CH 66

The event that Xiang Wan was supposed to participate in was originally a small one. To put it bluntly, it was unknown. If Xiang Wan had not unexpectedly become popular, the tickets probably would not have sold well. That was why the organizers decided to live-stream it on the internet and use this gray-area tactic to attract attention.

The process for Xiang Wan was also based on this idea. When they made the appointment, Xiang Wan did not have many fans. In the eyes of the organizers, this newcomer was likely to take the money and not complain.

Later, Xiang Wan unexpectedly became popular, but she was not active online nor did she follow the organizers. Thus, she did not participate in the official promotion by reposting the event announcement on Weibo.

Therefore, not many fans knew about this event.

The organizers urgently adjusted the poster without explicitly mentioning Xiang Wan’s withdrawal. Everything seemed to be quiet.

It wasn’t until the night of December 17th that a post appeared on the forum.

Posted by an anonymous user, the title was: It’s really hard to organize an event, who understands…

It seemed like an ordinary complaint, basically saying that because a scheduled CV did not show up, the workers had to work overtime tonight to adjust the plan overnight.

Since the title was not eye-catching, it took several minutes for someone to reply with a comforting comment.

Then, gossip lovers rushed over and listened carefully to find out who it was.

“Sigh, I dare not say. She has become popular now, I’m afraid her fans will come after me. Poor little doggo.jpg”

Upon hearing that it was not an unknown CV, netizens became interested, during which the thread became popular. A seemingly ordinary title suddenly got so many replies, which attracted more people. Everyone was asking for hints and wanted to avoid such a CV[1].

The original poster dared not speak, so comments began to speculate, mentioning many famous voice actors. Fans became anxious and gradually some people accused the original poster, saying that they should show the evidence if they have, don’t be ambiguous here. Many innocent voice actors have been affected.

The original poster did not appear for half an hour, but when they showed up again, they posted a photo.

It was a photo of Xiang Wan and Yu Zhou, tightly hugging each other under the stage.

It was a bit far away, so Yu Zhou only showed a silhouette, but it could still be seen that Xiang Wan gently resting on her neck, the two of them were inseparable.

“What the…”

The forum instantly exploded. It turned out to be Xiang Wan.

“Who is she hugging?”

“The one who accompanied her, the author of the baihe audio drama ‘Shrine’, in which Su Chang acted as a lead role,” replied the original poster.

“Oh my goodness…”

“What are they doing?!”

“I don’t know, they were far away from me. She suddenly got off the stage and they hugged each other for a while before they left.”

“Goodness gracious…”

“What the f…”

“In front of so many people?”

“Their relationship was very good, they even said they lived together during the last live streaming. funny.jpg.”

“Ah, this…”

“Oh, I see. That makes sense. Her first Weibo was a repost from the author named ‘Ba Da Qin Cai.'”

“Ba Da Qin Chai.”

“Oh right, right.”

“Ah, this…”

People kept chiming in with “Ah, this…”s.

There had always been rumors about Xiang Wan’s sexuality, but this time it was with a different person. The fact that they were living together and hugging would not usually count as ambiguous behavior among girls, but people’s minds tend to wander.

Someone found the event and compared two event posters, saying, “She’s really not on it anymore.”

The organizer of the event did not offer any explanations as more and more netizens gradually started to comment, going so far as to ask if Xiang Wan was acting like a diva. The organizer did not respond or clarify as their attitude was starting to become rather ominous.

Despite photos of the two hugging, the main focus of discussion in the first half of the night was still Xiang Wan’s alleged diva behavior, until in the latter half of the night when another anonymous user posted a photo.

The picture was a blurred bill with some personal information, but key details were still visible.

Name: Xiang Wan

Room Type: Single Room

Date: December 16, 2022

Expense: xx-brand Condoms, Ultra-Thin x 1

All the comments below were “?”

After that, the netizens’ first reaction was: “This is too much, exposing her bills, is there no more privacy?”

“What is this? CV isn’t a celebrity, so what are they doing? How is this any different from a sasaeng fan?[2]“

“Who is this person? Are they from the hotel or the organizer? Are you insane that you share someone’s bill? Who dares to participate in your events or stay in your hotels from now on?”

“Uhh…looks like someone really wants to get sued.”

Perhaps it was getting too much scolding, or perhaps it was intentionally done, but less than two minutes after being posted, the picture was deleted.

Afterwards, the entire “expose” thread was reported by fans and completely removed.

However, this slightly risqué gossip, although buried by the forces of justice, still appeared in the mouths of a few crazy and malicious “antis.”

A small account with a black profile picture and a string of numbers for an ID said sarcastically on Weibo, “Looks like the condom sis really had some fun that night and couldn’t make it to the event the next day.”

If Yu Zhou saw it, she’d probably be furious.

Fortunately, she didn’t see it. Nobody was named specifically so it wouldn’t be easy to see the Weibo.

She and Xiang Wan returned to the hotel, exhausted. She tried to turn on her phone but it wouldn’t work. It seemed like the hotel’s plug was out of power so she changed it and continued charging her phone.

Xiang Wan opened Weibo and scrolled through her fans’ comments, which were a bit strange and filled with emoji expressions such as “hug.png.”

She also received the usual “Goodnight, Baby” messages.

Polite in her response, she replied to them inside her heart, “Thank you, goodnight.”

But she didn’t reply and just smiled before exiting the app.

The organizers didn’t contact her either, everything seemed quiet.

She selected a few photos taken with Yu Zhou today, preparing to post them on her Wechat Moments. Before doing so, she showed them to Yu Zhou, looking for her approval, including a photo of Yu Zhou in the hotel, a photo of them both eating Italian food together and another of them posing on a bridge making the “Yay” gesture. She asked if it was okay.

“You never post on Moments,” Yu Zhou said with a glance.

“You said you wanted to post today, so I wanted to post too.” said Xiang Wan.

“Tsk! Copycat,” Yu Zhou teased her.

Then she asked again, “Who do you have on your WeChat? Don’t let any unfamiliar fans or acquaintances see it. Block them to avoid trouble.”

“I don’t have many people on my WeChat,” Xiang Wan said.

“Okay, that’s good. I’m going to take a shower now.”

“Okay.”

It was almost 1 a.m. and the studio lights dimmed down. The building outside was completely dark. Inside the hallway, the green light of the “safety passage” sign illuminated the area.

Su Chang rubbed her neck while saying goodbye to her colleagues as she left the studio, heading to the underground parking level.

The garage was always dark, but there was a difference between daytime and nighttime. At night, the echoes were eerie and cold, as if the black corners were trying to sneak up behind you and hit you on the back of your head.

Thankfully, she had heard her footsteps echoing countless times already, so she was never afraid.

Sitting in the driver’s seat, she didn’t start the car right away. Instead, she turned on her phone to check her messages, mostly work-related and then her father’s message, “How are you recently?”.

The chat interface was sparse, not showing “Yesterday” or “The day before yesterday,” not even “Monday” or “Tuesday,” but showing a specific date.

She didn’t reply, for now, not wanting her family to know that she was still working at this hour. She just exited and opened the chat history with Yu Zhou.

She sent a photo of the little cow cat she had taken before starting work, but Yu Zhou hadn’t replied yet.

Her thumb rubbed the screen for a moment before she typed, “Are you asleep?” and then deleted it.

With a sigh, Su Chang opened Weibo and browsed through her private messages before clicking on Yu Zhou’s page. Yu Zhou had no updates since they left Qing City and even Xiang Wan hadn’t posted anything new.

However, Yu Zhou had an unusually high number of comments on her latest post. Su Chang scrolled through the comments in reverse order, some of them seemed to contain hidden messages.

“Have fun with your friend, Chai Chai. Go to bed early!”

Another one that read, “I shipped a real one. blushing.jpg”

Su Chang clicked on the user’s profile picture and saw their latest post, which read, “AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH I’m freaking out, my Ship is real!!!! Who else, who else!!!!”

Scrolled down to the next one, which read: “No longer participating in activities, just want to hug, Wan, don’t love her too much. Hiss haha hiss haha.jpg”

The picture that accompanied the post was of Xiang Wan hugging Yu Zhou in a candid shot.

Su Chang’s breathing became uneven as she stared at the screen for a few moments.

She lowered her eyelashes and opened WeChat, scrolling through her chat with Yu Zhou. After the cursor blinked for a while, she exited and looked at the emoticons Yu Zhou had sent a few days ago in the group chat “Spring All Year Round”.

Which were from the same series as the ones Xiang Wan had sent.

She clicked on Xiang Wan’s profile picture, seeing several photos suddenly appear in the previously empty “Moments” section.

Photos of Xiang Wan and Yu Zhou.