Chapter 173: You're So Great, Huh
Qiao Zhengguo glanced at the TV Shen Fengyun had turned on and frowned. Green Orange was an entertainment TV channel jointly founded by Yongxing Media under Yongxing Group and Huaguang Group, a rising online entertainment channel that gathered variety shows, celebrity gossip, and tabloid news, with a decent viewership.
But in this setting, deliberately turning on such a TV channel carried a special meaning. Qiao Zhengguo understood that today's gathering was nothing more than a trap they had set for him.
If he guessed correctly, the TV would soon broadcast tabloid news about his most beloved granddaughter.
Qiao Zhengguo let out a cold laugh. If he left now, they would see it as a guilty reaction. If he stayed, he'd have to sit through a fabricated scandal about his granddaughter.
He looked at Cai Xingteng and shook his head slightly. If all members of the Cai family were this stupid, then the Cai family was nothing to worry about.
Could it be that Cai Yong was really sick?
And seriously ill at that?
Otherwise, if it were him, he would never resort to such lowly tactics to compete with the Qiao family.
Competition was fine, but showing such a low bottom line would never make one a true elite family. Cai Yong understood this, but Cai Xingteng was still too green.
The TV was on, and Old Master Qiao's face darkened. Having fought all his life, he had never been humiliated like this. Yet he endured it—if he didn't possess such endurance, he wouldn't have achieved what he had today.
But to his surprise, the TV didn't show any news like "Qiao family princess's love tragedy, flirtatious scientist seduces beautiful teacher."
The screen indeed showed the Green Orange logo, but it was covered in static. What the hell was Cai Xingteng doing? Or was the TV line broken?
Cai Xingteng's expression turned strange. After the waiter fiddled with it for a while with no result, he quickly signaled his assistant, who hurried out. When the assistant returned, his face was grim as he whispered a few words into Cai Xingteng's ear.
Just as he finished speaking, the static on the TV suddenly changed. A line of large text appeared!
"Cai Yong, fuck your mother!"
The words were in red Song font, huge and glaring on the fifty-inch LED screen.
"Cai Xinglong, corrupt bastard!"
"Cai Xingteng, fucked by a dog!"
"Cai Xingwang, bankrupt!"
"Cai Xingquan, under double investigation!"
"Cai Yu, you little slut, wash your ass and wait for daddy!"
The words kept changing, spewing the vilest curses one after another, calling out every member of the Cai family. The one who got hit hardest was Cai Yu—the pride of the Cai family's third generation.
"Turn it off, turn it off!" Cai Xingteng's face turned as green as if he'd eaten a pile of shit, and his assistant scrambled to shut the TV off.
The people present were all dumbfounded. Even Shen Fengyun, who had been smiling moments ago, now stood with his mouth agape.
He couldn't even close it for a long while. Wasn't the TV supposed to show Qiao Xier's scandal? Why the hell was it full of insults at the Cai family instead?
Qiao Zhengguo nearly burst out laughing on the spot but held it in. Just then, his personal bodyguard Wei Hansheng's phone rang. He glanced at Qiao Zhengguo and whispered, "It's Old He. Should I put him through?"
Old He was Qiao Zhengguo's confidential secretary. He was supposed to accompany him today but had stayed home to gather intel.
He must have something important to report now.
Qiao Zhengguo nodded and took the call.
"Master Qiao, things just blew up. You told me to monitor media reactions, right? Guess what—I just checked, and every outlet covering the story about Miss and Zhang Yang, every TV and website, has been hacked! Even CCTV got hacked! The screens all show the same words…"
"Those words—you mean 'Cai Yong, fuck your mother,' right?" Qiao Zhengguo asked, suppressing a grin.
"Yeah! How'd you know?"
"You said every media outlet—even CCTV News…"
Qiao Zhengguo's jaw nearly hit the floor. This was too insane. He'd heard of computers being hacked, websites being hacked—but national television? Even CCTV? That was unbelievable.
What the hell was the National Cyber Information Security Center doing?
This was definitely the most severe hacking incident in Huaxia's history—and the hacker, or hackers, were clearly on his side.
This was huge—but screw it! Who cared if the sky fell? He'd finally vented his rage, and damn, it felt good!
"Let's go home and watch the fun!" Qiao Zhengguo looked at Shen Fengyun and Cai Xingteng, burst into loud laughter, stared right at them, and then said coldly, "The gifts from the Shen and Cai families—I've received them. I'll be sure to return the favor someday."
With that, he handed his phone to Wei Hansheng, laughing uncontrollably as he strode out. Damn, this was fucking satisfying.
"Find out who in our Qiao family pulled this off. To pull something this monumental, that's incredible." Sitting in his black bulletproof Mercedes, Qiao Zhengguo ordered Wei Hansheng in the front seat.
"Wait, I don't recall anyone in the Qiao family studying computer science. Whatever, call Yundeng, Yunfeng, and Yunfei, tell them to come home this afternoon…"
*****
In the villa district behind the Yunshan Scenic Area in the capital, the Cai family's villa stood out as the most distinctive—not only was it enormous, but it also had multiple floors and even two helicopter pads.
The Cai family's villa was among the most luxurious and ostentatious of the elite families, though to be fair, they could afford it.
At this moment, the gates of the Cai villa were wide open, luxury cars and guests going in and out. But every face showed either panic or a dark, stormy expression.
Because today, the Cai family had fallen hard. The bedridden Old Master Cai Yong somehow caught wind of the news and fainted from rage. Doctors were now doing everything to save him.
After hours of emergency treatment—
They finally managed to save his life. But now he was paralyzed from the waist down. The doctors said it was a typical stroke. If lucky, he might recover after a long time; if not…
Then he'd be paralyzed for life.
But although he couldn't move for now, his mind was still clear. Shortly after waking up, he told them to summon all his sons and daughters.
He had four sons and two daughters. The eldest, Cai Xinglong, and the fourth, Cai Xingquan, were in politics.
Normally, they didn't involve themselves much in family affairs. Most of the family's matters were managed by the second son, Cai Xingteng, and the third, Cai Xingwang. One daughter worked at Huaguang Media Group, and the other was the chairwoman of a large state-owned enterprise.
The eldest held a high office but was too rigid and upright in Cai Yong's eyes. The second was shrewd but not smart enough. The third was decent in business, but he'd never be fit to helm the family.
The fourth had no interest in family matters at all.
The only comfort for Cai Yong was that the third generation of the Cai family was full of talent—especially the eldest's daughter, Cai Bing, and the second's son, Cai Yu. They were both outstanding among the Cai family's third generation and even among the third generations of the capital's elite families. If the transition went smoothly, the Cai family's future would be bright.
Cai Yong's health had been poor lately, so he had temporarily handed family affairs over to his second son, Cai Xingteng. He never expected that in just over half a month, that boy would stir up such a mess.
If the fourth hadn't secretly told him, he'd still be in the dark.
The second had secretly allied with the Shen family behind his back, then recklessly picked a fight with the Qiao family. In the end, he even used their media advantage to launch veiled attacks against them. But that wasn't the worst part—the bastard had even used the Donghua Garden mediation meeting to rally a crowd to establish the Cai family's dominance in the second-tier group…
And look how that turned out. The so-called dominance was never established; instead, the Cai family's face was completely lost.
Inside the room, there were six people—four sons and one daughter. The one from Huaguang Group was too busy dealing with the crisis to attend.
Cai Xingteng shrank behind his siblings, not daring to look directly at Cai Yong lying in bed.
"So you're saying all our Cai family media, except for print, can't operate normally?" Cai Yong forced down his urge to curse him again, suppressing his anger as he asked slowly. Right now, the only thing left for the Cai family to do was—how to recover… no, how to save themselves.
"Yes." The third son glanced at his second brother and answered softly.
"Dial Qiao Zhengguo's number for me," Cai Yong sighed, turning his eyes toward the eldest.
"Father…" Cai Xingteng looked shocked. Of course he knew—making that call meant the Cai family was admitting defeat.
"You still have the nerve to call me that?" Cai Yong glared at him. "Do you know what you did wrong?"
"I'll hire the best software engineers right away to fix the firewall…"
"You fool! I asked what you did wrong!"
Cai Xingteng thought for a moment, sighed, and said, "I was wrong to act impulsively."
"Your mistake wasn't impulsiveness—it was greed. It was stupidity. Did you really think with your petty tricks you could topple the Qiao family? That you could rise above them? Wrong. What you've done only made others think our Cai family breaks the rules, that we're troublemakers. Not only will we fail to rise, but people will gossip about us endlessly."
"Give me the phone…"
*****
At the Qiao residence, around the same time, Old Master Qiao was discussing the same matter with his three sons who were in the capital. But unlike his usual sternness, today he actually wore a rare smile.
In front of them sat a computer, its screen still looping through insults toward the Cai family.
Old Master Qiao hung up the phone. It was a call from the Cai family patriarch, Old Master Cai. He hadn't said much—just one sentence: "My apologies, Old Qiao. Cai Yong will give you an explanation. Please calm down and spare the Cai family."
Just a single sentence, but it contained much. The most important part that Qiao Zhengguo caught was that the Cai family had surrendered.
Among elite families, they were all bound together at the core, their interests ultimately aligned. Whoever rose today could fall tomorrow. Power and fortune never lasted forever. So one had to know when to stop—otherwise, it would lead to disaster.
Since the Cai family had admitted defeat, the Qiao family could only stop while ahead. But Qiao Zhengguo was still confused—he still didn't know who had actually stabbed the Cai family.
"So, none of you know who did this?" Old Master Qiao looked at the words on the screen, struggling not to laugh. He had to admit, this move was brilliant. Now the entire Huaxia was focused on the Cai family being hacked, and his precious granddaughter's scandal was completely forgotten.
All three sons shook their heads. After a moment, the eldest stood up, sighing with both relief and concern. "This matter has blown up. Everyone thinks we're behind it, but we honestly have no idea. Still, one thing's clear—the one who did this, Blizzard, definitely had a grudge with the Cai family. The Cai family has fallen to rock bottom this time. But, Father…"
He frowned. "It's been three hours now. All of the country's top computer experts have looked into it, but none of them can trace the source code of the virus or find a way to remove it. If this keeps up, it could cause serious trouble. I just got a call from the commander—he said we should stop here, but right now…"
"We're at a complete loss."
"You think I don't know that? Cai Yong surrendered, so it's time for us to wrap this up. The funny part is, we didn't even start this mess." Qiao Zhengguo spoke with a trace of regret. "And now this whole problem's been dumped on us."
"Father, maybe it's not entirely without leads." The fourth son, Qiao Yunfei, looked at the old man, then at Qiao Yunfeng, his gaze steady.
Qiao Yunfeng frowned and asked, "Why are you staring at me, fourth brother? You know I'm no expert in computers."
"Didn't say it was you, third brother. But my people did find something." Qiao Yunfei, who currently managed a large state-owned enterprise that controlled a major software company—the country's top tech firm—continued, "They said it might have come from Meining."
"Meining?" Qiao Yunfeng frowned. "Don't look at me like that either…"
"Heh, third brother, you forgot? Xia Guoqing's your old classmate. Besides, isn't Qiao Qiao also in Meining right now? Maybe one of her classmates or friends saw injustice and decided to help."
"Yeah, third brother, since fourth brother found a lead, we might as well ask Xia Guoqing to look into it. Meining's not big—if we really dig, it shouldn't be too hard to find the source. But if we do, we have to protect that person. They did us a huge favor." Qiao Yundeng, the eldest, looked at Qiao Yunfeng and said, "This time, we owe them big."
"Alright, I'll give it a try."
Just then, his phone rang. Qiao Yunfeng took it out, glanced at it, and frowned slightly.
"Qiao Qiao? What is it?"
"Let me guess, Dad—you guys are holding a family meeting, right? And I bet you're both happy and troubled, huh?" Qiao Xier's voice came over the phone, teasing playfully.
"Huh, you little brat, how'd you know that?"
"Of course I know. Dad, I can help you solve that problem—but first, you've got to get Grandpa to agree to one request."
"Can't I agree to it myself?"
"Of course not—you're not bigger than Grandpa!"
"You little brat! Fine, what is it? I'll tell your grandpa."
"No need, just hand the phone to Grandpa."