The Steinway piano was eventually hauled away by a truck.
Du Jinghuai watched it leave, lost in thought.
Li Jing had only used about three-quarters of her strength when she played the piano earlier, but judging by the favorability she had gained, she this substitute must have truly impressed the male lead.
Li Jing’s expression was embarrassed, fiddling with her sleeve as she stood to the side.
After the piano was taken away, the manager came to call Du Jinghuai. The man turned his head, his cool, melancholic gaze falling on Li Jing.
The girl’s eyes were still red. She had been deeply immersed in her performance earlier. Now, as she looked at Du Jinghuai, her eyes were filled with admiration and gratitude.
Just having a piano here, Teacher Wang and the others wouldn’t even dare to use it. Now, it’s been turned into money. And 700,000 yuan was enough to build a better dormitory for the children. Li Jing truly felt this was a good thing.
But, Du Jinghuai thought faintly: He was merely donating in her name. What did the 700,000 yuan have to do with her?
When Li Jing lived here before the age of five, no one had come to improve her environment. Now, her own dire living conditions remained unchanged, yet she was filled with joy and gratitude.
Are there really… people who are so willing to give?
As if sensing his thoughts, Li Jing lifted her clear eyes, reflecting Du Jinghuai’s figure clearly.
“Thank you so much. If there’s anything I can do to help in the future, please let me know!”
Including but not limited to ordering her takeout, brushing up her plotline—come on, little Leekie number three, grow up!
“No need to thank me,” Du Jinghuai had already composed himself, regaining his aloof and noble demeanor. “—After all, I haven’t done anything for you.”
Li Jing looked at him with the same eyes she would use to look at a living Lei Feng*.
TN: Lei Feng (1940-1962), made into a model of altruism and dedication to the Party by propaganda from 1963 onwards.
The manager also sent the news of Du Jinghuai’s charity auction of the piano at the orphanage to marketing accounts. For a time, the entire internet was praising him.
【The Acting Emperor is so good at doing charity quietly. It’s no wonder he’s so popular.】
【So the amateur from yesterday was from this orphanage, right? That’s so sad…】
Li Jing only had a basic flip phone, so she was late to learn about the situation on the trending searches. She discovered that the world of old-fashioned novels also had normal netizens who had expressed their desire to help the poor female lead.
Li Jing: “Not bad.“carpreads.pages.dev
System: “……Host, you’re not going to try to raise money from netizens across the country, are you!”
“Don’t worry, I won’t ask kind netizens to crowdfund,” Li Jing waved her hand dismissively. “—The guilty party will be held accountable. Retirement still depends on the male leads.”
Three leeks, neatly arranged, would send her to a wealthy retirement.
Li Jing suddenly remembered something: “Oh, and add in the White Moonlight—”
In this plot point, Ye Yan hadn’t gained any advantage in their fight from afar. She would feel this sense of loss of control more and more intensely in the future, so—
Li Jing: Add money!
Add more money, she’d play with them! Yay!
-—–
If Ye Yan felt uncomfortable seeing Li Jing’s name disappear from the trending searches.
Now, seeing the trending search about Du Jinghuai spending a fortune to buy the piano at Li Jing’s orphanage, her emotions were beyond description.
A strong, uncontrollable feeling surged through her.
Since Ye Yan went abroad, her long-distance presence had been used to maintain the balance between these three people. Because something that everyone wants but no one can have is the most heart-wrenching.
But Li Jing was something they could easily obtain.
And she had also displayed many beautiful qualities that shouldn’t have appeared on a poor orphan…
Ye Yan lowered her eyelashes, and her usually gentle eyes revealed an incongruous ruthlessness.
It seems… she could no longer underestimate this fake.
She needed to do something.
Du Jinghuai’s manager kindly had the driver take Li Jing back to school.
In the car, Li Jing sat stiffly, reviewing the current progress of everything in her mind.
Du Jinghuai’s favorability had now reached 23%, which was already considered a fast pace. It was clear that focusing on the third line was proving effective. Based on Li Jing’s interactions with Du Jinghuai, his favorability would likely reach 30% before that sense of pity began to change, developing in a more stimulating direction.
But no matter what, the favorability of the three male leads would inevitably soar. The higher it rose, the more pain they would experience in the end.
In the later part of the plot, the male leads who had fallen deeply in love with the substitute female lead would suddenly realize that they had been hurting their true love all along. However, by this time, the original owner would already be terminally ill.
The high-and-mighty male leads would finally kneel at the feet of the substitute, consumed by grief. Then, this time, the White Moonlight, who had used Li Jing as a blood bag, would then be used by the male leads to donate blood to Li Jing—
Karma is a bitch. It sounds incredibly cheesy and satisfying.
And it’s going to waste manpower and money.
Whose money is being wasted, she won’t say ^_^
“Let’s see who we’re going to cut next—whose plot points we’re going to brush up on~”
Li Jing said, while opening her bank account in the background.
Seeing the latest transaction from Fu Lingchu, she raised an eyebrow and smiled.
-—–
At this time.
Fu Group.
Fu Lingchu had learned that the piano he donated had been resold to Du Jinghuai.
It was clear who it was for.
“Heh—” The president let out a cold laugh, a strange sense of rage in his chest.
Fu Lingchu had bought that piano because it was the same model Ye Yan had played. But for some reason, after that time he spent in the music room with Li Jing, he hadn’t been back.
And more and more people were surrounding this fake Li Jing.
They were all chasing Ye Yan’s light.
Yet they were all spending more and more money on Li Jing.
If it weren’t for the fact that none of this money belonged to Li Jing, Fu Lingchu would have even thought, at times, that “Li Jing is unfathomable” in a strange way.
Out of the sharp instincts of a successful businessman, he occasionally felt danger.
He tried to control his desire to control, but he found it increasingly difficult to do so.
—So Li Jing saw Fu Lingchu’s clear desire to control in the incoming transaction details.
Secretly keeping a close eye on the fake he had bought, ready to drag her into his abyss at any time.
In comparison, Feng Ce, that little kid, was much simpler and more direct, not hiding what he did for the stand-in.
He sent Li Jing a text message: [I’ve taken care of the hot search for you]
Li Jing put Fu Lingchu aside for now, pressing the buttons on her small flip phone to reply: [Thank you, how much did it cost, I can pay you back…]
Feng Ce looked at his phone and snorted. A few million meant nothing to him, but it was a fortune that Li Jing could never hope to have in her lifetime.
He sent a text message: [I’m sick, come see me]
Young master Feng rarely got sick. A cold was a serious symptom for him. He desperately wanted Ye Yan to be by his side, to gently touch his forehead, but Ye Yan wasn’t there.
Li Jing would do, too.
Li Jing thought about the text message.
Of the three male leads, Feng Ce’s favorability was the highest, already at 42%, just one major plot point away from 50%.
Thinking that she had indeed been neglecting this filial child lately, it was no problem to focus on the campus line—getting a 50% obsessed male lead as soon as possible would further energize the love triangle/rectangle battleground.
So Li Jing went back to the dorm. As soon as she entered, her eyebrows shot up—her bed looked like it had been robbed, completely messed up.
After these two harrowing days, being attacked online and then reversed, Li Jing hadn’t been back for a day and a night, and the dorm was in chaos.
Her roommate looked at her awkwardly and explained: “Uh, your bed, it wasn’t us…”
Du Jinghuai’s fans were everywhere, even more exaggerated than Feng Ce’s fangirls. After the hot search, they directly found Li Jing’s dorm number, and then they came looking for her, one after another.
They couldn’t find her, so they poured water all over Li Jing’s bed.
Li Jing thought, well, classic campus plot, still the same flavor.
Li Jing didn’t have many friends at school.
Before, it was because she was completely an inconspicuous, invisible person. Later, it was because she was too close to Feng Ce, becoming the public enemy of countless fangirls, and normal classmates didn’t dare to interact with her.
But her roommate had also seen the hot search these past two days. Anyone would feel bad after being attacked by the whole internet, let alone Li Jing, who was donating money to her orphanage… Her roommate felt a little guilty.
“It’s okay.” Li Jing smiled, her beautiful eyes curving. “I’ve caused you trouble.”
Her roommate was instantly stunned by the smile on her face.
She had always known that Li Jing had a face that could weather any storm, but she usually worked and went to class without interacting with them. This time, talking to her face-to-face, her roommate felt like she was about to be killed by this charm that was hitting her in the face.
But she, she wasn’t a poor orphan with a tragic life?
Li Jing’s slender back had already walked out of the dorm.
This dorm episode told her that the next plot point had arrived—
Originally, in this plot point, after being attacked by the whole internet, the original owner returned to the dorm and was harassed by the fans again, ostracized and kicked out of the dorm, which was a blow to the original owner.
And at the same time, her gambling uncle would come to give her a fatal blow.
Pushing her completely towards the abyss of selling herself to those rich men.
Li Jing tugged at her tattered sleeve, standing outside the school gates, preparing to strike a forlorn pose to win favor with Feng Ce.
She quickly got into character, Li Jing looked around the campus, then tapped the system.
“Teacher— Teacher Lu—” she called out to Lu Mian, “My dorm was flooded, I have nowhere to live.”
Lu Mian didn’t answer.
“Did he go to another world for an inspection?” Li Jing snorted.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world.
The light-colored pupils under the silver hair were slightly lost in thought, then he brought his gaze back—to the villa that was being built before him.
In the cleanest and clearest waters in the world, beside the fine white sand beach, the most expensive luxury villa.
Someone said she had nowhere to live.
…Hmm.
“—Leave only one villa.”
The young god gave special instructions, his expression unclear.
Then he heard that clear voice, with a hint of coquetry, laughing as it said.
“Teacher, aren’t you coming?”
“I’m going to the male lead’s house to brush up on the exciting plot soon—”
Lu Mian suddenly paused: “?”
The next second, he had vanished from the spot.
Here.
Li Jing finished flirting with a certain silver-haired hottie, her little phone lit up—
Caller ID: Uncle.
A meaningful, happy smile spread across Li Jing’s face. She glanced at her unremarkable little phone and said to the system, “The money’s coming.”
System: “?? Zhao Shi?”
This middle-aged gambling addict was still in debt himself, how could he send money to the host??
Li Jing: Watch me work my magic ^_^
After picking up the phone, Zhao Shi was still his usual greedy and vicious self.
“Your grandma’s medical money, you little slut, you took them all, didn’t you?!”
“I raised you for so long, and you haven’t given me anything back! I’ve already taken out a loan using your ID—don’t worry, as long as I win these big bets, you won’t lose anything, you’ll even make money!”
Li Jing: “What? You took my ID, took out a, a loan?!”
The gambling debts Zhao Shi owed were astronomical for Li Jing, a poor student.
She was diligently studying and working part-time, and suddenly a huge gambling debt fell from the sky, anyone would collapse.
Li Jing cried: “You can’t do this! You can’t!”
Zhao Shi said greedily: “Don’t you know President Fu, some big Young Master, and that Acting Emperor? They’re all so rich, just borrow from them!”
Li Jing cried and shook her head: “I won’t! I’d rather die than take a penny from them!”
“Then you’ll work for me for the rest of your life to pay off the debt!”
The phone hung up with a slam.
Li Jing’s tears instantly dried up.
Lu Mian walked over at that moment. Li Jing whimpered at him, but the fake tears from before were still clinging to her cheeks, making her look genuinely pitiful.
So Lu Mian stopped in front of her and extended his hand.
That hand was perfect, with distinct knuckles and fair skin, like a delicate sculpture from the Renaissance. But because of the rosiness in his palm, when he extended it towards Li Jing, it seemed warm.
Li Jing blinked, her thick eyelashes still damp, so she reached out with both hands to take Lu Mian’s, her face leaning forward, wiping her tears clean on his palm.
Lu Mian remained calm throughout.
It was hard to describe, a man like a mountain of ice and snow, yet his eyes were undeniably gentle.
Li Jing looked up: “Hee hee.”
Wiping her tears on his palm, the principle was the same as a dog peeing.
This land, she claimed it ^_^
The system dared not speak, nor could it understand the host’s actions, but it remained silent, meek and submissive.
Lu Mian asked calmly, “Exciting plot?”
Li Jing grinned, patted her leg and stood up, “Of course the excitement is—making money!”
To live in a big villa!
The system, under pressure, mumbled softly, “You, how are you going to make money now?”
There was only teacher Lu here.
—Five minutes later.
Li Jing passionately demonstrated to them how to make money.
Because the afternoon’s income statement told her: Fu Lingchu had been monitoring her little flip phone ^_^
So Li Jing, in return, dialed her grandmother’s phone and automatically switched to voice message.
The strong little white flower, driven to the brink of despair by fate, looked up at the sky at a 45-degree angle. Although there wasn’t a single tear in the corner of her eye, her voice was still very convincing.
“What to do, what to do, I really don’t have the money to pay back…”
“I know, no one can save me, I know.”
Li Jing’s voice choked with despair, “I know, God doesn’t exist.”
The silver-haired man beside her: “?”
“I know, my life, I can only rely on myself… No one can help me.”
Li Jing’s pride finally shattered, as if she had no hope left, she prayed to heaven in the deserted corner.
“But if, if anyone can help me—”
“He is, my God…”
Lu Mian: “？”
System: “？?”
Ten minutes later.
Fu Lingchu, with a furrowed brow, made a phone call, “Pay off Li Jing’s debts.”
Li Jing: Thanks ^_^
Author Note:
Li Jing: God!
Lu Mian: ??? Look at me.