It can’t be true, can it?
Zhou Yun couldn’t believe it: "She’s gone too far!"
Song Chi sneered: "There are quite a few people waiting to laugh at you."
Zhou Yun: "No, I mean, laughing so hard that the chair flipped over and it threw out my back, is this supposed to be funny?"
Song Chi: "I do wish it were a joke."
"..." Zhou Yun started to believe it now.
Song Chi said: "Zhou Benyuan told me about what happened last night, and I was planning to call you tonight to talk about it, but I didn’t expect someone to act so quickly. The incident from last night was blown out of proportion by this morning."
Zhou Yun’s mood also sank when he thought about the schemer behind the scenes.
"Yeah, and I have no idea who."
"Your agent has done a great job with PR this time. Now the public focus is completely shifted to your candid response and cursing, and nobody is debating whether the rumors about your interference are true or false. Basically everyone assumes you were slandered. This is a good thing."
"You’re still talking about it. If it weren’t for your brain-dead fan, would today’s mess have happened?" Zhou Yun got angry just thinking about Yu Sitian, "Drunk and speaking without restraint, damn it."
"Are you still cursing?" asked Song Chi.
Zhou Yun: "Alright, I’ll stop."
Thinking to himself, he’s really meddling.
Song Chi said: "I’ll handle the matter with Yu Sitian, this won’t happen again in the future."
Zhou Yun: "It’s no use for you to handle this. The girl has set her sights on you, and she already sees me as her imaginary enemy."
Song Chi: "I can’t control if she sees you as an imaginary enemy, but if she accuses others of being a mistress, using her liking for me as an excuse, I have to intervene."
"The girl’s young heart must be shattered." Zhou Yun said with feigned pity, but his expression was one of schadenfreude. Yu Sitian went too far last night and had to learn a lesson.
Liking someone is no excuse to hurt another person. Only villains in movies would do such a thing. Don’t give me that ’human nature can’t be resisted’ nonsense.
Song Chi seemed to have calmed down, and his voice was back to normal.
He said: "Still in the mood to mock others, it seems your mood has indeed recovered well."
Zhou Yun said: "I cool off pretty quickly."
"Mhm, I’ll hang up now."
"Mhm, go on with your work."
Zheng Xiaojue sitting in front seemed to hardly dare to breathe a word.
She really wanted to remind Zhou Yun that there was someone else in the car.
She wondered if Sister Xiao Yun herself knew that every time she spoke to Song Chi on the phone, her tone was different.
That air of affectionate anticipation seemed to fly out from every single word’s pronunciation.
Upon returning to the company, no need to say, Zhou Yun was directly scolded by Zhou Lan mercilessly.
He Yong watched from the sidelines, surprised by Zhou Lan’s outburst, trying several times to intervene, but unable to find an opportunity to cut in, watching their cash cow being scolded by Zhou Lan.
And yet, Zhou Yun had an expression of "say whatever you want to say, I don’t care" – not angry, nor blushing with rage.
Finally, when Zhou Lan had finished scolding, He Yong hurried to smooth things over, saying: "Xiao Yun, Zhou Lan is just worried about you, don’t take it to heart, rest assured, the company definitely supports you. Whoever had the indecency to spread such rumors about you, they’re heartless and shameless! We’ll definitely find out who it is!"
Zhou Yun sighed and said, "President He, that’ll be hard on you."
He Yong was quite pleased and immediately smiled, saying, "Not at all, not at all."
Another thirty minutes passed, and Zhou Yun posted the apology that Zhou Lan had prepared on Weibo.
The public relations crisis was defused with more relief than danger.
Zhou Yun asked, "Can I go back now?"
Zhou Lan replied, "The reporters at the bottom of your apartment haven’t left yet, and it’s not just the reporters; many of your fans have gone there, planning to stake out on you."
"So I can’t stay there?"
"Mhm, you’ll have to change places for now. There’s an empty apartment the company has, which I’ve already applied for. After the cleaning lady has tidied it up, you can move in. For these next few days, you should stay at a hotel," Zhou Lan said.
Zhou Yun nodded and said, "Alright then."
The hotel had been booked already; it was one the company cooperated with year-round.
Zhou Yun went straight from the company to the hotel, while Zheng Xiaojue made a trip to the apartment to pick up the daily necessities and a change of clothes for Zhou Yun.
At the hotel, Zhou Yun couldn’t help but go online to check what was happening. The internet was still buzzing about her, including the drama in the hotel, her firm clap-back on Weibo, as well as her agent Zhou Lan advising her to apologize.
Because of this incident, Zhou Yun’s Weibo followers increased by half a million in just one day.
An alarmingly rapid growth.
An entertainment blogger said, Zhou Yun really is a hot topic magnet; she has just finished filming, and now she’s back on the trending list. The kind of attention other artists can only dream of, for Zhou Yun, it’s as common as having three meals a day.
Seeing this post, Zhou Yun thought to herself that if someone wanted this kind of attention today, she would be only too glad to give it away.
Whoever loves it, let them have it.
Zheng Xiaojue brought some of the commonly used items to the hotel for Zhou Yun.
It’s not as comfortable living in a hotel as it is in her own apartment, but to get some peace, she had no choice but to stay.
However, Zhou Yun didn’t have much time to spend in this hotel anyway. With one engagement after another, she was flying all over to different cities, with the world as her home.
In mid-January, "Eighth Heartbeat" was scheduled to premiere on the second day of the Lunar New Year.
The production company clearly wanted to capitalize on the recent buzz surrounding Zhou Yun, aiming to strike while the iron was hot with the broadcast.
Yuehai specially arranged an online video live streaming event to promote "Eighth Heartbeat."
Initially, the plan was to gather the actors for a live promotional event, but as Zhou Yun was extremely busy and couldn’t spare the time, it turned into a live-streaming activity instead.
Zhou Yun, Gu Huaichun, Yin Zhou, and Xu Siyao, the four leading actors, appeared on camera.
The four of them went online at nine in the evening, logging into the live streaming platform.
The production had specially invited a host to manage the event and set the rhythm.
Basically, it was about asking everyone about funny incidents that happened during the filming, as well as behind-the-scenes stories.
These questions and answers had all been prepared by the production in advance; everyone had received their script, and they just had to follow the script when speaking.
It all seemed like spontaneously recalled amusing anecdotes, and the atmosphere was very good.
As Zhou Yun was the most famous and the only true celebrity among the four actors, with the other three essentially being newbies with little to no name recognition, the host focused primarily on her.
Inevitably, the conversation turned to the rumored incidents from a few days ago.
This had also been discussed in advance, and Zhou Lan thought it would be good to take this opportunity to formally respond.
When the host brought up the question, Zhou Yun responded directly: "Actually, it’s a bit ridiculous that the incident blew up the way it did. It all happened on New Year’s Eve night, where the artists who attended the New Year’s party also went to a banquet afterward. A young girl who had liked Song Chi for a long time had too much to drink. She regarded me as her imaginary love rival, saying I was the third party interfering with her and her idol. At that time, I was very helpless, but I never expected people would really believe such rumors."