Ye Zhou did not take Jiang Tingyuan’s words that afternoon seriously. After all, he knew the “rules” of this circle too well.
Every time a topic trended on Weibo, there was a clear price tag attached. For now, aside from letting the melon-eaters feast on it until they got their fill and interest died down naturally.
The accusations thrown against the original were basically true, so there was no need to forcibly wash it away. At least there was no need for that at the moment.
At the height of public scrutiny, even a sneeze would be criticized as wrong. Ye Zhou was already prepared to be hacked for a period of time, but what he did not expect at all was that when he opened Weibo again after handling all the crew matters, his name had miraculously disappeared from the trends.
In its place were two very familiar names to Ye Zhou.
#Liu Yunlan# #Wang Hong# #Liu Yunlan Wang Hong#
There are a total of seven spots on the Weibo hot search list. Of the total seven trending spots, Liu Yunlan and Wang Hong took up three, with one even tagged with a deep red “explosive” character.
Ye Zhou had some vague guesses and tapped to enter the top trend started by a major domestic gossip blogger.
Eat Melon Everyday Group V: This afternoon, our melon group received an explosive piece of news. The private life of a certain actress who was involved in scandals some time ago is quite chaotic. During the filming of the movie, she not only got intimate with her wealthy businessman boyfriend in the hotel, but also had an ambiguous relationship with a certain director. There were passionate kisses in the dressing room. Fellow melon-eating fans, just look at the photos! [Picture] [Picture] [Picture]
Picture 1 was a Weibo chat record with the name and profile picture censored. It came from the person who broke the news on Weibo. The content was similar to what the melon-eating group summarized.
Pictures 2 and 3 were two photos which seemed to be taken in a dressing room. In the photos, the woman sat on the man’s lap, and they were kissing.
The angle was probably taken secretly, so the photos were blurry. Since the man had his back facing the camera and his face could not be seen clearly, most of the attention of the melon-eating crowd was focused on the half-exposed face of the woman.
How could Ye Zhou not be familiar with this place?
Wasn’t it the dressing room arranged for Liu Yunlan in the “The Pursuit” crew?
Sure enough, even though the photo looked blurry, people in the comment area still successfully decoded the identities in a very short time.
The reason they cracked it so quickly was thanks to Liu Yunlan’s scandal exposed earlier.
Combining the clue of her intimacy with her rich boyfriend at the hotel, some netizens soon dug out photos exposed during that scandal and did a simple overlay of the two images.
The faces of Liu Yunlan in both photos matched perfectly, instantly decoding her identity.
As for the man’s identity, after connecting the clues provided by the blogger, netizens looked up the crews and directors Liu Yunlan had worked with recently and instantly locked onto the crew of “The Pursuit.”
The original director of “The Pursuit” was Ye Zhou, but Ye Zhou was slender and tall, while the man in the photo had a slightly fat build, clearly not matching.
That left only one person – assistant director Wang Hong.
Originally, the melon-eating crowd should not have thought of Wang Hong so quickly. After all, he was just an assistant director who rarely appeared in public, and no one would pay attention to him.
But the problem was, these past two days, in order to smear Ye Zhou, he had been jumping around vigorously on the internet. One moment accepting an interview with this media, another moment publicly condemning on that media, and again weeping and complaining on yet another media.
His image had already sunk deeply into the public’s minds. Now with this matter exposed, catching him red-handed, wasn’t it a tragedy?
As soon as the news was exposed, it took just two hours to make the headlines, crushing other hot searches.
In fact, in this circle, affairs between directors and actors due to work were not uncommon. But there was a prerequisite – both parties should not have any emotional entanglements.
It must be known that, just a few months ago, in order to clear her name, Liu Yunlan did not hesitate to break up with Zheng Hao, portraying herself as a daring and passionate woman who mistakenly gave her heart to a married man without knowing. She shaped a pitiful image of herself with deep but misplaced affections.
Just when things had finally died down, photos of her passionate kisses with Wang Hong were exposed.
Liu Yunlan’s fabricated image instantly collapsed.
As for the former assistant director Wang Hong…
Just the fact that he dared to openly kiss the female lead on set was enough to shatter the pitiful, oppressed image he had been trying to craft of being bullied by Director Ye Zhou.
Although melon-eating netizens loved gossip, they still had basic reasoning abilities.
If Wang Hong was really as weak and pitiful as he portrayed himself and was truly oppressed and exploited by Ye Zhou on set, how would he have the guts to conduct unspoken rules with the female lead!
Once the news was exposed, whether or not Director Ye Zhou really had abilities was temporarily aside. Assistant Director Wang Hong’s image was completely debunked.
Ye Zhou closed Weibo, faintly feeling something was off.
He was not too surprised about the relations between Wang Hong and Liu Yunlan, but he was surprised that this matter was exposed at such a coincidental time.
Somehow, Ye Zhou suddenly recalled Jiang Tingyuan’s words over the phone earlier – “But I have something to do.”
Ye Zhou stared blankly at the now black phone screen, a strange urge rising uncontrollably.
Right now, he really wanted to…call Jiang Tingyuan.
Ye Zhou found it hard to describe his current emotions in words.
He had been smeared before. To earn money, Ye Zhou was even criticized and mocked for an entire year by all kinds of critics and netizens when he accepted rotten films.
Initially, he would feel upset, but later he got used to it.
Ye Zhou was already accustomed to digesting and dealing with these negative emotions alone. He never expected anyone to help him. It had always been this way for so many years.
No matter how much doubt and malice there was, Ye Zhou endured it all and even summed up coping methods and ways to reassure himself.
His mentality was extremely good in the entire director circle, and many acquainted directors had even asked him how to adjust their mindset.
Ye Zhou always just smiled without answering.
Yet no one had asked him, was he really not upset when facing these attacks?
If someone asked, Ye Zhou would definitely say that he was upset.
It was a pity that until his past life ended, no one had ever asked him that.
Fortunately, Ye Zhou’s shamelessness increased along with his time spent in the industry, and his ability to withstand pressure grew stronger too.
Scolding was just scolding, he didn’t lose any meat anyway; spewing was just spewing, the money still entered his pocket.
Ye Zhou thought it would be no different this time. He was already prepared – mockery was just mockery, verbal abuse was just verbal abuse. He would laugh at others and criticize them at the same time. It was not like he had not experienced it before.
But what Ye Zhou did not expect was that there would actually be someone in this world who could not stand seeing him being bullied.
Willing to find an actor for him when he was stood up, resolving his burning urgency.
Willing to firmly tell him “But I have something to do” when he was being flamed all over the internet, saying don’t worry, it’s nothing.
For a moment, Ye Zhou realized he was actually somewhat envious of the original owner.
You see, although he was notorious and useless, he still had someone who protected him and cared about him.
It really felt nice…
Author's note:
Ye ·Little Lemon· Zhou: I’m feeling sour!!
Jiang ·Confused· Tingyuan: …Did you misunderstand something?
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Please consider supporting the author directly.
You can also follow me on Ko-fi to get the latest updates on my translation progress and new projects. I appreciate your love and feedback.
