No one in the Xu household slept well that night.
Xu Chengyuan stayed in his study until three in the morning.
When Zhou Man came in, he was sitting behind his desk smoking. Several cigarette butts had already been crushed out in the ashtray.
Her face was still pale. She had taken off the silk scarf around her neck, exposing a ring of faint red strangulation marks. Xu Zhihan hadn't left those marks. He Guilan's vengeful spirit had.
Whenever Zhou Man touched the marks, she remembered that dead face in the hospital room.
Her voice trembled. "Chengyuan, this can't go on. There's really something wrong with Xu Zhihan."
Xu Chengyuan said nothing.
Zhou Man stepped closer. "He never dared act like this before. It's like he's a different person now. How did he know about the basement, or Jiang Ren? Could something have possessed him?"
Xu Chengyuan finally looked up. "Shut up."
Zhou Man flinched.
Xu Chengyuan stared at her coldly. "Don't ever say that again. The Special Investigation Bureau's people are still downstairs tonight. Are you worried they won't hear you?"
Zhou Man bit her lip.
She was already far more panicked than usual.
Ever since Xu Zhihan had woken up, everything had spiraled out of control.
First, there had been He Guilan.
Then Xu Mingji's fake illness.
Then something had happened to Gu Huai, the basement had been exposed, and Jiang Ren had been taken away.
Every incident seemed aimed at the Xu family.
Zhou Man lowered her voice. "Then what do we do? Just let him keep making trouble? Who knows how much he has on us now? What if he tells everyone what happened back then..."
Xu Chengyuan's eyes turned cold. "Even if he tells them, someone has to believe him."
Zhou Man froze.
Xu Chengyuan stubbed out his cigarette. "He just came out of emergency care. He's physically weak and mentally unstable. He's attacked family members multiple times, both at the hospital and at home, and he even claims he can see dead people. Who do you think the public will believe?"
Zhou Man caught on.
The things Xu Zhihan talked about were too bizarre.
Dead people, sin lines, evil spirits, the basement.
Ordinary people wouldn't believe any of it.
They would only think Xu Zhihan had been sick for so long that something had gone wrong with his mind.
A little light finally returned to Zhou Man's eyes. "You mean..."
Xu Chengyuan's voice was icy. "Since he refuses to stay quiet, we'll make sure everyone knows he's not normal."
Zhou Man's heart beat a little faster.
"But the Special Investigation Bureau..."
"The Special Investigation Bureau won't make the basement incident public." Xu Chengyuan sounded certain. "They handle anomalous incidents. They have confidentiality procedures. All the public will know is that Xu Zhihan's temperament changed drastically after he woke up, that he forced his younger brother to kneel, falsely accused his stepmother of murder, and turned the household upside down."
Zhou Man slowly breathed a sigh of relief.
This was what Xu Chengyuan did best.
Let out what could be said and suppress what couldn't.
Half-truths were the easiest way to fool people.
No matter how formidable Xu Zhihan was, he couldn't silence everyone.
Outside the study, Xu Mingji stood beside the door with a complicated expression.
He had only come to ask what they should do next. He hadn't expected to overhear all this.
They were going to make the public attack Xu Zhihan.
In the past, that would have made him uneasy. He might even have pretended to offer a few words of protest.
But now, he didn't.
He remembered kneeling in the hospital room. He remembered Xu Zhihan saying, "You're crying more convincingly than the last two times." His fingers slowly curled into fists.
What gave Xu Zhihan the right?
He was nothing but a sickly weakling.
What gave him the right to suddenly lord it over everyone?
Xu Mingji lowered his head, and the last trace of hesitation in his eyes slowly faded.
He turned and returned to his room.
At four thirty in the morning, a blurry video was posted online.
The camera angle was carefully chosen. In the footage, Xu Mingji knelt beside the hospital bed with his head lowered and his shoulders trembling slightly.
Xu Zhihan lay on the bed, his face pale but his expression indifferent.
The video showed none of the context. It included only the part where Xu Zhihan spoke.
"Say please."
"Please come home, big brother."
In the video, Xu Mingji's voice trembled while Xu Zhihan leaned back against the hospital bed, looking cold and imperious.
The title was even more blunt.
[Sickly eldest son of the Xu family undergoes drastic personality change after waking up, forces younger brother to kneel and beg him to come home.]
Within an hour, the comments section exploded.
[What kind of person is he? His brother's already kneeling, and he still looks so cold.]
[Rich families are such a mess, but this eldest son is seriously scary.]
[Being sickly isn't an excuse to bully people, is it?]
[I heard he scared his stepmother so badly she ended up in the hospital too?]
[Is that true? He doesn't seem mentally stable.]
At seven in the morning, a second video was released.
This time, it was footage secretly taken by a Xu family servant.
In the video, Xu Zhihan stood in the living room while Jiang Ren knelt on the floor, trembling. The footage was blurry, and Jiang Ren's words were inaudible. All anyone could see was Xu Zhihan standing and Jiang Ren kneeling.
The title was even more sensational.
[Xu family's eldest son suspected of mental instability, forces doctor to kneel; helpless family seeks assistance.]
The Xu family made no public response.
But the longer they stayed silent, the more wildly the public speculated.
Soon, supposed insiders began coming forward with revelations.
[This eldest son has been sickly since childhood. He's always had a very strange personality.]
[The Xu family treats him pretty well. His stepmother looked after him for all these years, and on the very first day he woke up, he called her a murderer.]
[His younger brother, Xu Mingji, is a really good person. He's always given in to him.]
[I heard the marriage arrangement involves his younger brother too. Maybe he's jealous.]
All kinds of rumors became mixed together, growing more outrageous with every retelling.
By the time Xu Zhihan woke up, his phone was flooded with messages.
He didn't look at them.
He had just woken up, and his head still hurt a little. After the medicine wore off last night, his body had started feeling cold again. He sat up and took a moment to recover before reaching for his phone.
Lu Wenchuan's message was at the top.
[Are you awake?]
There was another from three minutes earlier.
[Don't rush to look at what's online.]
Xu Zhihan stared at that line, then opened the social media platform instead.
The trending topics were near the top of the list.
#Xu family's eldest son forces younger brother to kneel#
#Xu Zhihan mentally unstable#
#Battle over wealthy family's marriage arrangement#
Xu Zhihan watched for a while, his expression unchanged.
So noisy.
He exited the app and sent Lu Wenchuan a short reply.
[Seen it.]
Lu Wenchuan replied instantly.
[Your reaction?]
Xu Zhihan typed.
[Very noisy.]
Lu Wenchuan went quiet for a few seconds.
Then he sent a voice message.
Xu Zhihan frowned.
He didn't like listening to voice messages.
But he played it anyway.
Lu Wenchuan's voice came through the phone, husky from having just woken up, with a hint of amusement.
"Young Master Xu, the entire internet is attacking you, and your first reaction is that it's noisy?"
Xu Zhihan closed the voice message, expressionless.
He didn't want to reply.
But Lu Wenchuan sent another text.
[The videos the Xu family released were edited. Do you have the full version?]
Xu Zhihan looked at the bedside table.
The body's original owner's old phone lay there.
When Xu Mingji had entered the hospital room yesterday, he had casually started an audio recording. It hadn't been for self-protection. Xu Mingji's crying had simply been so irritating that he had wanted to keep a record of how long the man could keep up the act.
He hadn't expected it to actually prove useful.
Xu Zhihan replied.
[Yes.]
Lu Wenchuan answered quickly.
[Don't post it yet.]
Xu Zhihan looked at those words.
[Reason.]
[The Xu family has only released short clips so far. They're bound to have more coming. If you post now, you can only refute this one round. Wait until they've committed to their story, then slap it right back in their faces.]
Xu Zhihan stared at his phone for a while.
Lu Wenchuan seemed laid-back, but he wasn't careless about getting things done.
It was a good idea.
Xu Zhihan replied.
[Fine.]
Lu Wenchuan sent a smiling face.
[You take advice that easily?]
Xu Zhihan closed the chat without expression.
Sounds drifted up from downstairs in the Xu house.
The servants spoke very quietly, but Xu Zhihan could hear them.
"Everyone online is attacking the eldest young master."
"I said ages ago that he'd been acting strange since he woke up."
"The second young master is so pitiful. He even knelt to ask him to come home."
"Stop talking. He might hear you."
Xu Zhihan sat on the edge of the bed, feeling little.
He was already used to humans seeing only what they wanted to see.
But the original owner's lingering emotions stirred again.
Hurt.
Humiliation.
And a little resentment.
Xu Zhihan pressed a hand to his chest and frowned.
"What a nuisance."
He spoke under his breath.
It was unclear whether he meant the Xu family or the feelings left behind in this body.
Footsteps sounded outside the door.
Xu Mingji knocked and came in, his eyes red and a phone in his hand.
"Brother, have you seen what's online?"
Xu Zhihan raised his eyes to look at him.
Xu Mingji lowered his head, his voice soft. "I don't know who posted it. I've already asked them to stop attacking you, but..."
Xu Zhihan interrupted him. "Who are you putting on this act for?"
Xu Mingji's expression stiffened.
Xu Zhihan glanced at the doorway.
The door wasn't quite shut.
Someone was outside.
Sure enough, Xu Mingji hadn't come alone.
Xu Zhihan suddenly found this little performance rather dull.
Xu Mingji said quietly, "Brother, I really came to apologize. I knelt before you yesterday because I wanted to. Don't be angry with Mom and Dad, and don't let what's happening online upset you."
Xu Zhihan looked at him.
He was still recording.
The phone was hidden in his sleeve, its camera pointed straight at the bedside.
Xu Zhihan's fingertip twitched.
The phone hidden in Xu Mingji's sleeve suddenly went black.
Xu Mingji's expression shifted, and he instinctively glanced down.
Xu Zhihan said flatly, "Your equipment's too cheap. Stop recording."
Xu Mingji's head snapped up.
Xu Zhihan leaned against the headboard, his face pale and his gaze calm.
"If you want to put on a show, go to the living room."
Xu Mingji's face slowly drained of color.
Xu Zhihan added one more thing.
"You'll have a bigger audience there."