Yu Xiang shook her head. “I don’t mind. Compared with doing a livestream, I’m even more unwilling to let people think that all my past academic achievements came from my family’s connections.”
Qiuyun said, “Then let’s schedule it for tomorrow morning. Ma’am, you can invite several highly respected scholars in the field and have them participate via video link. We’ll treat it like an ordinary academic symposium, except that it’ll be livestreamed for the public. We won’t deliberately try to clarify anything.”
“Sounds good.”
Several candidates immediately came to Yu Xiang’s mind, though this meant she would have to ask her mentor to help persuade them to appear.
Qiuyun glanced at the surveillance footage she had already copied. “As for Professor Dai’s defamatory accusations, we’ll report him to the police in person.”
Putting everything else aside, his furtive, secretive way of submitting the letter was suspicious enough to make the police question him.
“In person?”
“Yes.” Qiuyun nodded. “I’ll accompany you. Only if you go yourself will this matter gain traction online. After watching tomorrow’s livestream, netizens will understand that you were deliberately framed.”
Going in person would show that she took the matter seriously. Yu Xiang also wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, so she nodded. “All right.”
That afternoon, Qiuyun contacted her colleagues in MR’s marketing department and handed over the firsthand information. They staked out the local police station and successfully captured footage of Mrs. Jiang personally going to report the case. The marketing account would become the only one online with the exclusive news and rake in a hefty wave of traffic.
Qiuyun instructed them, “For today, spread it only on a small scale. Wait until noon tomorrow before stirring things up widely. Also, crop out the face of the person beside Mrs. Jiang. Show only a shoulder or a back.”
Her colleague replied with an “OK.” “What about the driver and the bodyguard?”
“Crop them out too.”
That evening, Sun Assistant Manager sent over the information he had compiled on Ge Wenguan.
Tsk. What method could she use to let Ge Wenguan know that Old Master Jiang had feelings for Hu Tingxue, and then get him to let it slip to Ge Furen?
After all, anyone else’s words could be dismissed as untrustworthy, but people tended to believe their own younger brother a little more.
“Sister Xiaoqiu!” Jiang Chuling ran over after returning from school and dropping off her schoolbag. “What exactly happened this morning?”
Now that there was a solution, Qiuyun did not hide anything and explained it all to her.
“What?!”
Jiang Chuling took Chen Assistant Manager’s phone and, sure enough, saw that the related trending topics were still displayed on the screen.
“How can they be like this? They’re all talking nonsense!”
Qiuyun reassured her, “Don’t worry. We already have a solution, and Ma’am has done nothing wrong. She’ll be fine.”
“Is Mom very upset?” Jiang Chuling asked.
“No. Ma’am may seem gentle by nature, but she’s actually very resilient.”
Phew… That was a relief.
Jiang Chuling distractedly finished her evening tutoring session. She had originally planned to go comfort her mother, but then she was told that her father had returned.
All right, then.
She wouldn’t compete with her father over something like this.
The next day.
Ma’am contacted several highly prestigious experts in the field. To avoid any suspicion of bias, she even invited scholars from universities in other provinces to participate in the symposium.
Afterward, Qiuyun had the company’s marketing accounts begin building momentum. The trending topic was titled “Mrs. Jiang’s Clarification Livestream,” enticing netizens to click on it.
But in reality, it was baiting them in for the slaughter.
—Is this… supposed to be a clarification?
—Uh, clarifying the contents of the letter of accusation counts as a clarification, I guess.
—This clarification livestream is so boring. How long are they going to talk before getting to the point?
—I’ve already taken a nap, and those old men are still talking.
—I can’t take it anymore, guys. They sound like they’re chanting scriptures. I’m out. I’ll come back after some genius summarizes the important parts.
…
Every netizen who excitedly clicked on the trending topic came away with their head spinning from a barrage of knowledge.
—I believe now that Professor Yu really did achieve everything on her own and didn’t rely on her family. She’s amazing to be able to discuss things with several white-haired professors for that long.
—Same. My brain would’ve turned to mush in no time.
—I’m in the relevant field. Professor Yu definitely has genuine expertise. But having knowledge doesn’t mean you don’t need your family to pave the way for you. There are plenty of shady dealings in academia. People take their own lives over it all the time.
In the end, the three-hour-long academic symposium concluded. It was like pouring a basin of cold water over raging flames, and the topic’s popularity plummeted instantly.
Netizens had boundless enthusiasm for gossip, but when faced with dry, boring knowledge… well, they weren’t interested.
A knowledgeable netizen eventually posted a summary:
“The contents of the letter of accusation are a matter of academic debate. You can understand it as two opposing schools of thought. Professor Yu’s paper supports Position A, and most scholars in the field also find Position A more convincing. But that doesn’t mean the Position B described in the letter is wrong. In short, Professor Yu was dragged into this for no reason.”
—Agreed. She really was falsely accused. I heard she already reported the person who wrote the letter for defamation.
—I saw that too. She personally went to the police station to report it. Why hasn’t that made it onto the trending list?
—What else could it be? The platform wants to keep the topic hot.
…
With both measures working together, the matter’s popularity gradually died down.
After all, if this Yu Xiang truly possessed substantial ability, then given her age—she was already in her forties—it wasn’t especially difficult for her to have achieved what she had today.
On top of that, following this scandal had been genuinely boring. Netizens’ attention was soon drawn away by newer and more exciting hot topics.
Qiuyun let out a long sigh of relief.
When academia and wealth were combined, any attempt at clarification would be torn apart by the public, no matter how one explained it.
It seemed that, in the public’s eyes, scholars had to be incorruptible, impoverished, and lonely in order to possess an air of true integrity.
So the fact that this matter had cooled down so quickly was already an excellent outcome.
That evening, Qiuyun went to Mr. Jiang’s study. Together with Sister Zhou, she told Mr. and Mrs. Jiang that Xiuxiu had been planted in the household by Jiang Yifeng as a spy.
“What?!” Yu Xiang looked incredulous. “Xiuxiu came to the estate when she was only eighteen and has stayed by my side for seven or eight years. How could that be possible?!”
Sister Zhou was equally furious. “Ma’am, I heard her admit it myself. She was the one who passed information to Mr. Jiang!”
Yu Xiang felt stifled.
In just two days, she had suffered two betrayals. First, it was her senior fellow student, whom she had believed she shared some friendship with. Then it was a maid she had trusted deeply.
Qiuyun comforted her. “Ma’am, someone like that isn’t worth being upset over.”
From Sister Zhou’s account, Ma’am had treated Xiuxiu very well. When Xiuxiu’s mother fell ill, she had given her hundreds of thousands for medical treatment. Normally, she also overlooked Xiuxiu’s minor mistakes instead of holding them against her.
Yet even after receiving such kindness, Xiuxiu had still betrayed her.
Jiang Yihua patted his wife’s back, silently indicating that this was not her fault.
Once she had set aside her softer emotions, Yu Xiang took a deep breath. “Xiaoqiu, you must have some plan in mind if you came to tell us about this privately, right?”
“Yes.” Qiuyun nodded. “Although the online public opinion has temporarily stabilized, something like this could flare up again at any moment. So we can use Xiuxiu to pass information outward and let Jiang Yifeng know that we already suspect him and plan to find weaknesses in his former company and retaliate. That might force him to stop.”
