Chapter 59 Wine Does Not Intoxicate; One Intoxicates Self

"He is even more afraid of being blacklisted than you are. Not a soul will ever know about his relationship with you. We will make a clean break with him, and from now on, we each take our own wide road!"

Lin Ke believed she was standing entirely on Xu Meiqi's side, occupying the moral high ground.

But Xu Meiqi could not.

She had never cried so ungracefully, gasping for air and feeling nauseous from the sheer intensity, her body trembling uncontrollably amidst her sobs.

She could not do it. She could not forget him.

He was her first love, her first man, the man to whom she had long since decided to entrust her entire life!

How could she possibly just pretend as though nothing had ever happened?

"He lied to you!"

Xu Meiqi shook her head desperately.

No, no, no...

She was not a fool. She could see the love in Zhou Yifan's eyes when he looked at her, and she could feel his absolute resolution when he stood up for her. That was definitely not a disguise!

"Perhaps he had no choice. A business marriage—yes, his family forced him. He has no feelings for that woman, he didn't mean to lie to me..."

"Xu Meiqi, have you lost your mind?! He has a son!"

Lin Ke grew exasperated. Usually, her dear best friend had quite a sharp mind, so why was she digging her own grave now?

Xu Meiqi covered her face once more.

She knew...

Yet, she could not forget...

It was not as if Xu Meiqi had never noticed the warning signs.

Zhou Yifan could not even use mainstream chat applications to communicate with her, and he forbade her from proactively contacting him at night. She should have guessed something was wrong.

But she loved him far too deeply.

That man had completely permeated every aspect of her heart and occupied her entire life. He had arranged everything for her meticulously, and Xu Meiqi simply could not imagine what her life would be like without him...

How was she supposed to be told now that all of this was nothing more than a deception?

She had drunk so much alcohol precisely because she originally wanted to use its liquid courage to rush over and demand to know what Zhou Yifan truly meant.

Did he ever love her, even just a little?

As long as he said he loved her, she would brave mountains of blades and seas of fire! She could hold his hand and stand before the cameras, even if the entire world scorned her!

So what if she became the other woman?

She was willing to die for him!

***

Yet none of that happened.

Alcohol could not grant her courage; it merely dissolved into endless tears. She did not even dare to dial Zhou Yifan's phone number, terrified of hearing words she dreaded, or worse, the hollow tone of a disconnected line, any of which would cause her to completely shatter.

Beer should not make one drunk.

Yet one becomes intoxicated not by the wine, but by oneself.

Lin Ke thought Xu Meiqi must have lost her mind.

Didn't she know that a "love-brain" never met a good end?

Previously, she genuinely could not comprehend why some people would willingly become mistresses. If it were merely for fame, fortune, or career advancement, Lin Ke might look down upon it, yet she could still understand.

But what about Xu Meiqi?

Xu Meiqi even used her own money when going to hotels with Zhou Yifan!

She had always walked on thin ice, terrified lest anyone think she coveted Zhou Yifan's family background, refusing to spend a single extra cent of his money or accept a single expensive gift from him.

Yet...

Yet what was the point of it all?

If anyone claimed now that Xu Meiqi had achieved everything she had through her own hard work and struggle, probably no one would believe it.

Everyone would simply assume that Xu Meiqi had seduced a married man in order to trade for a career and endorsement deals.

And yet, what was Xu Meiqi doing? At a time like this, she was actually still making excuses for Zhou Yifan!

"You don't understand, you simply don't understand... You have never truly loved someone, so you can't possibly imagine how deep my feelings for him are... He is my everything!"

"Then go and ask him! Ask him what he really thinks and what his next step is! If you don't dare to ask, I'll ask for you!"

Lin Ke picked up Xu Meiqi's phone and pressed the power button, only for Xu Meiqi to snatch it right back. "No... don't, Keke... We can't, I can't..."

She did not dare to face it.

Because she had never possessed any confidence to begin with.

Even performing the most mundane, trivial tasks in daily life would involuntarily conjure up the shadow of that man.

Eating instant noodles reminded her of the way he squeezed the seasoning packets; drinking milk brought to mind the tiny dab of white at the corner of his lips;

Walking along the riverbank made her recall shouting toward the sunrise together with him, and even flagging down an arbitrary taxi would inevitably remind her of the posture he used to fasten her seatbelt...

Even Xu Meiqi herself felt that she must have lost her mind.

The mere thought of potentially losing that man forever caused her heart to wrench with agonizing spasms. Therefore, even though Zhou Yifan had begun steadily distancing himself over the past few months, reducing their frequency of communication and never scheduling outings together anymore, Xu Meiqi had never dared to puncture that final layer of window paper.

She had long known that window paper was there, only she had never expected that whatever lay behind it would be far harder to bear than she could ever imagine.

Xu Meiqi cried through the entire night.

***

Lin Ke simply held her tightly through the entire night.

It was not until Xu Meiqi wept out the very last breath in her chest that she finally grew utterly exhausted and drifted into a heavy sleep.

***

Meanwhile, at Yellow Lantern MCN Agency.

Zhou Yifan sat in front of his office computer, choosing not to browse the ugly rumors online, but instead opening dozens of chat windows to contact various teams.

"How are the verifications coming along?"

"All the video clips are genuine. There has been editing, but no AI generation."

Did he really need them to tell him whether it was true or false? That madwoman had insisted on making a scene on the day of the company's annual gathering, and as expected, there were no impenetrable walls in this world.

Zhou Yifan could not remember who else might have been present in the corridor that night, but now was not the time to sit here racking his brains.

"What about the source tracking?"

"The initial post came from an early, unregistered minor account bought from who knows where. The first batch of marketing accounts to amplify it are Eileen's rivals. It looks like it's targeting Sister Eileen."

"Contact them one by one. There is no marketing account that cannot be bought with enough money. Find out which company they belong to and figure out where they actually got the information."

"We're already on it, Brother Zhou. They're saying it's a mutual benefit exchange among marketing accounts and information sharing, mainly originating from dark accounts over at Platform X. I also privately asked some close friends, and it seems Platform X bought the promotional push, while Brood provided the initial algorithmic boost."

Platform X... What a massive celebrity.

Zhou Yifan's mind spun rapidly.

Eileen's rival... would that be Company C? Therefore, the marketing accounts specifically smearing Eileen were most likely controlled by Company C, and Company C, if he recalled correctly, had just starred as the male lead in the drama *Prosperous Sunrise*.

Heh, how laughable.

To think the schemes had reached right to his doorstep.

Though the ultimate source of the videos remained unknown, with the matter blowing up to this scale, the involvement of *Prosperous Sunrise*'s connections was an absolute certainty.

Fine.

It seems I underestimated you.

Zhou Yifan certainly hadn't suffered amnesia; he naturally remembered precisely who he had offended just last week. He also understood that if this were truly aimed solely at him, these measures fell far short.

The fact that they didn't even bother negotiating in advance for mutual benefit demonstrated their absolute determination. It was as if both his own adversaries and Eileen's rivals had joined forces to set this banquet table for him.