Having surgery to focus on helped Yan Ming stay calm, and Yu Tian also felt she couldn’t keep wallowing in her emotions—she needed to do something to cool her head.

She first went to the police station to give her statement, then returned home.

Regarding Zhao Xinxin’s behavior of slandering and harassing her at the hospital, Yu Tian didn’t plan to let it slide. She decided to take her time, find a reliable lawyer, obtain the hospital’s surveillance footage, compile the evidence, and file a lawsuit.

However, before that, she couldn’t let Zhao Xinxin’s interference disrupt her work plans.

Yu Tian returned to her studio, opened her computer, and uploaded the newly edited ophthalmology educational videos featuring Yan Ming to her account.

But as soon as Yu Tian logged into her content creator account and selected the video to upload, planning to handle some private messages while she was at it, she was shocked by the overwhelming number of comments and private messages.

Which educational video had suddenly gone viral this time?

The traffic volume was truly frightening.

Unfortunately, Yu Tian’s excitement didn’t last more than a few minutes, because when she clicked on the comments section and private messages, she realized things weren’t developing as she had hoped.

Her account was flooded with insults and personal attacks—

“Trash homewrecker, get off Earth!”

“Seriously? Creating an independent entrepreneur persona online to harvest our money, claiming to be a medical school graduate who knows many doctors for educational programs, but then using work opportunities to interfere with doctors’ relationships in real life and become a mistress—have some shame!”

“This content creator never shows her face, probably because she’s not much to look at, but she’s certainly skilled at being flirtatious. Those exposed chat logs with such explicit language—truly eye-opening!”

“I’ve reported all her videos. You’re welcome, everyone!”

“Can anyone doxx her real information? This kind of person should be socially destroyed in the real world, too!”

Accompanying the flood of various “greeting” comments and private messages, all of Yu Tian’s previously uploaded videos had been maliciously reported.

Yu Tian hardly needed to think to know she was under attack from Zhao Xinxin.

Yu Tian had planned to finish handling her social media business first, then find a lawyer to deal with Zhao Xinxin’s defamation and slander at the hospital. She never expected that the saying “villains complain first” would prove so true—Zhao Xinxin, the real culprit, had already struck at Yu Tian first.

However, judging from the timing of the mass harassment, Zhao Xinxin had been multitasking, causing a scene at the hospital while simultaneously discovering Yu Tian’s social media account. Besides wanting to destroy her reputation in the real world, she didn’t intend to spare her online presence either.

Now, after being cornered and beaten by Zheng Tingfu’s new lover at the hospital entrance, she might finally realize she had attacked the wrong person. But rumors and scandals always spread faster than clarifications. Even if Zhao Xinxin were willing to come forward and defend Yu Tian now, it wouldn’t be of much use. Moreover, Zhao Xinxin was barely keeping her head above water and had always been hostile toward Yu Tian—Yu Tian couldn’t expect her to take responsibility and clean up her mess.

Sure enough, after Yu Tian uploaded Yan Ming’s video, she quickly gained new points of attack—

“She’s not a professional medical student, and she didn’t find professional doctors either. Where are there doctors who are all this good-looking? She probably hired models or actors. Look at this ophthalmologist—is it even legal to look that good?”

“This ophthalmologist in the program could debut as an idol right now. She had another very handsome male doctor in a previous educational video, too.”

“Doesn’t this woman just seduce men everywhere? The big content creator ‘Paid Vacation’ from the neighboring section promoted her enthusiastically before, but then I saw her burn bridges and unfollow ‘Paid Vacation’! After ‘Paid Vacation’ promoted her, she never interacted with him again.”

“What an ungrateful person!”

“The more you all talk, the more I think this woman probably has a ‘collecting habit.’ Look at those exposed chat logs—so explicit!”

Yu Tian pursed her lips and frowned as she scrolled through the comments when her phone rang with a call from the platform’s liaison assistant.

“Xiao Yu, this weekend our platform is hosting a content creator awards gala, basically a small gathering. We’d like to invite you. The entire event will be livestreamed, with some interesting networking and ice-breaking games where you can meet many top creators, our platform executives, and some of our partners and suppliers. We’ll also announce several major strategic cooperation agreements at the event. All attending creators will receive traffic support packages for the coming year.”

Yu Tian wasn’t keen on showing her face and was about to decline when the assistant seemed to anticipate her response—

“Don’t rush to refuse. I see there have been recent doxxing attempts against you in real life. This kind of thing happens frequently to our other content creators, too. Last year, a beauty section creator was even falsely accused of cheating by her ex-boyfriend, got exposed online, and developed depression from the pressure. Many other platform-signed creators have encountered similar situations. Some creators genuinely did wrong and deserved exposure, but we’ve found that over half of the creators didn’t do what was alleged online—either there were hidden circumstances or they were taken out of context.”

“Online public opinion always favors whoever strikes first, and people tend to form first impressions. Frequent exposure not only seriously affects a creator’s account value but also damages the platform’s reputation, directly impacting our interests. So this livestreamed creator gathering will include a segment themed around personal reputation, with several big legal section creators participating—many are law firm partners—doing a show that benefits everyone.”

“Several creators who have recently been seriously defamed or had their private lives maliciously exposed will participate. Since you’ve also been recently targeted, we wanted to ask if you’re interested in clarifying things?”

The assistant’s wording was quite careful: “I think if it’s not true, it’s better to clarify. We have strategic partnerships with several law firms where these legal section creators work. If you’re willing to participate, we’re willing to pay for these firms to handle those infringing comments online—you wouldn’t need to pay.”

“If you agree, we’re willing to provide free legal aid for lawsuits against defamatory behavior.”

Yu Tian originally had no interest in showing her face, partly to protect her privacy. But now that Zhao Xinxin’s drama had exposed her photos and personal information, perhaps standing up openly to clarify and using legal means to defend her rights would be better than staying silent and handling things low-key.

Moreover, even without the platform’s help, Yu Tian couldn’t just let things slide—she still had to protect her reputation. Since she’d need to find a lawyer anyway, it might be better to team up with the platform.

After much deliberation, Yu Tian finally nodded.

Although there were a few netizens in the comments who understood the full situation or were Yu Tian’s former schoolmates standing up for her, they were quickly drowned out by negative information.

If she didn’t stand up for herself and only relied on others’ efforts to clarify, that would be even more unrealistic.

In the end, Yu Tian decided to participate in this platform-organized creator awards gala.

Most times being low-key is a virtue, but sometimes, continuing to stay low-key and not standing up to clarify would actually harm oneself.

However, even though she agreed to participate in the platform’s offline event, Yu Tian’s mind wasn’t on attending the gala, because she was more concerned about her date with Yan Ming that evening.

Inevitably, Yu Tian dressed up carefully, changing into a more striking dress and pairing it with thin high heels.

The girl in the mirror looked almost bewitchingly beautiful.

Yu Tian rarely dressed up so formally. After one look, she felt a bit regretful, but there was no time to change again.

Not wanting to be late for their first date, Yu Tian gritted her teeth and went out like this.

The restaurant Yan Ming had chosen was the same one where Yu Tian had previously photoshopped their fake couple photo. Yu Tian arrived early and sat down alone, originally wanting to quietly browse the recently updated menu, but people kept interrupting her.

When Yan Ming arrived, this was the scene he witnessed—

Yu Tian appeared to be politely declining yet another man asking for her number, probably not the first time.

She looked radiant and captivating, with long hair ends slightly curled in playful arcs. Beyond her gorgeously vibrant features, she also displayed an intellectual and elegant temperament. When surprised, her eyes would unconsciously widen like a cat’s, reminding him of a British Shorthair he once owned—beautiful, but endearingly naive, unsophisticated, without the arrogance and aloofness typical of beauties, but rather somewhat innocent.

A woman of her caliber, judging by her face and figure alone, would hardly fail to stir men’s hearts.

Sure enough, the man Yu Tian had declined didn’t give up easily. Yan Ming had gotten close enough to hear his words—

“Beautiful lady, I don’t mind that you have a boyfriend. I just want to add your contact first, hoping to start as friends. If you ever feel your boyfriend isn’t suitable, let me get in line with you, too.”

This was getting unbearable.

Yan Ming walked toward the man, his face darkening as he prepared to assert his claim and drive away this tactless man, when he heard Yu Tian call out to him with unconscious delight—

“Yan Ming gege!”

She hadn’t yet broken her habit of calling him “gege.”

But the joy on Yu Tian’s radiant face still pleased Yan Ming considerably.

Just as he was about to speak and get rid of the man, the other person struck up a conversation first—

“Oh? You’re this beautiful lady’s older brother? No wonder beauties run in the family—you’re handsome too, brother. Are you her biological brother or cousin? Why don’t we share a table?”

“No blood relation, but the kind of older brother who holds hands, kisses, and embraces. So sharing a table wouldn’t be convenient.”

Everything happened in an instant. Yu Tian pressed her lips together, not even having a chance to speak, when she heard Yan Ming, with his dark, bright, calm eyes, coolly and deliberately tell the man who had approached them this.

The man’s expression showed shock and suspicion as he looked between Yan Ming and Yu Tian, as if seeking confirmation.

Yu Tian wanted the man to leave quickly, so she simply nodded along with Yan Ming’s words: “Mm, exactly what you’re thinking—the kind of older brother who sleeps together but has no blood relation.”

The man was indeed dumbstruck, but these words were remarkably effective. He completely stopped pestering them, touched his nose awkwardly, and walked away in embarrassment.

Only Yu Tian and Yan Ming remained at the table.

Though she had spoken so boldly just moments ago, once the man who had been hitting on her left, Yu Tian began to feel somewhat awkward. She coughed and started drinking her sparkling water frantically.

Unfortunately, Yan Ming had no intention of letting Yu Tian off the hook. After ordering their meal, while waiting for the food during the interval, he took a sip of tea and said in a cool tone: “Sleep together? Have we slept together? When?”

“…” Yu Tian regretted showing off earlier.

Suppressing her blush, she muttered quietly: “What’s wrong with saying that? I just didn’t want you to have to rescue me every time. I can handle this kind of situation perfectly well myself.”

Yan Ming looked up and glanced at Yu Tian: “Then just use me whenever convenient—do you pay appearance fees?”

“Stingy!”

Faced with Yu Tian’s accusation, Yan Ming got serious: “I’m stingy?”

His incredulous expression was too obvious—he might as well have had “I’m the most generous man in the universe” written on his forehead.

“If you’re not stingy, then how are you generous?”

Yan Ming seemed quite prepared for this question. Without hesitation, he smoothly replied: “Before, when you bought pajamas for Qi Sihao, I accompanied you, but you only picked some for him without thinking of me at all; for movies I wanted to see, you never once thought to watch them with me; after establishing a relationship with me and even kissing me, you still flirt with Qi Sihao.”

Yan Ming looked at Yu Tian: “I can think of many examples like this off the top of my head, and I’ve been very generous and tolerant about all of it—no jealousy, no questioning, not even throwing tantrums. Have I said anything?”

“…” But aren’t you saying it now…

However, Yu Tian’s silence didn’t earn Yan Ming’s understanding. His expression darkened again as if he suddenly remembered something, and his tone became dangerous.

“You said before that you kissed me simply because your principle is that if someone makes the first move, you have to strike back, so if someone kisses you, you kiss back? But in your mind at the time, I wasn’t your boyfriend, so even if this person wasn’t your boyfriend, you’d still kiss back?”

Yan Ming said this while looking past Yu Tian’s shoulder as if seeing something else, his tone becoming casual again: “So, Yu Tian, who else have you kissed?”

He pressed his lips together and added, “I’m just asking casually. I’m not saying I don’t allow you to have other romantic history before me.”

Yu Tian felt that all her days of anxiety and unease about Yan Ming, those uncertain heart flutters, that indescribable restlessness, that timid lack of confidence and hesitation, suddenly crumbled away completely.

Because Yan Ming was jealous.

Yu Tian cupped her chin with both hands, her bright eyes fixed on Yan Ming: “Am I beautiful?”

Yan Ming was startled, clearly not expecting Yu Tian to suddenly change the subject. He looked somewhat unnatural but ultimately surrendered under Yu Tian’s gaze, looking away and nodding randomly: “Not bad.”

“‘Not bad’ means not beautiful.” Yu Tian glared at Yan Ming, turning his head straight to force him to look directly into her eyes. “So you think I’m not beautiful?”

Yan Ming seemed bewitched, but by the time he came to his senses, he had already unconsciously spoken the truth.

“Beautiful.”

“Then, when you first saw me, did you have that unforgettable feeling?”

This time Yu Tian relaxed her grip, and he could finally look away: “Mm.”

“Then do you think someone as beautiful as me would have had no one pursuing her before? Would I have lacked boyfriends?”

Yan Ming pressed his lips together, looking at Yu Tian.

Yu Tian put on a completely unconcerned expression and said very naturally: “So of course I’ve kissed others, kissed many people.”

She rolled her eyes and looked at Yan Ming again: “I don’t even remember how many people I’ve kissed. You don’t mind, do you?”

“I don’t mind. That’s all your previous romantic history. As long as there’s no promiscuous behavior during our relationship, I can’t mind anything.”

But while saying he didn’t mind, Yan Ming’s expression clearly showed he was dying of jealousy, and his voice and demeanor became very awkward and unnatural.

Yu Tian crooked her finger at him: “Come closer, I’ll tell you a secret.”

Yan Ming pressed his lips together and leaned closer to Yu Tian.

Yu Tian suppressed her nervousness, her heart racing like a startled deer, and quickly leaned close to Yan Ming’s face for a kiss.

Then she whispered in his ear: “I was lying.”

Yan Ming was indeed stunned.

“I haven’t kissed many people.” Yu Tian suppressed her blush, her eyes inevitably wandering. “I’ve only kissed you.”

“From beginning to end, only you.”

Yan Ming came to his senses, his face also showing some unnaturalness. He cleared his throat and said very calmly: “You don’t need to explain these things. I said I don’t mind.”

Yu Tian cupped her chin with both hands, unable to help muttering: “What do you mean you don’t mind? Your face clearly shows you mind terribly, care.”

She glanced at Yan Ming: “Can’t you be honest?”

“I don’t mind because I truly respect your previous romantic experiences, but I can’t control caring because I do get jealous.” Yan Ming took a sip of tea, as if trying hard to become calm. “When you truly like someone, it’s very hard to be generous, so I probably have indeed become petty.”

He glanced at Yu Tian: “But there’s no helping it.”

“Who told you to be such a scheming little ungrateful wolf?”

After saying this, he looked at Yu Tian again and said quietly, “You come closer, I’ll tell you a secret too.”

The restaurant’s lighting made Yan Ming’s eyes even deeper, with his pupils seeming to contain sparkles of light, like the depths of the universe, unconsciously making one lose oneself.

Yu Tian almost instinctively leaned closer.

Then she saw Yan Ming’s straight nose bridge magnifying toward her, his soft lips.

Yan Ming cupped her face without discussion and gave Yu Tian a long, deep kiss.

Lips gnawed at lips, tongue tips entwined with tongue tips.

So this was what “lips and teeth dependent on each other” meant.

Yu Tian was kissed until her brain short-circuited and her body went soft and hot.

Yan Ming went even further, conquering territory with each advance, kissing deeper and deeper.

After releasing Yu Tian, he still leaned close to peck her lips twice more.

Yan Ming’s low voice carried satisfied laughter: “What we had before were just kisses—this is what’s called a real kiss.”

Their eyes met, and each could see themselves reflected in the other’s pupils. Yu Tian’s gaze couldn’t help but drift to Yan Ming’s lips, but after one glance, she immediately looked away.

She didn’t know if it was her imagination, but after their kiss, Yan Ming’s lips seemed to have become fuller and more moist, redder than usual with a more suspicious hue, as if displaying evidence of the crime left by her, the culprit.

Though the restaurant had cold air conditioning, Yu Tian still felt a bit hot.

She looked up at Yan Ming: “How could you do that? There are other people in the restaurant—weren’t you afraid of being seen?”

Although there weren’t many people in the restaurant at the moment and Yu Tian and Yan Ming’s position wasn’t very conspicuous, Yu Tian’s heart was still pounding.

“I wasn’t thinking about that when I was kissing you.”

Yan Ming picked up his water glass to cover: “Because I like you too much. I can’t think comprehensively about some things—it seems like liking you has made me stupid and impulsive.”

He looked up at Yu Tian, his tone somewhat resigned: “But there doesn’t seem to be any better way.”

Yu Tian propped up her chin with her hand: “You like me that much?”

Yan Ming looked away, looking very embarrassed and unwilling to answer, but in the end, Yu Tian still heard his low voice hum in acknowledgment.

As if helpless, but Yu Tian found it very sweet.

After thinking, she still couldn’t resist: “Let me ask you, did you have these improper thoughts about me very early on?”

Yan Ming was startled and said seriously, “You probably had them first.”

Yan Ming: “You’re good-looking and quite skilled at seducing men. I’m just an ordinary person without rich romantic experience—it’s very normal for me to be seduced by you.”

Yu Tian had only asked casually, but then she got serious about Yan Ming’s explanation: “When did I ever seduce you? You were the one who made the first move! At the auction, spending so much money to buy the chance to go for a ride with me, you were the one doing all the flirting!”

Yan Ming’s eyes widened slightly: “Wasn’t it you who first almost got hit by a motorcycle because of me? When a woman can do that for you, and then afterward pats her butt and says she has no other feelings for you—do you think you could believe that? Wouldn’t you start having thoughts? At that time, didn’t you have any feelings for me at all?”

“Even if the couple of photos were photoshopped for the restaurant discount, even if bringing me food was because you thought your mother and my father hadn’t broken up yet, almost dying for my sake can’t be explained away by parents, right?”

Yu Tian said very righteously: “I didn’t!”

Heaven and earth as witnesses, Yu Tian truly didn’t!

“I just instinctively wanted to protect your hands! You’re such a good doctor—I couldn’t watch your hands get injured, especially with all your surgical patients waiting in line!”

Yu Tian was very principled: “Even if it had been another male doctor at the time, like Dr. Jiang Yuming, I would have done the same! After all, if I got injured, I could just heal with time. I couldn’t perform surgery anyway, but if you got injured, it would affect patients! And you still wouldn’t listen to me about buying hand insurance!”

“So you were just concerned about my hands?”

Yan Ming looked somewhat incredulous, then began to grit his teeth: “Yu Tian, you mean you weren’t seducing me at all—I was just being presumptuous?”

“Uh, you could say that…”

Yu Tian thought Yan Ming might be a little angry, but instead, she saw him just chuckle softly.

“But my hands and Jiang Yuming’s hands aren’t worth the same, right? For Jiang Yuming’s orthopedic surgeries, there are quite a few doctors who could replace him, but for delicate eye surgeries, there are almost no doctors in all of Rong City who could replace me, and I’m younger than doctors of a similar skill level.”

“So, my hands are worth more, right?”

While speaking, Yan Ming caught Yu Tian’s hand resting on the table and slowly interlaced his five fingers with hers, forming an interlocked position.

“Then you’ll have to supervise me well in protecting my hands.” Yan Ming said seriously, “After all, I’m a very busy doctor and sometimes quite careless. Having someone beside me to constantly remind me would help me use my hands better to benefit patients.”

Yan Ming had scheme after scheme.

But Yu Tian couldn’t deny that she willingly fell for every one of them.

“Excuse me, sorry to interrupt you two. We recently launched a couple of flower-giving activities. You just need to write a sweet message in this book to choose a bouquet…”

A server pushed a small flower cart over. Halfway through her pitch, she recognized Yu Tian and Yan Ming: “Oh? You two?” She immediately became embarrassed. “Sorry for disturbing you.”

Due to the two protagonists’ striking appearance, this server remembered the Photoshop couple photo incident particularly clearly. Almost as soon as she saw their faces, she recalled the last time’s incident.

“I was coming to recommend tonight’s couple set menu activity to you two, but since you’re not a couple, you could also order this family or friendship dessert set—there’s also a promotion with 20% off!”

“No need for the family or friendship set.”

The server was clearly about to introduce the friends and family set menu in detail when Yan Ming interrupted her first: “We’re a couple.”

He lifted the hand he was holding with Yu Tian’s: “This time we’re a couple.”

The server was stunned, then smiled and offered congratulations: “You two are such a perfect match! So, sir, please write a sweet message in our book, and you can choose a bouquet suitable for this young lady—it’s complimentary.”

The flower bouquets on the small cart were all very fresh, including a bouquet of red roses. Yu Tian felt somewhat shy as she waited for Yan Ming to choose that unique bouquet of roses for her.

However, to her surprise, Yan Ming bypassed the roses entirely and chose a bouquet of sunflowers instead.

Yu Tian somewhat dazedly accepted the sunflowers.

Why not roses?

Who gives sunflowers to their girlfriend?

Unheard of!

By the time she snapped out of it, Yan Ming had already finished writing his sweet message, and the server had congratulated them again before leaving.

Soon, the red roses were chosen by a man at another table behind Yan Ming to give to his girlfriend.

Yu Tian looked at the sunflowers in her arms, feeling somewhat dejected. Who wouldn’t want to be a delicate red rose?

When giving flowers to girlfriends, don’t they all give red roses?

But seeing that Yan Ming seemed completely oblivious, she felt it wouldn’t be good to make a fuss.

Yu Tian stared at the bright yellow flower heads in her arms, falling into self-doubt.

Giving her sunflowers—was it because he thought her mind was full of yellow thoughts?

Although Yu Tian had indeed stolen glances at Yan Ming several times and could indeed clearly recall how Yan Ming looked coming out of the shower, but… but she was just thinking! And now that Yan Ming was her boyfriend, what was illegal about that?

Though Yan Ming did have a really excellent physique—well-proportioned and tall, healthy, muscular but not exaggerated. The abs she had briefly glimpsed were also quite sexy and alluring. Combined with Yan Ming’s cool, ascetic face, it really gave one an irresistible feeling…

Yu Tian felt she needed to stop herself.

Thinking any further would be rather dangerous.

She couldn’t let Yan Ming’s gift of yellow sunflowers make her give up on herself and race down the path of being a yellow-minded waste!

Maybe Yan Ming himself just preferred sunflowers? After all, when she stayed in his guest room last time, there was a bouquet of sunflowers in the room too.

Fortunately, by the time they were dining, Yu Tian’s mood had adjusted, and she became happy again.

She had already gotten Yan Ming—what more could she want?

The restaurant’s atmosphere was lovely. Yu Tian remembered the mix-up that had happened here before, and she couldn’t help but smile. When Yan Ming went to the central cashier counter to pay, she waited by the front desk at the entrance.

The couple’s flower-giving activity at the restaurant had ended, so this book recording sweet messages had returned to the restaurant’s front desk.

Though it was meant to record love messages, Yu Tian knew that most people wrote rather casually. When she had left a message last time, she had roughly flipped through it—most wrote either something funny like herself or simply the universal “I love you.”

Yu Tian didn’t expect Yan Ming to write any earth-shattering love words in such a short time, because she always felt that someone with Yan Ming’s temperament probably couldn’t say very moving, sweet words anyway.

She casually flipped through the pages without expecting any surprises.

So when Yan Ming’s familiar handwriting came into view, Yu Tian was completely stunned.

Like summer night seasonal winds blowing through mountain forests, with all the branches and leaves swaying with the wind, her heart also trembled like wind-swept branches because of this line of text.

She suddenly understood Yan Ming’s intention in choosing sunflowers for her.

Because he had written—

“You are my sun, and I am your sunflower. The moment you appear, I will forever gaze at you unblinkingly.”