Chapter 33

"What's wrong with you?" Zhang Wang called Yuan Yi's phone, anxiously asking, "Where are you feeling unwell? What did the doctor say? If it can't be treated here, we can go abroad. They'll definitely be able to cure you. Don't worry, I'll come over to see you right now."

"What are you coming over for?" Yuan Yi didn't understand what Zhang Wang had imagined, flipping through a comic book titled Little Monster, laughing as he said, "Let's schedule a time tomorrow and talk about it in detail."

"Can you not scare me like this next time?" When Zhang Wang heard Yuan Yi's tone, he realized he had overthought it. "Yuan Xiaoer, can't you just say things clearly? You almost scared me to death."

On the comic book page, a little monster with three eyes had fallen into a puddle, and a rabbit and a hedgehog, with their legs up, couldn't drag the chubby little monster out. Yuan Yi couldn't help but laugh when he saw this scene.

Zhang Wang was so startled by his laughter that his hair stood on end. It seemed that Yuan Xiaoer really had something wrong with his head. He used to call himself "old man" in front of Yuan Yi, but was often scolded as a "grandson." Now, Yuan Yi was actually laughing.

After hanging up, Zhang Wang rubbed his arms, feeling a bit uneasy. It seemed like the illness wasn't mild.

Yan Xi returned home, opened a gift box, and placed the full set of lipsticks in a large wardrobe. She opened her computer, and the avatar in her messaging app was jumping around. When she clicked on it, she realized that the publishing house wanted to collaborate with her on another art book.

Little Creek: The payment for the last book hasn't been completed, so I'm not interested in this one.

Bright Moon: The payment for your book is being processed. We are a legitimate publisher, we definitely don't take advantage of our authors. Lovely lady, please think about it, let's set up a meeting.

Yan Xi knew that her art book had sold very well and had made it to the top 20 on the bestseller list, but she didn't have much time to draw now. Recently, because her comic strips on Weibo had decreased, many fans were protesting in the comments.

Little Creek: I'll think about it, but I'm quite busy lately and don't have much time to work on the artwork.

Bright Moon: Take your time. As long as you're willing to sign, we're not in a hurry.

Yan Xi didn't agree to the contract, and after finding her digital tablet, she drew the beginning of a warm little story and posted it on Weibo. Her drawing skills weren't top-notch, but she was good at capturing cute points, making the main character so adorable that it made people want to pinch it.

Soon, the post received countless shares and likes.

[So cute it makes my legs weak. This little chrysanthemum monster is simply adorably silly.]

[Blogger, you're so dirty! Why did you make the main character a chrysanthemum monster? Hahaha.]

[Haha, this blogger can only rely on selling cuteness to gain followers. Her drawing skills are just a joke, yet she has so many crazy fans praising her. This world is really strange, serious artists get no attention, while amateur ones gain millions of followers and make money.]

Yan Xi saw a comment criticizing her and replied directly: "I'm just an amateur artist who lives off selling cuteness. Sorry to disappoint you. I don't draw for dreams, not for the future, just because I enjoy it. This is a good era; it allows non-professional artists to have a platform to showcase their works. Thank you to the country, thank you to society, thank you to my fans. May the world be at peace."

Her self-deprecating and straightforward response was seen as amusing by her loyal fans but looked like drama to the haters. However, if anyone dared to criticize her artistic skills again, it made them look petty.

Online, no one knew who was behind the keyboard, so Yan Xi couldn't be bothered with the trolls. She hadn't done anything wrong, and if those people found some kind of psychological satisfaction by putting her down, she was happy to let them have it.

It was just doing a good deed. Some people must be suffering inside, and if they didn't find somewhere to vent, they'd probably feel even worse.

"Ugh, I feel like I'm glowing like a deity," Yan Xi took out a mirror and checked her face, packed up her digital tablet, and replied to a few more comments. She suddenly remembered her host account on Weibo, so she logged in to see that her followers had reached 50,000.

Most of the comments praised her for her elegance, beauty, or the great job she did hosting the show. After scrolling through, she shared a tweet from the Around Me official Weibo account and turned it off.

"Yan Yan," her father, Song Hai, knocked on the door. Yan Xi got up to open it. "Dad, why aren't you asleep so late?"

"I saw your room light was still on, so I came to check," Song Hai glanced at the open computer. "Go to bed early. The other day, there was a news story about a young person who stayed up all night and suddenly died."

"The news you're talking about was from our station," Yan Xi smiled and buttered him up. "I'll go to bed soon."

"Good," when Song Hai saw his daughter smile, he didn't scold her further. "I'll head back to my room."

"Goodnight, Dad." Yan Xi watched her father go back to his room, gently closed the door, turned off the computer, and lay in bed. Her phone suddenly rang, and the long-quiet university class group chat popped up.

"Yan Xi, are you online? Does anyone have Yan Xi's contact information?"

The girl who asked wasn't particularly close to her, more of an ordinary classmate, but she seemed to have a good relationship with Wei Xiaoman.

No one replied in the group, so this girl messaged her privately. Yan Xi ignored it, pretending she hadn't received the message.

If someone who never contacted her suddenly reached out, it was definitely not for anything good. If it was something good, they wouldn't be coming to her.

Perhaps they were trying to recruit her for some brand or business investment, and she'd have to make an excuse to reject them later. That would be awkward. Yan Xi, without any psychological pressure, turned off her phone and placed it on the bedside table.

Ever since Yuan Yi disturbed her with a call in the middle of the night, she had developed the habit of turning off her personal phone when she went to sleep. As for her work phone, she was a host at the station, and even if something urgent came up, she didn't have to deal with it at night.

As the saying goes, "Don't be too stubborn." Yan Xi didn't expect her work phone to ring in the middle of the night.

On the other end of the phone, the station's director Jin sounded anxious, and there were voices in the background, as if people were discussing something.

"Director Jin, what happened?" Yan Xi slowly woke up from her grogginess, sensing something wasn't right.

"Yan Xi, something's going on online, you mustn't speak casually," Jin lowered his voice, "You're our channel's pillar, don't get involved."

Yan Xi was confused, but hearing Jin's tone, she knew it was serious. "Okay, I usually don't comment online."

Jin didn't have time to explain, so he quickly hung up the phone.

Awakened by this call, Yan Xi couldn't sleep anymore. She grabbed her phone and searched online. It turned out something big had happened.

Li Jiayu had committed suicide by jumping off a building.

Yan Xi was shocked. Li Jiayu had been doing well recently, and after breaking her contract with the station, she reportedly found a better platform. Why would she...

Ignoring the conflicts between Li Jiayu and the station, Yan Xi thought she was an excellent host, and her death was a huge loss to the industry.

The police hadn't determined the reason for her suicide yet, but netizens were already convinced that the TV station had driven her to it. Under the station's official Weibo and Shen Xingyan's Weibo, there was a wave of hate.

Even on other TV station staff's Weibo, "justice-seeking netizens" were condemning and attacking the station. One male host from the station couldn't take it and retorted, and now his Weibo was flooded with tens of thousands of angry comments.

Although it was late, many people were still online, showing just how many people couldn't sleep tonight.

Yan Xi carefully observed the online sentiment and realized that someone was guiding the public opinion, trying to make the netizens believe that Li Jiayu had been driven to suicide by the station. Apart from competitors, who would pay to hire internet trolls to create such narratives?

There were also some minor celebrities who were using this opportunity to hype themselves up, posting mourning tweets while conveniently sharing a beautiful selfie. It was really nauseating.

This was a feast built on human blood.

Yan Xi tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep, and eventually resorted to playing games to take out her frustrations on the enemy gang.

Looking at the players still online at three or four in the morning, Yan Xi felt inexplicably moved. The world of single people wasn't lonely after all, since so many were still playing games in solitude.

Playing games was fun for a moment, but the next morning she was almost crawling into the office.

"Did you watch the gossip last night too?" Xiao Yang yawned as she walked into the office, her tone somewhat regretful. "There's all kinds of stuff online. It's such a pity." As small-time staff, they couldn't worry too much about these things, but they thought it was such a pity that Li Jiayu, who had worked so hard to get to her current position, had ended up choosing such a tragic outcome.

"I was playing a game last night, encountered a psycho, and chased him around killing him for an hour," Yan Xi gulped down several large sips of coffee. "Don't bring this up on the show, it'll just cause trouble."

"I only dare talk about it here. Who would dare bring it up anywhere else?" Xiao Yang sat down in a chair. "This morning I checked the comments on Shen Xingyan's Weibo, and she already has nearly a hundred thousand negative comments. If I were her, I would've died of anger by now."

There had been rumors online about Shen Xingyan and Li Jiayu competing for the top female host spot, with private conflicts. Now, with Li Jiayu's suicide, Shen Xingyan had become one of the people blamed for pushing Li Jiayu to her death.

"Teacher Yan," a staff member knocked on her office door. "Someone sent you flowers."

Yan Xi walked out in confusion and looked at the young man who had brought the flowers. She signed her name on the receipt.

"A huge bouquet of blue devil flowers," Xiao Yang said in surprise, looking at the bouquet in Yan Xi's arms. "Which handsome guy sent these?"

Yan Xi shook her head and took out the card from the bouquet.

【After many years, we meet again. You are still as beautiful as the morning glow—Song Chao】

Song Chao?

Yan Xi put the flowers aside, feeling that the contents of this card were especially strange. Meeting again? Had they met before?

Song Chao... Song Chao...

Yan Xi suddenly remembered something that happened when she first returned to the capital. The school heartthrob had written her a love letter, which was secretly thrown away by another girl. That school heartthrob's name was also Song Chao, wasn't it?

At the time, she had teased that his name was easy to remember, but she never thought she would forget the incident so soon. Perhaps because she didn't have many memories of the capital's Number One High School, even such small matters felt insignificant to her.

She had met Song Chao twice before, but he had never mentioned this incident. Why was he suddenly recalling the past now?

Unfortunately, she had no memory of this past, and only learned about it from others.

While thinking about this, her work phone rang, and the caller was Song Chao. She hesitated for a moment, then answered the phone.

"Mr. Song." Yan Xi didn't particularly like blue devil flowers because although the color was beautiful, she feared the paint used to dye them could be harmful to her respiratory system.

At a young age, she was quite cautious about her health.

"Miss Yan, did you like the flowers I sent you?" Song Chao's voice was gentle, enough to make a woman drown in its tone.

"Thank you." Yan Xi replied politely, "Sorry to trouble you."

"Flowers for a beautiful lady, Miss Yan, you match them perfectly."

Was he implying that she, like the blue devil flower, was artificially beautiful? After hearing the compliment, Yan Xi felt anything but pleased. "Thank you for the praise, but I don't understand, Mr. Song, why would you send me flowers?"

"Years ago, I pursued you, Miss Yan, but you didn't accept. Now..." Song Chao gently played with a pen, his tone soft yet calm. "Would you consider giving me a chance to pursue you now?"

The sound of the pen gliding across the paper was sharp.

"Mr. Song, are you joking?" Yan Xi squinted slightly. "You pursued me back then?"

If a love letter that was never delivered and was destroyed by someone else counted as pursuit, then that early crush was worth no more than a hundred bucks.

"Beautiful women have the right to forget," Song Chao put down his pen and crumpled the paper tightly. "Miss Yan, there's no need to dwell on past trivialities. I only hope your future includes me."

What was happening recently? The men she had encountered seemed to have a talent for dramatic love confessions. Had they all taken some strange medicine?

"Mr. Song, we have a tradition in my family," Yan Xi said, feeling the need to reject him gently in the face of this wealthy gentleman. "We don't marry within the same surname. I, personally, respect traditional customs."

Song Chao chuckled softly on the other end of the line. "But you currently have the surname Yan. It seems this issue doesn't apply to us."

"But in the eyes of our relatives, I'm still considered to have the Song surname," Yan Xi forced a smile. "Mr. Song, thank you for your affection, but I might not be worthy of you. Please let me stay out of your future."

As Yan Xi heard the busy tone on the phone, Song Chao let out a light laugh and suddenly slammed the phone against the wall.

At the restaurant, Zhang Wang thought his ears had malfunctioned and stared wide-eyed at Yuan Yi. "You're moving out?"

Yuan Yi remained calm. "What's so strange about that?"

"Moving out... isn't that fine," Zhang Wang paused, "but are Uncle Yuan and Aunt Xu okay with it?"

Yuan Yi shook his head and remained silent.

Seeing his reaction, Zhang Wang stopped asking. Instead, he shifted the conversation back to last night. "Did you go on a date with a girl last night?"

"Date?" Yuan Yi shook his head resolutely. "I just had dinner with a friend."

"Going out alone with a woman isn't called a date?" Zhang Wang teased. "It's rare to see you interested in a girl. When will you introduce her to us?"

"You think I'm like you, just eating dinner with a woman to flirt with her?" Yuan Yi frowned. "Go on, stop messing around."

"Actually, I think dating isn't that bad, after all..." Zhang Wang noticed Yuan Yi's displeased expression and sighed. "Alright, alright, I won't bring it up. Let's talk about your health issue instead. What happened when you experienced shortness of breath, tight chest, and rapid breathing?"

"When... arguing with someone?" Yuan Yi hesitated. "Or when someone makes me unhappy?"

"Who could have such power to make you so upset?" Zhang Wang remarked casually. "You didn't do anything about it?"

Yuan Yi had such a good temper?

"How could I argue with a woman? Should I hit her?" Yuan Yi snorted.

"A woman can make you so upset that you get chest tightness and shortness of breath? You really are something," Zhang Wang suddenly paused, his eyes wide with disbelief. "You're talking about a woman?!"

Seeing Zhang Wang's exaggerated reaction, Yuan Yi felt uncomfortable. "What's wrong with a woman? Don't women get on people's nerves?"

When a woman gets angry, she's even more unbearable than a man.