Chapter 457: Chapter 457

The person who came was none other than Murong Rui. Unlike the last time she appeared at the Mu Mansion surrounded by bodyguards, today she arrived alone.

The key point was that the current Murong Rui did not have the same domineering presence as before; she probably hadn’t been doing well lately, which made her look somewhat haggard.

Song Qiao watched as Murong Rui approached, her expression somber, not very pleasant, but still somewhat suppressing her emotions, her crimson lips tightly pursed and silent.

Seeing Lu An’an protectively position herself in front of her, probably worrying that Murong Rui might harm her, Song Qiao felt an inexplicable touch of emotion.

Murong Rui glanced at Lu An’an, then at Song Qiao, and inexplicably found the scene before her eyes incredibly glaring.

Lu An’an was cherished by everyone in the Lu Family. Although she was Lu Jingchen’s cousin, she indeed had a blood relation. It was known long ago that regardless of what Lu An’an did, everyone in the Lu Family would stand by her side, including Lu Jingchen. After all, she had heard that Lu An’an had always been sensible since childhood, a true lady of high society, even though she had kept a low profile all these years, claiming it was to cultivate herself.

Murong Rui wanted to form a good relationship with Lu An’an and to bridge the gap between them, but ever since the year Lu Tianming brought her back to the Lu Family, Lu An’an seemed to look down on her, never explicitly showing it, but always maintaining a lukewarm demeanor.

Now seeing the close relationship between Lu An’an and Song Qiao, Murong Rui felt extremely irritated.

She wondered if perhaps Song Qiao actually knew that Lu An’an was Jingchen’s cousin and had started to connect with her before even marrying Jingchen, thinking that her marriage to Jingchen was perhaps facilitated by Lu An’an’s intervention.

However, Murong Rui did not know that Song Qiao genuinely did not know that Lu An’an was the beloved princess of the Lu Family initially, and when she forcibly married Lu Jingchen on the street, she didn’t even recognize his status, only learning about it after their wedding.

Upon learning this, she had considered divorce, because at that time she hadn’t actually wanted to marry Lu Jingchen, so Murong Rui’s fantasy that she used her connection with Lu An’an to marry Lu Jingchen was completely unrealistic.

Since the Mu Family’s bankruptcy, Song Qiao knew her status was no longer the same as before, besides being nominally the Miss of the Song Family but not favored, she knew she had no influential backing and never thought of marrying into a wealthy family.

Before marrying Lu Jingchen, even Gu Linyuan’s mother looked down on her, so how could she possibly aspire to the position of Young Mistress of the Lu Family?

Murong Rui remained silent, Song Qiao once again checked the time, noticing that it was almost time for work, finally broke the silence, "Do you have something to say? If not, we need to go to work."

Since marrying Lu Jingchen, she was either injured or busy with other matters. This year, the days she requested leave almost matched the days she worked. If not for her good relationship with Shen Yi, she probably would have been fired from any other company.

She’s now starting to doubt whether she is really fit for the role of Young Mistress of the Lu Family, as one issue after another arises, leaving her feeling overwhelmed.

Regarding work matters, Song Qiao had always been serious,

Murong Rui, seeing Song Qiao’s indifferent appearance, finally let the anger that had built up over a week surge, taking a deep breath, and after a long while, spoke out, "Song Qiao, let’s talk."

Hearing her, Lu An’an didn’t wait for Song Qiao to respond and immediately spoke up, "Murong Rui, what exactly do you want? There’s nothing for you two to talk about, even if you try your hardest around my sister-in-law, my brother’s not going to like you, do you understand?"

Murong Rui’s face turned from pale to green, looking extremely ugly, but she was constrained by Lu An’an’s status and couldn’t voice the retort she had intended to say.

Song Qiao, seeing how afraid Murong Rui was of Lu An’an, felt her worldview being refreshed. The most update n0vels are published on 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩·𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢·𝔫𝔢𝔱

They clocked in just over a minute late. Lu An’an, looking at the time on the card machine, almost tore it out in her frustration, glaring fiercely at it before turning to Qiao Nian’en with a pitiful expression, "It’s all because of that Murong Rui, otherwise I could have gotten the perfect attendance bonus this month, ah..."

Song Qiao’s lips twitched, she patted her on the shoulder, trying to sound calm, "Don’t worry, see, I lost my perfect attendance bonus too, along with you."

Hearing this, Lu An’an, already upset about the bonus, felt even more aggrieved, nearly wanting to punch the ground, "You had to mention it, now I feel even worse. Together, our bonuses were three thousand yuan."

Song Qiao, "..." Are you still short of those three thousand yuan?

Because she had taken over a drama for Song Xi before, Song Qiao initially thought that Huayi Media would certainly not allow her to take Song Xi for filming because of her own issues. However, not long after starting work, they called to tell her that filming was starting today and asked when she would bring Song Xi over.

The person on the phone was still very polite, making Song Qiao feel that she might have misunderstood them. She immediately called Song Xi to go to the shooting scene together.

An hour later, the nanny van stopped in the suburb. By now, there were already many cars parked here, all of which were various nanny vans and private cars, as well as some company cars. Since the media and journalists were prohibited from filming by the crew now, security personnel were also present in the parking lot. Upon seeing them park, the security immediately approached.

The car door opened, and Song Qiao got out first. She was faced by the approaching security personnel, hesitated for a moment without speaking, and then stepped aside to let Song Xi get out of the car too.

The security initially thought they were reporters sneaking in, but recognizing Song Qiao, who had been quite popular online recently, his face immediately lit up with a smile, "Mrs. Lu, you’ve arrived. The director just instructed me to bring you over if you came."

Having mingled in the workplace and show business for so many years and having managed several artists, Song Qiao responded to the warmth of the security personnel with a slight tug at the corner of her mouth, thanking him.

The drama crew members, including all the actors participating in the drama, had already gathered. The opening ceremony had been held two days earlier, and at that time, only Song Xi and her group were absent.

However, when Song Qiao took Song Xi into the crew, since the director was filming, his assistant was immediately sent over.

"Mrs. Lu, Miss Song Xi, you’ve arrived, we have been waiting for a long time. The director wants Miss Song Xi to change into her costume first, as her scene is coming up soon." The assistant was quite enthusiastic, polite, and had a smile on his face.

This almost dazzled Song Qiao’s eyes, but she said nothing, as it was indeed her own fault for arriving late. She nodded and hummed in agreement, then asked, "Could you please take us to makeup?"

"Of course," the assistant replied eagerly, smiling as he explained, "Since Miss Song has a lot of scenes in this drama, we’ve arranged a separate makeup room for you. Please follow me."

Song Qiao hummed in acknowledgment, her gaze sweeping over the scene, noticing that many eyes were on them, or more precisely, on her, and most of them were unfriendly.

Narrowing her eyes slightly in a certain direction, she suddenly felt that her fate with Zuo Yuqing this year was truly not shallow. Sitting not far away, already made up, was Zuo Yuqing if it wasn’t anyone else.

Next to her, two other people who were also done with makeup—one was a popular young actress, the other a recently risen female star. According to the news previously, their relationship with Zuo Yuqing wasn’t that great, but now it seemed otherwise.

Looking at their jovial manner, if their relationship was bad then one must be blind.

Zuo Yuqing seemed to notice Song Qiao’s gaze and turned her head to look back, their eyes meeting immediately.

Seeing Song Qiao, Zuo Yuqing was also somewhat surprised, but quickly covered it up, did not stand up to come over and greet, but still politely nodded at Song Qiao as a greeting.

Song Qiao pursed her lips, maintaining politeness above all, tugged at the corner of her mouth and revealed a smile towards her, then continued following the director’s assistant to go for makeup with Song Xi.

Tan Lanxin sitting beside Zuo Yuqing naturally saw Song Qiao, and couldn’t help expressing her surprise, "Why is this woman here?"

Zuo Yuqing turned her head to glance at her, took a sip of the drink her assistant just brought back, and spoke nonchalantly, "What happened? Why do you say that?"

Upon hearing Zuo Yuqing ask her directly, Tan Lanxin suppressed the excitement in her heart, immediately spoke as if asking for credit, "Yuqing, don’t you know about the recent events? It’s about the CEO of CK Group. That woman is the wife of CK Group’s CEO, who just recently held their wedding, but it turned out to be an event that shocked everyone."

She paused momentarily, adding, "It’s about that woman."

The two female actors sitting beside Zuo Yuqing are not from An City, but from another quite well-known domestic talent agency.

This drama by Huayi Media clearly spared no expense, employing top artists from within the circle, each with significant popularity. Many predicted that this drama would be a hit even before its filming had started, as soon as the actors list was confirmed.