Chapter 206 A Sudden Storm in the Dead of Night
The collapse of Ma Zhiyuan's house has become the biggest earthquake of the day.
It wasn't until 8 PM that Xingyu Entertainment released a statement explaining that the girl was not Ma Zhiyuan's girlfriend, but just a friend, and that she wasn't the only one who went to Ma Zhiyuan's house that night; many friends were with him.
This statement immediately went viral and became a trending topic.
However, this explanation did not convince many people.
Many people didn't believe it, Ma Zhiyuan's fans didn't believe it, and the general public was even less likely to believe it.
Mao Yu, a columnist who frequently comments on entertainment news, posted: "Who are you trying to fool? Late at night, Ma Zhiyuan was alone, arm in arm with that girl, going upstairs. There was no one else around, and they didn't come out all night. Did it take them so long to come up with this excuse? This isn't how you fool people. As one of the most popular idols right now, Ma Zhiyuan hasn't given a single response since the incident. He's hiding behind his company. I guess he'll do what he always does: give it a cold shoulder for a few days, wait for the hype to die down, and then come out and say they're just friends and it's just a rumor spread by marketing accounts."
Mao Yu's post received nearly 10,000 comments within an hour.
Nearly half of them came to insult her.
—When his company didn't respond, you said he wouldn't respond; when he did respond, you didn't believe him. Isn't it common for good friends to stay up all night at home together? Or do you mean that someone as foul-mouthed as you doesn't have any friends at all?
—It's clearly a malicious marketing account that deliberately only took photos of the two of them together to create the impression that it was just the two of them. Can we have a more rational discussion about this?
—Ma Zhiyuan has always been a role model of hard work, diligence, humility and kindness. Why is the world so hostile towards him?
—Mao Yu, how much money did you receive?
—The blogger is a leech who tries to ride the coattails of trending topics everywhere; the whole internet already knows that.
...
Mao Yu was speechless with anger when she saw herself being verbally abused. However, she had long known that her comments would be attacked by Ma Zhiyuan's fans, and she was mentally prepared.
Mao Yu has disliked Ma Zhiyuan for a long time, and now that she has the opportunity to criticize him, she certainly won't miss it.
She couldn't understand how Ma Zhiyuan could so obviously take a woman home, yet his fans still believed the company's public relations claims.
She wasn't maliciously slandering anyone; she knew she was right.
While I was browsing online comments, my phone suddenly rang.
It was an unfamiliar number.
Mao Yu answered the phone, "Hello, who is this?"
"Hello, Mr. Mao, I'm Zhou Ping'an, Ma Zhiyuan's agent. Do you have time to talk?"
-
I didn't drink alcohol tonight.
After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Chen Ziyan and Li Zhenzhen went shopping together, while Li Zhibai and the other two went back first.
"Sister Ziyan actually goes shopping with someone?" Yan Liang was somewhat surprised.
Lee Ji-baek said, "Sister Zi-yeon is probably trying to get along better with Lee Jin-jin so that PD Lee can take better care of Eom-ha in the future."
Yan Liang was even more surprised and said, "With an agent as capable as Sister Ziyan, why would she need to curry favor with a young variety show director?"
"Isn't that what makes Sister Ziyan so amazing? She never acts like she's some kind of amazing manager. Even when she's not our manager, she always gives us pointers. Like tonight, when she invited PD Li to dinner, she even included us. If Zhou Ping'an were inviting Li Zhenzhen to dinner, do you think he would invite Lao Lu too?" Li Zhibai's words revealed his admiration for Chen Ziyan.
Lu Yanhe nodded and said, "Sister Ziyan really never thinks of herself as a great agent; she's very sincere to people."
"That's probably why she's been able to reach such a prestigious position today," Yan Liang remarked.
The three of them went back, and as usual, Li Zhibai drove.
Yan Liang saw the company's response in the car and also saw Mao Yu's name on the trending search list.
The trending search term is #Maoyu comments on Ma Zhiyuan's scandal#
However, to Yan Liang's surprise, when he clicked on the trending topic, he found that the real-time message had become someone else's Weibo post, which was a screenshot. The screenshot showed a post that Mao Yu had previously made, but the post was no longer visible on Mao Yu's profile page.
“They got PR done,” Li Zhibai said. “Zhou Ping’an is the best at doing this.”
"However, it seems that Mao Yu deleting his posts has not calmed down the public opinion. On the contrary, many people say that Mao Yu was cyberbullied by Ma Zhiyuan's fans and could not withstand the pressure, so he deleted them." Yan Liang said, "Now several big V's have come out to condemn Ma Zhiyuan's fans, calling them crazy, and some people say that his fans are like locusts."
Li Zhibai: "Tsk tsk."
Lu Yanhe couldn't help but sigh and said, "Sister Ziyan was just telling Sister Zhenzhen this afternoon to make sure everyone manages their fans as well as possible."
"Don't worry, Zhou Ping'an would never do that. He's always believed that being famous even when you're not famous is still fame. Artists aren't afraid of being criticized, they're afraid of not having any buzz." Li Zhibai said confidently, "Believe it or not, even if Ma Zhiyuan gets involved in this kind of trouble, he'll be annoyed, but he'll definitely be annoyed that Ma Zhiyuan is causing him trouble, not that Ma Zhiyuan is being criticized."
Lu Yanhe and Yan Liang couldn't help but laugh.
Because they knew that Li Zhibai was right.
"How much impact will this incident have on Ma Zhiyuan?" Yan Liang asked.
“Who knows?” Li Zhibai said. “However, the fact that fan clubs are going to disband is more serious than I imagined.”
"But many fans still expressed their belief in him."
"There will always be some."
-
However, no one expected that Ma Zhiyuan's matter would affect Lu Yanhe.
Late at night, a popular blogger with millions of followers suddenly wrote a lengthy article titled "Why is it that, despite both being idol artists, Ma Zhiyuan is frequently embroiled in scandals, while Lu Yanhe is becoming increasingly popular?"
In the article, the blogger seriously analyzed Ma Zhiyuan's performance since his debut, and incisively described him as "a top star who is too well protected by the company and too lucky, so he does not know how to cherish it", while Lu Yanhe is "a high-quality idol who suffered a decline in popularity after his debut, almost disappeared from the public eye, and turned the tide against the odds by his own hard work and efforts".
Those who know how to cherish opportunities can stand longer and more firmly.
The article itself wasn't too biased, but it angered Ma Zhiyuan's fans. Many of them even believed that Lu Yanhe was using Ma Zhiyuan's troubles to climb the social ladder by stepping on him.
While Lu Yanhe was still asleep, the internet was already buzzing with discussion.
Lu Yanhe's fan base is not even in the same league as Ma Zhiyuan's.
Lu Yanhe's social media account was bombarded with nearly 100,000 insults overnight.
The content was largely the same, all saying that Lu Yanhe was dishonest and that when artists from the same company were caught in a public relations crisis, he not only didn't speak up for them, but also kicked them when they were down.
Lu Yanhe doesn't have as many fans as Ma Zhiyuan, and his online arguing skills are far inferior to those of Ma Zhiyuan's seasoned fans.
It was almost a one-sided affair.
-
Chen Ziyan was woken up by a phone call at three in the morning.
The caller was her old friend from the company, Lu Qingzhen.
"Ziyan, Lu Yanhe is being cyberbullied by Ma Zhiyuan's fans on a massive scale." Lu Qingzhen said directly without uttering any unnecessary words.
Chen Ziyan instantly regained consciousness.
"What's going on?"
Lu Qingzhen offered a brief explanation, saying, "I got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and checked my phone. I saw that Lu Yanhe's homepage had been attacked."
Chen Ziyan had already sat up in bed and turned on the bedside lamp.
"I understand, thank you, I'll take a look right away."
After hanging up the phone, Chen Ziyan searched for relevant information without expression. After getting a general understanding of the situation, she called the company's public relations department.
-
For Star Entertainment's public relations department, this was the craziest and most troublesome day.
After dealing with Ma Zhiyuan's public opinion crisis all day, I finally got a chance to rest, but Chen Ziyan woke me up again.
In the dead of night, at four in the morning, a few people met at the company building.
We couldn't get in through the main entrance; we had to go through the underground parking garage.
Chen Ziyan's makeup and hair were already perfect, and there was no sign of sleepiness in her eyes, as if she had not just woken up from a dream.
Compared to her, Zhou Ping'an, standing to the side, had a tuft of hair sticking up and looked haggard, pale in comparison.
"I don't want to say anything else. If Ma Zhiyuan's fans' large-scale attacks on Lu Yanhe don't stop by tomorrow morning, I will directly sue those ringleaders. Don't try to plead for me then by saying that the two are artists from the same company." Chen Ziyan said coldly. "You have three hours to contact those ringleaders. No matter what method you use, make them delete that content. Otherwise, Ma Zhiyuan will be attacked back at the same way Lu Yanhe was attacked."
After saying that, Chen Ziyan sat down, took out her phone, and silently looked at it, looking like she was too lazy to discuss it with them anymore.
Zhou Pingan glanced at Chen Ziyan with apprehension, wanting to have a serious talk with her, but ultimately decided against it.
-
Star Entertainment is a large company with partnerships with major social media platforms. They have channels to contact these partners to suppress trending topics and delete popular content involving personal attacks. It just depends on whether they want to do it and how much effort they are willing to put into it.
As for the few fan leaders who instigated the trouble, Zhou Ping'an, having only recently taken over Ma Zhiyuan's management, had to go to great lengths to deal with them, deleting their posts and trying to appease them.
By seven o'clock in the morning, most of the commotion had subsided, leaving only a few still bouncing around. Chen Ziyan didn't intend to nitpick.
She looked at Zhou Ping'an, who looked exhausted, and said, "This provocative post wasn't posted by us. Who deliberately put Lu Yanhe and Ma Zhiyuan together to stir up a controversy at this critical moment? Is it to gain attention or is there some other motive? I suggest you investigate this thoroughly."
Zhou Ping'an glanced impatiently at the still impeccably dressed woman, his mind racing with a torrent of frustration.
It sounds nice, but he was the only one here all night leading people to put out the fire, while she just sat in a chair playing on her phone, even taking a short nap in between. Now she's casually reminding him as if she's doing him a favor.
But after Chen Ziyan left, her words popped into Zhou Ping'an's mind again.
Chen Ziyan's words may not be without merit. If it's just a marketing account trying to ride the wave of popularity, that's one thing. But what if someone has ulterior motives and is deliberately using Lu Yanhe to put down Ma Zhiyuan?
Zhou Ping'an still believed that Chen Ziyan would not use such methods to help Lu Yanhe.
They've already put him in charge of the e-magazine, why are they still giving him a sedan chair?
-
So, after a night, when Lu Yanhe woke up and learned what had happened the night before, the storm had already passed while he was sleeping.
He stared blankly at his comment section, which had been sparsely filled with comments, and at the nearly 30,000 new followers he had gained in one night, not knowing what to say.
Li Zhibai and Yan Liang were both shocked when they learned of this.
They couldn't believe how swift and decisive Chen Ziyan had resolved the matter in just one night.
Lu Yanhe is the same.
At 10 a.m., Chen Siqi sent him a message saying: "Were you cyberbullied last night?"
Lu Yanhe: It seems so. I don't even know what happened. When I woke up, many people told me that I was being cyberbullied on a large scale, but I haven't seen those comments much. If someone hadn't taken screenshots, I wouldn't have known.
Chen Siqi: Ma Zhiyuan's fans are really crazy, they're like mad dogs.
Lu Yanhe: Yes, but it's all fine now.
Chen Siqi: Are we having lunch together again later? Do you need to deal with this matter?
Lu Yanhe: Let's eat together. I don't have anything to deal with. When I woke up, my agent had already taken care of everything. There's nothing to worry about at all.
Lu Yanhe didn't know how to describe his feelings.
Half shocked, half moved, and a little angry at the content of those screenshots.
But none of that matters. What matters is... is the speed at which Sister Ziyan handled this situation really that exaggerated?
Wearing a hat and mask, Lu Yanhe walked through the scorching July sun to meet Chen Siqi at the restaurant.
When the latter saw him, he looked energetic and knew that he had not been affected at all, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Before meeting him, Chen Siqi was worried that Lu Yanhe's relaxed and nonchalant tone was an act.
It seems like everything is really alright.
"If we can continue with this book, we must do a special issue to discuss how wrong this kind of indiscriminate, large-scale cyberbullying is," Chen Siqi said emphatically.
Lu Yanhe sensed her concern.
He laughed and said, "Okay."
Chen Siqi: "We ordered first, and then discussed our progress after we finished eating."
"good."
Two people, two dishes, one meat and one vegetable, totaling twenty-seven yuan. The owner's gaze towards Lu Yanhe was indescribable, the gist of which was: You, a handsome young man, are treating your girlfriend to dinner and only order two dishes? How can you be so stingy? How can you possibly win a girl's heart?!
Lu Yanhe was both amused and exasperated.
But sharing two dishes between two people has become a habit between him and Chen Siqi.
No waste, no over-ordering.
Chen Siqi also dislikes wasting money.
So be it if you're looked down upon.
Second update! Requesting monthly votes!
(End of this chapter)
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