novelbin Chapter 169: Scam Call 1
Chapter 169: Scam Call 1
[Is the divorce even the point? Isn’t the point that this Ford guy blocked his ex-wife just to avoid paying child support?]
[He’s an A-list star, for crying out loud. It’s not like he’s short on cash. And now he won’t even pay child support? Are his fans blind or something?]
Riley Perry just wanted to laugh. ’She seriously suspected Miles Ford’s ex-wife was doing this on purpose. After all, this show was pretty popular. It would have been easy for her to guess he was in the middle of a recording, yet she still came out and dropped a bombshell. It’s like she wants him dead!’
Seething with frustration, Miles Ford quickly grabbed the bottle and spun it, trying to divert everyone’s attention.
This time, the mouth of the bottle pointed at Ethan Shaw.
Gritting his teeth, Miles decided to ask Ethan something vicious as well. "The internet is full of rumors that you dated Mia Curran, the leader of that new girl group. Is that true?"
Ethan Shaw was speechless. ’He wanted to strangle that bastard Miles!’
He could see it now. The guy was miserable and just wanted to drag everyone else down with him.
He snuck a glance at Roxanne Fulton, then answered confidently, "No, that’s fake."
Mia Curran was an artist at the same company, but she was also the CEO’s youngest daughter. To make her famous, the company tried to ship them as a couple. He was, of course, against it. He was a top-tier star, while she was a rookie who had just entered the industry. Their statuses were completely unequal. Forcing a PR relationship would just be her leeching off him.
But he couldn’t win against the company. They started leaking fake material without his consent, so he paid for an online army to dismantle the PR couple himself. After all, the so-called evidence was all just clever camera angles or photos that had everyone else edited out.
After more than a month, not only did Mia Curran fail to benefit, but her reputation actually worsened. Ethan Shaw’s female fans attacked her relentlessly. Seeing that the tactic wasn’t working, the company finally gave up on the idea of shipping them.
To be honest, he had a clear conscience and wasn’t afraid of the gossip, but he was terrified that Roxanne Fulton would misunderstand.
So, his gaze remained fixed on Roxanne Fulton.
Unfortunately, her expression hadn’t changed at all. She still wore a faint smile, as if the question hadn’t affected her in the slightest.
Ethan Shaw felt a pang of sadness, but he knew this wasn’t the time for matters of the heart. He picked up the bottle and spun it.
This time, the bottle pointed to Riley Perry again.
Riley, who was happily munching on a grilled skewer, was at a loss. ’What was Director Warren thinking? Why are we playing games while we’re eating?’
"Go ahead, what do you want to know?"
"Well..." Ethan Shaw began, "Everyone knows you’re incredibly talented, Ria. A lot of people online call you a girl of many talents. What I want to know now is, what are you *not* good at?"
Riley raised an eyebrow, surprised that such a simple question had stumped her. ’What am I worst at?’
"Swimming, I guess. I’m not a good swimmer."
Ethan Shaw nodded. "Now I can relax. So Ria has a weakness after all. You’re a normal person."
Roxanne Fulton snorted with laughter. Riley really was so talented at everything, she didn’t seem human!
Riley was speechless.
She spun the bottle again. This time, naturally, it pointed to Holly Summers.
"Back then, did you deliberately encourage me to accept Raphael Jacobs’s advances?"
Holly Summers was speechless. ’She really wanted to hit someone right now!’
’Damn you, Riley Perry! You really will say anything!’
"Riley Perry, do you have any idea what you’re saying? What does your business with Raphael Jacobs have to do with me?"
"Nothing to do with you?" Riley countered. "But I seem to recall that when he was pursuing me, you were always in my ear, telling me how wonderful Raphael Jacobs was. If you weren’t deliberately encouraging me, could it be that you liked him?"
Realizing she’d "misspoken," Riley quickly covered her mouth. "Oh, sorry, sorry. My mistake. Just pretend I didn’t say that. Okay, it’s your turn to spin the bottle."
Holly Summers was about to die from anger. When had she ever liked Raphael Jacobs?
But she couldn’t even explain herself, not when Riley had already claimed she’d "misspoken"!
Her face dark, she begrudgingly spun the bottle. After a few turns, the bottle landed in Best Actor King’s hands, and he aimed the mouth at Riley. Best Actor King smiled. "I can’t think of a question off the top of my head. Why don’t you pick a dare instead, Riley?"
Riley was busy finishing the skewers in her hand and couldn’t free them up. "Fine. Chloe, pick one for me."
"Alrighty!" Chloe Sterling replied, standing up to randomly grab a card from the box. "Whoa, this is an interesting dare: Borrow one million yuan from the fifth contact in your recent calls."
A staff member quickly brought Riley’s phone over. In front of the cameras, she opened her phone.
The fifth contact in her recent calls was labeled "Mr. Locke."
The call went through quickly. After three rings, it was answered. "Miss Perry, what can I do for you?"
"Ahem, well... I’m a little tight on cash right now, and I was hoping to borrow some money from you."
"Borrow money? How much? Just name a price."
"One million will be enough."
"One million? Do you need me to transfer more?" He was out and not actually watching Riley’s show, but it only took him a moment to realize what was going on. ’These are just the production team’s usual tricks.’
"No need, one million is fine."
Riley hung up the phone.
The phone was placed back on the table. A moment later, she received a transfer notification: one million yuan had been deposited into her account.
Riley picked up her phone, transferred the money back, and called Justin Locke. "I’m recording the show. It was a dare. They made me borrow money. I’ve already sent it back."
She didn’t have it on speakerphone this time, so no one knew what the other person said before the call quickly ended.
Holly Summers, unable to keep her mouth shut, couldn’t resist asking, "Riley, since when do you have such a rich friend? How come I never knew?"
Riley shot her a sideways glance. "I have plenty of people in my contacts who could lend me a million. Do I need to introduce them all to you one by one? And you are?"
Holly Summers thought, ’Keep bragging. I’d have to be a fool to believe you.’
Riley couldn’t be bothered with Holly. Just as she was about to hand her phone back to a staff member, it rang.
She glanced at the incoming number and immediately smiled. "Director Warren, I’m going to take this call. Everyone, please be quiet."
With that, she pressed the answer key and switched on the speakerphone.
"Hello, are you the owner of this phone?"
A smile played on Riley’s face, but her words were full of dejection and annoyance. "Who is this? Actually, never mind who you are, don’t bother me. I just lost my job and I’m stressed out. I’m hanging up."
"Wait, wait, wait! Don’t hang up! What a coincidence! I have a job opening right here. Five thousand a month, travel expenses reimbursed. All you have to do is make some calls, check emails, and work on some apps. It’s a really easy job. What do you say? Interested in coming to work for us?"
"Only one position? Then forget it. My whole team just got laid off. Not only that, but because of a work mistake, we have to pay the company over a million in damages. I’m so poor I can’t even afford to eat. How could I have the money to move to another city for a job?"
Chloe Sterling and the others mouthed silently to each other, "It’s a scam call!"
"What’s going on? How can you get fined for working a job?"