Glorious God Throne

“Bai Yi, Bai Xiaoxi, over here, over here!”

When Bai Yi came downstairs carrying his cat, Xia Jiajia, who was crouching at the doorway, spotted him immediately. She waved enthusiastically and offered him a wrapped zongzi. (TL: rice dumpling)

“Have you had breakfast? Want one?”

“Sister Jiajia, you seem to have a lot of free time lately. You haven’t been going to school either,” Bai Yi declined the zongzi and crouched down next to her with his cat. “Are you planning to do your internship back in our Yuanyang City?”

He casually made conversation while stroking the cat’s soft fur. His eyes naturally narrowed and the corners of his mouth curved upward slightly as he became absorbed in petting the cat.

From Xia Jiajia’s perspective, the young man’s content expression looked exactly like a cat lazily sunbathing after a satisfying meal. Combined with the actual cat lounging in his arms, it was a double dose of cat cuteness that instantly dealt a critical hit to Xia Jiajia, emptying her HP bar. She couldn’t help but let out a soft “wow.”

Though quiet, Bai Yi heard it clearly.

He tilted his head in confusion. “What’s wrong?”

…The emotional waves coming from her were clearly warm and pleasant, light and joyful, just like how he felt every time he researched different ways to cook fish and then ate it.

She certainly couldn’t say something potentially creepy like “Nothing, I just want to pet you,” and she definitely couldn’t reveal her thoughts about wanting to dote on the little brother upstairs like a cat. Xia Jiajia was suddenly at a loss.

Fortunately, she spotted her phone nearby and had a flash of inspiration. She spoke seriously. “I just remembered some news I saw earlier. It really makes you sigh at how unfathomable people’s hearts can be.”

“?” Though there was no evidence, I feel like you’re making this up.

Probably sensing Bai Yi’s disbelief, Xia Jiajia picked up her phone, quickly navigated to her browsing history, and showed it to him, “Look, it’s this one. It’s about the follow-up to the Cursed Painting incident in the Green Autonomous Region of the Chenxing Empire. I don’t know if you’ve been following it…”

At this point, Xia Jiajia smacked her forehead. “I’m so silly! You must have been busy preparing for your college entrance exams recently. You probably didn’t have time to pay attention to these things!”

“Ah, I’ve heard about that incident,” Bai Yi said, holding up the cat’s paw and waving it at Xia Jiajia. “But I haven’t really followed what happened afterward. I’ve been too busy.” Whether he was busy with exam preparation or other things was left to interpretation.

The cat’s soft paw waved left and right, and the cat cooperatively let out a gentle “meow.” The young man’s eyes immediately curved into an expression of extreme delight, causing Xia Jiajia to take another critical hit, making her thoughts of cat-doting stir once again.

She silently scolded herself and decided to use a serious topic to wash away her improper thoughts. “Cough, since you were in a special period before, it’s right that you focused your energy on academics. As for the incident I mentioned, since you’ve heard about it, I don’t need to explain much. Although it happened in the Green Autonomous Region, people from other countries are all paying attention to this case, after all, this was an extremely bizarre extraordinary incident… and that cursed painting is still missing. Everyone knows how terrifying that painting is!”

As she spoke, Xia Jiajia’s tone carried quite a bit of vigilance – the instinctive wariness humans have towards overwhelmingly dangerous things. “So, I’ve been following everything about the situation in the Green Autonomous Region. I haven’t missed even the smallest development.”

“—And I just got some first-hand gossip!”

Her fingers quickly scrolled through her phone screen, pulling up all the related news she had read over the past few days.

Regarding this incident, while others merely experienced shock – including the three rescued guests who suffered some psychological trauma but no major harm – the most unfortunate victim was definitely Andre, a third-rate actor from the Chenxing Empire.

According to online sources, Andre had only recently gained recognition as a martial arts actor after breakthrough in his martial arts training, transitioning from being a stunt double. His popularity in the Chenxing Empire had been steadily rising over the past few months, building a fan base through his public displays of affection with his girlfriend on variety shows, where he cultivated an image of being a devoted boyfriend.

“His death was horrifically brutal, occurring in front of all viewers. When his body was collected, it was reportedly unrecognizable, and worse still, there was no way to seek revenge against the killer. There were numerous news reports of journalists interviewing his family members, who were all devastated. His beautiful girlfriend, whether genuinely grieving or not, appeared haggard and depressed in front of the cameras, which actually increased her fan following,” Xia Jiajia summarized the aftermath succinctly.

She continued. “The incident generated such massive public interest that the victim’s family and girlfriend received enormous attention. Given the tragic and unjust nature of his death, many people, including myself initially, couldn’t help but sympathize with them. Fans in the Chenxing Empire were even making donations and planning a grand funeral for Andre…”

“However, rumors suddenly emerged that he wasn’t the upright, gentlemanly, devoted boyfriend he appeared to be, but rather a complete scoundrel. Some sources claimed his relationship with his current girlfriend was purely for publicity, and they were both actually playing the field.”

Initially, people didn’t believe these rumors. The principle of ‘speaking no ill of the dead’ is universally respected. Without solid evidence, making negative claims about someone who had passed away was typically viewed as malicious slander.

Seeing Xia Jiajia’s animated expression while sharing this gossip, Bai Yi displayed an appropriately surprised reaction, which only encouraged her to share more.

“I hadn’t known this foreign actor before, and only learned through following this drama that there had always been rumors about his two-faced nature and how he manipulated his public image to deceive fans…”

Xia Jiajia pulled up a news article from two months ago—

A woman claiming to be Andre’s ex-girlfriend had come forward to accuse him of abandonment. According to her account, they had dated for five years, during which she stood loyally by his side and had undergone three abortions for him. However, once Andre became famous, he abandoned her, ignoring her latest pregnancy. He secretly deleted all their chat history, destroyed all photos and other evidence, and even bribed the few friends who knew about their relationship. Due to multiple previous abortions, another termination could have left her permanently unable to conceive, so she chose to keep the child and seek justice from Andre.

At the time, this ex-girlfriend’s social media account was overwhelmed by angry fans.

The other party involved – Andre – completely denied the claimed five-year relationship, stating they had only briefly dated recently before separating due to incompatibility. He said he would pay child support if the baby was his—in Chenxing Empire’s social context, while an unmarried pregnancy might affect a female celebrity’s reputation, it wasn’t considered serious scandal for male celebrities, especially when they were willing to take financial responsibility.

Andre’s response was very sincere, and he didn’t even try to deny the possibility of being the father. Since the ex-girlfriend couldn’t provide evidence of their alleged relationship, fans refused to believe in the five-year secret romance. Instead, they viewed her as someone trying to gain fame through the child, with some even questioning the baby’s paternity and her character.

The unfortunate ex-girlfriend, being an ordinary person without fame, couldn’t withstand the bombardment from so many fans and disappeared from the internet within days, falling silent.

It was then that Andre announced his romance with Ella, cultivating his image as a devoted boyfriend, making people quickly forget about the previous drama.

This matter should have ended there, but unexpectedly, after the Cursed Painting incident and Andre’s death, what seemed to be a closed case took two dramatic turns.

The ex-girlfriend emerged again, this time with recovered evidence of their five-year relationship.

Just from their chat records alone, one could see how a scoundrel gradually manipulated his girlfriend, making her willingly undergo multiple pregnancies and abortions while giving him all her hard-earned money and helping him achieve his dreams through her connections.

As Bai Yi’s gaze swept across the screen, he saw several news headlines:

#Breaking! Andre’s ex-girlfriend appears at funeral, reveals five-year relationship records and bank statements#

#Multiple female fans simultaneously expose relationships with Andre, with overlapping timelines suggesting multiple concurrent affairs#

#Rising star engaged in relationships with multiple female fans within less than half a year of fame, including one underage girl#

“Tsk, what an absolute scum!” Even having read the news before, Xia Jiajia couldn’t help but shake her head again. “I don’t feel any sympathy for him now. He got off easy.”

“…After all, these things only came to light after his death.”

Resting her chin on her hand, she mused thoughtfully, “You know, we should really thank that expert who helped the ex-girlfriend and other fans recover all that evidence. Otherwise, this guy would have been buried with everyone’s sympathy, his fans’ love, and the status of a positive role model and victim.”

“No need for thanks – protecting the environment is everyone’s responsibility~” Bai Yi said cheerfully, waving the cat’s other paw. “I guess that’s what that person was thinking?”

“Protecting the environment?” Xia Jiajia was confused for a moment before understanding his meaning. She couldn’t help but laugh, “Ah, you mean taking out the trash? That’s quite an apt metaphor!”

“Indeed, protecting the environment is everyone’s responsibility,” she repeated earnestly, nodding firmly.

“…Because this scumbag’s true nature was exposed, people are saying the Spirit in the Cursed Painting wasn’t killing indiscriminately, but specifically targeted him. After all, everyone knows the story behind the painting’s origin. Well, using your perspective, Bai Yi, once you accept that the Spirit in the Painting is just protecting the environment by cleaning up trash, it doesn’t seem so scary anymore.”

The young man beside her smiled and agreed. “Exactly!”

[…The Spirit in the Painting, which should have lost all humanity and turned against its masters, had come to understand the human heart and was no longer driven mad by hatred, though the Cursed Painting’s enhancement still required consuming more blood and souls.]

[Having gained rationality, they decided to be selective with their targets, using the souls of scum as raw materials to enhance the Cursed Painting.]

It was as if invisible pages were turning in mid-air, revealing familiar dried writing.

The young man’s smiling eyes gazed into the distance, as if sensing something, and his smile deepened.

“Has the automatic garbage disposal system started working?”

“…So we no longer have to work so hard alone to protect the environment? Hooray!”

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