It took Mu Yue just a second or two to open her profile and check, only to realize that this sudden windfall of a thousand points had come from none other than Wei Xuan, the overbearing CEO. This was an old-school "white moonlight stand-in" novel with the classic "chase your wife through hell" trope, which originally ended with the male and female leads getting back together for a happy ending. But now that Mu Yue had stepped in, she'd completely cut out the low point that the female lead Wen Xue was supposed to go through. All the secret and open help and rescue that the male lead Wei Xuan was meant to offer Wen Xue had no chance to come into play at all.
Because with Mu Yue around, the contract she signed with Wen Xue never required Wen Xue to play the part of someone else, or to grovel, or to put up with random unwanted advances. They had a healthy working relationship. Mu Yue might not be able to build Wen Xue the entire world she dreamed of, but she could stand guard and clear the path, letting Wen Xue charge ahead as far and wide as her ambition took her.
With that kind of contrast, who would even spare a second glance at Wei Xuan, Wen Xue's former sugar daddy? His only real strengths were his good looks and deep pockets, and strip those two away, he was nothing but flaws. The thing was, Mu Yue had both of those things too, and even more — she had countless other advantages on top of that.
What did Wei Xuan even have left to win Wen Xue back? Mu Yue guessed the system had probably determined Wei Xuan stood no chance against her, which was why the thousand points had been deposited into her account. And of course, the male lead had definitely contributed to that too — Wei Xuan was probably cursing her out in his head right this second, marking her straight up as the villain.
Mu Yue was totally fine with that. It wasn't her first time playing the villain, nor the first time she'd broken apart a main couple's canon romance. She'd long since gotten the hang of it, she was an old hand at this.
She was still a little unsatisfied after finishing all the juicy gossip online, mainly because the drama had wrapped up way too fast, and the evidence was so airtight that Mo Yaru couldn't even come up with a half-decent excuse to save face.
The whole thing was simple enough — it was exactly the same little performance Mo Yaru had pulled in the bathroom at the engagement party, all new twists and zero creativity, totally childish and petty. All the hype that had blown up online earlier, 80% of it was fueled by paid trolls smearing every dirty, rotten rumor they could think of all over Wen Xue's name.
Wen Xue's studio had hit back hard, announcing that they would pursue full legal accountability and see the case through in court. That stance was a world apart from how Wen Xue's former management company had acted, and it only made the public's opinion of that old company sink even lower.
After this whole incident, the drama Wen Xue was currently acting in, which had barely had any audience attention before, suddenly gained a solid boost in popularity.
Since Mu Yue wasn't done getting her fill of the fun, she asked Carter to send over a list of recent event invitations, and picked a charity gala. The proceeds from this gala went entirely to domestic environmental protection. Plenty of regions in the country were suffering from severe pollution, and restoring the local ecosystems required huge amounts of funding.
This gala had even appeared in the original novel, a unique quirk of this merged world setting: the more sincere the donation a person made at the event, the more privileges they would get when bidding for certain land plots.
This setting was naturally tailor-made for the male lead Wei Xuan. No one knew about the hidden rule before the donation round started, and when Wei Xuan shocked everyone by pulling off an unusually generous donation, plenty of people laughed at him for being foolish. But of course, those mocking fools ended up with egg on their faces later — he got priority in the bidding for a large plot of land in A City. While the final price he paid wasn't discounted by much, that one single privilege was more than enough: he didn't have to fight through a cutthroat bidding war with other competitors at all.
It was silly, but satisfying. Mu Yue loved it, and there was no way she was passing up that kind of good deal.
The charity gala fell right at the start of summer vacation, which lined up perfectly with the end of Mu Yue's final exams.
And right as the semester wrapped up, Mu Yue also ended her casual arrangement with Wen Yuanting. She'd had her fun with him for a whole semester, and now she was ready to try something new.
Wen Yuanting froze for a moment, then nodded to show he understood. Mu Yue had spoken directly, and her message was crystal clear. What they had was a fun, comfortable, ambiguous fling, and he had always known his place. He had always been aware this day would come, and the fact that it had lasted a whole semester was more than he'd expected, more than he could be grateful for. Asking for anything more would just be greedy.
He just stood there, watching Mu Yue walk away.
In the car, Fang Baiwei kept glancing back and forth, first at Wen Yuanting, then at Mu Yue behind the wheel, her eyes sparkling with rare gossiping curiosity. Seeing that Mu Yue didn't look even a little bit upset, not like someone who'd just gone through a breakup at all, she couldn't help but ask, "Did you two fight?"
"Nope," Mu Yue answered, sounding confused. "When have you ever seen me fight with him?"
"That's true..." Fang Baiwei had been staying at Mu Yue's place for a while, and even though Mu Yue didn't go back to their place in Yujiang Garden every single day, she had brought Wen Yuanting home more than once. Ever since they'd gotten together, Fang Baiwei had never once seen them exchange a harsh word. It was always Mu Yue calling the shots, and Wen Yuanting obeying without a single complaint — to put it unpleasantly, he was trained to be completely docile.
Had he just been too obedient, and Mu Yue got bored? Or had Wen Yuanting done something to upset her?
They drove off campus, and with the semester ending, there was a traffic jam up ahead. Mu Yue caught the confused, overthinking look on Fang Baiwei's face and laughed. "Calm down, it's not as complicated as you're making it. I just got tired of sleeping with him."
Fang Baiwei almost choked on nothing.
Mu Yue laughed harder, then suddenly asked Fang Baiwei, "Did anyone hit on you this semester?"
Fang Baiwei gave her a complicated look. "Oh, there were plenty of people, but none of them were actually interested in me."
Fang Baiwei hadn't run into any more scummy ex-boyfriends lately, and even if she did, she had no time for them, no need for anyone to fill a void in her heart with pitiful, handout love. But Mu Yue was so dazzling, everyone knew how close Fang Baiwei was to her, so a ton of people tried to use Fang Baiwei as a stepping stone to get to Mu Yue. There were guys, girls, even her course advisor dropping hints here and there.
It wasn't that she was curious, but for some reason, every single person who came up to her with that agenda had obvious, ulterior motives.
"I'm starting to think there's something wrong with my luck," Fang Baiwei said, half-joking, half-serious, even starting to lean into superstitious ideas. "Looking back, I've had way more than my fair share of bad stuff. Do you think I should go visit a temple and pray for good luck?"
Mu Yue didn't know what to say to that.
Fang Baiwei had noticed it herself, that trash author who wrote the fake and real daughter novel really was the worst. Even after leaving the Fang family, she still had that weird "magnet for scumbags" aura. But Mu Yue firmly believed in one principle: "Putting your faith in that stuff is a waste of time. Believe in yourself. When you get strong enough, all those annoying flies won't dare buzz around you. And even if they do, you can swat them dead in one hit."
Fang Baiwei nodded, she believed that too. The two of them didn't dwell on that topic for long, the traffic jam cleared up a little, and Mu Yue quickly drove them back home.
During summer vacation, Fang Baiwei would still immerse herself in the sea of schoolwork, but as for her, she could start planning right now exactly where she wanted to go for fun. Apart from the charity gala in City A, there was also the trip to visit Wen Xue on her film set, and there was still plenty of time left in the long summer break.
That very night, Mu Yue was going through the travel options Qianqian had prepared for her in advance. Almost all the materials were presented with pictures rather than long texts, so it was perfectly clear what each activity entailed and what unique features it offered at a glance.
It did not take long for Mu Yue to set her heart on two of the options. The first one was a luxury wildlife safari in Africa. You could overlook the vast grassland from a hot air balloon, go on a private off-road vehicle to watch wild animals up close, witness the great migration of millions of wildebeests, and visit the Garden of Eden hidden in the crater. Just looking at the photos was enough to make her feel the overwhelming sense of grandeur.
Mu Yue remembered that she had caught a glimpse of this tour last summer, and she never expected that Qianqian would have it all ready for her this year.
The other option was an Arctic expedition. The two destinations were worlds apart geographically, and both trips took quite a long time. The Arctic expedition package was a 17-day journey with a global quota that only admitted a thousand tourists.
When Mu Yue scrolled further on her tablet, she found another tour that caught her eye, though she would have to see if she had the time and energy for it. It was a trip to a stunningly beautiful lake, where visitors could go camping, row a boat on the water, and have a barbecue under the starry sky at night — it sounded incredibly cozy and relaxing.
After picking out the travel plans that made her heart race, dinner was served at Mu Yue's dining table.
That night's dinner was a personal serving seafood hot pot. Mu Yue had eaten it several times before and had been craving it again. The chef had prepared four different soup bases for her, each one so delicious that she could not get enough of it. After satisfying her taste buds, she went out for a walk to digest her food.
Not far from Yujing Garden, there was a cultural square that was extremely spacious. No matter what season it was, as long as it did not rain, the square was bustling with activity. There were people dancing square dances, shooting short videos, skating on skateboards, and painting. Right across from the square was a snack street, and on the other side of the snack street were bars and KTVs, which were just as lively as the square itself.
Mu Yue occasionally came around for a stroll, and she could always run into some quirky little incidents that were no less entertaining than reading gossip stories online.
It was only eight o'clock at night, and there was already a drunk man lying half-conscious on the street, picked up by the police officers. He kept slurring that he had not reached his destination yet and that he wanted to go on to his second round of drinking.
The live streamers with their phones propped up were full of energy, yelling "Hello, dear viewers!" while dancing energetically to hit songs. There were also mobile live streamers who walked around with their phones in hand, broadcasting whatever they came across along the way.
Take the man twenty meters away from Mu Yue for example. He seemed to be running some kind of social experiment, where passersby could choose to either give him a quick peck or take a bite of some extremely weird "dark cuisine".
The first person he pulled over was a young girl. From where Mu Yue stood, she could not tell if the two of them knew each other. All she saw was that the girl, looking very shy, gave the streamer a quick peck on the cheek, then covered her mouth with the back of her hand and hurried away.
Mu Yue watched for a little while longer. Next, the streamer stopped a man, who looked disgusted and took a bite of the dark food instead. Then another person came along, and every single one of them reacted to the choice in their own way.
Then the real highlight came. The streamer stopped another "passerby", a man. Right after he finished asking the usual question, the man wrapped his arms around him and gave him a deep, hungry, almost pounce-style kiss.
The surrounding crowd broke into cheers and bursts of laughter.
Mu Yue could not help but laugh too. The odds were high that those people were all acquaintances of the streamer, but the unexpected twist that made people laugh still made the whole show worth watching. If they had been total strangers, the chance of them agreeing to do something like that would have been very slim.
There were plenty of street prank shows like this, and they were even more entertaining than some produced variety shows. After walking around the square for a whole lap, Mu Yue finally sat down on a bench to eat an ice cream. The ice cream had such a cute, tempting shape of a honey bear — she had spotted it in a little girl's hand and immediately realized it was a hidden gem.
It was not just pretty in shape, the taste was amazing too. Mu Yue ate it slowly while scrolling through her phone for a while.
She had barely sat down for two minutes when three different men came up to her one after another, trying to ask for her contact information. Two of them were filming ancient-style short videos, and the foundation on their faces was thicker than Mu Yue's own. The third one was none other than that social experiment streamer who had just been kissed deeply by the other man.
To be honest, Mu Yue had no idea where these guys got their confidence. Or maybe they were just way too full of themselves?
Either way, all three of them were stopped by the bodyguards who had a very low presence but had been watching the whole time. The personal bodyguards were all women, and the one who was with Mu Yue that day was Yan Wu. She did not look bulky at all, was even a little petite, and seemed very unnoticeable, but in reality, her combat ability and strength were outstanding. She blocked all three men with just one arm.
The two ancient-style video creators never expected to be stopped by a woman who was so much shorter than them. When some passersby started watching and joked that "guys these days are way too out of shape", they got so embarrassed that they hurried away quickly. But that social experiment streamer got so angry that he lost face.
Feeling humiliated, he blurted out directly, "Dressed like that, sitting out here late at night, you are clearly here to solicit customers, aren't you? Why are you pretending to be all high and mighty?"
The four systems, who had been playing mahjong earlier, were immediately furious, and the villain system spoke directly: [Host, I recorded everything! Sue him, sue him so hard he regrets it!]
"Hmph." Mu Yue was not about to put up with this nonsense. She gave Yan Wu a look, and Yan Wu did not hold back at all, slapping the man hard across the face.
The man was so out of shape that one slap sent him tumbling to the ground, and he could not get back up for a long time.
Whoa! The commotion immediately drew a big crowd of onlookers around them.
"What's going on? Why did someone start a fight?"
"Hey, that guy deserved it! He couldn't hit on the girl so he started spreading obscene rumors about her right then and there. Of course she should slap him!"
"Ouch, look at his face. Miss, be careful he takes revenge on you. I was watching his live stream a little while ago, he just gained a ton of new followers."
"How can someone like that even have fans? I just saw him get kissed by another man a minute ago, and now he's harassing a girl?"
Tsk tsk, what are young people coming to these days...
Finally, as the crowd grew larger and larger, the man got back on his feet. His neck and face were bright red like a boiled crab. He pointed at Mu Yue, gritting his teeth, and said, "You're done for!"
Mu Yue smiled calmly. "No, you're the one who's done for."
A streamer, huh? That made things so easy. Mu Yue made a phone call, and the police showed up not long after. That streamer was still live streaming, telling his fans what had just happened, claiming he was going to call the police and sue her, painting Mu Yue as some heinous criminal who had no respect for the law.
But before he could finish his rant, he turned around and froze — the police really had arrived. He did not panic though, because the bright, obvious slap mark on his face was right there for everyone to see. He thought for sure the person who hit him would be in the wrong.
Of course, throwing the first punch was a mistake, but the thing was, this guy had verbally insulted and slandered her first, so getting that slap was the consequence he had brought on himself.
Mu Yue never leaves any unfinished business hanging overnight, and she has plenty of free time anyway. She dropped by the police station to get the full picture of what had happened, and even the officers on scene were left speechless by the whole mess. The male streamer tried to deny having said those things the second he was brought in, but unfortunately for him, Mu Yue had the footage provided by the four systems.
The streamer got a stern talking-to, but he was still seething with resentment. When he walked out of the station and saw Mu Yue standing there laughing, his temper flared even more, and he made up his mind to get back at her. But the second he turned on his phone, he froze in shock.
"Whoa," Mu Yue let out a soft exclamation, "Karma sure works fast, huh."
This was a tiny, barely-known streamer with almost no following, but he was so blind and foul-mouthed that in just a short span of time, all his old posts were flooded with his past solicitation records, along with piles of screenshots of him badmouthing and insulting other popular streamers in group chats.
He really "blown up" now, drawing more attention than he had ever gotten in his entire career.
It finally dawned on the streamer what had happened. He held his phone trembling, staring at Mu Yue in horror as if she was some kind of monster. Mu Yue had no interest in sticking around to watch his reaction, and turned around indifferently to leave.
Before she could even walk out of the station lobby, another group of people came in. The person the police were comforting was a girl who reeked of alcohol, sobbing uncontrollably and stammering through her tears, "I trusted him so much... I thought he was really, really struggling financially, but then he called... all his friends over... ordered so many expensive drinks... and made me pay for all of it..."
Mu Yue slowed down her steps, listened in for a moment, and quickly pieced the whole story together.
This girl was a regular on live streaming platforms. She was pretty naive, and after she had spent a certain amount of money gifting to a streamer, the streamer reached out to her privately. Anyone who knows how live streaming works is aware that streamers go out of their way to keep their top donators happy, and put a lot of effort into giving them all the emotional validation they crave.
The girl barely knew anything about live streaming, and was far too trusting. She stumbled across this streamer who looked good and knew exactly what to say, so she started gifting him money every single day to boost his ranking on the platform. Today, the streamer had asked her out for an offline meetup. It turned out he was a nightclub male escort who was only halfway decent looking.
The escort had figured out the girl came from a wealthy family, so once they got to the private booth he never made any inappropriate moves on her, just kept shoving drink after drink down her throat. When she was almost completely wasted, he called all his buddies over, and they ordered piles of overpriced bottles. When the girl sobered up a little, they pressured her to foot the entire bill, and that was when she realized she had fallen right into their trap.
This story goes to show you, never go easy on men, or you'll end up miserable.
But Mu Yue wasn't focusing on that part of the story. What caught her attention was that this guy was exactly one of the core members of the male lead's crew in that harem romance novel — the smooth-talking playboy who was a total pro at conning women. The original novel described this playboy as a former nightclub male escort who started his path scamming rich women.
She wondered if the coincidence was real. Was the escort who had scammed that naive girl today none other than the King of Kept Men from the male lead's group?
