Chapter 311
Meanwhile, Bella’s manager, Wein, was quite worried about Bella participating in World Peace. After Bella fell into the water last
night, Keegan showed up and gave her a script. The script was not World Peace, but a show called The Tea Merchant. This
show was similar to The Palace, which was produced by Daniel. It was also a show about a strong female lead. The Palace was
about conspiracies in the palace, while The Tea Merchant, as the name suggests, was about the story of a tea merchant.
In the story, the female lead went from being a maid to ward off bad luck for her husband, to the mistress of the family and finally
becoming the tea merchant of the generation. Truth be told, the character design had even more emotional values than the
female lead of The Palace. It was a show where the audience could empathize with the female lead as they watched her grow
throughout her journey. However, Bella rejected it because she felt that the production team was from a small company, the
scriptwriter was not famous enough, and the director used to produce literary films. Despite the fact that the movies had received
some awards, they were always just good movies with a small audience.
Bella started off with clout, so she was accustomed to paying attention to the numbers. She wanted to act in The Palace
because Daniel had guaranteed statistics and quality. In contrast, The Tea Merchant did not have a background. It was the
typical award-winning type of show, which was not the type of transformative work that she wanted.
The Tea Merchant was going to start filming at the end of the year. It would have to wait until next year’s summertime for it to be
released. Bella’s contract termination with Neon Nebula was imminent. In addition to that, she did not have any impending work
currently. If she accepted The Tea Merchant, her screen time would be entirely open, aside from a few offers from variety shows.
For Bella, an actress who depends on clout, the inability to maintain exposure on the big screen was extremely dangerous. That
was because the entertainment industry was always full of newcomers. Bella would not have dared to leave such a large gap on
the big screen because the clout would have been heavily divided.
World Peace, however, was a different situation. The production team was comparable to The Palace. Along with that, the work
itself had fame. It would start filming this month and take three months to finish. By the end of the year, it would be on air. The
pay was also three times higher than The Tea Merchant. Most importantly, the release date clashed with The Palace. When that
time came, they could fight to make an impact on ratings. Bella had faith in her prime-time ratings.
Daniel had the guts to reject her, so she would not let go of The Palace so easily. Therefore, she turned down The Tea Merchant
and chose World Peace. After finding out about Bella’s stunt, Wein was indignant. Bella claimed that she wanted to change, but
she was unwilling to give up her clout. She knew about the controversy of World Peace, yet she still participated. She paid no
attention to maintaining her reputation.
At this point, there was nothing Wein could do. He bought hot searches and continued directing the war of plagiarism toward the
author so that Bella could escape the mess. The official lineup of World Peace went on trending soon after some fans
deliberately interrupted. All the trending searches were compliments about the lineup. The fans would fight off any comments
about the plagiarism, saying that the show had nothing to do with the source material.
Just when Bella’s fans were celebrating, a legal letter came out of nowhere. The client of the legal letter was Dusk Galaxy, the
famous voice actor who abruptly withdrew from the internet a while ago. The content of the legal letter stated that the client, a
victim of cyberbullying, had developed depression and posted the medical record. They now demanded several accounts to
delete their hate comment and publicly apologize.
Soon a few marketing media found out that the few accounts mentioned in the legal letter were Bella’s fans. However, the owner
of the accounts jumped out and denied that they were Bella’s fans. After deleting their comment, they decisively terminated their
accounts. Even so, Bella’s Facebook account was flooded with netizens who were denouncing her.
In contrast to Bella, who was now anxious, Stella was rather calm and relaxed. Originally, the legal letter was a deliberate act to
warn others. The accounts they put out were not the mastermind, but all these accounts acted based on a given order. And, it
only showed one thing; they have an organization behind them. Whether Bella was involved or not, her sin was that she indulged
her fans. Therefore, she was not innocent. This gift should be able to keep her down for some time.
Inside the Vinci Rivera’Group building, Aldor entered Keegan’s office once he saw the people from R & D department leaving.
“Mr. Kane, I think there’s something you should look at.”
“What?” Keegan did not look up, as he thought it was work-related.
Aldor continued, “A few days ago, you instructed me to cut out the cruise ship surveillance. I wanted to delete it, but out of
curiosity, I took a look at it,” Aldor paused and softly said, “Ms. Young looked like she was pulling Mrs. Kane down with her when
she jumped into the water. Mrs. Kane couldn’t break free, so she kicked her down.”
Keegan stopped and took the phone handed over by Aldor. The video was blurry, yet one still could see the two’s reactions. Well,
instead of saying that Stella kicked Bella on purpose, it was better to say that she was defending herself. She had to kick Bella
away, or else Bella would not be the only person who had fallen into the water that day.
“And, one more thing...” Aldor hesitated before he explained, “That night, when you and Mrs. Kane went to Mr. Lowe’s
appointment, Ms. Young’s assistant contacted me. They told me Bella was hurt, and they wanted you to come over. But, you
were arguing with Mrs. Kane at that moment, so I did not mention it. I was afraid that something had happened to Ms. Young, so
I secretly sent someone to check on her. It turned out that Ms. Young wasn’t injured or sick.”