Although Yan Xue had been involved in the incident and had even played a relatively crucial role, there was no clear evidence proving that she had anything to do with Hong Guodong’s death or with Yan Yu spreading rumors and slandering the police. Therefore, under the current law, she could not be found guilty.
But her involvement gave Shu Yu another possibility to consider.
“The company Yan Xue used to work for is the place where she was most likely to have come into contact with the person behind all this. We need to find a way to continue investigating,” Shu Yu said.
“That’s outside our jurisdiction.” Team Leader Liang looked somewhat troubled.
“Don’t worry. Cases like this will be handled internally within our system.” Shu Yu realized that Team Leader Liang had misunderstood her. “As for why Han Yu and the others sexually assaulted Hong Guodong, you don’t need to think too much about it. If Hong Guodong hadn’t been sexually assaulted, it would’ve been difficult for us to connect this matter to Yan Yu. Obviously, the other side guided them into doing that as well.”
Team Leader Liang had also considered that possibility, so he took down all the photographs and information from the whiteboard.
“Thank you for your hard work.” He looked at everyone present with deep emotion. “We’ll handle the follow-up work on the case and provide you with a detailed case-closing report as soon as possible.”
Now that the matter had reached this point, what came afterward had little to do with the Public Opinion Response Division. Shu Yu breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that she could finally get some proper rest.
After Team Leader Liang left, they said goodbye to Chen Heng and returned to the hotel.
Chen Heng still needed to report how the case had been handled to his superiors, so he didn’t drive them back.
“So it’s finally over. We’re going back tomorrow?” Lu Anran asked.
“Feng Tang and I are flying straight to Hengdian. You guys can go back,” Shu Yu said with a yawn. “I can write my report anywhere anyway.”
“Remember to submit a report asking the higher-ups to continue investigating Yan Xue.” Lu Anran waved her phone. “I do have a lead. The last company she worked for was called Wenxin Media. It isn’t convenient for us to continue investigating it ourselves.”
“Got it.” Shu Yu planned to submit the report that very night.
After returning to the hotel, however, none of them could sleep.
“Sister Shu, what do you think these people are trying to achieve by probing whether we exist?” Feng Tang asked while lying on Shu Yu’s bed.
“To confirm that we exist.”
Shu Yu’s answer was as good as no answer at all.
While writing the official case statement, Xiao Que said, “Once they confirm that we exist, they’ll find us.”
Shu Yu put down her phone and looked at the lights outside the window.
“The existence of our Public Opinion Response Division is actually the biggest public-opinion crisis of all.” Her tone was calm. “Once our existence is openly exposed to the public, what we’ll have to face next will be an enormous online storm.”
“Why?” Lu Anran was somewhat confused. “At the end of the day, we’re just a functional government department.”
“Because our existence can be interpreted in many different ways.” Shu Yu looked away from the window. “Claims about there being no freedom of speech and accusations of literary inquisitions would only be the most basic moves. A certain country on the other side of the Pacific has been waiting a long time to get something on us.”
“Our existence could be escalated into accusations that we don’t respect human rights. It could be extended into claims that we’re shutting ourselves off from the rest of the world. Some people could even steer it toward political persecution.” Shu Yu had thought about this long ago. “We completely lost the online battlefield of public opinion more than a decade ago. Even after doing everything we could over the past few years, we’ve only managed to reclaim a small portion of it. In an environment like this, once our existence is confirmed, everyone who speaks in support of the H Country government online will be labeled an ‘internet commentator’ or a ‘paid troll.’ More than a decade of our efforts will have been completely wasted.”
Sometimes, Shu Yu really wanted to see what went through the minds of those netizens who blindly followed whatever narrative was being pushed around without thinking clearly.
Especially those whose heads were filled with the belief that they were about to be persecuted.
“So we can’t personally come forward for the follow-up investigation,” Xiao Que said, looking up after finishing the report. “But I think we should still be able to dig up something through Yan Xue.”
“That depends on how quickly the higher-ups move.” Shu Yu had a great deal of confidence in their direct superiors. After all, they were a security department hidden in the shadows.
“The statement is finished. If there aren’t any problems, I’ll post it using their official account at nine tomorrow morning.” Xiao Que sent the completed statement to Shu Yu. “Hopefully these people don’t cause trouble again so soon. Let us rest for a few days.”
The feeling of not having the initiative in their own hands was extremely unpleasant.
After reading the statement, Shu Yu said, “No problems. A response this detailed is enough.”
Xiao Que hadn’t gone into excessive detail on certain matters, since they involved personal privacy.
“We’re off work!” Feng Tang cheered excitedly. “I can go to Hengdian and see Fu Chongming!”
“You like him that much?” Xiao Que was puzzled. “Male celebrities can have their reputations collapse pretty easily, even award-winning actors.”
“Who cares? If his reputation collapses, I’ll just switch to another one.” Feng Tang didn’t seem bothered at all. “My feelings for every handsome guy are sincere.”
Xiao Que: “…”
…
Early the next morning, Xiao Que released the official case statement.
The twists and turns of the case sparked plenty of discussion. Some people attacked Yan Yu, some sympathized with Han Ya, while others began making sarcastic remarks to stir up conflict between men and women.
In the end, this case, which had torn apart five or six families, became nothing more than a topic for people to chat about over meals.
Shu Yu knew very well that, at most, half a month after the statement was released, there would no longer be any large-scale discussion about the case.
The internet might have a memory, but it usually wasn’t a very long one.
Feng Tang received a huge red packet of five thousand yuan from Shu Yu.
“Thank you, Boss. Boss is so generous.” Her round eyes curved into slits as she smiled. “What time does our flight land?”
“Two in the afternoon.” Shu Yu checked the time. “Shu Ling said her assistant will come pick us up.”
Although Shu Ling was the female lead in this drama, the script centered heavily around the male lead, so even as the female lead, she didn’t have all that many scenes.
By the time Shu Yu arrived at the hotel from the airport, Shu Ling had already finished filming for the day.
“You finished pretty early today.” Shu Yu joined Feng Tang in freeloading a meal. “I thought that since you’re playing the female lead, you’d at least be filming until seven or eight at night.”
“What kind of female lead am I?” Shu Ling waved her hand. “I’m technically the second-billed female lead, but I barely have that many scenes in this drama. I’m just background decoration for the male lead.”
“Then why did you accept it?” Feng Tang was thoroughly confused.
“The production company has a pretty good reputation in the industry. Whether before or now, I’ve never been an artist with particularly good public favorability, so I took this drama to get some exposure.” Shu Ling naturally had her own plans.
Feng Tang suddenly remembered what had happened some time ago and said, “Haven’t you already gone from being an influencer-streamer to someone who gets roles through connections? Why does it seem like your reputation still isn’t good?”
“Being someone who gets roles through connections isn’t exactly a positive image either.” Shu Yu stuffed some grilled meat into Feng Tang’s mouth. “If I hadn’t been worried about Shu Ling constantly having sexual rumors fabricated about her, with a bunch of male traffic stars’ fans claiming she slept her way to the top, I never would’ve wanted her to use this image in the first place.”
“That’s true.” Shu Ling looked helpless. “Some of my old fans stopped supporting me, but that was an inevitable price to pay.”
Between being slut-shamed every day, having people openly and implicitly spread sexual rumors claiming she had slept her way to the top, and losing fans after becoming known as someone who got opportunities through connections and, to some extent, starting over, Shu Ling had hesitated for a long time before ultimately choosing the latter.
The former required far too much psychological resilience. Since she had already begun showing signs of depression, protecting her health was more important.
“I still get cursed at now, but it’s much better than before.” Shu Ling smiled helplessly. “If you had to choose between being cursed at for getting roles through connections and being called a prostitute, which would you choose?”
Feng Tang thought about it and decided she wanted neither.
“Forget it. The entertainment industry really isn’t for me.”
Shu Ling smiled, then told Shu Yu about Hengyu Media, the marketing company she had recently found.
“I only noticed it after reading your official case statement. I’ve met that Yan Xue from your case before.” Shu Ling lowered her voice. “She was an employee of a marketing company called Wenxin Media. That company has some connection with Hengyu Media, the company I’m currently working with.”
Shu Yu immediately became alert.
“We’ll talk when we get back.” She waved a hand at Shu Ling.
Although she didn’t yet know whether there was anything wrong with Hengyu Media, the fact that Yan Xue had come into contact with Shu Ling made her extremely wary.
Knowing that the other side was looking for her, she needed to know whether Yan Xue’s contact with Shu Ling had been deliberate or accidental.
Shu Ling clearly understood what Shu Yu meant. After they finished eating, the three returned to Shu Ling’s hotel room.
The surrounding rooms on that floor were all occupied by members of Shu Ling’s studio staff, so they didn’t have to worry about privacy.
“When did you meet Yan Xue?” Shu Yu asked as soon as they entered the room.
“Near the end of February, not long after the New Year. When the workplace drama I filmed before this started production, their company was involved in marketing the drama.” Shu Ling found a photo from the production launch. “That female staff member in the far corner is Yan Xue.”
Only after Shu Ling explained did Shu Yu learn that Yan Xue had gone there as an employee of the company to help out. Nowadays, drama productions began rolling out all kinds of marketing from the casting stage onward, so several cooperating companies had sent people over to meet the production staff when filming began.
Yan Xue had been one of them.
“At the moment, I can’t tell whether it was accidental or deliberate.” Shu Yu stared at the photograph and thought for a long time. “What’s the relationship between her company and the Hengyu Media you mentioned?”
“The two companies work together on some things. When I later hired Hengyu Media to handle marketing for me, I saw people from Wenxin Media on their team,” Shu Ling said. “But I don’t know exactly what the relationship between the two companies is.”
“Looks like further investigation is necessary.” Shu Yu was extremely wary of both companies. “Don’t work with Hengyu Media for the time being. Wait until I confirm there’s nothing wrong with them.”
Shu Ling readily agreed. After all, when Shu Yu said there was “something wrong,” it usually wasn’t a minor problem.
The situation became even more complicated and confusing.
Shu Yu found it strange. If this company really was behind the manipulation of the previous two cases, then what were they trying to do by getting involved in the entertainment industry now?
“I suddenly feel like I’m being watched.” Shu Ling pointed at the business card on the table. “If there really is something wrong with this company, do you think they’re targeting you or me?”
“Hopefully they’re not targeting either of us.” Shu Yu put the business card into her bag. “Otherwise, either one would be a major problem.”
On her first night in Hengdian, Shu Yu suffered from insomnia.
She recalled the previous two cases and realized that regardless of who the people behind them were, they had probably infiltrated the internet for a very long time. In an age where personal information was practically transparent, just how much data had they collected, and how much personal information did they possess?
Real-name verification certainly couldn’t stop them.
It seemed they still needed to find a way to figure out what these people were doing as soon as possible, so that more people wouldn’t suffer because of them.
If they didn’t exist, Yang Jie wouldn’t have died. Hong Guodong wouldn’t have died. Han Yu and the other three wouldn’t have received decades-long sentences for taking revenge on Hong Guodong either.
And right now, Shu Yu had absolutely no idea what the other side would do next.
The feeling was extremely unpleasant.
…
After a sleepless night, Shu Yu caught up on sleep in her room and slept until after noon.
Shu Ling had gone to film, while Feng Tang had also been lying around in her room. When she saw that Shu Yu was awake, she dragged her out to wander around the film set.
“Let’s go. I want to see that award-winning actor in person too.” Although Shu Yu wasn’t particularly interested in the entertainment industry, she would never turn down the chance to join in on some excitement.
So the two contacted Shu Ling’s assistant and had her take them over.
Halfway there, a celebrity van sped past them, looking unusually hurried.
“Huh? That’s Gu Hang’s van from the production next door.” Shu Ling’s assistant, Qi Xiaofei, looked surprised. “This is the first time I’ve seen them driving in such a hurry.”
“They can’t afford not to hurry.” Shu Yu picked up her phone and glanced at it. “Gu Hang’s trending topic has exploded.”
“Huh?”
Qi Xiaofei hadn’t had time to check her phone at all. Only now did she take it out and look carefully.
For celebrities, appearing on trending searches was common, but when a trending topic exploded, it usually wasn’t anything good.
That purple icon didn’t mean they were about to become wildly famous. It meant the companies and capital behind them were so furious their faces were about to turn purple.
Shu Yu had already read the trending topic.
Gu Hang had been exposed for secretly marrying and cheating on his wife, and had supposedly even had a child with his mistress.
“Good grief.” After reading everything, Feng Tang let out a long sigh. “He’s finished.”
“Not necessarily.” Shu Yu put down her phone. “This might be negative marketing.”
“Negative marketing?”
Feng Tang hurriedly read through all the exposé material in detail and immediately understood what Shu Yu meant.
“There isn’t any solid evidence in the entire exposé. So how did this trending topic explode?”
“They bought it.” Shu Yu didn’t find it strange. “Gu Hang’s reputation has always been mediocre, and there have always been rumors that his private life is messy. A lot of people almost instinctively believed it this time. But an exposé consisting only of chat records mixed with blurry photos can’t conclusively prove anything. There’s plenty of room to manipulate the situation.”
“Can marketing like that really work?” Qi Xiaofei wasn’t convinced. “Wouldn’t he lose a lot of fans once something like this trends?”
“What if he can produce powerful evidence to clear his name?” Shu Yu smiled. “Look. A secret marriage is something that would change the marital status on his household register from unmarried to married. Even if he got divorced, it would still show that he was divorced. As for the mistress and the child, there isn’t a single clear frontal photograph of either of them. But the location they’re supposedly at is very obvious. The surrounding buildings are far clearer than the people in the images, which means whoever made these pictures deliberately blurred the people.”
Qi Xiaofei suddenly understood.
“So the location would be easy to identify. As long as Gu Hang wasn’t there at that time, he could completely prove that the whole thing was fabricated.”
But judging from the reaction of Gu Hang’s team, this marketing campaign didn’t seem to have been purchased by them.
That made things somewhat strange.
Would someone really go out of their way to buy a trending topic like this for him when it was so easy to clarify?
Shu Yu suddenly found it somewhat familiar.
Feng Tang also thought of something. The two exchanged a glance and tacitly stopped talking.
Qi Xiaofei didn’t know Shu Yu and Feng Tang’s true identities. Shu Ling was extremely strict when it came to confidentiality.
However, Shu Yu’s public identity was that of a self-media content creator, so Qi Xiaofei trusted what she said about marketing matters.
After getting out of the car, Shu Yu and Feng Tang took advantage of the moment when Qi Xiaofei went to find Shu Ling to discuss the matter.
“This trending topic doesn’t look like something Gu Hang’s team bought.” Feng Tang glanced at the neighboring production, which was in complete chaos. “Then it feels a little like someone deliberately planted an easy-to-refute rumor to lure them into a trap.”
“It feels pretty similar to when we first took over Hong Guodong’s case.” Shu Yu had clearly reached the same conclusion as Feng Tang. “The other side threw Yan Yu out first specifically to lure us into the trap. I wonder how Gu Hang’s situation will develop afterward.”
“The methods are pretty similar.” Feng Tang rubbed her chin. “If we can find out which company did this, it might give us some clues too.”
“Exactly.” Shu Yu had just been worrying that they had no breakthrough at all, and now one had practically delivered itself to their doorstep. “The domestic entertainment industry is only so big. It probably won’t be difficult to ask around.”
When Shu Ling came over and saw the two of them whispering mysteriously about something, she approached them in confusion.
“Am I allowed to hear what you’re talking about?”
She stopped when she was one meter away from Shu Yu.
“Of course. In fact, we need your help with this.” Shu Yu immediately pulled Shu Ling into the discussion.
After hearing everything, Shu Ling’s expression became extremely complicated.
“Does this count as official business, or…?” She hesitated, unsure whether she should even know about this.
“Not for now. At most, it’s just my personal suspicion.” Shu Yu spread her hands. “I don’t have a shred of evidence anyway.”
“That’s true. ‘It feels very similar’ really can’t be used as evidence.” Shu Ling laughed. “All right, I understand. I’ll help you ask around afterward.”
Shu Yu wasn’t worried that Shu Ling asking about this would attract attention.
In fact, if Gu Hang suffered another massive scandal after successfully clearing his name, there would be even more people in the industry asking questions about it.
Everyone was afraid that someone might secretly pull the same trick on them.
With the matter settled, Shu Yu and Feng Tang relaxed and followed Shu Ling toward their filming location.
“Is this some large-scale historical political-intrigue drama?” Shu Yu asked.
“More or less. Anyway, I’m just one of those characters who looks really important but actually isn’t that important,” Shu Ling described herself.