Ye Lan, seething with anger, paced the hotel corridor once before calling An Ya.

An Ya had also seen the news. She answered the phone and said first, "Don't be angry, don't be angry, listen to me..."

"I'm not listening," Ye Lan interrupted An Ya coldly. "I don't wrongly accuse good people... First, go and find out for me if Tong Yizhe leaked this himself."

An Ya: "...Calm down, it's not a big deal. I'll go and check on the situation, okay? But you have to promise me first that you'll wait for my news and not act on your own."

Ye Lan took a deep breath and said, "Fine."

An Ya persuaded Ye Lan a bit more before hanging up.

Ye Lan felt a tightness in his chest he couldn't release. After thinking for a moment, he called Ren Haichuan.

Ren Haichuan was in a small meeting with the screenwriter. When he answered the phone, he was completely bewildered: "What the hell? Who's comfortable?"

Ye Lan was angry, his words were jumbled and he was in no mood to explain in detail. He said impatiently, "You... go look at the news yourself. I can't explain it to you."

Ren Haichuan hung up and went to search for the day's entertainment news.

A few minutes later, Ren Haichuan called back, his tone steady and calm: "I've seen it. What they're saying is fake."

"..." Ye Lan closed his eyes and said with effort, "Thank you so much for helping me verify that... Aren't you guys going to clarify?"

Ren Haichuan clearly didn't take this kind of third-rate-artist's antics seriously. He said indifferently, "What is there to clarify? Besides, they didn't say Tong Yizhe is the main lead. And we've never officially announced the cast information. People can guess whatever they want. Are we supposed to clarify every single one? Are they insane?"

Ye Lan choked on his words and said, "Forget it..."

Ren Haichuan was the director; he never managed the film's publicity. Calling him was like praying to the wrong god in the first place.

Ye Lan hung up. He was searching his contacts, about to look for the head of The Scum's publicity department, when he suddenly remembered that this film, this crew, didn't even have such a department...

It couldn't pass censorship, couldn't be released, so what was the point of film publicity?

Fucking hell...

Jiang Chi felt upset and wanted to go to the tea restaurant on the hotel's top floor to eat and distract himself. When he pushed open his room door, he saw Ye Lan in the distance, exuding a murderous aura, standing in the corridor with a dark expression, looking down at his phone.

To get from the door of Jiang Chi's room to the elevator, he would have to pass by Ye Lan.

Maybe it was just his imagination, but Jiang Chi faintly felt a dark, oppressive killing intent emanating from Ye Lan. If he got close, Ye Lan might suddenly lash out and stab him.

Frightened, Jiang Chi shrank back inside.

"Didn't you want to get some refreshments?" Li Weili was still scrolling through Weibo. Seeing Jiang Chi come back after just opening the door a crack, he asked, "Or are you too lazy to go? I can go buy them and bring them back for you?"

"N-no need. I'm not eating."

Jiang Chi sat back down on the small sofa. After thinking for a moment, he figured Ye Lan must have seen that news as well.

Even if he hadn't seen it, after all this time, someone must have contacted him and told him about it.

Jiang Chi's heart, which had fallen to rock bottom, seemed to be tied to a hydrogen balloon, slowly and leisurely floating back up.

Jiang Chi had originally thought that after seeing the news, Ye Lan would treat it as nothing and just laugh it off.

After all, the number of times he'd been used for bundled hype was already countless; he should have been used to it long ago.

But from the way he looked just now, he was clearly angry.

Jiang Chi coughed. His mood uncontrollably improved.

Ye Lan was angry because of him!

This was just too delightful.

Jiang Chi, whose credit had just been stolen by Tong Yizhe, felt a strange little bit of happiness in his heart.

The corners of his mouth also lifted uncontrollably.

'My idol is angry because of me.'

'Would Ye Lan curse because he's angry? It's a pity I can't hear it. Jiang Chi never dared to tell anyone that every time Ye Lan swore, his legs would go weak...'

"Brother... Brother Jiang..." Li Weili said, terrified. "Are... are you okay? Did you go crazy from anger? Why are you smiling..."

"Ahem..." Jiang Chi choked. He rubbed his face, put on a stern expression again, and explained with difficulty, "I... I laughed out of extreme anger... I'm fine."

"..." Li Weili said with heartache, "There's no one else here. Don't... don't force a smile."

...

After calming down in the corridor for a while, Ye Lan returned to his room.

Yao Mengxi, the makeup artist, and the others, afraid of getting on Ye Lan's bad side, had already made themselves scarce. Only Cen Wen was still in the dressing room.

Cen Wen looked at Ye Lan's expression and gave a dry laugh, "Um... Sister An Ya called you just now, but the line was busy, so she called me."

Ye Lan looked at Cen Wen.

Cen Wen said in a low voice, "You guessed right. It was indeed Tong Yizhe who released the behind-the-scenes photos himself. His assistant used to work at Super Entertainment, and the press release was passed to the media through him. The articles that one-sidedly praised his looks and acting skills were also something he bought in advance from Super Entertainment. It's been confirmed."

Ye Lan snorted coldly, "Is he denying it now, and also impatiently looking for the person who released his photos?"

"How did you know?" Cen Wen said awkwardly. "As soon as the news broke, he contacted the crew, said he knew nothing about it, and even said he was willing to contact Super Entertainment and, as the involved party, order them to take down that press release..."

Ye Lan sneered.

Cen Wen said carefully, "Sister An Ya told me to tell you not to take it to heart. This kind of thing is too common. It's just a third-rate artist taking advantage of a loophole to get famous, using some low-class tricks. If you really fight with him, you'll be lowering your own status..."

Ye Lan naturally understood all this.

Speaking of which, Tong Yizhe was a little clever.

In those few photos, the posture between him and Tong Yizhe was ambiguous. If he really wanted to go all out with the hype, he could have completely omitted mentioning the filming, not said they were leaked photos, and just had people say it was a candid shot, making them think he and Tong Yizhe were really a thing.

Anyway, many people in the industry didn't even know that 'The Scum' had started filming, let alone the fans.

The sensation created would have been much greater. Conservatively estimated, the matter could have dominated the headlines for a month.

But if he played it that way, the people from his own studio would clarify it at the first opportunity.

At that point, his own fans would tear Tong Yizhe to shreds.

Tong Yizhe must have been very clear about this point, so he chose the lesser of two evils, directly throwing out the fact that they were filming, and only riding on the coattails of his previous few comments.

He knew that it was inconvenient for Jiang Chi to refute, that he himself wouldn't bother with him, that both companies' studios would play it safe, and as for the crew... they had been low-key from the start of filming until now, and based on the principle of 'the less trouble, the better', they wouldn't publicly clarify anything either.

By leveraging the two eye-catching topics of "Ye Lan" and "same-sex themed movie," he could easily and steadily gain plenty of attention.

Ye Lan gently gripped his phone, a half-smile on his face... Tong Yizhe's wishful thinking was quite loud and clear.

Cen Wen secretly broke into a cold sweat and said softly, "It's not the first time someone has leeched off your popularity. Just... don't mind it."

Ye Lan's face was frosty; he didn't reply.