Chapter 99: Is This Dark Enough?

Being told to go to the police station to give a statement... how is that any different from being arrested?

Su Chen: "......"

Listening to the paparazzo on the other end of the line, even Su Chen’s good temper nearly gave way to a string of curses.

"I’m the victim here. How is that any different from being arrested?!"

He shouted into the phone.

"...Brother Chen is the victim?" The paparazzo sounded bewildered.

Su Chen had no choice but to explain the whole thing from beginning to end in rough outline.

After hearing the entire story, the paparazzo only seemed even more confused.

"So Brother Chen means those four punks came looking for trouble, and then you beat them all down?"

"Yes."

Hearing that the paparazzo had finally understood him, Su Chen quickly nodded.

"Damn... I never would have thought Brother Chen could fight!" The paparazzo’s voice was full of shock.

But none of that was the point now. The point was that rumors unfavorable to Su Chen were already spreading like wildfire online!

"Netizens today are way too vile, and the worst of all are the people who uploaded such one-sided clips to the internet!"

"Isn’t this just pure slander, trying to put Brother Chen in an impossible position?!"

The paparazzo was full of indignation, while Su Chen merely smiled, as if long accustomed to it.

Su Chen said, "Maybe the onlookers who filmed it arrived a little late, so they only captured that one segment."

"Of course, it’s also possible that the whole thing was being pushed by Starry Entertainment."

"Anyway, once the official report comes out, my innocence will naturally be proven."

"But... perhaps we can use this to make Xu Fangyuan pay a little interest first."

His tone shifted. Looking at the paparazzo, Su Chen said, "Brother Gou, the money-making opportunity is here."

The paparazzo froze, sensing something from Su Chen’s words, though he still wasn’t entirely sure.

He asked, "Brother Chen means..."

Su Chen set his phone down for a moment and glanced at Han Jiangxue, only to see that she had already fallen asleep with her face on the table.

Even in sleep, her small mouth kept opening and closing as if murmuring to herself, her adorable expression making Su Chen smile unconsciously.

He took the blanket the police had already prepared on the table and carefully covered Han Jiangxue with it, then lowered his voice and said into the phone, "Didn’t Xu Fangyuan ask you to secretly film dirt on me? I have ready-made material here, much clearer than those distant clips online, and far more complete."

"I’ll send you the full video of the incident. You can edit it, keep the part unfavorable to me, and then send it to Xu Fangyuan."

"Brother Gou can profit from it, and my only request is that Xu Fangyuan be made to ferment these videos as quickly as possible... You understand what I mean, right?"

Su Chen spoke calmly, but the meaning hidden in his words startled the paparazzo.

Yet after the shock passed, the paparazzo immediately laughed and said to Su Chen, "I understand what Brother Chen means. Don’t worry, I’ll handle this for you properly!"

"Mm. Thank you for your trouble."

After Su Chen hung up, an email with a video attachment was sent to the paparazzo’s inbox.

After watching the entire video, the paparazzo’s respect for Su Chen surged like an endless river.

At the same time, his hatred for Xu Fangyuan rose to a new level.

"Good people like Brother Chen really are rare these days. I have to help him completely eliminate the threat that is Xu Fangyuan!"

After saying that, the paparazzo stayed up all night painstakingly editing the video Su Chen had sent.

By the time dawn was breaking, he had finally finished the cut against his conscience.

Using psychological suggestion and careful framing, he edited the entire sequence into Su Chen fighting four men for a girl, and then, despite the police’s objections, going on to harm an elderly shop owner who had fallen to the ground.

Now, if this edited video were released, anyone would see Su Chen as a villain beyond redemption!

"Aw, Amitabha... what a sin, what a sin... If this video gets out, it’ll probably be the worst blackening Brother Chen has ever suffered in his life..."

"So I absolutely can’t let down Brother Chen’s expectations!"

With determination burning in his eyes, the paparazzo directly called Xu Fangyuan at five or six in the morning.

My Brother Chen is still sitting in the police station—what right do you have to sleep, Xu Fangyuan?

With that thought, the paparazzo launched a relentless barrage of calls. Xu Fangyuan did not answer the first call, nor the second... not until the fifth did she finally pick up.

The moment the call connected, the paparazzo tossed his phone aside as if it were a hot potato.

And indeed, his choice was the right one.

Even with the phone flung far away, Xu Fangyuan’s earth-shattering shriek still managed to reach the paparazzo’s ears faintly.

"Damn it, you paparazzo piece of trash! Are you trying to die?! What kind of psycho calls first thing in the morning, like your whole family’s dead and you’re rushing me to a funeral?!"

"Last time I was too nice to you, was I?! Give you a little sunshine and you think you can start glowing in front of me?!"

"You filthy beast, you..."

Her screaming went on for nearly five full minutes before finally dying down a little.

Listening to the sound in the phone gradually subside, the paparazzo picked it up again and pressed it to his ear.

Then he heard Xu Fangyuan’s voice from the other end.

"...I’ll give you one last chance. Tell me right now what the hell you want!"

Hearing her threatening tone, the paparazzo said leisurely, "Nothing much. I’ve already gotten dirt on Su Chen."

"But it looks like Sister Yuan doesn’t need it now. I’ll just try somewhere else and see if there are any color-blind people willing to take Su Chen’s black material."

"I’m sure there should be quite a few who want it."

Upon hearing the paparazzo’s words, Xu Fangyuan on the other end clearly paused. Then her attitude flipped a full one hundred and eighty degrees, becoming all sweetness and warmth toward him.

"Oh! You should’ve said so earlier, Brother Gou. Calling so early, you must not have slept well last night. You’ve really had it hard!"

"I had just woken up too, so I was a bit grumpy. Let me apologize to you, Brother Gou. I’ll transfer you two thousand in a bit—go eat something good and get some rest."

Xu Fangyuan’s sudden change in attitude caught even the paparazzo off guard. Her voice was so gentle it was as if the one who had just been cursing wasn’t her at all.

But how could the paparazzo fall for that? He gave a flat mm in reply, and heard Xu Fangyuan continue, "What did Brother Gou manage to film? Why not tell me first so I can see how dark this material really is."

Seeing that the fish had bitten, the paparazzo smiled silently and said, "My people only caught the process. It looks like Su Chen got into a fight with four men at a snack stall last night, and he even deliberately hurt an old man in front of the police."

"Does Sister Yuan think this is dark enough?"