Chapter 22
Chapter 22: Not a Single One Will Escape
Du He Xuan’s face turned dark green: “Which media outlet wrote this? I am going to sue them for slander!”
His frantic stomping around finally made the others, who had still been a bit stunned, burst out laughing.
Director Gao saw how big his reaction was and guessed that things might not be what they had thought, so he quickly confirmed: “So what it says isn’t true, right? Why did you come here in the middle of the night, and how did you just happen to get secretly photographed and end up on the trending search?”
“Right now there are reporters crouching outside trying to sneak photos. If we don’t handle this quickly and let public opinion keep brewing, it won’t just hurt you, my crew will suffer too.”
At that time, Du An Rao was flipping through Zhou Shun Zhe’s phone. The photo had been taken more than an hour ago.
In this one hour or so, that photo had already spawned countless stories, and both Du He Xuan and Director Gao’s drama crew had been pushed onto the trending lists one after another.
This was a usual trick in the circle. First they hired paid commenters to stir up the topic. The more versions there were, the more points there were to argue about, making it easier to start a fight, and once people fought, the hype would naturally rise.
Once the warm-up was almost done, they would then let a relatively big and “reliable” outlet confirm the story, using “more detailed information” to win people’s trust and completely nail things down as fact.
The headline that Du He Xuan had just seen was the result after things were nailed down, and it was hanging at the top of all the major hot topic lists.
By the time Du An Rao checked the news, Du He Xuan had already given the two a simple explanation of why they had come here today, which scared them both.
Zhou Shun Zhe could not stop shivering with fear: “Good thing you are careful and noticed something was wrong early. If you had really gone over there alone, they might not even have left your bones behind by now.”
Director Gao also let out a breath of relief, feeling that his own crew was safe.
“Since you have already reported them to the Police Bureau, why are those reporters still camped out there posting all this nonsense online?”
“Maybe they think everything went according to plan, and that second brother was caught together with those people?”
The few of them suddenly understood after her reminder.
This was a step-by-step plan. With paparazzi waiting outside the Police Bureau in advance, calling the police afterward was clearly also part of the plan.
It was just that the people carrying out the plan and the paparazzi had no contact with each other, so they had no idea the plan had changed and still exposed the story according to the original schedule.
The hired commenters in charge of guiding public opinion also did not know the plan had gone wrong up front. They were still working hard to fan the flames and blow the whole thing up.
This was a farce caused by an information gap.
The group fell silent: “…” For some reason, they all suddenly wanted to laugh.
But Du He Xuan could not laugh. While he had been scrolling through the news, one or two entertainers had already jumped out, claiming that he had forced them into sex deals in exchange for resources.
Some paid commenters also went along with it and slapped the label of “pimp” on him.
After all this going around in circles, it still ended up tied to that kind of thing. It was really unlucky.
“So what do we do now? Ask your company to issue a statement to respond? Or ask the people here to help put out a notice?”
“What are you in such a rush for?” Since things had already gotten to this point, Du He Xuan was not in a hurry anymore.
“If the water isn’t muddy, how can you catch big fish? I might as well use this chance to see who are the gentlemen who help when things are hard, and who are the petty people who like to kick others when they are down and stab them in the back.”
Since Du He Xuan said so, Zhou Shun Zhe did not press him again. Only Director Gao still felt uneasy and reminded him: “Fishing is fine, but you still have to watch the line. Don’t play it too far.”
Du He Xuan knew that too. He nodded and did not argue.
Because he chose to let things go on on purpose, the online discussion about this matter quickly reached a boiling point.
The paparazzi and paid commenters were just taking money to do a job. Why would they care about the truth?
Those influencer media accounts that rushed in like great white sharks at the smell of blood only cared about clicks. They wished they could suck Du He Xuan’s blood dry.
The only one who might notice the truth was the mastermind behind the scenes, Jiang Huai Ying. Sadly she was too full of herself. She never even thought that the plan could fail, and she also subconsciously ignored the strange fact that Ni Fang had not called her afterward to report how things went. She was just excited, thinking about how to add more fuel to the fire.
With her secretly pushing from behind, more and more small entertainers came out to accuse Du He Xuan of his “evil deeds,” making Zhou Shun Zhe watch in amazed shock.
He and Du He Xuan had been in the industry together for so many years, almost glued together every day, yet he had never known that Du He Xuan was supposedly such a “terrible sinner.”
By the time things online were almost at their peak, the Police investigation had also made some early progress. The statement from Du He Xuan’s company and the Police notice were released almost at the same time.
[On xx xx, 20xx, after receiving a report from a concerned citizen, Mr. Du, about a case of group suicide and group drug use, our bureau attached great importance to it and immediately opened an investigation. Later, at a hotel in this city, we arrested the suspect Ni and five accomplices, and seized a number of illegal drugs.
After investigation, Ni and the accomplices had plotted to trick Mr. Du and his sister into the hotel, to carry out a “honey trap scam,” and planned to force the two to drink the illegal drugs in order to control them once the plan succeeded.
At present, Ni and the accomplices have been arrested and brought to justice. Mr. Du and his sister, who sensed something was wrong and did not go to the hotel, have returned home safely. The investigation is still ongoing, and the criminal acts will be strictly punished according to the law.]
Compared to the Police notice, the statement from Du He Xuan’s company was much simpler and clearer.
[Regarding the recent ongoing malicious slander and rumors online against our company’s entertainer, Du He Xuan, our company has already reported the case to the police on xx xx. We have preserved the relevant evidence, and will take legal action to seriously pursue the responsibility of certain media outlets and individuals for slander and rumor-spreading.]
The statement was simple, but the tone was very strong.
Together with the Police notice, it made some of the media and entertainers who had been dancing around the most earlier start to panic. They rushed to delete comments and posts, pretending with guilty hearts that nothing had ever happened.
Of course, there were also some haters and keyboard warriors who refused to admit they had been slapped in the face. They insisted that flies do not bite uncracked eggs. With so many people in the industry coming out to accuse Du He Xuan, he could not possibly be a good person.
Du He Xuan could not be bothered to deal with these annoying fleas. He just reposted the company statement, then @-mentioned, one by one, the few news outlets and influencer marketing accounts that he and his brother had found in the last two days to be working with Jiang Huai Ying, and boldly posted:
“Not a single dog raised by Jiang Huai Ying is going to get away.”
When people saw this post, many suddenly remembered how, when he first entered the industry, Du He Xuan used to pick fights with heaven and earth, as if he wanted to poke a hole in the sky.
It was only in the past few years, after he had filmed more dramas and settled down a bit, that people felt his temper had changed and that he was no longer so fearless.
But they forgot that some people’s wildness is carved into their bones. Even if they usually hide it, once someone steps on their bottom line, they will show their sharp edge again and stab through any rat that dares to stroke a tiger’s whiskers.