Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Did this mean that there was no third party, love triangle, or gossip in the first place, and everything that surrounded this tabloid event was just a blunder by Fengxing Studio?

This caused another storm in a teacup on the Internet again.

One by one, the netizens became disappointed. They were prepared to watch the biggest news of the year unfold, but, instead, it turned cold after brewing for a mere few days.

Some of them, though, were thrilled that the name of their beloved idol was finally cleared. Hence, they started to criticize the reporter as loathsome on his Weibo account.

“What the hell is going on?!”

Ji Yan threw the fax she had received from Zhuo Ke on the table after reading it. In the fax, the reporter informed her that he had met with an unexpected turn of events, which would likely put an end to their agreement.

Yun Shishi’s guess was correct. This series of rumors was Ji Yan’s doing.

Her rival had meticulously plotted against her since that night at the party, just for a chance to kick the protagonist into the abyss with this series of bad publicity.

If there were no unexpected turn of events, Zhuo Ke would, according to their plan, publish a long post on Weibo, with some photos taken surreptitiously on that night at the bar.

The photos were of Yun Shishi and Gao Nan arguing outside the bathroom, but the images were taken at an angle meant to mislead the viewers’ perception into taking them as intimate shots. There was one where the protagonist was talking to him through gritted teeth, yet from the picture, it looked as though she were whispering sweet-nothings to him.

The photos alone would be enough to prove a strong connection between the two persons, who would have been thought to share a superficial relationship, otherwise.

In addition, the reporter would also reveal that Ji Yan was so troubled by the third party she attempted to commit suicide by slitting her wrist. It was a ploy to win the public’s sympathy.

The public would generally be empathetic to the meek, unconsciously supporting and protecting the underdog.

By exposing the ‘slutty’ personality of a popular actress with an innocent and naïve image on-screen, she would come across as repulsive—even more so when she was depicted as a third party, who drove a frail, helpless newbie to suicide!

In fact, the woman felt schadenfreude, knowing that her nemesis’s Weibo account would be overrun by angry netizens in no time following Zhuo Ke’s post.

However, there was no further action on Fengxing Studio’s part at the most critical moment.

She was, thus, floored.

“D*mn it! What the hell is going on?”

“Sister Ji Yan, could it be that Yun Shishi’s side had taken a tactical move against Fengxing Studio and used their resources to suppress the news?”

She wrinkled her brows without saying a word, then she suddenly ordered, “Xiao Jing, contact the reporters for me: I’ll hold a press conference the day after tomorrow, which is the weekend.”

“A press conference?”

The actress snorted and said with menacing eyes, “There’s probably nothing more powerful than to have the victim voicing out her grievance personally before the camera lenses!”

…

By the evening of the weekend, an unpredictable media reception had suddenly become the focus of the entire Internet-sphere.

Several first-tier mainstream media rapidly made this event the highlight of their livestream online.

When Ji Yan appeared in front of the camera, she was in an outfit with a muted tone, looking haggard and pale. There were no colors on her cheeks, and the slightest radiance could not be found on her.

Sitting before a long table, she looked at the press vacuously as her dry lips trembled slightly for a moment.