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Le Ya, who had just regained her good mood, was a bit confused upon seeing this and replied, “What does this have to do with me and trending topics?”

Could it be that she had been exposed as Chen Yang’s girlfriend?

Thinking about it, it seemed quite plausible. She and Chen Yang had been going out every day recently, and combined with what he had said before, it made sense that they could have been photographed. There was nothing illogical about it.

Xie Qingyu: “You should check it out yourself for a clearer picture.”

That made sense.

Le Ya hadn’t even had time to change her shoes when she leaned against the entrance and logged into Weibo. She still had numerous unread mentions and comments from the last time she checked.

She went straight to the trending topics list.

Scrolling through quickly, she didn’t find her name, Chen Yang’s name, or anything related to MOON.

Le Ya was baffled. Could she have missed it?

She decided to go through each trending topic in order, almost finishing reading all the news from the past two days and catching up on some missed gossip.

Finally, at number fifteen, Le Ya found it.

The trending topic was titled “First Love Face.” At first, she thought it was something else, but when she clicked on it, she saw her own face.

The marketing account belonged to a blogger with millions of followers, who had posted a screenshot submitted by a fan from a live stream.

Apart from her, various items on the table were clearly visible, including half of Jiang Mei’s arm.

Le Ya remembered the incident where Jiang Mei had secretly filmed her.

That day during the meal, she had noticed Jiang Mei deliberately moving the camera toward her. Unsure if she had been captured, Le Ya had issued a warning and left shortly after.

It turned out she had indeed been filmed.

The comments on Jiang Mei’s live stream were similar to those on Weibo, though the latter were more intense.

“Is this some new debutant about to make their debut?”

“The girl looks so cute. Even when she’s just eating with her head down and not looking at the camera, and when she finally does look over, she has an angry expression—it’s all adorable.”

“She reminds me of my first love.”

“I want to see her smile. Was this taken without her knowledge? She doesn’t look very happy.”

“Does anyone know her Weibo handle?”

Of course, no one knew.

Le Ya never posted selfies on her Weibo. The only photo she had was from senior year of high school when she went to the park with Chen Yang—and even that was heavily pixelated.

So no one knew who she was.

With that realization, Le Ya felt reassured.

She had no intention of becoming a celebrity, so there was no need to capitalize on this sudden surge in popularity. It was best to let it die down naturally.

Besides, she didn’t particularly like Jiang Mei.

In the group chat, Le Ya said, “The other day, when she tried to film me during lunch, I stopped her. I didn’t expect she still managed to capture me.”

Xie Qingyu: “Your colleague mentioned she would be live streaming tonight. I’m planning to check it out and see what kind of person she is.”

Su Hui: “Is this the same person who induced vomiting?”

Hearing such a juicy piece of gossip, Xie Qingyu became instantly interested and pestered Su Hui to explain everything.

Su Hui recounted what she had seen at the company the previous time, casually mentioning Jiang Mei’s attitude toward Le Ya.

After listening, Xie Qingyu couldn’t stop laughing and commented in the group, “Hahaha, I bet she never expected you to become this popular!”

After all, people with high颜值 (good looks) tend to attract attention easily.

Jiang Mei’s initial intentions were unclear, but she certainly hadn’t anticipated that her footage would be exploited by marketing accounts.

Just seconds later, Xie Qingyu added, “Your colleague is live streaming now. I’m going to check it out.”

The screenshot posted on Weibo hadn’t cropped out the live stream room’s name or other details, so it was easy to follow along.

Le Ya downloaded the live streaming app as well.

When Jiang Mei started her live stream today, she was momentarily stunned to see thousands of viewers. Her usual peak was only around one or two thousand, and that was with a good recommendation.

Why were there so many people today?

She assumed she had become famous and beamed with joy, pushing stacks of food in front of the camera to introduce them one by one.

Afterward, she glanced at the live stream’s comments.

What she saw infuriated her.

Almost all the comments were asking the same question: “We came from Weibo~ Is the ‘first love face’ girl not on today? Does anyone have her contact info?”

Jiang Mei had no idea who they were talking about.

But as the barrage of comments continued, she pieced together some information and made an excuse to check Weibo, finding the trending topic.

Her original intention was just to have her fans criticize Le Ya, but how had Le Ya ended up stealing the spotlight instead?

And she couldn’t say anything reckless during the live stream.

Jiang Mei quickly composed herself and put on a smile, explaining, “Since everyone is so curious, let me clarify. She’s my colleague, newly joined the company. That day, I accidentally filmed her. She doesn’t like being photographed—perhaps she has her reasons.”

“Come to think of it, her boyfriend also trended on Weibo once.”

“Let’s not talk about this anymore… As for which company I work for, that’s a secret. Privacy in the real world must be respected… But I can tell you the industry: jewelry.”

Although many people continued to comment, the number of viewers drastically decreased once she started eating, reverting to her usual level of popularity.

After all, they had come to see the “first love face” girl.

Xie Qingyu: “@Le Ya I feel like her comment was intentional. Why bring up your boyfriend?”

Although it was true that her boyfriend had once trended on Weibo.

Su Hui: “Ignore her. Let her enjoy her self-induced high.”

Le Ya felt indifferent. Jiang Mei had previously thought she was the other woman, but Le Ya couldn’t be bothered to explain herself to her.

It wasn’t worth being upset over someone like that.

She quickly pushed the matter out of her mind.

By the time Le Ya finished showering and checked again, the trending topic had already dropped significantly, disappearing at an astonishing speed.

Searching manually would still yield results, but the hype had subsided.

The trending topic saga had come to an end.

On Wednesday, as soon as Le Ya arrived at the company, Zhang Qiu called her into the office.

Zhang Qiu took out a few sheets of paper and said, “This has been approved. It’s going to be the main focus for the next season. What do you think?”

Le Ya exclaimed in surprise, “So soon?”

Zhang Qiu smiled faintly but didn’t say anything.

The reasons for the quick approval were twofold: first, as the boss’s daughter, Le Ya was given special attention to evaluate her talent; second, this design was genuinely innovative.

The designers in the company had been working for at least one or two years, and their styles had gradually converged. It was rare to see deviations from the norm now, and there were even cases of similar design styles emerging.

It wasn’t plagiarism, but when styles became too uniform, customers would lose interest.

However, Le Ya, who had just returned from abroad, was different.

She hadn’t fallen into the company’s existing style framework but instead followed her own designs, relying more on raw inspiration rather than mechanical repetition.

Design, after all, thrived on creativity.

Similar to photography, a photographer’s innate talent could often outweigh technical skill, and a designer’s creativity could leap off the page.

A few days later, when Le Ya revisited her design, she felt differently about it.

She smiled and said, “Alright. I’ll see if I can create an entire set. I think sets are quite good right now.”

Zhang Qiu’s eyes lit up. “Good.”

As she left the office, she happened to bump into Wang Kefei holding a cup of coffee. Curious, Wang Kefei asked, “What did Manager Zhang want with you?”

Le Ya replied, “It’s about the main product for the next season.”

Wang Kefei nodded. “Last week, when you weren’t here, she got so angry that all our submissions were rejected.”

She felt like she was going crazy drawing designs.

Wang Kefei’s favorite design was one she had carefully created six months after joining the company. It had been chosen as the main focus for that season and even earned her a bonus.

But opportunities like that hadn’t come again since.

Wang Kefei sighed a couple of times before heading back to her seat with Le Ya.

Half an hour later, Zhang Qiu announced the news.

She didn’t mention who the designer was, but everyone in the office had been racking their brains over the theme for the next season. The most anyone had managed was about half of a design.

It didn’t take long for suspicions to fall on Le Ya.

To avoid leaks, Zhang Qiu didn’t show them the design, but that didn’t stop people from imagining what it might look like.

Everyone had their own ideas.

Jiang Mei was the most awkward.

For half a month, she had been preparing for this, pouring all her effort into designing a set themed around the Qixi Festival. She was just about to submit it when the theme for the next season was suddenly announced.

Jiang Mei immediately locked her design sketches away in her drawer.

Seeing Le Ya’s calm demeanor made her feel even more frustrated.

At lunchtime, Jiang Mei didn’t sit with Wang Kefei and the others. Instead, she found a table by herself.

Wang Kefei remarked, “I wonder what’s wrong with her.”

Huang Ya added, “Maybe she’s in a bad mood. By the way, Le Ya, I saw you trending on Weibo the other day—it was the clip Jiang Mei filmed during her live stream.”

They all still remembered that incident.

Le Ya scooped a spoonful of soup, sipped it, and then closed her eyes contentedly. Afterward, she said, “The trend has already passed.”

Wang Kefei found her actions utterly adorable.

How could even drinking soup be so cute? She almost wanted to grab a spoon and feed her bite by bite.

Le Ya had no idea Wang Kefei had such bizarre thoughts.

After searching extensively, Wang Kefei had uncovered quite a bit about Le Ya. For instance, she discovered the high school Le Ya attended.

She had practically spent an entire night browsing its online forums, which was why she’d shown up to work on Tuesday with dark circles under her eyes. It had only recently improved.

This was Wang Kefei’s first time discovering how fascinating fan forums could be.

She dug up old posts and learned that Le Ya had been quite the popular figure in high school. As she read through them, her inner fangirl heart fluttered wildly.

And just like that, she pieced everything together.

The posts about Chen Yang from his high school days hadn’t been deleted, including the shock MOON caused after gaining fame, and the infamous wall-climbing kiss after the college entrance exam.

Wang Kefei counted carefully—this couple had been dating for at least six years.

Swallowing a mouthful of rice, she asked, “Le Ya, you and your boyfriend have been together for a long time, right? Are you getting married soon?”

At this, Le Ya paused.

After some thought, she replied, “Marriage is probably still far off.”

After all, they were still young, and Chen Yang was still in the midst of his career ascent.

Although he had referred to her as his fiancée, they hadn’t actually gotten engaged. It would likely take some time.

Wang Kefei said, “I thought you two were close to tying the knot.”

Le Ya gave a faint smile. “I don’t know. What if he proposes? Then it might happen sooner.”

At the mention of this, her ears turned slightly red.

Wang Kefei’s heart fluttered.

From the news articles she read, she couldn’t tell that Chen Yang used to have such a mischievous personality in his youth—the kind of rebellious charm that teenage girls adored.

And now, he had grown into his current self.

Wang Kefei had successfully concocted an entire story in her head: a poor boy striving to win over a rich girl, working hard to become wealthy, and ultimately succeeding.

What an inspiring plot!

But why hadn’t he proposed yet? He lacked foresight—didn’t he fear losing such an adorable girl to someone else?

Wang Kefei was practically beside herself with worry for them.

Though Jiang Mei claimed she wouldn’t dig up information, netizens didn’t listen.

Almost overnight, Le Ya’s information was unearthed. There wasn’t much useful data, but her school was revealed, along with past award-winning photos posted by the school.

Initially mistaken for a newcomer, the netizens now realized she was not only a stunning beauty but also a top student.

The most eye-catching discovery was the screenshots of award-winning videos from several prestigious international design competitions. While ordinary people might not recognize the names, they were highly renowned in the design industry. And of course, there were design professionals on Weibo eager to share knowledge.

However, after the trending topic was removed, only those who paid attention continued to search for these details. Most people forgot about it after seeing it once.

Jiang Mei belonged to the group that didn’t pay attention.

Today at lunch, she went live as usual. Though the previous trending topic hadn’t brought her much traffic, she had tasted sweet success.

After all, so many people had flooded into her stream, and she even received a recommendation—though not a particularly good one.

This time, Jiang Mei came prepared.

She arranged her tray, secured her phone, and chose an angle that perfectly captured the table diagonally behind her.

Then she started the live stream.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before someone noticed Le Ya. “Is that girl your colleague?”

Jiang Mei replied, “Yes.”

Soon, the number of viewers began to rise.

As she ate, Jiang Mei recounted today’s events while watching the barrage of comments. “...She just joined and already secured the main design for the next season. She’s really impressive.”

She feigned a sigh. “I’m not so lucky.”

A few seconds later, Jiang Mei expected the chat to fill with messages comforting her to keep trying or accusing Le Ya of having connections.

But when she looked up, she nearly bit her chopsticks in half. If her eyes weren’t deceiving her, she was sure she was seeing fake comments.

“Wow, I’m already in awe. Does this mean we’ll soon see the jewelry designed by this lovely girl hit the market?”

“Your company has such good taste. Can you let us know when it comes out? I want to buy some too!”

“She’s won so many awards abroad. This one’s nothing compared to those.”

“Yeah, she’s amazing.”

“Streamer, don’t be sad. Losing this time is normal. You’ll get used to it eventually.”