Xu Qingqing had just been sulking because she couldn’t save her work, but now she was wide awake with anger.
Who was the eldest Miss Xu? That idiot Bai Youlan? She didn’t deserve the title at all!
She scrambled out of bed and called her Aunt Xu. As soon as the call connected, she burst out, “Auntie, I’m being bullied!!”
In the conference room, Aunt Xu remained calm as she chaired the meeting, surrounded by a group of subordinates in suits. When the call came through, everyone fell silent, glancing nervously at one another. Aunt Xu made a subtle hand gesture, and the team cautiously resumed their reports.
Aunt Xu set her phone aside, listening to the updates while quietly murmuring, “Hmm?”
Meanwhile, Xu Qingqing was still yelling, “Auntie, please make sure the official Weibo account that reposted that is shut down! Shut it down!!”
Aunt Xu frowned slightly. “What Weibo account?”
After Xu Qingqing finished explaining, Aunt Xu whispered a few words to her assistant. Once she understood the situation, she twirled the pen in her hand and said, “Fine, but I’m guessing your dad called to specifically order them to repost it.”
Just hearing the tone, there was no doubt it was something her idiot older brother could have done.
The manager of the main branch had personally called to give instructions on such a trivial matter. As an employee, who would dare refuse? Besides, that official Weibo belonged to a subsidiary under the Xu Group, managed by Xu Changshan. Reposting a Weibo was such a minor thing that the staff didn’t even need to report it to her, the executive CEO.
Xu Qingqing hesitated for a moment. There was a clear culprit, so it didn’t feel right to make things difficult for some junior staff.
So she immediately said, “If you won’t shut it down, then fire my dad!!” She was determined to vent her frustration.
Aunt Xu’s lips curved into a faint, almost imperceptible smile. “Your dad doesn’t really have much to do at the company.”
He was just nominally responsible for some insignificant tasks, and the companies under his name were all performing poorly. The Xu family was extremely disappointed in him, basically supporting him with dividends like a freeloader.
Xu Qingqing was stunned. “Is that so?”
She rarely paid attention to the company, only knowing that her grandfather had declared Aunt Xu as the heir a few years ago. The expression on her dad’s face back then had been satisfying enough to keep her happy for years.
She felt a bit down and asked, “So, what should I do?”
She added, “Someone just went on my Weibo and called me a fake.”
Since childhood, it was always Aunt Xu who helped Xu Qingqing clean up messes. If Aunt Xu couldn’t handle it, then Grandpa and Grandma would step in. So Xu Qingqing was used to leaving these things to her elders. First complain, then act cute — she had the routine down perfectly.
Aunt Xu patiently waited until the little troublemaker finally finished venting before saying, “Leave this to me. You go play for now.”
Xu Qingqing took the opportunity to make one more request: “Also, can you have someone fix my mom’s Baidu Encyclopedia page?”
Aunt Xu smiled and said, “Sure. Alright, I have to get back to work now. Qingqing, play by yourself, and remember to go to bed early and don’t stay up late. I’ll take you to Paris in a few days.”
Xu Qingqing obediently replied, “Okay.”
If this matter only involved her and Bai Youlan, Xu Qingqing would have had a hundred ways to teach the other party a lesson. But the problem was that Xu Changshan stepped in, and he even brought the official Weibo account of the Xu Corporation to back up his stepdaughter.
Xu Qingqing had been pampered since childhood, so there was no way she would personally get involved in a public online spat with this father and daughter in front of countless netizens. That would be beneath her dignity and lack credibility.
The best solution was to entrust her Aunt Xu, who controlled the company, to handle the situation. If Xu Changshan wanted to use the Xu Corporation to support his stepdaughter, then she would make sure that this wealthy heiress’s face was torn to shreds by the Xu Corporation and trampled into the ground!
...
After the meeting ended, employees gradually streamed out of the conference room. The phone call that had lasted through nearly the entire meeting became the subject of much speculation.
“Who was that? Xu’s new favorite?” Aunt Xu’s love life was no secret, and everyone occasionally guessed about her new boyfriend’s type.
“Doesn’t seem like it. I’ve never seen Xu show so much patience for any of his exes…”
“This was a major decision-making meeting for the project, yet Xu actually took the call and chatted for so long!”
Secretary Zhang passed by them with a faint smile but said nothing. Seeing his expression, everyone knew he was in the know and quickly tried to curry favor by asking, “Secretary Zhang, do you happen to know who it was?”
Pressing the elevator button, Secretary Zhang replied calmly, “Is there even a need to guess? Who else could make Xu treat him like that but that young lady?” He had been following Xu closely for years, accustomed to handling all the troubles Xu Qingqing caused.
While Xu Qingqing’s call with Aunt Xu was still ongoing, the official microblog that verified Bai Youlan’s identity as a young lady had already been deleted.
The Xu Corporation issued a stamped statement—“Regarding the online rumors, we hereby solemnly declare: Miss Bai Youlan is the daughter of Mr. Xu Changshan and has no affiliation whatsoever with the Xu Corporation.”
Once the statement was released, the internet immediately exploded.
Onlookers were stunned. Xu Changshan was the eldest son of Chairman Xu; how could his daughter have no connection to the Xu Corporation? Was he not her biological father?
And why was the subsidiary’s Weibo account deleted?
By this time, Xu Qingqing’s Weibo had already erupted into chaos. Friends who followed her account noticed something was off. Some hid and watched the drama unfold, while others couldn’t stand it.
—[Can you stop trying to ride Bai Youlan’s coattails?]
Zhou Chenyu frowned as he opened Weibo. Under that comment, he replied, “Ride coattails? Bai Youlan? She’s not worthy.”
He quickly scanned through the flooded comment section, roughly piecing together the backstory, and immediately jumped into the fray to argue with the netizens.
Zhou Chenyu used his personal Weibo account, which was officially verified and carried an impressive title: son of the Zhou Corporation’s chairman.
At first, no one knew who he was. When they realized, people started explaining. Zhou Chenyu came from a wealthy family and was well-connected, with a decent reputation online.
In theory, if he spoke up, there was a good chance he could turn the tide a bit. However, ever since Xu Qingqing was attacked, she hadn’t appeared anywhere. The netizens, having no outlet for their anger, immediately targeted Zhou Chenyu as soon as he responded.
——【Look at him, he’s so worked up, is she your little lover?】
Some even said——【Oh, at first we thought this was just some bitter anti-rich troll account. Now it turns out it’s just a loser...】
Zhou Chenyu’s expression was grim, and he didn’t bother replying. He and Xu Qingqing had grown up together. Strictly speaking, their relationship was even closer than his with Xie Lianqing.
Xu Qingqing might sometimes be a bit foolish, a bit troublesome, but that didn’t give these idiots the right to insult her.
Zhou Chenyu’s family had its own drama—there was an illegitimate child who was surprisingly doted on by his grandfather. Fortunately, after his father proved himself and earned the board’s approval, he smoothly inherited the family business. A few years ago, his grandfather even suggested that this uncle formally acknowledge his lineage, but then dropped the matter.
Moreover, almost everyone in their circle knew about the mess in Xu Qingqing’s family. Zhou Chenyu felt sorry for her. Putting himself in her shoes, he thought that if his father publicly declared he had only one son—the illegitimate one—and paraded around with his mistress showing off their “true love” in front of the media, he would tear those scumbags apart.
Zhou Chenyu had only intended to send one reply and then check on Xu Qingqing’s situation. He never expected his response to get him dragged into such a brutal backlash. The angrier he got, the more fiercely he fired back at the trolls, pounding on his keyboard.
——【Watch your mouth.】
——【Why the hell would I be jealous of her? What is she even?】
——【Is Xu Qingqing really the heiress of the Xu family? Does Bai Youlan deserve it? Who’s pretending to be the victim here?】
His replies were soon drowned out by the endless flood of comments.
To be honest, Zhou Chenyu played games too, and his level of trash-talking in-game was top-tier. But one against ten was doable; one against a hundred was just overwhelming.
At this point, someone finally took notice of Zhou Chenyu’s words. A few savvy users dug through Xu Qingqing’s Weibo and found that although she had only a handful of followers, most were no small potatoes—either wealthy or influential.
Looking back at her past posts and comments, they even found that the president of the Xie Group had interacted and left comments on Xu Qingqing’s Weibo.
After finishing a phone call with her aunt, Xu Qingqing turned off her phone. She didn’t want to hear the constant ding-ding of notifications; too many people were insulting her, and even opening Weibo was lagging.
Though Xu Qingqing was a bit dramatic, judging from Xie Lianqing’s breakup last night, it was clear she was a coward who only wanted to hide behind her family when things got tough.
She just turned off her phone, burying her head in the sand, thinking she’d wait for her aunt to handle everything before turning it back on.
Xu Qingqing felt deeply wronged. After some thought, she decided to just crash for a while and, when she woke up, spend a few million shopping to vent her anger.
She fell asleep without a care, completely unaware that her good brother Zhou Chenyu was still courageously fighting off the haters on her behalf.
And so, Zhou Chenyu sent WeChat messages to Xu Qingqing but got no reply. He was speechless and furious at the same time. Damn it, who exactly was he doing all this for?
After a moment’s thought, he quickly took a screenshot and sent it to Xie Lianqing, jokingly saying, “I’ve lost the argument online. I’m thinking of hiring some internet trolls—make sure you reimburse me.”
It wasn’t until after an hour of back-and-forth insults that Zhou Chenyu finally came to his senses. He was a wealthy heir—why was he personally getting into internet spats with netizens? That was just too beneath him.
With his intelligence back online, Zhou Chenyu immediately contacted his company’s PR team. Since Xu Qingqing was the one who had been wronged, he also took the chance to notify her devoted boyfriend, Xie Lianqing.
Xie Lianqing had just finished a meeting and was about to ask Xu Qingqing what she wanted for dinner when he saw Zhou Chenyu’s message.
He asked, “What’s going on?”
— “Go check it out yourself. Xu Qingqing is rarely wronged like this. I bet she’s hiding at home, quietly crying right now.”
Xie Lianqing frowned and didn’t reply to Zhou Chenyu. Instead, he opened Weibo. He rarely used the platform, usually only following his own company and Xu Qingqing. After scrolling through the posts, he finally pieced together what had happened.
Meanwhile, Zhou Chenyu noticed that Xie Lianqing hadn’t responded to his message. A few seconds later, all the comments under Xu Qingqing’s Weibo post were wiped clean.
About ten minutes later, the official account of the Xie Group posted a legal notice, along with screenshots of the most vicious comments that had been highly upvoted. There was no nonsense—just one legal notice after another.
A classic case of letting actions speak louder than words.
At the same time, the Xu Group also posted on Weibo. Apart from slight differences in the screenshots and the law firm they entrusted, their statement was almost identical to Xie Group’s.
The next moment, the trending topic praising Bai Youlan instantly vanished, replaced by several exposés about Bai Yaxiu and Xu Changshan’s tangled family drama.
— “Xu Changshan’s affair exposed”
— “The most useless CEO in history”
— “Mistress rises to true love”
— “What is NTR?”
Out of twenty trending topics, fifteen were about Xu Changshan and his family. Just the PR campaign alone cost tens of millions.
Without hesitation, Xie Lianqing threw money and resources at the problem, and within minutes, completely shredded the reputation and dignity of Xu Changshan’s entire family.
Everyone was stunned. Zhou Chenyu stared in disbelief at Xie Lianqing’s series of moves, then finally muttered, “Impressive.”
Those in the know who were waiting to watch the drama unfold exploded, and the netizens went wild.
— “OMG! Is this what a wealthy family looks like? I declare this the scandal of the year!!”
— “Damn, so Bai Youlan is the mistress’s daughter? No wonder she doesn’t have the Xu surname.”
— “As a bystander watching the drama, I just want to say the original wife and her daughter have it so rough… Dad cheats with the mistress, and shortly after the mother’s death, he brings the mistress into the family and treats her daughter better than his own. Does he have a cuckold fetish or what?”
— “Disgusting! The mistress’s daughter even dares to market herself as Xu’s heiress and say those kinds of things on screen.”
— “I literally just shared the love story of the scumbag and the mistress with my boyfriend, saying how touching it was that true love still exists in this world! I’m about to puke!”
— “Replying to the above, puke +1!!”
Although Bai Youlan’s fans tried desperately to control the comments, they simply couldn’t withstand the overwhelming wave of onlookers rushing in. Coupled with Zhou Chenyu’s PR team’s efforts, the situation flipped instantly, turning into a total massacre.
Although Zhou Chenyu had a rough idea of what Xie Lianqing might do, watching how everything unfolded still left him dumbfounded.
He quietly messaged Xie Lianqing: “Was this you?”
Though he was still asking, deep down he already knew—only Xie Lianqing would dare pull something like this.
Even though the Xu Group protected Xu Qingqing, they wouldn’t publicly target Xu Changshan. Aunt Xu’s real targets were Bai Youlan and Bai Yaxiu. After all, Xu Changshan might be useless, but to outsiders, he was still part of the Xu Group. Messing with him would affect the company’s stock.
So whoever did this definitely wasn’t Aunt Xu. If it wasn’t her, then it could only be Xie Lianqing.
Xie Lianqing was putting an end to it once and for all—completely cutting off any future paths for Bai Youlan and Xu Changshan!
In high society, face and appearances matter. No matter how much they fight behind the scenes, there’s always a thin veil of civility on the surface. What Xie Lianqing did was like flipping the table without warning.
Thinking about his usual work and life style—although not exactly gentle, he was always measured and knew when to advance or retreat. And he did all this for Xu Qingqing.
So everyone came to understand that Xu Qingqing was Xie Lianqing’s bottom line.
After this incident, who would dare mess with Xu Qingqing again?
“Furious enough to overturn the crown for his beloved,” Zhou Chenyu muttered with admiration. It seemed Xu Qingqing was probably alright after all. He quietly put down his car keys and went back to the bedroom to catch some more sleep.
Inside the Xu Group office, Aunt Xu raised an eyebrow as she looked at the messages on her phone.
Her assistant cautiously said, “Manager Xu Changshan tried to contact Chairman Xie, but it seems he wasn’t successful…”
Aunt Xu sneered, “Why would he even bother?”
King against king, general against general. What was Xu Changshan anyway? Neither the CEO nor the chairman—just a freeloader. Getting beaten up today was just his due. Anything he did from now on was pointless.
If Chairman Xie doesn’t help his own son and daughter-in-law, why would she help him?
Besides, although the Xu family was also wealthy, they weren’t in the same league as the Xie family. Did they really think the Xie family would go head to head with the Xu family for his sake?
Fools.
Aunt Xu’s face was cold. After considering her assistant’s report, she finally said thoughtfully, “Fine. I’ll handle the explanation on the chairman’s side.”
She turned to her secretary and instructed, “Have Operations pin that clarification about Xu Changshan at the top.”
If Xu Changshan wants to raise someone else’s child, that’s his business. The Xu family certainly doesn’t have that kind of hobby.
