Chapter Seventy-One Punishment
Meng Fanxi walked with ease, and his soft-soled shoes made little noise when they touched the loose soil. Jin Ziran did not notice anyone approaching at first and was still focused on burying the box containing the phone into the pit.
His posture was somewhat awkward, a stark contrast to his usual composed demeanor.
Meng Fanxi let out a light, undisguised laugh, which was particularly noticeable in the quiet woods.
Jin Ziran's shoulders trembled in fright, and the box in his hand fell to the ground. He almost fell to the ground, but he reacted quickly, got up immediately, and turned around.
"What are you doing here?" When Jin Ziran saw that it was Meng Fanxi, she was first stunned, then her whole body exuded hostility, but she moved her feet silently, trying to block the box on the ground.
He acted very naturally, but Meng Fanxi had already taken in his every move.
"Shouldn't I be asking you this? What are you doing sneaking around here in the middle of the night?" Meng Fanxi was relaxed, his expression calm, and a slight smile played at the corners of his mouth.
Jin Ziran lowered her guard a bit and retorted, "It's none of your business."
Little did he know that Meng Fanxi's next words would almost make him lose his composure.
"Is it another case of burying CDs?"
Jin Ziran's eyes widened suddenly, her heart skipped a beat, "What do you mean?"
Meng Fanxi chuckled, her beautiful eyes flashing with cunning. "Don't you understand what I mean?"
Jin Ziran's face showed surprise and uncertainty. After a few seconds of reaction, she glared at him angrily: "It's you!"
He stormed towards Meng Fanxi, taking a few steps closer. "You're the one who drove a wedge between me and Zhang Yang!"
Meng Fanxi chuckled as if he had heard a joke, and took a few steps forward.
"They're really playing the victim, why were they sneaking around when they were destroying Zhang Yang's CDs?"
Jin Ziran stiffened his neck, his gaze shifting and flickering, still refusing to admit it, "I just accidentally lost his CD."
Meng Fanxi had no intention of dwelling on this matter, but he recognized Jin Ziran's ability to argue even more clearly. Taking advantage of Jin Ziran's guilty conscience and distraction, he nimbly stepped forward, picked up the box from the ground, and quickly retreated to keep a distance of several meters from him.
"Give it back to me!" Jin Ziran's eyes instantly turned red with anger, and she lunged forward to snatch the box back.
Taking advantage of his position, Meng Fanxi parried Jin Ziran's movements while saying, "There's a cell phone in here, right?"
Jin Ziran paused for a moment, then snatched it away even more frantically, yelling, "Give it back to me!"
Meng Fanxi has played supporting roles in many films, including martial arts films. In order to perform each action well and not be looked down upon by the crew, he devoted himself to two months of basic martial arts training before joining the crew. He was able to deal with Jin Ziran's obviously flashy but ineffective fighting with ease.
With a clever counterattack, he caused Jin Ziran to lose her balance and fall to the ground, panting heavily.
Meng Fanxi looked at Jin Ziran with a cold smile. Seeing the way Jin Ziran's eyes kept flickering as he lowered his head, she knew that he was definitely thinking of some crooked ideas again.
Sure enough, after a short while, Jin Ziran put on a fawning smile and said weakly, "Fanxi, calm down, let's talk this over. I admit, it's a cell phone. As long as you give it back to me, I'll share all the information outside with you."
Seeing that Meng Fanxi remained unmoved, and even his expression became colder, Jin Ziran quickly said, "Or you can ask me to do something, as long as it's within my power, I'll agree to it."
The words "Fanxi" still sent chills down his spine when Jin Ziran uttered them after so long. The feeling of being unable to breathe when facing Jin Ziran in his past life almost overwhelmed him.
Fortunately, he is clear-headed now; he has more important things to do.
Meng Fanxi concealed the disgust in her eyes and looked down at Jin Ziran, "What is your relationship with Qu Liangze?"
A crack appeared on Jin Ziran's face, a hint of malice flashed in his eyes, and his teeth clenched tightly. Just how much had he overheard?
Meng Fanxi could guess what he was thinking. "I heard everything. You only have the option to answer."
Jin Ziran's eyes flickered. "He was a trainee I trained with at my previous company. I've heard a little about what he went through."
"You're going to smear Gu Huailang just because you've heard a little bit about him?"
Jin Ziran clenched her fists at her sides, forcing a stiff smile. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have slandered someone without knowing the whole story. Give me your phone, and I'll call that person right now and make them drop all the smear campaign. Okay?"
He tentatively extended one hand.
Meng Fanxi didn't speak, his eyes fixed on Jin Ziran's movements, and with a slight effort, he opened the box.
He picked up the phone, glanced at it, and saw it was the latest model from the Guava brand. Even at night, it could be unlocked with a simple scan.
He aimed the phone at Jin Ziran's face, and it unlocked successfully.
"I'll dial, you can speak."
Meng Fanxi flipped through the recent calls. The frequency and duration of these calls all pointed to one person, whose contact name was "Uncle".
He quickly memorized the phone number, dialed it, and pressed speakerphone.
The call was answered shortly afterward, but there was no sound from the other end.
Under Meng Fanxi's intense gaze, Jin Ziran reluctantly spoke up: "Hello, it's me."
Only then did the man on the other end of the phone speak: "Why are you calling again?"
Meng Fanxi understood that Jin Ziran speaking first was probably a pre-arranged signal between them to avoid being exposed.
Jin Ziran said, "Let's cancel the thing about preparing dirt on Gu Huailang."
"What's wrong? Have you thought it through?" The man had never approved of what he was doing.
Jin Ziran almost rolled her eyes, "...Just don't release it."
"Okay, okay. If there are any negative comments about you after the first performance airs, I'll figure something out. Don't worry."
Jin Ziran looked gloomy. "Hmm."
Meng Fanxi hung up the phone and noticed footsteps coming from afar.
He handed the phone to Jin Ziran, whose attention was entirely on the phone. Just as he took the phone and turned on the screen, he suddenly noticed that several more people were rushing towards them with flashlights.
The one at the front, wearing a work jacket, with shoulder-length short hair and a baseball cap, angrily walking in this direction, seems to be...
Director Jiang.
He stood there stunned, his legs too weak to stand up.
The lights came on in a conference room in the production center, and everyone sat down. Ying Zhuo and Yan Xiang sat in the middle with Jin Ziran on either side, creating a scene resembling a three-way interrogation.
Jiang Xunzhen was holding his phone and fiddling with it.
Meng Fanxi and Ren Yuchen sat to one side. On the way here, he finally understood why Ren Yuchen had taken so long to call for someone.
Ren Yuchen went to find Ying Zhuo as planned. Ying Zhuo was indeed playing games in his room when he was suddenly blocked by five members of the Eternal Six-Star team. He was so frightened that he almost thought something had happened at the villa.
Upon learning that Jin Ziran had secretly kept the phone and hidden it very well, he immediately thought of calling Yan Xiang, who was in the artist coordination team and was better at handling related matters.
While making a phone call to Yan Xiang with Ren Yuchen, he stopped the other four from following him out, saying, "What if he has other accomplices to help cover him up? Too many people will easily alert him."
Yan Xiang rushed over to meet them after receiving the call. He was right there when Jiang Xunzhen ordered the phone to be checked and witnessed Jiang's anger.
After much deliberation, Yan Xiang told Jiang Xunzhen the news.
And that's how the team grew so large.
In the conference room, Jiang Xunzhen didn't rush to speak. The bright lights illuminated Jin Ziran's pale face, and when she saw someone rushing in from outside the door, Jin Ziran's face turned even paler.
Executive producer Cen Qi also rushed over.
Jiang Xunzhen didn't want to bother the others any further. Seeing that almost everyone had arrived, she said seriously, "Jin Ziran, you should know that the agreement you signed before coming to the show didn't allow you to bring your cell phones, right?"
Jin Ziran's eyes were red, as if tears were about to fall: "I'm sorry, I just took a chance..."
He looked pitiful. Meng Fanxi knew that he was genuinely scared, but to this extent, it was all an act.
He watched him perform quietly.
"Later we sent people to your place to check your phones, but you still took a chance?"
Jin Ziran denied it, only apologizing repeatedly: "I'm sorry, it won't happen again next time."
"How much information did you get from the outside world? Do you think you can hide it from everyone? You were exposed a long time ago. After the live broadcast, you were the first person to linger outside that practice room. Do you think we didn't know?"
live streaming?
A thought suddenly flashed through Meng Fanxi's mind.
Jin Ziran seemed devastated: "I'm sorry, but I didn't profit from it. That door was always locked."
"Since you guys messed things up, of course it won't be open again." Jiang Xunzhen was a little regretful. If it weren't for the incident where some trainees deliberately took advantage of the situation by listening to the live stream through their phones, she had originally planned to make good use of that practice room and shoot more unexpected and wonderful scenes.
Jiang Xunzhen didn't want to say anything more and looked at Cen Qi, "The agreement clearly stipulates that violating the rules will result in punishment. Let's discuss how to punish them."
Cen Qi said, "The same as those others?"
The trainees who were caught using their phones were immediately demoted to the lowest level, D, and were no longer treated the same as the rest of the team.
Keep in mind that the lowest-ranked team right now is only C-level.
Jiang Xunzhen clearly disagreed. She called Cen Qi, Yan Xiang, and Ying Zhuo out to discuss the matter, leaving only the three of them in the meeting room.
Meng Fanxi wasn't worried that the punishment would be too lenient. Ren Yuchen told him on the way that he had informed the director about Jin Ziran's private contact with outsiders and her attempt to manipulate public opinion, which was different from the ordinary act of using a mobile phone to learn more information.
In the quiet conference room, Jin Ziran suddenly turned her head and glared at them fiercely, "I'll remember you."
Meng Fanxi and Ren Yuchen completely ignored his words, their expressions remaining unchanged.
Ultimately, after discussion among the production team, it was decided to give Jin Ziran a yellow card, and if a similar incident occurs again, she will be forced to leave the show.
At the same time, Jin Ziran's treatment will be the lowest. Next time, he will be ranked last among Zhong Chu, Lu Ning, and the others in the song selection process, truly the last in line for all the trainees to be selected.
This last punishment made Jin Ziran panic the most. He tried his best to control his distorted expression and put on a pitiful look: "The first two were already severe enough. Please cancel the last one. There's no way to explain suddenly putting me at the end."
He couldn't accept being left behind in such an embarrassing situation during the song selection process, and the production team couldn't possibly bring up the phone issue openly for the sake of their reputation.
Jiang Xunzhen: "You don't need to worry about that."
Yan Xiang and Ying Zhuo went to escort Jin Ziran back.
Jiang Xunzhen comforted Meng Fanxi and Ren Yuchen, saying that the production team would constantly monitor public opinion and would not allow malicious comments that were deliberately manipulated to pollute the program's environment.
Meng Fanxi then asked, "Could you allow me to contact the company?"
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