From the phone screen, Calin was livestreaming.
After everything that had happened at her engagement party, netizens quickly flooded into the stream. The viewer count had already surpassed five hundred thousand and was still climbing at a terrifying rate.
On screen, Calin looked utterly tragic. Her eyes were red and swollen, clear evidence that she had spent days crying. Her complexion was deathly pale, yet it did not diminish her beauty. Instead, she looked like a fallen angel cast down from heaven.
Bullet comments raced across the screen so quickly they were almost impossible to read. Countless viewers cursed and scolded her, furious that she still had the audacity to show her face in public.
Contrary to everyone's expectations, Calin began by bowing deeply to the camera and tearfully apologizing.
Rather than making excuses, she admitted that she had been willful, arrogant, and had strayed from the right path.
She claimed she had not been like that as a child, but that everything gradually changed after she entered the entertainment industry.
Without realizing it, she had fallen victim to celebrity syndrome. As a rookie, she had once suffered bullying herself and fought desperately to survive. Yet in the end, she had become the very type of person she once despised.
Only now, she said, did she feel genuine shame and realize how terribly wrong she had been.
Calin's statement was skillfully crafted. Not only did she courageously admit to her fault, but she also subtly implied that the treacherous entertainment industry had corrupted her and transformed her into someone she was never meant to be.
"Calin Ricci, you evil bitch! Who are you acting for now? I don't know who wrote that script for you, but it doesn't change the fact that you harmed so many people!"
"Did the entertainment industry also teach her how to drug a man and put someone into a coma?"
"I do believe fame contributed heavily to all of this. If you let it get to your head and fall into the dark side of the industry, for some people there's no turning back."
"Bah! I really want to tear apart that pretentious face of hers! Don't forget she's from a first-tier family. Compared to artists who actually fought their way up from nothing, Calin came from wealth, influence, and power. Who would dare bully her? And judging from how vicious she was in those videos, is someone like that really just a victim of bad influences and unfortunate experiences as she claims?"
Netizens flooded the comment section, voicing their opinions.
However, there were also Calin's die-hard fans. Since they were not personally affected by her actions, many of them couldn't care less about the truth. They continued defending her and fiercely argued with other viewers.
"I also know what happened between Brother Allen and me was my fault..." Calin sobbed, her voice filled with remorse and self-reproach. "I was so drunk back then. I didn't know what I was doing. We used to be very much in love when we were together."
She paused, her hands trembling as she wiped away her tears.
"It's just that... that night was the first time I realized there was a huge misunderstanding between us. I thought that even after we broke up, we could still remain good friends. But he said things I couldn't understand, as if someone had been speaking badly about me behind my back. I was so upset because I couldn't believe he would so easily believe those rumors."
Calin went on to explain that it had never been her intention to harm Allen.
To support her claims, she displayed screenshots of their past conversations along with old photographs of them together.
The evidence showed that they had remained on good terms even after their breakup, and that it was only recently that Allen had suddenly begun distancing himself from her.
After addressing Allen's situation, she finally broached the topic everyone had been waiting for: her attempt to drug Shin Keir.
Calin lowered her head. When she looked up again, her expression was a complicated mixture of hesitation, fear, and grievance.
A moment later, she cast her gaze downward once more.
After what seemed like an internal struggle, she finally spoke.
"Perhaps what I regret most is allowing other people to make decisions for me." She gave a bitter smile.
"I was just like every other teenage girl. I judged people by what I saw on the surface. The first time I saw Brother Shin, he was brilliant, handsome, and admired by everyone around him. I couldn't help feeling the same way..." She let out a self-deprecating laugh. "I mean, who wouldn't?"
Her eyes turned distant.
"But I was only one of countless girls who admired him from afar. I was perfectly content with that until..."
Calin covered her mouth as tears streamed down her face.
Moments later, she revealed a series of screenshots showing past conversations between herself and the Keir family's matriarch.
The evidence was difficult to refute.
The messages clearly showed Elder Madam Keir repeatedly encouraging her pursuit of Shin Keir.
There were discussions about arranging blind dates, creating opportunities for chance encounters, and even exchanges involving gifts and favors between the Ricci family and the elderly matriarch.
"I know I'm wrong for believing that I would eventually become engaged to Brother Shin," Calin said through her tears. "But am I really entirely to blame? Everyone knows the authority Elder Madam Keir holds within the Keir family. Was I wrong for believing her words? Out of all the women in the world, she told me that no one was more qualified than I was."
Calin laughed bitterly at herself.
"I'm so foolish. I didn't care that I rarely saw Brother Shin. I didn't mind that his mother was mentally unstable. I didn't even care that he was an illegitimate child. I've known all of these things from the very beginning."
Not only did she paint the Keir family, particularly Elder Madam Keir, as having encouraged and nurtured her expectations before ultimately abandoning her, but also revealed that Calin had long been aware of many of the Keirs' closely guarded secrets, including the circumstances surrounding Shin Keir's birth.
Despite knowing all of it, she had chosen to turn a blind eye because she liked him.
In a single statement, Calin shifted part of the blame onto the Keir family while simultaneously portraying herself as a woman whose hopes had been cultivated, encouraged, and then mercilessly crushed.
"Okay, so you realized you were about to lose the title of Mrs. Keir and resorted to the most disgusting method possible. So much drama. Was it also the old matriarch's idea for you to drug her grandson?" one netizen commented.
"You're so good at acting. No wonder you're in the entertainment industry."
"I watched the livestream from the engagement banquet. Shin Keir clearly said he'd never done or said anything that could have made you misunderstand. Your delusions aren't his responsibility!"
Calin saw the countless comments criticizing her but chose to ignore them.
Because what she was about to reveal next would shake not only the internet, but the entire business world and perhaps even the country itself.
As the livestream surpassed three million viewers, Calin's expression gradually shifted.
The hesitation and grievance from earlier disappeared, replaced by solemn determination.
"Actually, I discovered something that made me act impulsively. At that time, I wasn't thinking clearly and ended up doing the unthinkable..." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Of course it was wrong, but I was desperate. Even if I wasn't the one who would become engaged to Brother Shin, I thought that as long as I could buy some time, as long as I could make him change his mind, then even throwing away my dignity would have been worth it."
Calin slowly pulled out a document.
She held it carefully, as though it were something capable of exploding at any moment.
The fear in her eyes was unmistakable.
"At first, I thought this was fake. Later, however, I confirmed that it was genuine." She lowered her gaze to the paper. "I know this has nothing to do with any of you, and technically it has nothing to do with me either. But as someone who has been close to the Keir family for many years... how could I stand by and watch Brother Shin do something he would most likely regret for the rest of his life? How could I watch him throw away everything he worked so hard to build?"
The moment the document appeared on screen, the entire livestream erupted.
It was a legally binding marital agreement between Shin Keir and Yeri Zhi.
One particular clause had been enlarged for everyone to see.
[ If Shin Keir ever wronged Yeri Zhi during their marriage, all assets registered under his name would be transferred to her. ]
For several seconds, the bullet comments noticeably slowed.
Then they exploded with question and exclamation marks, and shocked emojis.
It was as if millions of viewers had simultaneously lost the ability to process what they had just read.
"Anyone is acceptable," Calin said firmly as she looked straight into the camera, "as long as it isn't Yeri Zhi."
She paused deliberately.
"And that's not even mentioning her ambiguous relationship with Tristan Felan."
The livestream nearly descended into chaos.
It was like a nuclear warhead had detonated in the middle of the internet.
"??? What the hell? This has to be fake!"
"Shin Keir giving away his entire fortune to a woman? THAT Shin Keir? Why? WHY? There's no way this is real!"
"What exactly does 'if he ever wronged her during their marriage' even mean? Does it count if she gets upset over something trivial? There are a thousand ways someone can claim they've been wronged! This is insane!"
"Is that contract actually real?! Has Shin Keir been replaced? Possessed? Threatened? Blackmailed?"
"We're talking about a man who can make the entire business world tremble with a single sentence! This is completely impossible! Yeri Zhi, you scheming witch! Come out and explain yourself!"
"Wait, is nobody going to talk about what Calin just said regarding Yeri and Tristan? What does she mean by an ambiguous relationship?"
"The contract is shocking, but that last sentence is even more suspicious. Does Calin know something the public doesn't?"
The comments flooded so rapidly that they became nothing more than a colorful blur across the screen.
Within minutes, the phones at KGG began ringing nonstop.
Executives who had just sat down for dinner found themselves bombarded with messages and emergency calls.
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Department watched the rapidly escalating crisis with growing despair.
They were about to face the biggest nightmare in the company's history.