Chapter 21: Sister, Don’t Stop…

Pei Ruyu’s fingertips paused slightly.

“Mm…”

That hand hooked around her neck again, gasping softly by her ear.

“Sister, don’t stop…”

The scorching breath dispelled the faint chill that had suddenly risen in Pei Ruyu at that moment.

Childbirth gu?

Pei Ruyu just took it as Miao Qingzhi’s joke.

Her fingertips pressed down a little harder, feeling the person in front of her tremble slightly, and she couldn’t help but laugh again.

“What, besides getting married, you want to have a baby with me too?”

The two great terrors of Chinese life: being pressured to marry, and being pressured to have children.

Miao Qingzhi wanted to have both?

A wet tongue licked repeatedly at her earlobe.

“Can’t I…”

Pei Ruyu’s breathing grew heavier from her licking. She curled her fingers and quickened the pace, only easing up slightly when the voice by her ear began to carry a hint of tears.

“I want to marry Sister, and I want to have a baby with Sister too.”

The faint sobbing carried a pitiful tone.

Pei Ruyu used her free hand to pat Miao Qingzhi’s back gently, soothing her.

“Then you can only dream about it.”

Having been untouched for too long, Miao Qingzhi was much more sensitive than usual today.

Pei Ruyu captured her lips, gently nibbling. When she had slightly recovered from the afterglow, Pei Ruyu laughed softly by her ear.

“We two can’t have children.”

But the soft body pressed even closer to her.

“If we could, would Sister be willing?”

Pei Ruyu continued to stroke her damp inner thigh.

“Looks like Classmate Miao didn’t listen carefully in class. Let me teach you again.”

Not giving Miao Qingzhi a chance to rest, her nimble fingers began to tease her body again.

“This is where you find pleasure.”

“This is where you feel my presence.”

Teasing bit by bit.

Causing the person beneath her to whimper endlessly.

When her fingers entered again, Pei Ruyu captured Miao Qingzhi’s earlobe, poking and teasing deliberately.

“Besides that, there’s no other use. Even if we do it again, or many more times, you can’t get pregnant.”

“Mm… then it’s because Sister doesn’t love me enough…”

Pei Ruyu couldn’t see the dark, gloomy color gradually creeping into those lust-filled eyes.

“As long as Sister loves me enough, it can happen.”

She couldn’t hear the seriousness in Miao Qingzhi’s tone, thinking she was just being coquettish and playful.

After bringing Miao Qingzhi to the peak once more, Pei Ruyu withdrew her hand and wiped the sticky wetness from it.

How could she not love her enough?

She absolutely adored Miao Qingzhi’s delicate, gasping, whimpering, and fragile charms.

But mindful of her wound, Pei Ruyu didn’t go too far.

After only giving her release twice, she stopped and wrapped her arm around Miao Qingzhi’s waist again.

Following the source of warmth, she kissed Miao Qingzhi’s sweat-dampened temple, murmuring with a light laugh.

“If you still feel it’s not enough, I’ll work hard to love you more and more in the future, okay?”

Miao Qingzhi, still trying to catch her breath, whimpered with the afterglow of their passion.

“Sister won’t lie to me again, right?”

It seemed last time had really given her psychological trauma.

Pei Ruyu’s heart ached. She pressed a light kiss to the corner of her mouth.

“Mm, I won’t lie to you.”

“But about marriage, I need some time to prepare. Okay?”

Getting married between same-sex couples wasn’t easy in this day and age.

Getting the certificate, notarization, the wedding…

Not a single step was simple.

Although she had never thought about marriage before.

But if such a sense of ceremony could make this girl, who was willing to protect her with her life, a little happier, then it was barely acceptable.

After all, Miao Qingzhi’s love for her was truly too deep.

Not only did she love her wholeheartedly, with her entire being focused only on her, but she was also willing to die for her.

She was even so magnanimous about her wandering ways, enduring her grievances and spoiling her…

She really was a good partner.

And her mother would be happy too, no longer nagging her.

Playing with Miao Qingzhi’s hair, Pei Ruyu’s voice grew even softer.

“Can we start a relationship with the intention of marriage? Wife?”

The person beneath her finally beamed with joy.

“Then Sister must not disappoint me again.”

Miao Qingzhi tightly wrapped her arms around Pei Ruyu’s neck, actively kissing her lips.

In the midst of passion, Pei Ruyu only heard a faint laugh by her ear.

“This is your last chance, Sister.”

In the most tender and affectionate moments, Pei Ruyu naturally couldn’t hear the deeper meaning in those words.

That night, Pei Ruyu slept incredibly soundly.

Finally, no more of the agonizing torment and nightmares from before.

But unfortunately, even the most beautiful dream was eventually shattered by an annoying phone call.

Pei Ruyu irritably picked up her phone and looked at it. It was only a little past nine in the morning.

The relentless calls were from her business partner, Shen Wangshu.

If it weren’t urgent, Shen Wangshu wouldn’t be calling her at this hour.

Carefully extracting her arm from under Miao Qingzhi’s head, Pei Ruyu quietly got up to answer the phone.

“Hello? What’s up?”

Shen Wangshu: “Still sleeping? Do you know your fish pond just exploded?”

With years of partnership tacit understanding, Pei Ruyu didn’t ask more. She hung up and directly opened the WeChat messages Shen Wangshu had sent her.

Two short video share links, and several screenshots of comments.

Pei Ruyu opened the first video.

The opening frame was a panoramic view of the performance stage at the lesbian bar she had visited on Saturday night.

The video began with a spectacular, shocking, and magnificent stage fireworks show as an opening hook.

Then came the close, hot dancing of the female dancers with great figures on stage. Ambiguous and intimate.

Smooth camera transitions continued with the back view of Miao Qingzhi carrying her as she walked.

Graceful figure, elegant steps.

The slender figure paired with the steady one-handed princess carry created a dramatic contrast of overflowing girlfriend power.

Wide shot to close-up, then came their facial close-up.

It was the scene of her gently stroking Miao Qingzhi’s cheek and kissing her.

The frame froze at the moment their lips were about to touch.

About to touch but not yet touching, the most tantalizing moment.

Then came the ambiguous atmosphere of the other two attractive lesbian couples in the bar, each frozen at the moment just before a kiss.

Advanced camera work, precise BGM synchronization, a forty-second short video edited to have the visual effect comparable to an idol drama trailer.

In the final section, it connected several couples’ kissing shots, paired with the bar’s scene promotion, ending with a soft advertisement to attract customers.

The short video’s theme was “true love knows no gender,” with tags including some popular lesbian-related hashtags, and even an inconspicuous “besties” tag mixed in.

Within 72 hours of posting, likes had already surpassed 300,000+, shares 160,000+, and the comment interaction rate was absurdly high for a soft-ad short video.

Based on this interaction ratio and the estimated 5-second completion rate, on the Douyin platform, the algorithm would continue to identify it as quality content and push it to larger traffic pools.

For people in their line of work in self-media, the commercial value of such a mini-hit short video was quite high.

Content, popularity, and most importantly, monetization methods, all present.

Pei Ruyu watched the few seconds she and Miao Qingzhi appeared in repeatedly.

That shooting angle and camera work, paired with the stage lighting as background, had edited their kissing close-up to look beautiful and romantic.

This was much higher quality than the video Si Yao had sent her.

Pei Ruyu unconsciously curved her lips, silently saved it as a favorite, then started scrolling through the comments.

The top hot comments displayed were:

【You city folks call this “besties”?】

【Baby sister, don’t hold her! Hold me!】

【Wife, if you don’t put her down, don’t even think about getting in my bed tonight!】

【Why are you all so possessive of other people’s girlfriends! She’s clearly my wife!】

【So going to your place to spend money can get you a partner?!】

【Ahhh these couples are so sweet! Shipping them!】

【Can a Miaojiang gu maiden just come out of the mountains on her own?】

…

In the era of information cocoons, even the comment section is displayed based on big data algorithms, and everyone sees different comments.

Pei Ruyu just casually glanced, didn’t scroll further, and didn’t pay much attention to that high-liked comment about the Miaojiang gu maiden and the various meme replies below it. She exited the interface and continued looking through Shen Wangshu’s messages.

The first screenshot circled a few comments posted last night that pointed the way.

【Holy shit, isn’t this couple the one from that video of the mistress going to humiliate the main partner?】

【I was still following that drama, didn’t expect to see it here again!】

【If you want the tea, search: Partner brought mistress to humiliate me at the door…】

Opening the other video link Shen Wangshu had sent, the title was:

【Shocking! I was hospitalized and critically ill, and my partner brought her mistress to humiliate me at the door. Is she trying to kill me?】

The video was posted by Zhou Wei.

The shooting angle was exactly from the perspective of the girl who had been accompanying her at the hospital.

In the short few-second video, the scene of Pei Ruyu holding Miao Qingzhi’s shoulder appearing at the hospital room door was edited together with Zhou Wei’s face full of rashes and her miserable state lying in bed.

The video also included the frozen frame of her and Miao Qingzhi kissing from the bar’s promotional video, with the posting time. Paired with Zhou Wei’s admission time as a comparison close-up, it made Zhou Wei look even more pitiful.

Combined with the repeated close-up of the apple that had fallen at their feet without hitting anyone, it actually had a bit of comedic poignancy.

Pei Ruyu laughed.

Although this video’s popularity wasn’t as high as the bar’s promotional video, having been posted just yesterday and already having over 10,000 likes and shares today, it wasn’t exactly cold.

Most netizens were asking her to tell the story of their love and hate.

The comments were mostly people wanting to eat the melon and watch the drama, mixed with quite a few insults. Pei Ruyu couldn’t be bothered to read them carefully.

She switched back to the chat with Shen Wangshu, quoted Zhou Wei’s video link, and replied.

【If I weren’t the person involved, I might have believed it】

【The title is well-chosen. Next time, I’ll have our director learn from it】

Of the other two screenshots Shen Wangshu sent, one circled a comment under Zhou Wei’s video.

【Oh ho, isn’t this President Pei from km? Didn’t know her private life was so exciting】

All the replies under that comment were vaguely hinting at the name of the cosmetics brand she and Shen Wangshu ran.

The other screenshot showed many netizens who had dug up the brand’s official account, leaving abusive comments under a product promotional video that Pei Ruyu had appeared in.

【Just a passerby, just want to ask, with a product manager of this caliber, can your products even be used?】

【With such a morally bankrupt person, aren’t you brand owners going to deal with it? Are you complicit?】

【Damn, eating the melon and finding an old acquaintance. I’ve been buying your products for years! Die, heartbreaker!】

After reading it all, Pei Ruyu directly called Shen Wangshu.

The other side laughed first.

“Gotta hand it to you, Pei Pei. Even my mom got complaint calls this morning, asking when she’s going to fire you. So, tell me, what happened this time?”

The business license was clearly displayed on the official account.

The legal representative’s information could be directly looked up. Coincidentally, the legal representative of the company registered under this brand was Shen Wangshu’s mother.

After all, when they were young, they had read too many cheesy romance novels about heiresses having to sell themselves to pay off debts after their companies went bankrupt.

So in the early days of starting their business, she and Shen Wangshu had already planned risk mitigation in case they went bankrupt.

After all, neither of them wanted to go out and sell themselves, and there weren’t that many foolish rich people in reality.

The legal representative and shareholders of the registered company were all gathered from their parents, grandparents, and other relatives to be figureheads.

The two of them, as the actual beneficiaries, could perfectly stay hidden, and going out with employee status made things easier to handle.

As long as they didn’t break the law, they wouldn’t send their family members to jail.

For illegal acts, the septuagenarian legal representative couldn’t go to jail either.

So even if they went bankrupt, they wouldn’t have to sell themselves to pay off debts.

But after opening the company, they learned that according to the law, a company’s bankruptcy had nothing to do with the boss, and even less to do with the boss’s daughter.

They only needed to pay the registered capital. Paying the employees’ n+1 compensation first was already the utmost kindness.

Usually, when Pei Ruyu went out, she was very careful.

Especially when dating girls, she kept her identity tightly under wraps, afraid that if she had bad luck and got exposed, people would come looking for trouble and affect their brand image.

In the two months she was with Zhou Wei, she never let Zhou Wei know what she did.

Unexpectedly, someone still dug up the brand she ran.

Those who came down weren’t passersby; passersby generally didn’t get involved.

Their brand was also in the mid-to-upper tier in its category in the market. Normally, at times like this, competitors liked to pretend to be passersby and muddy the waters.

Not delving into the intricacies, Pei Ruyu simply told Shen Wangshu the real situation, and the equivalent exchanges she had made for the emotional value Zhou Wei had provided during that time.

The other party’s video didn’t mention any profit, just emotional manipulation. Solving this kind of public opinion crisis was simple for them.

Shen Wangshu: “…Who told you to leave affection everywhere and love playing savior. Serves you right.”

For Pei Ruyu, feelings were nothing more than equivalent exchange.

Zhou Wei provided sweet words and gave her emotional value.

She had reciprocated with corresponding benefits, and it was already good of her not to ask Zhou Wei to repay the money. Naturally, she didn’t feel she owed anything.

Pei Ruyu: “I’m about to be cyber-bullied, and you’re still laughing at me.”

Shen Wangshu: “I told you long ago to fix that bad habit of always giving people money, but you wouldn’t listen! Now look what happened! You met someone ungrateful, and it even blew up on the company. Annoying enough for you?”

Pei Ruyu leaned against the window, habitually bantering with her good friend.

“People are forced by life, you know. Help where you can. Besides, could you bear to see a sweet girl suffer in front of you? I certainly can’t…”

She completely failed to notice the suddenly cold gaze behind her, still joking with Shen Wangshu: “Can I just say the word, and President Shen makes all these bad comments disappear?”

Shen Wangshu: “Wake up, President Pei. That’s the CEO in novels. You’re just a general taxpayer who has to come up with your own PR plan.”

And because their sales weren’t low, they couldn’t even pay taxes at the small-scale taxpayer rate.

After a pause, Shen Wangshu continued, “So, for this wave, do you want face or money? The user profile of the melon-eaters your ex-girlfriend attracted is quite precise. Conveniently, they’re basically all our product’s target audience.”

The precise traffic users brought by the two linked short videos were mostly young female users, mostly lesbians.

Exactly the precise user base for their brand’s cosmetics and beauty series.

And looking at the trend, the popularity would only continue to rise.

If handled properly, their brand account could achieve a complete monetization chain.

Hearing Shen Wangshu say this, Pei Ruyu understood her meaning.

“The money is practically delivered to our door. No reason not to take it. They’re all cursing me anyway, so why not let us earn some compensation for mental anguish?”

“Besides, I just confirmed the relationship with her. I want to hear some nice blessings to liven things up…”

“Of the last products we launched, two lipstick shades aren’t selling well. Let’s use those for a raffle of 1000 orders to play with.”

For melon-eaters who love watching drama, there was no faster solution than throwing money at it.

After all, there was no real empathy on the internet.

Having worked together for years, a few simple words were enough to understand each other’s thoughts.

In just half an hour, they had directly communicated a response plan.

They also discussed several implementable plans and some operational directions for details.

After all, for a small company like theirs, cobbled together like a makeshift team, they couldn’t rely on their employees to take the lead. It was already good enough if their employees could execute properly.

After confirming the raffle details, video materials, new link setup, subsequent crisis response, work assignments for each department, and the unified external messaging and specific details, Pei Ruyu added one more thing.

“Arrange the rest as you see fit. I need to stay with her in the hospital recently, so I can’t come to the company. Sorry for the trouble. Anyway, you can do whatever you want with me, but the bottom line is: don’t let her get any bad reputation…”

The little girl was so psychologically fragile; she couldn’t let clueless netizens cyber-bully her.

Shen Wangshu laughed. “Oh ho? Serious this time?”

Pei Ruyu: “Pfft, I’m serious every time. It’s just that feelings don’t last. What can I do…”

“Alright, I’ll keep an eye on things. But you’d better not go running off the moment your white moonlight turns back.”

Pei Ruyu: “…Don’t worry. Not this time.”

Just as she hung up, Pei Ruyu received a text message.

【Who is she?】

In this day and age, not many people still used this most primitive method to contact her.

No contact name, but that long string of numbers was one Pei Ruyu could never forget even if she wanted to.

The other party didn’t say much, just a cryptic question. But Pei Ruyu still guessed what she wanted to ask.

Damn it, Shen Wangshu, you jinx!