Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Jiang Jingyue’s reaction was exaggerated, but He Wei wasn’t much better either.

After all, apart from that trending topic incident, the past few days had been calm and nothing else about Mu Sheng had been exposed, so He Wei had assumed that taking down the hot search was Yan Huai’s way of protecting her.

She never expected Yan Huai to have someone leak something this big.

Or rather—no one could have expected it.

This kind of behavior really was sick.

Not only sick, but seriously sick.

Jiang Jingyue kept sending messages. She also seemed to have drunk quite a lot, sending a few incoherent texts before finally switching to voice messages.

He Wei tapped to play one. As expected, she was very drunk—her tongue was thick and slurred.

Jiang Jingyue: “Weiwei… you’ve heard of Yan Huai, right… I saw him once at an awards ceremony. He’s so good-looking, so how is his brain the problem…”

He Wei also sent a message back: “Maybe he has a fever.”

When a person’s head heats up, they tend to do stupid things.

But Jiang Jingyue asked: “How do you know he’s horny?”

“……” He Wei sighed helplessly. “Sister Jingyue, if you’ve had too much to drink, go rest early.”

Half a minute later, another voice message came from Jiang Jingyue—this one was extremely garbled, followed by a few seconds of snoring.

She was really drunk.

That night there had been a dinner gathering among several well-connected self-media operations companies. There were over a dozen people at the table, mostly CEOs and executives from different companies. Most of them were men, and Jiang Jingyue had attended as the boss’s assistant.

Men, once drunk, liked to spill secrets. And since several executives already knew about this matter, after a few drinks they cautiously but vividly started discussing it.

Although Jiang Jingyue had also drunk quite a bit, her mind was still functioning—especially after hearing such explosive gossip, she sobered up a little.

She had seen plenty of companies going after competitors’ employees, but going after their own company’s artists? She had only ever seen that happen with Yan Huai.

Her brain got overheated too, and she couldn’t resist leaking the industry secret to He Wei.

So the next morning, when Jiang Jingyue opened her phone, she froze.

He Wei’s chat interface was right there, filled line by line with all the gossip she had “delivered” the night before.

When she went home last night, the boss had been drunk out of her mind, but still managed to muster her last bit of clarity and repeatedly told her to keep tonight’s events strictly secret.

Jiang Jingyue remembered it clearly, and she understood it perfectly.

Of course it had to be buried in her stomach—otherwise who would dare join Yan Huai’s company?

If things really got to that point, everyone present that night would be in deep trouble.

But she… turned around and told it all to He Wei.

Staring at the chat log, Jiang Jingyue rubbed her face hard, extremely frustrated, and sent another message to He Wei:

【Baby, please don’t tell anyone what I said last night! Otherwise my career might end here! crying.jpg】

He Wei was woken up by the vibration of messages.

Because of the recent situation, she had kept notifications on at all times except when filming, to avoid missing anything important.

This morning alone, the “ding-dong” sound had gone off no less than ten times.

She picked up her phone and checked it, finding not only messages from Jiang Jingyue, but also from Yan Chen, as well as one from her online boyfriend.

He Wei first replied to Jiang Jingyue, reassuring her quickly and decisively. Then she opened Yan Chen’s messages. The screen was almost entirely filled——

【Weiwei, are you okay?】

【I was abroad a few days ago and only just came back today. Has Mu Sheng made things difficult for you?】【If she did, I’ll talk to her later.】

He Wei was too lazy to reply, so she simply didn’t.

The next message was from her online boyfriend—short and to the point.

Y: 【Have you been sleeping well these past few days?】

Only then did He Wei remember that after the incident with Mu Sheng, she hadn’t really been in the mood to message her online boyfriend at all.

She quickly checked the favorability value behind his nickname. Black background, red text—very clear.

It was 85.

“……”

She had been ignoring him for days, yet the favorability had actually gone up?

He Wei couldn’t help but ask the system: “Is this favorability value bugged?”

The system immediately replied: “No, host, it’s normal.”

He Wei: “Then I ignored him for days—how is it still getting more… attached to me?”

She said the word “attached” especially quietly.

The system didn’t react at all. Recently, since the host hadn’t encountered any abuse-point triggers, even it had been much more relaxed, and its speech had become increasingly fluent, showing signs of recovery from its earlier stuttering issues.

“It’s normal, host. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. The other party must be missing you.”

He Wei: “……”

Had they even met?

She didn’t dwell on it too much. The system wasn’t very smart and its language skills weren’t great either, so she just assumed it had used the phrase incorrectly.

She turned to reply to her online boyfriend Y:

Y: 【Not too well… what about you?】

A few minutes later, Y replied: 【Me neither.】

He Wei didn’t respond.

She was afraid that if she kept replying, the other party might suddenly start sending cheesy romantic lines.

Early in the morning, that kind of thing wasn’t appropriate.

She went to the bathroom to quickly freshen up, and when she came back out, her phone “dinged” again.

This time it was a Weibo notification.

She patted her face and walked over.

A verified account—Cheng Yan—had posted a new Weibo post and @ mentioned her——

@Cheng Yan: 【I haven’t responded these past few days, so I’ll say a few words today about the situation between He Wei and Mu Sheng. The slap from He Wei was required by the plot—according to the script, Mu Sheng was supposed to dodge it. As for why she didn’t, you can ask @Mu Sheng. Also, regarding many of Mu Sheng’s fans demanding that @He Wei be replaced—sorry, that’s impossible.】

The post had only been up for a few minutes, yet reposts, likes, and comments had already broken ten thousand.

He Wei completely understood Cheng Yan’s decision to clarify things after several days.

Just as she was about to privately message him to thank him, Cheng Yan messaged her first:

【Take out the word “sorry” in the last sentence—it was what Yan Huai told me.】

“……”

She had just thought that sentence carried quite a domineering aura.

Now it looked more like… a “turtle aura.”

Although she thought that, He Wei still sent a message: 【Thank you, Brother Cheng Yan.】

Cheng Yan: 【Don’t thank me. Go thank your Brother Yan Huai instead. He hasn’t been sleeping well these past few days.】

He Wei’s finger, just as she was about to close the private chat window, suddenly paused. It was as if her throat had been grabbed—her breathing even froze for a second.

After a brief pause, she asked: 【Why?】

Cheng Yan: 【Weiwei, don’t ask questions like that in the future. You already know in your heart what it’s for.】

Of course He Wei knew—but once it was pointed out so directly by an outsider, her mindset was completely different.

Since this reset began, everything had changed.

Not only the plot, but also Yan Huai—and herself.

He Wei raised a hand and pressed lightly against her chest. Her heartbeat was a little fast; she could even hear a dull thumping sound in her ears.

That was her own heartbeat.

Not long after Cheng Yan’s clarification post went out, the drug scandal involving Mu Sheng and Song Zhenzhen followed immediately.

Several major influencers posted about it together, accompanied by a few “spicy and seductive” photos of the two at nightclubs.

Once released, it instantly shot to the top of the trending list.

The melon-eating crowd immediately switched sides, and even that earlier comment predicting that Mu Sheng looked like a drug user was dug back up. The replies were endless——

【Please, prophet, tell me when I’ll get rich!】

【Has my boyfriend been born yet, prophet?】

【Stop this nonsense and just ask the prophet who’s backing He Wei! Betting’s open now—we’ve already got a villa’s worth of spicy strips on the line!】

He Wei closed her eyes, then collapsed back onto the bed.

She really hadn’t slept well for several days.

Every time she fell asleep, she would dream of people pointing at her and saying she was scheming and had ulterior motives.

But clearly, it was Song Zhenzhen and Mu Sheng who struck first.

He Wei didn’t think she had done anything wrong—but she couldn’t control the nightmares at night.

After several days, the dark circles that had finally faded had returned again.

Today, finally feeling a bit of peace, she fell asleep almost as soon as she touched the bed.

Not even ten minutes later.

She was woken again by a “ding-dong.”

Reluctantly, she opened her eyes, but considering the special circumstances, she still struggled for a few seconds and picked up her phone.

It was another post from Cheng Yan.

@Cheng Yan: 【The “backer” is not me. Clarifying this @He Wei】

He Wei immediately reposted it.

Afraid of overinterpretation, she didn’t even add any caption—she just reposted it to state her position.

In the afternoon, she still had to go to Feili for the second promotional shoot, so she didn’t continue sleeping. She got up, cooked something simple, and filled her stomach.

As a major brand, Feili wouldn’t skip makeup and styling just because they had done it once before.

He Wei went through the full process again. At 2:10 p.m., she changed into the silver custom wedding gown and stood in front of the backdrop.

Today, only her solo shots were scheduled in the first half, so Su Mu hadn’t arrived yet.

He Wei entered her state quickly and finished the early shots an hour ahead of schedule.

The staff, worried she might be tired outside, simply took her to the lounge to rest.

The room wasn’t very large—about a dozen square meters, with two tables and two chairs.

He Wei’s face was still made up. Although she was sleepy, she didn’t dare lie down on the table to sleep. And because her outfit was inconvenient, she sat upright and straight, elbows resting on the table, scrolling through Weibo on her phone.

A few days ago, Jiang Jingyue had forbidden her from checking Weibo too often, saying it would affect her mood.

Today, she kept urging her to check it more.

Since she was bored anyway, He Wei really started scrolling.

In the afternoon, the agencies of Song Mu and Mu Sheng also issued statements, saying they were suspending all announcements and activities for both of them, and would seriously handle the negative impact they had caused to fans and society.

Drug use was no small matter, and most of their fans were teenagers. The impact was obviously extremely bad.

They were probably done for.

This industry was like that—someone could become famous overnight, and also fall to the bottom overnight.

He Wei exited Weibo.

Her temples ached. She closed her eyes and pressed lightly with her hand.

At that moment, the sound of the door opening came from behind. He Wei thought it was a staff member coming to call her, and said softly, “I’ll be ready soon.”

No one responded.

Only then did He Wei realize something was wrong. She lowered her hand and turned around.

A man was closing the door behind him. He stood by the door, his suit perfectly tailored, looking refined and proper, like a gentleman in every sense.

Then Yan Huai stepped forward, walking toward her step by step.

He Wei helplessly realized that her first reaction every time she saw Yan Huai was no longer nervousness or jumping up—but an uncontrollable pounding of her heart.

That was not a good sign.

He Wei looked away and didn’t deliberately avoid him anymore, continuing to find something to do as she played with her phone.

She had a lot of things on her phone, including several gigabytes of educational videos, but unfortunately she didn’t have headphones, so she couldn’t listen.

He Wei simply opened a game app instead.

The sound of a chair being pulled out rang beside her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the man sit down next to her.

He was quiet, seemingly just here to rest in the lounge.

He Wei actually had things she wanted to ask.

For example—did he still like her? If he didn’t like her, why had he done so much for her? But if he did like her, what about that girl last time?

She had quite a lot she wanted to ask, but only belatedly realized she had no standing to ask any of it.

She played the game absentmindedly, and after forcing herself to continue for ten minutes, she simply quit.

He Wei glanced at the time, adjusted her dress, and was about to head out for the next shoot. But just as her butt left the chair, she was pulled back by the wrist.

The difference in strength between men and women was obvious, and He Wei was light—she was effortlessly dragged back along with the chair.

The entire process took less than two seconds. Afraid of falling, she instinctively grabbed the man’s sleeve.

The next second, Yan Huai reached out and wrapped an arm around her. His chin lightly rested on her exposed, slender shoulder. The faint stubble on his jaw was slightly scratchy, carrying a faint, tingling itch.

Then he spoke, his voice low and gentle:

“Baby, do you know… I’ve been waiting for you to talk to me.”