After Being Bent by Reader

In the end, the accuser concluded by saying: "jjwxc might not care about the self-donation, but using this way of tricking readers and refusing to admit it is simply disgusting. This author even created a fictional tycoon girlfriend to sell her new work."

The forum post received all sorts of replies, with some people stating that the thread starter had ulterior motives for joining Xu Chuanchuan's reader group. However, most of the people viewing this post were merely spectators who were utterly clueless about the situation, so they simply sided with the thread starter since substantial evidence was provided. After all, both Passerby Shi and I Love Malatang had the same IP address, and it wasn't easy to refute such a fact.

Xu Chuanchuan initially already felt a little carsick. After reading this post, she grew even dizzier. She didn't even hear Murong Shi telling her to stop using her phone and simply continued scrolling down the post in a daze.

#27: "How do you know if the other party isn't the author's girlfriend? Is it strange for someone to live together with their girlfriend? If they're living together, it's only natural for them to share the same IP address. And what's wrong with someone giving donations to their girlfriend? From how I see it, this thread starter is just jealous."

#28: "A whitewasher is here. #27, you're probably the author's friend or sub-account, right?"

#35: "I've read this author's work before, and her sweet romances are nice. I'm not in her reader group, but I often see her emphasizing that she will never bend in the author's note, so reading her latest work feels kind of strange. How did she suddenly find herself a tycoon girlfriend? This whole situation feels strange, so I'm not going to take sides for now."

#36: "I don't read yuri~ I'm just here for the fun~"

…

#123: "This author used to receive very little donations. Only after Passerby Shi appeared did her donations start increasing. This tycoon has only ever donated to the author and the author's good friend Ange from what I found. Are there any experts here who can check Passerby Shi's IP address when donating in the past?

…

#222: "The evidence is here! [Image][Image][Image] I spent two hours going through all of the author's novels. Passerby Shi's past IP addresses are indeed different from the author's, but all three of her IP addresses are located in the same district as the author."

#223: "#222 Amazing! So, they've been living in the same district since before? Could the author have asked one of her relatives to donate to her to avoid getting caught?"

#224: "Now that both IDs are using the same IP address, does this mean the author isn't afraid of getting caught anymore?"

#330: "The people in this thread are geniuses. When they have different IP addresses, you say that they're friends or family. When they have the same IP, you say that the author is using multiple accounts…"

#400: "I can't figure out why the author would want to do such a thing. Her books' statistics are quite good. Is there a need to waste money like this?"

#401: "Isn't that simple? To gain attention and show off, of course."

#402: "But apart from showing off, there are no other benefits. Is there a need to go so far?"

#405: "No other benefits? Her latest book is already being recommended on the front page. Just look at how many bookmarks the book has already. She should be earning at least a thousand a day, right? With how much she's raking in, she won't have to worry about losing money."

…

#513: "I've seen enough. I'm going to reduce the points of this disgusting author."

#514: "#513, that's going too far. Even if the author is spending money to donate to herself, she has done nothing excessive."

#520: "Is lying to readers not excessive?"

#521: "That's right! She used her donations to trick her readers and gained so much attention! This is an injustice to the authors underneath her!"

#533: "Come, come, come! I have over 500 Moonstones saved up! Let's band together and reduce the author's points!"

…

Reduce my points???

Xu Chuanchuan jolted.

There were well over a thousand replies to the post by now, but Xu Chuanchuan wasn't in the mood to continue reading. Hurriedly, she switched to jjwxc's reading application and clicked into her novel details. When she saw the long list of point reduction notifications in her comment section, she nearly fainted out of anger.

Murong Shi thought Xu Chuanchuan was suffering from motion sickness, so she sternly said, "I told you not to use your phone."

Xu Chuanchuan did not respond.

Hearing no reply, Murong Shi took a glance at Xu Chuanchuan. Seeing that her lover looked unwell, she hurriedly stopped the car in an empty space. Then, she asked, "Do you feel like puking?"

Xu Chuanchuan's face was as white as a sheet of paper, and her lips trembled as she said, "I'm fine."

"What's the matter?" Murong Shi asked as she placed a hand on Xu Chuanchuan's forehead.

"I'm really fine," Xu Chuanchuan said as she grabbed onto Murong Shi's hand. Then, she shut her eyes and took a few deep breaths before saying, "I'm just a little angry."

Frowning, Murong Shi asked, "What happened?"

Xu Chuanchuan was unable to calm her emotions even after a long time had passed. Afraid that she couldn't convey the situation clearly, she let Murong Shi read the forum post herself instead.

Murong Shi quickly read through the post, and the more she read, the darker her complexion became. Her frown also became deeper and deeper. When she was finished reading, she asked, "How does this even constitute evidence? Isn't this just slander?"

Xu Chuanchuan weakly nodded. When she took her phone back, she just so happened to receive a message from Ange.

Ange: "I found the person who called you out."

Xu Chuanchuan: "Who?"

Ange: "Fragrant Citrus."

Xu Chuanchuan: "How do you know it's her?"

Ange: "Although users can make posts anonymously on the forum, they still need to register using a valid author ID. So, the moderators can check who is making the posts."

Xu Chuanchuan: "So, you asked the moderators???"

Ange: "Mhm. Anyone who is so familiar with the donation system should be an author. I know you didn't donate to yourself, so I helped you ask a moderator about it. The moderator told me that the account that made that post is one of Ange's author sub-accounts. However, the author didn't tell me the sub-account's ID."

Xu Chuanchuan was shocked. She couldn't believe that Fragrant Citrus was the one slandering her.

Is this person a mad dog? Why must she keep on targeting me?

In the past, Fragrant Citrus had cursed Xu Chuanchuan on Weibo and even used a sub-account to give Xu Chuanchuan a bunch of point reductions. However, at the time, that was because Fragrant Citrus had mistakenly thought that Xu Chuanchuan had stolen Ange away from her.

As a top-ranking author, Ange had an excellent relationship with the platform's moderators. So, Xu Chuanchuan did not doubt that the information Ange received from the moderator was true. However, she truly couldn't figure out what motives Fragrant Citrus had for doing such a thing.

Xu Chuanchuan: "Why is she slandering me this time?"

Ange: "Who knows? Maybe she's just vengeful. Or maybe she has a twisted heart and is just out to mess with you."

Xu Chuanchuan was rendered speechless.

Seeing the many spectators fanning the flames and giving her point reductions for absurd reasons, Xu Chuanchuan couldn't help but be infuriated. When she thought to step forward and clear her name, Ange stopped her, saying: "You best not participate in this farce. Otherwise, the situation will just get muddier and muddier."

Aside from Ange, even a platform moderator had personally messaged Xu Chuanchuan telling her to stay calm and focus on her work instead of participating in this muddy affair. Seeing the moderator's message, Xu Chuanchuan couldn't help but feel frustrated. The moderators might not like authors being at each other's throats, but how could she possibly stomach this grievance?

By now, a commotion had already arisen in Xu Chuanchuan's reader group as well. However, Xu Chuanchuan wasn't in the mood to care.

At this time, Murong Shi held Xu Chuanchuan's hand and said, "Let's go back first."

After arriving back home, the first thing Xu Chuanchuan did was to open up her computer to start working. However, Murong Shi stopped her and said, "Don't force yourself if you don't want to write."

"I need to write tonight's update," Xu Chuanchuan firmly said. If she were to stop updating all of a sudden, the people slandering her would definitely say that she was feeling guilty.

After taking a long look at her lover, Murong Shi said, "Good luck."

"Mhm."

Xu Chuanchuan began typing away at her computer. In the meantime, Murong Shi sat on the bed and began typing out a message on her phone.

Passerby Shi: "Your Lord is very stingy. She wouldn't be willing to waste so much money on herself. She also doesn't have the time to mess with such things. That person on the forums is just deliberately slandering her. Everyone, don't believe the post."

—Darling Shi, you've finally shown up! Seeing Lord getting slandered makes me so angry!

—Even an idiot can tell it's slander, yet those fools actually reduced Lord's points. They're going too far. Is the platform's management not caring about this?

—I'll replenish Lord's points!

—I'm going, too!

…

I Love Hotpot: "Hello, everyone. I'm Ange. Your Lord has not lied to anyone. She even visited me in Shanghai with her girlfriend on National Day."

—What??? You're Lord Ange??? I always thought you were just a part-timer in the group!

—Ahhh! I didn't think it would be you, Lord Ange!!!

…

After sending the message to Xu Chuanchuan's reader group, Ange also made a post on Weibo supporting Xu Chuanchuan. Then, after giving the matter some thought, she looked up the user "Sweet Fragrant Citrus."

That was Fragrant Citrus's Weibo account.

Ange: "I know it is your doing. Enough is enough. You best apologize to Tang'er in your post. It won't serve you any good if this picture gets out. [Image]"

The image was a screenshot of Ange's conversation with one of the forum moderators, and the moderator clearly stated that the thread starter was Fragrant Citrus's sub-account.

Several minutes later…

Sweet Fragrant Citrus: "Whatever. I'm not writing anymore in the future anyway."

Ange gnashed her teeth in anger when she saw this message.

…

Xu Chuanchuan spent two hours completing her daily quota and uploaded the chapter right before 9 PM. Once she scheduled the chapter's release, exhaustion quickly took over her body.

"Are you done?" Murong Shi's voice came from behind Xu Chuanchuan. "Come here; I have something to show you."

"What is it?"

Murong Shi showed her phone's screen to Xu Chuanchuan and asked, "Does this woman look familiar to you?"

Xu Chuanchuan took a careful look at the screen. "Isn't this that dance streamer...Sweet Melon? What are you looking at her for?"

Then, Murong Shi pointed at the watermark located on the image's bottom-right and said, "Tang Xin says that this is Fragrant Citrus's Weibo ID."

"Fragrant Citrus?!" At Murong Shi's reminder, Xu Chuanchuan took a closer look at the watermark. Although the watermark was somewhat blurry, she still managed to see the words "Fragrant Citrus."

"Fragrant Citrus is Sweet Melon. What a coincidence, right?" Murong Shi said, sneering.