Since Liu Chen had already opened her phone, she took a moment to check QQ. She noticed that Xia Lian, who had given her QQ number in the elevator earlier, had sent her several private messages. Xia Lian hoped Liu Chen would tell her the QQ number of the neighbor, claiming she had fallen in love with him at first sight.
Liu Chen: ...
"Is my face written with 'easy to fool'? Or do I look incredibly stupid? Love at first sight? She already shamelessly gave out her QQ number while pretending to be drunk in the elevator. Wang Weicong didn't add her, which means he's not interested. Now she's coming to me for his QQ number, which can only mean she wants to use the excuse of knowing me or my friend to add Wang Weicong. I detest people who treat everyone else like idiots!"
As she said this, Liu Chen didn't reply to Xia Lian and prepared to put her phone down. Just as she was about to, she saw Xia Lian tag her in the main group chat.
Xia Lian: @Liu Chen, *sobs*, Liu Chen, what's your friend's QQ number? It's the first time I've fallen in love with a guy at first sight, could you please introduce us? Just give me the contact information so we can chat. What if he's the soulmate I've been searching for all these years?
As soon as Xia Lian said this, the bloggers who were still awake despite drinking heavily erupted, all of them tagging Liu Chen and expressing their curiosity. Did Liu Chen have a picture of the guy she fell in love with at first sight?
Liu Chen watched Xia Lian's words in the main group chat and couldn't help but chuckle. "Soulmate? You didn't fall in love at first sight until he mentioned Tomson Riviera. Now that he's mentioned Tomson Riviera, you've fallen in love at first sight?"
While she was complaining, Liu Chen didn't hold back in the QQ group chat, perhaps because she had also had a little to drink. Liu Chen's tone today was much sharper than usual. After some thought, she replied in the group:
Liu Chen: You might have forgotten, but you already gave out your QQ number in the elevator when you were drunk. If you haven't received a friend request from him, I imagine he's not interested in adding you.
As soon as she said this, the bloggers who had been teasing Xia Lian fell silent. After all, they had all eaten Liu Chen's food and drunk Liu Chen's wine tonight. Moreover, they felt Liu Chen had a point. You already gave out your QQ number once, and he didn't add you, doesn't that mean he's not interested? If you were to ask for his QQ number and add him, wouldn't that be harassment?
Xia Lian hadn't expected Liu Chen, who had always been easygoing, to be so impolite to her. Clutching her phone and looking at the messages in the QQ group, Xia Lian's face turned red. However, it was unclear whether it was from embarrassment or anger.
Xia Lian: Liu Chen, if you like that guy, then that's fine. We can compete fairly.
Liu Chen, who had just relaxed after her bath, felt her toes curl up at this statement. On the other hand, some of the love-struck bloggers in the QQ group saw this message and expressed their support.
'I agree, Liu Chen, why don't you just give her his QQ number?'
'I agree, if he's really not interested, he probably won't accept the friend request even if someone adds him, and then Xia Lian will give up.'
'Go for it! Love knows no bounds!'
Seeing these messages, Liu Chen couldn't help but roll her eyes and directly replied in the group:
Are you guys okay? If you want to pursue him, then go ahead and pursue him. Just because I know Bill Gates, and you fall in love with Bill Gates at first sight, does that mean I have to give you Bill Gates' contact information?
Liu Chen's words made some of the older bloggers feel that she had a point. Besides, unlike the bloggers who were supporting Xia Lian, they had experience in the workplace and could see through Xia Lian's intention of revealing her QQ number while drunk. She was clearly trying to hook up with him, but he wasn't responding at all. Now Liu Chen was unlucky enough to be pestered by Xia Lian, who wanted to use her to get to know the so-called guy she fell in love with at first sight.
'Liu Chen is right. Xia Lian, if you really like him, then go pursue him yourself. Pestering Liu Chen for his contact information is useless.'
'Moreover, perhaps the person might have asked Liu Chen not to tell you his contact information?'
With two factions holding opposing views, and having all drunk a lot last night, the QQ group chat, with over a hundred people, began to refresh with messages at an astonishing rate. The speed at which the messages were refreshing gave Liu Chen a headache. She put down her phone and sank into the water, letting the hot water envelop her shoulders. Liu Chen sighed in relief.
At the same time, on the same floor, Wang Weicong downloaded the social media app called Weibo at the recommendation of his best friend. After successfully registering, Weibo pushed a list of top bloggers. Wang Weicong had just returned to the country and was quite bored, so he decided to follow them all. After registering, he entered Weibo's homepage, and the recent posts from the bloggers he had followed were all displayed on his feed.
As he refreshed, Wang Weicong was surprised to find that the night view of the hotel in the posts from these top bloggers seemed to be the Ritz-Carlton where he was currently staying. "Wait a minute, Liu Chen and that girl seemed to be acquaintances last night, and their interaction felt more like colleagues. Could it be..." Wang Weicong was a smart person. He quickly made a connection and tentatively typed 'Liu Chen' on Weibo.
As soon as he typed it, Liu Chen's Weibo popped up. Wang Weicong looked at the familiar female face on the profile picture and clicked on it. He expected to see content about her showing off her wealth, but after clicking, Wang Weicong was bombarded with advertisements. "Mei Mei Chang?" Wang Weicong then began searching for Liu Chen's name and "Mei Mei Chang" on Weibo, and the search continued until two in the morning. He also learned about everything Liu Chen had gone through.
After reading everything, Wang Weicong was speechless in the middle of the night. He complained to his best friend who had recommended Weibo: "What the hell? They actually believe that Liu Chen built her fortune through her stepfather? I know about the Mei Li factory, and while it's quite large, there's no way they had several hundred million in spare funds for a stepdaughter to squander. If you ask me, Liu Chen's true identity is not what she claims. I bet this Liu Chen's identity either involves the Beijing circle or she's the illegitimate daughter of some big shot in the country."
Who was Wang Weicong? Wang Weicong was known as the son of the richest man in S Province. His words directly caused his best friend, who had previously firmly believed in Liu Chen's stepdaughter identity, to completely re-evaluate Liu Chen's persona. Coincidentally, this best friend was also a small blogger on Weibo. However, his Weibo content, like Wang Weicong's previous guess about Liu Chen's Weibo, was mainly about showing off wealth, watches, cars, and houses. While this kind of show-off attracted tens of thousands of fans, it was still a far cry from the follower count of top bloggers.
Upon hearing Wang Weicong's confident statement, he quickly forwarded this conversation to a few of his close top blogger friends. 'My friend is a top second-generation rich kid from S Province! He says so!'
And so, as Liu Chen finished her bath, dried herself, changed into her pajamas, and lay down on the hotel bed to sleep, these speculations about her 'true' background began to circulate among the top bloggers. As bloggers, especially the first batch of top bloggers, even if they weren't familiar before, they had become friends after eating and drinking together today. Word of mouth spread from friend to friend, and within a night, countless versions of Liu Chen's true 'identity' had emerged. Some said Liu Chen was a third-generation descendant of a revolutionary family, some said she was the daughter of the richest man in the country, and some even claimed Liu Chen was the illegitimate daughter of the Hong Kong gambling king. In short, there were all sorts of versions. When Mi Zhuzhu showed them to Liu Chen, Liu Chen looked utterly confused.
"Why are these people suddenly thinking like this? Fine, if you tell the truth, no one believes you." As Liu Chen's best friend, Mi Zhuzhu knew how miserable her friend had been during her high school years. At that time, to avoid affecting her relationship with Liu Chen, she didn't even dare to eat too many snacks, for fear that Liu Chen would feel awkward about not being able to reciprocate.
Sang Ling also scratched her head. She had indeed drunk too much last night, and her head was still fuzzy this morning. However, unlike Mi Zhuzhu, who had made many friends in the blogger circle, among the few academic bloggers she knew, she had the highest follower count. Therefore, she hadn't received any rumors about Liu Chen's true background. Instead, she carried an orange box out of the room she shared with Mi Zhuzhu.
"Liu Chen, where did you buy this bag when you were drunk yesterday? Zhuzhu and I took a look, and it suits you perfectly. It's pink, and it looks so delicate and cute."
Seeing the pink Birkin bag, Liu Chen shook her head. "That was bought last night as a birthday gift for Zhuzhu. Zhuzhu can carry it to the banquet today."
Upon hearing that it was her birthday gift, Mi Zhuzhu immediately rushed to Liu Chen's side, hugging her and kissing her cheek fiercely. "Wuwuwu, Chenchen, how can I have such a good sister like you!" After the three of them had their playful moment, they went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for a buffet breakfast.
...
Xia Lian, who had almost argued with Liu Chen last night, also saw the speculations about Liu Chen's 'true' identity. After sleeping and sobering up, she realized she might have argued with a third-generation descendant of a revolutionary family. Xia Lian wished she could go back to last night and slap herself for sending that message so she could wake up. After thinking about it all morning, Xia Lian decided to make a unilateral gesture of goodwill.
On Weibo, Xia Lian posted a photo of a Birkin bag. After attracting some attention, she deleted the post and then added an explanation. 'It's a bag a blogger just bought. I saw it yesterday and thought it was too beautiful, so I took a photo. I just couldn't resist sharing it with everyone. I'll let you in on a secret, this bag costs six figures~~~ I'm so envious~~~'
As soon as Xia Lian posted this, it triggered speculation among many Weibo netizens. 'Top blogger carrying a six-figure bag.' This topic quickly climbed onto the hot search list, and Xia Lian's Weibo views soared. In Xia Lian's opinion, Liu Chen bought the bag and naturally wanted others to know its price, otherwise, who would buy such an expensive bag? Therefore, Xia Lian felt that by promoting the value of the bag for Liu Chen, she was already showing goodwill.
Meanwhile, Hu Xingfa, who was browsing Weibo at the time, saw this post and couldn't help but lean forward, his eyes glued to the screen. "What the heck? A bag for over a hundred thousand? Who's that rich?"