Fortunately, Xiao Zhou discovered it in time and notified Liu Rulan.
Liu Rulan immediately began making arrangements and dealt with all these rumors with lightning speed.
But at the same time, she didn't let her guard down, having the operations department staff work in shifts to monitor the situation 24/7 without interruption.
Sure enough, just before the White Magnolia Awards shortlist was officially announced, Xiao He's negative hot search rapidly climbed to the top of the trending charts late at night, occupying the number one position.
Liu Rulan, who had prepared in advance, didn't hesitate at all and immediately had the operations department contact the platforms to handle the hot search.
This time, Liu Rulan wasn't going to let them gain much visibility.
The previous hot search had clear opponents and known exposure situations and content, so Liu Rulan could counterattack indirectly.
But this time the situation was unclear—Liu Rulan didn't know if they had backup plans—so she suppressed the hot search exceptionally quickly, spending big money to handle it directly.
It's just that this inexplicably appearing enemy left Liu Rulan completely baffled.
Moreover, besides this, Liu Rulan also noticed that Xiao He's work invitations had indeed decreased recently.
Although Xiao He usually had few promotional events to attend, especially during this period of filming with the production team when he basically had no other commercial engagements, the studio hadn't been receiving fewer commercial invitations.
Particularly after Law of the Jungle, Xiao He's traffic and reputation had basically taken shape, and he had already gained considerable fame and influence.
Thus, the studio usually received even more work invitations.
From small advertisements and magazine features to major film, television, and variety show invitations—what Xiao He could formally accept now were only the best ones that Liu Rulan carefully selected.
But starting from last week, these work invitations had decreased. Although the decrease wasn't obvious, Liu Rulan had received several apology calls from production teams over the past few days, withdrawing the scripts they had offered.
This situation wasn't right at all.
Liu Rulan immediately guessed that some big boss was preparing to blacklist Xiao He.
Since the capital behind these withdrawn work invitations basically all originated from Beijing, Liu Rulan asked He Wenming to go to Beijing to gather information and test the waters.
Having been in the Beijing circle for so many years, He Wenming naturally had more connections than Liu Rulan. Sure enough, as soon as He Wenming got the information, he immediately told Liu Rulan.
It's just that this Xingchen Film Industry wasn't simple at all—
Liu Rulan massaged her temples with some headache.
Xingchen Film Industry was a company focused on film and television production, mainly concentrating on investment, planning, filming, post-production and other related aspects of movies, TV dramas, and web series.
They could guide production team investments and production, even plot direction, and later promote the finished works to corresponding platforms and theaters... Their main purpose was producing film and television works, providing "one-stop" services.
Because of this, they had close connections with other related upstream and downstream industries and held extremely high authority within the industry. And since Xingchen Film Industry was backed by a certain well-known tech giant with substantial capital, their position in the industry was very high.
Their words might not make everyone comply, but they were enough to make most other forces keep their distance.
After all, everyone came to the entertainment industry to make money—who would really offend another major capital for their money-making tools?
In recent years, Xingchen Film Industry had maintained a strong presence, and its subsidiary Xingchen Entertainment had also developed rapidly leveraging its momentum. Artists from this company basically all could participate in Xingchen Film Industry's own production teams, getting access to excellent S+ productions.
Among them, Qin Yuezhang was especially the top star at Xingchen, with film and television resources that ranked first among peers.
It's just unclear who exactly Xiao He had offended this time...
While Liu Rulan was pondering, Xiao He's call came through.
"Hello?"
"Sister Liu, I just finished shooting here."
Xiao He said while eating, "I've already understood the situation with the White Magnolia Awards. How have things been on your end recently?"
Liu Rulan then told Xiao He in detail about the current situation domestically.
Xiao He paused while gnawing on ribs.
"When did this happen?"
"Last night—to be precise, around noon your time, before the White Magnolia shortlist was officially announced."
Xiao He took a deep breath: "Thanks."
He had been filming at that time and indeed couldn't have paid attention to the domestic situation.
"That's actually the minor issue." Liu Rulan's tone turned somewhat grave, "But now you've been targeted by Xingchen Film Industry, and they're major trouble. Do you know what's going on?"
"I really don't know—"
Hearing Liu Rulan's question, Xiao He fell into prolonged contemplation.
His life recently could be described as very routine—opening his eyes meant filming. With No Bait being a script completely centered around Shu Yuxiu, where other supporting characters could come and go, he basically had to "fight" until the end, so Xiao He could be described as extremely busy.
He truly couldn't remember, nor understand, when he had offended Xingchen Film Industry.
"Have you done anything on the internet recently?"
Liu Rulan tried to help Xiao He analyze.
The only way she could think of to offend someone domestically across two oceans at once was through the internet.
"No." Xiao He was confused, "I've been so busy lately I haven't even kept up with domestic gossip. Where would I find spare time to offend people on the internet?"
"That's strange then. What other unusual things have you done recently?"
Xiao He carefully recalled: "If I really had to say, it could only be the racing competition from some time ago."
But here's the problem—although he had participated in a racing competition some time ago, he basically hadn't offended anyone! Even though he helped the racing team win prize money and sponsorship, no one else had come to cause trouble for him. Even that young master whom Xiao He originally thought would throw his weight around hadn't come to bother Xiao He.
That young master, reportedly from some automotive company's major family, had been full of confidence, thinking that by poaching two ace race car drivers he could sweep the competition. However, Xiao He's appearance shattered his dreams—so he decisively abandoned his ace drivers and wanted to invite Xiao He to participate in the next competition to fulfill his dreams.
He had thought Xiao He was a newcomer signed by the racing team and prepared to spend a high price to "buy" Xiao He away from the team.
When he learned that Xiao He's main profession was acting and he wouldn't consider working for him, the young master was heartbroken.
But he didn't make any threats either—he just made an agreement with Xiao He that next time he came to Europe for competitions, he must join his team, then left looking utterly dejected.
Xiao He didn't think this kind of European old money aristocracy would use Chinese forces to retaliate against him.
If they wanted retaliation, he wouldn't even have made it to Milan... wait.
If he really had to say he encountered any suspicious targets during the competition some time ago—it would definitely be Qin Yuezhang!
After all, among the Chinese people he met abroad who were also actors, he was the only one.
Xiao He immediately gave Liu Rulan a general overview of this matter.
"Qin Yuezhang?!" Liu Rulan took a deep breath, "Then the mystery is solved. He's the top star at Xingchen Entertainment, and Xingchen Entertainment is the talent agency under Xingchen Film Industry."
"If you offended him, then it's indeed very possible for Xingchen Film Industry to target us like this..."
"But that doesn't make sense! I never had any contact with him from start to finish! I didn't speak to him, didn't even make eye contact with him!"
This time Xiao He was genuinely baffled.
He hadn't done anything at all!
How could he have offended the other party?