The Slacker Has Been Targeted

He Meng had been woken up in the middle of the night by her ringing phone. Ever since she had taken on Li Wenchuan, she had not experienced the slightest bit of an agent's exhaustion. Every day, all she did was eat, sleep, play games, and turn down strange advertising offers.

Yet in this slacker-filled atmosphere, her phone was bombarded with calls that night.

Reporters, businesses, unknown numbers—everything imaginable in her contacts was calling.

"Huh? What? Trending searches? I don't know..." He Meng muttered sleepily. She barely forced her eyes open, hung up, and hurriedly opened Weibo's trending list.

She did not know whether her phone had gotten too old or whether the trending topic was so huge that Weibo had crashed, but the loading circle kept spinning for ages. When it finally loaded, all she saw was a notice: Network connection unstable. Please try again.

He Meng: This is fucking ridiculous.

An entertainment reporter called. The moment she put it on speaker, he fired off questions like a string of firecrackers, asking what relationship Li Wenchuan and Jiang Hansheng had, whether they had been in touch privately, whether they had known each other for a long time or only recently, and why they had gone to watch a movie in the middle of the night.

He Meng: How would I know? :).

Since Weibo would not load, she could only look for Li Wenchuan. She dialed his number. "Why did you get yourself onto the trending searches again? Can you tell me in advance whenever you're planning to do something?"

"Trending searches?" The man on the other end sounded sleepy too, as though he had just woken up.

"..." He Meng felt like she could not breathe. "So you didn't even know yourself?"

The trending topic was hanging high on the list, while the people involved had only just woken up. If the gossiping netizens knew, wouldn't they be left speechless? Aside from the rich fantasies people had concocted, this melon's skin was practically plastic.

Weibo finally loaded. Under Jiang Hansheng's immense pull, this piece of gossip had been forcibly pushed to the number one trending spot, complete with a bright red "explosive" tag.

"So it really is these two. When did they get together? Someone explain."

"I can't believe this kind of news can make the trending searches."

"Could lwc be stalking Jiang and trying to latch onto him?"

"+1. Feels like he's trying to latch on. This trending topic is weird too."

"Li Wenchuan is so disgusting. When will he get out of the entertainment industry?"

"Here we go, Li the Clinger is back at his old trade."

"Are you trying to make me laugh to death so you can inherit my Ant Credit Pay? Hahahaha."

Public opinion was completely one-sided. No one said anything about Jiang Hansheng; instead, they repeatedly dragged out Li Wenchuan's old scandals and flogged them anew. Screenshots of those old accusations about clinging to others and stepping on them were pushed back onto the trending list, landing in ninth place.

Netizens rushed in to feast on the gossip, and the more they read, the more they felt the entertainment industry ran deep. Li Wenchuan was a modern master of clinging to others.

Just as everyone was passionately voicing their opinions, sharp-eyed netizens noticed that Jin Yue had liked a very "rational and objective" Weibo post. It suggested that it might have simply been a coincidence and that everyone should not speculate without cause.

For a while, Jin Yue's fans all jumped into the fray.

"Yueyue, promise me you won't let Li Wenchuan feed off you again, okay?"

"Everyone, stop talking. It'll be trending again in a minute."

"You're all giving Li Wenchuan attention, damn it."

"This marketing tactic is fucking impressive."

"Didn't he just count on Yueyue standing up for him? But he doesn't appreciate it at all."

"That episode of You and Me Back Then pissed me off. All he knew how to do was tear things down."

"Speechless. Don't you think your fave reeks of fake innocence?"

"I'm dying. Everyone in the same circle—who's really that clean and high-minded?"

The waters on Weibo grew muddier and muddier. Fan circles tore into each other, blood and carnage everywhere, and soon more insider gossip surfaced.

Melon Field Little Otter: Let me quietly share some gossip. Li Wenchuan got popular on You and Me Back Then a while back, and the director of For the Phoenix thought he looked promising and wanted him to audition. Who knew that his shining moment on the show was just a blind cat stumbling across a dead mouse? Jin Yue was probably not in great form either, which made Li Wenchuan seem decent. The audition didn't work out, and in the end, Han Shiye from their company got the role. Li Wenchuan was insanely jealous and even went to the company to make a scene.

—"Really? That happened?"

—"I'm staff. I saw it. It's true."

—"He had no acting skills to begin with. Did he really think he was somebody just because he made the trending searches a few times?"

—"Disgusting."

—"No, your word alone proves nothing. Do you have evidence?"

That blogger named Melon Field Little Otter immediately posted a photo. Li Wenchuan and Han Shiye were confronting each other in it. Han Shiye had his back to the camera, so his expression could not be seen, but Li Wenchuan's indifferent expression looked very telling.

They always said that with one picture at the start, the rest was all made up. But seeing that expression, everyone found the source rather credible.

Jin Yue's fans froze for a moment before realizing, For the Phoenix isn't our brother's new drama?

Fuck, Li Wenchuan was definitely up to no good!

Melon Field Little Otter seized the chance to add fuel to the fire: Maybe many people don't know this, but the male lead of For the Phoenix is Jin Yue. Think about it. Think carefully...

When it came to the entertainment industry, explaining things too clearly made them seem fake. Saying half of it while hiding the other half instead gave people room to imagine, and the more they thought about it, the more terrifying it became.

So many things suddenly became clear. Li Wenchuan was trying to cling to Jin Yue again, trying to make a comeback by riding the popularity of their CP fans!

Today's trending searches had probably all been planned marketing from the start. Li Wenchuan was truly scheming.

Inside a rental apartment, a greasy middle-aged man stroked his stubbled chin. After replying to several netizens' questions and righteously stating that he was merely discussing the matter objectively, he logged out of the Weibo account named "Melon Field Little Otter."

This Weibo account probably could not be used again, but that was fine. He had plenty more.

Seeing that the buzz had fermented enough, he eagerly sent a message. "Bro, it's all done. The hype is up."

There was no reply from the other side, but a transfer of twenty thousand yuan came through quickly.

The middle-aged man accepted it with a grin. "Thanks, bro. Just come to me again if you need anything next time."

The related trending topics rose and fell on the rankings. It was another sleepless night.

Sun Hao's phone vibrated. After looking at it, he said to the person beside him, "It's done."

Jin Yue rubbed his temples and gave a slight nod.

How could he possibly let Li Wenchuan continue so smoothly? As for Jiang Hansheng... Jin Yue narrowed his eyes. That man was free-spirited; it had probably just been a coincidence. There was no need to pay too much attention to it.

After all, Jiang Hansheng was known throughout the industry for being unrestrained and easygoing. As long as no one messed with him, he was quite easy to get along with.

"Ah, it's not good when someone gets too carried away, don't you think?" Jin Yue smiled.

When the time came, Li Wenchuan would understand. The entertainment industry was so dangerous—he still needed Jin Yue's help. Only Jin Yue would reach out and give him a hand. Only him.

The night was thick and dark. Jin Yue lowered his eyes, his mind filled with that flash of vivid red, impossible to shake away.

"Li Wenchuan..." he murmured.

He picked up his phone. His number had already been blocked by the other party, and even WeChat was the same. The other person's Moments were completely blank, with only a single horizontal line remaining.

"He's got quite the temper. I never noticed before." Jin Yue smiled unconcernedly.

If Li Wenchuan were still the same as before, looking panicked at every turn, Jin Yue might have found him boring. But now that Li Wenchuan ignored him completely, Jin Yue found him incredibly interesting.

Maybe it was simply an innate desire to conquer, Jin Yue thought.

What he did not know was that normal people had a common name for this feeling: "being a masochistic idiot."

"Sun Hao, lend me your phone."