“Amnesia isn’t actually that rare,” Li Yingyan said as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and carefully examined the brain CT scan. “There’s no intracranial bleeding, and nothing appears abnormal on the scan. Mr. Fu, do you get headaches when you try to recall the past?”
“No.” Fu Shengyan shook his head, then hesitated before saying, “But just now, when I saw the painting hanging in the reception room, it felt really familiar. I’m certain I’ve never seen that painting before, though.”
“The situation is much more optimistic than I expected.” After thinking for a moment, Li Yingyan seriously said to Lin Zhihua, “He may need some external stimulation. Miss Lin can try taking him to places and things he’s familiar with. It would be best to revisit some memorable scenes. That might trigger his memories.”
By the time they left the clinic, it was already getting late. Lin Zhihua let Yu Yao get off work and drove Fu Shengyan home herself.
“Welcome home, dear masters.” Xiaofu’s cheerful voice rang through the villa. “Dinner has already been prepared for you.”
“Xiaofu can cook too?” Fu Shengyan curiously looked at the round robot in front of him, which was only as tall as his thigh, and wondered whether it could even reach the stove.
“Not yet.” Lin Zhihua shrugged. “I asked Secretary Ye to order takeout in advance.”
Before they even reached the dining room, Fu Shengyan smelled a rich and appetizing aroma.
On the exquisite plates, the golden fried chicken had an enticing sheen. Lin Zhihua took a deep breath, and the crispy fragrance of fried chicken filled her nose. Beside it was a huge serving of crayfish piled into a small mountain. Their bright red shells gleamed with oil under the lights, covered in a rich, spicy sauce.
Fu Shengyan: “……”
“We’re eating this for dinner?” He instinctively frowned.
“Of course not.” Lin Zhihua picked up two cups of milk tea from Xiaofu’s tray. “There’s also milk tea. Thirty percent sugar, less ice. Want some?”
A trace of struggle flashed across Fu Shengyan’s face. “Yes.”
Lin Zhihua handed him the milk tea with the straw already inserted, then eagerly picked up a piece of fried chicken herself. With a satisfying crunch, the tender and juicy meat inside was revealed.
Fu Shengyan didn’t touch the plate of fried chicken. Instead, he washed his hands and diligently peeled crayfish for Lin Zhihua.
“Why aren’t you eating?” Lin Zhihua opened her mouth and accepted the crayfish meat Fu Shengyan fed her, then tilted her head toward him with interest. “Didn’t you used to be unable to move whenever you saw fried chicken when you were little?”
Fu Shengyan’s hands paused. He looked up at her, confusion in his eyes. “I don’t know either.”
Seeing him like this, Lin Zhihua raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “After graduating from university, you didn’t like this kind of food as much anymore. I won’t tease you. I also ordered braised beef rice for you. Remember to go get it later.”
He had just pushed the plate piled high with peeled crayfish meat in front of Lin Zhihua when the doorbell rang. Fu Shengyan returned to the dining room in a bright mood after collecting the takeout, with Xiaofu happily following behind him.
“This is really good. Zhizhi, hurry and try it.” After taking a bite of the rice, Fu Shengyan’s eyes instantly lit up. He picked up a piece of tender, thoroughly braised beef and placed it in Lin Zhihua’s bowl. “Is this place run by Du Qian? The shop is called Qianji Snack Shop, and the address is also near Du Qian’s house.”
Lin Zhihua’s chopsticks paused.
She nodded and smoothly changed the subject. “Your phone rang several times just now. Who messaged you?”
Fu Shengyan’s attention was indeed diverted. He opened his phone and saw that the messages were from Ruan Wanning.
After reading them, his brows knitted tightly. “Ruan Xingyun demanded another five million from her this afternoon. Ruan Wanning had originally managed to keep him under control, but just now, Li Suhui directly exposed everything online. Lu Yunsheng didn’t manage to suppress the attention in time, and now it’s already trending.”
Lin Zhihua quickly picked up her phone and opened the trending list. Sure enough, several large “Explosive” tags appeared on the rankings. Ruan Wanning had practically taken over the entire list.
Ruan Wanning was currently a wildly popular young actress with massive traffic, and the incident itself was highly sensational. Aside from the top-ranking topic, #Ruan Wanning Is an Ungrateful Wolf#, several other related topics were also extremely popular.
#Ruan Wanning Kicked Away Her Poor Family After Becoming Famous#
#Wealthy Heiress Persona Collapses: Is This How the Aloof Goddess Rose to Fame?#
#Ruan Wanning’s Image Collapses#
#Ruan Wanning’s Mother Speaks Out in Video#
#How Can You Avoid Raising Unfilial Children?#
……
Looking at the glaring headlines, Fu Shengyan frowned. “Didn’t Lu Yunsheng and her agency pay to remove the trending topics?”
“The other side clearly came prepared. Their goal is to bring Ruan Wanning down. How could it be that easy to remove the trending topics?” Lin Zhihua scrolled through the netizens’ comments. “Besides, removing them now would only add fuel to the fire.”
This situation hadn’t exceeded Lin Zhihua’s expectations, and Lu Yunsheng understood it clearly as well. The other party had been driven into a corner and was now making a desperate move.
Ruan Wanning had indeed fabricated her public persona, but the Ruan family was far worse. The trending topics were overwhelmingly condemning Ruan Wanning as an ungrateful daughter, yet neither she nor her side was in a hurry to clarify anything. They were waiting until the court ruling came out so they could earn a wave of sympathy and tears from both fans and passersby.
“A-Yan, can you check Li Suhui’s bank transactions? I suspect they had a disagreement.” After all, not long ago, Ruan Xingyun had still been extorting money. There was no reason Li Suhui would suddenly rush to expose everything that very evening.
Fu Shengyan nodded, picked up his food, and hurried upstairs.
When Ruan Xingyun saw the trending topics, he was dumbfounded. Pointing at Li Suhui, he cursed furiously, “You stupid woman! Long hair, short insight! Just for one million and some lousy contract, you ran off to expose Ruan Wanning’s dirt? Are you actually stupid, or are you pretending? Don’t you know how you’ve treated your daughter all these years?!”
“And now it’s all my fault?” Li Suhui snapped back angrily and threw everything in her hands at Ruan Xingyun. “You’re acting like you treated her as your daughter! Wasn’t I doing this for our Juncai? How could that money-losing burden possibly let Juncai steal her livelihood? I’m trying to secure our son’s future.”
Li Suhui angrily jabbed a finger at his forehead. “All you think about is money, money, money. Whether that money-losing burden would even give Juncai five million to buy a house is still uncertain!”
Ruan Juncai rolled his eyes so hard they nearly reached the sky. “Stop shouting. Mom, seriously, why didn’t you hold out a little longer? You only asked for one million? Ruan Wanning already gave us three million!”
Li Suhui had never seen so much money or a contract worth such a huge amount in her life. In a moment of excitement, she had agreed. Thinking back on it afterward, she regretted it terribly. “I-I thought the contract was really good! And they’ve already arranged for you to be the male lead in their next drama. The pay alone is more than three million!”
As she spoke, Li Suhui began wiping away her tears. “Oh, who am I doing all this for? Isn’t it all for you Ruans? And now look at you, every single one of you is blaming me!”
Listening to Li Suhui’s wailing, Ruan Xingyun felt his head buzzing painfully. He impatiently lit a cigarette. “All of you, shut the hell up! I’ll call that money-losing burden again and make her cough up more money. Otherwise, we’ll keep finding people on social media to expose her.”
“I have to go back to school too. A lot of girls in my class came to talk to me today after finding out I’m Ruan Wanning’s younger brother.” Ruan Juncai hugged his phone and returned to his room.
Seeing that neither father nor son paid any attention to her, Li Suhui felt more and more furious and sulked alone in the living room for a long time.
Once Fu Shengyan—the former world-class hacker—made his move, it took him less than half an hour to dig up every last detail of the Ruan family’s bank transactions and transfer records. Following the trail, he even found the mastermind behind everything.
“This person is… Lu Yunsheng’s cousin?” Lin Zhihua’s expression became somewhat strange when she saw the person on the computer.
“Mm. Chu Yidan and Ruan Wanning are both artists under Starlight Entertainment, and the two of them aren’t even in the same field. What reason would she have to target Ruan Wanning?” Fu Shengyan couldn’t understand it.
Chu Yidan was not only a singer heavily promoted by Starlight Entertainment, but also the daughter of one of its shareholders. Her resources were no worse than Ruan Wanning’s. There was no reason for her to sabotage her.
Lin Zhihua blinked and hesitantly said, “Maybe it’s because of romantic feelings?”
Fu Shengyan was speechless. “They’re cousins.”
“Who knows whether they’re actually related by blood?”
Fu Shengyan: “……”
“I’ll check.” Fu Shengyan’s fingers paused on the keyboard. He couldn’t help giving Lin Zhihua a thumbs-up. “You guessed right. Chu Yidan really was adopted.”
Lin Zhihua smiled faintly.
She hadn’t guessed out of thin air. It was just a classic trope.
The sensitive younger cousin fell in love at first sight with her gentle older cousin and secretly loved him for many years. Unexpectedly, the female lead appeared halfway through, not only stealing all of her beloved’s attention, but also gaining the affection of everyone around her while her career flourished.
Seeing her cousin and the female lead’s relationship steadily growing closer, the younger cousin naturally turned dark and continuously caused trouble for the female lead in secret. Ruan Xingyun’s family had most likely been found by Chu Yidan to disgust Ruan Wanning. If she could ruin Ruan Wanning’s public reputation and make her unable to recover from the setback, all the better.
Every celebrity had anti-fans, let alone someone as popular as Ruan Wanning. Ruan Wanning had been in the industry for five years. She had a huge fanbase, but also plenty of anti-fans.
Usually, the worst scandals exposed about Ruan Wanning were things like acting like a diva. This time, the negative trending topics were like a bomb dropped into the entertainment industry. The anti-fans celebrated wildly, while passersby who didn’t know the truth also began turning against her. The comments under the topics were filled entirely with insults, and the few rational fans who spoke up were quickly drowned out.
—Her fake persona has been completely exposed. Her fans can’t defend her now, can they?
—She doesn’t even care about her own biological parents. What an ungrateful wolf! If I were her mother, I would’ve strangled her the moment she was born.
—Why hasn’t Ruan Wanning’s studio released a statement yet? Don’t tell me they’re trying to remove the trending topics and silence everyone?
—Please provide some evidence before making a statement. Don’t rush to deny everything the moment this comes out!
—Ruan Wanning, get out of the entertainment industry. Learn how to be a decent person before making money off the public.
……
After seeing the trending topics, Lu Yunsheng didn’t even have time to contact the head of public relations before rushing straight to Ruan Wanning’s home.
“Ningning, are you okay…”
Ruan Wanning shook her head and interrupted Lu Yunsheng. She appeared calm and composed, completely unaffected by the insults on the trending list.
“Come in and talk.” She stepped aside to let him through. Once Lu Yunsheng entered, Ruan Wanning handed him her phone. “Lawyer Fu already helped me find out who instructed Li Suhui to contact marketing accounts and expose everything.”
When Lu Yunsheng saw the familiar person on the screen, he froze for a moment before his brows immediately knitted together. He raised his head and seriously said to Ruan Wanning, “I’ll have someone investigate her immediately. Ningning, don’t worry. I won’t cover for her just because she’s my aunt’s daughter.”
Ruan Wanning had probably already guessed why Chu Yidan was targeting her. She lowered her head and didn’t say much, only softly responding with an “Mm.”
Lu Yunsheng stared at her for a while, then suddenly opened his arms and pulled her into his embrace.
Ruan Wanning’s body stiffened, but she didn’t push him away. Instead, she gradually relaxed at the sound of his voice.
“Ningning, don’t overthink things. Don’t you understand how I feel about you?” Lu Yunsheng whispered beside her ear. “Once this matter is over, we’ll terminate our contract with Starlight Entertainment.”
“When the time comes, we’ll set up our own studio. Ningning can be the boss, and I’ll work for Ningning for free for the rest of my life.”