Villainous Sick Beauty Extra 15

TL: Hua

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Extra 15: Campus Life 9

When Ye Rongxu woke up in the morning, he sensed something was off.

Qin Chaoyan had gotten up very early and had already prepared breakfast. Hearing Ye Rongxu’s movements in the bathroom, he poked half his body through the doorway with a spatula still in hand, asking softly, “Do you need help?”

Ye Rongxu, holding an electric toothbrush and brushing his teeth: “…”

He wasn’t disabled, nor were his hands broken.

After washing up, he walked into the dining room.

Qin Chaoyan had already set breakfast on the table. Seeing him arrive, he quickly pulled out a chair and said, “Sit.”

Ye Rongxu: “…” Something was very wrong.

He had gone to bed early last night and hadn’t done anything. Why was President Qin cooking himself today? And his attitude was unusually attentive. Again, they hadn’t done anything last night.

…Could it be that he wanted to do something during the day?

Ye Rongxu immediately became alert and looked at Qin Chaoyan, saying, “Jiaojiao…” is still at our house.

His original intention was to remind the other person that someone else was home and to not mess around, but Qin Chaoyan thought he was asking, “Where is Lin Jiaojiao?” He pressed Ye Rongxu’s shoulder, making him sit down, and interrupted, “She came back late yesterday and probably won’t get up until noon. She told us not to call her in the morning.”

As he spoke, he placed an exquisite breakfast in front of Ye Rongxu, his tone carrying a hint of coaxing: “A new style I just researched. Try it.”

Ye Rongxu was suspicious: Something’s wrong, very wrong.

However, Qin Chaoyan was indeed skilled at making breakfast.

Ye Rongxu ate with satisfaction. After putting down his chopsticks, he wiped his mouth with a napkin, then looked up and calmly said, “Speak. What is it?”

Qin Chaoyan’s movements stiffened.

Knowing he couldn’t hide it, he put down his chopsticks and pondered, “Xuxu, some things happened last night. Someone posted our photos from the comic con online…”

He started by explaining the cause, detailing how the rumors spread, Ye Boxuan’s call, and the whole process of handling it. Finally, he lightly added, “Later, I posted a photo on my alt account, and your fans accidentally recognized me.”

He didn’t mention what kind of photo he posted.

Ye Rongxu took out his phone halfway through, and before he could even open Weibo, he saw WeChat messages.

He subconsciously clicked in to take a look and first learned the details from the dorm group chat history. Not only that, but the group chat also had screenshots of the hot searches at the time.

Ye Rongxu opened the picture and frowned slightly: “Why is your hashtag ranked first and even ‘trending,’ while mine is only ranked at seven or eight? I have so many fans; shouldn’t I be more popular?”

Qin Chaoyan: “…” Was that the point?

Fortunately, Ye Rongxu quickly exited the chat page and entered Weibo. He thought that after a night, the trending searches should have dropped, and he planned to search for the hashtag in the search bar.

As soon as he clicked in, he saw the hashtag #President Qin Xiao Yu Mao# ranked first, followed by a ‘trending’ tag, and the next was #Rong Yan#.

Ye Rongxu: “…”

His slender white fingertips paused, and he finally clicked on the Xiao Yu Mao tag.

Qin Chaoyan also saw it; his expression slightly changed. He quickly sent a message to his assistant with one hand under the table: Regarding my hot search, didn’t I ask the PR to take it down? Why is it still trending?

The assistant was slightly sweating: We took it down. This is a new hashtag.

The previous one they took down was #President Qin’s alt account#, but netizens had unexpectedly created a new one.

Qin Chaoyan gritted his teeth, typing: Keep taking it down.

He finished replying and looked up, directly meeting Ye Rongxu’s meaningful gaze.

“Xiao Yu Mao?” He raised his phone with a half-smile on his face.

The screen showed the Weibo post Qin Chaoyan had made last night with his alt account, but it was a screenshot by a fan. The original Weibo had already been set to “visible only to myself” by Qin Chaoyan.

Qin Chaoyan’s expression remained unchanged, appearing calm and collected. The more awkward the situation, the calmer he became. He merely nodded slightly, as if unconcerned; only his hand under the table subtly clenched, resisting the urge to rub his forehead.

Seeing his unperturbed demeanor, Ye Rongxu felt bored and continued to look at screenshots of Xiao Yu Mao’s past comments posted by fans on Weibo.

He remembered this little fan, but he never expected that this cute little fan who often shouted “stick together” in the comment section would be Qin Chaoyan.

Netizens were right; the contrast in personas was too jarring.

The more Ye Rongxu looked, the more he wanted to laugh. He finally couldn’t help but hold his phone and laugh until his stomach hurt at the dining table.

“This, this is what you meant by ‘accidentally recognized by fans’?” He laughed so hard that tears were almost coming out, and he couldn’t help but pound the table.

Qin Chaoyan’s face was full of dark lines. He strongly resisted the urge to pull the other person into his arms and “torment” him.

After laughing, Ye Rongxu wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and forwarded Qin Chaoyan’s main account statement with his phone. After thinking for a moment, he also liked Qin Chaoyan’s alt account and several Weibo posts with screenshots of Xiao Yu Mao’s comments, thinking: Go embarrass yourself.

This action was equivalent to certifying that the alt account was indeed Qin Chaoyan, and netizens immediately erupted in another small wave of excitement. The hashtag, which had just dropped a few places due to the removal of trending topics, quickly climbed back to first.

After liking the posts, Ye Rongxu continued to pound the table and laugh.

Qin Chaoyan’s mouth twitched slightly. He endured it again and again, but finally couldn’t resist. He stepped forward, pulled Ye Rongxu into his arms, and rubbed his head, saying, “That’s enough.”

Ye Rongxu rubbed the moisture from the corners of his eyes onto Qin Chaoyan’s clothes, then looked up with a face still laughing, gasping for breath: “President Qin, your image is ruined.”

Qin Chaoyan was helpless, thinking that was secondary. But if Xuxu kept laughing, he might choke.

—

Since it was the weekend, after breakfast, Ye Rongxu sat on the sofa replying to messages from worried family members and roommates.

In reality, after Qin Chaoyan’s alt account was exposed, everyone basically forgot their worries and was all enjoying the gossip.

Ye Rongxu didn’t take this matter too seriously either. If he had seen the news when the public opinion was just brewing and a group of people were viciously calling him a mistress, he might have been angry and upset.

But by the time he saw the news, the matter had been properly handled, and those malicious comments had largely been deleted. Even if he saw one or two remaining traces, he didn’t care much; anyway, lawyer’s letters had been sent, and his family had a legal team of over a hundred people, so they could sue effectively.

However, the “mistress” incident was originally a misunderstanding. The so-called insiders who revealed the information were actually a few wealthy second-generation rich kids from Jiangcheng who owned small companies. They usually weren’t even qualified to cooperate with the Ye Group, let alone have met Ye Rongxu.

They merely relied on knowing a little bit of information and spread it online, acting mysterious. However, because they didn’t know the full story, the information they spread was used by people with ulterior motives, ultimately causing such a stir.

After Rongchao and the Ye Group’s lawyers’ letters were issued, these few people quickly apologized, deleting their comments and admitting their mistakes online. Some media outlets and accounts that had followed the rumors blindly also sheepishly bowed their heads.

After all, it was essentially a rumor, and pushing back wouldn’t be justified, let alone being unable to win against them.

By the afternoon, the fan artist who wrote the “little essay”—Yun Yang—who had been tagged by countless netizens after the truth came out, finally posted a Weibo apology, stating that he had mistakenly believed the rumors and shouldn’t have reposted or liked Weibo posts like “@artist Rongyan is a mistress.”

However, at the end of his statement, he meekly expressed that the game “Destiny” was deeply loved by a wide range of players. As an officially organized fan art competition for game characters, on the last day of voting, Rong Yan’s work suddenly surged in votes, achieving first place. Later, he heard that the other party had a close relationship with the boss, which led to the misunderstanding that it was a determined outcome.

He believed that the competition was fair and just, and although President Qin spoiled his husband, he probably wouldn’t mix public and private affairs to give his wife the competition’s top spot. In short, it was all his fault; he misunderstood.

While these words were overtly an apology, covertly, they were clearly intended to lead people to speculate whether the first place was predetermined. After all, the artist was President Qin’s partner.

Everyone immediately understood the underlying meaning of the text.

And then, recalling President Qin’s alt account’s comments on artist Rong Yan’s page… tsk, tsk.

Of course, they couldn’t definitively say whether it was rigged or not, as most people, outside of the gaming and anime artist communities, didn’t understand this competition, nor had they seen the artworks.

But… President Qin, rational? Forget about it. He’s probably rational normally, but when he transforms into Xiao Yu Mao, he’s clearly a Level 10 crazy fan.

Because of this, many of artist Yun Yang’s fans were convinced—rigged, absolutely rigged! Just look at President Qin’s alt account comments; he’s constantly gushing, and his filter for Rong Yan’s art must be at least ten meters thick.

Moreover, it was just a fan art competition held by one of his own game companies. It was entirely possible to discreetly manipulate things to give his wife first place.

Closed niche circles always tend to produce extremes. The more these fans brainwashed themselves, the more they felt they were right. They flocked to the official game account’s comment section, complaining about unfairness and even leaving sarcastic remarks like, “Oh, the domineering CEO really spoils his wife.”

This alarmed the official game account, which quickly issued a clarification, stating that they were unaware of @artist Rongyan’s identity beforehand and that everything adhered to principles of fairness and impartiality, with no cheating in the competition voting. As soon as the statement was released, Yun Yang’s fans became even more agitated, continuing to mock: “Wow, you didn’t know his identity? He’s your boss’s legal spouse. Do you even believe what you said?”

The official Weibo account’s operator was bewildered: Yes, why wouldn’t we believe it? We only found out last night too.

The game players under the official Weibo were even more baffled. Not all players followed this competition, but many who did were refuting: “Have you seen the artworks? The first place absolutely crushed your Teacher Yun Yang.”

However, anyone who said this was labeled a crazy fan of Rong Yan by Yun Yang’s fans. Players left objective comments but were inexplicably slapped with the “crazy fan” label, which instantly ignited their anger. They immediately started bickering with Yun Yang’s fans in the official Weibo comment section.

Xiao Pang, a loyal player of this game, liked to browse the official Weibo in his free time. Seeing things escalate like this, he quickly sent the link to Ye Rongxu, urgently asking: “Rongxu, have you offended this artist named Yun Yang?”

Qin Chaoyan also saw the online news. His eyes subtly darkened as he got up to give his assistant a call.

Lin Jiaojiao, who woke up in the afternoon and was late to the drama, was enraged by what she saw and rolled up her sleeves to fight people in the comment section.

While she was scolding, the official Weibo locked its comments.

Lin Jiaojiao: “F*ck!” Not satisfying.

Ye Rongxu: “Don’t use profanity.”

Lin Jiaojiao: “…” You’ve said it too when you were angry.

“Actually, I was talking about plants.[mfn] 草cao (grass) is a homonym with 操cao (f*ck).[/mfn]” She quickly corrected herself. Then, like Xiao Pang, she asked, “Do you have a grudge with this artist Yun Yang?” Mfn: 草cao (grass) is a homonym with 操cao (f*ck).

Ye Rongxu frowned, thought for a moment, and shook his head: “No impression.”

Qin Chaoyan, who just finished the phone call, walked back and said, “You two rose to popularity around the same time, both through fan art for the same game. In the early years, fans often compared you. Later, he showed his face in a live broadcast, marketing himself as a cool and beautiful artist, and his popularity briefly surpassed yours, but it only lasted for a year.”

“As you posted more and more works online, and their quality far exceeded his, your fans and popularity gradually started to overtake his. During this time, you both participated in some game submission and painting competitions. For officially selected submissions, you generally won. For those decided by fan votes, sometimes he won, sometimes you won.”

“Over these years, he probably always considered you his imaginary enemy, secretly trying to compete with you. When his fans couldn’t hype up his work quality, they’d boast about his looks and subtly belittle you, saying that you don’t show your face because… you’re not good-looking.”

Of course, such comments had long been dealt with by him and never appeared in Ye Rongxu’s comment section.

Lin Jiaojiao was stunned speechless by this: “What kind of person is this?”

Then she went online to find photos of Yun Yang. After looking at them, she muttered to herself, “Is this all? Comparing looks with my brother? A bit overconfident. Might as well compare skill… Forget it, he probably can’t compare in skill either.”

Ye Rongxu was momentarily stunned after hearing this, saying, “How come I didn’t know?”

He usually only posted pictures, occasionally participated in submissions and competitions, and at most, if he felt interested, he’d take on a few commissions he found engaging. He didn’t really socialize in the artist community and truly didn’t know he was being competed with.

The problem was, his comment section had always been harmonious, and he hadn’t seen any large-scale disturbances.

Qin Chaoyan thought to himself: Of course it’s harmonious.

Anyone who dared to stir trouble was ordered to be banned by him.

They opened threads on other forums to badmouth Ye Rongxu, and he had those threads deleted as well.

There were even a few times in competition voting where the rival bought votes to try and surpass Ye Rongxu, but it was Qin Chaoyan and a few key fans in Ye Rongxu’s fan groups who found ways to rally people to surpass them.

In short, as a fanatic fan of Teacher Rong Yan, Qin Chaoyan had been putting in a lot of effort for his darling over the years. It was also fortunate that Ye Rongxu wasn’t a celebrity; otherwise, he truly wouldn’t have been able to handle it all alone.

Ye Rongxu quickly guessed the reason. It turned out that all these years, Qin Chaoyan had been silently protecting him online.

He couldn’t help but look at the other person, a subtle gleam in his clear, moist eyes.

Qin Chaoyan’s gaze was gentle, and he said, “Don’t worry, I’ve already sent people to handle this matter.”

The usual petty squabbles between fans and anti-fans were one thing, but this time, the other party had clearly crossed his bottom line.