American Adventure: My Uncle is Don Quixote

"Lily has gotten a bit chubby lately," Anya said, shaking her head. "She doesn’t exercise at all. She’s going to fail her equestrian class like this."

"But as long as she’s happy," Elizabeth said, scooping up a spoonful. "Summer is still a ways off. There’s still time to watch her diet."

"Oh, by the way," Anya said, "let me tell you..."

She gave her the rundown on how those female influencers were clout-chasing Li Wei.

"It’s so infuriating, right?" Anya said. "Ugh, even though I feel like these people are just flies, the thought of those gossip accounts comparing me to that 200-pound gay nigger—black person—makes me want to throw up."

Elizabeth’s expression remained serene the entire time, and she didn’t offer much of an opinion.

"I think you’ve already handled it very well," she said calmly. "You’ve had everything that could be deleted taken down, and you can’t rush the rest. Didn’t you already arrange for cease and desist letters? You’ve done everything you could."

"But the cease and desist letters might not even work," Anya sighed. "Their MCN companies aren’t scared at all. They might even use this for another round of hype."

"Then let’s just wait a bit longer," Elizabeth said, putting down her spoon. "Sometimes these things resolve themselves."

Anya glanced at her, feeling that Elizabeth’s words were a bit too nonchalant, but she didn’t think much of it and went back to attacking the sundae in front of her.

After they finished, Anya had to go for a full-body spa treatment, so she said goodbye to Elizabeth, and they went their separate ways.

Later that day, Elizabeth returned to her apartment.

She changed into some loungewear, sat down at the desk in her study, and opened her laptop.

She called her personal assistant, Laura.

"Aunt Laura, I need you to look into something for me."

"Miss."

"Mm... a group of female influencers have been clout-chasing Li Wei lately," Elizabeth said. "A few of the MCN companies behind them are being difficult and refusing to delete the posts."

"How far would you like me to take this?"

"A public apology, delete the posts, and a warning to be more careful in the future," Elizabeth said after a moment’s thought. "And for the ones making the most noise, a temporary ban."

"Understood," Laura said. "I’ll have results for you within three days."

After hanging up, Elizabeth put the matter out of her mind.

In the United States of America, Elizabeth’s words carried far more weight than Anya’s.

After taking over her father’s seat on the family’s board of directors, she now indirectly controlled a portion of the voting rights for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, an organization with over 50 billion USD in capital. With the Free Port project now in full swing, it was no exaggeration to call her the hottest rising star in New York.

And Laura was even more efficient than her words suggested.

In less than three days, one of the primary financial backers for two of the MCN companies’ investors sent them an inquiry.

Faced with their backer’s backer, the two MCNs folded at light speed. Within five minutes of the inquiry ending, all of their contracted influencers had immediately deleted the false statements involving Li Wei.

Meanwhile, the model who had been making the most noise—gaining over a hundred thousand followers by clout-chasing Li Wei—was directly banned from the platform for three months, forcing her to start a new alt account.

Anya only found out about it later.

The old hype-chasing posts were gone as if wiped away by an invisible hand. If you didn’t specifically search for them, they wouldn’t even appear in your feed.

The fitness influencer with 800,000 followers deleted her story and replaced the content with an ad.

The Los Angeles model who had gained over a hundred thousand followers was banned for three months.

The 200-pound transgender nigger had their account outright deleted, vanishing without a trace.

Anya called Tatyana.

"Aunt Tatyana," she asked, "I see everything’s been taken care of. Was that you?"

"No," Tatyana said. "I haven’t even sent the cease and desist letters yet. They apologized on their own."

Anya hung up, thought it over for a moment, and dialed Elizabeth’s number.

"Liz, all those clout-chasing posts have been deleted," she asked. "That was you, wasn’t it?"

"Mm-hm," Elizabeth said with a laugh. "What makes you think that?"

"Hmph," Anya huffed. "I knew it was you."

Elizabeth just smiled, neither confirming nor denying it.

"By the way, since you called, I have a... well," she said, "a request, you could say."

"Go on," Anya said instinctively.

"There’s a banquet at the end of the month for the Free Port," Elizabeth said, admiring her manicure as she spoke. "I’d like to invite Li Wei to come with me. What do you think?"