Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"You! Why weren't you more careful?"

Looking at her son lying on the hospital bed, Liang's mom couldn't help but poke Liang Xuan's forehead. She didn't think her son had done anything wrong—that Zhou Jiayi had drained her son's money and tried to run, so it was only natural for Liang Xuan to seek revenge.

The only mistake Liang Xuan made was not picking a more secluded spot to do it, and being unlucky enough to run into Shen Dongqing, that meddling busybody.

Hearing this, Liang Xuan's face contorted for a split second. He hated Zhou Jiayi, but he hated Shen Dongqing even more. If Shen Dongqing hadn't jumped in, he would have completed his revenge, instead of... well, instead of this.

Liang Xuan glanced at a certain area hidden beneath the blanket, then looked up at his mom: "Mom, is it really hopeless? Maybe the doctors here aren't skilled enough—should we transfer to a bigger hospital?"

"The doctors didn't say it's completely beyond repair, just that it's been damaged quite badly. But after a reconstructive surgery later, you can still get some function back. Don't worry." Liang's mom patted his hand to comfort him.

Liang Xuan shook off his mother's hand in irritation. He was tired of hearing this. In his view, his mom just couldn't relate because it wasn't her body that was hurt—otherwise, she wouldn't be so casual about it.

But this was something he could only say to his mom, not to his dad, or else he felt his dad would give him weird looks.

"Where's Dad?" Mentioning his father, Liang Xuan suddenly realized his dad had disappeared again. His brows furrowed—he was this badly injured, and his dad wasn't even here. Was it because he was half-crippled now, so his dad didn't give a damn about him anymore?

"He's doing a livestream, trying to drum up public support for your case, hoping to get you a suspended sentence." Liang's mom said, glancing at the police officer standing by the door.

It was seeing this police officer that made the Liang family realize Liang Xuan might actually go to prison for this, which was why they were trying every angle they could think of.

But after all this effort, they hadn't managed to get revenge on the people they wanted to, and Liang Xuan's charges were hard to beat.

Thinking about this, Liang's mom gritted her teeth in hatred at Zhang Feiyu. If it weren't for him livestreaming and recording everything, Liang Xuan would have had a chance to argue his case.

Liang Xuan's eyelids twitched. He nervously swallowed and, seeing his mom still rambling on, asked her for his phone.

"You just woke up and you're already asking for your phone. You can't play on your phone too much—it'll ruin your eyes." Liang's mom said, but still handed him the phone from the side.

Liang Xuan snatched the phone and started tapping away. Liang's mom didn't think anything of it—at least playing on his phone would take his mind off the pain.

When mealtime came, Liang's mom got up to go eat. Just as she was heading out, Liang Xuan said his phone was dead and asked his mom to hand over hers.

Liang's mom didn't think twice and handed it over before heading out. When she came back, she saw Liang Xuan had already set the phone down by the bed, so she picked it up.

"Xuanxuan, why are you so pale? Are you feeling sick?" Liang's mom finally noticed how frighteningly white Liang Xuan's face had turned. Alarmed, she was about to call the doctor when Liang Xuan stopped her.

"I'm fine, no need to call the doctor." Liang Xuan said firmly, though his eyes were shifty. If his mom had been holding him at that moment, she would have felt him trembling all over.

He'd lost. Completely lost. What was he supposed to do now?

Liang Xuan went pale. He couldn't even bring himself to look his mom in the eye. Even though he'd deleted all the records, the second his mom checked, she'd see the bank account was completely empty.

Liang Xuan burrowed under the covers, as if he could hide from the consequences.

...

Two days later, Shen Dongqing got a message from Zhang Feiyu saying they could do the joint livestream now.

When he got to the spot Zhang Feiyu had told him about, Shen Dongqing found not only Zhang Feiyu there, but Zhou Jiayi as well.

Shen Dongqing took a closer look at Zhou Jiayi and noticed dark circles under her eyes—she clearly hadn't been sleeping well—but she seemed hyped up, her eyes gleaming with anticipation for a good show.

Shen Dongqing could now confirm Zhou Jiayi hadn't been affected by the online hate, and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Over the past two days, he'd kept seeing posts about the Liang family. The situation was blowing up online, and while there was some hate directed at him, not much.

Zhou Jiayi was the one standing at the center of the storm, with all kinds of labels being thrown at her. Even Shen Dongqing couldn't keep scrolling after a while—the things people were saying were just too vicious.

"It's fine, I know there's nothing good being said about me online, so I just stayed offline these past few days." Zhou Jiayi noticed Shen Dongqing's concern and smiled, shaking her head. She'd studied media in college, so she knew these tricks all too well.

But knowing that was one thing—she also knew cyberbullying could literally kill people. She wasn't about to test her own limits, so she just stayed offline and didn't look.

Besides, most people could only curse at her online; very few would actually come find her in person.

Shen Dongqing breathed a sigh of relief. Good, she hadn't seen it. He turned his attention to Zhang Feiyu.

"So what's this 'good show' you mentioned?" Shen Dongqing had been thinking about this for the past two days, but Zhang Feiyu had been all mysterious about it and wouldn't say a word. Surely he'd tell them now.

"Look over there—that's Liang Xuan's dad." Zhang Feiyu pointed at a figure in the distance.

Shen Dongqing looked closely—it really was Liang Xuan's father. The man was crying pitifully into the camera with an incredibly vivid and moving expression. Passersby who noticed him couldn't help but cast odd glances his way, but Liang Xuan's father didn't care at all—he didn't spare a single glance at anyone else.

"Wait here for a bit, I'm going to go pick someone up." Zhang Feiyu answered a phone call, said a few words, then spoke to Shen Dongqing.

"They're here?" Zhou Jiayi asked.

"They're here, coming together. Keep an eye on things here." Zhang Feiyu nodded.

A delighted expression appeared on Zhou Jiayi's face, while Shen Dongqing was even more confused. He looked at Zhou Jiayi questioningly—what exactly was going on?

"You'll find out soon enough." Zhou Jiayi smiled.

Before long, Zhang Feiyu returned with a large crowd of people, all of whom didn't look too happy.

Zhang Feiyu led them over, then said to Shen Dongqing: "Alright, let's start our livestream too."

Shen Dongqing looked at the group of people, wondering if his Criminal Attraction Aura was still in effect. Zhang Feiyu wasn't planning to bring a bunch of people to crash Liang Xuan's father's livestream, was he? Wouldn't that be illegal?

"Last time it was Dongqing's act of bravery, this time it's my turn to be a hero." Zhang Feiyu had already started his livestream, speaking to the camera with impassioned fervor.

Shen Dongqing was a bit stunned watching Zhang Feiyu instantly slip into livestream mode. So this was what a professional looked like? He quickly turned on his own livestream, the camera shaking for a moment before stabilizing.

Shen Dongqing's account had gained quite a bit of attention over the past two days, so as soon as he started streaming, people trickled in. Somewhat awkwardly, he tried to greet the audience the way other streamers did.

"A mature streamer is certainly delicious, but this kind of fresh-faced streamer has its own unique flavor!"

"Isn't this the outdoor section? How did I end up here?"

"The screen's a bit dirty, let me wipe it."

"Whether it's wiping or licking, I'll make my own judgment."

Shen Dongqing considered himself an active internet surfer who knew a thing or two about all kinds of bold vocabulary—he'd even secretly liked such comments in other people's chat sections. But now he realized that being on the receiving end of the teasing was a completely different feeling.

He had no idea how to respond to these comments. Fortunately, there were still some serious fans asking what he was going to stream.

But before Shen Dongqing could answer, netizens who had hopped over from Zhang Feiyu's stream answered for him.

"Here for revenge!"

"Hey hey hey, how did you guys sneak over to Dongqing's stream and start spreading rumors about me? What do you mean revenge? This is what I call being a hero, righting wrongs." Zhang Feiyu poked his head over and spotted the comments in Shen Dongqing's chat at a glance.

With that, Zhang Feiyu gestured for Shen Dongqing to walk with him.

With such a large group approaching, even Liang Xuan's father—who normally paid no attention to passersby—couldn't help but divert some of his attention, looking up from his camera.

As soon as he looked up, he first saw Zhang Feiyu's infuriating face. Liang's father's expression darkened. In all these years, this was the first time he had been scolded so viciously that he couldn't fight back—that little punk had a seriously sharp tongue.

Liang's father then spotted Shen Dongqing, and an even bigger wave of anger hit him. Zhang Feiyu was detestable, but Shen Dongqing was the real root cause of all this.

Liang's father was so focused on those two that he didn't even notice Zhou Jiayi standing at the edge of the crowd.

"Uncle Liang, I saw you saying in your livestream that although Liang Xuan made some mistakes, he already knows he was wrong and truly regrets it, hoping the country would give him a chance. You also mentioned something about 'a father's failure to teach is the father's fault.' Well, I've discovered some more of Liang Xuan's wrongdoings. He probably can't make up for them, and since you're his father, you should cover for him, right?" Zhang Feiyu opened his mouth and instantly made himself the most hated guy in the room, pulling Liang's father's attention right onto himself.

Shen Dongqing immediately sensed there was juicy gossip here, and his eyes lit up.

"Is the streamer forgetting he's live? He looks like a gossip-hungry weasel that just sniffed out some drama."

"It's fine, I'll just grab some popcorn and watch along with him. If the streamer said something now, it would actually interrupt the mood."

"Although, I looked in the mirror and the streamer's expression is about 80-90% similar to mine. Round it up, and doesn't that basically mean I look exactly like the streamer? I'll take that as a win."

Liang's father's expression stiffened. He had been streaming for a few days now and didn't even remember if he'd said any of that. But in front of the camera, he had to keep up the whole loving-dad image, so he could only reply, "Of course. If Xiao Xuan has committed any wrongdoings that he can't make up for, I will definitely cover for him."

"Good to hear. Uncle, you've been live for a few days now, and I heard netizens have even donated to you, so you should be able to cover it." Zhang Feiyu wore a relieved expression.

That immediately made Liang's father feel like something big was about to drop.

And with that response, a crowd swarmed him, all talking over each other.

Shen Dongqing had the best seat in the house for the drama and finally understood what was going on.

Liang Xuan hadn't just maxed out his credit cards and taken out online loans—he'd also borrowed a ton of money from his coworkers. Now that his coworkers knew about his situation, they realized they couldn't get their money back from Liang Xuan, so they came straight to Liang's father to get their money back.

On a normal day, Liang's father wouldn't bother with these people at all. Lenders got what they deserved—stiffing people on debts was practically a talent. But now things were different. He'd been loving the perks of going viral these past few days. He could just say a few random things and people would throw money at him. Where else could he make money this easily?

In his previous streams, he had been painting Liang's mother as a spoiled, overindulgent nag, while casting himself as the hardworking guy who was too busy making money to discipline his son—but was really a stand-up, loving dad. That persona had definitely won over a lot of netizens, but it also backed him into a corner.

If these debt collectors had come at him hard, he'd have had an excuse to say no. But these people, perhaps coached by Zhang Feiyu, all acted super humble and polite, as if their lives would be ruined if he didn't help his son pay them back.

Liang's father secretly glanced at his livestream. Sure enough, the viewers all thought he was so pitiful, stuck with such a train wreck of a son. Poor guy.

Liang's father's eyelids twitched slightly, knowing this was going to be difficult. The fans' attitude clearly suggested they expected him to help pay off the debts. If he didn't, his persona would definitely collapse.

Actually, this was all Liang's father's own fault. He had built his account on playing the victim, so naturally, the people he attracted would also be fooled by others' sob stories.

No, Liang Xuan's colleagues weren't exactly playing the victim—after all, if Liang's father didn't cover the debts, their money really would never come back.

Liang's father didn't dare overthink it. He asked how much Liang Xuan had borrowed, did a quick calculation in his head, and gritted his teeth to pay it all back. After all, compared to the money he was making from streaming, this amount wasn't that much.

However, to keep up the sob story, Liang's father also borrowed money from relatives and friends to scrape together the full amount.

But was this the show that was supposed to make Liang's father cry?

Shen Dongqing felt like something was still missing. He couldn't help but cast a puzzled glance at Zhang Feiyu.

Zhang Feiyu gave a barely perceptible shake of his head and sent Shen Dongqing a message: this little matter was nothing—there was something much bigger coming.