CHAPTER 376: CHAPTER 208 CALLIGRAPHY

"Are you asleep?"

The room was quiet for a while before Fu Siyu suddenly spoke up.

"Not yet."

Shu Wan had slept a lot during the day and wasn’t yet sleepy.

"Are you cold? Do you need me to turn up the temperature a bit?"

"Not cold."

Shu Wan hesitated, perhaps because the dimmed environment blurred certain awkward boundaries, and she subconsciously said, "You are really nice to me. Are you like this with other people?"

No sooner had Shu Wan finished speaking than she knew the answer in her heart.

"Of course not," Fu Siyu turned to face her, his gaze resting on Shu Wan, "My energy is limited, so of course my attention can only be given to important people."

Even without turning her head, Shu Wan could feel Fu Siyu’s gaze, her throat tightened, unsure of how to respond.

Fu Siyu added another line himself, "You are also very nice to me."

"I’m pretty nice to other people too," Shu Wan added quietly.

"But can I say with a bit of confidence that I treat you slightly better than I do others?" Fu Siyu’s tone hinted at a smile.

Shu Wan couldn’t refute this; after all, people respond in kind—Fu Siyu was so good to her, she naturally treated him a bit better than others.

But though it made sense, there was an added implication when Fu Siyu pointed it out.

"Can I consider myself a somewhat more important person then?"

Full of confidence in everything he did, Fu Siyu hesitated substantially when he said this, using two words of uncertainty.

Even with lingering doubts about their strange relationship, Shu Wan affirmed at that moment, "A very important person."

"Really?" Fu Siyu’s tone was unmistakably cheerful, "Hearing you say that makes me very happy."

After a pause, he added, "Especially happy."

The night deepened, only a dim light shone at the foot of the bed, and a gentle breeze stirred the branches outside the window, casting swaying shadows on the wall, as if to disrupt the quiet night.

Shu Wan closed her eyes and could still sense the happiness emanating from Fu Siyu.

The emotion was almost contagious, slightly lifting Shu Wan’s spirits and curving her lips into an involuntary smile.

"Good night, Shu Wan."

"Mm, good night."

Shu Wan had thought she would struggle to fall asleep under these circumstances, but perhaps from spending too much time with Fu Siyu, she had grown accustomed to his presence. Even with a mind full of thoughts, she quickly settled down and fell asleep.

Beside her, Fu Siyu was wide awake.

After a while, Shu Wan’s breathing smoothed out completely, and Fu Siyu picked up his phone, dimmed the brightness to the lowest, tapped a few times, put down his phone, and closed his eyes.

At this juncture on the short video platform, everyone was preparing for bed, but a fresh refresh revealed a new update from Fu Siyu.

"Feeling really happy today @Bailu people."

Fu Siyu’s relationship with the owner of the Bailu people’s account had long been speculated by netizens, nearly certain, but Fu Siyu had never directly addressed it.

Now, this mention confirmed their guesses.

"I told you Fu Si and Bailu people were a pair, alright, now they’re even flaunting their love."

"Not to burst your bubble, big shot, but you’re so happy about something, can’t you share with us? We all use the same social media, we’re so close now, what is there to hide?"

"Fu Siyu, such an impressive man, dares to publicly showcase his wife on social media, yet my boyfriend still hasn’t acknowledged me on his friend circle, truly sad."

Fu Siyu’s post had already sparked a flurry of online discussion, of which Shu Wan was blissfully unaware.

She slept well that night, even dreaming about the Little White Fox she had kept in her past life.

The Little White Fox was always warm in winter; Shu Wan liked to hold it while lounging on the soft couch reading. In her dream, she also held the Little White Fox in her arms.

Only, the Little White Fox felt different from what she remembered, and there was a faint scent of sandalwood.

The smell of sandalwood awoke Shu Wan from her dream.

She opened her eyes to see Fu Siyu’s distinct jawline.

Looking down, her hand was resting on Fu Siyu’s waist, and the posture clearly indicated she was the initiator.

Shu Wan was about to withdraw her hand while Fu Siyu was still asleep, but unexpectedly, before she could lift her hand, Fu Siyu raised his hand to grasp her entire body in his arms, his right hand also resting on her waist.

This placed them in an unmistakably intimate embrace.

Enveloped in the scent emanating from Fu Siyu’s body, Shu Wan didn’t find it unpleasant, yet such an action was decidedly too intimate.

For a fleeting moment, Shu Wan wondered if Fu Siyu had woken up, suspecting that it was deliberate.

But she quickly dismissed this guess.

Fu Siyu had consistently been very kind to her, behaving as a gentleman, and Shu Wan didn’t think he would do such a thing.

Shu Wan had intended to wake Fu Siyu, but seeing the faint darkness under his eyes, she gave up on the idea, after all, Fu Siyu’s hard work was for her sake.

Having realized this, Shu Wan ceased to fret and closed her eyes, adopting this posture to continue sleeping in Fu Siyu’s arms.

Soon, Shu Wan’s breathing became steady, and at that moment, Fu Siyu’s hand on her waist tightened a bit.

By the time Shu Wan woke up again, Fu Siyu had left. She reached out and felt the blanket; it was cold, indicating that Fu Siyu had been gone for quite a while.

This was for the better, as it spared them the awkwardness of having to explain to each other upon waking.

After getting out of bed and freshening up, Shu Wan sat back down on the bed. She picked up her phone to see a message from Fu Siyu sent an hour ago, "I’ve gone to take Fu Yang to school. After you wake up, have the Housekeeper bring you food. Call me if you need anything."

"Okay."

After responding to Fu Siyu, Shu Wan opened other apps to take a look.

The first thing she saw was a post by Fu Siyu on the short-video platform. Fu Siyu had sent her a private message, "I mentioned you in the spur of the moment. If you mind, I can delete it."

"I don’t mind."

Originally, no one knew that she was the Bailu people, so even if Fu Siyu mentioned her, it didn’t really matter.

Casually browsing the short-video platform, Shu Wan then opened Weibo and was bombarded with a deluge of mentions and comments, all about accusations of her calligraphy being fake.

Shu Wan had been doubted several times before, so this time, instead of anger, she was curious about the reasons they had concocted now.

Shu Wan clicked on the trending topic "Literary Professor Publicly Questions Shu Wan," where many people claimed that Shu Wan had used trickery to win during her last live stream, believing that she couldn’t possibly have written those characters.

After the last live stream, Shu Wan had emerged triumphantly, while Ren Yong, along with many advertisers, failed to fulfill their contracts and nearly faced financial ruin.

In such a dire situation, Ren Yong could only insist that Shu Wan had cheated in order to recover some losses.

Therefore, during the past few days while Shu Wan was sick, Ren Yong had racked his brains and finally came up with a claim—that Shu Wan had used "Visible Paper" during her live stream.

This type of paper was already written on by someone else, but using some special method to make the characters invisible, they would only become visible when exposed to water, meaning that it wasn’t Shu Wan’s skill, but merely a trick she used to fool everyone.

Ordinarily, such an argument would lack evidence, merely indicative of Ren Yong’s impotence and rage.

However, with many calligraphers stepping out to publicly back Ren Yong’s claim, his accusation suddenly gained credibility.

The calligraphers supported Ren Yong because they couldn’t believe that such masterful strokes could have been penned by someone so young, let alone a woman.

In the art circle, ninety-eight percent of the influential voice was in the hands of men, among whom seniority also mattered a great deal.

To them, Shu Wan’s identity—a woman, a youngster, and an entertainer looked down upon by those in the art industry—buffed the skepticism to its limit, leaving the public utterly incredulous.

"Nowadays, young people disrespect objective principles just for sensationalism. Such calligraphy couldn’t be mastered without decades of practice."

"If any young lady could write like this, then my fifty years of arduous practice would be a joke—absurd."

[Well, the farce goes on unresolved, doesn’t Shu Wan’s live demonstration count for anything?]

[Didn’t the experts already say? Shu Wan had someone write on the paper in advance, then it became visible once wet, looking as though she wrote it when in fact, she did not.]

[Oh my, the city’s schemes run deep. Who knew you could play tricks like this? From which calligraphy master did Shu Wan get the fake? Their writing is genuinely good.]

Initially skeptical about Shu Wan’s capability to produce such excellent calligraphy, the public naturally sided with the experts as they came forward, vouching that Shu Wan had indeed faked her work.

In no time, Shu Wan was once again thrust into the eye of the storm.

Shu Wan wasn’t angered by the experts’ skepticism; after all, she had experienced similar situations in her past life.

Back then, when she first entered the court, she had shown her talents in governance, and the old forces in the court’s first thought wasn’t to promote her but to suppress her.

Because someone who isn’t amenable to them, regardless of their capability, would only threaten the vested interests of those in power.

Just like now, her emergence posed a threat to their interests, therefore, whether she had actually produced the calligraphy or not, they were determined to push her down.

Unfortunately for them, Shu Wan wasn’t someone who could be easily suppressed.

In response to these emphatic doubts from the experts, Shu Wan straightforwardly posted a status update, "If you question me, come and face me one-on-one. If you don’t have the courage, then I win."