He did like the Zhang family much, but he had nothing against the child Su QinMei. He mellowed out a lot and comforted her. “It is alright. You’ve found your son now. Wenyu is more talented than Bi. One could almost say he is a genius.”

Then he started tooting Jiang WenYu’s horn, hoping to make Su QinMei feel better because of her outstanding older son. It was not healthy to be so gloomy all the time.

Listening to their conversation, Fang JunRong’s lips couldn't help but started curving up. Occasionally, she would chime in and praise about Jiang WenYu some as well. With each positive thing that President Chu said about Jiang WenYu, Su QinMei felt that her heart was stabbed by a knife again.

Finally, someone came over to talk to President Chu and Su QinMei was finally able to get her sweet relief.

She regretted coming over today now. She only attended this event today for her maiden family. It pained her to watch the Su family falling from the top one or two enterprises in the medicinal herb industry to just an ordinary company. She also refused to admit to the fact that her brother was way less competent than Su QinYing.

Ever since Jiang WenYu had returned and slowly started eating away her son’s resources, she eagerly wanted to find more backing for her son. Her maiden family was, of course, top on her list. Her brother hated Song ZeYu equally and, by extension, Jiang WenYu as well. As long as the Su family could regain their old glory, her father-in-law, who was all about gains, would no longer ignore Zhang Bi the way he did now.

Lo and behold, she hadn’t expected to run into Fang JunRong here and, to be antagonized straight to her face.

“They said that your sister might look fragile but was actually very cunning. She would honey coat her maliciousness and that she must have died young because heaven had seen enough and decide to remove this disaster from mankind.”

Su QinMei face turned red, mainly from anger. “You are lying! My sister is the best girl in this world. Why would you want to speak so poorly of someone who is already dead?”

Her words were shaking by the time she got to “already dead”.

Fang JunRong shook her head. “You can look at a person and not always know what is going through their mind. You had no idea how much evil acts that your sister had committed behind your back. She had always created the image that she was being bullied and suggested to others that you had been bullying her.” Fang JunRong came up with those judging from Su QinMei’s personality.

Jia Hongyuan let out a sigh of relief and cast a complacent look over at Chu Zuo, obviously happy that he was able to snatch it under his nose. As such, he was no longer disgruntled when he looked over at Fang JunRong. He now felt that this woman was much more pleasing to look at than Chu Zuo. He said in a friendly manner. “Just let me know if you need any help today. I am a generation above you. You can refer to me as Uncle Jia.”

“I just might have favors to ask in the future.” Fang JunRong, too, took the olive branch that he sent her way. There were, after all, no permanent enemy in business.

Jia Hongyuan went over to the other room to give him family a call and had them had the money ready. A wild ginseng like that was too rare. He would hate to miss out on the opportunity.

“Junrong, I have been looking for you.”

It was a loud and powerful voice. Fang JunRong turned a little and happened to see Chu Kuo, the vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, walking up to her. He was tall, stocky, and good looking. He seemed affectionate when he smiled. Chu Kuo had a good relationship with the president of Gaoyuan Corporation and Fang JunRong got her invitation through him. He was sort of someone on her side.

Fang JunRong smiled lightly. “Hi, President Chu.”

It didn’t matter how wealthy one was. Nobody would just shell out such a large amount for research with no hesitation.

He looked back and forth at Jiang WenYu’s extremely handsome face and, recalling Fang JunRong’s assistant with the outstanding look, and had it all figured out that very moment.

Jiang WenYu was probably Fang JunRong’s initial little boy toy that she kept. He couldn't help but bared his teeth. Fang JunRong was certainly generous to her boy toys, let it be Jiang WenYu or Jiang DeXian.

He patted Jiang WenYu on his shoulder and lamented. “There are lots of fish in the sea. As the young master of the Zhang family, you will for sure be able to find someone more fitting than Boss Fang in the fuure.”

“Thank you.” Jiang WenYu accepted the cream from her and applied them over her wounds numbly. The truth disgusted him more than he had imagined. Hatred roiled inside of him like the ocean. It could drown him. The viciousness born from learning the truth made him want to destroy both the Zhang’s and the Su’s. The cold sensation of the White Jade Cream brought him back to reality like someone had poured a bucket of ice-cold water over his head.

After Jiang WenYu departed from the Zhang’s, he turned on his cellphone and started monitoring what was going on inside of his laboratory. He had added a few cameras around his laboratory. There was a total of six cameras in the tiny laboratory, four of them were installed by the Zhang’s for the sake of monitoring him. These cameras were, naturally, difficult to find by a layman. Nevertheless, with the professional investigators that Jiang WenYu had around him, it was a waste of talent for them to locate cameras.

Once he had located them, he, too, installed a few cameras in areas where they were hidden from those cameras. As the saying goes, the mantis catches the cicada, but the oriole is waiting behind.

And if the current Su QinYing was not the original Su QinYing but Su QinMei who was supposed to be dead, then everything made sense all of a sudden.

Why was it that Su QinYing was so hostile toward Jiang WenYu? Because everything that she owned right now she robbed them from someone else. As such, it made sense that she worried that they would be taken away from her.

Why was it that their clan leader Zhang Kaihuai wanted to put Jiang WenYu down as the oldest boy of his generation and Su QinYing didn’t dare to object and even put up a front of how close she was with Jiang WenYu? That was because Jiang WenYu was legitimately the oldest boy of the Zhang’s in his generation.

Underneath the article were laughter and comments from fellow melon-eaters. The air was filled with happiness.

[Oh darn! I found it! Begonia must not have paid them enough. Begonia, why you so stingy? SMH.JPG]

[This melon is making me sick. I can’t even look at the term “angel” in the future.]

[I am going from fan to anti-fan. Hoho. I am going to assume that all the time I had spent following him had been eaten by dogs.]

[You can’t accuse our little angel so. Obviously these for-profit accounts travelled back in time, which would explain how they’ve already had their articles written up and ready to go. Doghead.JPG]

As much as he was filled with regrets, he could not turn back time. Tong Jiaming had no choice but to continue down the path that he had started. As much as the path looked grim, he still wanted to carve his own path. He could no longer bank on the bystanders*. He just needed to make sure that his fans were still on his side and that would have to do. Even though he had lost a portion of his fans, but a portion had also stayed and adamantly believed that the video was doctored. They whined about how their brother* was so pitiful that he was ganged up on by the whole world.

Sitting in front of his computer, he was wrecking his brain trying to come up with what he could write to get the most sympathy out of his fans. Perhaps he could start from his childhood.

Many in the comments mocked him for looking naïve but was the exact opposite deep down inside. Others were educating his fans on how he and his agent in Begonia tried to set up Ren DongZhi.

He worries deepened and he clicked on a link on the bottom. The link took him to a for-profit account that had quite a bit of followers.

[Video leaked. Popular idol and his agent joined forces to put on an imperial drama?]

He clicked open the video and realized that it was the one with him and his agent, Gao Lin, meeting at the coffee shop. The video was of such high quality that it would be difficult for him to deny it.

His features were twisted from anger and he was no longer the soft and harmless young man that he normally was. His hand clenched into a fist and hit it hard against the wall. “Are they idiots?”

Under the given situation, anyone could see that the best course of action right now was to take a step up, stomp on Ren DongZhi and leech off of him in order to maximize their gain. He had already looked into it ahead of time and knew that both of them had signed with other companies and did not need to worry about Li XinYun. All they needed to do was to present themselves as victims. That way they would not be labelled as ungrateful even when they came across Shengxing in the future.

Fang JunRong wanted to laugh. She clicked into Tong Jiaming’s video and watched it. She must admit that he was a genius at moving people. He never said a word negative about Shengxing the entire time but was able to fully communicate how he had been wronged. So much that his fans only wished that they could take his place and suffer for him. He was surely talented in this area and was a good fit for the entertainment circle. She understood it but she didn’t want to accept it.

Compared to those who adopted the philosophy of if you can’t beat them, join them, she much preferred those who could hold their own and not budge even in difficult times.

“Hi everyone, I am Tong Jiaming. I had always wished to become famed and had not expected to find myself on the most trending list for reasons such as this. I have mixed feelings about it.

“I have read about everyone’s comments on the latest events and I want to thank my fans for their support as always. I am sure I am always number one in your heart.” He tightened his lips some and had a wronged look on him. “I just want to ask you to stop bashing Shengxing. One way or another, they had offered me an opportunity to present myself. I don’t want to come across as an ungrateful person. Miss Li had asked about signing me up in the past but I have plans of my own and do not want to be an ephemeral shooting star, which was why I had to turn down her kindness.

Fang JunRong nodded slightly and said to Zhong Yi, “If you chose to enter into this circle, then this was doomed to happen sooner or later. The paparazzi would try everything within their power to find out anything they could about you. Any opportunities that you allowed them to have, they would take advantage of that. Even if you have done nothing, as long as you have the ability to attract attention, they would create news about you if they had to.

Zhong Yi nodded. This was certainly a lesson well learned for the two of them. Even their initial excitement had been dampened some.

“So how do you two plan on handling this?”

“Send them lawyers from our attorneys!” said XinYun without any hesitation.

They had the strongest team of lawyers.

Some bystanders did express that Ren DongZhi was a strong candidate and a rare one that was strong at both singing and creativity at that. And that his performance was more eye-catching than number 2 during the competition. His victory was well deserved. But the words of the bystanders, under the fans who were united for once, were fragile. There were of no match to the fans who had joined forces and what their words were quickly drowned out.

As the comments from the fans mounted, even some of the bystanders were being influenced. They recalled times when they were stiffed by others who had connections and could relate to that. Gradually, they joined the fans in demanding for an explanation.

Zhong Yi couldn't help but smiled. Clearing her throat, she said, “Go ahead. It’ll be background for his song. If he is going to be a troublemaker for us, we shall reciprocate.” She didn’t believe that Ren DongZhi would be distracted by that. She had been working with him for a while now and recognized that he was truly talented when it came to composing. Sometimes, when an idea struck him, he would start to sing while strolling.

Hence the comical scene on stage. Ren DongZhi was singing at the same time the video clips were being played, and a song that he composed for his fans on the fly at that.  Whenever he ran out of ideas, he would turn around and look at the video clips and weaved in all the rainbow farts from his friends and families. That was quite an shameless act on his part.

Both Fang JunRong and Zhou Yang returned to the competition location. Both of them had a slight smile on them, looking like they were in a good mood.

The competition began officially at 9:30.

Number 7, Dong JunMing, looked delicate and docile but was explosive when he sang. His dancing was particular impressive. Truth was, he didn’t need any of the gimmicks. He was talented enough to make a name for himself regardless. Nevertheless, he was impatient and wanted to take short cuts.

Fang JunRong had spent some time in learning the rules before she came. The total score for each competitor would earn was the sum from the audiences, the judges, and the guests.

Fang JunRong didn’t belong to that circle but she had learned a thing or two from all the banquets that she had attended in the past. She had never been a fan of Begonia Entertainment and, now that she learned that they had been plotting against XinYun and Zhong Yi, her opinion on them could not be lower.

“What are your plans?” Zhou Yang had always had a good relationship with Fang JunRong and, since Fang JunRong had given her some Beautify Pills and Hair Growing Cream, she had been touting herself as a good friend of Fang JunRong’s. Besides, Fang JunRong had high status. With Fang JunRong looking out for her, it had saved her much hassles. As such, she sided with Fang JunRong more and more.