Gu Xuanze and Yuan Baiyue didn’t expect that even the reporter from Nian Dai TV had been bought off. It seemed like things were not going to go smoothly. Especially backstage, Yuan Baiyue’s expression was even worse. He hadn’t noticed this, and he even arranged for the Nian Dai TV reporter to ask the first question, which was a major mistake on his part. Fortunately, Lu Youze reacted quickly, and everything was still under control. However, since the Nian Dai TV reporter wasn’t afraid of offending the Gu Corporation, this public betrayal must have been well-planned. Yuan Baiyue knew that this situation was unlikely to be that simple.

“小柳,” Yuan Baiyue recalled the video that the reporter mentioned and said to his assistant, Liu Xiaoyin, “Find the video the reporter mentioned and bring it to me.”

It was a video that was unfavorable to Lu Youze, and even the reporters knew about it, but they had no clue about it. It seemed like he and his PR department might need to resign collectively.

“Boss, there’s no such video,” Liu Xiaoyin said helplessly. “The reporter was just making things up.”

“No, that’s not right.” Yuan Baiyue stared at the reporter from Nian Dai TV on the screen, his expression telling him that things weren’t as simple as they seemed. “Xiaoyin, have our people closely monitor Weibo’s trends.”

The press conference was being broadcast live on their app, and as mentioned earlier, thanks to the Gu and Lu corporations’ marketing efforts, the popularity of the CP pair, Gu Xuanze and Lu Youze, was very high. A lot of people were watching the live broadcast just for them. Maybe someone wanted to take advantage of this moment to stir up trouble, so they had to be cautious.

Yuan Baiyue, as expected of someone in PR, trusted his instincts. After the Nian Dai TV reporter asked the question, major marketing accounts on Weibo simultaneously shared a video. The title of the video was eye-catching: “Shocking: Certain Best Actor Bullying a New Actor on Set.”

This video was the one mentioned by the reporter during the press conference. To prevent Yuan Baiyue and his team from being prepared first, it was intentionally released at this time. The live broadcast was already drawing a large audience, and the comments started discussing the video. Many viewers who didn’t understand the situation rushed to watch the video, which quickly climbed to trending topics.

Yuan Baiyue and his PR team quickly watched the video. It showed footage from the set and several segments of what seemed like pieced-together conversations, along with an interview of the so-called bullied new actor that had been altered with voice-changing technology. Since he had the crew’s contracts, the names were conveniently blurred, but it was clear that the interviewee was indeed a crew member. Moreover, the earlier footage confirmed that someone in the crew had been bought off.

Human nature: people die for money, and birds die for food. Since Lu Lihai had bought off the staff to report on Lu Youze’s brother every day, it wasn’t surprising if other crew members had been bribed as well.

After watching the video, Yuan Baiyue thought it was troublesome but not something they couldn’t handle. Clearly, the person behind this had not naively thought that this video alone could ruin Lu Youze.

This was just a warning!

It was meant to show them that there had always been someone watching Lu Youze, and if they wanted, he would be in danger at any time.

At this moment, both Yuan Baiyue and Gu Xuanze, who was sitting on the stage, thought of someone. This was bad! Yuan Baiyue nervously looked at Gu Xuanze on the screen. Although his friend was usually a calm person, he always lost control when it came to that person and Lu Youze’s matters. Now, with both issues coming together, Yuan Baiyue feared that Gu Xuanze might do something out of control.

“Boss, we’ve had our technical team verify the video. A lot of the conversations in it are pieced together from several recordings,” Liu Xiaoyin hurriedly reported their progress. “Also, it seems Lu Corporation is helping. We’ve already sent our analysis report to their person in charge. Someone should be posting a technical analysis soon.”

“Mm.” Yuan Baiyue nodded. His gaze didn’t dare to leave Gu Xuanze. “You take care of it.”

With Lu Corporation’s help, things would be much easier to handle, and he trusted his assistant to take care of it.

On stage, Gu Xuanze’s expression was extremely cold. Fortunately, his usual cold demeanor helped the audience not notice anything unusual. However, the people watching the live broadcast weren’t just the general audience, but also marketing accounts trying to stir things up and paid commenters.

“Gu Xuanze’s expression looks bad. Could it be that what the reporter said is true?”

“I saw the video too. Lu Youze really told Gu Xuanze that he wanted to teach them a lesson.”

“Yeah, I heard it clearly too.”

“Even though the voice was altered, you could still hear the new actor being interviewed was about to cry.”

…

Similar comments flooded the screen, and as more people said it, it naturally piqued the audience’s curiosity and suspicion. More and more people began to analyze the meaning behind Gu Xuanze’s expression from various angles.

Meanwhile, the PR team was also working hard, trying to stop these troublemakers. They couldn’t let these haters continue to do whatever they wanted. They had to shift public opinion in their favor.

“Are you all overthinking this? Watch fewer palace dramas.”

“Stop with the conspiracy theories.”

“I said, sisters, don’t you think this is sweet? How could someone who loves you so much be slandered like this and still look good?”

“That’s right, I now have the same expression as Mr. Gu. Who is this reporter, making things up and speaking nonsense, it drives me crazy.”

“Well, you don’t have Mr. Gu’s good looks.”

“That’s why he doesn’t have Emperor Lu.”

“Life is tough, don’t tear it down…”

“Mr. Gu: I’m going to make sure this reporter can never work in this industry again.”

“Where did this domineering CEO come from?”

With the downfall of Gu’s hired online commenters, the comments on the live stream returned to a cheerful mood. People began making jokes about the ‘domineering CEO’ trope and complimenting both of their good looks. Moreover, posts analyzing the video technically had already topped the trending topics on Weibo. Experts in the field also quickly came forward, stating that the audio in the video was indeed pieced together, and that other new actors from the crew feared being mistaken for the censored interviewee. They also stood up to speak on behalf of Lu Youze, saying that acting alongside him had been very beneficial to them. Lu Youze had taught them a lot about acting; he was strict with them but even stricter with himself, all in order to make the drama better.

Suddenly, Lu Youze’s professionalism video shot back up on the trending list, and the video, which had initially caused a stir, instead helped him gain more fans.

Gu Xuanze also didn’t lose his temper on the spot; he remained quite calm. After Lu Youze finished answering the question from the reporter at Nian Dai TV, he gave the host a knowing look, and the host naturally understood what it meant.

“Thank you very much to the Nian Dai TV reporter for the question. I believe that Emperor Lu’s answer will prove those baseless rumors wrong. Now, let’s see what other questions the journalists have.”

And surprisingly, the Nian Dai TV reporter didn’t continue to press the issue and obediently returned to his seat.

This further confirmed Yuan Baiyue’s earlier suspicion that they had caused such a stir simply to let Gu Xuanze know: he’s back.

After that, there were no further issues, and the press conference ended successfully. However, just as the conference wrapped up, the Nian Dai TV reporter suddenly walked over to Gu Xuanze’s side and whispered something in his ear. Gu Xuanze’s expression immediately changed.