Chapter 6

Li Shiyu disappeared for two days, then stormed back into my house with a vengeance.

As soon as the door opened, she pointed at her daughter’s nose and cursed:

“You’re not even a student at a key high school! You made me buy you all those expensive stationery, and it turns out you’re just a Notes Blogger on Xiaohongshu!”

“Daughter” crossed her arms and smiled indifferently.

“And you!”

She switched targets, glaring at the Mother-in-law:

“So you asked me to buy you gold jewelry and jade bracelets just to shoot ads for Taobao’s mature women’s clothing!”

Mother-in-law turned her wrist: “Yes and no. I like these things myself. Even if I didn’t shoot ads, I’d still wear them.”

Finally, she turned to Zhang Yizhi and me.

Today was a workday, and it was almost noon, yet Zhang Yizhi was still at home-which actually said a lot.

But without concrete evidence, Li Shiyu clung to her last shred of hope, looking at Zhang Yizhi with teary eyes:

“You’re real, right…?”

Zhang Yizhi grinned, showing his white teeth, and pulled up his personal homepage.

Li Shiyu’s vision went dark:

The man she thought was a tech backbone at a major company was now on screen, shirt wide open, twisting seductively, eyes full of allure…

Just one more look and you’d catch a cyber STD!

I delivered the final blow: “He’s a borderline influencer on Douyin. You’ve even scrolled past him before.”

Li Shiyu was on the verge of tears:

“The lighting in those videos is so dim, and he’s twisting like a pretzel-who could recognize him!”

I stroked my chin and nodded in agreement: “True. It’s just like pork under a Freshness Lamp at the supermarket-no one can recognize it, so you can’t be blamed.”

Zhang Yizhi huffed and glared at me, clearly unhappy with my description of his carefully maintained skin.

At last, Li Shiyu turned her terrified gaze to me-

I flashed her a toothy smile:

“Don’t worry, even though my persona is fake, the money is real.”

Li Shiyu nodded quickly: “That I know…”

But soon she shrank back in fear:

“But the more I think about it, the more scared I get. These days… you did it on purpose! You deliberately gave me a chance to get close to you, and you indulged that borderline guy and me-

“And-and your whole family is fake!”

Her voice was trembling: “You… what are you after?”

“Don’t be afraid,” I said, smiling as I leaned closer and patted her hand, just as I had many times before, “I just want… to borrow your hand for a bit.”