Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
At that time, the most important part of the prime minister’s inauguration ceremony was about to start. Inside the Hua Xia Empire’s Imperial Capital’s National Center for the Performing Arts, Cai Songyin and Tan Guiren stood on the side of the high stage and watched Tan Dongbang’s passionate speech. Their eyes brimmed with tears. Tan Dongbang showed real, earnest feelings. He was very proud of his success and swore he would be a good prime minister, a prime minister who would accomplish something, one whose name would be known in the history of the Hua Xia Empire’s prime ministers. That was why he was very excited.
He was also deeply moved. He had struggled for ten years to make his dream of becoming prime minister a reality! For that very important day, he had even written his own inauguration speech. Although it wasn’t as flowery or as magnificent as the speech his aides and staff could have written, which would have been sure to leave the crowd in high spirits, his speech won from the standpoint that it was utterly sincere. Furthermore, he didn’t need to work too hard to memorize it. Every word flowed as smoothly and easily as if they were leaking from the bottom of his heart. A speech like that moved everyone who was there listening to it.
Ten months before that moment, he had gone from the least likely candidate to the person who had the last laugh, just like that. So even though the world outside the National Center for the Performing Arts was cheering loudly, there wasn’t any indication of a storm inside the National Center for the Performing Arts. However, Cai Songyin’s henchmen couldn’t handle the situation anymore. They had gone too far with the topic, so at the moment, the blame was shifted to them in a grand way. They didn’t know where those small accounts had come from. A single long blog post had completely defeated their month of preparation like fallen flowers carried away by flowing water.
“Find their IP address!”
“We only know that it was from a library in France… We know it’s fake just by looking at it…”
So what if it was fake? One simply couldn’t find anything more than that. And their fake IP address could cause their enemy’s world to turn upside down! Cai Songyin’s assistant ruffled his messy hair in an extreme manner as he paced around the office. He then finally picked up the phone and called Cai Songyin. Just in case, Cai Songyin also wore a Bluetooth microphone. At that time, the cellphone’s earpiece rang. She was a bit surprised. She discreetly took the call.
“Mrs. Tan, we have a big problem!”
When Assistant A’s extremely grief-stricken voice came through the phone, Cai Songyin was suddenly startled. An ominous feeling started to bubble up from her heart. It seemed like since the moment Song Jinning came onto the scene like a goddess, she started to have that ominous feeling again and again.
She looked at Tan Guiren and gave her a meaningful glance. She then silently disappeared and walked toward the backstage area. Cai Songyin was also on stage, but because Tan Dongbang was the person people were mainly focusing on, the lights around him were turned off while he was giving the speech. Only the lights directly across from him were on. That was why when Cai Songyin left, not many people noticed. She only started to talk to Assistant A when she was in the VIP lounge.
“Talk. What happened?”
At first, Assistant A was mumbling, but after being yelled at by Cai Songyin, he was so scared that he spilled everything. “Mrs. Tan, someone said that you used the Prime Minister’s campaign funding to buy your evening gown, and that your necklace is a fake, and that the diamond crown your daughter has is stolen property.”
The moment Cai Songyin heard that, all the color drained from her ruddy face, and she became white like a ghost. Cai Songyin gnashed her teeth and yelled, “What did you say?! Say that again!” She temporarily lost all her etiquette. Of course, she was alone in the VIP lounge, so who was there to see her etiquette? She didn’t need to care. Only after Cai Songyin listened to Assistant A mumble it to her one more time did she sit on the sofa and cover her face with her hands. Her body couldn’t stop trembling. It seemed as if her worst nightmare had come true.
How did those people know?! My husband’s campaign financial report was that thick and had many complex figures. How did someone find out about that insignificant 260,000 dollars?
If she had known that was going to happen, she would have changed the numbers… Also, how could her necklace be a quality fake?! It was clearly a birthday gift from a businessperson. And her daughter’s diamond crown… she must have been tricked by her maternal side of the family. Could it really be stolen property?!
The crown had been given to her by the Cai family’s late grandfather. Her late grandfather did say that it was to be considered a family heirloom and should not be worn in public. However, they all thought that it was because her late grandfather was overly cautious, and that he made that request because he didn’t want to be high-profile and display his wealth. Could it be that it really did have a secret?!
Cai Songyin’s face was deformed from anger. One moment, her heart was beating intensely, and the next, her heart was beating slowly. It was like someone was pinching her lifeblood, and they were going to end her life at any moment! She covered her chest and took deep breaths. She finally called Assistant B in. “Oxygen! I need oxygen! I can’t breathe…”
Assistant B was scared upon seeing Cai Songyin’s face as white as a ghost. Assistant B rushed out and grabbed some oxygen equipment for her. That kind of equipment was normal for a big event. Of course, the new prime minister’s inauguration was a big event. Furthermore, the people who came were all very rich and important. Not one of them could be neglected. That was why there was so much oxygen equipment.
Cai Songyin laid flat on the sofa as she covered her face with the oxygen mask. She looked weak as she breathed in the oxygen. Her chaotic mind slowly began to clear. She creased her brow as she thought about how to handle the problem.
…
Gu Nianzhi’s fake IP address tactic worked. Cai Songyin’s Assistant A’s public relations’ effort to divert the crisis also failed. Gu Nianzhi personally buckled on her armor and went into battle. She used her own small account to refute every single one of those subjects that was related to the water armies. She even asked people to respect scientists and to stop gossiping about the scientific researchers. After all, they were not celebrities who entertained, and they were not like those people who liked to use the internet to promote themselves, so they were not obligated to entertain the public. In return, the public should leave them alone.
The proposal was approved by many genuine strangers, and it was forwarded several million times. It went viral and completely crushed the water armies that were involved with Song Jinning. However, that was not enough, because those conversation topics still existed in cyberspace. If someone wanted to stir up trouble again by bringing up those topics, it wouldn’t be that easy to push them back when it did happen again.
Since Gu Nianzhi had started it, she might as well finish it. She used Huo Shaoheng’s cell phone access to find out who the three IP addresses those Water armies used belonged to. When the address 32 Willow Lane appeared on the cell phone, Gu Nianzhi nearly fainted! The address 32 Willow Lane was where the empire’s Prime Minister was staying! That was why Cai Songyin’s water armies were so brazen as to directly use the Prime Minister’s residence’s IP address to sensationalize the Prime Minister’s wife?! They really didn’t let one’s own fertile water flow into other people’s fields…
Gu Nianzhi didn’t know whether she should laugh or cry. She then solemnly sent out another blog post. On it was a list of the names of the water army members and the three IP addresses. Then next to the address 32 Willow Lane she wrote, “…The whole thing is like a magic show. The strangers who talked about ‘the beauty of the century’ were the Prime Minister’s wife’s own water armies! Prime Minister Tan please come out and delete the slander posted by the water armies your wife controls! We have the right to pursue legal liability!”
The moment the post was sent out, it went viral immediately. Everyone was interested in it. It unexpectedly went back to the Prime Minister’s residence in a dramatic manner. The address surprised many.
“My God! From now on, it will be impossible to look at the words ‘beauty of the century’ anymore!”
“Going to die young! The moment I see this ‘beauty of the century,’ I will immediately think of white skin. Can’t they play nice?!”
“Prime Minister Tan’s whole family, can you guys be any lower?!”
“So, it was Mrs. Tan that sensationalized herself as ‘the beauty of the century?’”
Cai Songyin instantly became the laughing stock of the entire internet.
…
Tan Dongbang finally finished his stirring inaugural speech and announced that the ceremony had ended. He went to the VIP lounge backstage while laughing and talking with Tan Guiren.
The moment they walked in the door they saw several men in procurator’s uniforms standing in front of Cai Songyin. With a serious look on their faces they said, “We just received a report that said there was some illegal use of Prime Minister Tan’s campaign funds. We are asking you to do us an enormous favor by coming with us and assisting us in the investigation at this moment, please.”
Because Cai Songyin was the person in charge of Tan Dongbang’s campaign fund, the procuratorates and the legislative assembly had records of it.
“What happened?” Tan Dongbang was simply dumbstruck as he watched those men take Cai Songyin away. They didn’t even allow him to talk to her at all!
