He Xue

He Xue is a supporting character whose appearances connect Shen Tang’s public reputation, professional ambitions, and practical willingness to help others. Her role is modest in scale but structurally important: she demonstrates that Shen Tang’s supposed scandal-driven celebrity can produce genuine loyalty, and she helps carry a private confrontation into a coordinated effort involving several people.

Introduction and Connection to Shen Tang

He Xue first enters the narrative through her recognition of Shen Tang during a tense confrontation involving a suspected mistress. Rather than treating Shen Tang as the notorious figure described by entertainment-industry rumors, she asks whether Shen Tang is the person she believes her to be. He Xue then identifies herself and explains that Shen Tang previously saved her older sister. That rescue has become part of the family’s everyday conversation: her sister is now a devoted fan who repeatedly asks the family to vote for Shen Tang in their group chat.

This exchange gives He Xue a personal reason to trust Shen Tang that exists outside publicity and calculated celebrity promotion. Shen Tang’s company has tried to exploit her scandalous image by pairing her indiscriminately with male celebrities, while online critics have labeled her with a succession of abusive epithets. He Xue’s loyalty moves in the opposite direction. It is not generated by the company’s manufactured publicity but by remembered assistance, family testimony, and the concrete effect of Shen Tang’s earlier intervention.

Professional Ambition

He Xue is also an aspiring actress. After meeting Shen Tang, she reveals that she has come to audition for the role of the female lead’s maid. The audition places her within the same precarious professional world that Shen Tang has considered abandoning. Shen Tang is a low-ranking celebrity burdened by relentless rumors, whereas He Xue is still attempting to enter or advance within the industry through a minor part. Their positions differ, but the audition scene places both women within an entertainment system where recognition, opportunity, and public image are unstable resources.

The setting also introduces the possibility of rivalry. He Xue is connected to Li Menglong, who says that she too is auditioning for the role, making the two women competitors again. Shen Tang and the man accompanying her become nervous that the old conflict between the women might erupt once more. He Xue’s presence therefore carries two simultaneous meanings: she is a fan-connected ally of Shen Tang, yet she remains embedded in a professional environment where women may be pushed into competition over limited roles.

The Investigation and Confrontation

He Xue becomes more active when Shen Tang, He Xue, Li Menglong, and the director create a WeChat group to follow up on the matter involving the unfaithful man. The group transforms an initially emotional and ambiguous encounter into a deliberate investigation. He Xue arranges to meet the man, while Li Menglong sits at the next table and listens. The method is practical because men who have been caught in contradictory relationships may continue denying the facts even when confronted directly; gathering evidence and comparing accounts gives the women something stronger than competing accusations.

The investigation confirms that the same man has deceived both women. When confronted face to face, he still attempts to argue, but the accumulated facts make his denials untenable. He Xue and Li Menglong consequently end their relationships with him at the same time, each throwing a cup of coffee in his face. He Xue’s action is not presented as an isolated outburst. It is the final visible consequence of a process in which the women compare information, verify the man’s duplicity, and refuse to let him control the story through denial.

Relationships and Narrative Function

He Xue’s relationship with Shen Tang is founded on gratitude, admiration, and cooperation. Her sister’s devotion makes Shen Tang’s earlier good deed socially visible, while He Xue herself carries that recognition into a new setting. The relationship also complicates Shen Tang’s public image. Shen Tang is treated by the entertainment industry as a scandalous figure whose name can attract traffic, and she maintains a professional smile even while hostile comments flood a livestream. He Xue’s testimony supplies a counter-record: beneath the manufactured labels, Shen Tang has performed an act of rescue that another family remembers as meaningful.

He Xue’s connection with Li Menglong is more conflicted because it combines romantic betrayal with professional competition. The two women may be rivals at an audition, but their shared discovery of the man’s duplicity gives them a temporary common purpose. Their final simultaneous breakup reverses the expected structure of a mistress confrontation. Instead of allowing the women to fight one another while the man evades responsibility, the investigation redirects their anger toward the person who deceived them both.

Significance

He Xue illustrates how Shen Tang’s influence spreads through actions rather than through the entertainment company’s manufactured pairings and scandal publicity. The company tries to turn every professional association into traffic, while He Xue’s bond with Shen Tang emerges from a remembered rescue and develops into direct cooperation. Her storyline also makes reputation a contested social object: the rumors surrounding Shen Tang remain loud, but they are not the only account available to people who have encountered her conduct firsthand.

Within the plot, He Xue helps convert private humiliation into collective verification and resistance. Her participation in the WeChat group, the staged meeting, the eavesdropping arrangement, and the final confrontation gives the episode a clear progression from suspicion to evidence and from evidence to consequence. She is not merely a person who recognizes Shen Tang; she is one of the characters through whom Shen Tang’s network of practical allies becomes visible.