pdf-ebookys Chapter 227 Killing the Cuckoo (42)
Chapter 227 Killing the Cuckoo (42)
Mr. Li was taken aback and raised his hand as if to slap his son, but when he met his son's fierce gaze, a chill ran down his spine.
He had a premonition that if he slapped his son, his son would definitely kill him.
Li's father was used to being domineering at home, and everyone in the family had to listen to him. But now that he was intimidated by his son, he couldn't save face and could only put down his hand and continue cursing.
The illogical and nonsensical curses reached Li Tingyi's ears, making him breathe rapidly, causing the blood vessels in his brain to throb, and making him feel like he was about to explode.
It's always been like this since I was a child. No matter who did something wrong, my father could always find fault with others in a roundabout way, as if he was always right and could always stand on the high ground to criticize others.
He hated having such a father, but over the years, he became like him.
Overwhelmed by self-loathing, Li Tingyi kicked over a cabinet in the room, grabbed a stool, and smashed it against the television, venting his anger with the most primal violence.
Li Tingyi vented his anger so badly that he almost tore the house apart before he calmed down a little.
He sat amidst the scattered furniture, panting heavily.
Just then, my phone rang. It was a call from the project team leader.
It wasn't even work hours yet, and when a company employee called at this hour, Li Tingyi had a bad feeling.
He swiped to answer the phone, and the project team leader stammered, "Boss, the person from XX company who was in charge of liaising with the project just called me and said... said they've disqualified us from the competition."
Li Tingyi: "..."
He was silent for a few seconds, then said "I understand" and hung up the phone.
Bao'er's new video is getting far more attention than the one he deleted, and he had a premonition that it would affect the company when he saw the video.
I didn't expect it to happen so quickly.
He needs to get back to the company as soon as possible to handle the situation and prevent it from escalating further and affecting the perception of the company's other partners.
Li Tingyi changed his shoes, didn't even wash his face, grabbed his car keys, and hurriedly left.
He injured his hand, which made it inconvenient for him to drive, but it was difficult to call a designated driver in the small town, so he had to endure the pain and drive.
His phone rang repeatedly along the way, the ringing making him irritable; it was probably some gossipy relative trying to find out more.
He simply turned off his phone.
It was noon when they returned to Ningcheng. Li Tingyi was in so much pain that his face was pale and his back was almost soaked with cold sweat.
As soon as Li Tingyi entered the company, he sensed that something was wrong. The two landlines at the front desk kept ringing, and the receptionist looked anxious and couldn't answer them at all.
Everyone in the cubicle looked serious, their hands flying across the keyboards.
The people in the project team were talking on the phone...
Upon seeing Li Tingyi appear, the project team leader immediately ran over: "President Li, something's happened."
In the office, after listening to the project team leader's report, Li Tingyi's brain, which had been working at high capacity for a day and a night, was momentarily unable to process what was happening—he had been doxxed and cyberbullied.
In the video posted by Bao'er's sister, his threatening words to He Xiaolian aroused public outrage. Some netizens dug up information including his mobile phone number, home address, and company name, and joined forces to destroy his company.
The front desk was bombarded with abusive and harassing phone calls. Staff were working hard to maintain the website, and in just one morning, five clients had already offered to terminate their partnerships.
Li Tingyi snapped out of his daze and made a quick decision: "I'll contact the client."
But when he turned on his phone, he was shocked by the thousands of missed calls and countless abusive text messages.
The harassing calls kept coming in, so Li Tingyi had to turn off her phone again and borrow a staff member's phone to call the customer.
But when he tried to explain to the client in a humble manner, he was met with either sarcastic remarks or helpless comments such as, "Mr. Li, there's nothing we can do. The harassing phone calls online have even reached our company, and our brand's promotional accounts are full of comments about this. Continuing to cooperate with you would be bad for our brand."
After making several unsuccessful phone calls, Li Tingyi realized that he and his company were finished.
His company, which he had painstakingly built up over nearly five years, was ruined because of that video of He Xiaolian and Sister Bao'er.
He is not reconciled!
Over the next few days, Li Tingyi was busy running around making arrangements.
While communicating online with short video platforms to report and demand the removal of the videos, they also tried to contact He Xiaolian to reach a settlement.
He had made up his mind. He didn't want the 200,000 yuan. As long as He Xiaolian could delete the video and cooperate with him to issue a statement of forgiveness and reconciliation to stop netizens from continuing to harass and bully him, he could give her another 200,000... no, 500,000 yuan.
But He Xiaolian left the town, changed her phone number, and disappeared as if she had vanished into thin air; Li Tingyi couldn't contact her at all.
Offline, Li Tingyi visited various partner companies, giving them red envelopes and treating them to meals, using his connections to smooth things over, and begging them to give him another chance.
Through his efforts, two partner companies adopted a wait-and-see attitude, only saying that if he could resolve this matter, they could consider continuing cooperation.
Li Tingyi spent three days running around with little success. Not only did he fail to stop the spread of the controversy, but the police also came to his company.
Bao'er's videos have garnered over 100 million views, sparking outrage among netizens.
The impact was too great, and the police came to Li Tingyi's home to find out what happened.
Li Tingyi was taken to the police station to give a statement, where he confessed to threatening and intimidating He Xiaolian in the video.
His actions violated the Public Security Administration Law, but because they did not cause any substantial harm to the person involved, he was ultimately sentenced to five days of detention.
*
After spending five days in detention, Li Tingyi was released and seemed like a completely different person.
His chin was covered in bluish-black stubble, his eyes were bloodshot, and he exuded a strong sense of decadence. His arm was in a cast—the police discovered that his arm was broken and asked a doctor to treat his injury.
After retrieving his phone, which had died from lack of battery, Li Tingyi left the detention center and took a taxi back to his company.
When he entered the company, the lights were on, but it was quiet all around.
The glass door was open, there was no one at the front desk, and papers were scattered all over the floor.
He walked in, stepping on a pile of scraps of paper. It was a weekday, but no one was in the office. Several computers had been moved from the workstations.
Did the employees abscond with the money?
Li Tingyi suppressed the urge to curse, his face grim as he clenched his fists.
I'm just being detained, not executed, so why are these idiots running away?
Just then, voices came from the tea room, and it sounded like there were people inside.
Li Tingyi paused for a moment, then quickly walked over and pushed open the door, meeting the project team leader and assistant who were drinking water.
All three were taken aback. The project team leader quickly came forward and said, "General Manager Li, you're out!"
Li Tingyi leaned against the door of the tea room, his face grim: "Where are the others?"
The assistant and team leader exchanged a glance, and the former sighed: "The day you were taken away by the police, someone took a picture and posted it online, saying that you had been arrested and were going to jail for several years. The people in the company couldn't contact you, and since you hadn't come back for several days, they believed it to be true, and most of them left. Now it's just the two of us left in the company."