YABE - 46

After the incident, Zhou Yi’s call was the first to come in.

It was 8:00 AM, and Wen Siyu had just gotten up to brush her teeth. She was gargling with water when her phone, placed on the counter next to the sink, rang. Wondering why Zhou Yi would call her at this time, she picked it up with one hand while still brushing.

As soon as she answered, Zhou Yi’s panicked voice came through: “Miss Wen! Have you left the house yet?!”

Wen Siyu hummed a questioning sound, lowering her head to spit out the mouthwash.

“Whatever you do, don’t go outside! Your relationship with Ah Xu has been exposed!”

Wen Siyu froze, accidentally swallowing half the toothpaste foam.

Staring blankly at her reflection in the mirror, her face covered in white toothpaste foam, she managed to stutter: “What… what did you say?”

“I mean, your relationship with Ah Xu has been exposed,” Zhou Yi repeated slowly, his tone serious and uncharacteristically stern. “For now, don’t go to school. Just stay at home and don’t go anywhere.”

Wen Siyu obediently agreed, hung up the phone, mechanically rinsed off the toothpaste foam, and walked out of the bathroom.

Her mind was still in a daze, her legs felt weak.

She sat down on the couch, a million questions swirling in her head.

How could this have been exposed so suddenly? Was it due to someone secretly taking photos? Or had something else gone wrong?

She painstakingly retraced her steps, trying to figure out where the slip-up had occurred. Then she remembered last night’s livestream and felt a jolt in her heart.

To confirm her suspicions, she picked up her phone from the side, opened Weibo, and waited anxiously as the app’s logo loaded. Her fingers trembled slightly.

After two or three seconds, her Weibo homepage appeared.

It was a sea of red notifications.

Countless mentions, comments, and private messages flooded in. Her follower count had skyrocketed overnight, surpassing a million. The trending topics were all about her and Jiang Xu.

In just one night, not only had photos of their rooms been leaked, but someone had even dug up old photos of her and Yuan Zhen that had briefly gone viral on Weibo. Comparing those photos with the quarter of her face revealed during last night’s stream, people concluded that this gaming streamer was none other than the beautiful young director from Zhongying Film Academy. Within hours, her name, age, and other personal details were thoroughly exposed online.

The amount of information available was staggering—only her ID number seemed to be missing.

The power of netizens was terrifying.

Wen Siyu was completely overwhelmed, too afraid to even open her messages or read the comments.

It was all her fault.

This entire mess was entirely her doing.

Jiang Xu was 27 years old, at the peak of his career, basking in fame and success. It wasn’t hard to imagine how much this exposure would affect him. In fact, it could very well ruin his career.

The more she thought about it, the guiltier she felt. She couldn’t help but think that she deserved to die for causing such a disaster.

Just as her guilt reached its peak, her phone rang. Looking down at the screen, she saw it was Jiang Xu calling.

The girl bit her lip, hesitating to answer.

After a few rings, Jiang Xu hung up.

Wen Siyu let out a sigh of relief but immediately felt her heart drop.

Was he angry? Did he blame her?

He must be, right?

He might even think she had done it on purpose to publicly expose their relationship.

The image of the man furrowing his brows and pressing his lips together flashed instantly in her mind. His deep brown eyes, dark and heavy, were filled with negative emotions—irritation, exhaustion, and disgust.

As she spiraled into wild, unfounded thoughts, the phone rang again.

This time, Wen Siyu answered immediately, saying a soft “Hello” before bursting into tears.

She cried, and Jiang Xu fell silent on the other end.

His silence only made her more anxious.

Wen Siyu tried to stifle her sobs, tears falling like beans onto the back of her hand, too scared to speak.

After a brief silence, Jiang Xu let out a soft sigh and called her name.

She wiped her eyes but didn’t dare respond.

“Baby, don’t cry.”

The man’s voice was low and calm. “Stop crying first.”

If you listened closely, you could hear a hint of panic in his tone.

But Wen Siyu didn’t catch it. To her, his voice sounded as cold and detached as ever, making her even more nervous. She softly called out to him.

“Teacher Jiang…”

She said, “Teacher Jiang, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

Her small, trembling voice carried a sob and a hint of fear. Hearing it, Jiang Xu’s heart clenched painfully.

“Ah…” He sighed helplessly. “Why does such a little girl cry so easily?”

“It’s all my fault. Such a big thing happened because of my carelessness,” Wen Siyu whimpered, unable to hold back a soft sniffle. “You should scold me.”

Jiang Xu felt torn between pity for her tears and amusement at her words. “What kind of big deal is this? I’m just dating someone. I’m 27 years old—am I not allowed to have a girlfriend? There’s no reason to scold you for this. You haven’t done anything wrong.” He sighed again and called her name once more.

Wen Siyu responded.

“This isn’t a big deal in itself. What matters is what you want to do. Do you want to go public?” he asked her.

Wen Siyu was momentarily stunned.

“If you agree, then we’ll go public. If you don’t want to, leave this matter to me to handle. You don’t need to worry about it, okay?”

The man’s voice was calm and unhurried as he asked her.

After calming down and thinking it through, she realized that the situation wasn’t beyond repair. The photos themselves didn’t show her directly—it was just a comparison of the rooms. Moreover, Jiang Xu had an unquestionably powerful PR team. It was entirely feasible to spin the narrative and smooth things over.

So, he was asking for her opinion. If she agreed, he would prepare to go public?

Wen Siyu froze.

“But… what about your fans…?”

She didn’t finish her sentence before Jiang Xu chuckled softly on the other end: “Mm, my fans will become your fans from now on.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Wen Siyu wanted to hit him.

“Oh? Then what did you mean?”

“Teacher Jiang,” Wen Siyu said earnestly, “I don’t want to affect you because of me. You’re at your best right now, and you can achieve even more.”

Her words were a bit jumbled, grammatically awkward, but Jiang Xu understood perfectly.

He fell silent for a moment, then spoke in a deep, steady tone:

“Before I met you, I thought the most important thing was to make more great films, to explore and portray different roles and lives, giving them vivid meaning and purpose.”

“But all of that was before I met you.”

He continued, “After meeting you, everything else became secondary.”

Wen Siyu snapped out of her daze: “You actually prioritize things like that?”

“Mm, everything except you is secondary.” Jiang Xu chuckled silently. “Anyway, I only need to earn enough money to support my wife. Even if I have millions of fans, they won’t give me any money.”

Wen Siyu sniffled and laughed through her tears: “Who’s your wife?!”

Hearing her laugh finally, Jiang Xu let out a sigh of relief. “In any case, stop looking at Weibo for now. Leave the rest to me to handle.”

Wen Siyu guiltily kicked her legs, feeling slightly reassured but unable to resist the urge to peek at her private messages and comments later, curious about what people had written.

Out loud, she obediently said, “Oh,” and asked him, “Where are you now?”

“At the filming set.”

Wen Siyu was shocked: “How is it possible that no one blocked you at the set?”

“They did block me,” Jiang Xu paused, “but your mom is truly amazing. She chased all those reporters away, leaving them with their tails between their legs.”

“Oh, I almost forgot—the director is Ms. Xu.” Wen Siyu pouted. “What did Ms. Xu say?”

“What do you mean, ‘what did she say’?”

“I mean, didn’t she give you any opinions about this—”

Before Wen Siyu could finish, she suddenly realized.

Ms. Xu, the elder of their family, already knew about her relationship with Jiang Xu—but Mr. Wen Jingyao, her father, did not.

And neither did her grandfather.

Wen Siyu closed her eyes in despair, contemplating whether turning herself in or waiting for them to come arrest her offered a better chance of survival.

After much deliberation, she concluded that neither option was promising.

“Teacher Jiang.”

“Hmm?”

“The situation is like this,” Wen Siyu began slowly. “Since my dad is a businessman, he’s pretty trendy. He tends to learn about things quickly, you know?”

Jiang Xu: “….”

The man was silent for a moment, then asked, “What kind of person is your father?”

“He’s pretty easygoing, I guess. They say his personality when he was young was exactly like my brother’s.” Wen Siyu thought carefully before adding, “Actually, they’re still quite similar now.”

Jiang Xu: “….”