"Liu Chen's family is in the wholesale of frozen goods? So all her clothes were bought by her godmother?" Xiong Wan asked, glancing at the message on Sang Ling's phone, still with some disbelief.
Sang Ling coldly exited the QQ chat on her phone and stopped asking. Instead, she looked at Xiong Wan and said, "Everyone can see your little thoughts. Now you know, Liu Chen is excellent on her own, and I'm definitely not treating her well because of her family's background."
Knowing Liu Chen's true family situation, Xiong Wan instead smiled softly and gently patted Sang Ling's arm, cooing, "I never said that. Sang Ling, don't overthink it. You know, I've always spoken without thinking since I was little. Please be understanding."
Hearing this, Sang Ling frowned, feeling a little guilty at the same time. After some thought, she told Liu Chen about the incident on QQ, adding an apology at the end, saying she had acted impulsively.
...
When Liu Chen received the message from Sang Ling, she wasn't very surprised. She was just curious why Ren Mo was unwilling to admit his mother. She had been forcibly kept by her godmother that night. Her own pink room at home had already been tidied up. Her godmother and mother were accompanying the elderly lady in playing mahjong, while Ren Mo was stubbornly tagging along with Ren Yu to the company, saying he wanted to visit the "League of Legends" project team.
Lying on the bed, Liu Chen glanced at the lottery tickets she had accumulated over a month and a half: 2250. For the first month of this period, she had been in military training. Even with the foundation of the "Eight Brocades" exercise, because the instructor liked to use her as a representative to showcase to other departments, she had no choice but to train even harder to avoid embarrassing the Food Science department. Moreover, sleeping in a dormitory with others, she never felt comfortable drawing lottery tickets.
Now, lying peacefully in bed, Liu Chen simply clasped her hands together, her eyes open, staring at the ceiling. She appeared to be in a daze, but in reality, she was looking at the lottery roulette in mid-air.
Drawing lottery tickets.
'Received 2,000 yuan in cash.'
'Received 2,000 yuan in cash.'
'Received Sesame Flatbread Recipe (Excellent).'
'Received 2,000 yuan in cash.'
'Received 2,000 yuan in cash.'
'Received a Charm of Misfortune (48-hour limit).'
'Received 2,000 yuan in cash.'
'...'
'Received S Province Pickled Cabbage Recipe (Excellent).'
'...'
'Received Super Spicy Hot Pot Base Recipe (Excellent).'
'...'
Liu Chen's gaze landed on the hot pot base. Then, that recipe floated in front of her. Even in the darkness, the words on the recipe emitted a faint white glow. Liu Chen looked at the proportions and ingredients written on it, and her mouth watered.
Liu Chen had only been asleep for a few hours when she was woken up by a knock on the door. "Chenchen? Are you awake?" It was her mother's voice?
"Mom?" Liu Chen got out of bed, opened the door, and asked, "Mom, what time is it? What are you calling me for?" As she got closer, Liu Chen also smelled alcohol on Liu Fang.
"Mom? You've been drinking?" Hearing this, Liu Fang smiled and gestured a small amount with her finger. "Just a tiny bit, hehe."
"Alright, Mom, what's the matter calling me out so late at night?" Hearing this, Liu Fang patted her head in regret. "I almost forgot. I came to call you. Let's go, let's go to Tiananmen Square to watch the flag-raising ceremony!"
"Flag-raising?" Liu Chen walked back to her bedside, picked up her phone, and saw it was 5:30 AM. She then looked at the sky outside the door; it was still a deep blue. It seemed that the flag-raising time in autumn was different from that in summer.
"I'll change my clothes, wait for me. Mom, you should also wear something warmer. Beijing is very cold in autumn." As Liu Chen spoke, she pulled her mother into her room, changed into a denim outfit from her godmother's closet, draped a shawl around her mother, and even placed a lucky charm on her mother, with a duration of two hours.
After changing, Liu Chen took her mother's hand and they walked out of the courtyard gate together, getting into Assistant Cai's waiting car. The car stopped at the usual spot, and Assistant Cai, after parking nearby, ran over and followed behind the mother and daughter.
As they walked to a diagonal position opposite Tiananmen Square, across the road, the sky had begun to gradually fade from deep blue. Standing with her mother by the railing, Liu Chen watched the flag-raising ceremony. Perhaps due to the National Day, the crowd watching the ceremony was even larger than during the summer vacation. Liu Chen carefully protected her mother and constantly kept an eye on the surrounding tourists, ready to react immediately if anything happened.
Whether it was the effect of the lucky charm or the increased security on National Day, after the flag-raising ceremony concluded, Liu Chen, with her mother feeling satisfied but clearly sleepy and yawning, began to walk back. Assistant Cai followed behind them to prevent any accidents. Although he didn't believe anything could happen in Beijing, he, as a subordinate, simply had to follow the boss's orders.
Getting into Assistant Cai's car, Liu Chen took her mother back to the courtyard after daybreak and rang the doorbell to enter. After entering, Liu Chen slightly frowned and glanced behind her. The alley was empty in the early morning. "Chenchen, what are you spacing out about?" Hearing her mother's call, Liu Chen turned back, helped her mother into the guest room to rest, and decided she needed to catch up on sleep too.
As the courtyard gate closed, two men in their early thirties, with cameras around their necks, emerged from behind a car in the previously empty alley. "Old Xu, you've got to admit my eyes are sharp! We waited all night and didn't see that Yi Fei. I guess it was fake news. Fortunately, I spotted this most beautiful campus belle who's been popular on Hupu this year. Otherwise, we wouldn't have any photos to turn in when we go back."
"Holy crap, Niu Zi. This campus belle scholar lives in a courtyard house in Beijing's second ring road? She's that rich?"
"But this campus belle scholar is very sensitive. She sensed it the moment I took two photos with my phone. Luckily, we were quick. Otherwise, she would have seen us. Old Xu, check the photos. If they're fine, let's get out of here. We've been squatting for two hours, my legs are numb."
"Okay, Niu Zi. Let's go!"
...
When Liu Chen woke up, she heard birds chirping outside the window and the intermittent sound of mahjong. She figured the three women were at it again. While thinking, Liu Chen washed up and checked her QQ for any messages. She saw a message from Ren Yu that was sent a minute ago. Ren Yu: Check the Hupu homepage.
"Hupu?" Taking the toothbrush out of her mouth, she took a sip of water, gargled, and spat it into the sink. Then, she cupped water in her hands under the faucet, splashed it on her face, and quickly rubbed her face dry with the washcloth. Liu Chen then took her phone and walked to the desk. There was a desktop computer in this room, which had been there since she last visited last year.
She turned on the computer, opened the browser, and clicked to enter the Hupu homepage. "Campus Belle Scholar Lives in a Mansion Worth Over a Hundred Million!" The post was bold and purple, indicating its popularity. Liu Chen clicked on it and saw a back view of herself and her mother entering the courtyard. Her mother's face was obscured by the scarf she was wearing, but Liu Chen's face was perfectly clear in the photo, as she had taken off her scarf in the car because it was too hot.
"As expected, I wasn't mistaken. Someone was secretly taking photos back then." Scrolling down, Liu Chen saw the comments. Initially, the comments were normal, with most people expressing envy and speculating about the price of the courtyard house. Around noon, someone replied in the comments and inserted a link, saying, "Heh, is this the house on the third ring road that our most beautiful campus belle said she was still paying off the mortgage for? I was too naive. Maybe what she said was true, but she just didn't tell the whole story. She has a courtyard house, and at the same time, she paid a down payment for a house."
The person who posted the link also helpfully marked the time stamp of Liu Chen's interview video about her family background, which could be accessed by dragging the progress bar on Youku. The computer screen showed the footage from Liu Chen's interview during the summer vacation.
Exiting, Liu Chen closed the video and continued scrolling down the post's replies. After about dozens of floors, the replies began to become somewhat hostile. "Heh, rich people like to pretend to be poor and then act as if you're all incapable because you're not as hardworking as them?"
"Why don't rich people admit they're rich? Is there some secret behind it?"
"She lives in a courtyard house. If you guys keep talking like this in the post, be careful she doesn't come to your door to 'check your water meter'."
"What are you afraid of? I don't believe it!" Liu Chen frowned slightly as she read these replies. After all, she had experienced being repeatedly proven wrong by gossip in her previous life. She acutely felt that someone was manipulating the narrative in this post. But who could it be?
Thousands of miles away in C City, at the C City Television Station, the female host of a talk show was scrolling her mouse wheel. "Sister Li, is this okay?" the video editor beside her asked hesitantly.
The host, referred to as Sister Li, smiled and said, "We haven't done anything wrong. Even if the station manager finds out, it will just be advertising for our talk show. What are you afraid of?"
"Besides, she's just a college student who's only been in Beijing for a few months and is already living in a courtyard house? Aren't you curious about what's going on?" The editor hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "Curious."