Just as Lin Wanwan was about to register on Weibo to post those ambiguous and harassing WeChat screenshots sent by Bao Juncai back in the day, her phone suddenly rang with a call from an unknown number.
When she picked up, she found it was some sort of media outlet wanting to interview her. She immediately refused and hung up the phone.
But after this one call, the situation became uncontrollable.
Her phone kept ringing. She received five consecutive calls, four requesting interviews, and one actually cursing at her.
What a terrifying world of information leakage!
Lin Wanwan was practically someone who avoided public platforms. She didn’t have accounts on Weibo, Douyin, or Xiaohongshu, yet her information leaked this quickly.
The phone bombardment left her unable to even open the ride-hailing app. In the end, she had to dismiss the call window to finally catch a ride and go home.
Fortunately, she always had her parcels delivered to Cainiao Post, being quite cautious about her privacy, or else she would really fear these crazy people tracing the internet line to her residential community.
Amidst the phone bombardment, Lin Wanwan quickly registered a Weibo account, then posted all the screenshots she had saved in a single Weibo post.
Her Weibo post was straightforward: "I’m the person in the #XiaoJunningHoldingHandsWithTheBeautyIsACheater# scandal, but I’m definitely not a third party, just an innocent workplace sexual harassment victim. Why is it so hard for girls? To avoid harassment, I even quit my job, yet I still can’t escape it. Facts speak louder than words, the screenshots are evidence."
She actually wrote it with quite a bit of incitement, and also played the victim card, capturing the hearts of the netizens.
But the problem is, in the online world, she’s too inconspicuous. Her Weibo post quickly sank without a trace. Without a verified account and being new, it had no traffic.
No traffic means no attention.
Lin Wanwan immediately bought a membership for her Weibo, finally gaining some traction. But the information was too overwhelming, and her post still sank without a trace.
Just as she was considering whether to buy some paid followers, her Weibo suddenly froze.
When she forcibly exited and re-entered, she found that the "messages" at the bottom right had thousands of notifications.
What happened? It suddenly exploded?
She clicked open to see that most were supportive comments, though a small portion still cursed her without holding back. However, the matter had already been explained, and she certainly wouldn’t bear the stigma of being a third party.
For those saying, "Why did the boss send you such messages, did you give any hints," and other brain-dead remarks, she couldn’t be bothered to engage—never argue with fools.
They like to drag you down to their level of intelligence and then defeat you with their experience.
Lin Wanwan directly shut down Weibo, yet the calls on her phone increased, leaving her speechless. Such a transparent world feels terribly insecure.
Amidst the calls, Lin Wanwan’s WeChat also kept pinging.
She didn’t actually have many WeChat friends, not even adding or contacting anyone from middle school (she didn’t have a phone in middle school nor played QQ, as she was focused entirely on studying to get ahead, so she didn’t have any friends), and in college, it was just her roommates and a few teammates from the Sanda team.
Opening WeChat, a few people had sent her shocked emojis, adding to her confusion.
It was her only friend from middle school, Gu Jingyu, also her desk mate back then, who explained the situation to her.
Gu Jingyu: "Wanwan, today I saw three trending posts about you in a row. My mood is like a roller coaster. I never thought it would end with your little fanboy jumping out to be your hero, what a power move, directly @ you on Weibo!"
Lin Wanwan: "What do you mean? What little fanboy?"
Gu Jingyu: "Xiao Junning, the school heartthrob from our middle school, don’t you remember?"
How did this get tied to Xiao Junning?
Lin Wanwan: "...Xiao Junning is our schoolmate?"
No wonder she felt that Xiao Junning seemed familiar that day, so that’s it. Come to think of it, Xiao Junning is indeed from Yongcheng, so it’s no surprise if they were schoolmates.
Lin Wanwan immediately quit WeChat and did a search on Baidu for information on Xiao Junning. She quickly saw his middle school profile, and indeed, it was the Seventh Middle School like hers.
Gu Jingyu: "You’re more out of touch than I am. Our alma mater’s such a big star you can’t remember, and he even helped you today. Go check the top trending topic on Weibo right now, and you’ll understand." Discover more novels at novel~fire~net
Flowing with the suggestion, Lin Wanwan opened Weibo and glanced at the trending list. Topping the charts was #XiaoJunning’sSeniorIsn’tAThirdParty#, and a "Boom" followed the topic.
Curious, Lin Wanwan clicked to find that just a few minutes ago, Xiao Junning had actually reposted her Weibo, saying "I believe my senior wouldn’t stoop to being a third party @IAmNotAThirdParty."
No wonder her post exploded; it was this influential young celebrity in the entertainment industry who reposted it. If it didn’t explode, that would be strange.
With Xiao Junning’s endorsement, the traffic was enormous. This year, he was all the rage across Asia, so popular that even on trips to Japan and Korea, he was limited in how many times he could wave to prevent stampede accidents. The Thai Royal Family even hosted him with royal ceremonies, and the Princess of Thailand was also a fan.
People’s concerns shifted from whether Lin Wanwan was a third party to whether there was a story between her and Xiao Junning.
The screenshots Lin Wanwan provided were solid enough, and paired with her extraordinary beauty, it was easy for the vast netizens to believe this was a story of a stunning newcomer to the workplace being sexually harassed by a sleazy boss, who then tried to throw mud on her.
Although Lin Wanwan didn’t recall having such a schoolmate as Xiao Junning (let’s not even mention schoolmates—she didn’t necessarily remember all her classmates from middle school, back then she only thought about studying), she was grateful for his chivalrous support. She immediately followed Xiao Junning and retweeted his Weibo, replying with a thank you.
For the other party in this gossip incident, Bao Juncai, he really didn’t have the heart to care about these trivial online matters at the moment.
Sexual harassment accusations, no matter how thunderously proven, were inconsequential to him as he recently confronted matters far more serious.
The harassment accusations might at most ruin his reputation, or lead to a demotion, with the worst outcome being a resignation. But the recent charges against him could land him directly in prison—embezzlement is a felony that could put someone away for years!
Someone hired a private investigator to look into him, gathered particularly thorough evidence, then directly emailed their overseas headquarters.
Of course, this investigation was something Lu Shouyue had done at his leisure. For someone like Bao Juncai, taking him down was too easy.