Chapter 27: The Jiang Family

After the broadcast, You Wei immediately initiated a communication call with her.

The paternal warmth in his eyes made Jiang Qin feel incredibly uneasy. She was all too familiar with this look; it was exactly how her fans from her first life used to gaze at her, especially whenever she worked late into the night. Even after finishing work in the early hours of the morning, there would always be people waiting outside just to catch a glimpse of her and remind her to take care of her health.

You Wei had intended to call Jiang Qin impulsive, but upon seeing her pale little face, the words died in his throat. He could only sigh and say, "It’s a holiday today, so get some rest. There’s no rush with work."

"Thank you, boss."

"Just call me Uncle You Wei from now on. No need to be so distant with 'boss.' You’re young, and I look at you just as I would my own kin."

Jiang Qin followed his lead and called out, "Uncle You Wei."

"Good. Now, go get some rest; I won't disturb you anymore. If you need help with anything in your daily life, don't hesitate to tell me."

After the call ended, the room fell silent once more. Feeling a wave of dizziness, Jiang Qin decided to postpone her plans to visit the hospital and went to bed instead.

***

Meanwhile, the StarNet was buzzing with activity.

First, Lilia's account was flooded with vitriol, and in the comment sections, the University of Dolon was being tagged countless times. The school administration immediately summoned Lilia’s mentor, demanding a swift investigation into the situation. The vice-principal was feeling a bit relieved; if this matter wasn't handled well, it could easily tarnish the school’s reputation. Because Lilia was merely an insignificant female, they didn't need to be overly cautious—they could simply expel her. If this had involved a female with more status, the school would never have dared to intervene.

Now, asking the mentor to handle it was merely a formality. With the matter so widespread across the StarNet, they could not possibly shield a D-grade female and let the school be stained with scandal.

Lilia once again hung up on her mentor. She knew what he wanted to say, but she had no interest in listening. She was currently busy editing a video.

Although Jiang Rumeng rarely returned to the dormitory, Lilia had managed to seize opportunities to record some interesting things. As a result, netizens were treated to another piping-hot piece of gossip.

[What? Jiang Qin is the biological daughter of the head of the Jiang family on Azure Star? And Jiang Rumeng is just an adopted daughter? And the head of the Jiang family actually drove her own biological daughter out of the house for the sake of an adopted one?]

[Wait, didn't the exposé also claim that Jiang Qin intentionally harmed the Jiang family's young lady? Could it be that Jiang Qin really did try to harm the adopted daughter out of jealousy?]

[But this Jiang Rumeng isn't a saint either. She hogged the affection that belonged to the biological daughter, all while looking on coldly at Jiang Qin.]

In the video Lilia posted, there was a conversation between Jiang Rumeng and two other females. The two females kept bad-mouthing Jiang Qin; while Jiang Rumeng didn't join in, she didn't speak up, nor did she clarify that Jiang Qin was the true daughter of the Jiang family. The two females, unaware of the truth, kept defending her, feeling that it was unfair for the Jiang family to adopt a female out of nowhere, which made them despise Jiang Qin even more.

Following that, she included a recording of a conversation between Jiang Rumeng and Jiang Ruhai. In the recording, Jiang Ruhai kept emphasizing that even if Jiang Qin returned, he only recognized Jiang Rumeng as his sister, and as for Jiang Qin, he would never protect her as a sister. This was the only segment of the recording; there was nothing following it, so no one knew that Jiang Rumeng had actually said some polite, face-saving remarks afterward, such as "they are both my sisters" and "don't go too far."

Lilia, of course, had the rest of the recording, but she wasn't there to boost Jiang Rumeng’s reputation, so she naturally cut that part out.

Subsequently, she released another video. In it, she admitted to framing Jiang Qin for stealing her musical scores. However, she claimed the main reason was that she couldn't stand seeing her roommate being bullied by a female who had been suddenly adopted into the family, which caused her to be blinded by rage. She claimed the recordings and videos had been sent to her anonymously earlier that day. It was also only today that she realized she had been mistaken and that Jiang Qin was, in fact, the biological daughter of the Jiang family. She claimed all of this was just a conflict between two daughters of the Jiang family, and she was simply too naive and had been dragged into their dispute.

She also mentioned that Jiang Rumeng hadn't been to school for several days, and her mentor had said she was hospitalized due to injuries. The one who had caused her hospitalization, she claimed, was none other than Jiang Qin. Driven by a desire to defend her roommate, she had devised the plan to frame Jiang Qin.

The video ended with Lilia offering a sincere apology with reddened eyes.

It must be said, she was quite adept at shifting the blame. She pushed the entire responsibility for framing Jiang Qin onto Jiang Rumeng, while simultaneously smearing Jiang Qin. In the end, she cast herself as an impulsive female standing up for her roommate, Jiang Rumeng as an adopted daughter trying to eliminate the true heiress, and Jiang Qin as a wicked little female who was jealous of her adoptive sister and willing to harm others.

Truth be told, quite a few people on the StarNet believed it. After all, one was an adopted daughter pampered by the Jiang family for eighteen years, and the other was a true heiress who had been wandering on a barren star for eighteen years. They were natural-born adversaries.

Because no one had yet uncovered that Jiang Rumeng was the child of Jiang Yulian’s older brother, many people were already speculating that the children had been swapped at birth. However, some still maintained their reason.

[That shouldn't be possible, right? Females have to undergo medical checkups every year; how could they get them mixed up?]

[I thought it was impossible too, but I was curious: if Jiang Rumeng is an adopted daughter, who are her biological parents? So I posted a question asking what her beast form was, hoping to guess based on that. Do you know what I found out? No one knows what Jiang Rumeng’s beast form is! I heard she refused to undergo physicals at school since she was a child, only doing them with a family doctor! And the test reports were even encrypted before being uploaded to the database.]

[What? She didn't have physicals at school since she was a kid? Why is that even allowed?]

[It's always been allowed. Some families want to hide their female's physical data, so they have them checked at private hospitals.]

[Males can hide their data too, as long as your family has power and influence.]

[The Jiang family isn't much in the Federation, but on Azure Star, they can at least rank in the top ten in terms of wealth.]

[That's right. Although the head of the Jiang family is only a B-grade female, her partners are all excellent.]

[The head of the Jiang family, Jiang Yulian, is a white rabbit-gene beastman with great fertility. She has given birth to one female and three males, all naturally conceived. Her first partner is the CEO of Rich Technology, her second is the captain of the Third Team of the Azure Star Guard, her third is the vice-leader of an A-grade mercenary group, her fourth is a researcher, and her fifth is the third master of the Cai family.]

So, as a B-grade female, all of her partners were exceptional. Aside from the one from the Cai family, the others were all A-grade males—not to mention her late partners, who were also A-grade males.