Tam tidied up his clothes, stared at the camera with an embarrassed look, and slowly said, "I'm Tam Wu. You've probably heard the rumors. Two years ago, Erica Li became a single mom, right? But that's not true. You see, Erica's good friend and I are the kid's parents. Erica's raising the child now. I just wanted to say I'm sorry I hurt everyone. I hurt Erica by ruining her reputation. I hurt my family with this affair. I apologize!"
After getting what she wanted, Erica calmed down and told the reporters, "Please keep the recording and photos safe. Don't release them yet. There will be still more." She hadn't confronted Tessie yet!
"Okay, Mrs. Huo."
Then, Erica walked over to Neville and Watkins. She knew she needed to apologize to Neville. "I'm sorry, Mr. Chai. I got so mad I smashed some computers in your operations department. I'll pay for all the damage I did. But I hope you can fire Tam. He's going nowhere but down, and I don't want him to drag you down with him."
Right now, Erica was acting all sweet and polite, completely different from the raging berserker who left piles of wreckage at Tam's company.
But still, Neville sensed the implied threat in her tone. How could a fifty-something-year-old man be threatened by a young woman not even out of college?
Neville was intrigued by Erica, but also a little miffed. He couldn't be mad at her if he tried, but he could be annoyed. "Mr. Wu's private affairs are his own business. Walking into a corporate office and destroying computers is another matter. You come to my company and make trouble, and then you try to bully me into firing an employee you have a personal problem with. Who do you think you are?"
With an innocent look on her face, Erica said in an even more innocent tone, "I don't know where Tam's home is, so I had no choice but to come to his workplace to let everyone know I was mad. Don't worry, Mr. Chai. As long as you fire Tam, I'll make sure you get the money to replace what I destroyed. I'll even tell my husband you helped me today. Helping me means helping my husband. He will definitely thank you!"
Neville had never seen such a charming woman. She knew just what to say. He laughed, "You and Mr. Huo are a perfect match. Mr. Huo is a cold man. You're not. I have to imagine you bring a lot more variety to his daily routine."
Erica nodded with a smile and stated, "I think so. So does my husband. We're both lucky to have found each other."
Hands behind his back, Neville said, "Ha ha, if you weren't married, I would definitely bug my son to ask you out. But you got married before I met you. Watkins, Mrs. Huo is the gold standard of a good wife. You should find yourself a girl like her."
Watkins nodded helplessly, "Got it, Dad."
The smile on Erica's face froze. 'Someone like me? Isn't he afraid that I'll tear the Chai family's house down around their ears?' she thought in surprise. Nevertheless, still, she replied in a sweet voice, "You're too kind, Mr. Chai."
How things turned out shocked the employees of the Champion Group. It was the first time that they had seen someone destroy company property and still talk with the boss. Usually, those people got fired, or jailed. What was so amazing about this girl?
Erica waved at Watkins. "I need to jet. Bye, Watkins."
Watkins trotted over and said, "Let me walk you out."
Hearing this, the employees were surprised again, wondering how all this was possible. Was it just the fact that she was part of the powerful Huo family? Or maybe Erica had a presence all her own. This girl had just engaged in what amounted to sabotage—blatant sabotage—and she got off scot free. Not only that, the boss' son was going to escort her out of the building. This was just too incredible.
Erica didn't turn Watkins down. On the way out, she said to him, "Thank your dad for me when you go back in. He's the most generous man I've ever met. I wanna pay him back every cent of damage that I caused. Tell him to write up an invoice and give it to my husband." She knew Matthew would definitely solve her problem.
Watkins smiled at her words.
And his dad was right. He found her absolutely mesmerizing. She didn't seem like a troublemaker. This despite the fact that she went rampaging through his dad's company. "Don't mention it. You saved me last time. This is nothing."
"I just did what I could last time. It's no big deal."
Standing still, Watkins looked at her and said, "I thought you were going to kick the crap out of Tam after he came out of his office. You just made him clear up the rumors. That's not like you."
"Not like me? You think I'm a violent thug or something?" Erica looked back at him in confusion.
Watkins shook his head with a smile. "Well, you did ruin a fair amount of computers all by your lonesome—"
"Watch it," Erica laughed. "I'm paying for it anyway."
There were several cars parked near the gate of the Champion Group, all of which belonged to Erica's bodyguards. One of the bodyguards quickly rushed over and opened the door for her before she reached the car. Another one extended his hand to cover the roof of the car for her and closed the door after she was comfortably inside.
Erica rolled down the car window and waved to Watkins. "Bye!" she called.
"Have a safe drive!" Watkins didn't walk back into the office until the car disappeared.
Back in the day, before Erica married Matthew, she had trashed a five-star hotel in her home country, and she just did the same to a listed company in Y City.
She really was the boldest and most arrogant girl in the world!
In fact, Watkins hadn't been in the office for a long time, but today was the monthly shareholders' meeting. As one of the company's shareholders, he came to attend the meeting.
As soon as the meeting was over, the secretary jogged over to him, reporting that someone was making trouble.
When he saw Erica causing all that commotion, his interest and affection for her grew stronger and stronger.
But Matthew moved faster than he did. She was already married. That really sucked, as far as he was concerned.
As soon as Erica left, Champion Group terminated their contract with Tam.
Before Erica could track down Tessie, she was already a hot item on the news. It had gone viral already.
She hadn't had time to check the headlines, but Rhea called her to tell her all about it! "Erica, something happened. You're on the news!"
'I'm on the news? What for? Is it about me trashing computers at Champion Group?' Erica wondered. "Is this about Champion Group?" she asked.
"What are you talking about? Someone published an article about you getting violent on campus. Check it for yourself. It's spreading like crazy online!" Rhea sounded really anxious. She called Erica as soon as she found out, but by then she was already a trending topic. She thought her friend might want to know so she could do damage control.
'I used violence on campus?' Erica was surprised.
She immediately hung up the phone and logged into her Weibo account.
She clicked on the trending news and sure enough saw her own name, followed by a word all in red—hot!
With trembling hands, she tapped on her name. The first headline of the news read, "Mrs. Huo (Erica Li) Hit a Female Classmate on Campus. Her Behavior Was Outrageous!"
In the picture over the link, she held Lenora's head under the faucet inside No. Eighteen Primary School. Due to the angle of the shot, only her profile was shown in the picture, but it looked enough like Erica that someone might think it was her.
In the third picture, Lenora's clothes were being torn from her by a group of people, and her classmates were taking photos of her.
Next to the sixth picture was a video where Erica slapped Lenora in the face several times in just one or two minutes. It was most likely a looped GIF, but the article didn't say that.
When these maliciously edited photos and videos were posted, everyone was convinced that Erica was an out-of-control psycho!
And that was where the netizens came in, doing what they did best—posting malicious comments and mockery. The comment area of her Weibo was filled with all the vitriol of an outraged fanbase. Everyone demanded an explanation.
Before she could finish reading the news, Matthew gave her a ring. "Come to my office!" he said. He didn't sound happy.