Under pressure from Jinxiutang, Banshan publicly issued an apology statement on his Weibo account.

When Bai Qianmo returned to the company, Su Peishan, Jiang Hai, and Li Song were discussing the matter.

"Boss, you're back just in time. Quickly check Weibo; Banshan has already issued an apology statement."

Bai Qianmo walked to the sofa and sat down, taking her phone out of her pocket.

Log in to her newly registered alternate account, "The Pioneer," which only follows Banshan.

Clicking into Banshan's Weibo, the first trending post is Banshan's public apology letter, and all the messages he previously posted on Weibo about the drama "Seven" have been deleted.

The Weibo post was published two hours ago, and it has already garnered over 200,000 comments and been reposted over a million times.

The apology statement is roughly as follows: Banshan admitted that "Seven Deadly Sins" was a work he plagiarized and publicly apologized to the pioneer of the genre. His apology statement was quite long, but he only briefly mentioned the plagiarism at the beginning. The rest of the statement focused on his mental journey over the years, trying to whitewash the plagiarism as a mistake he made by losing himself.

Finally, he said he was temporarily withdrawing from the literary world to find his true self.

This is the highest level of cultural figures acting like hooligans: when they make a mistake, they can play word games, showing their willingness to admit their mistake while successfully beautifying it with words.

Although the comments still contained more criticism than words of comfort, it was still a much better approach than simply admitting plagiarism.

Li Song said, "Banshan took all the blame for this plagiarism scandal. Fansheng and Xu Ziqian must have talked to him and probably gave him hush money."

Su Peishan gave a disdainful sneer: "Banshan's temporary withdrawal from the literary scene is just to avoid the limelight. He even said he wanted to find his true self. When writers lose their shame, they are more disgusting than ordinary people."

Jiang Hai looked at Bai Qianmo: "Qianmo, Fansheng has made such a fool of themselves this time, they will definitely cause us trouble afterwards, and I'm afraid the filming process will not go so smoothly."

Bai Qianmo looked away from her phone screen and calmly looked at Jiang Hai: "So before they figure out how to deal with us, we need to finalize the filming crew and actors as soon as possible. This matter will be handled by Director Li and Director Jiang. You are the producer and director, and all I can do is provide you with financial support. Everything else is up to you to consider, and I believe you will have a good solution."

Li Song and Jiang Hai both understood that this matter was very difficult, but at the same time they could also sense Bai Qianmo's trust in them.

This trust gives them the determination to give it their all, which is the boss's shrewdness in personnel management.

The principle of "not using those you doubt, and not doubting those you use" demonstrates trust in subordinates and makes them feel valued, thus motivating them to work even harder for you.

After leaving the conference room, Jiang Hai immediately contacted several actors he knew in the entertainment industry. Although none of them were famous artists, they were all good actors and had good character.

Su Pei-shan, on the other hand, had to oversee the progress of her company's artists' training and subsequently left the office.

Bai Qianmo sat at her desk, flipping through a document in her hand, while Li Song stood beside her, wondering why his boss wanted to keep him around.

After a moment of silence in the office, Bai Qianmo put down the documents in her hand, looked up at Li Song, and said, "Director Li, there is something I need you to do."

"Please speak, boss."

Li Song had a vague feeling that what his boss had asked him to do was probably not simple.

*

The trailer for "The Phoenix's Journey" has been released, and the show will be broadcast on a major satellite TV channel at the end of this month. It's also part of the Spring Festival season, so the production team is putting in a lot of effort to promote the show. The lead actors, Du Muchen and Bai Xiruo, will need to travel to various provinces and cities for promotional activities.

I had just finished an event when Zhou Hongwei called.

The assistant handed the phone to Bai Xiruo: "Sister Xiruo, it's Brother Zhou on the phone."

After Zhou Hongwei was demoted, he signed with Bai Xiruo and became her agent.

"Brother Zhou, what's wrong?"

"Xi Ruo, the script for 'Seven Deadly Sins' is probably going to be scrapped."

Since Zhou Hongwei became Bai Xiruo's agent, he has been determined to cultivate Bai Xiruo into the most popular female artist in Jiashang. At the same time, he also wants to make the board of directors of Wansheng Group see his value and ability, so he works very hard to find resources for Bai Xiruo.

He just never expected that the script for "Seven," which he had the highest hopes for, would have such a dramatic outcome.

"The novel *Seven Deadly Sins* is a work plagiarized by Banshan, the pioneer of plagiarism. Jinlingtang has confirmed this, and Banshan has publicly apologized and announced a temporary hiatus from writing. Therefore, Fansheng Media and Director Xu no longer have the qualifications to film this script. The copyright and filming rights are held by Tengyue, that small company. But I heard from rumors that the male and female leads and the main characters for each segment have already been cast..."

Bai Xiruo's fingers tightened around her phone, the veins on her fingers bulging, and a flush of anger rose on her fair cheeks as she felt a surge of rage in her chest.

"Didn't you say it was foolproof? I've paid such a high price, and you're telling me I can't film this show? Zhou Hongwei, you dare to play me like this?"

For this drama, she did the things she despised the most, but now it's all for nothing.

Thinking of this, Bai Xiruo trembled with anger.

Zhou Hongwei inwardly groaned: "My dear aunt, how could I dare to play you? We're currently in a manager-artist relationship. If you become famous, it will benefit me greatly. I'm practically begging you to make me famous every day. Who would have thought that the work produced by Fansheng and directed by Xu Ziqian was actually plagiarized?"

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!