Once Enrique Valdez started talking about the bomb incident, the others also joined in. However, they didn’t dwell on it too deeply because they were afraid that it would upset Iris or trigger her trauma, if she was indeed traumatized by the incident. They figured that it was still too early to determine if she was traumatized or not because it only happened yesterday. All of them were cautious of distressing her because they knew that she had already been traumatized before by the car accident that almost killed her and sent her into a year-long coma.

Jin Liwei looked murderous when they talked about the perpetrator, Tian Kong. His expression frightened Little Jun, so Jiang Ying Yue and Dom moved the little guy and his cat cousins to Iris and Jin Liwei’s bedroom.

Iris also joined the conversation and shared her experiences during the mall show and the eventual bomb incident. Her brief and straightforward account of what happened was very different from Dom’s overdramatic re-enactment the night before. However, it affected them more, chilling their hearts and almost making them breathless in fear for her life.

As for Iris, she didn’t feel traumatized by what happened yesterday. Comparing to how she died in her past life, the bomb incident was nothing. Nevertheless, she still felt disturbed and wanted to get to the bottom of it. There were so many questions that she wanted to be answered.

Before she knew it, her eyes had closed and her breathing became deep and regular. She had fallen asleep due to her strong painkillers despite just waking up that morning. Everyone stopped talking and watched Jin Liwei carry her to their bedroom. Afterwards, Jin Liwei kicked them all out of the suite, including Little Jun and the cats despite their pitiful protests. Jin Liwei wanted his baby girl to have a nice, safe andquiet place to recover from her injuries.

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[This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l . c o m (remove spaces). If you’re not reading this chapter on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It’s very discouraging to see thieves profitting from my hard work. Please read this novel on W e b n o v e l. Thank you! -Arria]

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The bomb incident continued dominating the headlines in the next days. There was very little progress in the investigation. The authorities were still recovering from the devastating hacking attack. It affected the speed and efficiency of their work.

The lunatic hacker really caused them a great deal of chaos and destruction. The authorities cursed the unknown hacker for giving them so much trouble. A bounty had already been issued for the anonymous hacker, even though little to no information was known about him or her.

As for the perpetrator, Tian Kong, he was already in police custody. Thanks to the furious fans who mobbed and detained him at the mall, the police was quickly able to arrest him. It was more or less already guaranteed that he would receive heavy punishment for his crimes. Perhaps he would even be punished with the death penalty, if—no, “when” the court found him guilty. The evidence against him was too strong.

However, there were still many unclear aspects of the case that needed intensive investigation. The police were already suspecting that there was an additional unknown entity supporting Tian Kong in the shadows. Unfortunately, Tian Kong refused to say anything else. He had been ready to die with Iris Long and the other innocent people when he set off the bomb at the mall. He felt no guilt, only regret that he wasn’t successful in blowing everyone up to death.

Moving on to the entertainment news section, Bright Summit cancelled both Jin Chonglin and Iris Long’s current work schedules. For the next couple of days after the bomb incident, there were no updates from the two celebrities.

The Iris Long hate campaign had stopped spreading on the internet like wildfire but it still managed to plant a seed of resentment and even hatred against Iris in the minds of some members of the general public. Although they couldn’t effectively bash Iris on the internet because hate comments against her mysteriously disappeared, they continued to criticize her in real life to their family, friends, co-workers and even strangers on the streets. They blamed her for causing so many innocent people to be injured during the bomb incident. To these negative people, Iris Long was on the same level as the bomber Tian Kong and deserved to be hated, condemned and punished.

Bright Summit, the Black Stars, and many of Iris Long’s allies in showbiz like JJ, DJ Song, Feng Jiu, all the Pandemonium band members, Guan Jintao, Yin Meixing and the other cast and crew of “Strong Yet Broken”, Director He and the hosts of “MusicFest Tonight”, and the other artists managed by Tang Yiyi all defended Iris Long against these unreasonable accusations. Princess Porkchop, creator of the highly popular webtoon “Queen of the Shadows”, also defended Iris Long on her blog and rallied her own fans to do the same.

However, it was difficult to reason with close-minded and negative people. They only listened to words aligning with their own beliefs and rejected anything else. It didn’t help that Iris Long hadn’t released any statement defending herself. These people took her silence as an admission of her “guilt”.

###

The Black Stars were chatting on their members-only chat group. They were all filled with worry about their Boss Iris and also anxiety about the hate campaign against her in real life.

LittlePhoenix: “I got into a fight at school because I heard some jerks from the other classes talking trash about our boss. I’m so angry! I wanted to smack them with my mighty slippers but my friends stopped me and dragged me away.”

CaptainBlackStar: “Behave at school. Your parents will be called to your school if you cause trouble. If they discover that you got into a fight because you’re defending Boss Iris, your parents might start blaming our boss for corrupting you. We don’t want that to happen.”

LittlePhoenix: “You’re right, Big Sis Captain. I didn’t think about that. Thanks for the reminder. I’ll be more careful from now on. But it’s just so frustrating hearing all of those people blaming Boss Iris! What’s wrong with them?!”

MrsLovePhantom: “There are quite a number of our members who were injured in the blast. I think a handful of them are still in the hospital. I think that we should do something as a fan club to support them in some way. Maybe we can send some flowers, food, even some financial help pay for their medical bills.”

Her friends JJNumber1Fan, JJNumber2Fan and JJNumber3Fan all agreed with her. They all promised to donate something for their fellow Black Stars who were injured.

CaptainBlackStar: “That’s a great idea, @MrsLovePhantom! Thank you! Although I can’t donate much because I’m still a poor university student, I can at least write a card or something, maybe even cook or bake goodies for our injured comrades.”

Many of the regular Black Stars echoed her sentiments.

iEatSlippers: “Don’t forget this Lord of All Slippers! Although I’m no longer publicly active as a Black Star, my almighty slippers will never abandon my comrades! This lord is now rich—mwahahaha! So I can now afford to donate more! If you want, you can start calling me the Lord of the Almighty Diamond-Encrusted Golden Slippers!”

CaptainBlackStar, LittlePhoenix, MrsLovePhantom and her three friends all welcomed iEatSlippers back. The members of the Slippers Army were especially ecstatic and rejoiced that their original leader popped up to join them again.

“Shut up and stop bragging about your wealth, you son of a bitch! Shit! I missed you, you shithead! I’m not crying, you are!”

“Did you come back just to make all of us feel poor, Mr. Moneybags—oops, I mean Mr. CFO of Planet Monkey?”

“Uwah! It’s the legendary @iEatSlippers! I’m a new member of Slippers Army! You’re the #1 troll that I admire the most in the world! Please lead us in a trolling battle if you have time! My mighty slippers can’t wait to witness the magnificence of your almighty diamond-encrusted golden slippers!”

iEatSlippers: “Mwahahaha! Sure. This Lord of Slippers will create several smurf accounts to lead you to some battles when I’m free. Unfortunately, I can’t use this account anymore to lead you to battles or else I’ll be in trouble with my company boss. By the way, where’s @KittyBaby? That weird kid can function as her own troll army. My almighty slippers recognize her trolling skills.”

“I think she got grounded by her parents again. Poor kid. Her parents are so strict.”

“Well, she’s a naughty kiddo. I bet her parents frequently smack her butt.”

“I hope not. I’m against parents using corporal punishment to their children.”

LittlePhoenix: “Big Bro @iEatSlippers! You’re back! We haven’t been able to reach @KittyBaby ever since the bomb incident. We were hoping that she could help lead us in battle against the online hate campaign but unfortunately, she didn’t show up. I think that her parents grounded her again. Good thing that an awesome anonymous person helped us and they made all those hate comments disappear.”

CaptainBlackStar: “Yeah, he was a big help. I wish that he introduced himself to us, so we can at least thank him.”

MonkeyFace: “There’s no need for you to know him. Or her. Just know that he or she is on Iris’ side.”

Everyone became excited once again as soon as MonkeyFace appeared. Many idolized him, especially the “Supreme Ascension” gamers. Their excitement buried the conversation about KittyBaby and the anonymous hacker who helped them thwart the hate campaign against their Boss Iris.

MonkeyFace interrupted them and returned the group’s focus to their plan of helping their fellow comrades who were injured in the bomb incident.