Jiang Ze tapped on the video. The camera captured much of Meng Zhiyuan's bedroom, where the tall man sat on the edge of the bed.
The man's powerful arms held the legs of the person in his lap firmly in place. Veins stood out faintly along his arms, accentuating their strength.
The person in his embrace had fair skin and long legs and was kneeling on the man's thighs, his slender waist curving into an extremely enticing arch.
The whole scene was intimate and suggestive. As Jiang Ze watched, his face couldn't help growing hot.
How had he never realized that simply kissing the big shot could look so intimate and erotic?
"Why did you stop watching?"
At some point, the man beside him had finished his call and leaned over. Seeing that Jiang Ze had paused the video, he reached out and pulled him into his arms again.
"Uncle Zhiyuan... how can you still be so calm? We were livestreamed, and the video's already online! It must have been Han Ke. Whoever's backing her is probably hiring people to boost it right now!"
The man's expression barely changed. He merely kissed Jiang Ze's delicate face reassuringly.
"Don't panic. The video didn't capture your face, did it?"
Hearing that, Jiang Ze dubiously resumed the video.
Although the two people in the video had already begun kissing, the camera angle meant that Jiang Ze's face never appeared at all.
And with Jiang Ze blocking nearly two-thirds of Meng Zhiyuan from view, only his stern profile was visible.
"My face isn't showing, sure, but Uncle Zhiyuan, yours..."
"Heh. Whoever's behind this video was targeting me to begin with. It was only a matter of time before my identity came out."
"Don't worry. Leave this to me."
Nestled in the man's arms, Jiang Ze watched him begin making calls with a cold expression, then continued scrolling beneath the video.
Although the livestream had appeared on an obscure blogger's account, someone was fanning the flames, and the video's popularity was skyrocketing.
It already had nearly two million views.
He couldn't help marveling at how much money whoever was behind this had poured into it. He wondered whether Meng Zhixiong or Meng Zimu was calling the shots.
He scrolled farther down, and his face darkened at the nearly two thousand comments.
Holy crap, what is all this filthy talk?!
"Oh my god, where did this video come from? Are those two actors in some kind of porno?"
"Those arms, those hands-he's practically overflowing with testosterone. Hubby, I'm down!!!"
"Did none of you notice the person in his arms? Those legs are so long and so pale. Definitely a gorgeous woman!"
"Person above, hurry up and get your eyes checked. With my years of experience as an old Chinese medicine doctor, I guarantee the person in his arms is a man."
That comment caused an uproar in the comments section. Everyone seemed to get pumped up, rapidly building an enormous thread of replies.
"OP, I believe you! My gaydar says the person in his arms is definitely a top-tier little bottom!"
"That waist, those legs-he's the bottom of my dreams!"
Although most comments were expressions of amazement or lustful fantasies, many went too far and even began making personal attacks.
"This is so disgusting. Two men? Are they filming some kind of porno? These people must be desperate to make money!"
"I'm seriously about to puke. But if the one in his arms were a woman, she really would look like she was begging to get f***ed. Tsk, tsk."
"Ugh, those damn homos should all die!"
Jiang Ze frowned at the ever-increasing comments. Most had nothing nice to say, and some had even begun guessing his and Meng Zhiyuan's identities based on the materials of the bedroom decorations.
They wanted to dox their address and uncover more identifying information.
More and more paid trolls and haters appeared. He gradually realized that public opinion was snowballing, and Meng Zhiyuan's information was quickly being dug up.
Or, in other words, whoever was behind this might have deliberately leaked it.
#Shocking! Meng Corporation CEO's late-night rendezvous with a male escort!#
#Meng Corporation's CEO is gay! Is Meng Corporation about to change hands?#
#Meng Corporation CEO Meng Zhiyuan is a homo#
#Meng Corporation CEO's image collapses-his aloof persona was all a lie!#
Topics concerning Meng Zhiyuan and even Meng Corporation rapidly climbed the trending rankings.
The more Jiang Ze read, the angrier he became. Based on just a few minutes of video, they were talking as if Meng Group was about to go bankrupt.
He tossed his phone aside. The man had finished his calls, and although his expression remained cold, he showed no sign of panic.
"Did you see this coming?"
Meng Zhiyuan raised his eyebrows without saying much and merely kissed the corner of his lips.
"I'll handle this. Be good and go to sleep. Don't go out tomorrow morning. I'll arrange leave for you with the school."
Seeing him like this, Jiang Ze could only set the matter aside for now and go to bed.
When Jiang Ze woke early the next morning, he found a flood of missed calls and messages-from Mu Shaoxuan, his classmates, and even Chu Chen.
He opened his phone and checked online. Good grief, the internet was full of news about him.
What happened? Did my identity get exposed overnight too?
Clearly, the mastermind wasn't targeting Meng Zhiyuan alone. Although Jiang Ze's face hadn't appeared, his information had been posted online first thing that morning.
To make the claims more convincing, they had even posted clips from his previous appearances on the show and livestreams.
His legs, waist, hands-even his fine body hair hadn't been spared. Detail after detail was compared, convincing more and more people that the person in Meng Corporation CEO Meng Zhiyuan's arms was Jiang Ze.
"Who's Jiang Ze? Never heard of him."
"Person above, you can check out the previously popular variety show 'Wild Mountain Survival.' Jiang Ze was a guest on it for a while."
"Wait, these two have nothing to do with each other. Why does this feel so off?"
"But after what they said, I feel like both the build and some of the details really do look like Jiang Ze!"
The netizens split into several camps. Some insisted it was Jiang Ze, others claimed it was someone else, and some even began saying that the person in Meng Zhiyuan's arms was a woman and that they had been wrong from the start.
The uproar grew worse and worse, and the video had now reached nearly ten million views.
For a video like this to get so many views without being taken down, it had to be said that some sharper observers were beginning to grow suspicious.
"Some netizens really will believe anything they're told. If you ask me, this is clearly a commercial attack on Meng Group."
"Using public opinion to affect Meng Group's stock price? Not a bad move."
But the sharp ones were still in the minority. Most followed the paid trolls' lead and blindly believed the supposed truth.
Seeing that Meng Zhiyuan wasn't home, Jiang Ze figured he was under considerable pressure and was preparing countermeasures.
As for Jiang Ze himself, he shut out the world and leisurely ate his breakfast.
"Host, aren't you worried at all~? You're being cyberbullied, you know~"
Jiang Ze stuffed an egg into his mouth, took a sip of soy milk, and only then drawled his reply.
"Please. That's Meng Zhiyuan, the book's ultimate villain. If he couldn't even handle something like this, how would he revive the whole of Meng Corporation? Besides..."
"I bet Shen Yun and Meng Zimu definitely won't stop at this. They'll make sure public opinion takes an even nastier turn."
He knew that Meng Zimu had stopped at nothing to bring Meng Zhiyuan down in his previous life, and Shen Yun was no pushover either.
Sure enough, by that afternoon, a fresh wave of explosive gossip appeared online.
And this time, the gossip was about Jiang Ze.
Before you continue