Chapter 37 Part 2

Unfortunately, the professional agent met a trash artist. Zhou Zhao could not take the humiliation. When numerous friends probed openly and covertly, he posted rashly on his main account.

【Zhou Zhao: Please stop spreading rumors. My ideal type is a mature woman who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me.】

The agent, whose throat was hoarse after two hours, nearly fainted seeing this. Shit really was hard to eat—this money was too damn hard-earned!

Zhou Zhao’s response shot the hot search, which had dropped to third, right back up. Netizen comments surged by hundreds per second.

【What does Zhou Zhao mean by this? He thinks Teacher Shen isn’t good enough? Pfft! He’s the one who’s unworthy—an old man barking here! Doesn’t even look at his own gut he can’t hide!】

【Holy crap, why drag Teacher Shen into his statement? What did she ever do to you?】

【I believe Zhou Zhao. He’s not that kind of guy. He only has us fans in his heart—no shady ties with whoever.】

【Exactly. If Zhou Zhao has issues, I’ll delete my account and run! Betting my 500-fan account on it!】

True fans and fake fans stood out even in the exploding comments. Both were sharp in their own way, seemingly biased toward Zhou Zhao.

Only the agent, wishing for four hands, spotted the clues—fans’ firm belief was good now, but if Zhou Zhao got nailed, their current loyalty would turn into disappointment tenfold later.

Diehard fans turning black had killing power no ordinary haters could match—at least one tops a hundred!

–

“Jianwei, everything’s going smoothly here. My person has talked to her. She’ll go public after the public opinion ferments a bit more,” Sister Lu’s tone carried excitement.

“Good, thanks for the hard work, Sister Lu,” Li Jianwei was happy too, but she hid her excitement in her eyes, her voice steady as ever. “If they can’t find a new male lead for filming right away, Sister Lu, you could send your person to my crew for a few days of guest spots to learn.”

Sister Lu: “Sure, I’ll discuss it with her later. She’s wanted to learn from you for ages.”

“Oh, right—remember to tell her I already have a girlfriend,” Li Jianwei added. She was a taken woman, after all; she had to keep proper boundaries teaching juniors.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already hinted to her privately. Her admiration for you is genuine,” Sister Lu replied, unable to resist recalling her own artist’s bold words from before.

Something about putting career before romance, prioritizing work and not letting dating interfere.

Could Li Jianwei still say the same with a straight face now?

With that thought, Sister Lu could not help asking it aloud, plunging Li Jianwei on the other end into tactical silence.

Career or the Eldest Miss—which was more important? Upon hearing the question, Li Jianwei could no longer calmly state that her career was more important than the Eldest Miss.

“Perhaps, they should be equally important,” Li Jianwei said. She hadn’t delayed her work because of the Eldest Miss, so both held equal importance in her heart.

Sister Lu neither agreed nor disagreed. She treated it as her own artist undergoing a transformation, so she became increasingly picky with script selections and various resources, granting more and more private rest time.

Public opinion fermented until ten o’clock at night. Under the topic with over a billion clicks, the female lead’s statement arrived as scheduled.

Unlike Zhou Zhao’s single sentence, the female lead came bearing a cloud drive link containing the evidence she had compiled over this period.

The female lead offered no comment on Zhou Zhao’s statement. Instead, she handed judgment over to the netizens, letting them see whether Zhou Zhao was harassing her.

Videos, recordings, chat screenshots—any single one was enough to nail Zhou Zhao to the pillar of shame, let alone dumping them all out together.

Zhou Zhao’s fan count plummeted by tens of thousands per second, losing several million active fans in moments.

Not only that, the fans who turned from stans to antis vented their fury by spilling tea. A few utterly broken fan leaders even leaked their chat logs with the manager, shoveling up every scrap of black material on Zhou Zhao.

This included, but was not limited to, a drunk driving incident, throwing a tantrum like a diva at a certain brand event, arbitrarily rewriting scripts by leveraging his status, and deliberately targeting female guests on variety shows to flaunt his superiority, among others.

The melons unearthed were plentiful—so many that Shu Heng and Hua Ke chose to pull an all-nighter gorging on them.

However, while Shu Heng could only hug her kitty to eat melon, Hua Ke got to lean against her partner for joint melon-munching, while also helping sort data overnight.

“I knew Zhou Zhao would crash sooner or later. With that style of his, maintaining his persona until thirty-seven relied entirely on the entertainment industry’s leniency toward male celebrities,” Hua Ke sighed.

“I remember you mentioned it once—you were hit on by this Zhou Zhao too?” Professor Liu Zhen suddenly spoke up.

“Eh, you even remember that? It must’ve been five or six years ago,” Hua Ke recalled. “Back then, I had just won best supporting role—my buzz was solid, and I figured I’d advance smoothly.”

“You were in a foul mood for days because of him. He’s the type who makes you unhappy,” Professor Liu Zhen said earnestly. Her mind wasn’t filled solely with data and research; it brimmed with every little moment tied to her lover.

“But not anymore. Now he’s someone I can relax with while eating melon. Seeing him crash like this, I can stay thrilled for days,” Hua Ke said with a smile, unable to resist planting a kiss on her lover.

Liu Zhen accepted it calmly before resuming her data sorting.

Finish today’s business today. Only after processing the data would their wonderful night together begin.

After public opinion had fermented for a full forty-eight hours without any reversal, the production team took the lead in announcing a filming suspension and terminating their collaboration with Zhou Zhao.

Brands cooperating with Zhou Zhao soon followed, successively announcing contract terminations and demanding breach penalties. During the endorsement contract’s validity, Zhou Zhao—as the endorser—had to avoid damaging the brand’s image; failure meant compensating the corresponding losses.

Yet one beverage brand stayed mum, even reposting a promo clip featuring Zhou Zhao’s high-definition close-up.

This gave unyielding fans an outlet, prompting them to snap up the brand’s drinks across e-commerce platforms as a show of support for their bro.

Anyone with half a brain could see it was just the beverage company getting bold to cut one last harvest of leeks. Once Zhou Zhao vanished completely, they’d likely turn and bite him, delivering the final straw.

Li Jianwei welcomed this outcome. For a Zhou Zhao bold enough to eye the Eldest Miss, the more miserable his downfall, the better.

If the genuine black dirt already dug up weren’t enough to bury any chance of comeback, Li Jianwei wouldn’t have minded giving it a second polish to amp up the explosiveness.

After fulfilling her promise by escorting Sister Lu’s favored promising talent through half a month of on-set training, Li Jianwei wrapped filming smoothly and departed the location the next day.

No words needed—dry wood meeting blazing fire naturally ignited boundless ecstasy that refused to subside for ages.

Zhou Zhao updates had already been shared with Li Jianwei during Shu Heng’s melon feast, so in their afterglow cuddles, they skipped mentioning that mood-ruiner again.

“Teacher Li, do we really have to wait until after thirty to go public with our relationship?” Shu Heng asked, her voice far huskier than usual.

“It’s not set in stone,” Li Jianwei replied, her tone drifting.

Truth be told, Li Jianwei hadn’t expected the Eldest Miss to hold off publicizing their relationship for over half a year. The “dating after thirty” line started as a way to quash the Eldest Miss’s notions, later evolving into a potential escape clause.

But now, neither Li Jianwei nor Shu Heng showed any sign of wanting to end things.

“Teacher Li, then when can we go public? Our CP super topic’s almost at a million followers!” Shu Heng snapped awake, buzzing with energy like she could handle a couple more deep “exchanges.”

“What do you think?” Li Jianwei lobbed the question back.

Shu Heng pondered hard before piping up expectantly. “How about our one-year anniversary?”

“November 21st?” Li Jianwei blurted.

A radiant smile bloomed on Shu Heng’s face. “Yeah! Let’s lock in November 21st!”

“Alright, so how should we do it?” Li Jianwei’s gaze softened as she nuzzled the Eldest Miss’s collarbone with her nose tip, filling her senses with that scent.

“Post on Weibo together at 1:13—snap a couple pic!” Shu Heng plotted excitedly. “I’ve picked the rings too. We’ll hold hands for the shot, just show the hands!”

“Wait, when did you pick rings?” Li Jianwei zeroed in on the crux.

“Doesn’t matter—Teacher Li just needs to know I’m prepared!” Shu Heng grinned mischievously, holding back the details.

Not from shyness—Shu Heng simply wanted Li Jianwei to invest more thought in her, while building hype for the unseen rings.

Li Jianwei wouldn’t nitpick her girlfriend’s little ploy. Instead, she mulled whether to whisk her home for National Day to meet the parents.

But before Li Jianwei could broach it, Shu Heng beat her to the punch the next day.

“Since we can go public, I’m telling Mom tomorrow. We’ve got no schedules—Teacher Li, wanna come home with me?” Shu Heng widened her eyes.

To boost odds, Shu Heng clutched the Panda Hug, deploying two pairs of kitty eyes on Li Jianwei.

Li Jianwei frowned instinctively, barely registering Little Fortune leaping from her arms. “So soon? Will Auntie mind us together?”

“Probably not. Sure, Mom cut my allowance when I first entered the biz, but she came around after a month,” Shu Heng said, petting Panda’s head thoughtfully.

“I’ve brought up CP fans with Mom—no big reaction. She’s pretty open-minded too; lots of her partners are into same-sex stuff.”

Li Jianwei held her tongue. From scant memories, Shu’s Mother came off as domineering. She permitted her daughter’s free love, but at commitment stage, agreement wouldn’t come easy.

In those memories, Zhou Zhao apparently pulled some tricks to knock up the Eldest Miss, securing his position that way.

Don’t think of that jinx! How could she compare to him? She outshone him a millionfold!

Maybe Shu’s Mother would spot her caliber instantly and joyfully greenlight things with the Eldest Miss!