Chapter 93: The North Star Wraps Filming

“All right! Cut!” With that sharp call from Yan Mei, everyone on set was pulled out of the scene and back into reality.

Applause broke out at once. Everyone, as if by unspoken agreement, began clapping for Lin Xi. She came out of character, only to find herself under a blaze of admiring eyes, and immediately grew shy, ducking behind Lu Yuxiu.

“Sister Xi, that was so tragic! I almost wanted to rush over and beat Qin Zexing up!” Fan Mingxuan clenched his fists bitterly, making a recklessly dangerous remark.

The whole set was stunned by those words. Everyone gaped in disbelief. Breaking news of the day: Fan Mingxuan had publicly declared he wanted to hit their godlike leading man.

Lin Xi covered her mouth and laughed, deliberately egging him on. “Exactly! Didn’t I say so? Qin Zexing is a complete scumbag!”

“That’s right!” Fan Mingxuan was still fuming.

For a moment, the entire set fell deathly silent. Every pair of eyes turned toward the utterly oblivious Fan Mingxuan. Hidden behind Lu Yuxiu, Lin Xi was laughing so hard she was about to injure herself from holding it in, which earned a helpless shake of the head from him.

At last Fan Mingxuan sensed something was wrong. His eyes flew wide, horror all over his face as though he had been scared half to death. His face flushed red as he waved frantically at Lu Yuxiu. “God Xiu, God Xiu, not you! Not you! I mean the character, the character!”

The entire set exploded with laughter. He really was a born clown.

“All right, all right, no need to explain,” Lin Xi said with mock seriousness, though clearly enjoying his misery. “Even if you do have a grudge against him, don’t make it so obvious. We still have one more scene to shoot. Endure it a little longer.”

“Sister Xi, you set me up!” Fan Mingxuan looked as if he had a bellyful of bitterness and nowhere to vent it. He had no choice but to swallow the pain. He was a die-hard fan of Lu Yuxiu.

“Exactly, exactly,” some of the crew chimed in, fully aware it was a joke and intentionally teasing him.

“Enough.” Yan Mei stopped listening to the banter and said sternly, “Let’s get ready to move locations. The final reunion scene—everyone do your best.”

“Got it!”

The crew sprang into action at once.

Lin Xi and Lu Yuxiu were called away to change costumes. Shu Yunyi went to touch up her makeup. Everyone scattered in different directions, leaving Fan Mingxuan standing alone where he was, mouth awkwardly parted, one hand still frozen in midair.

The set was quickly reset. The final scene was the reunion of Qin Zexing and Mu Beibei five years later. By then, Qin Zexing had become the owner of a club in M Nation, while Mu Beibei had changed careers and become the team manager of the top squad in Huaxia. Everything had changed beyond recognition.

The two met on the tournament floor as representatives of their respective teams. The irony was that the team led by Qin Zexing lost to Mu Beibei’s top team.

“All departments ready—one, two, three, action!”

For the first time, Qin Zexing returned to Huaxia with his team to participate in a competition. The moment his foot touched his homeland, his legs trembled all the same. In his heart, he still could not let go.

“This way. Let me introduce you to the manager of our Huaxia team first. If there’s anything you need, you can communicate in advance.” As the representative of M Nation, Qin Zexing was being courteously guided by event staff to meet the Huaxia side.

“Manager Mu, someone’s looking for you!” someone on site called out.

Mu Beibei set down her phone and turned around. The first thing she saw was the staff member with a badge, and she asked with a faint smile, “What is it?”

“It’s the boss of the M Nation club. He’s here to make your acquaintance.” The staff member stepped aside, fully revealing Qin Zexing before Mu Beibei.

The instant she saw him, the smile on Mu Beibei’s face froze.

Qin Zexing was even more stunned. A rigid stillness came over his resolute features. His lips parted, but no sound came out.

Still unaware of the undercurrent, the staff member enthusiastically introduced her. “This is the manager of our top team, Mu Beibei. She used to be a beautiful commentator too!”

Mu Beibei was the first to recover. She extended her hand, a polite smile swiftly arranged on her face, and said in a formal tone, “Hello. I’m Mu Beibei of Team HG.”

A roar seemed to go off in Qin Zexing’s ears, as though he had been pricked by a needle, and his whole body went numb.

He stood there for a long time. He had never imagined their reunion would be so plain, nor that the smile he had once known so well would now be wholly strange and distant.

Once they had been lovers inseparable in every way; now when they met again, all that remained was a light greeting and an awkward silence thick with unfamiliarity.

“Zexing.”

At that moment, a tall woman approached from the distance and naturally slipped her arm through Qin Zexing’s.

Mu Beibei looked at her closely, then curled her lips in what seemed almost like mockery. It was Jiang Yuan’er, formerly the team manager of T&K.

How ironic. In the debris of the past, the scattered fragments of memory had, in the end, proved no match for the severed strings of time.

When Jiang Yuan’er saw her, she too looked utterly stunned, as if struck by lightning, her face turning ashen in an instant.

“Beibei.” From behind, a tall, handsome man strode over. Mu Beibei turned and gave him a bright, gentle smile.

“The kids on the team are looking for you. Let’s go over.” His voice was warm and refined, like a spring breeze.

“All right.” Mu Beibei smiled and nodded to the two frozen figures before her, then let the man wrap an arm around her waist and lead her away.

Yan Mei’s camera slowly pulled back, then shifted its focus to the competition venue.

“All right, congratulations to Team HG on winning this match!” the commentator announced passionately on stage.

Below the stage, Mu Beibei turned her head and smiled at the man with soft tenderness. The two embraced.

Over here, Qin Zexing seemed to laugh at himself as he forced a smile onto his face, pale and desolate.

He had lost again—lost to a Huaxia team, and lost even more the pride and stubbornness he had clung to for years. It was a complete defeat, a cowardly one.

Two people in love are not always able to walk hand in hand to old age. Not every love story is blessed with a beautiful ending. Even Polaris does not always draw a single unbroken line.

“Cut!” Yan Mei called for the last time.

“Happy wrap!” “May the ratings soar!”

The actors came out of the scene, and the staff immediately presented flowers. The whole crew gathered for a group photo.

Yan Mei also had a giant cake wheeled out. The result was exactly what anyone might have expected: everyone got smeared into colorful messes, and not a single soul escaped. Even Lu Yuxiu was ambushed by Fan Mingxuan and Lin Xi. Fan Mingxuan had completely given up maintaining any sort of image in front of his idol and was utterly letting himself go.

“We’ve wrapped!” Lin Xi finally had a stretch of vacation ahead of her. She went around hugging everyone on the crew goodbye.

When she reached Yan Mei, the director still wore that smiling expression and said to her, “See you tomorrow!”

“Huh?” Lin Xi pouted. Could there still be makeup shots? She looked toward Lu Yuxiu.

Lu Yuxiu patted her little head and said, “There’s an interview tomorrow.”

“Oh...” Only then did Lin Xi set her heart at ease. As long as it wasn’t reshoots, everything was fine. She had no wish to suffer under Director Yan’s rule ever again...

Everyone could see her obvious relief and burst into laughter.

That evening, after work wrapped and she got home, Lin Xi finally saw what had been happening on Weibo. It felt as though she had only gone a few hours without checking and had already fallen two generations behind.

All kinds of notifications kept popping up before her eyes. The romance between her fourth brother and Xiao Jin had been exposed, and many netizens were even messaging her privately to ask if it was true.

But the latest update was a post from Gu Yao, and in just ten minutes it had already been shared well over a hundred thousand times.

Gu Yao V: Xiao Jin, Wen Jin, is my girlfriend. If anyone has a problem with it, come to me. I do not want my darling being picked apart and judged. And as for breaking up—impossible.

At a glance it was obvious the post had gone through no public relations handling at all. He had not even discussed it with the company first. But with his status, there had been no need to discuss anything. Even the official Starry Skies account reposted his message, making its stance clear.

Seeing that post, Lin Xi cried out over dinner, “Fourth Brother is so domineering!” She was practically one step away from leaping to her feet, and nearly startled Lu Yuxiu.

“What is it?” Lu Yuxiu looked at the chopsticks wobbling precariously by her hand and quickly reached out to pick them up for her.

“My fourth brother is way too manly! I don’t know how his relationship with Xiao Jin got exposed, but the fans don’t seem very supportive. So he just went straight onto Weibo and declared his claim, saying there’s no way they’re breaking up.” Lin Xi explained it to him, her eyes shining.

She scrolled through the comments, wanting to see what people were saying.

I still can’t accept this... why... I’ve liked him for four years... All I can say is, congratulations to Wen Jin on gaining one anti-fan.

Master Yao is a real man! I support you! This is exactly what I love about him—responsible, straightforward, clean and decisive, never deceiving us, always honest. I respect every decision you make. Wishing you peace, safety, and joy.

Anyone who thinks Gu Yao and Wen Jin are a bad match, like this! I seriously don’t like this Wen Jin at all. Who even is she? She suddenly became our Master Yao’s girlfriend. Has the world gone mad, or have I?

Sorry, Master Yao, but we do not acknowledge this utterly ordinary sister-in-law. They really don’t suit each other at all, okay? Wake up. Please tell us you’re just messing with us. You two are completely incompatible.

Most of the comment section was filled with opposition, and the fire in Lin Xi’s heart began to rise. A line came to her mind: such an unbending man had given every ounce of softness in his life to this one girl.

Moved, Lin Xi picked up her phone and began typing. “I’m going to support Fourth Brother too!”

Lin Xi V: Wen Jin, Xiao Jin, my personally approved little sister-in-law. Whether you two match or not is not for you to decide. If you don’t like it, kindly move along. We don’t need to please anyone with our private lives.

P.S. This is only aimed at keyboard warriors. Little Suns, come join me in sending them your blessings.

Seeing Lin Xi surfing Weibo again, Lu Yuxiu could only cover the takeout first so it would not go cold. He had discovered that this girl always loved getting distracted whenever she ate.

“Quick, quick, you should post something too—support your good brother!” Lin Xi’s hands never stopped moving. Busy chatting with her fans and rallying the Little Suns, she still did not forget to drag him into it.

Lu Yuxiu smiled and readily agreed. “All right, I’ll do it now.” He was not in the habit of posting on Weibo, but showing support for his future brother-in-law was hardly a problem.

He logged in directly and gave Gu Yao’s post a like, which instantly drew out his own fans.

—Ahhh, our God Xiu came to show support! Did he and little Xi do this together as husband and wife? So sweet, so sweet. We actually got fed from the imperial couple pairing.

—Caught! Why does God Xiu always appear in other people’s comment sections? His own Weibo is about to grow weeds!

—Following God Xiu’s lead, I’m here to support too. Dating is an artist’s freedom. We should just offer our blessings. Love isn’t about whether two people match in other people’s eyes. If they like each other, that’s enough. Stay out of their private lives.

The two of them speaking up did indeed rally quite a few Little Suns and fans of the imperial couple pairing. They began arguing back against the haters as well, pushing down some of the nastier remarks and showing their support for Gu Yao and Wen Jin through action.