"The Brocade Zither Scandal" had been released, but due to the scandalous allegations Lin Shu's agency had publicized in their blacklist announcement, the highly anticipated big-budget drama received almost no promotion. It ended up streaming on a second-tier platform.
For the first few days, it barely made a ripple.
Then, on the seventh day, a two-minute clip suddenly went viral across multiple platforms.
In the footage, Su Qianqian, playing the role of a courtesan, danced with ethereal grace, her movements as delicate as willow branches swaying in the wind.
The clip was simply captioned: #Which rookie actress plays a courtesan this mesmerizing?#
Likes skyrocketed past 100,000 in no time.
[Holy crap? Her poise is unreal.]
[Stunning! Someone get me this girl’s info in three minutes!]
[She’s Su Qianqian, a new face from Shen Media.]
……
The hype kept growing.
The hashtag #SuQianqianCourtesan soon climbed to the lower ranks of trending topics.
Brother Wang’s phone was ringing off the hook—every call was about booking Su Qianqian’s schedule.
As he fielded inquiries, he marveled at the data.
The drama had nearly been shelved because of Lin Shu’s fallout, but Gu Chengyu refused to let Su Qianqian’s hard work go to waste and pushed for its release with a single command.
They’d expected, at best, a minor splash. Yet here they were, riding the wave of a rookie’s breakout moment from just a few minutes of screen time.
At the Cloudcrest Apartments, Su Qianqian was curled up on the sofa, idly flipping through a new script, her legs swinging playfully.
Gu Chengyu sat beside her, reviewing reports on his tablet, when he suddenly plucked the script from her hands. “Enough reading. Rest your eyes.”
She let out a soft “Ah!” and reached for it. “I was almost done…”
Her phone buzzed repeatedly.
Distracted, she glanced down—messages from Qin Yuwei.
“Qianqian!!! You’re blowing up!!!”
“Check Weibo—everyone’s raving about you!”
“OMG that dance clip is everything!”
Su Qianqian blinked dazedly and opened Weibo, where her name was indeed trending.
She tapped on the dance video, watching her on-screen self with a strange detachment.
She’d practiced that routine so many times during filming it had lost its magic—but seeing the final cut felt surreal.
A finger hooked under her chin.
Gu Chengyu tilted her face toward him, studying her. “Happy?”
She nodded, then shook her head. “It’s so sudden. Doesn’t feel real.”
He hummed, his thumb brushing her lower lip. “Just the beginning.”
His tone was neutral, but his gaze darkened.
A faint tension coiled in Su Qianqian’s chest, and she instinctively leaned into him. “Chengyu…”
He pulled her closer, swiping his tablet to another page—the comment section under her dance video.
[That waist! Those eyes! Sis, you’re killing me!]
[Is Shen Media pushing a new star? She’s also bagged the female lead in ‘Chaos of War.’]
[Same girl who went viral as the ‘fairy-like’ variety show beauty before.]
[Who cares who she is? That dance was pure seduction.]
His finger paused on the last comment. Then he suddenly dipped his head, capturing her earlobe between his teeth. “You did dance beautifully.”
Su Qianqian’s ears burned. “I… I danced it for you before,” she mumbled.
“Mhm. Forgot some of it.”
His reply was casual, but his hand slid under her shirt, palm searing against the small of her back. “Especially how you moved here.”
“Let me experience it again.”
A gasp escaped her as he pressed her into the sofa.
The tablet tumbled onto the carpet, screen still lit with the flood of praise.
“From now on, dances like this—you perform them only for me. No more filming them.”
“That’s not possi—Ah!”
Outside, the night deepened. Inside, breaths tangled.
On the tablet, the video’s likes quietly surpassed a million.
