The phenomenon of people siding with the powerful and the weak is constantly playing out, both in real life and online.
Those who used to stand against Lin Leyao seem to have become her defenders overnight, now mocking and attacking those who hurt Lin Leyao in the past.
It's as if they themselves weren't once among those who spread rumors and slandered Lin Leyao.
Having been in the industry for so many years, Lin Leyao has come to terms with these kinds of things.
Be yourself, and never change yourself because of people online who don't like you. Even if you do nothing wrong, there will always be people who magnify your details, slow down your movements, and find fault with every word and action you take.
Once you start to care and try to explain, you'll fall into their trap, and you'll be forever agonizing over those who don't like you, eventually feeling that life has no meaning.
Lin Leyao doesn't pay attention to the changes in people's attitudes towards her online. She hasn't been online since she posted that message on Weibo that day.
Offline life is not so colorful; Lin Leyao's life is very peaceful.
She went to the company these past two days, busy dealing with the expiration of her agency contract.
After only two days away from the internet, Lin Leyao discovered that some things stemming from the rumors about her were developing in a negative direction.
Lin Leyao was thrust into the spotlight of school bullying after a middle-aged male celebrity liked her post.
After Lin Leyao quickly clarified the situation, the male celebrity also quickly unliked the post, but his reputation collapsed rapidly.
After the situation reversed, netizens who had previously criticized and insulted Lin Leyao began to turn their anger towards the male star.
His latest Weibo posts are covered with a dense barrage of questions and insults from netizens.
When will you apologize to Lin Leyao?
[Can I just unlike it and pretend nothing happened?]
[Aren't you the kind of sycophant who flatters the powerful in the entertainment industry?]
[You shameless gigolo who lives off your wife!]
[After more than 20 years in the industry, you're just relying on one project to live off your past achievements? Aren't you ashamed?]
[The person who insulted the woman actually wants to act as a champion of justice? Have you forgotten what you said back then?!]
[That old bastard finally got his comeuppance, so satisfying!]
This middle-aged male celebrity has been trending on social media several times in the past two days because of the "like" incident.
Fearing the matter would escalate further, his studio quickly issued a clarification, explaining that his Weibo account was previously in the hands of staff, and the like was done by mistake by staff, who immediately removed it upon discovering the error.
This news instantly ignited the anger of netizens.
These days, working people have it tough. When celebrities make mistakes and things blow up, they blame everything on their staff. What did these staff members do to deserve this? Why should they take the blame for the celebrities?
Celebrities are famous and rich, earning dozens or even hundreds of times more than their staff. They get all the good things but blame others for the bad. How can a man in his forties be so irresponsible?
Office workers online were outraged and flocked to the studio's statement to mock it.
Seeing that the situation was getting out of control, the male star's studio deleted the statement.
From then on, the word "coward" became inextricably linked to this male celebrity.
Lin Leyao was in the company's conference room when she received the call from the male star's agent.
After receiving the call, Xiao Yan asked Lin Leyao, "Huang Zhen's agent called, wanting us to issue a statement to explain things and stop netizens from continuing to criticize him like this."
Huang Zhen is a senior figure in the industry, and his wife is the daughter of a wealthy family, so he has always been unrestrained in the industry.
Xiao Yan's face darkened after hearing the other party's manager's words, but she did not immediately refuse.
Lin Leyao chuckled after hearing this: "Tell him to find a lawyer. If he can't find one, I can recommend one."
Huang Zhen and his agent, who originally intended to use their status and influence in the industry to pressure Lin Leyao into helping them out of a difficult situation, were quite angered by Lin Leyao's response.
Finally, having no other option, Huang Zhen's studio picked a group of people in the comments section to file a lawsuit.
However, his completely ruined reputation is beyond repair.
Lin Leyao hasn't been online at all these past two days, while Xin Ying is acting out of character, checking her phone every now and then, even at the company.
She didn't see the incident when it happened two days ago, and by the time she found out, Lin Leyao had already dealt with it.
Xin Ying has always been bothered by missing out on this opportunity.
She felt that Xie Kai's mother's revenge on Lin Leyao was largely due to her. She believed that Xie Kai had used methods to keep him locked up in the detention center and unable to return home. Xie Kai's mother targeted Lin Leyao because she had learned Lin Leyao's name from Xie Kai, and her powerless anger was directed at Lin Leyao.
Lin Leyao probably noticed that she was in a bad mood because of this, so she made a special explanation, saying that she posted a clarification on Weibo as soon as she learned about it.
The clarification was simple and effective, and the matter was resolved quickly without needing to involve her.
Although Lin Leyao comforted her, Xin Ying did not let her guard down. She knew that Xie Kai's mother would definitely start over.
The next morning at ten o'clock, Lin Leyao went to the company to handle the last few things.
In the lounge, Lin Leyao made a phone call to her grandfather.
Ji Hongchen knew that Lin Leyao was going to Yunnan soon and wanted her to come home for dinner tonight.
Lin Leyao immediately agreed.
The grandfather and granddaughter chatted for a while, and the old man talked about some interesting things that happened recently when he started learning to use the internet.
Ji Hongchen is now very proficient in using commonly used software, and yesterday he even used the software to order takeout.
The old man was very happy, saying that he was finally not left behind by the times.
As they talked, Ji Hongchen brought up the previous trending topic and asked Lin Leyao if she had been bullied.
Now that the old man has learned to use the internet, he can quickly learn about her latest situation online. Lin Leyao knows that she can no longer hide some things that have happened to her from the old man, so she quickly explained that the matter has been resolved.
Ji Hongchen was furious: "How could someone spread rumors about our daughter being a bully at school? Our daughter is so well-behaved, she doesn't even want to bother the nanny at home."
Lin Leyao quickly smiled and comforted her.
The old man said angrily, "I remember all these people's names. Next time I see them, I'll teach them a lesson and see if they dare to bully people again!"
After finishing her phone call with Ji Hongchen, Lin Leyao sent a message to Xin Ying, saying that the two of them would go back to the Ji residence for dinner that evening.
Xin Ying had just finished replying to Lin Leyao when she received a call from Xin Si Nan.
A few days ago, because Xin Sinan didn't tell Xin Ying about the rumors and cyberbullying against Lin Leyao, Xin Ying called him specifically to ask about it.
He didn't tell Xin Ying when he saw that Lin Leyao had quickly clarified the situation, but he didn't expect his sister to remember it.
In order to stay informed about all the news about Lin Leyao online and to prevent similar rumors from spreading and harming her, Xin Ying gave him a sum of money to help her set up a professional team and assign someone to monitor online trends at all times.
At the time, Xin Sinan teased Xin Ying, saying, "Le Yao is almost twenty-six. How can you treat your wife like a daughter? She is the little princess of the Ji family. She is rich and powerful. How could she not handle this kind of thing? Even if the rumors are successful, she will still have roles to play. You don't need to worry so much."
Xin Ying answered very seriously at the time.
“Her maternal grandfather took very good care of her. In a family like ours, he didn’t pressure her but encouraged and supported her so she could pursue what she loved. This doesn’t mean her grandfather was particularly enlightened, but it proves how much he loved her. I took the baton from the old man and should do even better. If something uncontrollable happens and seriously affects Le Yao, her grandfather certainly won’t blame me, but I will definitely blame myself. Brother, she is her grandfather’s darling, but she is also my darling. She is really important to me.”
In just two days, Xin Sinan used the money Xin Ying had sent to assemble a professional team.
The team members have now started working, and they keep a close eye on online activity, so they quickly found a new account.
This Weibo account has over 10,000 followers. The account name is a string of random letters, and the profile picture is black, making it look very inconspicuous.
However, almost all of the more than 10,000 followers of this account are Lin Leyao's fans, and the comments under each Weibo post are very active. The level of activity is not something that a Weibo account with more than 10,000 followers can achieve.
The team members realized something was wrong. Was this Lin Leyao's alternate account?
However, the content posted on this alternate account is like that of a girl in love, and a girl who is juggling multiple relationships. On Weibo, she describes herself as dating several people at the same time.
Several members of the team didn't know Lin Leyao, so they quickly reported to Xin Sinan.
Xin Si Nan glanced at these Weibo posts and quickly debunked them.
The team members knew that this was an imposter using Lin Leyao's alternate account, so they focused their attention on this account and kept a close eye on its activities.
A previously unknown alternate account suddenly appeared, giving everyone a sense that a storm was brewing.
Sure enough, marketing accounts quickly spread the content posted by this account on Weibo. Half an hour later, a paparazzi posted a video of him following Lin Leyao.
The video features Lin Leyao, Xin Ying, and Lin Leyao and Liu Fang.
In the video, the paparazzi provided narration, saying that Lin Leyao had dates with Xin Ying and Liu Fang at different times on the same day.
Because in the video, Lin Leyao was wearing the same clothes when she met the two men separately, which made it seem like she met them on the same day.
The paparazzi posted screenshots in the Weibo comments that appeared to be from Lin Leyao's alternate account, describing her dates with different people, and asked, "Is this about President Xin and President Liu?"
However, because of the rumors about Lin Leyao's school violence that surfaced a couple of days ago, netizens were more cautious this time and did not believe them easily.
The comments left by everyone were all the same:
"Spreading rumors is illegal."
"I'm not offering any opinions; I'm just observing."
"I dare not speak, I'm so afraid of being proven wrong."
"..."
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Author's Note:
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 04:48:13 on May 10, 2022 and 22:09:22 on May 11, 2022!
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: 3148375 (2 bottles); 55157345 (1 bottle);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 103
After the staff reported the issue of the alternate account, Xin Si Nan immediately contacted Xin Ying.
Therefore, Xin Ying was already prepared before the paparazzi released the video.
Xin Ying knew this was another of Xie Kai's mother's doing, but the buzz surrounding such rumors was much weaker than that of school violence.
Especially now that netizens are smarter, everyone will patiently wait for a while regarding Lin Leyao's situation to see if there will be any reversals.
In addition, Xin Ying and Liu Fang, who appeared in this video, have both been trending on social media with Lin Leyao, so netizens are no longer surprised that Lin Leyao knows them.
Therefore, the two things everyone is most concerned about right now are when Lin Leyao will be proven wrong and whether this alternate account is real. The content posted on the alternate account's Weibo mentions that this person is dating three people at the same time. Who is this third person?
The people on the forum thought differently from netizens on other platforms. The most replied-to post was about betting on whether Lin Leyao preferred men or women, and everyone placed their bets.