No, he had finally managed to become famous. He absolutely could not get blacklisted now.
Only by getting Yang Manhui to clear his name could he avoid being blacklisted now.
He Cheng's expression changed at once, and he pushed Meng Xiaoya out of his arms.
At the sudden shove, a look of shock and hurt appeared on her face.
But in her relationship with He Cheng, she had always been the one looking up to him. Even though she felt wronged, she dared not say anything and merely retreated to one side, aggrieved.
He Cheng paid no attention to Meng Xiaoya's actions. Instead, he looked at Yang Manhui and said, "I was too anxious just now and misunderstood. Please don't take it to heart. Manhui, after all these years together, can't we part on good terms? Can you let me off this once? You know better than anyone how much I've put into this career. Can you really bear to watch it all be destroyed?"
Ye Jin marveled repeatedly at He Cheng's ability to bend and stretch as circumstances demanded.
[Holy shit, He Cheng changes faces at an incredible speed! He let go of Meng Xiaoya so quickly and turned right around to beg Yang Manhui to let him off. Selfish men really do love only themselves.]
[I remember Yang Manhui seemed to really love He Cheng. She won't go soft at the sight of this scumbag, will she? In the original novel, He Cheng didn't care at all whether he destroyed her!]
After all, their relationship had lasted several years. Seeing He Cheng like this stirred some feelings in Yang Manhui's heart, and she even began to soften a little.
But just as Ye Jin's inner voice had said, the original He Cheng could show her no mercy and leave her no way out. How could she let him off?
With that thought, she sneered. "He Cheng, I don't have a saint complex, and I'm not someone who repays malice with kindness. You know perfectly well what you were planning. Stop wasting your acting skills trying to make me pity you. If you have that much energy, spend it figuring out how to beg the audience and your fans for forgiveness."
With that, she turned and left, no longer looking at the man she had once given everything for.
He Cheng froze for a moment, horror surging through him. Yang Manhui knew what I originally intended to do? How is that possible? I only thought about it!
No, Yang Manhui has loved me for so many years. As long as I beg her properly, she'll definitely soften. I absolutely cannot get blacklisted.
With that thought, he hurried forward a few steps, trying to grab Yang Manhui.
But as though she had known he would do this, Yang Manhui quickened her pace, got into her van, and told the driver to drive away.
Made of mortal flesh, He Cheng naturally could not catch up with a car. He could only stare blankly as the van left, his figure looking utterly desolate from behind.
Ye Jin gloated inwardly.
[Tsk, He Cheng looks like he's about to shatter! Too bad no one's around to pity him~]
Chapter 14
Public opinion online had always moved quickly, especially when it involved two top stars and such explosive revelations.
Soon, topics such as #He Cheng cheated#, #He Cheng came out#, and #He Cheng lives off a woman and acts entitled# spread to every corner of the internet, becoming the subjects netizens followed most closely.
At first, He Cheng's fans stubbornly controlled the comments and tried to whitewash his reputation. But faced with the evidence that kept being dug up, the fans with functioning brains could no longer deceive themselves. Fans in his Super Topic changed their profile pictures to black, abandoned the fandom, and turned on him in droves.
[I've followed He Cheng since his debut. I couldn't spend as much as some of the big spenders, but I still spent several thousand on voting and over ten thousand buying products he endorsed. Thinking about it makes me sick. Instead of spending money on this rotten bastard, I'd have been better off treating myself to a few good meals.]
[The main thing is, it would've been fine if the products he endorsed were any good, but they were all fucking gift sets designed to fleece fans for dirty money. And those face masks sold through social media-I bought them but never dared use them, for fear they'd ruin my face.]
[No wonder someone who loves making dirty money this much would live off a woman. He either lives off his fans or lives off his girlfriend.]
[Actually, thinking back now, He Cheng was a sanctimonious hypocrite all along. He was the one riding the hype and promoting a CP, and he was also the one breaking up the CP when the group disbanded and he switched to acting. I just completely ignored all of that back then because I was a solo stan.]
[Selling merch at its original price. A lot of it used to require paying a markup to get. I just don't know if anyone's still sticking by He Cheng and wants to buy merch.]
[Give up, commenter above. I checked a certain secondhand marketplace. Loads of people are already giving it away for the cost of postage, but nobody's buying at all.]
Meanwhile, advertisers also announced one after another that they were terminating their contracts with He Cheng, and several companies even took him straight to court.
Faced with this situation, He Cheng was naturally frantic. He knew that without some effective PR strategy soon, his career really would be ruined!
So he began pressuring his PR team and even, in a rare move, offered an enormous bonus to motivate them to find a solution.
As befitted a top star, He Cheng's PR team was naturally among the best in the industry, but even they were helpless in the face of such a raging tide of public opinion.
On top of that, quite a few people on the team had sound values and deeply despised He Cheng's behavior-living off a woman while acting entitled, then cheating on her. Some simply resigned.
Given the way things were going, He Cheng's team probably would not last much longer anyway.
Morale was already wavering, so once one person resigned, more naturally followed. Before long, most of He Cheng's team had left. Even his manager had begun contacting other artists, and his agency was already prepared to shelve him completely.
Of course, there was still one person who had not left his studio: Meng Xiaoya.
Although she felt somewhat disheartened by He Cheng's complete disregard for her during this time, she also believed she bore a great deal of responsibility.
So she tried practically every method she could think of and even staked out the boss of He Cheng's agency, hoping he would give He Cheng another chance.
But she was only an assistant whose words carried little weight. Why would anyone pay her any mind? As soon as she approached, security guards hauled her out before she could even speak.
She also went online to clear He Cheng's name, saying they had simply been carried away by their feelings and had never intended to hurt anyone. All she received, however, was mockery from netizens.
[Why are all the homewreckers in the world like this? It's always "we never meant to hurt anyone." Even male homewreckers are no exception.]
[You're truly disgusting. Look at Yang Manhui. Can you really think you haven't hurt her?]