I Was Taken by the Female Lead After Transmigrating into a Book - Chapter 26

Bai Feifei quickly opens the door for Huo Wu. Only after Huo Wu is already inside does she belatedly ask her, “A-Wu, why are you here so late?”

Huo Wu left the hospital in the afternoon and went to the film set. The distance isn’t short. Is she here because she was worried about her? Bai Feifei stares at her without blinking.

Huo Wu doesn’t respond to Bai Feifei right away. She glances at Fu Xiaoxiao, who is holding a golf club, and says in a cold voice, “Slippers.”

Bai Feifei finds a pair of slippers for Huo Wu and follows her inside, completely forgetting that she’s the one who lives here. The slippers are a different style from last time, but they are still a cute pink color. Huo Wu is silent for a moment before she puts them on.

As she enters the room, Bai Feifei follows her like a little puppy. When Fu Xiaoxiao realizes that the person who came isn’t a random stalker who found Bai Feifei’s address, she puts the golf club back in its place and returns to her computer. She has calmed down, but she’s still angry. She rolls up her sleeves and starts typing again.

Bai Feifei temporarily ignores Huo Wu and sits next to Fu Xiaoxiao to look at the screen with her. Huo Wu holds the cup of water that Bai Feifei poured for her in a hurry. She’s silent for a while before she finally walks over to them and glances at Fu Xiaoxiao’s screen. “What is she doing?”

Bai Feifei looks at Fu Xiaoxiao and says hesitantly, “Xiaoxiao saw the news online.” She pats Fu Xiaoxiao. “Xiaoxiao, stop arguing with them. Come here.”

Fu Xiaoxiao reluctantly stops. She cracks her knuckles but doesn’t forget to complain, “But these people are going too far…”

“I know,” Bai Feifei says. “The news they’ve seen is too one-sided, so I can understand why they’re cursing.”

Huo Wu looks at her after hearing that. She says calmly, “You understand?”

Bai Feifei sighs and mutters, “I just understand why they’re cursing. I don’t agree with what they’re doing. Fans and netizens are easily swayed. They can put you on a pedestal for giving up your seat to an old person, and then they can trample you into the dirt because your assistant changes your shoes for you. It’s heaven one second and hell the next. In this industry, you have to get used to it… I was mentally prepared.” Bai Feifei pokes Fu Xiaoxiao, who has stopped fighting and is just lying there, crying. “Got it?”

Fu Xiaoxiao pouts. Her lips are drooping. She doesn’t want to agree. She knows what Bai Feifei said makes sense, but she’s still angry.

Huo Wu is silent for a while after hearing this, but she doesn’t say whether what Bai Feifei said makes sense or not.

Bai Feifei, who was sitting at the coffee table, moves closer to Huo Wu and quietly asks the question she didn’t get an answer to earlier. “A-Wu, why… why did you come here?”

Huo Wu looks up. After a moment of thought, she says, “I was just worried that the things you did would affect the crew. I just came to check on you and ask about the situation.”

Bai Feifei doesn’t get the answer she was hoping for, but she doesn’t get discouraged. She just smiles and says, “I know.” Worried that her things would affect the crew means she was worried about her. Otherwise, Huo Wu should be at the film set, not at her house.

Even though Fu Xiaoxiao has stopped fighting on the computer, she’s still looking at something on her phone. Suddenly, Fu Xiaoxiao has a realization. “Baby, do you remember when these pictures were taken? Judging by the quality and the clothes, they must have been from the past two years. You used to have short hair, but all of these pictures show you with long hair! Do you remember? If you do, we can go check the surveillance cameras!”

Bai Feifei takes Fu Xiaoxiao’s phone and looks at it. She saved all the animated pictures, videos, and clear pictures. She slows them down and compares them frame by frame to see if they are photoshopped or artificially created. But she’s not a professional, so she can’t tell.

Suddenly, Bai Feifei realizes something. She looks up and says, “A-Wu, do you remember this picture?”

It’s the third picture that the paparazzi posted. The animated picture shows Bai Feifei in a red dress being held by three people as she enters an elevator and then a room.

Huo Wu frowns as she looks at it several times. Her eyebrows are furrowed as she says, “That’s the elevator in that hotel for couples.” This is the first and probably last time she’ll ever set foot in a place like that, so the memory is extremely vivid. The elevator is covered in small advertisements, and the entire hotel is filled with a hazy and暧昧 vibe. The air is sweet, and the music is blurry and sensual.

There’s a lot of mosaic in the picture, as if to intentionally hide the identity of the hotel, but even so, it’s still not enough to cover up some of the more obvious things, since her memory is so strong. Huo Wu instantly thinks of what Ji Meng told her last time—that Bai Feifei was framed. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have sent her a text message asking for help. But now, besides the text message, they have no other evidence to prove anything.

Bai Feifei’s phone was lost, and when she got it back, it had been wiped. All the messages are gone, and there’s no way to get them back, not even a single unimportant chat record.

Bai Feifei naturally thinks of this, but she thinks of more than just that. The video was edited. That’s for sure. She almost subconsciously clicks on the “drinking” picture. “When I first saw this picture, I felt like something was wrong… but I couldn’t figure out what…”

She suddenly remembers. In this picture, besides her, everyone else is covered in a mosaic. And because it was taken secretly, the quality is very blurry, but it’s still clear enough to see that the person holding “her” arm is wearing a very unique watch. The watch is expensive. Bai Feifei has seen the same brand of watch before when she went to a watch store. It’s a mechanical watch that costs about 200,000 yuan, and the strap is pure gold. She just saw this watch not long ago.

Fu Xiaoxiao looks at her, and they both say the same name at the same time. “Guo Kuan!”

Bai Feifei instantly says, “This picture is real, and the video is also real, but the reason and the timeline of the dinner must be wrong… How could Guo Kuan have dared to touch the original… my hand two years ago?”

When the original owner was still at the company, because her family was wealthy, most of the company was connected by the Bai family. How could Guo Kuan have the guts to grab her wrist and pull her to a dinner table? This means that the timeline is after the Bai family went bankrupt. Bai Feifei transmigrated not long after the Bai family went bankrupt, which means that the dinner with Guo Kuan and her being pulled to the table happened just recently.

She suddenly has a very strange and absurd thought. Why would the system make the original owner fall into depravity after she left? Even if the system was going to erase this person, there were too many options. Why did it have to choose this path? Was it just to make Huo Wu give up on her completely and feel heartbroken?

Bai Feifei can’t figure it out, and the atmosphere becomes weirdly silent.

Fu Xiaoxiao mutters, “There must be a reason. Before we terminated the contract, my mom even spoke to Guo. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to terminate the contract so smoothly. Uncle Bai is gone, and Auntie is sick, but I’m protecting you, and my mom is protecting you. It’s not Guo’s turn to bully you. If only your phone wasn’t wiped…” But Bai Feifei’s phone was already wiped. There’s no use talking about it now. It just adds to their frustration.

Huo Wu takes out her phone and walks to the balcony. Bai Feifei watches her back and knows she’s making a phone call. She keeps pacing back and forth on the balcony. Her eyebrows are furrowed, one hand is on her waist, and her face is cold. There’s a hint of suppressed anger.

Soon, Huo Wu comes back from the balcony. Her face is colder than before. “I asked. It’s impossible to recover the data in this situation.”

Bai Feifei’s heart sinks. She subconsciously looks at Huo Wu. Huo Wu frowns and takes a big sip of water. She says in a clumsy attempt to cover up her true intentions, “I didn’t do it for you.”

Bai Feifei just smiles. “I know. You said that as soon as you came in.”

Huo Wu glances at her and turns her gaze away. Her eyelashes are thick and dark. They are lowered, making her look deep in thought. She’s giving off a “don’t talk to me or I’ll kill you” vibe. Bai Feifei wanted to say something else, but seeing her like this, she decides not to.

Huo Wu purses her lips and looks at her blurry reflection on the ground. She’s a little frustrated. She said what she wanted to say, but now she’s the one who’s upset. The situation is at a standstill. They are too passive. There are four videos and four animated pictures. Even if they know that two of them were edited, they have no proof, so it’s useless.

After a moment, Huo Wu says, “I have all the surveillance footage from the hotel that day. Ji Meng has been keeping it. I watched all of it today. Your state was clearly not right. All the surveillance cameras in that hotel have sound. The voices of those people were recorded very clearly, and the police have a report of the cause and effect. It’s solid evidence.”

“But one isn’t enough…” Bai Feifei feels a little sad. If they only use this one piece of evidence, netizens can come up with their own conclusions and say that bad people get what they deserve. Even if a girl was drugged, since it’s in the entertainment industry, many people won’t think the incident itself is wrong. They’ll just blame Bai Feifei and say she deserved it.

Huo Wu expected this result. Her face sinks even more when she hears this. The other two are easy to deal with. The smoking picture can be said to be for a photo shoot. No one has any evidence of what they were doing. They just need to take a few more pictures of different people.

Huo Wu looks up and suddenly asks her, “What about the picture of you going to the hospital?”

Fu Xiaoxiao suddenly gets up and says loudly, “That was when my baby went to the hospital for a stomach hemorrhage a while ago! I wasn’t with her for a moment. I went to get her a form, and she went to the inpatient building by herself… And she was photographed in that short amount of time! So someone has been following us this whole time just to take these ambiguous pictures and make up stories…”

There’s no need to think. This is all Yang Sha’s doing.

“Then go check the hospital’s surveillance footage and medical records,” Huo Wu says. “Hospitals keep surveillance footage for a long time. I’ll have Ji Meng go talk to them. As long as the clothes match the date of the hospitalization, this one will also fall apart.” Now, all that’s left is the “drinking” picture.

Huo Wu looks at Bai Feifei. Her voice is difficult. “Why did you…”

Knock knock knock.

The door is knocked on from the outside. The three people in the room stop and look at each other. Huo Wu’s unfinished sentence is interrupted. She opens her mouth but doesn’t continue.

Fu Xiaoxiao rubs her eyes. “Who is it? Auntie Xue? Speaking of which, Auntie Xue hasn’t shown up all day…”

Bai Feifei has already walked to the door and is looking through the peephole. She’s stunned when she sees who it is. Fu Xiaoxiao goes over to join in the fun and pushes her head next to Bai Feifei’s. “Who is it?”

The door opens. Xi Rong and Bai Xue are standing on either side. Each of them is holding a dog. One is a giant, and the other is a Chihuahua. The size difference is very obvious.

Fu Xiaoxiao’s voice is stuck in her throat. She looks at Xi Rong in disbelief and at the two little dog suitcases next to her. She puts her hands on her hips and says, “You actually threw out Jù Wúbà and Xiǎo Kě’ài too! You are so…”

Xi Rong looks at her coldly. Her voice is like ice. “Say one more word, and your card will be taken away. Tomorrow, I’ll make sure these two dogs are homeless.”

Fu Xiaoxiao immediately shuts up and looks up at the sky. She walks to the wall and starts scratching it. Xi Rong stands at the door. Her expression softens when she looks at Bai Feifei. This is the first time Bai Feifei has properly met Xi Rong since she came here. Her eyes turn red as she looks at the capable Xi Rong and says, “Auntie Rong…”

“Good girl,” Xi Rong says, squeezing Bai Feifei’s shoulder. She pulls her into a hug as she walks inside. “Let’s talk inside.”

Bai Xue leads the giant into the room and says, “Why did you name the Chihuahua Jù Wúbà and the pit bull Xiǎo Kě’ài? Your mom laughed at me for a long time when I called them the wrong names when I came in.”

Fu Xiaoxiao doesn’t have time to explain this to her. She doesn’t dare to cause trouble in front of Xi Rong, but among other middle-aged mom groups, she’s definitely the most likable one. She takes Bai Xue’s hand and walks her to the side. “Auntie Xue, I was so angry all afternoon that I forgot about you. Why didn’t you look for Feifei all afternoon? What are we going to do about the people online? Do you have a plan?”

“I already do,” Bai Xue says, patting her shoulder reassuringly. She looks at her red eyes. “You… Feifei hasn’t even cried, but your face is all swollen…”

Bai Xue is not exaggerating. When Fu Xiaoxiao cries, her face swells up. First, her eyes swell, then her mouth, and then her whole head. She looks like she was stung by a bee, and it takes a whole day for the swelling to go down.

“I cried for too long,” Fu Xiaoxiao says, sniffing. She feels a little better after getting a definite answer. She explains to Bai Xue, “Because the Chihuahua is so bossy and fierce, my mom bought it, so I named it Jù Wúbà. Our Xiǎo Kě’ài is so cute and attentive. It’s like a nanny dog. Feifei said I was always getting bullied when I was little, so she specifically bought it for me to be brave. Feifei bought it for me, so it’s Xiǎo Kě’ài. It was so cute when it was little. It just grew up.”

Bai Xue didn’t expect this. She pauses and then says, “But I heard your mom say that Xiǎo Kě’ài hasn’t been very affectionate with Feifei these past few years.”

“She’s more than just not affectionate…” Fu Xiaoxiao also mutters in confusion. “Before, she would wait by the door every Sunday for me to take her to play with Feifei. But these past few years, she doesn’t even like her when she sees her in person. It’s like Feifei is a stranger…”

Fu Xiaoxiao’s unfinished sentence disappears from her lips. Bai Xue is also a little surprised. The pit bull is huge and heavy. It’s even bigger than a full-grown pig. Now, such a big dog is lying on its back on the floor, showing Bai Feifei its most vulnerable and soft part. It’s whining and acting cute. Its paws are on Bai Feifei’s leg, and its tail is thumping the sofa. The sound is soft and cute, which doesn’t match its appearance at all. It’s a very striking sight.

Xi Rong sits next to Bai Feifei and rubs Xiǎo Kě’ài’s head with her. She says almost as a sigh, “It hasn’t seen you in a long time, but it still remembers your scent.”

Huo Wu looks up. Bai Feifei says in a confused voice, “What scent do I have?”

Huo Wu lowers her gaze again. She accidentally makes eye contact with the pit bull on the floor. The pit bull is still for a few seconds. Its tail wags again. Its movements are happy and leisurely. It looks extremely happy.

“You can’t smell it yourself,” Xi Rong says with a smile. She doesn’t talk about the topic anymore. After everyone sits down, she straightens her expression and says seriously, “I’ve seen what’s happening online. Bai Xue found out about the news and came to my house to discuss a plan with me. We already have a general plan. Besides that, I have something to give you.”

Bai Feifei is stunned. “What is it?”

“It’s a memory card. You gave it to me not long after your father passed away,” Xi Rong says, taking out a sealed envelope and giving it to Bai Feifei. The envelope has been opened and is very thin. Xi Rong stares at her and says, “You told me at the time that if a situation like this ever happened, I should give the things in this envelope to Huo Wu.”

Bai Feifei holds the envelope. It feels like it weighs a ton. Xi Rong’s words continue to ring in her ears, as if from another lifetime. “Your tone and state were not good at the time. I couldn’t guess what kind of accident you were talking about. Feifei, I didn’t dare to take the risk, so I came here.”

Bai Feifei lowers her gaze and is silent. She had completely forgotten about this. When she realized she was about to leave, she was worried that Huo Wu wouldn’t be able to accept the huge difference in her personality after the system took over. So she tried to make everything seem logical, making Huo Wu realize that she had made her own choices and that she was a lost cause. This way, Huo Wu wouldn’t have to love her or hate her and could completely cut ties with her and live her own life. But she never expected that the things she left behind would become a lifeline now.

“Baby, your auntie is still here, and your uncle is still here,” Xi Rong suddenly says with a sigh, reaching out and hugging Bai Feifei. She’s a head taller than Bai Feifei. She has a mother’s embrace, and because she works out all the time, Bai Feifei feels small and fragile in her arms, like a child who has found a sanctuary.

Xi Rong suddenly remembers something from a long time ago. It was many years ago, and she was outside an operating room. That year, she was receiving Fu Xiaoxiao’s critical illness notices like a flurry of snowflakes. For the first time in her life, she felt helpless and powerless. She couldn’t cry. All her tears felt like blood that she was swallowing. It was difficult for her to get pregnant with Fu Xiaoxiao. She even stopped working completely during her pregnancy and barely survived to give birth to Fu Xiaoxiao. She thought her suffering was over, but fate played a huge joke on her. At that time, she was completely heartbroken. She couldn’t imagine her closest daughter leaving her, just like her mother did, and living in a small black box, with no warmth, no laughter, and no noise.

But at that moment, Bai Feifei suddenly appeared and said that her blood type matched Fu Xiaoxiao’s and that she could have the surgery right away. She couldn’t imagine how a child who was so naive about the world, life, death, and the future could overcome her psychological barrier and sign the consent form, knowing that she might have an illness for the rest of her life. But Bai Feifei seemed to think nothing of it. After both of them were out of danger, she even smiled and said, “Fu Xiaoxiao and I have been talking about a cemetery for a long time. I thought we were both going to die.”

She thought nothing of life and death, and she thought nothing of being defamed, humiliated, and cursed. So Xi Rong can’t imagine what kind of thing would make Bai Feifei say those things, those words that sounded like a will she left behind when she thought she was going to die.

Bai Feifei’s face is buried in Xi Rong’s arms, so no one else can see her expression. Huo Wu’s hand suddenly tightens. She sees Bai Feifei’s hand gradually grabbing Xi Rong’s sleeve. After a moment, a muffled, suppressed sob comes from there. Huo Wu’s throat swallows a few times. She turns her gaze to the side, feeling a little flustered.

Bai Feifei didn’t cry when Huo Wu gave her a cold shoulder. She didn’t cry when she was sick and in the hospital. She didn’t cry when she found out that Jiang Yuemin was hiding a nail clipper, intending to commit suicide. She didn’t even cry when she was facing overwhelming curses from the entire internet. But with just a few words from Xi Rong, Bai Feifei’s repressed emotions seem to have finally found an outlet.

She puts her index finger on her forehead, pushing down on all the emotions. Bai Feifei quickly calms herself down. She looks up from Xi Rong’s arms. Her eyes are red, and her voice is still a little choked, but she says solemnly and as calmly as possible, “Thank you, thank you, Auntie Rong Rong.”

Huo Wu snatches the tissue from Fu Xiaoxiao’s hand that she was going to use to wipe her tears. She folds it a few times and hands it to Bai Feifei. She says softly, “Wipe your tears.”

Fu Xiaoxiao is startled. She doesn’t even notice the snot bubble that slides down her nose and onto her clothes. Bai Feifei takes it. She looks at Huo Wu like a rabbit and whispers, “Thank you, A-Wu.”

Fu Xiaoxiao is instantly angry. “That’s my…”

Huo Wu says calmly, looking at Xi Rong, “What’s on the card?”

Fu Xiaoxiao opens her mouth. Under the invisible pressure, she pitifully closes her mouth again and reaches for the tissue on the table with her teary eyes.

Xi Rong pauses. “It’s a video, a lot of phone recordings, and screenshots of various messages.”