Chapter 97 - Mysterious girl (Translated and edited by Xing)

Mama Tang had been busy lately. She did not have time to browse her son's fan groups nor go online. Hence, she did not know about the storm brewing online. When she heard Li Yubing's summary, her lips immediately curled into a contemptuous smile. "Bully my son and my daughter, eh? Do they think I'm dead? Internet violence, is it? I'll show them what violence is!"

Li Yubing's brows ticked. "It's illegal to beat someone up…"

"Don't worry, I'm definitely staying within the laws."

The next day, when Mama Li arrived at her company, she picked out a few people from her personal pool of secretaries and briefly explained the situation. Then, she rapped the table. "I want this bunch of scoundrels to apologize to my daughter-in-law."

"What about your son?"

"As for my son," Mama Li thought for a moment, "Give a call to the ice hockey team. Let them know that his mother, I, am willing to hire a team of lawyers to sue each and every single person who is spreading those baseless rumours. I want to sue them to the point of bankruptcy, let them know the price of speculating maliciously and educate them on the law."

Hearing this, the secretaries wiped their sweat. "Noted, we will do so immediately."

The two secretaries split the work. One got in touch with the ice hockey team while the other contacted a group of private hackers who, within a day, managed to dox the ten over netizens who attacked Tang Xue online. With how developed the internet was, people was leaving more and more traces of themselves online. With both the open and encrypted information available, it was easy for people to expose their actual ident.i.ties.

After receiving the details of these people, the secretary got in touch with his gruff-sounding brother-in-law and menaced them one by one through personal calls.

Originally, those people were getting high on the thrill of blasting others online when they suddenly received a call informing them of their actual ident.i.ties. You're from X province and stays in X district. You work in X company and studied in X school. I'm about to bring my machete over and have some 'fun' with you…

That was way too fricking scary! This chapter is a labour of love that should not be found outside of teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.

Those people felt like they had been targeted by some mysterious force. They were scared out of their wits and admitted their wrong immediately.

Usually, the more vicious and rampant a person was online, the more spineless they were in reality.

Each and every single of them hated that they couldn't kneel over the phone and show the 'boss' on the call how acquiescent they were.

Before going to bed, Tang Xue plugged in her earpieces and had a call with Li Yubing. The two of them chattered on mindlessly and Li Yubing told a new joke that he heard to Tang Xue. Tang Xue was so tickled that her belly ached. However, she pretended to be puzzled with a straight face. "How is this funny? Li Yubing, why are you so easily amused?"

Li Yubing started to second-guess himself. "Ah?"

Unable to hold it in any longer, Tang Xue hit her pillow and chortled, "Haha, why are you so silly?"

Li Yubing merely chuckled without saying a word. His low laughter lingered gently at her ears, causing her face to heat up as she laughed.

After a while, Li Yubing asked her, "Did you go on Weibo today?"

"Why would I? There are so many freaks there."

"Log in and take a look."

"I refuse!"

"Take a look."

Tang Xue went on Weibo and found numerous people who had sent her apology letters. They tagged not only her but her fans as well, causing quite a commotion. When she clicked in, she discovered that though the style of the apology letters were different, the content was similar. All of them apologized for their rudeness the previous day and begged for her understanding.

As some people had been blocked by her, they even created new accounts to repost the same apology after using their main accounts to apologize. They tagged her enthusiastically, as if deeply afraid that she would not see it.

What was most interesting was that all of the apologies was sent between 8 pm and 8.05 pm.

After the public discovered the apology letters, many had a burning question: just what in the world had these people experienced?

Tang Xue was similarly curious on what they had experienced.

However, those people all avoided answering this question and merely continued to beseech Tang Xue's understanding.

"Li Yubing, did you do this?" Tang Xue probed.

Li Yubing replied with a question of his own. "Still angry?"

"Over what? They're not worth my anger… what exactly did you do to them?"

"It's not me, it's my mom. She doxed all of them and used force of her own to beat them at their own game."

"Auntie is really… incredible." Tang Xue was somewhat struck after hearing this. Then, she asked, "How did she doxed them?"

"She spent money to hire some people."

Tang Xue exhaled in deep appreciation, "It's good to be rich."

"Have my mom ever told you about her catchphrase?"

"What?"

"Money cannot fix all problems but it can fix 99 percent of them."

Tang Xue was awed. "I'm going to kneel to her."

Li Yubing gave a low chuckle. "You can kneel when serving her tea as her daughter-in-law."[1]

The collective apologies from the haters were extremely intimidating. Those people were unwilling to reveal what happened to them and without much information, there was too much room for people's imagination to run wild. In people's eyes, Tang Xue became a mysterious girl with a powerful background. The more this spread, the more exaggerated it became. Everyone was deeply afraid and no longer had the guts to scold her. After all, those internet haters were only venting and not actively seeking for trouble. Forget it, they should switch their target instead.

On Monday, Li Yubing flew back to Beijing with the ice hockey team to prepare for the compet.i.tion the next day. Translated by Xing for only teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.

As for Tang Xue, she stayed in school and received an unexpected guest.

It was Yu Yan's mother, a lady whom she had a deep impression of.

Once again, Madam Liang went to look for her at the training hall. It was the same old process all over again.

But this time, Madam Liang looked more worn out and her face was thinner as well. Her features were originally dour enough. Now that there was lesser fat on her face, her protruding bones magnified this impression.

Tang Xue could not guess what Madam Liang was up to. Her face was calm and collected as she looked at the lady in front of her. "h.e.l.lo, auntie."

"Tang Xue, I'm here to apologize. Regarding what happened previously… I'm sorry. My words were a little over the top…" When Madam Liang said this, her expression was a little awkward. Her facial muscles twitched as she seemingly wanted to smile. However, she looked extremely uncomfortable as she was not used to doing so.

Even Tang Xue felt twitchy on Madam Liang's behalf as she watched her. "It's been so long. Let's forget about it… but auntie, have you never apologized to Yu Yan before?"

Madam Liang stared blankly for moment. "Ah?"

"It seems obvious that you're someone who wouldn't apologize to a child. You look like you're about to cry when apologizing."

Surprisingly, Madam Liang did not flare up at Tang Xue's words. Instead, she said, "Tang Xue, in coming today, I wants to ask you for a favour."

"What is the matter?"

"Could you…" Madam Liang's eyes reddened suddenly. "Could you go take a look at Yu Yan?"

Tang Xue startled. "Yu Yan, he… what's wrong with him?"

"I found him taking this." As Madam Liang spoke, she fished out a small medicine box from her bag and pa.s.sed it to Tang Xue.

Translator's Notes:

[1] This is a Chinese tradition where a newly-wed couple would kneel and serve tea to the elders in the family as part of the wedding ceremony.

Oops, I realized that I've been using "Mrs" instead of "Madam", which is wrong as Yu Yan's mother is addressed by her own surname "Liang" instead of her husband's, which is "Yu". I'll correct it in the future.

Also, Skate Into Love's episode count on Douban and Baidu has been reduced from 45 to 40 :p

For more info on China's new policy for C-dramas, check out this very informative and interesting video below. The part on the drama policy starts at 6:35.

And I'm sorry this week's chapter is so late! I really don't have much time to translate these days so please be warned that subsequent updates might be late, late, late as well. This chapter is unedited as I have 3 more hours before I have to wake up for work.