"Mr. Sheng, Ms. Wang, you need to give us an explanation for this!" the producer cried out anxiously.
Sheng Wenyue, who had been confronting Ji Fei with daggers drawn, and Wang Jiani, who was feigning a fragile breakdown, both froze at these words.
It seemed they had just realized that the atmosphere in the entire makeup room had become tense.
Everyone wore a dumbfounded expression, alternating between glancing at their phones and giving them strange looks.
Those gazes contained various emotions - some seemed to want to speak but held back, some concealed mockery, while others were full of disrespect and schadenfreude.
What now? Had something happened online?
Although they knew that the trouble Ji Fei had stirred up had been leaked, it should have disappeared by now due to lack of evidence, drowned out by their fans' rebuttals.
"What's the matter?" Sheng Wenyue asked.
The manager pulled back his shocked gaze and was about to show Sheng Wenyue his phone, but his hand couldn't help trembling. He hadn't expected that in this whole affair, the person who had been lying from start to finish was actually Wang Jiani.
Before he could act, the usually unused projector in the makeup room suddenly lit up.
As Sheng Wenyue and Wang Jiani were still confused, a voice abruptly came through.
"It's so expensive, can Sister Ruan Jia afford it?"
The familiar voice and the mentioned name made Sheng Wenyue whip his head around.
On the large gray-white screen, only figures from the neck down could be seen, with two female customers standing face to face.
One of them looked very glamorous, wearing the same dress Wang Jiani had been photographed in when she sent the picture that day.
Sheng Wenyue couldn't immediately distinguish Ruan Jia's figure and clothes opposite Wang Jiani, as she was too thin and her clothes seemed very loose. He could only identify her by the black card and the voice coming from the speakers.
Listening to Ruan Jia's embarrassment, watching her frantic attempts to make a call, and finally seeing Wang Jiani take out his supplementary card... and then that slap...
"No!" Wang Jiani finally lost control and screamed, her mind blank, forgetting to maintain her gentle, beautiful, and pitiful image. She shouted, "Turn it off, turn it off! Who did this? Turn it off!"
Qin Zhao silently put away his phone, watching Wang Jiani's clownish behavior.
Just now, because Ji Fei had suddenly complained, "If only we could publicly execute them," Qin Zhao had thought of using this tactic.
Who told Wang Jiani to do such despicable things and still attempt to deny it, throwing mud at Ji Fei? The Qin family was known for protecting their own.
Someone, unable to bear Wang Jiani's noise, directly quipped,
"Oh my, Ms. Wang, there's no use panicking. This video has already spread across the entire internet, everyone has seen it."
These words hit like a thunderbolt, causing Wang Jiani's legs to give way, and she collapsed to the ground.
At this moment, Sheng Wenyue seemed to have lost his soul, staring blankly as the video continued to play.
Ji Fei hadn't expected there would really be a public execution, and almost couldn't hold back her laughter.
"Now's the time to kick her while she's down, watch my performance," she thought.
She stepped forward and said to Wang Jiani, "Ms. Wang, do you still need to prove your innocence with death?"
Wang Jiani's expression froze, and she looked at Ji Fei with angry humiliation. Ji Fei blinked and said with a sigh, "I have to say, as expected of someone with professional training. Coming here to film the show really allows one to learn things."0
Wang Jiani's expression instantly twisted, her face radiating a kaleidoscope of emotions.
Hearing this, the others wanted to laugh but held it in, all remembering Wang Jiani's earlier breakdown performance, which had startled them.
Yes, indeed, the acting skills of a professionally trained performer are truly professional.
Who could have guessed that before the show even started filming, they'd already be getting an acting lesson?
Ji Fei turned to look at Sheng Wenyue with a smile.
"There's one more. Catch a thief red-handed, catch an adulterer in the act, you can't escape either."
"Is this what Mr. Sheng was talking about?" she asked.
Sheng Wenyue looked over almost mechanically, only to hear Ji Fei mimicking what he had just said, getting right in his face: "Jiani has never been disrespectful to her... hmm..."
The color drained from Sheng Wenyue's face inch by inch.
The video happened to be playing the part where Ruan Jia passed by the two silhouettes.
Ji Fei pointed directly at one of them and said, "That's me, see? Your wife really didn't say a word to me, so..."
Sheng Wenyue's body swayed. So they really didn't know each other, so there really was no instigation, no orchestration. Everything was just a coincidence.
Ji Fei smiled brightly and said, "So, regarding this matter of spreading rumors, I will still pursue it to the end. Unless you sincerely apologize to me."
Ji Fei had essentially returned all the accusations that Sheng Wenyue and Wang Jiani had thrown at her.
Finally, she added, "I believe that Mr. Sheng, now that he's seen the truth, will surely side with justice rather than personal relationships!"
At this, everyone finally couldn't hold back their laughter anymore.
It wasn't that they didn't know how to behave, it was truly impossible to hold it in!
Their managers' faces had turned pale. They had come in so arrogantly earlier, but now they were truly trembling with fear, wanting to step forward to ease the situation.
"Ms. Ji, it's all a misunderstanding, we can handle this properly."
Gao Hao immediately raised his head and said, "No, we need your apology. If it hadn't suddenly blown up online, our Ms. Ji would have been wrongfully accused to death."
The manager quickly nudged Sheng Wenyue.
But Sheng Wenyue's expression had already cracked, and he was in no state to care about anything else, not even the mockery from the crowd.
He looked down at Wang Jiani in disbelief, this time not compassionately helping her up, but asking in a trembling voice, "What... what's going on? You lied to me?"
Wang Jiani no longer dared to raise her head. With such iron-clad evidence, she could no longer quibble and could only cry with muffled sobs.
"Tell me, why did you lie!" Sheng Wenyue suddenly erupted in anger.
It was unclear whether he was regretting wrongly accusing his wife or was ashamed and angry at so righteously defending someone who had deceived him.
"No, senior, it's not... I didn't want to, I..."
Realizing there was no way out, Wang Jiani suddenly burst into tears and ran out, looking completely devastated.
Wang Jiani's assistant and other staff naturally awkwardly rushed out after her, while Sheng Wenyue still stood rooted to the spot, his whole body trembling with anger, yet his face full of bewilderment and helplessness, as if he still couldn't believe this reality.
The manager, however, was already as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.
Weibo's hot search had crashed due to the explosive gossip about the film emperor's household, so netizens had switched to short video platforms. Within half an hour, the news had spread like wildfire, and even the standby PR team, transforming into an octopus-like entity, couldn't intercept it in time.
He knew this was the biggest crisis in Sheng Wenyue's career. After all, the issue wasn't just about the video; it had become a matter of personal character and morality. The director and producer were also eyeing them hungrily, waiting for their solution.
The 'Youth Comeback' duo could be considered the biggest traffic draw for the "My Acting, Cut!" show. If something went wrong, it could indeed bring a short-term traffic explosion to the show, but it would also implicate the production team in a scandal. After all, they were essentially operating under the banner of helping the film emperor assist his former CP in making a comeback.
Online, there were already accusations of them abetting evil and helping a mistress.
That's why the director and producer were so anxious; they needed to come up with countermeasures immediately.