At the Su family villa, Su Mingjie sat in the living room, listening to reports from the butler and his agent.
“I’ve compiled the Mid-Autumn Festival gifts from various families into a spreadsheet. The document has just been sent online. Please take a look, young master.”
“This year, the Wei family’s relatives have started sending gifts, and some of the top wealthy families in G Province have also begun to build relationships with us…”
Although the engagement banquet hadn’t gone smoothly, Su Mingjie, as the official fiancé of Wei Lingfeng, still commanded attention from high society.
“This year’s Mid-Autumn banquet has been planned out. I’ve specially included the gift sent by Young Master Wei. Would you like to see if it meets your approval, young master?”
Su Mingjie set down his blue-and-white porcelain teacup and began reviewing the “spoils of war.”
“Not bad.”
This year, the value of the gifts far surpassed last year’s. Even if he were exposed as a fake, wouldn’t he still be the exquisitely raised young master of the Su family?
Some of the top wealthy and influential families—ones that wouldn’t even give face to his father or older brother—had started socializing with him.
His life was still glorious, even better than before!
His agent also began reporting on recent developments.
The recent dismemberment case had caused such an uproar that netizens had little energy left to focus on Su Mingjie. By now, the comments under his posts were mostly Mid-Autumn blessings from his fans.
The agent said cheerfully, “Now, you could say your luck has turned. In a few months, once the gossip has completely faded from people’s minds, we’ll take advantage of the winter break to launch your new TV drama.”
“Although this dismemberment case involved a Su family employee, it was ultimately just a conflict between coworkers. Even if the gardener acted out of jealousy, no one would blame you—you’ve always been a generous and good employer.”
Hearing this, Su Mingjie cracked a smile.
The worry he’d felt over the gardener’s arrest vanished completely!
“Exactly. When the time comes, we’ll promote the employees’ salaries and the bonuses I gave them. No dirty water will splash onto me. We might even gain a wave of working-class fans…”
Su Mingjie knew he wasn’t kind-hearted. He never went easy on his rivals in the entertainment industry or on Su Zhisheng at home. That was precisely why he was always generous with his trusted followers—those bonuses weren’t just hush money to ensure their loyalty, but also payment for accomplices.
The agent, eager to please Su Mingjie, said, “Let me read you some fans’ blessings—after all, they mean well. ‘Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, Xiao Jie. May the full moon bring your family together…'”
Su Mingjie’s lips curled slightly.
A Mid-Autumn Festival without Su Zhisheng, without a pair of biological parents popping up from some forgotten corner—that was the Mid-Autumn Festival he loved most.
“Xiao Jie, thank you for letting me meet you and become your devoted fan. When those less devout fans were busy selling off their merchandise at low prices, I bought it all up immediately. I did it just to support you, but I got the unexpected bonus of the merchandise increasing in value.”
“You’re truly my lucky star. I’ll love you forever…”
Hearing this, Su Mingjie’s expression grew even more pleased.
“A good idol brings a bright future to their fans.”
Let those fools who sold off their merchandise at low prices regret it!
The agent refreshed Weibo, planning to read more of the fans’ fawning comments.
But as soon as he refreshed, he realized… trouble was brewing!
“Th-this…” The agent’s mind was flooded with explosive information, leaving him momentarily speechless.
“Xiao Jie, you need to look at the police announcement right now!”
The announcement stated that the river dismemberment case was a murder to silence someone over blackmail. And what the victim had used to blackmail the murderer was the allergy-framing scheme orchestrated by the Su family’s young master.
Framing and defamation isn’t the type of crime that prosecutors pursue on behalf of the state. Since Su Zhisheng had accepted money and didn’t file a report, Su Mingjie was still sitting safely in the Su family villa.
Well… though after reading the news, it was hard to say he was “sitting safely” anymore.
“Zhang Liangzhu claims he killed for me? He’s clearly trying to ruin me!”
Su Mingjie gritted his teeth. His handsome face, usually adorned with a fake, gentlemanly smile, twisted into something utterly ferocious!
“Don’t think I don’t know—Zhang Liangzhu is clumsy with words. He was always jealous of how favored Xiao Tao was!”
When Su Mingjie sat on his bedroom balcony enjoying the view, Xiao Tao was right beside him, serving tea and keeping him company with conversation.
Meanwhile, Zhang Liangzhu would be down in the courtyard, standing there with his gardening shears, spending more time looking up than actually working. In two full minutes, he couldn’t even finish trimming a single leaf.
Su Mingjie knew he was loyal. And the garden looked beautiful. So he let it slide.
Who would have thought that after being arrested, Zhang Liangzhu would give him such a “surprise” in his confession of motive?
“There’s no evidence to pin down this motive! He could have easily claimed he killed her out of jealousy. Mentioning me wasn’t honesty—it was deliberate. He never intended to let me stay out of this!”
The betrayal from his trusted aide sent Su Mingjie into a violent rage!
The hatred on his face was only matched by the collapse happening inside him.
If he couldn’t even secure the loyalty of his subordinates by balancing rewards and punishments, how was he supposed to manage the servants in the future? How many more potential betrayers were out there?
The agent’s expression was complicated.
Truth be told, he had long advised Su Mingjie to fire the gardener. After all, die-hard fans were the most unpredictable. When he had set up Su Mingjie’s studio team, he had deliberately avoided hiring fans.
But now, it was too late for regrets.
Su Mingjie had previously benefited greatly from having rabid fans fight his battles for him. Being bitten back by one now was no more than he deserved.
Zhang Liangzhu’s thinking was actually very simple.
He had killed and dismembered a person. His criminal behavior was extremely heinous. The fact that the dismembered body parts were pulled from a river near a school had struck a nerve with parents, spreading the news quickly, throwing Yuntian City into a state of fear, and causing enormous negative social impact.
From the nature of his crime to the effects of its exposure, everything about it was vile. The death penalty was all but guaranteed.
Of course, he knew he could have lied about his motive to let the object of his devotion walk away unscathed.
But he didn’t want to. A compliant gardener—the young master could go through countless such people in a lifetime. He would eventually be forgotten.
So, he told the truth. His deed of eliminating Xiao Tao—a potential blackmail threat—for the young master would be forever etched in Young Master Mingjie’s memory.
The young master would probably be furious, even hate him. He wouldn’t forgive him just because he’d removed a threat. But by being selfish this one last time, he could live forever in Young Master Mingjie’s memory.
Hate lasts longer than love. Wei Lingfeng had claimed the young master’s love. Then let the hate be his territory.
There was no denying it—Zhang Liangzhu had succeeded.
Su Mingjie wouldn’t just remember him for a lifetime. He wished he could become a police officer right then and personally execute the traitor himself!
Unable to vent his anger on the gardener directly, he poured it out on everyone else.
“Where’s the head of the PR department? There’s a storm of criticism online, and where the hell is he?”
Su Mingjie pulled out his phone and tore into the PR department head without mercy!
The gentle image he usually maintained had shattered into pieces, leaving nothing behind.
What else could the PR department head do but say he was controlling the comments and working on a solution?
Thankfully, Su Mingjie had provided a crucial piece of information—the 300,000 yuan compensation—giving them a direction for damage control.
In the opulent living room, the atmosphere was deathly silent!
Even though Su Mingjie knew that netizens were furiously cursing him online, he couldn’t stop himself, masochistically scrolling through the latest comments.
[Wow, so when your Su family talked about ‘acting cute for favor,’ you meant framing someone?! That’s a new definition of ‘acting cute.’]
[They say high society is full of pitfalls. Now I’ve seen it for myself. No wonder the real young master ran away. I wouldn’t want to stay in such a snake pit either.]
[From Su Mingjie to his two servants, none of them are any good. Dog eats dog, fur in the mouth—fight harder!]
[Some fans used to say their idol was innocent. I guess it’s true that as a baby he couldn’t do anything. But now that he’s grown up, he’s quickly making up for that by doing evil.]
[Speaking of which, Su Mingjie is an artist with a tainted record. Shouldn’t his works be taken down? @SAPPRFT]
[Su Mingjie, get out of the entertainment industry!]
[Everyone, don’t misunderstand. Su Mingjie is just an innocent, confused little boy. He’s only bewitched. Let me feed him some magic pills and he’ll get better right away. Ingot candle incense.jpg]
All kinds of vicious remarks kept bubbling up endlessly in the Weibo comment section.
Su Mingjie took several deep breaths. After scrolling for twenty minutes, he finally saw the PR department’s latest statement.
[Young Master Su Mingjie made a mistake in a moment of impulsiveness and deeply regrets it. To make amends, apart from apologizing, Young Master Su Mingjie specially compensated his second brother 300,000 yuan…]
The framing incident was a done deal, impossible to deny.
The PR team’s only angle was to push the narrative that Su Mingjie had recognized his mistake, corrected it, offered a sincere apology, and provided full compensation.
[Real young master: “Who’s your second brother? Keep away from me!”]
[If the framing had succeeded, he’d be looking at time behind bars. As poor as I am, I wouldn’t be thrilled with that 300,000 yuan.]
[Same here. Even with a salary of 3,000 yuan a month, I’d earn more than 300,000 yuan in ten years.
But a criminal record for attempted manslaughter sticks with you for life. Even the best diploma becomes worthless. If the real young master had gone to prison, he’d probably struggle to find even a 3,000-yuan-a-month dishwashing job.]
[Su Mingjie is absolutely vicious. My hands are shaking with rage! And his delusional fans are still defending him—this is completely leading kids astray, don’t you think? @SAPPRFT]
[Stop cursing him, please, just stop. Su Mingjie apologized and spent so much money compensating the victim. Can’t you forgive him?
I’m not his fan, but I hoarded a lot of discounted merchandise, and now I can’t sell any of it.]
[Good riddance to the scalper—go be buried with Su Mingjie!]
Despite the PR department’s efforts, the public’s fury showed no sign of subsiding.
The fear that netizens had been harboring over the recent dismemberment case finally found an outlet.
They vented their anger freely, determined to drive Su Mingjie—the one who had set the entire chain of events in motion—out of the entertainment industry, just to soothe their own nightmare-ridden nights.
Under normal circumstances, an apology plus compensation would have earned forgiveness from many netizens, and the authorities wouldn’t have felt the need to step in with a heavy hand.
But Su Mingjie had nearly died from an allergic reaction, turning an ordinary allergy-framing case into attempted manslaughter by framing. And the whole incident had escalated from a petty rivalry among family members into something that could have ruined someone’s entire life!
No wonder the public was boiling over with fury, unleashing a torrent of abuse.
Su Mingjie’s fans and paid shills, however, were still fighting a losing battle, tirelessly defending him.
[God already punished Su Mingjie by putting him in the ICU—he’s suffered the consequences.]
[Su Mingjie barely started hurting anyone before he landed in the ICU. Heaven’s punishment was swift and fierce, and it gave the real young master a satisfying breath of relief.]
Compared to the paid shills, who tried to calm the masses, the fans were clearly more stubborn.
[Our brother already knows he was wrong. He almost lost his life—he’s paid the price. Don’t go too far.]
[Wow, seeing you all baying for blood, I almost thought Su Mingjie had nearly killed the real young master. Turns out he nearly killed himself.]
Su Mingjie, still scrolling through the comments, nearly spat blood!
“One fan like that does more damage than ten haters!”
Back in the day, Su Mingjie had loved watching his rabid fans tear into his rivals. He’d secretly felt thrilled—he was so famous, he even needed fewer paid shills than others.
It wasn’t about the money. He genuinely took pride in his immense charm.
But now, these rabid fans couldn’t even offer a sincere apology. Instead, they were holding him back.
“Casual onlookers’ opinions don’t matter much, but if they keep this up, the authorities might think I don’t want to admit my mistakes…” Su Mingjie was growing desperate. “Quick, buy more paid shills to post comments, and focus on deleting the rabid fans’ posts too…”
As long as he wasn’t blacklisted, he could make a comeback. Let the public curse him. He’d grovel, stay low, and weather the storm. But if he let the fans keep this up and drew the iron fist of the authorities, things would get really ugly!
However, paid shills weren’t omnipotent. Rabid fans had always been fiercely loyal and didn’t take orders well. Their insistence on forcing forgiveness from strangers soon ignited widespread anger!
The authorities, flooded with complaints from netizens, finally issued a statement. The official announcement condemned Su Mingjie’s malicious defamation and also criticized his fans, reminding them that idol worship shouldn’t be an excuse to pervert right and wrong.
The fans misbehave; the idol pays the price. Fans only had to glance at the official announcement, but Su Mingjie would have to suffer the consequences!
Since Su Mingjie hadn’t killed anyone or committed tax fraud, and Su Zhisheng hadn’t filed a police report, the official notice didn’t impose a broadcasting ban.
They simply criticized the matter. But in the entertainment industry, a document stamped with an official seal is already a devastating weapon!
Even without an explicit blacklist, no other company would risk collaborating with an artist who had been publicly named and shamed.
At the height of the storm, companies scrambled to issue their “return to sender” demands.
Inside the vast villa living room, the butler and servants dared only to stand silently in the corner, not uttering a word.
The agent similarly wished he could disappear, but his phone wouldn’t stop ringing.
“That drama we agreed to air during winter break—we don’t want it anymore…”
“The perfume ad has been pulled. Let’s set up a time to discuss the penalty clause…”
No sooner had one call ended than another came in. Clearly, they’d been on hold earlier, all queued up.
Exhausted in body and mind, the agent asked, “Who are you with this time, and what are you backing out of?”
“Uh, we’re not backing out. We’re the merchandise factory.”
The voice on the other end carried the signature gentle tone of the supplier. “Boss, the prototype merchandise dolls you requested are ready. Mass production can begin anytime. Just confirming—do you still want to go ahead with production?”
“If you do, a deposit won’t be enough. We’ll need full payment before we start…”
“Forget it, get lost!” Su Mingjie laughed in pure exasperation.
It wasn’t as if the Su family had fallen so low that they couldn’t even afford to pay for some merchandise toys just because he’d fallen from grace.
It was just that his personal war chest had been completely drained—not nearly enough to cover the losses.
Just then, his phone rang. It was Su Minghao calling.