When the Heartthrob Meets the Cold-Hearted Ex - Chapter 36

Ever since Tang Yeran moved out of Su Yang’s home that day, their interactions had been reduced to occasional exchanges on social media.

Recently, Su Yang’s social media feed had been evolving from a pet-focused account toward beauty content.

Without fail, she posted a nine-grid collage every day, photos featuring not just her cats, but herself as well.

There were pictures of her holding a cat, petting a cat, or standing alone by the window, radiant yet melancholic.

Though her makeup in these photos was subtle, it was always meticulously done. One could easily compile them into a soft glam tutorial.

From a single selfie at the beginning to now filling entire nine-grid collages with her face, Tang Yeran was genuinely impressed by the sheer narcissistic flamboyance of a certain someone.

Still, she had to admit Su Yang had good genes and a decent eye for photography. Many of these photos could easily serve as aesthetically pleasing phone wallpapers.

Of course, Tang Yeran wasn’t the type to use someone else’s photos as her wallpaper. At most, she saved a few well-shot ones for future inspiration.

Another weekend arrived, and Tang Yeran found herself at a newly opened trendy snack shop, where An Xin had been waiting for some time.

The moment she spotted Tang Yeran, An Xin eagerly ushered her to the table and declared grandly, “Order whatever you want today, my treat.”

That tone alone made it clear: this wasn’t just a casual meetup.

Tang Yeran picked a signature combo and a house-made drink before sliding the menu back to An Xin. “State your business.”

Having been friends for years, they didn’t need to dance around the subject. An Xin quickly placed her own order and got straight to the point.

“I called you here today because there’s something important I need your advice on.”

Tang Yeran nodded for her to continue.

“So… I have a friend whose birthday is coming up, but I have no idea what to get her.”

Tang Yeran: ?

That’s it?

“Aren’t I your friend too? You’ve never missed giving me a birthday gift.”

An Xin waved her off. “It’s different. This friend of mine is young, successful, and already well-off. I feel like ordinary gifts won’t impress her.”

Ah, so a wealthy socialite. Tang Yeran rested her chin on her hand, thinking. “Gifts depend on the person. So, what does this friend of yours do?”

“She works at a gaming company.”

Tang Yeran nearly dropped her cup. “Su Yang?!”

“Ugh, no! Why does everything have to be about Su Yang with you?” An Xin denied it vehemently. “But she does share a lot of similarities with Su Yang, which is why I’m asking you.”

The realization dawned on Tang Yeran belatedly. “This ‘friend’ of yours wouldn’t happen to be CEO Xu, would it?”

The moment the words left her mouth, a suspicious blush flashed across An Xin’s face confirmation enough.

Well, well. Last time, when Xu You came by with a handbag while wearing An Xin’s clothes, Tang Yeran had already sensed something was off.

And now, less than a month later, she’d become a “special friend” who could make An Xin blush just by mentioning her name.

Seeing her friend’s genuinely troubled expression, Tang Yeran resisted the urge to tease her and offered sincere advice instead.

“Honestly, gifts don’t need to be expensive just thoughtful. Think back carefully. When does she usually seem happiest?”

An Xin pondered thoughtfully upon hearing this, “Hmm~ It seems like she’s always happy when we hang out together, so it’s hard to tell when she’s happiest.”

Tang Yeran: …

Why did she suddenly feel like she’d been shown off at for no reason?

Irritated, she tossed out a remark, “Since she’s happy with you around, why don’t you just gift yourself to her then?”

At exactly seven o’clock, her phone vibrated. Tang Yeran opened WeChat to check Su Yang’s Moments, but after refreshing repeatedly, the content remained unchanged from yesterday.

An Xin seriously considered the “proposal” Tang Yeran had just made, mulling over its feasibility.

When she looked up again, she saw Tang Yeran incessantly refreshing WeChat on her phone. Curious, she leaned in and asked, “What are you looking at?”

“Checking on my Yuanbao,” Tang Yeran replied, clicking refresh once more with no change, which annoyed her.

“Yuanbao? You mean that little yellow cat Su Yang keeps? Come to think of it, she hasn’t posted any updates about the cat in ages.” An Xin traced a cat’s head on the table with her finger.

“But she posts every day, doesn’t she?” Tang Yeran opened a photo of Yuanbao from yesterday to show her.

“No way, she hasn’t posted for over half a month.” An Xin also opened her WeChat Moments. After comparing for a few seconds, they suddenly realized.

“Ew, ‘visible to certain people only’,” An Xin exaggeratedly rubbed her shoulders as if she couldn’t stand it.

Tang Yeran flushed with embarrassment and forcefully changed the subject, “Let’s get back to that birthday gift idea from earlier…”

After finally steering the conversation away, Tang Yeran ended up chatting with An Xin outside for two hours.

Once home and freshened up, she habitually opened Moments again, still no updates.

Her initial irritation turned to worry: Had something happened to that person?

Pacing around her room alone, Tang Yeran grew increasingly uneasy. Out of humanitarian concern, she decided to make a video call to check in.

The call rang for over ten seconds before being answered, revealing Su Yang’s refined but slightly weary face on the screen.

Surprised yet secretly pleased to see the caller, Su Yang asked, “Ranran?”

Tang Yeran noticed the background in the video seemed to be Qianhe’s office. The question she had intended to ask now had its answer Su Yang was clearly swamped with work.

Staring at the person on the screen, Tang Yeran struggled before blurting out something pointless, “Still busy?”

Two loose strands of hair by Su Yang’s cheeks partially obscured her eyes. She tucked them behind her ears to appear more alert.

Touched by the concern, she smiled faintly, “Yeah, with the new event for Shining Candy lately, things have been hectic. It’ll settle down in a couple of days.”

Though Su Yang tried her best to seem relaxed and cheerful, Tang Yeran’s sharp eyes caught a faint crease between her brows proof of frequent frowning recently.

Everyone has their troubles. If Su Yang didn’t want to share, Tang Yeran couldn’t and had no right to press further.

In the end, all she could offer was a generic reminder, “Make sure to eat once you’re done. Health is the foundation of everything for people and cats alike.”

Su Yang smiled warmly, “Don’t worry, I asked Aunt Zhang to drop by today to refill Yuanbao’s cat food.”

When someone puts it that way, it seems she had no reason to linger. “Oh, alright then. I won’t disturb you any further. Goodbye.”

“Mhm, bye Ranran. And one more thing.”

Just as Tang Yeran was about to hang up, a voice came through the phone.

“You were never a disturbance.”

Honestly, why did he have to say it with such a tender look in his eyes?

Tang Yeran ended the video call but couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

Su Yang had always been busy, but she thrived under pressure, a bit of a workaholic at heart.

This time, though, despite her natural composure, the unease between her brows was unmistakable. It seemed she had genuinely run into some trouble.

After a moment’s thought, Tang Yeran opened Weibo and searched for “Shining Candy.” The results showed only a handful of sparse promotional posts, its popularity starkly mismatched with its status as one of the most trending games recently.

She then tried “Qianhe Entertainment” as the search term now that brought up a storm.

#NewWuxia Outfits Plagiarized, #Dissecting the Chaos in Gaming Through the Tang Costume Incident

Though none of these hashtags explicitly mentioned “Qianhe,” every post under them linked back to Qianhe Entertainment.

Tang Yeran clicked in and skimmed through. The producer of the 3D MMORPG New Wuxia had publicly called out Shining Candy, accusing them of copying their designs for the recent wuxia collaboration outfits. They even posted several comparison images, at first glance, the resemblance was uncanny.

And timeline-wise, New Wuxia had indeed released those outfits earlier.

Borrowing assets between games wasn’t uncommon, but Shining Candy was the current dark horse sensation, while New Wuxia was backed by TunTun, a veteran powerhouse in the industry.

Once these two companies clashed, the internet was bound to erupt with spectators.

Gamers were fiercely protective of their favorite titles, and plagiarism was a sore spot. TunTun capitalized on this, penning a lengthy exposé lambasting Qianhe with images and arguments.

The post had gone up in the evening and was already “exploding” by nightfall.

Given the gaming community’s usual pace, this rapid spread beyond its initial circle reeked of orchestration Tang Yeran wasn’t buying the organic hype.

The top comments under the post were all bashing Qianhe and Shining Candy. Though Tang Yeran, with years of experience, could spot the hired trolls at a glance, many netizens had already been swayed. Reactions ranged from confusion to outrage, with others waiting for an official response.

Tang Yeran zoomed in on the game screenshots. The designs looked oddly familiar.

She hadn’t played either game.

After some thought, she dug through her old collections, scrolling back two years in a folder named Tang and found the match.

Well, well. The outfits in New Wuxia were practically carbon copies of the costumes from the historical drama Great Tang Chang’an.

If anyone was guilty of plagiarism, it was New Wuxia replicating Great Tang Chang’an at a 1:1 scale.

But this only proved New Wuxia was in the wrong, it didn’t absolve Shining Candy.

Tang Yeran dug deeper, checking the behind-the-scenes footage of Great Tang Chang’an. The costume designer had stated all outfits were historically accurate, based on ancient records.

She flipped through the reference materials one by one and finally discovered that the elements shared between Shining Candy and New Wuxia such as hairpins and the styles of ruqun were all highly popular during the Tang Dynasty.

Though the designs appeared similar, the details were vastly different.

However, Great Tang Chang’an, which had been copied 1:1 by New Wuxia, not only matched in style but also mirrored every intricate pattern.

How had no one noticed such an obvious issue?

Tang Yeran clicked into the Weibo accounts of several bloggers who had previously been supportive of Shining Candy. Some were still on the fence, while others were speaking up for Shining Candy.

But what was interesting was that this time, any positive Weibo posts containing the hashtag Shining Candy had their comment sections blocked and their likes reduced to an absurdly low number.

Tang Yeran tried to like one of the posts but found it impossible.

It seemed the hashtag Shining Candy had been temporarily restricted by Weibo.

Watching the rising popularity of the negative hashtags, Tang Yeran began to form a plan.

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