Chapter 249: Chapter 249: If Worse Comes to Worst, Just Leave the Circle
Just relying on a clearly edited video, the bystanders still couldn’t make out much.
It wasn’t until another influencer posted a lengthy essay with the title #QingyueBulliedByGroup#.
The article claimed that Shen Yi had teamed up with Sang Ning and Wen Jiu to collectively bully and deliberately isolate Qingyue.
The article included many detailed photos, such as Shen Yi’s disdainful look when he first met Qingyue.
And how Shen Yi and Sang Ning whispered to each other in the waiting room, intentionally ignoring Qingyue, as well as Wen Jiu’s various impatient expressions toward Qingyue during rehearsals.
After posting pictures of these details, the blogger elaborated on the tangled web behind Qingyue’s collective bullying.
This time, Wen Jiu returned to the entertainment industry as a capital figure, and now she, Shen Yi, and Sang Ning are backed by the same capital forces.
Shen Yi and Qingyue have always been at odds, so even though Wen Jiu has a reputation for being the nice person of the entertainment industry, she still has to consider the capital behind Shen Yi.
Sang Ning and Shen Yi established a solid personal friendship through the show "Rustic Wilds," so naturally, Sang Ning would stand alongside Shen Yi to collectively isolate Qingyue.
Ultimately, this whole matter boiled down to the games between various artists’ backing capital. Shen Yi feared that Qingyue’s resurgence would threaten his own status, so he united the forces to suppress Qingyue as much as possible.
The article sounded convincing and was accompanied by all sorts of detailed photos, temporarily fooling quite a few curious onlookers.
[Wen Jiu broke my heart again. What’s this nonsense about being the entertainment industry’s only pure white jasmine? There really is no clean person in this circle.]
[No wonder she’s a Best Actress. Putting on a façade of serene elegance deceived us all. She’s ultimately just another profit-driven businesswoman.]
[Poor Qingyue. Barely started to get a comeback opportunity, and now got stomped down before she even caught a spark!]
[What disgusts me the most is Sang Ning. Previously, in the show, she portrayed herself as a justice-seeking heroine, and now she’s part of Shen Yi’s bullying team. Truly spine-chilling.]
[A word of advice to OP: don’t get emotionally invested; they’re all just personas crafted for the sake of gaining fans.]
Negative discussions about Sang Ning, Shen Yi, and Wen Jiu continued to ferment online.
Wen Jiu’s company attempted to PR their way out of this blacklisted trending topic, but Wen Jiu’s company was newly established.
Not only were their internal systems not fully in place, but even the recruited employees lacked top-tier industry credentials.
The public relations team had done their best to handle the negative news trend, but due to a lack of experience, they not only failed to resolve it but even caused the negative buzz to escalate further.
With no choice left, they pinned their hopes on Shen Yi.
Shen Yi’s PR team was renowned as one of the best in the industry. As long as his team could dispel the negative buzz, Wen Jiu’s PR could immediately follow suit.
Unfortunately, Wen Jiu’s PR team had been closely monitoring Shen Yi’s camp, yet after one or two hours had passed, there was still no movement whatsoever. Shen Yi’s own negative trending topic continued to pile up.
"What’s going on? Why isn’t the clarification statement ready yet?" Shen Yi’s agent furrowed his brows deeply during a phone call and never relaxed them.
The PR side was equally frustrated: "I don’t know! Our account seems to be restricted, and nothing we post actually uploads. We tried using a different account, but posts were deleted shortly after and showed as unavailable!"
"How could this happen?" The agent was utterly shocked and unable to comprehend the situation.
Not even basic clarifications could be posted—wasn’t this practically silencing them?
Who was Qingyue’s team, anyway? How did they have such immense power? This was clearly targeted to completely eliminate Shen Yi!
What to do? What to do?
The agent paced back and forth nervously.
Suddenly, he thought of Sang Ning.
During the day the guests returned from recording "Rustic Wilds," Sang Ning had also faced backlash from maliciously edited paparazzi videos.
At that time, he happened to be browsing Weibo and had witnessed the whole chain of events.
For a brief period, the trending topic was completely cleared out, and there wasn’t a single trace of negative reports about Sang Ning to be found.
Shen Yi’s agent estimated that Sang Ning’s PR team wasn’t any less capable than Qingyue’s.
Since Wen Jiu and Shen Yi’s PR efforts had failed, hopes could only shift toward Sang Ning now.
Yet Sang Ning’s side showed no signs of taking action, leaving the agent restless. He called Shen Yi, urging him to directly ask Sang Ning if her backing capital could lend a hand in resolving this mess.
After all, Sang Ning and Shen Yi were now in the same boat; Shen Yi’s scandal essentially implicated Sang Ning as well.
But Shen Yi, upon hearing this, casually declined: "Forget it. I don’t want to drag innocent people into this mess. If Qingyue wants to slander, let him go ahead and slander. I’d like to see how far he can go with this madness."
The agent panicked: "No, bro, this isn’t about Qingyue being crazy or not. We need to deal with this during the prime timing for PR management, or it’s definitely going to negatively impact your public image."
"Perfect timing then. I’ve made enough money now anyway. Might as well take this as an opportunity to retire from the spotlight," Shen Yi said as he hung up the phone, leaving the agent dumbfounded where he stood.
Shen Yi felt like he was a contradictory person. On one hand, he was deeply passionate about his acting career; on the other, he loathed the fame and fortune that came with being under the spotlight.
The idea of quitting the industry had occurred to him more than once. But thinking about his fans who genuinely cared for him, he had held on time and time again.
But Qingyue’s affair really exhausted him. The entertainment industry wasn’t worth it.
He still harbored a sense of kindness within and didn’t want to fully destroy his relationship with Qingyue.
Hopefully, Qingyue still had some conscience left. When people are pushed to the brink, they’ll strike back desperately.
As for Sang Ning, erasing her own negative buzz shouldn’t be a problem.
As for himself, it didn’t matter whether it was handled or not. Some things should be exposed fully only after they’ve rotted and festered.
Shen Yi’s agent refused to give up. Since Shen Yi wouldn’t cooperate, he decided to personally reach out to Sang Ning.
It wasn’t that easy for the agent to accept letting go of a top-tier celebrity, especially when multiple interests were at stake. He knew retiring from the circle couldn’t be as effortless as Shen Yi imagined.
The agent used his connections to get Sang Ning’s phone number but, after dozens of attempts, all his calls went unanswered.
Shen Yi’s agent was nearly bending a knee in frustration. Not one of them seemed concerned about the matter. Was this really a case of the Emperor not being anxious while the eunuch panicked?
Meanwhile, as a storm brewed online, Sang Ning was still soundly asleep in Li Juezhou’s embrace.
As for Li Juezhou, his secretary had previously received instructions to monitor any negative buzz about Sang Ning online.
The secretary did notice the blacklisted tread topic this time.
But when his boss issued the order earlier, he hadn’t specified whether any immediate action was needed.
The secretary tried to contact his boss to seek further instructions but couldn’t reach him at all.