C14 The Furious Lan Yan

"Miss Lan Yan, rumors are swirling that you once maintained a flirtatious relationship with a certain young heartthrob celebrity. Would you care to disclose his name?"

"Miss Lan, our magazine has just received a tip claiming that you had an abortion due to a relationship with this 'fresh meat' celebrity. Were you heartbroken at the time? Did this young star play the modern-day Chen Shimei?"

"..."

Reporters, armed with their cameras and microphones, bombarded Lan Yan with questions, leaving her feeling both humiliated and furious. The long-buried past had been dug up, and her mind raced to Lin Qingwan, though she quickly dismissed the thought. Lin Qingwan had been with the Lan Family recently and had no reason to leak such information.

She had an epiphany—it must have been the young celebrity himself who spilled the beans, likely after hearing from Lin Qingwan. He probably saw an opportunity to climb the social ladder using her family's influence now that her father had taken over as the head of the Lan Family.

Seething with anger, Lan Yan lashed out at the circling journalists, "I don't know who you're referring to. I've never been involved with any male celebrities, and everything you've heard is nothing but rumors and defamation!"

Yet some reporters persisted, "But our source is adamant, even suggesting that the 'fresh meat' in question is the long-absent Lin Xuan."

"Lin Xuan? Who's Lin Xuan?" Lan Yan genuinely hadn't heard the name before. She had supported a young celebrity in the past, but his name wasn't Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan was the celebrity who had once captivated Lin Qingwan, only to ultimately forsake her and marry someone else. Tragically, the real Lin Qingwan met her untimely death at Lin Xuan's wedding.

It was Lin Qingwan who had orchestrated this scheme against Lan Yan, instructing Aofeng to leak the story to the media.

Knowing Lan Yan coveted her jade, Lin Qingwan had deliberately left her suitcase in the changing room.

Lan Yan had been under the impression that the jade was securely inside the suitcase. But in a twist of fate, a reporter accidentally bumped into it.

The latch on the suitcase gave way, and its contents cascaded to the floor. As everyone's gaze shifted downward, the room fell into a stunned silence.

Scattered across the floor were provocative photos of Lin Xuan, so revealing that several female reporters blushed and their hearts raced at the sight.

Lan Yan was completely taken aback; it had never crossed her mind that Lin Qingwan's suitcase would be filled with such items. Her face drained of color when she overheard a reporter identify the man in the photos as Lin Xuan. She hastily defended herself, "I don't know him at all, and I have no idea why his pictures would be in there."

A female reporter, while snapping pictures of the scattered photos on the ground, muttered under her breath, "What an act. Claims she doesn't know Lin Xuan, yet her suitcase is stuffed with his pictures—pictures that are quite inappropriate, no less. She must be really desperate."

In some photos, it wasn't just Lin Xuan; there was also a woman seated provocatively in front of him, her face conveniently obscured. This detail led to speculation that the woman might be Lan Yan herself.

The reporters' interest was piqued, and they frantically snapped photos and speculated, driving Lan Yan to the brink of tears. She frantically scanned the crowd, hoping to spot Lin Qingwan to clear her name, but Lin Qingwan was nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile, Lin Qingwan was in a corridor of the mall, confronting Aofeng. The incriminating photos had been Aofeng's handiwork, ready to be deployed at Lin Qingwan's command.

"You've done well," Lin Qingwan acknowledged with a frosty nod. Before she turned to leave, she added, "I'm leaving tomorrow. You'll come with me. Have the Shadow Guard remain on standby here at the Lan Family's command."

"Yes, Miss Lin," Aofeng responded, bowing slightly and making a fist in salute.

Upon returning to the changing room, Lin Qingwan found Lan Yan still besieged by reporters. She had no intention of intervening, choosing instead to pay for her dress and depart. The dress she had changed out of was of no concern to her now.

She wasn't worried about theft; the Shadow Guard had been alerted, and with the base of operations being here, the safety of her imperial green jade was assured.

Lan Yan came back in the afternoon, disheveled and defeated. In just a short time, her name had spread across entertainment magazines, her rumored affair with the male celebrity sensationalized beyond the truth.

Upon entering Lin Qingwan's room, she confronted her with a huff, "Lin Qingwan, are you trying to sabotage me? Why are there so many indecent photos of male celebrities in your suitcase?"

"Did you go through my luggage?" Lin Qingwan's expression turned icy. "Where did you take my suitcase?"

Lan Yan paused, her frustration mounting as she explained, "I saw you leave to try on clothes and didn't come back, so I took your suitcase to look for you. But I ended up cornered by reporters who thought I was having an affair with that no-good Lin Xuan. You need to clear this up for me, now."

"Miss Lan, have you lost your mind? Haven't you noticed you've become an internet sensation, with everyone gossiping about your melodramatic saga with Lin Xuan? Me clarifying things for you now would just be asking for trouble," Lin Qingwan dismissed with a wave of her hand, clearly exasperated. "Enough, you can leave. I'm tired and need to rest."

But as Lan Yan reached out to drag Lin Qingwan out, she was met with a piercing, frosty gaze that stopped her in her tracks. It was a look so chilling and familiar, it bore down on her with an overwhelming force, prompting her to instinctively flee the room. The image of Lan Wu, the former head of the Lan Family, flashed in her mind, sending a shiver down her spine.