Chapter 177: Another Essay Surfaces!

The second piece of news concerning him was a media exposé by Xie Yiyan from Galaxy Entertainment, claiming that he had been assaulted and threatened by Lin Fan. The report also included a video of Xie Yiyan receiving medical treatment and giving an interview.

Far more critical than this, however, was the news regarding Lin Mu.

The whistleblower behind that story had penned a lengthy piece stretching nearly threeopedic-scale words.

First, it painted Lin Mu as aloof, arrogant, looking down on her classmates, and feeling entitled to high-end treatment simply because she fancied herself a celestial beauty. Next came all sorts of speculations and sensational claims about the relationship between Lin Mu and Lin Fan, culminating in photographs of the two shopping together.

By this time, Zhou Jiayi and Su Yanmo had also seen the push notifications.

However, the two of them had only come across the headline stating ‘Starlight Live Shareholder Lin Fan Assaults Galaxy Entertainment General Manager’; they missed the one about Lin Mu.

This was because they rarely paid attention to entertainment gossip.

Yet, once they opened their news applications, they quickly discovered the reports linking him to Lin Mu.

Almost simultaneously, Lin Fan’s phone began buzzing with messages from Zhang Yi and others.

Zhang Yi: Lin Fan, you’re in the news again? This looks like a massive smear campaign, complete with a hit piece!

Gu Qingcheng: Wow, President Lin, aren’t you generous? Splurging a whopping eight hundred million to buy a luxury mansion for Lin Mu! Sigh, I’m so jealous. President Lin, you haven’t come to visit me in ages.

Zhang Yichen: Big Brother Lin Fan, it turns out Lin Mu was your favorite all along!

Qiao Xinxin: Tsk tsk, hooking up with Lin Mu so quickly; you move fast, and you sure throw your money around generously.

Li Li: Lin Fan, I saw the news. What on earth is going on? How did another scandal break out? Hurry up and figure out a public relations strategy.

In just ten short minutes, Lin Fan received messages from numerous people, all demanding to know how he had managed to stir up such a massive commotion.

And of course, there was Lin Mu.

Lin Mu was even more direct, demanding that he immediately find a way to issue a clarification, handle the PR, and expose Xie Yiyan’s true colors.

“It’s already trending on the hot searches. Several news apps are pushing updates about you. It looks like someone is manipulating public opinion behind the scenes.”

Su Yanmo turned off her phone and glared at Lin Fan with a displeased expression.

Ever since arriving in Modu yesterday, she had known about Lin Fan spending eight hundred million to buy a manor for Lin Mu.

She had not expected, however, that someone with malicious intent would expose it publicly today.

She immediately guessed that Wang Minglou and Young Master Tang might be behind this.

“What should we do next?”

Lin Fan looked up, panic etched across his face, and turned to the two of them for help.

This time, he was genuinely terrified.

When Chen Wei had given him trouble last time, he hadn’t panicked at all; after all, Chen Wei operated alone and lacked intelligence, making that incident easy to spin around through public relations.

This time, however, was different.

Not only had his identity been exposed, but Lin Mu had also been dragged into the mess. People around him had quickly caught wind of it and bombarded him with messages, clearly indicating that a massive wave of paid internet trolls had flooded the live-streaming rooms of female anchors under Starlight Live to stir up trouble.

Because they had been busy discussing matters and having a meal earlier, they hadn’t paid attention to the news alerts.

It was only after finishing dinner that they discovered the situation had already hit the trending searches.

Lin Fan looked anxiously at Su Yanmo, while Zhou Jiayi remained composed. Public relations was not his strong suit, so he also wanted to hear his ex-girlfriend’s opinion.

Yet Su Yanmo shot Lin Fan a look of utter disgust.

“I really don’t get you. Can’t you keep a low profile? Why did you have to go and provoke those good-for-nothing scions? With backlash this severe, it’s not something that can be resolved in a few days. One wrong move, and a young woman’s reputation could be completely ruined!”

Of course Su Yanmo believed that he and Lin Mu were innocent, but now that the news was out, internet gossips and hired trolls would undoubtedly go crazy, flooding Starlight Live’s channels to manipulate public sentiment and subject him and Lin Mu to cyberbullying.

“Can you blame me? Who asked them to provoke me in the first place? The people I deal with are scions by nature. After all, in the circle of second-generation elites, wealthy heirs like the two of you are a rare minority; most of them are arrogant, self-righteous punks.”

Lin Fan naturally had to shift the blame onto Tang Shengwei and Wang Minglou.

He truly couldn’t be blamed for this; he had already kept a low profile enough.

If he were a prominent, powerful figure of high status like Young Master Zhou, Wang Minglou and his companion would never have dared to offend him.

Instead, he possessed an ordinary appearance, looking like an honest man destined to be taken advantage of, resting at the very bottom of the contempt chain. Once targeted by the other party, offending them to some extent was inevitable.

Such was the helplessness of an ordinary mortal!

This was precisely why he had to desperately strive to become a man above men!

Su Yanmo fell silent for a moment before looking up at Zhou Jiayi.

“If this matter was orchestrated by Young Master Tang, we’ll probably have to approach the head of the Tang family to get it suppressed. If Wang Minglou is pulling all the strings behind the scenes on his own, things might get a bit troublesome. Chances are, he might not even be in Modu anymore...”

“I get what you mean. However, I doubt Tang Shengwei is the mastermind. Although Galaxy Entertainment has shares from the Tang family, they aren’t the majority stakeholder. The real boss behind Galaxy Entertainment is the Yang family, one of the financial conglomerates in the Jiangnan region, and they are on the same level of influence as the Tang family...”

With that, he detailed the background of the Yang family.

The Yang family was a top-tier aristocratic family in the Jiangnan region, standing on equal footing with the Wang family of Hangzhou and the Tang family of Modu. Naturally, they fell far short when compared to the Zhou family.

The Yang family dealt in military supplies and apparel, and their background was even deeper than that of the Tang family. Yang Qianfan, the second young master of the Yang family, was the major shareholder and chairman of Galaxy Entertainment. His personality mirrored that of Wang Minglou—he loved playing around with female entertainers, and scandals like Galaxy Entertainment's shady practices and yin-yang contracts were all his handiwork.

Lin Fan had not expected this affair to drag yet another top-tier family into the fray; the web of power hidden beneath the surface truly was intricate and convoluted.

Still, one thing was certain: Tang Shengwei had most likely instigated Yang Qianfan, the second young master of the Yang family, to exact revenge on Lin Fan.

“I’ll go pay a visit to the Yang family... But things have reached this point; even if the Yang family suppresses the trending topics, your Starlight Entertainment’s stock price will still take a hit. They want you to taste the agony of being crushed by capital as well.”

Having said that, Zhou Jiayi stood up, ready to take action.

“I have an idea... In a moment, I’ll have Junting Real Estate issue a statement declaring that Villa Number 18 was purchased by you for filming purposes and was not a gift to Lin Mu. That should help de-escalate the public backlash. Right now, there are plenty of people harboring resentment against the wealthy, so you cannot admit that you bought the manor; just claim it was rented for a production.”

Zhou Jiayi suddenly remembered something and added a few more sentences.

“That’s a brilliant idea!”

Su Yanmo looked up in approval.

“Thank you...”

Zhou Jiayi smiled faintly and nodded in acknowledgment.

“Hey, could the two of you stop flirting and gazing at each other lovingly? Hurry up and figure out how I should respond. The brunt of the public anger is currently directed at me!”

Driven to jealousy by the way the two of them were exchanging loving glances, Lin Fan scratched his head in frustration and urged them on.

Su Yanmo rolled her eyes in exasperation and lectured him once more: “I told you to keep a low profile, but you just had to sow wild oats and flirt around. Now that it’s blown up into such a massive scandal with widespread impact, it’s going to cost money to smooth things over.”

“I’ll spend whatever it takes! We need to find a way to stop this trending topic from escalating further. Even if it means resorting to physical force, I’m willing to handle it myself.”

Panicking, Lin Fan wiped away a cold sweat.

This time, he was genuinely scared.