Xu Yuanming never expected that Xu Zifan would become so reckless and defiant after his rank drop, turning against his family. What could a useless F-rank character do? He wasn't strong enough to even get a clerical job; what gave him the right to defy his family? The inheritance left to him by his mother?
Although that fortune is not a small amount for the Xu family now, it is no match for power. Besides, this is not a peaceful era. The Zerg invade the Empire from time to time, and there are many wars of all sizes every year. In this era, only brave soldiers have the highest status and are most respected.
Xu Zifan has double F-level aptitude. Without the protection of his family, he will die without a burial place sooner or later. Why doesn't he listen to the family's arrangements and instead quarrels with them?
In everyone's eyes, Xu Zifan was already ruined, and his family couldn't understand his behavior at all. This era is so cruel; just like how the original owner couldn't turn things around despite all his efforts, if Xu Zifan hadn't relied on others, he wouldn't have been able to cause such a big commotion all at once.
Therefore, after much deliberation, the Xu family could only conclude that Xu Zifan had somehow learned that Xu Zhikai was the one who harmed him. The family, upon learning this later, decisively abandoned him to protect Xu Zhikai. This fueled his hatred for the family, causing him to lose his reason and recklessly attempt to rebel against them.
The Xu family felt only disgust for Xu Zifan, without the slightest fear. They couldn't imagine any possibility of him turning things around. Even if he had high-status friends now, given time, they would gradually drift apart until they became people from two different worlds. Talent was that important; Xu Zifan was simply not worth their fear.
Xu Yuanming was persuaded by his two younger brothers to temporarily suppress his anger and not intend to punish his unfilial son any further. However, he could no longer allow Xu Zifan to stay in the Xu family and pretend to be a loving father and son. Since Xu Zifan had torn off the mask and said they would kill him to silence him, they would turn the tables and expel Xu Zifan from the family!
After discussing the matter, the three Xu brothers released the injury reports of Xu Yuanming and the gray wolf, saying that Xu Zifan was unwilling to accept the broken engagement and was dissatisfied with the family's arrangements. He attacked his biological father's contracted beast, causing very serious damage to his biological father and his contracted beast. He also tried to frame the Xu family by smearing them.
Xu Yuanming was heartbroken and listed more than a dozen of Xu Zifan's mistakes, expelling him from the family.
From then on, Xu Zifan and the Xu family went their separate ways and had no further contact.
The injury report was naturally much more credible than Xu Zifan's unclear live stream that day, and netizens' attitudes reversed again, returning to the initial state of fiercely criticizing Xu Zifan.
However, after this twist, some netizens have begun to think things through, sensing that something unusual is going on.
Putting everything else aside, the fact that no one can answer what banned drugs Xu Zifan used is highly suspicious.
Because Xu Zifan's arrival disrupted the rhythm of things, everything did not develop as Xu Zhikai had predicted. He was now completely passive, and no matter how he combined the events of his previous life, he could not guess what Xu Zifan would do. His elaborate scheme to plot against Xu Zifan died in the womb, with no chance of implementation.
However, because Xu Zhikai successfully returned to his ancestral home, although his father disliked him and treated him badly, he was determined to cultivate him and make him surpass Xu Zifan's previous achievements because of the contrast with Xu Zifan's rebellious behavior.
He also benefited from Xu Zifan's unexpected rise to prominence and the successful marriage alliance with the Feng family. These advantages came faster than he had expected, and he was no longer dissatisfied. He put Xu Zifan out of his mind and prepared to climb to a higher position step by step.
They unilaterally severed ties with Xu Zifan. Even after the formalities were completed and Xu Zifan and the Xu family became two families recognized by the empire, Xu Zifan did not show up. This was as if he had tacitly agreed that he was no longer a member of the Xu family.
Seeing how things were developing, Feng's mother complained endlessly to Feng's father, "Look at how ruthless the Xu family is to Xu Zifan! What did Xu Zifan say? What could a good-for-nothing like him do to our family? He has no power to fight us to the death. We can figure out how to crack his revelations. Even if we deal with him privately, we shouldn't have agreed to replace him with Xu Zhikai as our son-in-law!"
Feng Ya-hui kept crying, "I don't want Xu Zhi-kai. At least Xu Zi-fan was a double S, while Xu Zhi-kai is only a double A. He won't even be able to have a child with an S in the future. Why should I want Xu Zhi-kai? Dad, why did you agree so easily that day? What were you thinking?"
Mr. Feng rubbed his temples, looking on incredulously, and said, "I don't know either. That day, I was like a man stuck in a rut. Judging from Xu Zifan's attitude, I felt like he was determined to drag us down with him, even if it meant death. I'm at a critical time right now and can't take any risks. As for Xu Zhikai, we can postpone the wedding and there's still a chance to call it off later. I didn't expect Xu Zifan to make this public. Now we're in a bind and can't afford to change anything."
Feng Ya-hui ran back to her room crying. Her mother and father both looked grim, their hatred for Xu Zi-fan burning.
Hypnosis has become obsolete in this era. They never imagined that Xu Zifan had unknowingly hypnotized Feng's father that day, inducing him to agree to the marriage. They simply thought it was a momentary lapse of judgment.
While the whole nation was discussing the Xu Zifan incident, he was frantically learning about the times on social media.
He could make far better nutritional supplements and healing medicines than those from the cultivation world.
But medical surgery, medical instruments, cancer cures, AIDS vaccines, StarNet systems, space jumps, space travel, and so on—all of these were areas of knowledge he could never access.
He was like a sponge immersed in an ocean of knowledge, constantly absorbing it.
He was so engrossed in his newfound freedom that he forgot all about home. It was Shaohua who reminded him that now was the best time to respond to what was happening outside.
Xu Zifan and Shao Hua are very familiar with the timing of public opinion fermentation and reversal, and they grasp it very accurately.
Shao Hua has been focusing on mastering the hacking techniques of this world these past few days, gathering information for Xu Zifan.
Xu Zhikai acted very cautiously, and no evidence could be found. But Xu Zifan wasn't investigating him; he was investigating the Xu and Feng families.
Both families prioritize their own interests, and there's a lot of dirty business going on behind the scenes. The Xu family's decline in the past two years is due to the downfall of a high-ranking official from their faction two years ago. Although the Xu family escaped unscathed, they were still affected and alienated by higher-ups.
The Feng family's rise was rapid. The fact that there were no military officers in the family was naturally because they had found the right powerful patron. Feng's mother had done a lot of diplomacy as a lady.
Shao Hua discovered that Xu Yuanming and Feng's father had falsified accounts for a public welfare project they were jointly in charge of; Xu's second and third uncles had both covered up several cases involving the children of officials within their respective jurisdictions; Feng's mother often invited the wives of officials to go shopping, play cards, and go out, and she always paid for everything. When playing cards, she would deliberately lose a large sum of money to them, which was a complete disguised form of bribery.
Xu Zifan traveled to a small planet aboard an official spaceship. Those who followed him were quite disappointed upon hearing the news, thinking that he had finally resigned himself to his fate and accepted the reality of becoming a cripple. However, as soon as he arrived on the small planet, he publicly revealed various pieces of evidence of the crimes committed by the Xu and Feng families on his social media account.
Hacking is a truly terrifying thing. When someone's hacking skills reach a certain level, many hidden secrets can be uncovered.
After Xu Zifan released the evidence, he threw the AI into space to block its signal, and then took advantage of the night to break through the small planet's editing defenses and leave in his spaceship.
This starship truly lived up to its reputation as a high-end piece of equipment that cost him half his fortune; it could even activate an invisibility mode. By the time the people on the small planet received orders from the capital planet to search for Xu Zifan, he had already vanished without a trace, leaving no trace whatsoever.
The evidence he released caused an uproar on the StarNet. Now, who cares whether he used illegal drugs or not? Everyone just wants to know if the three Xu brothers and the Feng couple broke the law, how serious their crimes were, and how many people they protected.
What happens to Xu Zifan is his own business, but the officials' cover-up is something that concerns everyone. Who knows when such a thing will happen to them?
In truth, the people of the empire, living in such an era, were somewhat aware that government officials were somewhat corrupt and not entirely incorruptible. But knowing is one thing; uncovering that facade reveals another entirely.
It's like a masked villain suddenly taking off the mask to reveal a hideous and disgusting face. That disgust is like a double blow, and no one can tolerate it.
The crowd's anger immediately turned to the Xu and Feng families. Xu Zhikai was stunned. He had no idea that the Xu and Feng families had so many private affairs, and he never expected that Xu Zifan could obtain evidence to expose everything.
Everything was going well after his rebirth. To guard against Xu Zifan's actions, he protected himself meticulously. He never expected that Xu Zifan would directly confront the Xu and Feng families. Was he crazy to be a good-for-nothing facing two families?
Xu Zifan's actions were seen by everyone as a desperate act, ruining them while also bringing him no benefit. But the evidence was irrefutable; destruction was still possible. Even if the Xu and Feng families were considered upper-middle class on the capital planet, with such widely known evidence of their crimes, no one would protect them.
The Imperial Marshal ordered a thorough investigation, and the evidence was confirmed one by one. Within a month, the three Xu brothers and Mr. Feng were all brought down and sentenced to different punishments depending on the amount of evidence presented.
Xu Yuanming and Feng's father were imprisoned in the interstellar prison. Because they donated a large amount of property and made many contributions during their term of office, they were both sentenced to ten years.
The evidence against Uncle Xu the Second and Uncle Xu the Third was insufficient, and they were each sentenced to one year in prison. However, they could avoid punishment by selling a large amount of their property. So they sold their assets to pay off their sentences, sought connections everywhere for protection, and hastily married off their daughters to other men for political reasons. They hoped to get through this period, be forgotten by the public, and then make a comeback on another planet.
They resented Xu Zifan for causing this incident, and since they couldn't find him, they could only blame Xu Yuanming and Xu Zhikai. Xu Yuanming had fallen from power and was useless to them, and Xu Zhikai, now a mere student, was less useful than their daughter's arranged marriage prospective son-in-law. Naturally, they didn't care about Xu Zhikai.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Feng family took advantage of Feng's mother and Feng Ya-hui's lack of support, robbing them of a considerable amount of their belongings. Feng's mother and Feng Ya-hui had no choice but to seek refuge with Xu Zhi-kai, using their engagement as a pretext for his care.
Even after living with them, Xu Zhikai still couldn't understand how things had suddenly turned out this way. Where exactly did things go wrong? With the Xu and Feng families both fallen, how could he, someone with no support and accused of plotting against him by Xu Zifan, possibly rise again?
He has worse resources in this life than in his previous life. At least in his previous life he did nothing wrong and was always the illegitimate son who pleased Xu Yuanming. What is he in this life?