Li Xiaochen was already waiting outside in the car.
It was Shi Wei's first time riding in Ji Hanchuan's car, but he had no time to look around, because Ma Xianbei kept calling him like crazy.
"Shi Wei!! Didn't you tell me everything was fine? How come Wang Jun'er still dared to post something trashing you?"
"Brother Bei, chill your balls."
"Fucking hell, the company's protecting Wang Jun'er and her brother now. You're about to get shelved. How the hell am I supposed to chill?"
"I'll handle it."
"Handle it, my ass!"
The crude language made Ji Hanchuan frown. He simply took the phone from Shi Wei. "This is Ji Hanchuan."
Ma Xianbei fell silent for a full ten seconds, then burst out laughing. "Then I'm fucking Daniel W*! Where's Shi Wei?"
Shi Wei: ...
Brother Bei, has life been too easy for you? Why are you courting death?
Ji Hanchuan said calmly, "Leave this to me. Don't call again today."
Ma Xianbei was dumbfounded. "Is-is this really Ji Hanchuan?"
Ji Hanchuan hung up and returned the phone to Shi Wei. "Send me the recording first."
"Oh." Shi Wei opened Ji Hanchuan's WeChat chat and sent him the recording.
Ji Hanchuan forwarded it to Feng Wan and told her to wait for him at the studio.
Shi Wei couldn't make sense of what he was doing. "Hubby, what are you planning?"
The car swerved slightly.
Li Xiaochen gripped the steering wheel tightly and hurriedly apologized to Ji Hanchuan. "Sorry, I got distracted."
So that was what Shi Wei called Ji Hanchuan in private!
Only then did Shi Wei realize he seemed to have used his private nickname for Ji Hanchuan in front of someone else.
He shot Ji Hanchuan a pleading look.
"It's fine. Xiaochen and the others all know." Ji Hanchuan warned Li Xiaochen, "Drive carefully."
"Yes!"
Shi Wei switched to a form of address less likely to cause a car accident and continued pressing him. "So, Teacher Ji, what exactly are you planning to do?"
Ji Hanchuan looked at him. "Whatever you want is fine."
Shi Wei gave a cold smile. "The weather's turned cold. It's time for the Wang family to go bankrupt."
Ji Hanchuan: "...Fine."
Shi Wei: !!!
"Teacher Ji, what did you say?"
"According to the information..." Ji Hanchuan browsed his phone. "The Wang family does run a few private kitchens. We can count those as the Wang family business."
Shi Wei: ...
Why was his 'cold weather, bankrupt Wangs' moment so lame?
Seeing his spirits flag, Ji Hanchuan recalled the remarks about being an orphan in the recording and couldn't help saying, "Don't worry. No one in the crew will talk out of turn."
"I know." Shi Wei raised his fist. "Everyone knows I'm not easy to push around now."
A trace of amusement flashed through Ji Hanchuan's eyes, and he turned to look out the window.
Shi Wei's phone kept chiming.
Two people had sent him messages on WeChat to comfort him.
Mo Xingyu pledged his loyalty, saying he would always support Brother Shi and would keep following Brother Shi to soar to greater heights.
...So this lazy bum's latched onto me for good, huh?
Shi Wei: A thousand words mean less than a money transfer.
Mo Xingyu obligingly sent him a red packet, and Shi Wei accepted it without a qualm.
The other person was someone named Zhuo Xiao, the original owner's only friend, who was asking how he was doing.
Shi Wei replied that everything was okay, then opened Weibo.
Plenty of people were still cursing him, and his name had shot up the trending searches again.
Ji Hanchuan, who had innocently been dragged in for clout, was also high on the trending list. When Shi Wei clicked in, his fans were organizing a boycott against Shi Wei.
Shi Wei: ...
Your fave's getting ready to avenge me!
Shi Wei shifted closer. "Teacher Ji, look. Your fans are all cursing me. They even want to boycott me."
Ji Hanchuan glanced at it. "Don't mind them. They're the ones losing out."
"Teacher Ji..." Shi Wei gazed at him with stars in his eyes.
"Because they'll soon discover they've wasted their time. You don't have anything for them to boycott."
Shi Wei: ...
You're the only one with a mouth, huh!
For the sake of bankrupting the Wangs, Shi Wei let it slide.
Ji Hanchuan's studio occupied an entire floor, and two rows of people stood at the entrance to welcome them.
Wow, just like a big boss.
Shi Wei stuck out his chest and belly and walked over with his hands behind his back. "Thank you for your hard work, everyone."
Feng Wan glanced at him, then greeted Ji Hanchuan directly and walked inside with him.
Realizing no one was paying him any attention, Shi Wei silently followed them.
Inside the conference room.
As Ji Hanchuan's manager, Feng Wan naturally put him first. "Mr. Shi can resolve this simply by posting the recording. That's the easiest solution."
Ji Hanchuan had only been caught in the crossfire to begin with and didn't need to clarify anything at all.
So Feng Wan really couldn't understand why Ji Hanchuan wanted to handle this personally.
"That's not enough. This involves Director Zhang and the crew," Ji Hanchuan said. "The weather's cold. The Wangs must go bankrupt."
Feng Wan looked at him in disbelief.
How could a domineering CEO line like that come out of Ji Hanchuan's mouth?
"Then what do you want to do, Hanchuan?"
Ji Hanchuan gave Shi Wei a look. "You tell her."
Shi Wei immediately began throwing his borrowed weight around. "How about Teacher Ji posts something on Weibo praising me first? Your fans are way too fierce."
Ji Hanchuan took out his phone, ready to type.
Shi Wei said with great modesty, "Shi Wei is the most gifted and talented young actor I've ever seen. His astonishing acting skills have successfully caught my attention. If you're truly my fans, don't attack him, or I'll have every last one of you buried alongside him!"
Everyone: ...
Ji Hanchuan typed calmly. "Posted."
Everyone trembled. Had he really posted that?
Shi Wei eagerly opened Ji Hanchuan's account and refreshed to see his latest Weibo post-
"I support Shi Wei and Director Zhang."
Shi Wei: "...Um, Teacher Ji, you left out a lot of key words."
"I'm good at summarizing."
Shi Wei: ...
Wang Jun'er and Wang William sat at home, smugly scrolling through the comments.
This move had worked beautifully.
It was strange enough that an obscure, bottom-tier celebrity like Shi Wei had landed a role in Zhang Zixiang's big-budget movie, and Zhang Zixiang had even protected him like that the other day. Wang Jun'er would never believe there was nothing between them. There were plenty of old men fooling around with minor celebrities in the industry.
She had gone to such lengths to get the role of Ji Hanchuan's wife, only for Zhang Zixiang to fire her over a single photograph without a second thought. How was she supposed to show her face as Billion Star's top actress?
Even if she couldn't destroy Zhang Zixiang, she would make this movie flop!
"Sis, this is killing me." Every time Wang William laughed, it pulled at his injuries, but he couldn't help himself. "Dragging Ji Hanchuan in was perfect. His fans have all gone off to curse Shi Wei. Free labor."
"But, Sis, are we really not afraid of offending Ji Hanchuan?"
"We didn't say anything about him. What's there to be afraid of?" Wang Jun'er was perfectly composed. "Besides, he's just an actor."
"Yeah, yeah." Wang William trusted his sister unconditionally.
As he kept scrolling through the comments, he began to feel something was wrong.
"Why are so many people saying, 'I support Shi Wei and Director Zhang'?"
Wang Jun'er sneered. "Shi Wei must've hired a water army."
"No, Sis!" Wang William stared at his phone, the smile vanishing from his face. "Ji Hanchuan said it!"