Chapter 15 – Weibo War
In the morning, once she"d returned to her room after a jog, Lan Jinyao realised that her phone was going to explode with all the calls that she"d been getting. More than twenty missed calls. All from her Agent, Vivi. The moment she called her back, she heard Vivi angrily say, "What"s with your Weibo?"
"Weibo? Oh, you mean that post. Yes, I did that myself!"
After Xu Jin"ge had posted a picture where she and Fu Bainian appeared to be close, and the post had become a headliner, her Weibo was overwhelmed with people"s comments. In response, Lan Jinyao posted another set of pictures to Chen Meimei"s Weibo, which featured, again, Fu Bainian as the male lead. He and Lan Jinyao appeared to be intimate as well, and every picture was taken at a different place.
Chen Meimei didn"t have a lot of followers. Probably a little more than a hundred at most. Apart from some that were promotional accounts for acne treatment, all the others were people that she knew. When she"d first uploaded the pictures, the post was only shared by a handful of people. In less than a day, however, her post started trending as well.
Vivi shouted at her through the phone. "Lady, you"re looking for trouble! You and Xu Jin"ge are both stars under my care. Can you not pick on her? You can"t win. Do you know that now everyone on Weibo is calling you names? They"re calling you a d.a.m.n fatty and say that you have no shame!"
"Everyone in the world knows that President Fu doesn"t like you. Why do you have to get involved?"
"I just woke up and didn"t have a chance to check Weibo," Lan Jinyao said calmly. "A lot of people are calling me names? That"s fine. I"ll make them shut up in just a while."
"Oh my G.o.d, it won"t help even if you pay people to speak for you. Your Weibo was overwhelmed!"
"Just you wait!" Lan Jinyao hung up before Vivi could say anything more.
After hanging up, she calmly put on a facial mask and started browsing Weibo. She thought about it. Why was she called shameless, while Xu Jin"ge was universally congratulated? In the end, it was probably because Xu Jin"ge had too many fans and her image was impeccable. It was difficult for people to see past her pure and innocent image.
"Great President Fu, someone was using your name as news fodder again. Your girlfriend is upset!" Following that was a crying emoji. She also tagged Fu Bainian"s Weibo handle.
Fu Bainian"s account also had tens of millions of followers, but he didn"t log on that often. His account was managed by his a.s.sistant, and the fact that he and Lan Jinyao had started dating hadn"t been leaked yet. Only the older members of their families knew about it. Therefore, when the a.s.sistant saw that Fu Bainian was tagged, he looked at him in shock and quickly denied the news. He published a formal looking post.
"This malicious publicity stunt on Weibo has greatly damaged my reputation. Please kindly stop what you"re doing. Thank you!"
After posting it, the a.s.sistant threw a glance at President Fu who was currently signing doc.u.ments.
Fu Bainian looked up and asked, "What?"
The a.s.sistant shook his head. "Nothing!" He hadn"t realised that Chen Meimei had such thick skin. Everyone in the world knew that President Fu had said no to her offer of an arranged marriage. Yet, she still did something like this?
Weibo was filled with thousands of people. In an instant, the post was shared more than ten thousand times. It didn"t refer to anyone in particular, but people made their own conclusion, and immediately put Chen Meimei"s name to it. With Fu Bainian"s involvement, the topic"s popularity reached an all-time high.
At noon, the a.s.sistant tentatively asked Fu Bainian, "Boss, do you want to invite Xu Jin"ge for lunch?"
Fu Bainian was puzzled. "Why would I invite her for lunch?"
The a.s.sistant blinked in confusion. "Huh?"
Didn"t couples in love always want to spend time together?
"Even if I were going to invite someone, it wouldn"t be her," Fu Bainian said. "I already have a girlfriend."
The a.s.sistant"s jaw dropped in shock. "Y-you, you have a girlfriend, and it"s not Xu Jin"ge??"
Fu Bainian snorted as a way of saying yes.
"It c-can"t be that fatty, Chen Meimei, right?"
Fu Bainian gave him a dangerous look and said, "If you continue being so disrespectful about the future wife of your Boss, your career will have no prospects!"
The a.s.sistant bit into his fingers as he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. "I didn"t do it on purpose!"
He meant the post!
The next second, Fu Bainian"s phone rang. The a.s.sistant peeked at the phone and read the large text flas.h.i.+ng across the screen: Chen Meimei. It almost blinded his poor eyes.
"Boss, I still have matters that I need to attend to. I"m just gonna go!"
After hurriedly speaking the a.s.sistant quickly fled. Fu Bainian threw a questioning glance at him before answering the phone.
Lan Jinyao had initially thought that Fu Bainian would take her side and hand her an olive branch after she"d posted the pictures on her Weibo. This was because, when she"d asked him why he"d picked her as a s.h.i.+eld and not Xu Jin"ge or another woman, he"d said that Xu Jin"ge was too much of a poser and that he had no respect for her. As for why he"d picked her and not someone else, he"d said that it was because he would never fall in love with Chen Meimei.
She"d thought that even though they were a fake couple, they would at least pretend to be in love. She knew it was difficult with her looking like this, but still.
Even ignoring her was better than posting to Weibo and throwing her under a bus; at least then it wouldn"t be as bad as it was now.
The more Lan Jinyao thought about it, the more she was convinced that Fu Bainian was sick in the head. Seriously sick.
After an hour of fuming, she finally called Fu Bainian. On the phone he sounded alright; gentle, even. He also kindly invited her for lunch. Hearing that, Lan Jinyao sneered and harshly said, "Have you dealt with what happened on Weibo? All you"re thinking about is lunch! What happened to being my patron? What happened to protecting my reputation?"
After that outburst, Lan Jinyao immediately regretted what she"d said. This was Fu Bainian, not any other man, and she couldn"t afford to get on his bad side. If he decided to kick her out of the industry, she was doomed.
Lan Jinyao was just about to say something to alleviate the awkwardness when she heard the confused voice on the other end of the phone. "What happened on Weibo?"
"Take a look yourself. What did you just do on Weibo?"
Fu Bainian shouted out his office door with a dark expression on his face. "Qian Ran, get your a.s.s in here! What the h.e.l.l happened on Weibo?"
Qian Ran"s hand continuously shook as he held his phone. "I can"t explain it, Boss. You should take a look for yourself."
Fu Bainian looked over the timeline on his phone and quickly grasped the situation. He side-eyed his trembling a.s.sistant and said through clenched teeth. "I"ll deal with you later. Now, go and make a reservation at a restaurant for me!"
The a.s.sistant grimaced and immediately ran out of the room.
Lan Jinyao was listening to all of this on the phone and was slightly startled when Fu Bainian suddenly said, "I didn"t make that post. If you want to solve this problem, then go and make yourself presentable. I"ll pick you up for lunch soon."
"Lunch lunch lunch! I"m going to get torn to pieces if I go out now!" Lan Jinyao covered her face and whined.