As Su Youchuan listened to the automated announcement in his phone's earpiece saying that no one was answering, his face darkened. He called again, but this time, the call disconnected automatically after a single ring.
"Brother Chuan, I told you Shang Shujue really has had a change of heart, but you wouldn't believe me. He screwed me over yesterday. My old man nearly beat me to death when I got home."
Han Dong sat beside him, rubbing ice over his bruised face with one hand. His other hand was in a cast and bandages, leaving him looking rather miserable.
When he remembered being urgently summoned home by his father yesterday and kicked into a wall, he both hated and loved Shang Shujue.
The Shang Shujue who used to chase after Su Youchuan had been stupid but beautiful. His face alone was enough to draw people in. Now, it was as though his personality had changed entirely.
Not only was he arrogant and domineering, he was resourceful, and he had become far more ruthless in the way he did things. Yet he possessed an indescribable charm that left Han Dong unable to resist him, both hating and loving him.
But he feared Song Yanqing's presence and didn't dare do anything to Shang Shujue behind his back, so he could only turn to Su Youchuan. He wouldn't feel the slightest qualm about using that idiot.
"Brother Han, you really were too careless. Why didn't you tell the rest of us when you ran into Shang Shujue yesterday? We could've gone out to help."
Lin Xu poured a glass of red wine and set it in front of Han Dong, then took the ice from his hand and personally rubbed it over the bruising and red swelling on his face, looking deeply sympathetic.
"Tsk, tsk. Look at this, just look. Your poor face has really suffered. Let me rub it for you. Don't move. Such a handsome face-we can't let it end up disfigured."
Han Dong hissed softly but didn't push him away, letting him rub his face while keeping his eyes on Su Youchuan. "How was I supposed to know he'd suddenly go crazy?"
"Brother Chuan, the Shang Family is a fat piece of meat. Shang Shujue is probably really angry this time. You'll have to coax him a little, but it won't take much."
"He loves you so much. Just buy him any little gift and have someone deliver it to his company. He'll definitely be so happy he'll call you right away. Then you can have whatever you want."
Su Youchuan put his phone on the table and glanced up at Han Dong before shifting his gaze to Yang Shaoying, who was working on a computer. "Have you found his location?"
Yang Shaoying's fingers tapped across the keyboard, the clattering sounding particularly grating in the quiet private room. Li Yun'ao looked at Lin Xu and Han Dong, then at Su Youchuan. After hesitating for a moment, he told Su Youchuan about what had happened.
"That little idol Ren Xiaoxue promised to send over yesterday seems to have fallen out with her. I heard that company was busted this morning, and Ren Xiaoxue was jailed. I had someone get her out. She's at the riverside villa now."
Those words made everyone turn to Li Yun'ao. Their expressions were grave, their faces grim. Li Yun'ao knew what they were worried about.
"She didn't get a chance to say anything, so don't worry. It looks like Shang Shujue's people did this. I can't figure out what exactly he's trying to do right now. This time, even sending a gift might not be enough for Brother Chuan to win him back."
Li Yun'ao paused, then continued, though no one knew what had occurred to him. "After all, no matter how angry he got before, he never blocked Brother Chuan."
"And I heard Shang Shujue seems to have recently latched onto Song Yanqing, the Song Family's favored son. Apparently, Song Yanqing even delivered breakfast to him in person today, and he was so touched that they hugged. These are the photos the informant took..."
Li Yun'ao placed the photos on the table, and Su Youchuan picked them up. When he saw Shang Shujue and Song Yanqing embracing sweetly and sitting in a car with their fingers intertwined, his expression darkened further. An absurd sense of betrayal inexplicably rose within him.
"Brother Chuan, someone has blocked Shang Shujue's location coordinates. Only the person who blocked them can see where he is. Whoever did this is twice as good at hacking as I am."
Just then, Yang Shaoying spoke. He pulled his hands back, looking exhausted, with dark circles beneath his eyes so severe they were almost purple. Whether it was from overindulgence or something else was unclear, but he looked rather ridiculous.
"Heh!" Looking at the scenes in the photos, Su Youchuan suddenly curled his lips into a sneer. He looked up at Li Yun'ao. "Yun'ao, give Yang Shaoying the original of this photo and have him blur out Song Yanqing's face. I'm going to post on Weibo."
"Even if I have to destroy what belongs to me, I won't leave it for anyone else." Su Youchuan raised his eyes toward a dark corner, a gloomy glint in his deep gaze. "Since Shang Shujue wants to escape, I'll make him pay. Do you understand?"
"Understood."
None of them dared meet his gaze. Their hearts trembled, and they nodded. They all knew what to do. After all, this wasn't their first time steering those brainless fence-sitters online into cyberbullying someone. They were well practiced.
Through Shang Shujue's introduction, Zhang Yunchen also became an artist at Jinyuan Media, completely changing the course of his fate. Shang Shujue gained another merit point and 100 points.
He had someone pass evidence of Yang Xuehuan's scams to Zhou Zheng, completely changing the course of Zhou Zheng's life and earning another merit point and 100 points.
Together with the merit points and points supplied by Yu Zeqi, Shang Shujue now had something of a balance saved up. Given how expensive the items in the points shop were, he would have to save more before he could use them.
Over the next two days, however, he was immersed in work and had no time to enjoy any gossip. Nuomi hadn't detected any gossip either, and the places indicating gossip had never lit up, so Shang Shujue didn't look into it any further.
Shang Shujue's behavior and speech in private contrasted so sharply with his online image that the people around him in private had gone from hating him to ignoring him, while people online were still attacking and hating him.
At one in the morning on the day of the livestream, Su Youchuan had Aila, a gossip blogger with tens of millions of followers, publish an ambiguous Weibo post. The entire post was full of insinuations, steering fans and casual onlookers alike.
It described how Shang Shujue had pestered Su Youchuan and caused him trouble, how he had continued pestering him even after being explicitly rejected, and how he had been dating another man while harassing him, implying that he was two-timing and so on...
As soon as the post went up, those online who already hated Shang Shujue erupted. They flocked to his Weibo and hurled abuse at him, piling up thousands of insulting comments.
Shang Shujue had long since gone to bed at that hour. How would he have time to look at any of this? His phone was set to silent, and no one could reach him.
If he hadn't posted a Moments update as he went to sleep saying:
That he went to bed after ten and anyone with any issues should contact him at seven in the morning.
Someone would probably have already feared he might do something drastic and rushed into his room to call for him.
Shang Shujue: What? Am I really that fragile? Come on, give me a break~_~