The girl had posted countless photos in the past and had only gained a few tens of thousands of followers. But ever since she leaked the photo of the wedding dress, her follower count had shot up by nearly 50,000 in no time.
She was sure she'd become the most popular girl in her class now. Those classmates who used to brag about their follower counts? Let's see them talk big now.
The more she thought about it, the prouder she became—and the prouder she was, the more she wanted to spill even more juicy details.
In reality, Xuanji Embroidery House had strict confidentiality policies. The girl had gone there with her family while her mother shopped. Bored by her mom's conversation with the staff, she excused herself to the bathroom.
She did go to the restroom, but instead of returning, she hid in a stall and started scrolling Weibo.
Unexpectedly, she overheard some people outside talking—and they just happened to mention the very wedding dress in question.
A sky-high price tag, the finest embroidery craftsmanship, a high-profile foreign client—the bits and pieces from that idle conversation had sparked her curiosity. So when those people finally left, she snuck out to take a look at what kind of dress could be worth that much. And thanks to sheer luck, she managed to snap a photo.
Even though the picture only showed one piece of embroidery—an unfinished section, no less—it still went viral after she posted it.
She was clever enough not to reveal everything right away. Instead, she planned to build suspense and keep her audience hooked, saving the real bombshell for later.
And so, after letting the topic simmer for two days and watching the online speculation swirl around various guesses, she finally dropped the big reveal: the person who had commissioned the dress was none other than the Hollywood director who had just spent days in the East promoting her film—
Laila Moran.
And just like that, Weibo exploded.
The Avengers was still in theaters, and its box office performance had shattered nearly every record possible in the East. News about the film was everywhere—open any entertainment forum or site and you'd find Laila's name or something about her movie on the front page.
If you had to name the most well-known, most popular foreigner in the East right now, Laila would undoubtedly be one of them.
#LailaMoranSkyHighCustomOrder
#MillionDollarWeddingGown
#LailaWeddingRumors
In just one day, her name dominated the trending topics.
Everyone who knew anything about her was aware she had a very sweet boyfriend, and even a child who wasn't that young anymore. But there had never been any talk of marriage—until now. With news of a traditional Eastern-style wedding dress surfacing, speculation ran wild.
Could she finally be getting married? In an Eastern ceremony? Wearing an Eastern gown?
The Weibo story quickly caught the attention of mainstream media. Reporters tried to contact the girl who had posted the photo, but she was suddenly nowhere to be found. After that explosive reveal, she stopped posting altogether.
Had she not been such an active poster before, people might have assumed this was just another publicity stunt. But her sudden disappearance sparked conspiracy theories.
Some claimed the girl was fame-obsessed and had faked the whole thing—maybe she found some high-end embroidery sample and decided to attach it to a trending topic like Laila, knowing that it would attract public interest.
Others suggested she had gone too far—that such high-profile information was supposed to be kept confidential, and she had been punished for leaking it.
As it turned out, the latter theory wasn't entirely wrong.
The girl's Weibo was discovered, and her phone privileges were revoked.
Her parents were now in full-blown crisis mode. Especially her mother—the one who had taken her to Xuanji Embroidery House—who was ready to flay her alive.
Who would've thought that leaving the girl unsupervised for just a few minutes would result in such a disaster?
As some Weibo users correctly guessed, clients ordering custom pieces were typically required to sign non-disclosure agreements. After all, imagine planning your perfect wedding day only to find your one-of-a-kind dress has become the latest best-selling knockoff on some online shopping platform.
Sure, the dress would still be beautiful—but who spends millions just to wear something that's already gone viral as a mass-produced "Taobao special"?
That's why, with ultra-high-value pieces, leaks were not only unacceptable—they were expensive. The compensation fees for breaching those contracts could be astronomical.
But money wasn't even the biggest problem here. A workshop like Xuanji Embroidery—serving the top-tier elite—could afford to pay out hundreds of thousands or even millions in damages.
What they couldn't afford to lose was their reputation.
After one leak, people would assume there could be a second. And who would want their custom-made outfit plastered all over social media before they even had a chance to wear it? Once their clients lost trust, Xuanji's entire business model would collapse.
After the leaked embroidery photo started circulating online, one of the atelier's employees—just casually browsing Weibo—spotted it and broke into a cold sweat. They immediately reported the matter to management.
Once they confirmed the photo showed an unfinished piece from their workshop, panic set in. Even if the gown wasn't completed, the leak itself was deadly serious.
They pulled security footage and traced the incident step by step. Eventually, they identified the girl who had taken the photo.
Though there wasn't any direct footage of her taking the picture, the surveillance clearly showed her sneaking into the room when no one was watching, fiddling with her phone, and then tiptoeing out afterward.
With that, identifying her was easy. Every client's contact information was on record. All they had to do was find out who visited that day, and they'd know whose kid had nearly brought the sky crashing down.
Sure enough, the girl's family was wealthy. Her parents ran a trading company, and they had assets in the billions. While not exactly a standout family in the capital, in any other city, they'd be considered major players.
But the problem was—Xuanji Embroidery House wasn't some no-name shop.
A place that catered exclusively to the ultra-elite had to be backed by serious power. Without someone capable of keeping high-profile clients reassured, how could they possibly collect six- or seven-figure payments for custom embroidery?
Now that things had blown up, the atelier's owner was furious. The first thing they did was go after the brat's parents.
When the girl's father got the call, he had no idea what had happened. Once he learned his daughter had done something so unbelievably reckless, the veins on his forehead nearly burst. He rushed home, confirmed it was her, confiscated her phone and allowance, gave her a serious spanking, and then sent her off to a full-time boarding school.
There was no other choice. With the mess she'd made, only a fully enclosed, zero-distraction school environment could keep her from making things even worse.
That was why her Weibo account had suddenly gone dark.
But even so, none of this undid the damage to the embroidery house—neither the financial nor the reputational losses.
The girl's father was willing to pay the penalty for the breach of contract, but now that a foreign celebrity was involved, the issue had become even more complicated…