After Teasing the Heroine and Running Away, I Was Forced into Love - Chapter 8

Realizing her actions bordered on being a little brazen, He Roushuang tried to withdraw her hand. But the moment her fingers loosened slightly, someone firmly gripped them.

“It’s alright,” Shi Qing said softly. “I don’t mind at all. If you want, I can hold your hand on the street anytime.”

Shi Qing glanced sideways at He Roushuang, noticing her momentary surprise. A flicker of smug satisfaction crossed her mind, though she kept it hidden.

(This tactic is working,) she thought. (With this strategy, I might gradually win over my sugar daddy’s heart.)

Shi Qing’s relentless efforts to win He Roushuang’s favor stemmed from a simple reason: her mother’s illness wouldn’t improve anytime soon. She needed a stable source of income.

(It’s despicable, I know,) she thought. (But our relationship is purely transactional, right? As long as I don’t give my heart away, any means of pleasing her falls within the bounds of our agreement. So, I’m not stooping to dirty tricks.)

Shi Qing reassured herself with these justifications.

“You’re really…”

(This straight girl seduction is seriously potent,) He Roushuang thought, nearly losing her composure. (But I must keep reminding myself—don’t be seduced by that damn straight girl! She’s the kind of woman who attracts men like crazy! Once Shi Qing regains her Female Lead aura, she’ll kick you to the ends of the earth!)

Despite these thoughts racing through her mind a thousand times, He Roushuang refused to back down. Their hands remained clasped tightly.

The final words faded like the wind, leaving Shi Qing unable to clearly hear what He Roushuang had called her.

But she didn’t press for clarification.

Every sugar daddy deserves a few secrets, right?

When they entered the room, He Roushuang immediately collapsed onto the sofa. She had barely closed her eyes when an unfamiliar ringtone pierced the silence.

This wasn’t her phone.

After months of living in this world, He Roushuang knew her own phone well enough. Her ringtone was a refined piano solo—perfect for a Female President persona.

“Your phone is so loud,” He Roushuang said, rubbing her temples. Her weary demeanor perfectly mirrored that of a President annoyed by some troublesome matter.

“Sorry.”

Shi Qing hurriedly hung up the phone. The caller was a colleague from her company, which meant their passionate kiss in the car had likely become public knowledge.

But if she could truly be with Miss He, her current job wouldn’t matter much anymore.

Shi Qing silenced her phone, yet calls continued to flood in, forcing her to temporarily turn it off.

He Roushuang, her eyes half-closed, didn’t notice Shi Qing had switched off her phone when the ringing resumed.

On the verge of collapse, she couldn’t distinguish whether the ringtone was a piano melody or the default, irritating sound.

He Roushuang sprang up from the sofa, snatched Shi Qing’s phone, and glared at the screen.

“Who’s bothering you after work with all these calls? Can’t a person get some rest?!”

She was about to answer and unleash a torrent of anger on whoever was on the other end, but then she noticed Shi Qing’s phone was switched off. Which meant… it wasn’t Shi Qing’s phone ringing.

It was her own phone.

So embarrassing… mortifyingly embarrassing!

He Roushuang curled her toes into the floor, wishing she could conjure a giant hole to bury herself in.

“My phone’s already off. That’s yours.”

Shi Qing struggled to suppress her laughter, but considering she needed to maintain her client’s dignity, she held it back with such effort that it nearly caused internal injuries.

“Fine.”

He Roushuang handed Shi Qing the phone and turned to grab her own, which was still ringing incessantly on the sofa.

Thankfully, she’d had the foresight to check the caller ID. It wasn’t just anyone—it was her current greatest support and the key to overthrowing the Male Lead:

Her and He Shanjian’s shared father.

“Daddy~ What’s up?”

He Roushuang deliberately sweetened her voice, aiming for a cotton candy-meets-watery syrup tone, hoping to charm Father He.

“Roushuang, darling… I don’t care who you like, I’ll always support you. But you need to consider the company’s image when you act, okay?”

He Roushuang: Huh?

“What did you do? You didn’t consider the company’s image at all!”

“What happened, Dad? I don’t know.”

In the novel, the Original Owner was portrayed as a spoiled child who could shamelessly fawn over her father, indulging in unchecked privilege. This drove the Male Lead to seethe with dark jealousy.

Consequently, He Shanjian’s subsequent actions were fueled by childhood resentment, not purely by a desire to avenge the Female Lead.

“The news is already all over the headlines. I’ve contacted the PR department to get the trending topics removed.”

“Roushuang, I don’t blame you for this. Just be more careful next time.”

Father He’s tone remained relatively gentle. As he was about to hang up, he muttered to himself, “No wonder you never liked any of the handsome, eligible bachelors I introduced you to. So you prefer girls after all.”

His tone was filled with a sense of realization.

After hanging up, He Roushuang immediately checked the trending topics on her phone.

She wished she hadn’t. The moment she saw them, her heart nearly leaped out of her chest. Curses rose to her lips, but she swallowed them down, mindful of maintaining her gentle and virtuous image with the Female Lead present.

She probably could have cursed him eight hundred times over by now.

Her eyes fell on the trending topics, a long list glaring from the screen:

#Tianze Group Siblings Fall for the Same Person#
#Is He Group’s Female President a Scumbag Who Stole Her Brother’s Girlfriend?#
#He Roushuang’s Public Kiss with Her Own Brother’s Ex-Girlfriend: A Twisted Perversion or Moral Decay?!#

He Roushuang nearly crushed her phone in fury at these headlines.

It didn’t take a genius to guess who was behind this media frenzy: the Male Lead, who hated her but couldn’t kill her.

Clicking on the topics revealed a chaotic mess, but the most controversial item was a video.

It was the clip of their kiss in the car. Having just hit the trending list, it had already racked up hundreds of thousands of shares and over a million likes.

The sheer scale of the attention was staggering.

After all, He Roushuang wasn’t a celebrity. The Original Owner had always maintained a low profile in public.

Some people might have flamboyant personalities, but they still preferred to avoid public notoriety.

The person filming the video had a shaky hand, likely trembling with excitement. They probably never imagined they’d capture such explosive footage.

He Roushuang: ……

She hadn’t expected that a single idea, though temporarily repelling the Female Lead’s unwanted suitors, would make their relationship public knowledge.

However, the damage to her reputation wasn’t particularly severe.

He Roushuang immediately called her assistant. While the call was dialing, she glanced at Shi Qing.

“I’m going to announce our relationship publicly. We’ll say it was love at first sight, and my brother is just a persistent pursuer. What do you think?”

He Roushuang refused to suffer even the slightest disadvantage.

Her own reputation being tarnished was irrelevant; what mattered most was damaging the Male Lead’s reputation.