Episode 14: The Gold-Medal Agent

After walking the red carpet, Xia Zilan was pulled aside early by Bai Yujing and given a scolding; she had lined up a string of variety shows to raise his exposure, but he refused to be toyed with like a performing monkey. He insisted on playing only the roles he liked — yet by a happy accident, his supporting male role in his last drama made him an overnight sensation, his popularity eclipsing even the male lead's, his fan count soaring, the whole drama carried on the shoulders of his one villain.

Looking around, he spotted Situ Hengyi, who had also come. Slipping quietly out of the ring of reporters, he crept up behind Situ Hengyi, tapped him on the shoulder, and said with a grin, "Officer Situ, daydreaming all on your own?"

Situ Hengyi turned and saw Xia Zilan, his face cold. "Xia Zilan, why aren't you at the banquet? I'm on duty."

He had no fondness at all for the entertainment world. His superiors had ordered them to guard against the Judge whipping up public opinion again and spreading panic, and the entire police force had been turned out.

Xia Zilan gave a hum of acknowledgement, curious, eyeing the security deployment around them and shaking his head. "I can already tell those are plainclothes officers. Do you really think the Judge would fall for your trap?"

He pointed at several earpiece-wearing plainclothes officers standing in the crowd, craning their necks this way and that, looking nothing like fans come to chase stars. "Even acting isn't done like that, is it?"

Bai Yujing had just finished talking with several investors when, in the blink of an eye, Xia Zilan was gone again. After circling around a few times, she spotted him standing in a corner, chatting away happily with someone, and stormed over in a fury, grabbing him by the arm and snapping, "Xia Zilan, I just lined up several film offers for you — why did you run off again..."

Before she could finish, she glanced at Situ Hengyi and said coldly, "And who are you? Don't go getting ideas about him!"

Situ Hengyi, finding her very rude, gave a cold smile. "Anyone who didn't know better would think this kid is your little brother."

Bai Yujing asked, "Who is this?"

Xia Zilan put on an innocent face and said with a grin, "Sister Bai, have you forgotten? Officer Situ! Last time we went to the police station for a safety promotion, he was the one who received us!"

Bai Yujing looked him up and down, breathed a sigh of relief, and softened her tone. "Oh, so it's that Officer Situ whose face is as cold as a block of ice!"

Just then, a beautiful piece of music sounded on the stage, and Gu Moyan made his entrance, singing a song for the audience. When he finished, the hall erupted in cheers. Then Jiang Yanzhou came onstage, looked at the audience below, and greeted them warmly: "Hello, dear friends and supporters! Today I bring Mo Xing onstage with me, and we have new work to share with you — I hope you'll like it!"

Situ Hengyi asked coldly, "Who is this man?"

Bai Yujing said coldly, "Jiang Yanzhou. They say he just returned from abroad, where he spent years working overseas. Oh — he was also the agent of the late artist Yu Mengge, and he's a contract adviser for Tianze Entertainment."

Arms crossed, she gazed at Jiang Yanzhou onstage and said disdainfully, "They brought him back mainly to calm this entertainment storm. The whole entertainment world is on the verge of collapse."

Xia Zilan stepped forward and said in a low voice, "This man must be pretty formidable!"

Bai Yujing turned to him and said meaningfully, "This man is dangerous. You'd best keep away from people like him."

Situ Hengyi stepped forward and probed, "He was Yu Mengge's agent? Sister Bai, what else do you know?"

Bai Yujing turned to him with a strange smile. "Fishing for case details?" She pulled a business card from her pocket and handed it to him. "About Yu Mengge — actually, everyone in the entertainment world knows, only they have to keep their mouths shut to stay alive —"

Xia Zilan exclaimed in surprise, "Sister Bai, you've been in this circle for so many years — do you know some inside story?"

His curiosity was burning; he wanted to know more gossip.

Bai Yujing's eyes were calm, her face expressionless, as she sneered, "Officer Situ, go and check — in the past few years, how many celebrities in the entertainment world have died in 'accidents'..."

She stopped halfway, dragging Xia Zilan off to meet several film buyers, while Situ Hengyi gripped his walkie-talkie, his hunch confirmed. He looked at Jiang Yanzhou onstage, who radiated a cool, mysterious air. The Yu Mengge case was not the first, and it would not be the last —

Inside the hall, camera flashes glittered, and a stifling tension hung in the air. The Tianze Entertainment logo hung on the projection behind the stage, like a butterfly with wings spread wide, while the front rows were packed with journalists, photographers, and representatives of the major media outlets.

At that moment, Tianze Entertainment's chairman, He Yuchuan, also arrived at the scene. With stakes in a number of film and television investment companies, he appeared gentle and refined before the reporters, chatting and laughing freely, and when a reporter put a question to him — "Mr. He, are the various rumours circulating online recently true?" —

He did not answer at once, only smiling politely, as if to show that everything circulating online was false.

The host opened in a restrained tone —

"Thank you, friends of the media, for attending today. Recently, scandals involving our company's artists — Fan Shiqi, Song Yiyi — as well as directors Fang Jin, Shen Yao, and others, who have successively become entangled in murder cases and online trials, have drawn widespread public attention and misunderstanding. Our company has specially convened this press conference to clarify the situation and explain matters to the public."

The words had barely faded when the flashes below burst into a sheet of white light, and someone whispered to their neighbour, "They say it's a clarification, but it's really damage control."

Tianze Entertainment's executive director, He Yuchuan, stepped forward, dressed in a black suit, his expression steady, though he could not hide the exhaustion of the past few days.

"We sternly condemn the malicious falsehoods recently spread online. As for the unfortunate incidents involving Fang Jin and Shen Yao, the entertainment world will never tolerate any illegal manipulation of public opinion."

But no sooner had he spoken than the reporters fired off their challenges —

"Mr. He, it's rumoured online that their deaths are connected to the Yu Mengge case, and that they even took part in the plot against her. Is that true?"

"Rumour says someone inside the company is involved with gangsters and money laundering, with capital manipulating public opinion. How do you explain that?"

"Outsiders say 'Tianze' has become synonymous with the dark underbelly of the entertainment world. Do you admit the company knew what was going on inside?"

He Yuchuan's expression shifted slightly, and he said only, in a low voice, "Wait for the police to announce the results of their investigation."

Situ Hengyi stood below the stage, watching the reporters' questions, his face expressionless, snorting coldly, "He's kicked the ball right back!"

Lin Fan stood beside him, a lollipop in his mouth, eyes narrowed, saying scornfully, "What an old fox!"

The audience in the hall was dissatisfied with his answer, and murmurs rippled through the crowd:

"He's lying through his teeth!"

"The world of the rich — we poor people can't understand it."

"If the police were capable, there wouldn't be so many wrongful convictions."

"The Judge is the one who sees things clearly!"

The atmosphere in the hall turned icy for a moment. Security staff stepped forward to cordon off the press area, while the comment feed on Qian Musheng's livestream platform had already exploded —

"All this hemming and hawing — there's definitely something fishy."

"Tianze is destroying evidence, isn't it?"

"This press conference looks more like a burial of the truth."

Qian Musheng stood before her phone's livestream camera, every inch the model professional journalist, microphone in hand, smiling, her tone steady: "Dear viewers, we have all seen the questions the reporters raised at this press conference, yet He Yuchuan has not answered a single one — on the contrary, he has only made all the mysteries more and more baffling."

Just before the press conference ended, the projection screen suddenly flickered, and an unauthorised video clip broke into the livestream signal — in it, a blurred figure said in a low voice, "The truth is not in their mouths."

The whole hall fell instantly silent, and then the reporters' gasps, the audience's cheers, the security guards' orders, the police caught off guard, and the chaos of cameras all sounded at once.

Situ Hengyi, a cigarette in his mouth, stared at the frozen image on the screen, facing the truth and wondering whether holding fast to the law to uphold justice was right or wrong after all.

Lin Fan murmured to himself, "The Judge is going to act again tonight —"

The audience below the stage cheered as one, chanting slogans over and over, as if welcoming a rebirth; the police officers on site had all been pulled away by Su Yi to investigate suspicious persons, and the busier they got, the more chaotic things became — nerves were already on edge everywhere.

They seemed to be facing a shadowy enemy, everywhere and all-powerful.

At that moment, the livestream was forcibly cut off, and the screen went black.

— And from then on, the fire of public opinion blazed completely out of control.

In just thirty minutes, the hashtags #TianzeEntertainment, #JudgeLivestreamTruth, and #EntertainmentBlackFriday shot together into the top three of the trending list.

The comment sections of the major forums and social platforms exploded into chaos:

"This isn't a clarification meeting at all — it's a cover-up meeting."

"That scene in the video was so eerie — how did that dark figure get spliced in?"

"If there's really a dark underbelly, who would dare sign with Tianze anymore?"

"The artists didn't die — they were judged. Who is judging them?"

The various media outlets, scenting something unusual, rushed out so-called 'insider' leaks —

Some claimed Tianze Entertainment had secretly buried a number of artist scandals, and that some artists' accidental deaths could not be separated from Tianze Entertainment; some said Yu Mengge had tried to expose the entertainment world's 'capital tribunal'; there was even a rumour that the spliced-in video had been stolen from the company's surveillance system — proof that someone inside truly "held the source of the death livestreams."

The more the news spread, the truer it sounded, and the darker it painted things.

The night was hazy; it was 9:42 p.m.

The whole glass office building was still brightly lit. Senior executives had been urgently called into a meeting, and the conference room was thick with the smell of coffee and anxiety.

He Yuchuan's face was cold, his hands clasped on the table before him, his voice very low: "Can someone tell me where that spliced-in video came from?"

The marketing director said in a trembling voice, "The tech team traced the signal source... It looks like someone broke in remotely from an internal server, but the permission level was extremely high, almost on a par with the admin host."

"In other words —" He Yuchuan sneered, "the other side already had control long ago."

The meeting fell into dead silence.

The finance director asked in a low voice, "Should we shut down all our outward-facing accounts first and suspend external communications?"

"What use is shutting down now?" He Yuchuan raised his head, his gaze sharp. "The internet is already putting us on trial. If we stay silent any longer, Tianze will only be pushed deeper into the abyss."

Jiang Yanzhou, sitting to one side, had been listening to their discussion in silence, constantly turning the lighter in his hand, wearing an air of indifference and a smile: "The other side must have you completely figured out. Creating panic and crushing you with public opinion — that is certainly the work of a master."

The marketing director froze, his mind seeming to short-circuit at Jiang's words, and asked in a trembling voice, "Mr. Jiang, do you mean I've been played?"

Jiang Yanzhou gave a cold laugh. "In his eyes, you are mere ants. He doesn't need to play you at all, because this was always a death game — you just don't know how to play it."

Having said that, he turned the lighter in his hand, looked at each of their stunned faces, and sighed, "Since we must face the truth, then give it to them — that way the public's anger will subside."

The finance director shouted loudly, "Impossible! Wouldn't that expose our crimes?"

Jiang Yanzhou looked up at him, his face expressionless, his eyes contemptuous, and said, "Half true, half false. You can leak a little real news, and slip a little false news into the real information. Then the public will find it very hard to tell true from false, and in time it will all be forgotten."

He Yuchuan nodded, slapped the table, and broke into a satisfied smile, cheering, "Truly worthy of a public-relations master! With this, public opinion will naturally die down."

The marketing director chimed in, "Yes! Mr. Jiang, truly worthy of someone returned from overseas. With your guidance, Tianze is bound to get through this crisis."

Jiang Yanzhou put down his lighter, took out a stack of files, and got down to business, spreading them on the table, his face serious, saying, "Tianze has quite a few artists under contract. I've looked through them carefully — unfortunately, none of these newcomers has enough personality." He picked a photo out of the pile and laid it before everyone. "This one is good. Is he a Tianze contracted artist?"

The marketing director glanced at the photo and laughed awkwardly. "He's not one of our Tianze artists — there's only some cooperation. His agent, Bai Yujing, has laid down a rule: her artists never sign with any agency; they only work on a project-by-project basis."

He Yuchuan picked up the photo, frowned, and said slowly, "This artist is called Xia Zilan, a fairly popular young idol lately — unruly, doing things his own way." He recalled something amusing and sneered, "He was supposed to play the male lead, but insisted on playing the villain, and in the end his performance overshadowed the male lead's. He became the trendsetter for traffic."

Jiang Yanzhou broke into a strange smile. "Interesting! If I were his agent, he would absolutely become a top-tier star — no, an international sensation."

The finance director laughed dryly. "Mr. Jiang, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed! Bai Yujing treats him like a little brother. Apart from acting, she won't let him take part in any social engagements." He recalled something. "A couple of days ago, Tian Sirong took a fancy to him and wanted to invite him to dinner — Bai Yujing refused outright and even gave her a scolding."

Jiang Yanzhou crossed his arms, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly, and smiled faintly. "Tian Sirong — a leopard can't change its spots. Sooner or later she'll die because of that. As for this Xia Zilan, you must cultivate him well. He is a rare talent."

Just then, an aide hurried in, his face pale. "Mr. He, someone has uploaded the full spliced-in video, titled — 'The Judge Has Not Yet Left.'"

In the conference room, for a moment even breathing sounded harsh. Everyone's face turned pale — only Jiang Yanzhou, looking at the video, gave a cold smile. "Interesting! More and more interesting!"

The screen automatically jumped to the playback image — against a dark background, a line of white text slowly emerged:

"Every death once had an audience."

Everyone looked at one another in silence.

And after this storm, no one knew who was truly being "judged" — the artists, the audience, or the entire entertainment empire itself.