novelraw Chapter 218 I Admit Defeat
Chapter 218 I Admit Defeat
Song Zhihe opened her eyes and looked at the dim yellow light on the car roof. The light was very weak, as if it was about to go out. She suddenly felt that she was that light. She had once shone, she had once been looked up to, but in the end, she was destined to go out.
She bent down and picked up the bottle of water she had thrown away. The cap was screwed on tightly, and the water didn't spill. She held it in her hand, not drinking it. She just held it, feeling the icy coldness seep into her palm, chilling her to the core.
The phone rang. It wasn't hers, it was her assistant. The assistant glanced at the screen, hesitating whether to answer.
"Who?" Song Zhihe asked.
"Mr. Lin... Mr. Lin." The assistant's voice was very soft, as if afraid of disturbing something.
Song Zhihe held out her hand. Her assistant handed her the phone. She glanced at the name on the screen—Lin Chen. She took it.
"Song Zhihe." The voice on the other end was flat, as if stating something ordinary. "You have one last chance. Come out and explain yourself, or wait for us to release the evidence?"
Song Zhihe gripped her phone, her fingers trembling. She knew what Lin Chen possessed: the chat logs, the transfer records, the evidence that she had instructed Song Kexin to drug her. He had it all along, but hadn't released it. He was waiting for her to choose.
"What do you want me to say?" Her voice was terribly hoarse.
"The truth. Everything that happened three years ago. Your relationship with Gu Yanshen, those photos you posted, the things you instructed Song Kexin to do." Lin Chen paused. "You only have today. If you haven't made a move by tomorrow before sunrise, we'll do it for you."
The phone call ended. The busy tone echoed hollowly in my ear.
Song Zhihe put down her phone and leaned back in her seat. Outside the car window, the crowd hadn't dispersed. Some were calling her name, some were cursing her, and some were live-streaming on their phones. She didn't know if they were waiting for her response or just wanted to see her in a sorry state. All she knew was that she had no way out.
She picked up her phone; the screen was cracked, but it still lit up. She opened Weibo, and the trending topics were all about Gu Yanshen's confession event. She looked at the hashtags, at the netizens offering advice to Gu Yanshen, at the fans who had already started apologizing. She smiled, a smile more painful than a grimace.
She typed a few words, then deleted them. She typed again, then deleted again. She didn't know what to say. Sorry? She couldn't say it. Explain? She couldn't explain. Admit her mistake? She wasn't willing to.
She closed her eyes. Lin Chen's words echoed repeatedly in her mind—"You only have today."
She sent Gu Yanbo a WeChat message: 【I don't want to play anymore. I give up.】
Gu Yanbo called directly. His voice was cold, as cold as ice. "You admit defeat? You think admitting defeat is the end? Do you think Gu Yanshen will let you off the hook for what you posted? You only have one path—fight them to the very end."
Song Zhihe held her phone, her fingers trembling.
"I don't know what else I can do."
"You don't need to do anything." Gu Yanbo's voice suddenly softened, as if he were comforting someone on the verge of collapse. "Just don't come out. Don't respond. Don't post anything. Wait for me to release all the information, wait for public opinion to surge again, wait for them to slap themselves in the face."
Song Zhihe remained silent for a long time.
"……good."
She hung up the phone and tossed it onto the seat. Outside the window, the crowd hadn't dispersed. Some were calling her name, some were cursing her, and some were live-streaming on their phones. She put on her blindfold and shrank into her seat like an ostrich burying its head in the sand. She didn't know what other tricks Gu Yanbo had up his sleeve. She only knew that she had no way out.
Gu Yanbo hung up the phone and tapped his fingers lightly on the table twice. He stared at Song Zhihe's words "I don't want to play anymore" on the screen, and the corners of his mouth slowly curved into an arc—not a smile, but the kind of expression a hunter gives when he sees his prey trying to escape, calmly tightening the lasso.
He opened his contacts and dialed a number.
"Mr. Chen, the online trolls we mentioned before can be deployed. Double the budget again. I want to see the tide completely turn by tomorrow morning."
A voice answered on the other end of the phone. Gu Yanbo added, "Remember, this isn't about clearing Song Zhihe's name, it's about playing the victim for her. She doesn't want to be innocent, she wants sympathy. The more pitiful, the better."
Late at night, a batch of similar posts appeared simultaneously on major forums, Weibo, and short video platforms. The titles were all long, carrying a deliberately suppressed emotion—"I want to say a few fair words about Song Zhihe and Gu Yanshen."
The post begins with "I'm a long-time fan of Song Zhihe for five years," detailing how Song Zhihe rejected numerous wealthy suitors for Gu Yanshen over the years, how she silently supported him during his career slump, and how she endured the pain of "him having feelings for someone else" during their engagement. The writing is delicate and emotionally rich, vividly portraying the image of a devoted woman who cannot have the one she loves.
"She knew he had someone else in his heart. She knew everything. But she thought that as long as she was good enough and patient enough, he would eventually turn around and look at her. She waited for him for three years. What she got in return was him using all the 'GG' signs in the city to confess his love to another woman."
The post ended without blaming Gu Yanshen or attacking Lu Xiran, simply stating: "She loves him. Was that wrong?"
Meanwhile, a number of marketing accounts began reposting clips of Song Zhihe's early interviews. In the video, when asked "What type of person do you like?", she smiled and said, "Someone responsible, and it's okay if they don't talk much." In another clip, she was asked, "What if the person you like doesn't like you back?" She lowered her head, remained silent for a long time, and said, "Then I'll just wait."
These clips were edited together, accompanied by melancholic background music, and the title read—"Song Zhihe: I Waited for Him for Three Years." The comments section was flooded with unanimous praise: "So heartbreaking," "There's nothing wrong with loving someone," "She didn't hurt anyone, she just loved the wrong person."
Following Gu Yanbo's instructions, Song Zhihe's agent posted a screenshot of a WeChat Moments post. The screenshot showed Song Zhihe's WeChat profile picture with the caption: "I'm tired." The time was 2 AM. The agent added: "I've been with her filming all day, and she still hasn't slept. I don't know if what's going on online is true or false, but I know she's the most dedicated and kindest actress I've ever met."
This post on WeChat Moments was quickly screenshotted and circulated online, accompanied by the hashtag "Song Zhihe was still working at 2 a.m.," and quietly climbed to the bottom of the trending topics list.
Public opinion began to crack.
"To be fair, Song Zhihe really didn't say a single bad word about Gu Yanshen, right? From beginning to end, she only said that she was the victim of a third party's interference in her marriage. She never called Gu Yanshen a scumbag, nor did she tear into Lu Xiran."
"The photos she posted, although suggestive, didn't explicitly name Lu Xiran as a homewrecker; it was just the fans' speculation..."
"Thinking about it carefully, if she really wanted to get back at Lu Xiran, why didn't she just release all the information she had at once? She's just too kind-hearted and couldn't bear to hurt Gu Yanshen."
"Three years, how many three-year periods does a woman have?"