Chapter 48: Fake Tumble on a Level Ground (3)
“Yi Ka’s chairman must be grinning from ear to ear! Its official WeiBo account shared Jia Beilei’s blog immediately to claim the Elf Series and extended their thanks to stars who raved about it as well as to go public on the news that Yi Ka was about to set up a girl brand Little Mermaid. They must have hired a group of Internet ghostwriters to post online comments in their favor, and now the topic of fairy’s skirt has blown up on social media.”
As expected. It seemed that the publicity of Elf Series was a success. Smiling, He Bai felt gratified at the news.
“Anyway, you, Yi ka and Jia family are all real winners, while your former company is down on its luck.” Niu Junjie suddenly changed his tone of voice and made a face. He snickered when he picked out the mobile phone and enabled WeiBo to show him something, “This morning, your photographs became Trending 1 after one night’s sharing and reposting, and an Internet celebrity said she was eager to make a shooting appointment with you and, hmm, and tagged Saint Elephant in the meanwhile.”
He Bai’s expression changed, “She tagged Saint Elephant? How does Saint Elephant respond?”
“No response. They just play dead.” Niu Junjie learned from He Bai that Saint Elephant grabbed his work, which incurred his displeasure a lot. He chuckled, “It’s also because you have only a few dozen of inactive followers on WeiBo. Therefore, few have noticed the statement you posted before you left Saint Elephant, which left netizens the wrong impression that you still work for the company. These photographs have drawn much more attention than the sidelights you took for the TV station, and you suddenly become Yi Ka’s clothing photographer, which arouses a lot of curiosity among netizens who are ready to dig the reason up.”
He Bai took his cell phone and browsed through the trending topics, which gave him a general understanding of the ins and outs of the matter.
Netizens acted so efficiently that it took them only half a day to find out some clues. For instance, Ma Qun complained about the preferential treatment He Bai had received on his personal WeiBo account; a staffer who was suspected to be employee of Saint Elephant groused about the company; The Jias came to Saint Elephant to ask for an explanation; the director of Saint Elephant resigned all of the sudden; there occurred some anonymous revelations from Saint Elephant staff that He Bai was treated unfairly, pushed aside and forced to quit his job. Finally, someone exposed that He Bai was actually the Q University guy who Di Qiuhe said was bold enough to take photos of paparazzi the other way round. Besides, Di had introduced He Bai to Miss Jia to take birthday photographs for her, while the job was grabbed secretly by Saint Elephant.
A variety of details as well as the timeline was dug up. After an analysis, netizens found that He Bai left his job the moment Saint Elephant undertook the job of taking birthday photos of Miss Jia, and finally came to the conclusion that Saint Elephant actually drove He Bai out in order to snatch the business away from him. And the reason why Di Qiuhe failed to watch the completion of He Bai’s cooperation with Jia family closely was because he was forced to log off WeiBo and was in no mood for anything, thus leaving Saint Elephant an opportunity to take advantage of…
Saint Elephant had gone too far!
Never did they see such a shameless company!
The netizens who thought they found out the truth got angry immediately, especially Di Qiuhe’s fans. They started to defend He Bai and made up their mind to ask for justice for “their idol’s lovely younger schoolmate”!
“The comments section is temporarily shut down on Saint Elephant’s official WeiBo account. I guess viewers bombarded it with complaints.” Niu Junjie shook his head and sighed in an insincere way, “That’s why we are told to behave with integrity. You see, Saint Elephant is done for.”
He Bai logged out in a mixed frame of mind.
He was to some extent attached to Saint Elephant. After all, it was Saint Elephant Company that offered him a place to work when he lived in dire poverty. But his attachment to the company was due in large part to Li Ru. Now that Li Ru quitted her job, Saint Elephant was nothing but a place with people he hated. Furthermore, with regard to today’s plight, Saint Elephant only had itself to blame. He Bai was simply worried about Mrs. Li’s reaction.
Seeing He Bai upset about it, Niu Junjie knew he was moved to pity. He put his arm on He Bai’s shoulders, laughing, “You’re getting popular, and your social prestige must be rising now. I guess there are countless stars and celebrities dying to make shooting appointment with you. Don’t forget to promote me when you make a fortune in the future.”
“I promote you? Your parents are filthy rich.” His words greatly amused He Bai. He naturally shifted the topic away from Saint Elephant and stopped thinking of the hot news online.
It was at a hospital on the border.
Having sent the crew members away, Wang Boyi gently closed the door of the ward and said to Di Qiuhe reclining on the bed, “The Internet is full of hustle and bustle when Ma Xingtong and his nephew become the targets of attack now.” Curious to know why Master Di took up the cudgels for a younger schoolmate, he was sensible enough to keep his curiosity suppressed.
Di Qiuhe stroked the bruises on his arm, gave a nod and said, “Tell them to make Bai’s statement a Trending Topic and expose the two people’s bullying of Bai at Saint Elephant. Don’t post the set of photos Ma Xingtong and Ma Qun took for Miss Jia until the thing is discussed heatedly. Try to pick out as beautiful pictures as possible, and remember to cover Miss Jia’s face with mosaic.” He indeed planned to uphold justice for He Bai but had no intention to make a young girl’s unsightly photos seen everywhere.
“Mosaic?” Wang Boyi was confused, “How can we prove the person in the photo is Miss Jia when mosaic is added?”
“There’s a mole on her arm, which Bai shot in close-up when he took that set of photographs. He also asked the make-up artist to draw a vine flower to cover it. Netizens are perceptive enough to recognize her.” explained Qiuhe with a sense of pride when he mentioned He Bai. Seeing Wang Boyi nod, he continued, “Report to my father on the attack today. Now that the criminal has been caught, my suspicious dad will certainly make every attempt to find out the villains behind. As long as he looks into it, the Qins can’t stay out of trouble.” Wang Boyi took out his cell phone immediately, ready to ring somebody up.
Di Qiuhe was quite satisfied with his attitude. He closed his eyes and signaled to Wang that he needed a rest.
Wang Boyi went away obediently.
When the ward door closed, Di Qiuhe snapped his eyes open, groped for the mobile phone and called He Bai. When his call was put through, Di Qiuhe feigned grievance. “Bai, as you predicted, I was attacked. The man wanted to flee. I caught him but hurt my arm…”
“What? You’ve been attacked?” Niu Junjie’s voice came. He shouted blusteringly, “You got hurt, didn’t you? Are your injuries severe? You and Bai are really a well-matched pair of brothers. The one has a fever and is put on a drip, and the other hurt his arm.”
Di Qiuhe stopped pretending immediately, frowning and asking, “Had a fever? Is Bai ill?”