

Old Zhou had previously briefed Bai Liang on this: in showbiz, certain artists get collectively blacklisted by the entire fashion circle.

Shuangzi was, quite frankly, a textbook example.

To be precise, her case was pretty solid.

There were plenty of artists in the circle with no fashion resources, but with Shuangzi's level of fame, plus that face of hers — a classic innocent-flower beauty that could really pack a punch — she had somehow remained a complete fashion desert from '12 all the way to now, nearly seven years.

While other female artists were busy comparing who had collected more of the so-called "Five Big, Two Small" domestic women's magazines, and when they could achieve a Grand Slam.

Shuangzi was still stuck at zero!

Truly one of a kind — a scorpion's droppings, a single exclusive.

The reason for all this traces back to '12, when Shuangzi was shooting a cover for *Shopping Guide* — halfway through her makeup, she made an excuse to go to the restroom, and then simply never came back.

After the magazine's many compromises and failed negotiations, the editor in charge of the project blew up on Weibo, calling on peers to stay away from Shuangzi.

Back then, *Shopping Guide* could be called a top-tier weekly in the domestic fashion and entertainment field, once hailed as "China's No. 1 lifestyle and fashion weekly."

Shuangzi was never exactly a fashion darling to begin with, and after this stunt she instantly became a pariah in the fashion circle, with virtually no fashion output afterward.

The most outrageous part was her boyfriend at the time, the "Pond Master," who suddenly went full domineering CEO, posting on Weibo to angrily take on the magazine, declaring: "Chu Yuqian is not someone you can bully!"

Well, his fashion resources weren't much to speak of either.

And Shuangzi's move feels somewhat similar to that Wu Jinyan under Yu Zheng's wing, though Wu Jinyan seemed to go even harder — because she stood up CCTV's Sixth Princess.

Of course, Shuangzi was still the trailblazer on this track, and back then she even had a boyfriend "assisting"!

Classic her — always one step ahead at everything.

Just didn't expect she'd already been pulling this kind of stunt back in '12.

After the two exchanged greetings, Bai Liang gave Shuangzi a smile, then prepared to head off to work first.

The two weren't shooting for the same magazine, and their workspaces were in different studios.

But after only a few steps, Old Zhou started winking and making faces at Bai Liang.

Old Zhou: Liang-ge, look behind you.

Bai Liang:???

He glanced back and saw Shuangzi actually following him step for step.

"Huh? Are we going the same way?" Bai Liang didn't bother playing coy, asking quite directly.

Shuangzi was a straightforward person too, a strange smile on her face, then she shook her head and pointed in another direction. "Not the same way — I should be shooting my cover over there."

Bai Liang was a bit puzzled. "Then go ahead~"

"Don't feel like shooting." Shuangzi said without a second thought.

Good lord!

This left Bai Liang stunned, and Old Zhou beside him was completely dumbfounded, thinking this lady was way too freaking awesome!

No wonder seven years ago she got blacklisted by the entire fashion circle — this year she finally had a chance to break out of her fashion desert, and she couldn't care less about it.

Awesome!

But what impressed Old Zhou even more was that his own Liang-ge could chat so naturally with this kind of lunatic.

"Don't feel like shooting? Did you sign a contract?"

"I did~" Shuangzi said, swaying her head, seemingly quite pleased.

From Old Zhou's angle, her eyes seemed to be sparkling.

"You need to brush up on some basic legal common sense." Bai Liang said, shaking his head.

This made Shuangzi's brow crease instinctively, as if she was about to retort with something — but then she saw who was in front of her, paused, and chose to lower her head and quietly take the scolding.

Although Shuangzi wasn't quite as rebellious in front of Bai Liang, she obviously wasn't going to suddenly turn into an obedient little girl either.

So she came up with an idea: "I'm not great at shooting magazines — can I watch how you do it first?"

The excuse sounded weird even to her own ears; she was just wondering whether she should try to patch it up.

But Bai Liang actually nodded. "Sure."

Shuangzi: Huh?

While her assistant and the magazine side were going crazy searching for Shuangzi everywhere, this girl was sitting there completely at ease, watching Bai Liang work.

She'd even deliberately put her phone on silent~

Once Bai Liang got into work mode, he didn't really pay much attention to having an extra audience member beside him, but the others couldn't quite ignore Shuangzi's presence.

Right now, quite a few glances were a bit odd.

How to put it — Bai Liang and Shuangzi actually had no scandal between them; the two barely had any private interaction.

Let alone the media catching them on camera — the only time the two had a proper private meeting was when she fell down that one time.

At the time, Bai Liang had even called Hu Yanbing, that poor sap, to come clean up the mess, rather than handling it himself.

But not long after, Shuangzi published a book that instantly transformed the relationship between Bai Liang and her into that of a god and his follower.

Earlier, when Ou Hao looked at Bai Liang, his gaze was basically like seeing a kindred spirit — after all, he had a "follower" of his own too.

But if this kind of relationship stays at a certain distance, it's basically just entertainment.

Normally at most Shuangzi's fans would chatter about it; it wouldn't get to the point of not letting Bai Liang eat beef noodles, forcing him into a no-beef state over something like this.

Overall, keeping things this way was pretty good.

Not quite "forgetting each other across the rivers and lakes," but at least leaving each other alone, letting the relationship stay as an internet joke.

But once Shuangzi appeared beside Bai Liang, things started to feel a little off.

A god and his believers?

In certain circles, this kind of play even has a different name for it.

And as everyone knows, the fashion circle plays pretty wild~

Old Zhou's ears twitched, and he heard someone unable to hold back, standing there grinning and saying some strange things.

Stuff like "master" and "mommy" and the like

The more he listened, the darker his face grew, until he stood in front of those two—who knew if they were models or makeup artists—and said, "What did you just say?"

Old Zhou made quite a scene, and soon the magazine's person in charge came out.

The place was a bit of a ruckus for a while.

Bai Liang didn't really bother with it either—Old Zhou would handle it~

In this regard, just like how he trusted Sister Yanzi, leave professional matters to the professionals, just like Old Zhou himself bragged: no one understands the fashion circle better than him.

That line, stolen from President Chuan of the other shore of the ocean, seemed to come with a natural touch of humor.

But Old Zhou really does get it~ not the bragging kind—this guy who climbed up from the bottom of the fashion circle knows too well how all that messy stuff in this circle works.

And he also knows how to deal with these people.

As for Bai Liang, he figured he'd take the chance to rest a bit, and see what exactly was wrong with Shuangzi today.

"Did I cause you trouble?" Shuangzi glanced at the commotion over at Old Zhou's side and suddenly asked on her own initiative.

Bai Liang didn't bother being polite with her either, just nodded. "Yeah, but you yourself are trouble."

"Hey!" Hearing this, Shuangzi didn't feel ashamed but rather proud, and actually laughed out loud. "Then should I leave?"

"Sure."

Bai Liang agreed so readily, without the slightest hint of trying to keep her, successfully making Shuangzi emo, and also leaving her speechless, not knowing what to say.

But in her heart, she was thinking: he's really different from everyone else.

Just as the two were interacting, Shuangzi's assistant and the person in charge of her magazine shoot finally caught up.

The moment they saw her, they both seemed to let out a sigh of relief.

Oh thank god.

Halfway through the magazine shoot, not answering calls, just vanishing—anyone would think she was about to repeat that sudden-disappearance stunt from back in the day.

Any normal person wouldn't pull something like this, but she's Shuangzi—nothing she does is surprising.

"Sis, let's go back and shoot the magazine."

"Don't bother me." Shuangzi just waved her hand, frowning.

The assistant was quick-witted though, and looked at Bai Liang with a pitiful expression: Bro, save me.

Bai Da Guanshin was kind-hearted; faced with such a plea, he naturally wouldn't turn a blind eye, and stepped right up. "Go get back to work, stop being an eyesore around me."

"Then should I come find you after I finish shooting?"

"Why would you come find me?"

"Whatever."

Bai Liang:???

Honestly, if he weren't speaking but typing, and his pronunciation were accurate, he'd probably suspect he'd expressed something off.

Luckily, the expressions of the people around told him: what he said was fine.

You could only say that sometimes Shuangzi's train of thought is as bizarre as Meng Jie's.

But the direction of these two's trains of thought isn't quite the same—Meng Jie is the type who looks very shrewd but does nothing but silly things, and after seeing it enough you actually start to find her kind of cute.

As for Shuangzi, she's genuinely a bit unhinged~ sometimes you can't tell at all whether she's doing it on purpose or by accident.

A silly-cute little green tea and a crazy little white lotus—these two styles are completely different.

Without Shuangzi's disturbance, Bai Liang's work afterward went much more smoothly.

And Old Zhou, after dealing with a few idiots who didn't know who they were messing with and ran their mouths, was just hoping he could make his escape soon.

Shuangzi was basically like a ticking time bomb—although he had full confidence in his good brother Liang, a woman like this... Old Zhou also found her damn hard to handle.

If it wasn't necessary, better not to challenge this kind of high-difficulty boss.

But honestly, in front of Bai Liang, Shuangzi's level of craziness seemed to have dialed down quite a bit.

Just now, when she was sitting there quietly, that little-white-lotus look of hers was actually quite the eye-catcher.

Such a pretty Miss, how did she end up "crazy"?

"Sis, Teacher Bai's side doesn't seem to welcome us."

Shuangzi's assistant carefully reminded her at this point, seemingly afraid she'd cause some new incident.

But Shuangzi herself tilted her head, pondering something, then suddenly laughed out loud again, especially brightly.

Honestly, the assistant Miss felt that if she could always be like this, her reputation online would probably be a lot better.

But then Shuangzi suddenly looked at her and asked: "Don't you think he's the same kind of person as me?"

Assistant:???

Oh no, she's really lost it.

Bai Liang online, apart from a bit of scandal, had a reputation so good it was ridiculous, but Shuangzi's words... her reputation and public standing were only visible to fans.

"Mm, pretty much~" the assistant said vaguely.

She couldn't not answer—Shuangzi was staring right at her.

And hearing this, Shuangzi was quite pleased: "I think so too! Look, he also clashed with the production team on the show."

Damn!

The assistant almost wanted to curse—how could that be the same?

Bai Liang only spoke up because the production team had safety issues, and he didn't even get angry—just became a bit more serious.

Everyone knows his temper is as stable as a capybara.

But Shuangzi's authenticity on various shows is praised by fans, yet hard for outsiders to judge.

She finally caught Bai Liang "acting diva-like" on a show, and immediately found her "common ground."

No one knows how she managed it.

Anyway, when Bai Liang finished shooting with high efficiency, she was already waiting beside him.

Don't ask—ask and you'll just hear "it's done."

The editor of her magazine issue didn't look happy at all.

But what could you do? She's Shuangzi.

At least, she completed the shoot and didn't walk off halfway.

She wasn't trying to cling to Bai Liang for anything—she just seemed to want to talk to him a few words, then left happily.

As soon as she left, Lao Zhou couldn't hold back anymore.

"Brother Liang, what were you two talking about just now?"

"Just small talk. She asked if I'm going to the Weibo Night this year, then said her resources are pretty good—maybe we'll collaborate later."

"Her resources are pretty good?"

Lao Zhou was baffled—were Shuangzi's resources really that good?

A quick check revealed the truth.

Shuangzi never had fashion resources before, but that's ancient history now—her fashion resources have exploded!

Lao Zhou heard that multiple top-tier magazines are already arranging covers for her, and her film and TV resources seem to be going off-kilter too.

If you want to know exactly what's going on, you'd better ask Sister Yanzi.

Sister Yanzi: Simple, let me check.

She hadn't paid attention to Shuangzi, that crazy little white flower, for a long time, thinking the two were parallel lines with no intersection.

But now it seemed something was off.

Feng Xiaogang, who previously had zero connection with her, invited her to the premiere of *If Yun Knew*.

Even when introducing her to others, he said, "This is my new friend."

Feng Xiaogang even left a comment under Shuangzi's Weibo: "Too many people at the premiere, couldn't take good care of you."

This attitude was practically groveling!

Combine that with Zhao Baogang's awkward praise of Shuangzi's acting in *Youth Wars*, calling it "explosive"—these guys all seemed drugged.

It wasn't hard to investigate—Sister Yanzi figured it out the same day.

"So she's connected with the Beijing circle."

More precisely, Shuangzi linked up with Beiwen—perhaps her traffic value caught capital's eye.

Beiwen has been famous in the industry these past few years, investing in *Wolf Warrior 2*, *Dying to Survive*, *The Wandering Earth*, and the newly launched project *Hi, Li Huanying*.

Oh, and they're also preparing a *Fengshen Trilogy*, claiming they'll spend 3 billion to produce it.

This is definitely a film company that rapidly rose to the top tier—its stock once surged 300%, and its market cap neared 20 billion.

Beiwen also backed Shuangzi's recently completed *A Chinese Ghost Story*.

Sister Yanzi thought it over, connected the timing of Shuangzi's entry into the Beijing circle with events from that period,

and drew this conclusion:

"Damn, are they trying to launch a second Fan Bingbing?"

"Huh?"

Bai Liang hadn't expected Sister Yanzi to come up with such a summary.

"Her backers are that powerful?"

"They're definitely capable of promoting her—but Shuangzi's like a time bomb. They've got real guts," Sister Yanzi couldn't help remarking.

Sister Yanzi had dealt with Beiwen before; their companies even co-invested in many projects.

But their methods were quite different.

Beiwen operated as classic capital, while Sister Yanzi—more precisely, Bai Liang's company—started purely as an artist studio, but over these years had already gained the credentials to become capital itself.

Many capital firms had long offered olive branches to Bai Liang's company, but this "hardcore" guy just acted like, "I'm too lazy to play with you guys."

Why bother with stock market manipulation to get rich?

Nonsense~

So many in the film capital circle sighed when mentioning Bai Liang: "This kid's sitting on a mountain of gold and refuses to dig."

So the question is—now that Shuangzi's linked with Beiwen, is she really about to take off?

"Brother Bai, I've got a feeling Beiwen's company is off somehow," Sister Yanzi said hesitantly.

Bai Liang: "Huh~ impressive, Yanzi!"

Shuangzi's a time bomb? Funny—Beiwen's company is too, especially its controller, Song Ge.

Who'd have thought this big shot stirring up the film capital world would be heading to prison soon?

Ultimately, it traces back to last year's tax earthquake.

During the era of hot money in film, both capital and filmmakers went mad—capital's maneuvers had long planted bombs.

So which will explode first—Shuangzi or Beiwen? Hard to say.

It feels like both are gambling.

Thinking about it, Big Mi Mi is truly amazing—so far, it seems she's the only one who actually won in these capital gambles.

In the end, Sister Yanzi's small advice to Bai Liang was: better stay far away from Shuangzi, that bomb.

She was already crazy, and now she's stuck together with Beiwen, that pressure cooker—no one knows when she might pull off a second Fan Fan Bingbing incident.

Of course, Sister Yanzi only offers advice; her little Bai brother has his own plans.

Either way, she won't get the short end of the stick.

As for Shuangzi's hope of meeting again at the Weibo Night event—it won't cause any stir.

At that kind of event, even if she went twice as wild, she still wouldn't be able to "break through the encirclement."

Because the voting results for Weibo Queen have been announced.

Double win!

The two new Jiang sisters were utterly tied; to avoid offending either side or their fans, Weibo had no choice but to grit its teeth and declare a double win.

With those two standing right next to Bai Liang, would Shuangzi still dare to approach?

Sister Yanzi: Oh no! How did I ever think of her as normal? She might actually do it!

(End of Chapter)