Meanwhile, Su Xiaoye had spent the evening after dinner curled up on the hotel sofa, scrolling through the trending searches. The lawyer was staying in the room next to hers.
The screen was packed with statements released by the Xie Group and the Lu Group, clarifying and refuting the various rumors surrounding them.
At the same time, major official accounts also posted clarification notices stating that the rumors about Lu Huaiyu and the group he belonged to had crossed the legal line.
Alongside those notices were the case-filing documents regarding Lu Huaiyu and his two siblings being deliberately attacked by people hired by S.D. executives.
There was also an evidence notice identifying senior executives at S.D. as the masterminds behind the malicious hiring of online trolls to spread rumors and smear the show Ta Travel.
Although Yisen had been cautious when arranging all of this, and had operated from across the ocean, it would ordinarily have been extremely difficult to trace everything back to him.
But his opponent was Lu Huaiyu.
Yisen was no pushover, but neither was Lu Huaiyu.
In response, the Xie, Lu, Liang, Shen, and Qin families of Haicheng all filed transnational lawsuits against S.D. The resulting uproar was enormous.
After all, Director Zhang had brought together the sons and daughters of nearly all of Haicheng’s major families on the show.
Their younger family members had merely gone on a program, only to be slandered and smeared by paid trolls for no reason. If they did not fight back immediately, would that not amount to letting everyone treat them like doormats?
At the same time, the other major families in Haicheng also acted swiftly.
Both openly and behind the scenes, they made pointed remarks about S.D.’s attempt to seize the Chinese market by ignoring the law, hiring people to commit murder, stealing projects, and spreading rumors on a massive scale.
The major corporations stood united against a common enemy, placing S.D.’s sinister ambitions squarely in the public eye and making sure everyone knew about them.
From an economic perspective, a market consisted of buyers, sellers, and goods. The buyers were the consumers.
Any product that failed to win the support of consumers could forget about entering the market.
S.D. was a long-established company from Country M. In the past, it had always looked down on the Chinese market and had even made various inappropriate remarks.
Its attitude had been outrageously arrogant.
Now that its room for survival in its own market had been squeezed, it had turned its attention to China’s vast market.
It had even tried to control an established Haicheng company like the Xie Group in order to whitewash its previous offensive remarks about China and regain the support of Chinese consumers.
But now Lu Huaiyu had openly laid out all of S.D.’s repulsive conduct, along with several other illegal and criminal acts, for everyone to see.
Consumers were not fools. Anyone with even a shred of backbone would refuse to let S.D. enter the Chinese market.
Once a company lost the public’s trust, bankruptcy would not be far behind.
Su Xiaoye carefully analyzed the situation one item at a time. Only after confirming that no new trending topics harmful to Xie Tangning had appeared did she finally relax.
Just then, an unfamiliar number began calling her phone. It was probably Shi Jiahui or one of the others.
Su Xiaoye neither answered nor hung up immediately.
Ever since the show had ended that morning and she had left with the lawyer arranged for her by Lu Huaiyu, Su Yue'er had called her again and again. She clearly wanted Su Xiaoye to come forward and resolve the matter of their adoption relationship.
But Su Xiaoye had ignored every call.
She understood perfectly well now that if she continued hesitating instead of severing ties with Shi Jiahui and the others once and for all, she would eventually be dragged back into that quagmire.
She refused.
Once someone had seen the light, they could never again endure the darkness.
Even more than that, she did not want to disappoint her sun.
When the ringing finally stopped on its own, Su Xiaoye sent a message to the lawyer next door, asking whether she could post a statement online.
Only after receiving the lawyer’s approval did Su Xiaoye begin drafting her post.
She intended to expose to the public all the facts surrounding the Su family’s years of psychological control over her, as well as how Su Yue'er had sent her to an elite school as a companion student in exchange for resources, leaving her to suffer bullying.
She would not forgive Shi Jiahui for forging adoption documents in order to obtain compensation, either.
She wanted to convey one clear message to the public: she would send Shi Jiahui, who had already crossed the legal line, to prison.
If possible, she wanted to send Su Yue'er there as well.
The public had stood behind her out of sympathy, so she needed to make her position clear.
She did not want to disappoint the people who supported her.
…
Meanwhile, at the Xie family villa—
A large number of people had gathered at Xie Wanwan’s home. Even Guo Wenli, who had returned to her family home and had not appeared for a long time, was sitting in the living room.
“Wanwan, come sit with Mom.” Guo Wenli beckoned to Xie Wanwan.
Xie Wanwan did not hesitate. She sat down beside her mother and said, “Mom, you haven’t come home in so long. I’ve missed you so much!”
Guo Wenli forced a smile. “I’m sorry. Mom’s been too busy lately and neglected you.”
Xie Wanwan shook her head, then gently rested her head against her mother’s shoulder. “It’s okay. You’ve worked hard, Mom~”
Guo Wenli felt as though her heart had been gripped tightly. She stroked the little head resting against her shoulder and said nothing more.
Watching the mother and daughter leaning against each other, Xie Shen felt a sharp pang in his heart.
His beloved mother and sister both harbored knots in their hearts, and until the matter was resolved, neither of them could speak openly about it.
He could see the conflict and pain in his mother’s eyes. He also knew that the only thing he could do was seize control of all the power.
That way, Xie Zhenxing and the Guo family would no longer be able to bind Guo Wenli like shackles.
Seeing the mother and daughter leaning against each other only made Xie Zhenxing irritated.
The moment he thought about how Xie Wanwan and Xie Shen had repeatedly clashed with Li Boyan on the show, his dislike for the three members of the mother-and-son family grew even stronger.
If Guo Wenli had not caused such a scene back then and insisted on divorcing him, he would not have had to transfer so many shares and tangible assets to Xie Shen in order to protect his reputation.
Nor would he have ended up without enough liquid funds, forcing him to let Leno Capital invest in Leyuan. And if that had not happened, he would not now be trapped and unable to move freely by Leno Capital.
“What exactly did you come back for? I don’t have time to argue with you. I have a pile of company business waiting for me to deal with!”
Hearing the impatience in Xie Zhenxing’s voice, Guo Wenli’s eyes remained emotionless.
“I came back to enjoy the show—to see the joke of your illegitimate son inviting a wolf into your home.”
Having been struck where it hurt, Li Boyan clenched his fists but did not dare say a word.
A week earlier, Leno Capital had been targeted and relentlessly attacked by its rivals overseas, suffering heavy losses.
The funds it had initially promised to invest in Leyuan had vanished, and the project it had bid on had also run into trouble. The company was facing enormous losses, and Xie Zhenxing now had a very poor opinion of him.
Even though he had been reborn, he had no backers or connections at his disposal to resolve the crisis.
