Gu Ran shook her head at the plastic-sister friend circle that had gone silent after her "Blessings~" post, marveling at how weak their combat skills were—only capable of flaunting on social media, and failing every single time.
Just then, her phone rang.
Gu Ran saw "Assistant Xu" on the caller ID. Though she had no personal grudge against him, Assistant Xu sometimes represented Ji Shiyu. When she had blocked Ji Shiyu, she should’ve blocked him too.
So, Gu Ran hit "Decline," then swiftly tossed Assistant Xu into the blacklist with a "xiu~" sound.
......
The Maybach cabin was quiet, the only sound being the dial tone after the rejected call.
Xu Hui, faintly hearing the tone, tensed up, not daring to breathe too loudly.
He was the type who often liked others' friend circle posts without much thought. This time, he hadn’t paid attention before tapping "like," only to realize he’d stumbled into a minefield.
He had a sinking feeling his quarterly—or even yearly—bonus might vanish, all because he’d step into the company tomorrow with his left foot first.
Remembering the "Blessings~" post, Xu Hui couldn’t help but steal a glance at the recipient of those blessings, Ji Shiyu.
He’d seen Ji Shiyu handle countless tough business situations and opponents before, but never had he seen such an expression on his face—one so chilling it could freeze the air around them.
......
After blacklisting Assistant Xu, Gu Ran opened her Cat Paw app and saw her fan groups buzzing with activity.
Even the group names were meticulously organized:
"Gu Ran’s Fish Pond No. 1"
"Gu Ran’s Fish Pond No. 2"
"Gu Ran’s Fish Pond No. 3"
Gu Ran: "..."
Looking at these "fish ponds," she suddenly felt like she was running an aquatic farm.
Especially when she’d discovered she had fans—and because she was dubbed the "Goddess of Fishing," her fans called themselves "Little Fishies."
Gu Ran, using her secretly unblocked alt account "I’m Gu Ran’s Brainless Fan," infiltrated the Little Fishies group. Scrolling through the chat, she found that her cringeworthy three-line voice message—"Goodnight, gege, sleep early~"—had been turned into an audio clip and shared in the group.
[Thanks, bro. Saved.]
[May good people live in peace.]
[Not gonna lie, I fall asleep to this every night. Even my dreams are sweet now.]
[+1]
[Why is it Friday again? Ever since I found out Gu Ran doesn’t stream on Fridays, half my Friday joy is gone.]
[+1, my Fridays are ruined.]
[Wuwuwu, help me out—why is every screenshot of her so pretty? I can’t even pick one for my profile pic.]
[Do you really have to pick just one? There are so many gorgeous photos of Gu Ran. Why not use one in the morning, another in the afternoon, and a different one at night? Seven days a week, never repeating, so you can see a fresh Gu Ran every moment. Problem solved.]
[Damn, why didn’t I think of that? Genius! Thanks, bro!]
Gu Ran’s lips twitched at this "genius" idea.
Exiting her lively fan group, she saw a message from Ding Ze on WeChat—her weekly livestream metrics report.
Though her total follower count still lagged slightly behind Meng Miaomiao’s, her growth rate was the fastest on the platform, with highly engaged fans. Her daily livestream viewership had already surpassed Meng Miaomiao’s.
Perhaps due to her rapid rise, there had been increasing chatter—both within Cat Paw and on external forums—about her past as an "escort," climbing the ladder through plastic surgery, and how her initial controversy on Cat Paw’s forums was just a marketing stunt. Some claimed her viral transformation videos and hot searches were all orchestrated by a PR firm.
At first, Gu Ran had been furious, but Ding Ze later reassured her: "Being famous means dealing with noise. Just ignore it."
Tonight was Friday, her usual day off. To study her peers, Gu Ran decided to watch some other livestreams.
With her own stream offline, the top spot in the beauty category belonged to Meng Miaomiao.
Gu Ran still remembered how this woman had once tried to challenge her to a PK with fake sweetness, only to embarrassingly hand her a free win. Feeling charitable, Gu Ran logged in with her "I’m Gu Ran’s Brainless Fan" alt to gift Meng Miaomiao—only to get instantly blocked by the mods for her fandom loyalty. Petty much?
Sitting in her swivel chair, Gu Ran entered Meng Miaomiao’s stream as a guest.
With nearly two years of streaming under her belt, Meng Miaomiao had a solid fanbase. Her livestream was lively, with fans showering her in gifts.
Gu Ran watched her sing two songs before moving to fan interactions. At a fan’s request, Meng Miaomiao added cat whiskers to her face with a filter. Then, a high-level fan sent a highlighted comment: [Miaomiao, can you do the coquettish hand dance?]
The coquettish hand dance had gone viral on short-video platforms. Almost every influencer had done their version—except, apparently, Meng Miaomiao.
[Yeah! Miaomiao, do the hand dance!]
[We wanna see it!]
[Ahhh, so excited!]
The requests piled up, gifts flooded in, and someone even sent the most expensive "World Carnival" gift with the demand: [Pouting gesture dance!]
Gu Ran sipped her honey water.
This dance was the one she’d popularized in her own livestream. Since then, countless Cat Paw streamers had copied it—except Meng Miaomiao.
Honestly? Gu Ran kinda wanted to see her try it.
If her alt hadn’t been blocked, she might’ve even tossed in a gift herself.
Meng Miaomiao was known for indulging her fans, especially with so many gifts rolling in. Gu Ran waited eagerly—but Meng Miaomiao seemed to ignore the comments, even the "World Carnival," and moved on to other topics.
Yet the fans grew louder, until the entire chat was spammed with demands for the dance.
Gu Ran watched as Meng Miaomiao’s smile stiffened, her expression slowly crumbling.
Then, without a word, Meng Miaomiao turned her back to the camera.
The sudden move left Gu Ran—and the audience—stunned.
[??? What’s happening?]
[Miaomiao, you okay?]
[Why’d you turn around?]
A moderator then pinned a bold red message at the top of the stream:
Some things, other streamers might do. But Miaomiao never will.
Gu Ran immediately sensed the shade. Frowning, she waited for an explanation—but the screen abruptly went black. Meng Miaomiao had ended the stream.
Gu Ran yawned. She understood now.
Meng Miaomiao just didn’t want to dance her viral hand dance.
She even said that there were some things other streamers could do but she couldn't. What exactly did these "some streamers" do?
They were all streamers on the Cat Paw platform, and she even followed that streamer on Weibo.
Gu Ran pulled at the corner of her mouth speechlessly. Then she went to the gaming section and watched two streamers play Dou Dizhu. She laughed so hard at their amazing moves that her stomach ached before finally falling asleep.
The next day, after waking up, Gu Ran first lay in bed playing with her phone. She opened Weibo, planning to catch up on the latest gossip.
Then she saw that "Cat Paw Meng Miaomiao", whom she followed, had posted a Weibo post an hour before she woke up.
The first three words of the post were actually "Apology Letter".
Gu Ran frowned at the words "Apology Letter" and clicked in.
Meng Miaomiao: "I'm very sorry for abruptly interrupting the live - stream last night. I really apologize to everyone. This is my second year as a streamer and also my second year accompanying you all. I've always hoped to bring a little bit of beauty to everyone's lives through my company. I also think I've always adhered to the bottom line and duties of a streamer. I'm really sorry that I can't fully meet some of the fans' requirements, and I can't do things that go beyond my personal standards. If you want to watch that kind of content, you can go to other streamers. If you're disappointed in me, please allow me to sincerely say sorry to you all."
Meng Miaomiao had as many followers on Weibo as on the Cat Paw platform. This Weibo post was made an hour ago, and now the likes and comments had both exceeded ten thousand.
In the comment section, apart from comments like "[Support Miaomiao]" and "[Hug Miaomiao]", many people were asking in confusion, "[What's going on?]" and "[What happened to Miaomiao?]"
Gu Ran saw some of Meng Miaomiao's die - hard fans explaining below: "[Miaomiao refused to dance those disgusting dances like some people last night and was so angry that she ended the live - stream]"
"[Not everyone is as shameless as the so - called First Beauty. She's so good at creating that 'flirting goddess' persona. Why doesn't she just take off her clothes? Is she afraid of being banned by the platform supervisors?]"
"[Since she's so good at flirting, she might as well just post her bank card number and let those stupid guys transfer money to her. Why bother doing live - streams?]"
"[I wonder how many times she's slept with the top sponsors.]"
"[A person who builds her popularity through marketing without any bottom line doesn't deserve to be compared with Miaomiao. Miaomiao has worked her way up step by step.]"
...
Gu Ran skimmed through the comments roughly, and her good mood for the whole morning was completely ruined.
Whether it was Meng Miaomiao's overly sanctimonious apology letter or the words her crazy fans said about her.
She glanced at the trending searches again. Sure enough, the name "Meng Miaomiao" appeared on the trending list.
Gu Ran clicked in and saw that two marketing accounts had reposted the process of Meng Miaomiao's apology. The likes and comments on both posts were less than a hundred. It was obvious that this trending search was bought.
Marketing Account One posted: "Meng Miaomiao, a streamer on the Cat Paw platform, has such a positive outlook and is so tough. She said no to dancing and that's that. On the contrary, what do you all think of some female streamers who take the 'flirting' route..."
Marketing Account Two posted: "Meng Miaomiao is simply a rare clean - flow in the streaming world. No wonder she's become a top streamer step by step. Compared with some people who flirt, dance, and do makeup transformations to please men, don't you all find it hard to describe?"
Gu Ran was so angry that her kidneys ached. The implications of these two Weibo posts were too obvious. Apart from praising Meng Miaomiao, they might as well have reported the ID number of the "First Beauty of Cat Paw". They were constantly fanning the flames, subtly implying that she had no bottom line and that dancing and doing makeup transformations were all about pleasing men. They were trying to stir up a conflict between flirting - style female streamers and all women, making her the public enemy of all women.
Before officially confronting Meng Miaomiao, Gu Ran first clicked to look at the few comments on the two marketing accounts' posts.
Then she was stunned for a moment.
The top - rated comments were: "[Stop creating female - to - female competition, you stupid marketing accounts]"
"[We sisters also like watching beautiful women dance, flirt, and do makeup transformations!]"
"[All the girls in our dormitory look at Gu Ran's live - streams with a silly, doting smile every day!]"
