The moment Xiang Yue saw Mo Qianyao, she let out a "Wow!" before immediately lowering her tone. "With that outfit of yours, did you not come home all night? Queen of the nightclubs."
Mo Qianyao broke into a bright smile. "Bingo! But since we're in a work setting, let's not use such an awkward title like Queen of the Nightclubs."
Yu Yin added fuel to the fire: "Your look doesn't exactly scream 'work setting' either."
"I got too drunk last night, and when I woke up I realized I was running late, so I rushed over here in a hurry." Mo Qianyao pulled out a mirror to check her makeup. At least her makeup was fine—she had reapplied it in the car. As she looked at herself, she suddenly felt she looked absolutely gorgeous.
Xiang Yue nudged Yu Yin with her elbow. "She's being narcissistic again." Then she said to Mo Qianyao, "The client is coming over this afternoon. He's conservative by nature, so you'd better change your outfit and look, or he might not be pleased."
Mo Qianyao muttered under her breath, "Men like him are mostly conservative in words only. In private, they play wild and have no restrictions whatsoever."
Yu Yin and Xiang Yue both smiled without saying a word, silently agreeing with her point of view.
The three of them went to a nearby shopping mall. Mo Qianyao needed to buy a new outfit, saying it was the perfect excuse to treat herself to some new clothes.
They walked into a certain brand's store. The sharp-eyed sales associates typically categorize customers into different tiers, and their service attitude follows accordingly.
However, the sales associate the three of them encountered was exceptionally eager—the kind of enthusiasm that radiated from head to toe. They exchanged glances with one another, unanimously suspecting that she hadn't met her month-end sales quota yet.
The sales associate's service attitude was indeed quite good, but she had a terrible habit of showing off her knowledge. She spouted long passages about brand stories and design philosophies, yet never hit the point that resonated with the customers. Their shopping enthusiasm was about to be extinguished by her enthusiasm. They suddenly began to understand why her sales performance hadn't met the target.
Mo Qianyao and Xiang Yue went off to try on clothes. Yu Yin, left alone, was like a plump little lamb on the grassland, and another sales associate—Sales Associate B—transformed into the big bad wolf and poached Yu Yin away from the original sales associate.
From the moment Yu Yin had walked in, Sales Associate B had her eye on her. Her appearance and temperament were excellent. At first glance, she seemed to be wearing only one or two pieces of expensive designer brands. But if one looked closer, they would notice that the materials and craftsmanship of her other accessories were exceptionally fine—clearly handmade haute couture. She was particular about avoiding logos, not decked out head to toe in instantly recognizable luxury styles to flaunt her wealth.
Sales Associate B felt that Yu Yin simply lacked interest in her colleague's sales pitch, which was why she had no desire to shop. In her view, failing to make Yu Yin purchase something was a criminal waste. She couldn't bear to watch good money slip right through her fingers.
She used her silver tongue to put Yu Yin in a good mood, seizing every opportunity to recommend clothing to her.
Yu Yin wasn't so easily charmed into losing her head or getting carried away. She didn't accept every single recommendation from Sales Associate B. After two years of being immersed in the refined lifestyle of a wealthy wife, combined with Lana's deliberate and subtle guidance, she knew what suited her and what kind of clothes she should wear. Her aesthetic sense had improved.
From these recommendations, Yu Yin picked out a few pieces that caught her eye. She didn't try them on, nor did she look at the prices. She simply had Sales Associate B wrap them up and swiped her card. It was the black card Zhao Shunian had given her.
Even though Yu Yin only bought a portion of what was recommended, it was still a substantial order, and the second saleswoman was beaming from ear to ear. Only by constantly reminding herself of her professional decorum did she manage to compress the upward curve of her lips back to a normal range.
At first, the other saleswoman's envy had been impossible to hide—the big order that would have met her sales quota had slipped right through her fingers.
The second saleswoman brought Yu Yin some dessert and a drink. After taking a sip, Yu Yin suddenly felt a pang of regret for spending so lavishly again, and for forgetting to check the prices. She had made that kind of gesture so habitually and smoothly—just two years, and she had already sunk so deeply into the indulgence of money that she couldn't pull herself out.
However, Yu Yin's regret and self-reflection lasted only a brief moment, because the intense thrill of unrestrained shopping wiped them all away.
This made her come to a realization: after the divorce, if her standard of living dropped, so be it. The boat would straighten itself out when it reached the bridge—she would adapt when she got there. For now, she couldn't deny herself pleasure. She should enjoy life while she could. After all, it wasn't her money she was spending.
In the end, both Mo Qianyao and Xiang Yue found clothes they liked under the recommendations of the second saleswoman who had stolen the sale.
Mo Qianyao picked out an outfit, tried it on, and after receiving nods of approval from Yu Yin and Xiang Yue, she wore it straight to the counter, paid, and left.
Later, the three of them went into a Japanese restaurant for lunch and chose a private room for more seclusion.
While they were eating, Xiang Yue said to the other two with a gossipy look on her face, "That big scandal from last night—the married director rekindling an old flame with the nation's sweetheart actress. Have you two heard about it?"
Yu Yin responded the fastest: "I know about it, but I haven't looked into the details yet. What's going on with them?" She had originally planned to check it out last night, but after talking with Zhao Shunian, she had completely forgotten about it.
Mo Qianyao shook her head to indicate she didn't know. She had been out having fun at a bar last night and hadn't paid any attention to online entertainment gossip.
Xiang Yue said to the two of them with a look of regret, "You two missed a piping-hot drama…"
A while back, an unnamed industry insider had anonymously and vaguely leaked information on a platform, posting two emojis to hint that a certain married director and a certain celebrity had an unusually close relationship.
This had sparked wild speculation among netizens, who played guessing games about who the two emojis referred to. Because they truly couldn't figure it out, they assumed it was a hollow provocation meant to grab attention, so the buzz was minimal and few people paid it any mind.
It wasn't until last night, when various industry insiders began releasing information one after another pointing to the matter, that online buzz started to heat up. Gossip-hungry netizens flocked to the original anonymous post to check in and chat up a storm.
Xu Ronghao personally issued a statement declaring her single status, and her studio followed closely behind with a list of names. Although some people still questioned and refused to believe it, the rumor was essentially cleared up in the eyes of the general public.
The timing was also quite clever—everyone was busy gossiping and guessing which director had cheated with which actress, their appetites thoroughly whetted, so attention on the rumor itself had already waned compared to before.
As more and more clues emerged, people more or less figured out who the male and female leads of the cheating scandal were. Their old history was dug up, and through their schedules and the content they posted on social media, people found traces of evidence confirming the truth of the rumors, and public opinion grew increasingly heated.
The defamatory articles framing Xu Ronghao gradually surfaced. At first, everyone thought she was being used to cover up the real cheating scandal, and many felt sorry for her, with numerous bystanders speaking up on her behalf. Later, people began to wonder why Xu Ronghao had been singled out—did she have some kind of entanglement with those two?
Then the matter of Xu Ronghao stealing a role came to light. The new drama she was filming had originally cast the nation's beloved actress, Miss Wu, as the female lead, but right before production was about to begin, the casting was suddenly changed and Xu Ronghao took over the leading role.
Netizens then spun an entire elaborate drama: Xu Ronghao had stolen the role first, Miss Wu seized the opportunity to retaliate by fabricating that scandal, and Xu Ronghao counterattacked by exposing the director's affair with Miss Wu, completely destroying Miss Wu's career. The two were dogs biting dogs—neither of them innocent. Online users argued endlessly over who was right and who was wrong, while lamenting that the scheming and backstabbing in the entertainment industry were fought with real knives and real guns.
Today, the director's legal wife came forward to publicly condemn Miss Wu and the director, which finally steered the increasingly off-track discussion back toward the truth. Xu Ronghao also had a slew of dirt dug up on her, with industry insiders piling on to drag her down.
All sides were locked in chaotic battle—from last night through today, the trending topics surged higher and higher with each wave.
By now, there was no trace of Zhao Shunian left on the internet. Netizens had basically concluded that the mysterious man was not him, and they also believed the so-called mysterious man didn't exist at all—just an ordinary passerby who happened to be caught in the frame by chance…