He Xing was too busy to check Weibo until now, and even if he did, he wouldn’t bother replying.

But they didn’t need He Xing’s reply.

Many people followed with comments.

[1st Comment: I’ve never seen a drama where a newcomer plays the second female lead. He Xing, if you’re kidnapped, just blink.]

[2nd Comment: I also saw the pictures He Xing posted last time. If the newcomer standing next to Qin Yi is the second  female lead, then I have nothing to say about her looks.]

[3rd Comment: Upstairs, I’ll help you finish the sentence. Letting a completely new person play, is her acting skills up to par? @He Xing]

…

[88th Comment: How’s the beautiful sister’s acting? Ugh, I don’t want to see a beautiful face with bad acting.]

…

These comments were merely expressing doubts about Chi You’s acting skills, considering she was a newcomer, which was quite normal.

However, this alone wouldn’t have led to trending on social media.

Chi You continued scrolling down and finally found the reason.

A relatively popular actress recently posted a short complaint around noon. She expressed her admiration for the script and her desire to try the character of Song Anying, the second female lead. She mentioned investing a lot of time refining the script. Unfortunately, she admitted that she fell short during the audition. She vowed to work harder to improve her acting skills and hoped to collaborate with He Xing soon.

Underneath it, there were numerous comments from her sympathetic fans.

[1l: Baby, we feel so sorry for you. Your acting skills are really good!]

[2l: I don’t understand why He Xing would be willing to let a newcomer ruin his script. Didn’t he claim to love this role the most before?]

[3l: Probably, her wealthy father had a say in it. After all, our treasure didn’t have the same background as others.]

……

[9l: I had a friend in the crew. The friend mentioned that the newcomer’s surname is Chi. After checking all the families with the surname Chi in city A, there is only one with a background. Ironically, a while ago, it was revealed that the daughter of the Chi family wasn’t their biological child. After acknowledging their biological daughter, that fake heiress cut ties with her family and entered the entertainment industry.]

[10: Wasn’t that…]

[11: Have some shame. After living for so many years by occupying someone else’s identity, I guess the woman who could play He Xing’s second female lead is the one who obtained it by severing family ties.]

[12: Disgusting. This kind of person is truly terrifying.]

……

Chi You expressionlessly scrolled through the content, then looked up to meet Yang Qiruo’s concerned gaze. She asked, “What arrangements has the company made?”

As a member of Gu Group, the company would handle such incidents.

“The PR department is already dealing with it, but the incident was sudden. Besides… this isn’t a natural trend; someone has paid for a lot of internet trolls to insult you,” Yang Qiruo spoke with evident anger.

Chi You, someone who had only shown her face in public once, could still attract such hatred.

Upon hearing that the company was handling the situation, Chi You felt relieved.

Yang Qiruo, who had been worrying and angry on her own for a while, couldn’t help but ask in confusion, “Aren’t you angry?”

Chi You remained expressionless, “Getting angry makes you look ugly.”

Yang Qiruo responded, “…Oh, I see.”

Before she could continue, the car window was suddenly knocked twice from outside.

Both of them turned their attention to the outside, locking eyes with a visibly frustrated and grinning He Xing.

…

“I’ll immediately release the audition footage to let these people see how good you really are!”

He Xing sat in the passenger seat, scrolling through comments and grumbling.

After a busy morning, he finally took a break only to be informed by the staff that Chi You was being insulted on social media.

He was so angry that his voice became hoarse, “Certainly, someone must be dissatisfied with you playing this role, a group of people…”

Unpleasant words were not easy to say in front of Chi You, but he wasn’t just talking about the actress who wrote the essay; there were definitely others behind her, manipulating hot searches and buying online supporters.

Chi You yawned leisurely, showing no signs that she was the one being criticized. Her mental attitude was surprisingly strong. “Just ignore it. When the drama is aired, everyone will understand why you chose me for this role.”

Her voice was gentle, and she didn’t seem bothered by the situation at all.

He Xing, of course, understood this principle. The more fiercely they criticized now, the more surprised everyone would be when the drama was released.

He had confidence in Chi You’s acting skills.

However…

He sighed, “You’ve suffered.”

Yang Qirou was touched by his unexpectedly emotional words, but Chi You accepted them graciously. She reached out and patted He Xing’s shoulder, playing along, “For our future, this is what I should do.”

He Xing continued scrolling through the frustrating hot searches, and Chi You took away the phone to prevent him from confronting those online trolls.

But after a while, Yang Qirou suddenly exclaimed with excitement, “Look, it seems like the hot searches have changed!”

He Xing, now in a calmer state, approached to see her phone.

There was a recent post featuring a picture from Chi You’s audition.

A flamboyant and glamorous person with one hand resting on the shoulder of the second male lead. Her lips were slightly parted, as if she were saying something, but her gaze seemed to go straight through the camera, appearing passionate yet carrying a dangerous and sinister thought.

The accompanying text of this Weibo post was also quite bold.

“Buying hot searches, not aiming for anything else, just want everyone to see a beautiful woman.”

This hot search had reached the seventh position and showed a growing trend.

He Xing and Yang Qirou exchanged puzzled glances, then simultaneously looked at Chi You, who still had no apparent reaction. “Don’t you have anything to say about this?”

Chi You was taken aback. She graciously glanced at the phone screen, her face showing a hesitant expression. “Am… I too good-looking?”

He Xing & Yang Qirou: “…………”

Did she perhaps take being composed a bit too far?!