Chapter 5: Misunderstanding

“@Jiang Shumo V: Ms. Chi, you think you’re worthy?”

Netizens: “???”

Jiang Shumo was utterly brazen. Not only had she refused to apologize in this situation, but she had even mocked the other woman?

When they considered that a person like this was still working in the entertainment industry and earning money from it, the netizens’ pent-up frustration finally erupted. They launched an even fiercer barrage of attacks:

[As expected from a mad dog—biting anyone she gets her teeth into /smirk]

[It’s those brainless fans propping up these D-list nobodies, making them think they’re above everyone else. She clearly messed up, but she’s still acting so arrogant!]

[The last one who was this cocky ended up in jail. I can’t wait to see how long Jiang Shumo keeps jumping around.]

[Yin Hua got called out for insulting a security guard, and she apologized that very afternoon. Yin Hua’s a top-tier king, so what the hell is Jiang Shumo?]

[…]

Jiang Shumo had no interest in reading these infuriating comments. She pocketed her phone and followed Song Ge into the private room. Song Ge, walking ahead of her, spoke in a gentle tone. “I know you’re not that kind of person. She must have provoked you first.”

Back then, it had been Jiang Shumo who reached out to pull her up. Song Ge knew that Jiang Shumo had a sharp tongue but a soft heart, and a stubborn temper. Still, her character was impeccable.

As far as Song Ge was concerned, the blogger who posted it must have twisted or hidden her own misdeeds, deliberately spinning a sob story online to smear Jiang Shumo’s image.

These words caught Jiang Shumo off guard for a moment. She thought about it and let out a light chuckle. “You really get me.”

Hearing that, the smile in Song Ge’s eyes deepened. “So, how did she provoke you?”

Jiang Shumo flopped onto the sofa, her lazy sprawl making Song Ge’s gaze soften even further. Propping her legs up on the coffee table, Jiang Shumo gave a quick rundown of what had happened in the restroom. “…And that’s how it went down.”

“She’s got some nerve saying crap like that. She was the one who was rude first, and now she’s turning the tables on you.”

Song Ge’s expression had turned icy. She gave Jiang Shumo a deep look. “She’s just bullying you because you’re stubborn and don’t like explaining yourself to people.”

Jiang Shumo knew Song Ge was trying to persuade her, but the original host’s personality had been exactly like this. Online opinions and netizens’ judgments were all irrelevant noise to her. She didn’t care what others thought.

Many of the original host’s scandals could have been cleared up easily, but the original host had disdained to bother explaining. In her view, “People who can’t even think for themselves don’t deserve an explanation from me.”

Jiang Shumo didn’t respond. “Let’s not talk about this boring stuff. Same as always.”

Seeing how utterly indifferent she seemed, something flickered in Song Ge’s eyes, eventually melting into thick helplessness. She let out a soft sigh. “Alright, wait here.”

The moment Song Ge stepped out, Jiang Shumo started puzzling over who had bought the black hot search.

It was way too obvious. A “Ms. Chi” account with fewer than two hundred followers had posted a Weibo that shot straight to trending within an hour. What else could it be but paid smears?

As she mulled it over, her manager Liu Wan called. The moment Jiang Shumo picked up, Liu Wan cut straight to the chase.

“What’s this about Sweet Miss’s Shop?”

Jiang Shumo trusted her manager completely, so she recounted everything in detail to Liu Wan.

“—So you’re saying there was someone else in the restroom at the time?”

Liu Wan zeroed in on the key point right away. They could use this third party to refute the blogger’s post—no need to track the person down; their mere existence was enough.

“Yeah.”

Jiang Shumo murmured her agreement, but her mind was wandering to what the female lead’s reaction would be when she saw her own fans’ comments in the hot search thread.

The female lead knew better than anyone what had really gone down.

“Got it.”

Liu Wan’s calm, steady voice pulled her back to reality.

Jiang Shumo paused, then asked, “Any luck finding out who bought the hot search?”

“Heh…”

Liu Wan let out a cold scoff. “Zhao Chan. Yan Qingxu’s new manager.”

Jiang Shumo: “…”

Talk about convenient timing. Without Zhao Chan stirring the pot, she probably would have shut Liu Wan down like the original host always did and skipped the clarification. But Zhao Chan’s actions represented Yan Qingxu’s stance.

As the cannon-fodder side character, she sure as hell wasn’t going to let Yan Qingxu have her way!

Jiang Shumo smiled faintly. “Then let’s clear it up. I won’t let them get the last laugh.”

~~~

[Lu Xiao: Shared a Weibo with you]

[Lu Xiao: Quick, look—Jiang Mad Dog’s trending!]

[Lu Xiao: Jiang Mad Dog’s way too savage. That blogger’s life is over lol]

Yan Qingxu was in the middle of chatting with her two friends when the phone on the table lit up. She glanced at the screen and paused at the sight of “Jiang Shumo.” That tall, slender silhouette flashed through her mind.

Yan Qingxu veiled the complicated emotions in her eyes. An inexplicable impulse made her tap open the Weibo Lu Xiao had shared—

“@Briars and Roses: #JiangShumoBullying # This afternoon, my friend and I went to Sweet Miss’s Shop on Huadu Sidin Street for a meal…”

After reading the post, Yan Qingxu’s brows furrowed tightly.

The wording was so inflammatory, twisting the facts in just a few lines. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she might have bought it too—after all, Jiang Shumo’s public image was that awful.

But she had been there. She had witnessed the whole lead-up and aftermath. She knew the blogger was lying, exploiting the netizens’ simple sense of justice and their dislike of Jiang Shumo to get revenge.

Yan Qingxu scrolled through the comments. They were overwhelmingly attacking Jiang Shumo:

[Jiang Shumo’s the type no one’s gonna whitewash, right?]

[I just wanna know when Jiang Shumo’s gonna apologize. Why’s someone like her still in the industry? Evil driving out good, huh /smirk]

[If you screw up, apologize. Jiang Shumo, just apologize already.]

[Poor blogger girl, out for a fun day and she gets bit by a rabid dog. Pat pat for the blogger /hug]

…

Reading through them, Yan Qingxu felt a rare pang of pity for Jiang Shumo.

She noticed a few top comments from her own diehard fans. Yan Qingxu’s lips pressed into a thin line unconsciously. If she hadn’t been there, she might have stayed out of it. But she had been right there—and after being bumped, Jiang Shumo had apologized to her first…

Her fingertips whitened around the phone. Yan Qingxu fell silent for a moment, then tapped open Jiang Shumo’s Weibo—

She wanted to see how Jiang Shumo had responded.

There was the familiar profile pic, with a four-word comment: “Ms. Chi, you think you’re worthy?”

The sarcasm dripping from those words instantly conjured the restroom scene in Yan Qingxu’s mind.

“Ha…”

Yeah, that sounded just like Jiang Shumo.

“What’re you looking at? That funny?”

Her chatting friends heard her laugh and leaned over curiously.

Yan Qingxu’s smile froze. Jiang Shumo, funny?

She rolled her eyes inwardly but kept smiling on the surface, deftly changing the subject with a few words. Her friends dove right back into their excited chatter.

With them distracted, Yan Qingxu glanced back at Jiang Shumo’s latest Weibo. She lowered her eyes thoughtfully.

She might despise Jiang Shumo, but the blogger had been the one to offend her first. Staying silent would be tacitly endorsing this black-and-white inversion.

After a moment’s thought, Yan Qingxu logged into her official account and posted:

“@Yan Qingxu V: In the court of public opinion, public figures are both the strong and the weak. Don’t jump to conclusions before the facts are verified. Wait for the truth.”

Satisfied, she set her phone down. She trusted Jiang Shumo’s PR team wouldn’t just sit on their hands. If they did nothing, she could always use her alt to lay out what really happened.

What could she say? She was beautiful and kind-hearted. Even to a mad-dog pest like Jiang Shumo, she’d state the facts impartially.

The fans who had been glued to the drama—and those on the front lines charging hard—lost it when they saw Yan Qingxu’s post.

With Jiang Shumo at the center of the storm, Yan Yan had set aside personal grudges to post something so objective and rational. What magnanimity!

[Yan Yan’s got the right values! Sisters, come back—we’ll wait for the truth with Yan Yan!]

[I don’t like Jiang Shumo at all, but Yan Yan’s right. Let’s wait till it’s clear /kneeling]

[Wuwu, Yan Yan’s been hounded by Jiang Mad Dog for three years, and here she is speaking up for her. I stan the right person!]

[Only Yan Yan’s willing to speak up for Jiang Shumo now. Hope she remembers this favor and stops disappointing us.]

[…]

Not just the fans—even the netizens were shocked by Yan Qingxu’s stance.

In the entertainment world, kicking people when they’re down was common; lending a hand in tough times, rare. Jiang Shumo had been blackening Yan Qingxu for years, yet here Yan Qingxu was, not piling on but giving her a chance to explain. Too saintly!

[Road-to-fan for Yan Qingxu. Never mind Jiang Shumo’s image—judging her guilty just on the blogger’s word is unfair. Waiting for the truth.]

[Yan Qingxu’s such a good person. If there’s a twist, Jiang Shumo owes her big time for this.]

[New roadie for Yan Qingxu. Beauty with a heart—stay rational, everyone, let’s see what happens.]

[No idea if there’ll be a reversal, but Jiang Shumo better bow to Yan Qingxu at minimum.]

[…]

Just as netizens flooded Jiang Shumo’s mentions, urging her to thank Yan Qingxu, Jiang Shumo reposted and commented on Yan Qingxu’s Weibo:

“@Jiang Shumo V: No need for your fake sweet talk. Stop putting on an act here—it’s disgusting. / [vomit emoji]”

Yan Qingxu: “？？？”

The fans: “？？？”

The netizens: “？？？”

Wasn’t Jiang Shumo acting like a total hedgehog? How could she be so prickly, lumping friend and foe together, completely impervious to reason?

Seeing Jiang Shumo’s retweet and comment, Yan Qingxu nearly choked on her own saliva. Annoyance bubbled up inside her even as she couldn’t help but laugh at herself.

She must have lost her mind to think Jiang Shumo would ever thank her!

Luckily, she hadn’t spoken up to clear Jiang Shumo’s name in the first place. She’d only done it because she couldn’t stomach the blogger twisting the facts like that. Otherwise, this comment might have actually driven her up the wall.

Yan Qingxu was still inwardly grumbling about Jiang Shumo’s thick-headedness when her phone rang—Brother Zhao was calling.

“Next time you post on Weibo, run it by me first. Fortunately, this one turned out pretty well.”

What did he mean by “pretty well”?

Detecting the smug undertone in Brother Zhao’s voice, Yan Qingxu felt a twinge of unease. In a flash of realization, she pressed him: “Did you buy that black hot search?”

Brother Zhao: “Yeah.”

Yan Qingxu: “！！！”

No wonder Jiang Shumo seemed so ungrateful. It turned out Zhao Chan had been dragging her down!

Jiang Shumo’s agency wasn’t staffed by incompetents—they must have traced the black hot search back to her agent.

From Jiang Shumo’s perspective, things looked like this:

Her agent buys a hot search to smear her, and then she swoops in calling for calm and urging everyone to wait for the facts. Regardless of any eventual reversal, the public and netizens would see her as the rational, good-hearted one who wouldn’t fan the flames over personal grudges.

Not only did it stick in Jiang Shumo’s craw, it also let her climb higher by stepping on Jiang Shumo’s already tarnished reputation.

Jiang Shumo probably wanted to devour her whole right now—forget any thanks.

At the thought, Yan Qingxu’s face darkened with irritation. She couldn’t help feeling a surge of dissatisfaction toward her new agent. “From now on, discuss things with me before you act. Don’t go making decisions on your own!”

He was really something—just kept stirring up needless trouble for her!