My Queen, My Rules - Chapter 62
Chapter 62
Perhaps because she had just woken up, Ji Mingshu felt a bit dazed. Her eyes were still swollen and painful from crying the night before, but having received Cen Sen’s comfort as she wished, she didn’t experience any particularly intense emotional fluctuations when she saw the even more frantic verbal abuse on Weibo.
Last night, she had thought she would be too angry to sleep, but unexpectedly, after finishing her call with Cen Sen, she drifted off quickly.
However, waking up to find that the situation, which should have been suppressed, had now become a massive scandal still left her feeling rather bewildered.
Coincidentally, Gu Kaiyang called to offer her some sympathy. She yawned and told her she was fine, then listened while brushing her teeth as Gu Kaiyang gave a vivid, emotionally charged recount of the "Ji Mingshu Incident" that had erupted late last night.
Editor Gu was truly worthy of her title; she could come up with such sensational narrative headlines on the fly that Ji Mingshu was startled wide awake.
But upon closer inspection, the main content seemed to be just a long chain reaction of internet surfing triggered after her family members took action.
Gu Kaiyang said her family was incredibly heavy-handed. After discovering that the popularity of her name didn't wane even after "Ji Mingshu" was blocked, they proceeded to block a whole series of derivative keywords across major forums, including "Designer" and "JMS."
Thanks to this move, Ji Mingshu overnight acquired her own exclusive title across all major forums—the Muter: )
The gossip goddesses even created derivative buzzwords and inside jokes for her, things like "As quiet as Ji," "It’s dark, please shut your mouth," and "The weather has turned cold, please let me treat you to a 'Ji-Ji-Red' hotpot."
Ji Mingshu, who had originally been quite depressed about the whole thing, was forced to laugh, spraying toothpaste foam all over the mirror.
After finishing her brushing, she hurriedly called her second uncle. After much coquettish pleading and swearing that she could definitely handle the situation, her second uncle finally retracted the series of actions he had initiated.
In the end, Ji Mingshu inevitably received a lecture, consisting of nothing more than the same old tired tropes about how she shouldn't throw herself into the limelight and that she needed to work on her relationship with Cen Sen.
She patiently hummed and hawed, waiting for her second uncle to say, "Think about it carefully," before hanging up.
But unexpectedly, after scolding her first thing in the morning, her second uncle brought up a new topic: "Xiaoshu, you two aren't getting any younger. Prepare for it over the next two years; it’s time to have a child. You can rest for a year or two after giving birth, and you can still have a second child before you turn thirty. It won't delay anything."
"…?"
Ji Mingshu was stunned. She never expected that at a time like this, her second uncle would be in the mood to think about children, let alone go straight to a second child. He really was worthy of being the Director Ji who followed national policies and guidelines at all times and had the highest political awareness in the whole family. She was left so choked up she couldn't speak for a long while.
Come to think of it, she and Cen Sen had been married for over three years, and they really had never thought about the issue of children. It seemed they both lacked that consciousness entirely, maintaining a highly consistent tacit agreement on safety measures since their wedding day.
As for their families, they probably hadn't pushed because Cen Sen had gone to Australia for the past two years, and since pestering them was useless, they had simply stopped trying.
After hanging up, she sat on her bed with her chin resting in her hand, lost in thought. She followed her second uncle’s line of reasoning, thinking about boys and girls, first child and second child. She stayed dazed for nearly half an hour before she finally remembered to attend to business.
After Cen Sen comforted her last night, she had written a long Weibo post, but she had fallen asleep before she could send it.
Now that the situation had changed, she reviewed the post after waking up and felt that many parts were not quite right. So, she sat there with her phone, deleting and editing for a while, even pulling in Gu Kaiyang—that great editor who dealt with words for a living—to review it for her.
At 11:00 AM, Ji Mingshu posted:
"I admit, I am a person with a bad temper, but I am not a person who loses it at random. There were a total of fifty-three days of recording; Miss Yan Yuexing knows in her heart what kind of work attitude she brought to the program.
"As for the editor of the show, your technique is so superb—I wonder if your annual salary has already reached one million? If not, you might want to consider changing jobs. I'll hire you.
"Some of Miss Yan’s fans have been posting long images of fabricated materials in my Weibo comments, baselessly speculating that my family is engaging in tax evasion. To that, I can reply directly: the taxes my family pays to the state every year are fully transparent, and I welcome any form of verification. It is not I who is using power to bully others, but the self-righteous Miss Yan Yuexing and the production team I once trusted.
"This is an era of high-speed development for self-media, where having more followers and more channels for voicing opinions grants one more power of discourse. I believe that if it weren't for my family, there wouldn't be so many people paying attention to my status, and the Weibo post I am making today might not necessarily appear before you all. But since it has appeared, I must restore the truth for myself.
"I originally thought Designer was a home design program with ideas that didn't just follow the crowd, with the initial intention of bringing design into daily life. I did not expect that its purpose was to bring popularity and money into its pockets.
"The situation has evolved to this point, and I feel deeply regretful. At the same time, I deeply believe that artists and production teams that sacrifice their bottom line for the sake of popularity should not have such a broad space to survive. This is the loudest slap in the face to all the other hard-working staff members on the front lines of the entertainment industry who strive tirelessly for quality work.
"Finally, thank you all for your patient reading. I am Ji Mingshu, an interior designer, not a Muter."
Less than a minute after Ji Mingshu’s post went live, there were already hundreds of comments from Yan Yuexing’s fans who had been lying in wait to abuse her. They likely hadn't even read the content; they just latched on and started spraying venom.
But as the keyword ban was lifted and her Weibo post was reposted to major forums, the style of the comments began to reverse:
[She’s actually quite logical; firm but rational. I believe you, miss (mainly because you’re beautiful! doge face)]
[Didn't they dig up that she's the eldest daughter of Huadian? YYX fans must have mush for brains to tag official media for tax audits, lol, that's the funniest joke I've heard this year.]
[After reading the last paragraph, I think the truth is that a socialite heiress hid her identity to participate in a small show that interested her, only to be schemed against by the production team and a C-list celebrity. She got so angry she blew a gasket, and now she’s going to regulate the entire entertainment industry, hahahahaha!]
In fact, since last night, the production team and Yan Yuexing’s side had been trying to contact Ji Mingshu, wanting to apologize and reconcile. Especially on Yan Yuexing’s side—they were regretting it so much they could die!
Yan Yuexing was originally in talks for the role of the female lead’s rival in a major production. This project came with its own buzz and prestige; after the official announcement, she wouldn't have needed to rely on a home design show like Designer for popularity.
But somehow, just one step away from signing the contract, the production side unilaterally canceled the collaboration, saying they already had a more suitable candidate, and wouldn't even let herè¹ (leech) any buzz from the makeup test photos!
The company had hinted about this big role to the fan leaders early on, and the leaders had "teased the pie" to the fans below. The fans, while saying, "Wait for official announcement before getting excited," were already happily fundraising in fan groups to prepare for a celebration. Who would have thought that the "waiting for official announcement" really meant they couldn't get the role.
It wasn't just the fans who were disappointed; Yan Yuexing had also cleared her filming schedule early for this big production, but with this sudden change, all the previous preparations were useless.
The team had no choice but to start with the winter break variety show Designer to make up for the loss of exposure during the gap.
As for the plan to maliciously edit Ji Mingshu, first, the production team was willing to cooperate; second, Yan Yuexing herself was very unhappy with Ji Mingshu; and third, the cost of suppressing a non-celebrity was very low. So, without much deeper thought, they finalized the collaboration with the production team. Regardless of how many new fans they could gain, at the very least, they could abuse their fans to consolidate them and drum up some buzz.
—If the non-celebrity they suppressed hadn't been Ji Mingshu, their cooperation with the production team could have been considered perfect and successful.
Yan Yuexing’s team had been busy all night, but the results were minimal. Communication with the production team was poor, and reaching out to the fan groups was useless.
The fan groups seemed possessed. They were dead-set on the belief that Yan Yuexing had been bullied. The more the team tried to stop them, the more enraged they became. Some even went directly to the Weibo accounts of the agents and the company, cursing them for being cowards who didn't do their jobs! "Our Xingxing can't just swallow her pride! If you won't stand up for Xingxing, we will!"
Even when Yan Yuexing personally posted on Weibo saying it was a misunderstanding, the fans insisted she was being coerced by the company. They even speculated from the different Weibo clients used that Yan Yuexing's Weibo had already been controlled by the evil-hearted company and that this post was definitely not her true intent!
By the time Ji Mingshu spoke out personally, Yan Yuexing’s heart was already as cold as ash, lying flat and waiting to die.
No wonder the drama she had been eyeing suddenly cut off the collaboration. The primary producer of that drama was Junhe Film and Television, a wholly-owned film investment company under Huazhang Holdings, which ultimately belonged to the Junyi Group.
And the notice of termination arrived the morning after the wrap party of Designer.
Thinking back to the man with the volatile temper who had glanced at her coldly that night, then turned and left without a word, all the things that hadn't made sense before were finally clear.
On the other side, Ming Shui Mansion.
After posting on Weibo, Ji Mingshu didn't look at it again, not wanting to affect her own mood.
She just lay on the bed scrolling through WeChat, but after looking through a long list of unread messages—there wasn't a single one from Cen Sen.
No... she was understanding, but was this dog man Cen Sen actually feeling in his heart that a couple of words of comfort were enough to settle everything? Seriously, wow.
She stared at her chat interface with Cen Sen, wanting to say something, but was afraid of disturbing his work. After this much deliberation and hesitation... she accidentally missed the sudden "zombie attack" from the official Junyi Group Weibo three minutes ago.
Yes, that’s right, even a group like Junyi, where even the leaders exuded the air of an ancient tomb sect, had a Weibo. Not only did they have Weibo, but they also had a WeChat official account, where the content pushed was all in the style of "A red heart toward the sun" and "The hotel business is flourishing."
Compared to their WeChat account, Junyi’s Weibo activity was quite low, with the last post sitting at a retweet of hotel industry reform news from March of last year.
This time, suddenly "coming back to life," the official group Weibo posted three times in a row.
One was a retweet of Ji Mingshu’s long Weibo post, accompanied by the words "We support you."
One was a lawyer's letter addressed to the Designer production team, stating that Junyi would hold the production team accountable for violating the sponsor’s terms.
The content of the final post was rather peculiar; it was actually a letter of accountability issued on behalf of Ji Mingshu—
Junyi Group: [1. Please have the Designer production team immediately remove the relevant program videos from all major websites and stop the harm toward Ms. Ji Mingshu. We also hope that the production team will provide the original raw footage from the recording as soon as possible to restore the truth of the recording. 2. The internet is not a shelter for anyone to spread malice. Please have the fans of Ms. Yan who maliciously attacked Ms. Ji Mingshu apologize to Ms. Ji immediately. The list contained in the following lawyer's letter is a preliminary collection; we will expand the scope of our statistics subsequently. Issuing a letter is not a verbal warning. If they do not publicly apologize within the specified time, we will spare no cost to track and hold them accountable indefinitely.]
The gossiping public had only reached the part about Ji Mingshu’s deep family background, and opinions were divided, with no one knowing what was true and what was false.
So, everyone was very confused upon seeing the last Weibo post. Shouldn't a sponsor support the production team? Supporting the production team was one thing, but helping a designer issue a lawyer's letter? What was that all about?
Many people flocked to the post to ask, and the official group Weibo actually opened up a mode for online replies.
Onlooker B: [Spare no cost, track and hold accountable indefinitely—can this send someone to jail? This is too serious, right?]
Junyi Group replied: [It cannot send someone to jail, but it can make them apologize.]
Onlooker A: [Why did you guys post this? This is too righteous, I'm stunned...]
Junyi Group replied: [No, it’s because Ms. Ji is the President’s wife.]