Chapter 44

“Twenty years? Why don’t you just say I sell myself to you outright.”
“Because I’m a married woman.” Shen Xingzhou was great, she didn’t have the nerve to keep mistresses two, three, four, or five. She was a person with morals.
The “cousin”: “……”
No matter how stable his emotions were, even the “cousin” was amused into silence by Wen Jiu’s train of thought.
“How much money are you planning to make in these twenty years?”
Since you’re asking sincerely,
Wen Jiu raised one finger, eyes shining. “One hundred million a year?”
She had no real concept of huge sums of money. She was just thinking of a meme and spouting nonsense.
The “cousin” closed his eyes briefly. “I’ll work for you. Five years. No more.”
“Deal, deal.” Twenty years had been a casual exaggeration anyway, she’d never expected him to agree.
As expected, start high, bargain down, and you still exceed expectations.
Wen Jiu lightly condemned herself. The pure aura of a wage slave had been corrupted by capitalism, she’d even managed to scam someone.
“What’s your name?” After a while, Wen Jiu asked.
She couldn’t very well keep calling him “cousin,” “cousin” forever.
“Chu Wen. Chu as in Chu Hong’s Chu. Lin Zepan married into the family, so I took Chu Hong’s surname. Wen is my mother’s surname.”
“What a coincidence. Maybe your mom and I were from the same family eight hundred years ago,” Wen Jiu said.
Chu Wen was speechless. “Why don’t you just say we’re relatives?”
“We’re not the main leads in a novel, how could we get stuck with that kind of melodramatic script?” Wen Jiu waved it off, not taking it seriously.
“I don’t understand business warfare, but I have a think tank. Do you want to discuss strategy with my tactician, or should I take you straight to Chu Yan and the young lady?”
Chu Wen pursed his lips and glanced at Wen Jiu. “So Chu Yan can find out directly that Chu Hong wants Chu Group Film? Or should I tell my cousin that my mom plans to have me seduce him?”
“That’s not impossible. Haven’t you heard? The most effective communication method is sincerity.”
If sincerity worked in elite families, there wouldn’t be so many messes. Chu Wen thought this to himself, but his mouth still couldn’t help snapping back. “I really don’t know what Qin Yao sees in you, keeping you by her side.”
Wen Jiu scratched the back of her head and flashed a big toothy grin. “Maybe because I’m sincere?”
Chu Wen: “…Fine. You introduce me.”
In the end, he still compromised.
Let’s try sincerity once, then.
After taking such a long detour, he somehow ended up right back where he started. If he’d known this was how things would turn out after talking to Wen Jiu, he would’ve gone straight to Chu Yan from the beginning.
Corporate matters and family background were all internal Chu family affairs, so Wen Jiu didn’t stay any longer.
Since the “cousin” posed no threat, her task was basically complete.
When leaving the Chu residence, she even thoughtfully sent Chu Wen a message.
Wen Jiujiu – Chu Wen “Cousin”:
Once you’ve settled your affairs, remember to come find me. I’ll arrange a position for you.
How great, college students dreamed of getting assigned a job and starting work immediately.
Wen Jiu felt she really was a kind girl.
In high spirits, she looped her arm through the author’s and waved grandly as they switched cars and climbed into her beloved car.
“Song Qin, I’ll take you to meet your favorite daughter.”
They took the elevator up at the hotel. The suite door was pulled open from inside, revealing floor-to-ceiling windows and the full Beicheng nightscape beyond.
“You live here?” Song Qin exclaimed.
“Yep. The young lady had the house she gave me renovated by the butler. Since I didn’t have a place to stay this year, she booked me the hotel’s top-floor suite, paid for the whole year.”
Song Qin’s chest rose and fell as she sighed endlessly. “Sis, if only I’d had the courage to dance right in front of the young lady before you transmigrated, then I’d be her most trusted lackey by now.”
“Author, you’ve got to be more ambitious. Write hard, get rich on your own.”
“Easy for you to say,” Song Qin said, lightly punching her.
It was very light, almost looked like flirting.
Su Yaoyao, who’d opened the door and witnessed this scene: ?
Her lips drooped. She timidly leaned against Wen Jiu’s back, peeking out with half her head exposed, showing hostility toward an outsider for the first time.
“Jiujiu, who is she?”
She’s your mom.
But that couldn’t be said.
Wen Jiu’s eyes darted around. “She’s like me, working for the young lady. We’re both attendants.”
“Oh, I see.” Su Yaoyao withdrew her misunderstanding, stepped out from behind Wen Jiu, and proactively extended her hand. “Hello, I’m Su Yaoyao, Wen Jiu’s friend. I’m a web novel author.”
She had a job too. She was an independent individual.
“A w-web novel author?” Song Qin widened her eyes and looked to Wen Jiu for confirmation.
What did you do to my daughter again?!
If she’s an author, then what am I?!
“Hello.” A handshake still had to be done.
Soft to the touch, warm and smooth like jade, warm in winter and cool in summer.
Reluctantly, Song Qin let go, staring at Su Yaoyao with increasing satisfaction.
As expected of the most beautiful mass-appeal female lead she’d ever created, perfect in every way.
Su Yaoyao pulled her hand back and tightly grabbed Wen Jiu’s arm, whispering, “Jiujiu, your coworker is kind of strange. Why does she keep looking at me like that?”
As if mesmerized, but not quite.
“She used to be a web novel author too. Before coming, she’d heard of you and really admires how you achieved something so extraordinary with your very first novel.” Wen Jiu patched things up full of holes. “That look is… admiration.”
Luckily, the listener was Su Yaoyao. She trusted Wen Jiu unconditionally and shyly hid again.
After a while, she happily ran to her room, grabbed her tablet, and showed the screen to Wen Jiu. “Jiujiu, look! I made fifteen thousand today!”
Wen Jiu: !!!
Song Qin, who overheard: ???
Fifteen thousand in one day from her first novel? Song Qin nearly couldn’t catch her breath.
Was this the gap between people?
“Tomorrow, I’ll treat you both to a big meal.” Su Yaoyao beamed, fully revealing her bright and cheerful side.
Wen Jiu: “Yaoyao is amazing.”
Song Qin was still questioning her existence and didn’t respond.
“Jiujiu, you said you work for Yao Yao, like an attendant.”
Wen Jiu nodded.
Why bring this up all of a sudden?
She hadn’t hidden it, though Su Yaoyao probably didn’t know she was paid.
“If you work, you get paid. Jiujiu, how much does Yao Yao give you per month?”
“Thirty to fifty thousand.”
“Then I’ll give Jiujiu a salary too. I’ll give you thirty-five thousand a month. I make fifteen thousand a day now, three days is enough to cover your salary.”
Wen Jiu was holding a fork with half a grape still on it. She turned her head in shock. “Huh? Why?”
“Because I want to be good to Jiujiu. If you really mind, just treat it as working for me. Um…” She thought for a moment. “Jiujiu can be my liaison, handle communication with editors and such until I find an assistant.”
Little Green River editors rarely contacted her anyway. Jiujiu wouldn’t be busy, just replying to messages.
Finding an assistant was just an excuse. Su Yaoyao simply wanted to give Wen Jiu a salary.
She remembered Yao Yao once whispering to her in Australia that Jiujiu was very short on money.
But her brother and younger brother said people had dignity, poverty couldn’t shake that. She had to respect Jiujiu and couldn’t give money directly. So paying a salary was the most tactful way.
Every New Year, her brother gave year-end bonuses to group employees. If she paid Jiujiu a salary, she’d have a reason to give her a year-end bonus too.
If her brother gave a car, she could give a house!
Wen Jiu had no idea what Su Yaoyao was thinking. Checking the time and seeing it was bedtime, she hurriedly ushered her off to sleep.
Once sensitive people stay up late, they start overthinking and get insomnia. Over time, their health only worsens.
She’d finally gotten Su Yaoyao to open her heart, there could be no relapse.
“Jiujiu, promise me, and I’ll go to sleep.” Su Yaoyao clung to her.
“I’m the one benefiting, yet you’re the one begging me.” Wen Jiu fed her a grape. “Of course I’ll agree.”
She didn’t mind extra income, just felt guilty taking it, so she’d have to care more for Su Yaoyao.
Su Yaoyao didn’t care at all. She chewed the grape Wen Jiu gave her, arms wrapped around Wen Jiu’s arm as she swayed. “It’s not you taking advantage of me. Jiujiu is my best friend, I’m happy to spend money on you.
You’re the one who told me not to care about others’ opinions. So you don’t need to put moral pressure on yourself or feel guilty for taking it.
To put it another way, I earned my money. I can spend it on whoever I want.”
Who knew what Su Yaoyao had been reading alone in the hotel? Wen Jiu felt that if she went back to how she was two days ago, she wouldn’t just be immune to online abuse, she could take on ten people at once.
“Yaoyao is amazing,” Wen Jiu praised sincerely.
Su Yaoyao smiled at her, cheeks puffed out with grape flesh. “I’ll grow up too,” she said.
While washing up, Su Yaoyao was already planning what kind of house to prepare for Wen Jiu as a New Year bonus.
With a new layer of emotional support, she didn’t even care about the arguments under her novel updates.
After Su Yaoyao returned to her room, Song Qin still didn’t leave.
“I think it’s a bit impolite for me to work for the young lady while living in the male lead’s place. What if the young lady misunderstands?”
Wen Jiu thought she had a point.
Especially since the transmigration issue, aside from the known male lead, couldn’t be told to others. If a misunderstanding really happened, it wouldn’t just be hard to explain, it’d be impossible to speak at all.
“Then stay here for now. This hotel’s booked for another eight months. There’s still one room left in the suite, you can take it.”
With lodging settled, Song Qin returned to her previous topic, continuing to envy Wen Jiu. “Sis, I heard everything earlier. I never thought Su Yaoyao would go out of her way to give you money.
Wuwuwu, you’re so lucky.”
Wen Jiu: “……”
Things that felt normal suddenly felt different with contrast and emphasis.
She felt so motivated now that she could jump up and work for the young lady for a lifetime.
While envying her, Song Qin completely forgot to ask about Su Yaoyao being a web novel author, missing the chance to question Wen Jiu.
The next day, Su Yaoyao took them out for a big meal.
Her idea of a “big meal” was somewhat different from what Wen Jiu and Song Qin imagined.
They couldn’t even read the menu, if Su Yaoyao hadn’t been there, the two of them would’ve at least ordered a piano performance.
But even if they couldn’t understand the names of the dishes on the menu, the prices printed beside them were perfectly clear.
What kind of dish cost 8,888 per plate?
A drawn flower, followed by a string of completely unfamiliar words, and then the Arabic numerals 12,888?
Wen Jiu thought she was seeing things. She closed the menu and opened it again.
The same astronomical numbers stared back at her. The final page even featured the figure 168,000.
One hundred sixty-eight thousand?
This restaurant could’ve just robbed people outright, at least they still bothered serving food. What exactly they were selling for 168,000 was completely beyond her imagination.
Previously, whenever they went out, the young lady would order and pay directly. Wen Jiu knew it was expensive, but she never imagined a single meal could cost this much.
No wonder Young Master Ji looked pained when handing over money, though he recovered quickly. Turns out it still wasn’t as expensive as his usual meals. The pain probably had nothing to do with the money itself, but rather with giving it to someone unrelated like her.
“What would you like to order?” Su Yaoyao asked the two of them.
Song Qin and Wen Jiu couldn’t understand the menu at all. They exchanged a glance, waved their hands at the same time, and said in unison, “We don’t have anything we want, just order for us.”
If they accidentally ordered a piano performance, that would be genuinely awkward.
The young lady took Wen Jiu out to experience Chinese cuisine; Su Yaoyao took Wen Jiu out to experience Western cuisine.
The raw ingredients were brought out and prepared fresh right in front of them. On the side, a dedicated staff member explained the process, accompanied by live violin music.
Wen Jiu, who lacked any artistic sensibility: “…”
Song Qin, whose hands and feet had nowhere to go: “…”
At this moment, Song Qin felt that honestly, being a follower and just collecting a salary was pretty great.
There was no need to force oneself into circles one couldn’t fit into.
Fortunately, Wen Jiu had seen enough of the world. Aside from not being able to tell what emotions the music was trying to convey, she accepted everything else just fine.
When Su Yaoyao ordered, she looked only at the dishes, not the prices. When it came time to pay, Wen Jiu sneaked a glance, service charge included, the total was equivalent to two months of the young lady’s salary paid to her.
Maybe because she’d already been shocked by the numbers on that exquisite menu earlier, she actually felt that seventy thousand didn’t seem like much anymore.
To keep herself grounded, Wen Jiu cooked for herself in the hotel for an entire week, enjoying a low-desire, minimalist lifestyle.
Song Qin had things of her own to do as well.
She said she wanted to lie flat, but in reality, aside from living off the young lady’s salary, she was also preparing to return to her old profession and start writing again.
Wen Jiu walked over with a cup of homemade milk tea. “Do you want to write character backstories and plots for games?”
Song Qin looked up suspiciously and asked uncertainly, “Wen Jiu, we’re all broke transmigrators, don’t tell me you even have a company?”
Wen Jiu slowly flashed a toothy grin. “Not my company, but the young lady invested for me. I’m a shareholder.”
“Do you remember the novel you wrote, the one Su Yaoyao is in, where you created a true-young lady supporting female character? You set her up as someone who studied abroad but came back accomplishing nothing, chased after Su Yaoyao’s fiance Ji Yujing, and in the end was warned by Su Heng and met a miserable fate.”
Song Qin, who had already started accepting this world and no longer saw people as paper characters, spoke with a slightly shaky voice. “When I wrote that character, I never imagined it would come back to bite me like this.”
“It was all in service of the plot…” Her confidence dwindled as she spoke.
Wen Jiu pointed at her. “That’s why you always need to be kinder to the characters you write. If you transmigrate into a villainous female supporting role who’s already run through her entire arc and is hated by everyone, that’s basically a catastrophic start.”
“The supporting character Lin Yu you mentioned, after she got five million, the first thing she did was help her classmate, whose family favored sons over daughters and couldn’t afford college, by buying her a ticket and paying her tuition. Girls helping girls, how could she possibly be a bad person?”
“She’s come back after finishing her studies, runs a game company, is her own boss, and is out there hustling for business. Compared to us, she practically has the word ‘struggle’ written all over her face.”
Song Qin ran it through her head. “You want me to go work for her?”
“Yeah. Do you want to?”
“Yes!
Consider it my way of compensating the supporting character. And although we joke about being the young lady’s followers for life, realistically, we don’t know how long that’ll last. It’s better to have a proper job.”
Song Qin made up her mind.
As long as this world didn’t collapse, she felt that this kind of life was actually pretty good, much better than before she transmigrated.
Most importantly, Lin Yu’s salary wasn’t low.
A month later, Song Qin was officially registered at Lin Yu’s studio, and her housing in Haicheng was settled. She felt too embarrassed to keep accepting the young lady’s salary and devoted herself fully to working under Lin Yu.
For the time being, she stayed in the apartment Su Yaoyao had gifted to Wen Jiu. Since they were all transmigrators and Wen Jiu wasn’t short on money, she didn’t ask her for rent.
Su Yaoyao’s novel officially concluded under her frantic update speed; the young lady and Chu Yan’s relationship progressed smoothly, and thirteen days later, they formally held their wedding; Chu Wen dealt with the scumbag father, revealed their true gender, and joined Lin Yu’s studio just yesterday.
Lin Yu even sent a message personally.
Lin Yu: Thanks to the boss for sending me three employees. All of them are very capable.
Wen Jiu: Ji Yujing’s salary is up to you. Pay Chu Wen and Song Qin according to the studio’s standard.
Lin Yu: Of course. Those two aren’t like Ji Yujing, they’re genuinely capable. Once the game launches next year, bonuses will be distributed based on revenue.
Wen Jiu didn’t go to Haicheng, but Su Yaoyao had to return. Her younger brother had finally been “re-educated” on the island and sent back, this year, the three siblings would spend New Year’s together.
At the end of December, with the new year about to begin, the White Moonlight Young Lady’s production crew took a one-day break, and she rushed back to Beicheng from the film set to celebrate New Year’s.
With winter break approaching for students, Legend of the Bright Pearl was completed at double speed and officially released.
On New Year’s Eve, Wen Jiu was having dinner with Shen Xingzhou.
Her left eyelid kept twitching as she looked out over the night view of Beicheng, a sense of unease in her heart.
It was New Year’s, surely she wouldn’t have to work overtime, right?
Reality proved that whatever you fear most is exactly what happens.
After a month and a half of calm, everything that needed to get busy came rushing back.
It was a workday. Su Yaoyao’s book was poked by an editor, requesting the addition of a copyright editor’s contact information to discuss film and television rights.
At Su Yaoyao’s level, most of the preliminary confirmations were already in place. Wen Jiu, acting as her assistant, had added the contact during the day.
Film and TV rights usually took a few days to finalize. But for some reason, perhaps a leak, what arrived faster than the copyright deal was the black material surrounding Su Yaoyao’s novel.
The moment Wen Jiu opened Weibo, her eyelid finally stopped twitching, but her heart sank halfway.
This night was destined to be sleepless.
Fortunately, aside from Su Yaoyao’s situation, the other young ladies were fine. Wen Jiu let out a breath of relief.
Opening the trending topic that some “kind soul” had purchased, Wen Jiu began reading.
Summary as follows: Su Yaoyao plagiarized another novel that also told a melodramatic wealthy-family story. The other novel was released on the same day, but its blurb had been published half a year earlier, and every chapter update went live thirty minutes before Su Yaoyao’s.
Wen Jiu knew very clearly that Su Yaoyao had written everything herself. During the entire update period, they lived together, she watched her write it.
But the plagiarism comparison showed an 80% similarity: character settings, plot, language, everything matched point for point.
It was bizarre. Could shared-brain syndrome actually exist in this world?
At the top-floor five-star restaurant with the best view in Beicheng, the lights reflected off Wen Jiu’s face.
She didn’t even touch the food in front of her, nor did she care about the lively celebrations outside that couldn’t be heard but were visible. Her gaze stayed fixed on her phone, focused to the point of blocking out everything else.
She opened Su Yaoyao’s novel and the supposedly plagiarized one side by side. Indeed, every chapter was delayed by half an hour, Su Yaoyao’s was always the later one.
No.
Comparing chapter by chapter, she actually noticed something.
After the previous botting incident, Su Yaoyao updated 30,000 words in a single day to appease readers. Those 30,000 words were written in one go and uploaded immediately, without sitting in the draft box for even half a second.
For the chapters after that, Su Yaoyao posted half an hour later than the other person, but for those 30,000 words, she posted two hours earlier.
Something flashed through Wen Jiu’s mind, but she couldn’t quite grasp it.
She wasn’t logged into Su Yaoyao’s account and didn’t have access to the author dashboard. No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t catch that fleeting insight.
The plagiarism expose looked airtight, no matter how many times you read it, it was the same template, reposted over and over. It was obvious someone was orchestrating things behind the scenes.
And every piece of evidence lined up perfectly, hammering Su Yaoyao dead on the charge of plagiarism.
If Wen Jiu were just a passerby, she might’ve believed it.
Some readers had already quit and turned against her, lamenting that they’d finally supported a rising star, only for her to turn out to be a plagiarist crawling out of a cesspit.
It was New Year’s Eve. Su Yaoyao wouldn’t be on her phone during the family banquet.
Taking advantage of the time, Wen Jiu messaged Su Heng and Su Tan, telling them what had happened and asking them to keep Su Yaoyao off her phone tonight.
After being away for two months, Su Yaoyao was no longer as afraid of her brothers, nor did she listen to them completely.
She didn’t respond well to force, she responded to gentleness.
Under Su Tan’s soft coaxing, Su Yaoyao decided to forgive her younger brother for one day and agreed to sleep early and go to the racetrack with him the next morning.
To make sure Su Yaoyao couldn’t use her phone, Su Tan secretly activated a signal jammer.
After a while, he realized he couldn’t receive Wen Jiu’s messages either. Only then did it dawn on him that he’d blocked his own signal too, forcing him to run outside in the dead of winter to get reception.
Su Yaoyao breathed on the window, then pointed at Su Tan and asked Su Heng inside, “Brother, why is Little Brother running outside when it’s so cold?”
The courtyard had underfloor heating, so it wasn’t unbearably cold. Still, indoors and outdoors weren’t the same, and Su Tan’s behavior was something Su Yaoyao couldn’t understand.
Knowing the details, Su Heng rarely joked. The frost on his expression melted as he said, “Your brother… probably stayed on the island too long and developed a small problem with his brain.”
Hearing that, Su Yaoyao paid even less attention to the fact that Wen Jiu and the others hadn’t messaged her that night.
She simply waited for Su Tan to come back, then looked at him with a face full of sympathy.
Her own illness was cured, who would’ve thought her little brother had gone dumb instead.