Though reluctant to part, Yu Tian finally said goodbye to Yan Ming and returned to her studio. After her mother was discharged from the hospital, she was in good spirits and had even gone out with some friends that afternoon to walk along the lakeside path to clear her mind.
When Yu Tian returned home, Song Chunxiang had also just come back.
The eye surgery had been very successful, but recovery still needed some time. Looking at her mother, Yu Tian felt both relieved and heartbroken.
Her eyes slightly reddened as she gently rested her head on her mother’s shoulder and put her arm around her.
In the past, Yu Tian always felt that her mother raising her alone was too tiring and difficult, always hoping her mother could find a companion. But after experiencing all this, Yu Tian had let go of her inner obsession.
Getting older did bring loneliness, but it didn’t necessarily require a spouse’s companionship to fill the emptiness. As long as one had wide interests, many friends, family nearby, and good health, that was the greatest wealth.
“Mom, no matter what, I support you.”
Song Chunxiang couldn’t help but smile. Since both mother and daughter were usually busy, this was a rare opportunity for them to chat thoroughly. Yu Tian enthusiastically introduced her social media account’s development direction and previous “achievements,” sharing amusing stories she encountered while making videos.
But although she created an illusion of being at ease with her social media entrepreneurship future in front of her mother, Yu Tian’s heart was full of doubt and confusion.
Due to the ongoing effects of Zhao Xinxin’s rumors, Yu Tian had suffered much criticism and abuse from people who didn’t know the truth. Because of her previous exposure of illegal cosmetic surgery industries, she was now being attacked from both sides by their paid internet trolls, taking advantage of the situation. Even because of her brief past interactions with Dai Xin, she was now also being cursed by the fanatic female fans of “Paid Vacation.”
The internet brought people closer together, but sometimes it was too close.
Although she had decided to clarify things and fight back with legal weapons, even connecting with lawyers through the platform to collect evidence of relevant statements, legal procedures always required a process and time—there was no immediate effect. The statements Yu Tian issued and the lawyer’s letters the platform helped her send didn’t stop the different voices.
Seeing the still-overwhelming abusive private messages and comments, Yu Tian still felt hurt.
For the first time in her life, she began to doubt the meaning of her current entrepreneurship.
Was doing social media science education worth it?
No matter how reluctant she was to admit it, Yu Tian’s entry into social media entrepreneurship was just a helpless move after stumbling into it by accident.
What she most wanted to do deep down was still to become an excellent surgeon.
Science education, social media entrepreneurship were more like a substitute forced by reality, an unwilling compromise.
Although she kept telling herself that doing this kind of science education was meaningful, and Yu Tian had indeed experienced a sense of achievement in the process, she was still somewhat unwilling.
This unwillingness and regret grew even more freely at this moment.
Was the effectiveness of her science education significant?
Or were her so-called science education entrepreneurship efforts just tiny grains of sand that couldn’t create any waves in the tide of the times?
No matter what, being a doctor was a respectable profession with social status in everyone’s eyes, easily earning external respect and praise. But when it came to social media entrepreneurship, everyone thought of internet celebrities, with mixed opinions.
Seeing Yan Ming and Qi Sihao both become doctors, both shining in their established career paths, Yu Tian felt envious while also inevitably feeling somewhat lost and inferior.
Doctors could work for a lifetime, and the older they got, the more valuable they might become. But could social media work be done for a lifetime? When she got older, would she still be able to keep up with future young people’s trends?
Due to unconscious pride, Yu Tian didn’t tell Yan Ming about what she was experiencing online.
After all, even if he knew, Yan Ming couldn’t do anything about it.
He couldn’t control the internet, nor was he a lawyer by training. These online disputes were better left to professionals to handle.
Fortunately, Yan Ming was always busy and probably had no time to pay attention to what was happening on social media platforms, so he seemed completely unaware of it.
As for the platform event, Yu Tian decided not to mention it either, since although Yan Ming had no outpatient clinic or surgery scheduled that day, he seemed to have a routine ophthalmology meeting to attend.
Yu Tian didn’t consider the platform event very important internally, but when the day actually arrived and she entered the venue wearing the evening dress suggested by the platform assistant, Yu Tian still felt somewhat anxious.
She had originally thought her black evening gown was somewhat overdressed, but when she actually arrived at the scene, she discovered her outfit was actually relatively low-key.
The platform had many appearance-focused creators, including those from dance, beauty, and fashion sections. These big streamers had exquisite makeup and were armed from head to toe. The venue was full of luxury evening gowns and jewelry, rivaling the star-studded entertainment industry press conferences.
Everyone looked extremely glamorous and perfect, making Yu Tian, who wore only light makeup, feel nervous and uncomfortable.
However, many people approached her for conversation.
“Your face looks unfamiliar. Are you a newly emerging blogger from the appearance section? Let me think of your ID…”
“I’m a lifestyle section creator ‘Song-Xi-Xi-Xi.’ If convenient, we could add each other on WeChat.”
Almost unanimously, nearly all the male creators present mistook Yu Tian for an appearance section blogger. Although Yu Tian politely declined several times, she couldn’t resist their enthusiasm.
Several creators who approached her were also from the science education section. After Yu Tian clarified that she was also a small science education creator, she exchanged contact information with some who seemed reliable, in the spirit of peer communication.
Besides invited top and emerging creators, the platform had also comprehensively selected one hundred users based on online time, comment volume, and donation amounts, opening fan participation slots to them.
At the same time, as the platform assistant who liaised with Yu Tian had said, the venue also had platform middle and senior management, as well as bigwigs from the platform’s major partners.
Therefore, this event’s first half-hour cocktail reception left plenty of time for internal networking.
The platform’s middle and senior management controlled platform traffic and advertising resources; the fans invited to the internal venue were basically “money daddy” types who spent heavily or fanatical fans like “data armies”; and most of the platform’s partners were well-funded investors.
So during this half-hour cocktail reception, besides creators enthusiastically networking with each other, more calculating creators with future plans turned this reception into a battlefield of sorts.
Thinking of this, Yu Tian finally understood why most creators dressed so formally, like flowers competing in beauty.
But Yu Tian’s ambitions lay elsewhere, and hypocritical socializing was even a burden for her.
The more men approached her, the more she missed Yan Ming.
They were all very good—either glamorous, with amazing traffic, or humorous—but none of them were Yan Ming.
Though Yu Tian herself had chosen not to tell Yan Ming about these things, she was the one secretly hoping Yan Ming could be there to accompany her.
People were contradictory creatures.
Regardless, Yu Tian didn’t want to tire herself with this socializing anymore, so she simply found a corner seat with Jiangnan landscape paintings as screens, got a non-alcoholic cocktail, and quietly drank.
But while she wanted some quiet, others in the venue also wanted to find a quiet corner.
Soon, several girls approached the screen area, looking like creators who already knew each other well.
“Wow, did you guys see that ‘Adorable Little Linlin’? She’s a photo faker. How strong are the filters she usually uses in livestreams? When I saw her face up close just now, it was full of pits and bumps—I thought I’d landed on the moon looking at the lunar surface.”
“Hilarious, and that ‘Drawing and Eating Flowers’—definitely from some eighteenth-tier small city. Look at the evening dress she picked, so tacky. I thought we were doing poverty relief livestreaming and invited a girl from a village chicken farm.”
Many creators on the platform, to grow bigger and stronger, chose to band together, forming small groups to consistently attack competitors while sharing traffic and fans with each other. Yu Tian had heard Dai Xin mention this before, but she hadn’t expected to encounter it live.
Yu Tian recognized those creator accounts being verbally attacked—they were all from the appearance section. So obviously, this small group engaging in sharp, mean mockery of other competitors was also composed of appearance section creators.
But Yu Tian hadn’t expected that she, a non-appearance section creator, would also be attacked by association—
“Did you guys see that ‘Xiao Yu Loves Candy’? She looks bewitchingly beautiful, claims to be from the science education section, but isn’t she still selling her face? She went against the grain wearing a simple black evening dress, taking the noble and aloof route. Didn’t you see how many men she hooked into asking for her contact information? But this woman is super green tea—she politely declined them all.”
“Don’t men just fall for this act? Didn’t you see several big creators unconsciously staring at her?”
“I heard that in real life, she’s a mistress. There was a big scandal before, saying she was cheating with a doctor whose fiancée was even pregnant…”
“Didn’t she issue a statement denying it? She even sent lawyers’ letters, saying she’d take up legal weapons and such.”
“What do you know? Isn’t the entertainment industry the same? ‘The lady doth protest too much’—maybe she denies it today, and it’s confirmed tomorrow. If she wants to continue developing in the social media industry, of course, she has to deny it. Plus, for many things, once the storm passes, people stop paying attention. Acting tough now about resorting to the law, who knows what will happen later? Who has nothing better to do than follow up? It’s just about saving face and showing some spirit, sending lawyer’s letters—anyone can do that.”
“Hard to say. Maybe after coming to this platform gala, she’ll look down on that doctor. Look at the scene—randomly pick someone out, they’re either rich and powerful or extremely good-looking. I just met several platform executives—wow, they’re all so handsome and young!”
Soon, the topic diverged, and these girls lowered their voices to discuss the male attendees at the event.
“I think the platform’s operations vice president is super handsome. I just heard an operations team employee say their VP is still unmarried and just broke up.”
“No wonder so many women are surrounding the VP…”
“You think the operations VP is handsome? You guys haven’t seen that handsome guy from the platform partners.”
“Which one?”
“Do you know that gaming company Jiuyou Interactive? The one who developed the ‘Conquest Challenge.’ This platform meeting will sign them on-site—Jiuyou Interactive will exclusively sign their future esports gaming livestream rights to this platform, so they sent a signing representative. He’s so handsome I could ovulate on the spot. I guarantee his looks crush any man at the scene, and he looks very young.”
“I think I saw that handsome guy, too. Are you talking about the one in the black suit? At least 185cm tall, but very cold, with an expression that looks hard to approach. I saw several top female creators from the appearance section try to chat him up, but they all returned defeated. Very direct—he said he has a girlfriend who would get angry, and rejected them outright without any courtesy…”
“He’s truly indescribably handsome, but I asked around and found out he’s not the owner of Jiuyou Interactive, just the owner’s representative. The owner is older and busy, has no interest in these platform signing events, so he came on the owner’s behalf. So he might be the owner’s assistant or something?”
“Don’t be sour grapes! Did you see the suit he’s wearing? Kiton, an Italian brand, top luxury in ready-to-wear suits with very high manual content. Each garment requires enormous working hours, with average suit prices over ten thousand US dollars. The style he’s wearing should be estimated at least thirty thousand US dollars. So even if he’s an assistant, he’s an assistant whose financial resources crush most men at the scene…”
The girls soon shifted topics again, chattering for a while before finally leaving the screen area.
Yu Tian finally breathed a sigh of relief and came out from behind the screen.
Regardless, the cocktail reception was nearly over, and she didn’t have to engage in meaningless socializing anymore.
Although she was eagerly anticipating the livestream interaction segment on personal reputation infringement, the platform had previously organized ice-breaking interactions, both to let creators get to know each other for future collaboration and traffic sharing, and to give livestream audiences a chance to heat up the atmosphere.
The platform had prepared many fun ice-breaking games. Since participation was voluntary, Yu Tian didn’t join in the fun and just watched from the side.
Female creators in evening gowns and male creators in suits were made hilariously flustered by the funny programs, completely changing their previous high-class image. The atmosphere became quite lively for a while.
The creators were ultimately seated according to their respective sections. To warm up for the subsequent livestream program, Yu Tian’s seat was arranged next to the legal section of the science education area. Sitting beside her was the male lawyer who would later participate in the livestream interaction about personal reputation infringement with her—also the liaison lawyer previously assigned by the platform to help her handle Zhao Xinxin’s defamation case.
He also hadn’t signed up to participate in the ice-breaking games on stage, so he chatted with Yu Tian below.
This lawyer was named Zhang Xing, a partner who looked only a few years older than Yu Tian. He was gentle and polite, explaining personal reputation infringement knowledge very professionally and kindly, mentioning the handling approach for Yu Tian’s case. When they chatted, they discovered his sister was Yu Tian’s schoolmate. Yu Tian immediately added his WeChat for convenient follow-up on the case.
He was also very friendly, telling Yu Tian many ways to defend rights against reputation infringement, advising her on subsequent operations and informing her of important time points in legal procedures.
As they were chatting, the ice-breaking games were nearing their end.
But before that, the platform host wanted to create something big—
“Finally, it’s the Kiss Cam segment. Our cameras and big screen are ready. Now, the two creators captured in the same frame, please kiss!”
The host added with a smile, “Of course, those close enough to kiss cheeks can kiss cheeks. Otherwise, please, gentlemanly kiss the hand of the person beside you.”
Sure enough, as soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere on site instantly heated up. Everyone realized the platform’s seating arrangements were very calculated. Besides creators who were already dating, some creators who fans liked to ship together were actually sitting next to each other, and even some creators who didn’t get along were deliberately arranged to sit together.
The event venue had two large screens—one livestreaming the creators’ expressions and situations on site, coordinating with Kiss Cam activities, while the other displayed real-time barrage interactions from the livestream, rapidly scrolling various exclamation marks—
“I knew the platform wasn’t this kind-hearted—they’re stirring up trouble!”
“Stir it up, stir it up!”
“Bah bah bah, fight, fight!”
“I noticed those two male creators from the military section who always diss each other are sitting together. When the camera just swept over them, their faces went dark, so nervous they were dying, afraid of being selected together. Hahahahaha, and my enemy forced to kiss by the platform—truly hilarious.”
Sure enough, as the camera captured pairs of people in the same frame, the venue erupted in waves of laughter and applause.
Those two military section male creators got exactly what they feared most—they were indeed captured together. One had to resignly kiss the other’s hand like going to his death, then one frantically wiped his mouth while the other frantically wiped his hand.
Even more exciting was the interaction between male and female creators from the appearance section. Handsome men and beautiful women who already knew each other online and met offline, with many sparking instant attractions. Unlike other sections’ reserved hand-kissing, some from the appearance section directly kissed cheeks, instantly bringing the atmosphere to its peak with increasingly loud cheers.
Yu Tian also watched the big screen with a smile, but in a flash, she suddenly froze.
She thought she saw Yan Ming.
Sitting grimly and coldly on the platform, the executives and partners’ seating area.
However, the big screen camera’s shot was fleeting. Zhang Xing, beside her, asked Yu Tian a question, and after she answered, when she looked back at the big screen toward the executives’ and platform partners’ seating area, she couldn’t find Yan Ming anywhere.
Yu Tian also found it somewhat amusing.
Was she missing Yan Ming too much?
Yan Ming should be at the hospital and couldn’t possibly attend such an event.
Yu Tian collected her emotions, but just as she looked up to continue watching the Kiss Cam screen, she found the screen was perfectly displaying her own slightly bewildered face, along with lawyer Zhang Xing beside her.
Yu Tian was almost stunned. She stiffly turned to look at lawyer Zhang.
Lawyer Zhang also looked somewhat helpless but was quite gentlemanly: “Please forgive the intrusion.”
He said this while taking Yu Tian’s hand, obviously planning to complete this Kiss Cam selection with a hand kiss.
However, almost the instant lawyer Zhang touched Yu Tian’s hand, a slightly cool and low voice interrupted the lively atmosphere around Yu Tian—
“Excuse me, let me through.”
Yu Tian seemed to finally snap out of the surrounding noise. She looked up slightly and met a pair of deep, dark eyes. The person had a straight, prominent nose bridge, handsome brows carrying an air of natural authority, an upright posture, and beautiful diamond-shaped lips pressed into a slightly flat line of displeasure. His deep black suit made him appear elegant and noble.
It was Yan Ming.
A Yan Ming Yu Tian had never seen before.
Different from the professional, cool trustworthiness of wearing a white coat, Yan Ming in a suit carried the aura of someone in power. His deep eyes stared at Yu Tian.
He glanced at Yu Tian, then turned to look at lawyer Zhang sitting beside her: “I need to borrow her.”
While saying this, Yan Ming firmly and decisively took Yu Tian’s hand from lawyer Zhang’s hand.
Once Kiss Cam locked onto two people in the same frame, it would enlarge the image to accommodate only two people. Now, due to Yan Ming’s sudden appearance, lawyer Zhang had been completely pushed out of the camera frame.
The visibly very expensive suit was perfectly tailored, with crisp lines wrapping around Yan Ming’s entire body, highlighting this man’s broad shoulders, narrow hips, and long legs. The meticulous ascetic temperament was brought out to perfection by this suit.
Though not seeing this person for the first time, Yu Tian couldn’t help but blush and feel flustered.
Knowing that Kiss Cam’s broadcast would display this scene exactly on the big screen, in front of the livestream audience, Yu Tian still couldn’t help stealing glances.
Without his white coat, wearing a suit, Yan Ming still seemed handsome and perfect beyond mortal standards.
Carrying some coldness, nobility, and dominance.
Not like a doctor who saved lives and healed the wounded, but like someone who came to take lives.
Yu Tian’s heart began beating irregularly again.
She tried hard to steady her emotions, looking up at Yan Ming’s deep, beautiful eyes: “How are you here?”
But Yan Ming didn’t answer her question. He turned to look at the big screen, his voice low but sounding pleased: “Now it’s just you and me.”
Yu Tian was stunned, also looking toward the screen, realizing that the Kiss Cam lens now only showed Yu Tian and Yan Ming together.
Before Yu Tian could react, before lawyer Zhang and all the audience watching the Kiss Cam big screen could react, Yan Ming directly lifted Yu Tian’s neck with one hand, then leaned down and kissed her, completing this Kiss Cam kissing task.
The instant Yan Ming’s lips touched Yu Tian’s, the unknowing crowd stopped their previous cheering, and the atmosphere became quiet for a moment, with almost everyone’s eyes fixed on the subsequent development.
However, Yan Ming acted as if nothing had happened. He domineeringly leaned down and kissed Yu Tian as if no one else was around, then calmly strode back to his seat with his long legs and composed expression.
The Kiss Cam cameraman was probably enchanted by this scene—the lens followed Yan Ming all the way. Yu Tian also couldn’t help but follow him with her gaze, watching this man walk tall and straight directly toward the platform executives and partners’ seating area, then sit behind a nameplate reading “Jiuyou Interactive Yan Ming.”
Only then did Yu Tian recall the casual conversation of several appearance section creators.
She had been somewhat absent-minded at the time, but thinking that the person being discussed was Yan Ming made her feel somewhat sour.
Right, no wonder when she heard it earlier, “Conquest Challenge” sounded familiar. Recalling now, Yu Tian remembered that when the campus forum gossiped about Yan Ming’s family background, someone had pointed out that Yan Ming’s family business had invested in this game.
So the person who came was Yan Ming…
The Kiss Cam activity soon turned the camera on others again. The scene returned to its previous laughter, applause, and cheering. That quiet and subtle kissing moment between Yu Tian and Yan Ming seemed to be silently sealed away by folded time.
But just because no one mentioned it didn’t mean everyone had forgotten.
Kiss Cam soon ended amid laughter, marking the end of the ice-breaking segment.
Next came the platform’s major strategic cooperation signing ceremony.
Representatives from various partners took the stage to complete signings, and the platform also arranged post-signing on-site interviews.
The platform Yu Tian was on was most famous for barrage interactions, with 80% of users being young Generation Z, so to match the platform’s character and maximize user participation, even the on-site interview questions were selected from live interaction barrages.
Most partner representatives were asked conventional questions, mostly about their outlook on future cooperation with the platform, or requesting them to introduce their collaboration projects’ prospects. But when it was Yan Ming’s turn, the style changed.
After briefly mentioning Jiuyou Interactive’s “Conquest Challenge” esports livestream rights, the host’s style shifted—
“Hello, Mr. Yan, our user friends have the biggest question about you. If it’s inconvenient, you don’t have to answer, but seeing the barrage volume and users’ enthusiasm in the background, I’ve decided to risk interviewing you.”
The host smiled fearlessly: “They want to ask if you fell in love at first sight with the creator you kissed just now?”
Yu Tian’s seat was some distance from Yan Ming’s, but the livestream screen made everything visible. She watched Yan Ming’s enlarged, handsome face.
Watching him blink his deep, glass-like eyes, coolly and matter-of-factly answering—
“She’s my girlfriend.”