While Zhao Cui could directly put an end to Liu Yao and Headmaster Feng with one finger, he'd never been such a merciful man. Having successfully convinced Shao Shao to stay another night with him, he reclined on the bed next to the sleeping boy and leafed through the reports on the two and combed through the footage on the spy camera his guards had planted in Shao Li's bag.
Watching the scene of the fired Liu Yao brutally kicking Shao Li, his eyes turned red with rage. Such a poisonous woman, he'd make sure she received everything she deserved!
Suddenly, however, he paused.
When Liu Yao and Shao Li stood close together, there was an almost imperceptible resemblance between the two that he hadn't noticed before, although, obviously, Liu Yao's appearance was merely a failed imitation of his baby's.
A faint suspicion formed, and he began to put small hints together.
Liu Yao's father was a mediocre businessman in B City who kept many women on the side. Among the children who entered X country's orphanage with a wounded back, one of them had been hospitalized in B City and would be about Shao Li's age now.
Rather surprised, Zhao Cui quickly sent for more details on Liu Yao's family.
Liu Yao's mother turned out to be a woman from an upper-class background who gave up her dreams to be a pianist and married against her parents' wishes.
Regrettably, not long afterwards, she found out about her beloved husband's chronic infidelity. With her family's standing, she easily chased the women away, but while her husband didn't comment, he also didn't stop finding new lovers.
The crisis came when the increasingly neurotic woman learned that her husband missed their daughter's twelfth birthday party because he was spending time with his five-year-old illegitimate son.
Unable to stand the humiliation anymore, she contacted an underground group her older brother had told her about and paid to record a car 'accidentally' killing the boy and his mother.
Showing the bloody scene to her husband, she spat out, "Let's see what bastard you bring in next."
The relationship between husband and wife understandably cooled after this incident, but from then on, the man did refrain from having children outside.
Neither of the two knew that a passerby called the ambulance and that when it arrived, the five-year-old boy was still barely alive but had lost his memories.
Finished with the report, Zhao Cui tapped his fingers and brooded over whether to reveal such a sordid story to his innocent Shao Shao.
Gazing at the sleeping youth who cutely wrinkled his little nose and mumbled nonsense occasionally, he ran his hand over the raised scar that cut across the slim back. No, his baby had been hurt too much already, he decided. Of course, he'd make sure to clean up this Liu family.
Resolved and eager to hold Shao Shao again, Zhao Cui arranged for a respected journalist to receive various pieces of information and fell asleep wrapped around the soft body.
---
The next morning, Chen Yu arduously escaped from Zhao Cui by claiming that he missed playing music.
When Zhao Cui reluctantly left him in his flat, Chen Yu immediately opened his browser to find that an independent reporter had replied to Class_Act late last night with an article that provided conclusive evidence against her claims.
First the video of Liu Yao hitting a mosaic-covered Shao Li played, followed by a screenshot of Headmaster Feng's official apology on behalf of the school to the 'blameless' Liu Yao and proof of the ambiguous relationship between the two, including photographs of them interacting intimately and testimonies by the other teachers.
The writer then included a comment from the academy board chairman that disclosed Mr. Feng's probationary status on the basis of his biased and negligent management.
Nangong Wei also stepped forward with a hospital report and a series of selfies captioned, "Damn crazy bitch sprained my nose and thinks I would ever want her?!"
Conversely, numerous doctors and nurses expressed doubts about Class_Act's claim that Liu Yao's hands were broken, since they were only bandaged and not protected by a cast or even a splint.
Finally, Class_Act was exposed to be Liu Yao herself.
Slapped with such overwhelming and clear documentation, the netizens fell silent before exploding in a frenzy.
All the pity and concern they'd previously felt for Liu Yao turned into contempt and disgust, while many people embarrassedly apologized to Shao Li, who was the victim in all this.
Having thumbed through the comments, Chen Yu hummed, knocking the phone on his chin.
It was certainly an expert reversal that highlighted Zhao Cui's power.
That Zhao Cui had publicized the footage collected while stalking Shao Li made Chen Yu snort, but he didn't give it much thought. Whether Zhao Cui wanted to subtly warn Shao Li not to run or just didn't think he would question the video's origins, Chen Yu wouldn't waste time on it.
The more interesting thing was that this man went to such lengths to hide Shao Li's identity as Xiao BaoBao, putting a mosaic on his face and, upon investigation, even taking down every Xiao BaoBao clip.
Chen Yu had no doubt that Zhao Cui had long known who Xiao BaoBao was and also that he didn't want others to discover this truth.
Unfortunately, Chen Yu had created Xiao BaoBao precisely for such a moment. He thus removed the mosaic and uploaded the video to an anonymous blog along with past music recordings without hesitation.
After all, with Chen Yu's skills, Zhao Cui wouldn't be able to track down who was behind the big reveal anyway.
When netizens realized that the Shao Li they'd been insulting and then sympathizing with was actually the popular hidden musician Xiao Baobao, the Internet blew up again.
Fox_Fairy: "Is that my darling BaoBao?"
Laughing_Baby: "Is that my god BaoBao?"
Emperor_Without_Clothes: "Is that my goddess BaoBao?"
Xiao_Meimei: "Oh my gosh, so Xiao BaoBao's the one who was getting hit by that witch Liu Yao?!"
Cloud_and_Waves: "That vicious woman, what broken hands, they obviously worked just fine when she was hitting the poor kid! (凸ಠ益ಠ)凸"
Ninth_Layer_Immortal: "Wait, didn't she say he broke them because he was jealous of how well she played?"
Everyone: "..."
Cloud_and_Waves: "My faith in humanity has been lost."
Fox_Fairy: "Xiao BaoBao, come recover in my embrace! (ﾉ´ з `)ノ"
Imagining the looks on Liu Yao and Headmaster Feng's faces right now, Chen Yu laughed.
The easiest way to fill his mission quota was to deal with the protagonists, since their emotions were weighed more heavily in the calculations.
Of course, Chen Yu could have thought up other plans, but in this world, crushing the emotions out of Liu Yao and Headmaster Feng seemed quite appropriate. After all, hadn't they wanted to use Shao Li and then throw him away? Then he'd let them feel what it was like to be powerlessly sacrificed.
Thinking of Liu Yao's insistence on killing Shao Li in the original plot, Chen Yu decided to take a look at what Zhao Cui had found last night.
The results were unexpectedly entertaining.
So Shao Li had escaped Madam Liu's murder attempt only to die by the daughter's hands, and it was even by the same tactic of a car accident...Chen Yu shook his head. This Liu Yao was too uncreative.
In the original plot, Liu Yao probably found out about Shao Li's origins accidentally and then guessed that her mother was behind the car accident. Out of fear that Shao Li would remember what had happened, she killed him.
Then all that Chen Yu was missing now...was a way to let Liu Yao know that her long-lost half-brother was back.
---
Zhao Cui, unhappy that Shao Shao had preferred playing music to staying with him, returned to the hotel after dropping Shao Li off at his apartment and promptly instructed Ming Wu to arrange a house in X Country for him, as well as everything necessary for a musician.
Hearing the mention of music, Ming Wu perked up, gossiping, "Have you heard that Xiao BaoBao is actually the student teacher who was abused, what was his name, Shao something? The clip that shows him being hit has his full face, and it's so cute, everyone's re-watching his music clips! But isn't the board chairman of that school from a branch of Zhao Jia? You should really tell him to take care of his employees! Also also, Great Lord Master Zhao, you know Xiao BaoBao, right? Can you let me meet him once? Just once is enough!"
Zhao Cui's face turned black. In a low, quiet voice that indicated his most dangerous mood, he asked, "Didn't you remove all footage related to Xiao BaoBao?"
There was a hesitant silence on the other end, before Ming Wu confessed, "We can't figure it out, but whoever posted the videos originally must have kept a copy."
"No one's located the hacker?"
Ming Wu shut his eyes tight. "No...he's too good, none of our guys have any leads."
Zhao Cui made a noise of acknowledgment and hung up. His fingers stroked Shao Li's picture on his phone. If he couldn't find out who had his eyes on his baby, he'd simply make it so that no one else could see him at all.