Chapter 14 — After My Mother-in-law Bought Me a 3 Million Yuan Death Insurance Package

But I am still living. That afternoon there were eight tables of customers. The furthest person drove from the city, more than two hours away, and said that he saw the fish dish stewed in a cast iron pot on Lam Vi's advertisement so he wanted to try it. After eating, he took a bunch of photos and said he would post them online. I stood in front of the stove, stirred the pan, flipped the fish, and added spices. The fire in the kitchen burned brightly. Hot oil splashed on my wrists, burning me. I pulled my hand away and continued flipping the pan. By the time I finished, it was completely dark. After cleaning up the kitchen, turning off the lights, I sat outside in the yard to rest for a while. The phone rang. Not Trieu Loi. Not Tieu Yen. It's a strange number that has never been saved. I picked up the phone.

“Excuse me, is this Miss Tham Tu Lan?”

It's a female voice, quite young, speaking very fast.

"Hello Miss Tham, I'm a reporter for the city's afternoon newspaper, my last name is Ton."

"We received a source related to the case of your ex-mother-in-law falsifying medical records to defraud insurance money and then being arrested."

“Wanted to do a short interview with you to learn about the process.”

Reporter. Has this story spread to the city?

“How do you guys know about this?”

“Someone posted something online.”

“The article is currently very hot, the comment section has hundreds of comments.”

“We feel that this case has a warning to society, so we wanted to do an in-depth report.”

“Are you convenient?”

There is already a post online. My mind quickly turned. Villagers? Or Tran Lan Phuong's side? If it's a villager, it's simply gossip. But if it's Tran Lan Phuong's side... The purpose is most likely to lead public opinion, deliberately distorting information to whitewash the Tran family.

“Reporter Ton.”

“Currently, this case is still in the prosecutor's review stage.”

“I'm not comfortable accepting interviews.”

"If you want to make news, please contact the police and prosecutor's office to get official information."

“Miss Tham, we just want to hear your voice.”

“As a victim, you have the right to speak up.”

“Thank you for your concern.”

“But right now is not appropriate.”

I hung up. Then open the phone to search. Sure enough, there was a post. The title is:

"The mother-in-law in the countryside bought a death insurance for her daughter-in-law to cheat her out of 3,000,000 yuan, and also raised a ferocious dog to prepare for extermination."

The content of the article is generally correct. But a lot of details are distorted. The comment area is divided into two camps. One side cursed Vuong Thuy Hoa for losing all humanity. The other side said:

“I wonder if the daughter-in-law made up the story herself to become famous.”

The second type of comments is not so much. But underneath every comment, there are people following along. I carefully looked at the posting times of those accounts. They all gathered within the last three hours. All are newly created accounts. Autograph of Tran Lan Phuong. The next day, negotiations failed. At night, he immediately began to orchestrate public opinion online. I took a screenshot and sent it to Trieu Loi. Then turn off the phone, wash your face and go to bed. Tomorrow I have to wake up early to import goods. The next three days, the popularity of the post online continued to increase. Someone even posted the address and name of my homestay. The comments section started to appear with comments like:

“Are you intentionally pretending to be famous?”

Business is indeed affected. On the first day, there were six tables left. Day two left four. Day three only two tables left. There was a table of guests who were in the middle of eating when they received a link to a post from a friend. After watching, they called Liu Tieu Yen and asked:

"Is the owner of this restaurant the one who talked about it online? The one who sued her mother-in-law?"

Tieu Yen did not answer directly. Just say one thing:

“Everyone, just go ahead and eat.”

That table of guests finished their meal and then left. When I returned, I even changed the rating to average. On the evening of the third day, Lam Vi arrived. As soon as she entered the door, her face was very unsightly.

“Boss Tham, I saw the story online.”

“Those new accounts are clearly an organized navy.”

"I know."

“Have you reported to the police yet?”

“Trieu Loi said this type of online public opinion matter is very difficult to prosecute.”

“Unless it can be proven who paid for the navy.”

Lam Vi sat down and thought for a while.

“I can help you with something.”

“What?”

“While working in advertising, I got to know quite a few local media accounts.”

“I can contact a few people and write down your entire truth.”

“Not to get views.”

“But it's the truth.”

“The insurance company and the police both have records.”

“It would be better to be transparent about the entire story than to let others lead public opinion.”

I looked at her.

“Why did you help me?”