In my past life, I was the undisputed king of paparazzi in the entertainment industry. I held the dark secrets of half of Hollywood in my hands, and ultimately, I was silenced by the capital that controlled them. After my rebirth, I became the central node of the village's gossip network—the ultimate "know-it-all." Who lost a chicken, whose husband was cheating... I knew everything. Until the fake heiress decided she wanted to enter the entertainment industry. Her wealthy parents were terrified that I, the stain living in obscurity, would become a ticking time bomb for her future. They drove all the way to my village overnight, throwing an NDA in my face that demanded I never acknowledge our blood ties for the rest of my life. "Take this half-million dollar hush money and rot in the mud forever. If you dare stand in the way of Chloe's stardom, we'll take your life." The fake heiress, crying pitifully on a video call, said: "Sister, you only lost your identity, but I can't lose my dream." I silently started a live stream. "Half a million? Are you trying to pay off a beggar? Do you know how much a trending hashtag costs these days?" "I've already compiled all your family's secrets into a PowerPoint." "Come on, smile for the camera. I've already thought of tomorrow's headline." "Wealthy Family Attempts Murder to Pave Way for Starlet; True Heiress Exposes Scum Parents on Live Stream." "If you won't do things the easy way, we'll do them the hard way. Smash that phone!" Arthur Vance gave a look to his bodyguards, and the two men in black suits lunged forward. I didn't move. I even adjusted the beauty filter on my camera. The viewer count in my live stream instantly skyrocketed to two hundred thousand. The comments were flying so fast I couldn't even read them. 【Holy crap, is this a live broadcast of rich people drama? Better than reality TV!】 【Isn't that the CEO of Vance Group? And the washed-up actress Margaret Vance next to him?】 Just as the bodyguards' hands were about to touch me, I took a step back and screamed at the top of my lungs. "Help! City folks are in the village trying to kill people!" The '80s crew of our village, who had been lying in wait by the wall, made their entrance. Auntie May took the lead, followed by seven or eight elderly folks, average age eighty-five and up. They moved with military precision, dropping straight to the ground at the bodyguards' feet. "Ouch! You're killing me! My back! My hip! My kneecap!" The bodyguards were dumbfounded. Who dared to touch them? One touch could cost them a luxury condo in medical bills. Arthur Vance's hands shook with rage: "You bunch of uneducated hicks! Get out of my way!" Taking advantage of the distraction, I pointed the camera directly at Arthur and sneered. "Alright, my dear viewers, do you see this? This is the true face of the ultra-rich." "Since Mr. Vance is in such a hurry to shut me up, let's speed things up." With a tap of my finger, the PowerPoint flipped to the second slide. It showed Arthur Vance with his arm around a young model, his hand resting somewhere it definitely shouldn't be. Next to the photo, I thoughtfully added the time, location, and even hotel booking records. The live stream exploded. 【666! This tea is piping hot!】 【Isn't that the model who just debuted from that idol show? So he's her sugar daddy!】 【Mr. Vance is still going strong! Keeping the wife at home while playing the field outside!】 Seeing the photo on the screen, Arthur's face went from red to purple. He clutched his chest, gasping for air. Margaret Vance let out a shriek and lunged at me to scratch my face: "You little bitch! You dare use photoshopped pictures to spread rumors?!" I responded by simply hitting play on a video. In the video, Margaret was at the White Horse Club. She was shoving a Porsche key down the pants of a young male host. Laughing wildly, without a shred of the elegance she portrayed as an actress. Arthur stared at Margaret in disbelief. She guiltily looked away. Their carefully crafted image as the perfect model couple shattered into pieces right then and there. I threw up a peace sign to the camera: "Don't rush, this is just the appetizer." "Chloe Vance's plastic surgery records and videos of her sleeping her way to the top are on the next slide." "If you want to see them, type '1' in the chat. If we hit a million likes, I'll release them immediately!" The screen was instantly flooded with "1"s. Chloe, who had been on the video call this whole time without hanging up, turned pale with terror on the other end. I looked at her coldly. "Didn't you just say you couldn't lose your dream? Is your dream to sleep with every director in the industry?" Chloe screamed and disconnected the call. Seeing the situation spinning completely out of control, Arthur pulled out his emergency heart medication and dumped it into his mouth. "Let's go! Hurry!" He signaled the bodyguards, eager to retreat. I picked up the check from the ground, tore it to shreds, and threw the pieces against the window of their Maybach. "Take your half-million dollar check with you! I don't mind getting dirty, but I do mind bad luck!" My adoptive parents huddled in the corner, trembling with fear. My adoptive mother pulled on my sleeve, her voice shaking. "Emily, those are your biological parents. Are we in trouble?" I patted her calloused hands, my heart aching. "Mom, they aren't my parents. They're jackals. And you need a shotgun to deal with jackals." That night, the Vance Group's cease and desist letter was posted online. My live stream account was banned across all platforms. The reason: invasion of privacy and malicious defamation. Banned? Who did they think I was? I was the king of paparazzi in my past life. I dragged an old box out from under my bed. Inside was everything I had been preparing since I was young. Dozens of backup accounts, and contact information for hundreds of gossip blogs. I switched to a new account and changed the ID to "Village Gossip King." The bio had only one sentence: 【Don't go to sleep. The big one is coming.】 The Vance family's PR team was undeniably skilled. Overnight, the narrative completely shifted. The trending hashtags were all about #EmilyExtortion# and #EmilyUngratefulDaughter#. Paid trolls flooded the internet, claiming I would do anything for money, even extorting my own biological parents. Chloe even posted a series of photos doing charity work at an orphanage. The caption read: "Even though I've been wronged, seeing the smiles on these children's faces makes me believe the world is still a beautiful place." The comments section was filled with sympathy. Someone even doxxed the address of my adoptive parents. Early the next morning, when my adoptive mother went to town to sell eggs, people threw rotten vegetables at her. She came back holding her forehead, blood dripping through her fingers. "Emily, Mom is fine. I just accidentally tripped and fell." She forced a smile, not wanting me to worry. The anger inside me shot straight to the top of my head. Originally, I wanted to play with them slowly. But since they were asking for it, they couldn't blame me for playing dirty. I opened my laptop, my fingers flying across the keyboard, typing out strings of code. In my past life, to dig up dirt, I taught myself hacking. I wasn't a top-tier hacker, but infiltrating a postnatal care center's system from over a decade ago was child's play. Eighteen-year-old nursing records, and a blurry backup of security footage. I bundled them together and posted them directly to my new account. The title was simple and brutal. The Truth About the Abandoned Heiress: Was she lost, or was it attempted murder? In the security footage, Margaret Vance looked at the baby in the crib with utter disgust. "Cry, cry, cry, all she knows how to do is cry! It's giving me a headache. Was this damn child born just to curse me?" Arthur Vance stood nearby, holding a piece of yellow paper. It was a fortune-teller's reading. "This girl has a cursed destiny. She will bring ruin to her relatives. She is a harbinger of doom. If she stays, the entire family will perish." "The master said we can't keep her. Throw her far away tonight while it's snowing heavily." The footage switched to street cameras. Arthur, carrying the swaddled baby, threw her into the snow and walked away without looking back. That baby was me. That so-called master was just a con artist who later went to prison for fraud. And Chloe was the "lucky star" they adopted on the master's advice. The moment this video was released, the internet erupted like a volcano. 【Animals! These people are absolute animals!】 【It's the 21st century! How can people still believe in this feudal superstition and try to commit murder?!】 【Throwing a baby in the snow in sub-zero temperatures? That's attempted murder!】 The netizens who were cursing me just moments ago instantly switched sides. Chloe's comment section was overrun, filled with people calling her a beneficiary of crime and a bloodsucker. I immediately released the second wave: comparison photos. Left side: Eighteen-year-old Chloe, celebrating her birthday on a luxury yacht, wearing a custom gown worth thirty thousand dollars. Right side: Eighteen-year-old me, wearing a patched-up winter coat, helping my adoptive father collect scrap in the freezing snow, my hands red and swollen like carrots. Left side: A bag Chloe casually threw away could feed my adoptive family for five years. Right side: To save fifty cents on bus fare, I carried a fifty-pound sack of sweet potatoes and walked ten miles through the mountains. This intense visual contrast was more lethal than any words. The internet's sympathy overflowed. 【I'm crying. Emily has had it so hard.】 【Who's the real bad seed here? The entire Vance family is rotten to the core!】 The Vance Group's stock hit the limit down as soon as the market opened. Over a billion dollars in market value evaporated. My phone rang. It was Arthur. This time, his voice carried none of its previous arrogance, only exhaustion and fawning. "Emily, it was all a misunderstanding. Dad was tricked back then too." "How about this? I'll give you five million. Delete the video, and let's go home and talk about this slowly." Five million? If this were my past life, I might have actually been tempted. But now, it only made me sick. "Dad, I won't be coming back." "The master said I'm a harbinger of doom who will ruin your fortune." "Take a look. Hasn't your fortune really been ruined by me this time?" After saying that, I hung up and blocked his number. Outside the window, my adoptive mother was applying medicine to her forehead. I walked over and gently took the cotton swab from her hand. "Mom, does it hurt?" My adoptive mother shook her head. "Emily, let's stop fighting them, okay? Mom is afraid you'll get hurt." I hugged this frail, rural woman. "Mom, don't be afraid. You used to protect me. From now on, it's my turn to protect you." Arthur had clearly grown desperate. He dropped the facade of a loving father and directly mobilized his underworld connections. Early the next morning, before the sun even came up. A deafening roar woke the entire village. A dozen excavators rolled aggressively toward the village entrance. Leading the charge was my biological brother, Leo Vance. "Push it down! Flatten this entire shithole village!" The excavator's bucket raised high and smashed violently into the stone monument at the village entrance. With a loud crash, the monument was reduced to rubble. That was the village's landmark, the pride of the whole community. I frantically pulled out my phone to start a live stream, only to find the signal was jammed! Next, the excavators charged into the orchards. Over a hundred acres of newly ripened pumpkins and fruit trees—the villagers' entire livelihood for the year. Old Man Lee rushed over like a madman, hugging a giant pumpkin and crying out. "You can't destroy this! This is our lifeblood!" A bodyguard rushed up and kicked Old Man Lee squarely in the chest. Old Man Lee went flying, landing heavily in a mud puddle. The pumpkin in his arms smashed to pieces, its bright red flesh splattering everywhere. "Grandpa!" With bloodshot eyes, I rushed out to help him. But I was blocked by two burly men. Auntie May and her '80s crew tried to help block the vehicles. Leo sneered and snapped his fingers. "Release the dogs!" Two massive, vicious dogs leaped from the trucks, baring their fangs, and lunged at the elderly villagers. Auntie May's calf was viciously bitten, blood instantly staining her pant leg red. Screams pierced the sky. "Ah! Help!" The villagers were in chaos, the sounds of crying, screaming, and barking mixing together. A group of tattooed thugs burst into my house. They smashed everything in sight, even overturning the stove. My adoptive father tried to protect my computer—it was my only piece of evidence. A bodyguard slammed a baton into his leg. With a sickening crack. My adoptive father's agonizing scream pierced my eardrums. "Dad!" I tried to rush over like a madwoman, but Leo grabbed me by the hair. "Emily, aren't you supposed to be so capable? Aren't you a streamer?" "Try streaming now!" He stepped on my adoptive father's broken leg, grinding his foot down. My father, his face covered in cold sweat from the pain, gritted his teeth and refused to beg for mercy. "Emily... run..." My adoptive mother knelt on the ground begging, but a bodyguard dragged her away by the hair. The village chief tried to go call the police, but his phone was smashed to pieces by Leo. "I've got my eye on this land for development." "Anyone who dares to call the police is crossing the Vance family! I'll kill their entire family!" Extreme anger stripped me of my reason. I pulled a can of pepper spray from my sleeve and sprayed it directly into Leo's face. "Ah! My eyes!" Leo covered his eyes and screamed in agony. In the chaos, I broke free, grabbed a brick, and lunged at him. But two fists are no match for four hands. Seven or eight thugs swarmed me and pinned me to the ground. Leo, his eyes red and looking like a lunatic, walked over. He took a lit cigarette from a subordinate and took a deep drag. "Look closely. This is what happens when people help you." "These poor losers are dying because of you!" Then, he flicked the cigarette onto a nearby pile of dry thatch. Flames shot into the sky. That was our only home. The home my adoptive parents built brick by brick. Watching my adoptive parents' despairing faces in the firelight, my heart shattered. I had caused this. I was too naive. I underestimated the shamelessness and cruelty of capital. Leo signaled his men to bring out a syringe. "Give her a shot and take her away." My consciousness began to blur. My last sight was Auntie May twitching in a pool of blood. My adoptive father's mangled leg. And the fire consuming everything. Darkness fell. The feeling of powerlessness from my past life washed over me again. Did I get a second chance at life just to drag more people down with me? The pungent smell of disinfectant violently jolted me awake. My head was splitting, and my limbs felt as heavy as lead. I struggled to open my eyes and found myself lying on a freezing operating table. My hands and feet were strapped tightly to the bed, immobilizing me completely. The scene felt exactly like livestock waiting to be slaughtered. From the next room, muffled arguing drifted over. Margaret's voice trembled. "Arthur, is... is this going to work? What if the police investigate..." "Investigate what?!" "As long as we make it look like a surgical accident and cremate the body, who will know she's missing two kidneys?"
? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "MotoNovel" app ? search for "394556", and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel