Huo Mian had only made it halfway through her sentence when she seemed unable to continue. Tears slid silently down her cheeks.
Mr. Gu felt even more heartbroken. “And you’re still defending him! You’re just too kind!”
At that moment, several of Huo Mian’s classmates gathered around as well.
One of them glanced at the camera. “You definitely won’t have come here for nothing today. We’ve got a scandal from a wealthy family to expose—much more eye-catching than some senior-care news!”
The classmates began talking over one another.
“Do you know who he fell for after changing his affections? His own sister!”
“That’s right! We already thought there was something wrong with them back when we were in school. The rumor spread through the whole class.”
“But they’re from a wealthy family. A little messed up is normal, right? What won’t rich people do?”
“And if they really have a child in the future, they won’t even have to worry about birth defects…”
—
Behind the trees, Yu Zheng was already fuming.
But when he turned to look at the two people involved, they acted as if nothing had happened.
Yu Zheng egged them on. “You’re going to put up with this? Go out there and fight them!”
“Wait.” Yu Xiaxing stopped Yu Zheng first.
Then she looked up at Yu Zhining. “You haven’t been manipulated again, have you?”
Yu Zhining lowered his head and stared at her for a long while. Through the passage of time, he seemed to be looking at that little girl standing at the doorway with a painting in her arms.
Coming back and distancing himself from his family because of someone else’s instigation—how foolish he had been.
“I won’t be anymore. I’ll go out and clear things up.”
But Yu Xiaxing grabbed him by the arm. “Why should we rush to explain ourselves just because someone’s throwing mud at us?”
Yu Zhining asked, “What are you planning?”
She raised her eyes toward the reporters and cameras in the distance. “This news station has a lot of influence, and it’s considered reputable. We shouldn’t waste this opportunity.”
Yu Zheng immediately knew that his sister had come up with another devious idea. He leaned closer and asked, “What are you going to do?”
Yu Xiaxing said, “We’ll split up first…”
—
A few minutes later.
Over by the waterside pavilion, several classmates were still smugly exposing the wealthy family’s scandal, their stories becoming more and more incoherent.
Huo Mian’s eyes were red, and she kept shaking her head, looking like a fragile girl forced to listen to these sordid stories from the past.
Yu Xiaxing suddenly passed by from the side. She appeared to have just noticed that there were people there, and stopped in her tracks.
She stared at Mr. Gu and exclaimed theatrically, “Well, if it isn’t National Fortune Bro!”
Mr. Gu froze.
The camera immediately swung toward him as well.
Yu Xiaxing smiled at Mr. Gu. “Didn’t you just buy a ten-million-yuan National Fortune Stone today? And now you’re being interviewed?”
Mr. Gu stared coldly at the girl in front of him.
Qin Mei had specifically warned him earlier that the National Fortune Stone must not be exposed.
What if another country took notice and sent agents to steal it? Or what if ignorant people slandered it or tried to sensationalize it? Either could damage the fortune of all of China!
This girl had no idea how serious the matter was. How dare she expose it in public?
He immediately panicked. “What nonsense are you spouting?”
Huo Mian was flustered too…
Actually, she had never intended to truly expose the scandal about the wealthy siblings’ supposed improper relationship. She had only arranged for someone to film it, then planned to stop the reporters from broadcasting it and secretly show the footage to Yu Zhining.
After that, she would tell Yu Zhining, “What happened between you and your sister almost got exposed, but my mother has a friend at the production team. My mother paid them a great deal of money before they finally agreed to suppress it.”
That would have been enough to complete the process of redemption. There would have been no need to blow the matter up.
If the story became public, it would mean completely breaking ties with the Yu family. She would never do that.
Why had Yu Xiaxing suddenly appeared?
And why had she set her sights on the auction?
Huo Mian hurriedly said, “Yu Xiaxing, don’t make things up!”
“I’m not making anything up. I have proof!” Yu Xiaxing declared. “At the auction, National Fortune Bro completely crushed those foreign lackeys. It was so thrilling and patriotic!”
She immediately pulled out her phone, held it up to the camera, and played the video.
The reporter took one look and understood what had happened. He turned to Mr. Gu and asked, “Mr. Gu, does this National Fortune Stone you bought for ten million yuan have an appraisal certificate?”
“Didn’t this tour group advertise that it was only helping elderly people rediscover themselves and absolutely wouldn’t force them to shop?”
“So they privately create customized scripts for you and organize auctions? Have the other elderly people become victims as well?”
Victim?!
Mr. Gu felt humiliated. He stood up and shouted, “What do you people know! I’m not a victim! I’m a hero of this country! If I hadn’t protected this dragon-vein stone, none of you would have food to eat in the future!”
Seeing his bulging eyes and feverish excitement, the production crew felt that this wasn’t simply a case of him being scammed…
He seemed to have forgotten to take his medication.
By now, their attention had been completely diverted. They were no longer interested in the wealthy-family scandal and began bombarding him with questions about the dragon-vein stone instead.
Huo Mian, standing nearby, had no idea what to do.
If this matter was truly exposed, it would definitely affect her mother!
One of her classmates quietly reminded her, “Just steer everyone’s attention back. Let’s go over there now and tell them that she’s the female lead in the wealthy-family scandal.”
Another classmate said, “Right. We’ll help you.”
The classmates squeezed their way toward the cameras.
One male classmate fell behind and couldn’t push his way through, so he could only stir things up from the back.
Just then, Yu Zheng strolled over from the other side and said to the male classmate, “Hello. Could you do me a favor?”
The man looked up and down at Yu Zheng. Seeing that he was dressed extravagantly and wearing an expensive watch, he figured that helping someone like this would definitely bring him some benefit. Even if he didn’t get anything immediately, the man might repay him in the future.
He had graduated years ago. Right after graduation, he had actually found a job, but after listening to all kinds of motivational nonsense online, he had decided to “reform the workplace.” Whenever his supervisor dared to point out something wrong with his work, he would jump up and make a huge scene, throwing a fit and acting completely unhinged.
After being fired several times, he could no longer find work. He desperately wanted to help a rich man so that the man would arrange a position for him as an executive.
He walked over to Yu Zheng. “What kind of favor?”
“Come over here. I’ll explain it in detail.” Yu Zheng led him toward the side.
As soon as they rounded the edge of the trees, the man’s shoulder suddenly sank. He felt someone pressing down on him from behind!
He was just about to shout when a hand clamped firmly over his mouth from behind.
Yu Zheng swiftly pulled out the special kidnapping tape and sealed the man’s mouth, then tied up his hands and feet.
There had still been quite a bit left over from tying up that little boy yesterday. Yu Zheng had known this stuff would come in handy!
Before long, the male classmate was lying on the ground, bound from head to toe.
Yu Zhining came around from behind him and crouched down to look at him.
The moment the man saw Yu Zhining, he began trembling in terror. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make a sound.
Yu Zhining smiled. “You seemed pretty brave when you were making false accusations in front of the cameras just now.”
Yu Zheng cut him off. “Enough talking. Hurry up. Didn’t you see that our sister is being bullied over there by herself?”
Yu Zhining glanced toward the production crew. Yu Xiaxing was alone over there, arguing with the entire crowd. One moment she was presenting a logical case; the next, she was cursing their ancestors…
Her manners were truly impeccable.
Yu Zheng had already reached for the male student’s phone. He held it up to the man’s face, trying to unlock it with facial recognition.
The man’s eyes filled with panic. He immediately began shaking his head frantically, refusing to unlock it.
Yu Zhining clasped the man’s jaw with one hand and turned his face back toward the phone.
Yu Zheng unlocked the phone and began scrolling through the messages.
Yu Zhining still hadn’t let go.
After studying medicine, he had trained his hands to be exceptionally steady, able to control his strength so he wouldn’t hurt anyone.
But at that moment, thinking of the eight-year-old girl who had known nothing, and of his own younger self, who had been wrapped in malice, he suddenly wanted to make the person in front of him suffer a little.
Yu Zhining’s fingers tightened slightly. The male student’s vision quickly blurred with stars as a feeling of suffocation surged over him!
Yu Zheng glanced at him. “That’s enough. You’re about to strangle him to death.”
Only then did Yu Zhining loosen his grip a little.
Yu Zheng opened the student’s chat list and discovered that he was in a group chat with Huo Mian and the others. The group was called “The Upper Crust of the Pu Circle.”
He skimmed through it casually, and a foul stench of depravity practically wafted off the screen!
