After Transmigrating, I Fell in Love with a Top-Tier Movie Queen - Chapter 52.1

Lin Xin felt that the user ‘Zero’ was somewhat familiar, but on closer thought, it seemed impossible.

Moreover, she had focused all her energy today on dealing with her deadbeat dad. It was late, so Lin Xin yawned, said goodbye to her fans, and ended the live stream.

Meng Kelin opened her phone to check. The popularity on Douyin had soared by over a million, and they had sold quite a few items that were just casually placed in the e-commerce cart. Coupled with the income from ‘Zero”s Carnivals, the total reached over a million yuan. Tonight was a huge success. Meng Kelin counted on her fingers—Isn’t this more profitable than filming?

But they couldn’t generate this kind of popularity every day, and she only had one scumbag father. For a moment, Meng Kelin wished she had a few more deadbeat dads to boost traffic.

Obviously, that wasn’t possible, so for now, they could only focus on building the account.

While all the income from her own studio belonged to her, the expenses were also high.

She wondered if this user named ‘Zero’ would continue to follow Lin Xin.

Over on Weibo, following the progress of Lin Xin’s live stream that evening, trending topics about her popped up one after another.

Initially, when Lin Xin confronted her scumbag father in the live stream, the trending topic that followed on Weibo was: How Shameless Can a Person Be?

Clicking on the hot search led to major accounts explaining the deeds of Lin Xin’s deadbeat dad, and netizens’ reaction was: [This dad is truly awful! Confront him!]

Unexpectedly, while confronting her father, Lin Xin dropped the bombshell about Lin Wan. The internet instantly became lively, and a new trending topic was added: Actress Lin Wan Born in Wedlock.

At first, netizens misunderstood, thinking Lin Wan had a secret marriage and child. But upon clicking, they saw that a child born in wedlock was receiving the same kind of scandalous treatment as a child born out of wedlock (illegitimate). This was truly rare.

So, netizens began to scold: [It’s normal for Lin Xin not to acknowledge this half-sister, but how can this sister have the nerve to cling to her? How thick is her skin?]

While scolding, the conversation shifted to Lin Xin paying off her father’s debt. Thus, a new trending topic appeared: Lin Xin Gambling Debt.

Another topic misleading the public. Upon clicking, everyone learned that it meant Lin Xin’s scumbag father gambled, and Lin Xin paid the debt.

Netizens who had seen the content of the first two topics naturally expressed their indignation under this one: [Why help him pay? What right does a man who only contributed sperm have?]

[Exactly! Even if it were a deadbeat mom, helping might make some sense. At least the mother carried the child for ten months and went through labor. What the heck is a deadbeat dad!!! I’m so angry.]

[Lin Xin’s grandmother, before she died, asked Lin Xin to help him just once. Lin Xin helped him that time out of respect for her grandmother. Also, the scumbag father borrowed money from many people in the village whom she frequently ran into, and they had helped Lin Xin before. So, after considering multiple factors, she helped him pay it back.]

[Grandma was blind! Why help the scumbag dad! o

[He was her son, after all!]

[Grandma was very good to Lin Xin. I’ve been following Xin Bao since her debut. Xin Bao’s mother remarried and left when she was eight. Xin Bao was raised by her grandmother.]

[And Xin Bao almost drowned once, but her grandmother saved her.]

[o(╥﹏╥)o We would occasionally catch a glimpse of the grandmother in behind-the-scenes footage.]

[When Xin Bao was interviewed on a show as a child, she always spoke so happily about her grandmother.]

[Yes, in such circumstances, for our Xin Bao to still be so kind, it must be because she had a wonderful grandmother!]

[Grandmother was a very important family member to Xin Bao. If it was the grandmother’s request, Xin Bao would surely agree!]

Thus, all the netizens began to empathize. They thought of their own beloved family members and how they would truly do anything for them!

Weibo’s trending topics followed the live stream, and many netizens, watching the developments on the hot searches, couldn’t help but jump back to Douyin and search for Lin Xin’s live stream.

Many netizens also followed Lin Xin directly from the hot search. Meng Kelin successfully converted Lin Haiqi into traffic. This could be considered Lin Haiqi’s compensation to Lin Xin after all these years!

But, to Meng Kelin’s surprise, the trending topics didn’t end there.

Although she had considered that the company behind Lin Haiqi might be Lin Wan’s Tianlei Entertainment, truthfully, making baseless accusations could lead to a defamation charge, and no one would believe them.

If they were to make unsupported claims just to vent and end up with a bad reputation, everything Lin Xin achieved tonight would be for naught.

Therefore, Meng Kelin and Lin Xin had agreed beforehand: without evidence, they would have to swallow the bitter pill.

They explicitly agreed not to mention online that the company behind Lin Haiqi was Lin Wan’s Tianlei Entertainment, and Lin Xin consented.

But they didn’t expect a big-shot user to suddenly appear, one who spoke without any fear.

They named names and revealed everything that could and couldn’t be said. The live stream chat exploded, and when major accounts quickly jumped to Weibo to report the news, it instantly shocked netizens across the platform.

Tianlei Company was bewildered: ??? Where did this person come from?

The senior management at Tianlei initially thought the matter was closed once Lin Haiqi ran off. Did this person who popped up and gifted Carnivals have too much money to spend or too much anger to vent? Why are they targeting us?

The incident was so sudden that Tianlei didn’t have time to react, and even Lin Xin was caught off guard.

But hot searches only care about popularity, and suddenly: What a Big Green Tea Wan (Wan means bowl or Lin Wan), this topic immediately soared past all the previous hot searches and shot straight to #1.

Instantly, the pressure was on Tianlei Company.

[Awesome, awesome. Now I’m just waiting for the VIP in the Douyin live stream to release the evidence.]

[Didn’t they say? They’re waiting for Lin Wan to respond, and if she does, they’ll release it.]

[Maybe they don’t have any evidence?]

[Hey, why not try and find out @LinWanV]

[Hahahaha, that commenter is ruthless.]

[Anyway, we’re just spectators. What loss is there for us if there’s no evidence?]

[Exactly, exactly. Capitalists fighting among themselves; I’m happy to watch the show.]

[@LinWan, hurry up and respond! Otherwise, you’re admitting that you and your dog of a father conspired to frame @LinXin.]

Of course, alongside this topic, there were also discussions about ‘Zero’.

—The Real VIP in Lin Xin’s Live Stream

[More than whether Tianlei Company was involved, I want to know who ‘Zero’ is!]

[Hahahaha, I saw the ending balance. Although I didn’t see many numbers, it was 8 digits!]

[And 8 digits doesn’t represent all their assets. Doesn’t that make you mad?]

[That’s all irrelevant. This ‘Zero’ is too spoiling!]

[Are you a CP fan upstairs?]

[Get out of the discussion thread!]

[This is Lin Xin’s third CP since her comeback, right?]

Meng Kelin saw the sustained high discussion volume, with nearly ten of the top fifty trending spots occupied by their topics.

The feeling in her heart was indescribable! How much money did this save them!!!

She searched the CP super-topic forum and, as expected, found a new one—Ling Xin (Zero-Xin)!

Meng Kelin’s mouth twitched. She couldn’t help but say, “When romance comes, you can’t stop it! Or…” Meng Kelin asked herself suspiciously: “Is my Xinxin truly that compatible with everyone?”

Lin Wan felt like she was being driven crazy ever since she returned to the country.

Tonight’s incident was a devastating blow to her career. Now, she felt like she was being grilled over a fire; whether to respond or not had become a difficult problem.

Lin Wan didn’t dare gamble on whether this big-shot who could gift hundreds of Carnivals had any dirt on her.

But now, not responding was practically a direct admission of guilt.

Looking at her father’s incoming call, Lin Wan couldn’t help but feel wronged, her eyes reddening.

Before she was ten, she genuinely didn’t know Lin Xin was her older sister, her father’s other daughter.

No, more accurately, she knew her father had a daughter in the countryside, but Lin Wan didn’t know that daughter was Lin Xin.

Lin Wan had known from a very young age that her father had another wife and daughter in the countryside, and her mother often got jealous over it.

But because her father was very gentle, he could always placate her mother with a few words.

Moreover, her father treated her well. With the help of her mother’s family, her father quickly started a business.

The family was happy, and her parents were loving. Lin Wan had always felt she lived in a very happy family, even though she knew her father had another family in the countryside.

But her mother had always told her that it was a youthful mistake made by her father, an accidental slip-up with someone else. The child was an accident, but her father was responsible and didn’t leave the mother and daughter adrift.

Under this kind of family education, Lin Wan always adhered to the theory that emotion reigns supreme.

She also deeply believed that love was the foundation of a family.

Before she was ten, her father was successful in his career. Lin Wan, out of her own selfishness, unconsciously regarded herself as superior to Lin Xin.

She imagined that the accidentally born older sister must be a country bumpkin, living a miserable life, unloved by her parents.

Lin Wan even thought she was kind-hearted, as she always pitied this sister and would kindly urge her father to visit them during holidays.

Although, at those times, she would often be fiercely scolded by her mother.

But what happened? In the year she turned ten, her father’s business suddenly failed, and he became addicted to gambling.

Lin Wan’s life deteriorated rapidly. The situation grew worse, and her father’s gambling debt snowballed. At first, her maternal grandparents would help pay it back, but gradually, they realized it wasn’t a solution. Furthermore, the Shen family was just an ordinary family, slightly wealthy, but not rich enough to keep paying debts for a gambler.

Consequently, the family’s situation grew even more dire.

Her parents fought every day, and her clothes and food were no longer as good as before.

When her father could no longer cope, he finally decided to go back and seek help from his daughter.

It was then that Lin Wan learned that the delicate girl who frequently appeared on TV was her older sister.

The one loved by fans across the country, known as the ‘Nation’s Daughter,’ and even strictly monitored against plastic surgery because of her beauty—Lin Xin—was actually her sister?

The day Lin Wan learned this news was when a slice-of-life comedy starring Lin Xin was sweeping the nation.

The enormous disparity instantly crushed Lin Wan.

All her pride disintegrated at that moment.

It turns out I was the clown.

It was also at that moment that the resolve to surpass Lin Xin took root.

This determination grew like a seed into a towering tree. Surpassing Lin Xin virtually became an obsession in Lin Wan’s life.

Yet, ironically, as they grew up, their positions in the realm of love remained unchanged, just like their mothers.

Lin Wan looked at the online abuse directed at her and answered the phone with a trembling hand.

On the other end, her father apologized: “Dad tried his best, but you know she has leverage against me.”

Lin Wan lowered her head and softly mumbled an “Mhm.”

In this world, she could only rely on herself.

Lin Xin slept until dawn, unaware of the tumultuous changes outside.

The heavily criticized Lin Wan and Tianlei Company had yet to respond.

But Lin Xin didn’t care about Lin Wan, so she didn’t track their situation.

The first thing she did after waking up was go downstairs for breakfast, because Ye Linghua once said that a day’s happiness starts with breakfast.

After washing up, she put on comfortable home clothes, dragged her soft slippers, and made her way downstairs.

It was already early winter.

The large tree outside the window, which was lush in the summer, was now sparse, with only lonely branches remaining.

She remembered in spring, Ye Linghua liked to lie on the engawa (veranda) to feel the cool spring breeze, hiding from the summer heat under the cover of thick green leaves, lazily enjoying the slow passage of spring time.

In summer, she would hide in the room with the air conditioner on, hugging a pillow and watching the dappled shadows cast on the engawa through the dense foliage.

Their leisurely days, upon closer thought, only spanned a few months. But she could always find Ye Linghua’s presence in every part of this house.

It was as if this villa was built for her and herself.

Because Ye Linghua’s presence was so strong, Lin Xin could no longer find a trace of Zheng Lanwen in the villa.

Now, Lin Xin stood at the kitchen island, sipping her bitter coffee and thinking: It’s getting cold; I should organize the closet.

She wasn’t sure when she stopped dreading being here alone.

Even though Ye Linghua had vanished from this villa, the beautiful memories they shared made Lin Xin unwilling to change a single thing.

She was afraid that when Ye Linghua returned, she wouldn’t be used to the changes in the house.

Although she had just gone through a major battle yesterday, Meng Kelin had texted her this morning about the current unrest.

But Lin Xin didn’t want to deal with it. She turned to look at the living room. The figure who often lay on the sofa to nap wasn’t there.

Lin Xin couldn’t help but shift her gaze to the shoe cabinet near the entrance…

Finishing her coffee, Lin Xin set the cup down, walked over to the shoe cabinet, and opened the door.

This shoe cabinet was custom-designed by an interior decorator, considering that she and Zheng Lanwen both worked in the entertainment industry and needed many shoes.

It was fully functional, convenient for storage, and maximized the use of space.

Near the door, there was a compartment with only a wooden bar. This was for hanging umbrellas used for coming and going, preventing wet umbrellas from being brought indoors.

Hanging there, besides the ones she initially prepared, the most eye-catching was Ye Linghua’s bright red umbrella.

Seeing the red umbrella, Lin Xin couldn’t help but smile, reaching out to tap the handle, and saying to it: “It’s a good thing you hid well. What would I do if she took you too!”

This was the only thing that wretched Ye Linghua had forgotten, and the only thing she had left to remember her by. But thinking carefully, there was also a packet of tissues Ye Linghua had left.

Lin Xin chuckled. She had thrown those tissues into a drawer upstairs after Ye Linghua gave them to her. Now that she thought about it, that was also one of the last few things she had left to miss her by.

If that was the case, even a packet of tissues should be carefully preserved!

“Ding-dong~”

A sudden chime of the doorbell sounded.

Lin Xin snapped out of her thoughts and looked at the door, frowning curiously.

Meng Kelin hadn’t said she was coming today; she was supposed to be dealing with company matters!

Because of yesterday’s incident, the company was swamped; she was the only one taking a leisurely break.

Who could it be?

Despite her curiosity, Lin Xin activated the video intercom to see the visitor outside.

The cold air of early winter, when it brushed against her face, brought a slight sting.

The scenery outside was desolate, unlike the busy spring. She wondered if a light snow would fall soon.

The visitor outside was wearing a creamy white down jacket, a knit cap, and a mask decorated with stylish calligraphy.