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The next day.

"Yes, teacher, Yuyou isn't feeling well today. She’ll go to school after two classes."

"The Zhi School app has already been submitted. Got it."

After hanging up, Ye Shuang returned to the second floor—where Bai Yuyou was still sound asleep in bed, breathing steadily while clinging tightly to her pillow.

Since the morning classes happened to be physics and chemistry, Ye Shuang preferred to let Bai Yuyou rest a little longer. He planned to take her to school when he left for work, and as for the missed lessons, he could always tutor her later to make up for it.

He had also explained the situation to Tang Keke, though for some reason, she seemed oddly delighted when she found out Yuyou had stayed up late the night before.

Ye Shuang climbed back into bed. Sensing his warmth, Bai Yuyou murmured softly, her small hand groping around before she rolled over and nestled against his thigh, continuing to sleep.

Watching the girl snuggle up like a kitten, Ye Shuang gently brushed her hair aside and reached for the tablet on the nightstand.

The tablet had a magnetic keyboard attached, turning it into a mini laptop.

Propping himself against the headboard, Ye Shuang placed the tablet on his lap. With one hand, he deftly typed away, working on his novel, while the other lightly pinched Bai Yuyou’s cheek.

She didn’t wake up. Instead, she nuzzled his hand and sank deeper into sleep.

The room was quiet, save for the faint sound of wind chimes downstairs. Ye Shuang focused on his writing—his readership had been growing steadily, and the novel’s performance seemed decent. He estimated that this month’s royalties would be pretty good. Maybe he could treat Yuyou to an extra roast duck leg for dinner.

Just then, his phone buzzed.

Glancing at the screen, he saw a message from Tang Keke:

Tang Keke: Brother, it’s bad! That woman is spreading rumors about you online!

Tang Keke: She wrote a whole exposé about you!

Ye Shuang wasn’t the least bit surprised. After all, Xu Huan’s family was unreasonable to begin with—of course they’d try to drag him down somehow.

This was exactly why he had taken the initiative to explain the situation to bystanders earlier. The more people who knew the truth, the more likely it was that others would correct the misinformation.

Soon, Tang Keke sent over the link.

Ye Shuang skimmed through it.

Title: My dad is dead. My brother was sent to prison just for trying to reclaim a loan. Is there no justice in this world?

These people borrowed money from our family, but after my dad’s sudden death, they refused to pay it back. They even slandered us. And then this creep assaulted me and my mom…

These people have deep connections locally—even the authorities don’t dare touch them. When we went to the hospital for injury reports, the doctors covered for them, claiming we weren’t hurt. Look at these pictures—

[Several images of bruises.jpg]

[Images of bloodied lips.jpg]

We just want our money back. After Dad passed, Mom got seriously ill, and now we’re barely scraping by. But these people, who clearly have money, not only refuse to repay us but also insulted us, beat us, and called us “lowlifes,” “migrant laborers,” and “social trash” who don’t deserve to live. I have nowhere else to turn. Please, help me.

Likes: 12K | Comments: 7,988 | Shares: 37K

Along with the post, Tang Keke also forwarded a short video.

In the clip, Xu Lan was covered in “injuries,” sobbing uncontrollably as she recounted her ordeal between sniffles.

The comments were a mix of sympathy for Xu Lan, outrage directed at Ye Shuang and his group, calls for “life’s first lesson,” and demands to dox them. A handful of rational netizens asked why they hadn’t reported it to the police, but their comments were quickly drowned out by the mob.

Others expressed skepticism but were immediately branded as “trolls.”

Then, a verified influencer with millions of followers chimed in: This is horrifying!

The comment racked up tens of thousands of likes and was widely reposted.

Ye Shuang scrolled through the furious reactions with a detached expression. It seemed independent thinkers were still a rarity—a single fabricated post was enough to turn netizens into weapons. It reminded him of that viral incident where a “poor student” claimed his financial aid had been stolen by a roommate who wore AJs.

The student had tearfully lamented how he couldn’t even afford apples, prompting an outpouring of donations—only for it to later emerge that he was renting a 4,000-yuan-a-month apartment, owned an 8,000-yuan gaming PC, and spent lavishly on gacha games.

What a farce.

As Ye Shuang continued browsing, he noticed some self-media accounts jumping on the bandwagon, reposting the story with dramatic background music to milk the outrage for clicks. Meanwhile, enraged netizens had begun flooding the official social media pages of Haizhu authorities.

The situation was escalating rapidly—but Ye Shuang wasn’t worried.

In fact, he hoped it would blow up even bigger.

That way, Xu Lan and her mother could join Xu Huan in prison.

---

Meanwhile, at Xu Huan’s home.

“Mom, look! So many people are sharing my video! Even a mega-influencer with a million followers reposted it!” Xu Lan burst into her mother’s room, waving her phone excitedly.

The middle-aged woman’s face lit up when she saw the thousands of comments. Even with her limited understanding of the internet, she knew this was big.

“Good, good! That’s exactly how you should write it!”

“Let him learn what happens when he messes with us! Crush him!”

“Did he really think we’d just take this lying down?”

Then, hesitating, she asked, “Do you think that man will come after us for compensation?”

“Of course! Right now, tons of netizens are going after him. Who knows—maybe he’ll even get stabbed on the street!” Xu Lan gloated. “I had no idea it would go this viral. I just asked some beauty blogger friends to share it, but once I added keywords like ‘migrant laborers’ and ‘lowlifes,’ the engagement skyrocketed!”

She pointed at the fake bruise on her lip. “See? A little lipstick was all it took to fool so many people.”

Her mother shot her a sharp look.

“Hurry up and make a group chat! Get those people who want to donate to send money!”

“I know, I know!” Xu Lan said, then gestured to the bed. “But first, Mom, you need to help me film a few more videos. Lie down and moan like you’re in agony—the more pitiful, the better.”

“Fine, let’s get it over with!”