Most people would have the decency to treat the deceased with respect but that’s apparently not the case for Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Lan, aka the ex-mother-in-law of Barbie Hsu.
Yesterday (Feb 5), Barbie’s family brought her ashes back to Taiwan on a chartered flight, three days after she died from influenza-associated pneumonia in Japan.
Out of nowhere, Chinese influencer ‘Wo Shi Xia Xiao Jian’ claimed in a live stream that the flight was paid for by Barbie’s businessman ex-husband, Wang Xiaofei.
“According to reports, Wang Xiaofei chartered a flight to bring Barbie’s ashes back to Taiwan. Xiaofei took the initiative to settle the flight arrangements because, given his personality, he definitely would not allow Barbie to be brought back in a luggage,” said Xiao Jian.
He even hinted that Xiaofei treated Barbie better than her husband, South Korean singer DJ Koo.
The allegations got so widespread that the words “Video of Zhang Lan saying Wang Xiaofei chartered a flight” started trending on Weibo.
It has since prompted Barbie’s younger sister Dee Hsu to personally rubbish those rumours.
“My sister’s funeral affairs, which includes the chartering of the flight and all other arrangements, were all settled by the Hsu family,” she said in a statement through her manager.
She questioned why anyone would fabricate a lie claiming that Xiaofei had paid for the flight, adding that she’s extremely baffled by it.
“Heaven is watching. Especially now that my sister is in Heaven too. Do these ridiculous lies have to keep surfacing still?” she said.
Taiwanese media subsequently reached out to the private airline company, which confirmed that the arrangements were all paid by Dee and her husband Mike Hsu, and had nothing to do with Xiaofei at all.
The airline also revealed that the flight cost US$69K (S$93K) as they had to specially fly a jet to Tokyo Haneda Airport before making its way its to Taipei Songshan Airport.
The worst part of all?
Upon further investigation, netizens realised that Xiao Jian is actually Zhang Lan’s godson and the latter even liked the video where Xiao Jian said those lies.
Many have since left comments on Xiao Jian’s video, demanding for an apology.