It was already past eight in the evening, and the sky outside was completely dark. The airport runway was illuminated, slightly lightening the ink-black horizon.
After finishing her work in Shanghai, Jiang Juyou flew back to Beijing. As usual, over twenty young girls were waiting for her at the airport.
Among them were those who had liked her for a long time, some who had finished meeting other artists and turned back upon hearing she had landed, and others who had come to write a thesis centered on her.
She distributed some snacks she had bought at the duty-free shop to these young girls, reminding them, "Remember to go home early, it's already quite late."
A group of them were holding their phones, snapping photos of her. Jiang Juyou was dressed casually, with a simple shirt unbuttoned, revealing a pale yellow camisole underneath.
She wore a hat and a mask, the brim of the hat pulled low, causing passersby to crane their necks and ask who the person in the middle of the fans was.
The fans, unwilling to explain, simply replied, "You wouldn't know her."
"She's just an ordinary person."
"What fans? We're all family here, we're all related by blood."
Jiang Juyou's fan base was no less than that of some popular young idols. Especially given her incredible luck in her career, she had become a sort of lucky charm, with students from various majors worshipping and praying to her during graduation season.
The main reason for this was her appearance. Her increasing fame had only enhanced her beauty, and her figure had become even more outstanding. Her airport outfits were often imitated by newly graduated women entering the workforce.
She now had not just one, but two or three fan sites, regularly posting her airport outfits and even thoughtfully including the brands.
Those accounts had become fashion bloggers thanks to Jiang Juyou and had even received V certification. Netizens who liked, shared, or commented on their posts earned them money.
The professional fans who often stationed at the airport also enjoyed chatting with Jiang Juyou. Every time she came, she would bring some small snacks and would answer questions as long as they weren't too intrusive, like an older sister next door.
Even some activities related to Random Entertainment could be learned about in advance or find shortcuts through her.
"Sister, when will Random iWatch's music program be officially announced?"
"Soon, I think."
"Will it also be a lottery system?"
"It seems so. The program team is still discussing it; I'm not too sure."
"Sister, are you preparing to take the IELTS recently?"
"Uh... just studying for fun."
Recently, Jiang Juyou had been inseparable from her books. Sometimes, even on the plane, one could see her constantly reading.
There had been various rumors about Jiang Juyou online recently, such as her being a deadbeat, or her parents being deadbeats, and even that the industry was planning to soft-ban her.
However, every time such rumors surfaced, Jiang Juyou would appear in the public eye the next day, either at a project signing ceremony or an opening ceremony, as if to dispel those false rumors.
Among the people who came to pick her up tonight, the fans wouldn't bring up those matters, and those who came to join the fun from other fandoms wouldn't be so tactless.
Jiang Juyou was in a good mood today. When someone asked about the new male group, she even replied a couple of times.
"The name of the new male group? The name has already been decided... As for the members, that's not guaranteed. There might be additions or deletions before debut; nothing is certain."
Upon hearing this, the young girls immediately showed looks of distress, "Ah~"
"The finals of Timetrain and AIcho have left me so traumatized that I don't dare to watch any more talent shows."
"Me too!"
"I watch them while feeling heartache for the future. Every time I say I won't get invested, I end up getting emotionally attached."
"That's me."
They chatted and laughed all the way, accompanying Jiang Juyou to her car. Seeing the door open, they immediately cut off their conversation and said to Jiang Juyou, "Sister, goodbye, drive safely."
"Okay, I know. You all go home early too, don't stay here any longer." Jiang Juyou waved at them, especially at her few dedicated fans, repeatedly urging them to go home quickly.
After getting into the car, the assistant, who had been quiet all along, finally spoke. She handed the phone to Jiang Juyou and said, "Sister, they've found something."
Jiang Juyou had been planning to close her eyes and rest for a while, but upon hearing this, she became interested and wondered how they had found the clues.
She even joked, "Our company's people could all become detectives."
The content on the phone was a conversation between the assistant and a few members of the public relations team. Those girls had thoroughly searched the small account that had spread the rumors.
Their analysis was quite impressive.
"Amazing, I'm a genius!"
"How could anyone think of searching a blank Weibo account on Baidu? I'm too smart!"
"What? What?"
"The person deleted the Weibo content, but if you search the ID on Baidu, you can find the previous posts."
"At first, I didn't think of that. The ID was just a string of numbers; I thought it was a new account."
"Then I looked at the registration time and found it had been around for a few years, so I searched it."
The screenshot below was what they found, containing posts criticizing industry personnel and praising artists, typical of paid internet trolls.
But what was peculiar was that the artists it praised all came from the same company, which left only one conclusion.
"It's either someone from that company or a troll account managed by the company itself."
"Could there really be such a devoted employee?"
"I love our company, but I wouldn't go so far as to open a small account to insult all our competitors."
"...tsk, like Yang RPing."
"......"
"......Oh my gosh, don't say that!"
"Look at Yang RPing's Weibo, he always leaves two spaces at the beginning of each paragraph, and short sentences don't use punctuation."
"Are you Sherlock Holmes?"
"Are you Sherlock Holmes?"
"Are you Sherlock Holmes?"
Jiang Juyou moved her gaze away, thinking about who they were talking about. The name was very familiar, but she couldn't recall who it was at the moment.
"Is he still not washed up? I thought he had already left the industry. Weren't there marketing accounts saying a Korean company had signed him?"
"I searched, that was fake news. It wasn't that he was signed, but that a Korean company invested in them."
"My impression of him is still that he awkwardly tried to pair up with the boss to create a fake couple dynamic. He's so oily, yet there are still a bunch of young girls who like him. I really don't understand it."
"What's there to not understand? There are plenty of oily kings in the entertainment industry."
Jiang Juyou read their chat records with great interest, while the assistant next to her was sitting on pins and needles, her toes almost worn out from curling.
The assistant reached out to take the phone, grabbing it back while Jiang Juyou's attention was elsewhere.
"The analysis over there is more or less like this. The media also said something similar. Some media outlets looked through their records and found they had taken on promotional business for their company."
Jiang Juyou refocused his attention, looked at the assistant, puzzled, and asked, "Is there any conflict between our company and theirs?"
"......No," the assistant thought carefully and affirmed, "No."
There was no conflict, not even any business dealings.
Jiang Juyou was also at a loss. She didn't know Yang RPing, so why such intense hatred?
But the interests and rivalries in this industry weren't something that could be explained in a few words. Just like the inexplicable disputes in fandoms, companies also envied each other.
Jiang Juyou attributed this to Random Entertainment being too successful, attracting jealousy.
"Tell those little detectives to dig up some dirt on Yang RPing's company. There should be plenty. One of these days, we'll also open a post for him, a collection of scandals." Jiang Juyou finished speaking and leaned her head against the car window, preparing to take a nap.
Just as she closed her eyes, Jiang Juyou remembered something and opened them again, saying, "Tell the paparazzi, the one smearing me is Yang RPing himself. A company boss, doing such things behind the scenes... it's quite amusing."
Assistant imagined what Jiang Juyou described: a big boss, always lurking ominously behind the screen, furiously typing away just to concoct a couple of rumors.
The scene was indeed quite amusing.
For Jiang Juyou, these so-called "scandals" were nothing, but for Yang RPing, they became the biggest issue of the month.
"Damn it."
He was cautious in his actions, afraid of leaving any traces, so he didn't involve anyone else.
In just a few days, several accounts were already banned, and the messages he sent to paparazzi didn't see any leaks, which was incredibly frustrating.
He spent money to buy another forum account, redecorated the profile, and disguised himself as a black fan of Jiang Juyou.
Many of the posts were only uploaded in the past two days, so he couldn't post anything yet, or else he might expose himself.
"...Just let you relax for two more days."
-
The variety department had just wrapped up the first half of the year's major project, "Back to Midsummer Night," and immediately faced a cluster of summer projects.
There was a company team-building special, "Amusement Park at 3 AM," a music program prepared for the idol market, "Listen to POP," and a program filmed from the perspective of staff, "What Did You Do Today?"
The closest one was the music program on the Random iWatch platform. For this program, Jiang Juyou also rarely opened the system APP and used the virtual studio.
The goal was to create a set that perfectly replicated the MV, making the performance stage reasonable within the set.
Another was the team-building program of Random Entertainment.
Jiang Juyou used the virtual studio to create an amusement park. Since it was a cooling special, it couldn't just be a simple game of tag.
To ensure the variety show effect, tonight, some staff would go to the shooting location first to test the props and game segments.
"It's said to be more on the horror side."
"...I'm okay with that, I'm not really afraid of these things."
"A bit excited, but do we really have to test at night?"
The team-building variety show's production team didn't experience it themselves but instead tricked staff from other projects to help them test.
I was originally going to add more, but I'm too sleepy to keep my eyes open, so I'll give you more tomorrow.
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