Chapter 18: A Fortuitous Twist of Fate

Seeing so many female streamers speaking well of him, Lin Fan felt an indescribable sense of triumph. Indeed, sometimes you must fight fire with fire. When dealing with schemers like Chen Wei and Chen Yanzi, you either pave the way with money or let women drown them in a flood of words.

"Lin Fan! I won’t forget this—you just wait! You dared to ruin everything for me? I’ll have my sister expose you!" Chen Wei glared at Lin Fan with venom in his eyes, cursing in a fit of rage.

"Hmph! I’ll sue her for slander and false accusations! You all know very well whether I’ve done any of those things. I have plenty of evidence in my hands!" Lin Fan had already anticipated this, and replied with utter disdain.

"You bastard! I’ll kill you, you filthy scum!" Enraged beyond reason, Chen Wei lunged at Lin Fan with fists swinging.

"Be careful!" Gu Qingcheng and the others cried out in alarm.

But Lin Fan was not the man he once was. Ever since completing the last ‘mission’ with Gu Qingcheng, his strength and agility had increased dramatically. Chen Wei’s movements now appeared slow, as if in slow motion, easily readable.

With a single sidestep, Lin Fan dodged the attack effortlessly. In the next instant, he swiftly delivered a kick to Chen Wei’s backside.

Caught off guard, Chen Wei stumbled and fell face-first to the ground, drawing peals of laughter from Gu Qingcheng and the other women.

"Wow, I never knew President Lin knew martial arts—he’s so charming!"

"This pathetic loser just doesn’t know his place. If I were President Lin, I’d rip his mouth apart and let him choke on his own filth!"

"Classic scumbag. Thank goodness Zhu Ruoxue didn’t get engaged to him, or her whole life would’ve been ruined."

Hearing all these beautiful women call him a scumbag and a loser, Chen Wei was so furious he could cough up blood. He had never imagined that so many stunning women would defend Lin Fan, idolizing him and even showing affection. No matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn’t understand how Lin Fan had transformed overnight into a wealthy man.

"Forget about this waste of space. Let’s go eat—my treat!" Lin Fan glanced coldly at Chen Wei, then led the women across the street to a restaurant with effortless grace.

...

"Sis, I just ran into Lin Fan. That bastard ruined everything for me, and now he’s poaching Zhu Ruoxue! You need to post a video right away—say that Lin Fan attacked me, stole my love, and is completely immoral..."

At the Chen household, Chen Wei recounted his encounter with Lin Fan and demanded that Chen Yanzi post another video smearing him.

After consulting with Chen He, Chen Yanzi quickly posted a new video that night.

The fresh video soon sparked another wave of public outrage. Comment after comment continued to condemn the so-called scumbag.

"That jerk is garbage, trying to steal his own sister-in-law! He’s no better than a gangster. You must expose him!"

"Absolutely support exposing him! He should be thrown in jail. If I ever saw him in real life, I’d smash his head in!"

"Is the top comment from the streamer’s brother? If your sister’s afraid to reveal the scumbag’s name, you can tell us. We’ll bring him to justice for you..."

Occasionally, Chen Yanzi would reply to these comments. But she never dared to reveal Lin Fan’s real name—after all, everything she’d said so far was fabricated slander. If Lin Fan stepped forward to clarify the truth, not only would her account be banned, but she’d likely be found in breach of contract by Chen He and forced to pay damages.

What she didn’t expect was that Chen Wei had registered an account as well. He didn’t post videos, but, posing as Chen Yanzi’s brother, replied to the gossip-hungry audience under her videos.

Chen Wei, knowing full well they were making things up, also refrained from revealing Lin Fan’s identity. But he couldn’t swallow his anger. Craftily, he hinted in the comments that the ‘scumbag’ everyone wanted to punish worked at Fantasy Entertainment.

He made a point of emphasizing that the ‘scumbag’, after coming into money, had become fickle and promiscuous.

Following these clues, netizens traced the lead to Fantasy Entertainment’s official social media account. Soon, countless people flooded the company’s account with insults and online abuse.

Even the female streamers working for Fantasy Entertainment were affected, receiving all manner of vile messages and harassment during their live streams.

Some resourceful netizens even managed to dig up the contact information of the company’s boss, Zhou Zheng, and began to harass him directly with phone calls.

By a twist of fate, Chen Wei accidentally liked one of Zhou Zheng’s videos. This led many misinformed netizens to believe Zhou Zheng was the ‘scumbag’ Chen Yanzi had been talking about.

As a result, a deluge of online abuse descended upon Zhou Zheng’s videos.

Zhou Zheng promptly posted a video to clarify that he was not the scumbag, and that he didn’t even know Chen Yanzi. But the netizens paid no heed, continuing their onslaught with reckless abandon.

Unable to endure it any longer, Zhou Zheng rounded up some men and headed straight to the Chen family home.

In the Chen family courtyard, several thugs armed with sticks beat Chen Wei black and blue, leaving him groveling and wailing on the ground.

"Stop! Please stop! Sir, I know I was wrong—it wasn’t on purpose!"

Standing before him was a chubby man in his early thirties, sporting dyed yellow hair and a thick gold chain around his neck. This was Zhou Zheng, the boss behind Fantasy Entertainment and nephew to Wang Dezhi.

"Not on purpose? So you did it deliberately, then? Why didn’t you clear things up for me immediately? I’ve been harassed by countless calls these past two days—my friends and relatives too!" Zhou Zheng kicked Chen Wei in the face.

Chen Wei howled in pain, sobbing uncontrollably.

Chen’s father and mother rushed forward to shield him. "Sir, please don’t stoop to his level. He’s just a child!"

"He really didn’t mean it—he was forced! It was all Lin Fan’s doing..."

Zhou Zheng wasn’t having any of their excuses. Without hesitation, he slapped both parents.

"Cut the crap! Rotten children come from rotten parents. I’m going to teach you all a lesson today!"

Before coming, he had already asked Wang Dezhi to investigate. He knew that the ‘scumbag’ in Chen Yanzi’s video was Lin Fan, and that Lin Fan had once been mocked and looked down upon by the Chen family. But Lin Fan had already been fired by Wang Dezhi, and had no connection to Chen Yanzi now.

Zhou Zheng realized he had been caught up in this mess purely by accident. He had watched Chen Yanzi’s videos and could tell she was acting the whole time.

"Have your sister post a video clarifying that I have nothing to do with her, and that this was all a misunderstanding!" Zhou Zheng roared.

On the ground, Chen Wei looked up and shouted, "Yes, yes—it really is a misunderstanding, Boss Zhou. I made a mistake. Lin Fan’s company is called Genesis Media, yours is Fantasy Entertainment—I mixed them up, it was all a misunderstanding!"

"Oh, so your hand slipped, did it? Then I’ll have to teach your hand a lesson!"