"Click~"
It was night in Kyogo Ward.
The door to the villa opened, revealing Jiang Xion, who had taken off his jacket and was holding it over his arm.
"I'm back..."
Jiang Xion subconsciously called out. However, upon seeing the scene before him the very next second, he could not help but blink, freezing in place. He almost thought the house had been robbed.
The living room on the first floor was a complete ss. Mahjong tiles were scattered all over the floor, and a few had even fallen into the leather shoes he had left at the entrance.
Looking further into the living room, quite a few things had been smashed to pieces.
The chief culprit seed to be the guitar lying quietly on the floor, several of its strings snapped.
"Sob... sob..."
Zuo Jiangqin was sitting on the floor with disheveled hair, her head leaning against the sofa as she whimpered and spoke weakly,
"You ungrateful wretch... I raised you all by myself since you were little, and this is how you treat ?
"Isn't it just a piece of sheet music? Is it more important than the mother who gave birth to you and raised you?"
Turning her head and seeing that it was Jiang Xion, she instantly gained so confidence, and even her voice grew much louder.
"Old Jiang, you're finally back! Look at her, she almost tore the house apart! And she even dared to hit !"
"..."
Seeing this, before Jiang Xion could even respond, a breathtakingly beautiful girl stord out of Bai Yi's room the next second, dragging a suitcase.
She glared at Zuo Jiangqin sitting on the floor and scolded with red eyes,
"House? From now on, this is your house, not mine! Zuo Jiangqin, stay out of my business in the future! I have nothing to do with you anymore!"
Looking into Bai Yi's boudoir, the wardrobe was wide open. She had packed everything she could carry into her suitcase, clearly intending to leave.
"Stay out of your business?! When you were spending my money as a child, you didn't tell
to stay out of your business! Now that you're all grown up and your wings have hardened, you're telling
to stay out of your business?!"
The more Zuo Jiangqin spoke like this, the more resolute Bai Yi's will to leave beca.
She shot a resentful glare at Zuo Jiangqin on the floor, and then glanced at Jiang Xion standing nearby.
In the end, she said nothing, rely keeping a sour expression as she dragged her suitcase, preparing to turn and leave.
"Unfilial daughter!! Ungrateful wretch! I raised you all these years for nothing!!"
Seeing Bai Yi leave, Zuo Jiangqin threw an even more furious and tearful tantrum.
But this ti, Bai Yi did not want to pay her any mind at all.
Out of sight, out of mind, she walked out of the door and imdiately turned on her mobile phone, intending to call a ride-hailing car to leave.
"Yiyi."
Suddenly, Jiang Xion's voice sounded from behind her.
Hearing this, Bai Yi frowned and turned her head.
"Don't try to persuade . I must leave tonight! I can't stay here for another second!"
"I'm not. I just wanted to ask where you plan on staying tonight?"
Bai Yi was slightly taken aback. She deliberated for a few seconds before answering,
"...I'll find a hotel or sothing to make do for now."
"Mhm."
Right after speaking, Jiang Xion reached out and tossed a small pink bag from the entrance over to her.
"You forgot your ID."
"..."
Catching the item she had forgotten to grab in her raging fury, Bai Yi pursed her lips, ultimately casting a glance at Jiang Xion.
"Thanks, Uncle Jiang. I'm leaving."
"Mhm, go on."
Behind her, the ride-hailing car had already pulled up at the intersection.
Bai Yi dragged her suitcase to the car, placed her belongings in the trunk, and only then got into the back seat.
"Vroom..."
As the car started, Bai Yi leaned against the window side, feeling rather exhausted.
Looking at the villa where her mother's crying and shouting could still faintly be heard, Bai Yi couldn't help but feel her own eye sockets turning a bit red.
The song she had painstakingly written had now run into trouble. Her agent kept sending ssages on Plane to ask about the specific details, and even the people from Jinshi Group were calling to ask.
Her songwriting hit a roadblock, the mother she relied on only caused more trouble, and now they were as incompatible as water and fire, culminating in her running away from ho...
Be it work or family, everything was a complete ss.
Even her romantic relationship was ruined by that scumbag, Yan Huan.
He would rather choose Sakuramiya Hitomi over her!
"Sob..."
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. Tears trickled down drop by drop. She began to pout, whimpering as she wiped the corners of her eyes.
While wiping, she softly mumbled to comfort herself,
"Don't cry... don't cry... Bai Yi, don't cry... sob..."
After muttering a few sentences, she picked up her mobile phone, trying to divert her attention.
Reflected in the pitch-black screen was a stunningly beautiful girl with slightly red eye sockets, looking pitifully endearing.
She sniffled, opened the video platform, and forcefully suppressed her disgust to click on the video that supposedly offered solid evidence of her plagiarism.
She had to understand the opponent's argunts in it so she could properly explain things to Jinshi Group and her agent tomorrow.
Therefore, she might as well book a hotel near the Golden Lion Mansion.
"Hm?"
But just as she was about to open the video, she noticed that the female blogger's user profile indicated she was actually doing a live broadcast.
The content seed to be PK battles and live covers of popular songs, or sothing along those lines.
"..."
Looking at the page above, Bai Yi began to pout, and soon her cheeks puffed out more and more.
At this mont, Golden Lion Mansion.
Down below, many fans had jamd the parking lot outside the first floor, leaving it completely jam-packed. They were relying entirely on the Jinshi Group's security guards to maintain order outside the revolving doors.
"Fans who bought tickets for the fan eting, please queue up! You can only enter after your tickets are checked!!"
In the back, one could still vaguely make out the characters on the banner: "Lemon's Autograph Session."
It seed Lemon had organized an impromptu autograph session tonight.
In a short while, she would appear at the specially prepared venue on the first floor to et and interact with the fans who had bought VIP tickets.
Although it wasn't ti yet, the early queue outside had almost stretched out to the middle of the road.
"Hello, so you still know how to call , Uncle..."
Upstairs at Golden Lion Entertainnt, inside Lemon's lounge.
The lights illuminated Lemon's face as she sat before the vanity mirror. She scrutinized her makeup in the reflection while conversing with the person on the phone.
But in response to her inquiry, only an icy male voice ca from the other end,
"When are you returning to Sakura Country?"
"...Hmph, it's all Uncle's fault. If you had given
the female lead in that movie, would I have needed to run all the way to Linn?"
The other end paused for a second before speaking again, calm as an ancient well,
"A new script ca in today, and I've tentatively assigned you as the female lead. So, hurry back after you finish filming the variety show. Cancel the rest of your itinerary."
Hearing these words, Lemon's eyes couldn't help but light up.
She glanced at the tightly shut, empty lounge. Her eyes rolled playfully as her voice turned delicate and sweet,
"Mhm... I think, rather than work, it's Uncle who wants , isn't it?"
"Bzz... Bzz-bzz..."
While she was on the phone, the lights on the ceiling of the lounge flickered on and off for a brief mont.
"Eh~ Don't make it sound so ugly. I thought Uncle gave
so many slots because you like . I really like Uncle too, you know~"
"..."
She spoke a few more sentences. Although her words were sweet, the girl in the vanity mirror occasionally rolled her eyes.
"Mhm, okay, then I'll head back right away after this~"
"Beep."
Hanging up the phone, Lemon instantly dropped her act. Gritting her teeth, she slamd her mobile phone onto the table.
"Tch, what a joke. Kubo Tetsuyuki, you damn old geezer, giving
a supporting female role is one thing, but you even euphemistically call it the female lead...
"I bet you said the exact sa thing to your new fling, didn't you? You even spoke so coldly to
today, completely devoid of emotion...
"If you dare to kick
to the curb, I'll absolutely leak every single one of your dirty secrets."
She stared at the mobile phone on the desk with disgust, then took a few deep breaths to adjust her expression.
After all, she still had to attend the autograph session later.
"Phew..."
She took a deep breath and raised her eyes to look into the vanity mirror.
In the mirror, an imposing black cat suddenly appeared behind her, holding a mobile phone in its mouth and staring at her faintly.
Its pair of erald eyes looked like an evil spirit or a ghost, causing anyone who t its gaze to shudder with fear.
"Ah!!"
Lemon jumped in fright, hastily standing up and turning to look behind her.
But behind her was completely empty. There was no black cat to be seen.
"...Was... was it my imagination?"
Lemon's small face turned slightly pale as she scanned the empty room. However, no matter how hard she looked, the black cat she had just seen in the mirror was nowhere to be found.
Was it...
Was it just an illusion?
Lemon swallowed a mouthful of saliva, clutching her chest as she took quite a while to calm down before sitting back down.
"Bzz... Bzz..."
The surrounding lights flickered on and off for another brief mont.
"What kind of dump is this? Such a huge company, yet the electrical circuit isn't even stable..."
Lemon cursed a few tis with an ugly expression. She then glanced around one more ti, and only after confirming there were no other people or things present did she turn her head back to the mirror.
However, the mont she turned back, she was shocked to see a young man in a suit standing behind her in the mirror, staring at her with an expressionless face.
"Ahhhhhhh!!!"
Lemon was so frightened that her body instantly went soft, and she collapsed to the floor. When she looked back this ti, a figure really had appeared behind her.
This made Lemon so terrified that her legs turned to jelly. She could only back away frantically while screaming,
"Don't... don't co closer! What kind of thing are you?!"
"..."
The young man in front of her, or rather Yan Huan, raised an eyebrow at her reaction. He then squatted down and asked with a smile,
"If you haven't done anything wrong, you shouldn't be afraid of ghosts knocking on your door... So what are you so scared of?"
"Eh?"
Upon hearing this familiar voice, Lemon, who was clutching her head, instantly looked up.
Seeing that it was Yan Huan, she let out a long sigh of relief and forced a smile.
"It's... it's Older Brother Yan Huan? It's already so late. Why is Older Brother Yan Huan here? Did... did you just get off work?"
"..."
Yan Huan smiled slightly, ignoring her question, and simply asked,
"What happened to Bai Yi... Was that your doing?"
Hearing this, Lemon froze slightly, seemingly realizing sothing.
But on the surface, she still squeezed out a smile,
"What about Bai Yi, Older Brother Yan Huan?"
As she smiled, the smile on Yan Huan's face slowly faded away.
"I seem to recall that back in the orphanage, neither the teacher nor I ever taught you how to lie and fra others, did we?"
Lemon's face showed an increasingly guilty conscience, and even her gaze beca more evasive.
"I... I don't know what you're talking about, Older Brother Yan Huan... Besides, my autograph session is about to start. If the staff mbers co over later and see us alone in the sa room, I'm afraid... it wouldn't be very good..."
"..."
Seeing that she was still playing dumb, Yan Huan took a deep breath and rolled up his sleeves.
Lemon didn't know what Yan Huan was going to do, rely staring blankly as he raised his right hand.
'Eh?'
'Wait...'
'This action... seems a bit familiar?'
"Smack!!"
In the next second, Yan Huan slapped her right across the face.
Yan Huan's strength was not sothing Bai Yi could compare to. Even though he had pulled his punch, this single slap still sent her dropping straight to her knees on the floor.
"..."
Lemon clutched her face, her entire mind going blank.
The next second, she belatedly realized what had happened and imdiately revealed an angry expression.
Her defense broken, she whipped her head to glare at Yan Huan and scread with bloodshot eyes,
"Is there sothing wrong with the brains of you couple?! You resort to violence at the drop of a hat??!! And you both love slapping faces?!"
"Couple?"
Hearing this, Yan Huan was montarily stunned, thinking to himself, 'Has soone else slapped you besides ?'
Yan Huan didn't know the answer. He simply pulled a chair over and sat down, then looked at Lemon, who was screaming with her defense broken while kneeling on the floor.
"Let
tell you, Yan Huan! Don't think you can still treat
like you did back in the orphanage!! I've long since..." Her defense broken, Lemon lunged at Yan Huan, raising her hands in an attempt to tear at his clothes.
But Yan Huan effortlessly grabbed her extended hands, while delivering a backhand slap with his other hand.
"Smack!"
Her hysterical outburst was abruptly cut off, and she clutched the other side of her face as she completely slumped to the floor.
"Sob..."
This technique was exactly the sa as how Bai Yi had hit her before!
Both tis started with a surprise slap, and then just as she tried to fight back, they pulled off a counter-parry to block and strike her other cheek!!
However, Yan Huan's strike hurt countless tis more than Bai Yi's!!
"You bastard couple... You... I... I'll call the police right now... You just wait..."
Flying into a rage, Lemon revealed a ferocious expression and looked toward the entrance, clearly intending to call for help.
'Good, earlier I couldn't find a way to fra you, but now you've delivered yourself right to my door.'
'A lone man and woman in the sa room, and you actually dared to lay a hand on ...'
'I'm definitely going to sue you!'
'I'll definitely have you thrown in jail and ruin everything you have!'
Watching Lemon prepare to call for help, Yan Huan crossed his legs without moving an inch. He simply took out his mobile phone and pressed the play button.
"...Hmph, it's all Uncle's fault. If you had given ..."
"..."
In an instant, the recording of her entire phone conversation with that senior from Sakura Country started playing out loud.
While listening, the ferocious expression on Lemon's face gradually morphed into one of panic.
She stared blankly at the expressionless Yan Huan before her, imdiately shrinking back and dropping any intention of calling for help.
"How... how did you record that? Did you plant a hidden recording device in here?"
In reality, he hadn't.
Yan Huan had co up to find her right after getting off work, but since he hadn't obtained any evidence yet, he hadn't wanted to beat the grass to startle the snake.
Yan Huan was convinced that if she were the culprit, either she or her assistant would definitely show a flaw.
Whether it was ssaging that blogger or making a phone call, he could record it all through Myau-chan's teleportation abilities.
It was a bit troubleso, so at tis like this, Yan Huan genuinely envied these Modifier Hosts for being able to act without restraints.
However, even though he hadn't recorded evidence of her framing Bai Yi, he had recorded sothing far more explosive.
"You have two choices. Either you personally confess at your autograph session later that you stole Bai Yi's new song and gave it to that blogger... or I publish this recording right now.
"You decide for yourself which is more important."
Looking at Yan Huan sitting before her with crossed legs and a condescending posture, Lemon's heart instantly ran cold.
Yet she still harbored a sliver of hope, offering a sycophantic smile.
"I... but I didn't steal Bai Yi's song, Older Brother Yan Huan... Can I trade sothing else for this recording? Is that okay?
"Do you want money, or ? Anything is fine..."
Yan Huan stared at her with an expressionless face, but his eyes slowly began to change, as if he had activated so sort of ability.
In this instant, his eyes seed to beco ten thousand tis more profound.
His face was also cast in heavy shadows, turning him into a terrifying demon.
Under Yan Huan's gaze, Lemon suddenly felt as if her entire being had been seen through, as if even the voice in her heart had been pierced by a demon...
"Thump... thump... thump..."
Amidst her gradually accelerating, trembling heartbeat, Lemon heard Yan Huan softly say,
"You lie."
"..."
Lemon sat there blankly. A second later, she lowered her head and said despondently,
"I... I'll say it... Just don't... don't leak this recording, Brother... I'm begging you..."
Between two evils, one must choose the lesser.
Compared to the contents of that recording, framing Bai Yi was absolutely nothing.
Yan Huan's face beca blurry under the dim light. Lemon didn't even dare to look up at him; she could only see his tightly clenched fists, covered in bulging blue veins.
With just one glance, Lemon could sense the suppressed power within his hands.
'Is he...'
'Could he actually want to beat
to death...?'
Lemon didn't dare look any longer, hastily bowing her head lower.
"Step, step..."
"Click~"
The very next second, the room door was abruptly opened, revealing Lemon's assistant standing outside.
"It's almost ti, we should get ready... Uh."
She stared at the scene inside, instantly freezing.
Hearing the voice, Lemon's body jolted, and she swiftly raised her head.
However, she saw that Yan Huan had already restored his smile, speaking apologetically to Lemon's assistant.
"My apologies, I was just catching up with Lemon. I won't disturb your work any further."
"Ah... okay..."
With that, Yan Huan flashed a stiff, unnatural expression towards Lemon and pointed at his mobile phone.
"You're busy then, so I'll be going now?"
"Mhm..."
Lemon nodded dumbly as Yan Huan turned and left the room.
Seeing Yan Huan exit the room, the assistant imdiately stomped over to Lemon, who was still kneeling on the floor, and inspected her makeup—specifically around her mouth.
"Are you crazy?! The autograph session is about to start, and you're in here blowing your childhood sweetheart?! If Kubo Tetsuyuki finds out, your career is over!!"
"..."
Lemon was completely out of options now, too drained to even bother refuting the accusation.
Her back was completely drenched in cold sweat. At this mont, she could only sluggishly raise her head and tell her assistant,
"Linn... this place... is too wicked... way too wicked... After we finish this gig, let's... let's just run away!?"
"Huh?"
At the entrance, Yan Huan slowly shut the door.
Taking one last look into the room, he frowned, turned around, and departed.
In the dimly lit corridor, around a corner outside his line of sight, a tall girl with long, straight, black hair leaned against the wall, her gaze empty.
It was none other than Ye Shiyu.
Listening to the fading sound of Yan Huan's footsteps, she inevitably turned her head to look at his departing back view.
"..."
Originally, she had co here tonight to settle a score with Lemon.
She had thoroughly figured out Lemon's earlier attempt to fabricate a scandal involving Xiao Huan. She had co tonight prepared to 'go on a killing spree.'
Unexpectedly, Xiao Huan had co over as well.
And, he was also looking to give her trouble.
Was it because of...
Bai Yi?
No, Xiao Huan and Bai Yi had completely broken things off.
Most likely, it was just Xiao Huan's innate kindness acting up. He couldn't bear to see Bai Yi being frad; it wasn't out of any lingering romantic feelings or the like...
Ye Shiyu rationalized.
[Do you wish to lift Kubo Tetsuyuki's Hypnosis?]
Looking at the illusory interface before her, Ye Shiyu nodded.
At this mont, across the ocean in Sakura Country, within what was originally a noisy nightclub room in Kabukicho...
Every single person inside, male and female alike, bore hollow and empty expressions.
The man right in the center was still clutching the mobile phone he had just used to call Lemon.
Installed on his phone was the recently wildly popular Yezi AI.
At the bottom of Golden Lion Mansion, the autograph session was about to begin.
Yan Huan found a quiet spot inside the mansion, gripping a bottle of mineral water as he waited for Lemon to arrive.
At the sa ti, he looked down at his mobile phone.
On Plane, his and Bai Yi's contact information had already been deleted, so he didn't know how she was doing right now.
However...
This ti, he would just treat it as compensation for deceiving her before.
He sent a ssage to a small group chat to let Sakuramiya Hitomi and An Le know he was safe, and then subconsciously opened the video sharing site.
He hadn't closed the video site earlier, so it was still on that blogger's page.
"Hm? Still doing a live broadcast?"
Looking at the live broadcast interface at the top, Yan Huan took a sip of water and tapped in to watch.
Inside, the blogger who was 'identifying plagiarism' was doing a co-streaming PK battle with soone else.
Perhaps due to the plagiarism scandal, her stream was far more crowded than usual, with tens of thousands of viewers already watching.
"In the afternoon, I actually thought that Bai Yi sang pretty well. I didn't expect it to be copied."
"That's exactly what I said! How could she write a song like that at such a young age..."
"Yeah..."
Although the blogger had already begun a PK battle with soone else, the chat was still continuously discussing Bai Yi's song.
"..."
Yan Huan looked at the scrolling chat below and took a deep breath.
However, just as he was about to close the stream, the current PK battle concluded, and she connected with the next opponent.
"Alright, let's welco the next co-strear! Do you want to sing a duet, or just chat?"
The next second, the co-stream window abruptly changed, displaying a girl wearing a face mask with eyes that sparkled like starlight.
Her background was dim, appearing as though she was outdoors.
Even so, one could tell at a glance that her eyebrows were raised in an angry pout.
Right now, she was extrely furious!
"..."
'Wait, this person...'
Seeing the person co-streaming, Yan Huan instantly froze for a second.
And the very next second, he saw the masked girl indignantly interrogate the blogger,
"On what grounds are you saying I... Oh, wait, no! On what grounds are you saying Bai Yi committed plagiarism?!"
"Eh? You are?"
"I-I'm a music fan of Bai Yi!!"
Seeing this, Yan Huan's face darkened, and he imdiately facepald.
'It really is you!!'
'Bai Yi!!'
'To actually put on a face mask to pretend to be your own music fan and confront the opponent—what a blatant giveaway!'
'And...'
'What kind of userna is that?!'
The account Bai Yi was co-streaming with was nad: Scumbag Yan.
Combined with the fact that she had just claid to be her own fan...
It was really hard to bear.
Seeing soone pop up to question this matter, the blogger's expression imdiately shifted as she stated coolly,
"Heh, here cos the damage control squad... I can't be bothered to argue with you about this. The innocent are innocent, and the guilty are guilty, okay? If you're not going to co-stream properly, we'll just switch to the next person, alright?"
"Don't give
that! You said you wrote this song!? Do you even know how the lody of this song was created? Who are you to say you wrote it!?"
"..."
Being berated to her face like this, the blogger laughed out of pure anger and shot back,
"Fine. Since you understand your idol so well, why don't you tell us how she wrote it then?"
"Then let
ask you!"
Upon hearing this, Bai Yi instantly grew furious.
She pointed at the blogger on the screen, interrogating without any politeness,
"Have you ever experienced soone doing so much for you, making you think you were each other's entire world, only to discover in the end that it was all just a delusion?!"
"Huh?"
With Bai Yi speaking like this, the blogger was instantly dumbfounded by the question.
"Have you ever experienced giving your all to stop a bunch of perverts from getting their hands on him, only for him to ultimately go and choose a pervert?!"
"Huh?!"
"Have you ever experienced having your feelings toyed with, crying in your blankets for half the night, and then waking up the next day only to pathetically realize that you still like him?!"
"Huh??!!"
In the live broadcast room, the masked Bai Yi's voice was lodious.
Her eye sockets slightly red, she pointed at the blogger on the screen who had been left utterly bewildered by her rapid-fire questioning, and shouted loudly,
"No! You haven't!!
"You don't know, you don't care, you only care about yourself!!
"You only care about the clout you get from plagiarism! If you do things like this, what are the two people in your family supposed to do?!"
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