After Being Scummed – Chapter 30
by Little PandaInteresting~
Zuo Jingyou, following the address Yin Bai gave her, changed her clothes, went downstairs to the front desk, and asked the hotel staff to drive her there.
After dinner, the very playful children tugged at the adults, wanting to go for a walk to help digest their food. Considering it was Zuo Jingyou’s first time seeing this city, Yin Bai went along with the children’s wishes, holding their hands as they walked through the crowded1 streets.
The winter night was very cold, but this beautiful and historic city, under the deep night sky, was made incredibly lively by the brilliant city lights.
The splendid lights illuminated every corner of the city, clearly showing the remaining snow that had been swept to the sides of the streets. Yin Bai, holding a cane in one hand and Wenwen’s hand in the other, walked along an avenue lined with trees covered in icicles, turning her head to discuss the city’s long history with Professor Sun beside her.
Those brilliant lights shone out from the windows of distinctive Baroque buildings, landing on icicles of various shapes and snowdrifts, refracting into a myriad of colors. These diffused lights enveloped the entire city, inexplicably making one feel as if they were in a fairytale ice and snow world; it was truly magnificent.
Zuo Jingyou walked beside Professor Sun, holding Tongtong’s hand, listening to Yin Bai and Professor Sun’s conversation, and chiming in from time to time with a few remarks about the city’s history.
They talked about the glorious era of Baroque, then moved on to Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and so on, and then mentioned Strauss’s 《The Blue Danube》…
Yin Bai was surprised to find that Professor Sun, just like herself, was very fond of music and opera.
Yin Bai was very happy and immediately extended an invitation: “Professor, if you have time, how about we go to the grand theater to listen to an opera together next time?”
Professor Sun’s eyes crinkled with a smile. “Alright, as long as I have time next time.”
Zuo Jingyou, watching this from the side, smiled but said nothing. Teacher Yin’s charm is really something, she thought. It’s only been a day, and she’s already managed to become friends with Professor Sun.
They walked for quite a while, and at a street corner, they unexpectedly bumped into Zuo Jingyou’s fans.
It was two young girls, wearing hats and gloves in the dead of winter, bundled up tightly. They darted over from a nearby commercial street, excitedly rolling like balls in front of their group. Their big eyes blinked as they looked at Zuo Jingyou, asking with anticipation and surprise, “Is… is it Teacher Zuo… You’re Teacher Zuo Jingyou, right?”
The group, suddenly stopped, looked at the two young girls in front of them, all stunned for a moment.
Yin Bai subconsciously turned her head to look at Zuo Jingyou beside her. Zuo Jingyou was wearing a fluffy white hat and a puffy black down jacket, her entire face buried in a scarf, revealing only her bright eyes.
For fans to recognize her even when she wasn’t showing her face, that was truly genuine love.
Thinking this, Yin Bai sized Zuo Jingyou up carefully again. She realized it wasn’t actually that strange for fans to recognize Zuo Jingyou.
After all, compared to her usual radiant appearance on camera, Zuo Jingyou, almost without makeup at this moment, exuded a kind of elegant and beautiful charm. Even without makeup, her tall, slender figure and exceptional grace couldn’t be hidden, even when wrapped in a down jacket that looked like a sack.
A beauty like her would naturally attract the attention of passing tourists. It wasn’t strange at all that someone noticed her.
Thinking this, Yin Bai, holding Wenwen’s hand and her cane, tacitly took a step to the side with Zhang Yu.
Anyway, Zuo Jingyou’s fans were looking for her. They would just keep quiet for a bit, let Zuo Jingyou properly appease her fans, and then continue walking.
Just as Yin Bai was thinking this, she saw Zuo Jingyou beside her blink, her long eyelashes fluttering, and say with a straight face, “You two little ones, you’ve got the wrong person. That’s not me~”
When she said this, not only Yin Bai but even Professor Sun couldn’t help turning to look at her.
Hey, you can’t just lie through your teeth2 like that!
Hearing her say this, the two little girls’ expressions immediately fell. “Ah… I’m sorry… We really thought you looked a lot like her…”
Although the little girls were very sad, they still quickly apologized to Zuo Jingyou.
Yin Bai looked at Zuo Jingyou, who remained unfazed beside her, and silently took another step to the side with her cane. Hurry up and coax them, she thought. Those two little girls are about to cry!
Zuo Jingyou noticed the two kids really looked like they were about to cry. She raised her hand, pulled down her scarf, and said with a sweet smile, “Alright, alright, I was just teasing you. It is me.”
The two little girls, who had looked like wilted bok choy after a snowfall3, immediately cheered up. They jumped up and down, their faces full of excitement, saying, “Wow! It really is Teacher Zuo!”
They suppressed their excitement, saying things like how happy they were, then turned their gaze to Tongtong beside Zuo Jingyou, their eyes shining with excitement. “This… this couldn’t be little Tongtong, could it?”
Zuo Jingyou had always protected her child very well, never allowing the media to leak Tongtong’s photos. Therefore, even though Tongtong had grown so much, the only picture of her on all social media was one of her little feet.
Zuo Jingyou smiled gently. “Mm, yes, it’s Tongtong.” As she spoke, she reached out and stroked the back of Tongtong’s head, saying softly, “Tongtong, say hello to the big sisters.”
Tongtong looked up at the two girls, her big eyes blinking, looking incredibly well-behaved. “Hello, big sisters.”
The two girls’ hearts melted. They clutched their chests, their eyes filled with a motherly glow. “Tongtong is so well-behaved! So cute, she looks just like Teacher Zuo!”
The two girls chattered away, showering Tongtong with a ton of compliments4. Tongtong got a little embarrassed and hid behind Zuo Jingyou.
Seeing how bitterly cold it was, Zuo Jingyou asked the girls if they were cold and what they were doing in Austria. The two girls replied that they were students there and hadn’t gone home for the Spring Festival.
Zuo Jingyou praised them for being excellent students. Seeing their red noses, she reminded them to wear more clothes.
The girls were ecstatic; they didn’t care if it was cold or not, they just wanted to talk more with Zuo Jingyou. “What about Teacher Zuo? Are you here for tourism, Teacher Zuo?”
Zuo Jingyou nodded. “Mm, with family and friends.”
The two girls had long noticed Professor Sun, Yin Bai, Zhang Yu, Xiang Qiu, and the others nearby. Seeing them, they somewhat reservedly called out, “Hello, Auntie. Hello, big sisters.”
Everyone replied in unison, “Hello.”
Zuo Jingyou felt a bit helpless. Thinking they had talked enough, she decided to end the conversation. “It’s too cold. We’ll walk a little longer and then head back. You two should hurry back too.”
Zuo Jingyou thought for a moment and added, “Meeting is fate. Would you like to take a picture with me?”
The two girls were so happy their faces turned red, but they still asked cautiously, “Can we, Teacher Zuo?”
Zuo Jingyou nodded. “Of course, you can!”
Zuo Jingyou let go of Tongtong, letting her hold Professor Sun’s hand. She then put her arms around the two girls, one on each side, and took a few group photos on the charming night streets of Vienna.
The young girls were very happy after being treated so nicely. As they were leaving, they asked Zuo Jingyou if they could post the photos on their Moments5. Zuo Jingyou smiled, her eyes crinkling. “Sure… Go on back, be careful on your way.”
The young girls showered her with more compliments before reluctantly leaving.
Once the girls left, Professor Sun glanced at her from the side and teased, “Well, isn’t that something? Bundled up like a ball, and people still recognized you.”
Zhang Yu also remarked with emotion, “Teacher Zuo is so popular! She has fans everywhere she goes.”
Yin Bai chimed in, “Isn’t that right? In such a cold winter, in a foreign country with so much snow, she can still be recognized.”
Yin Bai gave a thumbs-up. “Teacher Zuo, you’re this.” She winked at Zuo Jingyou and said teasingly, “An international superstar!”
Following Yin Bai’s lead, everyone else simultaneously gave Zuo Jingyou a thumbs-up with teasing praise on their faces.
Zuo Jingyou didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She raised her hand to her forehead and said helplessly, “Alright, alright, I’ll start wearing a mask when I go out tomorrow, okay?”
But Yin Bai didn’t let go of the chance to tease her, adding, “Wearing a mask to go out—Teacher Zuo truly is an international superstar.”
This person really…
Zuo Jingyou bit her lip, shot her a playful glare, and said with exasperation, “You’re so annoying!” Acting like this, you’re not so cute anymore, friend!
This little interlude disrupted the rhythm of their earlier casual chat. Coupled with the cold weather and concern that Professor Sun and the children might catch a cold, they hailed a cab and returned to the hotel.
But no one expected that this small interlude would lead to an extremely dramatic event.
Not long after they left, a student studying in Austria updated her Weibo: “Super lucky today, I actually met Teacher Zuo Jingyou! She even took a photo with us! 【Picture】”
The comments below were full of excited cries, all expressing envy, jealousy, and admiration. One comment asked why Zuo Jingyou went to Vienna, and the poster patiently replied: “Teacher Zuo came with her family, bringing Tongtong and her girlfriend. One of them is very tall, has super pale skin, especially long eyelashes, and very big eyes. She looks like she should be a foreigner, with an amazing aura. I secretly looked at her for a long time.”
Under this reply, there was another wave of envy, jealousy, and admiration. People said they envied her for seeing Tongtong and asked what Tongtong looked like. The poster said she looked like Zuo Jingyou, not like the scumbag ex-husband. A few were curious about how beautiful that foreign girlfriend was, to make the poster get distracted looking at someone else even when facing Zuo Jingyou.
The poster was an outspoken “face-judger6” and quickly typed back a string of replies: “You have no idea, she’s super beautiful! Cool-toned pale skin, amazing aura, she looks just like a fairy! I wish I had two pairs of eyes to get enough of looking at both of them!”
In this context, everyone understood that “girlfriend” meant “female friend.”
But those damn marketing accounts7 were different. After seeing this Weibo post, like sharks smelling blood, they swarmed in, taking things out of context and started copy-pasting a series of Weibo posts.
The content was largely the same, almost all saying: “Fan bumps into Zuo Jingyou in Vienna, discovers her strolling the streets with foreign girlfriend.”
Numerous “melon-eating8” netizens were stunned when they saw these Weibo posts all published by marketing accounts.
Wait, Zuo Jingyou? The Zuo Jingyou who married young, rarely had scandals, and had won Best Actress awards, actually had another scandal? And what did “foreign girlfriend” mean?
No way, after He Zhiwen, Zuo Jingyou also came out? Could it be that both husband and wife were bisexual?
With this kind of melon-eating mentality, that night, the TAGs #ZuoJingyouComesOut# and #ZuoJingyouForeignGirlfriend# trended on Weibo’s hot search.
On the way back to their rooms, Zhang Yu took out her phone. When she scrolled and saw these two trending topics, her jaw almost dropped. She turned around, looked at Yin Bai and Zuo Jingyou slowly walking up from behind, hesitated for a moment, and then called out to them, “BOSS, Teacher Zuo, look at this…”
Zhang Yu said, handing over her phone.
Yin Bai, completely puzzled, took the phone, glanced at it, and frowned. “Wow, these marketing accounts are so boring. They can stir up hype with this?”
“What?” Zuo Jingyou leaned close to Yin Bai, craning her neck to see the content on the phone. When she saw the word “comes out,” she froze for a second.
Comes out… her? This is a bit too…
While Zuo Jingyou was still dazed, Yin Bai handed the phone back to Zhang Yu and sighed, “Aiya, it’s all just nonsense written by marketing accounts. Teacher Zuo, don’t look at it. Zhang Yu, contact PR, help Teacher Zuo clarify this.”
“Teacher Zuo is clearly heterosexual, she wouldn’t have a girlfriend!”
Yin Bai said this, patting Zuo Jingyou’s shoulder with a “good friend, I’ll help you” expression, comforting her, “Teacher Zuo, don’t worry, I’ll handle it.”
It took Zuo Jingyou a while to regain her composure. She looked up at Yin Bai. Staring into Yin Bai’s pure and bright blue eyes, she thought for a moment before replying, “Forget it, no need to trouble you. I can handle this myself.”
“It might be better if I do it myself.”
Yin Bai nodded thoughtfully. “That’s true, it’s better for you to handle this kind of thing. If I help, it might make things look even more suspicious.” After all, she’s one of the people involved; it might just make things worse.
Zuo Jingyou smiled. “It’s quite novel.” She thought for a moment, then looked up at Yin Bai and said, “I think this is the first time I’ve had a rumor with someone of the same sex. It feels… quite interesting.”
Yin Bai raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure, Teacher Zuo?” She smiled and said to Zuo Jingyou, “I’m definitely not the first same-sex person you’ve had a rumor with.”
Zuo Jingyou paused, then said with some uncertainty, “Have I… had rumors with other same-sex individuals?” Probably not, right? She clearly didn’t recall any PR for such things.
Yin Bai shrugged and walked inside with her cane. “There are plenty. On a certain website, it’s full of edits of you and other female celebrities.” Yin Bai turned her head to look at Zuo Jingyou. “You might not know, but even when you were married, in that, uh, circle, they all thought you were prime ‘heavenly dish10‘ material.”
“Teacher Zuo, even though you’re heterosexual, you have a ton of same-sex CPs.”
For example, on that website, there were tons of “red and white rose11” CUTs12 of Xiao Nian and Zuo Jingyou. Her previous dislike for Zuo Jingyou was partly because Zuo Jingyou and Xiao Nian were career rivals, but mostly because too many people were shipping the two of them!
Yin Bai was so jealous she was practically bubbling over!
LP: Re-translated on May 28, 2025
Footnotes
- 人頭攢動 | réntóu cuándòng | Lit. “human heads bobbing up and down”; describes a place bustling or teeming with people.
- 睜眼說瞎話 | zhēng yǎn shuō xiāhuà | Lit. “to speak nonsense with eyes wide open”; means to tell a bald-faced lie, to lie shamelessly.
- 雪打蔫的小白菜 | xuě dǎ niān de xiǎo báicài | Lit. “little bok choy wilted by snow”; a vivid metaphor for someone looking dejected, sad, or listless.
- 彩虹屁 | cǎihóng pì | Lit. “rainbow fart”; internet slang for exaggerated or excessive praise and flattery.
- 朋友圈 | Péngyǒu quān | Friends Circle, a social media feature on WeChat similar to Facebook’s timeline or Instagram’s feed.
- 顏狗 | yán gǒu | Lit. “face dog”; internet slang for someone who highly values good looks, a stan of beautiful faces.
- 營銷號 | yíngxiāo hào | Marketing accounts or clickbait accounts on social media, often known for sensationalizing news or spreading rumors for engagement.
- 吃瓜 | chī guā | Lit. “eat melon”; internet slang for onlookers who are observing drama or gossip unfold without direct involvement, often with a sense of amusement or curiosity.
- 出櫃 | chūguì | To come out of the closet; to publicly declare one’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
- 天菜 | tiāncài | Lit. “heavenly dish/vegetable”; internet slang meaning someone who is exactly one’s type, a dream partner, exceptionally attractive and desirable.
- 紅白玫瑰 | hóngbái méigui | Red and white roses. In this context, it likely refers to a popular trope or a specific type of fan edit/story theme involving two contrasting female characters, possibly alluding to Eileen Chang’s novel “Red Rose, White Rose,” which explores two different types of women in a man’s life, but here adapted for femslash pairings.
- CUT | Term: CUT | An English word used in Chinese fandom, referring to a fan-made video edit, often a compilation of scenes featuring a specific character or pairing.
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