Chapter 47 Reaping What You Sow

Initially, the Fang family's objective was indeed to spread these rumors across the entire Federation, but certainly not in this manner, and definitely not at this speed.

How can a rumor achieve the best possible effect? It must never be propagated openly and straightforwardly; rather, it should be spread in the shadows, with details released bit by bit. Ideally, there should be numerous layers of obfuscation to constantly conceal the rumor—like a shy bride hiding her face behind a decorated fan. Only then will a rumor appear increasingly authentic and unstoppable.

The more elusive it is, the more motivated the media will be to dig into such rumors.

Now, with the rumor brazenly brought out into the open, its credibility was instantly slashed, and skepticism surrounding it multiplied manifold.

In a split second, the entire Federation was gripped by a new storm of public opinion: Was this a rumor or the truth? If it were true, it would undoubtedly deal a colossal blow to the Federation's prestige, as well as a devastating strike against the Lei family.

Conversely, if the rumor were false and deliberately fabricated, it would spell absolute disaster for the Fang family.

Especially now, when the Lei family had dispatched a legal team early in the morning to hold the Fang family accountable, dragging them to court, the Fang family abruptly found themselves at the epicenter of all public discourse.

Following the Lei family's lawsuit against the Fang family for defamation, the upper echelons of the Federation, led by President Humphrey, also sternly denounced the rumors and issued statements vowing to hold the Fang family accountable. This was because Fang Hao's remarks constituted a slander against the federal government led by the President as well.

Furthermore, Fang Hao's words had severely offended another powerful entity: the Golden Eagle Corps. Led by Long Teng, the Golden Eagle Corps had forged a pathway home for tens of thousands of federal prisoners with their own blood. To have their efforts met with such malicious slander filled every soldier in the Golden Eagle Corps with boiling rage. Many of them even contemplated driving warships directly to the Fang family's doorstep to demand an explanation.

In addition to them, the prisoners rescued by Lei Bin and his companions—particularly the many female captives who had narrowly avoided being sold into slavery—all stepped forward one by one. With eyes full of gratitude and aggrieved tears, they passionately and righteously condemned the Fang family.

Because of these rumors, a flood of new evidence and witnesses emerged successively, casting an even greater spotlight on the epic escape of Lei Bin and his comrades.

Under such desperate circumstances, having endured unimaginable hardships, broken through dozens of blockade lines, eliminated hundreds of thousands of imperial troops, captured hundreds of thousands more, and rescued tens of thousands of prisoners—what kind of monumental achievement was this? What kind of grueling trials did it entail?

Yet, in the end, it was slandered by the Fang family as a fabricated event, turning those heroes into undeserving victims accused of being shameless creators of fake news.

Normally, people feel a surge of passionate and deeply moved blood when hearing tales of heroes. Now, to discover that someone was slandering these heroes with such vicious rumors and tone struck the most vulnerable chords in the public's hearts. It crossed a line where forbearance was no longer possible.

Consequently, the Fang family instantly became like a rat running across the street, reviled by everyone.

This seemingly simple rumor involved far too many people and factions. Had it been spread gradually, it might not have mattered. After all, the epicenter of the rumor was aimed at the Lei family, and the others were only slightly implicated. To weaken the Lei family concurrently, these victimized parties would surely have chosen to remain silent, preferring to endure a hint of skepticism themselves if it meant crushing the Lei family down.

However, now that the matter had blown up into a massive scandal, if they were to maintain their silence, the resulting skepticism would inflict catastrophic damage upon themselves.

Thus, they had no choice but to join the crusade against the Fang family.

"Damn it! Absolute fools! I held such high expectations for this Fang Hao, yet he ends up messing things up to this extent, turning us into the public target of everyone's arrows!"

Inside the Fang household, Fang Shitong, the head of the family, shattered a cherished antique vase. It was said that this handmade porcelain artifact had been handed down from the ancient Earth era, and Fang Shitong had always treasured it like a priceless baby.

Standing below him, a group of younger members of the Fang family did not even dare to breathe heavily. Facing the patriarch's towering rage, they stood in terror, as quiet as cicadas in winter.

Fang Shitong had every right to be furious. With the Lei family turning the tables and making the Fang family the common target of the entire Federation, the younger generation of the Fangs did not even dare to step outside. The moment they ventured out, people would point fingers and hurl curses at them. The reputation of the Fang family had plummeted to rock bottom.

Worse still, they now had to face the Lei family's wrath head-on. Although they had previously fancied their own strength to be formidable, confronting the Lei family directly made them realize just how vast the gap between them truly was.

Presently, the Lei family was heavily suppressing the Fang family across the board, causing massive losses. The Fangs knew full well that the Lei family intended to use them as an example to warn others—killing the chicken to scare the monkeys—and unfortunately, they had been cast in the role of the chicken.

Everything stemmed from the conflict between Fang Hao and Lei Bin.

Originally, this clash had been meticulously orchestrated by the Fang family and served as the core of their entire plan: provoke Lei Bin through this incident, and then slowly drip-feed the rumors.

Step by step, this would plunge the Lei family into a massive vortex of public opinion, severely degrading both their reputation and power.

Yet, nobody anticipated how the situation would spiral. Crucially, none of them had imagined that facing Fang Hao's provocation, Lei Bin would retaliate in such a manner, blowing the whole affair completely out of proportion.

In the end, the Fang family had reaped what they sowed.

"Father, under the current circumstances, our only option is to sacrifice Fang Hao. We must declare that this was entirely his personal action, completely unrelated to the Fang family, and issue a clarification as soon as possible to preserve the clan. The longer we delay, the more detrimental it will be for us." At this moment, a refined-looking man in his thirties, clad in a grey suit, spoke slowly and cautiously.

"Hmph, given the circumstances, this is our only recourse. Immediately dispatch people to issue a clarification: state that this was merely Fang Hao acting out of personal jealousy toward Lei Bin's glory, and that he fabricated the lies entirely on his own without any ties to the Fang family. You will handle this matter yourself."

Fang Shitong knew this was the sole remaining viable path. Yet, even with an immediate clarification, the losses suffered by the Fang family could no longer be undone.

"Understood." With that, the refined man turned and walked away.

The other members of the Fang family watched him leave with a flash of jealousy and resentment in their eyes.

On the first day of Lei Bin's fight, Fang Hao released the rumor slandering the heroic deeds as a complete fabrication. On the second day, media outlets across the Federation began reporting on the matter. Backed by seemingly irrefutable "ironclad" evidence, the Fang family became the universal target of public outrage, and the crime of slandering federal heroes was firmly pinned on them. By the third day, the Fang family released an official statement asserting that all words and actions of Fang Hao were purely personal and bore no relation to the family.

Despite the statement, the citizens of the Federation were not fools; anyone with even a sliver of common sense knew exactly what was going on behind the scenes.

Consequently, the denunciations continued unabated. Countless media outlets exposed various hidden illicit activities of the Fang family, causing them heavy losses across all fronts.

Among them, the Lei family was particularly aggressive, deploying personnel to unearth even more inside information as they prepared to carve up the Fang family. The clan was sent spinning into a state of utter chaos.

"Ha! I finally beat it! Damn it, did they really think that giving me a single warship meant I couldn't turn the tide of the battle? I am a genius!" Lei Bin danced around his confinement room in sheer excitement, celebrating his triumphant victory.

After several days of grueling, bitter battles and countless simulated deaths, Lei Bin had finally managed to reverse the war's outcome using just a single Class-A warship.

"Although you successfully turned the tide with a single Class-A warship, that was merely one possibility. In a real military campaign, you wouldn't necessarily be appointed as the commander of a Class-A vessel. You must remember that commanders of Class-A warships hold general-level ranks and are required to have at least five years of command experience on Class-C warships or higher. Therefore, your next training phase will focus on commanding a Class-C warship to turn the tide of battle." Xing Meng immediately poured a bucket of cold water on his celebration.

"What the hell? Jumping straight to Class-C? I haven't even tried Class-B yet!" Lei Bin rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Given your current aptitude, if you are to command warships in the future, the most likely assignments will be Class-D or Class-C vessels. Since you are currently studying warship command, gaining a deeper understanding of Class-C ships will greatly benefit your academic career," Xing Meng explained matter-of-factly.

"Fine, Class-C it is then. To be honest, I've never really been fond of those school lectures; making me sit through them would guaranteed put me right to sleep. Using this opportunity to learn warship command isn't a bad deal after all. At the very least, it'll make graduation exams a lot less grueling."

Lei Bin had detested studying since childhood and developed a headache at the mere sight of textbooks. Thinking ahead to his eventual graduation exams, getting a head start was undeniably useful. Of course, he completely overlooked the fact that with Xing Meng around, no exam could possibly pose a challenge to him. Or perhaps, deep down in Lei Bin's heart, he simply didn't want to rely on Xing Meng's cheating forever. It was a form of pride—a pride deeply rooted in the bones of every member of the Lei family.

And so, Lei Bin agreed to Xing Meng's demand.

"However, Xing Meng, you promised me: as long as I turned the tide of battle with a Class-A warship, you'd let me peek at Alva's naked body." Thinking of Alva's voluptuous figure, a wave of excitement surged through Lei Bin.

"A promise is a promise. But since you cannot leave right now, you can only continue your training right here," Xing Meng replied calmly.

"Alright then, let's keep training. I wonder what's happening outside right now? Did the old man give that Fang family a thorough beating?" Musing to himself, Lei Bin lay back down to resume his training.

As before, there were no network signals permitted near the confinement room, leaving Lei Bin completely cut off from any outside news through Xing Meng. The training resumed, with Lei Bin taking command of a Class-C warship to plunge back into the fierce simulated battles.

In the blink of an eye, half a month of confinement flew by. Utilizing a Class-C warship, Lei Bin found himself utterly powerless to influence the overall battlefield, resulting in repeated failures every single time.

Observing this predicament, Xing Meng adjusted