Xu WanZhi had just finished applying her face mask and she even used the tip of her fingers to touch her very delicate skin. "I know you want to be nice to me but this really will not be necessary. I just might not be able to perform as well as I could have if you are there."
She needed to use her magic tomorrow. That was the most important part of her plan. She would fail if Mu ZhenYu was there.
He couldn't be there.
Mu ZhenYu looked at her steadily. After a long while, his thin lips parted and he said slowly "WanWan, I bankrupted Huanyu purposefully."
"What?" What Mu ZhenYu had just told her made her stopped in surprise.
"Huanyu was normal all around. Bai FeiChen and I used some methods to bankrupt it," said Mu ZhenYu calmly.
"Why?"
Xu WanZhi had an idea for a while now. Even though Huanyu had gone bankrupt but the fact that he moved into this small apartment and selling his old place and his cars were just a show. In many ways, he still acted like he was on top of the world. His own personal assets must not have been affected too much.
She even thought that he might be faking poor to show Mu XiYuan and Qin Sheng or… maybe Feng Chun, the angel investor of the Qin's.
What she hadn't expected was that the entire bankruptcy was intentional.
"For the rights," said Mu ZhenYu as he lowered his head and looked at her. "You know that Project Falcon?"
"Yes, it's a program meant to prevent crimes that has not yet been adopted."
"I have talked to the person responsible for Project Falcon about selling Huanyu's research. To launch Project Falcon, we need two things – first one is the crime-prediction software developed by either Huanyu or the Qin's and the other one is the rights to all of the surveillance cameras in the city." When he got to this point, a coldness began to gather in Mu ZhenYu's eyes. He paused for a little bit before he carried on, "I wanted the rights but I don't want to sell my application to Project Falcon. Project Falcon's purchase will be a buyout. Once I sold my program, I will never be able to use it again."
"So once you have received the rights, you bankrupted Huanyu. You wanted Project Falcon to feel that Huanyu's management was poor and that the product that you have developed is not a good fit for them?" Xu WanZhi was starting to follow what he was telling her. "But… why do you need this right? What is it that you wanted to look into?"
She suddenly figured it out after she had asked the question. "This… this is about what happened when you were 14 years old? You wanted to find out the kidnappers?"
Mu ZhenYu started to grin. "WanWan, you are a smart girl."
Xu WanZhi pursed her lips and suddenly felt nervous. "Didn't you find out anything?"
He nodded slightly. "And not only this. I also found out something else unexpected."
He didn't elaborate so she didn't pry. She nodded with him. "Good then. This way your mother can truly rest in peace."
There were lights in her limpid eyes. He could tell that she was genuinely happy for him.
He had picked the right person after all.
Reaching out his hand, he stroked her cheek gently. "WanWan, I'm sorry about not getting your consent before our engagement." His palm was warm along with a sense of tenderness that she couldn't figure out. "Our engagement has nothing to do with the Mu's and definitely not your father. I agreed to it because I like you and I would like to carry on with you after our six-month timeline."
Xu WanZhi shuddered – she never thought he would say such a thing to her.
In her mind, he had always been an assignment to her. Even though she genuinely hoped for his safety but, in her mind, she had always felt that he'd lose it all in the end.
Her plan was to lay low for this six-month period and move on.
But he had given her his heart under this circumstance.
That made her feel both nervous and at loss.
"I have never told this to you because there were so many things that I haven't done yet and a lot of them must be done through dirty and shameless means. I didn't want you to get drag into it. I wanted to wait and tell you all about it when everything settled down and that those who needed taking care of had been taken care of. But now…" His thumb swiped passed the corner of her eye gently and he put his arms around her. "WanWan, I don't want you to have to take it all on on your own. I just want you to know that no matter what happens, don't worry. You still have me and I will be here for you. Huanyu had gone bankrupt but I haven't. Whatever difficulties you run into, I will stand by your side."
Staying inside of his arms, all she could smell him after the shower. All of a sudden, she was choking up.
Anything that happened before she had transmigrated seemed like they had taken place such a long time ago. But she could still feel the pain of being struck by lightning the night she attempted to transform and how the pain was in every pore of her.
Back then, she had nobody to turn to.
It had been a long, long time since someone had been so open and honest with her.
After a long while, she hid her face in his chest and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Mu."
That's all she could say.
She struggled to break free of him and said, "But, Mr. Mu, please don't go tomorrow. I beg of you."
Having said that, she saw Mu ZhenYu's eyes dimmed.
He opened his mouth and let out a sigh softly. "Okay. I'll respect your wish. But, if there is anything that you can't handle, you let me know right away, okay?"
Xu WanZhi nodded.
Even the clear moon could not sort out everything between the two of them.
Both of them suffered from insomnia that night.
***
Just one night's time, Fang Lin had responded for Xu WanZhi about holding a news conference as well as arranging for the time, the location, and sending out the invitations to reporters.
And, also just over this one night, almost the entire acting career of Xu WanZhi had been dug up and many of her dirt from years ago that had been cleared were dredged up again. Her reputation dropped drastically overnight.
The posts on the Penguin Group and Rabbit District were up to 20 pages long. All of the melon-eaters stayed up the entire night with dark circles under their eyes waiting for the arrival of the big melon.
The female lead fallen to the queen of negative publicity overnight. Even Plainness's director finally couldn't help but gave Xu WanZhi a call in person and asked her what was her plans in dealing with this matter.
Other than the melon eaters that were used and influenced, there were some of those within the entertainment circle who were capable of making their own judgement.
It was only too easy to destroy someone in this circle.
Xu WanZhi did not elaborate but just told him that he was welcome to attend the press conference if he'd like to see it for himself.
The next day, Xu WanZhi gowned up to the hotel. She was calmed like nothing had happened. Her makeup was more delicate than before, even. Her beauty was breathtaking. Facing all of the reporters maliciously waiting to snap pictures of her worst moment, she even smiled at each and every single one of them gracefully and turned a condemnation event to a show for herself.
While pictures were being taken, Xu WanZhi noticed a few familiar faces among the media reporters. They were Bai FeiChen's bodyguards. Mu ZhenYu wasn't there in person but he still worried about her and sent others to guard over her.
Many of the melon eaters, albeit being at work or school, waited on all the major streaming platforms, waiting for Xu WanZhi to make a fool out of herself.
Yet the only thing that Xu WanZhi provided for them was pretty high-definition pictures one after another.
What could they say, eh?
9 o'clock in the morning, the press conference finally got started.
The few media companies were vicious like tigers. They immediately stood up with their microphone and asked, "Miss Xu, so when was the picture taken and why was there pictures like that of yours? Were you really intimate with both men? What do you have to say for yourself?"
Xu WanZhi sneered. "What's the rush? I won't even let any one of you here leave if we don't clear this up today. But, before I go into that, I'd like to first have a technical expert come and explain to everyone here where this picture come from."
As soon as she finished talked, a "nerd" with thick glasses walked onto stage and took over the microphone. He turned on his computer and projected his screen onto the large screen.
The technical expert pointed at the screen with his laser pointer and said, "My job today is to show everyone here the origin of this picture."
He typed rapidly on his keyboard for a while. His motions were so fast that others could barely follow what he was doing. He followed the post on Weibo to an email address, then from the email address to the sender. Finally, he pulled up an ip address – it was Lifeng Hotel, the location where Qin Sheng and Chen Jin had met up.
Xu WanZhi knew that all of those were just a show put up by the technical expert. All he did was ran a program that he had prepared previously and showed that the picture came from Lifeng Hotel.
"Lifaeg hotel." Fang Lin took over the microphone. "The picture was sent from a hotel. We were also able to pinpoint that time that it was sent. But when we have our lawyers sent out letter requesting for the surveillance footage, we were told by the hotel manager that the camera pointed at that specific room indicated by the ip address happened to be broken. Coincidence?"
Fang Lin lifted her chin and had the technical expert played the recording.
Then, a recording started to play from the computer.
"Our hotel always preserves the surveillance footage with care so we can provide the best protection for our customers. Unfortunately, that camera was broken that night. We reported that to our technical support as well but it was not fixed till the next day."
Fang Lin chuckled and said, "That sure sounded very reasonable but… after much hard work and through all sorts of means, we were finally able to get hold of the surveillance footage. Truth was, the surveillance camera was not broken at all; it was just that nobody wanted to provide them to us."
All of the reporters there were very ready to pounce, but now that there were melons to be eaten, all of their eyes glowed an eerily green color.
Fang Lin nodded and said, "Okay, let's take a look and see who they were then."
On the big screen, the camera that was set up by Xu WanZhi began to play. The angle was exactly the same as the original camera and nobody suspected anything.
On the big screen, Chen Jin and Qin Sheng walked inside a room one after the other.
An uproar erupted beneath the stage.
"We can tell from your look that you are all very surprised by this new development." Xu WanZhi smiled and took over the laser pointer from the technical expert. She pointed at the upper right-hand corner where the Beijing time was displayed. "You can tell from this time stamp that this was already midnight. So how much time did they spend inside this room then?"
Hearing her words, the technical expert fast forwarded the video to 32x the speed. All the way until the two of them left the room.
"Hmm, approximately 40 minutes or so. I can't opine on Mr. Qin Sheng's endurance but I am sure we can check with Liang ZhiQuan, his fiancée, who was also my fiancé Mu ZhenYu's ex-fiancee, on that one." Xu WanZhi's lips curved upward. "Do you now think that this is getting more and more interesting? I wonder what Ms. Liang would think after she saw this video clip. That being said, Ms. Liang is not why we are here today, so let's go back to the video. Truth was, I don't think Ms. Chen Jin and Mr. Qin Sheng did not had perform any shameless deeds. I think they were photo-editing. For an expert in photo-editing, 40 minutes was enough to make anyone look like me. I trust that you have all seem many gurus on mouse-painting. This was not a difficult task at all."