UCS Chapter 73

The matter between Gao Gusheng and Xiao Yusheng fermented wildly, and after an hour, this terrible public opinion had begun turning toward doxxing.

 

Whether out of curiosity or malice, many people began spontaneously digging up information about Gao Gusheng, trying to expose this stunning youth who had been linked romantically with two major stars in succession.

 

And Movie King Xiao, who had originally said in private messages that they’d meet tomorrow, was now directly calling Gao Gusheng.

 

His voice carried apology as he opened with an apology, “Sorry, Student Gao, I had someone look up your phone number.”

 

Gao Gusheng instinctively frowned. He actually felt his privacy had been violated, but since the other party had apologized so openly, he couldn’t really say anything.

 

After all, although Xiao Yusheng made him feel somewhat uncomfortable, from beginning to end he hadn’t done anything harmful to him, and had even made a statement defending him once.

 

So Gao Gusheng said, “Hello, Mr. Xiao. I just saw the private message you sent me. Are you asking about solutions to the online situation?”

 

Xiao Yusheng laughed on the other end of the phone, “That’s right. The fermentation of this incident has far exceeded our team’s expectations. This matter not only affects me, but presumably has an even greater impact on you. So I think it’s best we resolve this matter as soon as possible.”

 

“I still prefer that everyone focus on my work. I don’t need this kind of thing for marketing, much less to generate buzz.”

 

The confidence in his tone made it impossible to doubt the truthfulness of his words. In fact, as a movie king famous for his works, girlfriend fans made up a considerable number among his fanbase, but their proportion wasn’t actually that large.

 

Gao Gusheng put his phone on speaker, and a group of people quietly gathered around.

 

Especially Gao Shi.

 

The father’s gaze was fixed darkly on the phone, his expression looking like he wanted to drill into the phone and drag the movie king out to devour him.

 

Unfortunately, the movie king on the other end was completely unaware, saying, “This matter might not be clear enough to discuss over the phone. I don’t know if you have time now—could we meet at a coffee shop? How about that coffee shop in your college?”

 

On the surface, Xiao Yusheng seemed very considerate, even specifically choosing a place familiar to Gao Gusheng to ease his nervousness.

 

Gao Gusheng reminded him, “Movie King Xiao, given our current situation, it’s probably not convenient for us to meet.”

 

Xiao Yusheng said apologetically, “Last time I was indeed too careless. I didn’t expect paparazzi would sneak into your college too. But don’t worry this time—I’ve already bought that coffee shop in your college. Don’t worry, it’s very safe.”

 

This time Gao Gusheng really frowned deeply, “That makes it even worse. If people discover the coffee shop is under your name, wouldn’t that make things even harder to explain?”

 

Why was it a coffee shop again? He was really going to develop PTSD about coffee shops.

 

Xiao Yusheng smiled bitterly, “When I originally bought this coffee shop, I never thought there would be such a day.”

 

“I simply felt this coffee shop’s coffee suited my taste very well. Since the coffee shop was in a good location at the time, it was also a good investment. To ensure the coffee maintained its original flavor, I bought this coffee shop, but didn’t change any of the staff.”

 

“Don’t worry, this coffee shop isn’t registered under my name either. This is probably the safest place.”

 

Gao Gusheng still refused, “Forget it, let’s just talk over the phone.”

 

After thinking for a moment, Xiao Yusheng said, “Since we’re already talking like this—my team’s suggestion is that we could say I was rehearsing scenes with you.”

 

“You know I’ve been recruiting people recently, and I previously said on Weibo that I was very optimistic about you. I could say we were rehearsing—that you joined our production crew, but your acting still needs some work, so I was coaching you.”

 

Gao Shi’s temple veins were twitching wildly as he listened.

 

What Xiao Yusheng said actually wasn’t problematic, because Xiao Yusheng was famous in the industry for caring for newcomers and having no airs about him. He was very willing to mentor new actors and point out their acting deficiencies.

 

But the problem was that Gao Gusheng had already refused Xiao Yusheng’s invitation to join his production crew many times before.

 

Gao Gusheng said, “But what about afterward? Even if we say I joined your production crew now, I ultimately didn’t join. When promotional photos are released, what if someone brings this up again? Wouldn’t that make it even more suspicious?”

 

Xiao Yusheng replied, “Personnel changes in production crews are very normal. We can just find a reason to say you left the crew.”

 

Gao Gusheng still shook his head, “That’s what you say, but I think we can’t underestimate netizens’ gossiping abilities. I’m afraid in their eyes, if I left the crew midway due to some issue, that would be equivalent to clearly telling them that the original statement was fake.”

 

Xiao Yusheng was silent for a while, then asked with a smile, “Otherwise, Student Gao, why don’t you actually join my production crew?”

 

It was unclear how much probing was in his tone.

 

As soon as he said this, not just Gao Shi, but all the big men around were suspecting whether the paparazzi who took that photo was actually arranged by Xiao Yusheng himself—otherwise, how could there be such a coincidence?

 

Thinking this, Xiao Yusheng seemed to see through their thoughts and explained, “I know that saying this, you’ll definitely think this was all my self-directed scheme, but actually I have no reason to do this.”

 

Xiao Yusheng paused, his words carrying the pride built up by countless excellent works, “I’m sorry, I’m not belittling you, nor am I boasting about myself.”

 

“I do indeed think you’re very suitable for this role, but since you refused me, I have no reason to force it. Acting requires very high emotional demands from actors, especially new actors. If you were forced into my crew, you definitely wouldn’t be willing in your heart. What’s in your heart would show in your body language and eyes.”

 

“For this film, I’ve prepared for a long time. I couldn’t possibly drag you into the crew by force for my own selfish desires.”

 

To be honest, if it were anyone else thinking Xiao Yusheng was deliberately scheming against them, they’d definitely be called out for “having such a big ego.” But when this matter involved Gao Gusheng, it became reasonable.

 

Even the circle of Spirit Police and Anomaly Police around didn’t think there was anything wrong.

 

Gao Gusheng’s tone was very firm, “I have no intention of entering the entertainment industry, Mr. Xiao.”

 

Xiao Yusheng’s side fell silent. He sighed and asked, “Then Student Gao, how do you think this matter should be handled?”

 

Gao Gusheng shook his head, “Actually, this matter is very simple. From beginning to end, it’s just a misunderstanding. We just need to clarify the situation.”

 

Xiao Yusheng sighed again, his voice carrying some helpless laughter, like a weathered senior looking at a junior proposing fantasies, “Student Gao, you’re being too naive. Many times people only believe what they see. How would you prove it?”

 

Gao Gusheng said, “I’ll find someone to recreate the scene with me, then photograph it from different angles. Actually, there was quite a distance between me and the movie king at the time. If photographed from a normal angle, no one would mistake our relationship.”

 

Xiao Yusheng’s side was silent again for a moment. He smiled bitterly, “Fine, since you insist so much, let’s try it first.”

 

As soon as the call ended, before Gao Shi could speak, Yin Ling jumped up first, “Something’s wrong! Xiao Yusheng has a problem! He definitely has a problem! Has he taken a fancy to our Lele?”

 

Seeing Yin Ling so agitated, Gao Gusheng’s mood actually improved somewhat. He scratched his head and teased, “Uncle Yin, Xiao Yusheng is your idol, and you’re already convicting him?”

 

Yin Ling clearly had a youthful face, even looking more childish than Gao Gusheng, but being called uncle, he answered very naturally.

 

“Oh well, though idols are precious, Lele’s value is higher.”

 

“Generally, straightforward matters don’t need to be done sneakily. If someone is roundabout and sneaky to achieve their goals, either this person has guilty intentions, or this person is very obsessive.”

 

Either way made everyone couldn’t help but suspect him, even though his reasons for clearing himself seemed very sufficient.

 

Yin Ling waved his hand, “Don’t worry, Lele. Do you know what the method is to make a black dot on white paper look less obvious? The correct method isn’t to try hard to wash this black dot to make it fade, but to dye the entire white paper black.”

 

…

 

Ten minutes later, a Weibo post broke through layers of trending topics and went straight to the top.

 

#Li Mochen Imprisoned#

 

#Li Mochen Kidnapping#

 

#Wanxing Entertainment Li Mochen#

 

#Li Mochen Gao Gusheng#

 

…

 

Various entertainment-related trending topics broke through the defense line formed by topics related to Xiao Yusheng and Gao Gusheng, forcefully squeezing into people’s vision.

 

When everyone curiously clicked on these trending topics, their jaws dropped.

 

【Holy shit! Holy shit! What did I just see?!】

 

【Imprisoned?? He—he’s actually imprisoned???】

 

【These days, it’s one thing for celebrities I follow to go to prison, but how did the CEO I follow also collapse?】

 

【Very simple, because the CEO you follow is the boss of celebrities. If the celebrities collapsed, isn’t it natural for their CEO to collapse too? When the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam is slanted.】

 

【My god, he actually kidnapped someone? What was he thinking?】

 

【I know! I know! I was at the scene.】

 

【Show an eye.】

 

【Show a butt.】

 

【At the time, Li Mochen wanted to keep Gao Gusheng as a sugar baby, but Gao Gusheng wasn’t willing.

 

Because Li Mochen had been pestering Gao Gusheng too many times, Gao Gusheng couldn’t stand it anymore, so he decided to meet him this time to make things clear.

 

Everyone at the scene knew—quite a few students saw that Gao Gusheng, to avoid being beaten by Li Mochen, specifically found many helpers.】

 

【I can testify! I’m a student at Jing University!】

 

A netizen whose IP address showed as City B said.

 

Clicking into their profile, you could indeed see from many clues that these people were genuine Jing University students.

 

But there were still stubborn contrarians insisting, 【What kind of beauties hasn’t President Li seen? Why would he need to pester a student? This isn’t a novel—where would all this unrequited love come from? He’s the president of an entertainment company with so many handsome men and beautiful women, plenty of people want to climb into his bed.】

 

Someone below silently replied with a string of ellipses, 【Say that again while looking at Gao Gusheng’s face.】

 

The contrarian quietly shut up.

 

Seeing that netizens had reached consensus on this matter, someone urged, 【Original poster, keep going! What happened next? How did it turn into kidnapping?】

 

【Damn! That’s because Li Mochen also evaded taxes! Good lord, ten billion yuan!】

 

【At the time, police cars came to arrest him on the spot. Didn’t expect this guy to panic and resist arrest. Not only that, he grabbed Gao Gusheng and kidnapped him.

 

The reason, I estimate, was partly to use Gao Gusheng as a hostage, and partly because our President Li probably thought “better to die under peonies and be a romantic ghost.” Otherwise I really can’t understand why he was so confused as to take Gao Gusheng with him while escaping.】

 

【Good lord, I still remember when we were exposing Qin Shi, our precious Sheng knocked that guy down with one kick. Why would President Li bring along such a human weapon? Was he having a death wish?】

 

【More than that, I’m curious—given Gao Gusheng’s combat ability, how did President Li subdue him? Could President Li’s fighting skills be even higher than Student Gao’s?】

 

Original poster: 【That I don’t know, but President Li didn’t go alone at the time. He seemed to have brought people with him too, so maybe it was a case of many against few?】

 

【Good lord, had President Li already considered directly kidnapping Gao Gusheng if negotiations failed? His movements looked pretty practiced.】

 

【Honestly, this kind of domineering CEO “he forced what now?” plot is fine to read in novels, but in reality it’s really terrifying.】

 

【Wuwu, why is our precious Sheng so pitiful? First harassed and kidnapped by that beast Qin Shi, and now kidnapped by President Li again.】

 

【Not gonna lie, when I see Gao Gusheng, I feel an impulse in my heart too… but the problem is I’m a straight guy! This is really fucking haunted.】

 

【Person above, congratulations, you’re about to open the door to a new world.】

 

【Holy shit, are you a pervert? Gao Gusheng was just rescued and you’re saying this stuff below his post.】

 

…

 

Seeing the thread going off-topic, the original poster single-handedly pulled the discussion back.

 

【Anyway, Student Gao really had terrible luck with this whole thing.】

 

Yun Zhiyi put away her phone like a swordsman gracefully sheathing their sword. The victorious female general returned and contentedly took a sip of coffee.

 

…

 

Wanxing Entertainment, under Li Mochen’s control, supported most of the entertainment industry. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they could summon wind and rain in the entertainment world.

 

Now, Li Mochen had been directly arrested and owed one billion yuan in taxes.

 

To make matters worse, the police released evidence proving that all those crimes of Wanxing Entertainment that had been circulating online were true, especially the contracts exploiting artists under Wanxing Entertainment, making artists who had originally aspired to join Wanxing Entertainment stay away.

 

At the same time, many Wanxing Entertainment artists also terminated their contracts and left this sinking ship, not wanting any association with Wanxing Entertainment.

 

In just one morning, Li family stocks plummeted wildly. Countless stockholders cried themselves unconscious at the stock exchange.

 

This basically meant Wanxing Entertainment was finished.

 

Also finished was the Li family—this family that had grown by drinking human blood had all their industries in the entertainment sector. Now that Wanxing Entertainment had fallen, it meant the Li family would cease to exist.

 

Li Mochen’s long-cherished commercial empire had collapsed.

 

As expected, the trending topic about Xiao Yusheng and Gao Gusheng was suppressed by this incident.

 

Netizens’ memories have time limits—today they cheer for someone, tomorrow they climb over the wall to find someone else.

 

Any cases involving the Yin realm were tried very quickly. In just one night, there was reportedly some progress on that side. Presumably within three days at the latest, Li Mochen would receive his deserved punishment.

 

…

 

Gao Gusheng, brought back home, was nestled boneless in the soft sofa, chatting in their group.

 

“Sister Yun, awesome! Sister Yun’s network connections lived up to expectations.”

 

【Panda thumbs up emoji.】

 

“Small matter.”

 

“Any injuries?”

 

“Don’t worry, feeling great!”

 

…

 

That’s right, under that Weibo post, those students testifying for Gao Gusheng were all found by Yun Zhiyi.

 

Honestly, even if a few fake ones were mixed in, or even if they were all fake, netizens probably wouldn’t have noticed. But Yun Zhiyi stubbornly tracked down every single student who had seen Gao Gusheng leading a group of black suits into the coffee shop at the time.

 

As student council vice president who would become president next year, Yun Zhiyi had a terrifyingly impressive talent for networking.

 

The little friends in the group cared for and interacted with Gao Gusheng. It seemed Gao Gusheng had already emerged from the shadow of being kidnapped—his little legs dangling outside swayed back and forth, happy like a dog’s tail wagging like a fan.

 

Gao Shi’s gaze toward him softened.

 

Kidnapping was like anything else—once you’re familiar, twice you’re used to it. You get used to it after being kidnapped a few times.

 

As Gao Gusheng had said.

 

But even if Gao Gusheng could get used to it, how could Gao Shi, as a father, possibly get used to it?

 

…

 

After returning home and taking a brief rest, Gao Gusheng posted a set of photos showing the perspective tricks to Weibo. Only after posting did he tell Xiao Yusheng that he had uploaded the photos.

 

Gao Gusheng had originally registered this Weibo account just to clarify that he had no relationship with Qin Shi. Although he had accumulated quite a few followers, he had never posted a single Weibo before. This unprecedented first post drew many curious onlookers who wanted to see what exactly he had posted.

 

Was it a statement about his relationship with Xiao Yusheng? Or was he planning to respond to everyone’s concern and talk about his recent situation?

 

However, when everyone opened the photos, they all fell silent.

 

They saw Gao Gusheng holding a monkey plushie as tall as a person. From his pose, it wasn’t hard to guess that Gao Gusheng was recreating the photo from that day.

 

In the remaining pictures, Gao Gusheng showed from every angle and without any blind spots exactly how he and Xiao Yusheng had embraced at the time.

 

There was quite a distance between the monkey plushie and Gao Gusheng. Anyone could see that this was simply a polite embrace between the two, at most you could call them friends.

 

What was amusing was that Gao Gusheng’s monkey plushie was grinning with big teeth, looking carefree and heartless, appearing ugly-cute in a way that contrasted so strongly with Xiao Yusheng in the photo that it was impossible to ignore. The more you looked at it, the more you’d think of this ugly-cute monkey face whenever you saw the movie king—it was quite magical yet impossible to stop looking at.

 

Gao Gusheng’s caption for this was:

 

The photos circulating online use perspective tricks.

 

Just this one sentence, nothing more.

 

But nothing else really needed to be said, since these 360-degree, no-blind-spot monkey photos had completely clarified the matter.

 

A high-rise of comments built up under Gao Gusheng’s Weibo post.

 

Some praised Gao Gusheng’s good looks, others asked if he had any intention of entering the entertainment industry. As they chatted, somehow the topic drifted off and became a discussion about Gao Gusheng’s monkey.

 

【Sheng bao, where did you buy this monkey? It’s so cute, I want to buy one too.】

 

Gao Gusheng replied to this Weibo.

 

My dad won the monkey for me at the arcade OVO

 

It wasn’t hard to see how happy Gao Gusheng was when he typed this sentence.

 

It involuntarily made people think of a little cat with its tail raised high and chest puffed out, proudly showing everyone his father’s love.

 

Gao Gusheng’s fans, seeing that he had actually replied, immediately caught the key point.

 

Soon after, Gao Gusheng’s Weibo post was invaded by monkeys.

 

“This little thing looks quite ugly at first glance, but why does it seem to have a weird cute factor the more you look at it?”

 

“Too ridiculous, I clearly only liked well-behaved cute little animals before. This monkey is huge, even taller than a person—no matter how you look at it, it has nothing to do with cute, right?”

 

“Does anyone want this monkey? If you do, type ‘want’ in the comments, I’ll count 3-2-1, give me the link!”

 

…

 

If you didn’t know better, you’d think Gao Gusheng lived on Flower Fruit Mountain.

 

However, Gao Gusheng was actively responding to every comment about the monkey, like a monkey king actively building Flower Fruit Mountain.

 

But after a while, discordant voices suddenly appeared in Gao Gusheng’s comment section.

 

“Isn’t Gao Gusheng’s move here… trying to ride on popularity?”

 

“First Qin Shi, then President Li, now Movie King Xiao.”

 

“Was this photo released by Gao Gusheng? After all, the movie king doesn’t need to use this to generate buzz.”

 

###

 

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