Starlet Taotie Chapter 10
Chapter 10 Illegal
After finishing everything she wanted in the convenience store, Jiang Tao set her sights on the duck neck shop next door.
She looked at Tong Tong pitifully. “Pleaseee?”
“No!” Tong Tong pushed up her glasses and coldly refused.
She would absolutely not let another ‘Li Xi’ incident repeat itself!
All the money was with Tong Tong.
Jiang Tao could only sigh longingly at the duck neck, looking back longingly as she was practically dragged into a taxi.
…
After getting out of the taxi, Tong Tong kept nagging, “No more eating when we get back! Even if you don’t gain weight, it’s still late. Staying up late causes puffiness and bloating, so once we get home, you must sleep immediately.”
Jiang Tao absentmindedly agreed.
When they reached the entrance of the residential area, her nose twitched and she suddenly walked in another direction.
“Hey, jie, where are you going!” Tong Tong quickly chased after her.
After turning a corner, she saw a man and a woman standing under a streetlight talking.
Jiang Tao’s eyes were completely glued to the bag of duck necks the girl was holding.
Waaah~
So fragrant, so delicious smelling~
The more she wasn’t allowed to eat it, the more she wanted it!
Tong Tong: “……”
She glanced over casually—and froze.
“That girl looks kind of familiar.”
The baseball cap and mask… wasn’t that the same Li Xi who had taken a photo with Jiang Tao earlier?
At that moment, Li Xi seemed to say something. The man facing her suddenly slapped her hard across the face.
Li Xi was knocked straight to the ground, and everything in her hand scattered across the floor.
The man didn’t seem satisfied with this and lifted his leg to kick her.
Several passersby couldn’t stand it anymore and rushed over to help.
But the man suddenly pulled out a knife, screaming frantically, “She’s my girlfriend! If you don’t want to die, then stay out of this!”
The passersby immediately hesitated.
By the time Li Xi had been kicked a few more times and stopped moving, Tong Tong was already panicking and dialing the police.
But before the call even connected, she saw Jiang Tao shoot forward like an arrow.
“!!”
The man was dragging Li Xi toward a car.
Seeing Jiang Tao approach, he raised the knife in a frantic warning. “Get lost!”
Jiang Tao’s eyes turned sharp. Without hesitation, she grabbed a stone from the flowerbed and threw it straight at him.
While the man instinctively dodged, she closed the distance in an instant, spinning into a kick that landed squarely on the side of his neck.
The man didn’t even have time to make a sound before collapsing unconscious.
Not long after, the police arrived.
The bystanders chattered over each other as they described what had happened.
The police handcuffed the man and took him, along with Li Xi, Jiang Tao, Tong Tong, and two willing witnesses, back to the station for statements.
At the police station, Li Xi gradually regained consciousness.
Her face was badly swollen. Holding a police-issued ice pack to the side of her face, she cried and recounted their history.
She and the man had once been a couple, but he had always been extremely controlling and had a tendency toward domestic violence. She couldn’t take it anymore and broke up with him. Unexpectedly, he kept harassing her. She went as far as to change her home and job, and every day she wore a hat and mask when going out just to avoid him.
But she never expected that he would still manage to find her. He demanded to get back together, and when she refused, he became violent and tried to forcibly take her away.
After she finished speaking, Li Xi looked at Jiang Tao with overwhelming gratitude. “Jiang Jiang, thank you. If it weren’t for you, I might’ve been done for today…”
She had originally just been a casual fan after watching ‘Over Here!’. She thought Jiang Tao was amusing, so she paid a little more attention.
But now, she had decided: she would be Jiang Tao’s fan for life!
The police officers only then realized that Jiang Tao was actually a celebrity, and they were even more shocked.
“This kind of act of bravery deserves praise!”
“Perfect timing! The bureau is doing a special column on this, I think this case can be turned into a report and published!”
…
“Jie! You were so cool!” After leaving the police station, Tong Tong was still buzzing with excitement. “The moment you rushed out, you were like a heroine descending from the sky!!”
Tong Tong clenched her fists, her eyes sparkling. “In that moment, what were you thinking? Was it out of righteous indignation and a desire to fight injustice? Or was it out of concern for your fans, disregarding your own safety to save her?”
Jiang Tao’s expression darkened again at the reminder. “He actually knocked that super delicious duck neck onto the ground! How unforgivable!!!”
Tong Tong: “????????”
…
In a villa on the outskirts of Beijing, a tall, thin man with an aquiline nose in a silk shirt sat on the sofa, drinking wine.
His face bore a gloomy expression.
His name was Han Ziheng. He was Su Yingxue’s obsessive admirer and one of the male antagonists in the novel.
In the original story, he was the one who deliberately encouraged Young Master Lu to keep Jiang Tao as a mistress. He also leaked information to the paparazzi, and after the scandal broke out, he even bought online trolls to completely destroy her reputation.
It could be said that the original host’s eventual depression and suicide was partly due to his actions behind the scenes.
He had originally thought that after the incident with Jiang Tao and Young Master Lu, she would be completely blacklisted.
But to his surprise, the paparazzi not only failed to capture a single photograph, they even turned around and chewed him out.
He tried to contact Young Master Lu to find out what had happened, only to discover he had been blocked.
With no other choice, Han Ziheng directly called Jiang Tao’s manager.
Fortunately, Sun Jianxian was a spineless man. After a little intimidation and a bit of incentive, he immediately gave in.
But Jiang Tao’s popularity from ‘Over Here!’ had still not died down.
Su Yingxue was unhappy that he hadn’t handled things properly and hadn’t spoken to him for several days.
Just when Han Ziheng was growing anxious, someone sent him a photo.
In the picture, Jiang Tao was getting out of a police car. She was bare-faced, her hair casually tied up. That unguarded look alone was enough to make one’s imagination run wild.
For Han Ziheng, who was now grasping at straws, this photo was like a life-saving medicine!
He quickly contacted a group of online water army.
(TLN: An Internet water army (网络水军) is a group of users who are paid to post online comments with a vested interest on Chinese websites.)
These people were best at “one picture as a starting point, the rest is pure fabrication.” And since Han Ziheng was generous with money and paid quickly, they patted their chests and guaranteed they would completely ruin Jiang Tao’s reputation.
After hanging up, Han Ziheng picked up a photo frame from the table and gently stroked Su Yingxue’s picture, revealing a twisted, almost pathological smile. “Yingxue, don’t worry. No matter who bullies you, I will definitely take revenge for you.”
…
That very night, a shocking piece of gossip exploded across the internet:
Pure and Innocent Goddess Actually Secretly Promiscuous?
The leak claimed that a certain J-surnamed actress had debuted with a pure, innocent image and was once called the ‘nation’s first love’, but in reality, actually led an extremely chaotic private life and was known for her promiscuous lifestyle.
It didn’t take long for netizens to decode it: this ‘J-surnamed actress’ was referring to Jiang Tao.
Today’s netizens were not so easily fooled anymore.
This kind of baseless accusation, without any evidence, was usually dismissed outright.
But at the height of this discussion, someone actually released a photo of Jiang Tao getting out of a police car.
What’s more, the person who posted it confidently claimed that Jiang Tao had been arrested for attending some kind of debauched party.
The internet instantly exploded.
Thanks to her shocking performance in ‘Over Here!’, Jiang Tao had finally salvaged some of her reputation.
But in just one night, it all went back to square one.
All kinds of fake and real rumors flooded the internet.
Although some people questioned what the truth actually was, they were quickly labeled as Jiang Tao’s fans and were immediately attacked by the water army and angry netizens.
【Acting like you’re the rational one, but can photos can be faked?】
【I almost changed my opinion of her. As they say, old habits die hard! 】
【Get Jiang Tao out of the entertainment industry!!!】
Among these comments, a user named ‘Xixi Must Be Brave’ posted a photo with Jiang Tao, trying to prove that she had gone to the police station after bravely saving her that night.
But no one believed it. Some even speculated that this user had also attended the debauched party. The comment section under her post was flooded with insults and abuse.
Jiang Tao was sleeping soundly when a heavy knocking on the door suddenly woke her.
She opened it to find Tong Tong’s anxious face.
“Jie! The internet is tearing you apart right now! What do we do?!”
Jiang Tao took the phone and casually scrolled through it.
“How can they be like this?! You clearly went to save someone, and now they’re twisting it into something like this!!” Tong Tong was almost in tears. “And Li Xi is still hospitalized! Those people are even talking about doxxing her… it’s too much!”
Compared to her, Jiang Tao’s reaction was unusually calm. “I know who’s behind this.”
“Then should we call the polic—” Tong Tong froze for a moment, then reacted. “What? Jie, you do?”
Jiang Tao nodded confidently. “Yes.”
This kind of smear tactic was far too familiar.
In the original novel, Han Ziheng had used exactly this method to drive the original host to her death.
Tong Tong quickly asked, “Jie, do you have evidence?”
Jiang Tao shook her head.
Tong Tong furrowed her brows. “Without evidence, the police can’t really arrest anyone…”
“Then we’ll handle it ourselves,” Jiang Tao said.
“What do you want to do?” Tong Tong asked nervously.
Jiang Tao let out a cold laugh. “As long as I eat him, he won’t be able to cause trouble anymore…”
Tong Tong: “……”
She immediately grabbed Jiang Tao, who was about to rush out the door.
“Jie!! Calm down!! Eating people is illegal!!!”
Jiang Tao was both frustrated and furious. “Your world is way too troublesome! Why are there so many rules regarding what can and can’t be eaten?!!”
Tong Tong: “……”
Is that even the point right now?!
TL Note: Duck neck is really delicious, I promise. It’s definitely an acquired taste though, like chicken feet, there’s a lot of bone you need to get around haha
Also, if you’ve noticed how choppy this novel reads, yeah, that’s not me, I’m really trying my best here, but the author just writes like this ><
