Trending Again – Chapter 12
by Little PandaSister, Does Your Heart Ache for Me?
“Enough, stop it.” Lin Hanyue surged forward and seized Bai Lu’s offending right hand. Bai Lu twisted her wrist, the corners of her lips curling into a faint, eerie smile. “What? Is Movie Queen Lin planning to openly break the rules? Or would you like to take over Si Meng’s punishment yourself?”
Lin Hanyue suppressed the fury in her chest. This woman was doing this on purpose.
“Hey, stop wasting time, let’s continue,” Si Meng said impatiently to Bai Lu, but her eyes were on Lin Hanyue. She uncurled Lin Hanyue’s clenched fist and held her hand, seemingly soothing her not to be angry.
“You brought this on yourself. If you kneel down and beg me, I promise I won’t make things difficult for you.” Bai Lu leaned in and whispered in Si Meng’s ear. At a tricky camera angle, the two appeared remarkably intimate.
She deliberately blocked the audience’s view, presenting herself as the kind person secretly going easy on Si Meng. This was a prop she had prepared specially—the rubber band was resilient and wouldn’t cause any serious injury, but that sharp sting was the price for crossing her.
But she was wrong. Si Meng was no pushover—she was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Si Meng bit down on her lip until it broke, the taste of blood seeping into her throat. She brushed her index finger lightly across it, hiding a smear of blood on the back of her hand.
Snap. Bai Lu snapped the rubber band hard. Si Meng shifted slightly, using stage positioning to catch the right angle, and every move between them was instantly in full view of the audience.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the audience saw Bai Lu deliberately stretch the rubber band to its limit, her face twisted with vicious malice. Si Meng trembled, tears of barely suppressed fear in her eyes. She instinctively raised her hand to block the band, but Bai Lu was faster. The band snapped down—and a huge smear of blood suddenly bloomed across Si Meng’s face.
The comment section exploded. A thousand bullet comments flooded the screen at once. The guests on set scrambled forward, demanding answers. The production team panicked even more, scrambling to call an ambulance.
Lin Hanyue was the first to rush forward. She shouldered Bai Lu aside, swept Si Meng up in a princess carry, and had her assistant drive them to the nearest hospital.
The set was in total chaos. The Producer looked utterly devastated. The Director clutched his chest, pointing at the Producer’s nose and cursing, “You’re fired! Selling you wouldn’t even cover the damages!”
Lin Hanyue had genuinely been terrified. Seeing the smear of blood on Si Meng’s face, her heart ached. She held Si Meng tighter, urging her assistant to drive faster.
Si Meng sat on Lin Hanyue’s lap, her head resting gently against her chest. She smelled a fragrance that made her feel safe. Si Meng played with Lin Hanyue’s slender, flawless hands and said in a soft, sweet voice, “Jiejie, are you worried about me?”
Lin Hanyue stroked the cowlick1 on her head, speaking in the tone of coaxing a child. “Don’t be afraid. We’ll be at the hospital soon, and then it won’t hurt anymore.”
Si Meng nodded obediently. She wasn’t afraid of pain at all, but the fact that Lin Hanyue’s heart ached for her made her happy—like a neglected puppy suddenly shown affection by its owner.
Perhaps she was too tired, or perhaps Lin Hanyue’s soothing words carried a magic of their own—before long, Si Meng drifted peacefully to sleep.
Outside the Emergency Room
Lin Hanyue paced anxiously. When a young nurse finally emerged, she grabbed her arm and asked urgently, “Excuse me, how is the patient inside?”
The nurse paused to think. “You’re the patient’s…?”
“Family,” Lin Hanyue said without hesitation.
“Oh, right, then you can start making funeral arrangements for him.” After saying that, she walked off without looking back.
“What do you mean?” Lin Hanyue stormed straight into the emergency room, her face dark and terrifying. Someone who had been full of life just moments ago—how could they be gone just like that, without a word?
“Hey, family members aren’t allowed in, you—” But Lin Hanyue had already walked up to the patient and was staring down at an unfamiliar face.
“Where’s the girl who was just brought to the emergency room?” Lin Hanyue asked, confused.
“Treated and moved to Room 311,” the doctor answered smoothly, blinking in surprise.
Lin Hanyue flew down the hall like the wind and burst into Room 311. There was Si Meng, looking nothing like the injured girl from before—full of life and energy, chasing Lu Qi around, pinning her down, and whaling on her with a pillow.
“Si Meng!” Lin Hanyue ground her teeth. This bastard had scared her half to death.
“You. Are. Fine. Now?” Lin Hanyue was so angry she laughed, enunciating each word.
Si Meng knew she’d blown her cover. She hastily kicked Lu Qi off the bed, swallowed hard, and lay there, not daring to make a sound.
“Keep pretending! Go on, keep pretending! Do you have any idea how worried I was?” Lin Hanyue abandoned all pretense of ladylike composure, kicked off her shoes, and climbed onto the bed. She grabbed Si Meng’s waist and tickled her mercilessly—because Si Meng was most terrified of being tickled.
“Jiejie, wah, I was wrong, Goddess Lin, mm, I’ll never do it again.”
“There’ll be a next time?”
“No… hahaha, so ticklish, stop, no, don’t, what are you going to—”
Lin Hanyue confirmed there were indeed no wounds left on Si Meng’s face. Relieved, she ignored Si Meng’s protests and began wrapping gauze around her head. A few quick wraps later, Si Meng looked like a critically injured patient.
Lu Qi watched from the side, baffled. “Lin Hanyue, what are you doing?”
“If you’re going to put on a show, do it properly,” Lin Hanyue said, exasperated. “Here, take a selfie. Post it on Weibo.”
Si Meng switched to the front camera and took a look. Why did she look like a grade-two disability case? Whatever, ugly was ugly.
She snapped a selfie and added a caption: 【In the hospital, still alive, thanks everyone for your concern.】
At the same time, Lin Hanyue reposted it instantly, adding a few deliberately ambiguous photos with the caption: 【In the hospital. The production team and a certain Bai owe Si Meng an explanation. Otherwise, we’ll see you in court.】
Meanwhile, the has-been Movie King Shen Zhiyi also reposted it, crisp and to the point, leaving only a few lines: 【I was there. I saw it all. What a venomous-hearted ‘lady’.】
A few short lines, yet enough to set imaginations running. With a Movie King and a Movie Queen backing Si Meng, the entertainment paparazzi spreading rumors didn’t dare run wild.
Close on their heels, the other guests on set all came to clout-chase2, each adding their two cents. Some stayed neutral; others, to win fans, stomped on Bai Lu without mercy. For a time, they pushed Si Meng onto the hot searches.
In truth, it didn’t matter who they praised or trampled. The key was who had the backing and the traffic. Right and wrong weren’t really important to them.
But one Weibo post, deleted within seconds, surfaced in everyone’s view.
Taotie Zhang Biliang: 【I** you, you damn green tea3 Bai Lu, this father* your whole family, your TM trash mouth, I’ll rip it apart sooner or later! You dare bully my future girlfriend? This father’s fists are huge, deal with it!】[Deleted]
Zhang Biliang opened his review inbox: This user has been flagged for explicit/abusive content and has been sent to the little dark room4, muted for 48 hours.
Zhang Biliang was speechless. He grabbed his manager’s phone—and the manager’s official account was thrown into the little dark room too.
Footnotes
- 'Ahoge' (daimao) is a tuft of hair sticking up from the top of the head, associated with cute or quirky character traits in anime and manga culture.
- 'To clout-chase' (ceng re du) means exploiting a trending topic or a famous person's fame to gain attention for oneself.
- 'Green tea' (lü cha) is internet slang for a person, usually female, who appears innocent but is actually manipulative and calculating.
- 'Little dark room' (xiao heiwu) is internet slang for an account suspension or ban on a social media platform.
This novel is so casually written lol
This novel is so casually written lol
this is so entertaining
this is so entertaining