Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Chapter 22 – Brilliant Reversal

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

…

Penelope had a beautiful dream, and she was smiling even in her sleep. Hence, she slept until noon and unwillingly opened her eyes.

The first thing she did was to take her phone by the pillow and swiftly check Weibo.

The trending topic was still Samantha, and there was even a red box with the word “trending” beside her name. It seemed that the netizens talked smack about Samantha even more ruthlessly overnight. 

Penelope smiled and tapped on the trending topic.

She really wanted to see how the netizens cursed at Samantha so that she could start the new day in a good mood.

However, she was stunned when she saw the first trending post on Weibo. Penelope widened her eyes in disbelief, and even her smile froze on her face.

What was going on…

Penelope wondered whether she had made a mistake as she had just woken up, so she blinked her eyes a few times and looked at her phone again. Unfortunately, her eyes were not deceiving her!

The trending post on Weibo was posted by an amateur artist who specialized in shooting pornography. She clarified that the female in the viral photos and videos was her, and not Samantha!

To appear more convincing, she even recorded a video to prove that she was not lying!

The artist only resembled Samantha by 30%, but she looked 80% similar to Samantha after adding a filter.

In an instant, the netizens turned into Sherlock Holmes and started to compare the pictures and videos as if they were investigating for crucial evidence. 

The result was that the artist appeared more identical to the woman in the video. Hence, the lady might have been her!

Then, public opinion began to reverse.

[Dammit! I told you that she is a socialite after all. Hence, she wouldn’t be so wild, and she’ll still remain classy.]

[The commenter above is right. There are so many keyboard warriors on the internet these days, and they’ll trust whatever they hear. Moreover, they only know how to hide behind the screen and curse at others. In reality, they are really evil.]

[Am I the only one who thinks that Samantha’s quite pitiful? She went viral on the internet for such a matter. Will she be depressed? I’m worried for her. Does anyone know how she is right now?]

[She’s just a girl but was inexplicably framed. Even the media and marketing accounts promoted the news together, so someone must’ve done this behind her back! I wonder which immoral person did this. They should be the ones suffering instead!]

[We can’t let go of such an evil person easily. Otherwise, they might create another rumor and hurt another innocent girl, who might even be one of us! I’m determined to investigate who the person is!]

[Me too!]

Some of the netizens even immediately created a group called “Protect the Girls”, and started to find out who was behind it.

Penelope did not expect the matter not to progress as she hoped! Instead, they were all blaming her!

What was that damned Sheena doing?

Next, Penelope gritted her teeth in anger and hurriedly called Sheena. As soon as she picked up, Penelope roared, “What were you doing? You can’t even handle such a small matter. If you don’t quieten this matter, I’ll torture you!”

Sheena was puzzled too. This unknown artist suddenly appeared and claimed that she was the female lead in the video, causing the crowd to reverse their opinions. Was it all a coincidence, or was someone helping Samantha?

To prevent anything else from happening, she even let Nate detain Samantha. Hence logically, Samantha would not be able to do anything!

Sheena gave it a thought and asked, “Penny, do you think someone is helping Samantha?”

“That’s impossible!” Penelope answered, “The Larsson family had long collapsed, and her parents are begging for favors everywhere. They can’t even take care of themselves, let alone support Samantha!”

When Sheena heard that, she felt relieved. She pondered upon the situation and concluded. “Penny, I’ve checked and found that after the artist came out with her statements on Weibo, her followers had increased by more than a million within half an hour. Since she works as an adult film artist, I bet she’s just joining the conversation to be an instant hit! Thus, we can pay more netizens and let them use this as a distraction. Then, they would know that the artist is just doing it to ride the wave, and the real female lead is still Samantha!”

After listening to Sheena, Penelope’s anger reduced, and she snorted, “Thankfully, you’re smart. Hurry up and settle it. Spend as much as you need. I want Samantha to be completely destroyed!”

“Alright, Penny!”

As soon as she hung up the call, Sheena quickly contacted some paid netizens and explained her request. At the same time, she transferred money to them too, wanting them to act immediately and control the discussion!

Once again, the paid netizens flooded Weibo, and they frantically left comments everywhere.

The internet instantly turned into a battlefield. She had her own opinions, and the other party had their own understanding. No one was willing to give in, and they were cursing at each other, causing the matter to go incredibly viral. 

In the end, Weibo’s server broke down.

Their developers grumbled as they did their utmost best to fix the server. Finally, after three hours of fixing the bug, Weibo was finally back to normal.

However, another hot news item was exposed!

A verified Weibo account posted, [Samantha was indeed framed, and there’s evidence!]

Then, he released the phone recording between Sheena and Nate, striking a deal as well as the bank transfer records. Furthermore, he even posted the conversation logs of Sheena paying netizens and transfer histories.

Such prominent records proved everything.

Seeing that the situation was not favoring them, the paid netizens instantly quietened. On the other hand, the righteous netizens were furious. 

It was so disgusting for someone to play such a trick. They would not let go of Sheena, the evil wrench!

The netizens went to the police’s Weibo page and left comments, requesting them to arrest Sheena as she was considered involved in a crime.

The police swiftly visited Schmidt’s residence.

When Penelope came downstairs, she saw the police holding Sheen by her arms, dragging her out.

Sheena saw her and cried out, “Penny, help me! I don’t want to go with them! I don’t want to be jailed!”

Penelope panicked, and her face was instantly ashen.

Since the matter had been exposed, someone must take the blame. If everyone knew that Penelope orchestrated the whole thing, what would they think of her? What would Timmy feel about her?

She could not embarrass the Schmidt family, nor could she let Timmy regard her as an evil wrench. If that happened, she would never marry into the Barker family!

Penelope’s expression was full of resentment and hatred, and she scolded, “Sheena, I can’t believe you’d do such a terrible thing! I’m so disappointed in you.”

Then, she turned to the police and said in a righteous tone, “I won’t disrupt your work. Do as you wish.”

Sheena’s hope shattered as it appeared that Penelope wanted her to be her scapegoat, and she yelled furiously, “Penny, this matter is clearly your…”