Chapter 24

Chapter 24

It was already late at night. Lu Yan had originally planned to check the Weibo comments the next day, but he didn’t expect to receive dozens of replies just a few minutes after he responded, making him wonder if he had forgotten to switch to his alternate account.

He glanced back at the page and confirmed it was indeed his alternate account.

He breathed a sigh of relief and clicked on the replies page. The top reply was: "How would you rate the host's looks?"

Lu Yan replied: "9 points."

One more point and he might get cocky.

This reply completely hijacked the thread, and all the subsequent comments were responses to his statement.

"9 points? Is the host talking about a hundred-point scale??"

"If the host really looked that good, would he still need to chase anyone?"

"I want to see a 9-point photo."

"Does the host think he's Lu Yan? [/sarcastic]"

Lu Yan looked at the reply from the Weibo account 'Lu Yan's Fan Club by the Daming Lake' and couldn’t help but think, the host is indeed Lu Yan.

Not getting the response he wanted and being roasted by his own fan club, he closed Weibo and sighed.

The next noon, Lu Miao came to visit the set, carrying several bags, ready to whip up something special for Lu Yan.

Lu Miao was dressed in a custom-tailored suit, the typical look of a strong woman, but deep down, she was just like any ordinary mother. During the lunch break, she sat next to Lu Yan and started fussing.

"It hasn’t been that long since I last saw you, but you seem to have lost weight. The set meals don’t look bad, are you being picky with your food?" She washed an apple, peeled it, and handed it to Lu Yan. "Having a piece of fruit an hour after a meal is good for you."

Lu Yan obediently started eating the apple while saying, "I’ve already gained back a lot," making Xiao Liu feel a little embarrassed.

"Auntie, it’s on me. I’ll keep a closer eye on Bro Yan’s diet."

Lu Miao waved her hand gently, "It’s alright, it’s not your fault. Xiao Yan is very picky, it’s all my fault for spoiling him. Thank you for usually taking care of him."

"It’s Bro Yan who takes care of me," Xiao Liu scratched his head awkwardly. "Auntie, you two chat, I’ll go brew you a cup of tea."

"Okay, thank you," Lu Miao turned her face and asked, "What kind of soup would you like tonight? I’ll go to the nearby supermarket to buy a pot and make soup for you in the evening."

Lu Yan chuckled, "No need, soup has been delivered to the set recently."

Lu Miao disagreed, "The soup base from the set definitely isn’t as good as homemade."

"It’s not from the set, it’s... a friend who ordered it for me."

"I see, that’s fine. I’ll write a recipe for Xiao Liu later, so you two can make it yourselves in the future."

Xiao Liu, who was about to leave, couldn’t help but say, "Auntie, actually, it’s not that troublesome. The soup is delivered every day."

"Oh?" Lu Miao looked at her son, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No," Lu Yan said, "It’s Mr. Gu who sends it."

Lu Miao was a bit surprised, "Gu Xu?"

"Yes."

Lu Miao nodded, "That means they value you. You should do your best."

The mother and son chatted back and forth for nearly half an hour, but they didn’t mention Zhou Ming at all.

After being away from the company for over half a month, Lu Miao had a lot of work piled up and couldn’t stay on set for long. She’d just arrived that morning and was flying back to Beijing that evening to handle affairs.

Lu Yan took two hours off work to drive her to the airport himself.

After clearing security, Lu Miao sat down in the waiting lounge and called a friend.

Li Shufang was surprised to hear that her son had been delivering soup to Lu Yan every day, but she quickly hid the odd tone in her voice and laughed, "So Lu Yan likes soup. How about this, once he’s done filming, you all come over to my place. Gu Xu is an excellent cook, and I’ll have him cook it himself."

-

After the leave issue was over, the movie kept shooting smoothly for over half a month.

Although Lin Qing kept messing up his takes earlier, he still had some foundation. After filming for a while, he finally got the hang of it. With no crying scenes, the shooting process went even smoother than expected, and it seemed like they were about to wrap up.

At dinner, Lu Yan and Shi Qing sat together eating boxed meals when the assistant director suddenly rushed in from outside and whispered something to Chen Jing.

Hearing that, Chen Jing immediately put down her lunch and went out with the assistant director.

"What’s wrong with Chen Jing? She’s so flustered," Shi Qing said, taking a sip of hot soup. "I’m really starting to love this restaurant’s soup."

Just as Shi Qing finished speaking, her phone rang. She wiped her hands with a tissue before leisurely answering, "Yes?"

Whatever was said on the other end immediately darkened her expression.

After briefly responding a few times, she hung up and got up to leave.

Lu Yan looked up and asked, "What’s wrong?"

Without turning back, Shi Qing threw out a sentence, "I’ve been photographed."

As soon as Shi Qing left, Xiao Liu ran over and extended his phone screen to Lu Yan, "Bro Yan, take a look at this."

Lu Yan saw it was news about Shi Qing being photographed, and the headline was quite sensational.

"Shi Qing seen at night with a mysterious man, suspected to be popular male star Lu Yan."

In the pictures, Shi Qing and a man wearing a hat were seen holding hands and entering a hotel. In the second picture, they were kissing at a side entrance of the hotel. Although the images were blurry, Shi Qing’s features were still recognizable. The hotel was the same one where the crew was staying, but Lu Yan knew the man in the photo wasn’t him.

As for the "suspected Lu Yan" in the headline, it was because the paparazzi had also captured photos of him entering and exiting the same hotel.

Lu Yan zoomed in on the photo and frowned as he looked at it for a long time.

The man in the photo didn’t seem to be from the crew.

He returned the phone to Xiao Liu, picked up his own phone, and called Lin An.

After a long time, the person on the other end finally answered. Lu Yan chuckled lightly, "The internet is in an uproar, why haven’t you come to discuss it with me yet?"

He remembered once when a big V posted a smear article about him, and within two minutes, Lin An had called to discuss countermeasures.

Lin An said weakly, "It has nothing to do with you, what’s there to discuss?"

Lu Yan asked, "How do you know?"

Lin An complained, "How the hell wouldn’t I know, the man in the photo is Yun Anqing!!!"

"..."

"I was wondering why that guy suddenly asked for leave last week, turns out he went to your filming location," Lin An said angrily. "Shi Qing has been filming with you recently, if she's going to date anyone, shouldn't it be you??? How did they even meet??"

Lu Yan: "...I don't know, what do you plan to do?"

"I'm contacting PR now, it's so infuriating. I told the company's PR about this, asking them to help manage the public opinion, but as soon as they heard, they went to manage the comments under your Weibo first???"

"Seriously, where did Gu Xu find this PR team? Your minor scandal can be cleared up in minutes, what's there to clean up???"

As Lin An continued to rant, the phone beeped twice. Lu Yan looked up and saw it was a call from Gu Xu.

Lu Yan: "Alright, I have a call, we'll talk later."

Without a second thought, he hung up on Lin An.

As soon as he answered, it was Gu Xu's usual question: "Have you had dinner?"

"I'm having dinner."

Gu Xu hummed in acknowledgment: "Don't worry about the online rumors, the company's PR team will take care of it."

Lu Yan: "Okay."

Gu Xu paused for a moment, then asked: "Is that really you in the picture?"

Lu Yan denied quickly: "That's not me."

"Okay," Gu Xu didn't ask further, "I'll drop by the set tomorrow."

After hanging up, Gu Xu got up and walked out of the meeting room. Xu Fei was still waiting outside and quickly followed him.

Gu Xu: "Book a flight to J City for early tomorrow."

Xu Fei nodded: "Yes, Mr. Gu. Should we stay at the same hotel as last time?"

"No," Gu Xu entered the elevator, "Book the hotel where Lu Yan's crew is staying."

Back in his office, he rarely visited an entertainment news website.

The homepage featured a large, colorful image of extremely poor quality, almost like it was pixelated.

Moreover, the webpage's title had reached its peak, with bold black letters that caught Gu Xu's attention.

"Lu Yan and Shi Qing caught in a passionate embrace, kissing in front of the hotel"

He had learned about this just minutes before the meeting. Right after the meeting, he called Lu Yan, having not seen the specific news, which is why he couldn't help but ask Lu Yan.

The person in the picture wasn't Lu Yan; the body type was entirely different.

It wasn't that he lacked trust in Lu Yan, he just wanted to see who could be mistaken for Lu Yan by the media.

The news article stated: "Shi Qing mentioned in an interview at last year's awards ceremony that she admired male artist Lu Yan. Who would have thought they actually got together! The editor here sends heartfelt blessings and sympathizes with Lu Yan's female fans."

After reading this news, Gu Xu noticed several past reviews at the bottom of the article.

"Lu Yan maintained a stern expression throughout the interview, suspected of arrogance."

"Detailed analysis of Lu Yan's fan scandal, 80% true!"

"Lu Yan suspected of intimate interactions with a female fan, a fan self-exposed chat records."

Gu Xu scoffed lightly, picked up the landline and dialed an internal number.

Xu Fei answered promptly, respectfully saying, "Mr. Gu."

"No need for public relations efforts on Lu Yan's side," Gu Xu said indifferently, "Just send a cease and desist letter directly."

He glanced at the top of the webpage: "First, sue Yueya News and post the cease and desist letter on Weibo tonight."

Xu Fei: "Got it, Mr. Gu. Should it be posted under Mingsheng's Weibo account?"

Gu Xu: "Also post one on Jiaming's Weibo account."

At exactly 8 PM, scanned copies of the two cease and desist letters were promptly posted under the Weibo accounts of two major blue V accounts and successfully pushed to the trending list by the PR team.

Thanks to the efforts of paid commentators, passersby, and Lu Yan's fans, the comments exceeded 20,000 in under an hour.

"Yueya News is absolutely vile. Although I'm not a fan of Lu Yan, my idol has also been slandered by this site. This is incredibly satisfying!"

"Wait, what??? Who told me Lu Yan signed with a small company, and Mingsheng is actually under Jiaming??"

"Is Jiaming really that impressive?"

"Oh, not impressive at all. Conservatively, it should be in the top 100 enterprises in two years. By the way, the boss's father's company is in the top 20 of the top 100 enterprises."

Passersby who saw this comment couldn't resist checking out the company's Weibo.

Soon, someone noticed the company's Weibo only followed Gu Xu.

Gu Xu's Weibo didn't even have a profile picture set, with a big yellow V in the lower right corner, and the Weibo verification: Chairman of Jiaming Group.

The chairman's Weibo had only one post, identical to the company's Weibo: the cease and desist letter.

The only difference was that the owner of the Weibo added a few words.

"@Yueya News [/smile][picture]"

Not long after, this Weibo post also successfully made it to the trending list, but this time it had nothing to do with the company's PR team; it was all pushed up by onlookers.

"I actually have a sense of 'the sky is cold, the king is broken'..."

"This smile is full of provocation [/smile]"

"Hello, new husband~"

A nervous comment was buried at the very bottom.

"By the way, has no one really noticed that Gu Xu only follows Lu Yan, not even his own company's Weibo..."