Chapter 155: Ding Cheng!

Seeing the two of them, Jiang Lun beamed. "You guys are here too?"

"Of course!" Bea Kuo pouted. "You can come, so why can't we?"

"Hehe, that's not what I meant!" Jiang Lun smiled. "I just didn't expect to run into you here!"

"Then where did you expect to run into us?" Bea Kuo pressed on, surprisingly relentless.

"Uh... I figured..." Jiang Lun deliberated before saying, "Running into you at major award ceremonies like the Hundred Flowers, Golden Rooster, or Huabiao—that's where you should be!"

"Humph!" Bea Kuo looked quite pleased. "I'll let that slide since you know how to talk!"

While the two were chatting, Zhao Liying, who had greeted him first, and Zhang Run, who had brought him up, stood aside unable to interject, looking somewhat awkward.

Finally seizing a gap, Zhang Run asked, "You guys know each other?"

"Mm-hmm!" Zhao Liying took the opportunity to say, "We met shooting a commercial!"

Zhang Run gave an "oh" of sudden realization. "Oh, right, right, right! I remember now, that All-Things Cola commercial! When I watched the full version online the other day, I was actually wondering: given how popular Jiang Lun is right now, why did he only make a cameo with two shots in a micro-film?"

"Brother Run, you flatter me!" Jiang Lun waved his hand. "My little bit of popularity can hardly be considered high!"

"All right, we're all our own people, no need to be modest!" Zhang Run patted him on the shoulder. "Haven't you checked the news online? Look at how crazy the arguments about you are right now!"

"Hey! Hasn't it always been like that?"

Jiang Lun didn't take it to heart at all, assuming it was just another minor friction between various fan bases like before.

Yet he heard Zhao Liying suddenly lower her voice and ask mysteriously, "Jiang Lun. Jiang Lun! Let me ask you something—that song you sang on the Vanguard Chart, was it really an attack on the stars in the audience?"

"Huh?"

Jiang Lun was stunned, failing to react. "What, what? Say that again?"

"I said!" This time, Zhao Liying spoke every word distinctly, her voice a notch louder. "That song you sang on the Vanguard Chart, was it really a criticism of the current music scene?"

"Of course not!"

Jiang Lun was completely baffled, having no inkling of what she was talking about. He couldn't help laughing, "You have quite an imagination! There's no such thing!"

"How is it my imagination?" Zhao Liying retorted. "It's from music critic Sun Liangke's review. That's what he wrote in his review!"

"A music review?" Jiang Lun frowned. "Where?"

"Haha, so you didn't even read it?"

Bea Kuo, equally curious, smiled. She had already used the spare moment to pull up Sun Liangke's review on her phone. She pointed it straight at Jiang Lun. "Look, I think his analysis makes a lot of sense! I watched the video of you receiving your award that day online—you just lazily muttered a 'thanks.' Otherwise, why would people say that about you?"

Jiang Lun took Bea Kuo's phone, looking at the music review and reading it word by word. By the end, his expression froze, and he frowned involuntarily. "Good grief! This is practically trying to ruin me! With stuff like this, how am I supposed to get along with my peers in the future? What will everyone think of me?"

"Was that song really not meant that way?" Zhao Liying asked with innocent bewilderment, wanting one final confirmation.

Jiang Lun shook his head vigorously. "No, no, really not!"

How could it possibly be? Even if it were, he couldn't admit it! He still wanted to make money in the entertainment industry, and interpersonal relationships were a crucial link. While he didn't need to bow and scrape to everyone he met, he at least had to maintain appearances for his peers. Now, because of what Sun Liangke wrote, he had been painted as a high-and-mighty snob. Who would want to associate with him after this?

Beside him, Zhang Run comforted him. "Little Jiang, don't overthink it! A music review is just Sun Liangke's personal opinion. Don't mind it. Look at how well everyone treats you—downstairs just now, who didn't like you? Nobody has any negative opinions of you because of this review, right?"

Jiang Lun felt utterly bitter inside. People put on a friendly facade, but who knew what they really thought? Especially the singers who had attended the Vanguard Chart the day before—how awkward would future encounters be!

Thinking of this, Jiang Lun immediately pulled out his phone and messaged his writing assistant, having him draft a Weibo post specifically addressing the song "Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies." It would state that he simply wanted to express the hardships of his journey in making music and his future ideals and aspirations, with no other hidden meaning!

After sending the notification, he still couldn't set his mind at ease, so he went online to check.

To his surprise, he found he had been overthinking things.

The topic of "Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies" had great engagement online, and there were several music reviews. Sun Liangke's was just one of the more controversial ones. While it certainly caused a wave of commotion across the broad public opinion yesterday, it was only a single wave, and by today it had completely cooled down.

On major forums, related posts had been pushed down. Instead, posts analyzing the melody of "Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies" and its significance to Cantonese music were pinned high up.

At a glance, this clearly wasn't spontaneous netizen behavior. Pondering it over, Jiang Lun figured it out: Yida Media must have stepped in with public relations, dispatching paid internet commentators to guide the direction of public opinion.

Furthermore, many major accounts that had publicly reposted Sun Liangke's review on Weibo yesterday had also deleted their posts.

Only Sun Liangke's own blog post remained. Though people kept leaving comments, most of them were either trivial or blasting Sun Liangke for "writing biased reviews without objectivity."

With matters having reached this point, Jiang Lun finally set half of his worries aside.

He once again deeply realized how important it was to have a powerful media apparatus backing him. If not for the existence of Yida, had he been fighting alone, he would have been thoroughly dragged through the mud by those envious of him long ago.

"Jiang Lun, stop worrying about what outsiders are saying and come play poker with us!"

Seeing Jiang Lun alternate between frowning and looking furious, Zhao Liying only spoke up once his expression finally calmed down.

"Alright!"

Jiang Lun put away his phone, gave a chuckle, and decided to stop overthinking it.

Besides, with so many beauties right in front of him, playing cards with them was an absolute delight!

He immediately joined the game.

But the moment he sat down, Zhang Run panicked. "Hey, why are you guys being so biased? How come you only invited Jiang Lun and not me?"

"Brother Run, aren't you afraid your wife will scold you?"

"Haha, Brother Run, come sit next to me and teach me how to play cards!"

A bunch of teasing little vixens instantly burst into laughter. Zhang Run was famously henpecked, so they used that to joke with him.

Looking at the people before him, Zhang Run hardened his heart and gritted his teeth. "What is there to be afraid of? Come on, now, Wenwen, I'll teach you..."

Just as they were laughing and bantering, an identical luxury camper van pulled up and parked right alongside theirs.

Jiang Lun couldn't help clicking his tongue. "Mango TV really is willing to spend big, even renting camper vans for the stars just for rehearsals!"

"Yeah!" Bea Kuo peered outside as well. "Whose van is that?"

The camper van allowed people inside to see clearly outside, but those outside couldn't see in, so nobody knew whose vehicle it was.

"Hang on, I'll ask for you!"

Zhang Run said, pulling out his phone and posting a message in his WeChat Moments. Within a moment, he received a reply. He clicked his tongue and said, "It's those Korean stars!"

"Oh!"

As a result, everyone responded flatly, then simultaneously went back to playing cards. Clearly, none of them felt any particular novelty toward these Korean stars.

...

Jiang Lun was the very last artist to rehearse his program that morning. By the time he finished, it was already lunchtime. Many of the stars who had finished earlier in the morning had already left, but the person in charge at Mango TV insisted on inviting Jiang Lun to stay for lunch.

Jiang Lun didn't decline much and agreed.

At the dining table, Jiang Lun was assigned to the same table as Ding Cheng. As soon as he sat down, Ding Cheng started chatting with him very familiarly.

Ding Cheng didn't have a shred of Heavenly King arrogance, pulling him aside to ask about this and that before the conversation shifted to Wu Zhaoyang. "How is old Wu doing these days? Back when we were hustling together, his body accumulated quite a few ailments!"

"Brother Wu is doing all right lately, his health is fine!" Jiang Lun smiled. "And he's put on quite a bit of weight!"

"Really?" Ding Cheng laughed merrily. "Back then, he was the skinniest among us. Thinking about it now, the person we owe the most to all these years is him. For the sake of our four careers, he never uttered a single word of complaint. We were young back then and didn't know how to appreciate his hardships. When his own agency went under, not only did we fail to help, but we also chose semi-retirement. Ah! When I get the chance to see old Wu, I really need to say sorry to him!"

"Brother Cheng, I'll pass your words along to Brother Wu. When you have time to come to Beijing, the two of you should catch up!"

Jiang Lun felt a wave of emotion as well. Although Wu Zhaoyang didn't trail after him everywhere every day, and while he seemed to command the overall situation from behind the scenes, he actually exerted immense mental and physical effort—no less than people like Mai Le, and perhaps even more!

"He's just cursed with a busy life. After managing us, he started from the bottom all over again to manage a newcomer. But it must be destiny that he managed to launch you!"

At this, Ding Cheng smiled again. "Hehe, of course, I also know a huge part of it is because your own work is exceptional. Otherwise, you wouldn't have climbed to this position so quickly. I'm genuinely happy for old Wu—he picked a potential stock!"

"You flatter me!" Jiang Lun said bashfully. "As a newcomer who knew nothing about the entertainment industry, having the achievements I do today is inseparable from Brother Wu's support. His credit and hard work are the greatest!"

And it was true. Jiang Lun knew very well in his heart that he was merely plagiarizing songs and books, leaning on things from another world to prop himself up. Everything else was the result of Wu Zhaoyang's behind-the-scenes assistance, which not only helped him avoid countless unnecessary troubles but also paved the road ahead of him.

Just like the incident with Sun Liangke's music review—if not for Wu Zhaoyang sitting at the helm to handle it and control public opinion, let alone hundreds of millions of netizens, the saliva of his surrounding peers alone would have drowned him.