Chapter 74: Blackmail Part 1

Huai Xu was a crossdressing blogger with a million followers.

……

That’s right, a crossdressing blogger.

His real gender was male.

Shang Xuan didn’t have that kind of interest.

And initially, in his eyes, this blogger Huai Xu was simply insane. He was clearly a man who looked perfectly masculine in men’s clothes. Apart from his slightly long hair, there was nothing abnormal about him.

How could someone have such a disgusting fetish?

He didn’t get it.

But many of the girls in Shang Xuan’s class followed him, so out of curiosity and a thrill-seeking mindset, he followed too.

Really, at first, it was just curiosity.

But a little over a month ago, another person started appearing on Huai Xu’s account.

Huai Xu called her his model, and they collaborated on a few promotional videos. Shang Xuan…… got hooked.

There weren’t many videos, just three.

But he watched them almost every day and asked countless times in the comments whether the new model was male or female.

Huai Xu never replied.

So Shang Xuan tentatively treated her as a girl.

She was a very pure little model who looked about seventeen or eighteen, with a small face, a pointed nose, and clear, clean eyes like a deer’s—perfectly matching all his fantasies of a first love at this age.

Shang Xuan was utterly captivated, but he could only catch glimpses of her on Huai Xu’s account.

The little model didn’t have her own account.

Or rather.

Maybe she did, but it wasn’t public yet.

Because on the day Huai Xu posted the promotional video with the new model, his follow list went from 10 to 11.

He had very few follows, and it was such a neat number, so Shang Xuan remembered it clearly. He figured that the new 11th follow was definitely the little model’s account.

Unfortunately, Huai Xu had set his follow list to private, so Shang Xuan couldn’t see the account name.

But it would be revealed someday.

Who didn’t want a piece of the self-media pie these days? He just needed to wait patiently. No need for all that mysterious hype.

Shang Xuan got it.

But before he got the little model’s account reveal, he saw that his cousin and this big blogger Huai Xu followed each other?

Did his cousin have connections like that?

Shang Xuan got interested and curiously tapped into Tao Zhi’s profile. It was empty, nothing there, but he had quite a few followers—all humanities and social sciences accounts. The only mutual follow was Huai Xu.

Shang Xuan opened their private messages.

Blank, nothing there.

So weird.

Maybe they knew each other on another app?

Shang Xuan was really curious, and an immoral idea popped into his head. He sneaked a glance back at the tightly shut door behind him.

It hadn’t been fifteen minutes yet; he shouldn’t be back so soon.

Reassured, Shang Xuan tapped into Tao Zhi’s WeChat and searched for Huai Xu.

No Huai Xu in contacts, but there was a chat history.

Someone named Rong Huai had sent the Huai Xu ID.

Shang Xuan immediately clicked in!

……

When Tao Zhi returned to the room, it was right on the fifteen-minute mark.

He’d gotten some fresh air on the balcony and washed his face before coming back to Shang Xuan’s room and opening the door. “Time’s up. Give me my phone back.”

No response from Shang Xuan.

“Little Xuan?” Tao Zhi was puzzled.

Shang Xuan had said he wanted to use his phone to watch some videos, but when Tao Zhi entered, the room was completely quiet—no sounds at all.

Yet Shang Xuan definitely had his phone.

And he still held it now.

A bad premonition instantly hit Tao Zhi.

“Shang Xuan—”

Shang Xuan turned around with a complicated expression, Tao Zhi’s phone still in his palm. The screen clearly showed the chat with Rong Huai.

Tao Zhi recognized it at a glance because right in the center of the screen was the little black dress Rong Huai had sent for the next shoot.

“”No wonder the tutoring pays so much,” Shang Xuan said as he sized Tao Zhi up and down. He never would have imagined that the model he found so beautiful and likable was actually his cousin……

“Your parents said the 200,000 was borrowed from a friend. I was suspicious even then—who lends out 200,000 like that? “Turns out you’re doing crossdressing modeling on the side.”

“Crossdressing model, tsk tsk.”

“So this is what you’ve been up to outside.”

His scrutinizing, amazed gaze.

“Give me back my phone.” It was the first time Tao Zhi had encountered something like this; he panicked a bit, his heart pounding, his mind a mess, unsure what to do. But he didn’t forget to reach for his phone first.

Shang Xuan wouldn’t give it.

The model he’d fallen for at first sight turned out to be his cousin—the one he disliked the most. Shang Xuan was beyond frustrated.

He really hated Tao Zhi.

Because Tao Zhi was the classic “child from another family.”

With Shang Xuan’s grades, he couldn’t get into a regular high school and had planned to go to vocational school with his junior high friends. But his parents, seeing Tao Zhi’s good grades and prospects—getting into a top university—spent money to force him into regular high school.

The money was theirs, the decision theirs, but they held it against him.

Especially after Tao Zhi came back from university with money, it made his parents even more determined to make him go to college too.

But he just wasn’t cut out for studying.

His phone got confiscated because of it.

“Don’t come any closer.” Shang Xuan held out a hand to block Tao Zhi. “If you do, I might just yell for someone.”

“……” The flustered Tao Zhi stopped in his tracks.

“What exactly do you want?”

“Give it back.”

Tao Zhi never imagined Shang Xuan would be this kind of person.

He never had secrets on his phone; whoever asked to borrow it, he’d lend it, and everyone respected social etiquette—no snooping into privacy. Even Fu Zheng, the rudest and least mannerly person he knew, only looked at what he wanted when borrowing his phone, never rummaging everywhere.

He never expected someone even worse than Fu Zheng.

“What’s the rush?” Shang Xuan thought for a moment and flashed an evil, smug grin. “You reminded me—what should I ask for? How about you buy me a new phone?”

“My mom confiscated mine; who knows when she’ll give it back. You owe me one.”

“You’re loaded; this is pocket change for you, right?”

“Anything else, I’ll tell you when I think of it.”

Tao Zhi: “……”

–

Tao Zhi got blackmailed by a 16-year-old high schooler.

He, a nearly 19-year-old adult, got blackmailed by a 16-year-old brat.

Tao Zhi’s mood was incredibly complicated at the time.

Extremely complicated.

So complicated that he forgot to panic, standing there stunned, his mind full of question marks, not reacting at all.

Shang Xuan, on the other hand, was smug, laying out conditions while holding Tao Zhi’s phone. “I want the same model as yours.”

“The one with the max storage.”

Before he finished, Tao Zhi still hadn’t snapped out of it when the room door suddenly opened. His aunt came in with cut fruit and, seeing they weren’t studying, asked puzzledly what they were doing.

They both made excuses to brush it off, then continued the tutoring.