Chapter 341: Return it exactly as it was

Zhou Du got up from the chair, thought for a moment, roughly guessed why Xia Xi was looking for him at this time, so he simply sat back down, answered the call, and turned on speakerphone.

Xia Xi had just gotten home, thinking that the matter had implicated Zhou Du, who after all was a public figure with many fans, and it might affect his career, she wanted to know how he was doing.

"Are you busy?" Xia Xi's tone was calm, not sounding like she had been battered by outside storms.

Zhou Du glanced at the screen straight ahead; the barrage was still scrolling.

"Better late than never, looks like you've caught the hot gossip."

"666, a call between the two parties involved."

"They couldn't have colluded in advance, could they?"

"Collusion my ass, when the thing blew up online Zhou Du was still live-streaming, looking completely clueless."

Zhou Du chuckled, his voice slightly raised, like nothing was wrong: "Ah, I'm fine, tell me what's up."

His voice sounded too normal, so Xia Xi assumed he still didn't know about the online matter: "You haven't checked the Weibo hot search?"

Zhou Du: "I haven't had a chance to look yet, but someone already told me."

Xia Xi felt guilty: "Sorry, I've made you take the blame again."

"Pfft, it's no big deal; bro, I'm a self-media person, I've seen all kinds of storms." Zhou Du turned to comfort her: "Besides, I'm used to taking the blame, it doesn't matter."

Hearing him say that, Xia Xi felt even more guilty. Zhou Du was the most innocent, he'd helped her so much, got no benefit, and still got dragged in: "The other side must be targeting me..."

"Not necessarily." Zhou Du interrupted her: "Maybe they're after me; I'm so popular, maybe I blocked someone's money-making scheme."

Xia Xi was speechless for a moment, then realized Zhou Du was joking to comfort her, she laughed: "They even named names, saying Xia Xi has bad character—are you Xia Xi?"

Zhou Du hadn't checked Weibo, so he didn't know what they were saying: "People saying that are just jealous, don't take it to heart. Is the Xu guy beside you?"

"Huh, what's up?"

"Don't worry about it, leave it to him to handle; if a lawyer's letter needs to be sent, send it—these days the internet isn't a lawless zone." Zhou Du said, "And don't worry about me either, I'm fine, nothing's wrong with me."

Zhou Du also wasn't worried about Xia Xi; she wasn't fragile, on the contrary, her tolerance far exceeded ordinary people—this little squabble couldn't hurt her, at most she'd get a bit angry. Besides, she had Xu Yanfeng by her side, that man wasn't a pushover; handling this sort of thing was no big deal for him.

After chatting up to this point, Zhou Du hung up, turned his gaze back to the live-stream screen, and saw the viewer count surge.

"Say it again, it's all made-up nonsense—whoever believes it is an idiot." Zhou Du picked up the product the assistant host handed him, "The gossipers can scatter now, I'm not an entertainment marketing account, let's get back to the topic……"

Some people listened to Zhou Du's explanation, and together with the public call recording between Zhou Du and Xia Xi, they basically believed Xia Xi had been framed; but many others didn't know the situation, were swayed by online public opinion, and thought Xia Xi's morals were corrupt.

Those people couldn't find Xia Xi's Weibo, had nowhere to vent, so they posted insults on their personal homepages, and some deliberately went to the variety show's official account to spew vulgarities.

The online mess was disgusting; Xia Xi couldn't be bothered to look, she tossed her phone aside and went to the bathroom to soak in the tub.

Zhou Du guessed right—she at most had her mood affected a little, not to the point of being devastated.

Xu Yanfeng had been on the phone with people, contacting the PR department to handle the online rumors; by this point he already knew in his heart whose hand was behind it. Such a large-scale smear campaign couldn't be pulled off without some financial backing. But the urgent priority was to keep the situation from spreading further into worse territory.

Later we'll figure out how to settle the score.

Orders were issued one after another; as things developed according to Xu Yanfeng's expectations, he let out a breath of relief and went to find Xia Xi.

From the bathroom came the sound of music, a soothing English song playing; Xu Yanfeng knocked on the door from outside, waited two seconds with no response, his heart tightened slightly, and he pushed the door open and entered.

Xia Xi was soaking in the bathtub, a rack held drinks and a plate of cut fruit; she was eating an orange, her eyes wide open, first glancing at herself then at him: "How did you get in?"

"I knocked, you didn't hear me." Xu Yanfeng gave a helpless smile, "I thought you'd passed out."

He walked over, squatted down, and placed his hand on the edge of the tub.

Xi lifted her hair; the fine soft strands at the nape inevitably got wet from the water, sticking to her skin. She turned off the music, propped her head with her hand: "Is everything settled?"

Xu Yanfeng's hand reached into the tub, scooped up water and poured it onto her shoulder: "Pretty much."

"Do you know who did it?" After asking, Xia Xi guessed to herself: "I just thought back carefully—back then, besides you, the people who entered the room also included a few of your childhood friends, and the Ling Miss who admired you was probably among them."

Xu Yanfeng's lips curled slightly; indeed, she was sharp.

"You're still laughing." Xia Xi splashed water in his face: "Your own flirtations caused trouble, and in the end I'm the one getting blamed for nothing—is that fair?"

Xu Yanfeng's handsome face was dotted with water droplets, his shirt front also not spared, covered in dark speckles. He grasped Xia Xi's wet hand, his tone odd: "Don't talk as if I had something with her. I don't."

Xia Xi believed him, didn't argue further on this topic, lowered her eyelids to stare at their joined hands: "Can we chat in another way? I'm not wearing anything, it doesn't feel weird."

"Not weird." Xu Yanfeng's brows and eyes relaxed, smiling.

"You don't feel it, but I do." Xia Xi pulled her hand back, glanced toward the door: "You go out first."

Xu Yanfeng pretended not to hear, pinched a fork, speared a piece of orange from the fruit plate and put it in his mouth: "I'll attend to your bath."

"I refuse." Xia Xi saw him eat another piece: "You've eaten it all, what am I supposed to eat?"

"Nothing left at home?"

"No, I heard that eating an orange while bathing gives you the feeling of being a monkey in a tropical rainforest, very relaxing and stress-relieving, so I wanted to try." Xia Xi cupped water and splashed it at Xu Yanfeng: "Do you feel like you've turned into a monkey now?"

Xu Yanfeng: "……"

"What the hell is this?" While dodging the water Xia Xi splashed, he undid his shirt buttons, raised an eyebrow and said: "Well, even if I'm now a male monkey, you're a female monkey."

After Xia Xi grew tired and fell asleep, Xu Yanfeng lifted the blanket, quietly got out of bed, went to the adjacent study, and held his phone to follow up on the matter.

The heat had been contained, but the internet has memory; many people saved the pictures and spread them privately, wanting to erase them completely is impossible. Those insults directed at Xia Xi turned into arrows, aimed at his chest.

He couldn't take it; the harm inflicted on Xia Xi, he wanted to return it in full to the perpetrators' persons.

Xu Yanfeng's deep gaze fell on the phone in his hand, his face solemn like the night outside the window. After sitting silently for a long while, he dialed Guan He's number: "Did you get ready the data I asked you to prepare?"

Although time was pressing, Guan He dared not slacken for a moment; upon receiving Xu Yanfeng's order he set to collecting: "It's almost all organized."

Xu Yanfeng: "No need to wait, release it tonight."

Guan He stared hard for a moment, then confirmed with him: "Really want to do this?"

"Do it as I say." Xu Yanfeng remained calm, also cold: "No need to go to great lengths to cover up; they're not idiots, they'll surely guess it's my doing."

Guan He couldn't help thinking, openly opposing the Ling Clan like this—is it really okay?

How should we explain this to the chairman?

But he obeyed Xu Yanfeng's orders, so naturally he'd do whatever Xu Yanfeng told him: "Alright, I'll go handle it now."