Chapter 9: Fame

Let us set aside for the moment the tender entanglements of Lin Fan and Gu Qingcheng, who moved from cooking together in the kitchen to a more intimate sort of “cooking” in the bedroom.

Turning instead to Chen Yanzi, she ran home brimming with grievances, expecting to find comfort from her family. Yet, to her disappointment, all they cared about was whether she had reconciled with Lin Fan.

The moment Chen Yanzi stepped through the door—before she could utter a single word—the Chen elders couldn’t wait to ask, “Well? Did you succeed?”

Seeing the anticipation in her parents’ eyes, Chen Yanzi bit her lip and slowly shook her head. “Lin Fan has changed. No matter how I treated him before, he’d never get angry or talk about breaking up. But this time… it seems he’s really determined to end things.”

“What?” Her mother shrieked, scolding her daughter, “You can’t even win back a man? What use are you? Aren’t you usually so skilled at charming men? What happened now? You can’t even bring Lin Fan back—why don’t you use those storytelling skills of yours? Raising you was all for nothing!”

Already deeply aggrieved by the situation with Lin Fan and Gu Qingcheng, Chen Yanzi now returned home only to be berated by her own parents for being useless, for failing to entice a man. At this, her emotions erupted like a volcano:

“What do you mean I can’t charm men? Everything was fine between Lin Fan and me until you insisted on demanding a house and an exorbitant bride price. Would things have come to this otherwise?”

Though some time had passed, the memory still stung. If not for that sky-high bride price, how could she have lost her sure thing?

As these thoughts churned inside her, Chen Yanzi spotted Chen Wei swaggering over, prompting her to redirect her ire toward him:

“And you, Chen Wei! If you weren’t so useless, unable to earn your own bride price, would Mom and Dad have tried to sell me off to get it for you? Look how it’s turned out—now the wealthy match is gone. Are you all satisfied?”

Her outburst only fueled an endless argument among the family. The Chen elders confined themselves to shouting matches with Chen Yanzi, but Chen Wei wasn’t one for words—he used his fists.

After Chen Wei beat her, Chen Yanzi finally fell silent.

When Chen Wei’s anger subsided, though, his thoughts turned to Zhu Ruoxue, and he ground his teeth in hatred. “This can’t end here. Lin Fan and Zhu Ruoxue—those two deserve to be exposed online and publicly shamed!”

“No!” Chen Yanzi’s face was bruised and swollen, her words barely intelligible, but even so, she still couldn’t let go of Lin Fan. “You can’t expose him—if you do, I’ll never have a chance to marry into his family.”

“Yanzi, even now, after your brother has been humiliated by Lin Fan, you’re still thinking of marrying in?”

The Chen elders looked at Chen Yanzi with disapproval. Seeing her defiant expression, her father exploded in anger: “What’s that look for? Is Lin Fan more important to you than your own brother?”

“Dad, Mom, haven’t you always wanted me to marry into a rich family? Lin Fan is that rich family now. If you do this, how will I ever face him again?”

“Hmph, talking to us like that—you’ve really become bold. Mom, Dad, you’d better teach your daughter a lesson or she’ll be out of control!”

Egged on by Chen Wei, the Chen elders, after some thought, decided to give Chen Yanzi another beating.

After two rounds of beatings from both Chen Wei and her parents, Chen Yanzi was completely broken.

Following Chen Wei’s instructions, she recorded a video of her battered face on her phone.

In the video, tears streaming down her face, she recounted the tale of Lin Fan and Zhu Ruoxue: “My brother and sister-in-law used to be so in love, but because of what my fiancé did, they ended up together. Now my fiancé has broken up with me, and my sister-in-law has deleted all my brother’s contact information. She refuses to speak with him.”

The video lasted about five minutes. Under Chen Wei’s supervision, Chen Yanzi edited it and posted it on DouGold.

These days, netizens love nothing more than gossip—no matter how watered down it is, they’ll devour it eagerly. Let alone when it’s a real person, on camera, with a face full of bruises.

What caught the viewers’ attention, however, was that Chen Yanzi never mentioned how she got those injuries.

This glaring omission only made the online audience more certain there was juicy drama to be found.

“So the story of a brother-in-law and sister-in-law getting together isn’t just fiction after all? Art truly imitates life!”

“I’m shocked—this is the strangest story I’ve ever seen. The blogger and her brother are really pitiful, running into such a pair of scumbags.”

“But how did the blogger get those bruises? She never mentions it.”

“Why ask such a silly question? Obviously her fiancé beat her up—what else could it be?”

“What kind of bad luck is this? Cheated on and abused, all at once.”

“To be precise, they’re not married yet. That’s intentional injury, not domestic violence.”

As the barrage of comments streamed in, a triumphant smile appeared on Chen Wei’s face. Remembering Zhu Ruoxue’s words, his eyes flashed with hatred—this time, he was determined to ruin that gold-digger’s reputation.

Domestic violence and infidelity were already hot topics, and with the twist of the brother-in-law running off with the sister-in-law, the video quickly shot to the top of DouGold’s trending list, racking up over a million likes.

The video’s popularity was such that even Gu Qingcheng, waking from a night’s drive, stumbled upon it while casually scrolling through short videos.

Upon seeing Chen Yanzi’s battered, tearful face complaining about being betrayed, Gu Qingcheng’s expression turned strange. She nudged the still-sleeping Lin Fan awake. “Honey, I heard… you ran off with your sister-in-law?”

“Huh?” Lin Fan blinked in confusion at Gu Qingcheng. “What do you mean, ran off with my sister-in-law? I’m an only child!”

His response made Gu Qingcheng burst out laughing. She handed him her phone, teasing, “I never expected you’d become famous as a scumbag.”

Lin Fan was speechless.

He watched the entire video at double speed, then sighed helplessly and explained the situation: “Heaven knows, it was Chen Yanzi who kept pestering me, asking me to help with Chen Wei’s bride price. I figured, since I was paying it, I should have the right to take the bride myself.”

Gu Qingcheng folded her arms, pointing at the car in the video with a hint of jealousy in her voice. “Did you really only give the bride price? Look, there’s even a car. You never bought me a car!”