A few minutes later, Xiao He received a call from He Junhao.
"Ah, damn it! I actually captured Xu Youyou's relationship scandal in my New Year's Eve vlog! But I had absolutely no idea at the time!"
"I watched the footage over and over while editing! All this time, I never noticed!"
"Oh my god, my heart hurts so much! Later I was just like everyone else, munching on melon seeds online, never expecting that I was actually the first person to capture the truth! Ahhh, that massive traffic flow—"
Xiao He: ...
Listening to the other side's clowning around, Xiao He felt black lines forming on his forehead.
After Xu Youyou broke up with Su Shengxi, she immediately started dating Chen Cong. This had been quite a hot piece of gossip last year, with many people discussing it. As an 8G internet addict, He Junhao naturally knew about it too.
He just never imagined that long before these revelations surfaced, he had accidentally captured this major scandal in the New Year's Eve vlog footage he shot with Xiao He!
—Although he hadn't captured Chen Cong's face at the time, he had captured his hands! What kind of "good person" would intimately help fix someone's hair before getting in the car!
And if he remembered correctly, Xu Youyou was still being chased and cursed by Su Shengxi's fans because of her relationship scandal with him at that time. Who would have thought she would change boyfriends so soon after that relationship was exposed.
He Junhao didn't know the twists and turns during that period, but right now he felt chest pain, as if he had missed out on hundreds of millions.
"It's not that serious—"
Xiao He was somewhat speechless.
"No, Brother Xiao, you don't understand. Once there was a sincere major scandal placed right before me, but I didn't cherish it properly. Only when I wanted to open that major scandal again did I regret it deeply—"
"Stop right there." Xiao He cut off He Junhao's endless chatter. "Hurry up and send me the original video file. I need it urgently."
"Alright."
He Junhao replied dejectedly.
"Oh, by the way, we're having a preview screening event for 'Law of the Jungle' here tomorrow. If you're interested, you can come. I'll have them reserve a spot for you in advance."
After saying this, Xiao He anticipated He Junhao's reaction and moved the phone away from his ear—
"Haha! Thank you, righteous brother! How did you know I've been short on content lately? I'm coming! I'm going to shamelessly ride on your movie's heat! Oh hoh hoh!"
Sure enough, the next second He Junhao let out excited roars on the other end.
Xiao He: ...What a terrifying person.
After hanging up, Xiao He successfully received the video footage He Junhao sent.
Then Xiao He communicated with the police, providing them with this material as evidence.
He had done his best to provide all available clues. As for further investigation, he believed results would come soon...
When he reached the police station entrance, Xiao He saw two familiar figures.
Liu Rulan stood with her arms crossed, expressionlessly looking at the person before her: "So you came back because of these matters?"
Although Liu Rulan couldn't fully understand what had happened, today's events were enough for her to guess part of the truth.
The man before her didn't answer her question, just kept his hands in his pockets, slightly lowering his eyes, remaining silent for a long while.
Liu Rulan took a deep breath, suppressing her anger as she said: "I should have reminded you, once you left, don't come back."
Especially not to have contact with those people again.
Those who execute judgment will do what they must, while he was just a victim who shouldn't get involved in these matters anymore, or he would only sink deeper.
Tong Junhui still didn't answer immediately, just raised his head to look at the streets and sky outside the police station, his voice completely flat: "This matter isn't your concern anymore, Sister Liu. You're no longer my agent."
So what he wanted to do had nothing to do with Liu Rulan.
Liu Rulan was choked by his lukewarm response, then her gaze fell on Xiao He.
Xiao He smiled awkwardly and proactively walked over to break the silence: "Um, I see it's about time, why don't we go get something to eat together?"
"Eat?" Liu Rulan sneered, "First go back and write a thousand-word self-criticism! Let's see if someone dares to rush into a fire scene next time."
"Uh—"
Xiao He guiltily shifted his gaze, then cleared his throat and said very seriously: "Sister Liu, we've been through so many storms together already, I thought you would have gotten used to it by now. Do we still need to go through this procedure?"
Liu Rulan: ...
The woman didn't say a word, just glared at Xiao He, then directly turned and walked toward the police station exit: "Let's go, heading back."
Xiao He: "Okay, Sister Liu."
Then Xiao He nodded slightly toward Tong Junhui and followed Liu Rulan's steps.
Tong Junhui stood in place, watching the two figures gradually disappear, his eyes filled with nostalgia and self-mockery. Finally, he let out a light scoff and turned to walk back into the police station.
-
The next day, the first preview screening event for "Law of the Jungle" was about to officially begin.
After packing his things, Xiao He prepared to go out for styling.
But as soon as he arrived at the studio, he received a phone call.
Seeing the name on the caller ID, Xiao He answered with some surprise: "Hello?"
"Old Xiao, you're not being fair, giving He Junhao preview screening tickets but not saving one for me?"
Zhai Zhipeng teased with deep resentment over the phone.
Xiao He broke out in a cold sweat, awkwardly trying to make amends: "Uh, of course I'd save a spot for my good brother too! You can come anytime, I'll have my young assistant bring you in through the backstage directly."
Zhai Zhipeng sighed: "I'm working, just kidding around."
Zhai Zhipeng, like He Junhao, was Xiao He's university dormmate. But unlike He Junhao who continued as an internet blogger after graduation, he found a regular job after graduating and had successfully infiltrated Weibo's headquarters, coincidentally responsible for Hot Search maintenance related work.
Usually, the dorm brothers would occasionally chat in their group chat, posting random stuff. Yesterday, He Junhao excitedly announced in the group that he would attend the "Law of the Jungle" preview screening event, successfully earning "Mo Tun shut your little mouth" memes from the other two roommates.
Dai Bo was busy with graduate studies, swamped with work. Zhai Zhipeng, also a corporate drone like him, let out a soulful cry.
However, all he could do was go to work as usual, sitting on his corporate drone office chair, melancholically being a soon-to-be-bald macaque.
But Zhai the Macaque's work today was somewhat different.
Today, the team leader arranged for them to closely monitor the Hot Search situation after 9 AM, ready to maintain backend data at any time to ensure the platform's traffic operated normally.
Having worked here for almost a year, Zhai Zhipeng already knew what this meant.
—Simply put, there might be a major scandal around 9 AM, but not one pushed by normal traffic—rather, it would be heat artificially created by water armies. The platform already knew in advance and would cooperate to push that "Hot Search" to the top, ensuring it dominated the rankings while "normally" pushing it to various users. This would maintain normal platform traffic operation while converting the fake heat data into real user engagement.
This was already normal internal procedure for them, nothing particularly unusual, and Zhai Zhipeng had gotten used to it.
But as the team leader's current "trusted aide," he took advantage of the meeting dispersal to sneakily approach the team leader, grinning as he tried to get some gossip: "Team leader, why so sudden this time? Can you give me a hint?"
Normally, of course, hints weren't allowed.
But rules are rigid while people are flexible. In this industry circle, there were no airtight walls—information had long been passed around by word of mouth.
"Today there's a production team having a preview screening, they're getting targeted by opponents."
The team leader winked at Zhai Zhipeng, subtly hinting.
"Wow, tsk tsk, these people are really crazy—huh?"
Zhai Zhipeng nodded repeatedly, about to follow the team leader's lead with some roasting commentary, but suddenly froze.
Uh, wait, something seems a bit off here?