My Marriage Partner is a Crazy Mermaid - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Public Opinion

Everything in Tan City was unfamiliar to her. Meng Ke had always been slow to adapt to new environments, after staying for a few days, her sleep remained restless. When a knock sounded at her hotel door in the morning, she woke up instantly.

Meng Ke rested her hand on her forehead, trying to soothe the headache that came from being jolted awake. A few seconds later, she frowned and reached for her phone on the nightstand. It was 7:00 AM sharp. Who would be looking for her at this hour?

She was puzzled. It wouldn’t be Luo Miao; Luo Miao was a night owl who was likely just falling asleep. Wu Siyi’s side wouldn’t have moved that quickly, so it wasn’t the Meng family either.

A woman’s sixth sense told her it wasn’t anything good. Meng Ke threw on some clothes, walked to the door, and peered through the peephole. She nearly jumped back.

Four men in black stood outside, tall and ramrod straight, looking as if they might break down the door at any second. Meng Ke steadied herself, realizing exactly who was looking for her.

She let out a soft sigh, a mix of helplessness and bitterness. Expressionlessly, she opened the door and leaned against the frame. “I won’t say a word about what happened with your boss. I have enough integrity to keep my mouth shut after taking the money. Is there anything else?”

If not, they should leave quickly. People would think she’d committed a crime.

The man at the front bowed slightly and asked very respectfully, “Miss Meng, may I come in to speak?”

Meng Ke: “…”

Judging by this posture, it was something big. The four men’s gazes fell on her, devoid of any force—polite, respectful, and seemingly open to negotiation. Meng Ke scanned them, silently complaining: With this kind of lineup and aura, could anyone actually refuse your requests?

She stepped aside and shifted two steps. “Come in.”

The four bodyguards filed into the room in unison, standing off to the side with practiced discipline, their heads turning to follow Meng Ke’s movements. Meng Ke closed the door and returned from the entryway, sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed. “Can you speak now? What is it?”

Between her poor sleep and the irritation of being disturbed, Meng Ke was doing her absolute best to suppress her “morning grumpiness.” After all, if a conflict actually broke out, she couldn’t win a fight against them.

“It’s like this. Our boss accidentally intruded into your room the other night, and after returning, she felt she had disturbed you.”

“I know. Didn’t you already give me money? I’ll keep the secret.”

“This is our boss’s subsequent compensation. Miss Meng may take a look.”

The man speaking—whom Meng Ke internally dubbed the “Bodyguard Boss”—pulled a stack of documents from his bag and placed them on the coffee table. He pressed his index finger on them, gave them a light turn, and slid them toward Meng Ke.

Meng Ke grew curious. For such a small matter, having already given three million, what else did Xie Yuhan want to compensate her with? Before opening the file, Meng Ke thought Xie Yuhan had turned into one of those “more money than brains” CEO types.

The file wasn’t thin, roughly ten pages or so. Meng Ke pulled it toward her, opened the first page, and flipped through to the end. As steady as she usually was, she couldn’t control her expression.

If this were a normal person, they would feel as if they had hit the lottery—a lottery ticket sufficient to ensure a worry-free life. This document included not only liquid assets but also a house, a stable job, and an insurance plan that would allow her to live comfortably in Singapore for the rest of her life.

And Singapore happened to be a country she liked very much.

“If Miss Meng doesn’t like Singapore, other countries are also fine,” the Bodyguard Boss added.

Just for letting a stranger into her home for a few hours in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, she now possessed this much wealth. For a moment, Meng Ke wavered. She had transmigrated here; whether she could ever go back was still unknown. The Meng family, who had adopted her, treated her poorly. There was really no necessity for her to stay.

Meng Ke fell silent. Luo Miao was right; one really shouldn’t provoke Xie Yuhan.

The fact that she could come looking for her after a few days meant she had investigated thoroughly. She knew Meng Ke had nothing, so she presented terms that were currently impossible to refuse.

“And if I don’t agree?” Meng Ke asked with a heavy face. She wanted to see what other tricks Xie Yuhan—who was currently “polite before force”, had up her sleeve.

“Our boss said that if Miss Meng doesn’t agree, then there must be a problem with the proposal I provided. She will send someone else to talk to you.”

So, she wouldn’t stop until she reached her goal?

“And what about you?”

“I might need to find a new job.”

The Bodyguard Boss’s expression remained unchanged, showing no ripple of emotion. He didn’t seem to care at all about the existence of his job. Perhaps if he were fired, the Xie family would give him a handsome severance package, much like the one offered today.

Before Meng Ke could answer, her phone suddenly rang. She glanced at the caller ID: Luo Miao. This conversation likely wasn’t something these bodyguards should hear. Meng Ke gripped her phone and stood up. “Excuse me, I need to take this.”

Meng Ke walked into the bathroom, turned on the faucet, sat on the toilet, and pressed answer.

“Keke, the media has started. We’ll see the effects by the afternoon. Remember to check then.”

“Luo Miao, I have a situation here I need to tell you about.”

Regarding the encounter with Xie Yuhan, Meng Ke initially felt there was no need to tell Luo Miao. But now, if she agreed to that document, she could no longer move to facilitate the Xie-Meng marriage.

“What? Tell me,” Luo Miao replied, her voice tinged with excitement.

“It’s a bit troublesome. I can’t explain it in a sentence or two. Should we meet?”

“Look at you, just say you want to watch the Meng family suffer with me. Why be so indirect? Where should we meet?”

“How about your family’s restaurant?” Meng Ke thought of the four bodyguards in the living room and felt this hotel might not be very safe; she didn’t want Luo Miao coming here.

“Sure. Do you need me to pick you up?”

“No need, I’ll go by myself.”

Hanging up, Meng Ke came out. “I need to consider this.”

She didn’t refuse directly, nor did she agree.

The Bodyguard Boss pulled a business card from his coat and handed it over. “That is fine. But we hope Miss Meng can give an answer as soon as possible, ideally within three days.”

Since the knocking began this morning, this was his only sentence that lacked a conversational tone and carried a slight demand. It seemed it was a requirement from his boss.

“I understand. Whether I agree or not, I will give you an answer as soon as possible.”

“And that’s the story.”

Meng Ke recounted the sequence of events regarding her meeting with Xie Yuhan over the past two days and the terms offered. Hearing all this, Luo Miao’s jaw hit the floor. “She’s that rich?”

“Given the Xie family’s current status, she certainly has the strength.”

“Evil capitalist! How does she have so much money? Everyone is rich, so why not this Queen?” Luo Miao said, gritting her teeth.

“So what do you think I should do?” Meng Ke hadn’t told her this just so she could lament the wealth gap.

“If it were me, I’d definitely refuse. After all, her only condition is that you can never return to the country. I have a home in Tan City, parents, a brother… I couldn’t just give up the city I’ve lived in for twenty years.”

“But then again, if I were you, I wouldn’t refuse. You have nothing right now. Instead of messing with the Meng family, it’s better to live well yourself. If I give you money, you feel a burden, but if the Xie family gives it? They’re obscenely rich; whatever leaks through their fingers is enough for us to live on for the rest of our lives. There’s no psychological burden in taking it.”

“And listening to her tone, her goal seems to be making you leave Tan City. Is she so precious that you can’t even look at her once?”

Meng Ke didn’t know why Xie Yuhan was going to such lengths to make her leave. This wasn’t the time to obsess over that, but rather whether she should sign the document. Luo Miao was stating facts; Xie Yuhan had investigated her and naturally knew what she lacked most, effortlessly grasping her weakness.

“Can the thing with Siyi still be stopped?”

“Holy crap! I don’t think it can. Siyi called me this morning to confirm; once it starts, it can’t be stopped because public opinion needs to be guided. It’s not something she alone controls from start to finish; it’s a chain reaction.”

Wu Siyi had explained it to her, but Luo Miao hadn’t listened closely, being too focused on getting the plan started for the sake of the gossip.

Luo Miao hurriedly fumbled for her phone and called Wu Siyi. “It’s a no-go, right?”

“Do you think you’re playing house?! The stuff has already been sent out, it’s too late.”

“Is there any way to fix it?”

“Public opinion has to appear online. Fixes don’t have much effect; people only see what they want to see. A clarification won’t work.”

“With both sides clashing, the effect of the rumors will remain. By the time it’s passed around, neither the Xie nor Meng family will be able to untangle themselves.”

“Got it.”

“I feel like we’re doomed,” Luo Miao wailed, gripping her phone. “You said she could find out about you, do you think she’ll find out we did this too?”

“She’ll handle the marriage alliance first; the investigation will come later.” When Meng Ke had come up with this none-too-clever plan, she hadn’t expected Xie Yuhan not to find out. If she did, she’d just pin it on the Meng family. Given Xie Yuhan’s temper, the Meng family would certainly suffer.

But now things were tricky. If she took Xie Yuhan’s money while simultaneously stirring up rumors to force the two into a marriage, having no morals was a small issue—the real question was whether Xie Yuhan would let her go.

“Let’s see how things stand this afternoon.”

The thing capturing the most attention in Tan City recently wasn’t a specific family, but rumors of a mermaid. Wu Siyi used this public discourse to lead into the marriage alliance of the Xie family’s head.

The news had been out for two hours, trended for one, and was then promptly taken down. The Xie family moved fast to suppress the trending topics. However, the rumors that the disabled Xie Yuhan didn’t want to marry Meng Yingxue, and that Meng Yingxue didn’t want to marry a cripple, had already spread through the upper circles of Tan City.

The effect was better than expected, but Meng Ke wasn’t that happy.

Luo Miao was frantically scrolling through her phone. Leaving aside Weibo, the keywords had already appeared on Baidu, and people were even discussing it in their WeChat Moments.

“We’re doomed, we’re doomed!”

Meng Ke looked calm, but she had been zoned out for a while. Looking at the muttering Luo Miao, Meng Ke suddenly burst out laughing. “Why is this so funny!”

“What the hell are you laughing at? You scared the life out of me!”

Meng Ke spun around in her chair. “Why think so much? When the carriage reaches the mountain, we’ll see how things are.”

Before her voice could even land, Meng Ke’s phone rang. Both of them looked tensely at the screen.

An unknown caller. Meng Ke pressed answer.

“Hello, is this Keke?”

The voice was highly recognizable; the “green tea” flavor was practically overflowing from the screen. It was Ruan Yalan!

“Auntie, it’s me. What’s wrong?” Meng Ke replied, looking up at Luo Miao. Luo Miao waved her hands frantically, mouthing: Not me, not me.

“You’ve been back for several days now. When are you coming home to visit?” Ruan Yalan spoke politely, appearing entirely unaffected by the trending news.

“Tomorrow, I suppose.”