Chapter 7: Bought the Trending Topic

Yan Luoxi left the studio and turned into the washroom ahead to touch up her makeup. Just when she finished applying her lipstick, she heard the sound of high heels clicking against the floor outside. Having loved and fought with Lai Zhiyuan for many years, she immediately recognized to whom the footsteps belonged.

She frowned, not wanting to see that detestable face. She shoved the lipstick into her bag and quickly slipped into a stall with her bag in hand.

The next second, the restroom door was pushed open, and Lai Zhiyuan stormed in, slamming her bag on the sink counter in a huff, "I'm so pissed off, that bitch, getting on the trending searches just by acting cute, as if Weibo belongs to her family."

Her assistant, Miaomiao, who followed her in, said, "Yuanyuan, be careful, the walls have ears."

"So what if the walls have ears? How did the thing I told you to do go, has the photo been deleted?" Lai Zhiyuan asked, turning on the tap and washing her hands.

"Deleted, and I've completely cleared the backup data as well, now she can't threaten you anymore," Miaomiao responded proudly.

After washing her hands, Lai Zhiyuan took a paper towel from her assistant to wipe them and said through gritted teeth, "I really regret not going all the way earlier, I should have made sure she had no chance to appear in the studio."

Miaomiao looked at her with a sinister expression and suddenly fell silent.

She knew that Lai Zhiyuan had wanted to use the show to brutally smash Yan Luoxi's face with her capabilities, unfortunate the interview didn't go according to her script, and she ended up as the foil instead.

Not until the noise outside had ceased did Yan Luoxi push open the door of the stall and walk out, looking down at the phone that quietly laid in her palm. So the ruckus caused by that makeup artist earlier was about the photos in her phone.

Carrying her bag, Yan Luoxi left the restroom, took the elevator downstairs, and just happened to see Lai Zhiyuan getting into her nanny van.

All the somewhat famous actresses in the company had nanny vans to drive them, except her, the national supporting actress who stayed on the fringes of the eighteenth tier, who either drove her old Beetle or took taxis every time she went out.

She remembered complaining about not having a nanny van to pick her up, and Lu Zhaoran had responded, "The company is just getting on the right track, there are many artists to take care of, and we can't manage it all. You have to be understanding. If I send a nanny van to pick you up, other artists will be jealous and talk behind our backs."

Thinking back, she realized how naive she had been, thinking he was considerate and had her best interests at heart while he didn't care about her at all.

Yan Luoxi walked out of the TV station, and the nanny van had already driven away, so she hailed a taxi back to her apartment. When she passed the security guard, he called out to her, "Miss Yan, you have a package, please sign for it."

"Thanks," Yan Luoxi went in, signed her name on the registration form, and then saw the security guard bring over a heavy cardboard box. She reached out to take it and nearly toppled over from its weight.

"What's in here, it's so heavy?" Yan Luoxi struggled to carry the box back to her apartment and used a box cutter to open it. Inside, she saw neat stacks of marriage certificates.

Sitting on the carpet, she picked up one and flipped through it. It was identical to the marriage certificate she had torn up that morning. She flipped through several more, and they were all the same. Angrily tossing them back into the box, she said, "Is somebody addicted to pranks now? There must be at least a hundred here, who would do such a thing? Aren't the civil affairs bureau staff too idle, even going so far as to seal each one with an official stamp?"

Frustrated, Yan Luoxi kicked the box, stood up, and went to take a bath. After her bath, she glared at the cardboard box in the living room, walked over slowly, picked up a certificate, and opened it. "Li Yeqi, who is this person? Let's search on Baidu," she said as she idly moved towards it.

Yan Luoxi grabbed her phone and typed in "Li Yeqi." Muttering to herself, she wondered, "Eh, why can't I find anything? But this person looks familiar. Where have I seen him before? Why can't I remember?"

She placed her phone back on the coffee table and, mustering all her strength, carried the cardboard box into the study. Sitting in front of the shredder, she tore out the inner pages of the marriage certificates and fed them into the machine one by one.

As the shredder buzzed, she stuffed the ninety-ninth marriage certificate's inner page into it, and then the shredder broke. Yan Luoxi tried to fix it for a while, but it didn't respond.

Looking at the last marriage certificate in her hand, she was too tired to be upset, "You're lucky. Since the shredder's broken, I might as well keep you as a souvenir."

Yan Luoxi yawned and carelessly tossed the marriage certificate into a drawer before shakily heading back to the bedroom to catch up on her beauty sleep.

At midnight, a black sedan cruised down the deserted streets. Zhou Bei, gripping the steering wheel, looked up at the rearview mirror at the man resting with closed eyes, "Seventh Master, tonight the missus became a hit on social media making cute faces on the show. I had someone check the data, and it's really a bit odd."

Li Yeqi opened his eyes, his gaze deep as he looked at the back of Zhou Bei's head, "Go on."

"Someone bought a trending spot to keep the missus at the top of the list. For now, we still can't find out who's behind it, but I'm worried their aim might be to set her up only to take her down," Zhou Bei said gravely.

Once Li Yeqi decided to marry Yan Luoxi, paying attention to everything happening to her became part of his responsibilities.

Li Yeqi's eyes narrowed dangerously, his voice gaining a chilly edge, "We don't need to deal with it for now. With Mrs. Li's current popularity, if someone really wants to set her up, they'll have to first push her to a new height. If by then you still can't catch whoever it is, you won't be needed by my side anymore."

Zhou Bei felt like crying without tears, "Seventh Master, when do you plan to tell the missus about your marital relationship?"

"Wouldn't it be more interesting to let her find out for herself?" Li Yeqi's fingers rhythmically tapped on his knee, his eyes brimming with interest.

After all, she slept for the whole night and yet she didn't know he was her husband—she deserved a penalty!

Zhou Bei felt a bit sorry for the missus. After all, the Seventh Master was notorious in the army for being good at disguise and playing covert, the missus was going to get played by him.

...

Yan Luoxi woke up feeling refreshed, she turned on the TV, munching on an apple while watching the latest entertainment news. At first, she didn't pay much attention, until she heard her own name mentioned by the anchor.

"Following her adorable antics last night that led to trending on Weibo, this morning a set of Yan Luoxi's *** has been circulating online, once again hitting the hot search..."

Yan Luoxi watched intently as photo after photo flashed on the TV, where she was dressed in a black lace nightgown, hugging or being held by a man. Even more explosive was a photo where she was sitting in a man's lap, indulging in kissing his chest.

What a mess—even though the main character in the photo was clearly Lai Zhiyuan, since when had it been switched to her?

She was about to use her phone to call her agent when she realized it was out of battery. She quickly plugged it in to charge, and as soon as it powered on, the ringtone for missed calls bombarded her, only quieting down after a while.

Ignoring those missed calls, she dialed her agent directly. As soon as the call connected, Sister Lin's voice exploded in her ear, "Yan Luoxi, are you trying to bring the sky down on me?"