The brother and sister had just finished their meal and were getting ready to head out when a sudden commotion reached their ears.
“That’s her! That vixen, dressed so seductively—what else could she be trying to do but seduce men? Girls like you, I’ve seen plenty. All you rely on is selling your body to get resources. With that flirty face of yours, anyone can tell you’re no good…”
“Didn’t expect even some B-list starlet to be out here entertaining clients…”
“Tsk tsk tsk, she’s like some kind of demoness…”
Following the sound, Huo Jinning looked over and saw a middle-aged woman, dripping in jewelry, furiously berating a young girl in a white dress.
“I didn’t! It’s not like that at all! Please believe me—I don’t even know him!” The young girl’s face was full of panic as she desperately tried to explain.
“If not you, then who else could it be?” the middle-aged woman screamed, pointing directly at her.
“Yue Yitang, hurry and apologize to Mrs. Zhang. How could you secretly go out to dinner with Mr. Zhang?” said another woman in a red short dress.
Xiao Liu: [Master, there’s gossip!]
[Great, great. Let me see.]
[So that’s what happened…]
Huo Nanchu, who had been about to step outside, paused and decided to stay and watch the drama unfold.
The middle-aged woman was Mrs. Zhang, wife of Zhang Hai of Wanhe Group. The woman in the red dress was Zhao Yihan, a D-list actress, while the girl in white was Yue Yitang, a B-list actress.
Zhao Yihan and Yue Yitang had debuted at the same time. Zhao had once given Yue a boxed lunch, and they had become friends after that.
[Zhao Yihan is actually the one who’s been with Zhang Hai. But as people always crave the new and tire of the old, Zhang Hai had now taken a liking to Yue Yitang.]
[Yue Yitang, however, never relied on shortcuts. She worked hard but never really became famous.]
[Zhao Yihan saw where Zhang Hai’s interest was going, so she tried to get Yue drunk and send her to Zhang’s bed to secure the second female lead role in a drama he was investing in.]
[But unexpectedly, they ran into Mrs. Zhang here.]
[The plan failed, and now Zhao Yihan could only shift the blame.]
[Originally, this scene wasn’t even in the novel. Probably just a minor event. But Zhao Yihan eventually got exposed for sleeping with producers and was blacklisted from the industry.]
[Seems like this time, she successfully framed Yue Yitang.]
[Later, Yue went home to inherit her family fortune and left showbiz.]
[Too bad for you that you ran into me. I’m not going to sit back and watch someone like you rise by stepping on others.]
“I did nothing wrong. Why should I apologize?” Yue Yitang’s gaze was firm, though her voice held a trace of stubbornness and defiance.
“And besides, it was clearly—” Yue Yitang was about to continue when Zhao Yihan, afraid she would say something incriminating, quickly cut her off.
“Yue Yitang, why are you being so reckless? Don’t you want a future in this industry? Have you even thought about what’ll happen to you if you offend Mr. Zhang?” Zhao Yihan held tightly onto Yue Yitang’s arm, whispering urgently.
“But…” Yue Yitang was clearly unconvinced and tried to argue back, but Zhao Yihan interrupted again.
“No more ‘buts’! What’s the harm in apologizing? It’s not like you’ll lose anything from it. Soon, more people will gather around. If someone records a video and it gets out, you won’t even have a chance to explain. Just apologize and let it go.” Zhao Yihan pleaded in a concerned tone.
Yue Yitang looked at the powerful woman before her and hesitated. She knew that if her family ever found out about this, they might never let her act again. The thought alone made her heart waver…
Just then, the sound of crisp, confident clapping suddenly rang out.
Clap clap clap…
Everyone turned to look—and saw a girl in a gray tracksuit walking toward the crowd while slowly clapping.
Would you like the next part translated too?
“Mrs. Zhang, perhaps you should go ask Mr. Zhang who exactly was trying to seduce him?” Huo Jinning suddenly spoke up.
Everyone present was stunned into silence. For a moment, no one said a word.
“Who are you to speak out of turn?” Zhao Yihan snapped back, a trace of guilt in her voice.
“Who my sister is is none of your concern,” Huo Nanchu replied coldly, standing beside Huo Jinning like an invisible force of protection.
“You…” Zhao Yihan, who had spent some time in the entertainment industry, could read people fairly well. One glance told her that this man was not someone to be trifled with.
“President Huo! Hello, hello!” At that moment, a chubby, bald middle-aged man—Zhang Hai—came hurrying over with a sycophantic smile on his face.
“Hm.” Huo Nanchu responded with only a faint acknowledgment.
“Ah, I truly didn’t expect to see you here. Please forgive me,” Zhang Hai said, bowing and nodding repeatedly.
“You heard what my sister just said, didn’t you? Care to explain?” Huo Nanchu’s expression remained utterly calm, but there was an icy sharpness in his eyes, as though covered in frost.
Zhang Hai cursed inwardly. What a disaster. It was clear this man had come to defend his mistress.
He stole a glance at Huo Jinning, trying to figure out how to respond.
He was certain this wasn’t Huo Jinxin, the Huo family’s treasured daughter—this girl wasn’t her.
“It’s all a misunderstanding! Just a huge misunderstanding! I don’t even know Yue Yitang!”
“I was only here because Zhao Yihan invited me. I never expected to run into Yue Yitang. President Huo, you must believe me—it really was just a coincidence,” Zhang Hai stammered, his face flushed, shifting all the blame onto Zhao Yihan.
Seeing that President Huo was clearly siding with Yue Yitang, Zhang Hai had no choice but to confess the truth.
It turned out Zhang Hai owed all his success to the backing of his wife’s family. Even his own company now technically belonged to her clan.
Because of this, Zhang Hai feared his wife deeply. No matter how recklessly he acted outside, he never dared to go too far.
“President Zhang, you really do have a way with words! Do you really think it’s that simple?” Huo Jinning had no intention of letting him off easily.
“In that case, why don’t I help you remember why you came here in the first place?” she added with a sly smile at the corner of her lips.
“You… President Huo, come on now…” Zhang Hai muttered in frustration, clearly unwilling to waste more words on Huo Jinning.
“Jinning, speak freely. Don’t bother with anyone irrelevant,” Huo Nanchu said, not even sparing Zhang Hai a glance.
Would you like this translated into a more formal or casual tone next time?
Huo Nanchu had always looked down on those who cheated during marriage and betrayed their spouses. To him, such disloyal people deserved to face consequences.
Zhang Hai broke into a cold sweat the moment he heard this, knowing full well this wouldn’t end easily today.
He shot a vicious glare at the sharp-tongued Huo Jinning.
“We were just here to have dinner together. I believe this young lady must’ve misunderstood,” Zhang Hai continued to try and explain.
“Room 1801, Crescent Hotel, 4 PM, May 10th…” Huo Jinning went on.
“This must be a misunderstanding. Since President Zhang has already clarified things and given Yue Yitang a fair explanation, why don’t we just let it go?” Zhao Yihan quickly interrupted when she heard the mention of the hotel and room number, afraid of what Huo Jinning might say next.
Before Zhang Hai could respond, Zhao Yihan had already lost her composure.
“Mrs. Zhang, would you like to know what really happened at the hotel yesterday afternoon?” Huo Jinning asked with a mischievous wink, looking toward Mrs. Zhang—Sun Yueru.
Zhao Yihan’s legs nearly gave out from fear, but she still tried to maintain her poise. Even so, she shot a fierce glare at Huo Jinning, the true cause of her current panic.
If looks could kill, Huo Jinning would’ve died a hundred times over by now.
But Huo Jinning’s smug little expression seemed to say: What can you do to me?
Zhang Hai and Zhao Yihan…
“Young lady, go on,” said Sun Yueru, who clearly wasn’t some gullible pushover. She could see there was something going on between Zhang Hai and Zhao Yihan.
“It was her…” Huo Jinning pointed at Zhao Yihan—
—but didn’t get to finish before being interrupted.
“Don’t say it… Don’t say it…” Zhao Yihan cried out and collapsed onto the floor, trying to stop her.
“You think I want to say your disgusting little secret? If you don’t want me to spill it, then tell us—what exactly happened today?”
“I don’t want to, I don’t know anything, I don’t know anything at all!” Zhao Yihan sobbed, her face drenched with tears as she shook her head.
“Oh, but there weren’t just two people there yesterday…”
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk! Just stop! I’ll tell everything…” Zhao Yihan broke down and admitted everything between sobs. “I noticed that President Zhang was interested in Yue Yitang, so I lured her out, planning to drug her and send her to Zhang’s bed while she was unconscious. That was all, I swear! Please don’t press me anymore!”
She had no desire for anyone to know what had actually gone down the night before, so she tearfully confessed her original plan.
“You should’ve come clean earlier. So, who’s Zhang’s mistress?” Huo Jinning pressed further.
“It’s… it’s me… but I… I had no choice…” Zhao Yihan stammered, choosing her words carefully, afraid to offend Zhang Hai completely.
Around them, people began whispering curiously: “Man, I really want to know what happened yesterday!”
“Hmph, alright then. The two of you better remember this!” Sun Yueru was clearly not the kind of woman who would quietly swallow her grievances.
“Honey, you’ve got to believe me—it was all her! She came on to me first! I just made the kind of mistake any man could make. Please forgive me this once, I promise it’ll never happen again!” Zhang Hai started sweet-talking his wife.
“Little girl, thank you for today. If anything comes up, come find Sister Sun,” Sun Yueru said boldly.
“Thank you, Sister Sun,” Huo Jinning replied with a nod.
“Let’s go. I’ll deal with you when we get home,” Sun Yueru said to Zhang Hai.
As Zhang Hai walked off, he turned to give Huo Jinning a menacing glare on his way out.
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