Chapter 57: Fifty-Seventh Day as a Salted Fish
Zhou Shaoli was originally handling work, but after watching the livestream, he lost all focus. Taking his phone with the stream playing, he rode in his car, heading out to wait near the venue in advance to bring Qin Jiaojiao home.
By nature, he possessed an indifferent personality and cared little for most things; only Qin Jiaojiao—whom he held close to his heart—could sway his thoughts. Her every word and action influenced his emotions.
When she was happy, he was happy; when she was upset, he would worry for her sake.
As the Buddhist saying goes: From love comes worry, from love comes fear.
Therefore, when he saw Qin Jiaojiao on stage getting along so naturally with the youth seated beside her—exchanging glances and interacting—an immensely powerful surge of discomfort welled up inside him.
It was a feeling he had never experienced before, like a heavy stone pressing down on his chest, leaving him feeling suffocated.
Qin Jiaojiao was his legally wedded wife, whereas that pro esports player looked barely of age. The two were merely cooperating to play a game at a promotional event; he shouldn’t be feeling this strange, slightly possessive emotion.
He loved seeing Qin Jiaojiao grow better, becoming outstanding and confident as she shone brightly on any occasion. He would feel proud of her, loving the way she lived radiantly and unrestrained.
Qin Jiaojiao failed to notice Zhou Shaoli’s unusual mood, her eyes sparkling with laughter as she said, “You have no idea how happy I was tonight when I slaughtered Shen Xiaoshan over and over in the game.”
She hadn’t originally intended to stand on opposing sides with Shen Xiaoshan. Yet the woman constantly pulled petty tricks wanting to use her as a comparison group, all while helping that white lotus Yang Yuyan bully Yang Yutong—this grudge simply had to be settled.
Looking at Qin Jiaojiao’s beaming, joyous face, Zhou Shaoli ultimately couldn’t hold back and pulled her into his arms, like stars encircling the moon, allowing her to roam freely within the warm embrace of the starry sea.
He lowered his head and kissed her lips.
Qin Jiaojiao froze. The sultry night breeze stirred her heartstrings. On this early summer night, under a sky sprinkled with starlight, she awkwardly responded to his kiss.
Just at that moment, the venue event concluded. As people swarmed out like a surging tide, their eyes fell upon the man and woman embracing and kissing by the curb.
The man was tall and handsome, clad in a suit standing beside a luxury car, his large hand holding the delicate beauty in his arms as he bent down to kiss her. The scene was overflowing with sheer atmosphere.
The exiting audience members stood dazed for a second before gossip-hungry instincts kicked in, pulling out their phones to snap photos.
Qin Jiaojiao caught the sound of commotion coming from afar and hastily pushed against Zhou Shaoli’s chest to end the kiss. “People are coming—hurry, get in the car.”
Zhou Shaoli raised his head, glancing at the crowd emerging from the venue in the distance. Stepping into the car, he reached out to pull Qin Jiaojiao inside, shutting the car door to block out external views.
The low-profile, luxurious car slowly pulled into the street, speeding away into the night.
The spectator who had hastily snapped the picture zoomed in to inspect it closely. The young girl held in the man’s arms and kissed was none other than the female star who had dazzled the stage tonight—Qin Jiaojiao.
——She’s really married???
Netizens who didn’t follow showbiz gossip and rarely watched dating variety shows didn’t recognize Qin Jiaojiao. The esports and gaming circles didn’t overlap much, unless official major events specifically invited celebrities to promote the game.
Hearing that a female star had gotten married in her early twenties, almost no one was willing to believe it. Why would a female celebrity throw away her future to get married so early? This was precisely why fans in the esports circle had refused to believe Qin Jiaojiao was married.
That man carried a noble and distinguished aura, clad in opulent clothes—one look made it clear he was no ordinary person, but likely a big shot in the business world.
No wonder Qin Jiaojiao had tied the knot at such a young age!
Meanwhile, the internet was going wild with shipping fever. A younger brother and an older sister, both boasting matching visual appeal—even if they merely exchanged a single glance, netizens who loved shipping CP could easily find fuel for their ships.
【Get together! Get together!】
【This is so ridiculously sweet to ship; even a non-shipper like me is starting to ship them.】
【There is definitely something going on between these two—it doesn’t look like their first time meeting.】
【King’s eyes were glued to Qin Jiaojiao the entire time. If he doesn’t like her, I’ll do a handstand while eating crap.】
【A boy and a girl paired up make the work light and easy.】
【Where is Little Sister’s Weibo? I’m going to follow her. Her support play was really solid; in the future, she should exclusively support King.】
Male fans in the esports community who followed King began cracking jokes and making a fuss, continuously posting overly bold CP-shipping comments in the comment section, which sparked fierce dissatisfaction among King’s female fans.
【Can you stop trying to ship King with anyone? Bringing fan-circle antics into the esports community—disgusting.】
【Piss off! You idiots from the fan circle better not step anywhere near him. How could King ever fall for an older woman?】
【I’m telling you male maggots not to self-insert too hard; you won’t even get to lick a female star’s feet in this lifetime.】
【CP fans need to stop going crazy. Keep your shipping to yourselves and hide in your own corner—don’t force me to curse you out.】
Passersby, male esports fans, and female fans clashed fiercely in a chaotic brawl beneath King’s promotional Weibo post.
To capitalize on the traffic, the official organizers bought several trending searches, spreading game promotions far and wide while leveraging the scandal between the top-tier pro player and the female star to generate hype.
As the popularity king of the esports circle, King was the flagship star pro player pushed by the official game organizers, naturally carrying massive traffic on his own. Having his name linked with a girl for the very first time, the traffic and heat surged exponentially with the official organizers pushing the waves from behind.
A small handful of esports fans who followed the digital trail to Qin Jiaojiao’s Weibo saw the Romantic Lovers dating variety show she had retweeted, leaving them utterly dumbfounded.
Little Sister really is married.
Netizens all wanted to see what the deal was—was it a fake husband for recording a show, or a real husband?
Patiently watching through the first episode of the dating variety show, this group of people felt as though the heavens were collapsing. They had literally just started shipping this CP—how did it instantly hit a Bad Ending?
However, the interactions between Little Sister and her husband actually looked kinda sweet… Looking a bit more, netizens watched and watched, gradually feeling… maybe switching to shipping a different CP works too?
Wu wu wu wu, a real wealthy couple is so sweet to ship.
……
Even negative trending searches could draw traffic. The official organizers bought a trending search for Shen Xiaoshan, and since the other pro players had plenty of fans—coupled with the male celebrity guest being an idol singer—Shen Xiaoshan bore a huge portion of the responsibility for losing the game tonight, prompting these groups to fiercely flame her online.
The profanity in the esports circle was endless, capable of offering greetings to someone’s ancestors back eighteen generations with exceptionally dirty language; this was a group that excelled at flaming people and would never spoil anyone regardless of who they were.
If pro esports players played poorly in a match, they would all get flamed—playing trashy was the ultimate sin.
Shen Xiaoshan’s Weibo was completely blown up.
【Did you even play like a human being tonight?】
【I could play better than you using my toes to slam on the keyboard.】
【Auntie, when you took on promotional deals, did you not bother practicing the hero in advance?】
【If you don’t play the game, don’t force yourself to clout-chase. Get lost!】
【No celebrity has ever been this trash at gaming! Having the nerve to join an esports exhibition match—you truly are one of a kind.】
【I [censored] your [censored]! Dig up your ancestors—I need to have a good chat with them about how they managed to give birth to a creature like you.】
【A total beast! Bringing a dog on stage would play better than you.】
【Smooth-brained trash—if your brain isn’t fully developed, go back to the womb and remake yourself. Stop coming out to embarrass yourself.】
Shen Xiaoshan’s fans originally wanted to tear into the flamers, only to realize they couldn’t win the argument at all. Trying to reason or beg for mercy was met with complete deaf ears.
Shen Xiaoshan’s Weibo was now an unbearable sight; her private inbox had exploded, and looking at the screen full of flaming comments, she couldn’t catch her breath, a metallic taste rising in her throat.
Returning home with bloodshot eyes, she spotted Meng Zi’ang playing video games and marched over to snatch his phone away.
“Stop playing this trash game! Just looking at it pisses me off!”
Few young people didn’t enjoy gaming; Meng Zi’ang and his buddies frequently gathered to drink and have fun, and at home, they would queue up online together to play.
He didn’t like watching livestreams, so he had no idea what had transpired, feeling that Shen Xiaoshan was acting completely baffling. “What’s wrong with you now?!”
Before marriage, their interactions had maintained a sense of distance without revealing their true tempers; only after living under one roof did certain personality issues come to light.
Shen Xiaoshan lacked her pre-marital gentleness and virtue, having lost all rationality from getting flamed. “Didn’t you watch the stream? I lost the esports exhibition match, and now there’s a whole mob of people flaming me online.”
Meng Zi’ang took back his phone. “Let me see.”
He first saw the top trending topic—King and Qin Jiaojiao. Who on earth was King? Clicking into it, press releases from esports marketing accounts were shipping King and Qin Jiaojiao’s CP, claiming how sweet it was and suggesting screenwriters quickly hand over scripts for them to star in an esports youth idol romance drama.
Meng Zi’ang sneered inwardly. Back in school, Qin Jiaojiao had plenty of frantic admirers courting her, and she was still the exact same way now.
Catching sight of him viewing Qin Jiaojiao’s trending search, Shen Xiaoshan felt another surge of rage in her heart. Many times she suspected whether Meng Zi’ang had ever truly gotten over Qin Jiaojiao, holding resentment purely because he had been unilaterally dumped by her.
“The search flaming me is right below!” she reminded him.
Meng Zi’ang backed out to the trending page and clicked into the topic related to Shen Xiaoshan. When he saw those exceptionally dirty comments, his brows knitted tightly.
“I told you long ago not to participate in this Esports Star Exhibition Match, yet you insisted on going.”
Shen Xiaoshan looked at him with an aggrieved expression. “Are you blaming me?”
Meng Zi’ang locked his phone, refusing to look at those comments to avoid getting angered himself.
“I told you beforehand—the esports demographic is massive. Although they don’t mingle in fan circles, their numbers are huge and their flaming is horrifying. Even top-tier idol stars in the entertainment industry don’t dare cross the esports community, yet you insisted on going.”
Shen Xiaoshan took a deep breath, suppressing the burning rage in her heart. It was precisely because the esports community was huge that she had wanted to rely on the Esports Star Exhibition Match to farm a wave of massive traffic. Had Qin Jiaojiao not crashed into the picture halfway through, the one winning tonight would have been her, and the one getting hyped alongside the star pro player would have been her too—achieving both fame and fortune.
“What do I do now?” Shen Xiaoshan asked. “Am I supposed to just get cyberbullied by them forever?”
Meng Zi’ang said coldly, “This crowd in the esports community is flaming, not spreading rumors. Unless they insult you over a long period, it’s hard to sue. Give it a few days for the heat to pass, and they won’t flame you anymore.”
Shen Xiaoshan was truly angry enough to spit blood, blurting out without thinking, “How are you this useless?! Can’t you even help me?!”
Meng Zi’ang’s expression instantly darkened, his eyes glaring with fury at Shen Xiaoshan. As an illegitimate son of the Meng family who had yet to be entered into the ancestral genealogy, what he despised most was hearing people call him useless.
Shen Xiaoshan’s words acted like a spark igniting a bomb.
Meng Zi’ang pointed directly at her nose and barked coldly, “You brought this trouble on yourself—how do you expect me to help you? Spend money to pull down the trending search? This was bought by the event organizers—is throwing away wasted money going to help?”
The man’s towering rage looked terrifying, scaring Shen Xiaoshan out of speaking another word. Crying, she turned around, ran back into the bedroom, and locked the door.
……
In the backseat of the luxury car, Qin Jiaojiao leaned lazily against the seat out of boredom. Looking at Zhou Shaoli’s side profile, she suggested, “Want to go grab some late-night snacks? My treat.”
Attending the event tonight, she had only hastily wolfed down a few bites of a boxed meal backstage; her stomach was starving right now.
Zhou Shaoli held her hand inside the car. Hearing her words, he picked up his phone and asked, “What do you want to eat?”
Qin Jiaojiao thought for a bit, leaning close to him to ask, “Is Lanting State Banquet still open at this hour?”
Although her previous two dining experiences at Lanting State Banquet hadn’t been very pleasant, that store’s decor and dishes were truly top-tier; she liked it.
Most restaurants in Beijing operated until ten o’clock at night; Lanting State Banquet required advance reservations and wouldn’t serve walk-ins, so rushing over now would likely mean it was already closed.
“It’s open; we can just head over.” Zhou Shaoli clicked open Xiao Rui’s WeChat and sent a few messages.
Xiao Rui was currently hosting a card game gathering, accompanied by a minor starlet sitting beside him. Receiving Zhou Shaoli’s message, he stuffed the hand of cards into the minor starlet’s hands. “You play.”
“Young Master Xiao, I don’t know how.” The minor starlet’s eyes turned watery, putting on an innocent, pitiable look.
Xiao Rui glanced at her. “Play whatever. If you lose, it’s on my tab.”
With that, he stepped outside holding his phone.
Xiao Rui walked out to the hallway and dialed Zhou Shaoli’s number. “Hey, Brother Shaoli, heading to Lanting State Banquet this late—are you hosting some client?”
Before Zhou Shaoli could reply, Xiao Rui added, “Working overtime tonight and not accompanying Sister-in-law?”
The moment the words left his mouth, Zhou Shaoli’s flat voice came through: “Your sister-in-law just finished her event; I’m taking her to eat.”
Xiao Rui: “…” Fine, Bro, stuffing dog food down my throat on purpose.
“Oh,” Xiao Rui put on an exceptionally cold tone. “I’ll drop a word over there; you just take Sister-in-law directly.”
He toughly hung up the phone first.
Lanting State Banquet was a venue he had opened in Beijing a few years back, enjoying great business over the years while catering exclusively to high-end clients. Whenever He Juanbai and Zhou Shaoli occasionally entertained clients, they would bring them to Lanting State Banquet.
Xiao Rui called the manager of Lanting State Banquet, giving a few instructions to make sure they treated President Zhou well.
Once arrangements were complete, he stood in the hallway to light a cigarette. Suddenly, a figure darted out from the corner, leaning against the wall; dressed in an evening gown with dark hair cascading over her shoulders, her cheeks carried an unusual flush, looking somewhat disheveled.
Xiao Rui leaned slantwise against the wall, a cigarette dangling from his lips. “Yo, isn’t this Eldest Miss Yang? What act are you playing?”
Hearing that familiar, improper voice, Yang Yutong lifted her head to look at him, barely holding onto her clarity. “Xiao… Xiao Rui?”
“It’s me.” Xiao Rui bent down to lean in. “Tsk, got drugged by someone?”
Yang Yutong’s mouth felt parched as she nodded. “My phone isn’t on me; can you take me to the hospital?”
Zhou Shaoli was accompanying Qin Jiaojiao to eat at Lanting State Banquet, which was far from here; even if Qin Jiaojiao knew, she couldn’t make it over anytime soon.
Xiao Rui suddenly felt a burst of benevolence, stubbing out his cigarette. “Sure thing, I’ll go back to grab a jacket.”
Yang Yutong lunged forward to grab his hand. “Someone is chasing me.”
Xiao Rui casually supported her. “What are you scared of? I’m right here—no one dares to lay a finger on you.” He casually scooped the person into his arms. “Don’t rub around recklessly; if someone sees us later, it’ll ruin my reputation.”
Yang Yutong slightly closed her eyes as she leaned against him, lacking the energy to respond to his joke.
Xiao Rui brought her back into the room. The rich heirs playing cards were somewhat surprised—why had he brought another one back from outside?
“You guys play, I have something to take care of and need to leave.” Xiao Rui grabbed his jacket off the chair.
The minor starlet looked longingly at Xiao Rui, her eyes filled with pity. “Young Master Xiao…”
Xiao Rui ignored her. Calling a starlet to keep him company during cards was just for show; he had no intention of bringing her to a hotel room, seeing right through the tiny thoughts in her mind.
Draping his jacket over Yang Yutong so others couldn’t see her unusual state, Xiao Rui led her out of the room and took the elevator downstairs.
Arriving at his car, he opened the passenger door with one hand, placed her inside, and returned to the driver’s seat. “Can you fasten your seatbelt yourself?”
Xiao Rui looked to the side; the jacket had slid off the woman’s body, revealing a captivating, intoxicating face. With surprisingly skillful movements, she climbed right onto his lap.
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