Chapter 21: Am I Your White Moonlight (End) Part 1

The interview had been coordinated in advance, so the whole process went fairly smoothly. They started with work talk, and then the host began tentatively prodding Lin Yiren with some more personal questions.

“I wonder if Yiren has heard of a fan group called Across the Water?”

At the mention of Across the Water, the corners of Lin Yiren’s mouth curved up, and she nodded. “I have.”

Since Lin Yiren already knew about it, the host didn’t need to explain. Noting that she seemed to be in a good mood, he pressed on. “A lot of netizens say there’s real chemistry between you and President Jiang. That’s just a fantasy fans like to play with, of course, but I was wondering if Yiren could tell us how the two of you first met?”

Lin Yiren froze for a few seconds at the question. She thought about how Jiang Ning had called herself her girlfriend on the way here today. She might well be watching the livestream right now. So shouldn’t she hear this story too?

Lin Yiren remembered that Jiang Ning had once asked her this very question, but she had always been too ashamed to speak of her past. In her eyes, Jiang Ning was a White Moonlight she could never sully, and the state she’d been in when she first appeared beside Jiang Ning had been so wretched.

But so much time had passed now, and Jiang Ning had acknowledged their relationship. After a moment’s thought, Lin Yiren pressed her lips together in a smile, feeling oddly at peace.

“Actually, I met Sister Jiang a long time ago.” Lin Yiren didn’t call her President Jiang, and that intimate form of address sent a thrill through the host, who glanced toward the director.

The director had already been tipped off by Jiang Ning beforehand, so he knew exactly what to do. He quickly drafted a Weibo post with a deliberately vague title, the kind most guaranteed to stir up gossip.

#Lin Yiren Reveals Her Relationship with President Jiang, Intimate Form of Address Sparks Speculation?#

Meanwhile, Xiao Lin was appearing on a different interview show. When that show’s director had contacted him, he had genuinely been tempted. After all, with public opinion having developed this far, even the hottest topic would cool off eventually. If he played this interview right, he could drive Jiang Ning into a corner with no way out.

“There are rumors online that you’re dating President Jiang Ning of Jiangtian Entertainment. Would Mr. Xiao be willing to answer a few questions from netizens?”

He had been warned about this segment and had prepared his answers, so he nodded with a smile. But when he heard the actual questions, his expression turned ugly.

What dishes Jiang Ning liked to eat? How would he know? And her taste in clothes? She liked plenty of clothes, thank you very much. Xiao Lin gave a few vague answers, never expecting netizens to dig the real answers out of Jiang Ning’s Weibo in no time.

He claimed to love Jiang Ning, yet couldn’t answer even the most basic couple’s questions. Worse, the answers had been publicly posted ages ago. In an instant, countless netizens began to suspect that Xiao Lin’s so-called deep devotion had all been an act, and that he came off far less genuine than Lin Yiren answering questions on the other side.

Both interviews were famous shows, and by a lucky coincidence, while everyone was roasting Xiao Lin, plenty of people spotted the gossip about Lin Yiren and Jiang Ning and clicked the link, arriving just in time to hear Lin Yiren talking about a childhood memory.

“Speaking of how we met, it’s actually pretty melodramatic. When rich parents are too busy, there’s always that one or two nannies who are terribly negligent, and unfortunately my family happened to hire one. And just my luck, I was the one she left behind.”

“I was only six at the time, dropped off on a busy street, searching everywhere for the nanny. The hero from the fairy tales never came to rescue me, and neither did Mom and Dad. The one who took me home was a dirty old man.” Perhaps because the topic had turned heavy, Lin Yiren didn’t milk the misery for sympathy. Instead, she joked as she continued.

“Maybe the old man was just too hideous, because the moment I saw Jiang Ning, it felt like looking at a fairy. She was wearing a white trench coat and a black beret, and she looked so impossibly cool. I had just escaped from that drunk man and had no idea how to get home. I walked to the river and thought about just jumping in.”

“It was Sister Jiang who pulled me back. My long hair had been chopped into a ragged mess and I looked like a little tomboy, filthy from head to toe, but she didn’t hold any of it against me. She just kept comforting me, telling me that if I kept crying or ran into the water, I would scare the knight away.” Lin Yiren could barely remember what Jiang Ning had looked like back then, but she remembered her words with perfect clarity.

“By that point I’d long stopped believing in fairy tales. I was bawling my eyes out, hiccupping so hard I couldn’t get a full sentence out, and I never even mentioned being abducted. I just kept repeating that no knight had ever come.”

“Then Sister Jiang told me that the reason I’d been hurt was because I’d been waiting for a knight in shining white armor, but there was no such thing in this place. There were only Black Knights. As long as I waited, I was destined to become a Young Princess, and a Black Knight would come to protect me.” Lin Yiren wanted to laugh just thinking about her old self. She skipped over the part about being taken home and treated for autism, jumping straight to how she’d learned what happened to the Jiang Family and rushed back from abroad.

By now, countless netizens were crying out about the most beautiful love story, biting their handkerchiefs and spamming, Sister, tell us more! We don’t care about the traffic! Compared to Lin Yiren’s sincere, smiling confession, Xiao Lin’s dry, loveless “romance” on the other side was downright cringeworthy.

Then the host landed a solid blow. “The way Yiren puts it, did you come back to the country to repay a debt of gratitude?”

Since ancient times, repaying such a debt had tended to end with offering oneself in marriage. That was exactly what the host was thinking, and he was probing on purpose.

Lin Yiren nodded without denying it, brushing her long hair over her ear to hide her burning earlobe, and dropped a depth charge. “I was the one pursuing her.”

The fans were so shocked by this revelation that the barrage of comments briefly thinned to nothing, then exploded, flooding in. So that’s how people rise up in Across the Water. Fans hammered their keyboards to vent their excitement, but Lin Yiren didn’t seem to think what she’d said was all that shocking. Smiling happily, she continued, “And now, we’ve officially confirmed our relationship.”

Diary of a Flaking Author: HOLY—!!! Mom asked me why I screamed out loud. It’s because my ship just became REAL!!!

When Will the Male Pairs Stop Embracing: Sister! I don’t care about the traffic!! Just tell me, confirmed relationship, what kind of confirmed relationship? The kind where you ascend in body and soul??

I Love Leaving Comments: Go on, Yiren, keep going!!! Tell me who’s on top, what position, does it feel good??

The comments were getting too scandalous to look at, and even Lin Yiren flushed a little reading the barrage. Pretending not to see them, she went on about how good Jiang Ning was to her in everyday life, even sharing a few little anecdotes.

“A while ago she asked me why I keep a Husky. It’s actually because when my parents took me to the pet shop, the Black Knight ran over, sat down beside me, and looked up at me, and suddenly I thought of Sister Jiang.” The black beret and white trench coat were the only things Lin Yiren had managed to remember, so the moment she saw the Black Knight, she’d fallen in love at first sight.

The real reason she’d been too embarrassed to answer Jiang Ning’s question back then was that she could hardly tell her, “I fell in love with the Husky because it reminded me of you,” could she?

At the thought, Lin Yiren pressed her lips together in a smile, wondering whether Jiang Ning would be angry if she saw this.

Her tone and expression made the four words “in love with Jiang Ning” abundantly clear, and hordes of fans flooded to Lin Yiren’s Weibo to shout: President Jiang!! Your wife just confessed in public, go respond, quick!!

The fans of Across the Water were overjoyed, hoping the other half of the couple would make an appearance so they could screenshot it and celebrate, a kind of official witness to her and Lin Yiren’s love. Jiang Ning did indeed appear, just not in the way anyone expected. #Car Accident Involving President of Jiangtian Entertainment, Gruesome Scene at the Site, Suspected…#

The Marketing Accounts loved to exaggerate, and the fans, clinging to hope, clicked into the article anyway. The pictures showed a car wrecked beyond recognition, and in one of them, Jiang Ning’s forehead was covered in blood, unconscious as an ambulance carried her to the hospital. The grisly sight sent a chill through everyone’s hearts, especially when they saw Lin Yiren on the livestream still saying she planned to cook for Jiang Ning when she got home. Some emotionally sensitive fans broke down crying on the spot.

Lin Yiren’s interview wasn’t over yet, and a few people left gleeful comments like “she’s already dead, why keep flaunting the romance,” but they were quickly buried under the flood. Lin Yiren’s sharp eyes caught them anyway. She figured it was just some antis who couldn’t stand her and frowned slightly, but remembering that the show was still recording, she swallowed her displeasure and the creeping unease beneath it, and kept answering other questions.

Then she stepped off the stage. The strange looks on the faces of the people around her made the panic in her chest grow thicker and thicker, yet she still told herself not to be too nervous. Breathing slowly and deeply to steady her emotions, she took out her phone and opened Jiang Ning’s WeChat, wanting to ask where she was now. But the Marketing Accounts were bombarding Lin Yiren’s phone with trending topics.

Lin Yiren saw the news in a single glance, and in that instant it felt as though the lights around her were spinning, dizzying her. Grabbing Lin Li’s arm for support, she managed a faint smile, then left the studio at speed and rushed to the hospital.

At the hospital entrance, she found the place swarming with reporters. For a moment she couldn’t push through, and her face grew paler and paler, until she finally snatched a camera from the person in front of her and smashed it to the ground.

“Something’s happened to someone and all you can think about is gossip, feeding off other people’s tragedy. If any of you get sent to the hospital, no medicine will save you!” Her expression icy, Lin Yiren had her bodyguards hold the crowd back. Kept outside with the reporters was an ambulance.

Nearly an hour had passed since the car accident, and Jiang Ning was still in the emergency room. Lin Yiren sat on the bench feeling a chill spread through her chest. Another snow had just fallen over Jiangcheng, and the melting snowflakes seeped into her collar, making her shiver.

Once she’d calmed down a little, Lin Yiren opened her phone and saw another piece of news: speculation about the car accident that had killed Jiang Ning’s parents, complete with a receipt showing the car had been serviced at a dealership shortly before Father Jiang’s crash, and a line from the accident report stating the crash with the freight truck had been caused by brake failure. The contradictions raised were plausible and well-argued, and plenty of netizens had already begun piecing together the truth of what had happened.

What netizens said could sometimes serve as inspiration, because they dared to make bold guesses. Lin Yiren immediately contacted Lin Zhiyuan and had the lawyers prepare.

Lin Zhiyuan had received the news even earlier than she had and was already deployed, simultaneously releasing statements to stabilize Jiangtian Entertainment’s stock price. Fortunately, most of that faction had been promoted personally by Jiang Ning, so while some people did leave, hardly anyone kicked her while she was down. With the Lin Family’s backing, Wang Chenyu found things much easier to handle.

The turn of events caught the Chen Family off guard. After all that preparation, the Lin Family had actually withdrawn from the bid. Instead of being happy about claiming the plot of land, the Chen Family felt a creeping sense of foreboding and hurried to destroy the evidence again.

But the police moved faster than the Chen Family. Someone reported the Chen Family for plotting the deaths of Jiang Tianci and his wife, and pointed out that with Jiang Ning now hanging between life and death, this too was a long-premeditated scheme, demanding Chen Siming be investigated. At the same time, someone reported Bai Keke and artists under Chengxing Entertainment for involvement in prostitution and drugs. Overnight, everyone from top to bottom in the Chen Family and Chengxing Entertainment was invited to the police station for a chat.

After wrapping that drama, Lin Yiren quietly withdrew from the entertainment industry, following Lin Zhiyuan to handle Lin Family affairs while also helping Wang Chenyu hold down Jiangtian Entertainment.