64. Hai Dachuan had never felt so wronged before.

Lying was something Hai Xiaochuan had been good at since childhood. After all, as long as he spoke, his father would believe him.

His father never questioned the truth of his words, especially when it came to matters involving his sister. Every time, even when it was clearly his own fault, with just a small lie, it would always be his sister who got punished.

Now, to protect himself, Hai Xiaochuan chose, as always, to shield himself with a lie.

Once he uttered the first sentence, the rest flowed easily. To make it seem more convincing, he kept adding details.

"I saw my dad fall by himself."

A child who had lied all his life wore the mask well; his expression was so sincere that it completely fooled the viewers watching the live broadcast.

Combined with Hai Dachuan’s earlier misleading statements, the audience finally understood.

“My god! This man is faking an injury!”

“How could Hailan’s father be like this?!”

“I’m Hailan’s classmate. I can confirm her father is exactly like this. Hailan suffered a lot growing up, and it took her great effort to finally leave that home. I really don’t know what the producers were thinking, inviting this man to the show.”

“The production team is so careless; they don’t even do background checks. Criticizing them by name again.”

Liu Qi sighed and turned off his phone.

A contestant hitting someone on stage was the kind of scandal that, if proven true, would completely ruin Ji Fanxing’s public image.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a setup!

He realized he’d acted too hastily this time.

Liu Qi felt his head buzzing. He was only good at following orders, not at scheming or plotting.

At last, he accepted reality, scowling as he reluctantly opened a chat window, hoping the person on the other end would give him some advice.

The other side didn’t reply right away. Shutting off his phone, Liu Qi fell into thought. That troublemaker Ji Fanxing wouldn’t be easy to deal with, either. He would have to step in to clean up the mess himself.

Most importantly, he needed to get rid of that fraudster. Since he was of no use, he couldn’t just let him sabotage the show!

Of course, Hai Dachuan wasn’t faking anything—his leg still hurt! If it weren’t for the money, he would have stayed in bed and refused to get up.

Hearing Hai Xiaochuan’s words, Hai Dachuan was incredulous.

“You little brat! What nonsense are you spouting?!”

His eyes wide, he strode forward, grabbed Hai Xiaochuan by the collar, and delivered several hard smacks to his backside.

Having witnessed his father’s violent beatings of his sister since he was young, Hai Xiaochuan was terrified the moment he was lifted up. He wailed like a slaughtered pig.

“Ahhh! I didn’t lie! Dad, don’t hit me! It hurts!”

“You rotten kid, all you do is lie! And you tried to steal just now! Watch how I’ll deal with you!”

Hai Dachuan ignored the screams and grew angrier with every blow.

You little bastard! Lying to my face—if I don’t teach you a lesson, I’m not worthy of being your father!

The child’s shrill cries made the cameraman falter; unable to keep filming, he reached out to stop Hai Dachuan.

Taking the chance, Ning Ze wrapped his arms around Hai Dachuan’s waist, and Hailan pulled her little brother away.

“Let go of me! I’m going to beat this brat to death!” Hai Dachuan’s eyes were bloodshot as he struggled wildly.

The scene descended into chaos, and with the cameraman now involved, the live broadcast became a mess.

“What’s happening?!”

“His son said Ji Fanxing never laid a hand on anyone, so now he’s furious and taking it out on the kid.”

“This man is insane, hitting so viciously.”

After a long commotion, Hai Dachuan was unable to land any more blows. Panting, he pointed at Ji Fanxing and yelled angrily.

“Five hundred thousand! Don’t you dare short me a single cent! Check the surveillance! I want to see the surveillance footage!”

Ji Fanxing raised her phone, which was recording, her tone deadly calm.

“Surveillance? What surveillance? I do have footage of you hitting your child—do you want to see that?”

Just as Hai Dachuan, infuriated, tried to lunge at her again, Liu Qi finally arrived. He first gestured for the cameraman to go film elsewhere, and then said to Liu Qi:

“Excuse me, sir, but there’s no surveillance here.”

“What?!” Hai Dachuan refused to believe it, pointing at the cameras around them.

“Then what are all these machines for?!”

“These are for the program’s later shoot. They’re just set up here for now and haven’t been turned on.”

“Impossible!” Hai Dachuan, disbelieving, ran over and checked each camera, flipping them around. He saw that none of the monitors displayed anything; some weren’t even plugged in.

Seeing Hai Dachuan’s darkening expression, Liu Qi coldly reminded him, “Mr. Hai, each of these professional cameras costs tens of thousands at the very least. If you break them, you’ll have to pay full price.”

On hearing this, Hai Dachuan quickly pulled his hand away from the camera.

“So I went through all this for nothing…” Hai Dachuan was indignant.

At this point, the situation had flipped completely. The man who had clamored about being assaulted not only couldn’t produce any evidence, but had also just committed child abuse in public.

“Mr. Hai, this is a program set, not a place for you to cause trouble.”

Liu Qi’s face was stony. Though he was now a producer, he’d grown up running with the local toughs.

When he put on a blank face, there was a natural air of menace about him, which made the bully Hai Dachuan shrink back in fear.

For the first time in his life, Hai Dachuan tasted the bitterness of being unable to defend himself.

“I’m not causing trouble. My leg still hurts—look if you don’t believe me!” With that, Hai Dachuan strode up to Liu Qi and rolled up his pant leg to show him the injury.

Beneath the thick hair on his shin, the red mark was so faint it was hard to tell it was there.

Liu Qi’s mouth twitched. What the hell? This man was all meat, and yet so fragile?

He was making such a fuss over a little red mark.

Given the injury and Hai Dachuan’s reaction, if it had been a hardened thug from his younger days, Liu Qi might have believed it was real.

But to say that it was Ji Fanxing, that delicate girl, who’d hurt Hai Dachuan so badly? He was more inclined to believe Hai Dachuan had made the whole thing up to extort money.

Hai Dachuan saw Liu Qi’s disbelief and actually felt a little aggrieved inside. He was telling the truth—why did no one believe him?

He was about to protest further when his phone rang.

“Hello, is this Hai Dachuan? This is the police. We’ve received a report from the public accusing you of child abuse. Please come to the XX precinct immediately for investigation…”

After the call ended, Hai Dachuan was still confused. He’d just been disciplining his daughter—how did he end up needing to go to the police station?

His former arrogance vanished, and he wilted like an eggplant hit by frost.

“Mr. Hai, it seems something’s come up for you. Are you still attending the event?” Liu Qi reminded him at just the right moment.

While Hai Dachuan was on the phone, he had already confirmed with Hailan that she had not invited her father to the event; it was an error on the staff’s part.

That made things simple—he could just be told to leave.

Having suffered a kick for nothing and failed to get any money, Hai Dachuan had no interest in staying for the event. He could also hear the underlying order to leave in Liu Qi’s words.

“I’m not attending!”

With that, he roughly dragged his son away, limping as he left.

Ji Fanxing watched Hai Dachuan’s departing figure with a cold smile. “And just like that, the problem is solved.”

Hai Dachuan climbed into the car leaving Robin Island, glaring viciously at his still-sobbing son and roaring:

“Cry, cry, cry! All you do is cry! I gave you face and you dared to lie! Just wait until we get home—I’ll show you what happens!”

It pained him to think of the money that had slipped through his fingers.

Still… his daughter Hailan seemed quite famous now. Maybe in a while he could get some money out of her.

With that thought, Hai Dachuan’s mood brightened. He had no intention of going to the police station to cooperate with the investigation. So what if he hit his child?

Who doesn’t discipline their kids?

His leg still hurt—he needed to rest and had no plans to go anywhere.