Thinking of this, He Yanzhou still steeled himself and refused.
“No, Mu Chao. I told you, I have my own path to take, and so do you. Don’t forget how you got to where you are today! And don’t keep obsessing over this. There’s no point.”
“No point?” Mu Chao laughed, but there was a deep sense of sorrow in his laughter. He looked at He Yanzhou with complicated emotions, then finally said softly, “A-Yan, don’t regret this.”
In the end, he opened the car door and got out dejectedly, looking like someone who had just been casually discarded.
“Mu…” He Yanzhou wanted to call him back, but after thinking it over, he knew he had to be ruthless and cut off the feelings Mu Chao shouldn’t have. Still, he couldn’t help worrying about him. In the end, he called Mu Chao’s assistant, told him roughly where they were, and specifically instructed him to send him a text once they found Mu Chao.
Only after hanging up did he realize he had another problem: what was he supposed to do now? He couldn’t exactly sit in the car until dawn.
He sighed helplessly. Mu Chao had always been stubborn and willful like a child, and now he had simply walked off without a second thought.
He’d better call a designated driver.
He hadn’t drunk that much, but since he had been drinking, there was no way he could drive.
While He Yanzhou was waiting for the designated driver, he happened to receive two text messages in succession.
The first was from Mu Chao’s assistant:
We’ve found him, and he’s safely home.
The second was from Jiang Yuan:
Don’t worry. Miss Wen has been safely taken home.
The weight in He Yanzhou’s heart finally lifted.
Now, he could focus on dealing with the rumors and malicious accusations against him and Wen Yusui. The quickest way to resolve everything was to find the person behind it all—Gu Huaichuan.
Meanwhile, Gu Huaichuan hurriedly took Qiao Yao to the emergency department. After a thorough examination, the doctor informed him that Qiao Yao was showing signs of a threatened miscarriage and needed to stay in the hospital for several days for bed rest and observation.
His expression tense and anxious, he pressed the doctor, “Everything was fine during her previous checkup. Why did this suddenly happen?”
The doctor replied calmly, “It could be caused by excessive emotional fluctuations combined with various external factors. It’s difficult to determine the exact cause.”
Hearing this, Qiao Yao, who was lying on the hospital bed, was startled.
She blamed everything on Wen Yusui. If she had managed to ruin Wen Yusui completely today, she wouldn’t have gotten so angry in the first place.
Gu Huaichuan, however, fell into self-doubt. Could Qiao Yao’s emotional instability have been caused by him dragging out their divorce?
Filled with guilt, he first arranged for Qiao Yao to rest in a private room before turning around to pay the hospital bill.
The moment he reached the payment counter, his phone rang. An unfamiliar number appeared on the screen.
Gu Huaichuan answered, and He Yanzhou’s cold, contemptuous voice came from the other end.
“Gu Huaichuan, calling you despicable and shameless would honestly be a compliment. For someone as heartless and two-faced as you, I genuinely can’t find any words harsh enough to describe you.”
Gu Huaichuan’s face darkened as he was cursed out. He walked to a secluded corner and shot back without the slightest courtesy, “He Yanzhou, what the hell is wrong with you?”
“I’m the one losing my mind? President Gu, do you really think posting photos of me having dinner with Yusui online gives you the right to smear her however you want? Those intimate photos you photoshopped are ridiculously fake. Looks like the people working under President Gu are just as incompetent as you are! As your former classmate, I’ll give you one friendly warning: if you don’t stop, I’ll hand all the evidence over to our legal department. When that happens, who ends up disgraced will be anyone’s guess!”
He Yanzhou’s voice carried an unmistakable threat.
Gu Huaichuan didn’t know exactly what had happened, but he could more or less guess. This whole thing probably had something to do with Qiao Yao.
“You think you have what it takes?” Gu Huaichuan was extremely displeased by He Yanzhou’s threatening attitude and naturally had no intention of backing down.
He Yanzhou sneered, his voice turning even colder. “We can find out. Let’s see whether President Gu has more influence, or whether my media company has more influence.”
Gu Huaichuan’s expression instantly became even uglier.
He knew that when it came to public opinion, a media company would obviously have far greater influence. After all, handling these matters was literally their specialty.
After saying that, He Yanzhou hung up.
The main reason he hadn’t immediately taken the matter to the legal department was that Gu Huaichuan and Wen Yusui were still in the process of getting divorced. If he actually sued and pursued the people behind the smear campaign, Wen Yusui’s reputation would inevitably be affected as well.
Gu Huaichuan picked up his phone and discovered that the photos He Yanzhou had mentioned were already on the top trending searches.
He immediately understood why Qiao Yao had become so emotionally agitated.
She had done all of this behind his back!
Furious, he rushed back to the hospital room.
Qiao Yao was lying on the bed resting. When she saw him storm in, she thought something serious had happened.
“What’s wrong? Who made you angry?”
Gu Huaichuan got straight to the point.
“Was it you who posted those photos online and stirred up all this public opinion?”
“How did you know?”
Qiao Yao wasn’t the least bit guilty. Instead, she remained perfectly calm, as though she hadn’t done anything wrong at all.
Just then, Qiao Yao’s phone rang.
It was a message from the person who had been manipulating the public opinion.
Sis, it’s already on the top trending list. Your request has been completed perfectly. You can settle the remaining payment now, right?
Qiao Yao smiled with satisfaction. Without looking up at Gu Huaichuan, she continued staring at her phone.
“You saw it on the top trending list?”
“Why didn’t you discuss this with me before doing it?”
Qiao Yao searched her phone as she replied, “I did discuss it with you. You were the one who disagreed. Since you refused, there was no reason for me to discuss it with you again.”
She kept tapping on her phone, but there was no sign of the story on the top trending list.
In fact, there wasn’t even a single photo of Wen Yusui anywhere.
Qiao Yao’s smile froze on her face, quickly turning into disbelief.
She immediately called the person behind the campaign, her voice trembling with fury.
“What’s going on? Where did the top trending story you promised me go? Are you trying to deceive me?”
The person hurriedly explained, “It really was trending just now! I don’t know what happened either. Everything was taken down within a few minutes, and all the posts were deleted. I really went to more than a dozen internet cafés and even got the people there to flood the comments and reposts! Sis, the person you’re trying to take down is way too strange!”
“Stop making excuses. You’d better get ready to shut down your business!”
Qiao Yao angrily hung up.
Gu Huaichuan picked up his phone and took another look. There was no trace of Wen Yusui on the trending list anymore.
He had seen it himself just moments ago.
Looks like He Yanzhou really was capable. He had managed to suppress the entire scandal that quickly.
“Qiao Yao, can you stop doing things like this behind my back?” Gu Huaichuan said impatiently.
He had originally had his own plans and arrangements, but now everything had been thrown into chaos.
Qiao Yao looked at him, every word dripping with sarcasm.
“What? You feel sorry for her?”
“Qiao Yao! What the hell are you talking about?” Gu Huaichuan barked.
The moment he finished speaking, a deep, authoritative voice suddenly rang out from the doorway of the hospital room, filled with fury.
“Gu Huaichuan! Who gave you the nerve to speak to her like that?”