Needless to say, Misses Youya’s article did not stay hidden from the ninjas of the Si clan. In fact, by the time that Qian Huang saw it, all of the ninjas were already long aware.

Originally, Si Jin had still been in the kitchen, practicing his command over the different methods of food processing while Si Shi Wu was watching closely and Si Yi was on standby in case something happened. That something turned out to be a message from Si Shi Qi.

Si Shi Qi: [She did it again.]

Attached was a link to precisely that article by Misses Youya. Si Yi’s brows furrowed when he saw the address of the website and he clicked on the link with a bad feeling. Just glancing over the article, he already understood what had happened.

He slipped the phone back into his pocket and glanced at his master. "Please excuse me for a moment. There is something we need to deal with." He inclined his head and then left the kitchen, going to the room where the others had already gathered. He looked around and his gaze remained on Si Shi Qi’s face. "Will you solve this issue with your sister or do you need us to do it?"

That was right, the infamous Misses Youya was none other than the sister that Si Shi Qi had already been worried about before. Just like the netizens were suspecting, she really was a reporter in her day-to-day life and only did the blog at the side. So far, Si Shi Qi had monitored her blog in the fear that she would ever use this identity to make trouble for him and his master but he hadn’t expected that it would finally come in this way.

"I can try to deal with it but I’m afraid that she won’t care. Doing something like this, she obviously doesn’t care about giving me face."

Si Yi nodded reluctantly. It was true that she obviously didn’t care about her brother’s reputation. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have written this kind of article about a friend of his and the person that this friend liked from the very beginning. "You should still try it. In any case, she probably expects a reaction. It would be suspect not to show one."

Si Shi Qi nodded and took out his phone, sending his sister a message.

Si Shi Qi: [Are you happy now? Was it really necessary to drag my wife and a good friend of mine through the mud like this? Do you even take me as your brother?]

Sending the message off, Si Shi Qi put the phone back into his pocket and looked up at Si Yi. "I did it. Now, how do we clean up this mess? I don’t think she will really retract the article. You know how she is."

Si Yi nodded with a dark expression. "This is really coming at the worst possible moment. She is quite well-known among the netizens. We will have to be extremely careful in how we handle this or the whole issue might get even worse."

Si Er couldn’t help but pipe up. "I could just hack her website and delete the article."

Si Yi shook his head. "I’m afraid there will already be screenshots. And she probably has a backup so she could just upload it again. Furthermore, imagine the kind of article she would publish if the website suddenly stopped working after she 'exposed' Young Master Xiao. She will hold onto this topic even more. No, we can’t antagonize her like that. If we do, we’ll just make her focus on this more."

Si Er pursed his lips, somewhat miffed that he once again wouldn’t be able to do something. Being a hacker really wasn’t easy.

What Si Yi said raised some concerns with Si Shi Qi as well. "I’m afraid that with this, we will have to put our plans on hold for a little. If we make too much of a splash, she will think there’s more to this. And it might seem to those passersby like there really is somebody helping Xiao Ming if he develops too much in a short amount of time.

"I would say that for the bigger parts of the plan, we’ll have to postpone it for a while or maybe even give up on it. After all, even if the rumors die down, there will still be traces and people might pull them out later if there is something they deem suspicious. In any case, Young Master Xiao will be in the limelight as soon as 'Golden Spoon' starts airing anyway. Adding more to this might not be in his best interest."

Si Yi frowned but still had to not in the end. "You’re right. We’ll do it that way then. Adjust the plan until the beginning of the live stream. Now, there’s still the question of how to combat what your sister said. We definitely can’t let it seem like any word of this is true."

Si Ba couldn’t help but speak up at that. "I’m afraid that the most difficult part about this is that she isn’t wrong. She carefully analyzed the evidence that she had and came to some conclusions. Even though she hasn’t realized the existence of the clan, she has caught onto Master’s identity."

Si Yi nodded. "Well, the plan was to make Young Master Xiao aware. I guess in a sense, we have achieved that. Most likely, that Qian Huang will already have seen the article and shared it with the other two. By now, Young Master Xiao will know who our Master is. It is just a pity that it is tainted by someone that is speaking out against their channel. His impression of Master might not be too good now."

The twenty ninjas simultaneously frowned. All of this was so that their Master could win the show and get a date with Young Master Xiao and end up becoming a couple. If the other person’s impression of him was bad when that first date finally happened, continuing to date would be difficult though. So they had to clear things up. In fact, it would be best if they were able to clear it up before the show even started. Otherwise, the first meeting in real life might be disastrous.

Finally, Si Qi brought up an idea. "We can do nothing on the side of the law, and we can’t be too heavy-handed. I also think that it might be best to beat her with her own weapons. Isn’t she good at writing this kind of article where she looks at clues and lays the so-called 'real truth' bare? Well, let’s show her just how wrong she is!"

Si Yi raised his brows at him. With Si Qi being a novelist, the chances of writing a moving text in response to Misses Youya’s flaming review of the current matter that might at least convince the audience if not Si Shi Qi’s sister herself were quite good. "How fast can you do this?"

Si Qi shook his head. "I think doing it fast might not be a good idea. Let it fester for a few days. Otherwise, she will just think that I’m in league with you and prepared. That’ll just give her ammunition. No, this has to seem like it happened organically. I know it might be hard for Young Master Xiao for the next few days but we’ll have to accept that."

Si Yi’s expression didn’t look good but he still nodded. "I’ll try to explain to Master. He won’t like this though." For their master, how Xiao Ming felt was definitely the most important. Naturally, he wouldn’t want to see him be unhappy because of this kind of rumor.

Well, they couldn’t change it though. If they didn’t handle this carefully, then there would be no way to handle it at all. This kind of rumor could ruin somebody completely. They would need to show that it was completely unfounded if they wanted to change the opinion that the netizens had probably formed by now.

"Very well. Go ahead and prepare then. Tell me when you are ready to post. Si Shi Qi, you work on the plan. As soon as you finish, bring me the new one. In the meantime, I will go and explain to Master."

"Yes."

Si Yi turned around and went back to the kitchen while the other two went to do their own tasks. The seventeen ninjas that were left couldn’t help but look at each other.

Si Er stretched and then sighed. "Ah, this is too boring. Why is it always the others that get tasks? Are we not allowed to do anything ourselves?" He pouted and then also left, going to his own lab on the second floor.

Hmph. If Si Yi didn’t want to give him a task, then he would find a task himself. He wasn’t allowed to just hack that Misses Youya’s website and make the article disappear? Well, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t try and find something else to do.

He cracked his knuckles and then went to work. In any case, since this woman dared to discredit both their master and their master’s not-so-secret crush, then she should better be prepared to be discredited herself. Ah, he’d really like to see what she would have to say about it when it came out that she was doing this kind of business at the side while pretending to be a professional reporter for the rest of her life. Most likely, her employer really wouldn’t like it that she had this kind of side business. With an evil smile, he started to dig for information.

Meanwhile, Si Yi had to tell their master the truth. Instead of wasting many words, he just took out his tablet and showed Si Jin the article that Misses Youya had written. "Si Shi Qi’s sister really went too far this time. We’ve already come up with a plan to counter it but it will take some days. I’m afraid Young Master Xiao won’t be happy."

Si Jin stared at the article expressionlessly. Going too far … She really had done so. While he was kind of happy that his identity was already out in the open and that his feelings for Xiao Ming were also alluded to, he disliked the idea that this woman was saying that Xiao Ming would take advantage of him. Obviously, Xiao Ming wasn’t that kind of person. And to think that Xiao Ming would be unhappy now … He really felt the need to comfort him.

Handing the tablet back to Si Yi, he took out his phone but didn’t really know what to write. In any case, he knew the truth. Xiao Ming also knew the truth. So there was no reason to tell him that he shouldn’t believe any of those words. Also, it was pretty obvious that his previous comments had made trouble for Xiao Ming. So if he went and posted something else, who knew what kind of bastard would pounce on this as some kind of new evidence? He might actually make more trouble for him that way.

Si Jin pondered for a moment and then messaged the 'Bright Yellow Water' channel directly.

Nin Sha: [Don’t take it to heart. Everything will be cleared up sooner or later.]

Xiao Ming was still busy cooking so he didn’t actually notice Si Jin’s message. On the other hand, Qian Huang immediately saw the notification. He had a slightly bad feeling, worrying that it might be some kind of news outlet or something that was trying to make some money from this by publishing a scandal and asking for their statement while actually wanting to pit them or just some user who wanted to harass them because they thought they had the moral high ground.

When he saw the name of the one that had messaged them, he heaved a sigh of relief. It turned out to be Nin Sha. Clicking on the message, he smiled faintly. This guy … he really wasn’t bad. At the very least, he also knew that this would likely affect Xiao Ming and was worried about him. Qian Huang hesitated for a moment but then responded even though he wasn’t sure if Nin Sha would be interested in his response.

Bright Yellow Water: [This is Qian Huang. Xiao Ming hasn’t seen the news yet. I didn’t dare to tell him before the live stream. Thanks for your kind words. I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do about it though.]

Si Jin immediately raised his phone when there was a sound notifying him that he had gotten a response. Seeing that it wasn’t Xiao Ming that had written back, he was originally unhappy. But seeing the content of the message, the unhappiness slightly lessened. At the very least, this meant that Xiao Ming wouldn’t be in too bad of a mood. This was at least a small win. He hesitated for a moment but then gave another response even though he normally didn’t bother to interact with anyone else.

Nin Sha: [I’ll try to find a way to make it right again.]

Then, he put his phone away and just ignored it. In any case, he didn’t want to bother about messaging this Qian Huang. He only wanted to text with Xiao Ming.