Chapter 523: This Scheme Crumbled Nicely

As night fell, several people sat around a small table in a cheap rental apartment. Freshly ordered takeout covered the tabletop. A stack of black masks lay beside the table.

A man dressed in black was holding a phone, watching a short video he had just made.

"Are we still going tomorrow? I feel like this isn’t right."

"What’s the big deal? It’s not like we’re doing anything illegal."

"Exactly. We’re Melody Monroe’s fans."

"Besides, this gig is so easy, and we make a thousand a day. What else could we do to earn this much money?"

"Yeah, you’d have to be an idiot not to do it, right?"

"If you don’t want to do it, you can back out. We’ll just split your share."

"I never said I wasn’t going to do it!"

"Come on, let’s have a drink to warm up. This damn weather is freezing! This dump of a rental doesn’t even have heating."

"Bottoms up."

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came from outside. The men immediately put down their drinks.

The apartment was in such a remote location that visitors were rare. And from the sound of it, there was more than just one or two people out there.

The footsteps stopped right outside their door.

"Who is it?" one of them asked, just as he was about to check the door. Before he could even get close, the door was kicked open!

Several burly men walked in. In front of them, the young men looked like children.

Seeing the situation, one of them immediately pulled out his phone.

But before he could do anything, the burly man in front of him suddenly slammed him to the ground and stomped his phone to pieces.

"Who... who are you? What do you want?" another one stammered.

"Keith," one of the burly men called out.

Keith Coleman walked in, pulled up a chair, and sat down. "Who put you up to this? What’s your goal?"

"What are you talking about? I don’t understand."

One of the burly men immediately stepped forward and slapped him hard across the face. The man’s mouth filled with blood, and he felt his teeth loosen.

"It was a simple question. You just had to make things unpleasant. A real glutton for punishment, are you? You like getting hit?"

The young men were terrified, huddling together without daring to make a sound.

"Since they like getting hit so much, go ahead and rough them up."

The floor was a mess. The young men were dragged to their feet, their faces pale with terror.

"Ready to talk now?"

They immediately nodded like chickens pecking at rice.

"Did you make those short videos online?"

"Yes, yes we did—no, no we didn’t!"

"We only provided the source material for the videos. We really weren’t the ones who posted them."

"Who hired you?"

"A woman named Edith Miller."

...

"Edith Miller?" Melody Monroe mulled it over. The name sounded familiar.

"She’s Aya Winters’s assistant," Rose Shaw added.

"No wonder it sounded so familiar!" Melody realized. ’Aya Winters is probably trying to use the power of fans to pin me down. If these people cause a scene, it’ll disrupt the film crew’s shoot. And if a conflict breaks out, it’ll damage my reputation. She must have more moves planned. This is just the first step.’

"Good thing you managed to suppress the situation yesterday, so it didn’t descend into chaos."

"They were probably inexperienced, so they were intimidated by Melody. I found some knives in their rental apartment."

"What do we do now?" Rose Shaw asked, looking at Melody Monroe.

"Aya Winters has been in the business for years. There must be plenty of dirt we can dig up on her."

Keith Coleman turned his laptop around. "It’s all here. And it’s quite the show."

"Then let’s give Aya Winters a gift in return."

Rose Shaw looked at Melody Monroe, a hint of a smile flashing in her eyes.