Chapter 62
Public opinion is an invisible force. Hence, when the netizens posted the list of Ning Xi’s classmates, no one felt surprised. The omnipotent netizens even found out who the pretty transfer student and the school idol that “Beautiful Little House” mentioned was.
The identities of those who were involved in throwing Ning Xi into the storeroom were also revealed. Even their current workplaces was made public. However, the netizens who exposed them kept it within legal boundaries - their names were placed by “Mr/Miss X”, and their company names were blurred out.
Although all these details were blurred out, the netizens still knew the nature of their job. What shocked them the most was, two of these people were actually teachers.
The two teachers were educating others in real life while adamantly refusing to admit to their mistakes in the past online. They even intentionally defamed Ning Xi, and encouraged the masses to turn against Ning Xi.
Would teachers like them be beneficial for students?
Many netizens started calling up the education ministry, requesting for them to identify these two troublemakers and to expel them from the education system.
The issue had grown to epic proportions. Further, with the support of prominent people in society, the education world started to take a closer look towards school violence. Therefore, when the netizens and parents started bombarding the education ministry with calls on the matter, the education ministry declared that they would look into it.
If the two had truly repented, the netizens probably wouldn't be this furious. Yet, these two were not only unrepentant, but in trying to cover up their mistakes, they even intentionally distorted the truth and tried to throw shade onto Ning Xi.
If they could be this shameless, then the netizens wouldn’t give them any leeway too.
Apart from the few who threw Ning Xi into the storeroom, what the netizens cared most about was the pretty transfer student and the school idol. Even though the originator of the post didn’t explicitly state their names, but the descriptors used on them, namely, “the daughter of the largest metal hardware corporation” and “the wealthy descendant of the family which recently had a case about an illegitimate son”, were sufficient for netizens to investigate their identities.
Ning Xi’s high school was the First High School in the city. Their class had more than fifty students, but their family backgrounds were all investigated thoroughly by the netizens.
Just a passerby: I have a good sense of who these two are. Search for videos made last year about the luxurious engagement of the young master and daughter of two rich families. You will find the truth there.
Wei Siqi, whose parents established their company from selling metal hardware, could almost be considered a socialite in this city.
Chen Yijun, whose family was in the property and makeup businesses, was embroiled in a scandal when his father was revealed to have had an illegitimate son, and it was still unclear if he would eventually take over the family business.
Once the information was released, netizens looked at their photos and launched a tsunami of criticism towards them.
A cosmetic surgeon declared that Miss Wei had probably added fillers in her nose and chin, and there were also signs that she had done some work on her eyes. Even though these were minor touch-ups, yet her beauty could not be compared to Ning Xi’s.
These people had hired cyber troopers to mislead the netizens, making them think that Ning Xi had undergone surgery. Yet, the truth was such an irony. Ning Xi, who had once been ridiculed and bullied, became more and more beautiful, while the ringleader Wei Siqi, who led others to bully Ning Xi, had gone for surgery.
There was no lack of black humour in this world. Take Ning Xi and Wei Siqi for instance.
Soon enough, netizens found Wei Siqi and Chen Yijun’s Weibo accounts. They both followed each other, and even posted lovey-doveys on each other’s accounts. However, this year, Chen Yijun had not once updated his Weibo account, and apart from flaunting her luxurious lifestyle, Wei Siqi’s account contained reposts of comments slandering Ning Xi. She even added harsh comments in her reposts.
After running through her Weibo, even the netizens felt that their view of the world had changed. How shameless could she be to even do something like this?
Yet, netizens didn’t get much time to explore her posts, as Wei Siqi started deleting them, and even changed her username. However, this didn’t affect the netizens much; after all, they could screenshot the posts. They had already predicted Wei Siqi’s actions, so after reading her Weibo feed, they also kept screenshots of the comments that she made.
Ning Xi’s fans also realised that after such a huge fiasco, Ning Xi had never once come out to make a statement. Although her manager had stepped out and told reporters that Ning Xi was doing fine, without seeing her in person, they were still very worried.
As a last resort, the fans started to leave messages in the accounts of Ning Xi’s friends, such as Zhou Zhengchuan, Sun Yuhan, and Zhou Haili. In order not to tarnish Ning Xi’s image, they even used a sincere tone, and kept their messages humble and polite.
There were even some who carefully requested for Chang Shi Gui in his Weibo account to counsel Ning Xi, to help her step out of her past trauma, and to live happily.
The actions of Ning Xi’s fans were visible to all; but no one felt that their actions were annoying or hateful. Instead, they were glad that she had such fans.
Being cared for was a blissful thing.
Some media outlets also recognised Ning Xi’s fans, and commended them for their positive actions.
In reality, the fans who had left messages in Chang Shi Gui’s Weibo were only trying their luck. In their minds, someone like Chang Shi Gui would probably not have much time to use Weibo.
What they didn’t expect was that, that afternoon, Chang Shi Gui posted on Weibo. It was a relatively short post, but there was a picture attached. It was a simple picture of a clean and clear heart made of glass.
Chang Shi Gui: My heart is clear, there’s no trace of shadows. [Picture attached]
Netizens: ???
What did this mean?
Bouncing Bear: AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
As someone who knew everything but chose to keep it secret, she almost jumped up in shock when she saw this post from Chang Shi Gui.
Others might not understand, but she was clear about it. Boss Chang was telling those who ridiculed Ning Xi that he was not bothered by those photos at all.
Wow what an ultimate display of lovey-dovey!
Just when netizens were trying to make sense of what Chang Shi Gui meant, he posted again.
Chang Shi Gui: Thanks to those who are concerned about Xixi. I’ll take good care of her.
Netizens: ?
The boss of Chang Enterprises not only responded to the worries of Ning Xi’s fans, he even addressed her as “Xixi”? There was definitely something fishy about this. They decided to calm down and process this properly.
Smart insider: For those netizens who are unaware of what’s going on, you can take a look at the recent comments ridiculing Ning Xi. There are some which said, “Ask if Ning Xi’s boyfriend would be traumatised by this”, “Ning Xi’s non-celebrity boyfriend, would you be worried about the genes for your offspring after seeing such ugly pictures”. From there, you can probably piece everything together.
The anti-fans had asked if Ning Xi’s boyfriend would be traumatised, and Chang Shi Gui had suddenly said that his heart was clear. This meant that … Chang Shi Gui was Ning Xi’s non-celebrity boyfriend?!
Those who originally thought that Ning Xi’s non-celebrity boyfriend was just a normal person were stupefied. Ning Xi’s boyfriend was actually Chang Shi Gui?
His family was the richest among the wealthy families, and he was the largest gem among the eligible bachelors around!
Could it be that the previous rumours about Chang Shi Gui having a crush on Ning Xi were true?
Bouncing Bear: Does everyone remember who I am? I was the one who posted the picture of the romantic confession on Weibo. I’ve kept something secret for long, and I’ve decided to speak out today! The female lead in the confession was not any female celebrity, but Ning Xi! I live in the same estate as Goddess Ning, and that day, I happened to witness the entire confession by Mr. Chang to Goddess Ning. However, I was scared that this might bring trouble to Goddess Ning, so I deleted my post and didn’t tell anyone about it.
After this Weibo user appeared, the netizens started to recall that it was this user who first revealed photos of the confession. However, for some reason, the post was quickly deleted.
Now, all these made sense. “Boucing Bear” had recognised that Ning Xi was the female involved in the confession, and deleted the post out of fear of giving her trouble. Shortly after, Ning Xi announced that she had a non-celebrity boyfriend, but did not mention that she was the protagonist in the confession issue. A few days later, someone had exposed the protagonist to be Zeng Xue. The latter neither admitted nor denied it, but continued to use the issue to stir up her popularity, and successfully trended online. She then became the spokesperson for a shampoo company.
The netizens who had left messages on Zeng Xue’s Weibo about “believing in true love again” could feel the swelling from the face-slap after they found out the truth.
What true love, what sweetness? It was all someone else’s ploy to market themselves. This was truly a brazen act.
Passerby A: I’m truly in awe of Zeng Xue’s courage. She dared to use the boss of Chang Enterprises to make herself popular. I don’t even want to say anything more, I’ll just light a candle for her silently.'
The netizens started coming out to "light candles" for Zeng Xue. They didn’t scold or ridicule her, since they knew that she had burned her own fingers this time.
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“What did you post?” Ning Xi saw that Chang Shi Gui had taken out his phone and typed a few words after her agreement. “Hmm?”
“Your fans really care about you.” Chang Shi Gui felt that his previous post was too obscure, so he posted another one. After he posted, then he handed his phone over to Ning Xi. “They left messages in my Weibo, asking me to take care of you.”
Ning Xi took the phone, and saw the two messages that Chang Shi Gui posted. Within minutes, there were close to a thousand messages on his post. Obviously, the two messages had shocked the Internet.
Ning Xi logged out of his account, then logged into her own and reposted Chang Shi Gui’s message.
Ning Xi: Everyone, don’t worry. I’m doing well. // Chang Shi Gui: Thanks to those who are concerned about Xixi. I’ll take good care of her.
Fan 1: Goddess, are you using Boss Chang’s phone to post this?!
The fans immediately noticed that the mobile client for her post was different from the one that she usually used, but it was the same as Chang Shi Gui’s.
Did this mean that the two of them were together now?!
Fan 2: Did Boss Chang specially rush to pick Xixi up after finding out about the news on the Internet? As long as Xixi is happy, I’m willing to see them show off their love.
Fan 3: As someone from the headquarters of Chang Enterprises, I just want to say that the boss was still overseas yesterday afternoon. Now he’s already beside Goddess Ning. If this is not love ….
Ning Xi logged out of her Weibo and returned the phone to Chang Shi Gui. She turned and saw the unfamiliar environment outside the window and asked, “Where are we going?”
“I have an apartment nearby. The security is good here, will you stay here for the time being?” Chang Shi Gui was afraid that Ning Xi wouldn’t agree, so he explained, “The living environment here is not bad, and the privacy levels are really high.”
Ning Xi did not reject; she knew that Chang Shi Gui meant well. She nodded and said, “Then I’ll stay here for a few days.”
The car drove into a green little estate. Ning Xi realised that the houses here were all individual small houses that were distanced quite far apart. No wonder Chang Shi Gui said that it was a very private area.
For Ning Xi, who had just purchased a deluxe apartment but had yet to furnish it, she thought she could finally understand why others would “hate the rich”.
As she followed Chang Shi Gui in, she realised that this place had traces of being lived in, and wasn’t simply an empty house. She turned her head towards Chang Shi Gui and waited for an explanation.