A night in January.
Inside the Lake Mountain Villa, Yu Yin finished a comfortable, relaxing bath. Stepping out of the bathroom, she noticed the phone on her vanity buzzing non-stop, as if it had been fitted with a personal vibrator.
Too dramatic, Yu Yin mused to herself. The human capacity for gossip truly cannot be underestimated.
She picked up the phone. A barrage of unread messages filled the screen, every single one asking about the scandal between Zhao Shunian and a female celebrity.
Earlier today, a netizen had leaked that Zhao Shunian was the mystery man spotted alongside top star Xu Ronghao. Claiming to have irrefutable proof, the poster had shared a photo showing the two of them from behind, sharing the same frame.
The scoop struck like a sudden bolt from the blue, sending shockwaves across the internet. Netizens turned out in droves like badgers in a melon patch, voraciously digging into the juicy gossip. Yu Yin was no exception; like the rest of them, she scrolled through every related post and comment section.
Xu Ronghao’s career fans: “Ronghao shines brightest on her own. Please focus on her work, not her personal life,” while plastering irrelevant, pre-scripted comments under every entertainment marketing account to promote her current and upcoming dramas.
Xu Ronghao’s diehard shippers: Even a formidable man like Zhao Shunian has fallen head over heels for our Ronghao. Her charm is simply irresistible! He must have bent over backward to win my girl over. He’s the lovesick simp pining after her, and she’s the untouchable queen looking down from her throne…
Anti-fan A: Fake news, absolutely fake. Xu Ronghao has a new drama coming out soon, so her PR team is stirring up hype on purpose to draw attention to it. Bad publicity is still publicity, and manufactured drama is the best way to milk loyal fans.
Anti-fan B: It’s definitely true. Xu Ronghao chased after Zhao Shunian to climb the social ladder. Leaking this is her way of forcing his hand into claiming her publicly. She’s head over heels for him—she might even retire from the industry.
Passerby C: A mere actress and an heir to a prestigious family? His parents will never agree. He’s just playing around with her.
Passerby D: When a tycoon suddenly takes up with a female celebrity, he’s definitely looking for someone to bail him out. Celebrities pull in 2.08 million a day! Who knows, maybe he’ll have her doing live-stream sales later—those top influencers make 14.4 million a day now. The Zhao family’s cash flow must have dried up. They’re going bankrupt!
Mixed into all this were countless rumors—some true, some false—debating whether Zhao Shunian was married or single.
Yu Yin read it all with great relish, as though the male lead of this sensational drama weren’t her own husband.
Theirs was a marriage of convenience, built without a shred of romantic foundation. In their two years of marriage, they spent vastly more time apart than together. Sometimes they went one or two months without seeing each other or exchanging a single word, living in what was essentially total radio silence.
Financial freedom, a luxurious and refined lifestyle, an absent husband, no in-laws living under the same roof, and on the rare occasions he did return, a few harmonious, zero-distance encounters to satisfy her physical needs. That was the state of Yu Yin’s current married life, and she was quite content with it.
Only now, the situation had shifted. Zhao Shunian had someone else on the side; he was a spoiled cucumber now. Yu Yin felt that if he had engaged in zero-distance encounters with an ex during a normal, past relationship, she could look past it. But! Stepping out during their marriage was a line she wouldn’t cross. She no longer wanted any intimacy with him, purely out of fear that he might transmit an STD to her.
In an instant, Yu Yin made up her mind: she would go to the hospital for a full health checkup in the next day or two.
Next, she checked the missed calls on her phone. One of them was from Zhao Shunian’s father, Zhao Yunbin.
She dialed him back, and the call connected after just a few rings.
“Hello, Dad. I didn’t hear the phone ring earlier; I didn’t realize you had called.”
At the same time, Yu Yin listened carefully to the background noise on the other end. Someone else was there—eighty to ninety percent chance it was Zhao Shunian’s mother.
“It’s no problem. Yu Yin, I texted Shunian, but he didn’t reply, and when I called, he didn’t pick up. That’s why I’m calling you. Shunian acted thoughtlessly and caused trouble. At the end of the day, it’s my fault for failing to raise him properly.”
Yu Yin could hear the genuine guilt in his final words. Slipping into character, she spoke in a tearful, delicate voice, “Dad, please don’t say that. I know you and Mom have always been wonderful. Shunian just had a momentary lapse in judgment. I understand.”
Zhao Yunbin thought to himself how sensible Yu Yin was—no crying, no throwing tantrums. Only with a level head could a matter like this be handled properly.
The two offered each other words of comfort, neither bothering to scrutinize just how much of it was sincere and how much was mere pretense.
Toward the end of the call, Zhao Yunbin asked with concern, “Are you short on money lately? Your mother and I would like to send you a little pocket money.”
“I’m not short on anything, Dad. Please don’t waste your money on me—I’d feel awful accepting it.”
“Nonsense, there’s nothing to feel awful about. It’s settled, then. We won’t keep you from getting your rest.”
Shortly after Yu Yin lay down in bed, she received a bank notification: 10,000,000 yuan deposited into her account. Yu Yin sat bolt upright, carefully counting the zeros on the screen.
That performance just now was worth every second, she thought gleefully.
Scenarios immediately began playing out in her head. If she took a trip back to Hong Kong, putting on a tearful, hesitate-to-speak front in public—preferably caught on camera by reporters—she could probably rake in hush money from all sides.
If she and Zhao Shunian ever divorced, she wouldn’t get a share of his family’s fortune anyway; they had signed a prenuptial agreement that laid out every financial stipulation in meticulous detail.
So, rather than staging a messy divorce, Yu Yin’s primary calculation was just how much pocket money she could squeeze out of him before he brought up ending the marriage, padding her private vault enough to secure a lavish, worry-free life for the rest of her days.
Because the king-sized bed was so soft and comfortable, it wasn’t long before her financial musings gave way to slumber, and she drifted into a deep sleep.
Aboard an international flight, the plane had reached cruising altitude.
In the first-class cabin, a man in his early thirties wearing silver-rimmed glasses, his facial features striking and chiseled, was engrossed in a financial report on his laptop screen.
His assistant, Qin He, walked up beside him and chose his words carefully. “Boss, rumors are circulating outside that you share an intimate relationship with Miss Xu Ronghao.”
Zhao Shunian searched his memory, but the name didn’t ring a bell.
Recognizing the blank look, Qin He tactfully pulled up the viral scandal on a tablet for Zhao Shunian to see.
Zhao Shunian’s interest in the entertainment industry was strictly limited to investment returns; he knew nothing about its trivial gossip. Furthermore, his schedule had been relentless lately, leaving him no time for such frivolities. He was only learning of it now through Qin He’s report.
Qin He added, “PR is already monitoring and managing public sentiment. We just received an inquiry from the board of directors asking whether the rumors are true.”
Once the plane reached cruising altitude, Wi-Fi had become available in the first-class cabin. That was when Qin He noticed the unread messages sent during the blackout window of their takeoff.
“Fabrications out of thin air,” Zhao Shunian said dismissively. “Pass down the instructions to have it taken care of.”