Chapter 46: The Rumors Continue to Spread (2)
Moreover, the second appearance of that news item was once again timed perfectly. It appeared quietly after everyone had finished a long day of work and gone home to rest, during the time when people idly browsed the star network.
It was also the period with the largest number of users online.
The person hiding behind the scenes seemed to have done it deliberately. The timing was precise. Even if the news was removed immediately, plenty of people would still have seen it or taken screenshots.
And this time, the news didn't only appear on the Capital Star's Star Network Night Watch homepage. Everyone using the star network could see it.
In other words, the entire Empire...
It wasn't up for long, only ten minutes, but there were simply too many people online. Forget ten minutes—even one minute or thirty seconds was enough for people to start gossiping.
Actually, most people had no idea who Bai Zhouyun was, nor did they know what kind of family the Bai family was.
After all, they weren't from the Capital Star.
The Emperor was far away, so who knew who?
But after some so-called insiders on the star network gradually began explaining things, everyone learned that on the Capital Star there was an unmotivated young master from a useless family. Thanks to the blessings left by his ancestors, he had obtained an engagement with the strongest Mid-Tier Mental Power User on the Capital Star.
And after obtaining such a wonderful engagement, he still went out fooling around, throwing aside such an outstanding fiancé.
Fooling around was one thing. If he had hidden it properly, nobody would have cared. After all, he was a young master, and on top of that, a useless one. If a useless person wasn't going to work hard, what else could he do?
Naturally, he would spend his days eating, drinking, and having fun. Everyone could understand that.
But the problem was that he did it openly and shamelessly!
More importantly, nearly every Ability User secretly felt jealous of this useless young master named Bai Zhouyun.
He was so worthless, yet he still had an engagement with the strongest Mid-Tier Mental Power User on the Capital Star. Meanwhile, they struggled and climbed upward with all their might, and sometimes they even had to calculate every expense carefully just to hire a Low-Tier Mental Power User to help remove their mental contamination.
As a result, what had originally been nothing more than gossip slowly began changing direction under the sarcastic comments of certain extremely resentful Ability Users.
However, up to this point, the scope of discussion was still not particularly large on the Empire-wide star network, so it had yet to attract the attention of certain people.
But as time passed, more and more small videos, surveillance recordings, and half-true accounts from alleged insiders were exposed one after another, leaving those following the matter completely bewildered.
If Nan Yu saw it, however, he wouldn't deny it.
Because although it all looked absurd and fake, he knew that at least half of it was true.
At the moment, Nan Yu was being kept at home by his two older brothers to rest properly.
There was no helping it. During his time at the military base, he had truly been exhausted to death every single day.
Now that he was back, naturally he needed to rest for a couple of days.
And those two days also happened to give Nan Yun and Nan Zhen enough time to search for suitable candidates.
Actually, there was no need for Nan Yun and Nan Zhen to actively seek anyone out.
While attending some social activities, they merely leaked a little information, saying that their little brother wanted to challenge himself with some relatively difficult mental contamination removal cases and that they were currently looking for patients.
The moment those words came out, they didn't even need to search.
Less than an hour later, three people had already come knocking.
All three were heads of their families, and all of them adopted extremely humble attitudes. The ones who needed mental contamination removal weren't themselves, but sons, younger brothers, or other close relatives.
Nan Yun looked at the three men in front of him.
"Your sources are certainly well-informed. But you all know that our little brother is the treasure our entire family keeps in the palms of our hands, so before giving you an answer, we need some time to think about it."
To put it bluntly, they intended to secretly investigate the backgrounds of those families. If the family itself wasn't decent, then there would be no further discussion.
All three understood.
After waiting this long, they didn't mind waiting another few days.
Although their families weren't lacking in status, it was practically impossible for them to invite a High-Tier Mental Power User.
Every High-Tier Mental Power User was one of the Empire's treasures. They would never accept private requests and generally served military personnel.
As for Mid-Tier Mental Power Users, they simply weren't enough.
The reason was because the family members suffering from severe mental contamination were already extremely close to S-rank contamination.
They were only one step away from completely going berserk and becoming beasts ruled solely by instinct and violence.
In other words, they were practically beyond saving.
Every Mid-Tier Mental Power User they had invited previously hadn't even dared to begin treatment, and they had all said the same thing.
A single Mental Power User had to completely drive the contamination down from A-rank to B-rank in one uninterrupted session.
There could be no interruption midway.
Otherwise, the patient's mind would collapse.
And mental collapse was equivalent to becoming an idiot.
Nan Yun and Nan Zhen accepted the three business cards and saw them out. They temporarily refused all subsequent visitors and focused entirely on investigating the backgrounds of the three families.
As for gathering intelligence, neither of them was particularly good at it.
Thus, they thought of their best friend and classmate, someone who specialized in intelligence collection.
After finishing their own activities, Nan Zhen returned home to accompany Nan Yu, while Nan Yun went to find that classmate.
"Open up, it's me. I need something."
Soon the gate opened, and Nan Yun slowly piloted his hovercraft inside before parking it in the open area of the courtyard.
Just as he stepped out of the hovercraft, the front door opened, and a tall, sturdy Ability User walked out.
"Yo, Nan Yun... what brings you here?"
Nan Yun said, "Enough. I came here for something serious this time. It's time to make use of your specialty."
The person who came out to greet him was none other than Fu Yu'ang, the best friend and classmate he and Nan Zhen had at school.
Fu Yu'ang raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? You're so anxious. Looks like this has something to do with your little brother?"
Nan Yun paused slightly.
"Is it that obvious?"
Fu Yu'ang couldn't even be bothered to complain.
"You and Nan Zhen always act like you can't be bothered with anyone. But only when it's something involving Nan Yu do you make expressions this rich."
Nan Yun walked over and was about to drag him inside, but Fu Yu'ang quickly said,
"Hey, you probably don't know yet, but something interesting happened on the star network recently. Let me tell you—"
Nan Yun directly interrupted him.
"Forget whatever it is. We can talk about it after my business is done."
If Nan Yun had known what Fu Yu'ang wanted to talk about, he would definitely have urged him to continue immediately.
Unfortunately, he had no idea.
Fu Yu'ang felt that it wouldn't make much difference whether he mentioned it now or later, so he shut his mouth and led him inside.
"Fine, then tell me. What do you need from me?"