On the livestream screen, Xie Lin narrowed his eyes at him.
"Fu Yunxi, did a donkey kick you in the head?"
Fu Yunxi's face flushed red with urgency. He had finally caught this opportunity, and he had to convince Xie Lin.
"I'm doing this for your own good. Why won't you listen? Do you know Lu Ye-"
"What about me?"
An icy voice came from behind Xie Lin. Fu Yunxi froze, then tilted his head to look.
Lu Ye had one leg inside the window and the other outside, his eyes fixed on him.
Xie Lin frowned.
"Why are you climbing through the window again?"
Fu Yunxi was on the verge of losing it.
"What do you mean, again? He does this all the time? And you just let him?"
"If I hadn't, I wouldn't have known someone was bad-mouthing me!"
Lu Ye jumped inside and complained, looking utterly wronged.
"Why did you open the door for him?"
His expression made Xie Lin look exactly like an irresponsible jerk who had gotten what he wanted and run.
"I-"
Before he could get another word out, Lu Ye charged over in a few strides and kicked Fu Yunxi to the floor.
Then he kicked him from the second floor to the first like a ball.
Fu Yunxi tumbled down the stairs, his whole body hurting as though it were splitting apart.
He propped himself up and looked up. His expression abruptly stiffened, an ominous feeling rising inside him.
Lu Ye produced a little pink megaphone from somewhere, the corners of his lips lifting slightly.
Drawing a deep breath into his abdomen, he bellowed.
"Some-one-come-quick! Film-Emperor-Fu-is-hurt!"
The director shoved the door open and rushed out, his oversized slippers flapping. The first thing he saw was the megaphone in Lu Ye's hand, and he froze.
"My megaphone? I was wondering why I couldn't find it anywhere earlier. How did you get it?"
Then the crew poured out of their rooms and crowded around, everyone reaching in to help.
"Film Emperor Fu, what happened?"
"Did your legs give out? How did you fall?"
"Have you been overindulging? Worn yourself out?"
"Come on, get up. Look at you, all bruised and swollen again. Should we take you to the hospital...?"
Fu Yunxi was helped up. At the words "take you to the hospital," his PTSD kicked in again, and he shook his head like a rattle drum, completely forgetting that the crew were all insinuating he couldn't perform.
"No hospital. I'm fine!"
The crew looked deeply concerned.
"Are you really all right?"
"I really am!"
"That's good. Make sure you build yourself back up when you get home. A weak constitution is serious business..."
In a flurry, the crew carried him back to his room, applying medicine and wrapping bandages, keeping themselves thoroughly busy.
Not far away, He Jianing watched the scene, staring intently at Xie Lin with a faint smile on his lips.
After closing the door, Xie Lin turned to Lu Ye.
"Why aren't you going back to your own room?"
"That bastard Fu Yunxi was bad-mouthing me. Wifey, I feel wronged~"
"Tch. Just treat it like a dog barking, or let it go like a fart. That's all."
Lu Ye pouted and leaned his face closer.
"No. I need a kiss from my wifey to feel better-"
Xie Lin pushed his face aside.
"Get lost! I'm taking a shower!"
"Okay, go shower. I'll come back in a bit!"
Lu Ye left, and Xie Lin finally took a shower in peace.
The moment he came out, he heard his phone ringing as though it were demanding his life.
He picked it up and saw that his manager, Zhao Dan, was calling.
Xie Lin snorted and answered.
"Xie Lin, what did I tell you before you left? All you had to do was quietly serve as He Jianing's backdrop, and your job would be done. But what have you done instead?"
"Do you know the entire internet is attacking He Jianing now? Can you take responsibility for that? Don't you know he has someone backing him?"
Xie Lin spoke lazily.
"Who? Fu Yunxi?"
Zhao Dan choked, then shouted even louder.
"Don't think latching on to Lu Ye turns a pheasant like you into a phoenix. Don't you know he's just playing with you?"
"I'm telling you, you have to post on Weibo and apologize to He Jianing and Fu Yunxi for what happened today. Behave yourself tomorrow, or don't blame the company for getting nasty."
"How nasty?"
"Heh. You don't want to know!"
The call ended. Xie Lin looked at the newly added recording and shrugged.
With a few taps, he switched to Weibo.
An apology was out of the question. Not giving them a thorough tongue-lashing would already count as mercy.
At the same time, two trending topics popped up-
#Xie Lin drank with investors and traded sexual favors#
#Xie Lin group sex#
Xie Lin chuckled and opened the first one-
[Xie Lin drank with investors until he threw up, all to get onto a dating show.]
Below it was a very blurry video, clearly clipped from surveillance footage.
Two potbellied middle-aged men supported him on either side as they entered a hotel room.
The second video was surveillance footage from inside a hotel room, considerably clearer than the hallway footage.
The corners of Xie Lin's eyes were red as he lay disheveled on the bed, his plain white T-shirt rolled up to his neck.
They had even thoughtfully censored his nipples.
Both videos were under a minute long, but left plenty to the imagination.
The comments below were even fouler.
[Oh my god, I was wondering how Xie Lin got onto this dating show. Turns out he sold his body for it.]
[An S-Class Alpha started treating him differently the second he showed up. Sure enough, something was going on behind the scenes.]
[If it really were an Alpha like Lu Ye, it wouldn't be a big deal. He's hot, after all. Getting f*cked is getting f*cked. Not a bad deal!]
[Doesn't look like it. A top-tier Alpha wouldn't be interested in used goods like him.]
Both videos had been edited.
But the gossip-hungry netizens didn't care. A mindless mob, they followed wherever someone led them, never caring what the truth was or whether they would cause trouble for the person involved.
Typing a few words took no effort, anyway, and nobody knew who they were.
The other party had clearly hired paid trolls, too. Many of the accounts leaving comments were newly registered.
Clearly, this was a premeditated, internet-wide smear campaign targeting him!
The corners of Xie Lin's mouth rose higher and higher. Before long, he was laughing so hard he could barely breathe, tears almost spilling from his eyes.
There was no trace of dejection on his face. Instead, he was brimming with fighting spirit.
"Fine, fine, fine. So that's how you want to play? Let's see who dies first."
Xie Lin switched to his own Weibo page. Sure enough, abuse had already flooded the comments.
It was either "slut" or "cheap bitch," the language as vile as could be!
His fingers flew, and before long, he published two Weibo posts in succession.
[To the rival smearing me: why didn't you release the full video?]
Immediately below was a complete video.
Inside the hotel room, just as the two sleazy men were about to put their hands on him, he picked up an ashtray, cracked both their heads open, then turned and staggered out.
[I was traveling. Am I not allowed to stay at a hotel? Do I have to be fully dressed after lifting weights? So when you live alone, you stay fully geared up at home all the time?]
This time, there was more than a video. He also included the name of the hotel he had stayed at, his payment receipt, and the five-star review he had left upon checking out.
[Now, not only am I taking back that positive review, I'm taking this hotel to court. Expect a letter from my lawyer!]
Xie Lin had only just started building a fan base, and there weren't many of them to begin with.
When those two videos were posted, they had all been too frightened to respond, afraid they might be real.
Seeing Xie Lin speak up himself, their eyes immediately lit up. After reposting his Weibo posts, they plunged into battle against the haters.
Looking at the toxic mess in his comments, Xie Lin was about to join the fight himself when he was suddenly logged out.
When he tried logging back in, he was told the password was incorrect.
Xie Lin laughed in anger.
No one besides Zhao Dan knew his username and password.
Before you continue