After I Gave Up/Let Things Slide, I Became Famous Across The Entire Internet - Chapter 13

【Any class representatives willing to summarize the whole scandal’s backstory? I’m a little lost.】

【Hahahahaha, it’s so ridiculous, I actually stanned two devils. Tang Shuxia, I apologize for my previous unkind words calling you a mistress. I’m sorry, I was truly blind, I deserved to be slapped in the face, I’m an idiot. I hereby declare that I’m leaving the fandom forever, and this account will never be logged into again. See you all if fate allows.】

【I reviewed the entire incident, and it sends chills down my spine.】

【???】

【What the hell have I been stanning for so many years? The words ‘she’s just an unknown small fry anyway, since she’s not destined to be famous, why don’t we give her a helping hand’ are those really the words of a Film Empress who claimed she wanted to mentor juniors? When that photo first leaked, I even dragged my fan group to tear into Tang Shuxia. It turns out your marriage was fake, and the so-called ‘intervention’ was just a scheme concocted by you two devils… Tang Shuxia was right about one thing: I was truly blind and was used as your gun. I deserve it, and I truly regret liking you for so many years.】

【Eating melon.jpg Am I the only one curious about the woman who approached Cheng Zeyu?】

【Same +10086】

【Same + ID Card Number】

【@Fuzeyifang, come out quickly and tell us who the woman who offered you resources really is.】

Overnight, Mu Yingying lost more than half of her seventy million fans.

Several official accounts for brands Mu Yingying endorsed very wisely issued statements, terminating their contracts with her and announcing that she was no longer their company spokesperson, and so on. Within an hour, most of the endorsements Mu Yingying held were gone. Weibo was as lively as a New Year’s celebration. Tang Shuxia, however, was still unaccustomed to using a mobile phone. After scrolling for only a few minutes, she found it bothersome and tossed it aside.

She sat on the windowsill, watching the night outside. Towering buildings blocked her view, but the distant city lights were dazzling, resembling a burning fire dragon from afar. Yet, she always felt something was missing. She knew of a better place to see further…

She hesitated, then quickly clambered over the window frame and climbed upstairs. From the third-floor balcony, she leaped again, barely catching the railing of the neighboring balcony. Fortunately, the old vines there were quite resilient. With a push and a climb, Tang Shuxia silently ascended onto the neighbor’s roof in no time.

“As expected, the view is better here.”

Little did she know, her every move was captured by surveillance cameras.

Xu Yujing stopped what she was doing when her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a fleeting figure on the screen in front of her. The cameras were placed in tricky positions, embedded in the crevices of the house’s corners, covering all directions. Upon closer inspection, one would notice that since the last incident, dozens of new monitors and alarm sensors every three steps had been added both inside and outside the villa.

Xu Yujing installed them to guard against thieves, but she never imagined the thief would have the audacity to strike again.

A dozen monitors barely managed to piece together Tang Shuxia’s route, but right now, none of them were able to film her. Oh, wait, that’s not entirely true. In the footage of one of the cameras, a pair of swinging calves was visible. If the indoor lights were turned off and a little atmosphere was added, this would be a genuinely terrifying scene straight out of a ghost story.

However, the two little feet were wearing glittering slippers, which made the skin of her legs look snow-white. What’s more, each adorable toe was painted with bright red nail polish.

Tang Shuxia watched the scenery for a while and then remembered the contract the original owner had signed. She hadn’t felt this sense of being constrained for a long time. That piece of paper restricted her actions. If all went according to plan, she would have to “sell” two years of her time to this current company.

Thinking about this, she casually plucked a couple of leaves from the nearby vine, one after another, quickly stripping the vine bare. The thought of only being able to leave after two years made her very unhappy, but the thought of paying the penalty for breach of contract made her even unhappier.

Tang Shuxia was never one to passively accept things. She thought, if the mountain won’t turn, the water must.

Xu Yujing stared intently at the ten mischievous and lively toes, watching them toss the slipper into the air and successfully catch it again. She kept watching, not finding it tedious at all. She even envied the flexibility of those feet and legs, and the ten rounded toes looked adorable in her eyes.

One watched from inside, the other sat watching from the rooftop.

It wasn’t until Xu Yujing’s phone suddenly rang. The loud ring was amplified in the silent room. She looked at the caller ID and immediately hung up. When she looked back at the monitor, the pair of dangling calves had disappeared from the screen. She immediately shut down the computer screen and pushed her wheelchair toward the window.

There was nothing there except the inky blackness of the night.

Tang Shuxia slept until dawn, and online, a new piece of gossip about Mu Yingying was added: #SHOCK!!! Mu Yingying and Cheng Zeyu had a huge fight in the middle of the night, and both were taken into custody [the police station].

Tang Shuxia had an instinctive resistance to the ‘tangerine’ place. She subconsciously regarded it as the territory of those so called righteous sects, who claimed to fight for justice but whose actions were actually those of despicable petty people. So, when she saw this hot search, she was intrigued.

She clicked on it and saw a noisy video with a shaky screen, as if the person filming hadn’t held the phone steady. Because the surrounding light was dim, it was difficult to spot the woman who usually dressed herself up so beautifully without careful scrutiny.

“Cheng Zeyu, if you don’t explain things clearly today, I’m not finished with you.”

“Woman, have you lost your mind? I told you I don’t know about this, I don’t know, I’m confounded too. Why don’t you say the problem came from your side? Are you trying to push all the blame onto me, huh? Dream on.”

In the footage, Cheng Zeyu was clutching the side of his face, where blood could faintly be seen. Mu Yingying walked beside him, disheveled, with wounds on her forehead and face. It seemed the two had engaged in a brutal fight. Especially after Cheng Zeyu finished speaking, Mu Yingying couldn’t help but pounce on him again to scratch his face. The ferocity of her attack made the gossip-watching crowd shake their heads.

“Stop making trouble.”

“And you, behave yourself. You dare to fight in front of me? Both of you, come back to the police station with me to give a statement.”

When Xie Jinzhi arrived, she saw Tang Shuxia cross legged on the sofa, merrily watching the gossip. She leaned in and saw that the news had broken at two in the morning. Fortunately, the night owls were effective, and the matter had been trending after fermenting all night. Xie Jinzhi had been so excited that she stayed up all night, and the thought of this wicked couple getting their comeuppance thrilled her. The consequence of staying up was being late for work. “After last night’s revelations, all of Mu Yingying’s endorsements and brands have terminated their contracts with her. Even the companies that were still observing yesterday quickly pulled out this morning when they saw the ‘tangerine’ [police/custody] intervene.”

Xie Jinzhi added, “Next, she will face a high amount of compensation.”

At the mention of the ‘tangerine’ place.

Tang Shuxia said, “Since Mu Yingying’s matter is about to conclude, it’s time to settle the previous accounts.”

Xie Jinzhi looked bewildered. “What… what accounts?”

Tang Shuxia had no intention of letting those who participated in the whole affair off the hook whether intentionally or unintentionally. In her view, none of them were innocent in the original owner’s death. Since no one was innocent, they should pay the price. “Hire lawyers, file lawsuits. I want every one of them to remember that there’s no good end to provoking Tang Shuxia.”

Xie Jinzhi recalled Tang Shuxia’s insistence on defending her rights at the hospital. “They’ve already been in the ‘tangerine’ place for several days. I hear they might face jail time. One of the women was scared stiff and said she didn’t mean to hurt you; someone specifically hired her to do it. She got over ten thousand in bonus for hitting you once. She now knows she was wrong and hopes to get your forgiveness. She wants to see you.”

Tang Shuxia said, “Ten thousand for one hit?”

Xie Jinzhi also found it incredibly ridiculous when she received the news from the lawyer. Their Shuxia had never had a public dispute since entering the industry, yet she encountered such bizarre trouble. At the time, she was busy fighting for Tang Shuxia and the company for more time, and later she was busy exposing Mu Yingying and Cheng Zeyu’s scandal. She got so busy that she almost forgot about this. Had Tang Shuxia not insisted on defending her rights, she might not have remembered this woman for a while. “You know, the person who threw things at you. Do you remember?”

Tang Shuxia certainly remembered, it was the first malice she witnessed since arriving in this world. “I should indeed see her.”

Regardless of outside rumors that Tang Shuxia went to the hospital for faking unconsciousness, Tang Shuxia never defended herself. The lawyer also held firsthand information from her hospital checkup. However, because the examination showed Tang Shuxia was not near death and was not considered severely injured, the maximum liability for those few people was civil responsibility. If both parties were willing to settle, a private reconciliation was not out of the question.

Xie Jinzhi rattled off the lawyer’s points, but then noticed the chilling aura emanating from the person next to her and immediately stopped talking.

Tang Shuxia gave a cold laugh. “In your legal system, does murder not require capital punishment?”

Xie Jinzhi’s heart inexplicably panicked. “Shuxia, calm down, calm down. The charge of murder is really too serious. Let me be clear, I’m really not speaking up for them. It’s just, right now…” She couldn’t find the right words to explain that the lawyer had already maximized their benefits, especially since she also thought those people deserved everything that happened to them.

However, after Cheng Zeyu’s revelation, Xie Jinzhi felt that the woman hiding in the shadows was the most hateful. These people were merely being used as guns, and were not the true culprits.

Realizing she was close to becoming one of those people who speak without considering the situation, Xie Jinzhi completely abandoned her attempt to persuade Tang Shuxia before the two arrived at the police station. “So, Shuxia, what do you plan to do about this?”

Tang Shuxia: “Hold them fully accountable.”