CHAPTER 16: A Big Gossip Bomb Hits the Hot Search

Yi Yao’s stance was crystal clear—he would not allow anyone to mess with his daughter.

“My daughter wasn’t born to be trampled on,” he said.

At this point, Madam Yi had left the room. Yi Hongping, sensing the shift in mood, quickly excused himself, saying he had university homework to do. Though his workload wasn’t heavy, it was a good excuse to escape the tension.

The living room was spacious, yes—but this silent war taking place inside it was even more suffocating.

Yi Hongping thought to himself: As long as my little uncle is here, there’s never a lack of gunpowder in the air.

“You’re a father now—can’t you work on your temper? Be a little gentler,” Old Master Yi said.

“If you’re too gentle, it turns into pampering someone to death,” Yi Yao replied with a faint smirk.

Once upon a time, Old Master Yi had told the late Madam Yi those exact words. He’d said boys needed to be tempered, not spoiled, or they’d be ruined. Yi Yao figured most families doted on the youngest son, letting him live comfortably—but not in the Yi family. His father had even adopted Yi Xuezhen, essentially placing a huge burden on his shoulders.

“Girls are different…”

“There you go again,” Yi Yao cut him off. “If Xiaoya were a boy, would you be telling her to lower her head and get lost, saying the Yi family doesn’t lack grandsons?”

“…” Old Master Yi looked at Yi Yao. His mouth opened like he wanted to explain—that he was sorry for how he treated Yi Yao in the past, and that this time, he didn’t want to make the same mistake.

But in the end, Old Master Yi didn’t say anything. A father who had always kept a stern front in front of his son—how could he bring himself to explain now?

“A boy will eventually need to stand on his own and inherit the company,” Old Master Yi said. “Don’t tell me—you don’t plan to pass the company on to him?”

“You can hire a professional manager,” Yi Yao said. “There’s no need to be tied to that tiny patch of land.”

This was also Yi Yao’s most genuine thought at the moment. Yi Xiaoya was still a high school student—whether she’d like managing a company in the future was uncertain. If she didn’t, there was no need to force her to do something she didn’t like.

Inside the room, Yi Xiaoya was rolling around on the bed. The bed was clearly custom-made—large and soft. The moment she lay down, she felt incredibly comfortable.

Yi Xiaoya was video chatting with her old friend from No. 4 High School. Her friend’s name was Lin Fang. They used to share the same surname, and because they were close, others would joke that they were half-sisters from different fathers and mothers.

After Yi Xiaoya transferred schools, and since both had classes, they didn’t contact each other as often. After all, they couldn’t meet face-to-face at school anymore, so things naturally felt different.

“Don’t just lie there—get up and walk around! Let me take a look too,” Lin Fang said. “Is it bigger than the house you were living in with your dad?”

Lin Fang sounded excited. Her friend had become a rich girl, while she still had to work hard. She’d often joked with Yi Xiaoya about being “taken flying by a rich woman,” though it was always just talk.

At first, when Yi Xiaoya had just gone to live with her biological father, Lin Fang hadn’t dared to contact her. Mainly because she felt the gap between them had grown—she didn’t want to seem like she was clinging to someone just because they’d become wealthy. In the end, it was Yi Xiaoya who reached out to her first.

To be honest, Yi Xiaoya only had a few good friends back in No. 4 High. Among them, her relationship with Lin Fang was the best. The others were just so-so.

One friend even complained to her once, saying her parents told her to suck up to Yi Xiaoya… They were just chatting online, but Yi Xiaoya quickly picked up on the friend’s unhappiness. The message was clear: they shouldn’t stay in contact anymore.

It wasn’t that the friend was arrogant—more that the adults were projecting their own intentions onto their kids. Some people could tell just from seeing Yi Yao’s car that he was very rich, and they wanted their children to get closer to someone from a wealthy family.

Of course, parents might not be doing this for themselves—they hoped their kids would have better connections. But at this age, as long as kids weren’t overly self-centered or constantly seeking validation, they had their own sense of pride. Why would they want to grovel to anyone?

They had been equal friends, but after all that, some ended up looking like lackeys or bootlickers.

Yi Xiaoya didn’t force that friend to stay in touch. If they weren’t going to talk, then so be it.

“It is pretty big,” Yi Xiaoya said. “There’s a huge yard outside, a big lawn, and even a private greenhouse.”

She had walked around a lot this afternoon—the place really was huge.

“Do you think maybe I’m dreaming?” Yi Xiaoya asked. “What if a few days later, they just send me back and tell me this was all just for a show or something…”

“You think it’s that easy to transfer to that kind of school?” Lin Fang rolled her eyes. “I looked it up online—the school you’re going to now costs hundreds of thousands a year!”

“Well, those celebrities can make like 2.08 million in one day,” Yi Xiaoya said. “If it really were a show…”

“Stop, stop, stop. How old are you now? Even if it is a show, just enjoy it while you can,” Lin Fang made a stop gesture. “Or did you offend someone and you’re scared they’ll get revenge on you later? You really think you’re that important? That they’d go to all this trouble for you? Couldn’t they just pick someone else? Don’t they all say variety shows are scripted anyway?”

“…Good point.” Yi Xiaoya nodded.

“No way they’d spend that much on a show,” Lin Fang said. “And if they picked someone else, that person could still have a future in entertainment. Have you seen X-Change before? Some of the people on it now livestream and sell products online.”

“…,” Yi Xiaoya fell silent. Lin Fang was making a lot of sense.

“Hey, don’t you think my name is too plain?” Lin Fang sighed. “If only it were something like Lin Fangfei. But with this name, everyone just calls me ‘Little Fang.’ There’s even that song—A girl named Xiao Fang from the village. So tacky. It doesn’t sound like a main character’s name at all.”

“My name doesn’t sound like a main character’s either,” Yi Xiaoya said with a laugh. “The ‘Xiao’ in my name is from ‘Spring Dawn,’ but people won’t know unless it’s written out. Without the characters, they just assume it’s the ‘small’ character.”

“Well, you only changed your surname, not your name,” Lin Fang said. “You could’ve changed both at the same time.”

“Didn’t feel right.” Yi Xiaoya had been called by that name for so many years—she never thought it sounded bad.

Main character name or not, they were just ordinary people.

“I won’t be going out to hang out with you guys for my birthday this time,” Yi Xiaoya said. “My dad brought me to my grandpa’s place—said they’re throwing me a birthday banquet. No. 4 High has evening self-study that night, and I don’t even know the guests coming. I’d feel awkward asking you guys to come. Honestly, I feel like a server just standing among them.”

“No, nope, even if you invited me, I wouldn’t go,” Lin Fang replied without disappointment. Yi Xiaoya didn’t have to explain, but the fact that she did showed she really valued their friendship. “Those people all have such high status. If I went… one wrong move, and I’d be so frustrated.”

“Come visit my house when we have time,” Yi Xiaoya said. “But I probably won’t be living here after this, just staying a few days. I’ll still be living with my dad. There are too many people here.”

When she ate with the people here, she always felt a little nervous. Their table manners were so elegant, and she… wasn’t.

Back at her foster parents’ house, when she ate with Lin Dahua, the two of them would sometimes rush to grab dishes, afraid they wouldn’t get enough. At school, she and Lin Fang would also eat quickly rather than dawdle.

Watching the people here eat so slowly and gracefully, she tried to follow their pace—but even when she slowed down, she was still faster than them. Old Master Yi and the others did tell her not to worry so much, but she couldn’t help but pay extra attention to how others were eating. She’d unconsciously try to learn from them.

“I’m really not used to this lifestyle yet,” Yi Xiaoya said.

“You’re really playing the victim after getting the benefits, huh,” Lin Fang said. “Other people dream of getting rich overnight. Best case? Becoming the daughter of the richest man alive, owning a few buildings, holding a whole chain of keys—oh, and live-streaming while collecting rent.”

Yi Xiaoya thought of the post she made online back then—people really did say things like that. But they also told her to read more novels, since novels had everything, even more than her dreams.

After all, novels were written by many authors, while a dream was imagined by just one person. How could one person’s imagination compare to the collective creativity of so many?

“Sleep early, I need to go grind for my great career!” Lin Fang sighed, looking at the mountain of homework in front of her. “Oh right, do you still have a lot of homework?”

“A lot…” Yi Xiaoya wasn’t sure if her classmates had as much homework as she did, but she definitely had a lot.

At their school, they had weekends off, including Saturday. But schools like No. 4 High and many other public schools still had classes on Saturdays—some only gave a break on Sunday afternoons.

The teachers said it was all for their futures. When you’re unaware, others are still studying hard even during their time off. Since many students lack self-discipline, the school lets them stay in the classroom, where they can ask teachers questions. And teachers? They don’t even get paid overtime. The ones working hardest are the teachers.

Yi Xiaoya once wondered if she could maybe get away with doing less homework, but her dad had already hired private tutors for her. Even after staying here for a few days, she didn’t know whether the tutors would come along too.

The handsome neighbor next door was still kind of good-looking. Too bad she hadn’t seen him again since. Yi Xiaoya suspected they thought she’d be too distracted by his pretty face and decided not to let him come tutor her anymore.

Just as Yi Xiaoya was about to complain, there was a knock on the door. She quickly hung up the video call and hid her phone under the blanket.

“Dad, don’t tell me it’s time for a late-night snack already?” Yi Xiaoya said seriously. “That’s how you gain weight.”

“There’s a big gossip scandal trending—want to check if your idol’s involved?” Yi Yao asked teasingly from outside.

Yi Xiaoya suspected he was baiting her, so she answered solemnly, “I’m not into idol-chasing—I prefer creating stars!”

—

Meanwhile, Xu Yanqiu heard that Old Master Yi was planning to throw a birthday banquet for Yi Xiaoya. She was troubled. How could she make the Yi family see her as a major contributor? She had, after all, given birth to a daughter for the Yi family.