Chapter 233: Losing Fans
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
On November 24th, at 12:00 pm, the hashtag #ParkJaeHyeGets.h.i.+t became a trending topic on Weibo.
Clicking into the header, it was full of content regarding Park Jae Hye being hit by someone in Shanghai. There was one video that had been circulated the most.
The video showed Park Jae Hye receiving a welcome from his fans at first, a bright and warm smile on his face, while his fans were screaming and shouting in adoration. It was a peaceful scene.
Immediately following, a tall shadow appeared in the field of vision and flew towards him, and in an American wrestling fas.h.i.+on, slammed his bodyguards to the ground. The scene was epic. Then, this person approached a horrified Park Jae Hye, grabbed his collar, and swiftly gave him a crisp and clean slap to the face!
Then it wasn"t just video as it included some screenshots. There were some terrified fans present, bodyguards lying on the ground, and Park Jae Hye sitting on the ground. There was a photo of the beaten Park Jae Hye, and of course, a photo of his attacker, with a fierce look on his face.
This video had been shared and commented on numerous times already.
"F*ck, this is too hars.h.!.+"
"Humanoid tank!"
"Watching this hurts!"
"Triple kill! He"s too scary!"
"K-pop idol? Aren"t they banned? Why is one in the mainland?"
"What, are people not allowed to be tourists now? Haha!"
"There have been a few K-pop stars here lately though."
"Ah, they"re here to rake in money again!"
"What year is it and we"re still chasing Korean stars?! Is Liu Hao Ran not hot enough, or is that kid with four letters in his name not good enough for you?!"
"Yeah! There are so many talented idols in the country!"
"Korean idol got hit? Aren"t they usually the ones who do the hitting? Why is it reversed?!"
"The earth turns, and K-pop stars get hit too!"
"Hitting people is wrong! But I couldn"t help but laugh!"
"This Park Jae Hye had hit one of his fans five or six years ago in Shanghai, this is his own fault!"
"F*ck he was still hit by someone, don"t you guys have some compa.s.sion?! Don"t comment, just like the video!"
"Hitting people! This is against the law! The attacker must be severely punished!"
"These comments are really heartbreaking, this is such a tragic incident, yet so many people are applauding it!"
"Reject violence!"
"Justice for Park Jae Hye!"
"Please put the perpetrator in his place!"
"He"s so rough too, he"s definitely a bad guy!"
"Give us Hyemies an explanation!"
Comments and the discussion forums were not as one-sided as one would have expected. Maybe it was because there was too much negative news of Korean idols. .h.i.tting their fans that lead to the polarization of the comment section.
Soon, the ident.i.ty of the perpetrator was excavated. Technically speaking, he was recognized.
Meng Fan had made the front page a few times, and it happened again today. It wasn"t the kind of front page that everyone knew about, but because of his presence, and his appearance, most people remembered him after seeing him or felt familiarity at least. In addition to the 11/11 gala being only a few days ago, many people still had that dreamlike sand art performance ingrained in their minds.
Besides, Meng Fan had a large amount of viewers on his stream, and there were bound to be some of them who browsed the front page and recognized him from the article.
Huh? The attacker was sort of famous.
The news regarding Meng Fan spread quickly among the discussion panels.
Now, the front page was even rowdier!
"F*ck! Isn"t this Meng fatty? He"s a tank!"
"Meng Fan"s nickname is Iron hero, this time, it"s proven!"
"Don"t you guys know the iron hero crushed a thief by just sitting on him?!"
"I also heard he crushed a pervert as well!"
"Too bad Meng fatty didn"t crush this guy with his weight!"
"Meng host is so cheerful and gentle most days, how could he be so violent?!"
"Do you guys think that Meng host only hit this Kpop star once? You guys don"t understand his hand speed. It might look like once, but he probably hit him a hundred times!"
"These three are no match for Meng boss!"
"They were struck so fast their legs went soft and they couldn"t stand!"
"Meng boss do you have to be this bada.s.s? You just sold your commercial to make the front page, and now you"re on the front page again for hitting someone. You"ve been on trending twice today, it seems like you"re going to be famous!"
"Are you sc.u.mbags not worried about something happening to Meng fatty?"
"Who needs to worry about Meng Fan when he"s this kind of player?! Just wait, there might be even bigger news!"
"An internet star beat up a K-pop idol? This is juicy!"
"This clip was obviously edited, if you have real b.a.l.l.s, post the full video!"
"Does anyone know why he hit him?"
"The person who posted the video should give us a clear explanation! This kind of one-sidedness is no fun!"
"There isn"t even a description of its whereabouts. Guys, don"t be so easily persuaded!"
"Indeed! There are so many conflicts of people hitting pregnant women that were turned around, nonetheless an internet star hitting a celebrity! Just be patient and wait for the tea to spill!"
"Gossipers don"t take sides, we just wait for updates!"
Park Jae Hye"s team noticed something was wrong when Jiang Chen left and did not return. They had secretly left the studio and returned to the hotel, begging their various sequences of contact and operations.
After discovering that they had made the front page on Weibo, the team turned into wax. Because of the current environment, plus Park Jae Hye"s reputation for hitting someone in Shanghai five years ago, they were very unwilling for the matter to go public.
There"s no benefit at all!
They did some research and asked around, discovering that it had been a fan who had edited a clip and uploaded themselves. They even paid for the news to be on the front page and even said they had done it to help clear Park Jae Hye"s name. They were furious.
Useless teammate!
They called the organization responsible for the fan club and unleashed a chain of scolding, then warned them sternly not to release any more photos or videos. They even asked for the video clips to be sent over for unified management.
Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen, who had received Jiang Chen"s news that Park Jae Hye"s team weren"t willing to formally apologize began their operations as soon as they saw his team"s suicidal attempt at making the front page.
Jiang Chen was called to meet Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen before even seeing Park Jae Hye. After hearing of the truth behind the incident and realizing which side these two female superstars were on, and based on his existing knowledge of Park Jae Hye"s personality, he knew that the fan had been hit, and immediately betrayed the company, giving them all the information required.
Additionally, sister Sun not only sent someone to protect the beaten fan but also sent a person to pay attention to the person on site that was trying to make a profit off the fan club.
Evidence. They had all they needed!
"Don"t worry, everything is within our control. We will film the MV and watch the play unfold!"
Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen both harbored a very positive att.i.tude towards this event. Meng Fan wasn"t worried to begin since he trusted them and knew that he would be okay if he left it to them. He began to fully focus on filming the MV.
Meng Fan also had a lot of evidence, but hearing sister Sun had already obtained a source, he kept his silence.
At around 3:00 pm, reasons behind Meng Fan"s violence began to emerge on the internet. Meng Fan"s girlfriend liked Park Jae Hye too much and he"d acted out of jealousy, or he had acted because Park Jae Hye was in his way, he just didn"t like the way Park Jae Hye looked, or Park Jae Hye killed a character he loved in a TV show, Park Jae Hye got in an argument with him during dinner the night before, Park Jae Hye privately dissed Su Qing Cen and Meng Fan heard…
In short, all kinds of strange and weird causes to stand the scrutiny. The more these conspiracies surfaced, the more people wanted the truth.
At around 8:00 pm, the news that Park Jae Hye was beaten was still circulating on the internet, while the controversy continued to brew into full swing.
This was naturally the work of Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen"s team. They wanted to blow the whole situation up, then destroy Park Jae Hye with cold hard evidence so that he would be ruined in the mainland and foreign countries as well.
He hit his own fan, refused to apologize, and want it to blow over?
No f*cking way!
It was not an overstatement when they had said he would never walk in mainland or easily return to his home country ever again!
Of course, their focus was still to keep Meng Fan from harm. They wanted for Meng Fan to be unharmed, and retreat from the incident with his reputation, so all they could do was hammer Park Jae Hye into his grave.
At around 9:00 pm, Meng Fan had finished filming the first take of his sand art for both MVs. The group happily went off to eat hotpot.
By noon the next day, the incident had been blown up everywhere, domestic and international.
When Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen were about to finish their MV recording at 3:00 pm, things took an unexpected turn for them, and Meng Fan as well.
A user who claimed to be a witness at the scene posted a thread on Weibo: "I began to like you seven years ago, I liked your voice, your smile, your figure, your cheekiness, the way you scratch your head when you"re shy… I liked your perseverance to spend an extra hour at the gym when you ate an extra slice of cake… I liked everything about you!
Because I like you, I could forgive you leaving the group, forgive all your negative news, forgive you cheating on your girlfriend and blaming it on her, and forgive you for dissing all your oppas…
But I can"t forgive you for hitting your fans, and even more so lying about it in front of us, your fans, and asking us to lie about it for you! Six years ago, the media reported you hitting your fan, but I didn"t believe it. However, yesterday I saw it with my own eyes!
Last night, me and a few other friends didn"t sleep at all. We could see the doubt in each other"s eyes, all questioning if it was worth continuing the charade! It seems that we have an answer after so much doubt!
When I liked you, I will rush to the front line, point my gun at someone else and protect you with my life. But reality proved that I"ve been deceived by your facade and your lies. You"re a sc.u.m! So I have no hesitation in turning and pointing my gun against you. I"m so close to you, my lethality should be pretty great, isn"t it Park Jae Hye?!"
A video was posted below the post, around seven minutes long.
It depicted the event from the beginning, with fans that greeted him. Very clearly, it depicted a fan who had accidentally been pushed and b.u.mped into Park Jae Hye by accident and pulled on him to prevent herself from falling. Park Jae Hye could be seen with an angry expression as he raised his hand and slapped her across the face, even pus.h.i.+ng her onto the ground. Immediately following were his two bodyguards, beating the girl with their arms and legs.
When the crowd dispersed, the bodyguards stopped as well and turned to leave when Meng Fan charged into the scene, knocking the bodyguards down and slapping Park Jae Hye harshly across the face…
The entire process had been filmed, including Park Jae Hye"s futility, asking the fans to lie for him, his conversation, and Meng Fan"s statement, "How beautiful it is to pursue an idol, yet look at you bunch, you"re disgusting." As well as the footage of the fan who got hit being helped by Meng Fan, and her statement proceeding it. It even caught the handprint on her face and the footprints on her clothes!
Encompa.s.sed in one shot, everything became clear!