“Who is she?! Who is this bitch?!”

The live-streaming team behind him was still holding up cameras, and Zhuo Mingyao’s slightly dulled head was instantly jolted awake.

He remembered that the female lead, Zhan Minglan, started doing live-streaming two months ago. She did all sorts of things, from makeup and film reviews to other topics; she was a rich, beautiful woman with sharp tongues.

The real explosion of fans came when she was questioned about “a rich, beautiful woman doing live-streaming” and she sharply retorted, “So what if I’m rich and beautiful? I’m not ashamed to be seen or watched” This garnered her a large following.

Of course, this was inseparable from the exposure of her identity as a wealthy heiress at the same time.

Zhuo Mingyao forced himself to calm down, protecting the blanket while calling the police.

Ni Ni was stunned for almost two minutes before truly waking up.

Her heart pounded. Outside, a chaotic din filled the air, mingling with the calm, composed voice of Zhuo Mingyao.

She was truly tense and terrified.

Caught in the act!

She wanted to experience this secondhand, not just witness the cold, intangible reality of getting exposed. She understood that "cheating will be exposed, and exposure will lead to being burned."

But actually experiencing the consequences was still chilling.

Suddenly, she was lifted up, spun around, and pulled under the covers, held like a caterpillar in someone's arms.

Only later did she learn that the woman, unable to pull the covers off and consumed by resentment, had suddenly tried to yank them off from the bottom up. Without Zhuo Mingyao's protection, she would have been utterly humiliated and exposed to the entire internet.

And what kind of unbearable shame was gnawing at Zhuo Mingyao, naked and facing the flashing lights?

For a long time afterward, Ni Ni harbored the extreme thought of opposing the female lead!

At this moment, the ugliness of the mission and her dead end were cruelly revealed before her.

If the mission failed, she would die, truly die.

If the mission succeeded, she would be a despised, shameless, immoral wretch, nailed to the pillar of disgrace.

She finally understood why this mission existed, why the original body disappeared, and why she could continue to live even after death; nobody in their right mind would accept this!

And what the voice had mentioned—

"The world's consciousness has recognized her as the female lead"—had already blocked her path to self-salvation against the protagonist!

The world's consciousness existed, and for the favored male and female leads, opposing them was no different from wishing death!

✦•┈๑⋅⋯ ⋯⋅๑┈•✦

When Ms. Qiu entered, she was still curled up in the corner, the food on the table untouched.

After standing there for a long time, Ms. Qiu suddenly hugged her and cried, begging her to eat, begging her to get better, even offering to divorce her and take her away, but her daughter remained unmoved.

“What are you doing? You love that boy? Then go with him. He's already been expelled anyway…”

After a long silence, Ni Ni finally reacted. Her voice was hoarse, her lips dry and cracked.

“He was expelled?”

That’s cruel.

Ni Ni remembered him squatting on the ground, his sharp brows softening as he calmly negotiated prices with the stall owner; she remembered his meticulous way of carefully comparing small backpacks and pencil cases, insisting the shopkeeper inspect them, his rigorous way of ensuring no substandard goods were delivered; she remembered being curled up like a silkworm cocoon, stuffy and hot, yet so reassuringly reliable…

A spark finally returned to her eyes. Facing her stern-faced stepfather, who acted as if she didn’t exist, Ni Ni looked him straight in the eye and spoke:

“My sister planned all of this”

Her stepfather was angry, but she remained silent.

The stepfather, deeply distressed for his daughter, couldn't resist investigating the whole affair. Standing before her again, seeing his expression, Ni Ni understood—

Any action leaves a trace.

The person responsible for the secret filming, repeatedly facilitating their escape. They had been like a severely mentally ill voyeur, a deep-seated masochist, orchestrating and driving the scheme, reveling in the pleasure of betrayal and abuse.

Who knew she was the one orchestrating all of this?

“I’m going abroad, Zhuo Mingyao isn’t in this city anymore, right?”

Ni Ni voluntarily backed down.

Before leaving, Ni Ni wanted to see Zhuo Mingyao, but who would allow it?

Standing at the airport, she felt utterly alone. Ms. Qiu looked much thinner; their seemingly close relationship, despite their past bickering, didn't seem particularly heartbreaking to Ni Ni.

She came for that scumbag; nothing in the world mattered more than him. Everything else was just a pastime to kill time, easily discarded.

“Qiu Qiu?”

Ni Ni hesitated for a moment before looking up.

In this world, she took her mother's surname, Qiu Qiuting, but many people simply omitted the last character.

Her mother was crying now.

✦•┈๑⋅⋯ ⋯⋅๑┈•✦

In the music academy, Ni Ni, carrying a backpack, talked to a boy pushing a bicycle beside her.

She seemed completely integrated into her new campus life.

“Come on, you're free anyway, there are other people here. You'd never have had the chance to meet them in person back home~”

Shan Yu was enticing her, his words quite seductive.

He met her in the lecture hall, and they'd bumped into each other several times a day, probably because they had overlapping classes.

Every time the professor assigned homework, she was terrified.

Shan Yu found it amusing, and also realized she didn't recognize him.

They were both compatriots, yet in a foreign land; with one initiative, they naturally became acquainted.

Shan Yu was referring to a buffet dinner, the kind with rice and Chinese food.

Ni Ni wasn't interested in the big star or mysterious person he mentioned, but the food from her hometown persuaded her, she wanted to feel that nostalgia of her home again.

After accepting the invitation, Ni Ni switched to all acting-related courses upon returning.

Having found her purpose again, time flew by, and three years passed in the blink of an eye.

Ni Ni secretly returned to China. One of her newly formed friends, Yan Sheng, told her something vague, only urging her, fearing something urgent had happened.

During this time, she returned to China several times, but never saw anyone from before.

Unexpectedly, Yan Sheng asked her to help him get a role.

Ni Ni shook her head.

"I've said it before, I'm not going into the entertainment industry."

In fact, she wouldn't do anything that would interfere with her choices as an ordinary person. Although she had spent three years studying acting and was fortunate enough to receive Yan Sheng's dedicated instruction.

Yan Sheng: "Because of what happened three years ago?"

Ni Ni glanced at him. The livestream incident was easy to investigate with a little effort.

Ni Ni didn't deny it.

The female lead was already with the male lead, but who knew what kind of trouble her reappearance might cause, resulting in consequences she couldn't handle?

She just wanted to quietly wait for the right opportunity—an opportunity to end her mission and leave this world.

Yan Sheng was furious at her lack of ambition.

She was the most talented actress he had ever seen, born for this!

She was gifted, quick to get into and out of character, and even more enviable was that her acting was completely natural, without a trace of affectation. With just a little polishing, she could shine brilliantly!

"Everyone makes mistakes, but who will be held back by past mistakes? Everyone is selfish, everyone makes mistakes. You can move on."

Ni Ni remained silent.

Yan Sheng, exasperated, said, "Are you going to live a mediocre life just because of one mistake? Hiding in a corner, afraid to show your face? Who are you living for?!"

Ni Ni was stunned.

Yes, was the life she had struggled to survive meant to be spent cowering in a corner, waiting for the curtain to fall? Then what was the point of all her efforts to live?

Yan Sheng: "Think about it the other way around. You're good, that's why he likes you. You deserve better, you deserve more people to like you, to be liked and remembered by the world!"

Ni Ni was stunned, as if struck by a thunderbolt.

"Liked by the world?"

Seeing her reaction, Yan Sheng pressed on, staring intently into her eyes.

"You have the absolute ability. Step out, let more people see you, they will like you, everyone will like you!"

Ni Ni's mind was reeling from the thought of "the world liking you." Then, she heard a voice in her head.

"Congratulations, the world's consciousness has affirmed you."

✦•┈๑⋅⋯ ⋯⋅๑┈•✦

S City

A company hired a voluptuous young woman for the first time. At the most luxurious KTV, a company booked over ten large private rooms to celebrate the successful completion of a major project.

In the rooms, a dozen employees were passionately singing. Zhuo Mingyao came from a high-level room to check on his department's activities.

A hoarse, slightly deep voice began to sing:

"I had a beautiful nightmare last night,

I wanted to wake up but couldn't resist my heart's flutter,

In the dream, you were a bottomless black hole,

I was powerless to resist weightlessness..."

Instantly, Zhuo Mingyao's straight back crumbled, and his nose stung with tears.

His eyebrows were sharp as knives, his dark eyes piercing and deep, and he was still dressed as an elite executive in a suit and tie.

But in that blink of an eye, he seemed to pierce one's heart with a sharp pain.

The young woman near the door stared at him, lost in thought, until her phone vibrated with a new message notification, snapping her out of her daze. Looking at him again, Zhuo still had that undeniably handsome and sharp look.

Then she checked her phone: #YanShengEntersHotelWithGirlfriend. The young woman clenched her fist instantly.

"Aaaaah! Which slut dares to use my idol to create a scandal?!"

She rushed to the scene without hesitation, only to be stunned by the photos.

Her idol was seen entering and leaving a hotel side-by-side, a gentle smile on his face.

Her idol was seen talking to her, his back view alluring.

Her idol was seen shielding her from the car roof, a gentlemanly gesture.

Her idol was seen smiling as he served her food, his eyes filled with doting affection.

✦•┈๑⋅⋯ ⋯⋅๑┈•✦

Ni Ni was infamous for her controversial online persona, but she didn't have a Weibo account until the movie was released, finally giving the online battleground that had been raging for over half a month.

Despite the barrage of criticism and negative reviews, once more enthusiastic and praiseworthy reviews emerged, especially from several renowned film critics known for their unwavering dedication to cinema, Ni Ni, a newcomer with a tarnished reputation, burst onto the scene with unstoppable momentum.

With such a massive impact right from her debut, and the backing of the multi-talented actor Yan Sheng, who has one foot in the international film scene, Ni Ni's second classic film completely dominated the box office of its contemporaries.

As its run continued, its box office performance even approached the top three highest-grossing films of the year, becoming a remarkable dark horse.

However, some criticized Yan Sheng for carrying the box office success. Nevertheless, in her third leading role film, without Yan Sheng, Ni Ni's box office prowess was undeniable.

In the decades that followed, Ni Ni starred in a series of classic films, garnering numerous domestic awards and international accolades. At the age of 43, ten years later, she received the highest honors in film both domestically and internationally—Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Naturally, she became a favorite among investors, who poured money into any film she starred in, regardless of the circumstances.

Those who pay attention will notice that Zhuo Mingyao, the investor who invested the least in her third film, has been a consistent investor in every film she's worked for for decades to come.

Ni Ni, however, has never married. Aside from the controversial livestream affair during her youth, Yan Sheng, who had protected her for many years, married and had children when he entered his forties.

But there are still some people who know that someone waited for her their entire life.