The small living room was illuminated by the sunlight outside the window, but it still had no warmth and was filled with the chill of winter.
After letting her imagination run wild for a while, Lin Yao found that the room was too quiet. She remembered later that Li Shulan said that her parents were coming over this weekend. Today was Saturday. The couple had probably gone out to pick them up.
Although Lin Yao technically wasn't living under their roof so much as they were living under hers, when their family reunited, it would probably be annoying for an outsider like her to be there.
She decided to stay in her room for a few days and try not to go out.
In the meantime, she could relax and write posts, browse around on the forum, and check up on what happened after the dance.
Lin Yao used an ID username on the forum, so no one except Jiang Mingshu knew who she was in real life.
Among her colleagues and friends, besides Jiang Mingshu, no one knew that she was active on the Hang City Forum, nor did they know that she was Naughty Peach.
Lin Yao originally thought that the title of "Hang City Star" shouldn't have that much impact on her life, but reality had proved her wrong.
As soon as she logged on to the Hang City Forum, she discovered that her private mailbox had been bombarded with messages. How could there be so many private messages after just one night?
But she had no time to check her private mailbox because her attention was distracted by the posts on the forum.
Lin Yao had saved the singles subforum page on her browser, so after logging in, she was redirected to the singles forum section.
At first glance, all the posts on the singles forum were discussing details of the dance party last night, follow-ups, and there were many posts directly mentioning her!
"Come and see Naughty Peach's true face (not including masses of event photos)"
"Shocked!!! Peaches Aren't Naughty is the originator of the practice of irrigating!!!"
"Take a peek at Peaches Aren't Naughty's shady past. Is Peaches Aren't Naughty the Hang City Star or the Hang City Sinner?"
...
Lin Yao's hands trembled as she clicked open the first post. When she saw the enlarged event photos inside, she was shocked!
Lin Yao started attending events about once every week before attending the Hang Citynight Masquerade. Those events included eating out, singing Karaoke, drinking at the pub... one could imagine what photos taken in those environments would turn out like.
Furthermore, Lin Yao was usually bare-faced. Her face, in Lin Yun's words, looked "unkempt". Although it wasn't that bad, when compared to Lin Yun, who wore tasteful makeup, Lin Yao really was someone who didn't pay that much attention to her appearance.
She didn't know whether it was caused by poor lighting or distorted angles, but among these photos of her that were put on the Internet by others, she couldn't find a single one where she appeared remotely attractive. In fact, she appeared uglier and uglier in each photo. So ugly that it was outlandish, so ugly that it appeared somewhat artificial!
Lin Yao didn't care that much about the reason she appeared so ugly in the photos. She was only curious about where these photos came from, who took them, and who separated her photos from all others then exclusively posted her photos online?
When Lin Yao thought about how while she and her fellow netizens were sitting together and chit-chatting, someone was secretly taking pictures, deliberately uglifying + magnifying them, and posting them on the Internet for everyone to comment on, she couldn't help but feel creeped out.
She closed the page of that post, logged off the singles forum, and went on other forums to browse around, but she discovered that almost all the sections had posts about the Hang Citynight Masquerade and the Hang City Star, which were all related to her.
Comparatively, the posts in the other sections merely objectively described how the Hang City Star was established and provided some interesting details. The posts weren't nearly as reproving.
Among all the sections of the Hang City Forum, the events section was the most friendly. The titles of those posts were generally:
"Meet the two new goddesses of Hang City Forum, Peaches Aren't Naughty and Lemons Aren't Cute."
"Beautiful live photos of Hang Citynight: Peaches Aren't Naughty VS Lemons Aren't Cute."
"Curry crab and I are waiting for Naughty Peach at LEAF restaurant."
...
When she thought about it more carefully, this wasn't difficult to understand. Those active on the Events section were mainly male netizens, so they didn't have a competitive relationship with Naughty Peach, and the posts were generally more friendly.
There were many female netizens on the Love Life section. Everyone liked to believe that they were the most qualified to be Hang City Star, and they attended the Hang City masquerade with the idea that they were a shoo-in, but they had their moment of glory taken by a newcomer like her!
While most were angry and disappointed, it wasn't out of the question for some to decide to dig up some dirt on Peaches Aren't Naughty.
After all, it was sort of her own fault for not wearing makeup when going out to have fun, and she was guilty of going way overboard in racking up points...
When Lin Yao first registered as a user on Hang City Forum, out of pure curiosity, she spent half an hour racking up points like crazy until Peaches Aren't Naughty had the same amount of points as Jiang Mingshu.
Although she had earned tens of thousands of points later on by replying to posts and accumulating points in a gradual process, she still couldn't deny the fact that she did go too far racking up points before that!
And because she was curious about the changes in IDs that had different amounts of points, she applied for a few smurf accounts for experimental purposes, but she never used them openly.
Unless someone was specifically looking, probably no one would discover this. So this meant that someone had investigated her intentionally.
This probably showed that everything comes out sooner or later.
Lin Yao sighed. She didn't intend to respond.
She believed that as soon as the hype died down, people would lose interest in her.
Regardless of whether or not the netizens were supporting her out of goodwill or spreading malicious rumors about her, it was an indisputable fact that the ID Peaches Aren't Naughty had attracted more attention on the Hang City Forum today than A-list celebrities in the entertainment industry!
Lin Yao returned to the singles forum, and she did some mental preparation before clicking on the popular posts.
However, the content of the netizens' posts was somewhat different from the mockery that she initially expected.
She found that there were people defending her under each post, and, while most of them were netizens who were familiar with her, many were unfamiliar IDs.
***
Fate Technetium Sky: (,, Ծ‸Ծ,,) In terms of racking up points, I wasn't in a position to say anything, but since everyone's criticizing Peaches Aren't Naughty, I couldn't help but speak up.
Fate Technetium Sky: First of all, those of you who are criticizing Peaches Aren't Naughty for racking up too many points, can you guys promise that you've never done so? For example, 'passing by', 'floating by', 'sofa'... if you have, please shut up!
Fate Technetium Sky: Second of all, those of you criticizing Peaches Aren't Naughty for racking up points, why are you questioning Peaches Aren't Naughty? Who has she hurt, or has she disturbed the order? If she hasn't, please shut up. (ཀ͝∧ཀ͝)
With Cause There Is Effect: The person upstairs is too funny. Racking up points is what it is. You feel self-righteous for racking up points?
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: I just don't understand. Why do you guys spend your time on Hang City Forum just for the sake of arguing? …(っ°Д°;)っ
With Cause There Is Effect: The hard proof evidence is there, yet people are still mindlessly defending her! Why is everyone so foolish?
With Cause There Is Effect: Those who unscrupulously rack up points are the rotten apples of the Hang City Forum, and such people have no right to become the Hang City Star!
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: Putting yourself on a pedestal and criticizing everyone around you. . . (,,#ﾟДﾟ)
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: The most ridiculous thing is that you're using a newly registered smurf account. I just want to ask, do you have the guts to show your true face? (╯‵□′)╯︵┴─┴
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: Just like I said, I could tell that there was something shady about that Orlando representative at first glance.
With Cause There Is Effect: Hang City Star? There must be something shady going on behind the scenes!
Forget The Dust: Orlando's the sponsor. Whomever they choose to give the souvenir to is their own business. Don't forget that Peaches Aren't Naughty was randomly selected, so there's no point in obsessing over this matter.
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: Users who just registered yesterday couldn't have been eligible to participate in the masquerade yesterday night!
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: So, who exactly are you?
Quickly Passing By: I attended the masquerade, and the venue had a great vibe. I don't think there was anything shady about the Hang City Star's selection process.
Quickly Passing By: I don't understand why there're so many dissenters on the forum. Everyone at the venue supported Peaches Aren't Naughty, including me. I also support Naughty Peach (ง•̀_•́)ง
Long Time No See: They're dissing the title of Hang City Star, no matter who it is.
Long Time No See: If this happens every time, who would dare participate in any events organized by the forum in the future?
Fate Technetium Sky: I also feel like someone intentionally used a smurf account to slander her and discredit the Hang City Star. This kind of behavior is outrageous. Everyone must work together and get to the bottom of these suspected smurf IDs! (﹁"﹁)
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: You've scored a bullseye, my comrade!
***
Lin Yao felt ambivalent. She clicked on her private mailbox, which had 99+ unread messages.
After deleting a lot of junk private messages from unfamiliar IDs, she saw the private messages sent in the early morning by people like Fate Technetium Sky, Hot Pot Is Too Hot, and Like Spring Breeze.
Fate Technetium Sky private Message: I've already made some guesses about the few smurf accounts that made posts slandering you. In short, don't take them seriously.
Hot Pot Is Too Hot private letter: Ignore those people, they're all just bored with nothing to do. (ง•̀_•́)ง
Like Spring Breeze private letter: Naughty Peach, the new goddess, no matter how the situation turns out, we will always support you.
...
At least someone was on her side.
At the same time Lin Yao felt somewhat warm inside, she was also secretly relieved.
Truthfully, she had a vague feeling that what happened on the forum was just the beginning of the storm and things were just heating up. When the Hang City TV station broadcasted the Hang Citynight masquerade, the real nightmare will begin!