Xiao He was completely unaware that he had a fan wealthy enough to buy his life.
Having just returned to the company, he was currently discussing the next steps with Liu Rulan.
"Do we really not need to get involved in this matter anymore?"
Looking at the situation online, Liu Rulan's face showed worry.
Recently, the online water army had started steering this incident toward entertainment and sensationalism again, which made Liu Rulan feel somewhat anxious.
As an old hand at manipulating public opinion within the industry, how could she not see that if this matter wasn't used to completely crush Qin Yuezhang, it would ultimately just turn into another piece of entertainment gossip.
Qin Yuezhang himself hadn't broken any laws. Even though his father had been arrested, he was still an artist under Xingchen Entertainment. His father's affairs couldn't directly affect him; at most, his public persona would collapse.
And those revelations from Qin Yuezhang's ex-girlfriends circulating online couldn't prove he had committed any crimes either. At most, they painted him as stingy and having poor character.
But who in this online world nowadays doesn't have a few pieces of Damaging Information attached to them? Once the storm passes, they'll still be glamorous and shining as usual.
That's why Liu Rulan was so anxious seeing the shift in online sentiment, with comments everywhere turning into memes and jokes.
"It's fine, we're just getting started."
Xiao He, however, was extremely calm.
"Give me a hint—"
Liu Rulan furrowed her brow and leaned closer to Xiao He. "What exactly is going on? Do you have another move planned?"
"You know about Qin Yuezhang's attempt to cyberbully me. His methods... they didn't look like it was his first time," Xiao He said meaningfully. "His agent took all the blame, but everyone knows he was the mastermind."
The irony was that Qin Yuezhang only had to speak, while the one doing the dirty work was always Wen Qi.
One could only say the Old Master had some brains. Knowing his grandson was foolish, he arranged for Wen Qi to take all the blame, ensuring Qin Yuezhang remained "clean."
But precisely because of this, knowing the truth would make people even angrier.
By then, Qin Yuezhang would have no place left to hide.
Liu Rulan understood the deeper meaning. "Qin Yuezhang has used such methods to cyberbully others before?"
Thinking of what he had uncovered during his investigation, Xiao He let out a long sigh. "That... indirectly led to the other party's family being ruined and members dying."
Liu Rulan fell into abrupt silence.
This era had indeed changed. The knife that killed had transformed from a physical object into an invisible, intangible blade—yet it was more terrifying, more evil.
"Alright, let's not say more." Xiao He spread his hands. "We haven't been involved from start to finish. Let's just watch quietly."
Liu Rulan was silent for a moment, then sighed deeply. "Fine. I just hope things can slow down a bit, at least letting our opening ceremony promotion go smoothly."
Otherwise, they couldn't just let Qin Yuezhang hog all the Hot Search spots these days, could they?
Xiao He: "That's hard to say."
After all, this matter was beyond his control...
Xiao He leaned back in his chair, his fingers deftly twirling a pen, causing the chair beneath him to slide backward.
Finally, his gaze landed on the floor-to-ceiling window behind him, quietly looking outside.
This was in one of Shanghai's most bustling commercial districts. Their company currently occupied only this entire floor, situated in the middle of a building. From here, Xiao He could look up and see the surrounding forest of skyscrapers, or look down at the endless stream of traffic below.
Thinking of the many recent events, Xiao He tugged at the corner of his mouth and couldn't help but let out a cold laugh.
"Sometimes I think it's not so bad to be a bit unlucky."
Unlucky enough to be hit by that criminal system, preventing it from harming other people.
After all, there really are a lot of bad people in this world—
Liu Rulan gathered the documents on the desk and shot him a sidelong glance. "You call that unlucky?"
"Haha, I was just saying."
Xiao He spread his hands with a carefree shrug. "At least compared to Xiao Chen, I *am* unlucky!"
Xiao Chen, who had just walked in: ?
...
September 6th, the *Record of Chasing the Wind* production team officially began filming.
To everyone's relief, the public opinion heat from Qin Yuezhang's side didn't affect their crew's promotion.
Instead, *Record of Chasing the Wind* used this wave of heat to hype up the "feud and drama" between Xiao He and Qin Yuezhang.
After offering incense, paying respects to various deities, and cooperating with the crew to shoot some non-essential photos and videos, Xiao He returned to the restroom and saw these promotional comments praising the crew to the heavens—
[This is the only crew that wasn't afraid of powerful influence and was willing to extend an olive branch to Xiao He after he was blacklisted! I hope *Record of Chasing the Wind* will thrive after the rain, exploding with popularity!]
[It's so great to see Brother Xiao can take on roles normally again. I was really afraid Brother Xiao would be affected by this. Let's thank the *Record of Chasing the Wind* crew!]
[But I still feel a bit sad. Brother Xiao was already filming a movie before, reportedly as the male lead for a big director, but now he's back filming a TV drama. The resource gap is so big...]
[It's fine! Xiao He is actually active in both circles. I actually quite like seeing Brother Xiao in TV dramas; we get to watch him for a long time, hehe.]
Xiao He skimmed these comments, glanced at Liu Rulan, and seemed to want to say something but stopped himself.
Liu Rulan explained, "That's the crew's own promotional water army. We didn't get involved."
This time, Xiao He was also somewhat "feeding on the blood" of Qin Yuezhang's situation. The crew naturally wouldn't let it go and was determined to use this incident to generate heat for the production.
It's just that some things can be said, while others shouldn't be said like that...
Xiao He knew this was the crew's marketing tactic, but he still frowned and said, "Still, tell them to be careful with their wording. The blacklisting incident didn't actually affect me much. Scripts kept coming my way during that period. So if they want to praise, praise everyone. Otherwise, don't single us out like this. It's quite offensive."
Insisting that *Record of Chasing the Wind* was the only one offering help in a snowstorm when Xiao He was "blacklisted"...
What if other crews saw it and thought, "Hey, I also sent you a script when you were 'blacklisted'! You just didn't like it! But you keep praising your own crew and putting down others, making it seem like other crews were afraid of powerful influence and kicked you when you were down." That would make you look like an ungrateful wretch!
Xiao He felt that in these aspects, wording should be handled carefully to avoid causing resentment from others.
"Not bad, you spotted that public opinion landmine too." Liu Rulan chuckled lightly. "Don't worry, I already have people guiding the narrative. Later, I'll also help you express thanks one by one to the crews that sent scripts during this period."
Even though Qin Yuezhang's threats and blacklisting were purely small potatoes, it was still good to maintain relationships and, with a humble attitude, express one's stance.
Xiao He breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good."
"Mr. Xiao, you can come get ready now."
A staff member jogged in from outside the restroom.
Xiao He immediately put away the script and stood up.
"You go ahead. I'll keep an eye on the online situation."
Liu Rulan said.
"Okay, thank you."
Xiao He nodded and turned to follow the staff member out.
-
At the same time, in a small county town in G Province, a travel-worn young man knocked on the door of a dilapidated rental room.
A pale, sinister face hid behind the crack of the door, staring at the completely unfamiliar young man with wary, icy eyes.
"Hello."
Seeing the other person's face, the young man was momentarily shocked, but then promptly pulled out his credentials, his expression soft and kind. "My name is Zhou Junhao. I'm a reporter."
"I'm not a bad person. I just have some questions and would like to interview you."
Seeing the other's expression grow increasingly resentful and venomous, Zhou Junhao hurriedly added, "Perhaps you haven't been online recently? The incident that happened back then has taken a turn now! Do you really want that matter to be buried forever?"
The person inside fell silent for a moment, finally opening the door a crack wider.
Simultaneously, a woman's voice, sounding both like crying and laughing, extremely hoarse, came from inside the room. "Come in..."