Truth

Pedro looked confused. “What’s wrong?”

Xu Ya Qing took over the explanation from the side. “It’s not that we don’t want to stay away from her. It’s that she’s the one always coming after us.”

Wei Yin nodded like a little pecking chick. “Right, right. Her company has three projects going, all about medical devices for gland treatment. She asked Dr. Hua to be her consultant, and now she’s even trying to force Dr. Hua to invest.”

Pedro’s brows drew together as she listened. “Hua Yu agreed?”

Wei Yin thought about Hua Yu’s reaction. “She seems to have her own plans. She didn’t refuse outright.”

Pedro fell silent after hearing that. She gestured for them to keep eating; only after most of the dishes on the table had been cleared did she finally sort through her thoughts and say carefully, “I’ll ask Hua Yu first. You two just act like you know nothing.”

Of course Wei Yin wasn’t going to accept that. “Can I help?”

“Not for now.” Pedro stood up and glanced at the time. “I still have someone else to see. You two head back on your own.”

Pedro’s driver was already waiting at the door. Wei Yin still wanted to ask more, but the other woman had already risen and left with decisive efficiency.

Xu Ya Qing caught Wei Yin’s arm. “Don’t chase after her. She’s gone.”

“She always leaves us out,” Wei Yin said irritably, reaching up to rub the pheromone-blocking patch at the back of her neck. “What exactly does Yu Tiantian want?”

Xu Ya Qing was even more lost than Wei Yin. “Yeah. Now that you put it that way, it does seem really off.”

The server saw that the table had already been paid for and politely came over to ask whether they needed it cleared.

Wei Yin waved her off. “Wait until we leave.”

The two of them tacitly stayed where they were and shared everything they knew.

Xu Ya Qing was the first to come clean. “At first Hua Yu asked me to meet Yu Tiantian and go in her place to figure out what Yu Tiantian was trying to do. Then it became those three projects.”

“I know that,” Wei Yin said. “Hua Yu and you both mentioned it. I thought it was just a business project, and Hua Yu only needed to provide professional judgment and resources.”

Xu Ya Qing slapped her thigh. “We were thinking the same thing!”

Wei Yin thought it over and still felt something was off. “I feel like Dr. Hua has no reason to pay attention to Yu Tiantian. Yu Tiantian must be holding something over her. It’s either mine or Dr. Hua’s; mine is more likely.”

This time Xu Ya Qing looked at Wei Yin with outright alarm.

“What do you know?” Xu Ya Qing didn’t know whether Wei Yin realized she might be Yu Tiantian’s ex-girlfriend.

“I don’t know anything,” Wei Yin said matter-of-factly. “If I did, why would I ask you? You went to medical aid with Yu Tiantian. Besides Dr. Zhang Rong, did you get anything else out of it?”

“Dr. Zhang Rong isn’t something I got out of it,” Xu Ya Qing emphasized. Then she racked her brains. “Not much, really. It just felt like those three projects were all unreliable. The area was pretty poor too, and in remote regions they rarely do gland screening on fetuses. Because cases are found late and people don’t actively seek treatment, the incidence is pretty high. In the end Yu Tiantian even sent Li Leran to sound me out.”

That sounded like a normal business plan at most, maybe even a blatant one; there was no sign of any conspiracy.

“She said she wanted Hua Yu to invest, right?” Xu Ya Qing focused on that point. “Did she say how much?”

Wei Yin recalled what Yu Tiantian had said that day and hesitated. “She did seem to want Hua Yu to liquidate shares and put in her own funds, even the Hua family’s capital...”

“My God, where does she get that confidence from... no, even with it already like that, Hua Yu still didn’t slap her? What leverage is she holding over Hua Yu?”

That was the biggest thing the two of them couldn’t figure out.

After Yu Tiantian added her on WeChat, she sent messages every day inviting her to visit the factory, under the noble pretense of showing her the project and giving Wei Yin confidence that it and she could make money.

“Do you want to visit Yu Tiantian’s factory?” Wei Yin suddenly asked.

Xu Ya Qing, who had been deep in thought, froze. “Huh?”

“She invited me,” Wei Yin said. “I want to go, but I promised Hua Yu I wouldn’t meet her alone in private.”

Xu Ya Qing hesitated. “She definitely has bad intentions. Are you sure you want to go?”

Wei Yin spread her hands. “Is not going a good solution?”

At that, both of them fell silent.

Yu Tiantian was different from other people. Whatever she wanted to do, hiding from her was useless.

And this state of knowing nothing and just waiting to die was far too awful. Xu Ya Qing put herself in Wei Yin’s shoes; if someone pulled something like this in front of her, targeting her loved one at every turn while constantly baiting her—“Curious? Want to know? If you want to know, come find me”—then any normal person would want to know the truth.

Doing nothing was too cowardly, too useless, too pathetic.

“All right, I’ll risk my life and go with you,” Xu Ya Qing said, suddenly feeling immensely heroic. She really had grown up; she even dared to drag Hua Yu’s girlfriend around on wild runs. If something happened, she’d be the first one who couldn’t get away... well, if she couldn’t get away, so be it. She was already sick of Hua Yu’s habit of keeping everything to herself and insisting on controlling everything. Her tone turned firm. “So when are we going?”

Wei Yin pulled out her schedule. “There’s a livestream tomorrow morning. I’m free in the afternoon, so let’s do it then.”

Mentioning the livestream reminded Xu Ya Qing that she hadn’t broadcasted in a week. She immediately rolled up her sleeves and said she would share her experiences in Rome with the fans.

Unfortunately, the fans didn’t really care.

【Where’s my Tao Tao? Ah Tao, where are you】

The bullet comments were all asking for Wei Yin. Xu Ya Qing called her over with a yell. “She’s over there picking through a pile of scrap. The kiln temperature wasn’t right; it exploded. I told her to throw the whole batch out, but she wouldn’t. She had to inspect every single piece. Sifting gold out of shit.”

Wei Yin came running over in heat-resistant gloves, covered in dust. “What is it?”

Xu Ya Qing didn’t know either, so she simply turned the camera toward Wei Yin. “They’re looking for you.”

Tao streamer was the affectionate nickname fans had given Wei Yin, because her account name was “The Little Clay Figure Who Kneads Mud,” and the fans warmly called her “Tao Streamer” or “Ah Tao.”

A string of greetings flooded the comments.

Wei Yin waved. “Hello, everyone... can I drag Ya Ya away?”

【Ya Ya went out to play without Ah Tao and left her wife out in the cold, confirmed】

【Want to see the soft, fragrant wife; who got rid of the big duck】

She understood every word in the comments, but why did they stop making sense when they were put together?

Wei Yin stared in disbelief. “I’m not a wife.”

Xu Ya Qing hadn’t seen the comments clearly and leaned in. “What wife?”

The comments instantly exploded.

【Aaaaaah, she called her wife】

【A real couple is the sweetest!】

Wei Yin was so startled she backed up repeatedly, and in the process she covered Xu Ya Qing’s mouth and dragged her away just as Xu Ya Qing was still asking about “wife.”

But that only reignited the fans’ enthusiasm; squeals poured endlessly across the screen.

This time Xu Ya Qing finally saw clearly. Her reaction wasn’t any better than Wei Yin’s, and she immediately sprang up from her chair.

“Don’t talk nonsense! We’re just good friends!”

Wei Yin nodded frantically. “Everyone, please don’t misunderstand.”

Explaining too quickly only made it sound like they had something to hide. At least that was clearly what most of the comments now believed, and because the two of them denied it in such perfect sync, the fans even felt it made them especially well matched.

Wei Yin didn’t have time to rummage through the finished pieces anymore. She dragged a chair over and sat down, looking as if she absolutely had to clear up the rumor.

Xu Ya Qing leaned back, stunned, with a faint, strange bitterness in her expression.

Back then, before she knew Wei Yin was the person Hua Yu liked, she had liked Wei Yin a little too; after all, this gentle and capable omega was exactly her type. But now she really was innocent with Wei Yin, more sisterly than sisters.

Since childhood, she had never been like Hua Yu, that alpha among alphas. For a long time as a child, her looks and talent had been more like a beta’s. Only after she grew up, after her glands developed, did she shoot up in height and her brain mature, and only then did she begin to show a little of an alpha’s bearing.

In short, Xu Ya Qing did not think she possessed that all-conquering top-alpha aura. The reason fans shipped her and Wei Yin was probably because their eyesight was bad.

So when Wei Yin’s explanation only made the comments tease her more, Xu Ya Qing pulled over a stool and sat down too.

“I’ve had more than ten girlfriends,” Xu Ya Qing blurted out about her own shortcomings, speaking carelessly. “Girlfriends can’t compare to a sister bond. If you want to ship us, I don’t really care. It’s just too unfair to Tao Tao.”

Wei Yin instantly looked like she’d seen a ghost.

The comments went quiet for two seconds, then immediately began turning on Xu Ya Qing.

“I’m not some scumbag woman... My first girlfriend was when I was fourteen, and I’m twenty-six now. On average, one a year isn’t that fast, right? I’ve never marked an omega, so don’t slander me. Lawyer’s letter warning, okay?”

Xu Ya Qing switched into social mode and shifted the topic onto her romantic history.

Gossip is human nature, but whether someone is willing to share private matters, and how much they’re willing to share, varies from person to person.

As Wei Yin listened, she began to quietly back away and slip off.

She was the socially anxious type who didn’t want to share; Xu Ya Qing, while not afraid of socializing, also didn’t enjoy exposing her private life. Wei Yin had better leave early so Xu Ya Qing could move on to the next topic.

Just then, a string of luxurious bullet comments floated across the screen.

Gold-embossed text, rainbow-glowing animation, taking up half the screen.

【Some little ceramics streamer clinging to a rich benefactor and pretending to be a pure little white flower; confirmed by my first video】

The same comment floated by three times.

Xu Ya Qing’s vision was a little poor, and luxurious bullet comments cost money. Seeing that someone had sent one, she started reading with a smile.

By the time she reached the fourth character, her gaze caught the rest of the text behind it; Xu Ya Qing slowly stopped, her face quickly darkening.

She immediately kicked the person out of the livestream and blocked them, but the comments stayed on the screen for a few seconds as they floated, and by then more than ten seconds had passed, enough for the audience to see the contents clearly.

“How do you delete a comment,” Xu Ya Qing said, fury rising so fast it almost burned through her throat. “What the hell kind of platform is this, that it can let stuff like this through with no moderation?!”

Whether the comments had moderation or not, Xu Ya Qing didn’t know. But because she had cursed, the livestream was banned two seconds later.

Wei Yin, who had watched the whole thing from diagonally behind her, said nothing, lips pressed tight.

Xu Ya Qing was still cursing when she suddenly remembered Wei Yin was beside her and turned over with a frown. “Uh, I have a screen recording. This person definitely didn’t get away with slandering you...”

“Give me his account,” Wei Yin said, far calmer than before. “He said his first video had proof.”

Xu Ya Qing reacted at once and hurriedly opened the account blacklist to show Wei Yin.

The account was obviously new; it had only posted one image-and-text video.

There were nine photos in total.

Every single one of them was Wei Yin.

And in every single photo, the person Wei Yin was holding was different.

Xu Ya Qing scrolled back and zoomed in. “This is... from what situation?”

Wei Yin clenched her fists; her knuckles cracked sharply. Suppressing her anger, she said, “I can’t remember exactly, but it should have been freshman year. For a while I helped the student council carry around alphas and omegas going into heat. If it was serious, we’d just drag them or carry them away; if it wasn’t that serious, we’d do it like in these photos, hook their arms over our shoulders and support them as we walked.”

The angle of the photos was extremely tricky; it didn’t look like professional work, more like candid shots taken by a bystander who was just watching the excitement.

It was precisely this casual feel, combined with low resolution and visual misalignment, that twisted the facts completely and made Wei Yin look as if she were openly cuddling and embracing them in broad daylight.

The comment count on the video was visibly rising.

【Is this person really the streamer? Doesn’t look like it】

【Chapter 7: Look carefully, it really is the streamer】

【Disgusting. I’m going to throw up】

【The more I think about it, the scarier it gets. Didn’t Ya streamer just say she had more than ten girlfriends... could it be...】

The viewers who had come from the livestream kept commenting below. Some were discussing whether it was really the streamer; some believed the pictures at a glance and turned around to insult Wei Yin; only a very few were actually thinking about what these pictures were doing.

“Just these nine pointless pictures, no title, no caption, and the likes are still going up?” Xu Ya Qing was anxious to the point of smoke. “They definitely bought traffic!”

Wei Yin didn’t speak. She could only recall scattered fragments of the past now, and even as the person involved she couldn’t give the truth. If the other side kept throwing filth at her, how was she supposed to respond?

Then this account posted another video.

It showed Wei Yin’s side profile while she was eating in the cafeteria, wearing an oversized hoodie. A hand reached in from the opposite side, feeding her food.

Caption: “Don’t think about silencing me. I’m her college classmate, and her dirt goes far beyond this. If you push me, I’ll dump all of it!”

“Do you know who it is? Any direction?” Xu Ya Qing asked her. “Who doesn’t like you, or who have you offended before?”

Wei Yin’s face was pale and cold. “Our college class monitor. But he should be in detention now; it might not be him.”

“Holy f*—” Xu Ya Qing slammed her phone down, then snatched it back up to find a number. “Don’t panic. My company has legal staff. Let’s ask a lawyer first..."

At the same time, Wei Yin’s phone rang.

It was Pedro calling.

The two of them answered at once.

“The other side’s account will probably be banned within an hour at most,” Pedro’s steady voice came through. “I’ll look into who’s behind the account, but Xiao Yin, you need to have some idea of this yourself.”

Wei Yin answered heavily, “Okay. Thank you... thank you, Aunt Mei.”

Pedro hung up.

Taking down one account would only lead to countless more.

There was no such thing as being on guard every day without ever letting your defenses down. Wei Yin was almost certain now that someone was trying to ruin her.

And that person must have been lying in wait for quite a while. Starting last month, she’d felt more and more antis in her account, but as long as something got popular, there would naturally be haters; Wei Yin hadn’t paid it much mind.

Today’s livestream had the biggest crowd it had seen in a while, probably because viewers had rushed back after a week-long break. The fans had all been waiting, and that person had chosen today to strike at her.

Wei Yin punched the doorframe hard. Who exactly kept slandering her with filthy rumors like this, again and again?!

Something this disgusting once was enough to make a person sick for a long time. She could tolerate and compromise on many things, but this one thing she would never forgive!

Just then, the phone rang again.

Wei Yin picked it up with an expression of irritation. The voice screen showed Yu Tiantian.

The other side didn’t wait for her to speak before smiling and saying, “Want to come visit my factory?”

Wei Yin had no mood to play word games with her. “This afternoon.”

Yu Tiantian said with feigned surprise, “Really? I thought you were going to turn me down again.”

Wei Yin opened her mouth, but before she could speak, a sharp thought flashed through her mind.

Yu Tiantian had said that she could visit the factory whenever she wanted, so Wei Yin hadn’t told Yu Tiantian in advance that she would be going today.

Realization hit her; the tone of Yu Tiantian’s call was different from before. She wasn’t calling to invite her; she was calling to watch the show and threaten her.

Hearing Wei Yin say she would come, she didn’t sound surprised at all; if anything, she seemed delighted.

In the deathly silence, Wei Yin said nothing for a full ten minutes.

For those ten minutes, neither of them hung up. They faced each other in a silent standoff, as though whoever broke first would become the other’s prey.

“I thought you had some kind of trump card,” Wei Yin said at last, suddenly laughing.

There was relief in that smile; there was steadiness, and a touch of detached mockery.

“I really overestimated you,” Wei Yin said softly, laughing under her breath. “If the price is only this, I’m willing to pay it.”

On Yu Tiantian’s end, her breathing suddenly deepened; then she laughed too.

“I told you not to be too naive just because you’re young. You really are still innocent,” Yu Tiantian’s voice was thin and cool, like the vivid patterning of a venomous snake. “Xiao Yin, before a downpour, there may be a little rain. But if you mistake that little rain for a flood... then that would be far too stupid.”