Before Meng Jin and Zhao Yunzhi even returned to the police station, social media was already in an uproar.
“Righteous reporter forces Jennie Yang to redeem her son, demands her help in finding Guo Yingying’s biological parents”
Under the striking headline, there was a scene where Jennie Yang, one of the nation’s most famous entrepreneurs, was gripped by the arm by frenzied reporters, looking terrified and pale. If you add “female” before “entrepreneur,” you could drop the “one of.”
She naturally attracted storms of controversy, any minor incident involving her could spark an online storm, let alone a sensational news story like her being attacked—it was like lighting the fuse on a dynamite stash, blowing everything up.
Some social media users started to recount the events of Guo Yingying’s imprisonment, which Meng Jin had only roughly learned about from Zhao Yunzhi. This was an opportunity to delve deeper.
Speaking of Guo Yingying, one must mention her brother, Guo Tiandi. Without Guo Tiandi, Guo Yingying and Jennie Yang’s son, Liu Er, would never have met, igniting this tragic affair.
After returning from studying abroad in the U.S., Liu Er had a habit of speeding and had been fined for street racing at night, attracting negative media attention. To ensure his safety and to keep him out of trouble, Jennie Yang appointed Guo Tiandi as her son’s driver.
Unexpectedly, this act of maternal affection inadvertently led Liu Er down a path of doom.
Although a playboy, Liu Er was easygoing and didn’t look down on Guo Tiandi, quickly becoming familiar with him. He even started calling Guo Tiandi “Brother Tian.”
One time, seeing that Liu Er wasn’t in a hurry, Guo Tiandi asked to stop for a moment at a high school gate—it was his sister’s birthday, and he wanted to deliver a birthday gift, a pair of sport shoes valued at 500 yuan that his sister had long wished for.
At the red and white gate of the school, a graceful figure caught Liu Er’s eye. Guo Yingying, dressed in a white T-shirt, washed blue jeans, and white sneakers, her hair tied in a high ponytail, exuded a pure and elegant charm. Her smile revealed a pair of shallow dimples.
Liu Er thought of his mother, whom many said was stunningly beautiful in her youth, using phrases like “heavenly beauty.” Perhaps because he saw her every day, or perhaps because time had faded her beauty, he never thought his mother was that beautiful.
But in that instant he saw Guo Yingying, he understood what “heavenly beauty” meant, thinking his mother must have looked just like her in her youth.
Despite later hearing that his mother was hundreds of times more beautiful than Guo Yingying in her youth, he didn’t believe it. In his eyes, all other beauties paled in comparison to Guo Yingying, just as no flowers could rival the peony in splendor.
From then on, Liu Er was infatuated with Guo Yingying and began his pursuit. The media hadn’t dug up the details, but it was likely the typical rich boy chasing Cinderella story.
Liu Er was usually successful in wooing girls, but this time he met his Waterloo because of Guo Tiandi.
Guo Tiandi, knowing Liu Er’s fickle heart and his habit of changing girlfriends like clothes—wearing them a few times for novelty before tossing them aside—thwarted Liu Er’s advances, and Guo Yingying even grew to dislike him. Reportedly, to avoid Liu Er’s relentless pursuit, Guo Yingying even transferred schools once.
The turning point came with a traffic accident, in which Guo Tiandi, driving, killed a child and was sentenced to two years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
During this time, Guo Yingying lost both her brother’s protection and their main source of income, quickly depleting Guo Tiandi’s modest savings.
Forced to support herself, Guo Yingying juggled school with various part-time jobs—working as a coffee shop waitress, a women’s clothing model, a food delivery person, and a courier, among others.
Taking advantage of her vulnerability, Liu Er offered her a part-time job at Fang Zheng Group, hoping to win her over. Guo Yingying, aware of his ulterior motives, reluctantly cooperated out of financial necessity.
Guo Yingying thought simply refusing him would solve everything. She couldn’t stop Liu Er from pursuing her, but never imagined he would resort to drastic measures.
One afternoon, she received a call from Liu Er’s assistant, Secretary Huang, telling her to come to the company immediately for a small task. She hurried to Fang Zheng Group, not wanting to delay.
The work was more extensive than she expected, and by the time she finished, night had fallen. She felt uneasy, but didn’t see Liu Er the entire time, only Secretary Huang, which lowered her guard.
Naively, she didn’t think she needed to be wary of Secretary Huang, as he was obedient to Liu Er, and she was the boss’s crush—surely the assistant wouldn’t dare do anything.
So when Secretary Huang invited her to dinner, she didn’t want to hurt his pride by refusing, especially since he had always treated her with respect and care.
After getting in the car, Secretary Huang offered her a bottle of cola, which she declined, so he gave her a bottle of mineral water instead.
She was really thirsty and drank half the bottle in one gulp. Soon after, she felt dizzy and sleepy. Before closing her eyes, she saw Liu Er’s gloomy smile reflected in her eyes.
Her last coherent thought told her she had been drugged—the water was tampered with, all part of Liu Er’s plan. She tried to clench her fists to wake herself, but her fingers wouldn’t move.
She lost consciousness completely.
She felt a dull pain in her head, as if her body was floating in mid-air, then suddenly dropped, thrown onto the ground.
The pain in her head awakened her consciousness, like a tiny figure beaten and limp on the ground, struggling to stand.
She remembered—the mineral water, Liu Er.
Struggling to open her weak eyelids, she seemed to be in a bedroom, thrown on a bed. Someone had carried her in, hitting her head on the doorframe as they entered, which jolted her back to consciousness a bit.
From the adjoining bathroom came the sound of running water and singing.
Using all her strength, she managed to get up. Fortunately, the living room was empty, and she staggered out.
The cool breeze outside brought her consciousness back, but her body was still weak, making it difficult to move.
Worried that Liu Er might chase after her, she avoided well-lit paths, not remembering how she escaped the community. Her body was overwhelmingly sleepy; she couldn’t keep going and crawled through a gap into a construction site under construction.
She heard Liu Er making a phone call, apparently talking to his assistant. Eventually, he left in a rage.
Life can be ironic sometimes. You struggle desperately to escape a painful situation, only to fall into an even deeper abyss.
If Guo Yingying had known what was to come, would she still have tried so hard to escape?
A malicious reporter once asked this cruel question, making Guo Yingying cry on the spot. Hence, some say journalism is the most venomous profession, and there’s some truth to that.
The next day, a woman working at the construction site found Guo Yingying, nearly naked, discarded on the dirty, stony ground, her hair filthy and matted, her body bruised and stained with dried blood, showing signs of violation.
Later, these photos spread online, becoming a source of traffic for pornographic websites. Although legitimate sites blurred the images, everyone who saw them felt righteous indignation, cursing the three vagrants who raped Guo Yingying and those who took and sold the photos.
Originally a victim, she was paraded publicly on the internet, a spectacle more cruel than any physical “parading.” Even the police, with all their resources, couldn’t completely delete those images.
For a long time, Guo Yingying refused to step outside her door, feeling as if she were stripped naked whenever she did, exposed to the stares, the lewd comments, and the harsh judgments of others.
The incident of a university student raped by vagrants exploded into a major social issue, attracting widespread attention and prompting a swift response from the authorities, who quickly captured the criminals and meted out the severest punishments.
But the ordeal was far from over. In court, Guo Yingying had to recount how she was drugged, bringing Liu Er’s name back into the limelight.
Fang Zheng Group and Jennie Yang inevitably got dragged into the public discourse, even prompting angry student protests at Fang Zheng Group’s headquarters, causing their stock to plummet.
Suddenly, Liu Er issued a formal statement on social media, claiming he had not engaged in any illegal activities, and vehemently accused Guo Yingying of defamation.
Soon after, Liu Er filed formal charges against Guo Yingying, also leaking chat records where she threatened him to find a way to exonerate her brother or reduce his sentence, or else she would make him suffer.
This private chat record turned the tide of public opinion, splitting it evenly. Some believed Guo Yingying, while others began to doubt her and demanded she produce evidence of Liu Er’s attempt to drug her.
Of course, she couldn’t.
Secretary Huang, with a team of expensive lawyers, managed to argue that the drugging was a mistake—the water was actually meant for himself, but he accidentally gave it to Guo Yingying. In the end, he was only sentenced to six months, suspended for another six, and didn’t spend a day in jail.
Meanwhile, Guo Tiandi was still in prison, watching through a glass window as his sister sobbed uncontrollably, his heart shattering.
Inmates could watch the news, and the sensational coverage of the Guo Yingying case led to lewd jokes and laughter among them, enraging Guo Tiandi to the point of fighting several times, which added six months to his sentence.
He had no parents, and thus named himself Tiandi, meaning “heaven and earth” as his parents. He also had no surname, taking the surname Guo to match his sister’s.
He and Guo Yingying were not blood-related but had become siblings by circumstance, sharing a deep bond no less strong than that of blood-related siblings.
Learning that his sentence was extended because of her, Guo Yingying felt both guilty and self-reproachful, her hatred for Liu Er growing daily.
Liu Er never took Guo Yingying seriously, a weak girl with no backing or influence—who could she possibly upset? But he had forgotten about Guo Tiandi and underestimated a brother’s determination to protect his sister.
