Chapter Sixty-One: Real or Fake

The young assistant spoke vehemently, filled with righteous indignation, even revealing on the spot a complete surveillance video, complete with location and time stamps. The second-by-second footage proved the absolute authenticity, instantly diverting public opinion once again.

Was the shameless director forcing her to be the female lead? Forcing her how? Surely not trying to exploit her, right?

Her agent stood up for her under immense pressure. The young girl felt grateful for a moment, thinking maybe it wasn’t such a big deal after all. No one knew Zhou Yifan was married; falling for him seemed natural.

Besides, neither of them had done anything improper. Zhou Yifan, as the agent, hadn’t even lifted a hand. Wasn’t that gentlemanly enough?

If it weren’t for this video, just looking at the edited version would have made it impossible to clear her name.

The assistant really dared to speak out, willing to wade through any filthy waters without fear of grudges—truly loyal and brave.

The wave had yet to subside.

Zhou Yifan’s third phase of internet trolls had already been deployed.

Soon, some other female streamers from the Yellow Lantern MCN agency also spoke out loyally during their own live broadcasts. A not-so-famous group stream, with several girls, even stopped dancing to stand before the camera and speak word by word in defense of Maggie Xu.

“Sister Maggie is incredibly kind; she never offends anyone. If she hadn’t been pushed to her limit, she wouldn’t have broken down crying on the street. Agent Zhou was just comforting her.”

“Brother Zhou treats every artist under him very well. He never forces them to do anything they don’t want to. After company dinners, he even personally escorts the artists home and makes sure to keep a respectful distance.”

“Countless people in our company have confessed to Brother Zhou. If he were truly a scumbag, he wouldn’t always maintain such gentlemanly distance from everyone!”

“This matter has nothing to do with Sister Maggie. She’s just the victim.”

Those openly defending Maggie were the Dandan group.

They were just newcomers, who shouldn’t have exposed their company’s flaws at such a moment. In fact, they knew that Zhou Yifan and Maggie Xu probably weren’t entirely innocent, as the two were often teased within the company.

But when trouble came, they didn’t hesitate.

Their team leader took the call, asked for their opinion, and without a second thought, they cleared things up live on stream.

Sister Maggie was such a good person! She even willingly helped these little-known streamers attract traffic for free, even helping them refuse those unsavory advances.

They couldn’t allow such a Sister Maggie to be scorned online.

The entire internet was thrown into chaos.

Real or fake, partial or complete.

The so-called truth no longer mattered; it was a mess of fish and dragons, with everything said online.

---

But one thing everyone seemed clear about:

This whole affair was deliberately orchestrated.

First attacking the female lead, then the male lead, editing the video and fabricating damaging rumors. Who would believe there was no mastermind behind it?

Isn’t that just how the internet works?

It’s all about digging pits and defaming each other.

Some say three parts true, five parts false; some claim a married man cheated—maybe all lies, no real scandal.

Whatever, we onlookers are just here for the entertainment, right?

…

“What’s going on? Who told you to release that scumbag’s dirt at this moment?”

Song Qingyun angrily called the head of the troll company. At this stage, they needed to focus on that woman—bring her down first, then attack Zhou Yifan that bastard so no one would defend him!

As long as they created a scene where everyone called for their downfall, anyone defending them would face indiscriminate attacks. Only then could they be completely isolated, never to recover!

Now they were pulling the newcomers into the fray; once the trolls’ firepower was divided, it would be easy to defeat them one by one.

“Boss, you haven’t given us the next batch of dirt yet. How could it be us who released it?”

They were puzzled too—how did friendly forces suddenly appear? The big agent Zhou didn’t seem so well-connected after all. At the first sign of scandal, someone immediately kicked him while he was down.

Kicking someone when they’re down?

Not necessarily!

Song Qingyun looked at the orderly waves of online whitewashing and refused to believe it was sabotage from the other side.

Those who run in this circle should know better. If you don’t kill your target with proof, but instead let someone unearth the full video, it only backfires!

Maybe this was a self-directed and self-performed act by that son of Zhou Yifan himself?

Using the chaos to release his own real dirt, but with fake evidence, then quickly whitewashing through the voices of the involved parties’ friends and relatives—no one was pulling strings behind the scenes, he wouldn’t believe it!

Well played, Zhou Yifan, you’re ruthless!

You acted like you cared so much about that scumbag, but when trouble came, you immediately pushed her forward to take the fall!

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He currently had no solid evidence to prove Zhou Yifan and Maggie Xu had an illicit affair—most of it was just as vague and ambiguous as what was online.

But with Zhou Yifan’s self-directed deception added in, releasing such a level of dirt was just treating netizens like fools.

How was that any different from helping him whitewash?

And that little assistant—she really dared to say anything. Did she not want to stay in this circle? How could she know what happened at the dinner party? Did Maggie Xu tell her, or did Zhou Yifan himself teach her what to say?

That surveillance video, with date and time stamps, anyone with a mind to investigate could find out which hotel Maggie Xu left before that, and there was a high risk they’d find out he had also been at the same hotel!

Damn it!

If you want to mess with me, you’re far from capable!

“Hello? Old Zhou? Check again—who visited Yingchun Pavilion last Friday? See who’s close to us, make some arrangements in advance and say it was a group dinner.”

“What’s there to explain? Everyone in the circle knows. They helped me this time, and I’ll return the favor next time. No need to say it out loud; old Song will remember!”

If Zhou Yifan was willing to pay to silence people, why wouldn’t he?

With his status and position, he might not even need to pay!

“Xiao Li, how’s the pressure on Yellow Lantern going? Are they really going to oppose us, Shengshi Chaoyang, over a small streamer? What’s going on with those teenage girls? Even group streamers dare to latch onto this hype?”

The phone rang off the hook. On the other end came a nervous voice: “Director Song, Yellow Lantern…”

“What about Yellow Lantern? Are they making other demands now?”

“No, Director Song, Yellow Lantern said they are already liquidating assets, preparing to sell to Broken Cocoon. They can’t intervene in our matter with Zhou Yifan…”

Damn!

Song Qingyun threw his phone.

Broken Cocoon—a perfect name for a troublemaker!

No wonder he always felt like a big hand was deliberately stirring up trouble behind the scenes, messing up his carefully laid plans bit by bit.

Turns out it was Broken Cocoon, this filthy disruptor!