CH 42

Chapter 42

“Sister Xixi, there are people on the net trying to tarnish your reputation.” The more Xiao Yang swiped through the trending topics on the net, the more she felt that something was off. Originally, everything was going well. Why was it that towards the end, it became Sister Xixi being shameless and claiming that the Chang Corporation CEO secretly liked her?

“It’s these few accounts again,” Ning Xi browsed Weibo using her phone. The last time Zhu Moli bought a black water amy, these few accounts also took the opportunity to splash dirty water on her. It was them again this time. Very quickly, she understood what was going on.

“I’ll give Brother Zhang a call, let the company deal with this matter.” From Xiao Yang’s point of view, Sister Xixi was good in every aspect. Seeing that there were people trying to ruin her, she wouldn’t stand for it.

“You don’t have to bother with them,” Ning Xi took a sip of water, “This kind of topic will disappear within a couple of days. If we rush to explain ourselves, we would be doing exactly what the other party wants.”

“Oh….” Xiao Yang nodded blankly. She looked at Ning Xi’s calm countenance and her heart rose with endless adoration. Sister Xixi sure was composed. Xiao Yang knew that if it was herself that was being falsely accused, she would have been hopping mad.

Seeing her stupefied appearance, Ning Xi couldn’t help but laugh. She lowered her head and used her personal phone to send a message. And afterwards, she deleted the record of it.

At 12 noon, someone, out of the blue, released a video online. In the video, Zhu Moli who had always been praised by her fans for having an honest character, was sitting in a car, smoking. She was wearing revealing clothes and teasing a middle-aged man. The whole process was unbearable to look at.

Quite a few netizens knew of this middle-aged man. He was the husband of the Film Empress Chen Zhenzhen, Jiang Hongkai.

Even though this video was only a minute long, it came to many as a great shock.

That year when Chen Zhenzhen committed suicide, the masses were in an uproar.

There were even fans that went to the headquarters of the Jiang Corporation organized for a sit-in protest. When the news was released, the entire nation knew of this matter.

Eventually, it came out that it was because Chen Zhenzhen found out she had a terminal illness that she decided to commit suicide, and that Jiang Hongkai was filled with anguish and wished for death because of Chen Zhenzhen’s passing. There were even media reports that he overdosed on sleeping pills and was sent to the emergency room. The enraged fans then finally stopped surrounding the headquarters of Jiang Corporation and their stock price slowly began to climb back up.

Now, the man who was said to have nearly followed Chen Zhenzhen into death appeared so crude and acted so intimately with another female artiste in a car.

The key point was that the following day was Chen Zhenzhen’s death anniversary. Yet, Jiang Chengkai was flirting with another woman. Was he that desperate?

Chen Zhenzhen’s die-hard fans felt cheated by Jiang Hongkai. Similarly, Zhu Moli’s fans were unable to accept this either.

If Zhu Moli was dating someone else, they wouldn’t have minded. However, in this video, it was clear that Jiang Hongkai was merely treating her like a plaything.

Netizens immediately flared up, especially Chen Zhenzhen’s fans. Each and everyone of them held strong fighting spirit, unafraid of wielding Chen Zhenzhen’s death as a weapon. People were even starting to doubt the truth of the news claiming that Jiang Hongkai entered the hospital due to overdosing on sleeping pills.

However, this video wasn’t out for long before it was deleted from Weibo. Anything related to the Jiang family vanished without a trace as well.

But to these modern netizens, these methods could not stop their mouths. They had plenty of ways to avoid the banned keywords.

Since they wouldn’t allow videos, they would post pictures instead. If they locked the accounts, they would simply create new ones. There were even extreme fans that expressed that if Weibo decided to stand on the side of evil, they would organize a sit-in protest at the headquarters.

At this time, the state of the Weibo headquarters was a mess. In the past, they only needed to block posts and ban keywords, and the hype would gradually fall off. But this time it seemed that their actions had inflamed the issue and if they interfered any more, they might even find trouble for themselves.

“There’s someone instigating the matter behind the scenes,” Everyone could tell that this was not normal. Some Weibo accounts were especially provocative, constantly bringing up the topic of Jiang family and Chen Zhenzhen’s suicide.

Chen Zhenzhen had been dead for so many years, if there was someone who wanted to seek justice for her, they should have done it a long time ago. Why did they wait until now?

“This matter has escalated too far.” A senior picked up a call and turned to his colleagues, “I’ve just received the news that this has already caught the attention of the national television stations.”

“Haven’t they been uninterested in entertainment news?” Another said with astonishment, “How did this catch the attention of the national television stations?”

“Chen Zhenzhen’s fans went to the national television station for a sit-in protest, saying that they were suspicious of the cause of Chen Zhenzhen’s death.” The person who answered the phone rubbed his temples, “I’ll call the boss. I’m afraid we can’t keep up with this.”

“Who in the world did Jiang Hongkai offend to make this matter blow up?” Several people murmured to themselves. Since some time ago, posts and photos about Chen Zhenzhen had been circulating on the Internet. Some people wrote many articles in memory of Chen Zhenzhen in an emotional tone, which caused many netizens to express pity for Chen Zhenzhen’s passing.

Originally, they believed that it was Chen Zhenzhen’s relatives and friends, or perhaps her managing company wanting to make use of her passing to make money. But they didn’t expect that things would turn around and run in the other direction.

“If someone is using this method to deal with Jiang Hongkai, they must have been very patient.” An IT staffer was pulling the data on mentions of Jiang Hongkai and Chen Zhenzhen and found that someone had already begun to bring up the love between Jiang Hongkai and Chen Zhenzhen over one year ago. Those articles said that Jiang Hongkai, in order to marry Chen Zhenzhen, stood against the masses and did some very touching things. They met, fell in love, and got married before Chen Zhenzhen finally succumbed to her depression and committed suicide. Jiang Hongkai was so sad he wished he would die and was never able to fall in love again. It was a very heartbreaking romance drama.

To suppress the desire and sing praises [1]. It was worse because they had all been touched by the strength of Jiang Hongkai’s love before it had all come tumbling out that it was fake. Jiang Hongkai was not living a life resembling death at all; instead, he had already forgotten all about Chen Zhenzhen. Even the cause of Chen Zhenzhen’s death was now being debated. Everything was thrown into suspicion again.

If everyone had known for a long time that Jiang Hongkai was not a good man, then even if today’s video blow up, though everyone would get angry, but they will never get angered to this point.

“It seems that this chess piece was buried deep. What is this person plotting?” The IT staff member frowned, “Even if he exposes Jiang Hongkai’s real face, it can only drown him in infamy. How much impact can this really have?”

Jiang Hongkai didn’t belong to the entertainment circle. Even if he was really despised by netizens, he was still the carefree and wealthy Second Master Jiang. At most, he would spend a year and a half staying at home without going out and showing his face.

If the culprit was a Jiang family business rival, what was the use in focusing on his personal life rather than smearing the Jiang Corporation products or customer service? And even further, Jiang Hongkai only had a nominal position in the Jiang family. The actual control of the company was held by the leader of the family.

Even giving the benefit of the doubt to the perpetrator, if people wanted to bring up private lives, that of the eldest brother in the Jiang family was not clean, either. Why not bring up the eldest brother’s life and instead choose to involve the powerless second brother?

There were definitely reasons behind the use of this method to fan the fire. It was too deep for them to understand what the perpetrator’s aim was.

In the Chang family villa, Mother Chang looked at the gift brought by the Jiang family and smiled politely, “We are family, why the need to be so courteous?”

“Not at all, it’s what we should do,” Tao Minya said with a smile. “I haven’t seen you in a few days and your complexion keeps getting better, elder sister. You look ten years younger.”

“I’m already an old lady, how can I appear ten years young?” Mother Chang took a sip of tea and turned to look at the two brothers of the Jiang family who came with Tao Minya. Although she was confused, the expression on her face remained placid. “Both of you are usually so busy. Since you’ve come today, sit and stay a while longer.”

Hearing this, Tao Minya felt somewhat awkward. That year when her elder sister had married into the Chang family, she was jealous for a very long time. Later, her brother-in-law had died in a car accident and the competition within the Chang family was fierce. At that time, the Jiangs were afraid to get involved, so they did not offer much help. Although they stayed in touch over the past two years, the two sisters were not as close as they were before they married.

“Nephew Shi Gui is so capable, how could you worry like us, elder sister?” Jiang Hongkai flattered, “In the entire capital, who doesn’t envy you for having such an excellent son?”

“There’s nothing I can do either. If I could, I would like him to live like other young people, to be relaxed and carefree.” sighed Mother Chang. “Unlike now. Despite his young age, he’s nothing but solemn and boring. No trace of the vitality of a young man at all.”

“He can’t be called ‘solemn and boring’, he can be considered ‘steady and mature’ instead.” Tao said with a raised eyebrow. “I’d like to let that stinky boy of mine learn from Shi Gui, so as to not be idling outside all day.”

“Chengzi is still young, he’ll be fine when he gets older.” Mother Chang laughed but did not say anything else. Jiang Cheng’s two years of racing, fighting and even engaging in underhanded tactics using the unspoken rules [2] with female artistes. It was really inappropriate. She had advised against it before, but it had no effect, and now it wasn’t easy to bring it up again, so as not to be annoying.

“Sister Tao, we are here today, firstly, to visit you. Second, we are here to apologize to Shi Gui. Shi Gui is too busy and we do not want to disturb him either. So we are here to apologize to you,” Jiang Hongkai kept trying to shift the topic and finally managed to get to the point.

“Apologize?” Mother Chang, Tao Huixue, looked at Jiang Hongkai. “What is this about?”

“It’s all the fault of our family’s ignorant girl who offended Shi Gui’s partner,” Jiang Hongkai said with a helpless face. “The child was spoiled by me all these years. She does things without thinking. It’s really……” He shook his head, expressing helplessness.

Tao Huixue saw that he spoke ambiguously, without a proper start or an end and raised her eyebrow, “Shi Gui’s partner?”

“Yes ah, Sister Tao doesn’t know about this?” Seeing Tao Huixue’s questioning face, Jiang Hongkai explained, “The night before yesterday, at the Chang Corporation party, he brought a female artiste with an outstanding appearance as his date. Our family’s daughter has loved Shi Gui since she was young. Seeing that he had another woman with him, she became so angry she went to cause trouble. In the end, his companion sprained her ankle. I’m really sorry about this.”

A female artiste with an outstanding appearance?

Tao Huixue took a sip of tea and smiled: “I really don’t know anything about it. If there is any misunderstanding between Jiang second brother and Shi Gui, I’ll wait for him to come back and explain it clearly. The friendship between our two families over the years should not be in jeopardy because of a little incident like this. ”

“Yes yes,” Jiang Hongkai nodded with a smile. Seeing that Tao Huixue didn’t seem to question after Ning Xi, he took the initiative to say, “If he didn’t reveal his relationship with that girl that night, I really wouldn’t know that he has a sweetheart now. This lady is smart and more mature than that girl in our family. I heard she’s very popular recently. No wonder Shi Gui likes her. For her sake, he even threatened the reporters.”

On the surface, his words seemed to be praising Ning Xi. In actual fact, there was another meaning behind them.

A beautiful appearance, an actress, just attained popularity and had already hooked up with Chang Shi Gui and even had him get angry on her behalf. This kind of image was difficult to think positively.

Nevertheless, to Jiang Hongkai’s disappointment, despite what he said, Tao Huixue did not react at all. Back then when he married Chen Zhenzhen, who in the Jiang family did not jump out and object?

What was with Tao Huixue’s attitude? Was she so confident that Ning Xi could not enter into their family?

“I do not wish to interfere with the children’s lives,” Tao Huixue said with a tranquil smile. “Isn’t this generation all about freedom to love?”

“That being said, it still can’t be too outrageous,” Tao Minya said as she looked at her husband, who was sitting beside her. “This kind of small artiste marrying into our family, I’m afraid this is not appropriate [3].”

“What appropriate or not appropriate,” Tao Huixue cut off Tao Minya, “This character of yours should have long been fixed, you’re always so anxious. Things have not even begun to take shape, what are you worrying for?”

Tao Minya listened to her sister’s words and thought that the other side did not place Ning Xi in her eyes at all. At once, she smiled, “You’re right. Sometimes with these young people, the more we force them, the better their relationship will be. If we just let nature take its course, perhaps the feelings will disappear.”

Tao Huixue did not agree with this but did not refute it either. Instead, she changed the topic, “Today, I heard that Hongkai has gotten into some kind of trouble?”

“It’s not a big problem. It’s just a few netizens making fools of themselves. Leave it be for a few days and it will be fine.” Just as Jiang Hongkai was talking, he heard the housekeeper say that Chang Shi Gui had returned.

“Shi Gui, you’re back.” Because of some of the things that happened after the car accident back then, Tao Minya had a kind of reverence and guilt in her heart towards Chang Shi Gui, who was a generation younger. As such, she could not help but to try and get on his good side whenever she saw him.

“Aunt, uncle, second uncle Jiang,” Chang Shi Gui handed his suit jacket to the housekeeper and sat down beside Tao Huixue, “Mother.”

“Welcome home.” Tao Huixue patted him on the shoulder with a smile. “I asked the chef to make your favorite dish. You should eat more later.”

“En.” Chang Shi Gui answered, but didn’t say anything else.

He had always been silent, and so Jiang Hongkai and others did not feel that anything was wrong. However, Tao Huixue realized that her son’s spirits had not been high since yesterday.

“Shi Gui ah, I came here to apologize for what happened the night before yesterday……”

“Uncle Jiang, this is between Jiang Yi and Ning Xi. What are apologizing to me for?” Chang Shi Gui stared at Jiang Hongkai expressionlessly. He then took the tea that the servant brought to him, “If Jiang Yi really has the sincerity, she should personally apologize to Ning Xi.”

“Shi Gui, your words…..” Tao Minya saw that her husband’s younger brother’s face was twisted because of Chang Shi Gui and hurriedly said, “That Ning Xi is an outsider after all. Why embarrass your family for an outsider?”

“Bang!”

Chang Shi Gui placed the teacup on the table heavily and said seriously, “Since we are family, you shouldn’t make trouble for the distinguished guest that I invited.”

Tao Minya was embarrassed. She said that Ning Xi was an actress while Chang Shi Gui said that this woman was a distinguished guest. If she still did not understand Chang Shi Gui’s attitude, she would be a fool.

Momentarily, she did not know how to continue. She could only turn around to look at her sister. Who knew that her sister just bowed her head and continue to drink her tea. It was as if she did not hear anything.

The atmosphere instantly turned awkward..

Seeing this, Jiang Hongkai quickly brightened up the atmosphere and said, “Nephew, don’t be angry. Let’s speak calmly. I will definitely give Miss Ning a proper account.”

Chang Shi Gui lowered his head and took a sip of tea without speaking.

“By the way, nephew, I heard that you hold shares in Weibo?” Jiang Hongkai stammered, “You see the uproar on the net. Although it isn’t too harmful, it still does not look good. Do you think you can get Yao Zhengwei to help to lock all of those troublesome accounts?”

(1) Original text = 欲抑先扬 – An idiom that tells one to suppress their whatever nasty desire first and praise the person they. In the sense that, when we want to belittle a person or thing, we may “praise” it first. The higher the person is lifted, the more painful they fall.

(2) A slang for having sexual relations with the female artistes. Usually the female artiste will receive benefits in return. For example, being able to starr in a famous movie.

(3) ‘Appropriate’ may not be the right word to use here actually. She’s indirectly saying that it’s shameful and doesn’t reflect/look good on their family