Chapter 23
Chapter 23
After a few days, He Wei had more or less gotten a grasp of the personality of this online dating partner.
He seemed to be a very busy person. He rarely spoke, and his replies to her daily morning, noon, and evening greetings were basically just a few simple words.
Either “mm” or “in a meeting.”
This time was an exception.
He Wei originally thought that if he responded, it would still just be a simple “mm.”
So when she saw this line of text, she nearly tripped flat on the ground.
Across from the residential complex, the fruit shop was still looping promotional slogans for fruits. He Wei found it a bit irritating, raised her hand to rub her ear, and carefully read the sentence again.
She hesitated for a few seconds, and in the end still typed those two characters and sent them again.
Although He Wei was not used to it, she actually did not feel much shyness or embarrassment.
After all, the person on the other side was a stranger—whether he was human or ghost couldn’t even be clearly said.
Once they exited WeChat, the two of them never had any further contact.
That was the difference between dating He Yancheng.
Worry-free and effortless—whatever she said or did was not constrained.
After sending those two characters, every few seconds as He Wei entered the residential complex, she would check her phone once.
The favorability value behind the nickname showed no change at all.
No change—then wasn’t she calling it for nothing?
He Wei didn’t gain any benefit at all, and only then did she feel she had been taken advantage of.
Less than two minutes after the message was sent, just as He Wei was about to recall it, another message came from the other side—
【Voice message.】
He Wei: “……”
This person was getting more and more demanding.
Just typing those two characters already felt ambiguous to her, let alone saying them out loud.
She had lived for more than twenty years, and even after restarting her life so many times, those two characters had never come out of her mouth before.
He Wei frowned, not replying immediately. When she got into the elevator, she suddenly remembered she still had a system, and as if grabbing a lifeline, she blurted out, “Tiantian, should I say it or not?”
System: “I-I don’t know either……”
He Wei: “……”
As expected, it lived up to the name she gave the system.
System: “Host, why don’t you try saying it… after all, there’s only one point left. Maybe this time it’ll work, and then you can completely get rid of the scumbag male lead……”
The reasoning made sense. He Wei understood it herself too, but she was still a bit conflicted.
Of course she was conflicted—after all, typing those words on a screen and saying them out loud were completely different things.
He Wei raised her eyes to look at the floor number, and just as she lowered her head again, the screen lit up once more.
Y: “Don’t want to call anymore?”
He Wei: “……”
She stared closely at the favorability value behind it, fearing that the “78” would also drop rapidly like Yan Chen’s favorability had last time.
This kind of situation was like finally almost defeating a big boss in a game, only for a small monster to suddenly rush out midway and wipe you out.
He Wei felt an inexplicable nervousness. She slightly held her breath, and even the elevator’s arrival notification made her eyelid twitch in shock.
Her heartbeat still hadn’t calmed down. She took a deep breath before stepping out of the elevator.
The corridor was empty—no one there.
He Wei’s footsteps echoed faintly. She clenched the hand not holding her phone, then opened the chat window and sent a voice message.
Her voice was slightly trembling, very soft and gentle, with an especially noticeable trailing tone. In that sweet, delicate manner, she called out “husband.”
Half a minute after sending it, He Wei sent:
He Wei: “Did you hear it? I’m going to withdraw it after you hear it, okay?”
He Wei: “Not yet.”
On the other side, the reply came unusually quickly:
“Someone is beside me.”
“……”
He Wei didn’t dare to recall the message.
The favorability value still showed no change.
When she opened the door, the system notification sounded:
“Congratulations, Host. Your online dating partner Y’s favorability has increased by five points. The current value is 83.”
He Wei’s hand holding the key trembled, almost failing to insert the key into the lock.
System: “Congratulations, Host. You have successfully gotten rid of the scumbag male lead.”
He Wei didn’t respond. Only after entering the room and closing the door did she impatiently unlock her phone screen.
As expected from the system’s words, the red number had changed to 83.
He Wei froze for a moment. What surged up next was overwhelming joy. After the excitement faded, when she tried to recall that voice message, the time limit for recalling it had already passed.
Y: “Good girl.”
He Wei’s face turned warm red. She didn’t even dare to listen to it herself a second time and immediately threw the phone aside without replying.
At the same time, in the underground parking lot of Yan Corporation, driver Xiao Wu noticed something off about his boss.
During the meeting just now, his face had clearly been tense and cold like sub-zero weather. But after asking for headphones and listening to something, his expression now seemed to be shifting from cloudy to sunny.
Xiao Wu stole a few glances at the boss in the back seat. Before he could guess anything, the man suddenly lifted his eyes.
His lips were slightly curved, but his gaze remained cold.
Xiao Wu quickly withdrew his gaze, not daring to ask a single word, and started the car out of the parking lot.
The man in the back seat lowered his eyes, then pulled off the earphones abruptly.
He Wei’s voice was soft—one “husband” had made even his earlobes soften along with it.
He was completely digging his own grave.
Yan Huai tugged at his tie and lifted a hand to loosen one button of his shirt.
He scrolled up through the chat history, only then carefully looking at the photo He Wei had sent.
The woman in the image had fair, full skin on her chest, a sharp chin, and distinct collarbones—yet there was no mole that should have been on He Wei’s body.
Not bad.
Since He Wei wanted to seduce him so much, he would give her plenty of opportunities in the future.
Yan Huai’s lips curled slightly. “Go back to Guanhai Manor.”
Guanhai Manor was a seaside villa that Yan Huai had purchased two years ago when he was still in another city. Its location by the sea was excellent.
It was also the first place Yan Huai had ever brought He Wei home to.
Xiao Wu couldn’t help but ask, “President Yan, didn’t you have a business trip this afternoon?”
Yan Huai glanced at him. Xiao Wu immediately nodded again. “Understood.”
Understood nothing.
Xiao Wu thought he had forgotten to take something, but in reality, it was the opposite—he had forgotten to leave something behind.
He needed to deal with his physiological needs.
After returning to Guanhai Manor, he didn’t go back to his own bedroom, but instead went to the bathroom of the room He Wei had stayed in last time and took care of it himself once.
When he came out of the bathroom, Yan Huai leaned against the large bed He Wei had once lain on, holding his phone as he typed a line:
【I really want to kill you.】
He didn’t send it.
Yan Huai then deleted that sentence one character at a time. In the end, he exited the chat interface and called the general manager of Feili Jewelry.
He Wei received a call from Feili on Friday.
This time, it was the designer’s assistant who called, saying the wedding dress had already been selected according to her measurements and asking when she would be free to come try it on.
He Wei flipped through the script and her calendar.
Empress Tiancheng was a big female-led drama. Even though He Wei’s role was expanded, she was still only a supporting fourth female lead—there was no way she would have more screen time than the second or third female leads.
Although her role was small, it was scattered, and she appeared in almost every episode.
Before the show had even finished filming, He Wei already had an ominous premonition.
She feared that once it aired in a few months, she would be scolded to death by Mu Sheng’s crazy fans.
He Wei raised a hand and pressed her temple. After roughly flipping through her schedule, she confirmed a time with the other party.
Next Tuesday, she only had one scene at dawn. She should be done around one or two in the morning, then go home to sleep, wake up, and head over to Feili.
She made the plan well—but when Tuesday actually arrived, at one or two in the morning, she was still getting her makeup done.
Cheng Nuo had gone to Fashion Week with a teacher last week, and the makeup artist during this period was a newcomer.
Also new to the industry, this person’s makeup skills were far worse than Cheng Nuo’s.
He Wei had already been sitting in front of the mirror for an hour, and the reflection of her face only seemed to get uglier and uglier.
The young girl didn’t think so at all and was still happily applying layer after layer of blush.
He Wei stared at her face in the mirror, red like a monkey’s butt, and finally couldn’t bear it anymore. She coughed.
“I’ll do it myself.”
“Just a moment, it’ll be done soon…”
He Wei frowned, her tone turning colder. “I said I’ll do it myself.”
“…Oh.”
Only then did the person put down the blush brush.
As He Wei was removing her makeup, she glanced up at the young girl. “I didn’t see you doing makeup like this for Female Third.”
She had been paying attention for several days in case she had wrongly accused a good person.
In the entire crew, only her makeup was this “special.”
The makeup artist’s eyes flickered. “S-sorry, my skills aren’t very good…”
“Is it because your skills aren’t good?”
He Wei lifted her chin slightly. “Or are you selectively bad only when it comes to me?”
“……”
He Wei lowered her head and saw the tightly clenched hands of the girl.
“Who told you to do my makeup like this?” He Wei smiled faintly. “The uglier the better, is that it?”
The girl bit her lip tightly and refused to speak.
“There’s no way someone who can work as a stylist in this kind of production would have bad skills,” He Wei said as she stood up, taking the blush brush and lightly tapping it on the girl’s face. “Let me ask again—”
“S-Sister He Wei, please don’t ask anymore.”
The girl was so frightened that tears were about to fall. “I’ll redo your makeup. I’ll definitely do it properly for you in the future…”
He Wei sat back down again.
After a few minutes of silence, she placed the makeup brush on the table. “Do it.”
She didn’t want to be so without principles either, but the girl’s skills were truly unbearable—every time she did her makeup, it looked almost like she hadn’t done anything at all, so light it was barely visible.
Yet her character in the drama was set as a seductive vixen—a glamorous, bewitching femme fatale—and He Wei simply couldn’t pull off that kind of makeup on her own.
The makeup artist, as if granted a pardon, quickly squeezed out foundation again. While spreading it on the back of her hand, she heard He Wei ask again:
“Mu Sheng?”
“……”
The makeup artist’s hand trembled.
Perhaps because of her height and appearance, He Wei actually didn’t have much presence, but those few words just now had still frightened the makeup artist badly.
Because her tone sounded like she had backing.
The makeup artist, poor and inexperienced, was completely unable to withstand the pressure and quickly lowered her eyes.
“Feng Ning, just nod or shake your head. I won’t tell her it was you who said it.”
The makeup artist’s name was Feng Ning. Hearing her call her name, her eyelids trembled, but she still said nothing.
He Wei might look like she had backing, but Mu Sheng was someone who truly did.
There were plenty of such internal power struggles behind a seemingly harmonious crew. She didn’t dare pick a side randomly.
He Wei had basically already confirmed her suspicion.
There were quite a few big-name actors in this crew, and most of them had almost no interaction with her—there was no reason for them to target her.
Thinking it through, the only person she had ever had conflict with was Mu Sheng.
He Wei did not continue asking. She closed her eyes slightly and said, “If she asks, just say my makeup was done by myself.”
The young girl nodded, looking extremely grateful. “…Thank you, Sister He Wei.”
Just as the words fell, He Wei heard a “beep” from the system.
“Congratulations, Host. Hidden storyline unlocked.”
He Wei: “???”
Before she even had time to ask the system, the young girl—who had just been stammering and refusing to say a word—suddenly seemed to make up her mind. She took a deep breath and said, “H-He Wei sister, there’s something I want to tell you…”
He Wei immediately opened her eyes.
Feng Ning: “Mu Sheng has been telling several actresses in the crew who are close to her these past few days that you were being kept by a sugar daddy…”
This kind of thing, Mu Sheng probably couldn’t wait to spread, so she didn’t even avoid irrelevant people.
He Wei frowned. “I’m being kept… by who?”
“They said… said it was President Yan.”
“Which President Yan?”
“Yan Huai… President Yan.”
He Wei let out a breath and forced herself to calm down.
After a few seconds of silence, she said, “If I was really being kept by President Yan, would she still dare to treat me like this?”
“She also said… that President Yan got tired of you and has already dumped you…”
He Wei: “……”
What kind of idiot is this Mu Sheng?
He Wei was so angry she actually laughed, her lips curling into a mocking snort.
Feng Ning quickly tried to soothe her. “Sister He Wei, I believe you have nothing to do with President Yan.”
He Wei said nothing. She reached out and tugged at her collar, then said, “So what about being dumped by President Yan?”
“It’s just that a few days ago, Sister Mu Sheng said that when she flew to Mango TV for a variety show recording, she ran into President Yan at the airport. He was with a woman…”
He Wei: “……”
See?
Men really are dogs.
Not long ago he was saying he wanted to kiss her, and now, just a little over a week without seeing each other, he already found someone new.
He Wei curled her lip and couldn’t help blurting out, “Scumbag.”
Feng Ning: “……”
She suddenly felt something was off.
“Sister He Wei, do you really know President Yan?”
“I don’t.”
He Wei said expressionlessly, “I only know his younger brother.”
Because a small incident happened midway, He Wei’s scene only started filming after two o’clock.
This scene was a confrontation with Mu Sheng. During filming, whenever Mu Sheng had her back to the camera, her gaze toward He Wei was cold as if frozen with ice—like she wanted nothing more than to shoot knives out and scratch He Wei’s face.
He Wei simply ignored it and acted her own part.
The final few shots involved her character Mu Pingtian slapping the female lead. According to the script, the female lead—who had already grown from a little white rabbit into a more mature version of herself—was supposed to grab her wrist when the slap came down and then shove her to the ground.
Nearly an hour into filming, He Wei was already fully immersed in the role, her emotions at their peak. As she followed the script and raised her hand to strike, the system suddenly stammered:
“R-reporting, Hos-host… a minor pain point detected. You can’t actually hit her…”
Before it could finish, He Wei’s hand didn’t stop in time and landed a fierce slap on Mu Sheng’s face.
With a sharp “pa,” the entire set fell silent.
A few previously drowsy stagehands were jolted awake, widening their eyes and exchanging glances before looking toward Mu Sheng, who was crouched on the ground holding her face.
Mu Sheng lowered her head, the corner of her mouth curling up briefly and quickly. When she raised her face again, she already wore a pitiful expression:
“He… He Wei… I know that last time I messed up the bed scene and made you get caught in the rain, you’ve always held a grudge against me… but I didn’t expect you to actually…”
Then she even started crying.
He Wei regretted not hitting her harder.
Her lips curled slightly as she watched Mu Sheng’s assistant rush over. “Sister Mu, are you okay?”
The set instantly descended into chaos.
No one knew who called director Cheng Yan over from the resting room. He had been up for over a day and had just fallen asleep not long ago, so being woken up suddenly made him clearly unhappy. Frowning, he asked gloomily, “What happened?”
Mu Sheng’s sycophantic assistant immediately exaggerated the whole story.
He Wei was portrayed as a vindictive, vicious woman. She pressed her fingers to her temple and glanced at Mu Sheng, who was still crouching and crying beside her.
She had indeed used quite a bit of force just now—she had gotten carried away in the moment and couldn’t hold back even if she wanted to. She originally thought Mu Sheng would block it, but for some reason, she hadn’t even tried to dodge. Now her face was swollen high on one side, looking pitiful.
He Wei frowned.
Almost everyone present now looked at her with hostility.
Cheng Yan lit a cigarette. “Is Mu Sheng okay now?”
“Director Cheng, my face hurts. Will it be disfigured?”
Cheng Yan scoffed. “Do you think He Wei has knives in her hand? Disfigure you?”
Mu Sheng sniffled and sobbed again. Cheng Yan, annoyed, gestured with the cigarette between his fingers. “Go deal with it first, see if makeup can cover it. If not, your scenes will be pushed back a couple of days.”
He looked at He Wei. “He Wei, come with me.”
He Wei didn’t look at Mu Sheng anymore, and also tried to ignore everyone’s hostile stares. She followed Cheng Yan into the resting room.
The room was small and enclosed. Once the door closed, the smoke inside felt suffocating.
Cheng Yan pulled over a chair and pushed it toward her. “Did you hit her on purpose or what?”
He Wei told the truth: “I thought she would follow the script.”
“Got it.” Cheng Yan nodded. “I understand.”
“Go change your clothes first.”
He Wei responded, and less than two minutes later, she came back out of the resting room.
After the door closed, Cheng Yan glanced at the time and then sent a message to Yan Huai:
【He Wei was slapped today.】
He deliberately distorted what happened today.
Late into the night, the other person did not reply.
But Cheng Yan’s words unexpectedly came true.
Just as He Wei pushed open the door of the makeup room, a shadow flashed past her eyes. She thought she had seen a ghost and hadn’t even had time to scream when she was struck on the face.
Because she couldn’t dodge in time, He Wei was scratched by the person’s long fingernails, and a sharp pain spread across her face.
She sucked in a cold breath and narrowed her eyes slightly.
Mu Sheng’s voice rang out, filled with a tone of scheming satisfaction and mockery. “You can’t just hit me for nothing, right? I’ll return that slap to you.”
She let out a cold laugh. “Maybe by tomorrow morning, you’ll be trending for hitting a female co-star on set.”
He Wei raised a hand and touched her face.
Her skin was extremely delicate. Where it had been scratched by the woman’s sharp nails, fine traces of blood were already seeping out. When her fingers touched it, there was a slightly itchy, stinging pain.
Mu Sheng looked at the injury on her face with satisfaction, then wiped her fingernails. When she pushed the door open to leave, she once again returned to her previously soft and delicate appearance.
After the door closed, He Wei finally remembered to ask the system:
“Was that slap just now also not considered a pain point?”
“It doesn’t count, Host.”
Before it could explain further, Feng Ning had already rushed over. “Sister He Wei, are you okay?”
He Wei couldn’t tell whether she felt frustrated or relieved. Just as she shook her head, she heard Feng Ning say again:
“Sister He Wei, I recorded the video of her hitting you just now…”
Feng Ning handed over her phone. The video was playing from the beginning, capturing Mu Sheng’s hypocritical appearance in full.
He Wei let out a breath.
Good thing she had held back just now and didn’t get into a physical fight with Mu Sheng—otherwise today’s slap would have been for nothing.
He Wei smiled slightly. “Send me this video later.”
After returning home, He Wei slept until around ten o’clock.
After getting up and washing up, she remembered that she had to meet her “gold master” at noon for the transaction.
Because her face was injured, He Wei didn’t even put on makeup. She went out with a bare, pale face.
The meeting place was set in a private room of a teahouse.
The teahouse was elegant but extremely expensive. Just looking at the price list made He Wei’s heart ache. After staring at the menu for a long while, she finally ordered a pot of tea and two relatively inexpensive dishes.
The agreed time was 12:10.
At exactly 12:00, the private room door was pushed open, and the waiter’s voice rang out: “Sir, please come in.”
He Wei tightened her grip on the teacup and instinctively turned her head to look.
The waiter was pushing the door open while a man followed behind him into the room.
White shirt, pure black suit, black tie as well.
His entire person was dressed in an extremely cold black-and-white palette.
When He Wei clearly saw his face, she nearly crushed the teacup in her hand.
So this is what embarrassment feels like—today, she finally experienced it.
He Wei had completely not expected that after all the twists and turns, the “gold master” who wanted to buy her plate would be Yan Huai.
Her lips twitched. She was just about to shove the plate back when the man’s gaze had already fallen on her.
He Wei: “……”
Was it still too late to pretend she had walked into the wrong private room?
Yan Huai didn’t give her any chance at all. After the waiter pulled out the chair opposite him, he already sat down.
He Wei pressed her lips together. Just as she was wondering how to ease the awkwardness, she heard the man across from her ask:
“What happened to your face?”
“…I accidentally scraped it.”
“Accidentally?”
“…Mm.”
He Wei had no mind at all to chat with him. Her gaze drifted away, shifting around before landing back on the plate.
She was guessing whether Yan Huai still remembered this plate.
Before she could say anything, Yan Huai’s phone rang.
It was picked up after only one ring. He didn’t say anything else, only reported the private room number.
He Wei: “……”
It was over. He wasn’t going to call his father too, was he?
…Then this wouldn’t just be a question of awkwardness anymore.
Just as He Wei hesitated over whether she should grab the plate and run out, the door was knocked a few times from outside. Then a strange man pushed the door open and entered.
He Wei’s heart raced wildly. When she saw it wasn’t Yan Rujing, she secretly let out a breath of relief.
But in the next second, the man pointed at her and said, “Are you He Wei?”
He Wei didn’t understand what he meant and instinctively nodded.
The man’s expression immediately turned cold.
“So it was you who hit Mu Sheng today?”
He Wei’s expression stiffened.
Only then did she realize.
So Yan Huai hadn’t called Yan Rujing at all—he had called Mu Sheng’s backer instead?
The man strode forward aggressively, his aura fierce, as if he would grab He Wei and lift her up the next second.
“You bitch, you’re quite ruthless for someone so young—”
Across from her, Yan Huai didn’t speak for a long while. Then came a “click.”
He Wei heard the sound of him flicking open a lighter.
His voice was low, calm, unreadable in emotion.
“Do you even know how to speak?”