Chapter 18: The Doomsday of the Scumbag

The bystanders watching from the sidelines were dumbstruck. Good heavens, this was too explosive; some even pulled out their phones to start filming videos.

By the roadside, inside a Toyota Crown.

Old Liu was holding a DV camcorder, recording his "masterpiece" from the passenger seat.

From the driver's seat, Qin Hao reminded him, "Make sure it's clear. I need it for editing later."

"Don't worry, I'm a professional at this," Old Liu said, expressing dissatisfaction with Qin Hao's doubt regarding his professional skills.

Ten minutes later, police sirens wailed as they arrived. The group of burly men didn't run; they were the ones who had called the police. According to them, this was called "voluntarily surrendering to the authorities."

The naked scumbag, tied to a utility pole, nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood. In his grief and indignation, he roared that he would make these people pay.

After understanding the situation, the police couldn't help but cast disdainful glances, but they proceeded to take him away regardless.

"Officer, can I have some clothes?" the scumbag asked, covering his private parts.

The officer curled his lip. "Who are you calling 'officer uncle'? Only now do you care about being embarrassed? What were you doing before? Get in the car; we'll find something to cover you up with at the station."

The scumbag trembled with rage, but facing the contemptuous stares of the surrounding crowd, he could only crawl into the police car.

"Well, the show's over," Old Liu said, turning off the DV with a hint of lingering excitement.

Qin Hao took out the memory card and stepped out of the driver's seat. "Alright, good job this time. I'll transfer the final payment to you in a bit."

"Wait, where are you going? This is such a happy occasion, let's go grab a drink somewhere," Old Liu said, poking his head out from the passenger seat.

Qin Hao waved him off, brandishing the memory card. "Go by yourself. With such great trending material, I have to push this to a few more million-follower social media accounts."

Old Liu: "..."

On the other side, at the police station, the scumbag was wailing about his ordeal. However, the police told him that such an incident could, at most, be handled according to the [Public Security Administration Punishment Law] and did not constitute a criminal offense. At most, it would be five to ten days of detention. Considering they had surrendered voluntarily, the final punishment was five days of detention plus a fine of five hundred yuan per person.

Upon hearing this, the scumbag was displeased. "Then didn't I suffer for nothing? They even hit me!"

"Based on your level of injury, it doesn't even qualify as a minor injury. You can apply for a forensic medical examination if you wish," the officer said disdainfully.

The scumbag was left feeling helpless. Just as he finished his statement and was preparing to leave, the officer called him back.

"By the way, regarding those clothes you're wearing—either return them to us or pay for them. It's two hundred yuan. The invoice and receipt are right here," the officer said with a face full of righteous indignation.

The scumbag was stunned. "But... my wallet is gone. I don't have any money on me."

"That's unfortunate. You can't leave yet. Why don't you call a friend to bring the money over?"

"I..." The scumbag was so angry he almost swore, but the moment he saw the police uniform, he instantly cowed.

About two hours later, the scumbag's roommate finally arrived with the money to bail him out.

The moment he stepped out of the police station, the scumbag felt as if he had just lived through an extremely terrifying nightmare.

"Sigh, Xiao Bai, you'd better pay me back that two hundred yuan quickly. It's almost the end of the month and money is tight," the roommate reminded him.

The scumbag said gloomily, "Don't worry, I'll pay you back as soon as I get back. Lend me another two hundred for now; I need to go report my bank card as lost."

After the roommate left, the scumbag depressedly patted his pockets. His phone and watch were both gone; he couldn't even check the time.

The scumbag went to the bank to report the loss, but his ID card was also missing, so he couldn't process the request. Furthermore, while conducting business, he felt that the bank tellers were looking at him with eyes full of disgust. At first, he thought he was just being paranoid.

Leaving the bank, the scumbag dragged his exhausted body back to his rental accommodation.

However, when his roommate saw him return, he gave him a strange look. The scumbag sensed something was wrong.

"What's with that expression? What happened?"

The roommate simply said, "Just go back and check Weibo on your iPad, and you'll know."

Then, he retreated into his room as if avoiding a plague victim.

The scumbag rushed back to his room, pulled out his iPad, and opened Weibo. To his horror, he found a familiar set of keywords at the top of the trending list: *Scumbag living off women stripped naked in the street.*

The scumbag's heart skipped a beat. He suppressed his fear and clicked on it, nearly blacking out from the shock.

Sure enough, the male protagonist was him. Although the vital parts were pixelated and his face was obscured, as the person involved, how could he not recognize himself?

"Who did this? Who did this?!" the scumbag roared in fury. In his rage, he almost smashed the iPad, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

After regaining a bit of composure, he comforted himself: "It's fine. There's a mosaic, and my identity information wasn't exposed. They're just cursing me online. At worst, I'll just stop living in Shanghai and move somewhere else to start over."

However, as he continued to scroll down the Weibo trending page, he realized he was wrong—and terribly wrong.

He seemed to have been targeted by a feminist crusade.

In the posts from the feminist groups, he had been stripped bare. His name, home address, alma mater, and even the detailed address of his hometown were all exposed.

"I'm finished!" was the scumbag's first reaction.

In the era of mobile internet, information spreads incredibly fast. During the time the scumbag was in the police station, various videos had already gone viral. Combined with the momentum from the feminist groups, it had instantly become a major social hot topic.

And all of this was, naturally, the work of Qin Hao. He had poured massive resources into promoting the content across short videos, long videos, Weibo, and WeChat. While crushing the scumbag, he also launched several Weibo accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers and two short-video accounts with millions of followers.

It took several days before the scumbag had the courage to leave his room. However, when he walked onto the street and faced the gazes of passersby, he felt as if he were naked and being stared at by everyone.

Even if someone was just glancing at him as they passed, he felt they were mocking him.

Moreover, he frequently faced discriminatory treatment. For example, when eating at a restaurant, even if he specified "no spice," the food served would always be "insanely spicy." When taking the subway, a large gap would open up in the carriage where he was standing, especially among women, who would move far away from him.

Worst of all were the job hunts. As soon as HR managers saw his face, they would say directly

"I'm sorry, you do not meet our company's requirements."

At first, the scumbag would try to ask for a reason out of a sense of luck, only to be met with a wave of ridicule.

"The most important requirement for our company is character. Mr. Bai, how would you rate your own character?"

After the HR manager finished speaking, the entire job market began to buzz with gossip.

"Is that the scumbag who was stripped naked by a husband for living off women? He actually has the face to come out looking for work. If any company hired someone like that, their reputation would be ruined."

"Hehe, that's why you can't be a scumbag. The most important trait of a scumbag is thick skin. Look at him, so calm. Even after being stripped and hunted by the whole internet, he still acts like nothing happened and comes out looking for a job."

"Haha~~~ That makes sense."

The scumbag retreated. He knew he could no longer stay in the big city, so he thought about returning to his hometown to hide and wait for the storm to pass.

But when he arrived home, his parents demanded to sever ties with him, and his relatives all tried to kick him out.

"Just get lost! The mess you've made makes us unable to hold our heads up in front of the neighbors!"

The scumbag was utterly despondent. To survive, he could only go to remote small counties to find odd jobs. Even so, he was frequently recognized. At best, he was mocked; at worst, he was met with a barrage of punches from those with short tempers.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Qin Hao was reviewing the company's recent financial statements when suddenly

【Ding! Completed Qiu Yingying's wish: Punish the scumbag. Task completion: Perfect. Reward: 5 Luck Points.】

(End of Chapter)