A photo of Liang Xumo and Liang Yan at the hospital entrance was caught off guard and exposed on Weibo.

Fortunately, amid the misfortune, Qiao Qi wasn’t in the photo.

So the entire trending topic was discussing how Liang Yan and Liang Xumo made a striking pair, and, because of the angle of the photo, how deeply affectionate Liang Yan’s gaze toward Liang Xumo appeared.

Liang Yan saw this Weibo post right as he was about to head back to Liang Xumo’s hospital room with Qiao Qi, so the two of them saw the post together.

[The house has collapsed!!] [What did the CP fans do to deserve this… just recently we were celebrating the New Year…] [Not gonna lie, my heart is shattered] [This is rough] [Honestly, they do look good together] [Seriously, they kind of have a married-couple look] [Did you all forget Young Master Liang’s surname is Liang? He’s the young heir of the top-tier Liang Corporation—families like that usually don’t want their kids dating someone in the entertainment industry, right?] [Young Master Liang said in an interview he wouldn’t date someone in the industry] [He also said in a livestream that could change!] [This woman… looks a bit familiar] [Who? Familiar how? Is she an influencer? Doesn’t look like it!] [This photo is so unprofessionally shot ugh! You can’t even tell what she looks like!] [Her bearing does seem quite dignified though] [2233333 you can tell her bearing from one photo?] [Don’t blame others for having sharp eyes just because yours are blind]

Some of the comments were clearly joking, while others touched on a lot of private matters.

Before stepping out of the elevator, the two of them exchanged a silent glance, each seeing absurdity reflected in the other’s eyes.

Liang Yan had been appearing on Weibo repeatedly lately, and every time it was about his private life.

This kind of thing had rarely happened to him before.

He frowned irritably, quietly radiating displeasure without a word.

Qiao Qi, sharing the enclosed space with him, sensed his shift directly and sharply, unable to stop herself from glancing up at him.

Liang Yan shoved his phone into his pocket just as the elevator doors opened; he stepped out first, and Qiao Qi followed.

The two of them fell silent without meaning to, walking side by side all the way to Liang Xumo’s hospital room, where they both stopped.

Qiao Qi stopped because she didn’t know what she could possibly say to Liang Xumo once inside—nothing but the same dry, perfunctory words of concern.

Not much point to it, really.

And with the matter between her and Maiya still hanging between them, honestly, she couldn’t face Liang Xumo very naturally.

As for Liang Yan, he was mulling over something else entirely.

Then Liang Xumo’s voice drifted out from the room—she seemed to be handling the trending-topic matter, her voice fairly composed, carrying a bit of a director’s authority.

“Control public opinion firmly. Siblings are siblings—people are just talking nonsense.”

“Watch the privacy angle.”

“Oh, right—will this affect Liang Yan badly in any way?”

Hearing this, even Qiao Qi, let alone Liang Yan, was moved.

She must truly care about this younger brother of hers, to be thinking about someone else’s career even while caught up in public opinion herself.

Qiao Qi was genuinely envious. She glanced at Liang Yan and felt even less suited to going in now.

She said, “You two talk. I won’t intrude.”

The moment Qiao Qi’s words landed, Liang Xumo’s voice suddenly spiked from inside the room.

“What?”

“How did it get out so fast?”

Qiao Qi and Liang Yan exchanged another glance, and this time, without discussing it, both pulled out their phones—no need to even open Weibo, since it pushed real-time updates.

[Liang Yan: The wealthy elite—a life you can’t even imagine]

Qiao Qi: “…”

Um.

That headline… was a little awkward.

She wasn’t sure if that was the same notification Liang Yan had gotten, so she looked at him with a slightly unnatural expression, and found he wore an equally indescribable look.

So Qiao Qi, as if passing along a secret signal, said just two words: “The wealthy elite…”

No further words were needed. Liang Yan decisively reached out and covered Qiao Qi’s mouth with his hand.

“Shut up!”

Qiao Qi: Got it!

—

Because of how fast the internet moved, it seemed like nothing could stay hidden for long.

No sooner had Liang Xumo trended than someone dug up her position within Liang Corporation, and all the rumors ended there.

[…Oh, so it’s not a married-couple resemblance after all, I’ll laugh first out of respect hahahahahaha] [What do Mother and Father Liang look like! Let me see, let me see! What chosen-by-heaven genetics is this!] [Giao! I don’t even know who to envy anymore] [Damn, the CP fans just let out a huge sigh of relief] [Hahahahahahaha I’m back! I’m back in the game!] [Huh? I want to ask—is everyone else this close with their own family too?] [Me, me! My older brother loves hugging me so much!] [Not me, my parents barely hug me, feels kind of awkward] [Once you’re grown, shouldn’t you keep some distance?] [Depends on the family, I guess? Not my brother, but my cousin and I are close]

By the time Qiao Qi saw these comments, she had already returned to Maiya’s hospital room. Maiya was lying face-down on the bed unhappily, her small face propped on her hands, seemingly lost in thought.

Qiao Qi glanced at her, saw she was just lying there without doing anything else, and looked away again.

Qiao Qi turned her attention back to the trending content, staring at it for a while, her mind drifting, her vision gradually blurring.

It wasn’t until Maiya got up to use the bathroom that Qiao Qi snapped out of her daze and stood to help her.

Maiya’s face was wooden. “I can go by myself.”

Watching the small, stubborn, stiff figure, Qiao Qi felt, for the first time, helpless about something that had nothing to do with Maiya’s physical health.

It was probably because she couldn’t get along peacefully with Liang Xumo.

And Liang Xumo happened to be Liang Yan’s older sister.

The feeling made her sense a kind of dividing line growing between herself and Liang Yan—one she couldn’t cross, and could only watch slowly widen into a gap she’d never be able to bridge.

Thinking this, Qiao Qi took out her phone and messaged Liang Yan’s second account.

He was probably busy and didn’t reply.

Made sense—his whole family had just been dug up online.

No time to bother with his internet girlfriend.

An hour later, the trending topic shifted direction again.

This time the protagonist wasn’t Liang Yan—it was entirely Liang Xumo alone.

Some insider had posted an anonymous account in a private forum, and the wave of public opinion instantly hit its peak.

[Sigh. First time I’ve ever eaten melon that landed on my own head, kind of thrilling. Took about an hour to calm myself down before writing this. I don’t want fame or profit, so I’ll stay anonymous (mainly I’m scared of trouble, of course).

Alright! Here’s the story!

That older sister who’s trending—she’s actually not the top star’s biological sister. She’s from an orphanage. Hehe, turns out I was at the same orphanage as her.

The orphanage was in Huaicheng, and it seems to have been converted into a kindergarten now, so it has nothing to do with being an orphanage anymore.

I remember when this older sister first arrived, she was in really bad shape—thin as anything, and her skin had this sallow, waxy tone, you know, the classic look of malnutrition? (So when I saw the trending post, I thought for a second either my eyes were playing tricks on me or she’d had plastic surgery.) She was actually pretty pitiable—everyone felt for her back then—but because her past was rather unusual, she wasn’t too keen on playing with the rest of us.

As for that past, let me sum it up quickly: her birth mother died in a difficult labor, her birth father saw him as a bringer of misfortune, and later, after the father got into drinking and gambling, he dumped her on her grandparents (I think that’s how it went, anyway her birth family was a mess), and in the end the whole family died in a car accident—she was the only survivor.

The worst part came after. She lived at our orphanage for about three or four years before being adopted, and it turned out that person was a beast, and did that to her—ugh, ugh, ugh, just thinking about it makes me so angry!

How could heaven be so cruel—a little girl, showing up out of nowhere, dumped out of nowhere, finally thinking she had a family again, only to turn around and walk straight into a wolf’s den, it’s honestly infuriating!!

But that saying’s not wrong either—when heaven closes a door, it opens a window, and that window turned out to be the Liang family’s window.

I’m not too clear on how she ended up going to the Liang family though, because she never came back to our orphanage after that, and later I was adopted too! The family that adopted me has been so good to me! Like real parents in this life! And most importantly, I married my “brother” hehehehe.

So anyway hahahaha, forget it, I’m actually a CP fan of the top star and the actress next door too, I’m just saying all this because I want everyone to stop fighting. No matter how it turns out, let’s all wish them well.

Because a girl deserves to be the most wonderful thing under heaven!]

This so-called insider account had first been posted on an anonymous story-sharing app, then later got reposted onto Weibo.

The blogger had deleted the post and deactivated the account at the first opportunity.

But by then the text had already spread everywhere, unstoppable.

The moment Qiao Qi read this content, her thoughts were instantly pulled back to that night at the wrap party—this content lined up exactly with what Yu Min had told Liang Yan that night.

That blogger didn’t know what Liang Xumo had gone through afterward to end up at the Liang family, but Qiao Qi did. She remembered Yu Min saying: that’s why she was moved to a different orphanage.

Fortunately—a different orphanage.

She had been hurt by the world, and also treated kindly by it.

Qiao Qi had also come from an orphanage, and perhaps because of that shared experience, she could empathize with it more deeply.

She thought about it, then decided to message Liang Yan anyway, wanting to ask whether this whole thing was affecting him and Liang Xumo much.

Li’ang didn’t reply to her, so she switched accounts.

After all, the person she was dating wasn’t a phone, and wasn’t some WeChat username.

It was Liang Yan.

A person.

Qiao Qi: .

Liang Yan saw this WeChat message while sitting on a bench in the hospital hallway.

He’d been chased out by Liang Xumo.

When Liang Xumo saw the reposted Weibo article, she froze almost instantly.

Liang Yan panicked a little, standing there at a loss for what to do.

But the next second, he saw Liang Xumo lift her head with a perfectly calm expression and say to him, “Go on out. I’m tired.”

Liang Yan actually didn’t dare leave, but he had no choice but to go.

Because he saw that beneath Liang Xumo’s forced calm, her eyes were roiling with turmoil.

He’d probably… hurt her again.

Why did he always seem to end up doing this?

I did not kill Boren, yet Boren died because of me.

A sudden, violent headache struck him. Liang Yan pressed one hand over his forehead, his spine curving forward, the other hand still holding his phone.

On the screen was the message Qiao Qi had sent.

A cautious little period.

Liang Yan’s mouth twisted, the sense of powerlessness weighing heavier.

He didn’t know what to reply, so he gently tapped his way out of the chat.

Once he exited, he saw that the group chat had somehow gotten lively in the meantime.

He tapped into it absently and saw Wu Shuang sending messages in a frenzy.

Wu Shuang: Ahhhhh that’s so terrifying!

Wu Shuang: My heart hurts! It hurts so much!!

Wu Shuang: Girls really do need to be careful!

Wu Shuang: I actually saw something like this once as a kid!

Wu Shuang: It was in the alley next to No. 1 Middle School, it was pouring rain that day, my cousin and I were playing nearby and forgot the time, by the time we came out it was already dark!

Wu Shuang: And then we saw several people bullying an older sister ahhhhh! I was scared to death, okay!

Wu Shuang: My brother figured calling the police would be too slow, so he wanted to go back and call his friends, but before he even could, those people suddenly let go of the older sister, ahhhh so scary!!

Wu Shuang: But thank god they let go—not sure what that older sister said, maybe something about calling the police, and those guys probably got scared and ran.

Wu Shuang: At the time I wanted to offer that older sister an umbrella, but my brother said she probably didn’t want anyone to know, so he pulled me away.

Wu Shuang: Ugh, even thinking about it now still scares me!

Wu Shuang: That whole thing left me traumatized! For a long time after I wouldn’t go out on rainy days!

Wu Shuang: Ugh ugh ugh girls really need to be careful when they’re out, ugh ugh ugh.

Afterward, others chimed in with a flurry of messages, but Liang Yan seemed to see none of it.

The scene in front of his eyes was still frozen on the words Wu Shuang had used to describe that incident.

She’d said: those people let go of the older sister.

Let go…

Those three words felt like a massive net dropping over Liang Yan’s head; his ears were ringing, his mind a chaotic mess.

It was as though a downpour had struck him all over again, drenching him in icy cold from head to toe.

He was grateful he was sitting down now, so that even with his hands and feet gone weak, he wouldn’t fall.

After a long while, his fingers moved stiffly to open a private chat with Wu Shuang.

Liang Yan: That thing you mentioned—do you remember when it happened?

About a minute passed before her reply popped up.

Wu Shuang: Hm?

Wu Shuang: The thing near No. 1 Middle School?

Wu Shuang: Let me think.

Wu Shuang: I honestly don’t remember the exact details, I was so little back then!

Wu Shuang: But I remember it was after the high school entrance exams, because my brother only had time to take me out to play once his exams were done!

After the high school entrance exams…

Back then, Liang Xumo had only had time to go to the school to pick him up because her own exams had just ended.

Clang—

Something seemed to collapse inside Liang Yan’s chest.