Sweetie, don't look at him, kiss me.

At 8:30 a.m., Lin Qingmian was sitting in the first row of the lecture hall, looking down as she organized her notes and stationery for the class.

"Sleep!"

Yao Yingyu sat down next to her with a smile: "I'll sit in the front row with you today."

As the end of the semester approached, she was unusually eager to put in some effort and sat at the same desk as Lin Qingmian, a top student, to listen attentively in class.

"OK."

Lin Qingmian smiled at her, and just as she lowered her head to open her notebook, intending to find the content the teacher had covered in the previous class, Yao Yingyu started cursing on her phone: "Damn it, what a scumbag and bitch!"

Lin Qingmian raised an eyebrow and turned her head curiously: "What's wrong?"

Yao Yingyu paused for a moment, then shoved her phone screen directly in front of Lin Qingmian's face: "Look!"

"A female celebrity I recently started liking, who just returned to the country, has encountered something like this!"

Lin Qingmian looked up and caught a glimpse of herself in the photo.

The photo shows Su Tingwan knocking on the door of the private room last night, and the way she opened the door for Su Tingwan.

Her face was blurred by media reporters, and Su Tingwan's fans wrote the word "bitch" on her face.

Yao Yingyu was still going on and on in my ear: "You probably don't usually pay attention to this kind of entertainment news. I got to know her from a passionate video in our class's WeChat group a few days ago."

"At first, I thought she was a special actress, but it turns out the video was photoshopped. She and the superstar Ji Xingye are completely innocent; they were just filming. She has also clarified that she has a fiancé."

"Just a few days ago, during an interview, she shyly said that she wasn't leaving after returning to China and planned to marry her fiancé... I never expected something like this to happen!"

Yao Yingyu became increasingly distressed as she spoke, and angrily shouted, "Die, you scumbag! Die, you bitch! Tie them together and drown them in a pig cage!"

The veins on Lin Qingmian's forehead throbbed involuntarily.

She felt she should say something, but when she opened her mouth, she didn't know what to say.

Just then, Lin Qingmian's phone rang.

She pulled out her phone and glanced at it; her heart sank.

The name flashing on the screen was Su Tingwan.

"Sleep."

Just as Lin Qingmian was hesitating whether to answer the phone, Yao Yingyu saw the contact name on her phone.

The woman's eyes lit up instantly: "Qingmian, do you know Su Tingwan?"

Lin Qingmian's heart sank slightly. She told her it was just a coincidence of names, then quickly grabbed her phone and went to the corridor to answer the call: "Miss Su."

"I was just woken up by a call from my agent. I found out I was being followed when I went to the restaurant last night..."

Su Tingwan's voice on the other end of the phone was still gentle and soft, with a touch of languor:

"The situation has escalated significantly, and my agency is urging me to find a way to clarify things as soon as possible..."

The woman paused for a moment, then asked, "Ms. Lin, how do you think I should clarify this?"

As class time approached, the corridor was bustling with students, making a great deal of noise.

Lin Qingmian stood by the window, phone in hand, watching the crowds of people coming and going into the teaching building below. Her voice was indifferent: "What, is Miss Su's agency so struggling that even a rising star like you doesn't have a PR team and needs you to call me for help?"

Probably not expecting Lin Qingmian's attitude, Su Tingwan paused on the other end of the phone, then her voice immediately turned cold: "Of course I have a public relations team, I just want you to cooperate with me..."

"Cooperate with what?"

Lin Qingmian coldly interrupted her: "Cooperate with you, admit that I'm the one who got labeled a 'bitch' online, and then clarify things for you and Ji Linzhou, swearing that I have nothing to do with Ji Linzhou and will never have any contact with him again?"

"And then what?"

"I will face even more severe insults from your fans. I will be watched anytime, anywhere. If I have even the slightest interaction with Ji Linzhou, I will be cyberbullied. I simply cannot live in this city."

"Is this how you eliminate potential rivals?"

The other end of the phone fell silent instantly, with only Su Tingwan's breathing audible.

After a long pause, Su Tingwan finally breathed a sigh of relief and said calmly, "That's not what I meant..."

"So what do you mean?"

Su Tingwan fell silent again.

"Miss Su."

With class time fast approaching, Lin Qingmian was too lazy to waste any more time with her: "I don't know what your relationship with Ji Linzhou is like, and I'm not interested in how far things have progressed between you two."

"If you want to win back Ji Linzhou, you should try to win him back, instead of targeting me and using me as a sacrifice for your relationship."

"otherwise……"

The woman paused, her voice carrying a hint of coldness: "Otherwise, if you anger me, you won't be able to bear the consequences."

After saying that, she hung up the phone, turned off her phone, and went into the classroom as the school bell rang.

The morning classes were foundational courses in fashion design.

Lin Qingmian, unusually, drifted off in class.

With the news making such a big fuss online, Ji Linzhou, the Ji family, and the Lin family... will probably not let her off the hook.

Thinking about these things gave her a headache for no apparent reason.

What happened two years ago has left her with a psychological trauma related to being the center of attention.

I don't want to go through that again.

……

Ji's Group Building.

After the morning meeting, Bai Cheng stood respectfully in front of Ji Linzhou's desk, holding the documents, and explained the day's schedule to him.

"I have a video conference with a multinational company executive this morning, but I have some free time this afternoon. Would you like to meet with Ms. Sleepless, the new designer from the Morning and Evening Line..."

"Um."

While listening to his report, Ji Linzhou absentmindedly looked at the messages that kept popping up on his phone.

The message was sent by his longtime friend, Fu Ssu-nien.

[You just let people say you're a married man with a fiancée? What about your wife? Doesn't she have any thoughts or complaints?]

Ji Linzhou frowned and replied indifferently: 【No.】

No opinions, no temper, never jealous?

Fu Siwen sent a scratching, puzzled emoji: "But I remember she was quite possessive when she was with Ji Xingye."

Seriously? You're not as charming as your nephew?

As messages of gloating from his friends kept pouring in, Ji Linzhou's brows furrowed deeper and deeper, and a sense of annoyance welled up inside him.

After a while, he frowned and opened the chat box with Lin Qingmian again.

The last message they exchanged was the one she mistakenly sent to him when she was kidnapped by her mother.

The news had been circulating all morning; there was no way she hadn't seen it.

He even handled the video she posted on the school forum last time. The current level of online public opinion is something she simply cannot handle.

No one but him could help her deal with these problems.

Is she really that calm?

Are you still angry about what happened last night?