WBSGVS Chapter 167 V2

He remembered being kidnapped. The physical wounds healed, but the mental trauma… not so much. His parents?

Hah. If his older brother hadn’t died in an accident, they probably still wouldn’t care about him now.

Because of him, their so-called perfect marriage had cracked.

Shen Yanjun gently patted Xu Yin’s shoulder. With his other hand, he pulled out his phone and made a call.

“Get in touch with the lawyer. Send cease-and-desist letters to everyone spreading rumors. And the trending posts—anything involving Xu Yin, remove it if you can. I haven’t cheated. Huo Qingli and I are already discussing divorce. Nothing’s happened between me and Xu Yin, so they’re just spreading lies…”

“…Yes. If they don’t take their posts down, then sue them.”

As Xu Yin listened, a faint smile crept across her face, buried against Shen Yanjun’s chest. Worried it might give her away, she quickly bit down on her lip.

Once Shen Yanjun finished making his calls, Xu Yin finally looked up and said softly, “Yi Yang is just a friend of mine. I’m just afraid Qingli might blame me for all this. Yanjun, didn’t you invest in a drama recently? I heard the female lead hasn’t been finalized yet. Why not ask Qingli if she’d be interested?”

That uncomfortable feeling in Shen Yanjun’s chest instantly vanished. A smile tugged at his lips. “You are kind. I asked her to delete a single post, and she wouldn’t even do that.”

Even though he said that, he immediately pulled out his phone to make a call, like he’d been waiting for Xu Yin to give him a way out of this all along.

But after trying a few times, every call he made showed the line was busy. His expression darkened. That’s when it hit him—Huo Qingli had blocked his number.

Shen Yanjun shut off his phone, his chest heaving with anger.

Fine! So much for compensation—he wasn’t giving her a single cent!

Besides, giving it to her would just be a waste of resources. That project would probably tank anyway.

Within an hour, the trending topics were scrubbed, the Shen family issued legal warnings, and those calling Xu Yin a homewrecker went silent real quick.

Now, it was mostly Yi Xue’s fans, Qingli’s supporters, and a few onlookers still stirring things up.

Huo Qingyu stared at his phone, dazed by the rapid turn of events.

Feng Ying noticed her son still sitting in the living room and reminded him, “It’s getting late. Go to bed—you’ve got work in the morning.”

Snapping out of his thoughts, Huo Qingyu replied, “Oh, right. I’m going now.”

But instead of heading to his room, he went upstairs and knocked on Huo Qingli’s door.

It opened quickly, and the scent of ink hit him. He instinctively glanced inside to see Qingli casually lounging in the doorway. “What is it?”

Qingyu’s face flushed red. He felt ashamed of how he’d once liked Xu Yin, and even more so for the harsh words he’d thrown at Qingli. Staring at the floor, he mumbled, “I’m sorry. It’s my fault you missed out on that role…”

Qingli stared at him blankly. “Oh.”

Flat. Completely emotionless.

Qingyu’s head snapped up, eyes wide. This was the first time he had ever apologized to her, and that was all he got?

“You—”

“What, you want me to say I forgive you?” she asked coldly. “One ‘sorry’ is supposed to make up for all the dumb crap you’ve done?”

He deflated instantly, like a balloon losing air. “Then what do you want?”

“I need money. Give me some,” she said, holding out her hand.

Qingyu stared at her for two seconds, then turned around and left. Less than a minute later, he returned and slapped a stack of bank cards into her hand. “These are my savings for marriage. The password is my birthday. Is that enough?”

Then, in a low voice, he added, “If it’s not, I don’t have any more.”

Qingli grinned. “Thanks. Think of it as an investment. As for whether I forgive you—we’ll see.”

With that, she gave him a push and shut the door in his face.

Outside, Huo Qingyu exploded. “You took the money and won’t even give me a straight answer? Huo Qingli, you’re unbelievable!” Two seconds later, a thought hit him. “Wait a sec, what are you investing in? Haven’t you lost enough already?! Don’t treat money like it grows on trees!”

Inside, Qingli heard his shouting and opened the door just enough to shove a stack of papers into his hands. “Read this before you keep yelling.”

Qingyu took it, the smell of fresh ink wafting up. He glanced at the first page, ready to scoff—only to fall silent. Just a single sheet of text had completely hooked him.

Back inside, Qingli looked down at the pile of bank cards in her hand and smiled with satisfaction.

So what if the script the original Qingli liked got snatched? She’d just make her own.

If it were something like palace intrigue, she might need to do more research. But when it came to crime-solving dramas, she had no shortage of ideas. Plus, she knew medicine and anatomy like the back of her hand. From the moment she got back to the Huo family home this afternoon, she’d started writing.

Time was short. She managed to finish just one standalone case—the first episode of the story.

After checking it for plot holes, she printed it out and started thinking about funding.

She could’ve just asked her parents, but that felt a little awkward.

Although Shen Yanjun had agreed to give her a generous divorce settlement—properties, cash, and all—the money hadn’t hit her account yet, and the paperwork wasn’t finalized. The original Qingli had a shopping addiction, so her liquid assets were pretty thin.

Thankfully, the foolish Qingyu showed up with a financial lifeline. He’d been working for two years, and the Huo family was wealthy.

Tomorrow, she’d officially start at Tiansheng Entertainment, scout for a crew, and start building her production team.

Just as she finalized her plans in her head, a knock came at the door again. Qingyu’s excited voice rang out from the hallway: “Huo Qingli! Where did you get this script? Holy crap, it’s amazing! I didn’t even guess who the killer was! It’s genius!”

Qingli opened the door again, snatched the script back, and casually replied, “I wrote it.”

Qingyu laughed. “Yeah, right. No way you wrote something like this. Quit messing with me—just tell me who did. I’ll buy the rights before someone else snatches it up—hey!”

SLAM.

The door shut again, right in his face.

Qingyu nearly got hit by the door. He wiped his face, the smell of ink on his hand finally making something click.

No wonder Qingli was so pissed when Yi Xue stole that other script.