No matter what she did, these anti-fans always found something to pick apart.
If she spoke a little tactfully, they called her a fake green tea bitch.
If she spoke frankly and openly, they called her ill-mannered and out of line.
These anti-fans were like brainless paper cutouts, as though they had been assigned the mandatory task of hating on Chu Yu.
Under their influence, Chu Yu's once-bright prospects dimmed, and her reputation in the entertainment industry grew worse and worse.
Casual onlookers who did not know the truth were influenced by the anti-fans' brainwashing comments. Whenever Chu Yu came up, everyone's impression was that she had lousy acting skills and threw her weight around, relying on her family background.
That was why, after weighing their options, the company had carefully decided on a plan to transition Chu Yu into a variety show personality.
The early numbers for this sibling variety show had looked quite good. Who could have expected something like this to suddenly erupt just as it was about to end?
Her manager, Zhang Yue, had already urgently contacted the company's PR team, trying to keep the situation on Weibo from escalating too badly.
But there were simply too many people in the livestream. The company had no way to suppress that many comments and could only wait for the production team to handle it.
At that moment, Wen Zhixin finally got her thoughts straight.
Her main reason for joining the variety show was to change her fate and escape poverty.
The director was the one person she could least afford to offend.
Otherwise, if the director took a dislike to her during future filming and secretly put a few obstacles in her way, all her previous efforts would go to waste.
Considering these factors, Wen Zhixin no longer wanted to argue over who was right or wrong.
She only wanted to put an end to this dispute as quickly as possible.
Looking somewhat apologetic, Wen Zhixin pulled her brother along and turned to the director. "Director, my brother did start this. Let me apologize to you on his behalf. He just blurted it out without thinking. He didn't mean any harm."
But by now, the director was thoroughly infuriated by those fans' brainless behavior.
Especially when he thought about how the challenges he had painstakingly stayed up for several nights devising with the planning team were being criticized as unfair, and how he had even been accused of giving Chu Yu backdoor treatment, he found it even more intolerable.
"Wen Tianqi! Hurry up and apologize to the director." Wen Zhixin put on a stern face and tugged at the hem of Wen Tianqi's shirt, secretly signaling him with her eyes.
Wen Tianqi looked utterly reluctant and was just about to apologize.
But the director cut him off coldly. "No need. If you really want to apologize, I may not be the only person you owe an apology to."
Only upon hearing this did Wen Zhixin realize that the matter might be more serious than she had imagined.
"Before filming, you all handed your phones over to the staff for safekeeping, so you may not know how public opinion has shifted outside. Now, I can tell you clearly that this has escalated to the point where the show's official Weibo account is being bombarded with private messages. The livestream's bullet comments are also flooding the screen, questioning our production team's fairness."
Wen Zhixin immediately panicked.
She had never imagined things would get this serious. If it really had reached that point, it was beyond her control.
Wen Tianqi looked up at Wen Zhixin in panic. "Sis..."
He probably did not know what to do in this situation either.
Whatever goodwill the director had built up toward the Wen siblings had been completely exhausted by this incident. He paid no attention to what they were thinking and simply nodded to a staff member beside him.
"Go get all the planning team's documents for the puzzle challenges, along with the replay footage from Chu Yu's group's livestream just now."
In fact, quite a few people in the livestream had only just poured in. These casual viewers had neither watched Chu Yu's group's livestream nor knew what the Wen siblings had done.
They could only guess what had happened from some of the extreme remarks in the bullet comments.
Under this influence, word spread from ten to a hundred, and casual viewers who did not know the truth also began to believe the production team was at fault, further inflaming public opinion.
So, to resolve this matter completely, the director could not afford the slightest ambiguity in his response.
It was also a good opportunity to let everyone see on the spot whether the problem lay with their production team or whether the Wen siblings were deliberately stirring up trouble.
Chu Yu leisurely picked a grape from the fruit platter and tossed it into her mouth, looking ready to enjoy the spectacle.
The sight made the Wen siblings, already trapped in an awkward position, even more agitated.
Had they known things would come to this, they would have held their complaints in even if it killed them.
Just then, Zhao Qirui, who had been watching the whole affair from the sidelines, raised his head with a puzzled look.
"Did something happen with your production team today?"
Zhao Qirui had watched the livestream that morning, before any of this nonsense had happened. After that, he had been traveling and had not watched it again.
So, at present, Zhao Qirui still knew nothing about Chu Yu being falsely accused of receiving backdoor treatment.
The director could hardly spell out all the implications on camera, so he could only say vaguely, "The viewers have some complaints about our production team. I'm taking this opportunity to clear things up with everyone during the livestream."
Zhao Qirui frowned, still not understanding what had happened.
As it happened, his assistant had been keeping an eye on the livestream.
Seeing that his boss still did not know what had happened, he quickly sent him a message on WeChat.
His assistant was thoroughly up to date on the gossip and explained the whole story to his boss in just a few lines.
From the livestream's perspective, all they could see was Zhao Qirui opening his phone with a grave expression. No one knew what he was reading, but his face grew darker and darker, with signs that he was about to lose his temper.
Everyone held their breath until, a moment later, Zhao Qirui abruptly put down his phone and rose in a fury.
"Outrageous! How can these people online slander someone without distinguishing right from wrong? This is outright bullying!"
Although Zhao Qirui had only looked after Chu Yu and her brother on someone else's behalf for a while, the time he had spent with them had been warm and happy, and he had long since come to regard them both as family.