"He Cheng, do you have a conscience? I was such an idiot, trying to help you find your footing quickly, spending all day making connections and introducing resources for you. You said you were worried you couldn't carry a male-lead-centered drama, so I even turned down several gigs specifically to make a guest appearance in yours, only to find you hooking up with your assistant!"
With everything having only just happened, He Cheng still felt a trace of guilt toward Yang Manhui and did not argue. "Feelings have never been something reason can control. I really have wronged you this time. I'll find a way to make it up to you later."
Those words thoroughly slapped the faces of the fans who had been trying to whitewash him. Most people in the livestream were casual viewers to begin with, and most ordinary netizens had little liking for pretty boys like He Cheng. They immediately began mocking him.
[LMAO, his fans are still denying it. Isn't that your darling idol's voice?]
[So He Cheng wasn't just cheating-he was a kept man living off his girlfriend, too. How disgusting!]
[Wait, why is everyone only attacking He Cheng? Wasn't Yang Manhui secretly dating behind her fans' backs, too? Doesn't that count as failing her duties as an idol?]
[Person above, try being human. Yang Manhui basically doesn't rely on fans to get resources, and dating hasn't interfered with her work.]
[As a Yang Manhui fan, I was admittedly a little angry when I first learned she was dating, but now all I feel is heartache for her. How can a man be this disgusting?!]
[Am I the only one who thinks this is Yang Manhui's scheme? She showed up for a guest appearance out of nowhere, then started a livestream out of nowhere. Maybe she staged this whole thing to frame my idol!]
[Yes, you're the only one. Wasn't Yang Manhui there to carry that useless idol of yours in his sedan chair? And then he cheated on her. Good thing she came, though, or she wouldn't even have known she'd been given a green hat.]
Ye Jin joined the netizens in cursing the scumbag, using her alternate account to like comments whose insults hit the spot, while doubts also began stirring in her mind.
[Yang Manhui's behavior really is a little unusual, and her expression is so exaggerated it actually looks fake. Could she have discovered He Cheng was cheating in advance? Did she deliberately plan this exposure? If so, beautifully done!]
Yang Manhui and He Cheng had caused such a commotion that the other crew members came rushing out at the noise.
By then, someone had also noticed that the livestream was still running. To keep things from escalating further, they hurriedly reminded her, "Manhui, your livestream is still on. You should turn it off first."
At those words, He Cheng, who had still been holding his head high as though he feared nothing, immediately paled. What? Yang Manhui was livestreaming!
Then he thought of how the clearly locked car door had suddenly opened, and how Yang Manhui had suddenly come to make a guest appearance. Had she known everything all along and deliberately arranged this scene to expose it all?!
He Cheng was still wary of the livestream camera, so he only raised a trembling finger at Yang Manhui and mouthed, "Yang Manhui, how dare you?!"
Yang Manhui acted as though she had not seen him. At the crew member's reminder, a panicked expression appeared on her face, and she hastily scooped up her phone, only to deliberately "fumble around" for quite some time before ending the livestream. In the process, she also "accidentally" caught He Cheng's furious, flustered expression on camera.
Seeing this, Ye Jin became even more certain of her suspicions.
[Tsk, tsk, tsk. Who knew Yang Manhui was so
black-bellied
? Absolutely brilliant. LMAO, did He Cheng think he'd be fine as long as he didn't make a sound? His furious face has already been livestreamed to the entire country!]
The livestream chat was flooded with comments again.
[Aaaah! Don't end the stream! How can you leave us halfway through eating this melon?!]
[I'm willing to pay to watch. Things have already come to this, so why not let us all judge who's right?!]
[Did you see that glimpse of He Cheng's furious face just now? Not a trace of that "a man like jade upon the path, a young master unmatched in all the world" image his fans keep bragging about!]
[I even took a screenshot. This time, I can confirm it was definitely your precious He Cheng, not some stand-in. If his fans still don't believe it, I'll DM you the screenshot for free!]
But no matter how the netizens in the livestream pleaded, the screen ultimately went completely dark.
Even so, that did nothing to dampen the netizens' enthusiasm for gossip. Quite a few marketing accounts also caught the scent of traffic and edited the highlights from the livestream into videos to upload to Big-Eyed Boy.
Before long, the video's enormous buzz sent it to the top of Big-Eyed Boy's trending searches, with a huge "Explosive" tag even appearing beside the topic!
[He Cheng cheated even with a girlfriend as beautiful as Yang Manhui. Sure enough, whether a man cheats has nothing to do with whether the woman is pretty.]
[Leaving gender aside, the person He Cheng came out with falls far short of Yang Manhui. Sure enough, even shit smells sweet when it's outside.]
[And isn't He Cheng basically living off her? What gives him the right to be so arrogant? He's really eating soft rice with a hard attitude.]
[I thought our domestic entertainment traffic stars just hid a kid now and then when they had nothing better to do. Now they're not only dating in secret, but cheating with someone of the same sex?]
[LMAO, does this count as He Cheng being forcibly outed?]
The people at the scene had not yet had time to learn exactly which way public opinion online was heading, but anyone with a brain could guess that He Cheng, as the person involved, would certainly not come out of this well.
But He Cheng could no longer spare a thought for that. Rage had clouded his mind, and once he confirmed that the livestream camera was off, he began roaring at Yang Manhui.
"Yang Manhui, you're a complete lunatic!"
Yang Manhui was even calmer now, putting on an innocent, surprised expression.
"He Cheng, I was livestreaming my daily work routine for my fans just now. I'd filmed everyone else in the cast and crew. I was worried the netizens would get ideas if you didn't appear, so I came out to find you. Who could have known you'd be doing that sort of thing in the trailer? This is a film set!"
"And you're the one who wronged me. How do you think everyone will see you? What gives you the right to yell at me?!"
Provoked by Yang Manhui's words, He Cheng's muddled mind finally cleared a little.
Right, their entire conversation had just been livestreamed. The netizens and fans all knew!
To fans, a traffic star like him dating at all counted as failing his duties as an idol, and exposure alone would cost him a huge swath of fans. Now, on top of that, he had been exposed for cheating. He could be blacklisted for this!