Xia Xiyao had barely slept last night. Every time she closed her eyes, all she could think of was Gu Xingyi holding her hand in the hotel.

By the time she got up the next morning, Yun-jie and Tao Lele were already awake.

Nainai was happily eating the breakfast Tao Lele made, while Xia Xiyao yawned, dragging herself to the table with big dark circles under her eyes, looking completely out of it.

Yun-jie and Tao Lele exchanged a look filled with concern.

They assumed Xia Xiyao hadn’t slept because she’d seen the trending news. Tao Lele, looking anxious, walked over to where Xia Xiyao had just sat at the table.

“Xiyao-jie, what did Gu Xingyi say? Is he really not going to come out and clarify anything?”

This kind of situation was best cleared up by Gu Xingyi himself. If Xia Xiyao made a public statement, it could easily backfire.

Xia Xiyao’s mind was a mess. Hearing Tao Lele’s words, she was momentarily confused.

“Clarify what? Did something happen with Gu Xingyi?”

Tao Lele was speechless. Only then did she realize—Xia Xiyao had no idea what had happened.

She grew even angrier at Gu Xingyi. He hadn’t said a word publicly, and meanwhile online rumors were practically drowning Xiyao-jie’s Weibo!

“Xiyao-jie! You’re still worried about him?! He’s fine—but you’re not! Just look at your Weibo already!”

It was only from Tao Lele’s tone that Xia Xiyao sensed something was wrong.

She took out her phone and opened Weibo. What greeted her was a flood of DMs and comment notifications.

She tapped into the messages and, upon seeing the malicious private messages, her hand involuntarily trembled. She took a deep breath and kept scrolling—nine out of ten messages were insults.

Backing out of the DMs, she finally saw the post and the many reposts from marketing accounts.

After a while, Xia Xiyao set her phone down and quietly resumed eating breakfast, her expression calm, as if nothing had happened.

Seeing her like that only made Tao Lele even more worried. The pressure online was overwhelming—could Xiyao-jie really handle it?

“Xiyao-jie, what should we do? We can’t just let it go, can we?”

Xia Xiyao patted Tao Lele’s hand, comforting her instead.

“Lele, the innocent need no defense. As long as we know the truth, that’s enough.”

Tao Lele sighed internally.

“The innocent need no defense”… but public opinion never cares about the truth.

Xia Xiyao’s lashes trembled slightly. In truth, she wasn’t calm at all. But since Gu Xingyi had always released his music anonymously, it clearly meant he didn’t want people to know who he was.

And if that was his wish, she couldn’t expose his identity—no matter what.

Meanwhile, netizens were still eagerly waiting for the people involved to speak up. Finally, after a long wait, Xia Xiyao updated her Weibo.

Everyone rushed to click in—then collectively froze.

They had expected a lengthy PR statement. Instead, there were only four simple words:

    The innocent need no defense.

What the hell was that? Did she really think that was enough?

The online backlash intensified instantly.

At Tianmei Entertainment’s Jiangcheng headquarters, Liu Qian was smiling from ear to ear. Even though she’d been chewed out by the company when she got back from the capital, she couldn’t contain her glee.

She had successfully dragged Xia Xiyao down with her!

This was so satisfying!

Looking at the flood of one-sided hate comments online, she was beyond thrilled. Sure, she knew most of them were bots she’d paid for, and a few marketing accounts were ones she had hired to post the original rumors.

But if it meant destroying Xia Xiyao, every penny was worth it.

Yuan-jie watched the ecstatic Liu Qian beside her with growing unease—this woman looked completely insane.

She had only found out about this post that morning. Liu Qian hadn’t even told her—her own manager!

“Liu Qian! Do you even realize what you’re doing? This is defamation! If Xingyao really pursues this, you’re finished!”

Liu Qian shot her an annoyed glance, clearly unimpressed with her warning.

“How is it defamation? Who knows if anything actually happened between them? Seriously—if there wasn’t something going on, why would Xingyao write songs for a woman like Xia Xiyao, who’s got nothing to offer?”

“I bet they’re hiding something. Look, they haven’t even tried to explain anything! Ha! ‘The innocent need no defense’? What a joke!”

Yuan-jie’s face remained grim. She didn’t say anything more.

She just looked at the raving Liu Qian and silently hoped that everything Liu Qian claimed was true. Otherwise, she’d have no choice but to cut her loose.

Better she go down than me. There’s always another client to manage.

Back at the hotel, Gu Xingyi was enjoying a leisurely shower—completely unaware that his phone outside was ringing nonstop, like a death knell.

He had to rush the end of his shower. Wrapping a towel around his waist and drying his hair, he walked out quickly.

Seeing the caller ID, he was surprised.

Why is she calling me?

“Hello? Minister Yang, what brings you to call this idle guy like me today?”

“Idle? You’ve got some nerve calling yourself idle! Do you know since you showed up, you’ve basically taken over the hot search!”

On the other end, Yang Chenglin’s tone was thoroughly annoyed.

Gu Xingyi scratched his head—thinking about it, she wasn’t wrong. Ever since he’d released A Lifetime With You, he’d practically lived on the trending list.

“Ah, what can I say? I’m just too lovable. Ahem—seriously though, why’d you call?”

Gu Xingyi shamelessly praised himself before finally getting serious.

Yang Chenglin gritted her teeth. She honestly wanted to strangle this man. “What do you mean ‘why’d I call’? I can’t call unless I have a reason?”

Aren’t we friends? Ugh! So frustrating!

Her tone turned colder.

“Hmph! You think I want to call you? It’s because of your woman! Xia Xiyao’s being slammed like crazy online, and you’re just sitting back doing nothing?!”

Xia Xiyao? Being attacked?

Gu Xingyi immediately straightened up.

“What happened to Xia Xiyao?”

His tone was more serious than ever before—so serious it made Yang Chenglin feel a little sour inside.

Whenever it was about Xia Xiyao, this man became dead serious.

“Hot search. Go see for yourself. Bye!”

She hung up without another word. Gu Xingyi frowned, not understanding what her deal was.

But now wasn’t the time to think about that. He immediately opened Weibo—and right at the top, saw the trending posts.

The moment he read the title, his face darkened.

He went through every post and comment about Xia Xiyao. When he finished reading her own Weibo update, his expression turned completely black—and then he let out a cold laugh.

“Ha! Do they really think my woman is someone they can just bully?”

“And that idiot woman—why didn’t she tell me something this serious was happening? What was she thinking, handling it alone?”

Gu Xingyi just wanted to go confront that silly woman and ask her to her face—Do you even think of me as your husband?!

But before he did that, there were a few things he needed to take care of.

Since someone wanted to play dirty—then he’d make it a game worth remembering.