Chapter 45: The Rumors Continue to Spread (1)
As soon as Nan Yu finished speaking, he saw a notification on his optical computer indicating an incoming call.
When he looked, it was actually from Bai Zhouyun.
Nan Yun noticed the change in his expression. He had just been about to leave, but immediately stopped and turned back.
Nan Yu sighed.
“It's Bai Zhouyun calling.”
Nan Yun raised an eyebrow.
“Still not blocking him?”
Nan Yu wanted to do exactly that.
“Not yet. It's not time.”
It still wasn't time for their two families to completely fall out.
Nan Zhen felt irritated.
“Grandpa really... why did he have to arrange a marriage with the Bai family? Nowadays everyone is basically free to date...”
He stopped halfway through.
Free to date?
Not really.
Nowadays, most marriages still depended on matching family backgrounds.
Those who truly had the freedom to choose were either ordinary commoners or the very strongest people.
People in their position, neither at the top nor at the bottom, actually had very little freedom of choice.
Nan Yu looked at the incoming call for a while.
“Forget it, I'll just ignore it. I'm not answering.”
Nan Zhen suddenly remembered something.
“Oh right, I heard that while Bai Zhouyun was still sleeping in Floating Colors, Old Master Bai had people carry him home directly. Look, someone even took photos while he was being carried away and uploaded them to the Star Network. Huh? There weren't many views earlier, but now it's over fifty million, and there are already more than three hundred thousand comments. That's growing ridiculously fast. Is this guy really that famous?”
Nan Yu also opened the Star Network to take a look.
The moment he entered, he saw the bright red "Explosive" tag pinned on the homepage.
And the hottest news was Bai Zhouyun.
“My god, isn't this a bit excessive? Strictly speaking, it's just a playboy getting drunk and sleeping around at Floating Colors. How did it become this huge?”
At this point, whether the rumors were true or not no longer mattered.
Bai Zhouyun's reputation had been completely ruined.
And it was the kind that could never be repaired.
Because the article itself wasn't even sensational.
Everything written in it was true.
None of the rumors and vulgar descriptions had been included. It was simply surveillance footage accompanied by official descriptions.
But people loved to use their imagination.
Whoever wrote the article probably intended exactly that—to thoroughly destroy Bai Zhouyun's reputation.
Although everything inside was factual, many places had been deliberately written in subtle ways that encouraged readers to make all kinds of associations.
Even Nan Yun and Nan Zhen had to admit the author was impressive.
“My god, who wrote this? Doesn't Old Master Bai know? No matter who it is, out of respect for him, this article shouldn't have stayed on the front page this long...”
Compared with Nan Yun and Nan Zhen's surprise, Nan Yu couldn't understand something else.
Although Bai Zhouyun's scandal was indeed embarrassing, there was no way it should have grown to this extent.
And judging by the situation, the person controlling things behind the scenes probably wasn't some nobody.
Most people would still show some respect to Old Master Bai.
Even if they disliked Bai Zhouyun, they'd only spread rumors privately and badmouth him behind his back, just as they always had.
But this kind of large-scale operation...
Nan Yu couldn't help but wonder.
Had Bai Zhouyun offended some major figure without his knowledge?
Otherwise, why would things develop to this point?
Nan Yun and Nan Zhen were reading the article with great interest.
After finishing it, they even left a like and commented that the editor had done an excellent job.
But the next moment, they discovered in confusion that the article had disappeared.
Nan Yu blinked.
“It got deleted?”
They returned to the homepage and found that the article with the explosive tag had vanished.
Searching the Star Network yielded nothing related to Bai Zhouyun anymore.
Only a few forums still had people discussing it.
Nan Yu asked,
“Did Old Master Bai make his move?”
Nan Yun shrugged.
“Who else could it be? Only he in the entire Bai family could do something like this. But he acted too late. The delay was long enough for plenty of people to see it.”
Nan Zhen grinned.
“Starting today, everyone knows that Bai Zhouyun isn't worthy of you, Little Brother.”
Nan Yu suddenly felt that something was strange.
“Big Brother, Second Brother, don't you think this is weird?”
The two of them looked puzzled.
“What?”
Nan Yu said slowly,
“Bai Zhouyun is the only child of his parents and has been spoiled since childhood. How could they possibly allow this kind of article to stay on the front page with an explosive tag for so long?”
“Not to mention that Old Master Bai knew about this from the very beginning and was the one who had Bai Zhouyun brought home. If Old Master Bai had acted immediately, this article should never have appeared on the homepage at all, let alone remain there for so long before finally being taken down.”
Nan Yun and Nan Zhen exchanged a glance.
“Maybe some hacker interfered behind the scenes?”
Nan Yu blinked.
He hadn't thought of that possibility.
And Nan Yun's explanation did sound plausible.
Perhaps he really was overthinking things.
Maybe it was simply an accident, and Old Master Bai had handled everything in time.
“All right. Let's just leave this matter behind. I don't want to talk about it anymore.”
“Oh right, Big Brother, Second Brother, I need your help with something.”
Nan Yun patted his chest.
“Just say it. We'll definitely handle it.”
Nan Yu smiled.
“I want everyone to know that I truly deserve to be recognized as the number one Mid-Tier Mental Power User.”
Nan Yun paused.
Before he could speak, Nan Zhen interrupted him.
“Little Brother, don't tell me you're planning to accept commissions from people with severe Mental Contamination? That's not a good idea...”
Nan Yun frowned as well.
“You just came back. You need rest. Don't push yourself.”
Nan Yu's eyes flickered slightly.
“Big Brother, Second Brother, I have my own reasons.”
After hearing his explanation, both of them widened their eyes.
“Really?”
“You can actually do that?”
“I never thought that helping others remove Mental Contamination could strengthen your own mental power. Looks like those months of high-intensity work in the military really paid off.”
Nan Yu nodded.
“Yeah. Thanks to my experience in the military, otherwise I never would have discovered it.”
In truth, every Mental Power User could do this.
But the improvement was so tiny that it might take years before one noticed their mental power becoming even slightly stronger.
Very few people ever discovered it.
But what Nan Yu told them was that he had already sensed noticeable improvement after only a few months.
To Nan Yun and Nan Zhen, that was astonishing.
Neither of them thought much about it and readily agreed.
However, out of concern for his health, they firmly insisted that he rest at home for three days before beginning to accept cases involving Ability Users with higher levels of Mental Contamination.
They only hoped nothing would go wrong.
At this point, neither the Nan family nor the Bai family had discovered that the article about Bai Zhouyun had appeared on the Star Network homepage once again.
Perhaps even Old Master Bai hadn't expected that after handling the matter and assuming everything was over, the mysterious person behind the scenes would seize that opening and begin causing trouble again.