Chapter 105: Chapter 105: Complete Victory

Jessie Sterling took out her phone. While Shawn Stuart was clearly reluctant, the content of his Weibo post was written out clearly, just as she had requested.

[TwinShadowsUnderTheMoon: I am issuing the following clarification regarding the recent rumors I spread about @LittleSquid: First, I do not personally know the person behind the Southaven fireworks show from the beginning of last month. I was lying before. I apologize. Second, @LittleSquid’s work is not based on anyone else’s life. I should not have started baseless rumors. I am deeply sorry for this and for the trouble I caused @LittleSquid. In the future, I will watch what I say and do, and I will not make the same mistake again.]

Jessie Sterling nodded. “I guess it’ll do.”

Shawn Stuart’s fists, already clenched, tightened at Jessie’s words.

Shawn Stuart felt he couldn’t stand to be in this place a moment longer.

Not only had he failed to pick up the girl, but he had also been utterly humiliated in front of everyone. He had no interest, nor the face, to stay any longer.

“Well, you all enjoy your meal. I have something to do, so I’m heading up,” Shawn Stuart said, standing up. After spitting out the words with a dark expression, he turned to leave.

The few people who had been following Shawn Stuart around earlier also left, hurrying after him.

Jessie Sterling, of course, wasn’t going to stop them at a time like this. Who wants to stare at an appetite-killing face during dinner? It would completely ruin her meal.

Once Shawn Stuart and his cronies were gone, the atmosphere at the table changed instantly.

Mochi was still flushed with excitement. “Wow! I can’t believe it! We actually managed to humiliate that pretentious asshole Shawn Stuart! HAHAHA, he really apologized! Haha, I’m so thrilled!”

Bella’s delight was written all over her face. “It really takes a badass to put him in his place. Serves him right!”

Interestingly, neither of them paid much attention to Jessie’s identity, as if it wasn’t something worth focusing on.

Jessie laughed happily alongside them. She really liked this feeling of camaraderie with her new friends.

“By the way, Ms. Rhodes, why did Shawn Stuart seem a little afraid of you just now?” Jessie asked, turning her head curiously to look at the gentle, delicate-looking Yvonne Rhodes beside her.

Yvonne Rhodes actually still hadn’t quite processed everything. When she had chatted with Jessie before, she had been very respectful of boundaries and hadn’t pried into her personal life.

Yvonne hadn’t known Jessie was married, so when Jessie told Shawn Stuart that the Southaven fireworks show had been arranged by her husband, her shock was probably just as great as Shawn’s.

Now, hearing Jessie’s soft voice beside her, Yvonne snapped back to reality.

“Oh, that…” Yvonne Rhodes curved her lips into a slight smile. “I draw action comics too, right? So you could say Shawn Stuart and I are in the same lane, and we’ve competed a few times before. Later, when we first met in person, he found out I was a woman and was pretty disrespectful. So I pretended to ask him out for a drink and beat him up in an alley.”

After Yvonne Rhodes finished speaking, she saw the three young women beside her staring, their mouths wide open in unison.

Yvonne pursed her lips. “Why so surprised?”

Bella gulped. “You just don’t look like the type to get into fights!” Yvonne even seemed gentle, like a sophisticated older sister.

This was one of the pillars of their website; they’d never imagined she had a side like this.

Yvonne said, “Who gets into fights for no reason? I just learned women’s Sanda for a few years for self-defense. I’m not that amazing. If I have to say, it’s probably just that Shawn Stuart is too squishy and can’t take a punch.”

She hadn’t expected him to be crying for his mommy and daddy after just two punches.

Her words cranked the comedic effect up to the max, and the whole table erupted in uncontrollable laughter.

Jessie laughed too, her gaze toward Yvonne filled with admiration. “That’s so awesome!”

“You want to learn? I can teach you over the next few days. The hotel has a gym, doesn’t it?” Yvonne offered.

Jessie laughed. “Ah, better not. I don’t want to get beat up.”

Yvonne: “…”

’That… actually makes some sense. How can you learn self-defense without taking a few hits?’

In stark contrast to the joyous mood at Jessie’s table, Shawn Stuart was in a foul mood, radiating a low-pressure aura.

The few artists who had followed him out had wanted to console him, but Shawn Stuart went straight upstairs, entered his room, and slammed the door, shutting out anyone who came looking for him.

He sat on his bed, pulled out his phone, and scrolled through the comments, his expression dark and vicious.

Under the apology he had just posted on Weibo, there were already nearly a thousand comments.

’When had his posts ever gotten this “much” traffic?’

Things were far worse than Shawn Stuart had imagined.

What had happened at their table had not gone unnoticed.

He was considered the “top dog” of the comics circle and was used to throwing his weight around, so few people dared to provoke him. But just because everyone was polite to his face didn’t mean they actually respected him or didn’t harbor any resentment.

Today, with a “badass” like Jessie Sterling around, people had almost immediately started writing long exposés online.

Some were anonymous, while others spoke out directly from their main accounts, not even bothering to hide behind an alt.

The wind had shifted. It was time for payback, an opportunity too good to miss.

“Ha, he finally crashed and burned. I’ve been putting up with that pretentious asshole for so long. Using ’action comics’ as a cover to build his own little harem. It’s disgusting, and yet a bunch of people are still kissing his ass. I’ve been wanting to say this for ages: raise your standards, people!”

“He was always hitting on girls at the annual conventions. Basically, he was just sleeping with his fans. He’d drop hints day and night that he’s Cheryl Stuart’s cousin and that they’re super close. I’ve seriously never seen anyone who loves to hype himself up more than this guy. He’s so fake.”

“Pathological liar, lying is in his nature! Can all you rumor-mongers just go die?”

Meanwhile, people like Mochi and Bella, who had already had a falling out with Shawn Stuart, directly brought up an old incident on Weibo where he had slandered a regular person, claiming they were trying to honey-trap him, which led to the person getting cyberbullied.

As these incidents were dug up one by one, how could Shawn Stuart’s comment section possibly remain calm?

By the time Shawn Stuart’s editor finished dinner and decided to go talk to him about what had happened at the table, the online backlash was already spiraling out of control.

Before Shawn Stuart’s editor could even get upstairs to find him, he was summoned back down by a call from the editor-in-chief.

That afternoon, Jessie Sterling had a blast with Mochi and the others in the small recreation area. She used to scoff at these kinds of little games, but the ones designed by the company were new and inventive. Since she was never one to resist such things, she quickly got to know the other artists from the website.

“Oh, I almost forgot, tonight is Christmas Eve! Should we go out for a walk?” someone suggested.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep