Chapter 43: The General Director's Counterattack

Wen Ran's words, "I wish you a smooth investigation," felt like a gentle curse, piercing precisely into Xu Yuan's heart.

His provocative gaze was even more like a silent declaration of war.

He was saying: Your counterattack was quite pretty, but it's useless. As long as I am here, he will never crawl out of this quagmire.

Xu Yuan's fingertips grew cold again with anger.

She watched the spectators whose gazes had previously been full of contempt for Song Shiya begin to waver once more after hearing Wen Ran's seamless explanation.

And Jiang Yi, who had just achieved a complete victory, was once again pushed to the forefront of public opinion.

No.

She would never allow this hypocrite to so easily take control of the entire situation.

Xu Yuan took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the fury in her heart, and her brain operated at an unprecedented speed.

Wen Ran's words sounded perfect, but in reality, they had a fatal weakness.

That was, he had placed himself on the moral high ground of a "friend."

And the best way to defeat someone standing on the moral high ground was not to debate morality with them.

Rather, it was to completely dissolve the "sacricity" of his actions, pulling him down from a "gentle, good person" back to an "ordinary user sample."

Xu Yuan's gaze slowly fell onto the phone she had been holding all along.

A bold, almost crazy plan quickly took shape in her mind.

She glanced at Jiang Yi at the defense table, then at Wen Ran, who was currently basking in the gazes of the crowd, and a cold smile curved at the corner of her lips.

Senior Wen, don't you love to put on a show?

Then you must make sure you perform right to the very end.

Because my "user research" is only now truly beginning.

Just as the judge announced the resumption of the trial and the plaintiff's lawyer prepared to call the next witness,

Xu Yuan suddenly moved.

"By accident," she let the phone in her hand slip to the ground.

With a "clatter," the sound seemed exceptionally clear in the quiet courtroom.

Everyone's gazes subconsciously turned toward her.

"Sorry, sorry."

Xu Yuan hurriedly bent down, a perfectly appropriate expression of panic and apology on her face.

Fumbling, she picked the phone up, and then, as if testing whether it had been broken by the fall, she unlocked the screen and opened the voice memo app.

Immediately afterward, amidst everyone's bewildered gazes, she brought the phone to her lips and began her "on-site record" in a professional and calm voice, pitched neither too high nor too low, yet clear enough for the reporters in the front row to hear every word.

"'Deep Sea Echo' user research, on-site record, segment three."

"New user sample: Wen Ran. Preliminarily defined as: 'Histrionic personality,' 'Madonna-type' KOL (Key Opinion Leader)."

As soon as these words left her mouth, the entire courtroom instantly fell into a dead silence.

Even the plaintiff's lawyer, currently in the middle of speaking, looked as if someone had choked his neck, his voice stopping abruptly.

Wen Ran's face, which always wore a gentle smile, also froze completely for the very first time.

Yet Xu Yuan seemed entirely unaware of the anomaly around her.

She continued on her own, speaking into the phone in an AI-like, emotionless tone as she carried out her "professional analysis."

"When the situation spirals out of control, this user chooses to intervene proactively. His core demand is not to 'help a friend,' but to recapture the discourse of the scene."

"His behavioral pattern is highly replicable. Step one: acquire entry qualifications under the identity of a 'friend.' Step two: seize the moral high ground with an attitude of 'apology.' Step three: reshape the incident itself through a 'pity play' and 'information asymmetry,' defining himself as a 'well-intentioned wrongdoer' and the defendant as an 'ungrateful beneficiary of help.'"

"In psychology, this behavioral pattern is known as 'non-violent non-cooperation' emotional manipulation. Its essence is to achieve spiritual kidnapping of others through self-deprecation."

"Conclusion: This user sample possesses extremely high research value. His behavioral pattern perfectly matches the user persona of a 'high-level hypocritical personality' within 'Deep Sea Echo.'"

"Recommendation: List him as a key observation target. Continue tracking his behavioral data across different scenarios in the future."

……

Recording complete.

Xu Yuan calmly pressed the stop button.

Then, she raised her head and offered a remarkably innocent and apologetic smile toward the shocked judge and the petrified crowd.

"Apologies, Your Honor, occupational habit. Those of us in product development are just like this—we must record genuine user feedback anytime, anywhere."

"I guarantee there won't be a next time."

With that, she slipped the phone back into her pocket and sat up straight once more.

As if the person who had just dissected Wen Ran alive into a "high-level hypocritical personality user sample" wasn't her at all.

And the courtroom remained utterly silent.

The reporters stood frozen, mouths agape, forgetting even to press their shutters as if struck by lightning.

Their brains had completely crashed.

What... what kind of plot twist was this?!

Who... who on earth was this girl?!

As for Wen Ran, the face that always carried a gentle smile was now as dark as stormy water, on the verge of dripping.

He stared fixedly at the innocent-looking Xu Yuan, and within those eyes, usually brimming with affection, an unmasked, towering fury burned for the very first time.

All his meticulous scheming.

All his flawless performances.

All his gentle butcher's blades.

At this very moment, they were being deconstructed and analyzed by this rule-defying girl in an absurd manner he had never seen or even imagined, reducing them to a pile of ridiculous user data.

This was no longer a counterattack.

This was nothing short of a dimensional reduction strike!

Meanwhile, at the defense table, Jiang Yi, who had remained silent from beginning to end,

looked into Xu Yuan's pitch-black eyes—eyes that had long since been as calm as stagnant water, yet were now putting on this deadpan act of spouting nonsense.

For the very first time, a gentle smile that even he himself hadn't noticed slowly bloomed within them.

This damned head of project.

She truly always managed to bring him unexpected surprises.

The deathly silence in the courtroom was shattered completely by the judge's gavel blow, heavy with anger.

"Order! Maintain order!" He swept the entire courtroom with an unprecedentedly stern gaze. "This is the People's Court, not a chaotic vegetable market for you to mess around in!"