Chapter 183

Because things weren’t going well with Xiao Ran, Zhan Suiru had been in a bad mood lately. Just when she happened to see someone daring to mess with her brother—hehe, seeking death!

The boss had an outlet for her emotions. First, she found all the malicious messages about her brother on the network and deleted them all in one breath. Zhan Suiru even created an automatic detection program to ensure not a single one was missed.

Then she traced the leads to find who was causing trouble.

She didn’t even need to investigate much—their computers were full of incriminating material.

Pack it up, expose it!

After completing this series of actions, Zhan Suiru’s mood improved.

Ji Yueming had just finished her call with Luo Luoluo. The next morning, she discovered the internet was completely clean, and those who’d dared to implicate her Yanyan were now trending on hot searches one by one—already taken to the station.

Luoluo, well done!

Luo Luoluo was very confused facing the Tianshi boss’s praise.

“Sister Ji, it wasn’t me.”

Ji Yueming: ?

Luo Luoluo: “I went to find people to clear the messages, but before I even started, the internet was already cleaned. I’d only collected part of those people’s materials and hadn’t had time to act.”

She was just an ordinary person. No matter how efficient, she couldn’t clean messages this thoroughly in one night.

Ji Yueming thought about this workload and found it indeed exceeded ordinary human capability. So, if not Luo Luoluo, then who?

Equally confused and shocked was Xia Yuexian. When Boss Xia learned that Chongming Demon King’s youngest son had gotten caught in a controversy, he prepared to have his team act. Their film company was professional at handling this.

But just as they’d finalized the plan and prepared to implement it, they discovered malicious comments about Zhan Yan online were disappearing at high speed. Before long, they were all gone—they hadn’t even had time to act.

Zhan Yan, who knew the truth, was equally confused and shocked.

After learning Hong Jing had helped him, his first reaction was that his identity had been exposed.

Hong Jing had discovered who he was, so she’d acted. Was this both a threat and a gesture of goodwill?

Indicating: I already know your identity, but I have no ill will toward you?

Zhan Yan’s hair stood on end. He didn’t know when his disguise had been exposed!

Flipping through Hong Jing’s gossip feed revealed nothing.

Had his identity protection little star become useless?

[You conducted a slanderous suspicion of your own golden finger.]

Zhan Yan: …

Ha, then tell me why Hong Jing helped me!

Zhan Yan calmed down. If the information protection little star hadn’t failed, perhaps Hong Jing hadn’t discovered who he was? But if so, why would Hong Jing help him?

Regardless, Zhan Yan decided to probe first.

He entered the network again to find Hong Jing.

Unfortunately, Hong Jing wasn’t there.

This boss also followed a mysterious route. The two had no other means of contact. Zhan Yan left her a message in their shared lounge to check next time.

Looking at current online messages again—because of overnight changes, the internet was even livelier now.

One group was eating the dirt scandal gossip, one group of fans was crying injustice for Lan Xiqiao, and another was guessing who had such power.

At first, everyone thought it was Lan Xiqiao’s company, after all, she was the direct beneficiary. Everyone @’d her company Mengya Media with admiration for being so awesome.

Mengya Media was also confused.

It wasn’t them, though they’d tried hard.

But they didn’t need to explain. Gossip masses quickly discovered something was off.

“If that small broken company Sister Lan signed with had this capability, would they have developed into what they are now?”

“Never seen Mengmeng this amazing before. Didn’t they used to just take beatings without fighting back?”

Mengya Media: …Thanks. We actually tried hard but we’re just weak. Thanks to the boss for letting us ride along this time.

“Then isn’t this Sister Lan’s private connections? Doesn’t this prove more that someone’s behind her?”

“You haters are enough, okay? If she had these connections, could you have smeared her like this? Go search for yourselves? Isn’t that brainwashing package about Qiaoqiao still circulating? Aren’t those sites spreading rumors about Qiaoqiao doing just fine?”

“But this time her material really was cleaned very thoroughly. Overnight, not even a screenshot can be found.”

“Sisters, I know what’s going on!”

“I’m telling you, don’t just focus on Qiaoqiao. She’s not the only victim this time. Search for the other person and you’ll have new discoveries!”

“Searched and came back. Shocked.”

“What was cleaned wasn’t Lan Xiqiao’s material, but the other collaborator’s material. So clean, my god!”

“What’s the background of the little brother Qiaoqiao collaborated with this time?”

“Didn’t they say? Young master of Shoude Company.”

“But when I searched Shoude Company, it doesn’t seem very famous. Are they really this powerful?”

“They’re not publicly listed. Of course, what you can find by searching like this is limited.”

“I found some projects Shoude Company invested in. Sisters, that particularly useful moisturizer I recommended before—their special ingredient was a byproduct from a lab Shoude invested in.”

“Aren’t labs very expensive?”

“Of course. Research is notoriously money-burning. Whether results come out is uncertain.”

“I also found several projects. Their investments are so diverse. Besides Sister Lan’s opera tour, there’s wetland conservation and translating various books into braille.”

“But none of these projects seem profitable, right? Feels more like charity.”

“What’s Shoude Company’s actual strength? Can any business circle bosses explain?”

“No, if they can invest in labs, do they still need to pull their young master to save money?”

“Just looking at those projects they invested in, they probably save where they can…”

“Shoude should only be part of their family’s companies, right? Otherwise I really can’t figure out how they make money. They don’t go public either. All this investment capital relies on themselves.”

“Maybe they have high-return projects we don’t know about?”

“Whatever high returns they have or don’t have, just looking at these projects they invested in gives me a good impression.”

Shoude Company unexpectedly went viral online.

Ban Weidong, who had deep unilateral entanglements with Shoude Company, was full of resentment and posted comments under a burner account.

“Don’t think they’re doing charity. All those projects they invested in made money.”

“Lol, still trying to smear this? Tour videos exist, wetland park is there too. They actually completed projects and you’re still questioning?”

Ban Weidong: “I’m not questioning they completed projects. I’m saying these projects all made money.”

“With these projects, tell me how they made money? Does the wetland park make money from entrance tickets? Are braille books best-sellers?”

Ban Weidong: …I don’t know either! But they all made money! Set up a lab—target results didn’t come out, byproduct enters cosmetics industry making huge profits; put on an almost-forgotten opera tour and it went viral, even produced a Lan Xiqiao. If Ban Weidong hadn’t been paying attention because of his deep resentment, he couldn’t believe it either.

Those discussing Shoude Company were only a small portion. More were interested in the mysterious young master. Online information about Zhan Yan rose sharply.

Then Zhan Yan watched as Hong Jing continuously cleaned bad reviews for him daily. The information he could use for concealment would surge up in large swaths daily, then swish down in large swaths. Overall trending upward because Hong Jing didn’t clear ordinary discussions and speculation that weren’t malicious.

Zhan Yan: …

Really don’t need to be this diligent.

Hong Jing hadn’t gone to their shared lounge these past days. Zhan Yan couldn’t contact her either.

Zhan Yan thought for two days until he nearly scratched his head bald, flipping through Hong Jing’s gossip feed back and forth pondering.

So why exactly?!

Hm? Hong Jing went to the lounge!

Zhan Yan immediately entered the network to block her.

Zhan Suiru’s emotions had been relatively stable these days. Whenever things weren’t going well, she’d search the network for abnormalities to beat up. Later, after she and the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau cleaned them up, network abnormalities became hard to find. Then she encountered the online controversy her brother was dragged into.

Very good. New targets deserving beatings arrived.

After calming down, Zhan Suiru decided to find “Squirrel” to change her thinking.

But “Squirrel” was weird today.

“Do you have something to say?” Zhan Yan asked.

Zhan Suiru: “?”

“Good afternoon?”

Zhan Yan: “…”

“You… how have you been lately?”

Zhan Suiru: “Pretty good. Do you have something?”

Zhan Yan: This reaction from Hong Jing doesn’t seem like she exposed his disguise.

But if not that reason… then Hong Jing originally knew him and had a very good relationship with him.

A thought suddenly emerged in Zhan Yan’s mind.

Hong Jing was still waiting for his reply and asked again: “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“No, nothing.” Zhan Yan snapped back to attention and casually found an excuse. “Been a bit busy lately. Exhausted and dazed. I’m logging off.”

He didn’t wait for Hong Jing’s answer before rapidly going offline.

Zhan Suiru: ?

Whatever. Zhan Suiru also felt it wasn’t interesting. She went offline and continued attempting to repair Xiao Ran’s ability core.

Xiao Ran obediently lay on the operating table letting her manipulate him, just his mouth wouldn’t stop: “Are you in a bad mood today?”

Zhan Suiru opened his chest panel: “I’m fine.”

Puppet butler: “But you don’t look like your mood is very good. Is it because there weren’t enough abnormalities to beat up online today? Or because those guys who dared slander your brother surrendered and begged for mercy too early?”

Zhan Suiru didn’t speak and began concentrating on opening the mechanical structures in his body.

Puppet butler: “Please forgive their weakness and cowardice. This is all because your power is unmatched. Who could continue being your enemy under such storm-like power?”

Zhan Suiru paused: “Xiao Ran, are you flattering me?”

Puppet butler: “I’m merely stating facts. You are so full of wisdom and power. This of course…”

“Xiao Ran.” Zhan Suiru was getting goosebumps. “You don’t need to blow rainbow farts at me.”

The puppet butler fell silent.

Zhan Suiru continued operating. She’d just opened the box containing the ability core when she suddenly heard a slow, weak “Oh.”

As if full of dejection.

Zhan Suiru’s head shot up. The puppet butler lay on the operating table, still with a calm expression, gears in his pupils rotating at uniform speed.

Seeing her look at him, the puppet butler slowly blinked: “Would you like to play games with your brother for a while?”

Zhan Suiru stared at him for a long time before slowly saying: “Brother doesn’t play games anymore now.”

The puppet butler said “oh” again and stopped talking.

“Xiao Ran, are you unhappy?”

The puppet butler smoothly answered: “I am your puppet butler. I don’t have emotions like unhappiness.”

Zhan Suiru: “What are you thinking?”

The puppet butler stuttered. The gears in his pupils sped up and slowed down. The ability core in the box was also rotating, looking very anxious.

Puppet butler: “I, have no, thoughts. I am just, a puppet. My, thoughts, come from, your… thoughts.”

Zhan Suiru reached out to press that core. She tried with all her might to project a bit of mental power mimicking cultivators’ divine sense from within her body, filling the cracks on top.

Contamination and spirit had an inverse relationship. Cultivators had strong resistance to contamination because they tempered their divine sense to be strong and resilient. Divine sense was a type of mental power that had been trained and condensed with unique personal characteristics. This condensed personal trait could better resist contamination.

Helping others clear contamination required using one’s own mental power to deeply enter another person’s mental power to help pull it out. But mental powers could be compatible or mutually exclusive. If two people’s mental powers were too mutually exclusive, mental power couldn’t deeply enter the other person. The purer the mental power, the more it could match with others’ mental power.

But divine sense condensed with personal traits was equivalent to being branded. It was very difficult to deeply enter another person’s spirit again.

The bit of spirit Zhan Suiru projected with all her might was only enough to fill the most superficial crack, like fine sand slowly settling to the bottom.

The sand was fine but had a strong presence.

“Xiao Ran, what are you thinking?” Zhan Suiru asked again.

The puppet butler began trembling. He stared blankly at the ceiling. The stuttering gears paused again, then spun so fast they left afterimages.

“I am not a qualified butler,” he said. “I cannot make you happy.”

“I always make mistakes, constantly troubling you to adjust and repair.”

He thought—he was indeed thinking. He’d been readjusted almost daily recently. Was he already too old and worn? Should he be updated and replaced? Should there be a better puppet butler to replace him?

He felt himself being filled.

Just like when he ate clay into his stomach, he felt he was empty. He was missing something. He wanted to be filled, but clay was useless.

What did being filled feel like?

It was… uncomfortable.

Uncomfortable.

He didn’t want to be replaced.

A good puppet butler should prioritize the master’s interests above all. Replacing with a better puppet butler would be better for the master.

He didn’t want to.

He wasn’t a good puppet butler.

“Please don’t,” he pleaded. “Please don’t replace me.”

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