Chapter 209: Are Things Back to Square One?

Chapter 209: Chapter 209: Are Things Back to Square One?

"If it were just Liang He claiming she donated all the money to the rescue station, the netizens wouldn’t necessarily believe it, even if the Animal Protection Association helped vouch for her."

The key issue was that, aside from the rescue station’s transparent cash flow and accounts, the volunteers working there and the social media accounts posting on behalf of the station all provided a clear timeline. This proved the authenticity of Liang He’s donation. Otherwise, the netizens wouldn’t have backed down so quickly and decisively.

"Hmph, we really underestimated her. I didn’t expect her to be willing to donate such a massive sum of money."

Even now, Nick didn’t believe this was Liang He’s own handiwork. He assumed the beneficiaries of her donations had simply discovered the online uproar and voluntarily stepped up to explain things for her. However, it was exactly this group of netizens that caused the situation to slip out of the Rebel Army’s control.

"Black Wizard, what are your thoughts?"

Seeing the Black Wizard remain silent, General Nick furrowed his brows in dissatisfaction. If it hadn’t been for his suggestion to use public opinion to drive a wedge between Liang He and the Federation, they wouldn’t be in such a passive position. Looking at the comments on the Star Network, he was furious.

By now, many netizens suspected it was the Rebel Army’s doing, intentionally framing Liang He and the reserve for the animal poisonings and the Fierce Beasts. They realized they were being played for fools by paid trolls manipulating the narrative.

"Since this path is a dead end, we might as well return to the starting point," the Black Wizard said, seeming to have come up with an idea.

Right in front of Nick, he gave a series of instructions to the subordinate responsible for contacting the internet trolls. After grasping the plan, the subordinate glanced at General Nick. Confirming the commander had no objections, he immediately swung into action.

[Wait, does anyone remember the initial rumors about the animals being poisoned and the reserve researching Fierce Beasts? How did this suddenly turn into Liang He making a quick buck?]

[!!! That completely opened my eyes! When the animals were first poisoned, everyone was just questioning whether Liang He had failed her duties. Then, inexplicably, it turned into a crusade against her using animals to make dirty money.]

[Holy crap! Could it be that the animal poisonings and the Fierce Beast incidents are actually true, and they deliberately used Liang He’s scandal to divert our attention? This way, everyone forgets our original goal!]

The situation returned to square one, but the paid trolls remained persistent. They attempted to sling mud onto Liang He and the reserve to cover up their previously failed public opinion war.

Silver Shuttle, who was responsible for monitoring the Star Network, noticed something was wrong immediately and promptly informed Liang He and the others.

"What’s going on? Wasn’t this resolved earlier? How did it get dragged back to the poisonings and the Fierce Beasts?" Hoder’s brain simply couldn’t comprehend such complicated matters. He looked at Liang He and Silver Feather in utter bewilderment.

As the Holy Daughter, Silver Feather had seen far too much of the sinister side of human nature. She saw through the Rebel Army’s underlying motives at a glance.

"They want the netizens to mistakenly believe that your scandal was used to cover up the truth about the poisoned animals and the Fierce Beasts. They might even use this to win the netizens’ sympathy." Silver Feather tapped on one of the comments.

[I seriously suspect Liang He is intentionally playing for sympathy so we’ll forget about her dereliction of duty. Maybe some netizens will even feel sorry for misunderstanding her, letting her rake in another wave of cash.]

The intent to manipulate the narrative in this comment was obvious. It was definitely the work of paid trolls hired by the Rebel Army. However, she hadn’t expected the enemy to counterattack so quickly and brilliantly. Because of this, they were indeed thrown back into a stalemate.

"Unless the Iron-eating Beast wakes up, the comments targeting you will likely be hard to shake."

The matter of the Fierce Beast was easier to explain away. At worst, they could just say they were cooperating with the Animal Research Institute to conduct studies. After all, back on Greenfield Star, Liang He had already proposed suggestions in this regard. Placing the research location at the reserve could be considered reasonable.

"My uncle said he’s already obtained the antidote. Lan Zhuo and Xu Yi are observing the first batch of animals that received it," Hoder added. Following Liang He’s advice, they had decided to treat the poisoned and comatose animals in batches, prioritizing the most severe cases first.

"I’m just afraid the treatment will take too long and the online public opinion will spiral out of control. If the citizens jointly petition the Federation for an explanation and they actually throw Liang He under the bus, it’s all over." Silver Shuttle’s face was full of worry. He was already displeased about being tricked by the Rebel Army last time. Now, experiencing their unscrupulous and despicable methods to achieve their goals firsthand, his disgust only deepened.

"It probably won’t come to that." Silver Feather saw things more broadly than Silver Shuttle, with a much wider perspective.

Liang He wasn’t just a Breeder at the reserve anymore; she was connected to far too many people and matters. As the only salvation for Evolutionary Beastmen, the importance placed on her by the Animal Protection Association and the Animal Research Institute—especially regarding her theory of using Traditional Chinese Medicine to cure the Fierce Beast virus—went without saying.

Furthermore, both the Empire and the temple had Beastmen who required Liang He’s care. This meant that, aside from the Royal Court, all major powers—including the Federation—were basically standing on Liang He’s side.

"That’s right. The worst-case scenario is that Liang He temporarily can’t leave the reserve. She doesn’t like going out anyway." Although Hoder hadn’t thought it through as deeply as Silver Feather, he understood Huo An. Huo An wasn’t the type to throw his subordinates to the wolves the moment trouble arose. Moreover, this entire situation had nothing to do with Liang He; it wasn’t her fault at all. Therefore, he would undoubtedly protect her to avoid chilling everyone’s hearts.

"Alright, you guys don’t need to worry too much about me. Things will eventually be resolved." In truth, as long as they didn’t force her to leave the reserve, Liang He didn’t care about getting scolded online.

"Aside from waking up the poisoned and comatose animals, we still need to catch the poisoner as soon as possible. Only he can prove that all of this is a conspiracy by the Rebel Army." However, during Liang He and Hoder’s night exploration of the forest last time, they only learned from the little monkey that the culprit might have used animals to spread the poison. They hadn’t uncovered any further clues, and she didn’t know if Huo An’s side had any new information.

With this in mind, Liang He looked toward Hoder to ask about the latest progress, only to suddenly have her ponytail bitten by Cedriel.

"Cedriel, what are you doing?"

She felt a slight tug at the back of her head, but there was no pain. He had clearly controlled his strength well.

"AWOO~"

Afraid of disturbing the fluffy creatures’ rest, Liang He and the others had moved to the activity room to talk. The Mojin King Tiger had been there for a while and had overheard much of their conversation. Upon hearing that they had to wait for the Iron-eating Beast to wake up to dispel the rumors, he immediately remembered his original purpose for seeking her out and called Liang He several times. As it happened, there was a commotion over at the dormitories. Liang He mistakenly thought his voice was coming from there, and thus accidentally ignored him.

Left with no other choice, Cedriel bit onto Liang He’s ponytail to force her to pay attention to him.

"Hmm? Did you need me for something?" Liang He rescued her hair from the Mojin King Tiger’s mouth and sighed helplessly. Even though she frequently brushed the fluffy creatures’ teeth, she felt she still needed to wash her hair later, otherwise she couldn’t get over the psychological hurdle.

"AWOO!"

The Mojin King Tiger gestured for Liang He to follow him. The bewildered crowd looked at him curiously upon seeing this. They wondered if Cedriel was becoming more and more human-like.

"I’m guessing Kuang Ye and Yin Qi are fighting again? Cedriel probably wants me to go break it up. I’ll go take a look."