Chapter 9: Cheng Xiao Xiao, Caught in the Crossfire
[Xiao Chen’s #1 Fan]: @Lazy Xiao Xiao Chen, Author, your photo is all over the internet!!! And there’s an unidentified man with you!
[Master of Chat]: Was just enjoying some online drama, about to laugh, and then—what did I see? I actually saw our incredibly lazy author! In shock…
[I Want First Place]: Shocked +1
[Fruit Tree]: +2
[Procrastinator]: Hahaha, is everyone watching the drama? For a second, I thought I was seeing things. From that angle, the author really does look a lot like Lin Wan.
[Sunshine Beauty]: What the hell is wrong with the person who leaked this? Not only did they post my favorite author’s picture, but they’re using it to slander my Sister Wan! This is intolerable!!!
[Simply Charming]: To be honest, something about this drama feels off… It doesn’t seem like entertainment news, more like… business competition?
[Girl Who Loves to Laugh]: Exactly! A bunch of people online are saying the author is Lin Wan and are accusing Lin Wan of cheating on her husband with some unknown tycoon. It’s obviously a smear campaign! I just saw another reply digging into the male lead; apparently, he’s the boss of some pig farming company, worth hundreds of millions. A bunch of people underneath are saying things like he has strange tastes and his fortune must be dirty.
[I’m Going to Be Famous]: I saw that post digging into the male lead too! Has business competition really become this… shameless? They’re even using entertainment news to get attention?
[Simply Charming]: The entertainment industry is a murky business, better to just watch from the sidelines. But speaking of which, aren’t you guys curious why our author was photographed with a rich tycoon? And on a “secret rendezvous,” no less?
[I Love Xiao Chen]: Whoa! Now that you mention it—could that man be the author’s boyfriend? Has our eternally single author finally found someone? @Lazy Xiao Xiao Chen, Author, your way of announcing this to your fans is a bit… unique!
[Prettiest of All]: What’s happening? How did I come online to news of our author getting a boyfriend?!
[I’m Going to Be Famous]: With such explosive news, our author is really keeping her cool. Not even a peep out of her!
[Xiao Chen’s #1 Fan]: To the sister upstairs, you don’t know our author at all. She’s definitely lurking and reading everything right now! She probably figured we guessed the key information, so she’s decided to play dead!
Cheng Xiao Xiao, who was indeed “lurking,” looked up at the ceiling, speechless. The comment hit a little too close to home. She had intended to go on a certain platform to see what was going on, but she was dragged away by a frantic colleague to discuss a new project. By the time the discussion was over, it was nearly dark, and the online comments had already exploded into a full-blown war. What was even more exasperating was that her own fans, whom she had always considered rational and calm, had also rolled up their sleeves and jumped into the fray.
After reading through everything, Cheng Xiao Xiao finally understood the whole story.
Earlier in the afternoon, someone had released a few photos, claiming that the actress Song Jie seemed unaffected by her recent scandals and was now suspected of latching onto another young tycoon. The photos were a bit blurry, but that didn’t stop netizens from feasting on the gossip. This kind of news naturally generated a lot of heat, and the number of comments and shares was staggering.
Then, three hours later, the same account released a dozen more photos. This time, the pictures of Song Jie were very clear, and even the male tycoon’s side profile was visible. Netizens might not have recognized him, but Cheng Xiao Xiao certainly did. It was none other than Lu Xiao Shan.
After that, the photos of Cheng Xiao Xiao, the innocent bystander, from her blind date with Lu Xiao Shan were released. There were two front-facing shots of her, while all the pictures of Lu Xiao Shan were from the back. The photos were likely taken from a distance and partially obscured by tree branches, so they weren’t very clear. The leaker even “kindly” added an explanation: The tycoon seen with actress Song seems to also have a close relationship with an actress surnamed Lin. The two spent a long time together in a room during the New Year, their behavior intimate, tsk tsk tsk…
This series of moves was a masterstroke in attracting attention. The hype grew with each wave, and Lu Xiao Shan was also thoroughly investigated from various angles. Of course, whether intentionally or not, while there were several pieces of information about Lu Xiao Shan, they were a mix of truth and falsehood and couldn’t be taken as fact. The few slightly more credible “speculations” never made it to the top comments.
With a clear photo of her released, Song Jie obviously couldn’t deny it. She issued a public response, first lamenting her recent ordeal and then clarifying that the photos were from a simple gathering of friends. She said she hadn’t expected her “scandals” to drag her friends into the mess and felt terribly sorry, asking everyone to stop the baseless speculation.
In short, she wrote a long, heartfelt statement that moved many of her loyal fans, who began to express their sympathy in the comments. Of course, there was also a large crowd of disdainful and mocking drama-watchers. The two camps argued heatedly.
In contrast, the response from the other actress dragged into the vortex, Lin Wan, was much simpler. It was just one sentence: Not me, don’t know him, please enjoy the drama rationally!
Lin Wan’s fans were much like her, very straightforward. They picked a few highly shared and liked comments and replied with facts and reason, rationally explaining that the person in the photo was not their Sister Wan. Of course, the majority of her fans’ replies were a uniform “Hands off Sister Wan, we’re not interested!”
With both actresses stepping in to debunk the rumors, one would think the hype would gradually die down. But the netizens were clearly not convinced.
The public’s reaction to Lin Wan was relatively mild. The photo was blurry to begin with, and she had always had a very good reputation with the general public. Her fans’ behavior was, on the whole, very rational. So, after a period of wild speculation, public opinion quickly returned to normal. The occasional troll account spewing filth here and there didn’t make much of a splash.
But the situation with Song Jie was completely different. Her fans first got into a massive argument with the drama-watching netizens. Many netizens were disgusted by Song Jie’s behavior of being a mistress to a rich man, and some insinuated that she was shameless. As the argument intensified, someone in the middle of it all said, “She already said it was a gathering of friends. Are you guys blind or something? You insist she’s a gold digger! Why don’t you talk about the other one in the photo?”
Lin Wan’s fans pretended not to see this reply and automatically distanced their idol from the situation. But the attention of some netizens was clearly diverted. The more rational ones, thanks to the precise analysis from Lin Wan’s fans, had basically confirmed that the person in the photo was not Lin Wan and began to speculate on the identity of the other woman.
After a round of speculation, someone with impressive resources naturally dug up Cheng Xiao Xiao. As a part-time writer, she had just held a book signing on New Year’s Day and had the “honor” of being featured in a newspaper, leaving a slight impression on a small circle of people. More importantly, the movie adapted from her second-to-last novel had premiered on the same day, and coincidentally, Lin Wan was the female lead. Cheng Xiao Xiao hadn’t gone on stage during the premiere, but she had taken a photo with Lin Wan in the audience.
And now, she had been exposed.
This was perfect. Seeing that they had successfully diverted the attention, Song Jie’s fans concentrated their firepower and started to control the narrative. They didn’t dare to go head-to-head with Lin Wan’s fans and the vast number of drama-watchers, but they certainly weren’t afraid to take on Cheng Xiao Xiao’s fan base, which at first glance seemed too small to make any waves.
And so, Cheng Xiao Xiao was innocently caught in the crossfire. A large group of people flooded her personal homepage, browsed around, and began leaving comments on their own accord. Some were netizens who only knew half the story and started mocking her. A considerable number were Song Jie’s fans, steering the narrative. Sprinkled in between were a few replies from Lin Wan’s fans speaking up for her, but they were all drowned out by the angry mob.
As the person involved, Cheng Xiao Xiao rarely used that particular platform, so her personal homepage had very little information about her. Her most recent post was from six months ago, a repost of a movie promotion. As a result, the netizens who had been swept up in the frenzy had a very limited understanding of her identity. The vast majority thought Cheng Xiao Xiao was some internet celebrity or fan trying to ride Lin Wan’s coattails. A few netizens who knew a bit more tried to “educate” the crowd, but they were all drowned out by the sarcastic remarks from Song Jie’s fans.
Cheng Xiao Xiao didn’t feel particularly angry. After all, she had been busy with work when the criticism was at its peak and hadn’t paid any attention. The key issue was that her readers, who had been quietly watching the drama unfold from the sidelines, couldn’t sit still any longer. They were a group of people who had been through countless online battles, had seen it all, and were now rational and calm enough to observe a flame war from a distance. But the other side was simply too outrageous. They endured it, again and again. Until they could endure it no more. In the end, the young ladies in the fan group all rolled up their sleeves and joined the fight.
It was one thing when the readers were just watching the drama. But when they entered the fray, it was like pouring a basin of water into a wok of boiling oil. Public opinion instantly exploded once more.
Due to the genre of her novels, Cheng Xiao Xiao’s readers were mostly mystery lovers, each one practically “uniquely skilled.” Their ability to analyze, separate fact from fiction, and reason logically was no joke. In minutes, they could deduce all the possible backgrounds and story origins that the photos didn’t show, all with sound reasoning and self-consistent logic that left no room for rebuttal. They also took the opportunity to “teach” Song Jie’s fans how to prove their idol’s innocence with high quality, high standards, and high efficiency.
Of course, the reader ladies didn’t forget to respond to the disdainful sarcasm from Song Jie’s fans about their favorite author. At a time like this, mere words had no persuasive power. They directly presented their author’s graduation photos, portfolio, copyright information, encyclopedia biography, author income rankings, and photos with various “big shots” as powerful evidence.
You say my author is overestimating herself by being a mistress to a rich man? Do you dare to show off your idol’s family background? My author’s circle is on a completely different level from your idol’s! Being a mistress? That’s a joke!
And for good measure, the readers all tagged a certain group’s official Weibo account. Their favorite author had been so innocently dragged into this, and yet one of the parties involved, the certain tycoon, remained silent. This was even more infuriating!
They also discussed privately in their group that they knew what kind of person their author was. Being a mistress or a gold digger was impossible. But being a poor judge of character was another matter. When it came to matters of the heart, women tended to lose their rationality. If their author had really been deceived, they had to make her see the truth and wake her up.
o(╯□╰)o Do I look like the kind of person who’s easily deceived?
Having watched the entire spectacle, Cheng Xiao Xiao sighed with melancholy and helplessness. She was at a loss for words. It took her a long while to compose herself before she weakly replied in the group with a “…”
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