26 Big Brother Is Watching

Su Qiao tried to catch Mo Chen's gaze but she could sense that he was deliberately avoiding looking at her. No matter. He was stuck as her colleague for the next couple of months, she had ample time to satisfy her curiosity.

High society and the entertainment industry weren't two mutually exclusive circles. Although Mo Chen had been marketed as someone who had come from a very unprivileged background and had climbed the ranks himself to reach where he was now, it wasn't strange that he would have a young master or two in his acquaintance.

But put together all these coincidences, such as Su Qiao receiving a call from Lin Zixun out of the blue before Mo Chen's sudden decision to come and act in a production that was way below his usual calibre and the situation just reeked of conspiracy.

Su Qiao's mouth twitched. She was looking forward to seeing what ridiculous excuse Mo Chen was going to attempt to sell to her later. Meanwhile, there was nothing more enjoyable than sitting back and watching the show.

Lin Zixun was the opposite of his brother. Even when antagonised, Lin Zizhou was a man of few words, as though each syllable was worth a tonne of gold and he didn't want to waste any unnecessarily on anyone he deemed unworthy.

He just so happened to deem everyone unworthy, that was all.

Lin Zixun, on the other hand, had no such qualms. Words were a weapon to him and one he was a master at wielding. He could use it to conquer the hearts of women or to wound his opponent's pride. Today, he chose to use it to piss his brother off.

"Zizhou ah," he said, dragging out the syllables of his brother's name like he was nagging at a child who had made the same mistake one too many times. "Big Brother has been too busy to go over and hang out with you lately, have you been getting so bored that you've picked up a new hobby of ruining the investments the old man trusted you to managed?"

In just one sentence, he defused the entire situation by calling Lin Zizhou behaviour out as nothing more than mere child's play. A young master dandy who was foolish enough to waste everyone's time by dabbling in matters in knew nothing about. He also poured salt on the wounds by reminding Lin Zizhou that the reason why he'd seen neither hide nor hair of this infuriating sibling of his was that Lin Zixun was 'too busy'.

Too busy doing what? Too busy running the parent company, of course.

Lin Zizhou's teeth and fists clenched as he considered Mo Chen with a deadly glint in his eyes. Mo Chen must have noticed but he didn't react to the silent threat. Lin Zizhou must confess to being taken aback a couple of days ago when he'd seen Mo Chen's name on the finalised cast list. But back then, purely from an investor's perspective, he had been pleased with this turn of events. With a film emperor thrown into the equation, there was no need to worry about the success of this drama. Mo Chen came bearing his own fans as a gift to the producers and it wasn't long before funding and marketing were well on track.

But now that he knew of Mo Chen's ties to his brother, all of Lin Zizhou's initial goodwill towards Mo Chen had evaporated in an instant.

"Handle your own job," he retorted stiffly. "Grandfather handed the running of DFE over to me, you don't have a say in its decision-making process."

There was a moment of silence from across the line that was punctuated by a sudden burst of amused laughter. It sounded so entertained that Su Qiao could almost picture its owner reclining lazily in an armchair somewhere, possibly an expensive hotel suite if he were on a business trip, a smug smile playing on his lips as he jeered at Lin Zizhou from afar.

She had the impression that the brothers had bad blood between them but now she was convinced that there was no love lost. It was a discovery worth filing away for further thought later that night. The ideal situation was that she no longer had any ties to the Lin Family, of course. But if this wasn't possible, she wasn't fully against the idea of forming an alliance with Lin Zixun.

If nothing else, it would rankle Lin Zizhou beyond belief. There were few things more humiliating than having an ex team up with your rival to take you down. Yes, the more she thought about it, the more she realised its feasibility.

"Don't worry, Baby Brother," Lin Zixun assured. "I don't have any intention to take DFE away from you, even if Grandfather had initially intended for us to share. But I'm not petty that way, you can even change the company name if it helps you sleep better at night."

"…" Lin Zizhou seemed to realise that an entire room was privy to this conversation. He snatched the phone out of Mo Chen's hands and cancelled the call before taking out his own and redialling.

"What do you want?" Su Qiao heard him say as he walked off without another word to any of them. This left everyone in an awkward position, where they didn't know whether to continue with filming or to wait for this Very Important Person to come back and make their life difficult.

Finally, Director Ma caved and dismissed them. "Take a break," he said with a sigh, running a hand over his tired face. "I'll…go and find out how we're expected to proceed." He left in the direction Lin Zizhou did.

Su Qiao's stilettos were killing her. She stepped out of them without hesitation, kicking them aside as sat on a nearby table to stop her feet from coming into contact with the cold floor tiles. The thin layer of stockings she was wearing did nothing to ward off the chill and she wasn't going to subject herself to such discomfort for no good reason. It wasn't the most ladylike and the old her would have been mortified to display such lack of propriety but she couldn't care less now.

After being reborn, Su Qiao had learnt to treat herself better. So what if the impression others had of her wasn't pristine anymore? As long as she lived her life to the fullest, they didn't matter. She was getting some odd looks from the crew, probably speculating on why she'd exploded in Lin Zizhou's face earlier, but they were more curious than unfriendly. A couple of them even smiled at her, possibly because she had stood up for the team earlier on.

On the other hand, Bai Meixin's position was a bit less comfortable. She was the reason why Lin Zizhou had even caused trouble in the first place and the fault lay with her. Now that Lin Zizhou had abandoned her here to go off and fight with his brother, she was left to weather through the displeasure of the others.

"Only a complete newbie and already bringing showing off her that she's got a backer."

"Aiya, you know how this industry works, some people are just that shameless, what can we do about it?"

"You don't say, I always thought that she was a decent one, she looks so decent on the surface, who would have guessed that she had it in her to seduce a rich man?"

"It's always the quiet ones."

The gossiping around them wasn't kept to a hush-hush but the set wasn't so large that Bai Meixin was completely impervious to what they were saying about her. Unlike Su Qiao, she wasn't used to being looked down upon and fled the scene after only a few moments.

Su Qiao scoffed. No phlegm and fortitude whatsoever. When the rumours about Su Qiao had begun in her past lifetime, she had weathered through whole months of such bitching on set without even flinching, even though it felt like she was bleeding to death on the inside.

"Not going for a tea break?"

Mo Chen reached up to loosen his tie. Su Qiao was surprised that he was chatting to her, she'd anticipated him going out of his way to avoid her after the big reveal.

"Did Lin Zixun send you?" she asked without preamble. She didn't explain why she was using Lin Zixun's full name or her relationship with either of the Lin brothers. If Mo Chen was truly here for the reason that she thought he was, explanations were unnecessary.

True enough, Mo Chen didn't inquire. His face was pinched. "Send isn't the right word," he muttered.

"…" Su Qiao wasn't sure what he meant by that. "…you were coerced?"

"Does the horrific prospect of having my phone number freely handed out to models count?"

Su Qiao nearly choked. That wasn't what she was envisioning when she'd said coerced. She'd assumed that given the Lin Family's standing in the entertainment industry, he'd intimidated Mo Chen into agreeing by threatening his career.

But this was Lin Zixun. He never operated according to expectations.

"Why did he ask you to accept this role?"

This time around, Mo Chen's reply was less straightforward. "I needed a breather," he said. "He encouraged it too and this seemed like a good way to take one so I conceded."

"That's all?"

He nodded. "That's all."

Su Qiao looked down at her hands. The manicure had just been done earlier that morning and was still immaculate. It had been ages since her nails had looked this good. Just a couple of months back, to her at least, she had cheap red polish flaking off from doing too many dishes in the bar kitchens.

She was terrified that she would make a mistake and head in that direction again.

She didn't want to go back to that nightmare.

"Do you think," she asked suddenly. "That if I told Lin Zixun I needed a breather too, he would have advice for me?"