981 A Little Reunion
Cai Songyin could also take advantage of Huo Shaoheng’s subsequent actions to a.s.sess his love for Gu Nianzhi.
Otherwise, her daughter’s one-sided crush may very well be defeated.
The more Cai Songyin thought about it, the better the plan seemed. She could hit three birds with one stone. She could rescue Tang Dongbang from the crisis, drag Gu Nianzhi into the mess, and tie Huo Shaoheng in too. They wouldn’t even suffer too big of a loss…
By the time Cai Songyin returned to the Prime Minister’s official residence, she had already thought through everything clearly.
When she video called Cai Sumin, Cai Songyin was alone in the study. She told him the truth and explained the entire incident from beginning to end, including all the mishaps along the way.
Across the ocean, Cai Sumin was so livid that his veins were about to burst…
“Songyin, Songyin, how could you think of such a poor move that hurts others without benefiting yourself!”
If they weren’t the entire Pacific Ocean apart, Cai Sumin would’ve grabbed a stick to cane Cai Songyin across the back.
How brainless was she!?
“What’s so great about that Huo Shaoheng?? Is he worth you taking such a huge risk?!” Cai Sumin was furious and disappointed as he chastised Cai Songyin over and over again.
Cai Songyin didn’t argue back. She merely waited silently for Cai Sumin to finish yelling at her before saying quietly, “When it comes to a fine character, Little Darling’s taste isn’t bad at all. If Huo Shaoheng could become my son-in-law, having him would be enough to maintain our family’s status–even if Dongbang isn’t the Prime Minister anymore.”
“Even if he’s that great, why did you have to use such a stupid trick?” Cai Sumin despised idiots more than anything. He could accept being evil, vicious, and horrible, but never stupid.
“You think I wanted that?” Cai Songyin was unhappy as well. “Your niece fell in love at first sight, but it’s a coincidence that Huo Shaoheng has an ex-girlfriend who is dragging her feet. Although they are supposedly broken up, I can see that there is still something going on between them. If my daughter marries him, she would be plagued by this woman for the rest of her life.”
So she’d stepped in as the evil person to help her daughter eliminate this threat.
Cai Sumin frowned. “So you just asked someone to write something to smear her? You weren’t worried that it would trigger a man’s protective instinct, making it even harder for him to let go of her?”
Cai Songyin froze. “What did you say?”
Cai Sumin rubbed his temples with aggravation. “Songyin, you’re not stupid, but you really don’t understand how men think. Just because Dongbang grew up with you and spoiled you, you think you can do whatever you want.”
“Big Brother, whose side are you on anyway?!” Cai Sonyon stood up angrily. “Tan Dongbang cheated on me and fooled around with another woman. I haven’t forgiven him! Understand what men think? That’s garbage!”
“Fine, fine, don’t get angry Little Sister. Of course Big Brother will help you and stand on your side.” Cai Sumin noticed that Cai Songiyn had grown agitated, so he used her baby name to pacify her.
Cai Songyin hadn’t heard her brother coax her like this in a long time. Her eyes couldn’t help but turn red.
Ever since she’d married Tan Dongbang, she’d transformed from the spoiled and much loved youngest daughter of the Cai family into the main backbone of the Tan family. She carried the burden of the entire family.
It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t sweet.
But she had nowhere else to retreat. Tan Dongbang had been the man she’d screamed and cried about marrying all those years ago. The entire Cai family had agreed, except for her brother Cai Sumin. He’d said that Tan Dongbang was a petty person offering flattery, only doing things on the surface but not taking any responsibility. He was afraid that Cai Songyin would have a more difficult life in the future.
But Cai Songyin believed she had the support of the Tan and Cai families. How hard could things get?
She was also willing to be a strong woman, running her own company and making her business flourish.
But when she felt tired late at night, she still wished for strong shoulders to lean on. She didn’t want to only be the support for other people.
That was also the reason why she’d spoiled her daughter Tan Guiren and wanted to satisfy her wish of marrying Huo Shaoheng. Cai Songyin felt that Huo Shaoheng was the kind of man that a woman could rely on for the rest of her life.
She could only feel a.s.sured if her daughter married him. There was no way that her daughter was someone capable of supporting a family by herself.
Huo Shaoheng was the only one with the status and ability to allow her daughter to continue her spoiled and sweet life.
So she’d spoiled her daughter into a foolish and naive beauty who didn’t understand how the world worked. She didn’t want her daughter to end up like her and suffer from supporting a family in the future, becoming someone else’s backbone…
“Big Brother… I was wrong,” Cai Songyin choked out as she admitted her mistake. “Please help me!”
Cai Sumin’s felt pity in his heart. “I know, of course I will help you. You only have to tell Big Brother and I will help you think of a way out.”
Cai Songyin nodded quickly, instantly telling him the entirety of her previous plan in detail.
Cai Sumin listened calmly. She thought it was rather tricky since Cai Songyin’s plan was quite secure and effective.
Even if he had created a plan on his own, it wouldn’t have been much better than this.
But this essentially imaginative plan had hit a brick wall and they had been taken advantage of by someone else. The person behind all this was too frightening.
Cai Sumin had worked as a lawyer for over 30 years. He had never seen a criminal that was sly enough to be impossible to track down.
At a moment like this, he’d somehow forgotten that his younger sister had been the instigator of this entire case. She had only ended up as the victim because her plan had failed.
Cai Songyin noticed Cai Sumin staying quiet for a long time, so she grew a bit anxious and said with unease, “Big Brother, can you not tell Shengnan about some of these things?”
Because this was rather embarra.s.sing, she couldn’t lose her dignity as an elder when it came to Cai Shengnan.
Cai Sumin nodded. “I understand. This case is quite complicated and I plan to come back to the Huaxia Empire to deal with it myself. I will guide Shengnan on how to fight this lawsuit. I’m telling you that you can’t feel pity. This original blogger cannot find evidence that you are linked to this, so you must sue him. For the sake of cleansing yourself and Dongbang from this, for the sake of your status, this blogger must become the scapegoat, no question.”
“Big Brother is coming back to the Huaxia Empire?! That’s wonderful!” Cai Songyin sincerely sighed in relief. “I’ll listen to everything you say! We’ll sue whoever you say we should, and we will fight the lawsuit however you say we should!”
She knew that even if Cai Sumin returned to the Huaxia Empire, he wouldn’t be the one representing her in the lawsuit. He had already naturalized as an American citizen, so they needed to avoid a conflict of interest.
But Cai Shengnan was different. She’d maintained a Huaxia nationality and was completely capable of helping them fight the lawsuit.
As for Cai Sumin, he could direct Cai Shengnan from the background.
With Cai Sumin, they would certainly be able to overcome this challenge!
…
At 1 A.M. on the fifteenth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, Gu Nianzhi still hadn’t fallen asleep.
Curled up in her bed, she held her phone and admired the “b.l.o.o.d.y storm” she had single-handedly initiated. She casually used an anonymous account to Weibo to start up a pet.i.tion and linked it to the official Weibo accounts of the Senate, Cabinet, and Military.
#Prime Minister Tan Dongbang had an affair with a j.a.panese spy and should resign!
Although it was already late at night, there were still many people active on Weibo.
As soon as this pet.i.tion was initiated, it immediately received the support of countless citizens. Some people even reposted the pet.i.tion’s link to all other major forums outside of Weibo. The forum moderators pinned the link to easily enable other people to click on it and vote.
Although the pet.i.tion had no legally binding power at all. Just like the things that Cai Songyin liked to do, this was about public opinion.
The prime minister had been elected into office, so he could not afford to ignore public opinion.
Also, Gu Nianzhi had recovered the short video and uploaded the original version online. How could Tan Dongbang be shameless enough to continue as prime minister?
If Tan Dongbang didn’t acknowledge his mistake and resign, then Gu Nianzhi wouldn’t mind sending him on his way and forcing him down.
With the last impeachment case, Gu Nianzhi had held herself back from stepping in. At the time, she’d thought that although she’d had disagreements with the Tans, it had not reached the point of a bitter feud. As long as she achieved the goal of dealing with Gu Yanran, there was no need for Gu Nianzhi to force their family into a corner. It had been enough to teach Tan Dongbang a lesson.
She never thought that her moment of pity would not be recognized by the other party, or that they would think of such an insidious and humiliatingly low blow to attack her with.
Truthfully speaking, ever since Gu Nianzhi had first seen Huo Shaoheng escort Tan Guiren off the airplane, she’d begun to feel resentment towards the family of Tan Dongbang, Cai Songyin, and Tan Guiren.
Taking advantage of their lofty positions, they’d used all their means to destroy her love, obliterate her religion, and now to slander her character and dignity!
A soldier could be killed, but never humiliated.
They had crossed a line this time. Gu Nianzhi knew there was no other place for her to retreat.
From her many years of following and being influenced by Huo Shaoheng, a sense of bloodthirstiness and fierceness had developed in her bones.
These were the characteristics that a qualified soldier should possess.
She had spent her entire teenage years living with such iron-blooded soldiers, so she had been unavoidably and instinctively transformed by them.
She thought about what would happen if Cai Songyin and Tan Dongbang still refused to acknowledge their mistake and resign on their own, continuing with their dumb luck mindset of still wanting to fight a lawsuit and create public opinion. She would be sure to battle them until the end.
Scrolling through her phone, she saw the voting data for her pet.i.tion steadily climbing. Gu Nianzhi yawned before putting the phone down by her pillow and planning to go to sleep.
At that moment, Huo Shaoheng’s private vehicle parked in front of his official residence.
“h.e.l.lo, chief!”
The soldiers standing guard at the official residence’s entrance immediately saluted Huo Shaoheng as he got out of his car.
Huo Shaoheng nodded. “You’ve worked hard.”
He strolled into his official residence.
His journey had taken two weeks this time. Although he’d often gone out on missions in the past, he’d never felt as homesick as he had this time.
Huo Shaoheng walked through the door and saw the brightly lit foyer. Crossing through the living room, he walked towards the spiral staircase and up to the second floor where his and Gu Nianzhi’s rooms were.
Standing before Gu Nianzhi’s room for a while, he saw that the light inside had already dimmed. He decided to go take a shower first and get changed before visiting her.
He had been with the base troops for two weeks and, although he showered and changed every day, the long journey still made him feel dirty.
After going into the bathroom to rapidly take a combat shower, Huo Shaoheng changed into a perfectly clean black long-sleeved T-s.h.i.+rt, camo army pants before going to Gu Nianzhi’s suite.
There was always a dim yellow night light glowing in her bedroom.
Huo Shaoheng stood still at her bedside and didn’t even make a sound before Gu Nianzhi suddenly opened her eyes.
Huo Shaoheng thought she’d woken up, but she only took one look at him. Her eyes didn’t even focus as she mumbled, “I’m dreaming again..” Then she flipped over to continue sleeping.
His previously cold and solemn heart suddenly became indescribably soft.