mtl008 Chapter 1435 Yunrui's Sincere Dedication: The Internet Has No Memory
Chapter 1435 Yunrui's Sincere Dedication: The Internet Has No Memory
The video went viral, but that was all. For Qi Ruixiang, this public accusation that caused such a stir online was, in essence, just him revealing a private matter that he had kept hidden in his heart for more than a decade.
Like a pebble thrown into a lake, it initially splashes up huge waves, attracting countless onlookers. But soon the splash subsides, the pebble sinks to the bottom, and the lake returns to calm, as if nothing had happened.
The internet has no real memory. In the first few days, topics such as Qi Ruixiang's real-name report against Yan Taifeng and the relationship between Qi Ruixiang and Yan Taifeng as father and son firmly occupied the trending search lists on major platforms. Netizens were indignant and voiced their support for Qi Ruixiang, digging up Yan Taifeng's past scandals and analyzing every detail of the case.
But the hype came quickly and faded even faster. Within a week, new entertainment gossip and social hot topics emerged one after another. Celebrity divorces, internet celebrity scandals, and sudden accidents came flooding in like a tide, instantly drowning out the discussion about Qi Zhifang's case.
Clicking on the related topic again, the latest comments were from several days ago, with very few likes, and the initial excitement was long gone.
Those netizens who once shouted "We must find out the truth" and "Support Qi Ruixiang" have already moved on to the next hot topic, busy "jumping around" in the new gossip field.
After all, Qi Zhifang's death was an old story from more than a decade ago, Yan Taifeng was a crazy old man in a sanatorium, and Qi Ruixiang was just a niche interview blogger. None of these were as attractive as the fresh and exciting gossip in front of them.
This realistic depiction of desolation only serves to highlight Qi Ruixiang's tragic fate.
He risked his reputation, exhausted his savings and connections, and exposed his most hidden pain to the public, hoping to use the power of public opinion to promote justice. But in the end, all he got was a brief moment of excitement.
He remained an ordinary man living in a 20-square-meter rented room. His mother's grievances were not redressed, and Yan Taifeng continued to live in a state of madness. Nothing had changed.
He sat at the wooden table in his rented room, looking at the data in his account's backend. The number of video views had long since stabilized, and apart from a few words of comfort, the comments section was filled with trivial jokes and discussions that had long since strayed from the point.
Some people asked whether his marriage with Yang Xiaotang was really a marriage of convenience, some dug up his dark history from when he was an internet celebrity, and some even began to question his motives for filing a formal complaint, saying that he wanted to gain more followers by taking advantage of the situation.
Qi Ruixiang turned off his phone, leaned back in his chair, stared blankly at the ceiling, and a deep sense of powerlessness swept over him.
Yan Taifeng, on the other hand, was completely ignored. Already mentally unstable and confined to a secluded sanatorium, the case was dropped, making him a forgotten figure by the world.
Apart from Qi Ruixiang, Yan Wanqing, and a few other insiders, no one remembers this once-powerful business tycoon.
He would curl up in the empty room every day, talking to himself, sometimes crying and sometimes laughing, living like a soulless puppet.
Even if he had committed many sins in the past, his current state only brought endless sorrow, and he couldn't even elicit a shred of sympathy—after all, in this fast-paced era, no one has the time to pay attention to a mad sinner.
Yan Wanqing's situation was not much better than Qi Ruixiang's.
The reason she went to great lengths to find Qi Ruixiang, persuade him to join her in dealing with Yan Taifeng, and also dragged Gu Yunqian into the scheme was because she had already planned this all along.
Taifeng Group is in dire straits, and she can't support it alone. She needs to find a reliable person to back her up. Gu Yunqian is the heir of the Gu family, powerful and influential. If she can hold onto him tightly, Taifeng Group might still have a chance to turn things around.
Qi Ruixiang is Yan Taifeng's illegitimate son, sharing half the same blood as her. More importantly, he hates Yan Taifeng to the core, and as long as the motive is sufficient, it is easy for him to do certain things.
In her plan, Yan Taifeng was the first pawn to be sacrificed.
She wondered, what if Xu Runxiang exposed Yan Taifeng's crimes but had to abandon the pursuit due to practical reasons? When the truth he had spent half his life seeking suddenly appeared to be nonexistent, would he break down? If he did, what would he do? And if he did that...?
But reality slapped her hard in the face. Everything didn't go as she expected. After posting the video of his formal complaint, Qi Ruixiang stopped completely. He didn't do anything more to Yan Taifeng, neither going to the sanatorium to inquire about the past nor continuing to stir up the topic online. It was as if he had completed a task and then completely withdrew.
Contrary to her expectations, he did not let hatred cloud his judgment, but instead chose an almost indifferent calm, which took her by surprise.
What disappointed her even more was the relationship between Gu Yunqian and Qi Ruixiang. After this incident, the two not only did not return to what they were before, but instead became even more estranged.
Gu Yunqian remained the composed heir of the Gu family, busy managing the family business. Taifeng Group failed to make a comeback, but the Gu family, despite suffering heavy losses, managed to weather one risk after another. Even when Gu Yunqian was scheming, he could make the plot develop according to his own wishes. But what about her? Why did the direction become so uncontrollable in the end?
Qi Ruixiang, on the other hand, completely disappeared from their sight, returning to his own life and continuing his "interviews behind bars." However, in the videos, his eyes held a hint of inexplicable weariness...
The cemetery was shrouded in a thin layer of cold mist.
The bluestone path beneath his feet was damp with dew, making a soft "rustling" sound as he stepped on it, like someone sobbing softly. Qi Ruixiang held a bunch of white chrysanthemums in his hands, slowly walking through rows of tombstones, his gaze sweeping over the towering stones, finally settling on a tombstone engraved with the three characters "Qi Zhifang".
The photo on the monument has yellowed a bit. The woman in the photo has a gentle smile and bright eyes, just like the mother he remembers.
He knelt down and carefully placed the chrysanthemums before the tombstone, his fingertips gently tracing the inscriptions on the surface, his movements as tender as if he were touching a rare treasure. "Mom, I've come to see you. Have you missed me? I can't believe it's been so long since I last visited you..." His voice was soft, with a barely perceptible hoarseness, yet it was exceptionally clear in the silent cemetery. "Today I brought you your favorite white chrysanthemums; they still smell the same as they did back then, unchanged."
He knelt before the tombstone, quietly gazing at his mother's photograph, his eyes filled with tenderness and longing. Sunlight filtered through the sparse leaves, casting dappled shadows on him, while the wind ruffled the stray hairs on his forehead, revealing the deep weariness hidden in his eyes.
After a long silence, he finally pulled a small voice recorder from his pocket and pressed play. Yan Taifeng's manic voice instantly shattered the solemnity of the cemetery...