A Small Stir in Public Opinion

Early the next morning, Qin Qingyan was still asleep when her phone rang nonstop. She groped under her pillow and, half-conscious, hung up.

A moment later, it rang again.

Qin Qingyan was about to hang up once more, but her mind cleared a little, and she hurriedly answered, momentarily unable to tell whether it was an alarm or a call.

“What is it?” Her voice was hoarse.

Su Yan said, “Qingyan-jie, hurry up and check the hot search. I knew Yuguang Media wouldn’t be that honest. They’re sneaking around behind the scenes again, like a stubborn little fly.”

Qin Qingyan was instantly wide awake. She opened Weibo, and the top three hot searches all had her name in them.

【Qin Qingyan cheated!】

【Qin Qingyan has a chaotic private life!】

【Qin Qingyan’s secret relationship exposed!】

Qin Qingyan looked at them and felt a headache coming on. She rubbed her brow and clicked in to see what was going on.

The highest-ranked post was a long, thousand-character write-up from someone claiming to be a fan. It wasn’t exactly an accusation; it read more like a plain account of events, which somehow made it seem more convincing.

The four attached photos included one of her and Yan Yue kissing, taken before. The second was shot from far away and rather blurry; in it, she was kissing a man. Qin Qingyan looked at the man and recognized Lin Yi. She remembered that this must have been taken when someone had secretly photographed him asking about the scene.

The third photo showed Yan Huan coming to the film crew to see her that day, the two of them smiling and chatting warmly. In the fourth, she was accompanying Li Xian in the hospital, and they happened to be looking into each other’s eyes.

Qin Qingyan tossed her phone aside and lay flat on the bed, staring at the ceiling in a daze for quite a while. Turning toward the side, she saw emptiness; Yan Yue had gone to the company first thing in the morning.

She rolled over to Yan Yue’s side of the bed, took a deep breath, then let it out again.

Before she could make any move, Lin Yi had already helped her issue a statement.

Lin Yi: Um... if your writing is bad, fine; your character is bad too. You were obviously shooting a scene, yet you managed to capture an angle normal people couldn’t even take. Setting everything else aside, who would believe the words of a paparazzo? Only an idiot.

Not long after the post went up, the comments split into two camps. One insisted Qin Qingyan had a messy private life; the other insisted she was innocent.

【You can tell from her face she’s the type who’s different from certain people who are soaked in money, booze, and sex.】

【Yes, yes, yes, we’re all idiots; only you have a sharp eye and a talent for judging people.】

【Isn’t this the first time Qin Qingyan has had trouble? Maybe you really can’t know a person’s heart from their face.】

【Is photo four a delivery room? It kind of looks like it.】

【Don’t say that, I think so too. Though I’m still on Qin Qingyan’s side.】

Su Yan quickly sent a message: It’s not too troublesome yet. Should we clarify it now?

Qin Qingyan thought about it: This is easy to deal with.

Su Yan: That’s why we should move quickly, so it won’t get more complicated the longer we drag it out.

Qin Qingyan: Do you think this was done by Yuguang Media?

Su Yan: Not sure. There’s a chance.

Qin Qingyan wondered if Yuguang Media could really be that stupid. It was only a few photos; were they already that impatient?

She sent Su Yan a message, telling her to wait until noon to clarify it. Besides wanting the dramatic reversal of someone standing high only to fall hard, she also wanted to see what else the other side had not yet brought out.

On the other side, Yu Shuran looked at the post that had first exposed everything. She clearly remembered telling the person who had taken the candid shot to delete the third photo. So she found a staff member and asked about that person, only to learn that they had already left the job.

Had Yuguang Media been watching Qin Qingyan for a very long time?

Qin Qingyan acted as if nothing had happened. She put on her mask and cap, estimated that it was almost Yan Yue’s break time, and took a car to Changyue; since she had nothing else to do anyway.

She had messaged Yan Yue in advance so she wouldn’t be blocked at the gate later.

As soon as she got out of the car, she saw a tall woman come forward politely. “Are you Miss Qin?”

Qin Qingyan nodded.

“Alright, please come with me.” The woman carried herself with impeccable manners. She led Qin Qingyan into the elevator; when they reached the office door, she gestured politely, then left.

Seeing that she really had gone, Qin Qingyan straightened her clothes, coughed a few times, and knocked on the door in a serious manner.

“Come in.” The voice was calm and distant.

Qin Qingyan pushed the door open with a smile. The air-conditioning was on inside; it was pleasantly warm.

Yan Yue was going through some materials. When she looked up and saw who it was, she smiled and closed the file at once.

“Why are you here so soon?”

“There wasn’t any traffic; the whole way was smooth.” Qin Qingyan took off her mask and sat on the sofa, smiling as she watched Yan Yue pour her some tea.

Yan Yue was wearing a white shirt on top again today, paired with wide-leg suit trousers. Qin Qingyan had seen this outfit before, but back then their relationship wasn’t nearly as close as it was now. At that time, when Qin Qingyan looked at Yan Yue, it was more with admiration, like a moon that could not be approached or profaned.

So back then, clothes were just clothes.

But now, looking at Yan Yue, Qin Qingyan couldn’t stop smiling, and all sorts of strange thoughts kept flashing through her mind, making her too embarrassed to keep looking.

“Why did you suddenly think of coming here?” Yan Yue asked.

Only then did Qin Qingyan come back to herself and remember why she was here, though her mouth said, “Can’t I come if nothing’s wrong?”

“Of course you can.”

Qin Qingyan smiled. “There’s something I’m curious about. Let me show you first.”

She handed her phone over. Yan Yue’s expression shifted from confusion to silence.

“Yuguang Media only making this much of a move feels way too inconsistent with their reputation. It’s strange. What do you think their goal is?” Qin Qingyan asked.

Yan Yue looked at the candid shot with the misplaced kiss. “Who is this person?”

“Lin Yi, Yuguang Media’s young master.” She added, “The photo’s fake. Nothing happened.”

“He’s the male actor Bai Ruo said was difficult to work with?”

Qin Qingyan nodded.

“What’s he like?”

“Not bad. Yuguang Media rarely has any normal people, but he’s one of them.”

Yan Yue looked at the photo and said nothing.

Qin Qingyan suddenly asked, “You’re suspecting him?”

Yan Yue smiled and shook her head. “I just think the candid photography is very good. No wonder he can be a reporter.”

“That’s called a paparazzo, not a reporter.”

Yan Yue handed the phone back. “Have you eaten? If not, I’ll ask my assistant to bring up another portion.”

“No need. I have to rush back to the film crew; I can’t be late.”

They chatted for a long while. Before leaving, Qin Qingyan leaned her head toward Yan Yue and lifted her brows in silent invitation.

Yan Yue kissed her with a smile.

After Qin Qingyan left, Yan Yue sat in her chair, lost in thought, then made a phone call and gave instructions to the person on the other end.

Inside the film crew, Yang Zhuting was memorizing her script when she accidentally noticed a woman with an ostentatious appearance.

She had never seen her before; she probably wasn’t from the entertainment industry.

The staff around her treated her with great deference, as if afraid of offending her. Then, when she saw Qin Qingyan appear, she gave a cold smile and walked over.

“Qin Qingyan?” Zeng Nian sized her up.

Qin Qingyan said, “And you are?”

“Yu Shuran’s...” She glanced coldly at the staff beside her. The other person immediately understood what she meant and left at once.

“Yu Shuran’s girlfriend.”

Qin Qingyan raised a brow. Yu Teacher’s girlfriend? Why had she never heard Yu Shuran mention her?

As if knowing she didn’t believe it, Zeng Nian opened her phone album and handed it to Qin Qingyan. Qin Qingyan only glanced at it briefly.

It was indeed a photo of the two of them together.

“What do you want with me?”

Zeng Nian took her phone back. “Of course I’m curious about you. I want to get to know you better.”

Qin Qingyan suddenly smiled. Rather than a girlfriend, she was more willing to believe this woman was Yu Shuran’s rabid fan. “Yu Teacher’s girlfriend doesn’t go looking for Yu Teacher but comes to find me instead?”

“I just want to see what the people around my girlfriend are like. Is that not allowed?”

Qin Qingyan said, “Instead of learning about her friends, you’d be better off spending more time learning about her. If you understand someone well enough, you should trust them well enough too; but to me, it seems you don’t trust Yu Teacher’s judgment very much when it comes to choosing friends.”

Zeng Nian stared at Qin Qingyan for a long time, then smiled, the hostility in her eyes slowly fading. Her judgment of people had always been accurate.

“That’s true. Fine, I won’t keep you from work. Shuran doesn’t have many friends; if you have time, you can go talk to her more.” With that, Zeng Nian left.

Even after she was far away, Qin Qingyan still doubted her identity. It wasn’t until a staff member nearby said, “I can’t believe she hasn’t changed at all after all these years. She really suits Shuran-jie,” that Qin Qingyan finally believed it really was her girlfriend.

It seemed a bit like Bai Ruo and Li Xian, Qin Qingyan thought. Love really was the most complicated thing.

At Li Xian’s household, Su Yan was playing with the child’s hand with obvious fondness, not daring to use the slightest force.

“So soft, and so tender. I don’t even dare to squeeze her, for fear of hurting her,” Su Yan said.

Li Xian’s mother smiled. “She was crying terribly a few days ago. You just happened to catch her on a well-behaved day, otherwise your ears wouldn’t have been able to take it.”

“That’s true. A child’s cries really can go right through you.”

When only Li Xian and Su Yan were left in the living room, Li Xian asked her, “Su Su, do you know where A-Ruo is filming?”

Su Yan’s hand, which had been teasing the child’s fingers, paused. Li Xian already knew?

“I...”

“You do know, don’t you?”

Su Yan said, “I mean, I’m not part of the film crew, and people usually don’t just casually reveal this kind of thing. Otherwise, wouldn’t those stalker fans seriously affect the filming schedule if they found out? So there’s no way I’d know.”

“Su Su.” Li Xian’s tone was firm.

“You still haven’t fully recovered..."

“Please tell me. I’m begging you.” Li Xian had a very bad feeling. If she didn’t chase Bai Ruo back now, she would completely lose her.

Su Yan jerked. This absolutely wouldn’t do. After struggling for a while, she finally told Li Xian. Li Xian immediately bought a ticket for that night, hastily packed some luggage, and flew abroad.

Su Yan looked at the chat window with Bai Ruo, hesitating over whether to tell her that Li Xian had gone to find her. After all, Li Xian was still weak right now.

But Su Yan wasn’t sure of Bai Ruo’s attitude anymore either. What if, once she found out, she deliberately avoided Li Xian? Then wouldn’t this trip have been wasted? Given Li Xian’s current state, she absolutely had to find Bai Ruo.

If this kept going back and forth like this, the one who would end up exhausted was still Li Xian.

In the end, Su Yan decided to let it be. How things developed would depend on their own fate.