Chapter 446: Go Kneel and Apologize to Li Ruobing?

Chapter 446: Go Kneel and Apologize to Li Ruobing?

Online?

“Give me a second.”

Wu Chen said it into the phone, then picked up the tablet from the nightstand. An Menglan didn’t need to spell it out. He knew she meant Weibo.

Number one trending search on Weibo: Morning Mist Cheats with An Menglan.

Number two: An Menglan Is the Other Woman.

The moment he saw the topics, Wu Chen’s eyebrows rose. He tapped into one, skimmed a few posts and some of the comments, and soon found the post that had set it all off.

Around seven that morning, someone claiming to be an insider had posted that they knew both “Morning Mist” and An Menglan.

It was a long post laying out, in detail, the whole story of how Morning Mist and An Menglan had met. It said Morning Mist had a girlfriend, and claimed An Menglan admired his talent so much that she had inserted herself into his relationship.

It ran to about a thousand characters.

As one of the “parties involved,” Wu Chen could tell at a glance that most of it was invented, conjured out of the poster’s own imagination.

But!

Some of it was accurate.

The post mentioned, for example, that An Menglan had once gone to Donghai to find Morning Mist; that Morning Mist had arrived at Menghua Music the afternoon before last; that An Menglan had assembled senior executives to welcome him; and that he had brought his girlfriend to the company.

Those details were only a small part. The rest was fabricated! And some of it had been made up with real malice.

Whoever had posted it, or rather written it, had serious skill with words. The “story,” it had to be said, was very well told!

In it, Wu Chen was a scumbag, An Menglan was the other woman, and Zhuang Xiaodie was the victim.

“Mm, I see it…” Wu Chen finally spoke once he’d finished the post, still scrolling through related content as he talked.

“Mr. Wu, the company noticed the post right after it went up. We thought it was just someone spreading rumors and stirring up trouble, that nobody would believe it. We never expected it to blow up like this…” An Menglan sounded a little panicked.

“Someone’s stirring this up on purpose. There are coordinated paid accounts pushing it along,” Wu Chen said with certainty.

True, all online attention had been on the two of them since last night.

And it was still building today.

But what netizens cared about was the music, plus Morning Mist’s arrogance and talent. Not his private life!

At a moment like this, anyone who posted negative stories about the two of them and made up a narrative without a scrap of hard evidence should have been cursed into oblivion. It should never have made so much as a ripple!

The smear was far too obvious!

Yet this post had made waves. It had ridden the heat around the two of them and even pulled the whole internet’s attention off the new album and onto their private lives.

Swarms of Weibo marketing accounts had reposted it. All sorts of small accounts claiming to be “acquaintances” of the two had popped up to keep spinning the story.

Some media accounts said they had called Menghua Music to verify certain details, such as when Morning Mist had visited the company, only to have the call cut off.

There was no way this had developed naturally.

Someone was going after An Menglan!

For profit, naturally!

The Chinese-language music market was huge, but it was only so big, and the heat around An Menglan’s new album was simply overwhelming. It crushed everything! For a stretch of time, it would squeeze every other singer’s “living space.”

The way things stood now, for at least the next two or three months, no song was likely to be hotter than any single track on her new album!

Every singer releasing an album in the near future would take a heavy hit!

“Mr. Wu, what do you think… should I post a clarification? Or…” An Menglan asked, her voice tight with anxiety.

Wu Chen could sense her panic.

Normally, a female singer targeted by a rumor like this ought to be furious!

But An Menglan wasn’t especially angry. She was far more anxious and uneasy. Naturally, that was because she and Wu Chen really did have something going on! It just wasn’t what the post claimed!

“The company’s surrounded by reporters now, and more keep showing up, all waiting for me to come out. And so many people are calling to ask…” An Menglan went on before Wu Chen could say anything.

Wu Chen could feel her panic.

To her, being “slandered” was now the least of her problems!

What she was most afraid of was that now this had happened, people would start digging into her. And if they really did uncover something between her and Wu Chen, what was she supposed to do?

Go kneel and apologize to Li Ruobing?

“Don’t make any statement for now, and don’t let the company make one either.” Wu Chen thought for a moment, then smiled without the faintest trace of panic. “Here’s what you do. I’ll give you two names. Have your bodyguards grab them right away, then have the bodyguards interrogate them…”

“Huh?” An Menglan froze.

“Do you trust me?” Wu Chen asked.

“I do!” she answered at once.

“Then grab them and force it out of them. If they won’t talk, beat them until they do!” Wu Chen said.

“They…” An Menglan’s tone steadied a little. “Who are they?”

“Both work at your company. Chu Jie, an assistant in the Artist Management Department, and Lü Sicheng in Public Relations.”

Both men had been on Wu Chen’s list of suspects after the music leak.

Su Lei, Chu Jie, and Lü Sicheng had all sold major inside information about Menghua Music to outsiders before! Now that this had happened, with Su Lei already caught, whoever had leaked information about Morning Mist had to be one of the other two. No question about it!

Wu Chen was certain that neither Chu Jie nor Lü Sicheng was behind something this big.

It had to be some other major company.

But the post mentioned that Wu Chen had gone to Menghua Music the day before yesterday and that he’d brought his girlfriend, while never giving Morning Mist’s real name or hers.

From that, Wu Chen could easily infer that someone had leaked information about his visit, and that the leaker had to be someone inside the company, though not one of An Menglan’s trusted inner circle.

It couldn’t have been her assistant Liu Jing, for example. Liu Jing knew Morning Mist’s real name was Wu Chen.

However he turned it over, only Chu Jie and Lü Sicheng, two moles with serious track records, would have dared to sell information about him!

And the two of them knew very little about him. They didn’t even know his name or Zhuang Xiaodie’s, so they hadn’t sold anything crucial.

Most likely, after the album exploded across the internet, someone had quietly approached them, and one of the two had “sold” what he knew.

Then that had been spun into a half-true, half-false story and used against An Menglan!

So once they found out who had sold the information, they could follow the trail and eventually reach the real party behind it!

To Wu Chen, it was a minor matter.

Calming the negative press would be simple too.

He had no intention of handling it personally.

“Both of them have sold out Menghua Music before and made money on the side selling information, so don’t go easy on them. Have your bodyguards grab them, lock them in a dark room, and beat them. They’ll get the old stuff out of them for sure, and they’ll find out who sold you out this time too. Leave all of it to your bodyguards. They’ll have their own ways of getting answers. You don’t need to be involved in the process.”

An Menglan listened, utterly dazed.

There were more moles in the company? How did Wu Chen know? Had Peng Wei told him again?

“Any problem?” Wu Chen asked.

“N-no problem,” An Menglan said.

“Then let’s leave it there. Once you’ve got answers, call me back,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“Okay, okay! Oh, right, Mr. Wu, whatever you do, don’t come to the company. There are reporters everywhere outside…”

“Ha. I know.”

The call ended!

Wu Chen set down his phone and turned to look at Zhuang Xiaodie, who was sprawled across his chest, craning her neck to see the tablet.

“Enough looking. Time to get up and get things done.” He pinched her cheek.

They got up.

Washed up.

Didn’t even eat breakfast.

Wu Chen and Zhuang Xiaodie dressed and headed out.

According to plan, Wu Chen would return to Donghai at noon. Before that, there was still one extremely important thing to take care of.

Registering a company!

Wu Chen had Zhuang Xiaodie prepare all the necessary paperwork, and they went to the Administration for Market Regulation. When they arrived, someone was already waiting outside.

Peng Wei!

This had been arranged long ago. Wu Chen had already talked with Peng Wei about coming to Donghai and setting up a company.

Today they were submitting the paperwork and waiting for approval. The company would be jointly funded by Zhuang Xiaodie and Peng Wei, under the name Modu Qianji Investment Co., Ltd.

Zhuang Xiaodie would put in 10,000 yuan and hold ninety-nine percent!

Peng Wei would put in 49.99 million yuan and hold one percent.

Paid-in registered capital: fifty million yuan.

Going purely by contributions and shareholdings, it looked as though Wu Chen was fleecing Peng Wei within an inch of his life. In reality, it was exactly the opposite. Wu Chen genuinely prized Peng Wei, this intelligence kingpin!

They were done at the Administration for Market Regulation before the lunch break.

Afterward, the three of them had lunch together. Over the meal, Peng Wei brought up the online uproar and asked whether Wu Chen wanted him to mobilize paid commenters. Wu Chen said there was no need.

After lunch.

Wu Chen drove Zhuang Xiaodie back to Chenghai Entertainment.

He didn’t even go upstairs.

He was gone!

Back to Donghai!