Chapter 174: The Truth Behind The Black Hot Search
She knew Jiang Feng had blown up, but she couldn’t imagine just how big it was no matter how hard she tried, so she took out her mobile phone and went online herself to feel it out.
She hadn’t been browsing online at all lately. She hadn’t expected that just a short time without paying attention, and the online trends had already changed several waves.
She didn’t even need to deliberately search; just flipping through, seven or eight out of ten posts were discussing Jiang Feng.
The discussions about Jiang Feng had completely moved from inside the drama to outside it, and there were even quite a few mentions of her own content among them.
Xuan Xia originally thought they mentioned her because she had just cooperated with Jiang Feng.
The result wasn’t that.
They mentioned her because of that previous black hot search of hers. At the time, the male lead of the black hot search was Jiang Feng.
But Jiang Feng back then didn’t have today’s level of popularity, and plus the black hot search wasn’t aimed at him, so he didn’t become the main object of discussion.
Now that he was popular, the old matter was brought up again, and all the attention was focused on the real relationship between her and Jiang Feng.
During the previous black hot search, Jiang Feng’s fans had been explaining for him and clarifying. But because there weren’t many fans, the effect was average. Now his fan count was growing at several times the speed, and there were more people willing to explain and clarify for him.
There were even netizens with wide reach who had pieced together the ins and outs of the black hot search. It all started because the film crew’s female second lead Lu Mindan, out of jealousy toward the newcomer the company wanted to promote, deeply feared her own interests would be damaged, so she fought with her own company mate, and Jiang Feng was just an innocent fish caught in the crossfire.
“Seniors and juniors from the same company—with Lu Mindan’s status, would she lower herself to mess with a newcomer who just joined the company? Is that necessary?”
“I believe it. Lu Mindan and Xuan Xia originally had the same agent, but later when Xuan Xia joined the Jiao Yue Chronicle cast for a guest role, Lu Mindan switched agents. If there was no contradiction, how could she switch agents?”
“But the new agent Lu Mindan switched to is Huang Ke! Who is Huang Ke—do I need to explain? Lu Mindan going under Huang Ke is clearly a step up. Does she still need to use such tactics? This intel seems a bit fake.”
“The friend upstairs is too naive. I have a friend in the industry who clearly told me that Lu Mindan isn’t favored by Huang Ke at all. Huang Ke wouldn’t give her the good resources in hand either. I even heard that Huang Ke sent quite a few resources to Xuan Xia instead.”
“Huang Ke giving resources to Xuan Xia? That’s even more ridiculous. Huang Ke has resources and doesn’t prioritize the artists under her own hand, but gives them to others—why? Do you think Huang Ke has a hole in her brain?”
“…”
Originally, most people didn’t believe it, but there were just too many netizens with wide reach.
Soon, Lu Mindan’s side’s purchase records for internet trolls, as well as the quoted prices for operating the black hot search, were all posted online.
With the facts right in front of everyone, now they all focused their fire on cursing Lu Mindan.
“This Lu Mindan is such an idiot! What kind of thing is she doing?”
“Why do women have to make things hard for other women?”
“Vocal! I said that hot search felt so off at the time, and the direction was full of weirdness. So that’s how it came about—your circle is really vile!”
“Lu Mindan has such a small mindset!”
“What mindset in the entertainment industry? The cake is only so big. If you take a big piece, she can only take a small one, and there are even worse off who get none. I can kind of understand Lu Mindan’s mentality, but I still really want to curse her—for messing with one person, she also destroyed another’s reputation. Such dirty tactics.”
“Xuan Xia is pitiful too. She clearly didn’t do anything, but she was cursed so badly back then.”
“The most pitiful is clearly Jiang Feng, right? He didn’t do anything at all and got dragged into the company infighting drama. Who does he have to vent his grievances to?”
“My husband is so pitiful!”
Xuan Xia glanced at a few, then looked up at the back of Ji Ziyao’s head.
The back of the head is such a sensitive spot, and Ji Ziyao noticed in just a few seconds. He turned his head to look back and asked Xuan Xia, “What are you pondering so quietly?”
Xuan Xia said, “Not pondering anything, just thinking… being popular is really great.”
Ji Ziyao was about to agree that being popular was indeed good, when he heard Xuan Xia’s next words: “The thing about Lu Mindan sending me that black hot search has all been dug up by the netizens. It wasn’t you who leaked it, was it?”
“…” Ji Ziyao immediately felt his blood pressure soaring.
If he really wanted to leak it, couldn’t he pick a better time instead of earning Jiang Feng this bit of sympathy? Was he a bodhisattva or something?
But the net had analyzed the ins and outs crystal clear, so Xuan Xia couldn’t help but ask one more thing. “How’s Lu Mindan been lately?”
“Why do you care about her?” Ji Ziyao looked at her with an expression like she was always meddling in other people’s business, but he still mentioned a situation he’d heard about in the past couple days. “What can she do? Those scripts that Brother Huang offered before, the ones you thought weren’t suitable, went to her afterward.”
Although Lu Mindan had seemingly done something to displease Huang Ke before, based on Huang Ke’s way of doing things, script resources would still go to Lu Mindan since she was an artist who could make money.
“But I heard Lu Mindan rejected them all. Apparently because she heard you rejected them first.”
Xuan Xia laughed when she heard that. “Really? Fake?”
“Why do you care about the true or false.” Ji Ziyao scolded her. “And you—what have you been doing holed up in Ningzhou every day? Have you been properly reading scripts these past few days?”
Xuan Xia had a face full of assurance: “Looking at them every day, how dare I slack off.”
But Ji Ziyao wasn’t satisfied and considered saying, “I think we should still contact a performance teacher to go into the group with you.”
No sooner said than done—Ji Ziyao immediately started searching his contacts for a suitable person.
As soon as performance teacher was mentioned, Xuan Xia couldn’t help but miss Jiang Feng who had coached her on rehearsing scenes. She wondered if she’d ever meet such a good teacher again in the future.
Now that he was popular, their interactions would probably be even fewer from now on.
But Xuan Xia was still happy for Jiang Feng and simply sent him a congratulatory message.
Beyond Xuan Xia’s expectations, the message had only been sent a few seconds when Jiang Feng replied to her.
‘Jiang Feng: Don’t make fun of me anymore. Haven’t returned to Yanjing yet?’
Xuan Xia: “No, just arrived in Jiangshi.”
‘Jiang Feng: Jiangshi? It’s for recording that dating show program, right.’
Xuan Xia hadn’t expected that just mentioning Jiangshi, Jiang Feng would know she was going to record the dating show.
Could it be that he was also a deep-hidden demigod?
Xuan Xia returned the courtesy and asked about his recent situation these past few days.
The two chatted all the way like that until Xuan Xia arrived at the hotel, then it ended.
–
These past few times returning to Jiangshi, Xuan Xia had stayed in the same hotel.
She hadn’t expected to run into Xie Yun this time.
The two had actually checked into the same hotel.
Ever since that dating show live broadcast, they hadn’t seen each other again.
Xie Yun also seemed not to expect running into Xuan Xia, but the way she looked at Xuan Xia wasn’t like during the live broadcast anymore, and even the aura she showed in public was very different from that time.
It was the same cool demeanor, but back then it was looking down on everything, while now it had a bit more of the frustration of someone down on their luck.
The two were colleagues who had recorded the same program, but they didn’t even qualify as nodding acquaintances. After Xie Yun glanced at Xuan Xia twice, she turned first and headed toward the elevator.
The assistant following her hurriedly stepped up to catch up.
Xuan Xia was one step behind and simply stopped, turning her head to ask Ji Ziyao: “Has she been having a rough time lately?”
