Jiangnan Xiaoxin: Always acting so high and mighty in public, but turns out she’s such a slut behind closed doors~
Ding Ding Dang Dang: She just likes older, ugly men, what a unique taste, hahahaha!
Osmanthus Honey: Gotta ask Chu Ning later what it feels like to sleep with a man. None of us have any idea!
Reading these vulgar comments, Chu Ning’s breathing grew rapid, her chest burning with fury.
But now wasn’t the time for anger. She needed a clear head she couldn’t let emotions overpower reason.
Silently, she muted her phone and set it aside. Once she steadied herself, she slowly walked to the bathroom mirror.
The motion-sensor light flickered on, illuminating her reflection her cheeks and ears flushed red, her eyes streaked with crimson veins.
To calm herself as quickly as possible, Chu Ning turned on the faucet, cupping handfuls of cold water and splashing it over her face again and again.
With effort and the icy water’s aid, the redness in her eyes gradually faded…
Meanwhile, Ye Zhixia had just stepped out of Room 7013 when she leaned close to the kitten in her arms and whispered, “Ah-Mi, delete the hotel’s surveillance footage from yesterday to today.”
Xiao Mi lifted her head, pupils contracting sharply before she nestled back into Ye Zhixia’s arms and reported: [Already deleted.]
After checking out at the front desk, Ye Zhixia hailed a random taxi outside.
The driver glanced at Xiao Mi in her arms and said kindly, “Sorry, but we don’t allow pets without carriers in the car.”
Ye Zhixia casually set Xiao Mi down on the ground, and the kitten instantly darted into the nearby bushes.
The driver gasped in alarm. “Miss, I only meant that an uncaged cat might distract me while driving, but just abandoning it like that isn’t right!”
Ye Zhixia got into the car without hesitation and replied coolly, “I just picked it up around here. I’ll come back for it once I get a carrier.”
The kind-hearted driver finally relaxed. As the car started moving smoothly, he cautiously ventured, “How soon will you be back for it?”
Distracted by her phone, Ye Zhixia answered offhandedly, “This afternoon.”
Xiao Mi, now an invisible, winged mini-cat perched on Ye Zhixia’s shoulder, remarked: [Xiaxia, you’re such a good liar.]
Ye Zhixia was too busy to respond.
After a few taps on her phone, her lips curled into a smirk. “Time for my grand entrance.”
She switched back to her profile and posted the selfie she’d taken with Chu Ning that morning, captioning it: Unknown actress spends all night taking care of a young lady, now sporting dark circles under her eyes [cry][cry][cry].
The driver glanced at her through the rearview mirror, thinking the beautiful woman looked somewhat familiar.
By the time Ye Zhixia returned to her spacious, sunlit home, took off her coat, and lounged on the sofa to rest, the online discourse had already split into two factions just as she’d intended.
Sensible netizens began speculating:
Academy Girl Xinxin Miao: So the Chu family heiress is actually friends with Actress Ye? And they were together last night. Wonder who she offended to get smeared like this.
But there were also plenty of self-proclaimed experts:
Weibo User v79d2ds replied to Academy Girl Xinxin Miao: She just paid some actress to whitewash her image. The Chu heiress entered that room with someone at 9:30 last night. The photo with Ye Zhixia was taken this morning, whatever happened already happened.
Weibo User 77890283 replied to Campus Girl Xinxin Miao: If you’ve got the guts, make Ye Zhixia prove they were together all night!
Beautiful Voice & Image replied to Weibo User 77890283: Aren’t you just making things difficult? Should they carry a camera around 24/7?
Osmanthus Sweet as Honey replied to Beautiful Voice & Image: No evidence? Then why even talk nonsense?
After reading these comments, Ye Zhixia’s expression turned serious. “Looks like someone’s gone all out even hired trolls.”
She checked the trending topics. The hashtag “Ye Zhixia & the Chu Family Heiress” had surged to the top, while the previous “Chu Family Heiress & Middle-Aged Man” had dropped to fourth place.
Ye Zhixia reopened her Weibo profile, changed the visibility of a private post to public, and hit repost.
The post contained two photos: one showed Chu Ning peacefully asleep, wrapped in a blanket, and the other was a selfie of Ye Zhixia leaning in close to Chu Ning, pulling a funny face.
The caption read: Young people really sleep early. The timestamp showed it was posted at 21:32 the previous night.
Like a stone tossed into a pond, this post sent ripples through the discussion. With concrete proof, the timeline became clear, and those who believed in Chu Ning’s innocence now rallied like victorious warriors:
Campus Girl Xinxin Miao: See this?! Last night at 9:30, Ye Zhixia was already with Miss Chu! What other lies do you gossip-mongers have to spew?
Beautiful Voice & Image: LMAO, “spent ten hours with a middle-aged man”, might as well claim the actress had a sex change.
Little Watermelon: Some people just hate the rich and despise women, itching to see them fall from grace.
Yet, even with evidence staring them in the face, some still clung to their stubbornness:
-Osmanthus Sweet as Honey: Then how do you explain the photo of that bald middle-aged man helping Chu Ning into the room?
Ye Zhixia scoffed and clicked into the nested replies under this comment. Sure enough, someone had already fired back:
-Little Watermelon replied to Osmanthus Sweet as Honey: What’s there to explain? He helped her inside and then left. You’re desperate to spin this into a scandal, how pathetic.
Ye Zhixia raised her right index finger and lightly tapped a like on this reply.
As for the gossip accounts that had originally spread the news, their comment and repost sections were now flooded with outraged netizens. A few had even buckled under the pressure and deleted their posts.
Xiao Mi, who had been watching the whole thing unfold, was stunned. Their previous missions had never involved online news battles.
“Xiaxia, you’re amazing!” Xiao Mi exclaimed in awe. “In less than two hours, you cut through the chaos and resolved this mess.”
“Silly, news has a shelf life especially on platforms like Weibo,” Ye Zhixia said, setting her phone down to explain in detail.
“‘Rich heiress leads a debauched life’, that kind of headline is too juicy. If we didn’t clarify immediately and let it spread to other platforms, any later rebuttal would lose most of its impact. Rogue media outlets won’t repost corrections because the truth doesn’t generate clicks.”
Xiao Mi looked shocked. “Don’t news reports need to be factual?”
Ye Zhixia smirked cynically. “They’ll slap a ‘repost’ disclaimer on it and pretend they never saw the clarification.”
Xiao Mi let out a long sigh. “Chu Ning finally escaped this disaster.”
At this moment, Ye Zhixia kept shaking her head: “The real challenge Chu Ning faces this time isn’t the malicious words from netizens, it’s from her social circle and family. But right now, this is as far as I can help her.”
Xiaomi flew over to Ye Zhixia’s side, patted her shoulder, and put on a wise, earnest expression: “Enough. You still have to give Miss Chu some opportunities to grow. There are plenty more pitfalls ahead.”
In the silent hotel room, Chu Ning sat on a chair by the floor-to-ceiling window, squinting at the scenery outside as she pondered.
How could she break out of this deadlock?
She had no memory of what happened yesterday, and the “irrefutable evidence” of the photos was already plastered online. Whoever had set her up had prepared meticulously, leaving her with no proof to counter it so naturally, no one would believe her.
To prove she had something going on with that man, a few suggestive photos were enough. But to prove she had nothing to do with him? That would require an entire timeline of evidence.
Would she really have to go to the surveillance room and retrieve a full day’s worth of footage?
The sensationalist news posts, the subtle reposts and mocking likes from her Weibo “friends,” the vicious words from her classmates, all of it flooded back into Chu Ning’s mind.
She shook her head, trying to clear herself of these meaningless distractions.
But as she turned her head, she happened to catch sight of the fishbone skirt support neatly folded and placed on the nightstand by Ye Zhixia.
“Ye Zhixia!” The name burst from Chu Ning’s lips as a spark of defiance flared in her heart.