CSGM - Chapter 86
Chapter 86: A Meeting with the Manager
Lately, a rumor from an unknown source had started to circulate, with marketing accounts frequently posting defamatory articles about Chu Xi acting like a big shot on set.
An occasional whisper was one thing, but after it happened several times, it started to tarnish her image.
For example-
"It's said that the female star who got famous from the cooking variety show started acting like a big shot the moment she joined the cast."
"The crime-solving celebrity joined a historical drama production and was very dissatisfied with a supporting actor stealing scenes, so she personally went to warn them."
"The artist with the high-IQ persona clashed with the director on set because she was too opinionated."
And so on. This kind of dirt was always interspersed among the gossip from various marketing accounts, popping up from time to time.
The Milkshake Army was a force to be reckoned with now. Wasn't this a blatant jab at their idol?
Unacceptable!
Their numbers had grown, and with unity came strength. Faced with the overt and covert attacks from some marketing accounts, they now dared to step up and speak out for Xixi!
【Stop mentioning Chu Xi. Is Chu Xi your ancestor? Why do you have to drag her into everything?】
【Can you unscrupulous marketing accounts please go die? /[Smile]】
【How much do you get paid for one negative post about Chu Xi? Are you posting every day because you're in a hurry to earn enough for your coffin?】
When an idol was hit with negative rumors, their fans were the first to disbelieve it.
However, after seeing it a few times, the remaining casual netizens were subtly influenced by the false information, and it was easy for them to start believing the lies were true.
Just like now, among the netizens who had recently gotten into Our Restaurant and were watching past episodes, some left comments like:
【Chu Xi got famous on this show and then went off to act like a big shot…】
【Watching this show, Chu Xi seems pretty decent. As expected, people get arrogant once they become famous.】
【Ermmm, given her personality, I think I understand why she had so many conflicts with her castmates after joining the production.】
But unfortunately for the perpetrators, these negative rumors only had a self-contained effect.
That is, apart from discussions within a few specific small circles, they barely made a splash online.
It was even less likely that they would deal a heavy blow to Chu Xi's reputation and cause her to lose the newcomer recommendation spot for the Peach Video Scream Night.
The level of discussion among netizens was low, and the public reaction wasn't strong enough.
The company's upper management and the various capital investors involved in Scream Night were still unaware of the matter.
Just as Jiang Zixi was vexed that these rumors were barely scratching the surface, her informant on the film set suddenly sent her some explosive material!
In the video, Chu Xi was standing before a table of unopened Scholar Ox drinks and casually telling the director, "Pour them out."
The next spliced-in clip showed a group of crew members and actors in extras' costumes, all pouring perfectly good drinks into the public restroom sinks!
The red ginseng-colored Scholar Ox drink cascaded down like a small stream, quickly flowing away across the dirty sink.
Waste is shameful!
First, there were crazed fans dumping milk to vote for their idols, and now there was an unethical idol instigating a director to extravagantly waste beverages.
This was a big deal!
Even Jiang Zixi felt that Chu Xi had gone too far when she saw the video.
Just because she had a high-paying job, she wasted resources. Even she couldn't stand it and wanted to condemn Chu Xi harshly.
Such a moral degenerate, what low character!
Jiang Zixi then sent the video to the marketing account she had been in contact with, letting them use it to boost their numbers.
The professional marketing media account would get traffic from the exposé, and she would reap the benefits. A win-win.
The day after the Three Kingdoms crew, still shaken, dared not buy any more of the recent batches of Scholar Ox drinks in the Capital, the director was contacted.
It was a call from the Beijing regional general manager of Honghua Special Drinks, the company that produced Scholar Ox.
The Honghua manager wanted to meet with the director right away, saying he had something important to discuss.
Important…?
The director's brow twitched as he listened on the phone. What else could be so important?
It had to be about their crew pouring out a hundred-odd cans of Scholar Ox drinks just yesterday! The Honghua company must have found out.
Otherwise, what could a beverage company possibly have to discuss with their film crew?
Oh, the Honghua manager also said he hoped they could bring the artist named Chu Xi along to meet him.
The director scratched his scalp helplessly. Hearing the dissatisfied tone in the man's voice, he had a gut feeling that yesterday's events had caused a misunderstanding.
Trouble really had a way of finding you.
Considering that the Honghua enterprise was also connected to a video platform, and a Beijing regional general manager was not a minor figure, he really couldn't refuse to grant him this courtesy.
After moving Chu Xi's scenes up and finishing them, the director left the set in the hands of the assistant director and the on-set producer.
He then called Chu Xi over, told her to wash her face, and accompany him to meet the Honghua regional manager.
On the way, Chu Xi listened to the director's explanation, completely unperturbed.
"It's their own problem. Just tell him straight."
Director Yang quickly advised, "No, don't be so direct. It's better to be a little more tactful."
Chu Xi found it amusing. The other party thought they were occupying the moral high ground and were coming to condemn them.
"This makes it look like we were wasting things on purpose."
Director Yang said, "As long as we explain it clearly, it'll be fine."
He wanted to explain it clearly, yet also be tactful. Chu Xi was very interested to see how the director would pull that off.
She would wait and see.
When they arrived at the company's branch office building, the director and Chu Xi were politely led into the manager's office by a staff member.
After all, they were still people of some renown in society.
But as soon as the office door closed, the Honghua regional general manager's expression turned incredibly dark.
"Director Yang, hello. Teacher Chu, hello. My surname is Wu. Wu Tianli."
The man greeted them with a grim face, but on the table, two cups of freshly brewed tea were prepared with due courtesy for guests.
Chu Xi leaned back in her chair, tracing the rim of the teacup with her finger to feel its warmth, and said with an unchanged expression, "Let's get to the point, skip the pleasantries. We're all busy."
The director, who had been about to speak, was cut off by her words and froze. "…"
He shot a quick glance at Chu Xi, breaking into a cold sweat internally.
Did she forget that I told her in the car to be polite to them!
The other party is already in a bad mood!
The general manager was taken aback for a moment. Since she put it that way, he mentally cut out the superfluous parts of his planned conversation.
He took out a phone and played a video for the two of them.
The audio in the video was quite clear.
—"Pour them out."
—"Quick, quick, pour it faster. We don't want any of it."
—"Tsk, tsk, tsk…"
Twenty-one seconds, and it was over.
But both Chu Xi and the director knew that the clips in the video had been maliciously edited.
For instance, after Chu Xi said, "Pour them out," there was clearly another sentence—
"There are a lot of scavengers around here. It would be risky if someone else picked them up."
But now that part had completely vanished, so naturally, her words were taken out of context.
Chu Xi even had the leisure to take a sip of tea, remaining composed.
Just a petty trick by the paparazzi. She was used to it.
The general manager's face was tight with suppressed anger. He said, "This is an exposé that a social media account was planning to release this morning, but I intercepted it."
Chu Xi just sipped her tea without a word, occasionally glancing at the director, her eyes seeming to say:
You wanted to be tactful, didn't you? Go on, talk.
The general manager continued, "Let's not discuss how much it cost to buy it for now. After all, if it had been released, it would not only have harmed your production but could have also affected our product."
The director breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness he bought it and it wasn't released.
He was sighing in relief on behalf of the Honghua company.
"I just want to ask, what was your crew's reason for doing this? Can you give us an explanation?"
It wasn't just him who was angry about this; more importantly, the big boss above him was also furious.
You have to understand, the big boss has quite a few investment partnerships in the entertainment industry.
For someone within the circle to sabotage their own company's product like this, the big boss was naturally enraged!
It was precisely because Director Yang knew of this connection that he didn't want to damage relations with a major investor in the entertainment world.
After careful consideration, he began, trying his best to be tactful.
"It's like this, Mr. Wu. We originally didn't want this matter to get out, thinking it best to keep things quiet. After all, it didn't cause any substantial impact, and it wasn't a problem on our end. But for some reason, it still leaked."
The director laid the groundwork with conciliatory words before slowly getting to the reason.
"Because when we received these cases of Scholar Ox, we noticed they were somewhat unclean. We were worried about hygiene issues if the crew drank them, so Chu Xi suggested we pour them out."
The general manager looked at Chu Xi, and Chu Xi nodded.
Then he pressed, "Hygiene issues? What kind of hygiene issues?"
Chu Xi avoided the general manager's gaze and continued to glance at the director—
Go on, keep being tactful.
She had an air of someone watching a good show. If he wouldn't let her speak, she would just watch how he managed to be tactful and save face for the other party.
As expected, the director tried various phrasings to hint at the problem to the general manager for a long time, but the manager simply wouldn't believe him.
It wasn't that he didn't understand; it was that he didn't believe it.
He didn't believe it meant what he thought it meant.
The warehouse was unclean, with traces of something having crawled over it… Impossible!
This was clearly an attempt to shirk responsibility, more like trying to turn the tables and blame them!
Moreover, the general manager grew angrier the more he listened, feeling that the director was just making things up and spewing slander.
Sitting between them, Chu Xi almost laughed out loud.
If she had been allowed to speak, it would have been resolved in one sentence. But no, he had to try to save face for the other party. So unnecessary.
Besides, there were only the three of them in this office. Was anyone else listening?
Seeing Chu Xi's smile, the general manager became even angrier. He turned his head towards her, his eyebrows shooting up.
"What are you smiling about? Since you were the one who suggested pouring out the drinks, Teacher Chu, please explain yourself!"
Even that smile was noticed. Chu Xi had no choice but to lower the teacup that was covering her mouth.
She got straight to the point. "The cases of Scholar Ox we bought yesterday morning all had traces of being crawled on and gnawed by rats. We didn't dare to drink them, and we were afraid someone might pick them up, so we told everyone to pour them out."
After she finished, seeing the general manager's shocked expression, she didn't forget to add another sentence.
"The director was trying to save you face by not saying it. He was also afraid of the potential impact, so he didn't even report it to the Market Supervision Bureau or the Food Safety Administration. If you really think there's something wrong with what we did, you should be inspecting your regional factory warehouse."
Chu Xi thought about it seriously. The problem must have occurred at that stage.
Because by the time the products reached the wholesaler, they were already boxed.
Who knew that her sincere suggestion would be met with such ingratitude?
The general manager said in a low, displeased voice, "Teacher Chu, damaging a company's image carries legal responsibility."
So he would rather believe she was spouting nonsense and deliberately slandering a company she had no connection with than believe that rats had moved in and set up shop in his own company's factory, right?
All Chu Xi could say was…
"Talk less nonsense and use your brain more."
Moron. She wasn't going to coddle this person.
The director's heart pounded as he listened.
He watched the general manager's face fall instantly.
As expected, the very thing he had been most worried about happening when he brought Chu Xi out had happened!
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