Luck points decreased by 1, current luck points: 25. Host, please quickly win over others’ favor to reclaim your luck points.
After grabbing her phone, Bai Youlan couldn’t wait to go through the materials—everything from her audition roles to footage of her arts exam.
“Who leaked this stuff? Can anyone just release it like that? I’m going to sue them!” Bai Youlan was furious, so much so that she didn’t bother maintaining the gentle and approachable image she usually kept in front of others.
She gripped her phone tightly, her nails turning white. “And the interview about my father—how could they publish that without my consent? That’s an invasion of my privacy!”
People around her noticed her reddened eyes and were somewhat startled. Her assistant whispered, “Bai Jie, don’t be anxious. The company’s PR team is already urgently discussing how to handle this.”
“Handle? Handle my ass,” Bai Youlan said through gritted teeth, her eyes filled with hatred. “What good is PR if they let these articles and materials get leaked ahead of time?”
Bai Youlan’s manager, slightly calmer, said, “The company hadn’t received any prior notice. Usually, when someone has dirt on a star, they contact the company or the star first. If no one pays up, then they choose to expose it.”
Her voice was steady. “Let’s go back to the company. I believe President Lin won’t just stand by.”
Bai Youlan knew Lin Donghan wouldn’t ignore her, but hearing her luck points steadily dropping in her mind, she couldn’t calm down at all.
Her father’s secrets had been exposed. To her fans, she was probably now seen as a vain, morally corrupt ungrateful daughter.
The scandal had already exploded online. Even the PR team’s money couldn’t suppress it. It seemed like someone was deliberately going against them—just as the company pulled down the trending topics, the other side would immediately buy two more related keywords for Bai Youlan, doubling the exposure.
Bai Youlan’s team was in chaos, cursing angrily, “Isn’t this just shooting themselves in the foot?”
How much does it cost to buy a trending topic? What exactly were they trying to achieve by doing this?
If Xu Qingqing knew what these people were thinking, she’d definitely be munching on sunflower seeds, saying, “They’re just doing it for fun.” Spending money just to make noise, and at the same time driving their enemies crazy—what a bargain.
Lin Donghan’s company had been busy all afternoon. Because Xu Qingqing had intercepted midway, everyone felt helpless. They worried that if this went on, it would only provoke more backlash and disgust from the public, so they dared not continue forcing fake popularity or removing trending topics.
If the PR team was this overwhelmed, Bai Youlan, the person caught in the middle, was even more broken.
Just half an hour ago, she had received the script for the female lead based on herself and heard her luck points rise in her mind. At that moment, she had endless hope and dreams for her future, even setting a goal to become the youngest Best Actress.
But now, it was all ruined.
The carefully built persona she had maintained for years was collapsing. She couldn’t believe how she would survive in the entertainment industry from now on.
Winning the audience’s favor and snatching Xu Qingqing’s luck points was the goal and plan Bai Youlan had set for herself. She had prepared for this for years.
If she was forced to leave the entertainment industry, where else could she gain favor from others? Without any goodwill, she wouldn’t be able to earn Xu Qingqing’s fortune points, let alone complete her mission.
What was even more terrifying was that Bai Youlan had recently discovered that her mission progress was regressing. The system would punish its host with electric shocks. She refused to imagine what would happen if she failed the mission.
Thinking about this, Bai Youlan’s heart sank.
She absolutely could not fail, nor could she collapse because of this matter. She adjusted her breathing slightly, threw a sentence to her assistant, “Let’s head back to the company first,” and hurriedly left.
She needed to return quickly to supervise those useless people to actually do something worthwhile.
While in the car, the agent looked at the tense Bai Youlan and tried to comfort her, “If worst comes to worst, there’s always President Lin.”
She honestly didn’t understand why Bai Youlan was so worked up. Right now, Bai Youlan only had some dirt on her. At worst, she would just leave the entertainment industry and marry President Lin, becoming a wealthy socialite. Life would be much better than that of an average person.
Bai Youlan could hear the hidden meaning behind those words, but she only forced a smile and didn’t respond.
What she wanted was not Lin Donghan—what she desired was the Xu family and their billions in wealth.
Though Bai Youlan felt disdain for her agent’s suggestion, she didn’t show it in her words.
The matter with the skill item had rung alarm bells for her. The system was not omnipotent; as long as there were loopholes, people in this world might discover them.
The piano incident was still a tangled mess in her mind. She didn’t know how to explain to others why she had fabricated a lie or when she had supposedly learned to play the piano.
Changing the story to “recent years” seemed impossible. Ever since she entered the entertainment industry, she had assistants and nannies accompanying her daily. None of them had ever seen her practicing piano.
Bai Youlan now regretted why she had been so reckless to invent such a reason. But no matter how much it gave her a headache, she had to keep spinning the story about the piano skill. She absolutely could not let anyone find out about the system.
While Bai Youlan was agonizing over this, Xu Qingqing was in a very good mood.
She was eating fruit while scrolling through social media, reading all kinds of comments about Bai Youlan—mostly negative and varied in content.
Xu Qingqing opened her latest Weibo post, where most of the comments were from Bai Youlan’s fans, either defending or insulting her.
She scrolled through and copied replies under every highly upvoted comment from Bai Youlan’s fans, saying, “Congratulations, Happy New Year! Your house just collapsed!”
She didn’t mind the trouble and enthusiastically pasted the replies, happily responding to every top comment.
Not only was Xu Qingqing being mean herself, but she also rallied her fans and many netizens to join in.
No one knew who leaked the news, but now many people knew that Xu Qingqing, the young lady of the Xu Group, had started settling scores, wishing all the fans who caused trouble on her Weibo a Happy New Year.
Because of what happened this afternoon, Bai Youlan lost nearly a third of her fans. Many of them, after uncovering her hypocritical and deceitful side, had their idol illusions shattered and promptly announced they were unfollowing her. Tonight, the super-topic comments section was a sea of wailing and despair.
As for Xu Qingqing, no matter how much Bai Youlan’s fans caused a ruckus under her Weibo posts before, she had always turned a deaf ear. People even thought Miss Xu’s temperament had mellowed. Little did they know, she had been quietly gathering evidence behind the scenes, preparing to take down the star herself.
This invisible war ended with a complete victory for Xu Qingqing. After this incident, Bai Youlan’s carefully crafted image collapsed, and her career took a massive hit. If it had been someone else, they might have secretly rejoiced but pretended not to notice the flood of comments under their own posts.
After all, there’s no need to argue with netizens, and maintaining a reputation for magnanimity and composure is a win-win.
But Xu Qingqing wasn’t like that. Not only did she tear down Bai Youlan’s image, she also made a point of showing up at Bai Youlan’s doorstep afterward to offer her congratulations, openly reveling in her schadenfreude. You could say she went all out.
What’s even more terrifying is that Xu Qingqing naturally draws attention, and combined with the strange relationship between her and Bai Youlan, her actions quickly attracted a crowd of onlookers eager for drama.
Everyone watched as Xu Qingqing tirelessly copied and pasted one comment after another, replying with congratulations to Bai Youlan’s fans on their idol’s downfall.
Gradually, people found this spectacle oddly entertaining and began to join Xu Qingqing and her followers in this chorus.
“Congratulations, congrats! Happy New Year—your idol’s house has collapsed!” they all chimed in unison, their tone simple yet festive, perfectly expressing their glee at the misfortune of Bai Youlan’s fans.
Tonight, Bai Youlan’s fans, still drowning in sadness and anger, grumbled, “Damn, these people are so heartless.”
“I want my peaches,” Xu Qingqing was having a blast alone, only to suddenly realize the fruit platter in front of her was empty.
She immediately looked up and shot a pointed glare at Xie Lianqing, who was busy reading some documents nearby—her silent accusation was crystal clear.
It was the weekend, and she should have been out having fun or lounging at home resting. Instead, because Xie Lianqing had recently praised her progress in front of their grandparents, she was forced to come to extra lessons, effectively working overtime together.
Xu Qingqing was in a good mood today; managing to hold herself together until now was already impressive. If the fruit was gone too, she felt she was about to start throwing a tantrum.
Xie Lianqing understood her well and, before she could make a fuss, sensibly said, “Okay, I’ll cut some for you.”
Just as he was about to get up and find a fruit knife in the kitchen, Xu Qingqing said, “Never mind.” She realized she had already eaten the whole platter without noticing and was feeling quite full.
Handing her phone to Xie Lianqing, she waved and said, “Come on, let’s watch these broken-hearted, homeless Bai Youlan fans together.”
Xie Lianqing already knew what big move Xu Qingqing had recently made, but he had a different attitude about it compared to Zhou Chenyu. Since Xu Qingqing was willing to grow independently and handle things on her own, he was more than happy to support and encourage her.
Besides, this time she had planned everything so perfectly from start to finish that Xie Lianqing almost began to wonder if the praise he and Old Master Xu had given Xu Qingqing was more than just empty flattery — it was the truth.
Not only was his girlfriend dramatic, but she was also decisive and knew exactly how to strike at the heart of the matter. While Xie Lianqing felt proud of her, he also felt a sense of shared honor.
So now, as Xu Qingqing proudly showed off her achievements to him, Xie Lianqing didn’t find it boring at all. Instead, he cooperated fully, carefully going through all the comments.
When he saw Xu Qingqing’s replies to Bai Youlan’s fans, he raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly.
Meeting Xu Qingqing’s gaze, he remarked, “Very creative.”
So cheeky and dramatic — this was exactly the kind of thing only Miss Xu Qingqing could pull off.
“Yeah, I think so too,” Xu Qingqing said, clearly pleased, her tone tinged with a hint of pride.
She thought to herself, I’m such a genius.
If she had chosen to delete her account earlier or hadn’t resisted the urge to block Bai Youlan’s fans, there wouldn’t be this kind of lively scene to watch now.
Some of Bai Youlan’s fans had already quit following her, but others stubbornly refused to give up. Not only did they stay loyal, but they also insisted that Bai Youlan had been slandered. They believed the reports were just interviews and pointed out that Bai Youlan’s biological father hadn’t come forward to speak, so all those reports and interviews must be fabricated fake news.
When these fans saw the blessings Xu Qingqing and the wider online community sent, they immediately exploded, firing back insults and even arguing with other netizens.
Xu Qingqing didn’t join the online brawl. Instead, she carefully noted down the IDs of these people, planning that every time Bai Youlan got into a situation like today’s, she would pull this group out to congratulate them all over again.
Fantastic! She really was a little genius, Xu Qingqing happily reposted and gave herself a thumbs-up.
Xie Lianqing listened to her entire plan, furrowing his brow in puzzlement before quickly breaking into a smile.
If it were someone else, they might think Xu Qingqing was overly aggressive or petty, but Xie Lianqing thought she was just right — in fact, he even found her behavior a little bit endearing.
