After the Harem Novel’s Female Lead was Spoiled by the Comments - Chapter 23

“What nonsense are you talking about?” Liao Song stammered with a mix of shame and annoyance, though her hands didn’t stop moving as she removed the stitches.

As a professional surgeon, her technique was extremely efficient. Wen Hebai didn’t feel a bit of pain before it was over; meanwhile, out of professional habit, Liao Song gave a few post-operative instructions.

“I saw you practically wanting to glue your eyes to his body. If you didn’t have feelings for him, would you need to act so concerned?” After saying this, Wen Hebai turned to ask Yan Qingwen to check the state of the wound.

Liao Song didn’t want to believe it: “I did not!”

Wen Hebai immediately sought outside help: “If you don’t believe me, ask my wife.”

Liao Song turned her gaze to Yan Qingwen, who, after confirming that Wen Hebai’s wound was recovering well, said unhurriedly: “It’s also possible that because you haven’t seen each other in many years, you couldn’t help but look at him a few more times.”

“Isn’t that just saying the same thing?!”

Yan Qingwen’s expression was subtle, while Wen Hebai looked at her with a half-smile: “To any clear-eyed observer, the moment he appeared, you turned into a different person—very much the ‘little woman’ type.”

“I did not.” Liao Song frowned; she didn’t feel there was anything wrong with her behavior.

Admittedly, because she could hear Jiang Yunhan’s inner thoughts and discovered he still cared about her deeply, she felt a sliver of sweetness in her heart. But their relationship was ten years ago, after all, and that romance wasn’t exactly life-shattering. How could she possibly reignite the old flame with him so easily?

Wen Hebai pulled back her smile, her aura suddenly turning frigid. She questioned in a cold voice: “Then why were you targeting my wife for no reason? Is it not because you’re psychologically unbalanced because he once pursued my wife for seven years?”

Liao Song opened her mouth: “I—”

She realized she couldn’t explain herself.

After coming out from the movie and encountering matters related to the Yan family, she indeed felt the urge to come see Yan Qingwen, just to let Yan Qingwen know that Jiang Yunhan cared more about her. Having Jiang Yunhan drive her over was also the result of a secret, hidden jealousy.

But thinking carefully, she realized such jealousy came from nowhere.

Setting aside the fact that Yan Qingwen was already married, even if she weren’t, based on the fact that they had no conflicts or overlapping interests, she shouldn’t have harbored such strange hostility toward Yan Qingwen.

Was it really as Wen Hebai said—because Jiang Yunhan chased Yan Qingwen for seven years while she only dated him for one, she felt unbalanced?

What a joke. She had made a well-considered decision to go abroad back then, and the breakup was a mutual decision between her and Jiang Yunhan. After going abroad, she heard Jiang Yunhan hadn’t dated anyone else, and she indeed felt happy for a while, but later, as her studies grew busy, she gradually forgot about romance.

She had been back for six months and hadn’t paid any attention to Jiang Yunhan, yet this reunion had caused her to sink right back in.

Liao Song’s mind was a bit of a mess. Unwilling to admit it and unwilling to stay longer, she bid her farewell.

After she left, Yan Qingwen issued an order to the security duty room: “From now on, Zhuang Yi is forbidden from appearing within a hundred meters of the Yan estate, and he is forbidden from approaching anyone in the Yan family.”

The two so-called male leads had to be dealt with one by one. Currently, Jiang Yunhan’s threat to her didn’t seem very large; conversely, the seemingly background-less Zhuang Yi was the one she found troublesome.

From their few interactions, Zhuang Yi was deeply calculating, planning every step. He even shaped different personas for each “female lead” based on their personalities—he knew she hated arrogance, so he was always respectful in her presence; he knew Su Jinyue was naive, so he portrayed himself as a fearless hero standing up for women in the restaurant.

She wasn’t worried about falling into a romantic trap set by Zhuang Yi, but she feared he had other cards to play. For example, the [Comments Section] mentioned Zhuang Yi could kick someone to death with one blow. If she continued to let him be, what if one day he lost his mind and attacked those around her?

As for how “Female Lead Three” Liao Song was attracted to Zhuang Yi in the “original work,” she didn’t know, but it didn’t matter anymore because Liao Song currently seemed to care much more about Jiang Yunhan.

Although she saw Liao Song’s state was off—somewhat like being forcibly “de-intellectualized” by the Protagonist Halo—Liao Song wasn’t Su Jinyue. Given her relationship with Liao Song, she wouldn’t bother meddling unless there were stakes involved.

Wen Hebai seemed not to have taken the three of them or what just happened to heart at all. She pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head and suggested: “Let’s go watch a movie, too!”

“Too?” Yan Qingwen was puzzled.

Wen Hebai said: “When Liao Song got close earlier, she smelled like popcorn. They definitely went to a movie.”

Yan Qingwen hadn’t smelled it. But it wasn’t something worth her dwelling on. she said with little interest: “I’m not going.”

“It’s a film produced by your own Feast Media.”

With one sentence, Wen Hebai easily manipulated Yan Qingwen.

The two drove to a shopping plaza in the city center. The cinema here was built with investment from the Wen family; never mind the weekends, even the foot traffic on weekdays was massive. Despite their simple, casual outfits plus hats and sunglasses, the aura they had cultivated since childhood couldn’t be hidden by accessories. Upon appearing, they immediately attracted attention.

“It’s Wen Hebai, and President Yan!” These were the voices of ordinary passersby.

“Ah—it’s my Wen-bao!” These were the excited screams of Wen Hebai’s fans.

As fans and passersby stopped to watch, some had already silently pulled out their phones, taking photos of the two together to post online.

Wen Hebai greeted fans confidently and generously. Yan Qingwen, who had already mentally prepared herself for “business operations,” also smiled and nodded. she didn’t need to say anything, because as soon as she appeared at the cinema, the goal of promoting the movie was achieved.

Related hot searches soon appeared online. One netizen gave a spicy critique: “Best Actress Wen accompanies President Yan to her own cinema to watch a movie produced by her rival. The world of you XQL (little couples) is truly complex.”

CP fans using “eight-fold magnifying glasses” on the photos found a unique angle: “Is there a ‘strawberry’ (hickey) on President Yan’s neck?”

“Fake CPs—eat CP dividends, shear CP fans’ wool, but kiss and book hotel rooms with other genders in private. Real CPs—fight to the death in the mall during the day, but do it until the world flips over in bed at night.”

Coming out from the movie, Yan Qingwen noticed that when many people peeked at them, they would sneakily linger their gaze on her neck. Her heart skipped a beat; could it be that the concealer was rubbed off by her hair again?

The first thing she did after getting in the car was pull down the mirror to check. She found the mark wasn’t obvious; if one didn’t look closely, it was impossible to notice.

Why was everyone staring at her neck? The President Yan, who commanded the business world, was utterly perplexed.

Wen Hebai, who likely knew the inside story, didn’t say a word, feeling relieved in her heart that President Yan didn’t use Weibo.

Little did she know that Yan Qingwen, whose mind was full of work, did one thing the moment she got home: she called Feast Media to ask about the online sentiment and told them to seize the chance to promote the film.

While out at the movie, she had checked the data for this film. It had an investment cost exceeding 300 million; after ten days of release, the box office was 450 million. The final box office prediction was only around 900 million—far below expectations. It would only barely break even, and getting more profit would be difficult.

There were many reasons for the poor box office. For instance, the release date was during a slow season for movie-going, and the film itself had flaws in plot and production; even the leads weren’t “traffic stars.”

Since the quality wasn’t enough, they had to rely on promotion.

Feast Media reported to her: “The promotion has been arranged.”

Yan Qingwen gave an “un-huh” and was about to end the call when the other person asked hesitantly: “President Yan, regarding the public opinion about your and the Madam’s private life… do we need to handle it?”

Yan Qingwen was puzzled: “What kind of public opinion?”

The other person found it hard to say: “Well… maybe you should look at the internet yourself?”

President Yan finally realized something. She downloaded Weibo, registered an account, followed the guides to click into the hot searches, and began exploring how Weibo worked.

Not knowing where she clicked, she entered a “Super Topic” called “Qingbai.” The content inside gave her a “pupil earthquake”—

Think of ways to raise Wen-bao: “I announce that my Wen-bao is the 1 (top)!!!”

Wen-bao peerless big-macho-one: “Hehe, President Yan should have even more strawberries on her body, right?”

Big I Orange: “Spreading a rumor—President Yan must have been pinned under Wen-bao doing ‘it’ for 3 hours last night! [Funny face.jpg]”

Yan Qingwen: “…”

Truly, like idol, like fan.