After Being Scummed – Chapter 78

Have you met a 19-year-old named Yin Bai?

In addition to winning the Best New Director Award, 《Madam》 also won awards for Best Original Script, Original Music, Best Supporting Actress, and more… In contrast to the glory of the entire film crew receiving awards, fans feel even more regret for the injured and hospitalized Zuo Jingyou.

Fans transformed into Sherlock Holmes and dug out that the man who committed the crime on the scene was a secret fan of Xiao Nian. It was as if they had the eye of God and suddenly understood the unexpected injury to Zuo Jingyou, perhaps stemming from an emotional dispute.

A well-known influential internet user made a guess: Xiao Nian’s secret fan, due to disliking the relationship between Yin Bai and Xiao Nian, launched a retaliatory attack on Yin Bai under multiple pressures. As a result, Zuo Jingyou protected Yin Bai from harm and took the blow for her.

In summary: The situation between Xiao Nian and Yin Bai might be true. Zuo Jingyou didn’t care about these matters, and her love for Yin Bai is genuine.

After this speculation came out, it spread widely on various forums. Regardless of whether the situation between Xiao Nian and Yin Bai is true or not, when you see Zuo Jingyou unhesitatingly throwing herself over Yin Bai to protect her, who wouldn’t say it’s true love?

Many netizens who were spectating felt deep sighs. No matter how you analyze it, it can only prove that Zuo Jingyou, who subconsciously saved someone, is a very good person.

Even if the haters bring up a lot of dirt to smear her, it can’t compare to this action that strikes directly at the hearts of people. After all, Zuo Jingyou’s act of saving someone is real, while the dirt is nothing but fabrication.

For a moment, there were more posts on Weibo expressing hopes for Zuo Jingyou’s safety.

With public opinion fermenting like this, Zuo Jingyou had no choice but to post on the internet: “Thank you to the committee for the recognition, thank you to my manager and my friends and family for their support, thank you to Miss Yin Bai for her generous sponsorship, thank you to the staff for their efforts… It is my honor to receive this award, and it is also an inspiration to me. In the future, I will work even harder to make better films. [Cheer][Cheer]”

The post also included a photo of her manager, Kong Tianyi, accepting the award on her behalf. After delivering her acceptance speech, Zuo Jingyou commented on her injury in the comments section: “The doctor said it’s not too serious. Fans and followers, please don’t worry too much about me. I just need to rest for a while, and I’ll be fine~”

Her tone still carries a strong sense of optimism and resilience, without a trace of playing the victim. Yin Bai, sitting beside her with a gloomy face, says to Zuo Jingyou, “You were seriously injured, why didn’t you say anything?”

Just like last time, she keeps everything to herself, which hurts Yin Bai deeply.

Zuo Jingyou puts down her phone, nestles into Yin Bai’s embrace, and gently smiles, her arms around Yin Bai’s waist. “It’s not that serious. I’ll be fine. Besides, haven’t I already been acting spoiled with the person I love?”

Yin Bai bites her lip and looks at Zuo Jingyou with a hint of resentment. “You really know how to use sugar-coated words… Even the most worried feelings are soothed away by you.”

Yin Bai sighs and leans down to kiss Zuo Jingyou’s lips, whispering, “I’ll be here with you tonight. Just rest assured and sleep.”

Zuo Jingyou nodded and said, “Okay.”

After a restless night, Zuo Jingyou was indeed tired. After having Yin Bai help her clean up, they embraced each other and no longer cared about the future troubles as they fell asleep.

They slept peacefully through the night. When they woke up in the morning and Yin Bai accompanied Zuo Jingyou for breakfast, Yin Bai suddenly received a call from Zhang Yu. Zhang Yu sounded particularly excited on the phone, saying, “Boss, Boss, are you awake? Check Weibo! Check Weibo!”

Yin Bai sighed helplessly, “What happened again? Didn’t I tell you to sue all those haters in court?”

Zhang Yu spoke in an incoherent manner due to excitement, “No… it’s not the haters, it’s Teacher Xiao Nian!”

Xiao Nian?

Yin Bai furrowed her brows and said to Zhang Yu, “Are you not awake yet? Teacher Zuo is still by my side, and you want me to go check on Xiao Nian? Please have some common sense and clear your mind!”

Zuo Jingyou, who was beside her, raised her head upon hearing the name Xiao Nian and asked softly, “What’s going on?”

Yin Bai shrugged her shoulders and replied, “It’s nothing. Probably not something important.”

Zhang Yu on the other end of the phone sighed and anxiously said, “In short, Xiao Nian is live-streaming on Weibo. If you don’t go watch it, you’ll regret it!”

What kind of regrettable thing is this?

Yin Bai thought to herself that if Zuo Jingyou were to leave her now or be bothered by this, she would regret it for the rest of her life! Yes, she was the kind of woman who easily changed her mind, and her heart now took the form of Zuo Jingyou!

Without hesitation, Yin Bai hung up on Zhang Yu. She muttered to herself, wondering if Zhang Yu’s mind was not clear. How come she wasn’t clever at all now?

Zuo Jingyou raised her gaze and looked at Yin Bai. “Zhang Yu asked you to watch Teacher Xiao Nian’s live stream?”

Yin Bai widened her eyes and said in astonishment, “You heard that?” After speaking, she mumbled, complaining about how the reception on her phone was so bad that you could hear everything.

Zuo Jingyou curved her lips into a smile and said, “It’s because my hearing is so good.”

Saying that, Zuo Jingyou reached out, picked up her phone, and with the spoon still in her mouth, she tapped the screen lightly to open it. She cheerfully said, “Anyway, there’s no morning program, so since Zhang Yu asked you to watch, just go ahead and watch.”

Yin Bai was dumbfounded. “Don’t you mind?”

Zuo Jingyou glanced at her, a smile playing on her lips. She said, “If I minded such things, do you think I would still be with you? Who hasn’t loved a few people when they were young?”

As Zuo Jingyou spoke, she opened Xiao Nian’s Weibo and directly joined the live stream.

After a brief internet hiccup, Xiao Nian, wrapped in a white bathrobe, with her black hair cascading down, nestled on the couch. The late-April sunlight was bright, and she swayed her tall glass as she lounged in the springtime, looking at the screen with a gentle smile. She softly spoke, “I’ve seen quite a few photos… claiming that she has a tendency for abuse… that my injurites are caused by her temperament…”

“But that’s not the truth at all. On the contrary, she’s a very gentle person. Those injuries were all from filming… “

“You’ve probably seen the photos of her holding my hand, dragging me away from the set. The bruises on my wrist weren’t caused by her; they were from an accidental whip strike by an extra during a scene in 《Cold Night》…”

“At that time, I had been working on the set for about seventeen or eighteen hours… She was worried about me, so she pulled me away…”

After Xiao Nian finished speaking, she took a sip of red wine, then turned her gaze to the screen, her eyes shimmering with a watery glint as she said, “I decline interviews from the media, not because I think it’s a bad experience. I just don’t want our relationship to be misunderstood.”

“It’s not that she financially supports me; it’s that I chose her. Without her, I wouldn’t be where I am today…”

“From the lowest rungs of this industry, I’ve climbed up to where I am now. Besides the hardships of acting, I haven’t experienced what other actors have gone through…”

“She’s not as unbearable as you think, and I’m not as tragically noble as you imagine…”

“Do you really understand Yin Bai? Do you know who she is? Have you met her when she was 19? Do you know how pure her eyes are?”

“She’s my Little Prince, but I’m not her Little Rose…”

Xiao Nian’s eyes shimmered with watery glints, and the emotions within seemed genuine. Zuo Jingyou noticed the deep affection in her eyes and turned her head to look at Yin Bai.

Yin Bai bit her lip and stared at the barrage of comments continuously scrolling on the phone screen. Each message pointing out Xiao Nian’s vanity and materialism felt like a sharp sword piercing through the screen.

However, she chose to turn a blind eye, using a slightly tipsy state to reveal their unknown past.

Letting out a sigh, Yin Bai reached out and turned off Zuo Jingyou’s phone. She looked at Zuo Jingyou and said, “Teacher Zuo, her years of reputation are going to be ruined in an instant. Not to mention the endorsement deals she took and the upcoming film project… They’re all likely to go down the drain…”

“What do you think she’s aiming for with all this?”

Since she was so resolute and didn’t give her any consideration at the beginning, why is she doing this now?

Why?

Zuo Jingyou let out a sigh, patting Yin Bai’s shoulder and said, “What else could it be? Don’t you understand it in your heart?”

“She once… loved you too…”

It’s just that it was too late, everything was too late.

On that morning, Weibo collapsed due to Xiao Nian’s live broadcast, causing a frenzy.

In an instant, Xiao Nian’s fans started unfollowing her, and some business partners who sensed trouble demanded compensation and the termination of endorsement deals. Xiao Nian’s capriciousness left her entire team overwhelmed and exasperated.

Among the numerous screenshots circulating, the most widely shared one was a video clip from Xiao Nian’s live stream. She was dressed in a white bathrobe, nestled on the couch, murmuring while looking at the sunlight outside the window, “Back then, I was too young and too proud to discern what a person’s true intentions were.”

“I always thought that all she wanted was a rose, to be admired in the garden.”

“I never truly understood how much time, effort, and care she invested in me.”

“Only after… a long time had passed did I understand what her true intentions were.”

“I came to know that her love was genuine.”

Xiao Nian looked up, a tear rolling down from the corner of her eye. “She once asked me if there was a moment when I loved her.”

“I deeply regret that I never told her how many times I fell in love with her, far more than the times I developed feelings on set. But I was too young, too proud, and too full of self-esteem…”

“She never hurt me, and I also hope that others won’t hurt her because of me.”

Xiao Nian sighed and looked at the screen as if speaking to Yin Bai from afar, “Yin Bai, farewell. You must be happy, no matter what.”

When the live stream ended, Zuo Jingyou posted a Weibo message, mentioning Xiao Nian, “She once said to me, ‘Have you seen the 21-year-old Xiao Nian? On stage, she surpasses any rose in beauty. I fell in love with her at first sight.'”

This is insane! This is insane! A group of netizens who were eating melon seeds have been driven crazy by the love, hate, and conflicts between these three women.