Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The onlookers that were busybodies were all well-versed in these kinds of things that had been mixed up on live broadcasting platforms for a long time. They had witnessed several popular anchors fall from the altar overnight because of cheating fans, playing games while using cheating devices, personal morality problems, patriotism problems and so on.
These anchors often kept denying things when they first ran into problems and tried their best to justify themselves, and fans would proactively defend them, and then things would get worse and worse. Hidden masters among the people who are watching found clues and gave real hammers, which ruined their reputation totally and made their fans sad and disappointed. Finally, the live broadcast platform was forced to close them down under pressure.
But the audience had never seen real hammers come so fast!
It wasn’t a real hammer. It was a hammer that came in seconds!
Two different cell phone ringtones echoed in the room, and even if she’d had a glib tongue, she would not have been able to explain this.
Of course, maybe she could say that the other mobile phone was dropped by a friend who was a guest, by a landlord, or by a cat next door, but would anyone believe it even if the reasons were put forward?
She couldn’t insult the intelligence of the audience!
Even the fans that had been protecting her all along also went quiet.
After all, there were only a few rich backers who could add her on WeChat. Most of her fans were only floaters or just gave a small number of gifts, but one could not say that they were not suitable fans because they gave fewer gifts. They were inclined to believe that what she’d said was true, believe the pure image she created, that she had only one mobile phone, that she did not incite others to attack another anchor…
She had heartlessly stepped on their trust.
Trust, once cracked, would soon crash down like an avalanche.
If she was not guilty, why had she purposely hidden the truth that she had another phone?
Many people had two mobile phones for work reasons—one to contact family and friends and the other to contact business partners at work. They shut one down after work so as to avoid interfering with life at work.
Why hadn’t she admitted truthfully that she had two mobile phones? The reason was that there was a secret on the other cell phone. Once she admitted that she had another phone, it would be necessary to show the audience the chat record on that cell phone.
Now, the masses were no longer interested in the chat content on her other mobile phone. There was no need to look at it. It was easy to guess. Whether they really attacked it or not was meaningless.
In various ways, her future as a broadcaster was truly over.
Her eyes were glassy and her mouth was open. She kept her mouth shape as she had just spoken. She let the ringing of both cell phones go on and on. She was so desperate that she had no thoughts of pressing the mute tone or rejecting the call.
Now there was only one question left in her mind: How did the person know her two cell phone numbers?
As a broadcaster, she did not let her personal and her work lives intersect at all, because she was not particularly well-known herself and the beauty camera changed her image too much. Even if her mother saw the live broadcast, she may not recognize her.
In life, she was just an ordinary person. Her parents only knew that she did not have a formal job and earned money online. The money she earned was a good income in this small city. They didn’t know exactly what she does. She hadn’t disclosed to her relatives and friends.
So, how had her personal phone number gotten leaked?
The more she thought about it, the scarier it got!
For her two mobile phone numbers, one was telecommunications, and the other was Unicom. Even if that person was a telecommunications company employee, it was impossible to be an employee of both communications companies, right?
Unless…
A phrase appeared in her mind.
Online police.
Perhaps only online police could do it to this extent, right?
Unexpectedly, her ringtone went silent.
She looked at the missed call on the phone. The beginning of the number had some unknown area code—an international phone call from Egypt.
If she knew that such a scary character was hidden by that Sihwa girl’s side, even if it scared her to death, she would not dare to provoke Sihwa…
But it was already too late to regret it.
“What’s wrong with having two phones? Fishy, we believe in you. Take out your other phone to see the chat history!”
“Exactly, Fishy! Take out your other phone to reveal the truth and shut their disgusting mouths up!”
Some fans were still talking at her, but she couldn’t believe anyone now. Who knew if the person speaking was a real fan or someone disguised by the other party? Would she be deliberately provoked to take out her cell phone?
Even if she suffered a complete defeat now, she should at least try to maintain her final face. If the audience could see her ambiguous and even explicit chat records with her rich fans, as well as those selfies full of teasing, it wasn’t just a matter of telling lies and smearing other anchors… She didn’t want to be an internet celebrity in that sense.
Every female web anchor, whether it was real or not, would maintain a pure image in front of a vast number of fans, or at least not act like a sl*t, which was the bottom line of personal morality.
Most fans had already totally turned against her.
“Refund our money! Refund my gifts!”
“Cheater! Return my money!”
“Bye-bye! Pretend the gifts I sent you before were just feeding dogs!”
“I misjudged you!”
The hurt fans left the live broadcast room one by one, leaving very hurtful words before they were gone.
It could not be blamed on them. How deeply they’d loved before, they hated as strongly now.
Even more of the onlookers had already left. She had lost all the ability to fight back and was like a beached salted fish. There was no meaning in continuing to watch it.
There were still quite a few onlookers left too. They stayed to see the end.
“Sorry.”
She suddenly opened her mouth, feeling weak, like a shell that had lost her soul.
The netizens were suddenly alert, all guessing what she was about to say.
“I let everyone down. I let down the fans who love me.” She lowered her head to say, “It’s my mistake. I betrayed everyone’s trust.”
On the desk in front of her, the backup and main cell phone screens displayed a message just received from an unfamiliar number with an unfamiliar international area code.
The content of the information was: Tell the truth and receive a lenient punishment. If you resist, the punishment will be harsh.
Without a doubt, this was obviously a threat, and it was not an empty threat. The person who’d sent the message definitely had the ability to carry out the threat. She believed that.
The other party’s abilities were so strong that they could expose her private life whenever they wanted to. They could publish her real name, her telephone number, her address, her ID number, and her death in a social sense.
She raised her crying face, sniveling, and sobbed, “Sihwa, I’m sorry. I apologize to you. You’re a good girl. I shouldn’t have incited fans to smear you… Please forgive me!”
After saying that, she lowered her head and made a deep bow towards the camera.
