Alex was startled, but fortunately, he was seated in a child safety seat. If he had been sitting in the back without it, he would have been thrown around.
“Godmother… what’s happening?”
Sylvia narrowed her almond-shaped eyes at the black car that had suddenly emerged from the alley and blocked her path. The street wasn’t very wide, with small vendors on both sides.
If she hadn’t slammed on the brakes, a collision would have been inevitable, resulting in serious injury or death.
The door of the black car opened, and a tall, burly man stepped out holding a thick steel pipe. He walked towards Sylvia’s car with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, looking arrogant.
Three more men got out of the car, each holding a thick and long steel pipe. They began smashing Sylvia’s car.
“Get out!”
“Get out here!”
They kicked Sylvia’s car door and cursed, “Bitch, get out!”
Sylvia turned to Alex and said, “Stay in the car and don’t get out. I’ll handle this trash.”
“Be careful,” Alex bit his lip. The men outside looked like bad guys.
Especially since they had weapons.
As the men outside continued their racket, the door of Sylvia’s white BMW suddenly opened.
A pair of white sneakers came into view, followed by a tall, slender figure. The woman wore wide-leg pants and a cropped white knit top that accentuated her slim waist and long legs. Her face was cold, as if covered in frost.
“Bitch, it’s you! How dare you bully my girlfriend! Get her, guys!” The first man pointed his steel pipe at Sylvia. “You dared to incite your fans to cyberbully my girlfriend. Watch how I deal with you today!”
He swung the steel pipe at Sylvia.
“Ridiculous! I don’t even know who your girlfriend is,” Sylvia said as she deftly dodged. She then swept her long leg at the man’s unsteady stance, causing him to fall face-first into the ground.
The other men rushed at Sylvia, but she quickly took them down one by one with swift and precise movements.
Dealing with these untrained thugs was child’s play for Sylvia. She felt no satisfaction, only disgust.
She had plans to eat hotpot!
After knocking the men to the ground, she stepped on the first man’s head and sneered, “Don’t pin baseless accusations on me. You might find you’ve targeted the wrong person.”
The man screamed and pulled out his phone. “Look for yourself! Your fans cyberbullied my girlfriend until she attempted suicide. She’s in the hospital now! You’re a murderer!”
He glared at Sylvia with anger and resentment. “You killed my girlfriend.”
Sylvia took his phone and saw photos of a girl lying in a bathtub covered in blood, along with trending topics on social media.
She had spent the afternoon playing with kids in the park and hadn’t paid any attention to online happenings.
She never expected something like this to occur.
She knew she had fans but never imagined they would do something so serious.
“I will investigate this matter thoroughly,” Sylvia said coldly as she released the man. “It’s too early to conclude who cyberbullied your girlfriend.”
Her fans were usually peaceful and didn’t cause trouble.
This incident of cyberbullying was baffling to her.
“Why bother? My girlfriend almost died!” The man shouted angrily. “I can’t get you now, but one day I will!”
Sylvia ignored him and got back into her car. The front was dented and scratched.
She called the Hipps Family’s butler to contact the insurance company to tow the car.
Then she went to the back seat to unbuckle Alex from his child seat.
“Were you scared?”
Alex shook his head. “I think you’re so cool, godmother!”
“Little flatterer!” Sylvia pinched his cheek and parked the car by the roadside. She then hailed a taxi and left with Alex.
The men were powerless to stop her and could only watch as she left.
“Let’s go to the hospital.”
In a hospital room, a pale girl lay on a bed with a masked woman standing before her. The woman’s eyes gleamed with malice as she stared at the girl.
“Did you do everything I told you?”
The girl nodded weakly. “I did. Can you transfer the money now?”
“A hundred thousand dollars, as promised,” the masked woman sneered and instructed two men in black at the door, “Transfer it immediately.”
“Yes, Miss,” one of the men said as he operated his phone. The girl checked her mobile banking and saw an additional hundred thousand dollars.
She smiled happily. “Thank you, Jocelyn.”
After trending with Sylvia in the morning, Jocelyn had approached her with this offer.
She couldn’t afford to offend the Sweeney family and there was money involved.
Just a bit of blood for a hundred thousand dollars and making Sylvia look bad-no downside at all.
She heard that the Sweeney family and Hipps Family were rivals.
So Jocelyn was targeting Sylvia? The girl was an internet celebrity with few followers and little income.
A hundred thousand dollars felt like a dream come true.
Jocelyn looked at her greedily and felt disdain.
“Don’t tell anyone about this. You know the consequences.”
“Don’t worry, Jocelyn. I’m not that kind of person. Besides, if people find out my suicide was fake, I’d lose everything,” the girl said cheerfully.
She had only made a small cut on her wrist for some blood. The bathtub blood was ketchup she bought beforehand.
After taking photos, she cleaned up without leaving evidence.
Jocelyn said nothing more and left the room.
As she stepped into an elevator, another elevator opened nearby.
A bruised man stepped out and glanced curiously at Jocelyn and her two black-clad men.
They looked like some kind of mafia…
The man shrugged it off and went to the girl’s room.
The girl was shocked to see him bruised. “Did you get into a fight? How did you get beaten like this?”
The man angrily replied, “I took my buddies to confront Sylvia and got beaten by her!”
The girl was furious. “That woman is too much!”
She took out her phone and snapped several photos of her boyfriend’s injuries before posting them on social media, tagging several media outlets.
“This is outrageous! Sylvia beat up my boyfriend! Look at what she did! When I realized I was filming her godson, I immediately apologized. My livestream viewers can testify. Why does she still bully us? Cyberbullying wasn’t enough; now she’s physically attacking us!”
The post quickly went viral.
People were already focused on Sylvia’s fans’ cyberbullying; now it shifted to Sylvia’s violence.
“Oh my God! I knew she was skilled in martial arts but didn’t expect her to use it for violence.”
“This is terrifying.”
“This woman is really scary.”
“Control your fans!”
Sylvia’s fans fiercely argued online that afternoon.
“We didn’t cyberbully anyone! We didn’t even pay attention to this internet celebrity!”
“We’re all minding our own business. We don’t even know who this girl is.”
“Stop falsely accusing us of cyberbullying leading to suicide!”
There were various opinions online.
“Really? There were cases where celebrities’ fans drove people to despair.”
“Sylvia is just an internet celebrity too? And she has such crazy fans?”
“I used to think she was a good woman, but now… ha.”
Meanwhile, Sylvia had arrived at the hotpot restaurant with Alex. Evie and Jaime were already there.
“Sylvia, did you see those trending topics?” Evie showed her phone with concern. “People are arguing fiercely. It looks like someone orchestrated this whole thing.”
“I don’t know yet. I’m investigating,” Sylvia said as she settled Alex into a baby chair before sitting down herself.
“People are saying you’ve fallen from grace. It’s so annoying. Can’t we ever have peace?” Evie said irritably.