Chapter 2: Retribution

After handling Ruan Yu’s discharge paperwork, Shao Li escorted her to the hospital’s underground parking lot and started the car.

He opened the navigation app. “Brother Lin asked me to take you home. Do you want to grab something to eat first?”

Truth be told, Shao Li wasn’t too thrilled about babysitting this pampered heiress.

In his memory, Ruan Yu was the ultimate drama queen. As the daughter of the chairperson of Shangying Media, she would pull petty tricks every other day to get close to Duan Lin. And with Ruan Zhengping doting endlessly on his daughter—who also happened to have a congenital heart condition—he turned a blind eye to her antics.

Now, relying on the longstanding friendship between the Ruan and Duan families, she’d somehow managed to marry Duan Lin.

Everyone in the studio who knew about it was on the verge of a breakdown. Duan Lin was at a critical point in his rising career. If news of his marriage got out, the consequences would be catastrophic.

Shao Li sighed at the thought.

“Forget it. I’ll just take you home first.” Seeing Ruan Yu dazed in the passenger seat, he listed off several addresses. “Which one do you want to go to?”

All the places he mentioned were well-known luxury residences in Beijing—regulars on trending searches thanks to their celebrity and billionaire occupants. One of them was even Ji Linhao’s residence.

Ruan Yu had once thought that the only way she’d ever get near places like those would be if she sank so low as to become Ji Linhao’s stalker fan.

“I don’t want to go back. None of those places are my home.” Her tears had barely dried, her face still pale.

“Then where do you want to go?” Shao Li explained, “Brother Lin is really busy today. He’s setting up his own studio, and on top of that, he took time out to get… well, to get married with you, so he’s swamped.”

What caught him off guard was that instead of throwing a tantrum, Ruan Yu immediately asked, “Duan Lin isn’t renewing with Dongying Entertainment?”

“It’s his brother’s company, you know. He’s always been the type to seek out new challenges.”

Ruan Yu stared, dumbfounded. No, I didn’t know that at all!

Everyone had been guessing for years what kind of powerful background Duan Lin had. She’d heard a dozen different theories, each more dramatic than the last. But no one had expected one of the entertainment industry’s top companies to be part of Duan Lin’s own family empire!

No wonder they called him the Marketing Prince.

Holding onto two earth-shattering scoops about her rival idol, Ruan Yu—who in her previous life would’ve been pounding out a thousand-word post for Weibo or a gossip forum—now found herself completely helpless.

She couldn’t go back.

While catching her breath earlier, she had tried contacting everyone she’d known. Even her close friends from her old fan circles. But she came up empty.

Anything and anyone connected to “Ruan Ruan” had vanished, as if she had never existed. It was as if her past self had been just a figment of her imagination—or a dream born from dissociative identity.

But those vivid memories, those moments of joy and sorrow, the sincere, blazing love she once held—they were all real.

Before everything changed, she had scraped and saved to buy a ticket to her idol’s concert, overjoyed to finally see the person she’d adored for years shine on stage.

Shao Li seemed like he still had something to say when Ruan Yu looked up, her reddened eyes shimmering with a faint light that startled him for a moment.

She sniffled and made up her mind. “Take me to the Workers’ Stadium. There’s still time to make the concert.”

Shao Li mentally reviewed Duan Lin’s schedule and, after confirming his boss wouldn’t be there, checked what events were at the stadium tonight. His expression froze. “You’re going to Ji Linhao’s concert?”

His tone was pure disbelief.

“Yeah. Can you help me get a ticket?”

“…I can, but—”

“Then just get me a seat ticket. Thank you.” Ruan Yu lowered her lashes and pulled out her phone to transfer the money.

While familiarizing herself with her identity back at the hospital, she had skimmed through her phone and found some notes left by the previous Ruan Yu—account numbers, bank cards, Alipay, Weibo handles… everything except the passwords.

Thankfully, the world had fingerprint and face ID now.

Though stunned, Shao Li didn’t dare go against the willful heiress. He contacted his industry friends, pulled some strings, and actually managed to get her a front-row seat ticket.

After transferring the money, Ruan Yu instinctively opened Weibo. But the moment she saw the username on her profile, she froze.

[Southern Beauty Fish]

An entertainment blogger with over two million followers.

Ruan Yu knew this name far too well.

And not in a good way—the familiarity made her grit her teeth.

To Ji Linhao’s fans, this “Southern Beauty Fish” was a notorious anti-fan blogger. A black-powder troll masquerading as a neutral bystander.

It all began with an awards show last year.

The end-of-year gala had drawn in celebrities from every corner of the industry—including Ji Linhao and Duan Lin. Their fandoms had been at each other’s throats online for ages, and with both stars attending the same event, the tension carried over in person. Fan chants and lightboards turned the audience into a battlefield.

Then, disaster struck: a small stampede occurred inside the venue, setting off another round of heated online conflict. The spark? A video posted by none other than “Southern Beauty Fish.”

She had filmed a chaotic scene of fans pushing and shoving, captioning it with a complaint that she’d only attended the show for fun, and now her limited-edition platinum handbag had been crushed by the unruly crowd.

Someone sharp-eyed in the comments pointed out the fanlight in the clip—it looked like a Ji Linhao fan’s.

Boom. Ji Linhao’s fans exploded.

Why are you always throwing shade at us? Look carefully—one of the people pushing others was wearing a Duan Lin support bracelet. Why aren’t you calling that out?

Duan Lin’s fans fired back with equal venom: If your side hadn’t started the pushing, would ours have reacted? We were victims, okay?

The fan war escalated.

And then “Southern Beauty Fish” added fuel to the fire by tweeting: I know Duan Lin’s character and class. His fans would never do something like this.

…Cue internal bleeding from Ji Linhao’s fans.

Oh, so you’re saying our idol has no class? Who the hell do you think you are? You’re just some Weibo blogger—barely even a C-list influencer!

Every fandom thought their idol was sacred, and Ruan Yu had been furious at the time too. She’d spent three whole days and nights flame-warring this so-called “Southern Beauty Fish.” Since then, all the Siji (Ji Linhao’s fandom name) had blacklisted her as a two-faced white lotus.

Chasing idols leads to karmic retribution.

Ruan Yu now firmly believed it.

She stared at the five characters spelling out “Southern Beauty Fish,” hand trembling as she hovered over the DM button.

The private messages from non-followers were already flooded. Ruan Yu casually clicked on a few—some were inquiries about brand collaborations, others were the usual daily curses from Sijis. And then there was this:

[Linlin’s Little Girlfriend: My Fish! Are you there? Sharing today’s joy with you ]

Ruan Yu opened the video. It was a bizarre meme edit—her beloved Ji Linhao caught in an embarrassing moment on a variety show, cut into a ridiculous remix by haters and being circulated widely among them.

How dare a hater send her a grotesque meme of Ji Linhao?!

[Southern Beauty Fish: ?]

[Linlin’s Little Girlfriend: !!! OMG you actually replied to me!!]

[Linlin’s Little Girlfriend: Did you finish watching the video? After that, go look at our gege’s new magazine cut—absolutely divine, I’m melting 55555 ]

She followed up with a fawning fan edit of Duan Lin.

Ruan Yu sneered, tapped on the girl’s profile. As expected—a rival fan.

“Linlin’s Little Girlfriend”?

Ha.

Sorry to break it to you—but your precious “Linlin” just secretly got married… and to his biggest anti-fan, no less.

[Southern Beauty Fish: Duan Lin and I got married.]

[Southern Beauty Fish: Sweetheart, every time you badmouth Ji Linhao in front of me, I’ll sleep with your Duan Lin once. Got it?]