[ABO] The Despised One Becomes an Internet Sensation After Marriage - Chapter 55

Chapter 55

Fu Shiyan was pulled by Xu Zhimian toward the first-floor lobby. Just then, a furious roar erupted from behind a closed door, loud enough to shake the heavens.

“Zhou Yan! You’d better explain to me exactly what this picture means!”

Outside the door, Xu Zhimian reflexively covered his ears. He looked over at Ye Ming and Lu Ze, who were standing guard outside the room. Using mouth movements, he silently asked Ye Ming: What’s the situation?

Ye Ming frowned and shook his head, handing his phone over to let Xu Zhimian see the trending post.

It turned out that following the initial paparazzi leak, a post from a major fansite master (Zhanjie) announcing her departure from the fandom had rocketed to the top of the hot searches.

“The deeper the love, the sharper the hate. From the moment I started liking you, I knew you were a playboy. I watched you go from a rake to finally settling down and getting married. Throughout that process, my blessings were sincere, and my love for you was deep. But I never expected such a blow. Up until the moment this was exposed, I was doing everything in my power to help you hide it. You’ve made me realize that there is no such thing as a ‘prodigal son returning.’ You’re the one enjoying yourself after the divorce, the one spending every night in revelry. Honestly, all that love shown off-camera was just an act, wasn’t it? Perhaps true love really doesn’t exist… I thank you, but I also hate you for shattering my unrealistic fantasies.”

The raw photo the fan had posted showed Zhou Yan sitting on a bar sofa, surrounded by several Omegas. He was, quite literally, “embracing left and right.”

Xu Zhimian tapped on the comments section; it was a wall of censored rage.

“Go to hell, Zhou Yan! F*** you! This b****rd did it for fame and money—truly shameless. Is harvesting ‘CP fans’ like sheep that profitable? Doesn’t it get tiring acting in front of the camera every day? Isn’t it disgusting? I never thought you were this kind of person. Looking at the photos I took of you makes me sick. Get lost.”

“I spent days and nights editing videos for you, and this is the news I get. Do you know how heart-wrenching this is? You’re too disgusting, I hate you.”

“Zhou Yan, you piece of sh*t. I hate you. All those days I spent tracking your schedule to take photos and managing your data… Liking you was the biggest mistake of my life.”

Xu Zhimian sucked in a sharp breath. The comment count was still rising. They say never to provoke a fansite master, and they aren’t wrong.

“Do you think the PR difficulty for this is high?” Xu Zhimian turned his head to ask Fu Shiyan.

Fu Shiyan spat out one cold word: “Difficult.”

“Extremely,” Lu Ze chimed in from the side. “This is a couple’s variety show. The vast majority of viewers are ‘CP fans.’ Zhou Yan joining this show after a divorce is undoubtedly a knife to their hearts.”

Indeed, in the fansite master’s comment section, many other fan-leaders were following suit—quitting the fandom and “turning back to bite,” cursing Zhou Yan for being shameless, profiting off the CP fans’ loyalty, and treating them like fools.

…

Inside the room, Zhou Yan’s manager, Cheng Lan, slammed the fansite master’s post down in front of him. A few people were seated around the room; the director’s team looked grave, Cheng Lan was clearly livid, and the others didn’t dare breathe. The atmosphere was stifling.

Zhou Yan and Ji Yan sat far apart. There was no eye contact, no physical touch—none of the affection they displayed on camera.

Zhou Yan crossed his arms. He scanned the photos the fan had released and paused for a split second. It was taken on New Year’s Eve. He lifted his eyes to meet Cheng Lan’s gaze.

“The photos aren’t Photoshopped. That’s exactly how it was.”

“You!” Cheng Lan’s breath hitched; she nearly fainted.

The director caught her and guided her to a seat. “Sister Lan, calm down first.” He turned to Zhou Yan. “I gave you this spot on the show out of respect for you. Now that this has happened, you have to give me an answer.”

Cheng Lan’s head was spinning. “That goes without saying. Don’t worry, I’ll come up with a PR plan tonight to minimize the damage.”

“That would be best. But if the PR fails and leads to a drop in ratings or the show being pulled, what then? Besides, Sister Lan, regardless of that, your current situation is a breach of contract.”

First Jiang Xiaocheng, now Zhou Yan. The director’s team was receiving one call after another from investors tearing them a new one. With no other choice, the director had to put pressure on Cheng Lan.

“…” Cheng Lan was speechless, her head throbbing with rage.

In this tense deadlock, Ji Yan spoke up calmly: “I’ll handle the PR.”

Everyone in the room froze, especially Zhou Yan.

“I’ll tell the public that I was the one who initiated the divorce, and that I joined the show because I wanted to win Zhou Yan back.”

This was exactly what Cheng Lan had in mind. In this situation, Ji Yan was the one the public was most likely to believe. As long as he made a public statement, the damage would be minimized, and they might even salvage some of their reputation.

Zhou Yan was the first to object: “No way.”

“What do you mean ‘you joined the show to win me back’? Don’t steal my lines. Clearly, I am the one trying to win you back.”

“Zhou Yan!” Cheng Lan scolded him loudly. “It’s already come to this! Why are you worrying about that now?”

“I’m not a coward who refuses to take responsibility. This is clearly targeted at me. Anyway, Ji Yan, stay out of this.”

Ji Yan said coldly, “Why should I listen to you?”

“You…” Zhou Yan kicked a chair in frustration. “Ji Yan, if you f***ing dare to do that, just you wait!”

Cheng Lan dragged him back, her voice rising: “Why are you threatening Dr. Ji!”

Ji Yan stood up abruptly and walked over to Zhou Yan. They stood eye-to-eye. “When have you ever been able to stop me from doing what I want?”

This one sentence set Zhou Yan off. He lunged at him, and even Cheng Lan couldn’t hold him back. The two tumbled onto the sofa. Ji Yan didn’t fight back, letting Zhou Yan pin him down.

A fist whistled through the air, stopping heavily right beside Ji Yan’s face. Ji Yan met Zhou Yan’s reddened eyes with a cold gaze, then faltered.

Zhou Yan’s eyes were bloodshot as he gritted his teeth. “…Ji Yan, how can you say something so hurtful?”

Hearing the crashing and banging inside, the four people outside rushed in without a second thought, then stopped in their tracks simultaneously.

“Brother Yan!”

They saw Zhou Yan straddling Ji Yan, looking like he was about to start a brawl. Cheng Lan and the director were completely sidelined. “Don’t be impulsive, A-Yan!”

The shout brought Zhou Yan back to his senses. He slowly withdrew his hand and dropped a single line: “I’ll handle the PR.”

With a loud BANG, he slammed the door and walked out.

“…”

“I’ll go after him,” Ji Yan said, frowning as he followed quickly.

With the main parties gone, the room was left in awkward silence. Cheng Lan sighed, “I’m sorry you had to see that. Zhou Yan just has that kind of temper.”

The director didn’t intend to let her off easy. “Sister Lan, figure it out. We need an answer before the livestream starts tomorrow.”

…

It was destined to be a restless night.

Seeing everyone racking their brains over PR and nearly coming to blows, Xu Zhimian realized something on the way back to their room. “Back then… was it also this hard to do PR for me?”

Fu Shiyan stopped and looked at him plainly. “You’re only realizing that now?”

Xu Zhimian looked guilty. After a moment of thought, he said, “How about we lend our PR team to Zhou Yan and the others?” If his situation back then could be turned around, surely Zhou Yan’s could too.

“Mm. You’ve gotten smarter.”

“Of course—wait, Fu Shiyan, what do you mean by that!” Two seconds later, Xu Zhimian realized the implication and glared at him.

But he had no real bite; his upturned fox-eyes only looked more seductive when he tried to glare, though he didn’t realize it himself.

…

The situation continued to ferment overnight. Netizens dug deep into Zhou Yan’s past scandals, pulling out every “playboy” story and dragging every involved celebrity into the spotlight. By 7:00 AM, Xu Zhimian opened his phone to find someone had even dug up a “scandal” from when Zhou Yan was eight years old—apparently, he had pulled up a little Omega skirt in kindergarten.

The speed of modern netizens was terrifying. Just like with him before, every aspect of Zhou Yan’s life was being picked apart and cursed.

Fu Shiyan hugged him from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder. His eyelashes fluttered, and his voice was husky with sleep. “Waking up so early today.”

“You should lie down a bit longer.”

The Alpha didn’t lie back down. Instead, his broad, warm chest pressed against Xu Zhimian’s back. Fu Shiyan opened his eyes and glanced at the phone screen. “What are you looking at?”

Xu Zhimian snuggled into his arms to find a comfortable position. “It’s about Zhou Yan and the others.”

“…” Fu Shiyan gave a casual glance. “It’s been all night, and they still haven’t come up with a PR plan.”

When the morning livestream time arrived, Zhou Yan and Ji Yan were still nowhere to be seen. The production crew didn’t start the cameras and gave a notice that filming would start in the afternoon instead.

Ye Ming gave him a meaningful look, and Xu Zhimian understood immediately. Sure enough, a short while after returning to his room, Ye Ming and Lu Ze knocked on his door.

Ye Ming squeezed inside and pulled Xu Zhimian to the side. “Zhou Yan’s PR statement is out.”

“How is it?” Xu Zhimian asked as he opened Weibo.

Ye Ming thought for a moment and gave a specific evaluation: “It’s very… Zhou Yan.”

Very Zhou Yan? What kind of evaluation is that?

The hot searches had been taken down. Then, he saw the post Zhou Yan had made.

“Instead of listening to the paparazzi’s nonsense, why don’t you just ask me directly?”

He had actually started a livestream at this critical juncture. This was indeed… very Zhou Yan.

…

Outside on the balcony, Lu Ze leaned against the railing and offered Fu Shiyan a cigarette. “I didn’t expect you to step in and help Zhou Yan.”

This time, someone behind the scenes was dead-set on ruining Zhou Yan. If Fu Shiyan hadn’t acted, those hot searches wouldn’t have come down so easily.

Fu Shiyan was about to take it, but he stopped as if remembering something and pushed it back. “I just didn’t want this mess to get too big and cause the show to be pulled.”

“Since when did you care about the survival of a show? It’s not like you’re an investor…” Lu Ze trailed off, then a realization struck him. “Wait. The new investor who bought out this island… that wouldn’t happen to be you, would it? So, you’re planning to…”

Fu Shiyan looked over. Lu Ze caught himself and pointed toward Xu Zhimian inside the room. Seeing Fu Shiyan’s lack of denial, he laughed. “You’re really something.”