When will I be the queen

Chapter 470 Circle
Cai Cai, however, did not see it as a favor. She had been filming long-running dramas, which were very demanding on the actors and required much higher standards compared to single-season dramas, and the pressure on the actors to resist was also much greater.

Si Chen was very happy, as this was his first project that could potentially be a multi-season series. Due to the work and social environment in China, unlike in other countries where multi-season series are often produced, domestic productions are generally single-season series, with multiple seasons or sequels. Furthermore, multi-season series in China differ from those abroad; overseas series typically have a continuous storyline, while domestic series are designed with independent storylines, making them more like two separate shows. This places higher demands on the actors, and Si Chen was genuinely excited about this opportunity to take on the challenge.

In this situation, it wasn't convenient to say much. After expressing his gratitude, Feng Yuan left first. Si Chen greeted him and then sat down. Unlike Immortal Lord Cai Cai, he had to go around greeting people and couldn't be led by Feng Yuan. He had to rely on himself, which was truly exhausting and thirsty.

After rinsing his mouth, Si Chen said, "If it weren't for this project, I wouldn't be here." Because of the project contract, his relationship with Wan Qian had deepened, and Wan Qian now considered him almost one of their own. That's why they arranged for him to sit here when he wanted to come and sit with Wan Qian. It was also to get him to protect Cai Cai.
The performance on stage was actually ongoing, but when important figures entered, the stage was naturally ignored, and apart from fans, not many people were seriously watching the performance. It's hard to say whether this was disrespectful to the performers, because when heavyweight performers are on stage, Huamei wouldn't arrange for important figures to enter and disrupt the performance. Moreover, social etiquette automatically reserves respect for heavyweight performers. Aside from fans, not many people protested. Plus, with several large live-streaming screens, attention was easily diverted.

For example, the live broadcast screen inside the venue is currently filming Cai Cai, and it's been filming for quite a while now. When Feng Yuan appeared, the camera panned away, but as soon as Feng Yuan left, the camera came back. Hua Mei is quite considerate of Cai Cai.

That's when more people realized that Cai Cai had already joined. It wasn't that they weren't paying attention to Cai Cai, it's just that there were too many people doing it.

Many people wanted to come over and say hello, and quite a few were waiting for Cai Cai to come over and say hello. So everyone was making their own plans.

But Cai Cai was actually told today that she didn't need to greet anyone and just sit down.

The Immortal Lord didn't plan to move either. Huamei isn't a film awards ceremony; with so many people and such a chaotic atmosphere, there are too many potential problems to handle perfectly. Therefore, the Immortal Lord stopped moving around Huamei a long time ago, preferring to sit and say a few words when someone comes by, otherwise remaining still. Cai Cai was directly assigned this route.

Because Huamei Entertainment only serves low-alcohol beverages. There have been problems in previous years, and nobody trusted Cai Cai, so they simply let her stay seated. The social interactions were left to the powerful figures like Wan Qian and Cheng Ming. In some ways, they carried more weight than Cai Cai.

Anyone who tried to approach was stopped by Mei Zhang and his team. Among them were even fans impersonating staff. Their work IDs were genuine; if they hadn't been so excited that Mei Zhang recognized them, they would have pounced on them. This was a dereliction of duty on Huamei's part, but such incidents were all too common. Mei Zhang didn't say anything, and Huamei handled the whole process—apology, dismissal, and police report—in one fell swoop.

Cai Cai was looking at Si Chen's phone. He was a wealthy young master, and his social circle was mainly in the capital. Today, people from his circle had been invited to the Huamei event, including businessmen and politicians. They were all contacting Si Chen, hoping to meet Cai Cai, or at least get an autographed photo.

"They've asked me for your autograph before, and not just once. I've given it to them so many times, it's never enough. They're not going to give me any more favors or gifts, I guess they got snatched away when I was showing off."

Cai Cai herself doesn't appear in public, doesn't socialize, and has no commercial endorsements, so official photos of her are very rare, and most of them are stills from her dramas. Fans have collected many photos, but it's impossible to get them to Cai Cai for autographs. Wan Qian regularly asks Cai Cai to sign a bunch of photos, and Mei Zhang also asks her to sign some, but it's not enough to give away. Official autographed photos of Cai Cai, the classic kind, are highly sought after online, fetching four figures, and very few people are willing to pay for them.

Si Chen had some, but they were only alive; he was very careful not to give them away.

Cai Cai was aware that her photos were being resold at inflated prices, but she felt it was just a marketing ploy. Most of the people doing it were those who already possessed the photos and were adding markups. Her fan group had been consistently urging people not to buy photos and other obviously worthless celebrity merchandise at inflated prices, and the efforts had been fairly effective. It wasn't that the fans were being obedient; they were simply saving up money because they believed that once Cai Cai officially announced a commercial endorsement, it would be a big, expensive one, and they needed to save up to help boost sales for her.

Think more.

Cai Cai will never earn money from business in her lifetime.

“Mei Zhang definitely has them in his bag. Find those and give them to them.” Cai Cai wasn’t familiar with Si Chen’s circle of friends. They were all his classmates from kindergarten to high school, from tutoring classes to extracurricular activities and competitions—too distant for someone like Cai Cai who didn’t like studying. Even if she knew a few of them, the circles in Beijing were quite exclusive; unless you had a close family relationship or a classmate connection, it was difficult to integrate. Actually, all circles were exclusive.
Cai Cai glanced at the Immortal Lord. Someone like the Immortal Lord, representing the highest echelons of the capital, possessed an inherent aura of superiority, automatically excluding those outside the circle. Honestly, if the Immortal Lord hadn't become an actor, his divine beauty would be unseen by the world. He would become a legend among legends, a writing template for many screenwriters in the capital. Forget being unqualified to know the Immortal Lord; even knowing of his existence was a very high barrier to entry.

The immortal glanced at Cai Cai and could tell from her face that she wasn't saying anything good about him.

"Do you know anyone in Chenchen's circle of friends?" Si Chen had participated in many competitions, though Cai Cai hadn't paid attention to the specifics. However, the Immortal Lord's family history automatically made him a judge for many cultural competitions. He was the kind of judge who naturally could distinguish good from bad after seeing so much, even if the Immortal Lord himself wasn't an expert.

The immortal lord shook his head, "I am two generations older than him."

Yes, a powerful family means high status and seniority.

"Is your ancestral home also in the south?" Cai Cai remembered her family saying that.

The Immortal Lord nodded. "Going back further, it was indeed in the south. Later, the ancestral graves were in the Central Plains, but they were dug up during the war." The Zhang family had survived several massacres, remaining steadfast to the death. Their ancestral graves had been dug up multiple times, and now they were located in the suburbs of the capital, but that area had become the Zhang family cemetery, no longer just their family burial ground. "Speaking of which, your family's ancestral graves were never dug up?"

"." You're really good at chatting.

Si Chen silently looked down at his shoelaces; they were tied so neatly today.

Cai Cai shook her head, "The Cai family's ancestral graves are basically all empty."

Well, the women of the Cai family were quite famous locally and in many other places. Even if they didn't have a grand funeral with lots of burial goods after their deaths, their graves were often dug up and their coffins exhumed.

"They steal corpses to sell. The Cai family's female corpse is worth more than a living woman."

"." You're quite good at chatting.

Si Chen continued to look down at the trouser hem; it was ironed so neatly.

The immortal lord was speechless, unsure how to respond.

"After the family discovered it, they all made empty graves. Back then, there was no cremation, and people were very particular about funeral arrangements, so they would bury the dead in a diversionary manner, and even make a map or something to make it easier to pay respects later. Later, they were still discovered, so they dared not make any more maps, and the burials were done temporarily, but later they couldn't be found. There were even instances of burials in other people's graves. Then, during the war of aggression, soldiers who died abroad returned with a piece of white cloth, which the elders of the family tied to the big tree at the ancestral grave." A genuine white cloth. Cai Cai hadn't actually asked about these things; it was just something her family casually mentioned, and she overheard it.

"After the founding of the People's Republic of China and the liberation, when we were reclaiming wasteland and cultivating the land, which piece of land didn't have coffins and bones unearthed? In my family's previous several mountains, when we were logging and planting trees, we dug up our ancestors' remains. It's nothing like the grand scale of your family's burials; they just appeared in the ordinary above and below ground over time. Later, they were collected and buried together. They were almost stolen. My great-grandmother, Ms. Cai Chunqing's mother, Ms. Cai Hongchuan, was cremated. We used their ashes and mud to build the current Cai Clan Ancestral Hall."

Even the immortal lord wondered if there was something wrong with his ears.
No, "Can cremated remains be mixed with mud?" Cremation wouldn't produce such a fine and neat texture, would it?

"Sure. But it's so bumpy and uneven that we had to paint it several times and even then, the police had to come and show us a lot of documents and permits before it was finally removed." Now, the police still visit our home every year for inspections.

"It would be strange if the police weren't called in. Who would come up with such an idea? So, more than half the reason the Tang family was later called the Tang Clan was because they were brought up by the Cai family, right?"
The immortal lord truly cannot understand, or rather, most people cannot understand. So, is Cai Cai's thought process abnormal? Is it because the Cai Clan Ancestral Hall is too unconventional?

I decisively changed the subject. The immortal lord really didn't want to continue the conversation.

"Don't you have any connections in the capital?" The Immortal Lord knew that Cai Cai had a childhood friend and neighbor who was the descendant of a founding general and a family member of a military martyr. You can imagine how many connections that person had.

Cai Cai shook her head. "I didn't study hard, I'm not very familiar with my classmates, and I haven't made any friends. Mainly, the Cai family has connections; three generations of them worked as 'skin horses' in the capital. Although they all died and left no descendants, they were so famous back then that you can still find their black and white photos on Baidu Baike. Many characters in literary works are based on them. The most famous is the story of the legendary female prostitutes, which combines the concubines of the last imperial family with them."

Because those women from the Cai family were all renowned for their beauty, and their associates included historical figures, their names and stories appear in many works and autobiographies. Numerous unknown poems, novels, and plays are also written about them. They were indeed quite famous. "Their stories have been made up many times—positive and negative, protagonists and antagonists, main characters and supporting characters—in film, television, stage plays, operas, and even comics." Women of low social status but also beautiful are indeed easily written about and filmed repeatedly.

“The Cai family has produced many heroines, warriors, writers, and so on, but they don’t film those. They only film those few ancestors.” Cai Cai had seen their names in the family genealogy, different from the names they had when they were “skinny horses” (women working as prostitutes). According to the practices of other families, they would have been removed from the list long ago. However, “My ancestors always understood how difficult it was for women to survive in society. Becoming objects for others to enjoy was not their intention, nor was it something they could resist. People have to live; only by living can there be hope. The ones who are truly wrong are those who treat them like commodities to be bought and sold.”

The Immortal Lord was aware of the Cai family's history; they were indeed quite famous. However, he was unaware that the Cai family had always treated those ladies with such respect. The Zhang family had also produced villains and wicked individuals in history, all of whom were expelled from the family register. History is written by posterity, and if posterity doesn't want to tarnish their own reputation, they will naturally embellish and rewrite history.
"So the new society is truly wonderful. The people have truly stood up, become masters of their own destiny, and are the masters of their own lives." Cai Cai deeply understands Ms. Cai Chunqing's feelings for her motherland—her boundless gratitude and love. Therefore, she was truly pained and regretful when she was forced to move south to the port city for the sake of her family business. She had countless fantasies of returning; otherwise, the Cai family wouldn't have established businesses in the capital. Her maternal grandmother and great-uncle had been pioneers in this endeavor. However, with the development of the Cai and Tang families, coupled with the enormous changes in the capital and the progress of the times, the Cai family could never return.

"I live in Beijing, and I'm not a member of the Cai family." Although it sounds a bit like self-deception, my classmates and neighbors don't know this, so it's fine.

This is the first time Cai Cai has talked about her life in Beijing, and it's mostly been wonderful, including her time at school. But once her family is revealed, things might not be so wonderful anymore.

"I recently overheard someone saying about me," Cai Cai mimicked, "that Cai Cai, a descendant of the lowest of the low, doing the lowest of the low, treating everyone like dirt, thinking she's someone special just because she has a little money, acting all high and mighty after a few meals, refusing to even meet up, acting like some kind of noble thing. A little prostitute from a brothel family, she should kneel down and spread her legs for me just because the master paid her."

"Stop learning!!" The Immortal Lord's expression changed drastically. "How could anyone say such awful things to your face?!"

Cai Cai quickly said no, "It was in a semi-open place where they couldn't see me." How to explain? "I can't say the location, and I can't say the time. Because Mom said we have to protect the people there and their businesses. When gods fight, innocent people suffer. So even if it's you, I can't tell you." Secrecy means true secrecy; you can't reveal secrets and expect others to keep them secret. That's not secrecy, that's leaking secrets.

Mei Zhang and Gu Sheng came over at this time because they saw on the live broadcast screen that Xianjun was angry and arguing with Cai Cai.

Why are they arguing again?

【Cai Cai has angered the Immortal Lord again】

[How come it was Cai Cai who angered the Immortal Lord? It's obvious that the Immortal Lord was taking his anger out on Cai Cai.]

What exactly are they arguing about?

Everyone else is taking selfies on social media, but these two are constantly arguing.

Why don't they pay attention to the occasion?

"Stop talking, everyone's watching." Although both the Immortal Lord and Cai Cai tried to speak softly to avoid being read, their emotions were impossible to hide.
The immortal took a breath and looked at Cai Cai, "You mean, you heard it? You didn't call back?"

Cai Cai told Mei Zhang and the others to go back, that they would be more careful. Touching her hair, Cai Cai said no, "I was indeed very angry at the time. But Hong Hong was with me, we were eating. Hong Hong didn't even realize she was talking about me; she has connections and friends in Beijing too. If I had made a scene then, it wouldn't have been good for Hong Hong or the venue. So I held back until I got in my car and called my mother."

"Of course, you should talk to the parents about this. How did their parents raise their children? My mom later told me that those kids had their allowances cut off and were sent abroad for 'training'." It's not like the grass is always greener on the other side these days. Having enjoyed the conveniences of home, they'd really be devastated abroad. After all, they didn't have any money.

Cai Cai chuckled, "It feels like everyone in the circles here in the capital cares about their reputation. In Hong Kong, everyone's just trying to outdo each other in shamelessness."

The Immortal Lord didn't respond, because even if some circles in the capital were xenophobic, it was still inappropriate to belittle the Cai family like that. This was something he hadn't noticed before.
"Why is the Cai family being criticized so much in the capital?" The Immortal Lord wanted to ask Cai Cai to see if she knew that it was because of those few women in the Cai family that this was unacceptable.

Cai Cai actually knew. "My maternal grandparents and great-aunts explained it to me. There are business reasons involved. After all, it's the capital city, and many products are proud to be exhibited and sold there. Many companies rooted in the capital don't want their market share taken away. Some of the Cai family's businesses are high-end, and this market has always been very closed off. If it weren't for our family's wealth, it would be difficult for the Cai family's products to remain in the capital market. Further expansion would be very difficult. The competition in the high-end luxury industry is so fierce now."

"Another reason is that many successful men have unrequited love for the women of the Cai family."

Cai Cai felt that this was the main reason. It was truly laughable, really. A man's casual, delusional thought could cast a shadow over the women of an entire family.

"Successful men always feel they deserve the best and most beautiful women in the world. They also romanticize their youthful insecurities and covetousness. They portray themselves as men who couldn't have their ideal woman, forced to marry several wives, have several mistresses, and have a bunch of children, then shouting that none of this was what they wanted. All they wanted was a woman from the Cai family. And then these men's wives and children would treat this stranger from the Cai family as their mortal enemy."