"Does he even deserve it? Hahaha..."
"That's hilarious! Who on earth started the rumor that Mu Yue likes Wei Xuan? How awkward is this now?"
"They made it sound so convincing, like every woman on the planet should just fall for Wei Xuan, ugh!"
"Hey, who knows, maybe he's the one who spread that rumor himself! He can't stand the sight of younger, better-looking guys like us chasing after Miss Mu! What 'if someone's mean to you it means they like you'? What age are we living in? He's the only one still stuck in that silly fantasy!"
"I'd give anything to see the look on Wei Xuan's face when he hears Miss Mu's thoughts about him. Hahaha, that would be such a sight!"
After Xiao Yan shared Mu Yue's comment with her group of friends, the gossip spread across City A in just a few short hours. Wei Xuan, the overbearing CEO who usually threw himself entirely into work with no romantic distractions, only found out about the whole thing when he was getting off work that evening.
He had already had no appetite all day, too busy working to eat a single meal, and the anger hit him so hard that he ended up in the hospital with a stomachache.
He was furious first that Mu Yue had been so unsparing with her words, and second that his childhood best friend had spread the rumor even after Wei Xuan told him it wasn't true. Now his friend had gone completely radio silent, leaving Wei Xuan to be the one everyone was mocking!
Worst of all, his friend hadn't contacted him all day. Wei Xuan refused to believe he hadn't heard a single bit of the gossip, so he called him up to confront him. His childhood friend, of course, came up with hundreds of excuses, and the two ended up yelling at each other over the phone. Growing up together for so long, they both knew exactly which sore spots to hit to hurt each other the most.
What started as a tiny, trivial matter ended up with the two of them vowing to end their friendship for good.
Mu Yue, who was at the film studio having dinner with Wen Xue, got another 500 villain points. She tapped to check the notification and was genuinely surprised at how flimsy men's friendships could turn out to be.
But then again, for people like them, their pride matters more than anything. Especially for an overbearing CEO like Wei Xuan, who cared deeply about his dignity. Even though it was a small incident, he hadn't started it himself—his friend had spread the rumor without his permission, and then Mu Yue had publicly humiliated him out of nowhere. He'd lost all face, and with his anger clouding his judgment, calling off the friendship was totally something he would do.
Mu Yue smiled and went back to chatting with Wen Xue about all the funny things happening on the film set as they finished their meal. Wen Xue had a filming task later that night, and the director had specially given her permission to take time out to eat with Mu Yue. After all, Mu Yue was their biggest investor, and it wasn't like they were doing anything inappropriate—just having a simple meal, so of course the director was happy to approve the time.
"There's so much drama going on next door..." Wen Xue leaned in and whispered gossip to Mu Yue.
The "next door" she was referring to was the film crew staying in the same hotel as theirs. Apart from running into each other on set, they'd often bump into each other around the hotel, which meant they got front-row seats to all kinds of interesting chaos.
That other crew was working on a xianxia drama that claimed to have a huge budget and a star-studded cast, which it actually did. But the male lead and female lead were constantly fighting over top billing, and with so many big egos on set, the crew had some sort of conflict almost every other day. Sneaking fans would always snap photos of the juicy drama and post them online, kicking off one internet storm after another.
Fans were all worried about their favorite idols getting wronged, and whether they'd get an apology or compensation for it, while regular bystanders just found it all annoying.
Once or twice was fine, but every few weeks there was some new petty, trivial drama going on— it was so boring and pointless. Everyone could see it wasn't even real gossip, it was just cheap publicity stunts.
The funniest part was that the white moonlight wasn't part of all that chaos. After that time she got publicly called out and humiliated online, she'd kept a much lower profile. And with all the other messy, dramatic people on that crew drawing all the attention, Mo Yaru's reputation among the cast and crew there had actually turned pretty good.
The original novel never went into detail about what Mo Yaru's experience on that crew was like, but after both of their films wrapped, the two casts got invited to the same variety show. On the show, the white moonlight publicly claimed that Wen Xue was a homewrecker who had inserted herself into her relationship with the overbearing CEO, dragging Wen Xue's already not-great reputation straight through the mud.
The classic angst-filled romance plotline played out exactly as expected: the male lead didn't step up to clear Wen Xue's name, and instead went along with what the supporting actress said, leaving Wen Xue completely isolated and with no one on her side.
Wen Xue couldn't explain herself to the public, and besides, being labeled a homewrecker was never a respectable thing, so she stayed silent.
That made her situation even more dangerous. In the entertainment industry, a man could get away with almost anything as long as he didn't end up in jail—even cheating or dating two people at once was barely a scandal. But a woman with even the slightest blemish on her romantic reputation would get torn apart by public criticism forever.
When endless malicious attacks started pouring down on the female lead, the male lead finally felt guilty. He sent Wen Xue a message, telling her to come to his place. If she agreed, he promised he'd pull her out of that public nightmare, make her shine brighter than ever, and punish the troublemaking supporting actress to get revenge for her.
It was such a classic trope. The male lead had stood by and let the supporting actress scheme and torment the female lead, positioning himself high above everyone else to play the savior, offering her favors on the condition that she submit to him. Once the female lead gave in, he'd deal with the other woman to make up for all the unfairness and hurt she'd suffered. But in the end, the male lead, who was the root cause of all the conflict, only got off with a little bit of heartache and the female lead's hatred. The two women caught in the mess he created, meanwhile, had both been left completely broken and scarred.
Mu Yue had a strong feeling that even if she helped Wen Xue switch to a different variety show, this whole dramatic arc would still play out somehow.
Calculating the timeline, it was still about four months away. In the original novel, Wen Xue never caved in to the male lead's demands. In real life, Mu Yue was sure the Wen Xue she knew would never give in either—she might even slap Wei Xuan right across the face twice. Mu Yue found herself actually looking forward to seeing that.
After dinner, Mu Yue walked Wen Xue back to the set. They ran into quite a few people along the way, and Mu Yue picked up a small batch of points, just a little over two hundred this time.
Mu Yue spent three days in that city. Apart from visiting the local scenic spots, she spent time at Wen Xue's film set or hung out at the hotel where Wen Xue was staying. By the time she was ready to leave, she had earned a total of over 1,200 points. During those days, Mo Yaru had stayed very low-key, being polite to everyone around her, generous with her money, and even stepping in to mediate whenever other people got into arguments. Her reputation on set got better and better, and even people from other crews at the film studio started to see her in a more positive light.
A couple of times when she spotted Mu Yue from a distance, Mo Yaru immediately turned and walked away, no longer recklessly confronting her like she had before.
Mu Yue was a little disappointed about that. Where there's conflict, there's an audience watching the drama, which meant more points coming her way.
Since no other important characters had popped up around Wen Xue, Mu Yue decided it was time to leave.
A few days later, Mu Yue stepped down from an off-road vehicle wearing a sun visor. Stretching out in front of her was the vast African savannah, and behind her, the sound of cameras clicking away never stopped. The air here was hot, but it carried a sense of freedom and wildness. Even just standing next to the car, doing nothing at all, made her adrenaline surge.
The endless grassland had no safe fences around it, and the thrill of knowing a huge wild animal could leap out at any second was unbelievably exhilarating.
This trip was long enough, and Mu Yue followed this luxury tour group to witness countless breathtaking, soul-stirring sights with her own eyes.
The most unforgettable scene was undoubtedly the migration of hundreds of thousands of wildebeests. The sight looked as if the world between heaven and earth was filled with a moving river of life. The dust kicked up by the wildebeests looked like burning mist under the dusk light, lingering in the air for a long time.
The second most memorable moment was a thunderstorm night. There was no shelter out on the grassland, and when the lightning struck, it truly looked as if it was about to split the sky in two. Natural spectacles like this always make people sigh at how tiny human beings are against the vast universe.
Apart from these stunning views, the fellow travelers were also a great source of joy. They came from different countries, had distinct personalities, and possessed a wide range of unique skills and talents.
Among these travelers, there were also people from Huaguo. One of them Mu Yue had met before at Ye Luling's birthday party — he was Ye Luling's cousin. Her first impression of him was that he was a distant, untouchable noble young master, like a flower growing on a high peak. This time, Mu Yue got to see a completely different side of this young master.
He was still extremely gentle and polite when interacting with others, with every move he made being remarkably elegant, but Mu Yue witnessed him taking part in the tour group's legal hunting activity.
He held the hunting rifle all by himself, and the moment the prey appeared, his posture and facial expression shifted dramatically, looking incredibly attractive.
Mu Yue memorized his name: Xuan Heng.
As a matter of fact, Xuan Heng had also noticed Mu Yue the very first moment he arrived. She was the kind of person who was impossible to ignore, even back at his cousin's birthday party. She could just stand there, doing and saying nothing at all, and she would naturally draw countless eyes to her, making people unconsciously want to get closer to her and catch her attention.
However, for both of them, this encounter was just a small side note to the whole trip. When the journey ended, Mu Yue went back to City A. After two days of rest, she would be hurrying off to the Arctic.
With the wonderful experience she had in Africa, she was now full of eager anticipation for her upcoming Arctic expedition.
