Chapter 42

The four elements of "wealthy families," "best actresses," "cheating," and "breakups" have The four major elements of the gossip world—rich families, actresses, cheating, and breakups—are always the best ingredients for juicy rumors. When bored people see these terms, they instantly get excited and find amusement in them.

The gossip posts were professional, not only mentioning the rumors about Zhao Feifei and the second son of the Yuan family from months ago but also including photos of Zhao Feifei and Yuan Er talking together. The key post, however, was a short video showing Yuan Er carrying a woman across the street. Although the video was less than a minute long, it was enough for everyone to confirm that the woman he was carrying was not Zhao Feifei.

In just an hour, the post had climbed to the trending topics. While it seemed to boost Zhao Feifei's popularity, it was actually maliciously orchestrated. People in the industry are familiar with the process of hype, and who doesn't know that Zhao Feifei had never really caught the attention of the Yuan family? The previous rumors were merely intended to make uninformed fans believe she was so attractive that even wealthy young heirs fell for her.

However, everyone in the industry is sharp, and no one is clueless. If Zhao Feifei had really succeeded in latching onto the wealthy Yuan family, the entire internet would have been buzzing with announcements, showing off their love. Why would she be so coy, hinting at it but never openly admitting to being involved with the Yuan family? Later, Zhao Feifei's rumored relationship with Yuan Er suddenly quieted down, and both Zhao Feifei and her studio became unusually low-key for a long time. The reason behind this was obvious to everyone.

Now, suddenly, news of Zhao Feifei's rumored boyfriend cheating spread widely online. No one but her rivals would do something like this.

Zhao Feifei was devastated when she saw these reports. She quickly posted on Weibo, claiming that she and Yuan Er were not in a romantic relationship and had little interaction, so there was no question of him cheating, urging people not to misunderstand.

But her rivals wouldn't let her off so easily. After she posted that Weibo message, they had their hired commenters start a narrative, saying that Zhao Feifei was afraid of the Yuan family's influence and was only pretending to be humble, claiming there was no relationship. Yuan Er was a notorious playboy, and not calling him out was an injustice to the public.

The orchestrated posts led countless netizens to flood Yuan Er's Weibo, angrily cursing him in the comments under the guise of "ridding the world of evil," with tens of thousands of comments posted within just an hour.

Zhao Feifei almost wanted to kneel in front of these "righteous netizens." Her rivals' tactics were ruthless. The agency couldn't reach Yuan Er, and she was on the verge of pulling her hair out in frustration. If she had known earlier, she wouldn't have listened to the PR team's advice to use Yuan Er for publicity. After Yuan Er had warned her previously and she had removed all related topics, she had already made things awkward in the industry. Now, she had made him out to be a "scumbag," and she couldn't even cry about it—her career was practically over.

It felt great to ride the wave of publicity for a short time, but now she regretted it deeply. As long as Yuan Er didn't pursue this matter further, she would be willing to beg for forgiveness. But no one had his personal contact information—fate seemed to be against her, and no one could save her.

Zhao Feifei clicked on the video exposed by the gossip account again and felt like her entire world was filled with despair. Yuan Er, the young master of the Yuan family, was willing to carry a woman in public, which showed how much he liked her. If this girl's relationship with Yuan Er became strained because of these rumors, Zhao Feifei would have no one to blame but herself.

"Can we find out who this mysterious girlfriend is?" Zhao Feifei asked her manager.

If she couldn't get Yuan Er to apologize, she could at least apologize to this mysterious woman. She would do whatever it took to make the other person believe that there was absolutely nothing between her and Yuan Er, because the woman probably didn't even know who she was.

The manager looked at her sympathetically and silently shook her head.

Zhao Feifei: ...

What was going through her mind when she decided to use this for publicity?

When Yuan Er returned home, he found the whole family gathered in the living room, drinking tea. He took two steps back, looked at the sky outside, and said, "Oh, what's the occasion? Why are you all drinking tea together?"

"Second son, what are you talking about?" Yuan Bo poured a glass of water and set it down on an empty seat beside him. "Where did you go today?"

"What's up?" Yuan Er raised an eyebrow as he looked at the three of them. "Don't tell me you were all waiting for me?"

"Don't you know that you're all over the news?" Yuan Yasen pointed at a tablet on the table. "I told you not to invest in movies, but you wouldn't listen. Just look at how badly they're insulting you on the internet."

"Insulting me?" Yuan Er sneered, took a sip of water, and said, "I haven't killed anyone or set anything on fire. Let them say whatever they want."

Yuan Yasen became angry seeing his nonchalant attitude. "I told you to settle down with a respectable lady, but you wouldn't. Instead, you're involved with some celebrity. You don't care about your reputation, but the rest of us still have some dignity!"

"A celebrity?" Yuan Er grabbed the tablet, ignoring Yuan Yasen's remarks about reputation, unlocked the screen, and clicked on the gossip post. He skimmed through the headlines and the opening paragraph before turning to Yuan Bo and saying, "They're all making things up. I don't even know this actress."

Yuan Bo nodded in agreement. Knowing his second son's personality, it was unlikely that he would do such a thing. "So what do you plan to do?"

"Get a lawyer to send a letter and scare them a little," Yuan Er originally didn't care much, but when he scrolled to the part where there was a video of him carrying Yan Xi across the street, his face immediately darkened. "Also, get someone to contact and delete those posts."

"Since it's all over the internet, just deleting the posts won't be enough. We need to guide the public opinion," Yuan Bo said, seeing his son suddenly lose his temper. "Is this girl you're carrying... actually your girlfriend?"

Yuan Er didn't reply.

"Xiao Yi, did you really get a girlfriend?" Xu Ya asked with some surprise on her face. "Why didn't you bring her home for us to meet?"

"I don't have a girlfriend." Yuan Er walked over and sat down, pulling out his phone. He opened his almost-unused Weibo account, knowing from the sheer number of comments that these netizens were cursing him. Without bothering to look, he deleted a few posts he had made earlier, then posted a new one.

Yuan Er: Who is Zhao Feifei? Also, please stay tuned for a lawyer's letter to all the rumors spreaders.

As soon as this provocative post went live, it immediately stirred up the anger of netizens, with various insults flooding the comments section. But what they didn't know was that Yuan Yi didn't read a single comment. He posted the update and logged out of the platform.

"You're really bored, why bother with these netizens?" Yuan Bo glanced at Yuan Yi's post. "Just let someone else handle it." After saying that, he took out his phone and made a few calls.

For families like theirs, online issues like this were easily dealt with. The three of them were sitting here, not really concerned about the online public opinion, but instead curious if the second son was really involved with the female celebrity.

Yuan Yi's family was sure this "Zhao Feifei" was absolutely impossible to be his girlfriend.

Within half an hour, major gossip and marketing accounts had received lawyer's letters from Yuan Yi's family, and even some netizens who had called the mysterious girlfriend a mistress or slut had also received lawyer's letters.

Zhao Feifei posted two apology letters on her Weibo: one for Yuan Yi and one for the "mysterious girlfriend." After these letters were posted, Zhao Feifei lost face both inside and out, but she took a low profile, choosing to be ridiculed by netizens rather than let Yuan Yi think she was involved in the leak. She wanted to make it clear that she was also a victim in this situation.

Zhao Feifei's opponents were now in a bit of a panic. Yuan Yi's reaction had exceeded their expectations, and people in the industry were already starting to investigate who was behind the leak. If it was really traced back to them, considering Yuan Yi's current attitude, they were likely in big trouble.

As a super-rich family that rarely used Weibo, was this reaction a bit too extreme?

Yan Xi soaked her feet, changed into comfortable pajamas, and lay on her bed. She opened her messaging app and saw countless messages in her group chat. She opened it to find they were all discussing Yuan Er Shao and Zhao Feifei.

Wasn't Yuan Yi not really involved with Zhao Feifei? So why were they now being linked together?

Xiao Xi Liu: What's all the fuss about?

This chat group was made up of famous Weibo bloggers, and Yan Xi occasionally helped them earn some Weibo views as a mutually beneficial relationship.

Listen to me tell ghost stories: Xiao Xi Liu hasn't shown up in a while, but Weibo is really buzzing tonight, haven't you seen?

Mom, slap me twice: Yeah, a rare good show. The most bizarre thing is that Zhao Feifei's PR company is throwing money around to get paid commenters to say she has nothing to do with Yuan Yi. With such a good opportunity, she's not trying to ride the heat, but rather desperately distancing herself. Isn't that strange?

Xiao Xi Liu: I've been busy lately. Let me check what's going on on Weibo.

When Yan Xi opened Weibo, many accounts had already voluntarily deleted the posts about the leak. The incident had fallen from the top trending topic to number ten.

Yuan Yi had been caught on camera carrying Yan Xi across a crosswalk?

Netizens were calling her the "mysterious girlfriend" and accusing her of being a mistress?

Yuan Yi had hired a legal team to send cease-and-desist letters to the gossip bloggers, and even some of the commenters who insulted her had received letters from the lawyers?

She had just gone home to have dinner with her father and watched some TV, how did she end up being labeled as a mistress online? Now she discovered Yuan Yi had a Weibo account, and when she checked his profile, there was only one post, posted over an hour ago.

The post had a very provocative and defiant tone, and comments were still open. There were tens of thousands of comments, and she thought they were all insults towards him, but when she opened it, half of them were praising Yuan Yi for being so bold and manly.

What was going on?

She looked at the chat group, and there were a lot of new messages. She clicked on them and saw a screenshot of an apology letter.

It was from Zhao Feifei, addressed to her, the "mysterious girlfriend."

Mom, slap me again: Zhao Feifei has clearly been set up. She just won a Best Actress award, but now she's offended the Yuan family. No matter how many awards she wins, it won't matter. I just don't know if the Yuan family will believe her that she had nothing to do with this.

Panda Rolling: Seeing how angry Yuan Yi is, sending lawyer's letters to those who called his girlfriend a mistress, I think Zhao Feifei's ending might not be good.

Kong Qun Nan Bei Fei: If I were Yuan Yi, I'd be really angry too. The woman he likes suddenly gets labeled as a mistress. Anyone would explode. Just wait, Zhao Feifei won't be the only one in trouble this time.

Xiao Xi Liu: Wait a second, why are you all so sure that the "mysterious girlfriend" is Yuan Yi's girlfriend?