Apart from the two of them, some other users had started following her.
Jiang Li quickly glanced at the list, and they were all verified Weibo users.
Even a significant portion of them were entertainment gossip bloggers.
Jiang Li had learned from the fan groups that during her second live stream, some of those "melon-eating" bloggers had already set their sights on her.
Their aim was to be the first to get the scoop from her live broadcast and then make timely news to generate traffic.
A few bloggers had even started gossip-sharing accounts specifically centered around her streams, and now they had amassed several hundred thousand followers.
Jiang Li didn’t really oppose this.
As long as they didn’t exaggerate the facts, she wouldn’t interfere.
After all, these bloggers could bring her traffic. Moreover, they were maintaining a just stance with their accounts, which could be seen as positive publicity from another angle.
After setting the time for her next live broadcast, Jiang Li immersed herself in reading again.
It wasn’t until dinner time that she came out of her study.
Only after having dinner and cleaning up did Jiang Li decide to play with her phone to relax a bit.
She hadn’t realized it before, but one look at her phone startled her.
Messages and private messages from various apps bombarded her phone like a blitzkrieg.
Jiang Li first opened WeChat, where Wen Jiaojiao’s messages were already approaching fifty.
[Wtf Jiang Li, have you seen Weibo? What the hell’s going on?]
[Wait, I looked at that person’s profile, and they’re not an artist trained by your company, so what’s the situation?]
[Hey hey hey, where are you?]
[Wtf, you haven’t really been keeping a boy toy, have you? The Gu Family must be furious???]
What’s happened again?
Her intuition told her that surely something had erupted online again.
Indeed, as soon as she opened Weibo, she saw the day’s top trending topic.
It was about her—"Jiang Li’s Secret Meeting with a Trainee".
She hadn’t even clicked into it, yet she could already guess what had happened.
She must have been spotted visiting Jiang Shixu and was subsequently misunderstood.
But when she clicked through to read more, she realized the misunderstanding was far deeper than usual.
The journalist not only misunderstood her visit to the Taiqi training camp, but also outrageously mistook Jiang Shixu as her affair partner.
The article was brief, just a few lines—
"A certain Ms. Jiang, a star, was spotted at the Taiqi training camp. Soon after, a man entered and left her lounge, where the two spent an entire afternoon. What happened specifically, nobody knows."
The accompanying pictures were of her getting in and out of a car at the training camp, entering and exiting the lounge, and Jiang Shixu doing the same at her lounge.
Netizens, with their strong appetite for gossip, didn’t need much from the journalist to start digging for information about the involved parties.
However, Shen Lan had coordinated with Jiang Shixu prior to the training camp visit to remove all of his personal information from the internet.
No matter how aggressively they dug, all they could find was that he was just a little-known individual trainee with no identifiable background.
But precisely because he lacked a background, the incident had a major impact.
A small-time guy with no known background and a seemingly reputable and skilled woman in the entertainment industry alone in a room; anyone’s thoughts would run wild.
[Oh my god, isn’t this the popular big vocal from "Youth Trainee"??? Is he and Jiang Li an item??]
[Ah, didn’t Jiang Li reveal on the show that she liked older guys? So now she’s targeting a younger brother?]
[....Save.... My entire impression of Brother Shiguang has collapsed. I thought he really relied on his own strength, but it turns out there was someone behind him all along.]
[Do you really believe there are no under-the-table deals in the entertainment circle? I’ve never believed it, and there you go, it’s collapsing right away.]
[You never truly know what’s behind a familiar face. I’ll never trust seemingly innocent-looking young guys again.]
[Dude, these two were inside together for two or three hours, if nothing happened, I’ll eat my phone!!!]
[Why is it always Jiang Li’s scandal? This woman doesn’t seem to be worry-free.]
The netizens were filled with righteous indignation.
Especially those fans of Jiang Shixu, for whom he previously epitomized a good young man who had worked his way up steadily on his own.
But now evidence suggested that he wasn’t at all what they had imagined in their minds!
How could they tolerate this!
What made matters worse was that Jiang Shixu was participating in a boy group talent show, and such shows have an unwritten rule: no love scandals before debut since their main appeal is the promise of single, available idols to female fans.
Now, those fans were even more shattered.
They began furiously criticizing Jiang Shixu for not understanding the rules of talent shows and being unfit to debut, and many also targeted Jiang Li, accusing her of inappropriately engaging with an undebuted contestant.
"Youth Trainee" was in the middle of a hot season, and this trending topic was no less than a massive bomb that set off explosions across several circles.
Taiqi’s public relations team even stepped in immediately, but it was to no avail, as the official account was overwhelmed by the onslaught of furious fans.
This wasn’t Jiang Li’s first encounter with such incidents.
In fact, she had a lot of experience at this point.
She promptly called Shen Lan with one phone call.
At that time, Shen Lan was out having a two-person dinner with Jiang Mingyu; she rushed back to the company for an emergency public relations meeting and called Jiang Li right after.
"Lili, things have blown up. If we don’t clarify this, it will definitely impact both of you."
The impact on Jiang Li was secondary.
The main concern was for Jiang Shixu.
The situation had grown serious to the point where fans of the show were collectively urging "Youth Trainee" to kick Jiang Shixu out of the camp overnight.
They wouldn’t allow a contestant embroiled in scandal to remain in the show.
However, Jiang Li knew that resolving the matter wasn’t as simple as making a clarification.
She let out a soft sigh and gripped her phone tightly.
"Second Aunt, you need to think this through. Once I make the clarification, Shixu’s real identity will be exposed, and you all need to be prepared in advance."
One of the reasons Jiang Mingyu withdrew from the industry was the fear that Jiang Shixu’s identity revelation would bring him trouble.
As it turned out, his worries were justified by an unfortunate incident.
This matter had also become a knot in the hearts of the Jiang Family.
Though the second uncle had been retired for many years now, the impacts were still there.
Shen Lan had obviously anticipated this too, and with a sigh, she said, "In fact, your second uncle and I have been discussing this issue these past few days. Ever since Shixu chose to join the talent show, I’d been preparing myself, but I didn’t expect this complication to arise so suddenly."
She hadn’t been very confident before.
But now it was different.
Jiang Mingyu had returned.
Even though she always took pride in being a strong woman, Jiang Mingyu’s presence always gave her a different feeling.
It was as if she, this pillar of strength, could also rest on his gentle beach when weary one day.