MTL - 23

Sometimes I think rebellious phases happen because we’re not loved. A girl who is loved would probably only act spoiled and capricious.

Thinking about it this way, I suddenly feel so pitiful.

Hugging Juanhua, I want to cry.

— The Diary of a Little Rich Girl

Tang Dingding had followed Tang Xin on Weibo after the trending topic last time. Not only did she follow her, but she also set special notifications.

So, as soon as Tang Xin posted something on Weibo, she knew about it.

She saw many fans retweeting giveaways and promoting Tang Xin’s work. Tang Xin usually replied to these fans with words of gratitude. Thinking about it, she decided to retweet one as well. She originally wanted to say she was giving away 100 books, but then thought that 100 seemed too few…

If she was going to do it, she might as well go all out!

So, she changed it to retweeting for a giveaway of 1,000 books plus all the merchandise. After calculating, it wasn’t much money, just around seventy or eighty thousand yuan. That was roughly the price she’d be “taken advantage of” by Tang Xin anyway, so she figured she might as well let her take advantage of her.

Tang Dingding sent another message: “I’m helping you retweet the giveaway. Will this make the book sell better?”

Tang Xin stared at the WeChat chat box, dazed for several seconds.

So, this “Rich but Not Stupid” Moneybags Sister was actually Tang Dingding?

Tang Xin glanced again at the continuously increasing @ mentions and comments on her Weibo homepage, trying to figure out what Tang Dingding was up to.

She hadn’t taken advantage of her, and yet Tang Dingding was voluntarily giving her benefits.

... Truly a little lamb waiting to be fleeced.

Do rich young ladies from wealthy families really treat money like dirt? Spending money so freely—it’s no wonder Tang Yu knows how to earn so much.

Snapping out of her shock, Tang Xin calmly replied to the little lamb: “Thank you, Dingding, for your support. The book has been selling very well, and after your giveaway, it will sell even better.”

Tang Dingding was thrilled: “That’s great, that’s great.”

Tang Xin sent an emoji thanking her boss.

After a while—

Tang Dingding sent another biting-hand emoji: “Um... Could you tell me something? What happened between you and my brother? Why didn’t you renew the contract with him? I heard he wanted to renew it, but you refused.”

Tang Xin paused. So the little lamb was trying to buy gossip with money?

Suddenly, Juanhua jumped onto her lap, burrowed into her arms, and rubbed against her. He even opened his belly, waving his four short fluffy legs, wanting her to scratch his tummy.

Tang Xin looked down into Juanhua’s round blue eyes, reached out to rub his soft belly, and absentmindedly pinched his little paw.

Why didn’t she renew the contract with Tang Yu...

Because they weren’t a good match.

Tang Yu said they weren’t compatible.

Two incompatible people couldn’t possibly make anything work together.

Thinking about it this way, she suddenly realized her so-called rebellious phase was nothing more than putting on a brave face for her dignity.

There was nothing to be proud of.

Her eyes grew slightly teary as she replied to Tang Dingding: “Ah, he doesn’t like my book. Even if we collaborated, we wouldn’t create any sparks.”

Tang Dingding stared at those words, feeling something was off.

Why did those words sound so bitter?

She bit her lip and replied: “How could he not like it? He even said he wanted to buy the copyright and mentioned a price.”

Tang Xin didn’t know how to explain to this young lady. Should she say, “I confessed to your brother and got rejected, so now it’s awkward. I don’t want to keep pestering him to make a movie for me”?

Instead, she simply replied: “Because I don’t want to collaborate with him. Director Lu is such an amazing director—if I didn’t choose him, wouldn’t I be stupid?”

Tang Dingding: “….”

She suddenly had nothing to say.

After much deliberation, in the evening, Tang Dingding sent a screenshot of their conversation to Tang Yu.

At that moment, Tang Yu was still discussing a collaboration. The film opening ceremony was about to start, but he didn’t attend and sent Huo Chendong instead.

By the time he finished dinner and returned to the car, it was already 10 PM. As he turned on his phone, he saw the screenshot Tang Dingding had sent. The car was dimly lit, and the phone screen faintly illuminated the man’s handsome profile. He furrowed his brows, looking at the chat record for a long time, especially Tang Xin’s few sentences—they felt like needles poking into his heart.

That feeling couldn’t be dwelled upon; thinking about it too deeply made it painfully sharp.

He closed his eyes, leaned back against the seat, raised his hand to rub his temples, and muttered a curse under his breath.

The driver glanced back, cautiously asking: “Mr. Tang, what’s wrong?”

Tang Yu furrowed his brow, lowered his hand, leaned forward, placed his arms on his open legs, and ordered the driver: “Give me a cigarette.”

Suddenly, he felt unbearably restless.

He wanted to smoke.

The driver was startled, then quickly retrieved a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from the drawer and handed them over.

Mr. Tang had never smoked in the car before—he had a slight case of OCD and disliked the smell lingering in the car.

Hearing the click of the lighter, the driver glanced back. Mr. Tang was leaning casually against the seat, exhaling a puff of smoke, frowning slightly with half-closed eyes, gazing out the window. A cigarette dangled between his slender fingers, making him look somewhat melancholic.

The smell of smoke began to fill the car.

“Drive.”

Tang Yu spoke through clenched teeth, his voice muffled, carelessly pulling his gaze forward.

The driver quickly drove off.

Tang Yu opened Weibo and clicked into Tangxin’s homepage. Her promotional tweet was pinned at the top, with retweets already reaching 20,000 and still climbing. Sales were probably about to explode.

Lu Zhixing’s Weibo post featuring her had pushed her to the number one spot on the trending list, and the热度 (heat) was still ongoing. If they truly collaborated,话题度 (topic value) would remain high, and热度 (heat) would persist.

It was already gaining popularity even before filming began.

She said he and she weren’t compatible, and even if they collaborated, they wouldn’t create any sparks? So does that mean she and Lu Zhixing have chemistry?

Tang Yu was extremely restless, yet in that moment, he forgot that he was the one who first said they weren’t compatible.

He exited Weibo, not wanting to look at it anymore.

This irritable mood persisted until the next evening. At seven o’clock, Tang Yu was still working overtime, and the small secretaries outside his office hadn’t dared to leave either.

Tang Yu signed the documents, leaned back in his office chair, and pressed the intercom to call Gao Heng, but no one answered.

Frowning, he stood up and walked toward the door.

Earlier, when Gao Heng had left, he hadn’t fully closed the door, leaving it slightly ajar. As Tang Yu approached the doorway, he faintly overheard the small secretaries chatting quietly while eating their boxed meals:

“Did you notice? Miss Tang hasn’t come upstairs recently. Do you think something happened between her and Mr. Tang?”

“I think so. Before, I always thought I’d see her upstairs every day, occasionally even having meals with Mr. Tang… Now, it seems like we haven’t seen her for half a month, except for coming upstairs for meetings.”

“Not every day, right? Maybe every two or three days?”

“Oh, I suddenly remembered! Wasn’t it that evening before the holiday? She waited for Mr. Tang for hours. After that, when everyone returned from the holiday, we haven’t seen Miss Tang upstairs since.”

“...Hmm? You’re right! And Miss Tang has already started calling someone else ‘Dad’ on Weibo. She didn’t renew the copyright—it must’ve ended badly.”

“What’s so surprising about that? It was bound to be awkward anyway. Do you know what the two most complicated types of male-female relationships are?”

…

“What?”

Suddenly, a cold, low voice came from behind them.

The secretaries were so startled that their chopsticks and spoons clattered to the floor.

They slowly turned around, frozen in fear—

Tang Yu stood by the door, his hands in his pockets, tall and imposing. His handsome face was expressionless, but his eyes were icy, chilling them to the bone. Secretary Chen trembled, hastily put down her lunchbox, and clumsily stood up, stammering: “M-Mr. Tang…”

The other secretaries also nervously stood up, their faces pale, glancing at him briefly before lowering their heads.

Tang Yu narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at Secretary Chen with a sardonic smile. “What did you just say about the most complicated relationships?”

Secretary Chen stuttered: “N-nothing…”

Gao Heng returned from the restroom to find this scene. The secretaries were like suspects being interrogated, their bodies rigid with tension, heads bowed, almost ready to kneel before the man in front of them.

His gaze shifted to Mr. Tang.

Tang Yu asked again, seemingly curious: “Go ahead, speak.”

Secretary Chen’s scalp tingled. Unable to say anything, she looked pleadingly at Gao Heng.

Gao Heng: “….”

Gao Heng swallowed, coughed, and said: “I… I think I know.”

Tang Yu silently glanced at him, signaling him to continue.

Gao Heng tried to maintain a composed face: “Brother-in-law and younger sister-in-law, and another one… best friends and their husbands or boyfriends.”

Tang Yu: “….”

________________________________________

Author’s Note: Assistant Gao is full of hidden talents.

Little Boss Tang: She really hasn’t come to see me in a long time…

Little Rich Girl’s Inner Thoughts: What a little lamb. I’ll fleece you again next time.

When asked about similar male leads to Director Lu, in my stories? In Addicted to Liking You , the male lead was pretty flirtatious, so I switched styles with the current male lead. I can’t write the same type of male lead or storyline repeatedly—it gets boring, as Director Lu said. So readers come and go in waves~

Yesterday, a friend told me a real-life story: A guy was pursuing a girl but always had his buddy help write love letters for him. Eventually, the buddy fell in love with the girl too.

In the end, the girl ended up with the buddy, got married, and had kids. The two guys stopped talking forever. [Bitter-sweet irony...]