After Xu Zhihan posted the recording, the trending topics the Xu Family had paid for began to take a different turn.
At first, the comments still called him heartless and accused him of using his poor health to bully others. But as more and more people listened to the recording, public opinion began to shift.
In the recording, Xu Mingji's voice was perfectly clear.
"I was afraid that once my brother woke up, the Gu Family wouldn't want me anymore."
That sentence did more than any explanation could.
Xu Mingji had just posted a video saying he had knelt voluntarily to ask Xu Zhihan to come home, claiming the engagement was only a misunderstanding. Then the recording stripped away his cover.
The people online weren't stupid.
Especially after being used as weapons, they caught on all the faster.
[So Xu Mingji didn't kneel because his brother forced him to, but because he got caught faking an illness to steal the engagement?]
[The Xu Family really knows how to edit a video. They only showed him kneeling and cut out everything that led up to it.]
[That "please come home, brother" sounded so pitiful before. Listening to it now, why does it sound so fake and manipulative?]
[I insulted Xu Zhihan earlier. Let me apologize first.]
[Don't rush to apologize. There's definitely more to this rich-family drama.]
Xu Mingji sat in his room, his fingers trembling nonstop.
The video he had filmed of himself was still up on his account.
Half an hour ago, the comments on that video had been full of sympathy. Now they were flooded with mockery.
[Stop crying. You're noisy.]
[That caption from the man himself absolutely destroyed him.]
[Xu Mingji, did you really fake being sick?]
[You admitted in the recording that you were afraid the Gu Family wouldn't want you anymore. Care to explain?]
Xu Mingji went pale as he read, and real tears began to fall.
This time, no one was filming.
No one felt sorry for him.
And no one immediately rushed in to comfort him.
Downstairs, Xu Chengyuan was on the phone. He kept his voice low, but anger still seeped through.
"Take down the trending topics. Suppress the recording first."
Whatever the person on the other end said made Xu Chengyuan's expression darken further.
"Money isn't a problem."
A few seconds later, he slammed his phone onto the table.
Zhou Man jumped. "What happened?"
Xu Chengyuan's chest heaved. "We can't get them taken down."
Zhou Man grew anxious. "How can that be? We've always been able to bury things before!"
Xu Chengyuan said nothing.
He hadn't expected it either.
As soon as the recording went viral, he had told his PR team to suppress it. But this time, someone seemed to be driving the buzz from behind the scenes. Every time they contacted a platform, another publicity account immediately reposted the full recording. Some people were even analyzing the videos the Xu Family had released earlier, frame by frame.
The editing was far too obvious.
The more they tried to suppress it, the guiltier they looked.
Zhou Man's face turned ashen. "Is it Lu Wenchuan?"
Xu Chengyuan's gaze darkened.
Aside from the Special Investigation Bureau, he couldn't think of anyone who would help Xu Zhihan at a time like this.
Zhou Man gritted her teeth. "When did Xu Zhihan get involved with Lu Wenchuan? Didn't he used to stay inside all the time?"
Xu Chengyuan said coldly, "You're asking me?"
That single retort shut Zhou Man up. Her expression soured, but she didn't dare say more.
Xu Chengyuan no longer looked at her or Xu Mingji the way he once had.
Xu Mingji's feigned illness had already left Xu Chengyuan with lingering resentment. Zhou Man knew that what this man hated most was losing control.
And now, Xu Zhihan wasn't the only thing slipping out of his control.
The entire Xu Family was, too.
Upstairs, Xu Zhihan leaned against the headboard, his phone tossed aside.
He hadn't kept reading the comments.
Too noisy.
Even with people speaking up for him now, the notifications irritated him.
He had only checked the trending topics once. After confirming that the Xu Family's edited videos had begun to backfire, he closed the app.
Footsteps sounded outside the door.
Heavy ones.
Xu Zhihan knew who it was without looking.
When Xu Chengyuan pushed the door open, his expression was icy.
This time, he couldn't even be bothered to maintain the dignified facade of a father.
"Delete the recording."
Xu Zhihan looked up. "Are you ordering me?"
Xu Chengyuan stared at him. "Xu Zhihan, don't forget your surname is Xu. Disgracing the Xu Family does you no good."
Xu Zhihan found those words rather irritating.
"Ever since I woke up, all you talk about is the Xu Family."
Xu Chengyuan frowned.
Xu Zhihan continued, "The Xu Family's reputation, the Xu Family's interests, the Xu Family's partnerships. Sounds exhausting."
Xu Chengyuan held back his anger. "What exactly do you want? Money? Shares? Or an apology from Mingji?"
"I want peace and quiet."
The answer left Xu Chengyuan speechless.
Xu Zhihan looked at him, his voice flat. "But you all keep making noise."
Xu Chengyuan laughed in anger. "So you posted the recording? Do you realize this could ruin Mingji?"
"Those were his own words. I just let other people hear them."
Xu Zhihan leaned against his pillow, his face so pale he looked sickly, yet his voice remained steady.
"Does that count as ruining him?"
Xu Chengyuan fell silent for a moment, then suddenly softened his voice. "Zhihan, I know you've been wronged. Mingji was indeed at fault this time, and I'll make him apologize. But you can't treat your family like this. The matter with the Gu Family still hasn't been resolved, and the Special Investigation Bureau is investigating the basement. Now you've thrown Mingji to the internet, too. Who are you trying to drive to their death?"
Xu Zhihan looked up at him.
"That sounds awfully familiar."
Xu Chengyuan furrowed his brow.
Xu Zhihan said mildly, "Did you say the same thing when He Guilan died back then?"
Xu Chengyuan's expression changed instantly.
The room fell silent.
That name was like a needle, piercing the place Xu Chengyuan least wanted anyone to touch.
Xu Chengyuan's eyes gradually turned cold. "How much do you know?"
Xu Zhihan looked at him without answering right away.
In truth, he didn't know much.
All he could see now were the sin lines and fragments left behind by the dead. But Xu Chengyuan's conscience was so guilty that a single sentence could make him give himself away.
Xu Zhihan lowered his eyes. "More than you think."
Xu Chengyuan's fingers twitched.
In that instant, he truly wanted to kill him.
The intent was faint, but it didn't escape Xu Zhihan's eyes.
Xu Zhihan suddenly smiled.
"Want to try something?"
Xu Chengyuan came back to himself, his expression grim. "Your illness has muddled your head."
"Then don't stand so close."
Xu Zhihan's voice was very low.
"I have a bad temper right now. I tend to make people kneel."
Xu Chengyuan remembered Jiang Ren kneeling in the living room, and his back stiffened almost imperceptibly.
He didn't believe in ghosts or gods.
But the things that had happened over the past few days were each stranger than the last.
Xu Zhihan watched his reaction, his gaze indifferent.
"Get out."
Xu Chengyuan didn't move.
Xu Zhihan picked up his phone and opened the folder containing his recordings.
"Want to hear something else?"
Xu Chengyuan's expression changed sharply.
Xu Zhihan looked up. "I have more than one."
Those words finally stopped Xu Chengyuan.
He looked at Xu Zhihan, then turned and left after a long moment.
The door shut with a heavy bang.
Xu Zhihan settled back against his pillow, his face showing little satisfaction at his victory.
This was only a small matter.
Xu Mingji's downfall, the abuse directed at the Xu Family, Gu Huai's misfortune-all of it was merely on the surface.
The truly filthy things were still in the basement, in the old medical records, in Xu An's death, and in the medication He Guilan and the body's original owner had taken all those years.
His phone vibrated.
Lu Wenchuan had sent a message.
[Xu Chengyuan came to see you?]
Xu Zhihan replied.
[Yeah.]
[No fight?]
[He wouldn't dare.]
A few seconds passed before Lu Wenchuan responded.
[That, I believe.]
Reading those words, Xu Zhihan's brow relaxed slightly, only to furrow again almost at once.
He felt he had been checking Lu Wenchuan's messages a little too often lately.
That wasn't good.
Troublesome.
Another message popped up.
[They can't take down the trending topics. I've got people watching them. The Xu Family might change tactics next and start claiming you're mentally unwell.]
Xu Zhihan's fingertips paused.
[They've already said that.]
[Saying it online and producing official documentation are two different things.]
Xu Zhihan looked at those words, his gaze turning colder.
Since Xu Chengyuan hadn't managed to force him to delete the recording, he would most likely try something else next.
If they branded him mentally unstable, everything he said could be discredited. The basement, Zhou Man, He Guilan, Xu An, even the recordings he held-the Xu Family could dismiss all of it as "a patient's delusions."
Xu Chengyuan would indeed take that step.
Xu Zhihan replied.
[Got it.]
Lu Wenchuan sent another line.
[Say the word if you need help.]
Xu Zhihan looked at it for a while, then replied coldly.
[No need.]
Lu Wenchuan wasn't upset.
[All right. Then I'll handle things as I see fit.]
Xu Zhihan stared at that line without moving for a long time.
This man always spoke that way.
He seemed casual and flippant, but in truth, he calculated every move precisely.
He wouldn't directly force Xu Zhihan to accept his help, nor would he pretend he didn't care. He set the boundary there, leaving Xu Zhihan room to refuse, while already taking action himself.
Clever people were troublesome.
Clever people who weren't annoying were even more troublesome.
Xu Zhihan set his phone facedown and closed his eyes.
Xu Mingji's sobs drifted up from downstairs.
This time, they were much more genuine than before.
Xu Zhihan listened for a while, then suddenly found it less noisy.
Perhaps it was because this time, he really was crying miserably.
By the afternoon, Xu Mingji's self-recorded video had been deleted.
The marketing accounts the Xu Family had contacted earlier also began changing their tune, saying that wealthy families' private affairs were complicated and they couldn't take sides.
But the recording had already spread. They couldn't erase every copy.
Xu Mingji's account was losing followers rapidly, and his comments section had been completely overrun.
Some people dug up his interactions with Gu Huai over the years.
Others discovered that Xu Zhihan had been sickly since childhood, yet had almost never appeared at the Xu Family's public events.
Still others began to ask a question.
Why was Xu Zhihan so ill?
The question was suppressed almost as soon as it appeared.
But Xu Zhihan saw it.
Lu Wenchuan saw it too.
That evening, people from the Special Investigation Bureau sent over the preliminary report on the basement.
Lu Wenchuan delivered it himself.
He still came through the window.
When Xu Zhihan opened the window, he looked terrible.
"Use the door next time."
Lu Wenchuan had just landed when he heard that, and laughed.
"Your living room looks like a battlefield right now. I don't want to go downstairs and get yelled at."
Xu Zhihan held out his hand. "The report."
Lu Wenchuan handed him the file, but didn't let go.
Xu Zhihan looked up.
Lu Wenchuan said, "Promise me one thing first."
Xu Zhihan's face remained expressionless. "Get lost."
Lu Wenchuan sighed. "I haven't even said it yet."
"It already sounds annoying."
Lu Wenchuan chuckled, but didn't pull the file back.
"You can have the report. But don't go down to the basement again tonight. Looking the way you do now, another trip down there will probably land you straight back in the hospital."
"I know my limits," Xu Zhihan said coldly.
Lu Wenchuan looked down at him.
"Xu Zhihan."
It was the first time he hadn't called him Young Master Xu.
Xu Zhihan's movements paused.
The smile on Lu Wenchuan's face faded a little too. "You don't have to trust me, but don't push this body past its limits. If you really collapse, the Xu Family will immediately pin every dirty thing on you."
The room fell silent for a few seconds.
Xu Zhihan looked at him, then suddenly let go.
Lu Wenchuan thought he had taken his advice.
The next second, Xu Zhihan turned and walked toward the bed.
"Leave the report. Get out."
Lu Wenchuan: "..."
Fine.
He took advice, but only half of it.
Lu Wenchuan put the report on the table, but didn't leave right away.
"There's one more thing."
Xu Zhihan sat on the edge of the bed and opened the report. "Speak."
Lu Wenchuan looked at him. "We found out who Xu An was."
Xu Zhihan stopped turning the page.
Lu Wenchuan lowered his voice slightly.
"He wasn't from a branch of the Xu Family."
Xu Zhihan looked up.
Lu Wenchuan continued, "He was a child brought over from your birth mother's side of the family. The records list him as a distant relative, but we still need to investigate the actual relationship."
Xu Zhihan was silent for a long time.
The emotion in his chest that belonged to the body's original owner stirred again.
This time, it wasn't a sense of being wronged.
It was pain.
Faint, but unmistakable.
Xu Zhihan pressed a hand to his chest, his brow slowly furrowing.
Lu Wenchuan noticed and softened his voice. "Not feeling well?"
Xu Zhihan didn't answer.
He lowered his head and looked at the name on the report.
Xu An.
So the body's original owner hadn't always been alone.
It was just that the Xu Family had buried that person in the basement too.
Xu Zhihan closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, they were chillingly cold.
"Xu Chengyuan."
He murmured the name.
Lu Wenchuan watched him without speaking.
Xu Zhihan picked up the report, his voice calm.
"He'd better live a long time."
Lu Wenchuan raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
Xu Zhihan looked up.
"Dying too quickly would let him off far too easily."