Jian Jing unhappily returned home. It was supposed to have at least an hour of walk time, but today it only had five minutes! Five minutes, just walked to the door and it was over.
Jian Jing was very unhappy, but it didn't dare to protest. The scene of a companion twice its size lying on the ground was still vivid. It just dejectedly returned home, picked up a small blanket, spread it on the balcony, and lay there gazing into the distance.
Ah, the park, I'm sorry I can't see you again today.
Complain to the owner? The wind was too loud, didn't hear clearly.
However, the unconcerned puppy Jian Jing, the first thing it did when it got home was to eat a melon from beginning to end.
The thing was, about a week ago, entertainment bloggers had put out rumors saying that a shocking big melon had appeared, concerning a certain popular male star with tens of millions of fans.
This kind of thing happened frequently. Every time it was loud thunder but small raindrops, and there were times Jian Jing had never even heard of the person. Rather than gossip, it was more like marketing and hype.
But this time, it seemed a little different.
Individual big paparazzi, who had exposed real melons before, also cryptically said things like "I really didn't expect this" and "Get ready to welcome the earthquake", sparking enough curiosity.
After building up anticipation, a certain ill-reputed entertainment journalist exposed a few photos.
They were Jiang BaiYan and her in photos taken from a specific angle, not too close or too far, and Jiang BaiYan's face could be seen clearly. The two people seemed to be whispering together.
The account stated clearly that half a month ago, the two of them went to a certain tourist city together, suspected of being in love, and attached were photos of them entering and leaving a villa.
Upon opening the comments section, it was filled with messages from fans, things like "Don't believe rumors or spread rumors," "Don't get led by the hype," "The photos are clearly just incidental proximity," desperately denying, desperately dissociating themselves, desperately beautifying things.
It wasn't until several pages later that there were normal passersby comments.
Jian Jing got a headache.
The feeling of eating melon that turned out to be about yourself was quite subtle indeed.
She silently sighed, opened up the enlarged photo to examine the environment. It was very familiar, very recognizable, it was the Jiang villa, and the photos of two people entering and exiting the same place were extremely similar to dashcam footage.
It was obvious who was behind this.
Calculating the time, the tycoon's funeral should have passed, this was the Jiang siblings' retaliation.
But for this kind of rumor about a suspected affair, shouldn't Jiang BaiYan's management company have come out to clarify things by now??
She logged out of her alt account and bravely logged into her main Weibo account — she hadn't gone on this account for almost a month now out of fear of being chased for updates.
She had close to 10,000 unread notifications, comment numbers in the several millions, and private messages had exploded.
Jian Jing cleared away all the notification messages, and felt that there was no need to give up the joy of posting updates for baseless rumors. She thus happily pretended she didn't know about the matter and posted a new Weibo status.
Jian Jing:
First draft of "Demon 3" submitted~
Thanks for the support
--
Comment 1: Jian teacher you??
Comment 2: How long has this been an internet blackout... big stuff going on!
Comment 3: Jian teacher quickly check the hot search
Comment 4: Has the disconnected from internet person returned?? Rumors true or false?
Comment 5: Hello Jian teacher, I'm xx from Jiang BaiYan's fanclub, regarding the recent rumors, we hope you can clarify, we know you and Little White are good friends, I think you also wouldn't want others to misunderstand your friendship
Comment 6: Demon 3 is finally going to come out?? Book fans don't care about relationships, we just want the new book!!
Comment 7: Please get lost whoever's fans trying to come here, Jian teacher is a writer not an idol, don't bring over that whole set of behaviors here, who do you think you people are?
Comment 8: Whether it's true or not, wish Jian teacher happiness, if not true, shining on your own is great too, don't mind what others say, happiness most important!
....
--
Jian Jing was about to close it without reading more, but unexpectedly one reply rushed to the top layer with unprecedented speed.
[Diehard Fan] Little Fire: Hello teacher Jian Jing, awesome, looking forward to Demon 3
Reply 1: Just log into your main account and give your long-time fans an explanation
Reply 2: Have liked you for so many years, really can't keep going, wish you well
Reply 3: Hope you keep the promise you made before and give your fans an account
Reply 4: You've also just come out of an internet blackout right?? Irrefutably confirmed??
Reply 5: Dear, your cover's blown, log into main account...
Jian Jing: Missed some melon eating?
She hurriedly found an entertainment industry big shot account to check their summarized explanation.
Now it was complete.
Turned out she had only eaten half of the melon. First, the entertainment account exposed the photos, implicitly hinting Jiang BaiYan was in love, but didn't name anyone. Then all kinds of major marketing and gossip accounts started digging, and messages about real or fake flew everywhere.
In the earliest few days, popular speculated targets were Cai Tong'er and the female lead of drama "Rose Gold", causing both people to subsequently come out and clarify it wasn't them.
Only then did a certain account release photos of Jian Jing and Jiang BaiYan on one occasion going to the pet hospital, claiming solid evidence. Thus the hot search tag was born.
Not long after, the third wave of evidence was presented. It was a certain well-known entertainment account, simultaneously digging into Little Fire and Jiang BaiYan's Weibo, hammering that the two accounts were owned by the same person.
Jiang BaiYan's fans instantly swarmed over to the side account. This account was Jiang BaiYan's own account for chasing stars, full of shameless bootlicking.
Utter loss of face.
Large numbers of fans announced quitting, some fanclub leaders even directly jumped ship.
The fans were in chaos, truly a major incident. Melon-eating onlookers became more and more engrossed, everyone waiting for both sides to provide an explanation or clarification.
Especially Jian Jing's fans. Book fans didn't care about the author's personal affairs, at most they saw it as entertainment fodder. As long as it wasn't a moral scandal, nobody would threaten to stop being a fan.
But it was different for male stars like Jiang BaiYan. Whenever a male star was revealed to be dating, it would always cause some turmoil.
Everyone waited left and waited right, but neither side reacted. Strangely, there was also no movement from the management company. Many fans cried for days on end, almost not making it through.
Then Jian Jing finished her internet blackout and Jiang BaiYan also emerged.
The just cooled down topic exploded again.
Jian Jing felt this matter should have been orchestrated by Jiang Ou, with Coco providing the scheme, otherwise given the former's temperament she would only attack him as an illegitimate child, and wouldn't expose a "relationship". This attack was very precise, people unfamiliar with the entertainment sphere wouldn't expect this point.
Just then, her phone rang.
It was Kang Mu Cheng calling: "Did you see?"
"I saw it." Jian Jing held her forehead, "In-fighting amongst nobility, what's it got to do with me?"
Kang Mu Cheng understood her very well by now. He asked back: "You didn't get involved?"
Her: "Uh...fine, I did."
Lost family property, no wonder the three Jiang siblings hated her. She said: "Illegal imprisonment, peeking at other's phones, even leaking people's privacy, they went overboard too."
"Don't get involved in this." Kang Mu Cheng urged her, "Jiang BaiYan has too many fans, if something happens, you'll be the only one getting hurt."
Jian Jing turned to comfort him instead: "It's all nonsense, don't worry, I won't be driven to despair just because some mentally immature young girls scolded me."
Kang Mu Cheng was struck dumb.
How could he not worry? Did she not have a history of this?
"I've already told them not to bring you into it." Kang Mu Cheng sighed, "That way the impact will be smaller, but best if Jiang BaiYan's side clarifies things faster."
So it was you. Jian Jing complained inwardly, oh well, forgive the Chairman.
She said: "So what happened to their company? Went bankrupt?"
"You didn't know yet? Jiang BaiYan's contract ended." Kang Mu Cheng said, "After finishing shooting Rose Gold, they wanted to renew his contract, but he didn't agree, and they fell out over it."
Jian Jing: "Tsk."
"No need to worry about him, you—" Kang Mu Cheng hesitated for a bit, then said, "do what you think is right."
"Then I'll clarify it, wouldn't want paparazzi secretly taking photos of me going out." As Jian Jing spoke, she saw the knight's ears prick up.
She said: "It's paparazzi, not dog, it's me going out, not you."
Knight: "Whine~"
"Tomorrow then, tomorrow." Jian Jing brushed it off and edited her Weibo post.
Jian Jing:
Melon finished eating, nonsense
--
Comment 1: As I thought~
Comment 2: A little disappointed
Comment 3: Really thought there could be sweetness in real life
Comment 4: I said, Jian teacher's official ship is CEO Jin Wu, hasn't everyone on Bookworms Forum read "818 CEO and His Little Princess"?
Comment 5: Sister-brother romance! The puppy is awesome!
Comment 6: Eating melon, eating melon. Anyway, support Teacher Jian. Don't bother with those fans who wish their idols would stay single forever.
[Diehard Fan] BaiXiaoHuo: Hey!
Reply 1: Log in with your main account.
Reply 2: What do you mean? Is this a rumor?
Reply 3: Can you give a detailed explanation?
[Diehard Fan] BaiXiaoHuo: My main account got locked qaq. Account irregularity. Waiting for it to be unlocked.
He sent JianJing a private message: [They locked my account. I didn't notice because I wasn't logged in. The company misunderstood me a bit, they probably thought I did it without notifying me. I'm sorry for causing you trouble.]
The main account was jointly used by him and the company. The agent posted most of the ads. He doesn't go on it much usually. The small account was his personal private account that he uses frequently to check gossip, and he pays special attention to JianJing. As soon as she posts a new Weibo, he gets a notification.
It had been fine before. He was busy dizzy this time and messed up.
JianJing actually felt a little sympathy for him. His father had just passed away, and his siblings started fighting over the inheritance right away. The company he relied on even took advantage of the situation. How terribly "tragic"!
She: [Forget it. You're not publishing a new book anyway, I'll let it slide.]
JiangBaiYan: [I'll take care of it as soon as possible.]
He was efficient. The next morning, his former agency released a statement saying that their contract with JiangBaiYan had expired in March, and he did not intend to renew it. The two parties separated on good terms and wished each other well.
The fans were confused.
Although the contract was about to expire, it was still a bit strange for him to leave at this time.
Did JiangBaiYan plan to start his own company? Or did he fall out with his old company? Surely he can’t be confirming his relationship and retiring from the entertainment industry to become a family man and teach his daughters!
Fans: "You're only 21 years old, not even the legal marriage age yet! Wake up!"
JiangBaiYan really didn’t have time to deal with this.
He was on the phone with QiuLin.
QiuLin was a bit disheartened: "It's come to this. Does it look good? You've never caused something like this before. I said I would fight for the best contract and most flexible conditions for you, but you—forget it."
JiangBaiYan was more direct: "Sis Qiu, I was only going to re-negotiate with the company after the movie's box office came out. But the company insisted I sign the contract before the premiere. What do they mean? You know very well."
QiuLin fell silent.
"I wanted to wait and see, the company shouldn't treat me like an idiot." JiangBaiYan said, "All these years, I've never caused you any trouble."
A sigh came from the other end of the phone, and QiuLin's tone softened: "What's the point of talking about this now? We had good times together, don't make too big a fuss about the breakup. I wish you great success ahead, let's end it at that."
"Sis Qiu—" he dragged out his voice, "Don't be like this. I know you care about me, do you want to..."
QiuLin interrupted him: "You arrogant brat, you think you're so amazing you can poach me? Looking to die?"
"I'll miss you so much, sis. No matter how high the salary the company gives you, they didn't give you equity, right?" JiangBaiYan said with a smile, "I'll give you equity if you come work for me instead."
QiuLin said coldly: "Annual salary 1.2 million, plus dividend payouts from equity. Good enough?"
JiangBaiYan readily agreed: "No problem."
QiuLin was stunned, and belatedly realized: "How much did you inherit?"
"Not a lot, just a dozen or so billion." he said. "Sis Qiu, come with me."
QiuLin cursed: "Rich dad really makes life easy huh, why are you still messing around as a celebrity?"
"I plan to resolve this in one go." JiangBaiYan said calmly, "Now is a good chance. Everyone is focused on my relationship. If my family background comes out, it'll be less of an issue."
QiuLin paused for a long time before asking: "Are you sure? This could become a big deal."
"Better one painful cut than long torture." JiangBaiYan said. "I don't really care anymore anyway."
For a moment, QiuLin actually felt sorry for him.
He also said: "Sis Qiu, not many people have been good to me. I won't let you guys down. Bring Sister Chen and Xiao Li with you. I'll wait for you all."
QiuLin thought for a very long time before finally saying: "Let me think about it."
That night, JiangBaiYan's account was finally unlocked. He logged into his main account and wrote a short essay.