Chapter 140 - Shocking Mutuals List
Chapter 140: Shocking Mutuals List
That nasty comment posted was immediately replied. “Didn’t you see the promotional pictures of her in ‘Empire Under Siege’? Didn’t you see Li Yu’s Weibo post about it? I think you’re the one who’s gone crazy trying to be popular!”
“Hehe, I thought that that dog bowl would be able to explain everything.”
“Right? She’s just a newbie posting Li Yu’s picture, riding on his coattails. If you can, then why not ask Li Yu to post another post, huh?”
“The movie isn’t even out yet and it’s so popular already, come and explain the backstory of the newbie, won’t you @Black Dog Entertainment Circle”
With the banter going back and forth, the topic of ‘Empire Under Siege’ was once again bumped up in a short few minutes, into the top three trending again.
Cheng Zhou laughed when he saw that. “That’s good, we can save money on buying traffic to get into those top spots now.”
Gu Xiqiao had fanned the fire twice now, bringing ‘Empire Under Siege’ to appear twice on the trending list, making them appear at the top of the hot search when people clicked on their name. In the past, the production crew would have to spend a sum of money to buy traffic to bump their post up into the trending list, it wasn’t as easy to get bumped up so simply as it was these days.
***
Xu Qing was an assistant to the makeup artist on ‘Empire Under Siege’, and she would usually browse through Weibo when she had nothing to do. Today, she clicked into the profile of her newly worshipped goddess and found a cute dog picture looking back at her. She then scrolled to the comments, seeing that it started out normal and fine, but then the direction changed suddenly within a span of a few minutes.
“Using underhanded methods to do away with a popular actress like Jin Sitian, do you dare to use your real name, For A Millenium? Or are you afraid of being embarrassed once you don’t have a nickname to hide behind?”
“You dare to ride on Li Yu’s coattails? Are you aware of your own status? Making trouble like this in the entertainment circle, your kind of people should get kicked out of it immediately!”
“A newbie should be aware of your own place as a newbie.”
Xu Qing scanned through the rest of the comments quickly and found that the latest comments were all along the same lines, and the speed of each one was fast, one after another being posted. She instantly realized that someone must have hired some Internet Water Army[1] to badmouth Gu Xiqiao, how could this be tolerated?!
This matter already involved a wide range of people, and knowing that Xiao Yun was a newcomer who had the backing of Tang Enterprise, as well as having a good relationship with Gu Xiqiao, she approached her first.
“Miss Xiao, have a look at this.” When she found Xiao Yun, she was busy memorizing her lines.
Taking the phone from Xu Qing’s hand, Xiao Yun’s eyes were drawn to the headline at a glance, “Let’s talk about the newbie who chased away Jin Sintian, absolute insider info!”.
Standing up abruptly, the chair she was sitting on clattered to the ground loudly. Xiao Yun’s face was black. Gu Xiqiao had joined the movie and production crew because of her, she needed to resolve this matter properly. She would not let Gu Xiqiao receive any grievances. “Director Cheng, is there still a copy of the recording the other day, I need it.”
Cheng Zhou was in a discussion with Li Yu, and when he heard Xiao Yun’s words, he was taken aback. “What’s the matter?”
“Please take a look at this.” Xiao Yun said, showing him the post and headlines on the phone.
Seeing the topic title and content, Cheng Zhou was astonished. Hadn’t this matter already been settled and done with? Those people have already converted fully to become Gu Xiqiao’s fans, and just yesterday he was lamenting how good she was at attracting a huge number of fans. How did it turn into something like this so suddenly today?
He swiped to look at Gu Xiqiao’s first Weibo post on her page, and the number of comments had already reached two hundred thousand, and that was an extremely abnormal amount.
Scrolling down to see the comments that were mocking her, he noted that a lot of them were newly made accounts. Cheng Zhou then realized that someone was deliberately trashing Gu Xiqiao.
These were all those scums who wanted justice for Jin Sitian, and many people who didn’t know the story behind this had already started to boycott the production crew of ‘Empire Under Siege’.
Cheng Zhou immediately pulled the recordings of the surveillance the other day to reveal the truth, but to his horror, only that particular one was unable to be played back, while the others were all fine.
It wasn’t only Cheng Zhou that felt something was wrong now, even Xiao Yun knew that somebody powerful was pulling the strings behind the scene.
Li Yu was standing to the side, and his eyes narrowed dangerously. “Miss Gu doesn’t have any contract with any companies, and for Tang Enterprise to handle this matter wouldn’t be nice either. However, the person behind the scenes is hidden very well, we can’t handle this alone.”
The Weibo post had risen to a new level of popularity in the trending and hot topics list, and countless people were asking for an explanation from the production crew.
Even the official Weibo of the movie didn’t escape this disaster.
At this time, Li Yu, who has tens of millions of fans, suddenly reposted Gu Xiqiao’s recent Weibo post.
(Verified)[2] Li Yu: Looking forward to working with you again. @For A Millenium [JPEG] [JPEG] [JPEG] [JPEG] [JPEG] [JPEG] [JPEG] [JPEG] [JPEG]
Those people who had posted and supported the comment “Right? She’s just a newbie posting Li Yu’s picture, riding on his coattails. If you can, then why not ask Li Yu to post another post, huh?” was given a literal slap in the face with this, and for a while, they were stumped on how to continue their plan.
The actor had blindsided them with this, and Li Yu was not the same as Gu Xiqiao, he had countless die-hard fans. These people dared to slander Gu Xiqiao on her Weibo, but they didn’t dare to do the same to Li Yu, because they would definitely be shred to pieces by Li Yu’s fans.
They didn’t understand why Li Yu would suddenly repost Gu Xiqiao’s Weibo post, and with such a familiar tone too!
In contrast to those assholes, Li Yu’s fans had once again climbed over to the original post from Li Yu’s Weibo.
“So blessed, OP (original poster) is so beautiful, isn’t she literally a match for our God Li? Ptui, I shouldn’t have this kind of thoughts! I’m the one destined for Li Yu, I will recite this a hundred times!”
“I don’t care, I will like whatever my god likes, no matter how much you slander her, I will believe in my god!”
“Have you seen the Weibo post by OP? There’s a live God Li inside there, ahhhhh, are they on set? Why do I get so much loving feels from it?!”
And so, the topic that was on fire and unstoppable was toppled over just like that.
Li Yu Official Fan Group, General Supervisor: Everyone has worked hard, please hold on for another night. If there are still trollers then mow them down with no mercy, our god has been single for thirty years, and there’s finally some headway, we will not be defeated by those evil forces!
White Jade: Thinking about how he was sick and alone in his house makes my heart break!
Green Jade: Hihihi, although I love our male god, I hope that he will be healthy and well, he’s so hot and warm…
***
Li Yu’s fans were all loyal, and this was probably the reason why Li Yu was extremely tolerant and caring towards his fans usually, and his fans were also far more sensible than some of those without brains.
However, Black Dog Entertainment Circle suddenly posted a new Weibo post.
(Verified) Black Dog Entertainment Circle: Regarding the truth about the newbie who bullied Jin Sitian, at 8 am tomorrow, we’ll expose the entire truth, just wait for it!
This post instantly attracted the attention of many people, and they were looking forward to it, vibrating with excitement as they waited for the long night to pass, wanting to know the truth behind that Weibo post.
***
As for the development of this matter, the omnipotent system had already broadcasted the entire thing to Gu Xiqiao.
Gu Xiqiao went upstairs to grab her laptop. “Why are you so excited?”
The system replied faintly, [Probably because I don’t really love you today.]
Gu Xiqiao was silent a while, before replying thoughtfully, ‘Oh, so we actually had some love between us?’
[…]
It felt an ominous foreboding feeling that something was going to go badly for someone, most likely for it.
“I’m just wondering how we have come to this, how did we come to this extent today? Where did the cute, adorable system go?”
[…]
Gu Xiqiao let out a heavy sigh. “Little system, I think the remaining five thousand points should be used to let Brother Jiang advance his level…”
[Master! I yield!] The system spirit gave a pitiful crying face as it raised its head, admitting defeat.
Pausing for a while, Gu Xiqiao smiled lightly. ‘Good system.’
After grabbing her laptop, Gu Xiqiao received a call from Xiao Yun while she was upstairs.
“Er Qiao, I’m not really sure how to handle this matter, and I’m discussing it with Mr. Xiang. He’s been in the entertainment circle for a long time, I’m sure he’ll have a way.” No matter how mature Xiao Yun’s acting skills were, she was still just a girl who wasn’t even twenty-years-old yet. Being able to remain calm after facing such a chaotic mess was already considered to be not bad.
Gu Xiqiao chucked. “The most important thing for you is to focus on making a great movie right now, I can manage the rest by myself, don’t worry about it. I’ll contact Director Cheng, I have my ways too.”
Xiao Yun opened her mouth to reply to that, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say. Gu Xiqiao was growing step by step, Wu Hongwen and herself needed to do some growing up too, otherwise, the chance of all of them standing together would be slim, right?
Wu Hongwen has already begun to familiarize himself with his family business, and had started working hand in hand with Yao Jiamu. The entire underground in the Imperial Capital had been dominated by the two of them.
She was the only one left that felt that she was still standing in the same place that they had all started at, not moving forward at all.
Having no mood to look at her script, she picked up her phone to swipe through the latest developments of the mess they were caught up in. Scrolling through Li Yu’s Weibo, she was surprised to find that the situation had eased up a lot. Li Yu’s fans had really played their role well.
After browsing through a bit more, Xiao Yun finally felt her heart settled down a bit more.
***
Gu Xiqiao held the laptop in one hand as she typed with the other. “System, is this the only way to restore the recording?”
[In theory, yes.] The system spirit blinked rapidly. [But you could probably find another way to do it, the last decryption route you gave Yu Ning is a good breakthrough point for that.]
Seeing those slender white fingers dance over the keyboard, the system spirit suddenly felt nostalgic. When it had just returned to reality with Gu Xiqiao last time, their second mission was to help Jiang Shuxuan retrieve his stolen files. At that time, Gu Xiqiao didn’t know anything about hackers, and now she was able to hack into the surveillance of the Studio City all by herself, and even restore the destroyed recording.
She was growing slowly but surely, and there were lesser things that she needed to rely on the system for as time went by.
The system spirit hugged its legs tightly to itself. This was also one of the reasons for its bad mood recently, it was afraid that there would come a day when Beauty Qiao would no longer need it.
“Done!” Gu Xiqiao managed to restore the scrambled portion of the recording, ensuring the audio and video quality was clear enough that people wouldn’t be able to find any flaws in it.
She opened the video, watching it once to have a last check, and then she zipped it up, prepared to send it to Director Cheng.
Then, she was suddenly struck by an interest to find out who was actually the one who was slandering her. Logically speaking, Jin Sitian didn’t pose much threat to her, so who else in the entertainment circle had beef with her?
She didn’t even know whether the other party had the means to pay the price of slandering her.
Gu Xiqiao followed the traces of the tampering in the surveillance recordings, and managed to touch the surface of the host. It seemed that the other person was also a computer expert, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to destroy the recording without any physical presence in the place in the first place. The person had used a fictitious IP, but their capabilities weren’t even one-tenth of Yu Ning’s, and Gu Xiqiao managed to crack down on them fairly quickly.
Taking over the other person’s computer without any feelings of guilt, she turned on the webcam and was faced with two faces that she had never seen before.
Gu Xiqiao glanced once, and then tilted her head in confusion. “What did I ever do to these people?”
[Maybe they’re just jealous of your beauty.] The system spirit also took one glance, and thought that was a convincing reason.
Why, thank you so very much for your praise!
The matter may be more complicated than she thought, Gu Xiqiao felt that she hadn’t offended the other party before. Knowing that she would have to investigate further, she massaged her temples in slight annoyance, and proceeded to send the surveillance video to Cheng Zhou.
***
In Tang Enterprise, Tang Qingqiu stood in front of the glass windows that covered the entire walls, listening to his assistant’s report.
“You said that Cheng Zhou has already managed to get his hands on the surveillance recording?” Tang Qingqiu raised an eyebrow at the information, feeling surprised. When he had investigated the last time, he had secretly given a call to the surveillance team in Studio City, and basically no one else knew about it. The initial plan was to announce the video tomorrow morning using the Tang Enterprise name, making it a favor for Jiang Shuxuan at the same time, but Cheng Zhou seemed to already be one step ahead of them. “Didn’t the administrator say he couldn’t restore the video?”
“That’s what they said,” Qin Heng replied, taking off his glasses. “But have you forgotten the company that you’ve had your eyes on recently, the one that had gone head to head with the Bai family?”
“You’re talking about… Nine Heavens?” Tang Qingqiu asked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
Qin Heng smiled in reply and continued, “They can bring out even the most impossible things like virtual helmets, and even plan to have a virtual world to play the game in, there has to be no shortage of talented computer geniuses in there. I heard a while back that God Lo has disappeared after returning to China, and I think that Nine Heavens have recruited him into their company. Based on his capabilities, how big of an issue is restoring a video in his hands?”
“So you’re saying that Cheng Zhou has some connections to Nine Heavens?” There was some merit in that thought, and it was interesting too. Tang Qingqiu knew that Nine Heavens is a new company, but they were aloof and reserved. There were only so few companies that managed to obtain a partnership with them in the Imperial Capital.
Seeing the sparkle in Tang Qingqiu’s eyes, Qin Heng was secretly puking blood inside his heart. Don’t think that by pretending to be tall, dignified and majestic that you can hide everything under a lid. Qin Heng was already well aware that Tang Qingqiu secretly played the game, ‘Nine Heavens’. Not only does he play the game, there was even a luxurious virtual helmet in his break room!
Although these thoughts were running in his mind, Qin Heng maintained his respectful image on the surface. “But maybe it’s not Cheng Zhou that has the connection with Nine Heavens.”
“Oh?” Tang Qingqiu probed, raising his eyebrow again. His face had doubts on it, why would Nine Heavens give their assistance for free if he didn’t have any connections to them? The company didn’t seem to be the generous kind.
“Miss Gu.” Qin Heng took out his mobile, flipping it to Weibo. “She and the official Weibo of Nine Heaves are following each other.”
They followed each other? Tang Qingqiu took the offered phone, a surprise evident on his face. It wasn’t because of their mutual following that stunned him, it was the name that Gu Xiqiao was using…
For A Millenium!
Hold up, something’s not quite right here.
Tang Qingqiu glanced up at Qin Heng, asking quietly, “Tell me again, what’s the new artiste name that Xiang Kun had signed on?”
“Xiao Yun,” Qin Heng replied easily, wondering why this topic was brought up suddenly.
“Xiao Yun.” Tang Qingqiu repeated the name several times in his head, and as though he had thought of something, he dismissed Qin Heng distractedly.
Unsure of what kind of wacky idea his boss had suddenly thought of, Qin Heng nodded lightly, thinking that there was nothing else to be discussed, he left the office, returning to his own office, once again slaving away his soul to this abominable capitalist.
***
The next morning, Black Dog Entertainment Circle who threatened to expose everything yesterday posted a new video.
(Verified) Black Dog Entertainment Circle: This is the newbie who’s climbing up the ranks and getting more and more popular, all I can say is, Jin Sitian and her assistant are really pitiful. Link: Video Address
As soon as this Weibo post was posted, there were tens of thousands of comments in a few seconds. The comments were mainly talking about how arrogant For A Millenium was, and she had bullied Jin Sitian, and how Jin Sitian, as a newcomer without any backer had been pitifully chased out of the production crew.
In the video, it displayed the moment when Jin Sitian stormed out from the crew. Her face was pale and extremely miserable, arousing the sympathy of countless netizens in an instant. People who didn’t know the full truth, were easily led astray by this scene.
Most of the people who were just passing by started to head to the official Weibo of “Empire Under Siege” to leave scolding comments, demanding explanations from them, and some even commanded for the crew to take Jin Sitian back into the movie, and chase For A Millenium off instead.
***
However, the production crew of ‘Empire Under Siege’ didn’t seem the least worried or anxious about the situation at all.
Cheng Zhou sat calmly in the set area, sipping on his tea as he watched Xiao Yun and Li Yu act out their scene together. He leisurely waited for time to pass, up till the clock struck noon, when their official Weibo had already garnered close to two million fans, then he sent out the video serenely, not even typing anything in his post.
After posting the video, he was even more at peace. Yesterday, when Gu Xiqiao had sent him the video, he had overturned a cup of tea in astonishment. He had initially thought that they were in a dilemma without the video, and he didn’t expect Gu Xiqiao to hand him such a surprise out of nowhere. This feeling simply felt like he was riding on someone else’s coattail, and it felt surprisingly good.
The netizens online kept posting comments under that Weibo post, right until the official Weibo of ‘Empire Under Siege’ released a video.
They continued to curse as they opened the video, before getting stunned at what they saw. It was obviously a surveillance recording, displaying a middle-aged man who clearly looked like a vile character who got into a position of power, and had become conceited and arrogant by the way he carried himself.
“Director Cheng, I’m sure Mr. Tian’s secretary has already informed you yesterday that he will make an additional investment of twenty million into this drama as long as Xiao Yun is off the cast. Otherwise, he will withdraw his one hundred million investment.”
The video went on to also show Jin Sitian, whose face was slightly distorted. “Why are you still here?! Where’s Director Cheng! Get him here!!”
And finally, it also displayed the appearance of Qin Heng and the happenings after that.
The entire video was not long at all, just about two minutes, but it was enough for everyone to open their eyes to the actual truth behind it.
“So, it’s obvious that this was Jin Sitian abusing her power to bully someone else, but the tables were turned on her instead?”
“It’s just Jin Sitian and her assistant that is so two-faced! If it were me, I wouldn’t let those kinds of people be in the cast!”
“I can’t believe that Jin Sitian debuted an image of a dignified actress, but then she has a bad temper behind that face. Listening to her tone, she seems to be proud of having a sugar daddy behind her?!”
“I feel sorry for that newbie. Have you guys completely forgotten about For A Millenium? That means that she’s innocent in the entire thing okay?”
“+1, she obviously didn’t do anything, but everyone and everything has been bombarding her with shit that can probably last for thirteen generations of her family. There were more than four hundred thousand people on Weibo harassing her and scolding her. If it happened to me, I definitely wouldn’t be able to bear it…”
“Looking at her pictures, she doesn’t seem to be any older than seventeen or eighteen too. Hey keyboard warriors, are you guys really trying to kill a young lady in her prime?”
At that comment, it turned into a reflection and repentance of countless people who had harassed or abused Gu Xiqiao. They crawled back to her Weibo, leaving comments of apologies and everything else along the same lines.
***
The person behind Black Dog Entertainment Circle was a young man. He had painstakingly got to where he was today, managing this account in this position. Yesterday, he had received an anonymous call, sending him a video to broadcast today. After thinking about it, he thought that it would bring him up into the top ten among the celebrities by doing it.
He didn’t expect the tables to turn like this today?!
He dialed back the number that had called him, and started shooting questions the moment it was answered.
There was a female voice on the other end who answered, and she was silent for a while before replying, “I’ll transfer the agreed amount of money to your account either way, that’s all then.”
Bang!
Black Dog Entertainment Circle instantly threw the phone down, shattering it on the floor. Money? Was this a problem of money? He had been running this account for close to eight years, gathering over seven million fans and the entire thing was burned now. F*cking hell, he grabbed his hair in frustration, feeling the regret overwhelming him.
***
Because of this turmoil, many of those who had first slandered Gu Xiqiao had now become her die-hard fans, and the account For A Millenium had reached almost four million fans.
She had only been on Weibo for a few days, and has close to four million fans, she definitely was the luckiest newbie ever.
Then one die-hard fan suddenly came to a realization.
“I just suddenly realized that having attention as a beauty is scary as hell…”
“When you say it like that, I also feel the same…”
The fans had been converted by others who had been bragging about Gu Xiqiao came back after going through her friend list. “…”
“What’s up? Was there anything weird in her list?” Some of the others didn’t understand their silence.
“Cheng Zhou, the extraordinarily talented director with the strangest temperament; Sister Yu, a well known makeup artist in the entertainment circle; Li Yu, a top notch actor… it’s not that strange to have these people on her mutual friend list.”
“But! Look at the others, Nine Heavens, it’s Nine Heavens, you know?! Don’t tell me that none of you play the Nine Heavens game! They are mutuals with each other, that beauty and them!”
“And this person, Zhu Yuan, do you know who that is?! That’s the youngest surgeon in the world, the most talented doctor in history!”
[1] T/N: On the Internet in China, an Internet Water Army is a group of Internet ghostwriters paid to post online comments with particular content.
[2] on Weibo, celebrities have a v before their names to indicate they are verified members