146: I'm scared

After this set of comparison photos was released...

The entire internet fell into a dead silence that lasted for ten seconds.

Immediately following that was a volcanic eruption of monstrous rage!!!

[F*ck! Your! Mother!!!]

[Is this something a human can f*cking do?! Animals! These Marketing Accounts are just a pack of animals!!!]

[Orphans! They're definitely orphans! The kind whose household register only has one page! May their whole families die!]

[I'm going crazy! I'm really going crazy with anger! What kind of insane malice is this!]

[I take back my apology! Is "sorry" useful?! Every one of us became someone who handed over the knife! The real killers are these damn Marketing Accounts!!!]

Rage!

Unprecedented rage!

If Yang Shengli's livestream made netizens feel guilt and remorse, then this set of uncensored original photos made them feel the ultimate rage of being fooled and used as murder weapons!

The backends of those Marketing Accounts were instantly overwhelmed by tens of millions of private messages!

Seeing that things had completely spiraled out of control, those Marketing Accounts were scared out of their wits and hurriedly released a so-called "Emergency Clarification Statement."

[Netizens, we are victims too!]

[When we received these photos, they were already censored!]

[That article was also written by the contributor themselves; we only published it on their behalf. We really didn't know the truth was like this!]

This insincere statement, desperate to shift the blame, not only failed to help but was like pouring a large bucket of gasoline onto a raging fire!

["Didn't know"? You think you can wash yourselves clean with just "didn't know"?!]

[For the sake of traffic, you didn't even do the most basic fact-checking? Where is your professional ethics?!]

[Just say you were paid to do it! Stop acting like a white lotus! Disgusting! Ptooey!]

[This is no longer a moral issue! This is a crime! It's defamation! It's rumor-mongering! Just wait to go to jail!]

The netizens' angry curses became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Less than five minutes after those Marketing Accounts issued their "clarification"...

Kangyang Group's official Weibo updated again!

This time, there was no text and no video.

Only a single image.

An image stamped with a bright red seal, with the header of the country's top Law Firm—

[A Lawyer's Letter]!

On the letter, the defendant column clearly listed the corporate names of those Marketing Accounts.

The charges were even more extensive, filling half a page!

[Malicious Defamation]!

[Fabricating and Spreading Rumors]!

[Infringement of Reputation Rights]!

[...]

This murderous lawyer's letter was like a Sword of Damocles falling from the sky!

With the coldest and toughest stance, it announced to the entire internet—

The reckoning has begun!

Kangyang Group's lawyer's letter was no different from a death warrant.

What it announced was not just the start of a lawsuit.

But also a relentless hunt initiated by a capital tycoon!

The moment the people in charge of those Marketing Accounts saw that bright red seal, their legs went weak, and they nearly knelt before their screens.

What they feared wasn't that Shen Zhixia was suing them.

What they truly feared were the two names listed alongside Shen Zhixia in the plaintiff column of the lawyer's letter!

Yang Shengli! Zeng Qifang!

What did this mean?

It meant that those holding them accountable were not just Shen Zhixia, but also the Yang Shengli couple!

This was no longer a corporate-level reputation dispute!

This was a personal vendetta! It was a blood-soaked revenge initiated by a father and a mother to protect the daughter they cherished as a treasure!

Several managers huddled in a small office, their faces ashen and dripping with cold sweat.

"Run away?"

"Run? Where are you going to run? For Yang Shengli to find someone, how is it any different from reaching into a bag to grab something?!"

"Then what do we do? Just wait to die?!"

"Surrender!"

The oldest among them gritted his teeth, squeezing out these words.

"Go to the Police Station now to surrender voluntarily. Explain everything clearly and strive for leniency! Otherwise, when their people come knocking, there won't even be bone fragments left of us!"

This proposal received the desperate agreement of everyone.

Rather than being hunted to death by a hunter, it was better to walk into the cage voluntarily; at least they'd have a chance to live.

The bloodbath on the internet seemed to have come to a temporary close.

But at the center of the storm, the culprit was only now beginning to experience what true despair meant... 8 PM, at Guo Fandong's home.

When Yang Shengli's livestream just started, Guo Fandong was sitting with his legs crossed, drinking ice-cold beer while using an alt account to frantically stir up trouble in the chat.

[The old geezer is so old, why is he coming out to play the victim?]

[Hehe, godfather? What kind of godfather? Everyone knows what's up!]

[This woman isn't anything good either. Look at those photos, she's such a slut!]

He watched his malicious comments being drowned out by countless angry netizens, a wave of sick pleasure rising in his heart.

However, as Yang Shengli displayed those photos carrying years of family affection one by one before the national audience...

The smile at the corner of Guo Fandong's mouth slowly froze.

From an infant in swaddling clothes to a toddler learning to walk... from laughter on a carousel to a family portrait at a birthday banquet... every single photo was like a loud slap across his face!

Guo Fandong's heart began to sink uncontrollably, down and down... until it reached the bottomless abyss.

F*ck!

Shen Zhixia and Yang Shengli... were actually f*cking legitimate god-relations?!

Not that kind of perverted, power-for-sex "sugar daddy" and "sugar baby" relationship?!

This realization was like a bucket of ice-cold water mixed with shards of ice being poured over Guo Fandong's head, making him feel as if he had instantly fallen into an ice cellar!

He finally understood that the "canary" he had imagined was actually a sleeping lioness he couldn't afford to provoke!

And when he heard Yang Shengli say to the camera, with every word dripping with blood yet carrying boundless killing intent, "We will absolutely not let the mastermind off..."

*Clang!*

The beer can in Guo Fandong's hand slipped and fell to the floor.

The golden liquid, mixed with white foam, flowed all over the floor in a pathetic mess, just like his current state of mind.

He only felt a chill rush from his tailbone straight to the top of his head!

His hands and feet were ice-cold, and cold sweat instantly soaked the shirt on his back.

Run!

He had to run immediately!

This was the only thought left in Guo Fandong's mind!

Like a madman, he bounced up from the sofa, immediately grabbed his phone, and with trembling fingers, found the alt wechat account he used to contact the Marketing Accounts.

Delete account!

Confirm!

Confirm again!

Only when the prompt "Account deleted" popped up on the screen did he breathe a slight sigh of relief.

It should... it should be impossible to trace it back to me, right?

He thought uneasily, trying to comfort himself.