Hibernation 017

Two more years passed, and Liu Wu also returned.

There were a few more scars on his face, said to have been left by fights he got into inside, which made Hu Xiulian's heart ache endlessly. By now, Fang Zhiyi had become completely invisible; Hu Xiulian ignored him, and Liu Wu ignored him too. The three of them squeezed into this tiny room, each harboring their own thoughts.

Until a phone call came to Fang Zhiyi's broken phone, and things changed.

On the other end of the line was Liu Wen. Who knew how he'd stumbled into luck—he supposedly helped someone out and got promoted from a small sales rep to a supervisor, and now he'd even become a deputy manager.

Hu Xiulian was so excited she could barely speak. Liu Wu, however, had a dark look on his face. In all the years he'd been inside, the people he hated most were Liu Wen, and then Fang Xiaolian.

"No justice in the world. How did this guy even manage to rise up?" Fang Zhiyi said, a bit unsettled.

Xiaoxiaohei replied, "Justice is defined by humans themselves. The Way of Heaven never bothers with things like morality or law."

Fang Zhiyi shot it a glance. "Oh, you sure know a lot."

The reason Liu Wen had contacted the family was that there was something he needed their help with.

"Fang Xiaolian is over here too!"

That one sentence left a few people stunned.

Liu Wen sneered on the other end of the line. "That good-for-nothing somehow lucked out and became a sales manager. And her company is a rival to ours."

"What? She dares to go against you? Has she lost her mind?" Hu Xiulian immediately started shouting.

"As if she's worthy of opposing me? I've already dealt with her several times. Last time, I cost her a big deal, and after that good-for-nothing got fired, she started her own business."

Hu Xiulian cursed a few more nasty things.

"Mom, stop swearing for now. I need you to help me with something."

"Just tell me, son!"

"She's started her own brand, hasn't she? I need you to step up and tell everyone about her past—how she hit you, how she stole money from the family and ran off. She's a thief!"

Hu Xiulian paused for a moment. "Alright, son. Tell Mom where you are now. I'll buy a ticket tomorrow and come. Your brother misses you too."

Hearing this, Liu Wen paused on the line. "Mom, don't come. It's too far. All you need to do now is post a video online."

"Post a video?"

"Yeah, I'll teach you how..."

Liu Wen always remembered the time Fang Xiaolian hit him. Plus, after he got her fired, seeing her still manage to get back on her feet made him nervous. His years of experience scrambling in society told him one thing: He could never leave any loose ends!

Fang Xiaolian never imagined that even after she'd distanced herself from that miserable birth family and avoided that brother with no blood ties, they still wouldn't let her go.

"Shock! Founder of emerging brand Fang Xiaolian has been a thief since childhood?"

"Violent by nature—once beat her stepmother until she coughed up blood!"

"Chased her family with a knife—a heart like a viper!"

In no time, countless clickbait accounts started churning out posts. Fang Xiaolian was caught off guard. Finally, she saw the video Hu Xiulian had posted. In the video, Hu Xiulian, her hair graying, kept pouring out accusations about what Fang Xiaolian had done back then. In Hu Xiulian's words, Fang Xiaolian was the villain who had ruined the whole family.

Paired with Hu Xiulian's haggard face and the poverty of their home, public opinion began to lean in Hu Xiulian's favor.

"I've seen her before. She wears all brand names. I never expected her family to be this run-down?"

"Who knows how cruel her heart is."

"Oh my god—her own mother ran off, and she took out all her resentment on her stepmother?"

Amidst the noise, a few people mentioned that perhaps Fang Xiaolian had run away because of her unhappy family, but they were quickly ganged up on.

Fang Xiaolian's hands kept trembling as she read the comments, the scars on her heart slowly being torn open again.

In the video, Hu Xiulian was still crying and complaining. In the background, a silent figure walked past. Fang Xiaolian saw her father. After so many years, he hadn't aged at all—if anything, he looked a bit fatter?

"Bad news, President Fang! Several shops that took samples are calling to say they want to return them."

"What?"

"They say our brand is being boycotted. Some online stores have also taken our products down."

Fang Xiaolian's mind was in chaos. Starting this brand had used up all her savings and loans. If it failed...

That night, Fang Xiaolian stood in front of her phone. "Hello everyone, my name is Fang Xiaolian..."

She talked about her childhood and her school years, each word spoken with firmness. She thought that would clear her name.

But she had no idea what Liu Wen's methods would be.

"I'm from their village. I can vouch that this Fang Xiaolian was a liar and a thief since she was little."

"She stole money from her family back then. I know about it. Hu Xiulian got beaten by her that day, and I heard her brother was beaten too."

A flood of "witnesses" appeared, making Fang Xiaolian's self-defense a joke.

Even though she guessed that someone had paid these people, she had no way to prove it.

In just two days, the name Fang Xiaolian shot straight to the top of the trending searches.

"Uncle Fang, your idea really works!" Liu Wen kept praising on the other end of the line. He really hadn't expected this useless stepfather to come up with a good plan—just spending money on hot trending searches and paid trolls made it easy.

"Stop flattering me. Where's the money?" Fang Zhiyi said, full of pride.

"I'll transfer it right away! Oh, by the way, Uncle Fang, you said you'd expose her yourself. Really?"

"Of course it's true!" Fang Zhiyi puffed out his chest. "And when the time comes, put the stuff your company wants to sell in my livestream room. I guarantee it'll sell like hotcakes!"

Liu Wen was thrilled. In just these two days, the brand he managed had seen a significant uptick in sales thanks to his rival's scandal.

Fang Xiaolian, if your own father exposes you, can you still pretend?

That evening, Fang Zhiyi started a livestream. He simply put up a title saying "Fang Xiaolian's real father." Liu Wen immediately started buying traffic, and countless people flooded in.

Netizens wanted to get the first scoop of the drama.

Fang Xiaolian, trembling, also clicked on the livestream link her subordinates had shared.

"Fang Xiaolian? My daughter!" In front of the camera, Fang Zhiyi was still the same old scoundrel, even pulling out Fang Xiaolian's birth certificate to show everyone.

"Talking about her makes me mad. Barely managed to have one kid, and it turned out to be a girl!" Fang Zhiyi spat hard on the ground.

"You're asking what happened? Did she hit her mother? Of course she did! I saw it myself. Her mother was pulling her by the hair, and she fought back. That little beast."

"What? Gender discrimination? Nonsense. I have two sons—how could I be biased against girls?"

"That good-for-nothing is ruthless too. I just took the money she saved up, planning to use it for my two sons' college tuition, and she stole it and ran off!"