Chapter 529: A Formal Visit
Christian hired a legion of trolls to play down the negative posts about him that were circulating online.
[Christian Lucas is such a nice guy. Surely you guys are not so gullible as to believe the trash that’s being spread online? How would we know if they’re true?]
[Exactly. I, for one, trust Mr. Lucas.]
[You guys are just so naïve, believing in fake news. Be prepared to look stupid.]
[This is obviously Michael’s doing. He is Christian’s arch enemy. You people are idiots to believe this trash.]
[I was trained in video editing. All these videos have obviously been tampered with!]
[Mr. Lucas, you have my support! Don’t go easy on anyone who smear your name!]
[Just recently, everyone was calling Christian their hero, their role model. But now, just because of a little negative news, everyone is eating their words. You people are just shameless opportunists!]
...
Suddenly, there were many comments online singing praises about Christian and taking his side. Wendy frowned upon seeing these posts.
These were posts that had suddenly appeared online. In fact, no more than ten minutes ago, the forums were still filled with posts criticizing Christian. Wendy knew without a doubt that these were hired trolls at work.
She then called Michael.
"Hi, you missing me?" Michael sounded exceptionally tender after he took her call immediately.
"Be serious," Wendy replied. "There are many online trolls working to play down the criticism of Christian. I’m thinking if we should also hire some trolls?"
"Sure, why not? I’ll ask Mr. York to get on it right away," Michael replied.
"To silence the posts of all his trolls, I will hire a thousand trolls for every hundred that he has. After all, Christian does not have as much funds as we do."
Smiling at Michael’s arrogance, Wendy urged him, "Well, get on it and hire some trolls then."
"Give me a kiss before I go get those trolls hired," Michael requested.
"Oh, stop being childish." Although she sounded a tad exasperated, Wendy’s lips curled into a smile. She could just imagine Michael’s demeanor at the other end of the line.
"Muah..." Michael took the initiative to kiss into his cellphone and then said, "Your turn."
Chuckling helplessly, Wendy paused before she too kissed into the cellphone, "Muah..."
Gleefully satisfied, Michael hung up and proceeded to give Mr. York his instruction.
After ending the call, Wendy swiped back to the forum. Her eyes opened wide when she noticed the latest posts.
[OMG! How much are these trolls being paid? Tell me so that I could make some extra cash too!]
[What the hell? How could facts like these be covered up?]
[This video was tampered with? Are you really trained in video editing? I am a trained video editor. Let’s discuss how can the footage be tampered with!]
[Can you trolls at least be a little more professional? Judging by the personal home page, most of these IDs were only just registered today. I take my hat off to you lot.
Even though you have been paid by Christian, you should still scrub with a little more integrity. Don’t you realize that this slipshod work just screams "trolls"?]
[I too want to make some pocket money. Quick, tell me how I can be a troll!]
["Stop scrubbing already! You’re just adding fuel to the fire! That video with Christian in it has been validated. Besides, that incident at the train station had been witnessed by many people. Are you telling me that all of these are fake?]
[I was at the train station that day. I can testify that everything posted about Christian is true. Although I had been too terrified to capture everything on video, I did hear the gunshots and there was a lot of blood on the ground.]
[Christian deserves to be killed in a car crash for even trying to cover up facts like these!]
...
Within a few minutes, all of Christian’s trolls were buried under the myriad new comments being posted. Wendy could not believe her eyes. She logged out of the chatroom and re-entered, just to make sure that she had not been imagining things.
True enough, all the latest posts were criticisms targeted at Christian. His trolls had no significant impact. Amazed, Wendy marveled at the power of public sentiment.
Without a doubt, Christian must have spent a lot of money hiring those trolls. Yet, they were unable to cover up the negative comments about him.
At that thought, Wendy felt reassured. Since there was no longer a need for them to hire trolls, Wendy called Michael again to call off their plan.
Speaking up just when the call was accepted, Wendy said, "We no longer need the trolls."
"Why not?" Michael asked, puzzled. Didn’t she just tell him to hire trolls?
"Christian is done for. There is no way he can whitewash his reputation. All those trolls that he had hired were not successful in turning things around.
"So let’s just relax, sit back and wait for him to dissolve into nothingness," Wendy replied, sounding smug and happy.
"OK, I’ll tell Mr. York to call off the search for trolls," Michael responded.
"OK, that’s it then," Wendy hung up.
After she had ended the call, Zess walked over to her and announced, "I’m heading out to fetch the kids."
At that, Wendy checked the time. She had not realized that it was past four in the afternoon. She had spent the entire day following the online postings about Christian!
Getting to her feet, she said to Zess, "Wait up. I’ll change and come with you."
"Sure," Zess said as she nodded.
Wendy and Zess arrived at the kindergarten with a few minutes to spare before school was done for the day. They waited for a while outside the gates before the children came filing out.
Both Jake and Leah smiled brightly when they noticed their Mommy and ran towards her.
"Mommy!" they shouted in unison.
Smiling cheerfully, Wendy walked between them, holding each kid by the hand.
"Oh right, Mommy. Hang on a sec," Leah said before releasing Wendy’s hand and running back into the kindergarten.
"Leah, what is it? Have you forgotten something?" Wendy shouted, breaking into a run to go after Leah.
"I’ll be real quick," Leah replied wIthout turning around to look at her.
Frowning, Wendy asked Jake, "What’s up with Leah?"
Jake was just as puzzled as he shook his head. Then, recalling something, Jake frowned as his expression darkened.
Seeing Mark walking listlessly by himself, Leah ran towards him and took his hand, saying, "Mark, come quickly. My Mommy wants to meet you."
Now, if Wendy had heard that, she would surely have wondered when she had mentioned wanting to meet this little guy because she did not even know who he was "Huh?" Mark looked at Leah.
Looking a tad panicky, he asked, "Your Mommy wants to meet me?"
"Yeah. Didn’t I tell you today that I was going to introduce you to my Mommy?" Leah reminded him, her adorable eyes opening wide, radiating innocence.
"Oh, I thought you were just joking," Mark replied, murmuring almost inaudibly, "I’m so not prepared for this."
"There’s nothing to be prepared for. You’re just meeting my Mommy. What are you talking about?"
Swinging Mark’s hand, Leah asked, "Don’t tell me you’re nervous?"
"Erm..." Mark was indeed a little nervous.
"Well, don’t be. My Mommy is beautiful and gentle. When I told her about you always bringing me food, she said that she would like to meet you," Leah giggled merrily, "Step on it, let’s go."
...
Dragged along by Leah, Mark had no choice but to follow her as she made her way towards Wendy.
His heart beat increased as they closed the short distance between themselves and Wendy.
With his free hand, he quickly tidied his hair and clothes, trying to make himself more presentable.
Then, he began thinking about what to say when he met Leah’s mommy.
He had not wanted to appear rude. Neither had he wanted Leah’s mommy to take an instant dislike to him on first impression.
After all, he had already been in Leah’s brother’s bad books!
Actually, Mark had seen Wendy a few times before when she came to pick up the twins after school. However, he had always just watched them from afar as they left the kindergarten together.
Wendy had been secretly puzzled when she saw Leah approaching with a boy in hand. Nonetheless, she kept her smile on her face.
Just when she was about to ask who the little boy was, Leah spoke up hastily, "Mummy, this is Mark, the boy I was telling you about."
"Don’t you think he’s cute?" she asked, giggling.
"Mark?" Wendy was lost for a few seconds.
Then, she recalled Leah talking about a boy called Mark who frequently brought her snacks.
She also remembered Leah saying that she would introduce them when she had the chance.
She had not expected Leah to remember what she had said.
By the looks of it, she concluded that her daughter had taken a liking to this boy.
And so, Wendy gave Mark the once over.
She decided that he was well-mannered and indeed adorable.
"How do you do, Mrs. Lucas? I’m Mark Jeffreys. Please excuse me for being brash and approaching you without being invited."
At that, Mark bent slightly at the waist and bowed, continuing, "When we meet again, I will bring you a gift."
Wendy’s eyes lit up when she heard what he had said.
This kid was not only smart but also very well-mannered.
For a kid who was a mere six years old, it was no mean feat that he had been composed enough to formally introduce himself to a complete stranger.
"Yes, Leah had mentioned you to me. That you would always bring her tasty snacks.
Thank you for taking such good care of her," Wendy smiled at him.
Mark kept his head low, not daring to look Wendy in the eye.
He said, "You’re very welcome. It was no big deal. I was happy to do it for her."
And that had obviously been a loaded statement.
Wendy looked first at Mark before turning her gaze to Leah.
As Wendy had suspected, Leah was innocently and blissfully oblivious to what was going on. Her only agenda was that she wanted her mommy to meet Mark, the boy who was nice to her, bringing her food and all.
"Mummy, don’t you think Mark is nice?" Leah giggled.
"What’s so great about him?" Jake muttered under his breath. "He’s being nice because he has a hidden agenda."
Jake sounded decidedly unhappy.
Alas, although he spoke under his breath, both Wendy and Mark had heard him.
On his part, Mark had known, all along, that Jake did not like him.
And he also knew why Jake disliked him.
It was all because Jake did not like him getting too close to his sister, Leah.
He had been seated right behind Leah in class. However, Jake had insisted on asking the teacher to move him to a desk far away from Leah.
"Jake," Wendy warned Jake in a low voice, indicating that he should mind his words.
Truth be told, Jake was not someone who would shoot his mouth off randomly.
However, where Mark was concerned, he just did not seem to be able to suppress his animosity.
At his mother’s warning, Jake grunted softly to indicate his displeasure.
