Chapter 16: These Days, Fans Must Mind Their Public Image, Too

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The moment people entering the livestream heard that Wen Miaohan was about to serve them some juicy gossip, they excitedly hammered away at their keyboards to build momentum for her.

[Here we go, here we go! I knew you couldn’t casually pick a side when it came to Wen Miaohan’s drama! And now there’s fresh gossip to feast on.]

[Wen Miaohan’s firepower these past couple of days has been absolutely insane!]

[If everyone in the mainland entertainment industry responded as efficiently as she does, gossip would be so much more satisfying!]

The gossip-hungry crowd was so enthusiastic that the army of couple-shippers who had rushed in a step late refused to be outdone, immediately drawing their own battle line across the public chat.

[Ahhh! Zhuang Xu just posted on Weibo, and Wen Miaohan started a livestream right afterward. Are they about to publicly shower us with sweetness?]

[Wen Miaohan’s health is poor, and she doesn’t have much time left. I guess they don’t want to keep hiding things during this final stretch. They’re going public for real.]

The more exuberant the couple-shippers became, the angrier Wen Miaohan’s fans grew.

They called themselves couple-shippers, but everyone knew that most of them favored the male lead, Zhuang Xu. The more benefits Zhuang Xu had reaped from the pairing, the more abuse Wen Miaohan had endured.

Because Wen Miaohan had never deliberately marketed herself as part of a couple with him, and even during promotional events she had maintained only the most basic interactions with Zhuang Xu, the shippers could never find enough material to indulge in at roadshows. So they blamed Wen Miaohan for everything.

It had taken more than a year for things to finally quiet down. In particular, over the past three months, Wen Miaohan’s identity had undergone a dramatic change, causing her access to resources to plummet. Once Zhuang Xu’s side stopped deliberately clinging to Wen Miaohan, his former colleague, to keep promoting their pairing, the shipping community had finally calmed down somewhat.

Then, yesterday, Wen Miaohan had unleashed her full firepower and dominated the trending searches, only for Zhuang Xu to start reheating old leftovers again.

Now that these shippers were so wildly excited, everything would be fine if Wen Miaohan’s answer turned out to be what they wanted.

If it was not, they would absolutely put her on trial in public all over again.

The furious fans had no time to worry about anything else. While Wen Miaohan was still waiting for more people to enter the livestream, they immediately began battling the couple-shippers in the public chat.

[You brainless shippers, get lost! Wen Miaohan hasn’t worked with Zhuang Xu in two years. They haven’t appeared together at a public event or interacted on social media. Seriously, how are you still able to ship them?]

[The human leg accessory is back again. Can you leave our precious Hanh an alone? She’s in poor health and can’t withstand that giant leech sucking her dry.]

The livelier the argument in the public chat became, the more entertained Wen Miaohan was.

So livestreaming was this much fun. No wonder so many entertainers, celebrities, and ordinary people loved doing it. How had she never thought of livestreaming before to argue with all those book fans?

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What a pity. Those book fans were always full of amusing lines. If she could really livestream and chat with them, perhaps it might even spark some excellent inspiration.

She wondered whether she would ever have a chance to return to the real world.

That thought suddenly reminded Wen Miaohan that she could ask the system. If her deduction was correct, the system had brought her into this book.

Since the system had been able to send her here, it should also be able to send her back. She simply did not know what conditions had to be met.

Once the livestream ended, she would have to sit down and have a proper chat with the system.

Collecting her thoughts, Wen Miaohan glanced at the number of viewers in the livestream. There were already several hundred thousand people watching, and she broke into an especially delighted smile.

“My goodness! I’ve gone viral too! It’s only been two or three minutes, and there are already hundreds of thousands of you here. Did you all come for the gossip, or are you genuinely my fans—or perhaps just passing viewers who happen to like me?”

[I came for the gossip, but I like you too. I only started following you these past couple of days. Your personality is really endearing.]

[I’m here purely for the gossip. I just want to know what bombshell you’re dropping today.]

[Wen Miaohan, you and Zhuang Xu are really together, right?]

[Precious Hanh, you already had more than thirty million followers, so of course you were famous!]

“I took a look. There seem to be more people here for the gossip.”

Wen Miaohan automatically classified the couple-shippers as gossip seekers too.

“Since you’re all here for the gossip, type the story you most want to hear into the public chat. Whichever one gets the most votes, I’ll tell you that one.”

Wen Miaohan spoke with a mischievous smile.

[Tell us about you and Zhuang Xu.]

[Holy crap, judging by what you just said, you know a lot of gossip! Hurry up and tell us everything you know. Don’t make me beg!]

[Listen to her bragging. If she really knew that much, how could she have struggled so badly during those previous months? She could have taken any juicy scoop to the right person and traded it for excellent resources.]

There were far too many messages in the public chat for Wen Miaohan to read them all. She had never intended to go through them one by one. Her earlier question had merely been meant to liven up the atmosphere in the livestream. She was not a paparazzo, nor did she have any particular fascination with digging into other people’s private lives.

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Not having that particular fascination was one thing. But being challenged over her abilities was another matter entirely.

“Who said I was struggling before? Is it possible that I simply wanted to take a break and deliberately turned down all kinds of opportunities?”

“Though I’m not the true heiress of the Wen family, I do have the skills to back me up. Directors have eyes, you know. Besides, I have tens of millions of followers. Where exactly did you get the idea that I’d run out of work?”

Wen Miaohan spoke with open disdain.

If she had not placed restrictions on the original owner back then, given the original owner’s professional ability, she could have thrived even after leaving the Wen family. How could she possibly have ended up in such a miserable state?

“And another thing! There really isn’t any gossip in the mainland entertainment industry that I don’t know about. I’m simply good at keeping my mouth shut. Unless someone provokes me, I generally won’t take the initiative to reveal their private affairs. So don’t come in here questioning me right off the bat—especially those of you openly waving your fan credentials around! Don’t get your idol into trouble. These days, fans also need to be mindful of the impression they make when they go out in public. One careless move, and your idol will be the one taking the blame.”

Wen Miaohan threatened people in the livestream without the slightest hesitation.

What a ridiculous joke. Everyone in this book had been created by her. Was there really anything she could possibly not know?

And they dared to question her abilities?

How bold.

[Anyone can brag!]

[You dropped a little gossip yesterday and now you think you’re the most powerful paparazzo in the entire industry? There’s nothing you don’t know? What, have you been sleeping under everyone else’s beds?]

When Wen Miaohan saw that message, she impatiently pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

“This person called Star Companion—judging by your profile picture, you’re a fan of Li Xing, right? Fine. You’ve successfully caught my attention. Once I finish dealing with the mess on my side today, I’ll find some time to send you a little scoop about your idol. I guarantee that after you finish eating it, you’ll wish you could dig out your own eyes immediately.”

After dropping that remark, Wen Miaohan could not be bothered to look at the public chat anymore. She went straight to the subject of the livestream.

“All right, back to the matter at hand. Those of you here for the gossip have probably already guessed why I started this livestream.”

“Let me tell you, the moment I got out of bed this morning, I threw up. Why did I throw up? Because I was disgusted.”

“Oh, it was awful. I really vomited horribly—I even brought up bile. Why was it so bad? At first, I thought it was because of my health. I have late-stage stomach cancer, after all, so vomiting is perfectly normal.”

“But then I went online to see what was happening, and, well, it turned out there was something truly disgusting irritating me on the internet.”

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