Chapter 1043: Turn of the Tide!
News about Gu Mang being Dark quickly spread around the internet.
Many leading and supporting actors and actresses, who had won various awards because of Dark"s extremely high IP value and works, even commented on Gu Mang"s Weibo page.
Three search terms immediately trended on Weibo with the glaring red word "hot." Never had such a situation happened before, and it set the internet ablaze.
It was just a moment ago that someone commented asking Dark"s fans to get him crawl out of his coffin to cast his vote, but in the next second, Gu Mang published her post saying that she had crawled out of her coffin. It was obvious that she wanted to openly prove some people wrong.
[Hahahaha. That was awesome, G.o.d D! Don"t spoil those idiots!]
[GM"s thoughts: Your daddy is here. LMAO]
Capital University was bubbling with excitement as well. Even though it was past noon, there were still a lot of people in the school. Students were currently looking dumbly at Gu Mang, who was standing in an extremely conspicuous position of Welcome Avenue, while holding their phones. They were no longer surprised by the ident.i.ties Gu Mang revealed. Instead, they felt utterly depressed.
Being able to study at Capital University, the students were geniuses themselves as well as the future pillars of the country. But they were all bested by the all-rounder Gu Mang. With such a capable student in their midst, they couldn"t help but reflect on their lives with doubt and despair.
Meanwhile, on Weibo.
[G.o.d D reveals her ident.i.ty! G.o.d D is back! Our Jiang Zhao won"t be ruined!]
[G.o.d D is the first author to ever stand up to protect his character. I swear, I love this woman! But is it too late? The production team has already made the official announcement…]
[There are shows that cannot be released even though they have finished shooting it. An official announcement is not a big deal in comparison.]
[I hope G.o.d D is able to win against the capitalist. After all, Eastern Brilliance makes up half of the entertainment industry with their strong financial power and huge influence. I heard that Jiang Shenyuan and his team are his legal advisors. No matter what, G.o.d D is just a small author.]
[What a joke. Regardless of whether GM is Dark or not, do the fans really think that Dark is so influential? So what if she"s not dead? I doubt she dares to go up against Eastern Brilliance with that bit of background of hers. All it takes is just a word for Eastern Brilliance to ban her from the industry!]
[Exactly, those rich people help each other out. Dark is just a mere employee. Even if she has a bit of a.s.set, they can"t be compared to that of Eastern Brilliance! Money is nothing in front of absolute power!]
Qin Yaozhi, who kept looking at the new comments, burst into an angry laugh when she read these comments. She tutted, "Sis Mang, here comes another batch of bullies."
She could vividly remember the time when her brother told her about how Gu Mang had given him a lesson. "Qin Rui, do I have to teach you about abuses of power?" There are still people out there who are trying to bully Sis Mang with their powers? Are they tired of living? All we want is just for Zhao Xinran to leave the production team, but her fans are practically doing her in!
Gu Mang c.o.c.ked her eyebrows. "Aren"t you hungry? Let"s go eat."
"Alright, let"s go eat first! We can"t starve the baby!" Tang Xiaoxiao rushed up and hooked her arms around Gu Mang"s. "Daddy, can you give your autograph?"
The group proceeded to head to World Restaurant. As they walked, Qin Yaozhi and the others looked at their phones to read the comments on Weibo.
["The Black Sea" was sold to Eastern Brilliance long ago. Even if the Eastern Brilliance"s CEO wants to use this work to groom his own daughter, isn"t it unbecoming for Dark to oppose this decision?!]
[That"s right! She just wants to seize the chance to get more money from Eastern Brilliance!]
[Shame on you! If Eastern Brilliance wasn"t such a big production company, there"s no way "The Black Sea" would become so popular. Don"t you know it yourself?]
[That"s bull! Don"t show off if you"re ignorant! Go find out how popular "The Black Sea" is!]
[Dark sold millions of his physical books in just one hour and five million of them in 24 hours! Her books have been translated into many languages and have sold 20 million copies worldwide so far! That"s how capable your daddy is!]
However, even with all the achievements laid out, it turned out that trolls were trolls for a reason.
[Even so, she"s still out to rip Eastern Brilliance off! What, is she angry that she can"t get a single cent after seeing how much Eastern Brilliance"s share prices have increased when the movie isn"t even released yet?]
[How disgusting. I used to be a fan of Dark"s novels, but I"m no longer one as of this moment!]
[You people from Eastern Brilliance are still yakking away? I hope you guys didn"t cause trouble for your employer. Do you have any idea who GM is?]
[You sure have some guts. Make sure your legs don"t give way later.]
[Ban GM from the industry? Hah, I dare Eastern Brilliance to do that.]
[@lcz…]
The last comment would pop up from time to time, but n.o.body knew who that person was.
…
On the filming set.
"Come again?" Sheng Ting looked at Xiao Zhou in disbelief before taking his phone out to log into Weibo. "Dark is G.o.d Gu?"
"There are three trending posts on Weibo!" Xiao Zhou was just as shocked herself, having never seen such a case before.
Zhao Xinran, who was next to them, naturally knew who G.o.d Gu was, although it had never crossed her mind that the latter would be Dark. The Lu family…
She pursed her lips and immediately took out her phone to check Weibo.
The news about Gu Mang being Dark had already spread across the entire filming set, so everyone was looking down at their own phones.
The moment Zhao Xinran logged into Weibo, she was greeted with Gu Mang"s post about her crawling out of her coffin to cast her one-vote veto. Her eyes darkened. Does that mean Gu Mang is kicking me out of this project?
Before she could finish reading the rest of the news, she received a call from her father. She went to a corner with her phone before picking it up. "Dad…"
"Go publish a post on Weibo right away and say that you"re leaving the production team of "The Black Sea."" Zhao Huai"s strained voice echoed through the speaker.
"Why should I?!" Zhao Xinran"s eyes bulged in anger when she heard that. The official announcement has already been made. Won"t I lose face if I quit now? Gu Mang"s fans will surely have a blast laughing at me!
"Go online and see what trouble those fans of yours are causing me!"
Zhao Huai clenched his fists as he stared at the plummeting share prices on the computer. "Your fans might not know who Gu Mang is, but don"t you know it yourself? Or do you think you"ll have face if the company makes an official announcement?"
Earlier, he tried to contact Weibo to have them delete the comments about Gu Mang, but n.o.body dared to do anything about it. Anxious and helpless, he sternly said to his daughter, "Go publish a post on Weibo immediately and get your a.s.sistant to control your fans!"
Zhao Xinran naturally knew what kind of fans she had; they had no filter when cursing people out. At the thought of how Gu Mang was going to kick herself out of the production team, she didn"t want to care about this matter at all. In fact, she had been hoping that her fans would help vent her anger on her behalf, but her father actually wanted her to leave the production team on her own accord now.
"What can I do if my fans want to scold her? Our company spent 70 million yuan to buy the film rights of "The Black Sea." What right does she have to interfere with our company"s decision?!" she snapped back. I"m not responsible for what my fans do, so there"s no reason for the Lu family to hold me responsible.
An Tong and the a.s.sistant were standing at the side checking Weibo together, but they looked up when they heard Zhao Xinran arguing with her father.
Zhao Huai knew his daughter very well, so he naturally knew that it was impossible for her to quit on her own, especially when the movie was so popular.
Gu Mang has only cast her vote through Weibo; she didn"t resort to any dirty tricks, although if she really wants to lay a hand on our company, we will surely be doomed. The prestigious families that had waned these few years ended up in their current states because they offended Gu Mang… Not wanting the Zhao family to land in this state as well, Zhao Huai said, "You"re not going to publish the post, huh? Fine, I"ll get the company to do it."
"Dad!" Zhao Xinran"s eyes widened.
Right after Zhao Huai ended the call with his daughter, he immediately got the PR department to issue a company statement.
[We"ll respect Dark and the fans" opinions to reselect the actress for Jiang Zhao. Please rest a.s.sured that we"ll take the actress"s appearance and demeanor as our top priority.]
Eastern Brilliance"s PR department worked fast, and it didn"t take long before Zhao Xinran saw this post on Weibo. Her eyes rimmed red as she felt the stinging embarra.s.sment on her face.
In just a matter of minutes, Eastern Brilliance"s statement trended on Weibo. Seeing how the post consisted of just words and didn"t even have the company"s official seal, it had probably only taken the PR department less than ten seconds to type it out.
[That"s fast. They sure were in a hurry to concede defeat. They didn"t have the time to put an official stamp on it. Hahaha.]
[It concerns their survival after all. Of course, they have to be quick. If there"s any delay, Eastern Brilliance will be no more.]
[Where"s the group of people who were bas.h.i.+ng GM? Weren"t they having a blast earlier?]
A lot of netizens weren"t aware of Gu Mang"s background, so someone asked, [Can someone tell us what sort of background GM exactly has?]
Every time Gu Mang trended online, articles about her would be deleted soon after that. Thus, not everyone knew about her and those who knew didn"t dare talk about her in the open.
[For someone who can make Eastern Brilliance fluctuate so much in just a day, what kind of background do you think she has?]
[Freshman in Capital University"s Traditional Chinese Medicine faculty, winner of last year"s International Medical Compet.i.tion who carried her team to victory, top scholar of the college entrance exam, Lan Ting"s chief designer, X Voice Factory"s boss Bai Ye. That"s all I can say.]
[Hahahaha. I can totally tell how strong your survival instincts are. I bet your comment will be deleted soon.]
[Those t.i.tles don"t sound too impressive. I doubt Eastern Brilliance will be scared of someone with such a background.]
[I wonder if everyone still remembers the grand wedding that took place last month. The roads from Xishan Villa to the Lu residence were entirely blocked. That"s GM"s wedding.]
[Holy c.r.a.p…]
[Zhao Xinran and her dumb fans sure have got some nerve! GM is such a big shot, and yet they still threatened to ban Dark from the industry? Eastern Brilliance still won"t be a match for the Lu family even if there are ten of them!]
[That"s retribution for them! Zhao Xinran has no ability in acting, yet she still dreams of becoming more popular?]
When Zhao Xinran saw the comments online, she was so angry that she almost crushed her phone to pieces.
…
The speed at which Eastern Brilliance published their statement came as a shock to many people inside and outside the s...o...b..z industry. They couldn"t help but be impressed at Zhao Huai"s decisiveness at pulling his daughter out of the production team without even trying to ask Gu Mang to give a chance to his daughter.
Given Zhao Xinran"s foul temper, they reckoned that she would surely make things hard for Dark to survive in the industry had the latter been an ordinary citizen. Zhao Xinran could only consider herself unlucky this time.
…
The main cast of "The Black Sea" had basically entered the production team, but with the issue of Zhao Xinran quitting the show going on, the production team had to halt their work indefinitely.
Netizens cheered and mocked Zhao Xinran even more when they saw how she got embarra.s.sed by her own father, while everyone in the production kept giving her looks.
Unable to stand the scrutiny, Zhao Xinran left the production team in a huff with An Tong and her a.s.sistant. Her face was gloomy as she stared straight ahead in the car.
As Zhao Xinran had a foul temper and was always scolding, beating, and criticizing her staff, An Tong and the a.s.sistant didn"t dare to even breathe loudly.
It was then that An Tong suddenly remembered how she had offered Dark three times more the money to have the movie poster amended. She reckoned that she must be out of her mind to try and use money to pressure the Lu family"s young madam.
Just then, Zhao Xinran"s phone rang, breaking the still silence in the car. However, despite it ringing for some time, she sat motionlessly with no seeming intention to answer the call.
The phone thus kept ringing and ringing.
"Miss, your phone," said An Tong as she squeezed her fingers nervously.
Only then did Zhao Xinran pick up the call—it was from her aunt.
"Are you okay, Xinran?" asked Zhao Jin gently in concern.
Zhao Xinran"s face sank. "Did my father ask you to call me?"
Zhao Xinran sighed. "Xinran, your father was just doing it for your own good. The Lu family isn"t people we can afford to offend. According to your father, the company has another big project which you can act as the main lead. With a bit of promotion and marketing, it won"t be inferior to "The Black Sea.""
Zhao Xinran burst into a bitter laugh at that. "I"ve been thoroughly disgraced. Does my dad know how the netizens are mocking me now?"
Zhao Jin fell silent and only spoke a few seconds later. "Take a break for the time being. Once this matter blows over, you can continue to be active again."
"Why should I?" Zhao Xinran felt increasingly indignant the more she thought about it. "I could have won the Best Actress award with "The Black Sea"! This movie was so popular before we started shooting! Who knows? I might even break the box office sales! Why should I be kicked out of our own company"s project?!"
Zhao Jin was rendered speechless. She dared not to even remind her niece that Gu Mang had a one-vote veto right, lest it agitate her even more.
At this moment, Zhao Xinran was so furious that she completely forgot that it was her who wanted to kick Dark out of the project first. She even forgot whether she was truly capable of clinching the Best Actress award with those pathetic acting skills of hers.
"Xinran…" Zhao Jin"s voice trailed off and sounded a distance away when she suddenly said, "Come in."
"Director, here are Capital University"s doc.u.ments for review."
Zhao Jin nodded as took the folder to place it aside. "Alright, you may leave now."
Her a.s.sistant thus left her office.
Upon hearing their conversation, Zhao Xinran suddenly recalled how her aunt had mentioned before that Capital University was reopening a TCM Science Experimental Cla.s.s and that their doc.u.ments stated that Gu Mang would be the chief professor while Yu Zhong jing would be her a.s.sistant.
A wicked glint appeared in the depths of her eyes as she gripped her phone while being lost in thought. If I can"t live well, then Gu Mang can forget about living well either! Didn"t she want to make use of Yu Zhongjing and reap all the benefits while sitting back and doing nothing? Let"s see how she"s going to be the chief professor of the TCM experimental cla.s.s now!
Zhao Jin answered the phone once more. "Xinran, listen to me and go back to rest first. Your father said that he"ll do damage control for you."
Pulled back to reality, Zhao Xinran whispered in aggrieve, "But I don"t want to go home. Can I go over to find you now?"
Zhao Jin doted on Zhao Xinran a lot and knew that the latter probably didn"t want to see her father because she was still mad at him. Thus, she said, "Sure, do you remember where my office is?"
"Yes."
"Alright, just come straight here then."
…
Lu Chengzhou"s Weibo account was created after Gu Mang"s account was exposed. When he saw the posts she published, he got Qin Fang and He Yidu to monitor the data while he stepped back and lazily leaned against the other lab table to look at his phone.
He was just about to go to Gu Mang"s Weibo page when he noticed that he had hundreds of unread messages in the @me column. A slight frown formed on his forehead as he clicked on it and realized that they were all comments left under Gu Mang"s posts.
Lu Chengzhou had specially set his account to private. He had no followers and he only followed Gu Mang. It was like a dead account, but for some reason, the netizens still managed to find his account.
His lips curled into a smile when he saw the two posts GU Mang had posted.
When Qin Fang looked back, he accidentally caught a glimpse of the Weibo interface on Lu Chengzhou"s phone. Curious, he asked, "Brother Cheng, what"s so funny on Weibo that you would show such an expression?"
Lu Chengzhou ignored him.
Qin Fang thus took out his own phone and logged into Weibo. Upon realizing that Gu Mang had exposed another of her ident.i.ties, his lips couldn"t help but twitch. Never mind that she exposed her ident.i.ty, she"s even trending on Weibo for four consecutive entries! I might not pay a lot of attention to the entertainment news, but I still know that it"s not so easy to top the trending list. And yet Gu Mang trended once for every secret she exposed!
"He Yidu, let me tell you a secret," said Qin Fang with his head down, still looking at his phone.
As He Yidu adjusted the date, he said, "Just say it."
"Do you know who Dark is?"
"Why, which of his works is getting turned into a movie now? Don"t make me go watch it with you again. I don"t want to be seen as a couple with you," answered He Yidu nonchalantly.
"Get lost!" Qin Fang cursed before asking in a mysterious manner, "Do you know who Dark is?"
He Yidu raised his eyebrows, having an answer in his heart.
Qin Fang then nodded solemnly in affirmation. "That"s right, it"s our sister-in-law! Never expected this, didn"t you?!"
He Yidu fell silent for a few seconds. "You found out through Weibo again?"
Qin Fang nodded once more. The two then turned their heads toward Lu Chengzhou in unison.
"What, I found out long ago," said Lu Chengzhou lazily as he looked up and then looked back down at his phone to like and share Gu Mang"s posts. He soon realized that the number of likes on his shared posts was soaring.
All the comments below read:
[Why can"t I follow mommy?]
[Why can"t I follow mommy?]
[+1]
When Qin Fang saw the smile on Lu Chengzhou"s face stiffened, he craned his neck toward the latter to see his phone. He burst out in guffaws when he saw the comments. "What the f*ck, hahahahahaha… He Yidu, Sis Mang"s fans are calling Brother Cheng mommy…"
The entire lab was filled with Qin Fang"s laughter.
He Yidu had a look of confusion on his face as Lu Chengzhou raised his head to shoot a cool gaze at Qin Fang. The latter immediately stopped laughing and turned his head back to the experiment. He Yidu, on the other hand, didn"t even dare to let out a laugh.
Lu Chengzhou turned off the comment section and exited Weibo before calling Lu Qi to ask him to monitor the situation on the internet and deal with it if any problem cropped up. He then called Gu Mang and put a hand in his white coat as he left the lab.
…
Gu Mang had just reached the school entrance when she received a call from Lu Chengzhou.
"Ah, it"s nothing," she said slowly as she lowered the brim of her cap to block the sun. "It"s settled."
Lu Chengzhou stood in front of the window at the end of the corridor and placed a hand on the window sill, his voice gentle and soft as he asked, "Mm, have you eaten?"
"I"m arriving at World Restaurant."
"Alright," said Lu Chengzhou. "Go back to the apartment to take a nap after you"re done with your meal."
"Okay, what about you?"
"I"m going to eat soon," answered Lu Chengzhou.
"Tsk, you should practice what you preach. Remember to take your meals on time yourself."
"Yes, madam." Lu Chengzhou laughed and left her with a few more instructions before ending the call. He spun his phone in his hand and then pressed it on the window sill with his palm while looking out at the large experimental field outside.
Starting a Traditional Chinese Medicine Science Experimental Cla.s.s was easier said than done, and Lu Chengzhou knew this very well. All the leader had to do was give instructions, but the subordinates would have a lot of things to do. And now that Gu Mang was both the leader and the subordinate, she had way too many things on her plate. She still had an ongoing Medical Informatics experiment, yet trouble was brewing on the internet.
Lu Chengzhou"s eyes gleamed coldly as he tapped his fingers against the phone"s screen.
Just then, his phone vibrated.
He picked up his phone and realized that he had received the medical doc.u.ments from Red Scorpion. Then, along with the information he compiled the night before, he sent them to Gu Mang.
…
Gu Mang was surprised to receive the zip file. But before she could ask Lu Chengzhou about it, she received a message from him, saying, [I compiled some information last night. My men from Red Flame and Red Scorpion have also compiled some of it. I"ll send them all to you later.]
[Okay], Gu Mang replied before asking, [How are things going on your end? Is it tricky?]
[It"s okay, just some problem with the data. It"s a little different from expected, so we need some time.]
No. 14 Research Center was a fighter jet research inst.i.tute, and a problem with the data was actually quite serious.
Gu Mang could tell that Lu Chengzhou must"ve only slept for a few hours last night when she heard his slightly hoa.r.s.e voice when they were speaking on the phone earlier, and yet he even compiled information for her. She looked down and typed, [Don"t tire yourself out.]
Lu Chengzhou had never realized before that he was someone who would be so easily satisfied. All it took was a few words from Gu Mang for him to behave like a young chap who had just fallen in love. A foolish grin hung on his face as he replied, [Okay.]
While on his way to the lab, Lu Chengzhou ran into Qin Fang at the entrance.
"Brother Cheng, someone uploaded Capital University"s review doc.u.ments for the TCM experimental cla.s.s on Weibo!" said Qin Fang anxiously with a frown as he turned his phone toward Lu Chengzhou.
As Lu Chengzhou stared at the photos on the screen, the remaining remnants of his smile faded and his expression turned grim and serious. His eyes narrowed and his lips pursed as he took out his phone and logged into Weibo.
Earlier, Qin Fang was scrolling through Weibo and sending Gu Mang several messages asking her when her next book would be released and whether or not she could sell her film rights to the Qin Corporation"s film company when he suddenly came across the post about the TCM experimental cla.s.s.
Gu Mang"s ident.i.ty was rather special. Most importantly, not many people outside Jijing Island knew about her Miracle Doctor ident.i.ty, while those who were in the know had their mouths sealed by Lu Chengzhou long ago. Even if they weren"t, n.o.body dared mention it.
Only Princ.i.p.al Ren and Yang Tianming knew that Gu Mang was the one who treated Old Madam Lu back then, but that was all that they knew—her excellent medical skills. They had no idea that Gu Mang was the Miracle Doctor, which was why her resume had very little information and basically only had ten words: Gu Mang, the champion of Jijing Island"s International Medical Compet.i.tion.
The position she was applying for, however, was the chief professor.
Her information was followed by Yu Zhongjing"s information. He was the person in charge of the project, which meant that he would be Gu Mang"s a.s.sistant.
Even outsiders knew how famous Yu Zhongjing was. Given the awards, honors, and recognition listed on his Baidu page, n.o.body would dare admit that they were the top doctor if he said that he was second.
On top of that, his resume alone consisted of three A4 pages.
Gu Mang"s award in a university compet.i.tion was like a joke compared to the bigwigs in the medical field who had achieved many breakthroughs in medical technology, published many theses, and partic.i.p.ated in numerous medical summits, and that was exactly how the netizens viewed it.
The tides changed too quickly. Gu Mang was praised to the skies just a second ago, and now those very same people condemned her to h.e.l.l. She became the b.u.t.t of public criticism.
The person who put out the news explicitly hinted that GU Mang wanted to make use of Yu Zhongjing to reap all the benefits from the program without doing anything.
The post on the Weibo account with a million followers read: [The top university"s focused cla.s.s is a joke and yet it still managed to pa.s.s review?]