With a reluctant sigh, Hadi turned and headed toward Shin Keir's office.
As he walked down the corridor, a thought crossed his mind.
The internet was currently in complete chaos. Rumors were flying everywhere. Would Shin really still be in the mood to deal with him today?
Hadi smirked slightly.
Maybe this time… the great Shin Keir finally had bigger problems to worry about.
An assistant opened the door to the CEO's office.
Just as Hadi stepped in, he overheard Secretary Yun speaking.
"The source of the leaks is still spreading through multiple accounts. They're routing the uploads through foreign servers."
Secretary Yun adjusted his glasses, his expression calm but thoughtful.
"It's a beautifully orchestrated smear campaign. Initial traffic originated from three marketing firms. Two domestic, one overseas. They specialize in reputation destruction."
Hadi paused by the door. A strange uneasiness crept into his chest.
Unfortunately for him, the two men inside had already noticed his arrival.
"You wanted to see me?" Hadi said, forcing a calm expression.
Shin glanced at him briefly.
Without another word, he tossed a folder onto the desk.
"See for yourself."
Hadi assumed it was something trivial. He picked up the folder casually and flipped it open.
But the first page alone already made his hand tremble.
Images of him meeting Bryce Gate in various locations. Below them were bank statements documenting his fund transfers over the past several months.
Shin's voice sounded calm. "Didn't I tell you not to dangle in front of me? Are you that desperate for my attention?"
Hadi's mind went blank.
He had not expected Shin Keir to act this quickly or this efficiently.
"You were the one who stole Bryce's rightful place," Hadi said stiffly, though his voice lacked conviction. "In my eyes, he's still my cousin. What's wrong with meeting him to catch up? And what I do with my own money is my business. Is investing a crime now?"
Shin looked at him with faint irritation.
"I know you're stupid, but are your eyes also just for decoration? Look again."
Hadi glared at him angrily and flipped through the documents again.
From his account, several large transfers had been made.
The recipients?
Those same two marketing firms Secretary Yun had mentioned earlier.
"Impossible!" Hadi shouted, his face turned pale. "I know nothing about this! Bryce said he needed investors for some big project. He promised my investment would double! What nonsense is this?!"
Shin had no intention of knocking sense into him.
If anything, Hadi should have learned his lesson long ago after the previous incident. Yet he had willingly allowed Bryce to fool him again.
Frankly, it remained a mystery how someone with Hadi's capybara-level intelligence had survived comfortably this long.
At this point, the Keir household had been incredibly unlucky when it came to raising this particular creature.
After a moment, Shin spoke again.
"That aside, you also leaked confidential company information while working at the southern branch." Shin added and without hesitation said, "Hadi Keir, you're fired. Get out of here."
For a moment, Hadi simply stood there, his brain seemed to shut down.
He had already lost three percent of his company shares. If he lost his position too…
What would he have left?
Secretary Yun stepped forward slightly and gestured politely toward the door.
Only then did Hadi snap back to reality, suddenly exploding like a volcano.
"Fired?! You bastard, don't go too far!" he roared. "Who gave you the right?!"
Instead of leaving, he began pacing furiously.
"Instead of worrying about this ridiculous nonsense, maybe you should worry about yourself! Are you taking this out on me because the whole world already knows you're a bastard now? Do you think I'm the easiest one to bully, huh?!"
Hadi ranted incessantly, fueled by anger and humiliation.
How could he be fired when he had just returned to headquarters?
"Of course, you have the right to seek legal counsel. You can even sue the company if you wish." Shin leaned back slightly in his chair. "But to protect the company's reputation, we'll be making this matter public."
That sentence finally made Hadi stop shouting.
If the matter became public his reputation would definitely suffer.
"Of course," Shin said lightly, "if you're innocent, then you have nothing to fear. Isn't that right?"
Hadi clenched his fists, he could tell Shin wasn't bluffing.
After a long moment, he pointed at him with a trembling finger.
"This isn't over," he warned bitterly before storming out of the office like a man fleeing a burning building.
---
The next day, Hadi was busy causing a scene at the hospital. The old matriarch was still recovering after fainting at the engagement banquet, and Hadi had chosen the worst possible moment to storm in and complain loudly about Shin's "abuse of authority."
Meanwhile, the outside world remained turbulent.
KGG's stock price had dipped slightly due to the ongoing online controversy. But for a massive conglomerate like KGG, the fluctuation was barely noticeable like a ripple in an ocean.
If anything, the company taking the real heat from the public was Zhi Corporation.
Netizens had turned their focus toward Yeri's family.
At that moment, Shin Keir finally responded through his personal account, he publicly confirmed that he was not blood-related to Eleanor Keir.
However, he also clarified another matter.
Eleanor's mental instability had begun long ago since he was eight.
Netizens, who had been hovering like vultures waiting for fresh meat, immediately flooded the comment section.
But what shocked them most was not the statement itself. It was the account.
The account Shin had posted from was the same one that once competed with the username King Nafplion in sending extravagant gifts to Yeri during her livestream months ago.
The mysterious account known simply as S.
The discovery spread across social media like wildfire, another confirmation that the two had already been involved back then.
However, the revelation did little to pacify the crowd with many still stubbornly insisted that Yeri had been the third party.
Others continued spreading vile rumors about her being "ruined."
Shin's response was short:
"I rescued her myself, would I not know her condition? The only reason she was severely injured was because she protected her dog."
Attached to the post was a short footage.
In the video, Yeri could be seen crying desperately, clinging to Shin and begging him to save Carpet first.
The footage only showed her side profile. Nina and the driver were not visible.
But what people could clearly see was that aside from dirt and disheveled clothing, nothing about her appearance suggested the things the internet had been accusing her of.
The video spread rapidly, even more importantly, it shattered another slander:
That Yeri was an animal abuser.
In reality, she had risked herself to protect her dog. Otherwise, the golden retriever might not have survived that time at all.
Following Shin's statement, Zhi Corporation quickly released their own official announcement.
They addressed the long-circulating rumor about Yeri's supposed engagement to Leo Nafplion.
According to the statement, it had been nothing more than an old verbal agreement between two families when discussing potential alliances.
"As a father," the statement read, "Mr. Klaus Zhi refused to proceed with the arrangement after learning about Leo Nafplion's character."
The announcement also clarified another point.
Madam Nafplion's kidnapping of Yeri had been the result of deliberate instigation by someone else, taking advantage of a grieving woman, who had lost both her husband and her son.
With these revelations released one after another, the tide of public opinion began to shift.
Many netizens suddenly felt a wave of guilt.
Yeri had endured days of public condemnation simply because she was engaged to Shin Keir.
And the footage of her sobbing while begging someone to save her dog first had deeply moved many viewers. Animal lovers especially began sharing their own stories about their pets.
"Wait, who was it that said Yeri abused her dog? You people better apologize! Just because you saw the dog injured you jumped straight to accusing her. Honestly, you're all just jealous she's engaged to Shin Keir."
"I've been silently observing this whole thing for days, and I seriously don't understand the hate toward Yeri. Most of the so-called evidence was shallow gossip, yet people believed it so easily. What's even more disgusting is how some of you celebrated the idea that she had been violated. What kind of society are we living in?"
"Leo Nafplion being a drug addict and a rapist has actual evidence backing it up. If he hadn't been murdered, he'd probably be rotting in prison right now. Yet people accused Yeri of cheating on him? Honestly, respect to her father for protecting his daughter."
Among the thousands of comments, one post suddenly caught widespread attention.
"I'm Yeri's bestie, and I've been saying this for days now! My friend isn't what you all think! I was abducted along with her. I can confirm that she was never violated. There wasn't anyone else there except Madam Nafplion. If you don't believe me, check my profile."
"Who else cried watching that video? If it were my dog, I'd be exactly like Yeri."
"I swear those two look like they're in a movie. That rescue scene felt straight out of a drama."
The tide of sympathy online grew stronger.
But the internet was never a place where everyone surrendered easily.
"Who in their right mind films during a rescue? If this isn't AI, then something is definitely wrong with it. Remember that Shin Keir doesn't answer to the police. He could manipulate evidence if he wanted."
"Okay, let's say Yeri is innocent about the kidnapping. But what about her interfering in Calin and Shin's relationship?"
"I know much about the elite society, the Nafplions used to be a second-tier family and it wouldn't have been easy for the Zhi family to refuse that engagement. If Yeri wanted to escape a forced marriage, she would have needed someone powerful enough that the Nafplions couldn't offend."
That single comment poured fresh oil onto the already raging fire.
Within minutes, netizens began digging frantically into the rumored love triangle.
Even vague social media interactions from years ago were suddenly analyzed.
Calin, meanwhile, had been chased by paparazzi almost everywhere.
Her phone rang endlessly with entertainment shows, interview programs, even online talk shows were begging her to appear as a guest although she'd declined.
At that moment, she was taking a short break from filming a commercial.
Somehow, several reporters had slipped past the security line and within seconds, they rushed toward her.