Chapter 3

Just as Shi Xia leapt up, a perfectly stable decorative painting on the wall suddenly fell. She had no time to dodge and was struck directly on the head.

Her body instantly went limp and slumped against the window. Dizziness and pain flooded her head, and her vision began to black out in waves.

But the pungent smell of smoke was spreading rapidly, and her strong survival instinct forced her to stay conscious and respond in the best possible way.

However, when she finally sat on the air conditioning unit between the fourth and fifth floors, looking down at the ten-plus meter drop to the ground, it would’ve been a lie to say she wasn’t scared.

She was terrified. Her entire body trembled, her legs were weak, and the dizziness only seemed to worsen.

But she had no choice but to force herself to stay calm, gripping tightly to anything she could find on the outer wall to stabilize herself and slowly descend. She had to put distance between herself and the fifth floor. For some reason, the fire was spreading far too quickly.

Fortunately, although she was slender, she had always kept up her fitness. Her physical condition wasn’t too bad.

By the time she finally reached a window ledge on the fourth floor, she was soaked in sweat, her whole body drenched. She gasped for air, greedily inhaling the smoky but fresher breeze like she’d been holding her breath for a century.

A crowd had already gathered below, looking up, phones raised, snapping photos and recording videos.

Fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances arrived with wailing sirens.

Shi Xia clung tightly to the security bars, her feet wedged into the gaps, doing everything she could to hold on and keep from falling.

She didn’t dare look down again. Her legs were shaking so badly she feared that one misstep would send her plummeting to her death.

She wasn’t ready to die yet, and Shi Yan couldn’t live without her either!

Suddenly, a wave of gasps rose from the crowd below. A moment later, an explosion rocked the fifth floor.

Almost instantly, Shi Xia heard a voice she hadn’t heard in years—buried deep in her memories from youth. It came from somewhere not far from her:

“Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

It was still as calm and steady as ever, like a pair of strong, reassuring hands that could instantly soothe all her fear and panic.

She instinctively turned to look down—and saw him, just one floor below and climbing swiftly upward: Qin Lie, wearing an orange fire rescue suit and matching helmet.

From the start of the fire until now, Shi Xia had been suppressing her emotions—but that single sentence felt like magic. It cracked her defenses with ease.

Tears surged uncontrollably to her eyes.

It felt like she was back in that summer of her third year of middle school. She and her sister Shi Jing had been trapped on the second-floor balcony of their grandparents’ rural house in Yun City, when a teenage boy had climbed up, reached out his hand, and—panting but calm—had reassured them:

“Don’t be scared. Come with me.”

The scene before her now overlapped almost perfectly with that summer fifteen years ago. Qin Lie reached out again, eyes firm and steady, and gestured:

“Grab my hand.”

When Shi Xia was finally rescued, blood was streaming down her head, and she had already lost consciousness.

In the haze, she leaned against his strong, broad chest and vaguely heard him shout from deep in his chest:

“Doctor!”

That sound resonated through her ears, grounding her and making her feel safe.

She woke up the next day.

Tang Guo was by her side at the hospital, peeling an apple as she fussed, “A blessing in disguise—your wound was hidden in your hair. If it had been on your face, what would we have done? The doctor said you have a mild concussion and need to stay for observation.”

Just thinking about the three stitches on Shi Xia’s scalp made Tang Guo shudder with fear. If that injury had been on her face…

Shi Xia didn’t have much energy, so she relaxed into being pampered, letting her assistant feed her fruit. After a moment, she muttered, “I want shredded chicken congee from Yue Yun Xuan. The stuff in the hospital cafeteria is terrible.”

Seeing that she still had the appetite to be picky, Tang Guo knew she was fine: “Alright, I’ll call Xiao Zhao to get some.”

Right after sending the message, Tang Guo’s phone buzzed with several trending notifications.

She tapped one open—and instantly fumed.

Shi Xia noticed: “What’s wrong?”

Tang Guo forwarded a few links to her on WeChat. “You’re trending.”

Shi Xia was surprised but quickly understood.

Of course. With Director Li’s team and so many actors present yesterday, plus such a big incident, and her being dramatically rescued from the outer wall—of course people had recorded and posted photos and videos. And she was an actress, after all—not completely unknown.

But when she opened the links and read the trending hashtags, her expression darkened.

As it turned out, the moment she was rescued, her name had already climbed onto the trending list.

At first, it was fairly normal—headlines like:

“Shi Xia escapes fire”

But soon, a photo of her blood-covered face and some video footage made its way online, and two hashtags exploded simultaneously:

“Shi Xia disfigured”

“Shi Xia dies in fire”

Tang Guo explained, “It’s probably because of that firefighter who saved you. He really did look panicked when carrying you down. And you were covered in blood—netizens jumping to those conclusions isn’t totally surprising.”

Shi Xia paused briefly at the mention of him and then asked, “What’s happening now?”

Tang Guo’s temper flared again. “Don’t worry. Qi-ge and the company are already on it. He said you just focus on recovery—they’ll handle the rest.”

Then she explained the full story.

After the rumors of Shi Xia’s death began trending yesterday, the company had immediately issued a statement clarifying that she had only sustained minor injuries and was currently recovering. They urged people not to spread or believe misinformation.

Sure, for Shi Xia, trending was a rare shot at exposure. But not like this—these outrageous rumors were useless and damaging.

But just as the company managed to suppress the rumors and the hashtags started to die down, boom—Shi Xia was trending again.

“Shi Xia exposed as homewrecker, faces revenge attack”

“Shi Xia’s affair leads to fiery consequences”

“Shi Xia implicated in fire that injured multiple actors”

…

The origin? Someone claiming to be an insider came forward, alleging the fire was no accident—it was arson.

Netizens immediately started speculating:

“I knew it! That floor didn’t even have tenants. So many explosions? The fire spread way too fast. Something’s fishy!”

“Right? Now that they’re saying it was intentional, it makes way more sense!”

“But who would do that? And why?”

As the discussion snowballed, Shi Xia’s name was quickly dragged into the trending forums.

Tang Guo was livid: “This was definitely deliberate. Someone’s guiding public opinion!”

The rumor went that Shi Xia had seduced a wealthy heir named Meng Yu, destroying his engagement and even causing the fiancée to be hospitalized. The fire, allegedly, was started by the fiancée’s friend in a fit of rage.

Tang Guo added, “Qi-ge already arranged for the rumors to be suppressed, but seriously—it’s only been a few hours, and here we go again!”

Shi Xia stopped reading after a few posts—her head was already spinning. She put down her phone and asked:

“Do we know who did it?”

Tang Guo replied, “Not yet.”

Still, for someone to go so far to smear Shi Xia’s name meant she must have stepped on some pretty important toes. That narrowed down the list of suspects.

Tang Guo continued scrolling through her phone when her eyes suddenly froze on the screen.

Then she couldn’t help but shout: “Holy sht*—!”