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Chapter 211
"Biological Father?"
When she heard those words, Wen Yan didn't take them seriously at all.
As she played the handshake game with the little dog, she mocked the person on the other end of the line in plain sight.
"So after one scheme failed, you came up with another, changing up your tricks to ask me for money, huh? You wouldn't happen to think that just because you also happen to be surnamed Wen, you can pretend to be my dad, would you? Forgot to tell you—I, Wen Yan, take my mother's surname. Not my dad's surname. OK?"
"Seriously cursed—refusing to let go!" Having said her piece, Wen Yan hung up the phone directly.
Naturally, she had to treat this number to a blacklist combo as well.
However, less than two minutes after blocking this number, another unknown number called in.
This time, Wen Yan didn't answer the call.
Looking at the three different phone numbers that had called within a short period, she also understood a few things.
Either all these numbers belonged to Wen Chengcai, and he was dead set on wringing money out of her, so he came prepared with three or more phone numbers.
Or, he had partnered up with others to come ask her for money together, and these numbers belonged to those other people.
Regardless of which possibility it was, neither was good news for her.
Losing her mood to pet the dog, Wen Yan sat down on a nearby hanging chair, quickly hung up the call, and dragged it straight into the blacklist.
However, after doing all this, she didn't put her phone down right away.
Instead, she waited.
She felt that Wen Chengcai definitely wouldn't give up so easily.
Sure enough, within a minute, another unknown number on her phone screen caught her eye.
This time, the other party chose not to make another phone call.
They probably realized themselves that the result of calling would just be getting blocked.
So this time, they opted to send a text message instead.
The content of the text was very concise, consisting of only seven words.
Yet those brief seven words made Wen Yan knit her brows in an instant.
The other party said: *'I know your mom's name is Wen Rou.'*
Truth be told, the mother of this world's Wen Yan really was named Wen Rou.
But so what?
Hadn't Wen Yan's father been completely absent from the time she was a fertilized egg all the way until she lived into her twenties?
What use was there for a biological dad like that now?
Besides, there were at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, women named Wen Rou in this world.
So what if her mom was named Wen Rou, was she not allowed to have that name?
‘Who cares?’
Delete, block—Wen Yan was already so practiced with this sequence that it flowed smoothly like running water.
However, the other party was also the stubborn type who wouldn't turn back until hitting a brick wall.
Seeing that Wen Yan didn't answer calls or reply to texts, they switched to another number and sent a multimedia message.
This time, the other party sent over a photo of Wen Rou in her youth.
Attached was a line of text:
“Your mom said you have a red birthmark shaped like a little bird on your lower back. I saw it the night you were kidnapped, it's useless for you to quibble.”
Quibble? Why quibble? She was simply giving them the cold treatment by staying silent. Looking at this message, Wen Yan silently chose to save it.
Back when the original host's memories were still stored in her mind, the original host didn't even know what her mother looked like.
Later, when handling the matter with the fake Shen Zhirou, Wen Yan had specially sought out Shen Yuan to ask about her origin.
At that time, Shen Yuan had given her a document folder containing only a thin sheet of A4 paper recording basic information about the original host, as well as a baby photo.
Up until now, Wen Yan had never known what the mother who gave life to this body looked like.
Now she knew.
She truly lived up to her name—Gentle.
She looked so gentle, with a pure and beautiful smile on her face.
Gazing at a face like this, Wen Yan couldn't help but think that at the moment this photo was taken, this beautiful girl must have been happy.
As for those people using Wen Rou and the bond between mother and daughter to satisfy their selfish desires...
"Go to hell!"
Wen Yan poked her phone forcefully, deleting and blocking this number once again.
After thinking about it, she simply set up a whitelist for her phone.
This way, except for people named and listed in her address book, no other unknown numbers could dream of reaching her.
Just as she finished setting it up, Jiang Wanwan's voice sounded from above her head.
"How did your phone offend you? I saw you poking at it while sitting inside."
Shen Jingxiu had already seen Wen Yan answering calls inside the cafe earlier.
He spoke with a frown: "Was it that person from before calling you again?"
"No." Although Wen Yan never deliberately hid her affairs from family and friends, this time she lied.
After all, she didn't intend to care about this matter herself anyway, so there was even less need to let others know and worry about it.
She still had a bit of understanding regarding her Eldest Brother, Shen Jingxiu.
He was the kind of person who was cold on the outside but warm on the inside, appearing cold and unfeeling on the surface, but if something happened to his younger siblings or if they encountered difficulties, he would never stand by and watch.
Therefore, Wen Yan chose to brush the topic aside.
"How about you guys? Did you finish talking? Did you reach an agreement?"
Jiang Wanwan nodded: "We've pretty much talked it through. Thank you guys."
"Sigh~" Wen Yan waved her hand, "Real friends don't say thanks. To celebrate your pleasant conversation, how about we have dinner together tonight? Anyway, it's about that time now. Driving back will be right at dinner time, why don't you come home with me directly?"
"But..." Jiang Wanwan hesitated, "Is that convenient?"
"Convenient! There's barely anyone at home recently, my parents are abroad, so it's just me and Big Brother. It's way too quiet. Even after people finish eating, the dishes are still piping hot."
However, right after saying it, Wen Yan realized she had spoken too fast and forgotten to ask Shen Jingxiu's opinion.
She turned her gaze back to Shen Jingxiu, her face beaming with smiles: "Right, Big Brother?"
Inviting a good friend home for dinner would make her happy, so Shen Jingxiu had no objections.
He nodded and looked toward Jiang Wanwan: "You are welcome to come to our home."
Jiang Wanwan glanced at the two of them and smiled softly: "Thank you."
Looking at the two of them, anyone who didn't know they were siblings might have thought they were a pair of hospitable hosts.
On the way back, Wen Yan notified Aunty Zhang to add a few more dishes that Jiang Wanwan liked.
Thus, as soon as they returned home, a lavish dinner full of color, aroma, and taste was already prepared.
Even though Shen Jingxiu and Jiang Wanwan didn't usually take the initiative to talk much, a venue with Wen Yan around would never cool down.
After enjoying a pleasant dinner, Wen Yan invited Jiang Wanwan to tour her room.
Good friends, now that she had invited her home, how could she not invite her to lie down on her soft big bed and chat for a while?
"Your room is decorated so warmly, like a place where a little princess lives."
"Right? I just like these warm-toned decorations." Mainly, her aesthetic aligned quite well with the original host's regarding room decor. After arriving, she basically hadn't made any major changes.
"What about you? What style is your room?"
"Mm... if I had to name a style, it would probably be minimalist."
"Then it must be pretty cool and serene, right?"
"Cool and serene?" Lying shoulder to shoulder, Jiang Wanwan smiled as she looked at Wen Yan, "I thought you would say cold and quiet, didn't expect you to flip those words around."
"What's there to be surprised about? It's pretty much like your personality, you're that kind of cool, serene beauty. If you ever feel your place is too quiet and lonely, call me whenever you want. My phone is on 24/7."
"What's the point of having it on? You still can't pick up when you're working."
"That's true, but you're not any freer than I am. Oh right, now that things are settled with my Big Brother, what are your plans next, I mean work-wise. Do you have anything scheduled?"
"I do. Next, I'll probably be heading abroad for over a month to shoot with the crew. So we might not be able to meet for over a month. What about you? What are your arrangements? Want to come with me?"
"Nothing for the time being. Actually, while shooting the last show, a few programs came to contact me, but I felt there was no challenge, so I didn't take them."
"You mean variety shows, right? My thoughts are pretty similar to yours..."
Talking about work matters, the two had many common topics; without realizing it, the sky had turned pitch black.
Inside the study, Shen Jingxiu hadn't heard any sound of Jiang Wanwan leaving. He had originally wanted to find Wen Yan to talk about that Wen Chengcai matter, but ended up having no chance at all.
Because he discovered that Jiang Wanwan ended up staying over for the night.
However, tomorrow he had to wake up early to catch an international flight for an overseas business trip, so he could only settle for the next best thing and send Wen Yan a text message.
He instructed Wen Yan to come to him immediately if she ran into any trouble.
By the time Wen Yan saw the message, it was already the next day after sending Jiang Wanwan off.
She didn't take the warning about running into trouble to heart; she only knew that Shen Jingxiu had gone abroad on a business trip, Shen Jinghe had gone out of town to film, and Shen Jingchuan had also gone abroad for business. Now, she was the only one left in this home.
Bored, she immediately contacted He Xing and started finding things for herself to do.
Soon, she finalized a micro-movie.
Moreover, the director was an old acquaintance.
It was Zhou Junye, the director of ‘Voice-less’.
Because Zhou Junye had been preparing this micro-movie for a long time, filming started very quickly.
It wasn't that Zhou Junye hadn't thought of finding Wen Yan before, but because he was indecisive between two scripts, it had been shelved.
Now that he pulled this script back out and Wen Yan had just wrapped up her previous show, Zhou Junye contacted her at the first opportunity.
The current Zhou Junye was no longer that unknown, obscure little director from before.
He had shot to fame with ‘Voice-less’.
Wen Yan was also a newly emerged top-tier actress voted by netizens.
Once the news of their re-collaboration was announced, it immediately stirred up huge waves online.
Everyone held high expectations for Zhou Junye because in this materialistic society and film circle, he wasn't so commercialized.
He was always trying to break through his own boundaries and insisted on using his works to speak up for disadvantaged groups.
This time, the film he brought was called ‘The Last Pangolin’.
The primary lead was a young girl, a young pangolin that could transform into human form.
The role Wen Yan portrayed was a human mother.
Although having lived two lives she had never been a mother before, she wanted to continuously challenge herself, so she accepted this role without hesitation.
Fans also didn't want to see their favorite actress repeatedly playing stereotyped roles. Seeing Wen Yan constantly challenging herself and selecting scripts with care made them feel so happy.
Therefore, the day after the two announced their collaboration, posts praising, admiring, and exalting them flooded the entire internet.
Some of the praise was malicious, because Wen Yan's rapid rise to fame had touched upon certain people's interests, so they began coming up with ways to suppress her.
However, Wen Yan paid no mind to these so-called PR articles.
Right now, she was busy doing script read-throughs with Zhou Junye and the crew.
The human mother she was going to play this time was a role with rich layers; lacking experience as a mother, she needed to put in painstaking effort.
These past two days, she was truly very, very busy.
Equally busy was Wen Chengcai.
In the past, he didn't like going online, and crucial to that, he wasn't very good at it either.
Ever since saving Wen Yan, or more accurately, ever since conceiving the thought of wringing money out of her, he started loving to browse online entertainment news.
Furthermore, he only looked at stuff related to Wen Yan.
These past two days, he didn't even need to search; news about Wen Yan's new movie was pushed to him every single day.
After several days and nights of research, Wen Chengcai arrived at a conclusion.
Then, he immediately shared this news with his creditor.
"Brother Long, this time I really have a way to get money—really, if I'm lying to you, I'm a dog!"
Brother Long spat at him "When the fuck were you not a dog? Mangy dog, dead dog! Got no money yet you love to gamble, and when you gamble you can't pay back! What excuse did you find this time to fool me?!"
"It's not a trick—really, Brother Long, believe me one last time! Look, this is the news I gathered about that female star."
"Still thinking about that female star? Give it a rest! You've used up every single one of our phone numbers—did she pay attention to a single word of yours?! Wasted effort!"
"That was before! Now she has to care even if she doesn't want to! I finally understand now, she isn't afraid of us, but she's afraid of online public opinion! There's a term called 'public opinion', Brother, do you know it? Plus those things like fans and anti-fans. I hung out in her anti-fan circles for a few days, and I discovered that big stars like them are most afraid of scandalous dirt.
Once someone smears them with dirt, they might suffer a career collapse. Once they collapse, they're finished, they won't be able to get any more acting gigs, and they'll breach contracts and have to pay back huge sums of money. So they're terrified of dirty gossip! We can release her dirt, then ask her for money. To protect her bright future, she'll definitely pay us to silence us!
When that time comes, it won't just be a simple 200,000 RMB. I heard that to suppress this kind of dirt, those people throw out millions or tens of millions at every turn! Brother Long, millions or tens of millions! Not just a few hundred or thousand, don't you want this much money? That's basically picking up free cash!"
"Are you sure?"
"Sure! Even selling this news to some media outlets can make money!"
"I'm asking if you're sure we can really make millions or tens of millions that much?"
"Selling to media definitely won't yield that much, but if she contacts us on her own initiative, we can set the price."
"So that single detail about her parents can become dirt on her? How the fuck does that count as dirt?!"
"Heheh, Brother Long, don't look down on me, I've got a strategist! He's behind me giving me ideas!"
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Glossary Updates:
Xinghu Park (星湖公園 / Xīnghú Gōngyuán): Star Lake Park, the peaceful scenic spot where Shen Jingxiu, Wen Yan, and Jiang Wanwan meet at a glass-house cafe.
"Tian Liang Fu Po" (天涼傅破): A popular web novel meme short for "The weather is turning cold, it's time to make the Fu family go bankrupt" (天冷了，讓傅氏破產吧), referencing overpowered CEOs easily destroying rival families.
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Check out this other novel I am currently translating: THE IMPERIAL CONSORT'S RISE TO POWER it is very interesting. i picked it up and fell in love with it.
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