A step later, Qin Ran also got the news, and Wei Yangyun’s team also got the news quickly. Wei Yangyun looked at the rising hot searches with a very ugly expression.
They had just finished a day of shooting and were sitting in the castle’s dining hall, enjoying steaks air-flown from Australia. Wei Yangyun and Li Shu were discussing having him sing the chorus when they saw the expression on Wei Yangyun’s manager’s face as he walked over with the phone.
“There must be someone behind this,” Wei Yangyun said, staring at the screen of his mobile phone.
Li Shu, the target of the criticism, was much calmer. He opened the hot search on Weibo, and as expected, the comments were overwhelmingly negative, and the words were ugly. Only a few spoke up for Li Shu, but they were drowned out by a slew of harsh comments.
[Before, I thought Li Shu was okay, but I never expected him to be like this.]
[Exactly! If he had gained these resources through his own abilities, I wouldn’t say anything. I didn’t want to believe what the blogger said, but the facts speak for themselves. He’s just an 18th line artist who’s barely relevant. How could he have the ability to access these resources?]
[Upstairs, aren’t you too much. Isn’t Li Shu a new artist brought in by Qin Ran? Since his manager is Qin Ran, it’s not surprising that he can get access to these resources, right?]
[But have you ever thought about how a washed-up artist for over two years caught Qin Ran’s eye? I remember Qin Ran publicly stating that he wasn’t planning to take on any artists in the near future. So how did this Li Shu catch his attention?]
[If it’s really Wei Yangyun, can he make the gold medal agent openly go against his own words?]
[But didn’t Li Shu and Wei Yangyun only meet on “I’m Not a Star”?]
[Who knows if it’s all an act? Speaking of “I’m Not a Star,” Wei Yangyun was very caring towards Li Shu in the show.]
[Can you just grab other people’s resources just because someone is backing you?]
[Such people shouldn’t be allowed to stay in the entertainment industry!]
The comments became increasingly extreme. At first, it was a rational discussion but later it turned into one-sided condemnation of Li Shu. Li Shu scrolled through each comment without much reaction, but 1314 was already fuming with anger.
A thin blue light came out of Li Shu’s fingers and penetrated the phone. The system couldn’t do much to people in the small world, but gathering some information was still possible.
The massive information beam spun rapidly, filtering, sorting, and analyzing each piece of information. 1314’s eyes shone as beams of light composed of digits filled the space, and one message stood out:
Found you.
[Host, I’ve found the source of the information dissemination.] 1314’s voice had a metallic quality that had not yet dissipated, a tone Li Shu rarely heard.
[Oh? Who is it?] Li Shu lowered his gaze, quickly scanning through a few names in his mind.
1314: [It’s Chen Yu, along with Chen Wanying, the eldest daughter of the Chen family. Chen Wanying is the one orchestrating all of this.]
Li Shu: [Chen Wanying? What’s her relationship with Chen Yu?]
Chen Wanying, originally designated by the Mo family as Mo Yanzhi’s fiancée, was the eldest daughter of the Chen family, one of the four major families in the capital. She was arrogant and domineering, and regarded Mo Yanzhi as her possession since childhood. Whenever someone got too close to Mo Yanzhi, she would stop at nothing to retaliate.
She was the biggest obstacle between the protagonist gong and shou. If it weren’t for her meddling, the original owner’s legs wouldn’t have ended up crippled, and many of the protagonist shou’s tragic experiences could have been avoided. In this small world, Chen Wanying was simply a malicious supporting female character.
1314: [Chen Yu and Chen Wanying are related by blood, but Chen Wanying is from the main branch of the Chen family, while Chen Yu’s family is a branch.]
[I see.] Chen Wanying was very concerned about Mo Yanzhi. This time, she targeted him, so she probably knew about his relationship with Mo Yanzhi. She would surely use all the means she used on the protagonist shou on him.
It seems like he’d stirred up quite a trouble.
Li Shu lowered his gaze, suppressing the fleeting killing intent in his eyes.
Qin Ran was unhappy. This incident dampened the joy of the smooth shooting. Both managers had lost their appetites and picked up their phones to deal with the online situation.
Suddenly, Li Shu’s phone rang. Glancing at the screen, he saw it was a call from Mo Yanzhi. There was a time difference between the island and mainland China, so it should be the middle of the night there.
Why would Mo Yanzhi call at this time? While pondering, Li Shu pressed the answer button.
A deep, pleasant voice came through the phone, “Shu Shu, don’t worry about the online situation. I’ll handle it. It was my oversight this time, it won’t happen again.”
Li Shu: “Huh?”
“It’s my fault for not handling things properly on my end and implicating you. I’m sorry.” He thought this was just a typical struggle between artists, but a deeper investigation made him discover that woman’s involvement.
It wasn’t that he was unaware of what Chen Wanying had done over the years, but he dismissed it as insignificant. He never thought it would drag Li Shu into it.
“You don’t need to apologize. It’s not your fault. I’ve chosen this path, so I’m prepared for the storms ahead—joy, sorrow, applause, and criticism…”
“No,” Mo Yanzhi interrupted him, “you only need to enjoy the applause and cheers. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything. You just focus on what you love. I’ll remove the thorns and pave the way with flowers for you to ascend the throne.”
After Mo Yanzhi assured him, less than half an hour later, there was no trace of the incident online. A legal letter was also drafted and posted on the company’s official Weibo account, stating that they would pursue legal action against anyone spreading rumors or defaming their artists. The original blogger who posted about Li Shu had deleted the post and posted an apology.
Things reversed so quickly that the melon-eaters had not yet reacted and the matter had been settled. After this incident, Li Shu was labeled as someone not to be trifled with. Anyone who wanted to speak out in the future would think twice.
In the Chen family’s old mansion:
An exquisitely dressed woman swept everything off the dressing table, leaving bottles and jars shattered on the floor. She leaned against the edge of the table, gripping her phone tightly.
The bright screen cast a pale light on her face, revealing a twisted expression.
‘Li Shu, what makes you worthy that Brother Mo treats you like this?! You’re just an insignificant little star! So what if he is protecting you?! I refuse to believe there’s nothing I can do about it!’
Chen Wanying thought with intense hatred and sparks of anger flickered in her eyes. ‘The more Brother Mo wants to protect you, the more I can not let you stay. I am Brother Mo’s rightful wife-to-be. So what if Brother Mo Yanzhi is momentarily infatuated with you, can a man enter the Mo family?’’
Chen Wanying raised her eyes, and the madness in her eyes disappeared. She stood up, gave a slight smile at her reflection in the mirror, and returned to being the graceful and dignified Miss Chen from the Chen family.
The online Issue was resolved, and the MV shooting continued. This was just the first cycle of shooting, and the shooting would last seven days. They were filming the pre-fall of the Son of God. After this, they would fly back to participate in the third episode of “I’m Not a Star”.
“I knew that Chen Yu had ulterior motives,” Wei Yangyun said, sitting across from Li Shu with a bottle of ice-cold soda. He already knew who was behind this.
“By the way, Shu Shu, your company is really good. They protect their artists well. It’s great that Mo Lan Entertainment resolved this so quickly,” Wei Yangyun said, rubbing his chin and shivering from the cold of the ice.
“Yeah,” Li Shu picked up the drink on the small table and took a sip. Thinking of a certain man who had been busy with this matter, he slowly smiled.
1314 muttered silently: ‘It’s not that the company is excellent, but someone can’t bear to see the host being wronged.’
“Wait,no,” Wei Yangyun put down the glass in his hand, pulled the chair forward, and whispered, “There are so many artists in Mo Lan, they can’t micromanage each one. There must be another reason behind this…”
Before Wei Yangyun could finish speaking, the butler of the castle approached with desserts and placed them in front of them.
“Young Master, there’s a visitor,” the butler said.
Wei Yangyun: “Didn’t I say I’d be in seclusion for a while? Why is someone coming now? Who is it?”
“It’s a guest surnamed Mo.”
Hearing this, Li Shu’s heart skipped a beat. The next moment, he received a message from Qin Ran: [Boss Mo is here.]
“Surnamed Mo?” Wei Yangyun suddenly remembered the dinner party that night and had a strong premonition. The visitor was likely Mo Yanzhi, the head of the Mo family.
He looked at his friend who was seemingly unaffected, and thought for a moment. “I understand. Arrange for someone to take him to the reception room. I’ll go over now.”
The butler bowed respectfully. “Yes.”
Wei Yangyun: “Shu Shu, let’s go there together.”
Li Shu: “Okay.”
When they arrived at the reception room, a man was already waiting inside. The man was sitting upright and holding a cup of tea. As the door opened, he looked up—it was Mo Yanzhi.
Seeing the host arrive, the butler nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him.
“President Mo,” Wei Yangyun greeted, pulling Li Shu to sit opposite Mo Yanzhi. “I wonder why President Mo is here?”
After not hearing a reply for a while, Wei Yangyun looked forward and saw Mo Yanzhi looking at Li Shu beside him, showing no intention of answering his question.
Well, he didn’t need to ask anymore. He already knew why this person had come.
With a soft click of his tongue, he lifted the cup of tea by his side and took a sip, feeling like he had turned into a giant, shining light bulb.
From the moment Li Shu entered the room, Mo Yanzhi’s eyes seemed to be glued to him, unwilling to leave.
It was lunch break, and Li Shu was still dressed as “Lu Ya”, with blond hair and a white robe. His features were beautiful and ethereal, as if he could vanish into the wind at any moment. This was a Li Shu Mo Yanzhi had never seen before, so beautiful he looked out of reach.
After the initial shock came a strong sense of unease. At this moment, he even wanted to build a beautiful castle to hide the person away.
“President Mo, neither my father nor my brother is here. If it’s business you want to discuss, you shouldn’t have come here,” Noticing Mo Yanzhi’s increasingly unsettling gaze and intervening, Wei Yangyun spoke up.
“Young Master Wei,” Mo Yanzhi finally tore his gaze away from Li Shu and glanced at Wei Yangyun, revealing his true intention without hiding it, “I’m here to see Li Shu.”
“I don’t know what President Mo wants with Shu Shu,” Wei Yangyun glanced at the clock, “but he has to go to work in half an hour.”
Subtext: If you have something to say, say it quickly and don’t waste time.
The two men locked eyes and sparks flew between them.
