Chapter 53 Congratulations, Brother Fu, you've finally won the cloud...

In the study, Ji Jiali called and briefly told Fu Qingli about Su Yi'an and her "childhood sweetheart" becoming popular online.

"Brother Fu, do you think we need to do something to prevent you from getting dragged into this?"

Fu Qingli pondered for a moment, then waved his hand: "No need for now. They're doing this to distract us. In that case, no matter what we do, they'll have a backup plan."

“But if we let them make a scene like this, what if those gossip accounts write something ridiculous? Your sister-in-law will probably be angry when she sees it,” Ji Jiali worriedly reminded him. “Their ultimate goal is still to get you to agree to the marriage. Then your relationship with your sister-in-law might…”

Fu Qingli narrowed her eyes dangerously: "I guess they don't dare to mention this directly. Qingyuan issued a statement before, saying that anyone who dares to mention this matter will be sent a lawyer's letter directly."

"But I'll explain this to Xiaoxi later."

When Lin Xi was mentioned, Fu Qingli's tone softened.

Ji Jiali caught the barely audible pleasure in his voice and tentatively asked, "Have you and your sister-in-law made any new progress?"

Fu Qingli made no attempt to hide her happiness: "Well, I guess we've completely made up."

Ji Jiali was genuinely happy for him: "Congratulations, Brother Fu! You've finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel!"

-

"Little Stream".

Noticing that Lin Xi's mood was a little strange, Zhou Qi leaned closer and asked her in a very low voice, "Do you still have doubts about the relationship between Brother Fu and Su Yi'an?"

Lin Xi shook her head. Fu Qingli had explained it very clearly last time and even provided supporting evidence. She no longer cared much about Su Yi'an.

Zhou Qi thought she was just being stubborn, so she held up two fingers: "I swear, Brother Fu has never liked anyone else besides you, nor has he ever had any ambiguous relationship with anyone. He will definitely treat you well for the rest of his life!"

Touched by her trust, Lin Xi couldn't help but blurt out, "You trust him that much?"

But as the person involved, I always had doubts about his heart.

"It's not that I believe it, it's just that Brother Fu's circle of friends is really too clean. Whether it's school or work, there are no other women he's close to. Actually, my brother and Zou Song are the same way. The three of them seem to have no feelings for each other, no wonder they can get along so well!"

Lin Xi was amused by her words.

Zhou Qi thought she still didn't believe her. She reiterated repeatedly, "I'm serious! You have to believe me!"

"I know," Lin Xi hesitated, but there were things weighing on her mind, and she wanted to confide in someone. "Actually, it's not that I don't trust him; rationally, I trust him completely. I just'm not sure if he can really love me like that, love me for a lifetime..."

Zhou Qi hit the nail on the head when she said that: "You don't feel secure in your feelings for Brother Fu, do you? Why?"

Why?

Lin Xi thought about it carefully and realized that his doubts probably stemmed from Su Yi'an's statement that "he couldn't possibly have only one woman by his side," coupled with the fact that he had voluntarily given up on her six years ago.

But she didn't want to shatter the image of Fu Qingli's deep affection in Zhou Qi's mind, so she forced a smile and made up a plausible excuse: "Maybe it's because we haven't been back together for long, and we're not so sure yet."

Zhou Qi thought about it and agreed. After being separated for six years, feelings and trust needed to be rebuilt: "That's right, you two will probably get better after spending more time together. I think Brother Fu's love for you is a very obvious and obvious favoritism, you'll find out soon."

Lin Xi nodded, agreeing with Zhou Qi's statement.

In fact, she could feel that Fu Qingli's affection for her had only increased.

But I'm not that confident, and I'm always worried that one day all of this will suddenly disappear like before.

At this moment, Fu Qingli came out of the study and saw the two chatting. She casually asked, "What are you talking about?"

Zhou Qi reacted quickly and hurriedly showed him the trending topics: "They're talking about this. Su Yi'an's 'Childhood Sweetheart' ring design has become a hit. Now netizens are digging everywhere to find out who her childhood sweetheart is. Even the two playboys from the Qiu and Fang families are being discussed. This is just pure nonsense!"

Fu Qingli sat down next to Lin Xi, took her hand and played with it.

After Zhou Qi finished complaining, he squeezed Lin Xi's soft knuckles: "Xiao Xi, I was just talking to you about this."

He observed Lin Xi's expression and, seeing that she wasn't opposed, continued, "You should be able to guess that I'm the one they want to expose. We're currently competing with them for a project, so they're probably trying to use this to distract us. So, I don't plan to do anything right now. If there are any reports online about me and... Su Yi'an in the next few days, don't believe them. Leave it to the Qingyuan PR department to handle, okay?"

He noticed Lin Xi's brow furrow slightly and quickly added, "If you're unhappy, I'll try to find a way to stop those comments from appearing."

At that moment, Fu Qingli suddenly realized that she had been too confident in her decision.

He always believed that what is fake is fake and can never become real.

But when it comes to lovers, people aren't so rational.

Putting myself in her shoes, if Lin Xi were to get involved with another man, even if it were just a rumor, I would feel uncomfortable.

Thinking of this, he overturned his previous decision and prepared to get up, saying, "I'll have them handle it ahead of time."

Lin Xi quickly pulled him back: "No, I'm not upset. I'm worried that this might affect your project. What they're trying to do is probably more than just distract you."

She guessed right.

At this critical moment, Qingyuan cannot afford any negative public opinion, otherwise all previous efforts will be in vain.

Therefore, one must be extremely careful in handling online public opinion and must not make any extreme remarks or engage in any behavior.

Fu Wenxun has clearly grasped this weakness, so he wants to use this opportunity to force Fu Qingli to acquiesce to the marriage by leveraging public opinion.

However, Fu Qingli didn't intend to tell Lin Xi and make her worry. She reached out and patted her head twice: "Don't worry, all of this will be over soon."

-

Fu Qingli's identity was revealed the next day by several leading tech influencers.

The cover of the short article features a photo of two people standing face to face.

The man was dressed in a black suit, tall and slender, with a handsome profile. Although his face was expressionless, his temperament was truly outstanding.

The woman, dressed in a burgundy evening gown and with exquisite, elegant makeup, was smiling sweetly at her.

The background of the photo is blurred, creating a very artistic atmosphere and a sense of destiny, like "meeting you in the crowd and falling in love with you".

The clash between the chosen sons and daughters of heaven has once again topped the trending searches.

However, some observant netizens noticed that the influential figures who were guiding everyone to support the cause in the morning suddenly fell silent and their accounts went offline in the afternoon.

However, such a small matter could not extinguish everyone's enthusiasm for shipping the couple, and they still frantically searched for any clues that Fu Qingli and Su Yi'an might have.

Until an account with the verified name "Qingyuan Technology Zhao Mingyuan" posted a picture, which was a photo of Zhao Mingyuan and Fu Qingli standing face to face.

The caption reads, "emmm, the only photo of me and my boss together, how did it get photoshopped into a photo of me with someone else? [crying][crying]"

Because of Fu Qingli, Zhao Mingyuan's account saw its follower count increase from double digits to five digits in a single day.

But what no one expected was that after everyone focused on him, his first Weibo post shattered the public's dream of a romantic pairing.

Some netizens who were more level-headed compared the two photos professionally and found that Fu Qingli's posture, clothing folds, and details were completely identical in the two photos.

Zhao Mingyuan uploaded the original high-resolution image, without any signs of editing.

However, the photos posted by the influential bloggers were very blurry, with severe blurring at the edges.

The rumors were dispelled on their own. Although there are still some die-hard fans who believe that such a rapid public relations response is Fu Qingli's attempt to cover up the truth, it actually proves that the two are in a real relationship.

However, this small group of people couldn't make much of a splash, and the difficulties that Fu Qingli and the others were worried about were directly denied in a nonsensical way.

Zhao Mingyuan, the person involved, cursed repeatedly on the phone: "What kind of people are they? Luckily, I saw Emilia's post on WeChat Moments and felt that I was just as good as the boss standing next to her, so I asked her for the original picture. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known which photoshopped picture they used."

Lin Xi leaned on Fu Qingli's shoulder and couldn't help but ask curiously, "Who is Emilia?"

Fu Qingli answered the phone on speakerphone. Although her voice was soft, it was still heard clearly by Zhao Mingyuan on the other end.

The other side suddenly became so quiet that you couldn't even hear someone breathing.

The two people on this side didn't notice.

Fu Qingli tried hard to recall anything about Emilia, but in the end, she couldn't find anything and shook her head helplessly.

"Boss...boss...did you hear that? Is there...a woman's...voice...asking me?" Zhao Mingyuan's voice trembled, genuinely nervous. "In the middle of the night...is the garage...haunted?"

Lin Xi: "..."

"..." Fu Qingli pinched her brow helplessly. "You heard me right, the person is on my side."

"What?!" Zhao Mingyuan could hardly believe his ears, his voice rising eight octaves, "You have a woman with you? It can't really be Su Yi'an, can it?!"

Fu Qingli couldn't help but shout sharply, "What are you saying!"

The chilling sound snapped Zhao Mingyuan back to reality.

Right, if it were Su Yi'an, and she posted such a photo to slap herself in the face, how could the boss still praise her and give her such a generous bonus?

He thought carefully for a moment, then asked cautiously, "Is it someone I know?"

Fu Qingli introduced generously, "Yes, Lin Xi, my wife."

"Lin Group? Wife?!" Zhao Mingyuan's voice cracked, unable to tell which surprised him more!

Lin Xi touched the tip of her nose somewhat awkwardly and greeted him, "President Zhao."

"No, no, sister-in-law, please don't call me that, it's too much for me!" Zhao Mingyuan tried to calm himself down, but his voice still trembled with surprise. "You can call me Xiao Zhao or A Yuan, it's fine!"

"Then..." Lin Xi looked to Fu Qingli for help and tentatively asked, "A Yuan?"

Fu Qingli nodded slightly.

"Yes!" Zhao Mingyuan responded quickly, his mind racing as he recalled her earlier question. "Sister-in-law, weren't you asking about Emilia? She was the sales manager at our partner company in America. After meeting the boss once by chance, she actually described him in broken Chinese as absolutely stunning. When she proactively added me on social media, I thought my spring had finally arrived, but every day our conversation revolved around the boss. That photo was taken at a cocktail party; she secretly snapped a picture of the boss, and I happened to be in it too..."

He was about to continue when Fu Qingli impatiently interrupted, "You've been talking too much today. You just mentioned that the bonus will be halved."

"Hey, no, boss! I was wrong!" Zhao Mingyuan shouted anxiously, "Sister-in-law, let me explain. The boss doesn't know her. I've always been the one handling her relationship. It's just unrequited love..."

"One more word, and the entire amount is deducted!"

Zhao Mingyuan immediately fell silent.

Before hanging up the phone, Fu Qingli reminded him, "Remember to buy the photos from her, don't give them a chance!"