Chapter 303 - 301: Fifty Shades of Grey

Cecilia Sterling watched the special effects from the gifts on screen, her brow instinctively furrowing.

It was actually a good thing that someone was spending so lavishly on gifts for Blair. A national platform like Tiktok was never short on big shots who splurged on streamers.

But this user’s name made Cecilia feel a little uncomfortable.

"Fifty Shades of Grey"!

It was a Western drama about the particular kinks of a niche group.

Though with how society had developed, Cecilia couldn’t say for sure if it still counted as "niche." She had seen the movie, since its controversial subject matter had generated a huge amount of buzz and discussion upon its release.

She had watched it purely out of a morbid curiosity, as a detached observer.

Because she respected all personal actions and choices that were private, consensual, and within the bounds of the law.

But honestly, the movie wasn’t very good. Aside from the attractive leads, it was practically worthless and failed to capture the stirrings of primitive desire deep within the human heart.

In the end, it won that year’s "Golden Raspberry Award," which was similar to the domestic "Golden Broom Award."

But even though Cecilia had no prejudice against the film or people with those interests, when that username floated across the screen in Blair’s stream, a strange feeling instinctively welled up inside her.

’This unease is entirely because of the specific nature of Blair’s streams.’

"Oh my god, this guy knocked me down to number two! No way, I won’t allow it!"

Estelle snatched the phone, quickly topped up a large sum of money, and started fighting the other person for Blair’s number one spot.

Cecilia didn’t say much. Aside from her own slight discomfort, nothing was wrong with the situation. The person might have just chosen that username as a joke.

In the stream, Blair performed her "martial arts" with even more vigor after receiving dozens of Carnivals. This was the day she had received the most in gift value since she started streaming.

An hour later, Blair ended her stream and returned to the dorm, clearly in a good mood from her earnings.

"I got so many Carnivals today! A new whale came to the stream and just started spamming me with thirty of them without a word, sending him straight to the top of the leaderboard!"

Estelle Goodman feigned ignorance and asked insincerely, "How’s the stream’s popularity lately? Has it gone up?"

Blair nodded. "When I first started, there were only one or two hundred people. Then it slowly grew to over a thousand. The last couple of days, the average peak viewership has been between six and eight thousand. The numbers are growing pretty fast."

She had been streaming for less than a month. To have achieved such results was entirely due to her genuine talent and striking looks.

Cecilia thought for a moment before asking, "Did you follow him back? You’re supposed to maintain a good relationship with big spenders like that, right? That way, they’ll keep giving you gifts and boosting your popularity."

Blair admitted freely, "That’s right. Once someone gifts a certain amount, I have to follow them back and proactively thank them. The agency specifically instructed me to do that."

"Did he reply? What did he say?" Cecilia was still a little worried.

Blair opened her private messages, found their chat history, and generously showed it to Cecilia. Seeing this, Estelle quickly leaned in for a look.

The first message was sent by Blair after she followed him back: "Thanks for the support, boss."

He replied: "You’re welcome, beautiful. Your sword dancing and martial arts have a real beauty to them. I like them a lot. I’ll watch your stream every day."

There was actually nothing wrong with this reply.

Blair’s inbox was flooded with countless private messages every day, many of which contained disgusting content. But Blair didn’t care. She knew that if she wanted to make a living this way, she would have to go through this. All streamers, especially female ones, received unprompted harassment and malice from strangers.

So, in comparison, the reply from "Fifty Shades of Grey" was actually quite decent and didn’t make one feel uncomfortable.

With that, Cecilia felt a little more at ease. At least his words weren’t vulgar or provocative, and for now, he hadn’t revealed any ulterior motives. It seemed more like pure appreciation.

「The next day」 The paparazzi Estelle had sent out came back with more information.

This time, Estelle brought Cecilia directly to a coffee shop to meet the paparazzo in person.

He was a young man, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, dressed in a black windbreaker set. He had a backpack on and a DSLR camera hanging around his neck.

He seemed to be an old friend of Estelle’s. They laughed and joked around for a bit when they met before Estelle introduced him to Cecilia. "Darling, this is Fabian Griffin. He’s a famous private investigator in the business, a paparazzo and hacker rolled into one. He’s amazing."

"This is my best friend, and she’s also your client for this job."

Fabian Griffin quickly smiled and greeted Cecilia, "Hello, Miss Sterling."

"Mr. Griffin, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person."

The two shook hands and then they all sat down.

As Fabian Griffin took things out of his bag, he explained, "I have another job later, so I won’t waste your time with small talk."

As he spoke, two file folders appeared on the table.

"As per your request last time, I focused on the women he’s keeping. After a thorough investigation, I found that two of these three women got together with Eugene Jacobs while they were still in high school."

Fabian pushed two photos in front of Cecilia and identified them one by one. "This is Yvette Sawyer. Eugene met her on a business trip to Kaelan. The specifics of how they met are untraceable, but it’s certain they started a relationship shortly after. Before Yvette got into a university in Lorcain, Eugene would travel between the two cities dozens of times a year—at least twice a month on average."

"This one is Sienna Bowman, from Corinth."

Speaking of Sienna Bowman, a complicated expression appeared on Fabian Griffin’s face. "Now, this one is interesting. She’s the biological daughter of Eugene Jacobs’s stepfather. Eugene’s mother just remarried her current husband a few years ago, which makes Sienna Bowman his stepsister. Although they’re not related by blood, it’s still a bit of an ethical violation."

This news was nothing short of explosive, and it made both Cecilia and Estelle Goodman’s brows furrow tightly.

"That’s... that’s a bit too..."

Even the usually articulate Estelle Goodman was shocked into temporary silence, completely unable to find a suitable word to describe her feelings at that moment.

But while the news made Cecilia uncomfortable, she wasn’t surprised at all that something like this would happen with a hypocrite like Eugene Jacobs.