40

After an intense night, Shi Yue didn't wake up until nearly noon the next day.

Leng Yanmi hadn't gotten up either. She was half-leaning against the headboard, a sleek laptop on her knees, her face stern as she stared intently at the screen. The soft glow from the screen illuminated her profile like a noble muse sculpture.

"What time is it?" Shi Yue mumbled with her eyes still closed.

Leng Yanmi's fingers paused over the keyboard. "Uh... almost eleven."

Shi Yue chuckled, burying her face in the blanket. "It's so late." Then she lifted her head. "I'm kind of hungry. What's for lunch?"

"Takeout will be here in ten minutes," Leng Yanmi said, her hand moving to gently pat Shi Yue's hair. "We got up late today, so let's keep lunch simple. We can go out for dinner, and you can order whatever you like."

Her arrangements were always thorough, and Shi Yue had no objections. "Sounds good."

Shi Yue then glanced at the laptop on Leng Yanmi's lap. "You took two days off, is work piling up?"

Sensing her gaze, Leng Yanmi subtly angled the laptop screen away.

She cleared her throat. "It's manageable."

Guessing there might be some important business secrets on the screen, Shi Yue decided to get up and avoid interfering. "You keep working. I'll go wash up."

They shared a light good-morning kiss before Shi Yue left the bedroom. After getting ready, the doorbell rang, and she fetched the takeout, setting everything on the table.

From the bedroom, the sound of Leng Yanmi typing furiously on the keyboard echoed through the apartment. Earlier, when Shi Yue was still asleep, she had been careful to keep quiet. Now that Shi Yue was up, her fingers flew across the keys without restraint.

Shi Yue didn't dare disturb her. Glancing at the time, she sat obediently at the dining table, passing the time by scrolling through her phone.

Her messaging app was flooded with unread messages.

At first, Shi Yue thought they were just congratulations, but she soon noticed something strange.

A girl from her class, someone she got along with, sent a gossiping emoji and asked, "Shi Yue, is it true about you and Xi Chuanyu?"

The class group chat was filled with similar messages: "Shi Yue's amazing, landing a top celebrity just by being on a show."

Even her mother, Jiang Fu, sent a curious text: "Little Yue, did you change girlfriends?"

"..."

Shi Yue felt dizzy.

She quickly opened the trending topics and, sure enough, saw her name and Xi Chuanyu's right there. Clicking on it, the top post was a video of M.Crush performing at a concert last night. To promote the Feather Design Competition, they had worn the performance outfits based on Shi Yue's design from the first round.

The performance was a huge success, with the crowd cheering non-stop from the moment they took the stage until the end.

In a backstage interview, a reporter asked Xi Chuanyu for her thoughts. Xi Chuanyu gave a standard response, promoting the Feather Design Competition as planned.

Reporter: "What do you think of the outfit you're wearing?"

Xi Chuanyu: "Uh, it's great. We all love it."

The reporter smiled knowingly. "We could tell, especially since you gave it such high marks during the show."

Xi Chuanyu's expression turned awkward. "Hehe."

The reporter pressed on: "What are your thoughts on the designer, Shi Yue?"

Xi Chuanyu froze for a moment, then quickly composed herself, replying in a neutral tone, "Every designer in the Feather Design Competition is incredibly talented. It was a pleasure to work with them."

The next moment, her manager rushed over, cutting the interview short. "Please refrain from asking questions unrelated to M.Crush. Thank you for your understanding."

Shi Yue muttered under her breath, "Is that really necessary? Was that even a big deal?"

But as she scrolled further, she saw that a well-known paparazzi had posted two explosive photos. The pictures, taken by Shen Lingling, captured Xi Chuanyu dropping Shi Yue off at her villa. The angles made them look very close.

Shi Yue frowned.

Thankfully, as the rumors started to spread, both parties' official accounts were quick to clarify.

Xi Chuanyu's personal account and her agency issued statements saying, "Please do not spread or believe false rumors. Xi Chuanyu is currently single." Meanwhile, the Feather Design Competition official account released the relevant surveillance footage with a statement:

"Shi Yue and Xi Chuanyu are strictly professional collaborators. There was no intimate behavior between them. Our company will take legal action against those spreading false information."

This post had over 40,000 comments, even more than Xi Chuanyu's personal statement.

Curious, Shi Yue clicked on the comment section.

User A: "Why is a competition official clearing up a celebrity's personal rumor? Can't Shi Yue speak for herself?"

Feather Design Competition official: "Shi Yue is a contestant. We won't tolerate any harmful rumors against her."

Bystander: "Is this even harmful? If Shi Yue were dating Xi Chuanyu, wouldn't that be good for your show? Why rush to clarify? Don't you want the attention?"

Feather Design Competition official: "We don't need it."

Xi Chuanyu's fans: "Control your contestants! Stop trying to cling to our goddess. So shameless, ugh!"

Feather Design Competition official: "Maybe you should control Xi Chuanyu first."

Xi Chuanyu's fans: "Are you crazy? As if Xi Chuanyu would ever be interested in Shi Yue!"

Feather Design Competition official: "Xi Chuanyu doesn't deserve her."

"..."

After reading through the comments, Shi Yue finally understood why this post had gained so much traction.

She had no idea who was running the Feather Design Competition official account, but they sure knew how to stir things up! Instead of letting the matter die down after issuing a clarification, the admin actively engaged in arguments, fanning the flames with both fans and trolls.

No wonder the post was gaining so much attention!

Shi Yue grabbed her phone and rushed back to the bedroom, leaning against the doorframe. "Auntie—"

Leng Yanmi paused her typing and looked up. "What's wrong?"

"Did you see the trending topic about me and Xi Chuanyu?" Shi Yue asked urgently.

"Yeah."

Shi Yue bit her lip, exasperated. "You need to contact the Feather Design Competition company and have them replace the person running their social media!"

Leng Yanmi blinked. "..."

Thinking she didn't understand the seriousness of the situation, Shi Yue continued, "What kind of person do they have running that account? Don't they know that the best way to handle this is to just stay quiet? But this person is out there firing off machine gun replies, making things worse!"

Leng Yanmi: "..."

She took a deep breath and asked, "Don't you think they're doing their best to clear things up for you?"

"A simple clarification post would've been enough," Shi Yue frowned. "Did you see how the admin responded to people? So arrogant and harsh! That's just stirring the pot even more!"

Leng Yanmi replied, "Those people can't even follow basic rules about not spreading rumors. Why should we cater to them?"

Just then, the laptop pinged, drawing Leng Yanmi's attention back to the screen. Her face changed, and she began typing furiously again.

The sound of her fingers flying across the keys left Shi Yue momentarily stunned. "Uh…" She scratched her head. "Auntie, do you really care about online comments?"

"Of course not," Leng Yanmi retorted instantly. "Why would I care what others say?"

"Exactly." Shi Yue sat on the edge of the bed. "We know the truth. I have nothing to do with Xi Chuanyu, right?"

"Mm."

Shi Yue placed her hand on her leg. "You can't control public opinion. In time, when I have no further contact with Xi Chuanyu, people will lose interest."

"Mm."

Feeling like she had persuaded her, Shi Yue pressed on. "So maybe you could ask the Feather Design Competition to tell their social media person to stop arguing with people online?"

Leng Yanmi glanced at Shi Yue, then at her laptop screen, pouting slightly. "No."

She even sounded self-righteous. "I think they're doing great."

Shi Yue: "..."

She glanced down at her phone, which was still on the comment section. In the two minutes it took her to get from the living room to the bedroom, the admin had already fired back at two more comments.

Xi Chuanyu fan: "Is the admin secretly in love with Shi Yue? Saying that Xi Chuanyu isn't good enough for her, are you insane?"

Feather Design Competition official: "No need for a secret crush."

Random user: "Does the company boss even know the admin's going crazy on the official account?"

Feather Design Competition official: "They know."

The arrogant tone was so striking that Shi Yue began to suspect this wasn't just any regular employee handling the account.

She hesitated and asked, "Lunch is ready. Are you still busy? Maybe we should eat first?"

Leng Yanmi closed the laptop. "Let's go."

Shi Yue breathed a sigh of relief.

After a simple lunch, just as Leng Yanmi was putting the dishes away, a call came in from Zhang Zhuo, the deputy manager of Feather Design Competition. She quickly answered the call and, after a short conversation, said to Shi Yue, "I need to go to the study for a meeting."

Shi Yue held back the Ragdoll cat and replied softly, "Alright."

As soon as Leng Yanmi left for the study, Shi Yue had a thought. She locked the cat in its cage and snuck back into the bedroom—the sleek laptop still sat on the bedside table.

Opening it, she typed in her own birthday as the password and unlocked the laptop with ease.

Navigating to the browser, she was unsurprised to find the official Feather Design Competition account open.

Shi Yue: "..."

She had been so frantic about asking Leng Yanmi to replace the social media manager, only to discover that Leng Yanmi was the one engaging in all those online arguments.

In the comments, someone had asked whether the company's boss knew about the admin's behavior. After Leng Yanmi responded, "They know," the same person followed up, "Is this some new way of quitting your job? Are you trying to get fired?"

Shi Yue snickered, feeling the same confusion that she'd had earlier.

She sighed and typed a response: "Thanks for your concern, but there's no need to worry about this."

The commenter seemed confused: "The tone's totally different now… Did they switch admins? I knew they'd get in trouble for this behavior."

Shi Yue shrugged, unsure how to explain.

Just then, a notification popped up in the corner of the screen. Out of habit, Shi Yue clicked it before realizing this wasn't her account. By then, it was too late—she had already seen the message.

It was from a contact labeled 'Annoying.' The message read: "CEO Leng, I'm so sorry. We've traced the rumors, and it turns out it was orchestrated by a rival group to slander me. They've been manipulating the public opinion online."

"We're already handling it, and I promise to resolve this as quickly as possible."

Respecting her partner's privacy? Shi Yue had completely forgotten about that as she clicked on 'Annoying's' profile, confirming that it was none other than Xi Chuanyu.

She rested her chin in her hand. "So it's her rival causing trouble and dragging me into this… What bad luck."

'Annoying' continued to send messages: "I swear, I have no romantic interest in Shi Yue at all. I'd had a bit to drink that night, and whatever I said was just drunken nonsense. Please don't take it seriously."

'Annoying': "Please, CEO Leng, you have to believe me QwQ."

Shi Yue decided to play along.

"Don't worry."

"I believe there's nothing between you two."

After a few seconds of silence, the replies came in rapid succession.

"Yes, CEO Leng!!"

"Thank you for your wisdom! I've been so wronged lately!"

"I'll make sure to…"

At that moment, the bedroom door opened. Shi Yue looked up and made eye contact with Leng Yanmi.

Leng Yanmi's gaze drifted down to the laptop resting on Shi Yue's lap.

"Hehe," Shi Yue waved awkwardly. "Auntie? You're done with your meeting?"

With a cold expression, Leng Yanmi walked over, picked up the laptop, and read the conversation between Shi Yue and Xi Chuanyu.

Shi Yue whispered, "I saw she messaged you, so I, um, replied on your behalf."

Realizing she had crossed a line, she quickly apologized. "I'm sorry…"

Leng Yanmi's tone was calm. "It's fine."

Shi Yue rubbed her nose, trying to regain her composure. "That's good. I mean, my reply wasn't too different from what you would've said, right?"

Staring at the words "It's fine" in the chat box, Leng Yanmi felt her annoyance flare.

Who said it's fine?

Who's "fine" with who?

But she remained expressionless, nodding slightly. "Mm," she replied as she closed the laptop.

Shi Yue leaned closer, resting her head on her shoulder. "Are you done with work now?

"Since Xi Chuanyu said her team is handling everything, we don't need to argue with netizens anymore… Uh, I mean, we don't need to pay attention to the gossip, right?"

Without speaking, Leng Yanmi pinched her cheek.

That night, after spending a fun evening out together, they returned to bed. As they were about to sleep, Shi Yue suddenly burst out laughing.

Leng Yanmi turned to her. "What's so funny?"

Shi Yue giggled. "Oh, I just remembered something… something amusing."

Curious, Leng Yanmi asked, "What's so amusing?"

Shi Yue blinked playfully. "Not telling you."

"...Immature," Leng Yanmi muttered as she slid her hand under the blanket, tickling Shi Yue mercilessly.

Shi Yue laughed so hard she cried, eventually collapsing into Leng Yanmi's arms, begging for mercy.

After she stopped, Shi Yue teased, "You didn't find it immature when you were arguing with those netizens, did you?"

Leng Yanmi stiffened. "You saw that?"

"Did you really spend the whole day monitoring the comments?" Shi Yue asked, a bit concerned. "There were so many. How could you keep up with them all?"

Leng Yanmi squeezed her hand. "I didn't like seeing them spread lies."

Shi Yue bumped her with her nose. "If you don't like it, then don't read it."

Leng Yanmi: "..."

Shi Yue continued, "Are you going to give the Feather Design account back to them? Zhang Zhuo and the others must be panicking, right?"

Leng Yanmi snorted, as if recalling something unpleasant. "I already gave it back."

Before Shi Yue could relax, she added, "But I asked my assistant to apply for a personal account for me. She said it'll take a week to verify."

Shi Yue frowned in confusion. "Why do you need a personal account all of a sudden?"

Leng Yanmi narrowed her eyes. "Didn't you all say I shouldn't use the official account to express personal feelings? From now on, I'll use my own account…"

Before she could finish, Shi Yue quickly covered her mouth, begging tearfully, "Auntie, please, just stop. You've talked enough today, aren't you tired?"

Leng Yanmi didn't say whether she agreed or not. Instead, she took Shi Yue's wrist, pulling it closer, and gently kissed her fingertips.