The manager rushed over as soon as he heard about the incident involving pregnant women.

But when he arrived, he was taken aback.

There were two women involved: one was pregnant, and the other was a young mother carrying a few months old baby.

Dealing with either of them was not going to be easy.

He hesitated and said, “Um, I’m the manager here. What seems to be the issue, ladies?”

Tang Hei was not someone to be trifled with.

After hearing Xu Han’s words, she stood up confidently and said, “It’s not a big dispute. Could you please check the CCTV footage from your store? This lady here claims we intentionally hit her with the baby stroller. I want to see how we could have hit her so severely.”

Xu Han knew that she couldn’t afford to lose momentum now.

Otherwise, Wen Yao would only become more arrogant.

She coldly added, “I know Miss Wen has a lot of influence backstage and can twist things around. But if things really escalate, who’s to say who will be afraid of whom, Mr. Qi?”

Mr. Qi, who was Wen Yao’s husband, furrowed his brows slightly.

The manager was getting anxious about the situation.

Hearing that CCTV footage could resolve the matter, he said, “Let me apply to review the footage immediately. And, uh, ma’am…”

Seeing Wen Yao looking uncomfortable, he suggested, “Would you like to sit down for a moment up front? Should I call an ambulance for you?”

Wen Yao was about to speak, but her husband quickly intervened, “No need. It was just a minor bump. Miss, please be more careful next time. We’ll leave now.”

Wen Yao immediately looked displeased and was about to speak again, but her husband gave her a stern look and said firmly, “Yao Yao, listen to me.”

Wen Yao was taken aback for a moment, then reluctantly responded with an “Oh.”

However, Tang Hei wasn’t one to let things slide when she felt she was right.

Seeing Mr. Qi helping Wen Yao to leave, Tang Hei couldn’t hold back and said defiantly, “Don’t act like you’re being so generous. It’s obvious your wife was trying to set us up. If there hadn’t been footage, who knows how much money you would have tried to extort.”

The manager saw an opportunity to resolve the situation peacefully and quickly stepped in to smooth things over, “Miss, this lady is about to give birth. Let’s do a good deed for ourselves and not make a big deal out of this.”

Tang Hei couldn’t help but laugh at his words, “You’re really generous. Our child was scared today too. How about you accumulate some good karma and give us a freebie?”

The manager hesitated, “…”

In the end, to calm things down, the manager agreed to give them an eighty-eight percent discount on the items they had bought, and Tang Hei reluctantly let it go.

In truth, they hadn’t bought much at all.

They were mostly disheartened.

Tang Hei picked up a bag of items, sighed, and said, “Ah, I even wanted to use this opportunity to pressure that shameless couple.”

Xu Han: “…”

Xu Han thought the matter would end there, but somehow, someone posted the video online, and a busybody marketing account shared it, suddenly bringing it to public attention.

The Weibo platform was always filled with curious onlookers, and with a video featuring a pregnant woman and a small baby, it naturally became a hot topic.

Discussions varied widely, with some siding with the pregnant woman and others with Qiao Wanqing.

Arguments and insults flew back and forth, eventually landing the incident on the trending topics list.

Some even mistook Xu Han for a celebrity or internet celebrity due to her good looks, which sparked criticism about her appearance, ranging from accusations of plastic surgery to comments about her figure.

Weibo was abuzz with activity.

Xu Han never expected things to escalate to this extent; she had only been here for two days and couldn’t understand why she had encountered such a bizarre situation.

Feeling overwhelmed by the complexities of city life, she longed to return to the countryside.

…

Tang Hei also hadn’t anticipated the situation blowing up like this.

He quickly made calls to his contacts to try to suppress the issue.

However, neither he nor Xu Han were familiar with managing public relations in entertainment circles.

Their immediate priority was to obtain the CCTV footage from the mother and baby store.

They hoped that by sharing it, the truth would come to light.

However, the response they received was unexpected.

The store refused to release the footage, citing customer privacy concerns.

This seems like a setup.

Even though Wen Yao’s husband is powerful and Tang Hei has a good network, why couldn’t they get it? Could they have even stronger connections?

Xu Han felt sorry for Tang Hei.

After all, she was going back to her isolated village tomorrow, acting like nothing had happened.

But Tang Hei was different.

She occasionally followed the news and often saw cases like this where the victim was doxxed, threatened, or even lost their job because of it.

Xu Han deeply felt the helplessness. Should she ask Gu Yanqing for help?

Just as she was at a loss and almost ready to ask Gu Yanqing for help, she received a message from Tan Yue on WeChat.

Tan Yue: (Picture)

Tan Yue: Miss Qiao, is this you?

Tan Yue sent a screenshot from that video.

Xu Han felt extremely embarrassed.

It seemed trouble travels fast.

Now the whole world knew about her conflict with the pregnant woman and it made the news.

Xu Han: Um, so even you know now. Now I’m really becoming famous nationwide.

Tan Yue: So Miss Qiao already has a child.

Hmm? That’s what he focused on.

Seeing Tan Yue’s message, Xu Han imagined the usual plot of romance novels: the CEO falling in love at first sight with the village girl, her heart secretly promising, only to accidentally discover that the village girl already has a child.

Ahem.

Xu Han: Yes, Mr. Tan, are you surprised?

Tan Yue: Actually, I am a little surprised.

Xu Han sent him a smiling emoji.

Tan Yue: But considering the current situation, it seems very unfavorable for Miss Qiao’s side.

I wonder if they hired internet trolls. Originally, both sides were arguing, but now it’s becoming one-sided, with many people criticizing Xu Han and her group.

And since Wen Yao is pregnant, it paints her in a more vulnerable light.

Xu Han sighed, “I’m really troubled too, but there’s no other way. Let’s see if my friend’s connections can help.”

If that doesn’t work, she’ll have to plead with Gu Yanqing.

Tan Yue asked, “Need any help?”

Xu Han brightened up.

She knew Tan Yue’s identity through Miss Tan and realized he was quite influential.

Dealing with this matter shouldn’t be too difficult for him.

Plus, his help would be much better than asking Gu Yanqing.

Excitedly, Xu Han replied, “Yes, please!”

“Okay,” Tan Yue agreed.

With Tan Yue’s involvement, Xu Han felt relieved.

After all, he was powerful and had a higher background than Wen Yao’s husband.

Solving this shouldn’t be a problem for him.

She decided to send Tan Yue more dried vegetables next time as a token of gratitude.

With the matter resolved, Xu Han relaxed.

She made wonton wrappers in Tang Hei’s kitchen and fed Kouko before checking her Weibo on her phone.

Sure enough, the hot search topic had been removed.

Moreover, a new trending topic “Truth about the Maternity Store Incident” appeared, where the first post showed the video from the maternity store, bluntly revealing who was right and who was wrong.

Mr. Tan is truly powerful and impressive!

The comments below were overwhelmingly in favor of the pregnant woman, though a few troublemakers were still arguing.

Xu Han glanced at them and quietly uninstalled Weibo.

She opened WeChat and messaged Tan Yue.

Xu Han: Saw the Weibo. Thanks!

Tan Yue: It wasn’t me.

Even if I moved fast, I couldn’t have resolved everything in half an hour. Someone else handled it before me.

Oh, someone else already resolved it? Who’s this anonymous do-gooder?

…

Upon learning about the situation, Gu Yanqing decisively ordered the matter to be suppressed.

He knew how capable people were at doxxing nowadays and didn’t want his son to become a topic of public gossip.

Simultaneously, he sent someone to investigate the incident.

After learning the truth, he had the video footage from the scene obtained and entrusted a credible marketing account to release it.

The video was only up for half a day.

Once everyone knew Wen Yao was in the wrong, all related videos were taken down across the internet.

Along with the truth, his envoy brought him a small surprise.

“The reason Miss Qiao and Miss Wen became enemies is said to be because Miss Qiao fancied Miss Wen’s wealthy boyfriend and tried to interfere in their relationship, leading to deep animosity.”

Gu Yanqing: …

This sounds… like something Qiao Wanqing would do.

Gu Yanqing felt conflicted for a moment.

From what he had observed of Qiao Wanqing recently, she clearly wasn’t that type of person.

However, if in the past she used underhanded methods to get involved with him to advance herself, she might indeed be capable of such things.

Could it be that having a child changes one’s mindset?

This thought intrigued Gu Yanqing, prompting him to wonder what kind of person Qiao Wanqing really was.

Thinking it over, he said, “Go find Wen Yao and her husband. Let them know that if there are any more negative comments about Qiao Wanqing online, things will turn chilly.”

Bankruptcy suits them best.

“Alright…”

After intimidating Wen Yao and them, Gu Yanqing turned back to the video uploaded by a passerby.

In the video, Kouko looked freshly awake, resting on his mother’s shoulder with innocent, clear eyes, seemingly on the brink of sleep.

He looked especially adorable.

Qiao Wanqing, holding him, faced Wen Yao’s accusations calmly, without any sign of panic, unnervingly composed.

Gu Yanqing watched the video three times and came to a conclusion.

Qiao Wanqing was quite an interesting person.

Deciding to act, he took out his phone.

Yesterday, he had obtained Qiao Wanqing’s new number from the landlord, not for any particular reason, but just in case of emergencies like the current situation.

He found Qiao Wanqing’s number and dialed it.

Meanwhile, Xu Han was busy cleaning Koukou’s bottom.

Oblivious to the world’s affairs, Kouko had just made a mess in his pants, stinking up the place.

Xu Han called him “Little Stinky,” and Kouko, thinking she was playing with him, happily ate his own hands.

“Just used your hands to grab your own mess from the diaper, now you’re eating with them,” Xu Han pulled his hands away, saying helplessly, “You little dirty rascal.”

The little troublemaker seemed to sense his mom’s scolding and buried his head in Xu Han’s arms, sticking his little bottom out towards her.

Xu Han cleaned him up, put on a diaper, and tried to put pants on him.

But Kouko stiffened his little feet and didn’t cooperate.

Xu Han had to gently tap the back of his head, exclaiming, “You already know at such a young age… Oh my! You little rascal, Kouko!”

Just moments ago, Kouko had drooled all over her chest…

As Xu Han wiped her clothes with a tissue, Kouko giggled happily.

Xu Han knew he was too young to understand anger or revenge, but his mischievous behavior made her feel like he deserved a scolding.

Just then, her phone rang.

Xu Han saw it was a local unfamiliar number.

After hesitating, she answered, planning to put it on speaker so she could continue dressing Koko.

“Hello?”

“It’s me,” came Gu Yanqing’s cool voice from the other end.

Xu Han: “…How did you get my number?”

Gu Yanqing countered, “Is that strange?”

Well, not really.

Gu Yanqing wanting her number wasn’t that difficult.

Kouko recognized Gu Yanqing’s voice and happily exclaimed, “Ah ah ah!”

Gu Yanqing chuckled softly and said, “Good boy, Kouko.”

“Huh?” Koko curiously looked around, seeming to search for where Gu Yanqing was.

Taking advantage of Kouko’s distraction, Xu Han quickly finished putting on his pants in two or three moves.

She then took the phone off speaker and asked, “Why did you call me?”

Feeling her privacy was invaded, Xu Han was a bit upset and her tone was not very friendly.

Gu Yanqing was used to her reactions and spoke calmly, “I’ve already sorted things out. But don’t go out for now; some busybodies are still trying to identify you, which could be troublesome.”

“… He actually helped?” Xu Han felt a mix of emotions, but deep down, she wasn’t surprised.

After all, besides Tan Yue, Gu Yanqing was the only person she knew capable of such help.

“Oh,” Xu Han’s voice softened, sounding a bit down, “Thank you.”

Gu Yanqing chuckled softly.

He didn’t know why, but seeing someone who moments ago was ready to claw at him like a wildcat suddenly soften gave him a sense of accomplishment.

Calmly, he continued, “And also, expect some lawyers to contact you later regarding this. Make sure you take their calls.”

“Lawyers?” Xu Han’s heart skipped a beat. “What lawyers?”

“Don’t worry. This issue was orchestrated by the store as a marketing strategy.”

This twist caught Xu Han off guard.

It was shameless of the store to manipulate things like this behind the scenes.

Normally, they’d have consumed an average person’s goodwill for free.

With all the discounts they’d given, who knew how much money they’d made.

Xu Han was disgusted by the other side. Recently, she and Tan Yue had learned a lot of business skills, including marketing tactics, and knew that this type of marketing with no bottom line or morals was called black marketing.

“So what do we do now? Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Just cooperate with your friend and the lawyers. I’m arranging for evidence collection and preparing to take legal action to demand justice and compensation from them.”

With a cold tone, Gu Yanqing added, “I’ll make sure they spit out all the money they made from this marketing stunt.”

Gu Yanqing wasn’t petty, but this incident had angered him.

They had crossed his line once, and now they needed to be properly taught a lesson.

Xu Han was in awe. “Good, you’re really awesome.”

After experiencing two tense and exhausting days in the city, Xu Han sighed with relief at the thought of going back home tomorrow.

Farming really brought simpler and happier times.