While Lin Yaoqiao’s fans and online users were still arguing, another piece of news quickly climbed the trending list.
【Has the Lin family’s arrogance and domineering behavior become a habit?】
This news also came from a secretly recorded video taken on a plane.
It showed Lin Yaoqiao’s cousin, Lin Ke, bullying a flight attendant in first class.
In the video, Lin Ke acted arrogantly, speaking in an extremely insulting tone, verbally abusing the cabin crew and calling them lowly, inferior people.
This was completely different from his usual public image as a gentleman.
Lin Ke currently works at the Lin Corporation in an important position, and because he is quite high-profile, his popularity is not lower than Lin Yaoqiao’s.
Because of his family background, many netizens once admired him. But now that his true behavior in private has been exposed, he was immediately met with heavy criticism.
Coincidentally, this happened right when the plane incident involving Lin Yaoqiao was experiencing a reversal, causing the heat to surge dramatically.
At this time, the flight attendant involved in Lin Yaoqiao’s incident also stepped forward.
【Finally resigned. Now I don’t have to hold back anymore and can tell everything.】
In her account, the public finally learned that Lin Yaoqiao had indeed used her family connections to contact the airline, demanding punishment for the flight attendant involved, and had illegally obtained the personal contact information and identity details of all passengers.
The leak of passengers’ private information immediately sparked public outrage.
The situation quickly escalated into a public safety incident.
Someone then raised a question: since Lin Yaoqiao obtained everyone’s contact information, could it be that she saw someone filming the video and then arranged for fake information to be released, deliberately guiding online harassment toward Xu Xiu as revenge?
The resigning flight attendant subtly hinted at this possibility as well.
She said she originally wanted to come forward to clarify the truth, but was stopped by the company.
At this point, everyone understood.
From the very beginning, this was all part of Lin Yaoqiao’s plan—to take revenge on Xu Xiu and subject her to social death.
【This is terrifying. In recent years there have already been cases where people were driven to suicide by online harassment. She was basically trying to force the other person to death.】
【So cruel. Just because the other party exposed her abuse of power, she retaliated like this.】
The Lin Corporation clearly carried out wave after wave of public relations efforts. As soon as the topic reached the top of the trending list, it was quickly taken down again, but public anger was endless.
If it were just one scandal, suppressing the heat might have made it fade away.
But by sheer coincidence, two incidents happened at the same time, creating a massive public storm.
As a result, the names Lin Yaoqiao and Lin Ke stayed high on the trending charts.
Following the principle that “when one side is in trouble, everyone piles on,” more and more people came forward exposing the Lin family’s past behavior.
The airline was also penalized by regulators for leaking private information.
The situation became increasingly uncontrollable and even affected the Lin Corporation’s stock, wiping out tens of billions in market value.
Forced into a corner, the Lin Corporation issued an official statement, removing Lin Ke from all positions in the company.
After that, Lin Ke and Lin Yaoqiao each released apologies and made large donations as a form of remorse.
Lin Yaoqiao’s apology statement was written very sincerely, claiming she never intended to look down on anyone.
She explained that the piece of clothing involved had special meaning—it was a birthday gift from a deceased friend—so when it got dirty, she lost control of her emotions and acted impulsively. She vowed to take it as a lesson and never repeat it.
Her wording clearly tried to distance herself from Lin Ke.
After all, the things Lin Ke said in the video had provoked public outrage; at most, she was seen as spoiled and arrogant, while Lin Ke’s behavior could be described as outright malicious.
Although most people didn’t fully accept her apology, it still managed to calm some of her supporters.
The situation gradually began to settle.
In the office, Shen Xingyi watched the developments with a deep, unreadable expression as he rubbed his fingertips.
The exposure of Lin Ke’s incident looked like an accident, but the direction of the entire situation made him sense something strange.
Now Xu Xiu had been completely removed from the controversy, and public discussion focused entirely on the Lin family.
He couldn’t help but think of Xu Xiu.
Was this her doing?
But how did she know about Lin Ke’s incident, and how did she accurately predict the direction of public opinion?
His thoughts were soon interrupted when Xu Zhirang walked over.
The little kid pointed at the tablet and laptop on his desk.
“Can I request to play on the tablet or computer for a while?”
On the way here, he had heard that his mother’s situation online seemed to have been resolved, and he wanted to see it for himself.
This was the first time in a few hours since arriving that he had taken the initiative to ask for something, so Shen Xingyi immediately agreed and handed him the tablet.
Xu Zhirang tapped on the screen with his small fingers and quickly found what he was looking for.
Although he didn’t understand everything, he knew that his mother had been vindicated—the airplane incident wasn’t her fault.
His mother was truly amazing. She said she would solve it, and she really did.
Just as he was about to exit, he suddenly remembered what his mother had said before.
She had warned him not to post comments using their home network, because hackers could trace their home address and phone number.
So… now that he wasn’t at home, could he leave comments?
The little kid felt like he had discovered a whole new world and became excited.
Anyway, if hackers traced anything, it would lead to his father’s place, not him or his mother.
In his mind, he was already on his mother’s side and completely forgot that his father was also “one of them.”
So he boldly opened the comment section and started speaking up for his mother, even learning how to report posts and successfully filing complaints against those still leaving malicious comments.
Of course, he remembered what his mother had told him—he couldn’t say “my mother.”
So the little kid learned how to hide his identity.
Meanwhile, Shen Xingyi sitting behind the desk had no idea what was happening.
Looking at the small figure sitting obediently on the sofa, he suddenly felt a soft warmth in his heart.
Having a son like this… actually didn’t seem so bad.
When Xu Xiu saw that things online had settled down, she calmly put away her phone.
This incident had indeed been her arrangement.
The exposure of Lin Ke’s incident was originally supposed to happen about a year later according to the plot. She merely found the person involved ahead of time and bought the video, bringing the event forward.
Otherwise, a simple clarification of her own video wouldn’t have caused much impact on Lin Yaoqiao. She could have easily deflected it with sympathy and excuses.
With the Lin Corporation’s PR team backing her, the situation would not have escalated much.
But with Lin Ke’s scandal added, it became impossible to smooth things over.
She had provoked Xu Xiu first—so naturally, Xu Xiu wouldn’t let her off either.
Although it couldn’t deliver a fatal blow, it was enough to teach her a lesson.
And it even dragged the entire Lin Corporation down; things were probably not going well for them now.
However, Lin Yaoqiao likely still couldn’t trace it back to her.
The video she released was focused on the airplane seat, making it difficult to identify where it was recorded.
She also used an overseas account and had someone else post it on her behalf.
Right now, she was still relatively weak, and confronting the original female lead of the novel, Lin Yaoqiao, too early would not be beneficial.
What she didn’t expect was that the flight attendant would resign and come forward to clarify.
Putting that matter aside, Xu Xiu began packing her things.
She had found a job on a film set—still in makeup work—but she needed to stay with the crew for a while.
She had been busy preparing for this recently.
Her plan to earn money was finally getting underway.