Volume Ten: Those Few Years After She and I Broke Up
Insults
After returning from the coffee shop, Wen Nuan went back to her rented apartment to sleep.
Right now, she had less than two hundred yuan1 to her name.
Her stomach was empty and growling, so Wen Nuan opened her phone and ordered takeout. She spent thirty-five on a spicy numbing stir-fry pot2 and another twenty on a sweet milk tea.
In just a short while, Wen Nuan had spent a third of her entire fortune.
The System’s voice reminded her: 【Are you planning to expose your corpse in the wilderness?3】
Wen Nuan tsked. “What’s with the choice of words?”
She isn’t dead yet!
【Are you planning to be displaced and homeless?4】 the System tried a different phrase.
Wen Nuan nodded in satisfaction. “Don’t worry, I still have money.”
【You have 92 yuan and five mao5 left. The way you’re spending, it won’t even be enough for you for one day tomorrow. Besides, you’re not renewing the lease on this apartment. The landlord is taking the place back the day after tomorrow. You’re about to be sleeping on the streets.】
There was a knock at the door. Wen Nuan, with her hair disheveled, went to get her takeout. The milk tea and spicy numbing stir-fry pot had arrived together. The delivery driver quickly said, “Give a five-star review,” and then vanished without a trace.
“No rush. In a few days, I’ll be moving to a new place.”
【What?】 Seeing Wen Nuan’s mysterious look, the System couldn’t suppress its curiosity. 【What kind of mischief are you brewing up now?】
Wen Nuan picked up her phone from the side. It had been off since she got back last night. After charging all night, the moment she turned it on, messages started popping out nonstop.
Most of them were from Weibo6 and that talent show app.
Wen Nuan first checked the messages in the app. It was from Lin Guan Entertainment7, saying she had been selected and requesting her to bring her ID card and resume to the Lin Guan Entertainment dormitories tomorrow for the second round of evaluation.
Wen Nuan wasn’t surprised she was chosen. This era was too superficial and shallow; being beautiful was a permanent advantage. This was a truth she had known since she was a child.
And she had applied this truth vividly and thoroughly8.
The System saw the message: 【Well, I’ll be damned, you have a place to live?】
Although it knew Wen Nuan could be selected, it didn’t know the entertainment company also provided accommodation. The benefits were pretty good.
Wen Nuan slurped a mouthful of noodles and nodded. “Mhm, I read the talent show rules yesterday. It said that after entering the second round, Lin Guan Entertainment will provide accommodation. And if you’re eliminated in the second round, you can still get 50,000 yuan in compensation from them.”
Contestants who make it to the third round of evaluation, even if eliminated, will be signed by Lin Guan as one of its artists. However, Wen Nuan was aiming for the compensation money. She had no intention of debuting, because her dark history was too extensive and would become a stumbling block to her debut.
【No wonder you’re participating in the talent show. So it was for a free place to live and the compensation money?】 the System said, speechless. 【And here I thought you were doing it to get close to the female lead and lower her blackening value.】
Wen Nuan opened Weibo and looked at the trending topics. “Half and half. Wanting a place to live and money is one reason, and wanting to get close to her is another.”
After all, the disparity in their statuses right now was too great.
“Besides, I might not even be able to debut. Getting some compensation money is fine too.”
【What do you mean?】
The System looked at the phone’s screen. The number one trending topic on Weibo was, starkly, #WenNuanIsAnEnjoGirl#9
With her exquisite and beautiful looks, Wen Nuan had directly parachuted into third place. With no background introduction and no talent performance, just a single photo of her without makeup was enough to make her number three, selected by Lin Guan Entertainment to participate in the second round of evaluation.
Things had developed too suddenly. Many people couldn’t accept that someone could surpass those who had been working hard and struggling, just by relying on a pretty face. They began to retaliate crazily, starting to dig deep into Wen Nuan’s past, trying to kick this person out of the talent show.
Wen Nuan’s background was very simple; it could be found out with just a bit of connections and money.
A girl whose parents had both died, raised by her maternal grandmother. Later, her grandmother also passed away while the girl was in university. Now, in this world, she was the only one who belonged to herself.
The girl’s grades were excellent, and she was always at the top of her class at every stage of her education. She was beautiful with a good figure and had always been voted as the school belle representative by everyone.
Looking only at the first half of the girl’s life, people would think she was very pitiful and worthy of sympathy.
But when people saw the girl’s carefree figure flitting through major bars, decked out in gold and silver by the side of different men, with the vain appearance of her shrugging her shoulders and smiling obsequiously10, that bit of sympathy and pity in their hearts was immediately overturned.
They began to furiously denounce Wen Nuan’s depravity and baseness, berate her low and shameless morals, and despise her for selling her body and dignity for money and honor, finding her nauseating.
Every word of theirs was a pearl11, their rhetoric sharp and piercing.
Wen Nuan looked at the suffocating comments in the comment section, reading them over and over with a blank expression.
TodayIAmHungry: Are all pretty girls this shameless and vain? Actually going around seducing men? @LinGuanEntertainment You guys still dare to take someone like this? Blocked!
hggbj: Her grades were clearly so good, why not study properly and walk the righteous path, why did she have to take a shortcut!?
754687: I really wonder how much for one night with her? I’ll offer one yuan!
TigerGeTigerGe: One yuan is too much. Even if she let me sleep with her for free, I’d still think she’s dirty.
FiveYearsTenYears: I think her parents were jinxed to death by her. If her parents knew they gave birth to an enjo girl, they’d be angered back to life hahaha…
GegeIsHere123: Maybe her school grades are all fake. Maybe she got the answers and the outstanding student awards by messing around with the teachers.
Scarlett: @LinGuanEntertainment, hurry up and eliminate this disgusting woman!
LightyearsAway: @LinGuanEntertainment, did one of your executives sleep with her? Otherwise, how did she get into the second round in third place?
IfOnly: Shouldn’t this kind of woman be reported to the police? This counts as suspected debauchery and prostitution, right? @PublicSecurityBureau.
…
【Shouldn’t you stop looking?】 The comments in the comment section were getting more and more vicious, more and more unbearable to the ear. Even the System couldn’t stand to look anymore, yet Wen Nuan continued to watch with a calm face.
“What they’re saying is more or less right,” Wen Nuan said, taking a sip of her milk tea.
Her parents were killed by her design, so it wasn’t an exaggeration to say she jinxed them to death;
She lingered among men for monetary gain, so it was only right for them to call her vain;
【You’re not that kind of person!】 the System said, its voice ringing with conviction12. 【I know you’re a good girl.】
Wen Nuan’s pupils contracted. She gave a self-deprecating smile. “But no one believes it.”
【I believe it!】 the System said firmly. 【I believe you!】
Wen Nuan couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright, you’ve comforted me.”
The System said smugly: 【We’re the best partners.】
“Mhm, the best partners.”
Wen Nuan put her milk tea aside, posted a new Weibo, and then paid it no more mind.
WenNuan#: Being beautiful is a skill, loving money is an instinct. We’re all human, aren’t we #Pout#
The moment this Weibo was posted, it instantly shot to the number one trending topic.
Those who cursed her said she was unrepentant, not feeling shame but rather pride. There were also some who, because of this sentence from Wen Nuan, became her fans, feeling that she was true to herself and dared to face things head-on, thinking this was a person they could get along with.
Wen Nuan’s Weibo followers had grown by several hundred thousand in these two days, just tens of thousands short of breaking the one million mark. The comment section was a mixed bag of good and bad, too horrible to look at.
“Boss, should we eliminate her? This incident’s impact is too severe. Many members of the public have already started to spontaneously boycott Lin Guan Entertainment,” Secretary Li said worriedly.
Although she felt it was a pity about Wen Nuan—after all, she was so beautiful that she could serve as the group’s visual to attract audience affinity and buzz in the future—she hadn’t expected this girl to have so little self-respect, for her private life to be so indecent.
It was just that the Weibo she posted had a bit of personality, completely ignoring others’ boycotts and revulsion towards her.
On this point, Secretary Li’s opinion of her had reversed just a tiny bit.
But in pursuing advantages and avoiding harm, this small point of excellence of hers was completely smothered by her stain, with absolutely no room to make a comeback.
“Many members of the public?” Yi Jing looked at the Weibo on her computer, scrolling with the mouse wheel. The comments in the comment section were shocking to the eye. “Calculate it. What percentage is hate? What percentage is like? And what percentage is neutral, just here to watch the show?”
Secretary Li didn’t understand why Yi Jing wanted to look at the percentages. She immediately issued an order to the public relations department, telling them to quickly produce the data.
Yi Jing looked at the Weibo Wen Nuan had posted. It was the only one she had, yet the comments already numbered over a million.
The first twenty comments were almost all vicious curses. The words and phrases seemed to be wrapped in poison and needle tips, poking again and again until one was a bloody mess.
Bystanders who saw such comments all sighed at how tragic and pitiful it was.
Yi Jing’s eyes narrowed, looking at the 25th comment.
Whirlwind: This base woman doesn’t deserve to be human, she should just go die!
Yi Jing moved her finger and reported the comment.
“Boss, the PR department has the data,” Secretary Li said, her expression a little unnatural.
“Speak.”
Secretary Li explained simply: “Hate accounts for 25%, like for 10%, and the remaining 65% are neutral, indifferent to the matter, and are purely here to join the crowd and eat melons13.”
Yi Jing turned the computer to face the other way. “Investigate the IDs of the top twenty commenters.”
Secretary Li took notes and asked probingly, “Boss, do you suspect someone is fishing in troubled waters14 and steering the rhythm15?”
“Investigate first,” Yi Jing said, lacing her fingers together. “If you find anything wrong, report them and get their accounts banned. If it’s serious, call the police and file a lawsuit.”
“A lawsuit?” Secretary Li asked in surprise. “We’re going to file a lawsuit for Wen Nuan?”
“Not for her, for the company.”
She tapped her forefinger on the back of her hand, her tone calm. “Spreading rumors, malicious attacks, slander, and false accusations. That’s enough for them to eat some prison food16.”
Secretary Li paused for a moment. “Understood, I’ll get on it right away.”
Yi Jing turned the computer back around. Looking at the comment section, her fingertips trembled slightly.
Wen Nuan looked at the caller ID: an unknown number.
Her SIM card was new; she had only saved the landlord’s number. The only ones who could possibly know her number right now were probably Lin Guan Entertainment or the “righteous warriors” who had dug up every last detail about her and were trying to call and curse her for being shameless and base.
【How about I help you divert the call?】 The System could at least help her with this small favor.
“No need,” Wen Nuan answered calmly. “I wasn’t afraid before, and I’m still not afraid now.”
In her original world, her dark history had also been dug up just like this. At that time, many harassing calls came in to curse her, calling her disgusting. She wasn’t afraid, she didn’t back down, and she cursed every single one of them back.
The call connected. The voice on the other end was a woman’s.
“Hello, may I ask if this is Miss Wen?”
Wen Nuan raised an eyebrow. “It is.”
“This is Lin Guan Entertainment. The information you uploaded has been collected. Please come to Changling Villa Area17, 1301, at eight o’clock tomorrow morning to participate in the second round of evaluation.”
Wen Nuan nodded. “Alright.”
“We wish you good luck. Goodbye.”
“Thank you.”
Wen Nuan hung up the phone and gave it a meaningful look. “Tongzi18, check my phone number.”
【What’s wrong?】 the System asked, puzzled.
“First, check if my number has been shielded by someone.”
【Okay.】
The System did a quick investigation. 【You guessed right. Your phone number has been protected. Other than designated numbers, no one else can get through to your phone.】
Wen Nuan tightened her grip on the phone and let out a soft laugh. “Good.”
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