Chapter 51: Very Ordinary

Liu Yue rolled her eyes. Everyone here was civilized, had received higher education, and had the ability to earn their own money — how could they possibly scheme against each other over a real-and-fake heiress drama? What would be the point?

To ruin their perfectly good lives just so they could go to prison and suffer a little?

They're real-and-fake heiresses, not real-and-fake sworn enemies.

The plane landed, and the moment they were out of the airport, Shen Mo spotted Zhao Yanyan.

【Huh? Why didn't she have Wang Ma and the others come pick us up?】

Shen Mo was curious, but he didn't say it out loud — he'd positioned himself as Liu Yue's shadow.

In the car, Zhao Yanyan started venting to Liu Yue about the "fake heiress" from the real-and-fake heiress trope — their mutual friend Zhou Yue.

"Zhou Yue is literally insane."

"She got so obsessed reading novels that she went on a tipping spree of a million, then added the author — the 'real heiress' Wu Fei — and after seeing her photo on her Moments, decided this woman might be the long-lost sister she'd been separated from. She kept arranging to meet Wu Fei and secretly did a paternity test."

"In the end, it was confirmed: Wu Fei is the real heiress, and she's the fake one."

Zhao Yanyan felt reality was far more outrageous than any novel.

Liu Yue's smile froze. Did Zhou Yue actually have some kind of mental illness? Reading novels had literally rotted her brain.

Shen Mo said, stunned: "Tipped a million?"

"What's Wu Fei's pen name?"

Zhao Yanyan glanced at Shen Mo through the rearview mirror and said helplessly: "I think it's something like 'Durian Really Fragrant'."

Shen Mo fell silent.

"What's wrong?" Zhao Yanyan asked, puzzled.

She didn't understand why Shen Mo had suddenly gone quiet.

Liu Yue also looked at Shen Mo in confusion.

Sighing, Shen Mo said in a strange tone: "Because the author 'Durian Really Fragrant' is famous for writing real-and-fake heiress stories."

"Right now online, the huge hit fake-heiress-rips-up-the-script dramas — After I Died, My Five Brothers Regretted It, The Fake Heiress Is a Green Tea, The Real Heiress's Green Tea Rampage, The Real Heiress Tears Apart the Scum Man — they're all hers."

"The regret trope, the script trope, the silly trope — all the popular real-and-fake heiress subgenres — she's covered them all."

Zhao Yanyan and Liu Yue fell silent too. No wonder Zhou Yue had gone off the deep end — read enough of that stuff and anyone would lose their mind.

"Also, basically every real-and-fake heiress script in the short-drama scene right now is plagiarized from 'Durian Really Fragrant.' I remember she even made the rich-list ranking for novel authors last year, and there were widespread rumors she was going to set up her own studio and start a business."

"Her reputation in the author circle is pretty good."

Zhao Yanyan and Liu Yue looked at Shen Mo suspiciously. How did he know so much?

As a veteran reader who'd lurked in the novel circles for years — the kind who occasionally tipped enough to become a 'Guild Leader' — Shen Mo said he had a bit of a network in the novel scene himself.

A reader who could tip a Guild Leader could, if they wanted, basically slip into any author's group chat and hear all the gossip.

Like, some Level-5 author had a girlfriend but still got involved with his Guild Leader fan, then got exposed so badly he had to change his account; some author worked himself to the bone writing, only for his wife to cheat with his buddy; some author got drunk and sold his copyright for peanuts, nearly crying himself to death — that kind of stuff.

There's a lot of drama.

Zhao Yanyan and Liu Yue didn't care how good Wu Fei's reputation was — right now they only cared about one thing: Zhou Yue actually read real-and-fake heiress novels. That was way too juicy.

No need to say more — afterward, they'd go mock her about it.

Zhao Yanyan took Shen Mo and Liu Yue to her place to rest first; they'd head to the family-reunion banquet together in the evening.

Liu Yue and Shen Mo had no objections — anywhere was the same, and staying at Zhao Yanyan's saved them some hassle.

But before going, Liu Yue told Zhao Yanyan to clean her place up first, and not leave anything that shouldn't be seen lying around.

This thoroughly annoyed Zhao Yanyan.

Shen Mo had assumed Zhao Yanyan lived in a villa like Liu Yue, but instead it was a simple, cozy three-bedroom apartment — and pink at that, completely at odds with Zhao Yanyan's usual fiery, whirlwind personality.

Zhao Yanyan said: because I like it, that's why.

After sitting down, Zhao Yanyan and Liu Yue started chatting about business. Shen Mo, who couldn't understand a word, chose to head into the kitchen and whip up something simple. The evening banquet was guaranteed to leave them hungry and unsatisfied.

Shen Mo had once had the mindset of "you talk, I'll eat."

But since no one else was gorging themselves, Shen Mo dropped that idea too.

Zhao Yanyan's place was pretty well-stocked — the fridge had all kinds of vegetables and fruit — so Shen Mo simply made three bowls of plain noodle soup, paired with two small cold side dishes.

The refreshing noodles made all three of them happy.

After the meal, the people delivering the formal wear arrived.

During the meal, there was no scene of Zhao Yanyan being blown away and lavishing Shen Mo with praise.

After all, no matter how good Shen Mo's cooking was, it certainly couldn't compare to the private chef Zhao Yanyan had hired, or the top-tier restaurants she frequented.

After changing into their formal wear, they needed a professional driver to head out.

At this banquet, Shen Mo didn't get to wander off on his own — Liu Yue dragged him over to greet Zhou Yue, Zhou's father, Zhou's mother, and Wu Fei.

No contemptuous behavior appeared.

Zhou's father, Zhou's mother, Zhou Yue, and Wu Fei all got along well, and they were all very respectful toward Shen Mo too.

【This is really surprising — I thought there'd be some looking-down-on-noses.】

Liu Yue found it secretly funny. They were all people of standing — looking down on him would be the same as looking down on her and the Shen Family.

Zhou Yue, arm around Wu Fei, introduced her with a grin: "Yueyue, this is my sister Zhou Fei — she's an amazing web novelist. If you want to invest in web fiction, you can go to my sister."

Then Zhou Yue introduced things to Wu Fei: "Sister, this is Liu Yue, my good friend, my bestie. You said you wanted to open a studio, right? Whether it's investment or operations, you can go to her too."

Wu Fei — no, Zhou Fei — flushed slightly, looked at Liu Yue, and said softly: "Hello."

Liu Yue smiled faintly: "Hello."

Zhou Yue pulled Zhou Fei, Zhao Yanyan, Liu Yue, Shen Mo, and the others off to one side.

On the way, Zhou Yue kept talking nonstop, telling everyone how amazing Wu Fei was — her admiration was genuine.

In Zhou Yue's words: my sister Zhou Fei is invincible.

It was also through Zhou Yue's introductions that Shen Mo and the others learned about Zhou Fei's past.

Very ordinary, nothing thrilling or dramatic.

An ordinary worker's family—her parents couldn't be called deeply loving, but they had never abused Zhou Fei either.

Zhou Fei's grades were quite good, which showed that Father Zhou and Mother Zhou had excellent genes.

But Zhou Fei didn't like working for others, so after entering university she started writing novels and broke through to explosive popularity in one go.

Smooth sailing all the way.

Zhou Fei's parents didn't interfere with this either—they weren't educated, so they couldn't guide Zhou Fei; their only requirement of Zhou Fei was that she earn money and support herself.

After that, she met Zhou Yue.

The two families had dinner together recently, and Zhou Fei's parents asked Zhou Fei to change her name, but didn't ask Zhou Yue to change hers—this point greatly satisfied Father Zhou and Mother Zhou.

Of course, in Zhou Yue's words, everyone knew what her own birth parents were thinking: nothing more than fearing Zhou Yue would lose the Zhou Family's inheritance rights and have to start over from scratch, hoping Zhou Yue could skip a few decades of detours.

The reason for changing Zhou Fei from Wu Fei to Zhou Fei was also the hope that she would go further in the future and have better resources.

【What a pair of clear-headed parents.】

Zhou Yue also said with a grin that she had opened a hotel for her own birth parents, hired professional managers to run it, and gave all the annual profits to her birth parents.

Only then did Shen Mo learn that the Zhou Family had made its start in the hotel and restaurant business.

(End of this chapter)