Financial freedom starts from graduation

Chapter 279 "Scheming" and "Suppression" (Update)

Slender white fingers slid across the screen of the mobile phone. Under the halo of light, the girl's slightly pale face seemed to reveal some traces of blood vessels, like a freshly peeled egg, with a beauty that was on the verge of breaking.

In the slightly dim room, the girl lay on the bed with her tiny feet raised, mechanically swiping her phone, but her often unfocused eyes showed that she was always distracted.

Ding Dong!

As the WeChat notification ring rang, a new message popped up in the group chat of "Cai Yi Times Sisters".

Yu Duo noticed it, but didn't want to click it.

But in the past, she was clearly the most active one.

She still remembered that her parents had always been moving with her and her brother since she was a child, from the state-owned enterprise dormitory at first, to the high-rise building with elevator, to the townhouse, and finally to the single-family manor.

She and her brother Yu Fei kept changing schools, from public to private, from monolingual to bilingual. The tuition fees became more and more expensive, and the way to school became more and more lonely...

Every time when Yu Duo made new friends, she was forced to follow them to the new environment.

She still remembers the funniest thing, that she had just borrowed 100 yuan from a classmate she had just met the day before, and the next day she transferred to another school, and she still hasn’t gotten the 100 yuan back…

Her parents wanted to cultivate some hobbies for her, so she learned cello, painting and singing. Unfortunately, she was only half-baked in everything she learned, and Yu Duo still often felt confused about her life.

Until she didn't do well in the college entrance examination, she entered Caiyi under the arrangement of her parents. According to them, they didn't expect her to be very good, so she just wanted to learn something easy. The family business was left to her brother to manage, and she herself only needed to find a good family of equal status to marry in the future...

Yu Duo didn’t have any ideas of her own, so she just listened to her parents and came to Caiyi College, becoming a freshman in the Broadcasting and Hosting Department.

But the college life that Yu Duo had longed for did not go smoothly during her freshman year.

She initially thought that as long as she treated others with all her heart, others would treat her the same way. Isn't that how sisters and best friends in TV dramas, novels, and comics get along?

At first, her three roommates seemed to be very nice people. They ate together and attended classes together. They chattered about who was the most handsome in the class, who a certain senior student hooked up with, and what role a certain senior student got in Hengdian...

Yu Duo no longer remembers when the change began.

Maybe it started from the day when her brother Yu Fei drove a McLaren P1 to pick her up for dinner. Several roommates were very excited at the time and said something like "Don't forget each other when you become rich and powerful". Until they heard that the man was not her suitor but her biological brother, their faces changed.

It could also be that one day, Yu Duo asked them to go shopping together. Her original intention was to give each of them a bag as a "memorial of friendship", but when they saw that Yu Duo was going to the Jinge Department Store that only sold big brands, they stopped at the same time...

Then Yu Duo suddenly realized that they no longer made appointments to attend classes with her, nor did they discuss gossip with her. The group chat in the dormitory also suddenly became deserted. Until Yu Duo accidentally discovered that they had already set up a small group separately, and they were chatting enthusiastically in it every day, and there were also a lot of "bad words" about her.

"Did you see that during the physical education class today, Yu Duo was acting like a little white flower again. She was the only one who couldn't run, so she acted pitiful!"

"Yu Yang and his group of boys are still clamoring to send her to the infirmary. How ridiculous! They should let his brother drive her there in a McLaren!"

"She also said that she has never been in a relationship. She is obviously a scumbag and spends all day fishing..."

"I heard that these rich girls spend more money than anyone else. Last time I saw her secretly go to the drugstore. Do you think she was going to buy that?"

"..."

Chats like these seem to be commonplace for them, or it is only when the topic is "Yu Duo" that the number of their messages becomes particularly dense.

That day, Yu Duo ran to the rooftop alone and cried sadly for the whole afternoon.

She didn't know what went wrong. The naive girl was bruised all over when she longed for friendship for the first time.

Later, Yu Duo took a three-month leave of absence. When she returned to school, it was already the start of her sophomore year. With Yu Fei's guidance, Yu Duo found a counselor and gave him some gifts. Then, she got together with Shen Yutong and Su Yajing, who also did not get along well with their roommates, and Cui Min'er, an exchange student from Korea, to form a new dormitory.

At the beginning, Yu Duo was very cautious and didn't even dare to reveal the fact that she had 50,000 yuan in pocket money a month. Until one day, when Yu Fei came to pick her up, she was seen by Su Yajing and Shen Yutong who were passing by at the school gate.

Yu Duo's uneasiness continued until she returned to the dormitory at night. Shen Yutong and Su Yajing carried her to a chair on both sides and began to "interrogate" her.

"Well, I don't have much money... I don't know about my parents, but I still have more than one million yuan in New Year's money on Alipay..."

Facing the two girls' questioning, Yu Duo said weakly.

New Year’s money...more than one million?
Shen Yutong and Su Yajing gasped on the spot, and immediately began to accuse Yu Duo of crimes, mainly "acting them", "plastic sisters", "hiding and eating by herself", etc.

Yu Duo agreed to a series of "unequal contracts" without thinking clearly. Of course, the only person who fulfilled the contract on the spot was someone who gave them a lipstick.

Afterwards, Yu Duo found that nothing seemed to have changed. The satisfied Shen Yutong and Su Yajing treated her to a buffet meal on the day they received the lipstick...

The seafood buffet was 688 per person, which was a little cheaper than the lipstick she gave me, but not much cheaper.

Shen Yutong and Su Yajing did not isolate her. On the contrary, the relationship between them became better and better.

Even Choi Min-ah seemed to only like to talk to her about her secrets, and even brought her Korean comic books and discussed the secrets between men and women with her...

She was unfortunate and had never made any true friends, but she was also lucky because as soon as she fell, six hands pulled her up.

The entire sophomore year was the happiest time for Yu Duo since she was born.

Therefore, she cherishes this friendship more than anyone else.

In the past, she was always the most active one in the group of four people. She would tirelessly bring up topics every day and share her every little bit with them. When they responded, Yu Duo would hide there and laugh, feeling extremely satisfied.

But in recent times, everything seems to have changed subtly.

Yu Duo knew that it was not their problem, but that she had changed...

She couldn't help but click on the group chat, and she saw that it was Su Yajing who was complaining in the group:
Sister Ran Ran: "Girls, what should we do? The hotel is going to hold a meeting tomorrow. President Qu hopes that I can also attend and say a few words at the meeting, but I am afraid..."

Sister Tongtong: "You are the top student in the acting department. Why don't you show us your skills and treat it as a movie?"

Sister Ran Ran: "Hehe, that's right, but I can't say anything. Forget it, I'll go to the forum and offer a high reward to buy a speech first~"

Sister Min'er: "@Su Yajing, so Zhou Wang really gave you that hotel worth hundreds of millions?"

Sister Ran Ran: "You can't say it's a gift to me. I'm just helping him take care of it. The pressure is so great that I'm planning to sign up for another class at the Business School."

Sister Min Er: "@Yutong, how is the filming of your TV series going? Do you have an assistant and an agent?"

Sister Tongtong: "I just signed the contract and haven't met my agent yet, but it should be soon..."

Watching the chats of several people in the group, Yu Duo, who was already feeling uncomfortable, wanted to cry even more.

She also wants to participate!
But now, she seemed to be unable to get a word in...

Zhou Wang sent Su Yajing to a hotel and sent Shen Yutong to the crew of "Chu Tianyao", but he didn't care about himself.

Uh...it seems that I can't blame him. After all, I haven't replied to his messages for a long time, and I don't dare to answer his calls. Occasionally, I accidentally liked his circle of friends, which scared Yu Duo so much that she immediately cancelled it, and then she had to pretend to be an ostrich and pray that Zhou Wang didn't see it.

She missed him so much...

But Yu Duo felt that there was nothing about herself that could attract Zhou Wang now, right?
She is not good at talking, and she can't coax people like Sister Ranran. Her bear is also very small, not as sexy as Sister Tongtong. Sister Min'er beats her in every dimension...

She has become poor now and can't even afford to buy a gift for Zhou Wang.

What boy would like her like this?

So she had to restrain herself, so that she wouldn't have to worry about ruining her friendship with Sister Ranran. Maybe she could even be a bridesmaid when they got married in the future!
As Yu Duo thought about it, she began to laugh, and then she started to cry... But she didn't want to be Zhou Wang's bridesmaid!
Ding Dong!Ding Dong!
At this time, a new message popped up in the group chat. Yu Duo wanted to close WeChat, but when she looked down, she was stunned.

Because their topic had shifted from their own "career" to other things without them noticing.

Pictures, links, articles on public accounts, Shen Yutong and Su Yajing were discussing something frantically, their messages flashed so fast that Yu Duo only noticed two names, one seemed to be the name of a female celebrity, and the other was "Zhou Wang".

Zhou Wang...what happened?

Yu Duo's heart tightened, and she quickly scrolled to the top and found the beginning of everything. She didn't know where Su Yajing downloaded it from, but it was a blurry screenshot. The content of the screenshot came from Weibo, and it was a post by a female star named Xia Xiwei, which was posted about ten minutes ago.

@夏曦薇: [It seems that from this day on, my life has an accurate scale. Thank you, Mr. Zhou @周望]

Below are a few pictures.

Su Yajing forwarded the accompanying picture separately. Yu Duo clicked on them one by one. There were three pictures in total. The content of the first picture made Yu Duo bite her lip.

The photo shows Xia Xiwei making a wish in front of a candle, and Zhou Wang is standing next to her, watching with a smile. In fact, there should be some other people in the photo, but somehow, they all appear blurry.

From the perspective of this photo, it seems as if Zhou Wang is the male protagonist who is driving all this and is celebrating Xia Xiwei's birthday.

The second photo was taken in a restaurant. It should be daytime. Xia Xiwei and Zhou Wang were leaning on the railing of the terrace with the azure sea behind them, looking very intimate.

The third photo was taken on a cruise ship. Judging from the angle, it seemed that Xia Xiwei had taken the photo secretly. Zhou Wang was talking to someone nearby. Xia Xiwei was squatting beside him, holding up a mobile phone in one hand and taking the photo of herself and Zhou Wang together. She had a mischievous smile and bright eyes, like a funny girlfriend.

These photos, coupled with the meaningful text, give people a sense of "official announcement".

Yu Duo didn’t know who Xia Xiwei was. After briefly checking her encyclopedia, she quickly opened Weibo and found her account.

However, that Weibo post has been deleted by the other party, as if it was accidentally sent to the wrong person and then quickly withdrawn. Many celebrities have had similar "operations" and it is nothing unusual.

But the Internet is a place with memory, so Yu Duo soon found the corresponding traces in Xia Xiwei’s latest “dynamics”.

Mainly from a lot of comments from fans——

"???"

"I got up early, I must have gotten up early...Xia Xiwei is mine, she's mine!"

"It's over. My beloved Xiao Xia is no longer pure. I can't imagine how happy this man named Zhou Wang must be..."

"I'm offering a huge reward for all the information about this guy. I'm going to kill him!"

"Do we need to offer a reward for this? Don't you know Zhou Wang from Wuyou Media?"

"Ah, so this 'Mr. Zhou' is an internet celebrity?"

"Bullshit, he is a shareholder of Wuyou Media and is said to be a billionaire!"

"No wonder. A rich man and a beautiful woman, a standard combination in the entertainment industry..."

"Girls, someone actually dares to snatch Xiao Xia from us... Hey, this man is quite handsome. Let me go into the enemy camp alone to spy on the enemy. If I don't come back, you don't have to wait for me."

The name "Zhou Wang" kept appearing in a large number of comments.

Yu Duo took another look at the hot searches. Keywords such as "Xia Xiwei official announcement", "Xia Xiwei's original text on Weibo", "Wuyou Media Zhou Wang", and "Chu Tianyao Season 2" have entered the top 100 hot searches on Weibo in just a short while.

Only then did Yu Duo realize that this female star named "Xia Xiwei" was probably very popular in the entertainment industry.

How could Zhou Wang be like this? It was not enough for her to flirt with Sister Tongtong, she also went to the entertainment industry to mess around... How could he be worthy of Sister Ranran by doing this!
"A playboy, a playboy... I'll sit on you to death, sit on you to death!"

Yu Duo picked up the pillow on the small bed, imagined the pillow was Zhou Wang, and started to vent her anger.

dong dong!

At this moment, there was a knock on the bedroom door, and then Yu Duo's mother pushed the door open.

As soon as Yu Duo heard the noise outside the door, she lay back on the bed and pretended to be asleep.

"Duoduo, are you still sleeping?"

Mother Yu walked in, and when she didn't get a response from Yu Duo, she sighed, "Don't pretend to be asleep. Mom knows you're awake. Come with me to buy groceries, just think of it as a way to relax. You haven't been out much since we came to Shanghai. How can you stay at home all day?"

As Mother Yu spoke, she walked to the window and opened it a little to let the remaining sunset shine in.

Yu Duo just kept her head down and said nothing.

Mother Yu walked to the bed again, picked up the pillow on the floor, patted it and then reminded: "After all, this house is rented by us, you still have to be careful not to damage the things in the house, otherwise the landlord will be unhappy..."

After Yu's mother finished speaking, seeing that Yu Duo still didn't speak, she sighed softly, then walked out of the room and closed the door.

Only when her mother's footsteps faded away did Yu Duo suddenly sit up from the bed. Her little face was filled with shock and her mouth was pouting again.

Yes, what does everything about Zhou Wang have to do with me now?

She... doesn't even have a home anymore.

Yu Duo threw her phone aside, turned around and hugged her knees, trying not to think about those messy things.

While Yu Duo was staring at the sunset outside the window, she didn't notice that the Weibo on her mobile phone screen was automatically refreshed as the network signal was briefly stuck.

The next second, the entire Weibo hot search list just disappeared so abruptly...

……

"Pfft...cough cough cough!"

In Beidu, inside Quanjude Wangfujing main store, at a table on the second floor facing the street, Zhou Wang, who was sipping "braised duck tongue and mullet egg soup", almost choked when he heard Lin Ran's report on the phone.

He picked up the napkin and wiped his mouth, then confirmed in surprise: "You mean, the Weibo hot search list is gone?"

"Yeah, just a minute ago, Weibo officials issued an emergency announcement, saying that due to server maintenance, the Weibo rankings will be temporarily suspended and will return to normal in a day."

Lin Ran's tone was also a bit strange.

This is quite a coincidence. The scandal between Mr. Zhou and Xia Xiwei just came out and it suddenly disappeared from the Weibo hot search list.

Of course, Lin Ran didn't think there was any connection between the two. She just felt a little sorry. Although Zhou Wang's attitude towards this matter was unclear, Xia Xiwei's popularity was enough for Zhou Wang to earn a lot of traffic for nothing.

Zhou Wang's Weibo account doesn't even need to be managed, and it has already gained tens of thousands of fans out of thin air. This chain reaction will also spread to Douyin. As long as it ferments, it may be better than Zhou Wang shooting a hit video himself...

"Okay, I get it. It seems I don't need to respond specifically, which saves me some trouble."

Zhou Wang thought this was a good thing. Although he didn't care, after all, there was nothing wrong between him and Xia Xiwei, and there was no need for others to misunderstand him.

He didn't know if Xia Xiwei had lost her mind, why would she suddenly post such a message.

After hanging up the phone with Lin Ran, Zhou Wang looked up. Across from him, Ding Yi was still patiently helping him wrap the roast duck with a roll. Noticing Zhou Wang's gaze, she smiled and looked over. "Did something happen? You seem to be reacting so strongly?"

"It's all right now, just a little farce..."

Zhou Wang didn't explain. After all, he hadn't told Ding Yi about this matter just now, and there was no need to mention it again since it was in the past.

Ding Yi did not ask any further questions. He just smiled and handed the roast duck in his hand to Zhou Wang. "Here, try it quickly. The first bite is the most important. Eat it slowly!"

"Okay, thank you!"

Zhou Wang took the roast duck, took a bite, and then gave Ding Yi a thumbs up, "The roast duck is average, but the way you rolled it is delicious."

Ding Yi just laughed, "Hehe," with a cocky look on his face, as if to say "Of course."

While Zhou Wang was concentrating on cooking the roast duck, Ding Yi's phone suddenly rang. She picked it up and saw, as expected, a WeChat message -

Sister Xiwei: "Yiyi, is this... interesting?!"

(End of this chapter)