After the four of them had eaten and drunk their fill, they walked out of the hot pot restaurant. Outside, the scene was still crowded with people.
When Jing Zeyou and the others said they were ready to head home, Jing Zeqian was clearly unwilling. "Are you serious? Is this what you call a gathering of young people? Going home right after dinner?"
Jing Yi was a bit confused. Had she previously said this was a gathering for young people?
Jing Zeqian noticed Jing Yi's expression and his heart skipped a beat. He had accidentally let something slip!
Jing Zeyou narrowed his eyes and glared at him.
Jing Zejun's breath caught, her eyes betraying panic.
Fortunately, Jing Yi didn't think too much about it. She had eaten too much and her brain wasn't working properly, so she assumed she had mentioned it herself without realizing.
"Even young people need to sleep, and big brother has to get up early for work tomorrow," Jing Yi said.
Jing Yi was just talking off the top of her head. If she were asked to go out all night partying, she'd probably give up within half an hour.
Seeing that she hadn't pursued the matter, the others all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well then, Jing, where do you suggest we go?" Jing Zeqian asked.
Jing Zeqian pretended to be thinking, but he was actually trying to calm his nerves from earlier. The other three were getting impatient waiting, but he couldn't come up with anything.
He did indeed have places he frequented, but most of them were entertainment venues. It wouldn't be appropriate to take his two sisters there, especially since Jing Zejun was a celebrity. If his brother found out, he would certainly object.
In the end, the four of them returned to the car, ready to head home.
None of them noticed that in a corner of the parking lot, a man wearing a hat was capturing the scene with a camera. After Jing Zeqian's car drove away, he emerged from the shadows and quickly got into a van.
"Follow them!" he said.
Sitting in the van, the man looked at the photos he had taken with satisfaction. He took out his phone and made a call.
"Hey, Editor-in-chief! Guess who I caught on camera? Jing Zejun. I got shots of her having dinner with three people - two men and one woman."
"Cut out the woman?" the man immediately understood the editor's intention. A scene of a popular starlet dining with unknown men would attract more attention. If it was just a group of people, everyone would assume it was just a gathering, and that wouldn't be interesting.
The man chuckled, "Alright, Editor-in-chief! I'll edit it and send it to you."
The next morning at the Jing family home,
Jing Zejun received a call from her agent early in the morning.
The new agent was a professional woman in her forties, considered one of the top agents in her company.
"Hello, Sister Qing? Trending on Weibo? I haven't had a chance to check my phone yet."
Jing Zejun opened the app and saw her name at the top of the trending list. The content claimed she had a late-night dinner with a man and returned to the same residence.
The topic quickly exploded, as the photo showed more than one man, sparking speculation from all directions.
Jing Zejun frowned slightly. It seemed they had been photographed while out for dinner yesterday. "Sister Qing, the men in the photo are my brothers."
The agent naturally knew this. The moment she saw the silhouettes, she recognized the two young masters of the Jing family.
The reason their company hadn't immediately come out with a clarification was twofold. On one hand, they were worried about revealing the identity of the Jing family members, as Hengjing wasn't a company their small agency could afford to offend.
On the other hand, they wanted to gauge the Jing family's attitude before deciding on their next PR move.
Jing Zejun thought for a moment. "Alright, I'll discuss it with my family first."
She hung up the phone and looked at the trending headline highlighted in red.
"Popular starlet Jing Zejun has late-night dinner with two men, spends the night with both, returns to same residence!"
It contained photos of her with Jing Zeyou and Jing Zeqian, apparently taken as they left the hot pot restaurant and entered the parking lot.
As for "returning to the same residence," there was only a distant shot of the back of a car, without even a photo of the Jing family's mansion gates.
The previous night, the van had followed Jing Zeqian's car from a distance, but they were stopped at a checkpoint further down the road. They couldn't get any information from the people at the entrance either.
In the end, they could only return with that blurry photo and the earlier shots from the hot pot restaurant.
Jing Zejun scrolled through the comments. No wonder her agent sounded so nervous - the comments were overwhelmingly negative.
[Ah! My General Jiusheng! Tell me this isn't true.]
[My goodness, two men? That must have been quite a hot night!]
[Could there be some misunderstanding? Maybe they're family?]
[Family my foot. Jing Zejun said before that her parents passed away and she's the only one in her family. You can look up her past interviews. She's been caught red-handed!]
[Didn't they say they returned to the same residence? But we can't see any house in this photo.]
[Maybe they couldn't follow the car in. But it looks like the three of them went to the same place.]
[There's no evidence. It's all just slander!]
[Three people? This is the first time I've seen a celebrity gossip story with three main characters. They're really living it up.]
[Me too! Me too! It's really eye-opening. The entertainment industry never fails to surprise me.]
[She's ruined my Junlin!]
[She's benefited enough from the popularity. It's time for her to distance herself from Junlin!]
[What do you mean 'benefited'? Jing Zejun became popular because of her good acting!]
[Are the fans getting upset? Jing Zejun became famous because of Junlin. Now the drama fans want her to keep her distance, what's wrong with that?]
The comments section was a mess. It seemed that a simple statement wouldn't be enough to resolve this.
Jing Zejun took her phone and went downstairs.
Downstairs, before Jing Zeyou could leave for work, he received a message from security.
Security reported that a van had followed them last night, and they had recorded the license plate.
Jing Zeyou glanced at the information they had found. Entertainment World? Were they after Jing Zeqian or Jing Zejun?
He handed the phone to Jing Zeqian.
Jing Zeqian frowned. "Entertainment World? What kind of third-rate gossip magazine is this?"
Indeed, it was a minor publication. Otherwise, they wouldn't have chased gossip all the way to the Jing family home.
"They might be after Junjun," Jing Zeyou said.
Just as Jing Zeyou was about to ask Jing Zejun, he saw her coming down the stairs. "Big brother, second brother, we were photographed yesterday."
Jing Zeyou and Jing Zeqian exchanged a glance. It was just as they had thought.
Jing Zeqian, being most familiar with these entertainment reporters, frowned slightly and asked, "Is it trending on Weibo?"
Jing Zejun nodded and handed her phone to the two of them. Jing Zeyou's expression darkened as he read the comments on the trending topic.
"The agent wants to ask you before deciding on the next PR move."
"They haven't decided on a PR strategy yet? The topic is already exploding!" Jing Zeqian's tone conveyed strong dissatisfaction. If this were a Startrack employee, they'd already be packing their bags.
However, with Jing Zejun present, Jing Zeqian refrained from being too harsh.
Jing Zejun hesitated. She thought that perhaps it was because of the Jing family's status that the company was being so cautious with every step.
"This matter will need to be handled by Hengjing," Jing Zeyou stated, offering the solution.
