Chapter 134: What Does It Mean to Be Protective of One's Own

The person involved had a good night's sleep and finally made up for all the sleep she had been missing.

She rolled twice on the bed, rolling to the spot where Shen Yanhui usually slept. Although he was not there, the scent of cedarwood still lingered, and she took a deep breath of it.

Her phone rang, and she answered it without even looking: "Hello?"

On the other end of the line, Lin Wei's voice exploded, shaking Gu Yan enough to make her hold the phone a little further away.

"Holy crap, Little Gu Yan, you're famous!"

Gu Yan lay on the bed and asked nonchalantly, "What's famous?"

"You're on the trending list! Look for yourself!"

Gu Yan lazily turned over and tapped on Weibo.

Trending topic number three: #Jingzhou Academy of Fine Arts Beauty Judge#

Clicking into it, the first post was a photo of her sitting in the judge's seat at the awards ceremony. It must have been taken by some media outlet; the angle was quite good, with the light and shadow falling on her profile, making her look bright and elegant.

Scrolling down, the comments had already exceeded ten thousand.

【This is a judge? So young and so pretty?】

【The judges for the Jingzhou Academy of Fine Arts competition are all big shots, right? What's this person's background?】

【I'll say this quietly: she is the currently red-hot, cutting-edge Impressionist painter Yan. I'm a student at the Academy of Fine Arts, and she even gave a talk for us.】

【Yan?! That Yan whose painting sold for an eight-figure sum?】

【Holy crap, I looked it up: daughter of the Gu family, wife of the boss of the Shen Group...】

【??? What kind of life-winner script is this?】

【Pretty, knows how to paint, family is rich, and her husband is Shen Yanhui... Which window did God actually close for her?】

【Fake, right? It must be hype.】

【Sour grapes jumping around, so what if she's excellent?】

【...】

Gu Yan scrolled through them one by one, the corners of her mouth curling up.

Lin Wei asked on the other end of the phone, "Did you see it?"

"I saw it."

"How do you feel?"

Gu Yan thought for a moment: "It's actually quite fun."

It was just that some of the comments mixed in were really nasty.

She turned over and started using a burner account to reply to those questioning comments.

Someone posted: 【A rich daughter like this, how good can her painting be? It must be her family spending money to promote her.】

Gu Yan replied: 【Go look at her paintings before you talk.】

Someone posted: 【She looks just so-so, why hype up her 'godly beauty'?】

Gu Yan replied: 【Why don't you post your photo and compare?】

Someone posted: 【Shen Yanhui marrying her must be a business marriage, stop hyping up true love.】

Gu Yan replied: 【Have you ever seen a business marriage where the husband transfers all his shares to his wife?】

Lin Wei listened to the sound of her typing away on the other end and couldn't help but laugh: "What are you doing?"

"Facing off against the sour grapes."

Lin Wei was stunned for a moment, then laughed even louder: "You're facing off against so many people by yourself?"

"Mm."

"Little Gu Yan, aren't you being childish?"

Gu Yan typed while feeling perfectly justified: "A Fairy does not allow others to slander her, hmph."

Lin Wei laughed so hard she couldn't straighten her back: "When you're popular, there's trouble; why do you care about them? It doesn't affect you anyway. But your popularity in the country is finally established, I guess your paintings are going to go up in price again and again."

Gu Yan ignored her and continued the face-off.

Just as she was replying with gusto, she suddenly discovered that she couldn't find a single one of the comments scolding her.

She was stunned for a moment and refreshed the page.

They were all gone.

Only a string of compliments remained.

【Yan is truly so beautiful.】

【I've seen her paintings, they really have a spiritual quality.】

【Shen Yanhui and Yan, what kind of divine couple is this!】

【kswlkswl】

She let out an "Eh."

Lin Wei asked: "What's wrong?"

"No one is scolding me anymore."

"Huh?"

"Just... suddenly they're all gone." She refreshed it again, "Only the ones complimenting me are left."

Lin Wei was silent for two seconds: "It must be your Mr. Shen who did it. Tsk tsk tsk, he really is protective of his own."

Gu Yan was stunned for a moment, feeling wonderful inside. She turned over, hugged her pillow, and her voice was soft.

"That's for sure."

"Mm?"

"I'm his most beloved little baby, after all."

Lin Wei shivered on the other end of the phone: "That's so cheesy it's sickening."

Gu Yan smiled, her eyes curving into crescents.

Lin Wei suddenly exclaimed again: "Holy crap!"

"What's wrong?"

"Go look at the homepages of those few people who were scolding you the hardest just now."

Gu Yan clicked in and froze.

Those few people had all posted new updates, all of them identical apology statements.

【I'm sorry @Yan, my previous remarks were inappropriate, they have been deleted. I apologize to you.】

【Regarding the previous inappropriate remarks made toward Ms. Yan, I hereby solemnly apologize.】

【Original Weibo post deleted, hereby apologizing. My personal remarks do not represent any stance...】

Each one was more formal than the last, each one more humble than the last.

Lin Wei clicked her tongue in wonder on the other end of the phone: "Holy crap, this reaction is way too fast, right? It's only been a few minutes?"

Gu Yan looked at those apology statements, unable to stop the corners of her mouth from curling up.

She feigned composure and cleared her throat: "It's just so-so."

Lin Wei let out a "Tch": "Keep pretending, go ahead and keep pretending."

Gu Yan scrolled for a while longer and found that there really was nothing left to argue about.

Those negative comments had vanished completely, leaving only a screen full of praise. She felt a bit bored scrolling and put her phone down.

"Alright, I'm not talking to you anymore."

"Where are you going?"

"Going to find my husband."

Lin Wei rolled her eyes on the other end of the phone: "Go on then, go on, don't show off your affection here."

Gu Yan hung up the phone, got off the bed, and walked toward the door in her slippers.

Just as she pulled the bedroom door open, her phone chimed.

She looked down and saw a message from Jiang Yu.

Jiang Yu: 【I have returned to Paris. Our cooperation during this time was very pleasant, hope to see you again.】

Gu Yan paused.

So fast?

Just as she was about to reply, another one came through.

Jiang Yu: 【Mr. Shen has good methods, please thank him for me.】

Gu Yan stared at that message, her brows knitting together.

What does that mean?

What does "good methods" mean?

Although she didn't know exactly what had happened, the ambiguous tone in that sentence made her feel a bit angry just looking at it.

She typed a reply.

Gu Yan: 【Although I don't know what he did, there must be a reason for it. You don't need to be passive-aggressive with me; I am on his side.】

Gu Yan: 【Safe travels, I won't see you off.】

After sending it, she held her phone and stood where she was, still feeling angry.

At the end of the hallway, the study door opened.

Shen Yanhui walked out and saw her standing in the hallway wearing loungewear, looking puffed up with anger.

A hint of a smile flashed in his eyes as he walked over: "What's wrong?"

Gu Yan looked up, her expression softening, but her tone was still huffy: "Someone is bad-mouthing you."

"Who?" Shen Yanhui raised an eyebrow.

Gu Yan held her phone up in front of him to show him Jiang Yu's message: "He said you have good methods!"

Shen Yanhui looked down at it and chuckled: "And then?"

"And then?" Gu Yan glared at him, "Then I scolded him!"

Shen Yanhui listened and let out a low laugh. The laughter vibrated from his chest, carrying a sense of satisfied pleasure.

"Well scolded." He reached out and brushed the hair from her cheek.

Gu Yan: "That goes without saying, who else is my husband?"

She reached out to wrap her arms around the man's waist and rubbed against his pectoral muscles, just preparing to touch him more, when suddenly—

A cough came from the top of the stairs.

Gu Lin waved his hand with an awkward expression under Gu Yan's increasingly dangerous gaze.

"Hi..."

Gu Yan glared at him, slowly let go of Shen Yanhui, and turned around.

Gu Lin sensed something was wrong, took a step back, and spoke at high speed: "I don't want to disturb you two either, but Big Brother and Sister-in-law are here."

"Really?"

"Really! Mom told me to come call you guys down."