After My Rebirth Chapter 16: Truth of the Fraud

Chapter 16: Truth of the Fraud

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Bai Yusheng had arranged to meet Li Sinian at a café in the eastern part of the city. When Li Sinian arrived, Bai Yusheng was already sitting inside. He had taken a spot by the wall, with a cup of coffee in front of him, and another cup placed across the table.

As the staff at the door greeted him with a welcome, Li Sinian acknowledged them and walked over to Bai Yusheng.

This was his first time back in such a lively, urban area after leaving the Li family. He used to visit places like this every day for work, but three months of peaceful living had made him forget about his past life. Now, stepping back into such an environment felt a bit unfamiliar.

Suppressing his emotions, Li Sinian walked over and sat across from Bai Yusheng.

Bai Yusheng was engrossed in his phone, only looking up when he noticed a hand tapping on the table in front of him. He raised his head.

“Ah Nian! Finally, you’re here!” He pointed to the coffee in front of him. “I remember you like this, so I ordered it for you.”

Li Sinian smiled. “Thanks. How come you’re suddenly in Suzhou?”

Bai Yusheng raised his phone. “My baby wanted to come to Suzhou, so I brought him along.”

Li Sinian nodded. He knew Bai Yusheng had been dating someone since high school. In his past life, he hadn’t attended their wedding because he had been too busy trying to keep Lin Yuan by his side.

Bai Yusheng had been a good friend to him. Before he died in his previous life, he regretted not attending the wedding. Now that they were reconnecting, he felt like it was a good opportunity to make up for that regret.

“Funny thing, we were planning to leave today, but we happened to see the news about you.” Once the topic turned serious, Bai Yusheng put his phone aside, “What’s going on with you? How did you suddenly become a C-Platform internet celebrity?”

“I got kicked out of my family, so being an internet celebrity… it’s just a way to make a living,” Li Sinian said casually.

Bai Yusheng was shocked. “You got kicked out?!”

He knew how ambitious Li Sinian was. Getting kicked out of the Li family, unable to interfere with the company’s affairs, would have been as good as a death sentence for him.

Bai Yusheng took a sip of his coffee, scanning Li Sinian’s condition, and only then did he start to relax.

He asked again, “So what’s your plan now? Are you just going to be an internet celebrity? I watched your videos. I saw you even grow vegetables. Are you under financial pressure? If you need help, just let me know.”

“It’s fine,” Li Sinian picked up his coffee and took a sip. “I was always busy before, with so many things on my mind. I was surrounded by the wrong people, and I looked at everything through a lens of suspicion.”

“Now that I’m in the countryside, living a peaceful, quiet life, I’ve discovered it’s quite enjoyable.”

Seeing that Bai Yusheng still looked concerned, Li Sinian smiled. “Really, I’m enjoying my life now. I have savings, and I’m doing well. No need to worry.”

Once Li Sinian reassured him, Bai Yusheng relaxed completely.

“Alright, whether you’re living richly or modestly, as long as you’re happy, that’s what matters. So, what are you going to do now? About that whole issue with C-Platform and the little celebrity?”

Mentioning this, Li Sinian couldn’t help but think of Administrator 005. “The vote rigging issue can be solved. Just find the studio responsible and release the transaction records. I think your company should do a better job screening employees. After all, it’s a top 100 national company. What kind of people are you hiring?”

“And as for the administrator numbered 005, look at how he’s handling things. When dealing with issues from influencers, he just copies and pastes replies. Your company pays too well for someone like him. If he were under my supervision, I’d have fired him already.”

Li Sinian handed his phone to Bai Yusheng.

In Bai Yusheng’s mind, Li Sinian had always been the exemplary heir his father often used as a model. Li Sinian had always acted maturely, so Bai Yusheng rarely saw him like this—directly complaining and expressing dissatisfaction.

He smiled and took the phone. “Wow, I need to see who at our company managed to piss you off.”

His smile faded when he saw the chat log. “This… is their attitude really this bad?”

Li Sinian crossed his arms and looked at him. “You know how important customer service is, right? The internet is so developed now, and there’s so much competition in the short video industry. Your company’s management attitude is enough to drive potential influencers to other platforms.”

Bai Yusheng nodded. “You’re right.”

He took the phone back, typed a few words, and then said, “Employees with that kind of attitude shouldn’t be kept. I’ve already fired him.”

Li Sinian raised an eyebrow. “That was quick.”

“Of course, I’m a manager now, so I’ve got the authority to handle such things.”

His phone buzzed again, and Bai Yusheng glanced at it before sneering. “No wonder. This guy got in through nepotism. Even though he’s just a low-level administrator, he wields a lot of power. Many employees are too scared to speak up against him.”

“Ah Nian, I have to thank you. If it weren’t for this situation, I wouldn’t have known there was such an incompetent person at our company.”

“It’s nothing. Just a coincidence.”

Bai Yusheng looked at his phone again, typed for a moment, and then said…

“I told the people below to conduct a thorough investigation into connections and nepotism. Although this administrator is just a small, tiny tumor, a thousand-mile riverbank can be destroyed by ants. If there’s one, there are countless others. It still needs to be taken seriously.”

Li Sinian smiled. “If the people at your company find out this all started because of me, they’ll probably hate me.”

“They wouldn’t be worried about the investigation if they weren’t doing anything shady,” Bai Yusheng replied.

Bai Yusheng then mentioned that he was hungry and asked the waiter to bring two pieces of tiramisu.

The two chatted casually for a while, and when the cakes arrived, Bai Yusheng continued, “The issue with the influencer framing you for vote buying has been resolved. I had people trace the login locations of a few suspicious accounts, and we followed the trail to that studio.”

“The studio initially claimed they couldn’t disclose personal information, but once we paid them two hundred thousand, they spilled everything and even eagerly provided screenshots.”

“That’s why these vote-buying studios are doing unethical things. You can’t expect them to have any credibility.”

Earlier, Bai Yusheng had been ordering cake and chatting, and Li Sinian had assumed he was just catching up after not seeing each other for a while. Now, he realized that Bai Yusheng had been waiting for a report from his subordinates.

“You work fast. Just an hour, and the results are already in.”

“I lived with you for two years in college. I’ve picked up a few things from your efficiency,” Bai Yusheng said with a grin. “Alright, that ‘Piggy’ account has been banned. I’ll send you the screenshots. You can handle the follow-up work yourself.”

“Thanks,” Li Sinian said, then asked, “By the way, I assume your platform doesn’t usually get involved in the drama between influencers, right? Wouldn’t this be breaking the rules for me?”

“The platform doesn’t interfere with influencer competition, but vote-buying is against the rules. The account got banned because of that, not because of you,” Bai Yusheng replied.

Li Sinian smiled, “Alright, got it. As long as I’m not using your backdoor.”

The two stayed at the café for a while longer before leaving around dinner time.

Li Sinian told Bai Yusheng that he had opened a small restaurant, and Bai Yusheng had planned to go there for lunch. However, as soon as they left the café, Bai Yusheng received a call that required him to hurry back, so their plan to eat together had to be postponed.

Li Sinian took the subway back home, and on the way, Bai Yusheng sent him screenshots of the chats and transaction records involving ‘Piggy’ and the studio. At the end of the message, he added: [My partner and I are about to get engaged in Norway. You definitely have to come.].

Li Sinian replied with a simple “Okay.”

When Li Sinian got home, he had lunch first, then lay down on his bed and slowly opened C-Platform.

With the vote-buying issue cleared up, his account was naturally unbanned, while ‘Piggy’s’ account remained closed.

Both of them were influencers with large followings, so it didn’t take long for people to notice what had happened.

The battlefield for fans’ grievances shifted from ‘Piggy’s’ comment section to Li Sinian’s, where fans began to argue:

[What’s going on? Why was ‘Piggy’s’ account banned? This guy’s back? I don’t want to see him again, so annoying :)]
[‘Piggy’ was banned? Because of vote-buying? Am I blind? The only one with suspicious votes since the event started has been this guy.]
[Wait a minute, wasn’t the blogger claiming earlier that he didn’t buy votes? Now ‘Nian Nian You Today’ has been unbanned and ‘Piggy’ banned, doesn’t that mean he was framed? He didn’t buy votes.]
[I still don’t believe ‘Piggy’ would pay to buy votes for someone ranked lower than them. Waiting for results.]

As the argument in the comments section escalated, the fans of both sides almost got into a full-blown online fight. Meanwhile, Li Sinian gathered his evidence and posted an update:

[Nia Nian You Today: I didn’t buy votes. Here are the screenshots and transaction records. [Image] [Image] [Image]]

The three images were as follows:

• The first image was a conversation between ‘Piggy’ and the studio before the transaction. The avatars weren’t blurred, but the identities couldn’t be discerned. However, from the conversation content, it was clear that the vote-buying incident was a setup.
• The second image was a composite of three parts. The first part was the payment record, which included the amount, time, and payment location. Typically, payment locations wouldn’t be displayed, but Bai Yusheng had contacted customer service and had them send him the detailed bill.
  The second part showed Li Sinian’s account login locations, which were all in Suzhou over the last month.
  The third part showed ‘Piggy’s’ login locations, which matched the payment location from the transaction record.
• The third image displayed abnormal login locations and devices from hacked accounts, which matched the login locations of the studio, proving that the vote-buying had indeed been done by this studio.

These pieces of evidence were enough to confirm who was behind the vote-buying.

After seeing the post, the comments section shifted in favor of Li Sinian.

Aside from the die-hard fans of ‘Piggy’ still insisting that the images could be faked, most people changed their stance.

Li Sinian’s fans finally felt confident enough to speak up for him.

The argument continued, but the truth had already been established, and there was no need for Li Sinian to keep reading the comments. He confirmed the post had gone live and then logged out of C-Platform. There was no point in checking again.

However, someone else couldn’t sit still.

In a dimly lit room, a young man in a wrinkled suit sat in front of a computer. His cheap suit looked even worse with the creases. Seeing the notification that his account had been banned, the young man took a deep breath and angrily knocked an empty soda can off the desk.

He picked up his phone and dialed a number. As soon as the other party answered, he angrily questioned, “What kind of unreliable studio did you find? They just handed over the transaction records so easily?”
“And how did ‘Nia Nian You Today’ get access to user login information? Doesn’t your website protect user privacy?”

The person on the other end of the phone wasn’t in a good mood either and snapped back, “I don’t know! I got fired. Don’t ask me!”

 

 

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