As Jiang Juyou left the hotel, she imagined a miserable life for her sister, unaware that she was actually enjoying herself on set.
Because she had shown her face quite a bit in "21 Heartbeats of Youth", her recognition increased after the show became popular.
Although no lead actors were staying at their hotel, all the makeup and hair styling was done there, so the main cast had to come over every day. As a result, there were many paparazzi and fans waiting downstairs.
Jiang Tang was recognized several times when entering and exiting, which made her so happy she jumped up and down in her room.
As the show became more and more popular, the name Random Entertainment also gained some recognition in the industry. Not only would fans recognize her, but crew members who had watched the show would treat her better, and even the director knew her name.
These were all things Jiang Tang hadn't imagined before joining the crew, because she never thought the show would become popular.
Thinking about it now, she felt quite guilty towards Jiang Juyou. When the show first started filming, she had privately complained that it seemed destined to flop. That's why she had barely dared to look at her sister just now, afraid her guilty conscience would show.
The sisters each had their own thoughts.
Meanwhile, Jiang Juyou, feeling more guilty, was on her way to another hotel.
"Liuxing is Crape Myrtle: Big news!"
"Liuxing is Crape Myrtle: A male star is about to go down!"
Jiang Juyou, who had been feeling a bit down, suddenly perked up when she saw these two messages, all negative emotions forgotten.
"Juyou grocery store: [ears]"
"Jiang Tang will definitely be famous next year: Who who who?"
"Liuxing is Crape Myrtle: Remember that guy from last summer who came to me wanting to hype up a fake relationship?"
"Juyou grocery store: Huh?"
"Jiang Tang will definitely be famous next year: With you?"
"Liuxing is Crape Myrtle: How could it be with me? He came to me wanting to hype up a fake relationship with another female star. I thought both sides had agreed, but it turned out the male side was forcing it on his own."
"Juyou grocery store: I kind of remember now..."
The memory returned to Jiang Juyou's mind, and she suddenly stopped walking, letting the biting cold wind slip into her collar.
"If it's about hyping up a fake relationship, isn't that..." Jiang Juyou looked at the hotel building in front of her, feeling for the first time that she was so close to the center of a big scandal.
Her phone vibrated a few times as Jiang Liuxing typed furiously on the other end.
"Liuxing is Crape Myrtle: It's that guy. This time he wanted to hype up a fake relationship with the female lead again. The female side didn't agree, but his side went ahead and found other marketing accounts. Then he got beaten up by the female actress's boyfriend, who has quite a background."
"Liuxing is Crape Myrtle: News should leak out in the next couple of days. He slept with people he shouldn't have, did things he shouldn't have done."
"Jiang Tang will definitely be famous next year: Your last two sentences suddenly made a lot of names pop up in my head."
"Jiang Tang will definitely be famous next year: Can I tell others about this news? I want to tell Chen Xi, she'll be thrilled to death."
Chen Xi was the person Jiang Juyou was about to meet, and also the female lead of Jiang Tang's drama.
With her gossip skills activated, Jiang Juyou searched the forums with her alt account and indeed found someone leaking the news. The comment section had already built up into a tall building.
"Title: Big News / A wave of dramas and variety shows might be taken down in the next couple of days."
"That male actor who often dumps his girlfriends when dramas end is being investigated. His new drama has been replaced, and recorded variety shows are being re-edited."
"Hint: Last summer's popular CP"
Comments:
"[ears] Can you provide some evidence?"
"Hmm... several names of actors who dump girlfriends after dramas flash through my mind."
"The one who dated cx?"
"Can we not drag female artists into the mess of rotten men?"
"How many times do I have to say, cx never dated that scumbag."
"This post is forbidden to mention female artists, over."
"Give another hint, I really can't remember, maybe he's too unknown."
"It's a male actor currently recording a variety show..."
In these discussion posts, female artists inevitably get dragged out as shields. The fans of the female artist being used as a shield were now battling, wishing they could stuff everyone in this comment thread to accompany that stupid man.
In her hotel room, Chen Xi was also busy, her phone keyboard almost sparking from her furious typing.
She cursed while typing, "Who the fuck ever dated that idiot -- unbelievable! I'm so angry!!!"
Someone knocked on the door outside, "Sister Chen Xi, someone's here to see you."
Chen Xi's heart was racing, anger surging, so her voice unconsciously became louder, "Wait a moment!"
She was fuming, tossing her phone on the bed and hastily running her fingers through her hair before going to open the door.
As soon as the door opened, Jiang Juyou, who had been standing outside, quickly handed over a business card, "Hello, I was introduced by Sister Cheng Yuan."
Chen Xi hadn't calmed down yet. She sighed first, then took the business card, "Come in and we'll talk."
She didn't forget to remind her assistant, "Don't tell Sister Liu about this."
Jiang Juyou observed the expressions of both sides, then followed Chen Xi inside.
Back in the room, Chen Xi retrieved her phone and walked to the sofa, saying to Jiang Juyou: "Have a seat. Would you like something to drink? I have juice and tea."
"Just water is fine," Jiang Juyou replied cautiously.
On the other side, Jiang Liuxing, who had just shared the gossip with her sisters, was rushing to make videos. She had already made three or four, so focused that she couldn't even hear others calling her for dinner.
The few people slacking off at work only now noticed the sudden spread of rumors online.
"Damn, Hu Yixin is going down."
"Huh?"
"Where does it say it's Hu Yixin?"
"Popular CP from last summer, dumps girlfriends after dramas, currently recording a variety show... doesn't it all match up?"
"Make a video -- oh, the boss already did."
As they were discussing, they suddenly saw a new message in their work group chat, containing exactly what they had just been talking about.
Jiang Liuxing, from her distant workstation, raised her head and shouted, "Post this one first!"
The few of them opened and read it through. Because no names were revealed in the current leaks, with everyone in the comment section just guessing wildly, even if they wanted to ride the trending wave and post videos, they couldn't explicitly point fingers.
After confirming there were no artists' names in the video, one of them immediately uploaded it to their account, while the others quickly returned to their workstations to continue searching for related news.
A scandal of this magnitude would spread across the entire internet within hours, with all sorts of speculations popping up. The names of many artists appeared in relation to this scandal.
And the name that appeared most frequently was Chen Xi.
It was a completely undeserved disaster.
Because before any official confirmation, no one dared to explicitly state names for fear of being sued, but they could use code words. In an instant, the code "Chen Xi's ex-boyfriend" appeared, and even Chen Xi herself trended on social media.
The most terrifying part was that this big scandal also involved inappropriate sexual relations. Imaginative netizens directly jumped to conclusions about Chen Xi, even reminding her to see a doctor. This kind of "concern" was the last straw that broke the emotional camel's back for her fans.
Fans who were angered to tears struggled to continue controlling the narrative and clarifying, while also contacting the studio to quickly come out and refute the rumors and sue the slanderers.
"How many times do we have to clarify before you'll believe that Chen Xi never dated that person? Chen Xi is single! She's been single for several years! When rumors appeared last year, the studio already clarified!"
"What does this have to do with Chen Xi? Can you please keep the battleground for men?"
"How is this fans being stubborn and whitewashing? They never dated in the first place. You're the ones insisting they did. You don't look at our clarifications, you don't look at the studio's refutations, how is this the fans' fault?"
"Stop spreading sexual rumors about female artists. Screenshots of people fishing in troubled waters in the trending topics have been saved."
"People in the trending topics, hurry up and die. Not joking."
Jiang Juyou, who had come to negotiate terms with Chen Xi, hadn't managed to successfully open her mouth either. The two had just started talking when Chen Xi interrupted the conversation, hugging her phone to deal with the situation.
Her brows were constantly furrowed as she tried to make phone calls, but couldn't get through.
Jiang Juyou clenched her fists, looking a bit awkward. After hesitating for a while, she carefully asked, "Is it perhaps because of what's trending right now?"
She was asking about the reason for Chen Xi's current bad mood.
At this question, Chen Xi became wary. She looked at Jiang Juyou, paused for a few seconds, then said to her: "...I never dated him."
She mistook Jiang Juyou for someone who loved gossip.
Jiang Juyou immediately explained, "I know, I know that last year it was him one-sidedly hyping up their CP."
This comment made Chen Xi give her a couple of extra glances.
Last year, all the promotional materials were shot before the show aired, including several variety shows used for publicity. His CP hype started when the drama began airing, but at that time, due to her parents' car accident resulting in fractures and injuries, Chen Xi didn't work for the following half year, staying at home to take care of her parents.
For the sake of the drama's success, she had endured all of this. However, Hu Yixin went too far by releasing a press release about him flying to her city to visit her parents, using it to continue hyping their CP. This angered her so much that she immediately asked her agency to clarify the situation.
Although they did eventually clarify, the lukewarm response after the heat died down meant that hardly anyone cared. Basically, only fans knew about her clarification, while everyone else's memory remained fixed on what they saw trending.
"I'm sorry, I need to contact my studio first. Please have a seat for a moment," Chen Xi stood up and went aside to make a phone call.
Before coming, Jiang Juyou had asked Cheng Yuan about why Chen Xi chose not to renew her contract with her old company, and it was actually related to this kind of clarification issue.
Her studio's operations were mainly managed by one person, not only understaffed but also with chaotic task allocation. They had asked the company several times to add more staff, but to no avail.
On the surface, she had her own personal studio, but the operating model was still the same old routine. Clarifications were always too late, each time only issuing a statement that no one cared about after the heat had died down.
Not only did fans have complaints, but Chen Xi also had major objections.
She felt that she could no longer communicate with the company, so she had the idea of not renewing her contract.
If that's the case, Jiang Juyou thought that today's clarification might be the same as before...
Deliberately choosing to clarify after the heat has passed.
Jiang Juyou: What a terrible company, they must be doing this on purpose!
