Su Muzhi had originally planned to wait for Zhou Yu to arrive so they could go to the school together and resolve the issue. But at this point, whether she could even leave the house was uncertain, so Zhou Yu would have to go to the school alone.
After hanging up one harassing call after another, Su Muzhi finally managed to get through to Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu had no idea what had happened and sounded excited at the prospect of seeing them again.
“Su Su, I just got out of the airport and was about to grab a taxi to your place!”
There was no time to explain everything in detail, so Su Muzhi kept it as brief as possible.
“Xiaoyu, don’t come here yet. Someone is spreading rumors online and even uploaded a fake video claiming Xiaoqing abused cats. Once I’ve dealt with things here, I’ll come find you.
Stick to the original plan and go to the school. Give the evidence to Zhou Qing’s homeroom teacher and check the surveillance footage. But pay special attention to Wang Shanming from her class. I suspect he’s the one who uploaded the video.”
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Zhou Yu immediately hailed a taxi and headed straight for Zhou Qing’s school after hanging up.
After obtaining the police report receipt, Su Muzhi prepared to start a livestream.
She knew how quickly public opinion spread online—and how quickly it cooled down as well.
She had to deal with the controversy immediately. Otherwise, people would only remember the accusation and forget the truth.
Opening her phone, Su Muzhi sighed as she looked at the flood of unbearable messages and deleted them one by one.
The moment the livestream started, viewers poured in.
The number far exceeded her previous audiences, and insults instantly flooded the screen.
<Damn, this black-hearted animal shelter actually dares to livestream? Shameless!><I’m going to curse you to death!>
Su Muzhi propped the phone up on the edge of the table.
She and Chen Zhiye sat side by side with solemn expressions. When the viewer count climbed to one hundred thousand, Su Muzhi finally spoke.
“Hello everyone. I’m the evil woman you’ve all been talking about—the one who runs an animal shelter just to abuse animals.”
<At least you know it!><Pah! Shameless!>
The barrage of insults continued. Strings of censored asterisks flew across the screen.
Su Muzhi didn’t even want to imagine how vulgar the comments actually were.
“The comments are right. I’m a terrible person. I took over an animal shelter that wasn’t mine, so now I’m receiving the punishment I deserve. I’m an orphan, and as for this so-called younger sister everyone keeps talking about—that’s complete nonsense.”
As soon as she finished, Chen Zhiye shoved her aside and held up the business license to the camera while pretending to cry.
“Everyone, I’m devastated! I’m the poor victim whose animal shelter was stolen! She only arrived half a month ago and already took over my shelter. Look! The license clearly has my name on it!”
Su Muzhi pushed her away and threw her head back laughing.
“Hahaha! That’s because nobody online supports you!”
From off-camera, Chen Zhiye shouted dramatically:
“You’re all helping a tyrant do evil!”
The livestream chat suddenly fell silent after watching their skit.
The screen filled with ellipses.
<Is this right…? Did I accidentally tune into a TV drama? And not even a good one?>
Without giving anyone time to react, Su Muzhi continued immersing herself in the act.
“Come on then, haters! You all say I abuse Heizi. I’ll show you exactly how this evil woman abuses him!”
Heizi couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge her. He sat on the windowsill and looked at her as though she were an idiot.
“You’re going to abuse Heizi? I won’t allow it!”
Chen Zhiye added more drama from the side.
Eventually, Heizi got annoyed enough to come over.
Looking straight at the camera, he shook his head and cursed at Su Muzhi.
【Idiot!】
“Oh, so now you’re insulting me? Take this!”
Completely letting herself go, Su Muzhi reached out her hand.
The moment she did, Heizi bit down on it hard.
The pain made her spin around in circles on the floor.
Seriously? I tell him to bite me and he actually bites me?
Viewers quickly began noticing something.
<Wait, that doesn’t seem right. If she really abused animals, would that bird act like this around her?><Exactly!>
The bloodbath in the comments gradually subsided.
Public opinion slowly began shifting in their favor.
Some fans started speaking up for them.
<I can testify. I’ve been following them for a long time. Su Su is usually very gentle. Ganba Hanzi is a good person too!><I knew Su Su and Ganba Hanzi weren’t that kind of people!>
Seeing the atmosphere improve, Su Muzhi finally sat down and covered the bite mark Heizi had left on her arm.
“Everyone, look at this. Tell me who’s abusing whom? Just look at my injury. What kind of evil villain ends up like this?”
After finishing her mock complaint, she immediately turned serious.
“We’ve now responded to all the accusations. In case anyone still doesn’t understand, let me explain.
I’m an orphan. I don’t have any younger sister. The animal shelter doesn’t belong to me—I just work here.
And with the station director around, there’s no way I could bully the animals.
As for being poor, that’s actually true. Right now we’re surviving entirely on livestream donations and the extra jobs the station director takes on.
We’ll continue posting detailed financial records on our account regularly, and everyone is welcome to supervise us.”
“That’s right. We welcome everyone’s oversight. From now on, we’ll also livestream our rescue operations.”
Chen Zhiye made the promise beside her.
There were still people hurling insults in the comments, but many rational viewers began checking the financial records posted on the account.
When they returned, they started defending Su Muzhi.
<I checked. What they’re saying is probably true.>
Once they had explained enough, Su Muzhi quickly signaled Chen Zhiye to end the livestream.
With a solemn expression, Chen Zhiye spoke slowly and firmly.
“We firmly believe that justice may be delayed, but it will never be absent.
We hope everyone learns to distinguish right from wrong and doesn’t falsely accuse innocent people.
That’s all for today’s livestream. We’ll update everyone as soon as there are new developments.
And thank you to all our fans who chose to believe in us.”
After ending the stream, Su Muzhi contacted several media accounts and then immediately prepared to take Zhou Qing to the school to meet up with Zhou Yu.
Just as she was about to call a taxi, she noticed Chen Zhiye already standing by a car at the front gate with a yellow bundle in her arms.
Walking closer, Su Muzhi realized it was the weasel that had finally woken up.
The little creature lay obediently in Chen Zhiye’s arms, its eyes wide as it searched for something.
The moment it spotted Zhou Qing, its eyes lit up.
【Benefactor!】
The weasel immediately struggled to get to Zhou Qing.
Chen Zhiye frowned as she restrained it.
“Settle down. No wonder Old Huang sent you back as soon as you woke up. You’re way too energetic.”
Taking the weasel from her, Su Muzhi quietly asked while no one was paying attention:
“Do you remember who hurt you?”
The weasel trembled for a moment before answering:
【A man and a woman. The man’s name is Wang Shanming. I don’t know the woman’s name, but if I see her again, I’ll definitely recognize her.】
“Good. Then we’ll be counting on you.”
Su Muzhi turned back to Chen Zhiye and suggested,
“Let’s bring it to the school too!”
Chen Zhiye looked completely baffled, so Su Muzhi hurriedly explained:
“Don’t they say weasels hold grudges? If we bring it there and have it identify the culprit on the spot, it’ll definitely remember who hurt it!”
Chen Zhiye felt that all the online abuse must have fried Su Muzhi’s brain. He couldn’t believe she had actually come up with an idea like that.
Su Muzhi gave him absolutely no chance to object. She ushered Zhou Qing and the weasel into the car and climbed in herself.
Left standing where he was, Chen Zhiye found himself questioning life.
Is this really okay?
As he drove, he glanced several times at the yellow figure reflected in the rearview mirror. He wanted to say something, but every time he started, Su Muzhi interrupted him.
“Xiaoqing, when we get there, you and the weasel stay in the car for now. Don’t get out until I call you, okay?”
Zhou Qing nodded obediently, though concern was written all over her face.
“Big Sister Su Su, but… can you and my sister really handle this?”
Su Muzhi didn’t seem worried in the slightest. Smiling, she replied:
“Xiaoqing, you don’t know how formidable your sister used to be. Back in high school, everyone called her Sister Zhou.”
The car came to a stop not far from the school gate.
Taking a deep breath, Su Muzhi pushed open the door.
She turned back to look at Zhou Qing and the weasel in her arms.
“Wait for my call.”
With that, she and Chen Zhiye strode into the school.