The shooting for the new film was scheduled to start in early March, giving Laila plenty of time to stay away from the office. so she stayed at her grandfather's place and researched future economic trends.
During this time, the controversies surrounding her in the outside world were gradually escalating. Just as she had suspected, Al Nadeem had no way of taking Faiza with him. On the contrary, Al Nadeem's appearance had driven her into a state of madness, elevating her to the level of a crazed individual.
Normally, crazed individuals would lash out at everyone, but she was different. No matter how others treated her, all her anger was directed at Laila.
It was like a joke that North Korea had once made: "If anyone punches me, I'll go and punch South Korea..."
Laila was completely caught up in this situation, but she wasn't particularly angry about it. In her eyes, anyone willing to come out and boost her reputation was considered an "ally"!
Even when Faiza resorted to increasingly bizarre reasons to slander her in various programs and interviews, Laila remained unfazed. This wasn't a case of a dog biting a person, and people wouldn't go and bite a dog. It was more like an elephant paying no attention to whether an ant had stepped on it.
However, no matter how you looked at it, these "allies" had actually put in quite a bit of effort while Laila remained silent. Originally, they would make subtle accusations of plagiarism, but eventually, they started naming names and even began to doubt whether she had directed the movie at all.
The cast and crew knew the truth behind these claims, as did the journalists, but who could resist a topic that attracted the masses? After all, the reporters were simply reporting what others had said, and the stories weren't fabricated. So, the journalists eagerly hyped up the topic.
Laila looked at the newspapers and silently counted her accusations on her fingers. She plagiarized the script, she didn't direct the movie, she had someone else edit it, Roy's song wasn't her creation, and she might have even stolen the song from someone else, who might have disappeared into the depths of the ocean by now.
Who would've thought that being a member of the Moran family would make it so easy to make a few people disappear from the world?These speculations, which were more like jokes, were believed by quite a few people. Some even passionately claimed that their friends who had composed great songs had suddenly gone missing, and their narratives were dramatic and convincing.
Laila smiled as she watched the news anchor on TV present this information along with some so-called evidence, making it sound as if it were true.
"Who did you throw into the sea?" Oswald was drawn to the TV's sound and rushed over to sit beside her, watching TV together.
"I thought you took care of that for me, Grandfather," Laila chuckled.
"Take care of what!" The old man playfully scolded her, "If you're done playing, you should wrap this up soon. My friends are all making fun of me."
Laila was also amused, realizing that her grandfather wasn't concerned about her committing those acts, but rather that he didn't want to become the butt of people's jokes due to baseless rumors.
"Well, let's wait a little longer," she said with a nod and a smile.
If her grandfather knew that she had secretly released most of those rumors herself, she wondered what his expression would be like.
Indeed, many of the claims circulating in the outside world were orchestrated by her, including some seemingly real events and even some absurd ones.
She was playing a big game here, and Faiza wasn't qualified to be her opponent. At best, she was a pawn on the battlefield. Laila's real opponent was the public, and she intended to use her pawns to gradually gain control of the board and achieve her goals.
In the afternoon, some of her grandfather's friends would come over for a gathering. Laila didn't want to meet those people right now, so she used the excuse of getting some fresh air and left the house.
She knew that if she were seen by her grandfather's friends, they would surely try to discuss business and projects with her. Eastern cultural values still influenced her, making it hard for her to directly refuse the requests of these elderly gentlemen. However, she didn't want to take on more project planning work, especially now that she was busy preparing for her new movie.
The most important issue was that these people couldn't offer her the prices she expected. If one of them had offered her a generous 20% stake like Leslie, she would have accepted without hesitation. Who would give away billions of dollars in assets?
Unfortunately, courageous individuals like Leslie were in the minority, and initially, she hadn't thought she would be able to achieve what she had. Regardless, she had accomplished enough to justify receiving those rewards, hadn't she?
Without her bodyguards accompanying her, Laila strolled the streets, wearing sunglasses and enjoying the scenery. She suddenly had a memory of the first time she had met Roy. It seemed she had found him when she was walking alone on the street, right?
As she watched the bustling streets, Laila suddenly realized something important: she didn't have any friends!
How was this possible? As a Hollywood director and the heir of the Moran family, she couldn't find a single person she could call to have coffee with, share a piece of cake, and explore all the shops together!
This discovery left her somewhat embarrassed. Due to her illness, she hardly attended school when she was young, let alone made friends. After recovering from her illness, she had come to this world, received her father's will, used the acquired film company to make money, and had never had time to make friends.
She did have quite a few male friends, like Zeni and Roy, but how could these men accompany her to do things that girls enjoyed? As for female friends... she honestly couldn't think of any! The closest she had was Demi, her secretary, but she had seen her in such a state that she probably would be too scared to even breathe if she received a call inviting her for coffee and shopping.
Thinking about this, Laila couldn't help but smile. Her movies were great, but it seemed like she was living a rather miserable life.
As she continued walking, the aroma of coffee from a roadside cafe caught her attention. It was a charming little place with beautiful outdoor tables and cute snowdrop flowers blooming in the surrounding planters.