With the matter finally resolved, Shu Yu and the others took a flight back to D City, where the Public Opinion Response Division was permanently based.
Shu Yu’s family also lived in D City. At one point, she seriously suspected that the original Shu Yu had only wanted to take the local civil service exam because it was close to home, only to suddenly get tossed straight into the Public Opinion Response Division.
It wasn’t until she was lying on her bed, letting her mind go blank, that she finally remembered.
Oh, right. I transmigrated here.
The extremely fast-paced work and the sheer number of things she had to think about and deal with every day had nearly made her forget that she was an unlucky soul who had transmigrated into a novel.
Come to think of it, how far had the plot of the novel progressed by now?
Shu Yu thought for a long time before finally remembering that, at this point, the female lead should have already met the male lead, an award-winning actor.
The female lead of the original novel was Shu Ling, while the award-winning actor and male lead was named Fu Chongming.
Very much like an idol drama.
According to the plot of the original novel, after Shu Ling’s identity was exposed, it sparked a wave of heated discussion and sent the popularity of the historical drama she was about to film with award-winning actor Fu Chongming soaring.
After that, the two became familiar with each other while filming the drama, and their relationship was exposed after they participated in an outdoor survival variety show together.
Of course, that was the main storyline of the original novel. In that story, Shu Yu was mentioned so rarely that her presence could practically be ignored.
Clearly, the original novel couldn’t give Shu Yu any advance warning about what she herself would experience in the future. All it could do was suddenly push her account—with four million followers, more than 3.9 million of whom were zombie followers—onto the trending searches.
As Shu Ling’s fake-heiress older sister, her identity made the story even more dramatic.
Apparently, in the original novel, her only purpose was to contribute to the word “dramatic.” So most of the time, neither the author nor the characters in the book remembered that she existed. Even when the novel described Shu Ling eating at home, it often forgot that Shu Yu should theoretically have been there too.
But all of that could be explained now. If Shu Ling was eating at home and Shu Yu wasn’t there, then obviously Shu Yu had gone out to work overtime again.
Perfectly reasonable.
That afternoon, Shu Xinhua returned home after finishing a meeting in S City.
Shu Ling hadn’t joined the production crew yet, so she also came home for dinner. The Shu household seemed unusually lively that evening.
Dad Shu was extremely surprised to see that Shu Yu was actually at home.
“You’re actually not away on a business trip today?” He had long since gotten used to Shu Yu constantly flying all over H Country and barely ever being home.
“I only got back from a business trip this morning.” Shu Yu sighed. “Heaven bless me. Please don’t let me work overtime again this week.”
“Sis, your prayers never work. Not unless you switch jobs,” Shu Ling said with a laugh.
“Exactly. You just had to become a civil servant. Wouldn’t it be better to study abroad, get some impressive credentials, then come back and work at the company?” Dad Shu chimed in.
“I haven’t even finished my three-year service period yet. You might as well pressure my little sister first.” Shu Yu skillfully shifted the conflict elsewhere.
“Sis, why are you dumping the blame on me again?” Shu Ling protested indignantly. “I studied software engineering. I’m not going to become some corporate executive.”
“Then you can work in the technical department,” Dad Shu persisted. “I’m already this old. One of you ran off to serve the people, while the other is running around in the entertainment industry. Who am I supposed to hand this company over to in the future?”
Shu Yu and Shu Ling exchanged a glance before lowering their heads and silently eating in perfect tacit agreement.
Actually, this was something Dad Shu complained about every single time he saw his two daughters.
The Shu Corporation was a massive conglomerate. Most of its businesses were in traditional industries, though it had later made investments in other areas as well, branching out into all sorts of fields.
In the original novel, after Shu Ling won Best Actress, she decided there was nothing particularly interesting about the entertainment industry anymore, so she retired and inherited the family business.
As for what would happen now that this place had become a real world, Shu Yu had no idea.
In any case, she had no intention of leaving the Public Opinion Response Division for the time being.
Although the salary she earned working there was practically negligible, the sense of accomplishment she felt after successfully handling a public-opinion crisis that otherwise would have caused a massive storm was difficult to describe. To her, it was probably more enticing than any amount of money she could earn.
That was probably also why the original Shu Yu had managed to work herself out of existence through overtime.
Dad Shu had long since grown accustomed to launching into a lengthy speech only to receive absolutely no response from anyone at home. After saying a few more things and seeing that neither Shu Yu nor Shu Ling reacted, he sighed, lowered his head, and obediently continued eating.
Shu Ling’s mother, He Ya, still wore her usual gentle and calm expression, as though she had long since gotten used to this scene playing out in their home almost every week.
After dinner, Shu Ling slipped into Shu Yu’s room.
“Sis, do you think my opportunities will get better after this marketing campaign?” Shu Ling asked while lying on Shu Yu’s bed. “I saw people discussing it like crazy under the trending topic today.”
“At the very least, your fashion opportunities should improve.” Shu Yu leaned against the sofa and looked at Shu Ling. “If I remember correctly, you were basically completely isolated from the fashion world before.”
“How could those oh-so-prestigious fashion magazines possibly look up to an entertainer from a grassroots background?” Shu Ling said dismissively. “Especially when that grassroots entertainer started out as a female influencer livestreaming on a streaming platform.”
Those few labels attached to her had made every step she took in the entertainment industry incredibly difficult.
Shu Yu felt that if things continued like this, Shu Ling would end up developing depression sooner or later.
“But once your background changes, it’ll be their turn to come chasing after you,” Shu Yu said. She had long since gotten used to people flattering those above them while looking down on those below. “You’re still the daughter of a well-known major corporation, after all. Although the domestic entertainment industry hasn’t been particularly fond of that kind of persona these past few years, your background automatically gives you status.”
Shu Ling had no idea how she was supposed to respond to that.
“If I had a choice, I wouldn’t really want that kind of status either.” She rolled over and sprawled across the bed like a starfish. “Even though I ended up compromising anyway.”
“Who told you to start out on a livestreaming platform? If you wanted to, almost any other background would’ve been easier than this.” Shu Yu took a sip of coffee, then belatedly realized that she didn’t actually need caffeine to keep herself awake today. She immediately pushed the coffee aside and ordered herself a milk tea. “You just had to choose hell difficulty for yourself.”
“I never expected my livestreams to become popular. I was about to graduate from university back then and was just streaming for fun. Who could’ve known?” Shu Ling stared at the ceiling. “Besides, my roommate was the one who dragged me into it because she needed another person.”
“So what happened to that roommate afterward?” Shu Yu asked curiously.
“She joined a major tech company as a programmer.”
Shu Ling gave an entirely unsurprising answer.
“If you hadn’t entered the entertainment industry, were you originally planning to become a programmer too?” Shu Yu looked at Shu Ling. “Our family works with several major internet companies. If you’d joined one of them and Dad found out, wouldn’t he have died from anger?”
“Now that you mention it, that really might’ve happened.” Shu Ling thought about it. “But it probably wouldn’t have been as shocking as you graduating with a master’s degree and immediately taking the civil service selection exam to become a government employee. At least you’d already made up your mind that you were going to serve the people.”
For a moment, Shu Yu had no idea how to respond.
But Shu Ling wasn’t wrong.
When Dad Shu found out that Shu Yu had successfully entered the government system—and had even joined a classified department—his expression had changed so rapidly it was practically Sichuan opera face-changing.
Unfortunately, no matter how complicated his expression became, it still hadn’t changed Shu Yu’s mind.
“Forget it. Let’s not talk about that. Filming for this drama is about to start, and then I won’t be able to come home for another few months.” Shu Ling began choosing the things she needed to bring with her for filming. “I heard the guy playing opposite me this time, Fu Chongming, is an award-winning actor. Unfortunately, I’ve never interacted with him before, so I have no idea what he’s like.”
“You didn’t ask around?” Shu Yu asked.
“I asked some people who know him fairly well. They all had pretty good things to say about him, but there’s no guarantee they weren’t just exchanging professional compliments.” After spending so much time in the industry, Shu Ling had gotten used to how staff members spoke. “The main problem is that if I ask about him, no one’s going to outright tell me the guy is terrible.”
Shu Yu thought that made perfect sense.
“Did your case go smoothly this time? Your dark circles are really bad again.” Shu Ling didn’t want to continue talking about that subject, so she turned the conversation toward Shu Yu instead. “I read the statement you guys released. That girl’s life was really complicated.”
“Actually, we didn’t expect that outcome at first either.” Shu Yu sighed. “At one point, I genuinely thought she had suddenly committed suicide despite having no psychological problems whatsoever.”
She briefly explained the process of solving the case to Shu Ling. In any case, there were no confidentiality requirements for a case that had already been explained in detail in a public statement online.
Shu Ling listened with wide eyes.
“That’s way too complicated.” She sat up on the bed. “And you’re right. It really does feel like someone was guiding the whole thing.”
“Yeah, but that’s only my guess. Hopefully, I’m just overthinking it.” Shu Yu spoke helplessly. “But I really do think someone has their eyes on our Public Opinion Response Division.”
Although their department had a high level of confidentiality, it wasn’t so classified that they had to keep it secret from close family members. So at the very least, the members of the Shu family all knew what kind of work Shu Yu did.
“They still don’t know your real identity, right?” Shu Ling asked worriedly. “I can’t help feeling like your department is pretty dangerous too.”
It was indeed dangerous.
And it was the kind of danger they had no way to resolve.
So Shu Yu simply decided not to worry about it. If the other side wanted to do something to them, sooner or later, they would expose themselves.
Shu Yu’s side was out in the open while the other side was hidden in the shadows. Trying to seize the initiative under those circumstances was nothing but a pipe dream.
As one public-opinion crisis came to an end, discussions about J County and Yang Jie gradually disappeared. Meanwhile, Shu Ling—the real heiress with a rather legendary life story—and her fake-heiress older sister, who worked in self-media, began becoming the new focus of public attention.
Shu Yu looked at her Weibo account, which was clearly much livelier than usual.
“Not bad. Looks like I managed to ride this wave of attention too.” She was quite satisfied with that.
“Sis, are you planning to keep riding trending topics to build up your account from now on?” Shu Ling asked.
Shu Yu immediately shook her head.
“I’m not some marketing account enrolled in a revenue-sharing program. Besides, I don’t have that much time to manage it.”
Once her milk tea arrived, Shu Yu opened a document and began writing the report for this public-opinion case.
“You get back to work. I’ll go back to my room.” Seeing that Shu Yu had started working, Shu Ling stopped bothering her. “Oh, right. I’ll bring over the skincare products I bought tomorrow. Just look at those dark circles under your eyes. You could cosplay as a panda at the zoo without even needing makeup.”
Shu Yu touched her face.
She had long since given up trying to save it.