Chapter 45

The development of the situation was somewhat absurd.

At first, netizens weren’t focusing on attacking Yingxing Entertainment, and were only engaging in small-scale insults.

However, that night, someone hacked into Su Xingyao’s Weibo account.

Hacking an account isn’t exactly something to be proud of, so the person involved initially only shared this information in a small forum, chatting and revealing the details.

The person claimed that at first, they didn’t believe that a celebrity who had suffered so much could still appear so cheerful on a program.

Having never experienced online abuse themselves, they hacked the account to see just how dirty the insults against Su Xingyao really were.

After reading the private messages on Su Xingyao’s Weibo, they could barely bear to look further after only a few glances.

The messages were filled with incredibly vile insults, and what was worse, they had been continuously coming for years.

In the past few days, with Su Xingyao at the center of public discussion, even in a small forum, when this was brought up, it naturally attracted many others to inquire.

Some anti-fans immediately accused the hacker of being one of Su Xingyao’s online supporters, claiming they were using this opportunity to garner sympathy and gain fans.

The hacker, however, was angry at the accusation and immediately recorded Su Xingyao’s login information and private messages, sharing the video online.

Once the video was released, netizens rushed to watch it.

They discovered that when Su Xingyao had just debuted, he often logged into Weibo to share his daily life.

But gradually, the time between his logins became longer and longer.

Eventually, he stopped logging in for nearly two years.

After the login details, the hacker also released a nearly three-minute long screen recording of Su Xingyao’s private messages.

In the video, the hacker quickly scrolled through the content, but the vile personal attacks on every screen were not affected by the speed. Whenever the video paused, netizens could see the diverse and casual insults from the anti-fans.

Originally, the fact that Su Xingyao’s pinned Weibo post had over a million insults was shocking enough to netizens.

But after watching the screen recording, they realized that the online abuse Su Xingyao had suffered was far more terrifying and severe than they had imagined.

After all, those million-plus messages were exposed to the public and everyone could see them.

So even though there were insults and accusations, at least the people who made them had some restraint in public.

On the other hand, in the private, unseen side of Weibo messages, some people were completely unrestrained, like bugs in a gutter, showing no hesitation in their malice.

The screen was filled with disgusting curses and words that would need to be censored. Even though the video was fast, the offensive language was everywhere.

【I’ve never seen so many swear words in my life】

【I’ve been online for years, seen all kinds of drama and fan wars, but I couldn’t bring myself to watch that screen recording a second time】

【Su Xingyao hasn’t killed anyone or done anything illegal, so why does he have to endure years of online abuse?】

【What kind of miserable lives do these people have? Is it really so satisfying for them to dump all their anger onto one person?】

【I feel worse the more I look at that login info. At first, Su Xingyao was actively managing his Weibo. When he debuted, he was full of hopes and dreams for his career and future… But over time, he logged in less and less, until eventually he stopped altogether. Looking back at those messages that insulted him, it’s heartbreaking to imagine what changes he must have gone through mentally these years】

【I once got chased and insulted for three days over a small thing by some crazy fans, and those days were a nightmare. I couldn’t sleep or eat. But Su Xingyao has been facing threats and personal attacks for years… I can’t even imagine how he must have felt, I don’t know if I could have survived it】

【I, a bystander, am heartbroken after reading this】

【I just started following him and I’m already crying. I really can’t imagine how he’s survived all these years.】

【It’s too tragic, Su Xingyao’s situation is beyond words.】

【He’s been dealing with this since debut, most people would’ve already been depressed by now.】

【He’s been maliciously suppressed by his company, falsely accused by fellow artists, cyberbullied by netizens, and all his talent and strengths have been deliberately buried and distorted… I don’t know how Su Xingyao managed to get through these years, but I’m really thankful that he’s still bravely showing up in front of the camera so I can get to know him again.】

【I’m really speechless, doesn’t the company care? Yingxing Entertainment is a big company, I see so many people praising you, but what happened? You just let Su Xingyao’s account stay inactive? These private messages could have been deleted by your staff, but you just let them be, letting Su Xingyao log in every time to see how he’s being abused by everyone, right?】

Netizens were seeing, for the first time, just how terrifying and severe the malicious distortion and online bullying of an innocent artist could be.

Looking at the shocking insults, netizens were even angrier at Su Xingyao’s former company for their inaction.

After all, they didn’t even bother to manage the simplest of things—his Weibo account. They didn’t even remove those offensive private messages. Instead, they let Su Xingyao see every single one of them, subjecting him to repeated torment over the last two years.

For an entertainment agency, this wasn’t just negligence, it was a malicious disregard for Su Xingyao.

Just as netizens were starting to sense this, someone claiming to have left Yingxing Entertainment came forward anonymously with a bombshell revelation.

【Anyway, I’ve already quit, and now I finally have the chance to spill the beans. I used to get scolded when I told the truth, but now that everyone can see what kind of company YX is, I’m sure no one will come after me with their crazy fans to say I’m making things up.

There’s too much to say, but I’ll just start by saying that everyone’s instincts were right. This company’s atmosphere is a mess. All their resources were put into promoting one person, and as for Su Xingyao? After signing, he was basically left to fend for himself…

It’s not even an exaggeration to say he was neglected. Over the years, Su Xingyao’s negative public relations have been ignored by them—never cleaned up, just letting everyone insult him and cyberbully him.

Ridiculous, right? But what can you do? The company just used Su Xingyao as a stepping stone for someone else. If you don’t believe me, search for Su Xingyao’s past negative news and see how many of them are related to that person… When Su Xingyao was with the company, he had terrible resources and was constantly mistreated. The good resources he had were basically used to prop up that person, and after filming shows, he was thrown aside.】

As soon as the ^[1]“whistleblower” is a person who reports or exposes unethical or illegal activities within an organization, usually in order to bring attention to wrongdoing or misconduct. This individual … Continue readingwhistleblower’s post went up, it received thousands of replies within an hour.

After learning about the outrageous behavior of the company, people initially thought the claims might be exaggerated.

But soon, more former Yingxing Entertainment employees came forward, one after another, revealing similar stories.

Each of them confirmed the whistleblower’s claims.

Whistleblower 1:

【Hahaha, do you guys think this sounds like made-up gossip? I can prove everything is true! I left that damn company a long time ago, a normal person couldn’t stand it. To be honest, I really liked Su Xingyao, but there was nothing I could do. If you were good to him, you couldn’t stay, if you were loyal to another person, you had a chance to survive. This stupid company doesn’t know what’s going on. From top to bottom, no one dared to treat Su Xingyao well.】

Whistleblower 2:

【Yes, yes, this company really doesn’t have a single normal person. They treat Su Xingyao like he killed their whole family, from the higher-ups to the lower-level staff, they all bullied him. That’s right, bullied him! You think Su Xingyao’s Weibo was left unmanaged because no one cared? The real problem is that no one dared to manage it! LYF, do you know him? Su Xingyao’s former manager? When Su Xingyao had a small hit with a drama early in his career, he was dragged into a meeting and scolded by the higher-ups for an entire afternoon… Hahaha, this was Su Xingyao’s manager! He got scolded for promoting his own artist.】

Whistleblower 3:

【I can only say Su Xingyao leaving Yingxing Entertainment was the best thing he could’ve done. I’m so happy for him that his public image has finally turned around. He should’ve left earlier, staying there would only have meant more cold treatment and bullying.】

Several former employees from Yingxing Entertainment continued to support the initial whistleblower’s claims. Some even posted their previous work IDs to prove they weren’t making things up.

After reading these revelations, netizens felt like their entire worldview had been shattered.

They’d seen plenty of strange scandals in the entertainment industry, but this was the first time they’d encountered a company that not only led but sustained such long-term bullying of its own artist.

To verify the information, netizens started digging into Su Xingyao’s past resources.

The result of the investigation was eye-opening—just as the whistleblower said, everything turned out to be true.

Su Xingyao’s resources over the past two years were absolutely dismal, almost nonexistent.

Occasionally, he was able to join slightly better programs, but those appearances were specifically arranged to boost Shen Huaixi’s popularity.

For example, in the variety show where he was maliciously edited.

Whenever Su Xingyao shared the stage with Shen Huaixi, his fans would photoshop and edit the footage to make him look bad, then criticize him heavily.

As a result, Su Xingyao would often find himself trending on “black hot search,” a trending list associated with negative topics.

But even though this happened so many times, his company never once intervened with public relations to clear his name.

These “black hot searches” were allowed to fester, and anyone could stand on their moral high ground to insult Su Xingyao.

Meanwhile, the long-standing blacklisted terms associated with Su Xingyao were scattered all over the internet, and none of them had been cleaned up.

After seeing all this, netizens were completely shocked.

What shocked them even more was the comparison of the only two decent resources Su Xingyao had received since his debut.

One was a supporting role in a TV drama he participated in at the start of his career.

However, after filming, Su Xingyao’s manager was summoned for a conversation with the higher-ups.

From that point on, Su Xingyao’s resources and public image plummeted.

The other “good resource” was his appearance as a guest on We’re Going Traveling.

But this opportunity came after Su Xingyao left Yingxing Entertainment and found it on his own.

The irony was that he appeared on this live broadcast reality show, which was notorious for ruining artists’ careers, but his participation helped him turn his public image around and allowed the audience to see him in a new light.

After reading all of this, even the slowest-witted netizens could feel something was off.

【Other artists lose their company’s support and suffer a downfall, but Su Xingyao… everything’s flipped for him.】

【How could those haters ever claim that Su Xingyao was holding back Yingxing Entertainment? It’s obvious that this trash company doesn’t deserve him!】

【Oh my God… the manager promoting their own artist still gets scolded… this just opened my eyes!】

【Graduated from a prestigious university but never got any promotion, skilled in so many things yet still called useless for years—this is the most ridiculous and funniest thing I’ve heard all year!】

【If Su Xingyao had been with a normal company, his image would have been blown up to the sky by now. Are Yingxing Entertainment so afraid of Su Xingyao becoming popular that they have to keep sabotaging him?】

【It’s hard not to say that this stupid company was deliberately suppressing and smearing Su Xingyao. Who knows, they might even have bought those black hot searches themselves.】

【Does your company have a grudge against Su Xingyao?】

【This is unheard of—I’ve never seen such a trash company that could demean its own artist like this.】

【The whistleblower said it… this garbage company has been deliberately bullying and oppressing Su Xingyao from top to bottom.】

【@Yingxing Entertainment, your company is really trash.】

【@Yingxing Entertainment, I really don’t get it. What harm is there if Su Xingyao becomes popular with you? What’s wrong with you? Do you have a problem?】

Sarcasm: 【Not sure if they have a problem, but according to the whistleblower, this company has been trampling on Su Xingyao to prop up Shen Huaixi, huh?】

Recently, Shen Huaixi was criticized for his performance on The Voice of Heaven.

At that time, it was revealed that he had deliberately cried on the show, making Su Xingyao the target of public scorn.

Now, with the Yingxing Entertainment incident, it was once again exposed by a former employee that Shen Huaixi had intentionally stepped on Su Xingyao to rise in his career. After the online backlash against Yingxing Entertainment, the criticism of Shen Huaixi didn’t die down either.

【No wonder you, White Lotus Shen, are so skilled at causing trouble on the show. It seems you’ve been used to bullying at Yingxing Entertainment!】

【On The Voice of Heaven, you directly blocked contestants better than you, and when a stronger contestant like Cat couldn’t be blocked, you resorted to underhanded tactics to target them… Su Xingyao, who is more talented, more educated, and better than you in every way, has had to endure all your dirty tricks for years. Damn, you’re just a born villain!】

【How do your fans have the audacity to call Su Xingyao worthless? Isn’t the real waste you?】

【Su Xingyao really must have had terrible luck running into someone like you and such a trash company.】

【How insecure and despicable must you be to come up with such a low trick of stepping on a fellow company artist to climb up?】

【You’ve been working so hard to suppress Su Xingyao. How shameless can you be?】

【What kind of background do you have to make Yingxing Entertainment shield you like this?】

【This is so disgusting. You should just quit the industry and spare us the sight of you.】

After learning about Su Xingyao’s treatment at Yingxing Entertainment, netizens were outraged on his behalf.

While expressing their support for Su Xingyao in the comments of his criticized Weibo post, they also flooded Yingxing Entertainment’s official website and Shen Huaixi’s Weibo.

Overnight, various forums and trending topics on Weibo were filled with scathing comments about Yingxing Entertainment.

Yingxing Entertainment’s previously good reputation completely collapsed, and it became the top company fans warned each other to avoid.

After the massive backlash, the executives at Yingxing Entertainment were on edge.

The public relations team stayed up all night, afraid to even sleep.

Although they had several strategies in mind to handle the situation, they were too afraid to act without careful consideration.

This was because the company’s behind-the-scenes boss, Qin Mingchuan, had ordered them not to respond in any way.

In the corner of a private room, the glow of the phone screen illuminated Qin Mingchuan’s cold face.

Previously, Liu Huai, a senior executive at Yingxing, had revealed everything to him, including the disparity in treatment between Shen Huaixi and Su Xingyao, as well as the deliberate suppression of Su Xingyao over the years.

The reports were thorough, detailing every aspect of the situation.

As Qin Mingchuan read through each line, his expression grew colder.

The last time he had a talk with Liang Yifan, he should have investigated everything thoroughly.

But for some reason, he hadn’t.

Even when he blamed everyone else, he had never suspected Shen Huaixi.

His fingers absentmindedly swiped over the webpage.

Looking at the detailed complaints from netizens about how Yingxing Entertainment had mistreated Su Xingyao, Qin Mingchuan carefully read through each one of the critical comments on the company’s official website.

The more Qin Mingchuan read, the clearer his mind became.

Netizens had only criticized him today.

But Su Xingyao, on the other hand, had to endure this alone for two whole years…

What was it like to face two years of cold indifference, bullying, and online violence?

If this had not been within his own company, he should never have had to go through this suffering.

There were nearly ten empty glasses on the table in the private room.

Qin Mingchuan’s friends had long realized something was off. Seeing him lowering the pressure in the room with a terrifying mood, drinking one glass of alcohol after another as if he didn’t care for his life, they were too scared to speak.

In the end, his childhood friend, Ban Yang, could no longer watch it and grabbed the full glass of alcohol from Qin Mingchuan’s hand.

“Stop drinking, Qin. Do you want to drink yourself to death here?”

Drunk, Qin Mingchuan’s eyes were no longer clear, but his expression was filled with impatience after being stopped.

“What’s going on? You’ve been upset ever since you came back after that phone call?”

Ban Yang only cared about things among the rich second generation and usually didn’t concern himself with the chaos in the entertainment industry.

Moreover, Qin Mingchuan had never shared with anyone that he had opened a company for Shen Huaixi, so no one here, except for Qin Mingchuan, cared about Shen Huaixi’s scandal on the trending search.

Although Ban Yang didn’t know all these details, he could clearly see that Qin Mingchuan’s mood had been at rock bottom tonight.

In fact, it hadn’t just been tonight…

It seemed like from a certain point, he had clearly felt that Qin Mingchuan had not been in a good state for a while now.

“Did you have a fight with Huaixi?”

This was the only reason Ban Yang could think of that could explain Qin Mingchuan’s bad mood.

Everyone around could tell that the young master of the Qin family had been secretly in love with Huaixi for a long time, and it was practically public knowledge now.

Ban Yang initially planned to try and cheer him up.

But to his surprise, as soon as he mentioned Shen Huaixi’s name, Qin Mingchuan’s expression darkened even further.

Realizing he had said the wrong thing, Ban Yang immediately shut up, but it was already too late.

Qin Mingchuan threw something onto the table in front of him.

It was the phone he had been holding onto earlier.

“Call someone for me.”

The silent man finally spoke.

But his voice was hoarse and terrifying.

Seeing that the person who had been in a bad mood all evening was finally willing to speak, Ban Yang didn’t dare to ask more questions. He quickly picked up the phone from the table.

“Who should I call?”

After asking this question, he realized that the phone Qin Mingchuan had thrown at him hadn’t been locked. The screen was still displaying the dialing page.

It was a string of unfamiliar numbers, with a long call history, too many to count.

Ban Yang quickly counted, Qin Mingchuan had dialed the number almost twenty times tonight.

But the other party hadn’t picked up a single call.

Ban Yang realized that this number might be the key to understanding Qin Mingchuan’s bad mood. Just then, he heard the person half-lying on the sofa speak again.

“Use your phone to call.”

Glancing at Qin Mingchuan, who had his eyes closed, Ban Yang obediently took out his own phone.

“Alright, my lord.”

After carefully entering the number, Ban Yang dialed the phone.

He even thoughtfully switched it to a speakerphone.

There was darkness before Qin Mingchuan’s eyes.

He supported his aching forehead with one hand, not making a sound, just quietly listening to the beeping sound coming from the phone.

Beep after beep, it seemed like the only thread connecting them at this moment.

But in the end, that thread couldn’t connect them.

As expected.

The call Ban Yang made still went unanswered by Su Xingyao.

Listening to the busy tone from the system automatically disconnecting the call, Qin Mingchuan finally became fully aware.

Finding Su Xingyao’s new contact information was easy.

But in this relationship, the initiative was already no longer in his hands.

The other party had changed not just their phone number but had completely distanced themselves from his life.

Qin Mingchuan struggled to force a smile.

Xingyao must have been utterly disappointed with him, right?

That must be why, when he left back then, he did so so decisively.

Not even wanting to see him one last time.