On the day of the university anniversary, Xu Qingqing became famous in one fell swoop, completely washing away the dirty water of rumors that Bai Youlan had previously splashed on her in an attempt to clear her own name.
The A University anniversary already had high discussion heat due to the episode involving Xu Qingqing and Xie Lianqing that night. More and more people learned about this couple and joined the army of shippers.
The Xu and Xie families were well-matched in social status, and the pair themselves were a perfect match—a talented man and a beautiful woman. Clips from the live stream of Xie Lianqing standing up to present flowers, gazing at the young woman with a smile, spread all over the internet. Even their matching profile pictures were screenshotted and shared.
Just as everyone was getting more and more addicted to shipping them, the person involved, Xu Qingqing, remained completely unaware. After returning from dancing at the manor that evening, out of a desire to show off, she directly posted the photos she took that night.
She posted pictures of that vast rose garden on Weibo and her social media feed, sweetly saying, "Thank you, Senior, for the flowers."
That was just like Xu Qingqing. When happy, she would sweetly call him "Senior"; when angry or throwing a tantrum, it was "scumbag" this and "scumbag" that. Zhou Chenyu and others often said that probably only Xie Lianqing in this world could tolerate her drama queen antics.
Xu Qingqing happily posted the photos and then went cheerfully to wash up and prepare for bed, completely unaware that her message had blown up the many people waiting on her Weibo.
Under the starry sky, the sight of tens of thousands of roses quietly blooming was beautiful enough. Even without filters or professional technique, a casual snapshot was like a painted scene.
Someone commented below: "You guys are going too far, how are people supposed to sleep tonight with this?"
"OMG what does this mean? Did CEO Xie take Qingqing to see roses at night?"
"So, did CEO Xie rent out a whole fishpond—oops, rose garden—for our little Xu to pick from as she pleases?"
"What is this, a rose buffet? I searched on X app, is there such a service?"
"To the person above, I can confirm there is. It's called flower picking buffets. They're usually open during the day though. Judging from the photo, CEO Xie booked the whole place for the night."
"This place looks really nice. Do you have to pay to pick roses? How much does it cost to book the whole place for a day?"
Initially, everyone was just enjoying the relationship goals, but then the topic somehow got derailed. Now the whole of Weibo was tagging Xu Qingqing, asking for the location and price in the photo. Some flower-picking buffet businesses saw a business opportunity and seized the moment to advertise. The whole situation took an especially absurd turn.
By the time Xu Qingqing finally finished her bath and came out, she discovered her phone and social feeds were bustling. Relatives and friends were all contacting her.
Her childhood friend Zhou Chenyu was the most mischievous, sending her a screenshot of the Weibo hot search and asking, "CEO Xie's move is quite grand, huh?"
Even the university forum had several posts, each with particularly rustic titles: "Rural Love Story," "The Fields I Rented for You Back in the Day," "With So Much Land, What a Waste Not to Grow Vegetables."
Watching the comments under the posts get more and more off-track, Xu Qingqing was instantly dumbfounded.
After reading the posts, she was so angry she logged in with her real account and furiously commented below: "Le Jiaojiao, are you insane?"
Did Le Jiaojiao think changing her username would make her unrecognizable? The only people capable of such mischievous deeds late at night were Zhou Chenyu and his sister.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, the original poster vanished at lightning speed.
Xu Qingqing then followed the screenshots these people shared and climbed onto Weibo. To her shock, she found she was now all over the hot search list, and the titles were largely similar, almost identical to the forum posts.
"The New Generation Domineering CEO: From Fishponds to Buffets"
"Can't Finish Picking All These Roses? Can You Eat Them?"
"One Hundred Ways to Make Rose Pastries"
Seeing these hot search topics, Xu Qingqing almost fainted on the spot from anger.
Just a few hours ago, she was the internet's recognized ballet princess. Now she had suddenly turned into a comedian!
The entire screen was filled with talk about CEO Xie renting land. And in the A-city socialite circle where both Xu Qingqing and Le Jiaojiao were present, the story had already spread. Everyone took it as a cautionary tale, unanimously using Xu Qingqing's case of showing off affection as a negative example.
Xu Qingqing: "..."
This was not the way she wanted to show off her relationship!
Xu Qingqing was a vain person. She was there to flaunt her relationship, not to provide meme material for everyone!
Xu Qingqing looked at Weibo, sulking alone. She couldn't just grab her keyboard and argue with netizens—she wouldn't win.
The bully-the-weak, fear-the-strong Xu Qingqing thought for a moment, got out of bed alone, and called Xie Lianqing.
He answered quickly: "Qingqing?"
In his study, Xie Lianqing put down the documents in his hand. When he received the call, he thought Xu Qingqing missed him, so he was in a good mood.
He glanced at his watch, a smile on his lips. "What's wrong?"
Xu Qingqing quickly recounted what happened online today and couldn't help starting her drama: "Why did you have to do it like that? Do you know how upset I am now?"
Actually, Xu Qingqing didn't really think that just renting a garden was embarrassing; after all, the flowers tonight were really beautiful.
But she was still a bit vain. Having her relationship showcase turn into a comedy event truly saddened Xu Qingqing.
If she had known, she wouldn't have posted on Weibo. Enjoying it alone would have been fine too.
Even though it was Xu Qingqing who posted on Weibo, she felt it was still Xie Lianqing's fault—it definitely couldn't be her fault.
Looking at the hot search on Weibo, with Zhou Chenyu still screenshotting and commenting in real-time for her, she angrily blocked him.
Xie Lianqing finally learned the truth from the heartbroken Xu Qingqing and was both amused and exasperated. A few minutes later, he sent Xu Qingqing a stack of photos—the property deed for the manor.
He comforted her, somewhat amused: "Don't be sad."
Xu Qingqing looked at the documents in the pictures and asked, a bit confused, "What is this?"
"That entire manor is yours." Xie Lianqing's voice was as gentle as ever, not angry at his girlfriend calling him in the middle of the night to vent, disturbing his work.
Xu Qingqing was both bewildered and delighted: "Really? It's all mine?"
Xie Lianqing tapped his pen and laughed. "Otherwise?"
Did Xu Qingqing really think he had just rented the garden for a day and took her flower picking in the middle of the night?
Although he viewed his girlfriend through rose-tinted glasses with a thousand layers of filters, Xie Lianqing was still amused by Xu Qingqing's little brain at this moment.
But he didn't think she was silly, just found Xu Qingqing quite adorable.
This also proved that Xu Qingqing truly wasn't materialistic. When she arrived at the manor tonight, she didn't understand anything. She was just happy for so long because of those flowers, not even grasping the true value of the gift she had received.
It was only after being reminded by netizens that she came charging to "settle accounts" with him.
Xu Qingqing was happy now. She immediately climbed back onto Weibo with glee, reposting the property deed under that photo, saying, "Mine."
Although many details on the document were blurred out, one could vaguely see that the transaction price for this manor was at least in the nine-figure range.
Everyone: "..."
Well, well. We give roses, you give roses plus a manor worth hundreds of millions.
Is that still just giving flowers?
Is this the happiness of the rich? Others giving roses at most means 999 stems or a truckload. This is the first time I’ve heard of someone giving a house along with the roses just to give roses.
Why didn't I sleep tonight? Why did I have to see this Weibo post?
Can't ship anymore. Heartbroken.
I was just asking Xu Qingqing where to get the same bouquet, but it looks like there's no chance now.
Seconding the first comment, she looked absolutely stunning in the photo. No chance for the same bouquet now.
Am I the only one wondering if all those roses can even be picked? Or will they be sold later?
Xu Qingqing felt their points were valid. She couldn't possibly use all those flowers herself, and it would be a pity for them to rot in the fields after the season.
Besides, that manor was quite far from both the city center and the school. She probably wouldn't go there often, maybe just for a few days occasionally. It seemed like such a waste.
After some thought, Xu Qingqing posted on Weibo: "The Rose Manor will be open to the public one week from now. Admission is 200 per day, allowing free exploration and photography of the manor grounds. Rose picking is permitted with a personal limit; wholesale purchases are declined. Additionally, rooms within the manor are available for rent for holiday stays."
She contacted the secretaries and assistants from the Xu family to handle the remaining details and arrange for personnel to manage the operations. The Xu Group's operations team worked overnight, urgently reposting their young mistress's Weibo post and developing this new company project.
The buzz was already there, with several trending topics. It so happened that the Xu Group hadn't yet ventured into the hotel and holiday industry, so this could serve as a trial run.
Everyone watched the whole situation unfold.
Xu Qingqing's fans suddenly had a realization, saying, "Damn, so she's not some naive, airheaded little rich girl after all."
