Ye Lan tried his best to appear nonchalant and composed. He didn't want to seem like an idiot who caused trouble and then proudly showed it off, which would make him look unreliable.

Coming to find Jiang Chi was only because this matter was somewhat related to him, so he came to inform him, nothing more.

It was Li Weili who opened the door.

When Li Weili saw it was Ye Lan, he was so scared he almost shut the door again.

Ye Lan frowned slightly, "Where's Jiang Chi?"

"In... inside..." Li Weili had also seen Ye Lan's Weibo post and was too shocked to stand steadily. His tongue was in a knot. "Brother Jiang... Brother Jiang just said he wanted some pastries, I-I-I'll go buy some for him."

With that, he scurried away.

Ye Lan watched Li Weili's retreating back, scoffed, then pushed the door open and came in, saying, "Jiang Chi, about that thing..."

Jiang Chi shot to his feet. He was gripping his phone tightly, his lips slightly pale.

Ye Lan entered the room. Seeing Jiang Chi's reaction, he knew he must have found out, so he said directly, "I won't beat around the bush. Did you see my Weibo post?"

Jiang Chi nodded dazedly.

"It's not a big deal. I was just clarifying things to set the record straight. I didn't give you a heads-up beforehand..." Ye Lan frowned, looking at Jiang Chi in surprise. His voice trailed off as he chuckled, "What's wrong, baby? Your hands are shaking."

Jiang Chi wasn't just shaking his hands.

His entire body was trembling slightly.

"I..."

The moment Jiang Chi spoke, he felt his voice wasn't right, so he didn't continue. He unconsciously looked left and right, sat down, rested his forehead on his hands, and took a few deep breaths.

Ye Lan was awkward, "What's with you..."

"I..."

Jiang Chi clenched and unclenched his fingers. After calming himself down, he said in a low voice, "The year I debuted, I once saw you repost my senior sister's photo to promote her new movie..."

Jiang Chi lowered his eyes. "At that time... I was so envious. I thought about how hard I'd have to work for you to repost my Weibo one day, too."

Ripples spread through Ye Lan's heart.

Jiang Chi had said before that he was his fan.

Jiang Chi looked up at Ye Lan and whispered, "Although it wasn't for promotion, what you said... your evaluation of me, you meant it, right?"

Ye Lan smiled. "Truer than gold."

Jiang Chi thought for a moment. Still feeling uneasy, he slowly took out his phone and took a screenshot of Ye Lan's Weibo post.

"..." Ye Lan was silent for a moment. "I'm not planning on deleting the post. Can you not act like an anti-fan, frantically taking screenshots for evidence?"

Jiang Chi's scattered wits gradually returned. Hearing Ye Lan say this, he quickly deleted the screenshot. He looked up and saw Ye Lan was still standing, so he shot up like a spring, embarrassed. "Please, sit..."

Ye Lan glanced at him and sat down where Jiang Chi had just been.

After the initial shock wore off, Jiang Chi was a little flustered. He carefully sat opposite Ye Lan and said haltingly, "Can... can I repost your Weibo post from earlier?"

Ye Lan raised an eyebrow. "Why would you repost it?"

"To say... thank you or something." Jiang Chi's mind was a complete mess. "Or would it be better not to? I've actually imagined many times how I would respond if you reposted something about me one day. How about I write it down first, and you can see which one is more appropriate..."

Ye Lan scoffed, "Don't get involved. Just pretend you didn't see it."

Before Jiang Chi could speak again, Ye Lan said, "It wasn't for you, either. I've been holding my breath since just now. If I didn't let it out, my lungs would have exploded."

Jiang Chi didn't feel awkward hearing this; instead, he said sincerely, "But you really did help me. I'm very, very... grateful."

Ye Lan raised an eyebrow, his habit of running his mouth acting up again. "How grateful?"

Jiang Chi froze. He used all his strength to swallow the words "so grateful I want to devote my life to you" that were on the tip of his tongue, and changed it to, "You... you can ask me to do anything."

Ye Lan couldn't help but laugh at this. Just as he was about to tease him, there was a knock on the door of Jiang Chi's room.

"Must be Li Weili?" Jiang Chi got up sheepishly. "I'll get it..."

The person who came wasn't Li Weili, but a troubled-looking Cen Wen.

Jiang Chi quickly let her in. Cen Wen gave Jiang Chi a dry smile as a greeting, then walked quickly to Ye Lan's side, clutching her phone and whispering, "It's Sister An Ya on the phone..."

"You..." Ye Lan glared at Cen Wen and said angrily in a low voice, "Didn't I tell you to tell her I'm filming?"

Cen Wen covered the mouthpiece of the phone, caught in a dilemma. She whispered urgently, "Sister An Ya said, if you don't answer... she won't hang up, and she won't let me hang up either."

"...This trick again."

Ye Lan knew he couldn't avoid it. If he kept ignoring An Ya, she would get truly angry.

Ye Lan glanced at Jiang Chi. Not wanting him to hear An Ya scolding him, he didn't have Cen Wen put it on speaker. He took the phone himself and walked a few steps toward the window.

Ye Lan cleared his throat, brought the phone to his ear, and said, "I was just filming, what's..."

"Don't beat around the bush with me before I get really mad." An Ya suppressed her anger, squeezing the words out through her teeth, "Do you think I've had too much free time lately?!"

Ye Lan chuckled. "No, I'd rather you always be free and happy..."

"Cut the crap!" An Ya raged. "What did you promise me just now? You've got some nerve, Ye Lan... First, you pretend not to care to appease me, then you turn around and create a huge news story!! Sometimes I really suspect you're a mole sent by a rival company, specifically to mess with me! You..."

Ye Lan listened absently as An Ya dredged up old scores. After a while, her words made him irritable, and he frowned, "Then what was I supposed to do?! I asked you, and you told me not to do anything. I asked Ren Haichuan, and he didn't care at all. I wanted to find the crew's publicity team, but this fucking poor crew doesn't even have one! Nobody's managing it, so what could I do?!"

An Ya was dumbfounded. "So if no one manages you, you can just do whatever you want? You have the nerve to shout? You..."

"I wasn't shouting at you." Ye Lan's tone softened, and he sighed. "I said it wasn't on purpose, do you believe me?"

"I believe you." An Ya restrained herself and said coldly, "Keep making things up."

Ye Lan burst out laughing. "It's true. If that bastard from Super Entertainment hadn't popped up to cause trouble again, I would've just ignored it. Besides, it wasn't an impulse..."

"Super Entertainment crossed the line this time." A cold sneer played on Ye Lan's lips. "They slandered me by saying I was interested in Tong Yizhe."

An Ya paused.

Ye Lan gave a lazy smile. "An Ya, haven't you been looking for a chance these past few months to make a statement, to tell everyone that I'm currently single?"

"Yes..." An Ya stammered, "I was so mad at you I forgot about that. Right, this is a perfect opportunity to issue a legitimate statement."

Previously, out of consideration for Jiang Ying's reputation and the movie's box office, An Ya had turned a blind eye to Ye Lan's romance rumors. She gritted her teeth and let them create a wave of hype without saying anything. Now, Super Entertainment had walked right into the line of fire, providing the perfect pretext to act.

Ye Lan smiled. "Alright, go handle the aftermath. Don't waste your time on me."

Still not satisfied, An Ya lectured Ye Lan a bit more before hanging up.

Not long after, Li Weili returned with the pastries. The four of them sat around, eating and scrolling through the news.

As expected, in that short amount of time, Super Entertainment's previous blog post had been torn to shreds by the fans, leaving nothing behind.

Ye Lan's fans had recently been focused on his ambiguous relationship status. Now that the news about the fake leak broke, they instantly found their main battlefield. They unified their efforts and collaboratively took down Super Entertainment's official Weibo and website.

Unexpectedly, under Ye Lan's Weibo post, not many people questioned his use of profanity. Some of Ye Lan's older fans were even gratified that Papa Ye's firepower hadn't diminished with age, sipping tea and reminiscing about Ye Lan's glorious past of confronting entertainment reporters head-on.

Li Weili watched, dumbfounded, and whispered, "If this were our Jiang Chi, he'd probably be flamed to death..."

"The tolerance for idols is different." Cen Wen sighed. "Anyone who knows a little bit knows about Ye Lan's past deeds. They're long used to him confronting the media."

About half an hour later, Ye Lan's Studio officially released a statement, declaring that Ye Lan was currently single and reserving the right to hold certain entertainment media accountable for malicious hype and defamation.

The entertainment company Jiang Chi belonged to, Century Entertainment, finally made its presence known. It released a statement confirming that Jiang Chi had indeed joined the cast for filming several months ago, but had not been overly publicized due to the production side's request.

Once the official "single" announcement came out, combined with Ye Lan's two previous Weibo posts, fans and passersby instantly understood the whole story. Filled with the anger of being fooled, they once again cursed Super Entertainment to hell and back.

Under pressure, Super Entertainment subsequently released an apology notice.

On Tong Yizhe's side, after Ye Lan's Studio made its statement, they also hurriedly issued one of their own, stating that Tong Yizhe was only fortunate enough to act in the same drama as Ye Lan and was not the protagonist. They hoped the entertainment media would stop using him for clout and dragging him into this mess.

Ye Lan scoffed, "I knew he'd be anxious."

Cen Wen was terrified. "We don't have any evidence on Tong Yizhe, don't stir up more trouble!"

"How could I?" Ye Lan put down his phone. "I just contacted the producer, explained the situation here, and incidentally told him that I won't appear on the same stage as Tong Yizhe again. They'll know what to do."

Jiang Chi raised his eyes and said in a low voice, "You mean..."

Ye Lan gave Jiang Chi a triumphant smile. "What can you do? Ren Haichuan is probably going to curse me to death... The bartender's scenes will all need to be reshot."

Jiang Chi's mouth fell open.

Jiang Chi had only ever heard of an actor being replaced after the entire film was shot. This was the first time he had experienced it personally.

Cen Wen shook her head and said, "Tong Yizhe really overplayed his hand and lost everything this time..."

Another hour passed. The PR from Ye Lan's Studio had successfully controlled the situation, skillfully shifting public opinion in Ye Lan's favor. Combining this with the previous false rumors, they delivered a solid blow, fiercely criticizing the unscrupulous entertainment media.

Fans and passersby worked together in perfect harmony, tearing into them until the evening. During a halftime break at dinner, everyone turned their heads and finally remembered the other protagonist of this incident: Jiang Chi.

Jiang Chi's fans had also been angry when they found out someone had stolen his credit. However, Ye Lan's face-slapping came too quickly and too satisfyingly. They were immersed in the shared glory of their idol being praised by Film Emperor Ye. In too good a mood, they lost their motivation and initial fighting spirit. It wasn't until evening that they joined forces with Ye Lan's fans in victory. After joyfully tearing into their common enemy with one heart and one mind, sparks inexplicably flew, giving birth to a considerable group of first-generation CP fans. Later, they would go on to write countless epic and moving fanfiction stories together. Of course, that's a story for another time.

"Ye Lan..."

In the evening, everyone was waiting for their scenes on set as usual. Most people were happily scrolling through Weibo, mocking Super Entertainment. Just then, Cen Wen braced herself, walked over to Ye Lan, and said, "Sister An Ya said... your Weibo account needs to be handed over to her for management for the time being."

Ye Lan let out a laugh. "What?"

Cen Wen said dryly, "Not only that, she also told me to... uninstall the Weibo app from your phone. You... don't make things difficult for me."

Ye Lan: "..."

Cen Wen said pitifully, "Sister An Ya has been scolding me for a long time, blaming me for not keeping an eye on you. But how could I possibly control you, I..."

"Alright, alright." Ye Lan knew Cen Wen was caught in the middle. He handed his phone to her and consoled her, "I'll give you double pay this month. You... never mind, just uninstall it."

Cen Wen's worry turned to joy. She took Ye Lan's phone, uninstalled a few of his apps, and handed it back to him.

Jiang Chi, who was sitting next to Ye Lan reading his script, saw this and said softly, "Brother Ye Lan... if anything else happens, I'll tell you."

Ye Lan shot Jiang Chi a sideways glance and said coldly, "Worry about yourself first. Cooperate well in the kissing scene later. I'm in a bad mood today, so if the filming doesn't go smoothly, I'll chew you out."

Jiang Chi took him seriously and nodded in trepidation. "I... I'll definitely film it well."

Ye Lan snorted. He looked around, instinctively reaching for his phone to check the comments. Seeing the empty phone screen, Ye Lan irritably tossed his phone aside and picked up his script instead. He flipped through it, muttering to himself, "Fuck, I can't even play on my phone... I really fucking want to screw a dog."

Hearing this, Jiang Chi blushed and whispered in his heart, 'Woof.'