Chapter 99 – Car Accident

Upon finishing the shoot in America and returning home, Shen Fubai received a call from Xiao Lin the moment he got off the plane.

“Brother Shen, Brother Shen, thank god you picked up. Where are you? Something happened!”

Maintaining his high-end demeanor, Shen Fubai calmly responded, “I’m in America, just got off the plane.”

“Huh?” Xiao Lin was taken aback. “Didn’t you stay there long enough? Why are you still in America?”

Xiao Lin didn’t understand English and couldn’t help much, so he wasn’t brought along during this overseas trip. He was given a break to spend time with his girlfriend.

“Alright, alright, I’m back in the country.” Shen Fubai stopped teasing him. “What happened?”

Xiao Lin urgently explained over the phone, “It’s about Film Emperor Jiang. Rumors are spreading online that Film Emperor Jiang hit someone while driving and fled the scene…”

“Bullshit,” Shen Fubai immediately cursed. “Your brother Jiang and I have been in America all week. He crossed oceans to hit people?”

“No, it’s what they’re saying online… I don’t know the specifics either, I tried calling you guys but couldn’t get through…” Xiao Lin said on the other end.

Jiang Heng and Shen Fubai had spent ten hours on the plane, where there was no internet connection, so they were unaware of the situation back home.

Jiang Heng also took a call, his expression slightly serious before responding, “Alright, I understand. I’ll be there right away.”

After hanging up, Shen Fubai also ended his call and turned to ask Jiang Heng, “What’s going on?”

“It’s my brother,” Jiang Heng said. “We need to go to the hospital.”

Shen Fubai felt a bit nervous. “Did your brother really hit someone?” That shouldn’t be the case, and even if it was a traffic accident, why would Jiang Yuan flee the scene?

“No, he was hit by the other party,” Jiang Heng clarified.

Shen Fubai’s heart raced. “Is your brother injured then?”

“Not exactly,” Jiang Heng replied. “The other vehicle was a taxi. My brother was driving fine when suddenly it swerved into them. However, since my brother was driving a Bentley, which is very sturdy, the taxi overturned. My brother took the driver to the hospital and covered his medical expenses.”

Shen Fubai was speechless.

What an unexpected disaster.

“But your brother seems like a good guy, taking the other driver to the hospital,” Shen Fubai commented. Someone who drove without paying attention and suddenly swerved into them could have crushed Jiang Yuan if it weren’t for the car’s durability.

“Was it a steering failure or did the driver do it on purpose?” Shen Fubai couldn’t help but consider the possibility of foul play.

“The details aren’t clear over the phone. The driver also seemed to be a victim of circumstances,” Jiang Heng said hastily. “Let’s ask my brother for more details at the hospital.”

Shen Fubai got into the car that had come early to pick them up from the airport. “Then let’s hurry.”

Jiang Heng paused. “By the way, my parents are there too.”

Initially, when Father Jiang and Mother Jiang saw the news online, they knew their younger son was abroad, so it must be their older son involved in the incident. The online reports were unclear, leading them to believe Jiang Yuan was injured in a car accident. They rushed to the hospital anxiously.

The previous call was from Jiang Yuan, who specifically mentioned that their parents were also present.

Shen Fubai was startled.

He hadn’t met Jiang Heng’s parents yet.

He never expected their first meeting would be under these circumstances.

“Don’t worry, your brother’s matter takes precedence,” Shen Fubai said, lowering his head to search online for those rumors. There was no need to enter keywords; the car accident had occurred that morning and was already creating a buzz.

Just looking at it made him furious.

“What’s wrong with these people? Did they see it with their own eyes? They open their mouths and spew nonsense. These days, marketing accounts don’t care about morals for the sake of traffic!” Shen Fubai was angry upon reading. Although he wasn’t unfamiliar with defamation and slander, he couldn’t stand seeing Jiang Heng falsely accused.

And this incident had also dragged Yang Yingying into it.

The truth was that Jiang Yuan and Yang Yingying were out for a drive together—since they were boyfriend and girlfriend, it wasn’t a big deal for them to go out. But unexpectedly, disaster struck. A taxi suddenly veered into their path and crashed into them. It was obvious to anyone that a taxi wouldn’t stand a chance against a Bentley, and it flipped over on impact.

Jiang Yuan and Yang Yingying quickly pulled the people from the car and rushed them to the hospital. Since they were close to the hospital, it was faster to take them there directly rather than wait for an ambulance. With lives at stake, they didn’t think twice.

But it was captured by someone with malicious intent and posted online.

The surveillance footage was clearly an intentionally edited, incomplete version. What netizens saw was the clear image of Jiang Yuan and Yang Yingying in the car, alongside the overturned taxi. The moment of the accident wasn’t shown, nor were the scenes of them helping the victims. Instead, it directly showed them leaving the scene.

It looked like they were fleeing after causing the accident.

Although there was no video showing how the accident happened, people tended to sympathize with the weaker party. With Jiang Yuan and Yang Yingying sitting calmly in their car, and the other side in chaos, it was predictable which side the netizens would take.

The online comments were disgusting, and there were even some who fueled class antagonism due to wealth envy.

1st Floor: Tsk, no matter how good his acting skills are, what’s the point if his character is questionable? Jiang Heng might be finished this time.

2nd Floor: Unbelievable, social butterfly Yang Yingying has hooked another man. By the way, wasn’t she seen with Jiang Heng before? At the time, it was dismissed as speculation, but now it’s confirmed. Do you think their accident happened because they were having sex in the car and didn’t watch the road…

3rd Floor: Some people should clean their mouths. Spreading rumors can land you in jail!

4th Floor: Oh? Jiang Heng’s brain-dead fans are jumping out? The surveillance clearly shows your master fleeing the scene. Still denying it? Brain-dead fans are truly scary. And associating with a woman like Yang Yingying, your film emperor won’t maintain his celibate persona for long.

5th Floor: I bet money will solve this. After all, they drive luxury cars. The taxi driver was unlucky to collide with them.

6th Floor: What’s with that attitude? Are rich people superior? Is a poor person’s life not worth anything?

…

Shen Fubai shook with anger, these were all a bunch of idiots.

Taking his phone in one hand, Jiang Heng glanced at the screen and shut it off. “Stop looking. Get some sleep in the car.”

They had flown ten hours from America and should have been catching up on sleep to adjust their body clocks.

“How can I sleep when I’m so angry!” Shen Fubai forced himself to calm down. “The online public opinion is being manipulated. The real culprit is the one who maliciously edited the video. Does your company have any recent competitors?”

Jiang Heng looked at him in surprise.

Fubai was actually quite smart.

Jiang Heng shook his head. “No. Let’s gather more information at the hospital.” His expression was somewhat cold.

The leak of an incomplete surveillance video was undoubtedly the work of someone with ulterior motives. But anyone trying to mess with the Jiang family needed to weigh their options carefully.

Netizens often believed whatever they heard, rarely making independent judgments. When the public opinion leaned heavily in one direction, even some bystanders couldn’t help but join the righteous crusade.

A rich person hitting a taxi driver? It must be the rich person’s fault.

And fleeing the scene, simply unforgivable.

Despite the stormy online atmosphere, there were still some people speaking up for them. Among them, a blogger named “Rising Star” argued rationally that Jiang Heng wasn’t that kind of person. She even revealed her history of heart disease, stating that Jiang Heng and Shen Fubai had visited her, encouraged her, and provided surgery fees… How could such a kind person do something like this?!

However, because her previous tweets indicated she was a die-hard fan, netizens mocked her as a couple fan trying to clean up the mess, even fabricating a heart disease to protect her idols. The blogger was so angry that she directly uploaded her past medical records for heart disease and records of receiving donations online, but was countered with “keep things separate,” “it’s definitely fake,” “don’t ride the wave,” etc.

Wang Xiaoran stared angrily at the computer, her heart, which hadn’t been uncomfortable for a long time, began to ache again.

Why did these people think so ill of others?

At this moment, several verified accounts from public welfare organizations came forward to voice their support, stating they believed in Mr. Jiang’s character. Their reason was that Jiang Heng had secretly donated substantial sums to primary schools and orphanages under his personal name without publicizing it, which proved his integrity.

But there was still a group of trolls in the comments section.

“So what if a rich person donates a few million? Can he donate a few billion?”

“Here we go, starting to spin and whitewash. Did you charity accounts also receive money from hired commenters?”

“He must have done too many bad things in the past to do good deeds to ease his conscience.”

…

Under these vicious comments, the public welfare accounts could only remain silent.

As human beings, some were selfless and kind, filled with enthusiasm, their gaze shining brightly; others were twisted like maggots, clinging to malice, seeing nothing but darkness.

In the midst of rampant evil intentions and silenced kindness, someone suddenly raised a question.

“…Something isn’t right, the timing doesn’t match. Look at this.”

Following was a link.

Recently, a video had become popular on YouTube.

In the footage, three young men were engaged in a dance battle. First, a young white guy danced ballet, followed by an East Asian youth with black hair and eyes, wearing a hat, performing classical dance. Finally, a black dancer came out to perform a segment of explosive and cool street dance. This cultural collision on the streets was most entertaining to watch, and when the final reveal of Xavier’s true face after his hat fell off, the video’s popularity skyrocketed.

On foreign websites, the video’s number of shares had surpassed one million, finally reaching China.

The person filming was clearly cheering excitedly, causing the camera to shake a bit, but precisely because of this, Jiang Heng’s face, watching from the side, was also captured.

Taking advantage of being abroad where few people recognized him, Jiang Heng didn’t disguise himself, and his face was clearly recorded.

The blogger said, “This video was filmed by foreign netizens a week ago. According to various real-time recordings from different perspectives, the event indeed occurred a week ago. In this video, the white guy is Xavier, a popular celebrity in America. The brown-haired guy standing aside is Ethan, the model who shone at the Shanghai Shenjiu Fashion Show. Everyone is familiar with the other two, right? They are Jiang Heng and Shen Fubai. Following this video, I went through the Great Firewall to check Ethan and Xavier’s Twitter, discovering that they are good friends with Jiang Heng and Shen Fubai. They’ve been playing around in America these few days, and there are even photos of them bidding farewell to Jiang Heng and Shen Fubai at the airport last night. So here’s the question: From Los Angeles, America, to Beijing, China, it takes at least ten hours by plane. They should have just gotten off the plane at the earliest. Yet, the car accident happened three hours ago. Who are you cursing at?”

Upon hearing this, netizens were dumbfounded.

According to this logic, Jiang Heng should have been on the plane when the accident occurred.

How could there be two Jiang Hengs at the same time?

Shanghai.

“Woah! Big Brother, you guys are amazing!” Seeing the online abuse towards Jiang Heng had stopped, turning into puzzled discussions instead, Xie Weiluo looked at her eldest brother and second brother in admiration.

She was originally a fan of Shen Fubai, later becoming a fan of Jiang Heng as well. Watching him get slandered by netizens had almost driven her mad, and when she personally engaged in arguments with the haters, she was verbally abused. In the end, it was Xie Chian who stepped in, found the video on YouTube, deduced their whereabouts, and then had Xie Chenchu create an account to clarify and quickly spread the information.

“Jiang Heng is the spokesperson for the Shenjiu wedding ring advertisement. Before the ad was even released, how could there be negative news about the spokesperson? Of course, it was necessary to minimize the damage,” Xie Chenchu narrowed his eyes. “The one involved in the accident should be Jiang Yuan. He’s not the type to do something like this. Our assistance goes this far. They will handle the rest themselves.”

Xie Chenchu always aimed to maximize benefits. He even deliberately mentioned the “Shanghai Shenjiu Fashion Show” in this clarification, skillfully riding the wave of popularity. Not missing any opportunity to advertise, it was utterly shameless.

As for Xie Chian stepping in, it was because Jiang Heng and Shen Fubai were both his friends.

Of course, the brothers had one thing in common.

Those netizens had upset their sister, so they naturally retaliated fiercely, allowing Xie Weiluo to vent her frustration.