Chapter 588 - 587: Dealing with the Scum (Part 3)

"That money, that money... it wasn’t mine! You’re framing us! You’re spouting vicious lies, Su Li! I knew it, I knew I could never win an argument against that mouth of yours!"

Su Li didn’t play by the rules. Miao Fenghua and Su Dan felt like they couldn’t explain themselves even if they had ten mouths.

The two were so angry they nearly coughed up blood. The hot-tempered Su Dan was so furious he leaped up to hit Su Li, completely forgetting his prior agreement with Miao Fenghua to stay calm.

"I’ll kill you, you bitch! How dare you slander me!"

Su Dan screamed curses as he charged toward Su Li.

"Ah!" Su Li cried out in alarm and quickly ducked behind Fang Luo.

Everyone scrambled to stop Su Dan, and the conference room instantly descended into chaos.

Amid the chaos, only Zhao Wenming remained frozen in his seat, his face a ghastly mix of blue and white.

The perfect situation he had worked so hard to create... was now completely ruined.

Zhao Wenming had considered several ways Su Li might respond, but he never expected her to dismantle his trap so sharply and completely turn the tables.

Yes, with just a few words, Su Li had turned the tables.

She had transformed from an unfilial, heartless capitalist into a poor victim persecuted by her own mother and brother.

It wasn’t that she was unfilial; she was simply too afraid to be.

This poor victim, harmed time and time again, yet still kind-hearted, always forgiving her mother and brother...

’Pah! What is this nonsense!’

’I spit on this!’

Zhao Wenming cursed silently several times, feeling frustrated, stifled, and a mixture of shock and rage.

He hadn’t expected Miao Fenghua and Su Dan to have done so many things and left behind so much evidence, transforming themselves from pitiful victims into detestable villains.

After Su Dan’s curses and his attempt to attack Su Li, he could forget about playing the victim for the rest of his life!

He had originally hoped to use them to take a bite out of Su Li, to make her suffer a major, painful setback. But instead...

’Now that they’ve become like this, and Su Li is the victim, what does that make me, the one who wrote the article?’

’A fool who spouts nonsense?’

’It’s a stain on my pen, on my character...’ Zhao Wenming shivered at the thought. He abruptly looked up and met the icy, suspicious, and furious gaze of the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, who had previously held him in high regard.

Zhao Wenming stood up, wanting to explain, but was utterly speechless.

Su Dan’s curses continued to ring in his ears.

"You bitch, get over here! You ungrateful wolf! We ask you for money and you refuse, you won’t even take care of your own mother! See if I don’t beat you to death!"

"So what if I hit you? You’re just a bitch who won’t listen unless you’re beaten! How dare you slander me? You’re asking for it!"

The reporters from the TV and radio stations, along with Mr. Li, struggled to restrain Su Dan, all of them shocked by his sudden change in demeanor.

"Let go of my Su Dan! If you’re going to grab someone, grab that little ungrateful wolf!" Miao Fenghua, afraid Su Dan would get hurt, rushed to pull them away from him.

Fang Luo shielded Su Li behind him, frowning as he watched the mother and son. Seeing their endless antics, he finally couldn’t hold back a furious roar.

"Settle down! Who do you think you’re threatening to beat and kill? Say one more word and I won’t be so polite!"

His roar was filled with authority and righteousness.

Su Dan and Miao Fenghua shuddered, finally coming to their senses. They stopped shouting about beating and killing.

Fang Luo’s expression softened slightly. He had Su Li sit down. "Don’t be afraid. We’re here."

He let out a breath and turned a dark face toward the newspaper’s editor-in-chief and Zhao Wenming. "Did your newspaper publish this report? This kind of false reporting..."

He didn’t finish his sentence, but it was enough.

The reporters from the other stations all turned to look at the editor-in-chief and Zhao Wenming. The looks in their eyes...

The newspaper’s editor-in-chief looked utterly mortified. It was the first time he had ever been so humiliated.

As an authoritative newspaper meant to deliver truthful news to the public, they had published something that didn’t align with the facts. And they had been called out on it, right in front of their peers.

At that moment, the editor-in-chief felt like he could kill Zhao Wenming.

"I’m sorry... He’s not a staff reporter for our paper, just a contributing writer. It was only because he claimed to be very clear on the situation that..."

The editor-in-chief’s face was grim. "I will issue a clarifying report tomorrow, and we will no longer accept any submissions from him in the future."

Su Li still looked a little pale, but she looked at Zhao Wenming and sighed.

"Teacher Zhao probably still holds a grudge against me. A few years ago, he wrongly accused me of lying, and we’ve been at odds ever since. Later, when I was a substitute teacher at the village elementary school, the students preferred me, so he’s always been unhappy about that."

Su Li explained calmly, "When my factory first opened, it was vandalized by some local thugs... I didn’t expect that this time... sigh..."

Su Li deliberately left her sentence half-finished, not saying everything but providing enough for people to fill in the blanks.

Imagination is a terrifying thing; you can imagine anything at all.

And that’s just what everyone present did. Upon hearing her words, they all looked at Zhao Wenming with incredibly complex expressions, a mixture of contempt, anger, and dawning comprehension.

"Su Li, don’t you dare spout such baseless nonsense!"

Zhao Wenming, shocked and enraged, shouted furiously.

Only now did he understand the stifling frustration that Su Dan and Miao Fenghua had just experienced.

"Enough! Stop talking," the editor-in-chief cut him off sharply. "Haven’t you embarrassed yourself enough? Do I need to have a chat with your father-in-law about this?"

Zhao Wenming’s face immediately turned purple with suppressed rage. His chest heaved, but in the end, he had no choice but to shut his mouth.

He had miscalculated. He never thought he would suffer such a massive fall!

Mr. Li, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke up with a grave expression.

"Alright, the situation is quite clear now. Let’s talk about the matter of financial support."

He sighed. "Given the circumstances, Su Li’s previous actions are understandable, but..."

’No matter how wrong parents are, filial piety is paramount.’ He couldn’t bring himself to say that she no longer had to care for her parents.

Su Li picked up where he left off. "I came here today hoping to resolve this matter with all of your help as witnesses."

"Even though my mother and brother have treated me this way... I will still fulfill my responsibility to support her. It’s what I should do. This will also prevent such incidents from happening again. I hope that this is the one and only time this happens in my life, and that in the future, there won’t be any more groundless accusations about me being unfilial."

"The factory is doing well now, so a lot of people are paying attention, and a lot of people are jealous. It would be hard for me if people kept bringing this up every other day, reopening old wounds."

When Su Li said this, everyone present felt a pang of sympathy.

But Su Li continued, her voice strong.

"I ask you all to bear witness. Starting this month, I will begin supporting my mother. I will give her eight hundred yuan a year for living expenses. Eight hundred should be enough for a stable life right now."

"In the future, as the cost of living changes, I will adjust the amount accordingly, increasing or decreasing it based on normal living standards. The only conditions are that she cannot constantly ask me for money, nor can she demand that I support my brother. My brother is able-bodied and can support himself."

"She also can’t demand that I buy my brother a house and a car, or that I raise his children."

Su Li’s demands were not excessive; they were perfectly reasonable. Everyone nodded in agreement.

But Su Dan wouldn’t have it. "You earn so much money, and you’re only giving us eight hundred a year? Are you trying to brush off a beggar?"

Having seen a large sum like four thousand yuan, Su Dan looked down on a mere eight hundred. He wanted eight thousand!

His words made everyone frown deeply. Most of them didn’t earn much more than eight hundred yuan in a whole year. To them, eight hundred was already a generous amount, yet he was complaining it wasn’t enough!

Some families toiled for a whole year and only earned that much, which was enough to support an entire family. For Miao Fenghua to have that much all to herself was more than enough.