16 Task one

Bai Lianhua's heart beat faster because a video was being played that clearly showed Yue Linlan admitting to having committed crimes of intentional harm and misleading the police. She didn't know who had wiretapped and added cameras to the car which both she and Yue Linlan were both sitting on but their voices could be heard clearly. 'This isn't what l planned! What's going on?' In the corner of her eye, she could see Mei Qinghua smirking and crossing her arms - very standard villainess behaviour. What was even worse is that the next pictures were of Yue Linlan hugging Wu Chenren shyly and of her giving him loving glances. Everything was well edited to show that Yue Linlan 'regretted' the marriage contract with the Si Family.

She didn't have to look up to see the anger and rage that several people in the Si family displayed on their faces. Some even looked at the Yue family provocatively and did throat-slashing motions.

The thing is many people already knew this in private but that doesn't mean they wanted it to be displayed in public!

The people in the audience were all murmuring and gossiping about Yue Linlan's affairs. Hu Pingheng also gave her several worried glances and he couldn't help but whisper: "Are you okay? This is your sister after all. If you need help, don't hesitate to ask me. Maybe, she was framed?"

Bai Lianhua shook her head because she knew that all of the things said in the video was the truth and she couldn't help Yue Linlan because it would conflict with her mission. She deserved it and it will be a lesson well learned.

She looked at Mei Qinghua fiercely and thought: 'Don't worry! Your turn is coming soon. As they say, the higher you go, the harder you fall.'

The next pictures were all shots of Mei Qinghua with various different men - courtesy of the system. Even Si Lu was caught in a picture and the impact of Yue Linlan's crimes were immediately overshadowed.

Let me ask you all, what is the most important thing for rich people? Money? Reputation?

The most important thing is interests. No matter what, if a member of the rich people community does something that goes against their collective interests, they can only be expelled. Mei Qinghua's behaviour of hooking up with all these men that have good futures goes against everyone's interests. No one wants their son to be held back by some random woman when he could be making millions and billions.

Furthermore, her background is very shady and it cannot be investigated easily - who would believe that a little girl who hasn't even gone to middle school can make connections so coincidentally with the sons of very powerful families? Such a thing cannot be a coincidence.

The ladies who were surrounding Mei Qinghua all moved away from her quickly. They weren't sure that their fiancés would be spared from her seduction.

Mei Qinghua was very annoyed! 'Even though l want to destroy Yue Linlan and Hu Lianhua, l didn't intend to get destroyed in the process! Who is it? After this, l won't have any use-value! This is bad!' Bai Lianhua saw that her task completion has increased potentially from 30% to 80%. She also accidentally shot Wu Chenren's plans in the foot because once these unmarried ladies saw that he was entangled with Yue Linlan and Mei Qinghua, they also ran away. None of them wanted to pick a future husband that already had a lover.

Wu Chenren was grinding his molars in the background: 'Mei Qinghua! You bitch! You ruined everything!' Suddenly, he felt very desperate. How was he supposed to stand up after this? His family was also undergoing a crisis and when he was walking around the banquet, he never even saw his father's shadow. Normally, his father would be at the centre of these things and many people would come to flatter him.

Now that he is facing difficulties, no one even wants to say a word or check on him.

Si Lu over there also felt like things were not looking good. He was gloating when Yue Linlan faced misfortunes but when it was his turn, he suddenly felt very uncomfortable. His mother was giving him disapproving looks and pushing him decisively to marry Yue Linlan. In any case, they had both done something wrong so it wouldn't change much. He also felt wronged because the only thing he did for Mei Qinghua was to give her a pair of heels from his mom's closet.

Poor Si Lu didn't even know the significance of these shoes.

The system had to come out and remind Bai Lianhua that the only reason why her strategy worked was due to the fact that this was the first world she went to. "Merely posting pictures doesn't do much. You should concentrate more on building up your skills."

Bai Lianhua agreed with the system but couldn't help feeling good about her efforts. This was the first time she excelled in something else other than fashion, even though Mei Qinghua did help a lot ironically.

The head of the Si family had got everyone's attention and shut some people's mouths up.

He also directed the waiters to disconnect the projector and stop showing the videos and pictures.

Bai Lianhua knew this was useless because some reporters were invited to this banquet and they definitely took pictures. Some reporters also took pictures of the figures involved including her. Of course, she knew that she couldn't be smeared in their articles because everything she said or did in pictures or videos was not bad.

The rest of the ball was a blur and Bai Lianhua was actually taken home by Hu Pingheng! Then, she remembered that some parts of her mission involved him!

She hurriedly read the rest of the mission and thought about it: "Recovering status is actually very easy - shouldn't l just take Hu Baozhi and recognise relatives? What is interesting is Dad Hu actually married into the family!" This is highly unusual - normally when two people marry, the woman adopts her husband's name.

Bai Lianhua became very excited and she started making up plots and dog-blood dramas in her mind. 'Maybe Hu Baozhi is a dignified young miss and Hu Peng was her driver - it was a forbidden love! Or maybe, Hu Baozhi was low in status and Hu Peng had a high status - because Hu Peng loved Hu Baozhi very much, he renounced his family and entered Hu Baozhi's family?'

When Bai Lianhua got home, she sent very many admiring glances to Dad Hu making him very confused.

Mom Hu even thought that she had had too much to drink and went to the kitchen to make hangover soup. Hu Pingheng didn't enter the house at all but drove all the way back to the Hu family mansion - eager to discuss this new cousin with his father.