Shao Dong called Liang Han directly via voice chat: “Aha! So the waiter you met at the club that day was Song Yuanxi! No wonder you suddenly changed your mind about him!”
Liang Han had just opened Song Yuanxi’s Weibo but hadn’t had time to look at it yet. After all, he had to search for it manually, unlike the fans who had been staring at Song Yuanxi’s profile since the incident broke; they had posted it to the group chat the moment it went live. Shao Dong had seen it before him.
Confused, Liang Han paused, a strange emotion welling up in his heart. “What do you mean? How do you know the person I met was him? Did Song Yuanxi tell you?”
Why would Song Yuanxi bring that up out of nowhere? Was he trying to corrupt the people around Liang Han to create opportunities for himself?
Shao Dong hummed in affirmation. “Haven’t you seen the Weibo he posted? Go look, quickly.”
He even said it on Weibo?
Liang Han composed himself and finished reading the passage Song Yuanxi had posted. He fell silent.
What was going on?
At this moment, he didn’t pay much attention to the part about the club. Instead, his eyes were uncontrollably fixed on the first few sentences.
Song Yuanxi said he was straight. This was understandable after all, he had just emphasized this to Liang Han in person, and he couldn’t exactly go public and say he wasn’t. That wouldn’t have any clarifying effect; instead, it would make people think they were actually dating.
But why did he only say he was straight?
Did Song Yuanxi implicitly assume that Liang Han was someone who could be “bent”?
Shao Dong asked, “Finished reading? What do you think? I think he handled it quite well. He explained everything clearly. This should finally silence the online rumors.”
Liang Han gave a low “Mm.” “He handled it well.”
He took everything upon himself without dragging Liang Han into it at all. He was quite well-behaved. The clarification was full of praise for Liang Han being a good person. Although Liang Han knew he was a good person, being praised like this made him feel embarrassed for the first time. A strange feeling lingered in his chest.
Shao Dong laughed. “Before, I suspected he had ulterior motives, but now it seems he really just sought you out to terminate his contract and join the cast.”
Liang Han remained silent, not quite agreeing with that thought. His heart felt otherwise.
If it were just to join the cast, he didn’t necessarily have to find him. Liang Han said in a deep tone, “We can’t be completely sure he doesn’t have other motives. He could have approached you guys instead. Weren’t you quite fond of him too?”
Shao Dong paused, confused. “…Didn’t you say before that he was a good person? Why do you think he has ulterior motives again?”
Liang Han’s expression stiffened for a few seconds. He said, “My point is, since he didn’t look for anyone else and specifically sought me out, doesn’t that mean he has ‘motives’ regarding me? Motives like… liking that I’m a good person.”
Shao Dong thought about it and agreed. “True. If he had come to me, I definitely wouldn’t have helped him like this.”
Shao Dong laughed again. “It seems he received your help at the club, knew you were kind-hearted, and that’s why he thought of coming to you later for help with the contract!”
Liang Han still disagreed in his heart. Song Yuanxi clearly had feelings for him at the club, which is why he came to pester him. Everything else was likely just an excuse.
“Before, I thought he was a pursuer of yours. I was worried and wanted to ask if he’d been harassing you lately. Now I see I was overthinking it; the guy wasn’t looking to be ‘kept’ by you.”
Shao Dong recalled what he had said at the club. Now that he thought about it, he really had been overthinking. But he still tried to justify himself: “However, he did end up asking you for help and borrowing money, so I wasn’t entirely wrong.”
Liang Han snorted. “You were exactly wrong!”
Song Yuanxi wasn’t just looking for money; he clearly wanted to sign with Liang Han’s studio from the start to stay by his side! To see him, he had waited downstairs at the studio for three or four days, acting miserable, playing the pity card, and saying sweet things to show loyalty. He was so dedicated.
It was clearly a much more sophisticated tactic than what Shao Dong had described. Otherwise, why would Liang Han constantly feel soft-hearted and pity him, impulsively agreeing to help him terminate the contract?
Shao Dong gave in. “Fine, fine, I was wrong! I won’t say more. Since the trending topic is resolved, I’m going back to work. I’ll contact you once the paparazzi find out the results.”
He was about to hang up when he remembered to remind him: “By the way, the partner video platform contacted me. They want us to meet this weekend to discuss follow-up project plans and funding. It’s arranged at the Yunlang Hotel. Don’t forget, and don’t go on a business trip out of town!”
“Got it.” Liang Han forwarded the work schedule to his assistant to set a reminder and adjust his itinerary.
After finishing the task, he looked down at Weibo again.
By now, the comment section had exploded. No one suspected Liang Han and Song Yuanxi of being in a relationship anymore. Once Liang Han’s fans got a definitive answer, they began helping with the clarification and controlling the comments, occupying the top spots.
[Thank you, little brother, for coming out to clarify. I knew our Brother Han was being slandered! He is clearly straight; he doesn’t like men.]
[The little brother is straight, and our Brother Han is also straight. This was just one guy helping another, an act of loyalty, and yet it was rumored to be a romance. That’s a bit much!]
[The little brother is so unlucky blacklisted with no work, and finally gathered the courage to ask Brother Han for help, only to be used by paparazzi to farm traffic.]
Liang Han stared at the top comments and nodded inwardly. His fans were right. These paparazzi were indeed excessive, and Song Yuanxi was indeed very unlucky.
Liang Han scrolled down. His fans were clearly experienced and quick-witted; they soon found more information from Song Yuanxi’s clarification. While clarifying that Liang Han wasn’t in a relationship and wasn’t gay, they shifted attention to the fact that Song Yuanxi had been blacklisted.
This was their way of reciprocating Song Yuanxi’s initiative to clarify by helping him shift the public narrative. It was very effective; many passersby began to care about Song Yuanxi’s situation.
[Song Yuanxi is so pitiful. Why was he blacklisted by his company? I looked him up; he’s played some roles and even had a small viral moment before.]
[He’s so handsome and his acting is good. The company isn’t promoting him? They actually forced him to become a waiter? That’s ridiculous.]
[He must have offended someone in the company. Otherwise, it’s impossible to understand why they’d treat him like this.]
[He passed the audition for “The Prime Minister,” so why wouldn’t the company let him go? Do they not want to make money? This is very fishy!]
[Looking at this alongside another topic—[Rumor: Huanhai artist Huang Yi will play the third male lead in the major historical drama “The Prime Minister”]—things get interesting.]
[So the company blacklisted him for the sake of Huang Yi? It’s true, Huang Yi does look a bit like him.]
[Huang Yi isn’t as handsome as him! How could he steal his resources!?]
[Maybe Huang Yi’s acting is better?]
[No way! [Link shared] Go see for yourself, Song Yuanxi’s acting is much better than Huang Yi’s!]
Once these words came out, Huang Yi’s fans couldn’t take it. They had originally come to watch the drama. Because Huang Yi and Song Yuanxi had similar images and were in the same company, Huang Yi’s development had clearly been less prioritized than Song Yuanxi’s.
Thus, Huang Yi’s fans saw Song Yuanxi as a thorn in their side and constantly monitored him. Seeing that Song Yuanxi hadn’t had any good news or new work for the past six months, while their idol Huang Yi was about to join a production, they were all secretly gloating in their private chats.
When they saw the trending topic earlier, they thought Song Yuanxi and Liang Han were together. They were happy about the public insults toward Song Yuanxi, but also hated the thought that Song Yuanxi might get better resources and surpass Huang Yi. They were camping on Song Yuanxi’s Weibo to take the opportunity to kick him while he was down.
However, they saw the clarification post and the comments from Liang Han’s fans. They didn’t dare speak up, fearing they’d be chased and scolded by Liang Han’s massive fanbase. But they didn’t expect their own idol to be called out by Liang Han’s fans.
Each one of them grew anxious:
[Don’t spread rumors! Our Huang Yi went to the audition fair and square. What do you mean ‘stole’?]
[Song Yuanxi’s conflict with the company is his own business. Don’t try to drag our Huang Yi into the conversation!]
[If he was rejected, he should reflect on his own problems. If someone else performed well and got the opportunity, it can’t be called stealing.]
[Don’t just clip a few segments to compare acting. Huang Yi’s acting is great! Not worse than Song Yuanxi! If you don’t recognize talent, others will!]
[Exactly! Huang Yi also auditioned for Teacher Liang Han’s production. If he could pass, it means Teacher Liang Han approves of him! How is he worse than Song Yuanxi!]
Liang Han originally didn’t think this trending topic was a big deal. Since it was a false rumor, the public opinion would naturally fade after the clarification. At most, it would be a bit of gossip for people to mention on forums. As long as he acted well for the audience and produced results for his partners, it was fine.
So, after seeing Song Yuanxi’s post, he didn’t intend to interfere further, merely scrolling through the comments. But seeing the comments from Huang Yi’s fans, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of annoyance.
These people actually claimed Huang Yi’s acting wasn’t worse than Song Yuanxi’s. Where were their eyes? Huang Yi was only slightly better than a newcomer; he couldn’t compare to Song Yuanxi at all. And now they were using him as a shield. How laughable.
Huang Yi’s fans spoke without a hint of guilt. Whether they truly believed it or not, they had to keep their external story consistent and firm to brainwash passersby. Their confidence actually made some bypassers hesitate to say more. They were afraid of missing some context and being hit with a lawyer’s letter from a celebrity studio.
[Maybe we’re overthinking it. Anyway, regardless of the situation, there’s definitely something wrong with that company!]
[I was just speaking casually, why get so worked up? Only Huang Yi himself knows if he’s innocent or not.]
Just as that passerby finished speaking, they received a notification. They had followed several of the parties involved just to keep up with the gossip.
Liang Han had just posted on Weibo.
Liang Han: I would like to clarify: the role of the third male lead in “The Prime Minister” has not yet been cast. Song Yuanxi came to the set to audition last month. At the time, Shao Dong, who was in charge of auditions, told me about it. I personally approve as well and feel that Song Yuanxi is very suitable for the role of the King of Liang’s Heir. However, Huanhai claimed that Song Yuanxi was unwell and could not film, and they recommended Huang Yi to us. Huang Yi came to audition last week, but in my view, he is not as suitable as Song Yuanxi, so I did not give him a contract to join the cast.