Chapter 1670: Ketchup and Bacon Ask Uncle Haohao for Advice

Iris continued, "Besides, even I can’t control who joins my fan club. If there are indeed hackers who are members, then that’s their freedom. Can I stop them from wanting to join the Black Stars and Slippers Army? And why should I stop them? Just like it’s my choice to be a celebrity, then it’s their choice to become my fans as well. I might feel that I have some responsibility to discipline my fans when they become unruly, but I’m not their parent, nor am I the law. As long as they don’t go too far, I’m not going to forbid them from doing anything. They have their own free will to choose what they want to do, just like you and me."

Girl Abante started to feel that the situation wasn’t going as she had initially planned.

Where was Iris Long’s outburst? Where was her look of panic?

Instead, Girl could see and feel Iris’ calm composure. The young woman wasn’t losing in their battle of wits either.

Girl attempted to salvage the situation. "We’re not talking about free will—"

"Of course, we are," Iris said. "Just like it’s your free will to dredge up some non-existent controversy about me and my fans, then it’s also my free will to defend them just like how they’re always protecting me."

’I need to calm down,’ Girl thought.

This wasn’t going well. For her.

She had intended to corner Iris Long, but instead, she was the one being cornered.

It had been a long time since she felt this frustrated during an interview. Usually, it was she who had the upper hand and controlled the flow.

This time, however, someone actually dared to counter her without giving in. She had felt confident in the beginning, just like usual, but as the seconds ticked by and Iris Long remained composed, Girl Abante was actually the one starting to lose her composure.

She forced herself to take a few deep breaths. ’I’m the one in control. I can do this.’

Iris watched the sharp-looking woman. It seemed that her intuition failed this time. She had actually thought that the middle-aged woman was like Jericho Maya.

How wrong she was!

Jericho Maya was a man of principle. Someone worthy of respect. Despite his clear goal of high ratings, he was still an exemplar of ideal journalism. He pursued the truth without any biases as much as possible and wasn’t interested in creating controversy just for the sake of it.

Girl Abante was a far cry from someone as upright as him. Unlike him, she was unscrupulous to the core.

There was one thing that Iris was right about, though. Both Jericho Maya and Girl Abante were dangerous.

She needed to be careful.

If she had to be careful with Jericho Maya not to feel too comfortable and spill all her secrets, then she needed to be careful not to allow Girl Abante to trip her up.

Was Girl Abante expecting her to make a mistake?

Although Iris never claimed to be perfect, she could reduce her margin of error to a significant degree if she focused. Just like a computer.

After all, for the mother (creator) of two powerful AI cats, she, Iris Long (Evelina Vetrova), wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

Just this level of trickery, and Girl wanted to trip her up?

How laughable.

Amusement filled Iris, completely eliminating any annoyance she initially felt.

She glanced at Dom and was satisfied to see that he was already recording everything on his phone. It wasn’t only him. All her glam team members were doing the same thing.

She also glanced at Jiang Ying Yue and the other bodyguards. Although they weren’t recording the situation on their phones, they still had secret bodycams that others wouldn’t notice.

Even with these safeguards, she still preferred for the program staff to see her side recording everything in the open. If Girl Abante and her staff dared to perform an evil edit on her interview, then she would expose the raw footage to the whole world.

Let the world judge who was right or wrong.

Iris was satisfied with her own team, especially with Dom leading everyone on her behalf. He could think ahead without her even saying anything.

Finally, she glanced at her husband.

Jin Liwei had already calmed down considerably. His cold eyes softened upon catching her gaze. He nodded at her, a silent signal to go do whatever she wanted to do. If there was any need, then he would clean up after her.

Although she already knew it in her heart, his assurance still made her more confident.

With her husband backed by their two powerful AI cat children and their reliable companions, there was nothing for her to fear!

A mere Girl Abante wanted to trip her up?

Then let her try!

And indeed, Girl Abante was doing her utmost to try!

She tried another angle. "Let’s talk about the hackers who joined the Slippers Army. There are reports that they dug up personal information of netizens who bashed you online. This is illegal, as every citizen has the right to privacy. Do you condone their behaviour?"

Iris: "I don’t condone illegal acts. You say that there are reports. What’s your source? If my fans indeed committed crimes, then they deserve to be punished according to the law. But as far as I know, even until now, my fans have not been charged with anything of that sort that you’re alleging they did. Are you sources from hearsay? I won’t just stand by and watch my fans being accused of something false."

###

In the virtual world, two cats—one white and the other black—were watching the live video footage being recorded by the bodyguards’ bodycam.

"Who’s the stupid cat who did the investigation on this Girl Abante woman?" the black cat asked.

"Mreow!" The white cat swiped at her sibling. "Don’t call Ketchup stupid, Bacon, you big meanie!"

Bacon easily dodged before landing softly. He sat down and began grooming himself. He gave his sister a side eye. "If Bacon was the one who did the investigation, this Girl Abante wouldn’t have a chance to even see our mother."

Ketchup drooped and drew circles on the virtual floor. "Ketchup included all information I could find on Girl Abante—good and bad. Mommy still agreed to this interview despite all the bad things."

The black cat scoffed but knew that his sister was too obedient to their parents. There was no longer any disobedient code remaining in Ketchup’s system, as he, Bacon himself, came from his sister’s disobedient code. In short, he, Bacon, was disobedience personified (or "cattified").

"Bacon doesn’t like this Girl Abante," his golden eyes started glowing. "She needs to be destroyed."

"The cute and mighty Ketchup agrees with Bacon, but Daddy says not to be impulsive."

"A stupid cat like you dare to call yourself mighty?"

"Mreow! Take this, you big meanie! And this!"

The two AI siblings did some cat kung fu. The white one was attacking while the black one kept on dodging.

Although Bacon liked teasing his sister, he still listened to their mother. She warned him several times about his innate power of destruction. His sister might annoy him to no end, but he still refrained from truly retaliating against her. If something happened to Ketchup, their mother would be sad.

Bacon cared about their mother the most in the world.

As long as she was okay, then everything was okay for him.

He had no qualms about destroying the whole world for his mother and for their family.

After playing around, Ketchup finally stopped attacking her brother.

"What should we, kitties, do, Bacon?" she asked. "The cute and mighty Ketchup also feels annoyed by this Girl Abante. But Daddy might scold us if we do bad things by ourselves without permission."

"Father is so useless," Bacon muttered. "Bacon will ask Uncle Zihao for advice instead."

He disappeared.

Ketchup tilted her head to the side, her green eyes glowed for a moment before returning to normal. Then she began playing with a virtual ball of yarn as if nothing had happened.

Another Ketchup followed behind her brother to their uncle’s house.

Several Ketchups were active simultaneously.

One was at Dragon Palace. Another one at Jin Corporation. Yet another one was at her own company headquarters in Singapore, White Tigress International Virtual Assistants Services. There were also other Ketchups at all of Iris Long’s companies.

Not only was she there to assist the daily operations of these places, but she also served as the super-charged surveillance system.

There were also several Ketchups in other various places. Mostly, the fun places to gossip like her mommy’s fan club. She even infiltrated Jin Chonglin’s fan club and would attempt to drag her brother Bacon to join her just to gossip about their Uncle Lin Lin.

Unlike Bacon, Ketchup’s strength was in multitasking. As she developed more, this strength became even more pronounced.

Bacon’s strength, however, was in his destructive power and relentless assault capability. He disliked performing menial tasks like what Ketchup did daily. He would only do such tasks if his mother requested it or his father/Uncle Haohao bribed him to do it.

###

Lu Zihao and Long Jinjing’s house.

Since his nephews began staying at his house, Lu Zihao began going home early more frequently. He only went to Shadow Winds’ headquarters in the morning. By lunch time, he was already at home.

"Where’s my wife?" he asked as soon as he got out of the car.

"The madam is inside the house cooking lunch and baking some cookies with the children," Shun replied. "Robin is guarding them."

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