Yu Liang's microblog was written very concisely, without any personal emotions mixed in. He simply described the scene in the car on the red carpet that day. At the end, he wrote: "As an onlooker, I'm just saying what I saw and heard. Right and wrong, I'll leave it up to you to judge."
As soon as he posted the microblog, Ran Ting immediately sent the content to the hot search.
From beginning to end, this had nothing to do with Yu Liang. He had no reason to stand up and talk nonsense. Besides, how would maliciously making things up benefit him? No matter who was right or wrong in this matter, he wouldn't gain any advantage from it. On the contrary, he might get himself into trouble.
Moreover, although Yu Liang wasn't particularly famous, his reputation had been very good ever since his debut. He had almost zero scandals and his sincerity towards those around him was obvious to all. A person like this with absolutely no issues of character wouldn't make up lies when the wind was gusting and the waves were surging.
Netizens almost immediately believed his words. Yu Liang's fans felt sorry for their little idol who was too kind. The happiest were the cosmic superstar's shipper fans who immediately spread the word and celebrated getting fed sugar!
Of course, the crazy shipper fans didn't believe it. They scolded Yu Liang for making things up and colluding with the artist surnamed Z. They demanded that Qu Yanshan's team hurry up and sue him!
At this juncture, the famous Kou An'an suddenly reposted Yu Liang's microblog:
- @Kou An'an: The innocent will prove their innocence.
Kou An'an's influence was incomparable to Yu Liang's. As soon as she posted, she immediately shot to the hot search.
This drove the complacent shipper fans crazy. Their forum exploded like New Year's.
Ran Ting also hadn't expected Kou An'an to voluntarily help her. She gave her a call to express her thanks. Kou An'an spoke in the same calm tone as always: "I believe Zhong Ruanxing isn't that kind of person."
Ridiculous! What kind of personality did Zhong Ruanxing have? How could she, his co-star who worked closely with him day and night for three months, not know?!
Liu Zhuo? Bah! How dare he compare himself?!
Yes, on the day the second female lead finished filming and left the crew, Lady Kou An'an finally saw through her own heart. She realized that her behavior towards Zhong Ruanxing and her stalking were no different.
She felt a little ashamed, but very generously accepted this fact.
Now that her idol was in trouble, she, as a fan, should of course stand up and do something for him!
With two industry insiders like Yu Liang and Kou An'an speaking up for Zhong Ruanxing, public opinion finally stabilized.
Some of the fickle shipper fans also gradually returned to normal and started pondering the bizarre aspects of this matter.
No one knew where the rumor about the artist surnamed Z came from. It just suddenly shot up on the hot search, directly targeting Zhong Ruanxing. But as for evidence, not to mention photos of them together, there wasn't even a chat record that could be photoshopped.
Plus, Qu Yanshan suddenly started a livestream then, so everyone rushed to the livestream room to comfort her. Qu Yanshan also acted like she wanted to speak but didn't dare, like she was being bullied. So everyone believed the rumor was true.
But when countless people asked about this artist surnamed Z over and over in the livestream room, Qu Yanshan kept mum about him. If you said she didn't dare speak up, then why did she hint in the livestream?
So you're the one who spread this rumor, aren't you?
Zhong Ruanxing's studio immediately firmly denied it when the news first broke. On the other hand, the two involved parties from Qu Shui Liuzhuang were still pretending to be dead!
Some shipper fans with normal brains felt like they had been tricked.
At this time, the famous top lawyer Xu Qishen finally made a move.
With Xu Lawyer making a move, you could tell whether something was true or not. First he released a list of several dozen Weibo users who had insulted and spread rumors about Zhong Ruanxing the most, saying he would sue them.
Next, Xu Qishen found the first marketing account that spread the rumor about the artist surnamed Z and sued them.
When Xu Qishen said he would sue, then he really would sue. This was completely different from the six month apology letters from before. Because this matter had blown up so big and spread so widely online, the evidence was extremely sufficient.
At first the marketing account argued and said their so-called artist surnamed Z wasn't Zhong Ruanxing.
Did they think Xu Lawyer had no way to deal with them? How naive.
Then Xu Qishen leisurely took out a name list. It recorded all the artists surnamed Z who participated in "Pouring Wine and Laughing at Peach Blossoms". What a coincidence, not many. There were only two surnamed Z - Zhong Ruanxing and a male actor surnamed Zhou.
Xu Qishen asked them to clarify who exactly they were talking about. If it was this actor Zhou, he would also be happy to contact Actor Zhou and help him with the lawsuit.
The marketing account collapsed. Then they swiftly apologized and admitted to rumor-mongering. They said they would pin an apology to Zhong Ruanxing on their homepage for a year.
Xu Qishen declined. Whether it was intentional rumor-mongering or someone behind the scenes directing them, they could debate in front of the judge in court later.
Good heavens, the onlooking netizens felt like they had watched an exciting and thorough court trial. Esteemed Lawyer Xu forced the other side to retreat and exposed their loopholes with ease and composure. From just this one incident, you could see how majestic Xu Lawyer was in a real courtroom.
After this, the matter was thoroughly laid to rest. Only then did Liu Zhuo's studio leisurely release a statement, saying everything online was nonsense and apologizing for implicating innocent people.
They were fiercely cursed by netizens.
F*ck off! You're too late to even eat shit!
When the car arrived downstairs at Zhong's complex, Song Jinxing finally finished reading through the information. He put away his phone and asked Ran Ting beside him, who had a barely concealed look of excitement, "Everything's taken care of?"
Ran Ting nodded heavily. "Mm-hmm!"
This PR crisis was the first one she had handled since taking over Zhong Ruanxing. Whether it was contacting Yu Liang or the studio's immediate response and cooperation with the PR department, she felt she had done pretty well.
From the outbreak of the matter to its conclusion, it had only been a little over five hours, plus the two hours plus they were on the plane.
Song Jinxing smiled faintly. "Then I'll get going."
Ran Ting waved. "Mm-hmm, rest well! I'll send you the next work schedule in a few days."
When he returned home, no one else was there. Zhong You was at preschool, Zhong's dad was at work, and Auntie Dai and Liu Cai were probably out walking with Zhong's mom. Staying up late last night and getting up early this morning, Song Jinxing felt a little tired. After tidying up, he started his afternoon nap.
He reported his safe return to Zhong Ruanxing and made plans to have dinner together tonight. Zhong Ruanxing excitedly said over WeChat that he had discovered a very special restaurant and wanted to take him there.
Song Jinxing fell asleep looking forward to it.
On the other side, Cheng Yaowen, who had gone to Hangzhou for a meeting the previous day, also landed in Beijing this morning. In fact, his flight had been only an hour apart from Song Jinxing's. They almost ran into each other at the airport.
After getting into the stretched limousine, Cheng Yaowen reclined on the back seat and played on his phone. His assistant kept his eyes forward and his mouth shut, but still spoke up, "President Cheng, that Ms. Zhong you asked me to investigate had a little situation this morning."
Cheng Yaowen looked over with keen interest. "Oh?"
The assistant passed the news he had summarized to him.
Silence filled the car interior for a time before the assistant heard a bone-chilling low chuckle from the backseat.
