515: Chapter 515 The quieter the silence, the more ruthless the trump card!

It was the third day after the influencer left.

The morning in Muchuan Town was still shrouded in mist as usual.

On the second floor of the guesthouse, Lin Que had already finished two hours of morning writing.

His extreme focus made his efficiency shockingly high.

Six more pages had been added to the manuscript on his computer.

Lin Que finished the last line and stretched his wrists.

The first draft of "Qinqiang" had already exceeded fifty thousand words.

He had been writing extremely smoothly these past three days.

He did not copy the original work in his mind, but instead completely dismantled the grand framework of that masterpiece, ground it up, and then seamlessly embedded it into the rough soil of Muchuan Town.

From the voice of Auntie Song that once resounded through the factory area in her youth, to the white steam rising from the buns being steamed in the canteen.

From Old Liang, who Old Zhao described as standing under the locust tree with his neck craned to listen to opera, to that explosion that swallowed everything.

The tragic backdrop of the original work fused perfectly with the real flesh and blood of Muchuan Town; the way Auntie Song's voice had shortened by an inch each year, and the breathless trailing note she now had, became the soul and breath of the entire novel.

When these words were set down, Lin Que read through them himself, and his chest felt strangely tight.

It was not the condescending, detached self-indulgence of the past.

This was the stuffiness gathered straight from the marrow of his bones after walking with his feet in the mud and listening to Old Zhao ramble about old photos for half an hour.

Lin Que closed his laptop.

He stretched and looked out the window.

The fog was clearing.

The outline of the chimney in the distance became clearer.

He picked up the phone on the table and routinely checked the backend.

Wang De'an's essay contest had entered the final submission period, and everything was running smoothly.

He placed the phone back face down on the table.

He washed his face and changed into a clean jacket.

Lin Que pushed the door open and walked downstairs.

He had an appointment with Old Zhao today.

...

This quiet was broken as expected that afternoon.

At 3:17 PM, on the Yinfu short video platform, a new topic landed at the ninth spot on the trending list.

#Qingbei Recommended Student Violently Threatens Travel Blogger#

The cover image of the topic page showed a young man in a gray jacket standing sideways to block the camera.

His facial features were clear, and his expression was cold.

In the bottom right corner of the image was a striking line of red text: "Can you cover the sky with one hand just because of your status?"

The video was eighteen seconds long.

The video began with a close-up of the young man blocking the camera from the front.

His lips parted slightly, and his voice, with the ambient noise lowered in post-production, sounded exceptionally cold and hard.

"Delete what you just filmed."

Immediately following was a clipped segment of a phone recording.

"...I am Lin Que, a student from the Qingbei School of Liberal Arts here for field research... Contact the town police station... Get here as soon as possible."

The video cut off there.

The accompanying text was very long, and every sentence had been carefully designed.

"I am just an ordinary travel blogger, going to a remote town to film the scenery. I ended up meeting someone who claimed to be a recommended student from the Qingbei School of Liberal Arts. Without a word, he rushed up, blocked our camera, threatened us to delete all our material, and even called the police station right in front of us."

"We didn't lay a hand on anyone the whole time, nor did we break any laws. But just because the other party is a Qingbei student, can they threaten us in a public place?"

"Is the halo of a prestigious university just a tool used to bully ordinary people?"

"This kind of privileged thinking is truly terrifying when you think about it."

The caption ended with: "We have no connections, and we don't have a recommendation to Qingbei. We only have this video. If this video gets deleted, it means the truth has been covered up."

Within two hours of being posted, the video had over eight million views.

There were over twenty thousand comments in the comment section.

The most liked comment: [Is this really a Qingbei recommended student? Suggest strictly investigating his recommendation qualifications!]

Followed by: [Laughing to death, you can just call people over with a phone call? How strong must this guy's family background be? The small-town test-taker is scared to tears.]

[Looking at his high-and-mighty attitude, does he really think he can bully ordinary people just because he got into a prestigious school?]

...

Of course, there were also many voices of doubt and opposition.

[Wait, this video doesn't even have any context, can you believe it?]

[The person above is right. Some influencers make a living off this. Didn't this Qingbei guy just write a poem that went viral recently? Could he be clout-chasing?]

But, they were quickly drowned out by the overwhelming wave of bandwagoners.

[Here we go again. Every time something happens at a prestigious school, people try to whitewash it. Is it that hard to admit you have privileges?]

[Get lost, you whitewashing dogs. They're attacking your face, and you're still defending them?]

...

The topic's popularity continued to climb.

It crawled from ninth to sixth place and was approaching the top five.

...

Northeast, He City.

At 7:40 AM, the farmers' market was already bustling.

Chen Jiahao was squatting next to a meat stall, holding a notebook, the tip of his nose frozen red.

His windbreaker was covered in the smell of fish and garlic, and there was a dark stain of pig's blood on the cuff.

The sound of the bone-cleaver falling was crisp.

The half-side of the pig's front leg on the chopping board was dismantled into four pieces by the butcher in three chops, with tiny bone fragments splattering from the joints.

Chen Jiahao stared at the butcher's wrist joints, thoughtfully noting something down in his notebook.

Just as he was writing, a plump older sister wearing a cotton-padded jacket at the neighboring stall suddenly tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, Xiao Chen."

Chen Jiahao looked up, using broken Northeastern dialect. "What's up, Auntie Wu?"

The plump auntie held her phone, the screen facing him. On the screen was a video of a young man in a gray jacket blocking the camera. The title below clearly read: Qingbei Recommended Student Violently Threatens Ordinary Blogger.

"Is this your classmate?" The auntie frowned. "I saw it says he's also from the Qingbei School of Liberal Arts out for field research. Why is he like this? Young people have such big tempers. Is it necessary to resort to physical force just because someone is filming a video?"

Chen Jiahao snatched the phone. He only looked at the footage for three seconds. Gray jacket. Profile outline. That posture blocking the camera.

"Auntie!" Chen Jiahao stood up abruptly, his voice so loud it startled the old man selling fish nearby. "This video is obviously fake! Que... My classmate is definitely not that kind of person!"

The auntie was stunned by his shout. "Then, what is actually going on?"

Chen Jiahao couldn't be bothered to waste words. He shoved the phone back into the auntie's arms, ripped off his blood-stained apron, threw it onto the chopping board, and turned to sprint out of the market.

The cold wind poured down his throat. As he ran, he pulled out his phone, unlocked it with lightning speed, and opened the main Qinglan Program group chat.

The group was already exploding. The messages were scrolling so fast it was almost impossible to read the content.

...

Tang He: "This video is obviously edited to remove the beginning and end! Lin Que wouldn't threaten others for no reason!"

Yuan Ning: "I checked the comment section, nobody is asking for the context, they're all just blindly following the trend and cursing."

Zhong Hengyuan: "Regardless of whether it's true or fake, it's already sixth on the trending list."

Wei Yiming: "Can we report the video and get it taken down first?"

Xu Changge's message appeared at the very top. His wording was as restrained as ever, but every word oozed coldness.

Xu Changge: "For now, we must first confirm Lin Que's own status. If this is a frame-up, the other party is clearly waiting for people to impulsively jump in, creating a secondary topic for them."

Dan Yi immediately followed with a message: "Lin Que hasn't replied to private messages yet."

Chen Jiahao stood on the curb outside the market, his fingers typing rapidly.

Chen Jiahao: "This is that kind of marketing account! They specifically go to remote places to bully the locals! Master Que must have stopped them because he couldn't stand it!"

Chen Jiahao: "This bunch of trash that cuts the beginning and end!"

Xu Changge: "Stay calm. Although Lin Que is in a remote area, there is internet. He must have a countermeasure if he isn't responding."

Chen Jiahao paused.

Dan Yi: "Agreed. Lin Que is such a composed person; he must have his reasons."

The discussion in the group continued. Almost all twenty-nine students had popped up. Some were angry, some anxious, some calmly analyzing.

But everyone's judgment pointed in the same direction: this video was problematic.

Xu Changge sent another message: "I have contacted Senior Brother Song Yuan, and the school will intervene to verify. Before that, everyone had better remain silent; we cannot give the other party any room to operate."

Chen Jiahao stood in the cold wind holding his phone, the white mist he exhaled dispersing in puffs.

His thumb hovered over Lin Que's number, but he eventually moved it away.

"Damn it!" He cursed under his breath and rubbed his frozen face hard.

The cold dispelled some of his anger, reminding him of that figure who seemed to care about nothing.

That guy was never one to suffer in silence.

No, he must have some big move in his hands.

Thinking of this, the anxiety in his eyes instantly dissipated, replaced by an excited smile.

The quieter it is now, the more it means that whatever he is holding onto... will be able to crush the other party to death.