After the Harem Novel’s Female Lead was Spoiled by the Comments - Chapter 46

On Friday morning, after Yan Qingwen went to work, Wen Hebai was shaken back to the Wen family by a phone call from her eldest sister, Wen Hegu.

In the living room, Wen Hegu introduced two men and one woman to her. “From now on, these three will be your assistants. As for who’s responsible for what, arrange it yourself.”

Wen Hebai took off her sunglasses and looked them over. “Their figures are pretty impressive.”

“Cough, cough!” Wen Hegu glared at her. Pay attention to your image!

The three new assistants remained expressionless, as though they had not heard what she had just said.

Wen Hebai asked, “Did Aunt find them again?”

Wen Hegu answered perfunctorily, “Mm.”

But Wen Hebai was not fooled by her attitude. She smiled and said, “Aunt Lin introduced them, right?”

“If you know, why are you asking?”

After Wen Hebai asked the three assistants their names, she assigned them positions respectively, ensuring that whenever one of them was resting, the others would be able to follow up on the work.

“All right. You can go back and rest for now. For the next two days, I’ll be going to take wedding photos. I only need Lu Tie by my side. After the wedding photos are done, we’ll meet at the media company in B City.”

The three assistants received their orders and left first.

Wen Hegu was silent for a moment, then said, “Xiao Yan still cares quite a lot about your safety.”

Hearing her wife being praised, Wen Hebai looked as proud as could be. “I know.” She paused. “Hey, Big Sister, haven’t you always called her by name? Why are you suddenly calling her Xiao Yan? Although she is your sister-in-law, she’s the dignified president of Yan Corporation. Isn’t it rather impolite for you to call her that?”

“Once you get married, your elbow really starts turning outward!” Wen Hegu slapped her on the butt.

Wen Hebai shot off like a rocket and fled. “Big Sister, this is domestic violence! I’m going to complain to my wife!”

When she went out, she ran into Wen Yisheng planting flowers in the garden. She hurriedly greeted him and ran off. Wen Yisheng called after her, “Hey, why are you leaving right after coming back? Aren’t you staying home for dinner?”

“Dad, she has another home now. She’s rushing back to that other home,” Wen Hegu said.

Wen Yisheng’s expression turned lonely. He turned to look at Wen Hegu. “When are you starting a family?”

Wen Hegu picked up her handbag and left. “Dad, there’s still something at the company. I’ll go back first.”

Wen Yisheng was full of sorrow. Out of his four children, only the youngest one was married, and the person she found was even a woman of the same sex. When would he ever get to hold a grandchild?

The location for Yan Qingwen and Wen Hebai’s wedding photos was in western Sichuan. Chen Zhien had arranged the most professional photography team, while Wen Hebai brought her own styling team. On Friday night, they directly chartered a plane to the nearest airport, settled down at a nearby hotel, then drove to the destination the next day.

They had not publicized this wedding photo shoot, but after they went to the airport, the preview for the first episode of the variety show Wen Hebai had recorded was also released. In her personal Super Topic and the QingBai Super Topic, some proxy photographers released the video of her running off to answer a phone call at the time. Although it was quickly deleted by the host, fans still learned that they were going to take wedding photos.

And so, the fans began shouting underneath, asking when the wedding photos would be made public. They wanted to see them.

But soon, discordant voices appeared, saying that the two had later quarreled and had not appeared in the same frame recently, so the wedding photos probably could not be taken.

The two groups started arguing.

At that moment, a tourist traveling in western Sichuan posted a distant photo. In it, a pair of newlyweds were taking wedding photos, and beside them were four photographers, two lighting technicians, four stylists, three assistants, and several security personnel.

The tourist also added a caption: “Is this the president of Yan Corporation and Wen Hebai? At first, I thought it was some production crew, because there were way too many people. Later, I realized one of them looked familiar, so I searched online and found she was Wen Hebai, who just won Best Actress at the Golden Pear Awards. Then the other one must be the president of Yan Corporation, right? P.S. Their wedding dresses are really beautiful, and they’re both gorgeous in person too. Their figures are comparable to models.”

The silly fans quickly occupied the top hot comment: “One minute. I want to know their location.”

“Real or fake?”

“If there’s no clear shot of their faces, I don’t believe it.”

Someone asked the original poster to show high-definition uncensored photos. The poster replied that she had only happened to pass by and casually took a photo. She was not a fan of either of them, and when she saw that group of burly security personnel, she got scared and did not dare get close.

Yan Qingwen and Wen Hebai, who were at the center of the topic, were temporarily unaffected by public opinion. This time, they only planned to shoot one set of wedding dresses—other people usually shot four sets, but those were usually rented from bridal shops. Their dresses were all custom-made, and because of the tight schedule, only this one set had been designed and tailored.

However, this did not mean they would truly only shoot one set. Wen Hebai wanted to shoot a traditional Chinese style set, so she had already found a master tailor to custom-make two sets of phoenix coronets and xiapei wedding robes. Unlike Western wedding dresses, phoenix coronets and xiapei took a very long time to make. A single phoenix coronet might take at least three months, not to mention two phoenix coronets and tailor-made wedding robes.

Chen Zhien and Qi Zange both expressed that they had never seen anyone split their wedding photo shoot by season before. Western wedding dresses in western Sichuan were Season One, phoenix coronets and xiapei in an ancient city would be Season Two, and perhaps one day, if the two of them had a sudden impulse, there might even be Seasons Three and Four. However, other people took wedding photos. Their President Yan and Madam were clearly shooting a romantic commemorative album.

“The scenery here is so beautiful. I really want to stay a few more days.” Wen Hebai sat on a small folding stool with a down jacket draped over her, holding Yan Qingwen’s hands to warm them.

“We can come again when there’s a chance in the future.” Yan Qingwen looked at the snowy mountain before her, as well as the clear, azure lake at the foot of the mountain formed by melted glacier water, and also felt that leisurely enjoying the natural scenery here was a very comfortable thing.

But she still had a pile of work waiting behind her. Even at such a time, calls could come in on her phone at any moment. However, this was also why she had brought Chen Zhien and Qi Zange along—they could help handle work.

Taking wedding photos was a tiring thing. The professional photography team was even stricter about it, as if the two of them were not their employers but tools for taking photos. After resting, they changed locations and continued shooting. Only after the sun set did they stay at a homestay in the scenic area.

At an altitude of over three thousand meters, the night sky without light pollution was very beautiful, and the entire sky was filled with stars. Wen Hebai heard that if the weather was good and the timing was right, they could photograph the Milky Way. However, she did not understand photography. The photographers, on the other hand, held oxygen tanks and stayed under the night sky for most of the night. The next day, they showed her and Yan Qingwen the processed Milky Way photos. Among them was one of the two of them sitting in the courtyard, leaning against each other as they watched the starry sky.

Yan Qingwen frowned. “Why don’t I remember this scene?”

“You had a bit of altitude sickness and drank some barley wine, so you leaned on my shoulder and dozed off for a little while.” Wen Hebai curved her lips and imported this photo into her phone, setting it as her screen saver.

Luckily, Yan Qingwen’s altitude sickness was not severe. Otherwise, they absolutely would not have been able to stay here for another day.

Yan Qingwen noticed her little movement and did not say anything.

Seeing Chen Zhien come over, Yan Qingwen asked, “How is Xiao Qi?”

None of them had expected that Qi Zange, who had excellent physical fitness, would also suffer from altitude sickness, and hers was even more severe than Yan Qingwen’s. Last night, she had basically slept with an oxygen tube. Chen Zhien, who was in the same room as her, had no choice but to inhale oxygen while taking care of her. “What kind of training did you receive? Your foundation is this poor?”

Qi Zange was dizzy and lightheaded, but did not forget to retort, “I’m an intelligence spy, not Counter-Strike elite.”

“A commercial spy is a commercial spy. What intelligence spy!”

“She’s recovered.” Chen Zhien had dark circles under her eyes. Taking care of Qi Zange was truly more damaging to the body than a hangover.

After the wedding photos were taken, the group returned to K City. Online, someone once again posted photos of Yan Qingwen and Wen Hebai taking wedding photos at a certain scenic area in western Sichuan and staying overnight at a homestay. Compared with the casual photo taken by the previous tourist, the photos posted this time clearly showed their faces.

This time, it was confirmed that they had gone out to take wedding photos.

CP fans rejoiced. Wenbao had finally coaxed President Yan.

Vera’s publicity side also breathed a sigh of relief. As long as they had taken wedding photos, there was a chance to promote their bridal brand.

The rest of the melon-eating crowd guessed that their wedding date was probably close too. They just did not know where it would be held or what guests would be invited.

Only Zhuang Yi was so angry that he smashed a glass coffee table and a chair.

“How can they treat me like this?!” Zhuang Yi raged helplessly. They had posted their marriage certificate—fine, it was only a certificate, something that could be torn up at any time. They appeared together everywhere—fine, it was all fan service. But they wore wedding rings that were obviously a pair, and now they had taken wedding photos. The next step would be holding a wedding. Once they finished all of this, could he still deceive himself and say that everything between them was fake?

The first time he tried to sow discord between them, Yan Qingwen had remained unmoved. He could understand that as everything between them being an act, so they did not care at all. The second time, he attacked Wen Hebai with rumors, and then Yan Qingwen had a huge argument with her. But he felt somewhat irritated, because if Yan Qingwen cared, that was why she quarreled with Wen Hebai, wasn’t it?

Every time after that, he discovered that not only did they not come out to publicly put on a show, they instead lived their own lives quietly like a real couple. In unknown corners, they spoke words of love to each other. Even just imagining them doing that kind of thing in bed made him feel like a lion king who had lost his mind, wishing he could tear apart the entire pride of lionesses!

At that moment, in one corner of the photos, he saw a somewhat familiar figure.

He cropped the image and sent it to an overseas email. “Help me investigate this woman.”

The other side soon produced results. After he saw them, a thought flashed through his mind: “Why is someone from Shenji Sect by Yan Qingwen’s side? Have they joined forces? No, that’s impossible. If they had joined forces, there couldn’t be no news at all. It must be that the people from Shenji Sect have set their sights on Yan Corporation…”

Thinking of this, he became excited.

He had found a way to approach Yan Qingwen!

After returning from western Sichuan, the photographers immediately selected over a hundred photos from the thousands they had taken for slight adjustments. The reason they did not need heavy editing was, first, because the two of them had well-proportioned figures, and their makeup and styling were perfect—especially their skin, which did not need smoothing or whitening at all. Second, the photographers were all very professional. Each person had their own photography style and characteristics, and one set of wedding dresses had been photographed by them in several different styles.

In just three days, they organized the photos in their hands and sent them to the two newlyweds to review.

Among them was one photo where the snowy mountain called a sacred mountain by the local Tibetans stood behind them, majestic and mysterious. The sunset fell on the peak of the snowy mountain, dyeing even the wind and snow with a layer of gold. Yan Qingwen held Wen Hebai’s hand and ran up a steep slope. Wen Hebai’s gaze was not on the camera, but fixed on the person pulling her along as she ran. Her expression was focused, and her eyes carried a light even more brilliant and dazzling than the golden snowy mountain.

On her phone, Wen Hebai sent a message: “Wife, which ones do you like? I like all of them. I want to print them all out and hang them all over our home!”

Yan Qingwen saved this one, then selected a dozen and sent them to Wen Hebai. “Wouldn’t a room full of photos look creepy? Just these. Hang one in the bedroom and make the rest into an album.”

“No. One in the bedroom, three in the living room, and we can put many on the study desk.”

Yan Qingwen said, “Then place them as you see fit.”

She pressed the internal line button to call the secretary office. “Have Xiao Qi come in.”

The chief secretary who answered the call said, “Xiao Qi asked for leave today. President Yan, do you have any arrangements?”

Only then did Yan Qingwen remember that this was indeed the case. She said, “Find someone to help me print a few photos, put them in frames, and send them over. Mm, the kind for placing on a desk. The frames don’t need to be too large.”

The chief secretary accepted the task and went to make arrangements.

At the same time, in the corner of a Golden Arches on a city street, Qi Zange looked at the man before her and revealed a shocked expression. “You—you—you came back to the country?!”

Zhuang Yi arrogantly crooked his mouth into a smile. “It’s been so long since we last met. Have you even forgotten to call me Young Master?”

Qi Zange thought inwardly, Young Master, my ass. A guy who isn’t even worthy of licking the Deputy Sect Master’s shoes!

As Zhuang Mei’s confidante, and someone who had received Shenji Sect’s sponsorship and cultivation since childhood, Qi Zange naturally knew Zhuang Yi. When they were children, they had even undergone physical training together.

So regarding the Zhuang family’s internal affairs, she also knew more than ordinary intelligence spies.

Zhuang Mei and Zhuang Yi were actually not biological siblings. Zhuang Mei’s mother was the daughter of Shenji Sect’s current sect master, Du Chunian. When she gave birth to Zhuang Mei, she suffered an amniotic fluid embolism and was not rescued in time, passing away. Considering that the young Zhuang Mei needed someone to care for her, two years later, Zhuang Xing married his current wife, and one year after that, Zhuang Yi was born.

Zhuang Xing could not bear for Zhuang Mei to know the truth and become heartbroken, so he had people conceal it. Also, because her stepmother was very good to Zhuang Mei and cared for her attentively, Zhuang Mei had always believed as a child that she was her biological mother and that Zhuang Yi was her biological younger brother.

As for Zhuang Yi, because Zhuang Mei’s maternal grandfather was the sect master of Shenji Sect, he had always believed his own mother was the daughter of Shenji Sect’s sect master. Therefore, he often regarded himself as the number one young master of Shenji Sect and the eldest young master of the Zhuang family.

Of course, no one exposed him. After all, Du Chunian only had one daughter. After she died, Zhuang Xing, this head of the Zhuang family and son-in-law of Shenji Sect, became the one actually in power. So there was technically nothing wrong with his son calling himself the number one young master of Shenji Sect.

Then what about Zhuang Mei, who had been born before Zhuang Yi?

Because she was a girl, the families, including the Council of Five Elders, had actually never considered choosing a girl as successor.

Zhuang Mei herself had also never thought of fighting for those things, until her maternal grandfather fell seriously ill and told her the truth.

“You are the last bloodline of our Du family. The assets of Shenji Sect absolutely cannot fall into the hands of outsiders, and they absolutely cannot be handed over to that younger brother who was not born from the same mother as you. He is an outsider. Only you are a member of our Du family.”

After that, Zhuang Mei used the excuse of taking care of her grandfather to move into the Du family, then secretly studied how to become a qualified successor of Shenji Sect.

Originally, what Zhuang Mei wanted was only the things that belonged to the Du family. But after learning the truth, she was no longer blinded by the cloth pulled over her eyes by the major families. She saw too much filth, too many schemes, and she also saw that the father she had always believed loved her and Zhuang Yi fairly had actually only treated her as a commodity.

So seven years ago, while Zhuang Xing was abroad, Zhuang Mei, who had planned for many years, took control of the Zhuang family with thunderous methods.

Zhuang Yi killed someone and fled back to the country. Zhuang Mei gave Zhuang Xing only two choices: either give up the Zhuang family, and she would let Zhuang Yi go; or she would send Zhuang Yi to accept legal judgment.

Zhuang Xing could only announce that Zhuang Yi’s inheritance rights were stripped and expel him from the country.

However, Zhuang Mei’s process of seizing power was not smooth sailing. She was inevitably attacked by the other four families of the Council of Five Elders. Because of that internal struggle and chaos within Shenji Sect and the Council of Five Elders, their companies lost the K City market, causing this place to become a hotbed where the forces behind Zhuang Yi could breed.

Qi Zange suddenly realized that this guy Zhuang Yi seemed not to know these truths yet. Otherwise, how could he still have the face to call himself the number one young master of Shenji Sect?

“Do Mr. Zhuang and the Deputy Sect Master know that you’ve returned?” Qi Zange asked.

Zhuang Yi said contemptuously, “Let them know, so they can join forces again and drive me out of the country?”

Qi Zange thought, Zhuang Xing was truly cautious. To this day, he still had not let Zhuang Yi know that back then, he had been forced to abandon this son, and that stripping him of his inheritance rights had also been to protect him.

However, if he were not so cautious, the Deputy Sect Master would not have been kept in the dark all along, genuinely believing he had willingly started a retired life of ignoring worldly affairs.

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell them?” Qi Zange asked again.

Zhuang Yi appeared extremely confident. “You can tell them, but I will also tell Yan Qingwen that you are a commercial spy. No matter what Shenji Sect is plotting against Yan Corporation, it will ultimately end in failure!”

“However…” He paused, deliberately keeping her in suspense. “If you agree to help me, I can cover up your identity for you and help you achieve your goal.”