Chapter 328 - Fang JunRong's Smile Disappeared (1)
Cai Chenghua started to get a headache. He now knew why the others were looking at him the way that they were. Even he wanted to reach into the video and sew his wife's mouth shut. Even if that was how she thought, she shouldn't have said them out loud!
Under the video were comments that slammed and bashed his wife and child. He glanced at them and these people only wish to cuss out his previous 18 generations. The viciousness in the comments was worrisome. Some extremists even said they would expose his personal information online. He was both scared and dazed. Sure, his son made a mistake, but was this really necessary?
What was wrong with this society? Couldn't they cut some slacks for a child?
As far as he was concerned, nevertheless, his promotion opportunity fizzling away was just the beginning.
He seemed to have gained fame around the office all of a sudden today. No matter where he went, he was pointed at and talked about. The way others looked at him like a walking drama made him feel very uncomfortable.
He would hear people talking about him even when he went to the bathroom. He didn't want to listen to those malicious discussions but the words, as though having wills of their own, would find ways into his ears.
"That Cai Chenghua. The way that he brags about his son day in and day out. Now look at how he son really is – stealing and lying so well at such a young age. If he doesn't start educating his son now, is he going to wait till he become a hardcore criminal first?"
"If I was him, I'd feel so shameful right now."
"If he doesn't teach his child soon, he won't have a chance to. The society will teach him for him."
Cai Chenghua's face was long. He couldn't wait to leave the office when time was up. He no longer bothered staying the extra half an hour in front of his manager for the show.
By the time he got home by bus and, before he could even turn the door handle, he could hear shouting coming from inside the house. One of them belonged to his sister. Her loud voice was filled with obvious anger.
"I see now. I had been wondering why Xiao Yu always cried whenever I brought her over. So you hit her behind my back? You bully her a lot normally, don't you?"
"How were you even able to bring yourself to do it? And you had the audacity to tell me that she was naughty and fell on her own. There were bruises on her arms! Unlike you, if your son hit my daughter, then I'll hit you back. It's perfectly fine. You have thick skin. It isn't like it'd hurt or anything."
He could hear his wife's screams in between his sister's angry shouts.
Cai Chenghua opened up the door and saw his aggressive sister hitting his wife with both hands while all his wife could do was shriek and dodge. "Murder! Murder!"
Cai Chenghua gasped. Even he was startled by how vicious his sister looked right now. He said weakly, "Big Sister..."
His sister felt much better after she had beat up Lu Xiuhua. Turning to him, she gave him an expressionless look, "Don't call me Big Sister. I am not good enough. I shall not be coming over here again in the future!"
"Whose child is not precious? You think only yours is precious and everybody else's are weeds?"
"Next time you bully my daughter, I am going to beat you up as well! Rein in your wife and child. Don't let your bad reputation spread all the way to our hometown."
His sister was a vigorous person as well. She left with her head held high after she had scolded the two in their faces.
Leaving Cai Chenghua there feeling awful.
He took a look at his wife. Her face was swollen from the beating. He knew his wife well. She was only a bully to those weaker than her. When his sister toughened up, his wife dared not make a peep. His wife was only tough in front of those weaker than her, like the girl on the train. Even he couldn't lie and said that what she did was right.
Chapter 329 - Fang JunRong's Smile Disappeared (2)
"Look at your sister, ChengHua. Can you believe what she did? Is that how your Cai family treats your daughter-in-law?"
Lu XiuHua felt very aggrieved. She went to the grocery shop today and found everyone pointing at her and talking about her behind her back. She was so mad she almost got into a fight with them. She had just gotten home and her sister-in-law came looking for her and started beating her up as soon as she walked in the door.
Cai ChengHua looked at her face and, recalling his promotion that had fizzled away, couldn't summon up any shred of compassion. He said to her coldly,
"You deserved that. You can't even raise a child properly. Do you have any idea what they are saying about me at my workplace? You are ballsy, saying what you have said in front of the camera. I want to beat you up today even if my sister hadn't! I almost lost my job because of you! What are we going to do for money then???"
He turned on his cellphone and loaded the screen shot that he had saved earlier. He was short of smashing the screen onto her face.
"See for yourself. Are those words coming out of a human being? How are you so proud about hitting a child?"
"Well, congratulations! You are famed now. Now everyone has heard of you and Bao and everyone knows that you two accused a girl of stealing."
As much as he wanted to side with his son, he must admit that what the netizens said online made a lot of sense.
Lu XiuHua had had a great time sharing her thoughts during the interview and she didn't feel that it would be a big deal. Nevertheless, everything was under the assumption that her face would not be shown in the video. Why else would she admit to hitting her niece? Her face turned blue and white. She finally had it figured out now. She was tricked by that pretty-looking girl on the train. She gritted her teeth in hatred. "That girl was so evil! How could she do this? Was she trying to get me killed?"
"I am going to sue her! And have her compensate me!"
Everybody pointed at her when she left the house today. She could not begin to describe how embarrassing that was. Even her son cried about nobody wanting to play with him when he came home today. That they worried that he would steal from them. She was baffled how the others found out about it at the time. Turned out it had all been recorded and uploaded onto the web.
"She was infringing on my privacy!" Lu XiuHua had heard of that from the television before and threw it out now.
"Sue her? Are you not embarrassed enough already? Hadn't you already signed the contract with her? You don't even have a case and you want to waste more money on lawyers?" Cai ChengHua, at the very minimum, had half a brain more than her. The thought of his family's reputation being ruined and his future unclear now all over 2,000 yuan made him want to beat up Lu XiuHua.
They were as regretful now over the 2,000 yuan that they have earned as they were happy earlier.
Tears finally rolled down Lu XiuHua's cheeks. She was truly regretful now
***
Fang JunRong worried about the pouring rain outside.
They arrived at Xichang City today and were going to head straight to Chen MingZhu's place but they were stopped by the rain. Per the hotel, it had already been raining for two-days straight and still showing no signs of letting up. The rain made the roads slippery and driving up the hills would be relatively hazardous.
Fang JunRong and the others were in no hurry to get there so they decided to stay at the hotel for the time being and check out the surroundings.
Speaking of, Dingyang Village sounded somewhat familiar.
She couldn't recall where she had heard it from off the top of her mind. Perhaps Chen MingZhu had mentioned it in passing before.
"It is quite unlucky that we run into the rain."
Li XinYun was starting to get bored after being trapped in the hotel for a whole day.
Fang JunRong glanced over at her. "If you are so bored, you should take this opportunity to interview a few others. That might give you some ideas."
"Good idea." Li XinYun wasn't one to sit around. She went over to look for Chen MingZhu right away.
Fang JunRong shook her head as she looked at her back. She logged online using the hotel wifi and wanted to touch base with Jiang DeXian so he could update her about what had been going on at work.
Chapter 330 - Fang JunRong's Smile Disappeared (3)
There weren't that many important contracts lately so basically Xu WeiWei and Jiang DeXian were able to take care of everything just the two of them.
Jiang DeXian asked her, "Do you need me to book your tickets back, Boss?"
Fang JunRong paused a little and recalled that she has yet to tell them that she had changed her destination. "No, not yet. I don't know when I will be heading back yet." She then added, "I am over at Xichang City and will be heading over to Dingyang Village."
"Okay."
Jiang DeXian hung up with her shortly.
Fang JunRong went back to reviewing her documents.
Five minutes later, Jiang DeXian called her up again and he sounded nervous for a change.
"Boss, don't head over to Dingyang Village just yet. It has rained a lot lately and the roads are hazardous."
"Lots of places are having rain right now," said Fang JunRong as she busted out laughing.
"I heard that there are a lot of mountains around Dingyang Village and they are also not very stable. You don't want to be caught in a landslide."
A message suddenly appeared in Fang JunRong's head.
[Due to the continuous heavy rains as well as the earthquake a month ago, Danxi Mountain in Xichang City was unstable and a landslide occurred. Two groups of villagers in Dingyang Village were buried...]
Fang JunRong's smile disappeared.
She vaguely remembered the landslide from her previous life but she didn't recall the details of when and where. Back then, she was busy dealing with Li WangJin and also having to face her son who had chosen love over his family. Her life at the time could be described as a big mess.
She vaguely recalled that she had donated 2 million yuan toward disaster relief after she found out about the incident. Lo and behold, her assistant at the time had somehow fallen for Jiang YaGe and betrayed her just like that with barely any effort from Li WangJin's part.
For the sake of Jiang YaGe, he decided to screw her over and kept the lion share of the money, donating only 20,000 yuan symbolically. When words spread and under the influence of twisted truth and others fueling the incident maliciously, she was charged with committing fraud.
Jiang YaGe, who had donated a million yuan, on the other hand, became the representative of kind and beautiful under the efforts of for-profit accounts and earned herself a lot of fans. Jiang YaGe had further spent money on taking care of a few of the orphans who had lost their parents during this disaster. That earned her even more praises and contrasted with Fang JunRong even more.
She had almost forgotten all about this incident as that was only one of many battles between herself and Jiang YaGe. Nevertheless, being reminded by Jiang DeXian, her faded memory came rushing back.
She rubbed her temples. She was rebirth, it only made sense that she knew about this incident but how did Jiang DeXian know about it?
Even though he said it with uncertainty, it sounded very confident from Fang JunRong's perspective. He even used the exact wording of a "landslide".
Many places had pouring rain all over the country but Jiang DeXian only overreacted after he heard Dingyang Village.
His abnormal reaction made her wonder.
Either Jiang DeXian had some interesting past that allowed him to predict future disasters or that he, too, was rebirth?
Regardless of which it was, Jiang DeXian should have noticed something odd about her by now. Was his being in her life a plan all along?
No, one way or another, she trusted that Jiang DeXian did not approach her with malicious intentions in mind. This wasn't just her overall feeling about him after being with him this entire time. Truth be told, she definitely had more trust in someone like Xu WeiWei, a good friend of hers for years, more than she did in Jiang DeXian. That being said, he still took care of a lot of matters for her and he had a lot of opportunities to scheme had he wanted to.
Fang JunRong let out a long sigh and shook her head.
At the end of the day, Jiang DeXian only revealed that something was odd about him because he worried about her. One way or another, she should not assume that his intention was malicious. Not everyone was Li WangJin.