After Going Bankrupt, I Got Clung To By A Canary Omega - Chapter 11

Fu Qingli glanced at the box on the passenger seat, her heart filled with mixed feelings.

On the way home, she had seen an unmanned self-service pharmacy and, for some inexplicable reason, turned back and detoured around. That was how things had ended up like this.

She had bought the pregnancy test. Now how was she supposed to make Shen Chaomu take it?

Could the original body not have controlled herself? Why did Fu Qingli have to clean up this kind of mess!!

And then there was the matter of the name on the property certificate. If Shen Chaomu found out, perhaps it would become Shen Chaomu urging her to break up and kicking her out of the house instead.

Before one wave had settled, another rose. Fu Qingli only felt that the thoughts in her mind had already tangled into a chaotic mess, so jumbled she had no idea where to begin unraveling them.

“I already said she isn’t here. Don’t block the entrance. If you still don’t leave, we’ll call the police immediately…”

A uniformed security guard held a warning baton and gave a warning. The reporters carrying cameras were not afraid at all. Instead, they surrounded her and kept asking questions.

“Fu Qingli was photographed right outside your community. She definitely lives here. It’s not like we’re forcing our way in. Come on, have a cigarette. What time does she usually go out?”

“Sis, does Shen Chaomu live here too?”

“That looks like Fu Qingli’s car! Hurry…”

By the time Fu Qingli saw the crowd and cameras surging at the entrance of East Lake Villa, it was already too late to avoid them. She and the car were directly surrounded and blocked.

Microphones with all kinds of station logos crossed over the sports car door and were thrust toward Fu Qingli one after another. The reporters’ eyes were red from squeezing forward, their voices urgent and loud.

“President Fu, is it true that you and Shen Chaomu have broken up?”

“Why did you say you were single last time? What did Shen Chaomu mean when she posted ‘fake’ on Vibo?”

“President Fu, was your breakup because of financial reasons? Was Shen Chaomu the one who brought it up?”

Fu Qingli had never been chased by the media like this before. Once her mind cleared, she faintly felt as if she were being interrogated under torture. Noticing that the camera in a reporter’s hand on the passenger side had suddenly shifted direction, her heart startled. She hurriedly raised a hand and pressed down on the box, then casually stuffed it into her trouser pocket.

“President Fu, did you buy a pregnancy test because there’s good news?”

The young reporter regretted asking the question the moment it left his mouth. Then, thinking of the photo, he breathed a sigh of relief. It should be an exclusive.

Shen Chaomu was a rare S-rank Omega in the entertainment industry. Although Fu Qingli’s rank was not high, only D, she was still an Alpha after all. Once Shen Chaomu got pregnant, the probability of giving birth to an O or A was extremely high. That would basically reserve several consecutive days of trending searches.

That one sentence blew the scene open. Entertainment reporters reached their hands toward Fu Qingli, their cameras aiming at one corner of Fu Qingli’s pocket. People were practically sprawled over the front and back of the car.

The East Lake Villa security guards watched the entertainment reporters swallow Fu Qingli like a zombie invasion and hurriedly picked up their walkie-talkies to call for support.

Fu Qingli felt the car cabin shaking and knew very well that if she did not make a statement, the situation would not end. But she had already suffered once from saying the wrong thing.

Fu Qingli blocked the entertainment reporter’s hand reaching toward her pocket. “What did you call me?”

Now that Fu Qingli had finally agreed to speak, everyone closed their mouths in tacit understanding and pushed their microphones closer. But after hearing what Fu Qingli said, they froze. This person could not be trying to deny her identity again, right?

She had already been exposed once. Although those several films with investments of hundreds of millions had all gone down the drain, at least they had made her face familiar. Just based on her relationship with Shen Chaomu, who knew how many times she had been on the trending searches? Who did not recognize this face?

Although her makeup and clothing style had changed, in this profession, entertainment reporters relied on a pair of sharp eyes to make a living. How could they possibly mistake her?

The entertainment reporter Fu Qingli was staring at took a few seconds to react, then asked blankly, “President Fu, is there a problem?”

With a solemn expression, Fu Qingli pushed open the car door and stood up. “I’m an actress.”

The entertainment reporters were utterly confused. They were forced to push and squeeze aside, clearing space for Fu Qingli to get out of the car.

“You’re not even willing to call me Teacher Fu?”

“Is it because I don’t have an official government post?”

The entertainment reporters were speechless for a moment, looking at one another. By the time they came back to themselves, they found that Fu Qingli had already entered the community under the cover of several security guards. Even if they wanted to chase her, they could not get through the gate.

Fu Qingli handed the car keys to a security guard and asked her to help drive the car back later.

On the uphill walk back to the villa, Fu Qingli could not help letting out a long breath.

Sometimes, learning from Shen Chaomu and randomly changing the subject was quite useful.

Fu Qingli followed the stone path toward the villa entrance. Her gaze inadvertently shifted to one side, and her steps could not help slowing.

The sunlight past four in the afternoon had already shed its scorching heat. Soft golden radiance spread over the wide, flat lawn outside the villa.

Shen Chaomu was lying comfortably on the fine, soft grass, her head pillowed against the golden retriever’s soft belly. An open book lay upside down over her face, covering her brows and eyes.

The afternoon breeze stirred her thin ramie outer shirt. The hem fluttered upward and rolled back, revealing a smooth, fair stretch of waist and abdomen that faintly glowed beneath the sunlight.

What made Fu Qingli’s gaze freeze was that her abdomen was actually slightly bulging, rising and falling. The sight made Fu Qingli’s heart tremble with fear.

Hearing footsteps, Jinzi lifted his eyelids. Seeing that it was Fu Qingli, he lazily closed them again, lying there motionless and letting Shen Chaomu lean against him. His tail occasionally swayed twice, driving away the insects coming over to join the fun.

Fu Qingli crouched down and carefully examined the suspicious swell on Shen Chaomu’s stomach. Her fingers curled, but in the end, she still reached out.

Shen Chaomu felt her stomach become a little more comfortable, a tingling itch spreading over it. It was like when she had been a child and greedily eaten until she was stuffed, her three-headed little body sticking out a watermelon-like belly as she dodged the people watching over her, kicked open the meeting room door, ran inside, burrowed between her grandmother’s legs, and tugged up her hand to make her rub her stomach.

Back then, her grandmother would always smile and wave a hand to pause the meeting, then carry her outside. Her hand would rub again and again around Shen Chaomu’s navel, gentle and soothing until Shen Chaomu gradually fell asleep.

Shen Chaomu felt the bloating stuck in her stomach being rubbed away bit by bit. She pressed the hand on her stomach and hummed softly in comfort.

Then she suddenly realized that what she was pressing seemed to be a hand.

Shen Chaomu moved the book off her face, propped herself up, and lowered her eyes to look. Then she followed the hand up to its owner. “Why are you touching my stomach?”

Fu Qingli pulled out the hand that had been caught. Her expression was natural as she stood up, took the box out of her trouser pocket, and tossed it to Shen Chaomu. “Test it, then post on Vibo to clarify.”

After Shen Chaomu saw clearly what was in her hand, her eyes widened. “Fu Qingli, are you sick in the head?”

Fu Qingli naturally had no desire to explain the cause and effect. She simply left behind one sentence. “You’ve been living in seclusion for half a year. If you don’t want to trend for being pregnant, you should take the test.”

Shen Chaomu held her head in both hands, nearly going mad. “Why do you care about those gossip accounts making up nonsense because they have nothing better to do? Everyone says I’m a canary, and I haven’t dragged you out to clarify that either. What am I supposed to do, install a surveillance camera on myself and livestream my life every day? I’d die from exhaustion!”

Fu Qingli said, “I was already livestreamed just now.”

Seeing Shen Chaomu raise her head and stare at her with wide eyes, Fu Qingli made it worse by pointing at the test box. “It was livestreamed too.”

The moment her words fell, Shen Chaomu’s phone suddenly vibrated on the table not far away.

Fu Qingli and Shen Chaomu looked at each other. Shen Chaomu seemed not to have reacted yet and had no intention of getting up to answer the call.

The phone vibrated several times, then finally went still.

Only a few seconds later, Fu Qingli’s phone began to ring, flashing Tang Lin’s name.

Fu Qingli put it on speaker.

“President Fu, are you with Shen Chaomu?!”

Shen Chaomu shrank her neck. Every time Tang Lin called her by her full name, she always became frightened. She hurriedly raised her hand and made a shushing gesture at Fu Qingli.

“Hic…”

Unexpectedly, she shushed too forcefully and directly let out a loud hiccup. Shen Chaomu hurriedly covered her mouth, but her body suddenly trembled beyond her control as she kept letting out tiny broken hiccups.

Fu Qingli smelled the fried chicken and cola scent spreading through the air and finally understood the trick behind Shen Chaomu’s stomach. Thinking of how Shen Chaomu had not looked guilty at all just now, Fu Qingli could not help sighing inwardly that she had been so startled and muddleheaded earlier that she had actually believed Shen Chaomu might be pregnant.

Fu Qingli coughed lightly. “We’re together. It just happened, so I didn’t expect it to reach you so quickly. It’s a misunderstanding. We just need to clear it up.”

Tang Lin said, “Easy for you to say. The entire internet is watching. How are we supposed to clear it up?”

Shen Chaomu raised her hand and offered an idea. “How about saying it’s for Jinzi? He’s almost old enough anyway.”

Listening to Fu Qingli’s casual tone and Shen Chaomu fooling around, Tang Lin finally could not suppress her anger anymore. “Who gives this to a pet?! Can’t the two of you control yourselves? Even during heat, even when doing a complete marking, restrain yourselves a little. At critical moments, take gland protection measures, okay! Even if you need to buy a test kit, can’t you two order it online? I can buy it for you, all right!”

Shen Chaomu had already picked up her own phone and scrolled through the rapidly climbing trending searches. She finally understood the sequence of events and breathed a sigh of relief. It was not her fault. Her hiccups stopped too, and she became perfectly justified. “Tang-Tang, this has nothing to do with me. Fu Qingli caused this.”

Tang Lin inhaled deeply. “If you came out to work every day, would entertainment reporters be bored enough to chase shadows and invent rumors? Ruan Miaoyin, who used to play supporting roles for you, has already carried two female lead dramas. Other people trend because of their works. You trend because of your private life, is that it?”

Shen Chaomu hurriedly surrendered. “Didn’t I already agree to take the variety show? I’ve even started losing weight and preparing to appear on camera. I’m just waiting for the show to start filming. Stop always nagging that I’m not working.”

Tang Lin’s anger dissipated a little. “President Fu, Gou Zhu is asking when the investment funds will arrive. Her personnel are ready, and they can start filming at any time. Don’t forget to tell the villa security guards in advance to let them through when the time comes.”

Hearing Tang Lin ask about the investment funds, Fu Qingli’s heart sank. Noticing Shen Chaomu’s probing gaze, Fu Qingli turned off speaker mode, brought the phone to her ear, and turned toward the villa. “All right. I’ll give them advance notice.”

The sun was sinking westward. On the broad desk in the study lay the open property certificate and the pink box.

Fu Qingli leaned back in the leather chair, brows locked in thought.

If she wanted to gather forty million as quickly as possible, she would definitely need Shen Chaomu’s cooperation to sign for the mortgage, but the difficulty of that could be imagined.

Fu Qingli had grown up an orphan and struggled through more than twenty years. She was used to never asking anyone for anything. She never borrowed money and never asked others for favors. And this was a debt of tens of millions. Even close family and friends would have to carefully weigh it, because if anything went wrong, they would be moving forward with lifelong debt. As for her relationship with Shen Chaomu, it was only maintained by money. Once the truth about the house was exposed, Shen Chaomu might not even join the variety show anymore. They would break up on the spot.

Fu Qingli’s gaze shifted to the diamond ring. She had already gone through all of the original body’s transfer records. This diamond ring had cost eight million. Pledging it would require appraisal, which would take too much time, and it would not produce the amount she wanted either. It was only a drop in the bucket.

In the gradually dimming room, a sigh rang out.

“Why didn’t you turn on the light?”

Shen Chaomu pressed the switch with a snap.

The sudden brightness was a little dazzling. Fu Qingli lifted a hand to shield her brow. “To save money.”

Shen Chaomu choked for a moment.

After adjusting to the light, Fu Qingli lowered her arm and casually closed the property certificate in front of her. “Why did you come over?”

Shen Chaomu shook her phone screen. “There’s a trending topic about you. Want to see it? Aren’t you curious?”

Fu Qingli had also gotten used to her character setting over these past few days. She had once indirectly asked Tang Lin why she did not have a Vibo account. Unexpectedly, it was because the original body had been chased and scolded so badly by Shen Chaomu’s fans that she could not take it anymore and directly deleted her account.

There was no need to think about it this time either. It was definitely mocking her.

“I don’t want to. I’m not curious.”

In any case, she had already been on the trending searches before. It was only that.

Shen Chaomu moved closer. “Don’t worry. The topic square is very harmonious. It sort of counts as praising you. There are even people asking why you don’t have a Vibo account because they want to follow you.”

Fu Qingli truly could not imagine what “sort of counts as praising” meant. She lowered her eyes and looked at Shen Chaomu’s phone screen.

#Fu Qingli: Don’t Call Me a霸总, Call Me Teacher [Boiling]#

#Even Fu Qingli Wants to Take the Civil Service Exam [Explosive]#

Fu Qingli took the phone, opened the topic, and looked through the comments.

[Haha, Teacher Fu is so funny. Why can’t I find a yellow-V verified account? I want to follow her.]

[After Teacher Fu went bankrupt, she suddenly feels a lot less greasy.]

[Looking at Fu Qingli’s serious expression, she feels so abstinent. Teacher Fu, I want to tear open your collar, slurp.]

[As long as Teacher Fu doesn’t act, she’d actually be pretty good as a model. She’s good-looking, has a great figure, and even her outfits are decent now. Slurp, slurp. [drooling]]

…

Seeing Fu Qingli read without blinking, Shen Chaomu could not help feeling smug. “How is it? I told you. You definitely love reading these.”

“Do you want to register a Vibo account again?”

Fu Qingli gazed at Shen Chaomu’s lively eyes and could not help trying to figure her out. Beneath such a clear, pure appearance, what kind of soul was hiding there—greedy for money, lazy, yet delicate and sensitive?

Fu Qingli raised her hand and pressed down on the red property certificate, her fingertips turning pale.

“If I borrowed money from you, would you be willing to lend it to me?”