CH 37

TL: Hua

After Li Kun finished receiving the airdrop and opened it, he was stunned in place.

He had been looking for the video all afternoon, and it landed on his phone out of nowhere.

There are not only videos, but also pictures.

In the continuous pictures, you can see Tang Kui’s agent appearing on the set, quietly walking to the wire, taking out a knife, and placing it on the wire.

In other videos, other staff members actively testified, “Yes, when I was preparing for the set, I saw Tang Kui and his agent appear here.”

“Jiang Sicheng came here before, but it was Tang Kui who asked him to come up.”

After reading all the evidence, Li Kun immediately packaged and sent these pictures, videos, and several high-definition photos of the broken wires he had taken to Yu Xiaosheng and Qi Xiaoyu.

*****

Tang Kui hates Qi Xiaoyu. From the moment he had his room changed by Qi Xiaoyu and was compared to Qi Xiaoyu by the marketing accounts, he hated this person.

Especially since everyone in the crew liked Qi Xiaoyu, as the behind-the-scenes footage was broadcast, Qi Xiaoyu’s popularity was about to surpass that of the second male lead. It makes him feel uncomfortable all over.

It’s uncomfortable to scroll through his own updates every day.

He was not an open-minded person to begin with. In his early years, he was depressed because he couldn’t become popular. After he became popular at the age of 28, he began to worry about gains and losses again and was overly nervous.

He is a bit embarrassed about his age. He is neither a young talent nor an experienced actor. He is blocked by countless seniors like mountains in front of him, and there are groups of young people chasing behind him.

He originally wanted to take advantage of the popularity of the previous drama to get another male lead role, but all the good resources were divided up, and Jiang Sicheng was in the way, so he could only earn a second male lead role after all the hard work.

All the unhappiness added together, and they were all vented on Qi Xiaoyu.

He hated Jiang Sicheng even more.

It wasn’t that he wanted to dissociate himself from Xue Qingchu at the beginning.

Xue Qingchu had good acting skills and a good reputation. At that time, he wanted to take advantage of the popularity of the drama and continue to hype up the CP with Xue Qingchu.

But Jiang Sicheng always made him uncomfortable. First, Xue Qingchu was not allowed to have any physical contact with him during filming, and then Xue Qingchu was not allowed to appear on the same show as him.

He had contacts with the milk commercial that Xue Qingchu accepted this year, as well as the travel variety show, but in the end, they were all messed up by Jiang Sicheng and offered at a discount to Qi Xiaoyu.

In addition, Jiang Sicheng was arrogant and domineering and never gave him a good look.

If Jiang Sicheng didn’t have a good family background, he would have wanted to teach this idiot a lesson.

This time, he originally wanted to use Jiang Sicheng’s hand to teach Qi Xiaoyu a lesson and, at the same time, use public opinion to attack Jiang Sicheng, making it difficult for both of them.

Who knew that Qi Xiaoyu was so lucky? He discovered in advance that there was a problem with the wire.

Tang Kui was lying on the hotel bed in his pajamas, always paying attention to what was going on at Orange Juice Entertainment.

Two or three hours have passed since the report came out.

All the water armies he paid for had all exited the stage. Seeing these people scold Jiang Sicheng really put him in a good mood.

Why is there still no movement from Orange Juice Entertainment?

Tang Kui was a little anxious while waiting and subconsciously bit his fingernails. He couldn’t understand how Orange Juice Entertainment could tolerate this. The water armies scolded the boss’s son; why didn’t they fight back?

After waiting for a while, he logged into Weibo, switched to his side account, and forwarded several Weibo posts about Jiang Sicheng’s bullying, showing off his ability to curse.

When he finished this series of actions and refreshed the topic page of #JingSichengbullyingnewcomers# again, his fingers stayed on the first screen, as if he were frozen and unable to move.

The first Weibo post on the first screen – a big plot twist. The one who really bullied the newcomers and cut off the wire was the second male lead, Tang Kui, who had just become famous through idol dramas last year.

Let’s break down Tang Kui’s five sins since he became popular: 1. Binding himself with a popular actress to hype up CP, but the hype failed, and he bit back at the actress; 2. buying a large amount of trolls and hot searches to market his gentle boyfriend’s persona; 3. bullying a newcomer and maliciously cutting off his wires; 4. putting blame on others and hiring trolls to personally attack others, which is extremely disgusting; 5. opening a side account and arbitrarily insulting people in the industry, a two-faced person who breaks through the lower limit of morality.

The accompanying pictures below follow the pattern of Tang Kui’s revelations about Jiang Sicheng, with a nine-panel grid stuffed to the brim with pictures.

Tang Kui didn’t dare to click on it. He only took a cursory glance at the small picture, and he already felt like his head was going to explode.

That picture was his side account.

He has scolded many celebrities in that account, mocking Qi Xiaoyu for not knowing his place and insulting him, and just now he used it to scold Jiang Sicheng in an unscrupulous manner.

His head felt dizzy, and his heart was beating wildly. His side account had been well protected and had no connection with the main one. How could it be suddenly exposed?

With trembling hands, he wanted to click on the comment but was frightened and backed away.

The five deadly sins were flying around in front of his eyes like mosquitoes.

If someone just digs out the side account, he can veto it very firmly, saying that it was a plant by someone else.

If it’s just about him buying the water army and hot searches, he could also say without blushing that it had nothing to do with him and that it was his opponent who was slandering him.

But the five crimes were connected together, and there was evidence for each and every one of them. He really didn’t know where to start refuting.

“Ding, ding, ding.” His cell phone suddenly rang sharply, startling him.

It was the manager of the company’s artist department who called him.

Tang Kui naturally knew what was going to happen next. He didn’t dare to answer it, so he put his phone on silent and threw it far away.

He switched to a computer to surf the Internet, and the WeChat messages on his desktop kept flashing again, blurring the screen.

He had to exit WeChat in the background.

The world cleared up a bit, then.

With a trembling hand, he logged into Weibo again.

The first item on the homepage of Weibo is a lawyer’s letter from Orange Juice Entertainment’s official Weibo, saying that legal action would be filed against those who spread rumors and slander Jiang Sicheng.

Following closely behind are Star Entertainment and the crew of The Legend of the Tang Dynasty Empress, who successively issued statements saying that they would assist the police in investigating the malicious damage to the wire and make every effort to protect the personal safety of the crew and the company’s employees.

Tang Kui didn’t dare to look at Weibo anymore, let alone read the hot searches. He just wanted to contact two marketing companies with which he had a good relationship and ask them for help. Using the water army’s comments to suppress the comments that criticized him will make things a little less ugly.

His fingers were trembling while typing, “I can give you three times the previous price, as long as you help me suppress the bad reviews online.”

Three minutes later, one of the companies read his message but didn’t reply.

Tang Kui wanted to send another message but found that the other party had blacklisted him.

Another company that had made many transactions with him replied, “Brother, we really can’t afford to offend the person you offended this time. There is no need to contact us in the future.”

Then they also blocked him.

Tang Kui’s brain shook and rattled.

He didn’t understand who he had offended. It shouldn’t be Orange Juice Entertainment. When he used this method to deal with Xue Qingchu before, the other party’s reaction wasn’t even this fast, this sharp, or this ruthless.

He licked his chapped lips and vaguely felt that this matter might be related to Qi Xiaoyu, but he couldn’t guess who Qi Xiaoyu, a celebrity with a lower status than him, might be related to.

But he didn’t bother to think about it.

Anyway, everything is over. No one knows better than him that the power of public opinion, hot searches, and trolls can carry a boat or capsize it.

He became famous by relying on waves of marketing, but his foundation was unstable. Now that his image is ruined, who will cooperate with him again?

He closed the notebook in despair and threw it aside, letting the quilt slowly slide off his body.

*****

Jiang Sicheng chose a photo of himself and Qi Xiaoyu from thousands of choices. He carefully crafted it and wrote a touching text. After reading it five times, he posted it on his personal Weibo account.

Then, Jiang Sicheng confidently called his father back, “Dad, I’ve taken care of everything.”

Jiang Feibai looked at the Weibo that his son had just sent, his eyebrows knitted together. “Brotherhood is deep and cannot be criticized.”

After Jiang Feibai finished reading, he snorted coldly, “You’ve gone too far with your nonsense. Are you not afraid of being slapped in the face?”

Jiang Sicheng said with certainty, “No, dad, don’t worry, I think Qi Xiaoyu is pretty good, much better than that grandson, Tang Kui.”

“Since you think he’s a nice guy, why are you still bullying him everywhere in the crew?”

Jiang Sicheng whispered, “Dad…”

“Don’t think I don’t know. Although what Tang Kui said is unreliable, there are always some truths. Otherwise, why would there be so many photos leaked?”

Jiang Sicheng immediately interrupted, “Dad, don’t worry, I will definitely protect Qi Xiaoyu in this circle from now on.”

*****

At this time, Qi Xiaoyu, who needed to be protected, was happily shopping at a furniture store.

This is a Western antique furniture store.

It occupies an entire building next to the Cantonese restaurant. There are two floors, nearly 4,000 square meters.

But there were not many guests. After all, the price of this kind of antique furniture is not low, and the price of any jewelry tray is more than four figures, which is really not affordable for many people.

But the style is really nice. The glass is carved with classical patterns, and the wooden furniture has traces of time.

And they have everything: large items such as sofas, chairs, clocks, cabinets, table decorations, and paintings; small items such as photo frames, crystal vases, and porcelain… everything is available in all styles.

Qi Xiaoyu enjoyed himself so much that he was reluctant to leave.

He took a fancy to a brown leather sofa, a carved glass cupboard suitable for placing tableware, and a set of classic British tea sets.

There are too many things he wants to buy, but Qi Xiaoyu can only remind himself that he doesn’t have his own house yet, so it’s hard to buy too many things back.

At most, he can feast his eyes on them first or pick out some small items.

After shopping around for more than two hours, he only selected a gramophone with a base made of dark mahogany and a large speaker made of brass. There is a sense of age to it, but the overall condition is very new.

Qi Xiaoyu hugged the gramophone contentedly, letting Xun Qian hug the little black dog, and walked back happily.

On the way back in the car, Qi Xiaoyu received another call from Yu Xiaosheng.

Yu Xiaosheng, “Why didn’t you answer my call?”

“Brother Yu, did you call me? Well, maybe it was too noisy outside, and I didn’t hear it.”

Yu Xiaosheng clicked his tongue twice. “You haven’t looked at your phone for the past two hours?”

Then he said, “You’re really enjoying yourself, kid. When something happened, you were out wandering around. When you finished wandering, the matter was completely resolved.”

“What happened?”

Yu Xiaosheng briefly talked about what happened online in the past few hours and finally concluded, “Anyway, nothing will happen to you. Tang Kui will probably be fired from the crew for his own fault, and he may be detained for a few days after the police investigation is completed. Hmph, with such a vicious heart, there’s no way he can mix around in this circle anymore.

In order to express their apology, the production team contacted me and told me that they would mention you as the second male lead. Before finalizing, you have to come to the crew to reshoot some scenes, expand the scenes, and lengthen some storylines. I’ll let you know when the specific time is decided.”

After Yu Xiaosheng said the above, he told him the new work arrangements. He is going to record a new variety show tomorrow and is required to gather at the airport early in the morning. Li Kun and the program team will be waiting for him there.

Qi Xiaoyu wrote down everything and then hung up the phone.

The car was silent.

He turned to the side and saw Xun Qian and White Eyebrow Hero in Xun Qian’s arms, looking at him with dark eyes.

Seeing Qi Xiaoyu look at him, Xun Qian turned his head away naturally. Only the little black dog jumped from Xun Qian’s arms to Qi Xiaoyu’s arms.

*****

Butler Cheng was waiting for the two of them at the door of the villa when they returned to Xun’s house at night.

Seeing Qi Xiaoyu carrying a large cardboard box out of the trunk, he immediately asked someone to help him, “What did you buy, Mr. Qi?”

Qi Xiaoyu smiled and said, “It’s a gramophone. Uncle Cheng, do we have any vinyl records at home?”

Butler Cheng thought for a while and replied, “Yes, I will find it for you later. You can listen to it tonight.”

After Butler Cheng finished speaking, he glanced at Xun Qian again and said, “Third Master, do you want to listen to it together? Those are records you bought when you were a child.”

Xun Qian was bending down to pick up the little black dog that was trying to climb up the steps but was defeated at the first step. Hearing this, he looked up at Qi Xiaoyu and nodded.

Butler Cheng followed immediately: “How about I put the gramophone in your room first? You just happen to have the records in your room… and then we can move it to Mr. Qi’s room later.”

So the gramophone was placed on the large desk in Xun Qian’s room.

The vinyl record that was found was an English ballad from the last century.

The melody of the whole song is very light, like the summer evening breeze blowing away the heat wave, like the warm winter sun melting the ice and snow, and the lyrics also depict the shallow love of a young man.

When the singer’s soothing voice came from the gramophone, the whole room was in a graceful, elegant, and romantic atmosphere.

Qi Xiaoyu was leaning on the desk, one leg casually draped over the other. The music could be empathic. These soft tunes reminded him of many happy memories—those dreamlike moments in the opera troupe.

Xun Qian also leaned his head back and listened quietly to the song. The music brought him back to the few happy times in his life—his childhood, when he ran freely like an elf.

When the song ended, the two of them were still immersed in a gentle and romantic mood.

Butler Cheng walked gently to the gramophone and asked, “Would you like to listen to another song?”

Xun Qian said nothing.

Butler Cheng was about to continue, but Qi Xiaoyu stopped him. “I won’t listen anymore. I’m going to record a show early tomorrow morning, so I’ll go back and rest first.”

Butler Cheng put his hand on the gramophone for a moment and asked in surprise, “Why do you have to record another program? How long will it take this time?”

“A travel variety show may last more than ten days.”

“It’s quite a long time. The Chinese New Year will be here in more than ten days.” Butler Cheng said, looking at Xun Qian out of the corner of his eye.

The author has something to say:

Butler Cheng (worrying): Why don’t you try to keep your wife? Don’t you want to say something?