Chapter 52

Afternoon tea time is perfect for slacking off.

Meng Fan filled a cup of hot latte from the coffee machine, took a bag of potato chips from the cabinet next to him, and found an empty seat in the rest area to sit down.

The company's tea room is very large, with a wide variety of drinks and snacks available 24 hours a day to meet the needs of anchors with irregular working hours.

Meng Fan recently broadcasts morning and evening shows. Feeling too lazy to go home during the few hours of afternoon break, he simply headed to the tea room for a rest. While it's certainly not as comfortable as staying at home, there's food, drinks, Wi-Fi, and spacious and comfortable seats. What else can you ask for?

She ate while casually scrolling through videos. After a while, she heard someone nearby discussing, "Have you seen Shen Fengni recently?"

Another person replied, "She can see it every day. Didn't she just sign up for 'One Dream'? She's getting tons of streams and her stats are amazing. I'm so jealous."

"You know about her relationship with Mr. Xiao Yu, right?" the man lowered his voice as he spoke gossip. "It's said that after breaking off her engagement with Mr. Xiao Yu, she found a new partner, which is why things are going so smoothly."

Another person disagreed, saying, "You can't say that. Her singing is already good. If someone else had been there, there would be no way they could have moved on."

"Well, that's true. It's due to many factors..."

Meng Fan listened and felt a little uncomfortable.

She entered the live streaming industry at about the same time as Shen Fengni. Both are singing hosts, and their styles and positioning are somewhat similar.

Although Meng Fan didn't know Chen Fengni, when he met an anchor with a similar style from the same period, he couldn't help but pay more attention to him and would secretly compare the two people's data.

At the beginning, the number of fans and people in the live broadcast room of the two people were similar.

But now…

A hint of gloom flashed in Meng Fan's eyes. She entered Shen Fengni's name in the search box and clicked search.

Shen Fengni was live streaming. Meng Fan thought about it, switched to his secondary account and entered the live streaming room.

After not paying attention for a while, Shen Fengni's account has changed significantly. The number of followers and the number of people in the live broadcast room have more than doubled, and there are many powerful sponsors among them. It can be said that it is thriving.

Chen Fengni was singing a difficult song, and the public screen was full of fans' praise and support, and the gift special effects never stopped.

Especially the fan named "Zhezhi", who immediately started spending money. In just a few minutes, the amount of tips he gave exceeded Meng Fan's daily live broadcast turnover.

Her looks and singing skills are not much worse than Chen Fengni's, so why can't she attract such a rich lady with lots of money?

Meng Fan felt very uncomfortable watching this. Her heart felt like it was soaked in lemon juice, so sour that it made her upset.

A colleague nearby heard the singing and came over to chat, "Hey, are you a fan of Shen Fengni?"

Meng Fan was almost angry to death.

In her mind, she and Shen Fengni started to be anchors at the same time, so they should be on equal footing. Even if there is a slight gap in the data now, there is no need to call her a fan of Shen Fengni.

Is Shen Fengni some big shot? How could she, a relatively unknown streamer, be directly classified as a fan?

Due to their relationship as colleagues, Meng Fan couldn't get angry and just said indifferently, "No, I was just taking a look. Besides, Shen Fengni's singing is just average, nothing special."

"Ah? Shen Fengni is still average? Are you sure?"

My colleague couldn't believe his ears. "Her voice is so recognizable, and her range is so wide. She can hit high and low notes with ease. If I had a voice like that, I would wake up laughing in my dreams."

Meng Fan became even more angry after hearing this, and retorted without thinking: "How can it be so exaggerated? There are so many hosts who sing well. Who is she, Shen Fengni?"

Her colleagues were frightened by her attitude. "If you don't want to hear it, then don't want to hear it. Why are you talking so harshly? Did you take some medicine today?"

Meng Fan snorted coldly, crumpled up the empty bag of potato chips in his hand, and threw it into the trash can beside him.

"I just can't stand her, is that okay?"

Although the colleague was speechless, he didn't want to argue with her because of a stranger, so he raised his hands in surrender and said, "Okay, okay, as long as you are happy."

Meng Fan let out a long breath and continued to browse his phone.

"Meng Fan! The boss is looking for you!" About ten minutes later, someone suddenly called her at the door.

"Looking for me?" Meng Fan was startled. She turned around to see, "What's going on?"

The man replied: "I don't know, but I told you to hurry over."

Meng Fan was very nervous all the way to the boss's office.

Their boss was notoriously trouble-averse and rarely took the initiative to talk to a particular anchor, always having his secretary or assistant relay messages. So why had he suddenly found himself in the situation today?

Meng Fan quickly reviewed his recent actions. Nothing seemed out of place. His livestreaming stats weren't great, but they weren't terribly bad either.

The most outrageous behavior was that he just said a few bad words about Shen Fengni, but he shouldn't be summoned for a talk because of this, right?

Meng Fan was lost in thought when he arrived at the office door.

If you stick your head out, you will be hurt. If you hide your head, you will also be hurt. She sighed and raised her hand to knock on the door.

A response quickly came from inside, "Come in."

Meng Fan pushed the door open and paused.

Besides the boss, there was also a young and beautiful woman in the office.

She was tall and slender, wearing a light grey business suit that fitted her perfectly and showed off her figure. Her light blond hair was tied up, revealing her slender neck.

The man turned his head, his silver glasses chain swaying, casting a blurry shadow. A pair of narrow glasses looked at her through the lenses, quite scrutinizingly.

It looks a little familiar, as if I've seen it somewhere.

But Meng Fan not only did not feel friendly, but instinctively felt dangerous.

She heard the boss say, "This is Mr. Xiao Yu, you should have heard of him."

Mr. Yu? Yu Qian?

Meng Fan was stunned for a moment. Before he could even say hello, he saw the boss respectfully say to Yu Qian, "Your servant has been called. You two can chat first. I won't disturb you."

After the boss left, she and Yu Qian were the only ones left in the office.

The room was spacious, but seemed even emptier because it was so quiet. The air-conditioning vents overhead blew cold air, making Meng Fan feel a chill on his back.

What's going on? Yu Qian wants to talk to her alone?

What did she have to talk about with Yu Qian? Could it be because she had just said something bad about Shen Fengni?

Meng Fan was stunned and froze in place, not daring to move.

Yu Qian stood across from her, leaning against a large desk. Because of the slight backlight, it was difficult to discern the expression on her face.

She asked, "Your name is Meng Fan?"

Meng Fan responded quietly, then said, "Hello, Mr. Xiao Yu."

"Meng Fan, 24 years old, talent host, specializes in traditional Chinese music."

Yu Qian picked up a document nearby and slowly read the contents. "I've been live streaming for over half a year, and the data has been lukewarm over the same period. My contract with the company is about to expire, so I'm not sure if I can renew it, right?"

Meng Fan was at a loss as his personal information was read out one by one. It took him a long time to respond with a "yes".

Yu Qian said, "Do you hate Chen Fengni?"

The thing she worried about came true. Meng Fan's scalp tingled instantly. She immediately denied it, "No, no, how could it be? I don't even know her."

Yu Qian walked closer, and the crisp sound of her high heels on the floor echoed in the quiet room, making people feel uneasy.

She said calmly, "Your tea room is nice."

It was a coincidence. I originally came here this afternoon to deal with work matters, but when I passed by the tea room, I happened to hear someone mentioned Shen Fengni's name.

Yu Qian pretended to reply and paused at the door. Initially, the compliments were directed at her professional abilities, which Yu Qian found quite boring. As she turned to leave, she heard Meng Fan's voice.

She was moved and stayed to listen to the entire conversation.

The last time she saw Shen Fengni was at Jiang Zhuoyan's house. She was beaten up by her former lover and suffered humiliation and torture.

For several days afterwards, she dreamed of being beaten, and the psychological trauma lingered.

After some consideration, Yu Qian decided to take a long vacation. Firstly, she couldn't show her facial scars to anyone, and secondly, she needed some time to calm down and think.

Jiang Zhuoyan’s matter cannot be let go, otherwise she will never get over this hurdle in her life.

During the holiday, Yu Qian asked someone to investigate, but because Jiang Zhuoyan did a very good job of keeping the secret, almost nothing useful was found.

There is only one piece of valuable content.

The biggest sponsor of Chen Fengni's live broadcast room is Jiang Zhuoyan.

Yu Qian then tracked down Zhezhi and learned that this account had hardly ever made any purchases in other live broadcast rooms. It could be said that it only favored Chen Fengni.

And just a few days ago, Chen Fengni publicly stated in the live broadcast room that she has someone she likes.

Although Shen Fengni's words might just be a character setting, or an excuse to block a suitor, it still made Yu Qian feel uneasy.

Jiang Zhuoyan and Shen Fengni, don’t they have any hidden ambiguous relationship?

If this is the case, then Jiang Zhuoyan's protection of Shen Fengni can be understood.

Thinking of this, Yu Qian suddenly found it very funny. Shen Fengni kept criticizing her for being unfaithful, but it turned out that she was not a good person either.

Then don't blame her for being rude. Since Shen Fengni doesn't give her face, she can't expect to stay out of it.

As soon as Meng Fan heard Yu Qian mention the word "tea room", he knew that everything was over.

Yu Qian must still have feelings for Shen Fengni, and when she heard her saying bad things about Shen Fengni, she called her over to settle the score with her.

A man of insight is a hero. Meng Fan slid to his knees on the spot, "I'm sorry, Mr. Yu, I was just kidding. I was just jealous that Shen Fengni's data was better than mine, so I couldn't help but say a few insults to her. There's no grudge between us, please don't misunderstand."

Yu Qian smiled, "I'm asking you, do you hate Chen Fengni?"

Only after getting closer did Meng Fan discover that there was a shallow scar on Mr. Yu's cheek, which looked like the mark left after the scab had fallen off but had not yet completely healed.

He must have been accidentally scratched by something. Given Yu Qian's status, it's impossible that he was beaten.

Meng Fan suppressed the chaotic thoughts in his mind and replied in a trembling voice, "I, I do hate her, but I haven't done anything bad to her. Mr. Yu, please don't hold it against me. Can you please forgive me for my mistakes?"

At this point, denial was pointless. Yu Qian was such a shrewd person, if she refused to admit it and insisted on making excuses, she would probably only cause the other party to be disgusted.

It would be better to plead guilty directly and seek leniency. Even if Yu Qian was angry, she would not be harsh on her because of her good attitude in admitting her fault.

However, the next second, the woman opposite suddenly laughed.

"It's good that you hate her." Yu Qian said slowly, "Go meet her."