As expected, the second episode of True Star Training Class continued to rouse the interest of numerous people. The ratings for the second episode broke the record the first had set. The spike in ratings, however, had nothing to do with Tang Feng this time. Although Tang Feng was skilled in both singing and piano, Ge Chen’s fall from his horse had stolen everyone’s attention this week. When the segment containing Ge Chen’s fall came on TV, the ratings had spiked up to a record high for the episode.
The day after, a representative from Su Entertainment announced that Ge Chen had suffered slight shock and a leg injury from the incident and was undergoing treatment at the hospital. The representative added that Ge Chen fell because his horse had been startled by something and started galloping wildly. Fortunately, Ge Chen had only suffered minor injuries. He would be back to full health after resting for a few months. The representative ended by thanking everyone for their concern.
The horses at the riding field had all been trained since they were foals. Under normal circumstances, it was very rare for them to go mad and start galloping wildly. Tang Feng had watched the initial recording of the episode and discovered something while examining the footage. The horse Ge Chen had been riding on was restless and jittery from the start. It obviously didn’t start going mad in the middle of recording.
From the symptoms the horse had been exhibiting…it seemed like it had been injected with a stimulant.
Not two days later, a newspaper wrote an exposé on this matter. It wrote that someone had injected Ge Chen’s horse with a stimulant and that was why it went wild. With this new revelation, people wondered whether Ge Chen would be left with a lame leg. They also started questioning who had injected his horse with the stimulant. Various theories sprouted up on the internet instantly. Unfortunately, Tang Feng took the bullet again this time.
He was an idol who had debuted at the same time as Ge Chen, but his luck was unbelievably awful; a dark cloud seemed to continuously hang over his future as an actor. The difference between his dismal luck and Ge Chen’s rampant popularity was as great as the distance between the sky and the ground.
To add to this unfortunate situation, it had been exposed only a few days earlier that he had deliberately pushed Ge Chen off the boat during filming.
By joining the training class, Ge Chen proved to be a threat to everyone involved. Tang Feng’s chances of being a potential suspect were the greatest out of all the trainees.
Even if the Tian Chen Group had sent out a representative to publicly refute the false theories when they caught wind of the rumors, remarks such as “Tang Feng had deliberately tried to set up Ge Chen with an ‘accident’” were already floating around popular news sites and forums as people continued to fan the fire. The false theories spread around the web faster than a computer virus. Even though there was proof that Tang Feng hadn’t injected the horse with a stimulant as he wasn’t at the scene during the incident, someone would always jump out and claim that Tang Feng could have had an accomplice.
Moreover, Ge Chen chose to remain quiet on the matter. His silence only fueled the suspicions of the public.
♦
“Why is he doing this?” Tang Feng stared at the city through the floor-to-ceiling windows inside the Tian Chen Group’s president’s office. It was a dark and gloomy day. The lead-colored sky was overcast with thick layers of dark clouds, looking like it was about to rain.
He turned to face Lu Tian Chen. “I’m not the one who injected Ge Chen’s horse with the stimulant, but it seems he’s perfectly fine with letting the public think otherwise. I don’t know what I had done to provoke him this much and make him use even his injury to slander my name. He’s not even attempting to find the real culprit, but instead wants to shift the blame to someone else. President Lu, what a wonderful person you have chosen.”
Tang Feng’s voice made it clear that he was mocking Lu Tian Chen. He wasn’t narrow-minded enough to be angered by the groundless claims everyone was making, but he did find the whole situation ridiculous.
He could disregard the bunch of obscene remarks about him on the internet. But if someone was trying to push him to his limits by slandering his name again and again, then he was going to let the other person know that he wasn’t a pushover who was going to endure it in silence.
As someone who had been working in the entertainment industry for almost twenty years, Tang Feng immediately noticed Ge Chen’s intentions. If he hadn’t, he might as well return to the afterworld and give up on being an actor.
Even if he was a good person, it didn’t mean that he would allow himself to be bullied by others. Tang Feng didn’t think of himself as an especially good person in any case.
As for media and public relations, he would leave them for his agency to deal with. In his past life, being framed for a crime he didn’t do never happened. Because if someone dared to frame him and went to court with him, then they would certainly lose their entire family fortune in the process. However, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Tang Feng was still unfamiliar with China’s rules and regulations, so it was best to leave it up to the professionals.
The gossip by the public and the wildly untrue, paid comments by the Water Army were still going rampant on the internet. Tang Feng had come to Lu Tian Chen’s office as he believed that this president who was in an intimate relationship with Ge Chen could give him an explanation.
“I know you’re very angry, but anger won’t solve anything. Come sit.” Lu Tian Chen walked toward the table near the windows while holding two glasses of wine. As always, both his expression and voice were rather indifferent.
Tang Feng walked over slowly and sat down in front of Lu Tian Chen. He picked up a glass and took a sip of the golden liquid inside. “I simply do not want to take responsibility for something I have not done. Nor do I want to lower my head cowardly and continue to let people smear my image however they want. Since it’s already come to this point, if I continue to remain silent, I’ll only give others the idea that I’m easy to bully. In the future, someone will try to smear my image a second time. There will be a second Ge Chen.”
He didn’t care that the public was ridiculing him as a form of amusement, but he couldn’t stand being unjustly blamed for something he didn’t do.
“You’re an employee of the Tian Chen Group, my company. No one can spread rumors about you and smear your image.”
Tang Feng couldn’t resist a chuckle. He bantered, “President Lu, I am indeed an employee of the Tian Chen Group, but right now someone is indeed spreading rumors about me. Not only that, there’s a bunch of people online accusing me of things and trying to smear my image.”
As expected, the second episode of True Star Training Class continued to rouse the interest of numerous people. The ratings for the second episode broke the record the first had set. The spike in ratings, however, had nothing to do with Tang Feng this time. Although Tang Feng was skilled in both singing and piano, Ge Chen’s fall from his horse had stolen everyone’s attention this week. When the segment containing Ge Chen’s fall came on TV, the ratings had spiked up to a record high for the episode.
The day after, a representative from Su Entertainment announced that Ge Chen had suffered slight shock and a leg injury from the incident and was undergoing treatment at the hospital. The representative added that Ge Chen fell because his horse had been startled by something and started galloping wildly. Fortunately, Ge Chen had only suffered minor injuries. He would be back to full health after resting for a few months. The representative ended by thanking everyone for their concern.
The horses at the riding field had all been trained since they were foals. Under normal circumstances, it was very rare for them to go mad and start galloping wildly. Tang Feng had watched the initial recording of the episode and discovered something while examining the footage. The horse Ge Chen had been riding on was restless and jittery from the start. It obviously didn’t start going mad in the middle of recording.
From the symptoms the horse had been exhibiting…it seemed like it had been injected with a stimulant.
Not two days later, a newspaper wrote an exposé on this matter. It wrote that someone had injected Ge Chen’s horse with a stimulant and that was why it went wild. With this new revelation, people wondered whether Ge Chen would be left with a lame leg. They also started questioning who had injected his horse with the stimulant. Various theories sprouted up on the internet instantly. Unfortunately, Tang Feng took the bullet again this time.
He was an idol who had debuted at the same time as Ge Chen, but his luck was unbelievably awful; a dark cloud seemed to continuously hang over his future as an actor. The difference between his dismal luck and Ge Chen’s rampant popularity was as great as the distance between the sky and the ground.
To add to this unfortunate situation, it had been exposed only a few days earlier that he had deliberately pushed Ge Chen off the boat during filming.
By joining the training class, Ge Chen proved to be a threat to everyone involved. Tang Feng’s chances of being a potential suspect were the greatest out of all the trainees.
Even if the Tian Chen Group had sent out a representative to publicly refute the false theories when they caught wind of the rumors, remarks such as “Tang Feng had deliberately tried to set up Ge Chen with an ‘accident’” were already floating around popular news sites and forums as people continued to fan the fire. The false theories spread around the web faster than a computer virus. Even though there was proof that Tang Feng hadn’t injected the horse with a stimulant as he wasn’t at the scene during the incident, someone would always jump out and claim that Tang Feng could have had an accomplice.
Moreover, Ge Chen chose to remain quiet on the matter. His silence only fueled the suspicions of the public.
♦
“Why is he doing this?” Tang Feng stared at the city through the floor-to-ceiling windows inside the Tian Chen Group’s president’s office. It was a dark and gloomy day. The lead-colored sky was overcast with thick layers of dark clouds, looking like it was about to rain.
He turned to face Lu Tian Chen. “I’m not the one who injected Ge Chen’s horse with the stimulant, but it seems he’s perfectly fine with letting the public think otherwise. I don’t know what I had done to provoke him this much and make him use even his injury to slander my name. He’s not even attempting to find the real culprit, but instead wants to shift the blame to someone else. President Lu, what a wonderful person you have chosen.”
Tang Feng’s voice made it clear that he was mocking Lu Tian Chen. He wasn’t narrow-minded enough to be angered by the groundless claims everyone was making, but he did find the whole situation ridiculous.
He could disregard the bunch of obscene remarks about him on the internet. But if someone was trying to push him to his limits by slandering his name again and again, then he was going to let the other person know that he wasn’t a pushover who was going to endure it in silence.
As someone who had been working in the entertainment industry for almost twenty years, Tang Feng immediately noticed Ge Chen’s intentions. If he hadn’t, he might as well return to the afterworld and give up on being an actor.
Even if he was a good person, it didn’t mean that he would allow himself to be bullied by others. Tang Feng didn’t think of himself as an especially good person in any case.
As for media and public relations, he would leave them for his agency to deal with. In his past life, being framed for a crime he didn’t do never happened. Because if someone dared to frame him and went to court with him, then they would certainly lose their entire family fortune in the process. However, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Tang Feng was still unfamiliar with China’s rules and regulations, so it was best to leave it up to the professionals.
The gossip by the public and the wildly untrue, paid comments by the Water Army were still going rampant on the internet. Tang Feng had come to Lu Tian Chen’s office as he believed that this president who was in an intimate relationship with Ge Chen could give him an explanation.
“I know you’re very angry, but anger won’t solve anything. Come sit.” Lu Tian Chen walked toward the table near the windows while holding two glasses of wine. As always, both his expression and voice were rather indifferent.
Tang Feng walked over slowly and sat down in front of Lu Tian Chen. He picked up a glass and took a sip of the golden liquid inside. “I simply do not want to take responsibility for something I have not done. Nor do I want to lower my head cowardly and continue to let people smear my image however they want. Since it’s already come to this point, if I continue to remain silent, I’ll only give others the idea that I’m easy to bully. In the future, someone will try to smear my image a second time. There will be a second Ge Chen.”
He didn’t care that the public was ridiculing him as a form of amusement, but he couldn’t stand being unjustly blamed for something he didn’t do.
“You’re an employee of the Tian Chen Group, my company. No one can spread rumors about you and smear your image.”
Tang Feng couldn’t resist a chuckle. He bantered, “President Lu, I am indeed an employee of the Tian Chen Group, but right now someone is indeed spreading rumors about me. Not only that, there’s a bunch of people online accusing me of things and trying to smear my image.”
