There's a common saying in fan circles that when an artist's contract is nearing its end, the company will release negative information to pressure them into renewing. When Jiang Juyou first entered the entertainment industry, she fully believed this. But after managing a company for a while, she realized this idea could only come from someone without a brain. If both parties want to renew the contract, why would they release scandals or rumors to apply pressure? These are mostly fantasies conjured up by fans to torment themselves.
The reason such rumors exist is that when artists have no intention of renewing, companies might adopt a "broken vase" mentality and stop managing public relations, allowing gossip to spread unchecked.
Chen Xi's situation today was a textbook example of this phenomenon.
Sitting in her chair, Jiang Juyou took a sip of water from her bottle. Chen Xi stood at the other end of the room. The space was so small that unless Jiang Juyou covered her ears, it was impossible not to overhear.
After ringing for a long time, the phone call was finally answered.
"What's going on with all that stuff online?"
"...We're contacting platforms to remove the trending topics. The heat is too high right now; responding would only draw more attention to ourselves. Don't worry, we'll handle it on our end."
"Should I post a response from my own account?"
"No need. Don't post anything rash. Even official channels haven't spoken up yet, so we can't say anything either. Otherwise, his fans will turn on you."
"Alright, if you need me, just send a message. I'm done for the day."
"Okay, go eat something. Eat more—Little Zhang says you've lost a lot of weight recently."
They say you shouldn't think the worst of people, but after hearing this conversation, it was hard for Jiang Juyou not to be suspicious. PR principles dictate that faster is better; the fire had already spread. Talking about waiting for an official response before making a statement clearly hid ulterior motives.
Seeing Chen Xi approach, Jiang Juyou quickly averted her gaze and pretended to be thirsty, taking another sip of water.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Chen Xi said. Her makeup was still on, and though the look was glamorous, it couldn't hide the exhaustion in her eyes.
Jiang Juyou waved her hand. "No problem, I'm the one intruding on your time. It's only right that I wait." She cleared her throat and continued, "Sister Cheng Yuan told me you're considering signing with a new company, so we took the liberty of reaching out. Thank you very much for agreeing to meet with us."
Jiang Juyou's entire speech was very formal; she was afraid of leaving a bad impression.
Chen Xi sighed and smiled. "No need for all the formalities. I'm very easy to talk to."
To help the young woman across from her relax, she added, "Sister Cheng Yuan briefly explained your company's situation to me. You have your own film and television department now, right?"
"Yes, we're currently preparing our first production." Before Jiang Juyou could continue, Chen Xi asked, "Do your company's artists have priority for roles?"
The question caught Jiang Juyou off guard. She paused before answering, "We don't interfere with the directors' and writers' casting choices. Of course, we also don't allow people to use connections to get roles."
This was the film department's primary principle: actors should serve the characters, and there should be no favoritism or pursuit of traffic in casting.
It was impossible to tell from Chen Xi's face whether she was satisfied with this answer.
Just as Jiang Juyou was about to take another sip of water to ease the awkwardness, Chen Xi asked coolly, "If a situation like mine today occurred, how would your company handle it?"
Jiang Juyou, who had never experienced such a suffocating job interview moment, felt it now.
She took a deep breath and tried to think about how their company would handle it if one of their artists encountered such a situation—
"We would first verify the truth with the artist. If it's false, we would immediately refute the points being questioned online with evidence. If it's true... then we'd play dead."
"But in a case like yours, Teacher, even if there had been a relationship, we would immediately distance ourselves, contact platforms to remove trending topics, and have staff release messages denying any relationship."
Jiang Juyou gave her earnest reply.
She sighed and continued, "The internet has no memory. The public will quickly forget about this... As long as the artist immerses themselves in work and minimizes phone use, they can soon move past this incident."
Jiang Juyou lowered her gaze and said, "It's the fans who suffer."
"After the news breaks, they'll be glued to their phone screens, refreshing constantly, combing through all past materials to prove the artist's innocence. During this time, they also face public judgment, with harsh words used to describe them."
"...It's not just the artists who are made into jokes, but the fans too."
"For fans, this is a disaster that comes out of nowhere. They've done nothing wrong, but just because the person they like is tainted a bit, they get condemned along with them."
"How the general public views you isn't important. As long as you haven't broken the law or lost your morals, public opinion can be reversed at any time. With good work, all labels can be rewritten."
"But before that happens, fans will be in the midst of fire and water until they become numb and desensitized."
Two and a half hours had passed since the news broke online.
It was Hu Yixin's fans who were being roasted over the fire. Because they had many fan circle rivals from before, there were plenty of people kicking them while they were down. All sorts of dirt came out, including fake rumors made up on the spot by those people.
But at a time like this, the public would believe any rumor.
In such situations, many female artists often get implicated. Chen Xi, the only one whose name was revealed, rose to the top of the trending topics.
All kinds of true and false information got mixed together, passed on from one person to ten, ten to a hundred, with fake rumors becoming distorted and convoluted.
At first, well-meaning netizens ran to Chen Xi's Weibo to advise her to get checked at a hospital. As the rumors spread, it morphed into claims that she had contracted a disease.
Jiang Juyou clenched her fists, suppressing her nervousness. "If you trust me, why not open your phone now and log onto Weibo to respond?"
She was nervous because she wasn't sure if Chen Xi would trust her.
Artists are different from ordinary people; they enter society without any transition period. Unlike college students who have time to adjust on campus, slowly moving from interns to contract workers, artists enter the real world as soon as they enter university. They have to go to auditions, act in shows—no one treats them as students.
To help them adapt, entertainment companies were born.
It's common for artists signed to companies to become incapable of basic life skills. They hand over everything except acting to their management companies, which leads them to trust their agencies implicitly.
How could she, a newcomer, suddenly surpass the position of the old company?
It would be understandable if Chen Xi didn't trust her.
But Chen Xi suddenly made a move. She picked up the phone on the low tea table and said, looking down, "I trust you."
"...My contract with Guoyao Entertainment expired yesterday. From now on, you'll handle things." Chen Xi spoke while typing, "I'll deal with today's incident first. You can bring over the contract in the next few days. Sister Cheng Yuan should be clear about my requirements; have your legal team communicate with her."
Jiang Juyou's mouth hung open, speechless.
For some reason, Chen Xi, who had seemed somewhat fragile earlier, now suddenly radiated brilliance. As she typed with her head down, Jiang Juyou thought she looked incredibly cool.
Chen Xi filled the short blank space in the input box within a minute. She deleted and revised, leaving only the most concise words.
Just before hitting send, she took a deep breath, as if lifting a heavy stone from her chest, expending all her energy.
She looked up and asked Jiang Juyou, "What's your company called?"
"Uh... Random Entertainment." After saying this, Jiang Juyou seemed to remember something and added, "The one with the blue V verification!"
Online, netizens who had been treating the situation as entertainment refreshed their pages several times before suddenly seeing new developments from the gossip accounts.
Chen Xi had posted a Weibo response.
"@Chen Xi: Hello everyone. Since starting my career, I have remained single, focusing on work without any romantic entanglements or relationships. My contract with @Guoyao Entertainment has ended. I'm grateful for the support and companionship of all Guoyao Entertainment employees over these years, as well as the protection of my studio. Moving forward, I will continue my journey with @Random Entertainment and will bring more great works to everyone in the future. Thank you."
After nearly three hours of torment, this Weibo post finally brought relief.
Chen Xi's fans expressed their love, comfort, and support in the comments under her Weibo, while actually crying their eyes out behind their screens.
They acted like gentle rabbits in front of Chen Xi, but turned into fierce tigresses when facing outsiders.
The atmosphere in the super topic changed dramatically after this post.
"Hu the dog and his fans are dead meat tonight!"
"I knew something was up when the studio kept silent. So the contract had expired!"
"May Guoyao and Hu the dog sink to the bottom together!"
"Join the comment control group, let's get Hu the dog trending."
No longer concerned with outsiders, the fans aimed their firepower at Hu Yixin and his fans. Now, the top trending searches were all related to Hu Yixin, with popular Weibo posts in these trends being completely overrun by his various true and false scandals.
It seemed they were determined to vent all the frustration they had endured this afternoon onto them.
When Chen Xi's fans were in this rampaging state, no one could stand against them. The platform-wide discussion had shifted from Hu Yixin to Chen Xi's fans. All trending topics were dominated by them, to the point where you couldn't even see comments from regular users when you clicked in. Hu Yixin's scandals and unflattering photos flooded the entire internet, polluting the eyes of bystanders as well.
This sudden official announcement caught Jiang Juyou off guard too. She quickly logged into the company's official account to repost Chen Xi's Weibo.
The internal group chat of Random Entertainment was also in chaos. They had been enjoying the drama as spectators, only to suddenly find themselves at the center of it.
Meanwhile, Jiang Juyou was busy reposting and didn't have time to drop a message in the group chat.
Random Entertainment employees: Eh?
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