Chapter 702: After Binding the Child-Bearing System, Becoming a Winner in Life Chapter 703: The Marginal Person in a Farming Novel (5

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

"Sorry for the inconvenience, please wait a moment. I will personally compensate you, Young Lady, for your loss."

Upon hearing this, Shen Yao's expression remained steady as she looked at the man before her, who wore a black mask and was dressed entirely in black. In the end, she still gave a slight nod of acknowledgment.

Several desserts offered as compensation were quickly packed and delivered to Shen Yao's hands — more than the ones that had been smashed. Seeing this, Shen Yao merely raised an eyebrow, thinking to herself that he was indeed very sincere.

She nodded in farewell and parted ways with him. Because the delay had taken a while, by the time Shen Yao took a taxi back to the hotel, the scheduled chapter release time had already passed.

As expected, the latest chapter's comments were all demands for updates. As an author who only knew the specific plot direction two hours earlier than the readers, Shen Yao truly had no stockpiled chapters.

To appease these eagerly waiting readers, Shen Yao typed away while eating the desserts, ultimately sending out the over-completed chapter before nightfall.

The comments under the chapter instantly reversed — from criticism and urging to coquettish pleading — showing just how smooth and seamless these readers' attitude shift was.

The corners of her lips curved upward into a beautiful arc. Shen Yao was just about to rest and free her hands, but the System chose this moment to jump out and make its presence known again.

Shen Yao: ……

"Host, you've been photographed!"

The System spoke as if panting heavily, and it also treated Shen Yao like a celebrity. Photographed? She was a novel author — who would photograph her?

Even if her novels were fairly successful, and there was even a probability of one being greenlit for filming, she was a novel author, not a cast member. Had the System made a mistake?

"Impossible. How could the System make such a low-level error, Host! It's absolutely true."

"Oh? Then why was I photographed?"

It couldn't be for no reason. Paparazzi aren't the type to be indifferent to fame and fortune; they love tailing big-name stars, not specially picking ordinary people to follow.

Shen Yao positioned herself as an ordinary person — at most someone with some talent in writing. However, the online author circle is different from the entertainment industry. Besides, they all write under various pen names. Hongshi Network is a major site, and it would never privately sell author information. Therefore, the number of people who know Shen Yao is the author of "Palace Intrigue" can be counted on one's fingers. These paparazzi certainly wouldn't know that much.

Upon hearing this, the System let out a hehehe laugh. "Host can take a guess. To be precise, it has a bit to do with a certain unexpected incident today."

Related to today's incident — the only thing that counted as an incident today was when she went out and accidentally had her desserts knocked over by a man in black.

Man in black?

A flash of inspiration struck her mind. "The person who bumped into me is a celebrity?"

Or perhaps not a celebrity — a director, screenwriter, producer, and so on.

As long as they are someone in that circle, they are a key target for paparazzi. After all, what's involved are power-money transactions. Trivial matters like romance only concern fans and passersby; people actually in the circle don't care about that. They care more about the benefits they can get their hands on.

Shen Yao pondered what profession that man might have, and then heard the System speak: the other party had money and ability, and was an investor-producer.

Hm?

What does that mean?

"It means he both invests and handles production. Occasionally he even helps direct a bit, and makes cameo appearances as an actor in film and television dramas."

Shen Yao: ……

"Oh, then he's quite busy. Can he handle it all?" Truly surprising.

The System indicated this person was indeed formidable; he seemed to be able to handle it all despite appearing very busy.

"I was followed by paparazzi because of this all-round producer. A scandal?"

A man and a woman bump into each other, followed by the man apologizing with desserts. Just crop the photos a bit, add some atmospheric music, and ha! Whether it's true or false doesn't matter — getting traffic is the key.

"Host, what should we do?" The System expressed deep worry, because it feared its Host would be cyberbullied. It had carefully studied the entertainment industry's rules. Its Host had nothing — no backing, no fans to help share the heat. She would definitely be humiliated from all directions.

Shen Yao: ……

Shen Yao was truly thankful for the System's concern, but she and that all-round producer had no relationship to begin with. Even if a scandal broke out and had an impact, as long as it was explained properly, it could reversely help boost her fame.

After all, she was indeed an ordinary person, but her novel was currently being adapted for film and television. Advance publicity had pros and cons, but overall it could attract more passersby.

An excellent work cannot fully break out of its niche relying on fans alone. To truly explode in popularity, it needs a large number of passersby and organic supporters.

Shen Yao had considered her own novel. As long as no messy romance subplots were added, it was a perfectly flawless political intrigue drama.

"Ignore it. Or perhaps you have a method?" Shen Yao raised an eyebrow, thinking the System could use its own means to delete the photographed content. But that would be treating the symptoms, not the root cause. Could the System guarantee only this one paparazzo had captured it? Once too many media outlets were involved, it would easily lead to uncontrollable influences.

This is modern society — surveillance is comprehensive. Once or twice could be called an accident. But three or four times? How would you explain that? Some unspeakable supernatural event? Be careful not to invite official-level investigation and intervention. Not to mention what might be found out in the end, but it would certainly intensify some inexplicable panic. If someone took advantage of the chaos to do something bad, the black pot would definitely be pinned on them by this world.

After all, no matter how senior a Tasker is, they are merely passersby, incomparable to the natives of the small world. Just like a family's child — no matter how useless, no matter how much the parents dislike them — they would never truly harm their own child for the sake of an outsider. After all, it's their own cub.

"Host is really joking. The System's method is invasion and deletion." The key is that leaving no traces would be even scarier. The entertainment industry here is the most superstitious.

"Exactly. So there's no need to bother with it. Let these paparazzi break the news!"

Let's see what this material can bring me.

Shen Yao, the party involved, didn't take it to heart. The other party involved still didn't know about this, after all, the one who tripped him up this time was a competitor. Why would they let the paparazzi contact the person himself to earn a hush fee? They would only urge the paparazzi to release the news quickly to deal this person a heavy blow.

"Hmph! Jiang Han Zhou, oh Jiang Han Zhou. For all your usual pretense of being pure and self-disciplined, you turn out to be just like this. And you still dare to compete with me!"

Inside a dozens-of-meters-tall office building, in the top-floor office, sat a young man in a suit and leather shoes. He was pointing at a set of images on his laptop. If Shen Yao could see it, she would recognize the two figures in the images as herself and the man who had bumped into her.

One must say paparazzi are skilled at fabricating gossip. It was merely a chance encounter, yet they photographed it into a beautiful scene of deep affection and heartfelt confession. Although the man in the photo only showed half a side profile, with a mask covering most of his face, those eyes alone were enough for those familiar with him to recognize this person as the famous God of Wealth in the entertainment industry.

Compared to Feng Chen's superb luck, Jiang Hanzhou is more like someone who can turn the rotten into the miraculous. No matter how terrible a project, once given to him, he can complete it with guaranteed quality — and on top of that, earn an extra profit.

Moreover, Feng Chen rose to fame young, with a distinguished family background. He presents a cold, indifferent appearance to everyone, as if nothing can catch his attention. Even the vast majority of people who want to get along with him must place themselves in a lower circle to curry favor.

Jiang Hanzhou is the opposite of Feng Chen. This person has a good family background, a good personality, and handles affairs well. He presents a gentle, refined, sunny, and warm appearance to everyone. But he actually has his own principles. Once someone crosses his bottom line, they will be ruthlessly discarded without any leeway. Yet he is extremely capable of creating value. Aside from competitors, no one dislikes him (competitors both love and hate him — it's not simple dislike).

The young man in the suit tapped the laptop screen and sighed, "Why bother?" If it weren't for good projects being so few, and if the project he had his eye on to promote someone hadn't also caught Jiang Hanzhou's eye, he wouldn't want to contend with this deep-scheming Smiling Tiger. It's truly a headache. Fighting once could cost several years of life.

"I pride myself on being the most easygoing normally. Everyone making money together — what's wrong with that? Wanting to monopolize all the benefits alone — isn't that a bit too greedy?"

Jiang Hanzhou laughed as he hung up the phone. The arc at the corner of his mouth hadn't dropped, but the coldness in his eyes could freeze a person to death.

Gentle, soft words were like knives that could strip flesh from bone. No matter what the person on the other side said, Jiang Hanzhou had no intention of leaving them any face. Some people just never learn — they remember the eating but not the beating. All the previous incidents had faded completely with the passage of time. Sigh, truly a headache.

What gave Jiang Hanzhou a headache wasn't just these things. There was also a message from the company.

"Jiang Producer, quickly check the online hot searches, it's about your private life."

The message was only a few short sentences, yet it directly left Jiang Hanzhou completely bewildered. What? Private life? His private life?

Jiang Hanzhou, who prided himself on being diligent and hardworking, loving his work and having no bad habits whatsoever, smiled speechlessly, thinking this was probably some more gossip pieced together by some bored paparazzi with nothing better to do, utterly fake.

As a result, when he opened the online software and successfully saw that hot search that had already turned purple with the "explosive" label, Jiang Hanzhou's brain crashed without any surprise.

Ah?

A girlfriend he's been secretly dating for many years?

Him?

Jiang Hanzhou:...

As expected of paparazzi skilled at fabricating lies, when has he ever had a girlfriend? Jiang Hanzhou, innocent and only wanting to make money, sneered coldly, and conveniently clicked in to see clearly just who this girlfriend he'd supposedly been secretly dating for years was. If it was some small celebrity in the circle looking to hype themselves up, then don't blame him for being ruthless, directly cutting off the other party's future path.

Under this Weibo hot search, the plaza was occupied by numerous marketing accounts; as long as you scrolled down you could see identical rhetoric, along with several high-definition photos and a short video clip without any sound.

Jiang Hanzhou opened the enlarged images with an unchanged expression, and after browsing through them one by one he remembered — it turned out to be the female passerby he had accidentally bumped into some time ago.

Which unknown small celebrity's company is she from, planning to debut and rub off some heat?

Although the other party's looks were indeed not bad, even able to hold her own among the many beauties in the entertainment industry, this was not a reason for Jiang Hanzhou to be willing to give the other party face.

In the comment section there were also netizens who, while sharply commenting, didn't forget to ask who this girl was.

"She looks quite pretty, which entertainment company's small celebrity is she?"

"Doesn't look like it; small celebrities in the circle nowadays are severely homogenized, not a single one looks like this."

"Perhaps a scheming ordinary person? Look, the exposure is already there, next comes tearfully admitting fault, entering the industry to make money — perfectly natural."

"Hmph, it's the entertainment industry, true or false it's all the same; who knows if she really has a connection with Jiang Hanzhou, he's a nearly thirty-year-old old man, who believes he could stay pure and chaste in the circle."

"That's true too, the two people look quite well-matched; if they really are boyfriend and girlfriend it's understandable."

"..."

There were many comments online, good and bad mixed severely, but Jiang Hanzhou wasn't a celebrity after all, his fan count far less than imagined; moreover, although Jiang Hanzhou looked good, his public appearances were not frequent, so that when this scandal broke about Jiang Hanzhou, the public's impression was mostly that he was of age, finding a partner was very normal, respect and blessings.

Jiang Hanzhou:...

Jiang Hanzhou was also somewhat curious about that girl's situation; he leaned on the sofa and lightly tapped his fingers, then continued scrolling down several times.

Sure enough, the female party's information really was dug up, but not by passerby netizens — rather, the female party herself actively exposed it, conveniently bringing along her soon-to-be-published novel.

"Tasker Shen Yao: Very regrettable, we've currently only met once, still unaware of the name of this gentleman who, though somewhat reckless, is very polite; oh, so it's Producer Jiang, please take care of me~ @Hanzhou 【image image image】"

The images contained topics about the novel "Palace Intrigue," including some screenshots of project filing, and the person she @'ed was precisely Jiang Hanzhou himself.

Jiang Hanzhou did not reply to Shen Yao immediately, but turned his head and flipped through his own files; sure enough, the project proposal at the very bottom indeed had this novel "Palace Intrigue."

The responsible director and film and television production company were both well-known in the circle for their good reputation, and it was based on this that Jiang Hanzhou chose to cooperate.

Unexpectedly, by some coincidence, this girl turned out to be the novel author.

Shen Yao's comment section was very lively, with book friends, passerby netizens, Jiang Hanzhou fans, and also some anti-fans as well as onlookers who didn't mind the trouble.

Shen Yao was busy writing her novel and didn't speak up to reply to anything; instead, Hongshi Network, the director, and the production company all jumped out to interact, including the most heavyweight Jiang Hanzhou who also personally entered the field, playfully expressing: Hello Author Shen, future cooperation for mutual benefit.

"Mm, straightforward as ever, worthy of Producer Jiang who views money as money."

"Sigh, doing it this way means no (girl)friend, no wonder Jiang Hanzhou's scandals are pitifully few, turns out he's naturally gifted."

"Hahahaha, are these two using the paparazzi's filmed content to join hands and interact to build hype for 'Palace Intrigue'? The point is your scandal."

"The female party said it clearly, only just learned Producer Jiang's name, no drama~"

Who says no drama? The two people's fate is this deep, it's bound to be very dramatic.