Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 498 A scathing rebuke of Liu Yifei!
Liu Yifei is a difficult friend to confide in; most of her current friends and besties are her childhood playmates.

I won't go into Yao Beina and Huang Chengzi; they were childhood friends from Jiangcheng.

Shu Chang, Zhang Liangying, and Yang Mi are all friends she met while filming when she was a child.

Tang Yan is probably the only close friend she met through Shu Chang's introduction, whom she had never worked with.

Apart from Tang Yan, she hasn't had a single friend who can be considered her best friend in recent years.

To be fair, Liu Yifei is neither a particularly good nor a bad friend.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Liu Yifei almost never has any financial or other business dealings with her friends.

She only chats with her friends about romance, food, and fun, unlike other people's social circles where they exchange resources, like "you introduce me to a project today, and I'll make connections for you tomorrow."

She never interfered with or inquired about the resources that helped Shu Chang regain popularity; Li Qiutang and the company handled everything.

In the past two years, she lent money to Jiang Yiyan for investment, and she was truly prepared for the other party not to repay the money.

Fortunately, Jiang Yiyan had a good credit history, and she always paid back the money she borrowed within six months to a year.

Therefore, it's understandable that Liu Yifei had a genuinely good impression of Jiang Yiyan and was soft-hearted at this moment.

However, it was really difficult for her to deal with this kind of request for resources coming to her door; she had never done anything like this before.

She certainly sympathized with Jiang Yiyan's plight, but she also felt uncomfortable that Jiang Yiyan had crossed her own bottom line when it came to making friends.

This discomfort isn't aversion, but rather a feeling of unease.

Liu Yifei is not one to waste time internally, so she quickly gave Jiang Yiyan a reply. She still chose to lend Jiang Yiyan the money and said that she could repay it whenever she wanted.

But this answer clearly did not satisfy Jiang Yiyan. How much could Liu Yifei borrow? 500 million or 1000 million?
Jiang Yiyan is certainly short of money, but she is even more short of job opportunities; she needs to return to the audience.

However, Liu Yifei insisted on her principles: she was willing to borrow money, even more, but she resolutely refused to interfere in the company's resource allocation.

"The company will provide a list of films; if you are interested in any of them, you can actively seek them out."

Jiang Yiyan was now thinking of an old saying: "The empress dowager must not interfere in politics."

Liu Yifei's clear decision not to participate in company operations and resource allocation is probably because she knows she can't get involved.

As the boss's wife, she should give her company every penny she deserves, but she can't overstep her bounds. From the company's perspective, her role is to be a good wife to the director and the chairman, and to provide a stable support system for Li Qiutang.

She'd better not get involved in company matters.

Of course, Liu Yifei should still be able to make normal referrals in the entertainment industry, but she shouldn't take company resources to do favors.

That's what Jiang Yiyan thought, but she didn't know if it was true or not.

But she was really anxious; she desperately needed to get back into the industry. Now she understood that as long as she stayed in the industry, there was still a chance.

So she pleaded, "Sisi, only you can help me now. If you don't help me, I'll really be in a desperate situation."

Liu Yifei wanted to ask Mr. Luo, the manager of the cake shop, why he wasn't taking her seriously, but she couldn't bring herself to ask.

Jiang Yiyan seemed to know what Liu Yifei wanted to say, and continued, "People I used to know are now avoiding me like the plague. When those bosses heard that I lost money, instead of helping me, they wanted to take advantage of me and asked me to go to the United States with them for a week."

Such things do happen, but Liu Yifei now maintains a degree of skepticism about everything Jiang Yiyan says.

Jiang Yiyan saw that no matter what she said, Liu Yifei wouldn't believe her, and after pleading for a long time, she wouldn't budge, so she gradually lost patience.

Liu Yifei sat silently, lost in thought, perhaps not thinking of anything at all. Suddenly, Jiang Yiyan said, "Yifei, you have such a cruel heart."

Liu Yifei looked up at Jiang Yiyan with an incredulous expression. She never expected that her classmate of more than ten years would call her heartless.

"Do I have to kneel on the ground and beg you before you'll soften your heart?"

“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Liu Yifei said.

"You have no idea what I've been through," Jiang Yiyan said, tears already streaming down her face. "You have a dancer mother and a diplomat father. You had everything from birth. As for me, I have nothing. I can only rely on myself."

"You became famous at the age of 14, with a wealthy godfather protecting you. For more than ten years, you have never even played a supporting role. Wherever you go, you are the leading lady, the fairy sister who is the focus of everyone's attention. Everything you want will be delivered to you. As for me, I have to compete with others, I have to fight for it, I have to drink with producers and sing with directors."

"Do you know? In 08 and 09, you were smeared and forced to leave the entertainment industry. I was actually very happy about that." Jiang Yiyan became more and more excited as she spoke, and Liu Yifei was so shocked that she couldn't speak.

“I thought you wouldn’t come back, that I could surpass you. But in the end, Li Qiutang appeared. I’m really jealous of you. Why is it that all the good things in the world are yours? Good movies are yours, good men are yours. I’m so jealous of you, I even hate you. I hate that you had to appear in my life.”

Jiang Yiyan cried and loudly questioned Liu Yifei: "Why!"

Liu Yifei seemed not to recognize her best friend of 13 years, her voice trembling: "How could you think that?"

"That's what I think." Jiang Yiyan felt relieved after saying it. "You're too aloof, and you've always been this aloof."

Jiang Yiyan wiped away her tears, sighed, and fell silent.

Liu Yifei remained silent, and after a long silence, she sighed and said, "You should go."

Jiang Yiyan stood up, said nothing, and turned to leave.

With a click, the door closed, and 13 years of friendship came to an end.

Liu Yifei's heart was in turmoil, and Jiang Yiyan's words kept echoing in her ears: "You have everything since you were born", "You are the leading lady wherever you go", "Everything you want will be delivered to you", "You have always been so high and mighty".

Every word and every phrase struck her heart.

So much so that when Li Qiutang went out to dinner with her that evening, she wasn't in a good mood and seemed preoccupied.

"What's wrong? Didn't you say you wanted to come to this restaurant? Is it not good?" Li Qiutang squeezed his wife's hand.

"It's nothing, I'm just feeling a little unwell."

"Is your stomach acting up again?"

"No, you eat yours."

Li Qiutang took it as just some girlish whims and didn't pay it any mind, so she let her be.

But Liu Yifei looked unhappy until bedtime, and Li Qiutang asked her what had happened: "Don't keep things to yourself."

But Liu Yifei only said it was a private matter between women and that it was inconvenient for her to tell him.

"Huh? You know about Yang Mi?!"

"What nonsense are you spouting?" Liu Yifei laughed in exasperation. What could Yang Mi possibly be doing wrong?

"You don't know yet? Let me tell you..." Li Qiutang started gossiping about Yang Mi to make his wife happy.

(End of this chapter)