The opening drone show at the Haimeng Mall predictably went viral online. The Meng Corporation seized the opportunity to launch several marketing campaigns, greatly boosting the reputations of both the Haimeng Mall and the newly acquired drone company.

The Meng Corporation’s stock price rose in response. Meng Siyun made a high-profile return six months after her car accident, directly driving up the company’s market value. She successfully broke into the drone market and eliminated a longstanding weakness in the Meng Corporation, even using the moment to strike at Meng Yuguan’s faction — all in all, a multi-pronged success.

Meng Siyun was at the peak of her influence. Contrary to outside speculation that her health problems would lead to her being sidelined or abandoned by the Meng family, her position as heir actually became even more secure, astonishing many onlookers.

Of course, this was only what the public saw. Industry insiders were more focused on the person behind the drone show.

Although the events at the control console that day weren’t widely reported, those paying close attention had a general idea. People in the industry quickly learned that the early chaos in the drone show was indeed an accident — not a “planned twist” as rumors claimed. The stunning reversal that followed had been designed and programmed on-site in under fifteen minutes, executed in one flawless take, without rehearsal or dry runs.

While drone development involves many technical aspects, this feat in programming alone was enough to place the Meng Corporation at the forefront of the industry.

Just as Meng Yucheng had predicted that day, partnership offers flooded in. At the same time, people began to investigate who was really behind the show.

Fortunately, the media hadn’t managed to get a close interview that day. Those on the outside only saw the Meng heir and Xie Ran near the control console, but with the chaotic crowd, most had no idea that the actual operator was the small-time influencer Meng Siyun had brought along. Thanks to swift action by the attendees — mostly Meng shareholders and employees — Xie Ran’s identity didn’t spread.

The mysterious mastermind’s identity remained a mystery, attracting widespread speculation. But before long, the drone company managed by Meng Siyun released a new product report that included the technology Xie Ran had promised to share with Meng Feixuan, temporarily diverting public attention.

The internet was still buzzing about the Haimeng drone show, but Xie Ran remained unbothered and continued his regular streaming as usual.

The next night, at the time when the original host of the body would normally go live, Xie Ran opened his stream on schedule.

But as soon as the stream started, he found that many viewers were already waiting. The moment he came online, the comment section erupted in insults. The moderators couldn’t keep up with the flood of messages.

Xie Ran’s expression didn’t change. He glanced over the comments and quickly figured out what was going on.

It turned out that the Dou Dizhu (Chinese poker) livestream with Ting Shuangsheng from the previous days had gained massive traction. Big Face Cat Live had even given it a front-page promotion. Later, when Xie Ran received a large donation from Meng Feixuan, he had abruptly gone offline. But that segment had been screen-recorded and widely shared on social media.

The match had been too intense and well-played — it drew tons of views. That’s when some people started questioning the legitimacy of Xie Ran’s gameplay, claiming that his speed and winning rate were unnatural and highly suspicious.

These accusations quickly escalated online. Countless marketing accounts jumped in, claiming that Xie Ran’s card-counting was mathematically impossible without cheating or “master-level” computational ability.

In short, accusations — both subtle and blatant — flooded the internet, painting Xie Ran as a cheater. Some even acted as if they had found cheat software on his computer.

Someone even “exposed” that the account that had donated five million cat battleships was actually Xie Ran’s own, part of a calculated marketing ploy to promote a fake victory.

As always, netizens loved drama. Stirred up by all the allegations, a crowd of them flooded into Xie Ran’s livestream.

Xie Ran, no stranger to public relations — having once worked in the entertainment industry — immediately recognized this as a deliberate smear campaign.

And the person behind it? Pretty obvious.

His livestream clearly had hired trolls orchestrating the attacks, repeatedly calling him “Math Genius” and “Cheater.” Others played up sympathy for his opponent, especially Ting Shuangsheng, who had lost over ten rounds in a row.

Xie Ran’s fans tried to defend him, but the original host hadn’t had many followers, and their arguments were quickly drowned out. The comment section became a toxic mess.

Some fans were nearly in tears, begging Xie Ran to clarify or say something — anything.

But Xie Ran said nothing. He didn’t even offer words of comfort. He simply glanced at the barrage of messages, then casually opened a coding interface on his computer and started typing.

Comments:

【?????】

【Xiao Ran, what are you doing?! Say something!】

【Wake up, this isn’t the time to pad stream time!!】

【His fans should stop struggling — he clearly has no defense.】

【Right? So many creators have already exposed him. Can’t he just take the L?】

【Cheating is disgraceful. Ting Shuangsheng is the real victim. I’m heading to his stream now to support him.】

Led by the hired trolls, many viewers really did leave to watch Ting Shuangsheng.

Ting Shuangsheng usually streamed a bit earlier than Xie Ran, but he had attended the Haimeng mall opening the day before and partied with a niche circle that night. After sleeping all day, he started his stream later than usual.

To his surprise, his stream was suddenly much more popular than usual. Ting Shuangsheng was delighted — until he looked at the comments and his expression completely changed.

The chat was full of people bashing Xie Ran for cheating, sympathizing with Ting Shuangsheng, and rallying in his defense.

【Shuangsheng, don’t worry, we’ll get justice for you!】

【We’ve already reported the cheater to the game company!】

【It’s tragic that your 20-win streak is gone. Xie Ran must apologize!】

【He should be reported to Big Face Cat Live too! Ban him!】

【Don’t hold back, Shuangsheng — just go off on him! We’re all behind you!】

The whole internet was siding with Ting Shuangsheng. With trolls fueling the fire, his fans felt righteous and were eager to see him publicly confront Xie Ran.

But to everyone’s shock, Ting Shuangsheng didn’t cooperate. Instead, he suddenly looked serious and said: “I think there’s been a misunderstanding. I don’t think Xie Ran cheated. Please don’t attack or report him — false accusations are really damaging…”

His fans: 【?????】

【Shuangsheng? Are you being held hostage?】

He glanced at the chat but kept a straight face: “Seriously, when I played against him, his moves felt very natural. There was no sign of cheating at all…”

Ting Shuangsheng had previously taken many digs at Xie Ran. His fans saw Xie Ran as a rival. Now that they finally had a chance to drag him down, they were stunned when Ting Shuangsheng defended him.

Even more shockingly, Ting Shuangsheng then spent several minutes genuinely praising Xie Ran without repeating himself once.

Finally, his fans couldn’t take it anymore:

【What the hell are you doing?!】

【Your own studio posted the video accusing him — are you slapping your own face now?!】

Panicked, Ting Shuangsheng left the camera and called his manager.

Turns out, his team had dumped a lot of resources into boosting him to the homepage. But then Xie Ran crushed him, stealing all the attention. Furious, the team seized on the online cheating rumors and pushed a smear campaign, casting Ting as the victim.

They even hired someone to create a technical analysis video to “prove” that Xie Ran’s gameplay was inhuman. The “Math Genius” meme came from their team.

“We were just about to tell you!” the manager said proudly: “This campaign’s working! People feel sorry for you. If you play the victim on stream, we might be able to boost you into top-tier streamer ranks. Isn’t that exciting?!”

This kind of marketing should’ve been discussed with Ting Shuangsheng first. But since he was busy networking with the Mengs, the team hadn’t wanted to disturb him.

They hadn’t expected his reaction.

“Exciting my ass!” Ting Shuangsheng nearly screamed: “You guys dared mess with Xie Ran?!”

He quickly explained that “Mark” — the user who donated 5 million — was Meng Feixuan’s account, and the relationship between Meng Feixuan and Xie Ran was very close.

His manager was stunned: “Why didn’t you say anything earlier?!”

“You didn’t ask!”

Ting Shuangsheng didn’t like Xie Ran, but he valued resources more. Offending the Meng heir was career suicide — and he had likely only gotten Meng’s inVittation thanks to Xie Ran.

With the stream still live, Ting returned to the camera and spouted nonsense with a straight face: “We just confirmed that our account was hacked. That video wasn’t posted by us. Both I and the studio believe Xie Ran didn’t cheat.”

His fans were even more furious:

【???】

【Shuangsheng, do you even hear yourself?】

Then, before they could finish complaining, the studio deleted the incriminating video and posted an official apology claiming the account had been hacked.

The apology was textbook-perfect. Netizens and fans were dumbfounded.

Unfortunately, while Ting Shuangsheng had a great attitude, his fans and the manipulated public didn’t buy it. Not only did they keep cursing Xie Ran, they now included Ting too — calling one a cheater and the other a hypocritical actor.

Green in the face, Ting Shuangsheng finally snapped and sent Xie Ran ten cat battleships.

He laughed awkwardly: “Brother Ran, no hard feelings. Just a misunderstanding!”

Everyone watching was utterly baffled.

【…】

【Did Xie Ran blackmail him or what??】

【Even so, that doesn’t change the fact that the Math Genius cheated — and he still hasn’t said a single word.】

【Sigh. Is it really that hard to just say something and clarify, Ran?】

Xie Ran had been quietly working on his computer the whole time. From the start of the stream, he hadn’t said a word. His fans’ hope slowly turned into disappointment.

But just then, he finished typing and tapped a key. A table popped up on the screen.

Xie Ran: “Done.”

His voice instantly caught everyone’s attention. They looked at the screen — confused at first.

Then someone noticed:

【Wait, aren’t those the usernames from the comment section?】

【And behind them… are those IP addresses??】

With that hint, the others finally caught on.

【Whoa. He’s showing the IPs behind the trolling accounts!!】

【Why are so many IPs the same?!】

【Don’t tell me…!!!】

Expressionless as ever, Xie Ran said calmly: “They’re paid troll accounts.”

Comments:

【???? So he was tracking the trolls this whole time??】

【That explains everything — no wonder the comments were off today!】

【Holy crap — how did he even do that?!】

The moment he showed the list, the comment section went quiet. Many accounts abruptly logged off. The sudden silence confirmed it — they were paid trolls.

Ting Shuangsheng, still watching the stream while donating gifts, was terrified. He’d only knelt to Meng Feixuan’s pressure, but now it turned out Xie Ran himself was even scarier — exposing the troll network live on stream.

He felt like he couldn’t breathe.

Then Xie Ran glanced at the cat battleships Ting had just sent, and at the comments still bashing Ting.

“This time I’ll let it slide,” he said lazily, chin in hand: “But don’t let it happen again. I hate low-level trolls.”

He tapped another string of code.

With the clack of keys, the screen shifted — it showed that he had directly hacked into the internal system of the retreating troll company.

Xie Ran: “Technology like this doesn’t deserve to exist.”

Click—

Comments:

【???? What just happened?!】

【Why are there so many warnings?!】

【I just dragged my programmer brother over. He says the streamer hacked the troll company’s internal system… and destroyed it!!!】

【De—destroyed it?!?!】

【I’m speechless…】