After Transmigrating Into A Scum Alpha, I Fell In Love With Her Wife - Chapter 10

Early in the morning, Shen Li was woken up by Xia Ran’s phone call.

“The Miss Numbers thing has been exposed. It’s currently third on the hot search.”

Xia Ran’s voice was urgent and frantic.

Shen Li lay on her stomach on the bed, her long reddish-brown curls scattered around her. Lazily, she turned on speakerphone and tossed the phone aside.

“What, you think that’s too low?”

Xia Ran: “…”

It was something they had expected.

“You said you would think of a way. I thought… maybe you might ask President Sheng for help.”

Xia Ran’s voice dimmed a little.

“On my side, I’ve already thought of every method I could. Fortunately, it won’t last too long. Tonight, there will be bigger news about another celebrity.”

Shen Li had thought Xia Ran had already accepted reality that day and mentally prepared herself, but she had not expected the disappointment and sadness in her tone to still be so hard to hide.

She became a little more awake, and the laziness in her voice eased back.

“Alright. It’s already happened.”

Hearing Shen Li comfort her, Xia Ran paused, then forced herself to cheer up.

“It’s fine. Don’t go online these next few days. The studio will post the apology statement using your Weibo. I’ll call you once the storm passes. If you’re bored, you can download an offline game. Match-three or Landlord?”

“…”

“Mahjong Hu Le, Mahjong Hu Le 2.”

Shen Li hung up the phone and, with a backhanded move, registered an alt account and opened Weibo.

It was more or less the same as the preview she had seen last time, except there were more on-set videos of her reciting numbers.

Exaggerated acting, emotionally misplaced number-reading, and slightly greasy physical contact.

There was no need to blacken these things by force. Anyone could spot the problems after watching the video once.

Being mass-dragged onto the hot search was never because of one single incident.

People would use this matter as an entry point, then dig up everything about her from top to bottom, punishing all crimes at once. Even old black-material videos with fewer than a thousand likes became clear again.

Miss Numbers. Acting like a diva. Bullying staff. Flirting around. Resource-backed flop leeching off others and shamelessly clinging to traffic. Poor gege.

Shen Li tapped into the “poor gege” thread.

It was talking about her and the Omega male lead from her previous drama.

That drama was a criminal investigation ensemble piece. Shen Li and the male lead were merely two members of the protagonist trio. There was no CP angle between them either on-screen or off-screen.

She watched a few behind-the-scenes black-material videos. Every interaction between the two of them was completely normal communication and contact.

Even this could be picked apart frame by frame and forcefully twisted into her clinging to him for attention?

[When we were trying to get pictures, what did she mean by blocking gege’s face with her hand?? Did she think they were filming her??]

[We didn’t get pictures from this makeup look because she was blocking him! So damn cheap.]

[Look here, look here. Is she asking Linlin to help her tie her belt? How shameless can she be?]

[An absolutely intentional display of her sexy figure?]

[Look here. Gege clearly didn’t want to ride in the same car as her at all. She really forced her way in?]

[Isn’t she married? Doesn’t she like women? What exactly is she doing?]

[With that many scandals, who knows if she’s trying to leech traffic or has other ideas. Someone this messy might not be picky about men or women.]

[So disgusting. She seems to be an S+ Alpha too, right? Can dangerous people like this stop harming the entertainment industry?]

The constantly refreshing comments on the square made Shen Li feel a little stuffy in her chest.

It was not that she had never been blackened before.

It was just that her starting point had been high, and her foundation had been stable. Even when rival fans fought and antis blackened her by force, it had never been this low-level.

Low-level.

These were the two unpleasant words in Shen Li’s mind.

These rumors could neither inspire the actor herself to fight harder nor create any effective value.

She was purely being treated as an imaginary enemy, with people blindly venting their emotions and even driving more people into the rhythm.

It was not the bite and struggle of fierce beasts, but more like countless bloodthirsty little ants crawling upward from the cuffs of one’s trousers until they covered the entire body.

It did not hurt, but it was torture.

With this scale and duration of cyberbullying, Shen Li could be certain that no capital had intervened.

In other words, Sheng Xing truly had not managed things for her this time.

No matter how much Sheng Xing valued face, a wife she was about to divorce could hardly affect her in the slightest anymore.

The worse Shen Li became, the more praise Sheng Xing would receive on the day their divorce was officially announced: “Sister is beautiful on her own. Glad she woke up early.”

Even if Sheng Xing did not need it.

Of course, there were also fans speaking up for Shen Li.

They were already weak and outnumbered, and in the face of video evidence, most of them could only apologize.

Using their own names, they apologized on Shen Li’s behalf.

Shen Li looked at those comments apologizing, arguing, or simply tossing out beautiful photos of her before running away.

Among this crowd of real and fake verbal condemnations, the trailing signature after those IDs—“The world is ahead of you, and we are behind you”—stood out so sharply.

Before the account had even exited the square, a hot search was automatically pushed to her:

Miss Numbers Incident, Linlin’s Latest Response—

At any rate, they had filmed one drama together. The original owner had absolutely no interest in men and was too lazy to do anything strenuous with no benefit. As for this male actor…

Before that thought could finish turning once in her mind, Shen Li saw his so-called “response” on Weibo.

Three selfies carefully taken from chosen angles.

A white low-collared sweater, just enough collarbone exposed, and a slightly haggard face—

not a single step of the makeup process had been skipped.

[The light boat has already passed ten thousand mountains.]

Seven short words, as if he had suffered so much because of Shen Li and now finally had the chance to be seen.

As expected, the comment section immediately kissed up with sympathy, while also attacking Shen Li all over again.

Shen Li’s finger lingered on that Weibo post, and she gave a cold laugh.

Clumsy, but useful.

If she remembered correctly, next week’s variety show promotion would also be with him.

A week passed in the blink of an eye. Xia Ran was right. That night, bigger news about another celebrity was exposed, and Shen Li’s matter was quickly moved past.

The dirt on a resource-backed Miss Numbers was, in the eyes of the audience, nothing more than an appetizer over tea and meals.

Even so, Shen Li still received seven or eight termination letters.

What she had done was far from the point of being beyond repair. The reason the brands were so eager was, rather than fear of public opinion, more because they had understood another layer of signal—

from the fermentation of the hot search to its cooling down, Sheng Xing had never once made a move.

The sound of the termination letters falling was light, yet clearer than any statement in drawing a boundary.

Among the remaining partners who had not terminated their contracts, only one jewelry brand sent Shen Li an encouraging email at the first opportunity.

The brand was not very big, but the message was very heartfelt.

Shen Li did not care whether she could continue appearing in various advertisements. The only thing she worried about was the penalty for breach of contract.

Fortunately, they were all small brands like daily-use products and electronics.

Xia Ran had not made a special report, so Shen Li probably had not gone bankrupt yet.

After a two-hour flight, Shen Li landed in the city where tonight’s variety show recording would take place.

Today happened to be the fifteenth day after she had temporarily marked Sheng Xing.

The dangerous two-week period had already passed. Sheng Xing would no longer urgently need her.

Shen Li could not help smiling.

In her previous life, the Alpha movie queen whose schedule had been arranged down to the minute had voluntarily served as someone’s soothing agent for two weeks.

Now that the reaction from the temporary mark had completely disappeared, the bond between her and Sheng Xing in the latter half of life she had taken over from the original owner had loosened a great deal.

“What are you smiling at?” Xia Ran felt that Shen Li had been strange these past few days.

“Laughing at the system.”

“What system? Phone, computer, car, or home?”

Shen Li shook her head.

“The task-completion system.”

She thought she should have a transmigration system.

At this moment, there should have been a “beep” in her mind, and a voice telling her, “Host mission: divorce. Completion progress: 99%. Completion reward: host may choose freely.”

After Shen Li and Xia Ran went to the hotel to drop off their luggage, they headed straight to the recording studio.

This variety show had a regular cast and was mainly aimed at young people, with a relaxed entertainment tone.

Guests came to play games and show their faces. It was a very good method of drama promotion.

Its biggest feature was the show’s motto: what they played with was authenticity—full live broadcast.

Every move the guests made, every improvised Q&A, and their real reactions during the games were all broadcast live throughout.

A live variety show was like a demon-revealing mirror. Some people gained fans and broke out because of their real personalities, while others were completely different from their usual image, fully exposed, and became black marks people used against them every time.

“Today’s game has a water-splashing segment. In a while, I’ll remind the makeup artist to use the best waterproof products.”

Xia Ran looked at the segment script and reminded Shen Li.

“Water-splashing segment?” Shen Li was somewhat puzzled.

“It’s like a small puzzle-action game. Rock-paper-scissors, teaming up, attacking and defending against each other. You’ve played it before. Have you forgotten?”

Xia Ran found a video for Shen Li to watch.

When Shen Li saw the video, she immediately understood what Xia Ran meant.

She had seen this kind of game in her previous life, but she had never played it.

Even on variety shows, no one had dared make her play such a game.

Nor had anyone dared splash water on her face.

“Reliable news: Linlin has recently latched onto the second-in-command of Chengtian Group again. Not only are hot search marketing drafts everywhere, he also contacted Director Chu to tailor-make a drama for him.”

“He climbed up by relying on his body all along, so his mind is twisted to no small degree. Now that he’s in the limelight, he can’t wait to find someone to step on. If there’s conflict on the show, try to give way to him a little.”

Chengtian Group.

That sounded a little familiar.

Shen Li did not answer, so Xia Ran could only worry more.

“Did you hear me?”

“How useless is he that I need to give way to him?”

“…”

“You are, after all, an S+ Alpha.”

Linlin was a pure, beautiful Omega. If he truly angered Shen Li, this Alpha who did not use her brain when things happened, that would be enough for him to suffer.

“Your reputation and his are already worlds apart right now. If word gets out, it will only draw even more cyberbullying.”

Shen Li gave a faint scoff.

“Latched onto the second-in-command of Chengtian Group—is that supposed to be some wonderful reputation?”

Shen Li remembered now. She had seen related materials with that company’s name written on them on Sheng Xing’s desk.

Xia Ran curled her lip.

“Then don’t bother with it. In the entertainment industry, popularity is king.”

Shen Li did not reply. The car drove up to the studio building, and outside the barricades, a dense black crowd of fans had already gathered.

The banners and light boards in their hands basically all said “Linlin.”

In the corner, a small cluster of people could vaguely be seen getting squeezed to the side. Their light boards said “Li Li.”

Before Shen Li’s car could even go in, it was suddenly stopped again. The driver negotiated through the glass for a while before finding out that Linlin’s car had arrived too, and they had to let him go first.

“His grandpa’s, this is bullying people too much!”

Xia Ran had just been comforting Shen Li earlier, but now she was about to explode first.

Shen Li did not say anything. She waited until several celebrity vans went inside before theirs started moving again.

After a whole process of styling and preparation, Shen Li’s original outfit for today was a black short dress paired with gold platform high heels.

Shen Li did not rush to put the dress on. Instead, she asked the stylist whether there was a pants outfit.

Preferably an all-black one.

The stylist scratched their head.

“There’s only one very tight-fitting set…”

After saying this, they subconsciously looked Shen Li’s figure over once.

“Please wait a moment, Teacher Shen. I’ll get it for you.”

As she wished, Shen Li changed into combat boots, tight black trousers, and a black shirt. She had just arrived backstage at the studio when Xia Ran rushed in like a gust of wind, carrying a crossbody bag and a pile of scripts.

Xia Ran came to Shen Li’s side, trembling as she lowered her voice.

“The production team only just told me that today’s variety show also has a live acting segment, restoring famous scenes from the drama. Hurry and look at the script. Memorize as many lines as you can. You absolutely cannot, at a time like this…”

Xia Ran was still giving instructions when Shen Li heard a noisy commotion. She looked up and saw Linlin walking in, chatting and laughing with another lead actor.

The other lead nodded in greeting, then walked straight past. Linlin stopped in front of Shen Li.

There was a lingering sweet cream pheromone scent on him.

“Teacher Shen.”

He glanced at the script in Xia Ran’s hand, and the corners of his mouth curled up.

“Memorizing the script?”

Passive-aggressive.

Shen Li lifted her eyelids and looked at him unhurriedly.

“This segment was something you temporarily requested to add, wasn’t it?”

Linlin froze.

How did she know?

He looked over this number-reciting vase in front of him—stupid, foolish, only able to recite numbers for lines—and for a moment, he was actually dazed.

“Isn’t live acting for drama promotion normal?”

He quickly adjusted his expression, his smile growing even more cutting.

“Otherwise, what should we do? Play a little numbers game?”

Shen Li smiled.

“What are you laughing at?”

“Live acting?”

She spoke slowly and deliberately, every word seemingly dipped in ice.

“With those trash acting skills of yours, aren’t you afraid of embarrassing yourself?”

Linlin’s eyes instantly widened, and the smile on his face stiffened.

“My acting is bad?”

His voice rose, then was forcibly suppressed.

“You have the nerve to say my acting is bad? Is your acting good?”

“I didn’t say mine was good.”

Shen Li stood up, casually gathered the few pages of script together, and shrugged.

“But what does that have to do with your acting being bad? At most, we’re just polluting the audience’s eyes together, aren’t we?”

“You—!”

Untargetable?

People were coming and going backstage. Linlin gritted his teeth and forced down his anger. He stepped closer, lowered his voice, and squeezed each word out from between his teeth.

“Shen Li, control your fans. If they dare bite people recklessly again, don’t blame me for not showing mercy. Just based on those slanders of theirs, one lawyer’s letter from me would be enough to make them pay. We’re all in the same industry. Don’t make things too ugly.”

“Ugly? You look pretty ugly right now.”

Shen Li lifted her chin toward the opposite corner.

“Don’t you know today’s show is livestreamed the whole way? Including backstage footage.”

Linlin’s face changed drastically in an instant. He anxiously turned around, but lost his footing and fell flat onto the floor.

Only after he turned around did he discover that there was no camera there at all.

“Shen Li, you!”

Shen Li smiled sweetly. Her red hair swayed lightly with the movement, revealing a bright and stunning face. She said, word by word,

“With that little courage, you still want to play the villain?”