The manhua plot had reached this climax, and the system once again resorted to its tried-and-true method of temptation: “Host, don’t you want to see how the heiress takes down the cheating scumbag next? Will she succeed in sending him to prison?!”
“No, I don’t,” Yu Jiaojiao replied willfully.
System: “555~”
Why, after all this time, had its host’s innate love for gossip still not been awakened?
Little did it know that the barrage was flooded with comments like【I want to see it!】 and 【Yes, show us!!】.
The system fell silent for a long time, still refusing to accept defeat.
“For the upcoming mission, as long as you manage to get on three… I mean one trending topic through your own efforts and stay there for a day, I’ll unlock the next chapter of the manhua for you. How about that?”
“Look, you can just casually spend a little money to buy a trending spot. It’s a great deal!”
Yu Jiaojiao: “No. I’m not spending my money on something so shady.”
The barrage was speechless.
【To be fair, this is the first time I’ve heard an entertainment industry artist call buying a trending spot “shady”…】
【This is kind of overturning my perception of this drama queen. But Yu Jiaojiao, if you don’t want to watch it, I do!! The lives of us gossip lovers matter too!】
【Fine, fine, fine. You’re so pure, you won’t buy a trending spot, right?! We’ll do it ourselves!!】
【For the sake of the gossip!!】
【Guys, I happen to have a small account with 500,000 followers, named “Dog-Won’t-Eat-Bun-Loves-Eating-Fish.” Just figure out the signal yourselves. I’m going in first!】
【Copy that!】
【Copy that!】
…
Yu Jiaojiao had no idea that a bunch of gossip-loving netizens were simultaneously loving and hating her at that moment. After her team touched up her makeup, a production crew member came over and asked, “Teacher Jiaojiao, the other guests are all ready. Can you head out now?”
She nodded slowly.
When she rejoined the other guests and the director, their attitudes toward her hadn’t changed at all.
Noticing this, Sister Wang breathed a sigh of relief.
But clearly, she had breathed it far too soon.
Half an hour later, they all arrived at the restaurant for the group dinner.
The director was being truly generous this time—he had booked a Michelin-starred French restaurant. The guests and the production team shared one private room, while the guests’ teams had a private room of their own.
Sister Wang, as an agent with higher status, stayed with Yu Jiaojiao.
The group sat facing each other across a long rectangular table. The director took the head seat at the far end and instructed the waitstaff to begin serving.
French cuisine typically begins with an aperitif, which the restaurant had pre-selected. The price, of course, was a matter of perspective.
Most of the people at the table weren’t particularly famous in the entertainment industry at this point, so they had no special demands when it came to the food, let alone the wine.
But Yu Jiaojiao was different. As the director raised his glass and signaled for everyone to toast together, she brought her glass to her nose and gently sniffed it.
After one whiff, she set the glass aside with visible disdain.
Amid the preparations for the toast, this gesture stood out as especially abrupt.
Suddenly, the director and everyone else faltered in awkward silence.
Sister Wang, seated at the back, took one look and knew her artist was at it again. She immediately pulled out her phone to contact Butler Li.
“Jiaojiao, what’s wrong?” Wen Qiang, seated next to her, thought something was bothering her.
Yu Jiaojiao said matter-of-factly, “I don’t drink this brand of wine.”
Wen Qiang came from an ordinary family and had only recently entered the entertainment industry—she didn’t know much about such things. She sniffed her own glass, took a sip, and said, “It tastes pretty good to me.”
“I don’t drink this brand!” Yu Jiaojiao’s cat-like eyes widened slightly. “The only red wines I drink are Romanée-Conti, Screaming Eagle, and Lafite.”
In truth, she didn’t know many wine brands, but the flavors of the ones she regularly drank were deeply familiar to her.
Although the others at the table were not particularly knowledgeable about fine wine, they had at least heard of Romanée-Conti and Lafite. Those were top-tier brands—a single bottle could cost tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands for the really expensive ones.
The director felt a bit awkward. After all, Yu Jiaojiao was now an investor, and they were spending her money on this meal. Even though Sister Wang had asked them not to make it public, how could they spend her money and not let her eat and drink well?
He immediately gestured to the waiter, intending to ask if the restaurant carried any of those three brands. But Sister Wang cut him off. “It’s fine, Director. The wine is already on its way. Just give it a few minutes.”
The restaurant fell completely silent. Even the waitstaff didn’t dare speak, though their eyes darted around, their attention fixed on Yu Jiaojiao.
In their hearts, they couldn’t help but think that the online reputation of Yu Jiaojiao being a drama queen and spoiled brat was well deserved. Their restaurant was Michelin-starred, and the wines paired with the meal were worth at least several thousand or even tens of thousands of yuan. Yet Yu Jiaojiao still turned her nose up at it. They wondered if the wine she was about to bring in would turn out to be some overhyped ’82 Lafite that was all over the domestic market.
Aside from Wen Qiang and Wang Jiajia, the other guests also wore awkward smiles on their faces, their thoughts unknown.
The director and Wang Jiajia, however, had a glint of anticipation in their eyes. They couldn’t wait to see Yu Jiaojiao broaden their horizons again.
Sister Wang had said a few minutes, and sure enough, at the seventh minute, someone knocked on the door of their private room.
The waiter opened the door, and several people in crisp suits, wearing white gloves and carrying boxes, walked in.
Upon entering, they first nodded respectfully toward Yu Jiaojiao, then proceeded to unwrap the packaging of the boxes they were carrying.
Three bottles of wine and sommelier tools were revealed.
“A 1992 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon.”
“An 1869 Château Lafite Rothschild.”
“A 1945 Romanée-Conti.”
After introducing the bottles to Yu Jiaojiao, they offered to let her inspect them, but she shook her head in refusal. They nodded again and began opening and decanting the wines.
Their expressions were extremely serious and meticulous, treating each bottle as if it were an unparalleled treasure. Everyone in the private room instinctively sat up straight, their postures stiff and attentive.
After a while, they poured the decanted wine and signaled the waiters to serve it to every guest in the private room.
A few members of the production team had already looked up the prices of the three bottles on their phones. After seeing the numbers, they stopped breathing for a moment. As they watched the waiters carry the glasses, their eyes nearly turned green with longing.
Once each person had a glass of wine in front of them, no one at the table dared to move.
One of the suited men suddenly opened a bag, pulled out a thick stack of cash, and gestured for a few waiters to come over. He began counting out bills, handing several thousand to each of them. “Tip.”
The waiters were utterly dumbfounded.
The suited man then looked toward Yu Jiaojiao, waiting for her approval.
Yu Jiaojiao waved her hand indifferently. The suited men said, “Enjoy your meal,” and left.
“Jiaojiao…” Wen Qiang, seated beside her, finally snapped out of it. “How much… did those bottles cost?”
Yu Jiaojiao hadn’t really thought about it. She frowned for a moment. “I think it was less than ten million yuan.”
Less than ten million—how much less exactly?! Everyone’s heart began to race.
“We’re… just going to drink them?” Wen Qiang’s face was full of disbelief.
“What else would I do with them?” Yu Jiaojiao tilted her head in confusion. “Put them on an altar?”
The restaurant fell into another dead silence. It wasn’t until restaurant staff came to urge the waiters to serve the next course that the stillness was finally broken.
Sister Wang sighed inwardly. At this rate, how many days could her artist’s wealthy identity stay hidden?
She began offering a toast to lighten the mood, and the director and stagehand added a few words. The private room finally livened up a bit. But everyone’s fingers remained tightly wrapped around their wine glasses, terrified that one careless move might cause them to spill the tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan worth of wine in their cups.
The entire dinner was a nerve-wracking experience for everyone except Yu Jiaojiao. Among the guests, only Wang Jiajia and Wen Qiang—who had already been gifted a two-million-yuan bicycle by Yu Jiaojiao—seemed relatively composed. The others were filled with complicated emotions.
In particular, Gu Mi, who had tipped off the paparazzi earlier, was now filled with deep regret. She was terrified that Yu Jiaojiao might find out what she had done. However, after this incident, Gu Mi—who had previously harbored ill intentions—became far more cautious with her words and actions. She no longer dared to scheme against anyone, and as she gradually rose to fame, she ended up helping quite a few newcomers just starting out in the industry—but that’s another story.
The aperitif managed to steal the spotlight for the entire dinner. Even the restaurant manager was alerted and came over to offer a greeting. But in the end, the meal concluded without further incident.
Finally, Yu Jiaojiao offered her critique of the dinner: “It was just a little bit off.”
The nearby waiter no longer dared to make any mental snide remarks. Instead, he immediately smiled and said, “Understood. I will convey your feedback to the head chef. He will refine his craft in the days to come.”
Pleased with this attitude, Yu Jiaojiao added a compliment: “Still, the price-performance ratio is quite good.”
The waiter accepted the praise with tears in his eyes.
A drama queen? No—she was clearly a kind and considerate young lady. Sob, sob.
…
The group dinner had just ended, and no one had any idea that two trending topics had suddenly emerged on Weibo.
One of them was posted by a paparazzi team, exposing the true identity of Gu Xiaozhi, who had just entered the entertainment industry.
The other one, however, left netizens utterly baffled. The hashtag was bizarre: it consisted of the name of Yu Jiaojiao, the entertainment industry’s most famous drama queen, paired with a single character: “Gua” (croak).[1]· 呱 (guā) — means “croak” (the sound a frog makes) or can mean “good/awesome” in some dialects.
· 瓜 (guā) — means “melon,” but in internet slang, it … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2277830_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2277830_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
Was #YuJiaojiaoGua# actually trending?
The first post was made by a moderately well-known Red V blogger named “Dog-Won’t-Eat-Bun-Loves-Eating-Fish.”
The original post was just as strange, almost like the leader of some cult—
[Dog-Won’t-Eat-Bun-Loves-Eating-Fish V: Friends, you know the drill! #YuJiaojiaoGua#]
The replies were even stranger.
[Family, who can understand this? It’s actually #YuJiaojiaoGua#!]
[I get it /tears #YuJiaojiaoGua#]
[Boosting #YuJiaojiaoGua#]
[For the Gua #YuJiaojiaoGua#]
…
Confused netizens who wandered in started commenting.
[What’s going on? Has Yu Jiaojiao turned into a frog? (shocked)]
[What’s wrong with you people? If your accounts got hacked, make a sound (horrified)]
[I’m starting to not understand this world anymore…]
References[+]
· 瓜 (guā) — means “melon,” but in internet slang, it means “gossip” (as in “吃瓜” — literally “eating melon,” figuratively “spilling/consuming tea/gossip”).
So in the hashtag ＃于嬌嬌呱＃, the “呱” is a playful twist — it sounds like “瓜” (gossip) but written as “croak,” adding a quirky, meme-like tone. The netizens are essentially saying “Yu Jiaojiao gossip”
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