Because they feared that Sebastian would cancel the Gene Optimization Act after taking office, during the transition period, various human elites frequently visited the Xiao Family manor, attempting to influence Sebastian's decision through the Xiao Clan.
However, the Gene Optimization Act was proposed by Sebastian from the very beginning and had been secretly implemented.
Homelander merely brought it into the open and started making money from it.
In fact, before Homelander made it public, Sebastian had been losing money doing this kind of thing.
Therefore, regarding the Gene Optimization Act, Sebastian never said from beginning to end that it would be canceled; many people were simply worrying for nothing.
Of course, public opinion also needed to be considered, so the first thing Sebastian did after taking office was revise the Gene Optimization Act, reducing the scope of excellent genetic seed screening to three generations.
Reducing the manual workload naturally lowered the cost, and Sebastian directly set the price to the lowest standard, comparable to in vitro fertilization.
As for how many genetic samples the wealthy stored, that was irrelevant to the hospital and would not be openly discussed.
At this moment, there were still ten years until 2019, when the original plot would begin, which would also be the next transition after Sebastian's term ended.
However, in a world already changed beyond recognition, would The Boys still appear?
...
...
Sequence 2: Siheyuan World
Time came to the summer of 2018.
The Siheyuan World was the most harmonious and retirement-friendly world among all the worlds controlled by the Xiao Clan, and it also served as the Xiao Family's private reserve.
Many Xiao Clan members would settle in this world after awakening, and even if they didn't reside there permanently, they would purchase a property here to return to for vacations at any time.
However, with the increasing number of Xiao Clan members, various eccentric clan members had inevitably emerged, each with their own interests and hobbies.
Xiao Ruicong, as a fourth-generation direct descendant of the Xiao Clan, had Xaio, the Dragon King, and Granduncle Xiao Wenshun, the shut-in, as his role models.
As a result, a large portion of the Xiao Family's male members chose to slack off, squander money without ambition, enjoy a decadent yet comfortable life, and diligently "contribute" to the Xiao Family's continued growth and prosperity.
Xiao Ruicong's greatest hobbies were browsing forums, watching short videos, tipping female streamers, and enjoying the thrill of being the top supporter while receiving endless praise.
Xiao Ruicong woke up naturally, grabbed his latest Universe X5 smartphone, and habitually began his daily search for beauties.
However, he came across a wealth-flaunting video.
The short-video blogger was an older sister who looked full of vitality, over 1.7 meters tall, with a pure yet alluring figure and a delicate face—the exact type the Xiao Family liked.
With the mindset of sponsoring an impoverished young woman, Xiao Ruicong immediately clicked the little red heart and entered her homepage.
Her homepage was basically filled with videos flaunting wealth.
Xiao Ruicong didn't care whether it was real or fake.
Everyone had their own way of living; whether true or false, this was simply her chosen lifestyle.
As luck would have it, she happened to brag using one of his family's high-end villas in Shanghai.
Standing inside it, she high-profilely declared herself the mistress of the place.
Xiao Ruicong immediately understood.
Sending a smiling emoji, he roughly figured out her situation; he liked beautiful women with little background.
So he immediately sent her a private message:
"Interested? 50,000 a month. If you get pregnant, I'll give you a house."
Less than two hours later, Xiao Ruicong was completely stunned.
His private messages had exploded.
The reason was that the other party had actually turned his private message into a video and posted it online, launching a barrage of attacks while branding him as "cringe" and "overconfident."
Xiao Ruicong had never expected that his previously unfailing tactic would, this time, run into a "little fairy" who publicly put him on display.
But as someone with a hot temper who had often argued online, he couldn't swallow such humiliation.
He immediately exposed the other party's true situation, quickly pointing out that she was nothing more than a fake rich girl and fake socialite who staged her displays of wealth.
Afterward, both sides began insulting each other back and forth, causing their popularity to soar.
Both insisted the other was fake.
Evidently, as the traffic exploded, the public relations team behind the other party began conducting extensive research.
Their arguments became increasingly professional, making them appear far more convincing.
This directly left Xiao Ruicong speechless; he simply couldn't out-argue them.
However, just when everyone thought Xiao Ruicong had reached a dead end, he casually threw out several donation records worth millions of Rabbit Coins, along with identity verification.
No matter how many lies there were, before absolute strength, they instantly collapsed, leaving the other side completely unable to fight back.
Because if their team really had millions of Rabbit Coins, why would they still work so hard making videos?
Even if they had millions, they would never casually donate them.
When the other party failed to respond for a long time, everyone immediately understood who the real big shot was.
The tide instantly reversed, and everyone began praising Xiao Ruicong.
Somewhat carried away by his success, Xiao Ruicong directly forgot the Xiao Family's ancestral teachings and posted a provocative video.
"Compete with me? Do you even have the qualifications?
My surname is Xiao! Do you even know the value of the Shanghai Xiao Family?"
After that single video, the other party apparently really did have connections within the industry.
They and their entire team collectively chose to delete their accounts and flee overnight.
This immediately caused an uproar among all the spectators.
A single surname had directly forced a millionaire influencer to delete her account and disappear overnight.
What a shocking identity!
Suddenly, self-media outlets across the country felt as though they had uncovered an earth-shattering secret and immediately began digging into Xiao Ruicong's background.
After all, many people in Shanghai itself didn't even know about the Shanghai Xiao Family, let alone people from other regions.
Naturally, they were completely unfamiliar with this Xiao Family.
[Take a look at this young man in the video. By himself, he scared a millionaire internet celebrity into deleting her account overnight. It all started with a top supporter trying to sponsor a young lady...]
During their online feud, the top supporter produced donation records worth millions.
The smug top supporter even revealed his surname, directly frightening the millionaire influencer into deleting her account overnight.
Regarding this matter, Arthur, the Five-Star General of Eagle Nation, commented:
"It's not that the million-dollar donation records can't be afforded, it's just that offending the Shanghai Xiao Family isn't cost-effective!"
Xiao Chenghong: "???"
In the private family group, Xiao Ruicong saw the three question marks sent by his father, Xiao Chenghong, and his entire body trembled.
He knew he had gotten himself into trouble.
The Xiao Family had always adhered to the principle of keeping a low profile.
Even when acting high-profile, they always used pseudonyms and basically never exposed their family background.
He had never expected that, in a moment of pride, he would completely forget the family rules.
And now the matter had grown so large that even if they wanted to suppress it, they couldn't.
Xiao Chenghong ultimately said nothing and directly reported it to Xiao Wenhong.
After only a few seconds of hesitation, Xiao Wenhong chose to ignore it.
Let them investigate however they wanted.
The Xiao Family only needed to remain silent, neither explaining nor responding.
This kind of matter could be either big or small.
His own father had always told everyone to keep a low profile, but that had been decades ago.
Now, the Xiao Family already possessed the power to disregard the entire world.
Whether they acted high-profile or low-profile no longer affected the Xiao Family's influence.
Therefore, there was no need to pay attention to such matters.
With Xiao Wenhong's stance established, the Xiao Family no longer bothered with the issue and simply let it develop naturally.
However, Xiao Wenhong did not realize that his indifferent attitude allowed certain people dissatisfied with the Xiao Family to begin making their moves.
Soon, everything about the Xiao Family was dug up by these "self-media" outlets.
For example, the Shanghai Xiao Family being a branch of the Beijing Xiao Family.
For example, the Xiao Family being descendants of a Marshal of the Rabbit Nation.
For example, the new-generation leaders of various overseas branches all being mixed-race and having an "X" added to their names as a hidden family surname.
How many industries the Xiao Family controlled, how many people they influenced, and even how many organizations had dealings with the Xiao Family—
As more and more "insiders" continued revealing secrets, netizens became increasingly alarmed.
Their perception of the Xiao Family and Xiao Ruicong rapidly transformed from merely being a rich second-generation heir into that of the noble scion of a top family secretly controlling the world.
The entire internet began discussing the Xiao Family, even causing a worldwide sensation.
[What is a world noble? This is a world noble!]
[I thought Celestial Dragons only existed in comics, but they actually exist in real life, T_T]
[I thought capitalist families like the Squids were outrageous enough, but I didn't expect something even more outrageous~]
[Compared to the Xiao Family, the Squids are nothing!]
[By the way, could all of this have been deliberately leaked by them? Otherwise, how could we possibly know this information?]
[The more you think about it, the scarier it gets. The Xiao Family suddenly exposed themselves. What are they trying to do? Become Human Emperors?!]
[Don't say things that are harmful to unity, you idiot!]
Online discussions about the Xiao Family not only failed to die down but became even more intense over time, with countless conspiracy theories emerging.
This time, even Xiao Wenhong could no longer remain seated.
He hadn't expected things to develop to this extent.
He knew someone had to be pushing this from behind the scenes.
Otherwise, how could those private self-media outlets possibly know such confidential information?
Xiao Yufeng, however, remained completely calm.
While leisurely sipping tea and playing with the recently forged Human Emperor Banner, he casually said,
"Since they want to see the Xiao Family's power, then let them see it!"
As Xiao Yufeng's words fell, overnight, every discussion about the Xiao Family across the entire internet vanished without a trace.
All posts, videos, and forum threads were removed.
No trace of the Xiao Family could be found anywhere online, and even attempts by various websites to restore the deleted data proved completely futile.
This was the power of the Xiao Family.
With the Cyber Dimension, this kind of internet-wide mass deletion was child's play.
The Xiao Family incident, which had dominated online discussions, instantly fell from boiling hot to freezing cold after the complete internet purge.
Smart people tacitly chose silence, no longer touching such forbidden topics, and spontaneously shifted their attention from the Xiao Family to other matters.
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