Shang Yechu rushed into the hotel bathroom and quickly washed her face. She took out a wig, glasses, and a mask from her bag, preparing to disguise herself.
Valentine's Day evening is crowded and noisy, so even in a private room, one cannot be careless. Besides, Shang Yechu is wearing a formal dress for the banquet, which makes it difficult to move around, so she needs to find a place to change.
Having battled wits with paparazzi and stalkers for so long, Shang Yechu had honed her makeup skills to perfection, able to transform herself in just five minutes. It was 11:15 now, so she would arrive at the theater around 11:50. Although she would be 20 minutes late, she would still make it to the last train for Valentine's Day.
As she was fiddling with her wig, suddenly, another face appeared in the bathroom mirror, standing silently behind her. Shang Yechu was startled, thinking she had seen a ghost.
Shang Yechu gathered his strength, clenched his fist, and quickly turned around, preparing to fight. But when he saw who was behind him, he froze, and a sigh of relief escaped his lips.
The newcomer was a chubby girl with a mushroom-shaped haircut, who looked like a high school or middle school student. She was dressed in a non-mainstream, funeral-style black outfit, with long black bangs covering her face. The lighting was worse at night than in daylight, which led Shang Yechu to mistake her for someone else.
For an artist, a good memory is an essential skill. Shang Yechu immediately recognized the person—one of the fans who had asked for her autograph and taken a photo with her during the day. She hadn't expected the person to follow her all the way here.
No celebrity likes this kind of obsessive fan behavior, and Shang Yechu is no exception. Besides, it's already 11:20, and any further delay will be too late.
Shang Yechu smiled and said, "Aren't you the little bud from earlier today? What are you doing here?"
When obsessive fans see their idol, they either pounce on them with frenzied enthusiasm, or, realizing they're in the wrong, quickly run away. Judging from the child's young age, Shang Yechu thought it was the latter. She just hoped the other person would leave quickly.
The girl was trembling all over and seemed unable to speak.
Shang Yechu had no choice but to patiently ask, "Did you come with someone else? Where is the person who came with you?"
It's unlikely that a child that age would come alone to an offline event. She's either with extremely open-minded parents or with a fan group. If we could contact these people, the little girl would be safer going home.
The girl stared at Shang Yechu, then suddenly burst into tears.
This truly shocked Shang Yechu, who was dumbfounded. She hurriedly asked, "What's wrong? Don't cry." She then frantically pulled tissues and a handkerchief from her bag to wipe the girl's face.
Seeing Shang Yechu's actions, the girl's crying intensified, almost turning into a wail.
Shang Yechu was sweating profusely with anxiety. If the crying attracted other people, the scene would be quite a sight. She couldn't very well cover her mouth, so she could only gently comfort her, "Alright, alright, I'm right here, aren't you? Aren't your family or fan club members around here?"
The girl was crying so hard she almost passed out. Shang Yechu patted her back while sweating profusely, and glanced at the time. It was 11:25, there was still time.
"Did you lose the photo? Or your wallet?" Shang Yechu asked again. "How about this, I'll take you to find my assistant. You can stay at the hotel for the night and get some rest. We'll talk about it tomorrow, okay?"
The Spring Festival is a time of overcrowding, and the scene becomes chaotic after the roadshow ends, making this the most likely scenario. It's understandable that children, lacking social experience, would be frightened by such an event.
The girl was still crying.
It's already 11:30, we really can't afford to waste any more time. Shang Yechu picked up her phone and started dialing her assistant's number, saying as she dialed, "You all know my assistant," after all, Shang Yechu's assistant team had already been exposed and ridiculed countless times in the supertopic, "She's a very nice person, don't be afraid. Get some sleep first, we'll talk about the rest tomorrow."
The girl finally spoke: "Waaah... I'm so sorry..."
Shang Yechu was startled. Countless schemes and plots flashed through her mind, such as someone using the little girl as bait to kidnap her. She stopped what she was doing and glanced around discreetly.
The girl sobbed, "I returned...your, hiccup, magazine."
Shang Yechu's brain felt like it had been hit by a giant hammer.
The girl cried, "I'm sorry, Ye Chu, but I really can't..."
"Stop, stop, stop," Shang Yechu felt like her brain was about to die, and quickly stopped the girl from continuing, "You... what does this have to do with anything? It's okay, everyone has already left, right?"
This girl's thought process was so shocking that Shang Yechu became tongue-tied and didn't know how to comfort her.
"Hiccup, no," the girl sobbed. "Before you posted that announcement, I... hiccup, I cancelled it. I cancelled it right after I posted the sales screenshot. That was my... hiccup, my living expenses for my first year of high school. If I didn't cancel it, I would have to borrow money from Alipay... But my Alipay limit isn't enough... Waaaaah... I'm sorry, I lied to everyone, waaaaah..."
Shang Yechu rarely found Chinese so difficult to understand; it took her three seconds to grasp the logic.
This girl is probably a high school student. When Shang Yechu was photographed for *Muse* magazine, fans rushed to buy hundreds or even thousands of copies, and this girl was one of them. Presumably, she bought a lot of magazines and posted screenshots of her purchase records on Weibo, thus gaining a large following.
However, high school students don't have the financial means, and after buying the magazines, their living expenses quickly ran out. Coupled with the inability to borrow money through Alipay, the girl had no choice but to return all the magazines. —Although Shang Yechu issued a call for fans to request refunds, the girl's refunds occurred before Shang Yechu issued the call. In other words, she didn't refund the magazines following Shang Yechu's call, but rather "spontaneously" did so.
Despite this, Shang Yechu still didn't understand what there was to apologize for. So what if she withdrew? Did she really need those few magazines? *Muse* magazine sent Qingping Entertainment over a dozen invitations, asking Shang Yechu to shoot for their New Year's issue, but she refused them all.
"It's nothing, your own life is the most important thing," Shang Yechu comforted her, glancing at the time again. 11:35. It seemed there was no way to get to the movie theater in time. After settling the girl in, she might as well video call Yang Huanyi. At least she needed to say a few sweet words to her in person before Valentine's Day ended.
“Look,” Shang Yechu gently persuaded, “you refunded the money and I immediately issued an announcement. Doesn’t that just show that we are on the same wavelength? This is a good thing. It proves that you are smart and understand me.”
The girl's sobs subsided a little, but her eyes were still brimming with tears: "No. I clearly got a refund before that, but I didn't dare say anything. After you posted the announcement, I actually felt relieved, so I posted the refund record online, pretending it was because I encouraged you to do so... I put all the blame on you... hiccup..."
Shang Yechu paused.
The girl sobbed, "I don't really love you. Even this movie screening was a prize I won through a Weibo lottery. I'm vain and hypocritical... but you're so kind to me, taking pictures with me, wiping my tears, and even having your assistant take care of me..."
The girl seemed to feel increasingly ashamed as she spoke, and her sobs grew louder: "Ye Chu, how can you be so kind to me?"
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