Early in the morning, Ning Qiuxiu was forced to eat bitter melon and felt the same frustration as Miaomiao when she was punished by Zhan Qingyue.

It was like a herd of wild alpacas running through her mind, and she couldn’t express how bitter she felt.

She checked Weibo and, after understanding the situation, called Qu Hua, who had already returned to City A: “Did you trace the IP address of the person who posted on the forum?”

“I checked; it’s a proxy IP from the US. There’s probably more than one person behind this. The initial poster was just a trigger. The real troublemaker seems to be Fan Yaoxinghui, trying to use this to promote their company,” Qu Hua said.

Mr.Fan wouldn’t miss such a good marketing opportunity.

“That scoundrel,” Ning Qiuxiu gritted her teeth.

“Don’t worry, it’s a small issue. I’ll handle it,” Qu Hua comforted her. “I’ve had someone write a clarification statement. Once it’s ready, we’ll post it. Just focus on your acting and ignore it.”

Such a baseless issue could indeed be solved with a statement, so it wasn’t a big deal.

But Ning Qiuxiu couldn’t ignore it.

Seeing her name paired with Fan Yanliang’s made her uncomfortable.

Now the whole Weibo was speculating about them being together.

She wanted to take a knife and stab the person who first posted it.

And also stab Fan Yanliang, that jerk!

She had to find the instigator and make them pay.

On WeChat, Zhan Qingyue left her a message.

【Mutant Black Bean: (smile) Rival?】

Ning Qiuxiu: “……”

When Zhan Qingyue sent that smiley face, it meant someone was going to suffer.

Ning Qiuxiu called him.

Surprisingly, Zhan Qingyue answered quickly and sounded very calm: “Qiuxiu.”

“Fan Yanliang sent me gifts twice. The first was a cake, the same one you got me. He threatened me that if I didn’t accept it, he’d deliver it himself.

I took it but threw it away, and posted about the cake you gave me instead.

The second time, he sent a box of roses, which I rejected.

My studio will issue a clarification statement. I have nothing to do with him!”

“Not even a penny of relationship.”

“Not even a cent.”

Zhan Qingyue seemed pleased with this answer, his voice carrying a hint of a smile: “He’s not a good person.”

Zhan Qingyue doesn’t easily slander people.

When he says someone is not a good person, he means it literally.

Ning Qiuxiu blinked: “Do you know him?”

“No,” Zhan Qingyue said, “but I’ve heard of him. He’s involved in money laundering.”

Ning Qiuxiu: “…That’s quite intense.”

Wow, this wasn’t mentioned in the book.

This is illegal, so he might end up in jail.

“Don’t worry,” Zhan Qingyue said, “I’m here, so he won’t be able to hurt you.”

Ning Qiuxiu: qaq (a crying face emoticon)

Mr. Zhan, you’re so charming.

Ning Qiuxiu looked at him with starry eyes and said, “Okay.”

“Don’t overthink it. Focus on your acting, and I’ll come visit the set soon.”

By the way, he wanted to practice the kissing scene with her ahead of time.

He hadn’t had a chance to enjoy it openly himself, so how could he let that guy named Song get a head start?

Ning Qiuxiu didn’t know his secret plan. Right now, she was charmed by the domineering Zhan Qingyue and happily agreed, looking forward to his visit.

If she were to video call Zhan Qingyue, she’d see the smug smile on his face.

After hanging up the call, Ning Qiuxiu got ready and headed to the film set, planning to find out who posted the initial gossip.

Zhan Qingyue was quite low-key.

Since their relationship was not public, he kept any gifts or gestures very discreet, so they wouldn’t cause unnecessary trouble for Ning Qiuxiu.

However, since they were all in the same production team and often saw each other, it was impossible for others not to hear some rumors.

In the world of celebrity relationships, people usually keep quiet and only spread gossip.

After all, everyone has admirers, and receiving gifts is no big deal!

The person who exposed the details and knew so much about it must be from the crew, and most likely a WeChat friend of Ning Qiuxiu’s.

Even if not a friend, it could be a friend of a friend.

Ning Qiuxiu kept her WeChat contacts to a minimum, usually adding only friends she could chat with.

For instance, she used a secondary account to add contacts during her previous project.

In this project, besides Song Chu, whom she had already added, she also added Director Xiao Sheng, a talkative supporting actress Tang Hua, and a male supporting actor Liang Cheng, who was from the same agency.

Since Song Chu and Xiao Sheng were unlikely to be the culprits, the remaining suspects were Tang Hua and Liang Cheng.

Ning Qiuxiu sent their names to Qu Hua.

[Ning Qiuxiu: Qu Ge, please find out as quickly as possible about these two people.]

[Qu Hua: Ok.]

Qu Hua was very efficient and soon sent over the details of both individuals.

Tang Hua: Graduated from an arts school, debuted two years ago, became popular with an idol drama.

In “Campus Bully,” she was originally one of the candidates for the lead role.

However, since her persona didn’t fit and another role suited her better, she ended up playing a supporting character.

Liang Cheng was originally a trainee, but the company planned to push him into acting.

Since Ning Qiuxiu was the female lead this time, they decided to get him involved to have her mentor him.

Ning Qiuxiu remembered that Liang Cheng was close with the second female lead, Lin Yihan.

Both of them were suspects.

If it was Tang Hua, the script would be that she disliked Ning Qiuxiu as the female lead and was unhappy with her success.

So when she saw that the investors were giving Ning Qiuxiu special treatment, she might have thought that Ning Qiuxiu getting the role was because of her connection with Fan Yanliang.

Damn it.

Expose it.

As for Liang Cheng, he might be connected to Lin Yihan.

Ning Qiuxiu had seen Lin Yihan’s relationship with Fan Yanliang firsthand.

Lin Yihan, seeing Fan Yanliang giving special treatment to Ning Qiuxiu, might have been jealous.

If Lin Yihan had an affair with Fan Yanliang, she could have known that Fan Yanliang only sent her gifts twice, and the second time was directly rejected.

Other gifts were from unknown people.

So, the original reason for her post might have been to smear Ning Qiuxiu, hinting that she was supported by a rich man and telling Fan Yanliang that she was taken, not to persist in his feelings.

Unexpectedly, the situation was twisted, and it seemed someone was adding fuel to the fire.

The outcome was completely contrary to her intention.

Who could it be?

Ning Qiuxiu carefully reviewed the screenshots of her social media posts, and her hand hesitated on the phone screen.

She seemed to know who it was.

When she arrived on set, everyone looked at Ning Qiuxiu with strange expressions, probably having heard about the gossip involving her and Fan Yanliang.

Song Chu, who arrived before her, came over and asked in a low voice, “What’s going on? Wasn’t it supposed to be someone named Zhan? Did they change it?”

“…Change to a big-headed ghost,” Ning Qiuxiu wanted to kick him, “Can’t you see I’ve been set up?”

“Damn, how would I know? The way you looked when you saw President Fan made me suspect something was going on between you two.”

“Get lost, don’t disgust me.”

Ning Qiuxiu kicked Song Chu away and went to the lounge instead of the makeup room.

She had Xiao Chi call Liang Cheng over and closed the door.

Liang Cheng, younger than Ning Qiuxiu and in his early twenties, was full of youthful energy.

In front of Ning Qiuxiu, who was his senior, he didn’t dare to look up, keeping his eyes on the floor: “Senior Ning.”

“Don’t call me so familiarly; it’s disgusting,” Ning Qiuxiu said bluntly.

Liang Cheng was taken aback: “I… did I do something wrong?”

Ning Qiuxiu looked at him in surprise and laughed in anger: “Did you think it was fun to screenshot my social media posts and share them with others?”

“I didn’t, Senior Ning. I… I don’t use WeChat much.”

“Don’t be so quick to defend yourself,” Ning Qiuxiu said. “Since you know so much about this, it must be someone from our crew. On my WeChat, apart from my manager and assistant Xiao Chi, the crew members are you, Tang Hua, Song Chu, and Director Xiao. Director Xiao is definitely not involved. Among the remaining three, Tang Hua liked the post, and Song Chu commented, but the screenshot you sent has no likes or comments. Liang Cheng, besides you, I can’t find anyone else.”

Liang Cheng: “……”

With concrete evidence, Liang Cheng admitted he was the one who took the screenshot and posted it, taking full responsibility.

He didn’t admit to sending it to Lin Yihan.

When asked why, he said it was because he couldn’t stand the company’s blind favoritism towards Ning Qiuxiu.

“You don’t need to cover for her,” Ning Qiuxiu said coldly with her arms crossed, “We traced the IP address of the forum post, and it’s her address.”

“Impossible!” Liang Cheng said quickly, “We all stay in the same hotel and use the same IP. How can you distinguish which IP belongs to whom? Don’t try to deceive me.”

“I’m deceiving you,” Ning Qiuxiu said with a wicked smile, “The poster used a proxy IP, and the address is in the US. As the poster, you wouldn’t know this?”

Liang Cheng: “……”