Rise and Slay: From Scandal Queen to Academic Genius - Chapter 232 - 213: Did She Really Pay?

Chapter 232: Chapter 213: Did She Really Pay?

Hangxing Entertainment’s top-floor office.

President Huang sat with his legs crossed, video-calling Ji Fengyuan from afar.

Ji Fengyuan’s mood was clearly not great, “Don’t tell me, is this what you’re planning to bring out? Ha, you and I both watched Ji Xizhi reach this point, do you really think this kind of scandal can bring her down?”

President Huang: “Of course, it’s not just these, Mr. Ji, some things need to be done gradually. Like you said, Ji Xizhi has so many fans now, it’s not easy to bring her down. You’ve got to let me set the stage, right?”

President Huang slightly lowered his head to glance at the pre-booked flight on his phone, a smile on his face: “Mr. Ji, everything is under my control. You’re someone from the entertainment industry, I trust you understand better than I do how to completely tear apart Ji Xizhi’s persona.”

President Huang exuded confidence.

Ji Fengyuan watched the direction of the trending topics but always felt a vague sense of unease.

–

On the trending topics, Director Wan’s unique connection to Ji Xizhi was still hanging there.

The water army seemed to have found a unified direction, digging into how Ji Xizhi was favored by Lishui County villagers as a persona deliberately arranged by the program team.

Some even believed that the Ping’an Village factory incident was all pre-planned, heavily invested in advance.

All the public opinion was leaning towards crafting Ji Xizhi’s persona. This issue wasn’t too big or too small. On screen, creating a persona for oneself was quite normal.

President Huang hadn’t planned to bring Ji Xizhi down with this incident, he just wanted to leave a crack in everyone’s mind with it.

So that when he plays his trump card, it can tear everything apart.

[After all, it’s in a remote village, spend a little money, put on a show, getting the group favorite persona seems too easy~]

[These past two seasons, exactly, even though we’re the top in our school, we never got this kind of treatment!]

[Selective blindness? Ji Xizhi has been on so many shows, why not just say the entire entertainment circle is bribed by Ji Xizhi?]

Discussions on Weibo grew more and more.

Xiao Yuan got increasingly angry, when it was first about improper relationships, she could barely hold back from going online to diss them. Now they’re saying that Zhi Zhi being a group favorite is fake, bought with money.

Xiao Yuan was almost at the point of exploding, foul words on the tip of her tongue, but then she glanced at Ji Xizhi and the thick two volumes of books by her side, the Criminal Code, the Civil Code.

She calmed down again.

Beside her, Ji Xizhi, like Xiao Yuan, was scrolling through the trending topics on Weibo one by one.

The following accounts were making random speculations, and there were more and more guided comments.

But there wasn’t the slightest hint of anger on Ji Xizhi’s face; instead, there was a faint glint of excitement in her eyes, just like the look she had when directors provided her with literature and various books.

Xiao Yuan: “?”

Ji Xizhi carefully finished reading the trending topics, occasionally taking screenshots and notes. When she was nearly done, she slowly got up from the desk, spiritedly announcing:

“I think I’ve found the direction for my new paper topic.”

Xiao Yuan: “???”

What on earth?

Ji Xizhi wore a relaxed smile, her eyes seemed to spark with light.

She didn’t explain much to Xiao Yuan, only saying, “Xiao Yuan, finish the summary plan and go to sleep first, my bedtime tonight will be delayed.”

After speaking, Ji Xizhi checked the time, figuring it probably wasn’t Jiang Qianli’s bedtime yet, so she made a call and started an enthusiastic discussion right then and there.

“Teacher, using myself as an example, I’ve documented all the cases of online defamation during this period… the controversies related to online defamation…”

Xiao Yuan was dumbfounded: Ababa.jpg

Earlier, she was still angry over the various rumors on Weibo,

now, as she listened to Ji Xizhi and Jiang Qianli’s conversation, her anger seemed to vanish, leaving only a sense of daze and numbness.

She thought that having been Ji Xizhi’s assistant for so long, she should’ve gotten used to all of Ji Xizhi’s behaviors.

In such situations, where an artist is falsely accused by the water army, any other artist, maybe even a layperson, wouldn’t get a peaceful night’s sleep, but only Ji Xizhi…

Oh, Ji Xizhi didn’t sleep tonight either.

But the reason she stayed up isn’t because she was unrestful!

She was simply excited!

Xiao Yuan’s early morning to late-night studying routine made her feel like she was in a learning state.

Until tonight, she finally realized.

Entering a learning state? She was just at the basic entry, and beyond that, there were still twists and turns like an eighteen-bend mountain road.

Genius to the left, madness to the right, truly nothing can deceive.

To become a god, one must first go mad.

Xiao Yuan stiffly turned around, buried her head, returned to her room, and started going mad.

–

The trending topic of Ji Xizhi and Director Wan hung on Weibo all night.

Ji Xizhi didn’t care, neither did Xiao Yuan. The best public relations time had passed, yet there was no response from Ji Xizhi’s side.

It was Director Wang who eventually couldn’t stand it and came out, using his personal Weibo account, to reprimand those leading the narrative.

Director Wang: What a load of nonsense! If there was such a way of buying influence, I’d be the first to buy in! Would it still be Ji in my show being so arrogant, would I still have to suffer this hardship?

Seeing this Weibo post, Director Xu next door, highly empathetic, quickly reposted it.

//Repost Director Xu: If there’s such a good deal, teach me, please. I could risk it and invite Ji Xizhi for another episode!

The square dancing CP collaboration was a hard-hitting rumor refutation.

Amusing as it was, there were still some who weren’t convinced.

For directors of the program group to speak for Ji Xizhi was normal, as they could be considered a community of interests.

It wasn’t until in the poverty alleviation and ecommerce livestream room of Lishui County, where Director Wan and other village directors appeared.

The Lishui County livestream room had very little traffic and was quite niche, only gaining some popularity recently because “Life Experience” aired, featuring Lishui County’s speciality products, which spurred some purchasing power, leading to increased traffic in the livestream room.

Director Wan was spotted as soon as he entered the frame.

[Is the person himself here to refute the rumors? I don’t believe it without solid evidence!]

[Here are the GIF evidence, it’s either a monetary relationship or another kind of relationship…]

[Setting up a persona in a variety show is quite normal, but Ji Xizhi’s is really too much, take it easy, seriously!]

Before Director Wan could even open his mouth, the livestream comments had already shut down the conversation.

Director Wan watched, his old face turning purple with anger.

“I’ve lived to this old age and didn’t know the internet could be this full of nonsense. How old am I, and how old is Ji Xizhi? Just by moving their lips, they want to drive the young girl to the ground?”

“And these so-called relationships, I’m telling you right here, Ji Xizhi has indeed given us money, she indeed gave money to several villages in our county!”

Director Wan, furious, dug into his pocket and, after quite some time, pulled out a remittance receipt.

On it, it clearly showed that Ji Xizhi had indeed sent a large sum of money over some time ago.

[Damn, she really gave money?]

Before the water army could unite their rhetoric,

Director Wan then pulled out another detailed list.

On it clearly showed the price and quantity list for purchasing the village broadcast system.