CSGM - Chapter 87
Chapter 87: History Repeats Itself
Chu Xi never seemed to have a habit of sparing people's feelings.
The general manager's expression instantly turned ugly. He was on the verge of losing his temper.
The already tense atmosphere worsened, and the air in the office grew heavy with a touch of awkwardness.
The Director was the one who felt awkward...
He opened his mouth, but it seemed difficult to say anything to ease the tension. He glanced at the fuming general manager, then at the indifferent Chu Xi, and ultimately remained silent.
Well... companies with large operations and leaders with a certain status were difficult to deal with.
Once people reached a certain status, they became arrogant and less receptive to advice.
But Chu Xi was different.
Chu Xi's bluntness had nothing to do with status; the Director had long known she treated everyone this way.
Sigh...
The Director broke out in a cold sweat.
"Teacher Chu, what you've said is quite interesting."
The general manager was, after all, a man who cared about appearances, so he spoke to Chu Xi in a passive-aggressive tone.
It was clear he hadn't thought his words through.
Chu Xi retorted.
"What benefit would our crew gain from dumping Scholar Ox drinks? What benefit would we get from slandering Honghua Company's factory for having rats, and only in front of you? Would that get us any attention? The only way for the Three Kingdoms crew to avoid offending Honghua Company is to do as Director Yang suggested and help you keep the hygiene and safety issues with your drinks a secret. So, which of these three scenarios do you think is the most plausible?"
Anyone with a brain could figure it out.
Why would the Three Kingdoms crew dump a hundred cans of Scholar Ox for no reason? Did they have too much money to burn? Or were they trying to get famous by offending an industry sponsor?
As for claiming there were traces of rats on the Scholar Ox cans, explaining it to the regional general manager alone wouldn't generate any publicity for the crew.
If he thought about it carefully, what Chu Xi said actually made a lot of sense.
The general manager's expression grew serious, and he fell into deep thought.
After a moment, he asked,
"Then what evidence do you have?"
"None."
Chu Xi said matter-of-factly.
"We don't have any. The cans have been thrown away. If you insist on finding evidence, you'll find it in your factory."
"You..."
The general manager discovered that while communicating with Chu Xi was effective, it always left him feeling frustrated!
How could she talk like that!
"You claim there are rats in our beverage factory. We have four factories in the Capital—in the South City, North City, Futai, and Shunzhou districts. Shipments to retailers are sent out randomly. How am I supposed to know which factory it was?"
After this back-and-forth, the general manager dropped all pretense of politeness, his tone filled with dissatisfaction and doubt.
Chu Xi leaned back in her chair and thought for a moment.
"I know where it is. How about I go with you to look for it? That way, I can prove we're not lying."
"You know?" the general manager asked doubtfully, looking her over.
Chu Xi nodded. "Yep. What do you say?"
This way, she could slack off from the set for half a day and buy some snacks on the way.
The general manager thought this was for the best. If they didn't find any rats, he could demand a new explanation from the Three Kingdoms crew immediately. Otherwise, getting them to cooperate in the future would be difficult.
The Director figured that since Chu Xi was sharp, it was a good idea to let her go. If they did find rats and the other party destroyed the evidence and refused to admit it, or worse, slandered the crew, then the crew would be left to suffer in silence, having drawn the short straw.
Sending Chu Xi along to keep an eye on things was the safest bet.
And so, with the three of them each having their own agenda, Chu Xi went with the general manager to Honghua Company's factory in the Capital's Futai District.
On the way, the general manager grew curious as to how Chu Xi knew the factory of origin for those Scholar Ox drinks.
It made him doubt the truth of the entire incident all over again.
"You didn't just make this up, did you?" he asked as he drove.
Chu Xi scoffed.
"It's written on the can. I just happened to glance at it yesterday."
The general manager was taken aback.
"Then why didn't you say so earlier?"
"If I'd made it that clear from the start, our director wouldn't have let me come out with you."
If Chu Xi had explained from the beginning that she knew everything, would the Director have let her go and given her the chance to come see for herself?
And she certainly wouldn't have had time to buy these snacks-
Chu Xi looked at the ice cream cone in her hand, while her other hand, tucked in her pocket, felt the lollipops, fruit roll-ups, and cheese sticks she had bought.
When you've been dieting for a long time, any kind of sweet treat looks appealing.
The general manager recalled how, in the convenience store earlier, Chu Xi had looked like she wanted to buy one of every single snack displayed at the checkout counter. The corner of his mouth twitched.
Is she really a celebrity?
He'd never seen a celebrity with such a craving for snacks, one who would go to such lengths just to sneak out for a bite.
The general manager led Chu Xi into the factory. Throngs of workers, arranged like students in a classroom, were performing their tasks in a neat and orderly fashion.
A crowd of people was engaged in the long, repetitive work of the assembly line.
With the general manager's sudden inspection, the factory manager was terrified, trailing closely behind him every step of the way.
After a brief conversation, the general manager realized the manager here knew nothing about any rats in the factory.
"Rats? I haven't heard anything about rats. I've never seen any. Manager Wu, are you sure you didn't mishear something?"
The general manager glanced at Chu Xi.
His look was full of insinuation.
He was insinuating that Chu Xi should listen up: the person in charge here said they'd never found any rats, so she should hurry up and admit that she and the crew were just making baseless accusations!
Chu Xi rolled a mint around in her mouth with her tongue, her expression calm and composed.
"Let's go take a look at the shelves."
She was in a good mood from the candy, so she refrained from calling the management here a bunch of useless idiots.
When they reached the end of the production line—a temporary shelving area—Chu Xi bypassed the group of people moving at a snail's pace and quickly walked along the shelves, scanning them.
She wasn't like the men behind her, who were just putting on a show.
They clearly couldn't see or understand a thing, yet they stared at the cans on the shelves, walking slowly as if deep in thought.
In reality, their eyes were useless and their minds were blank.
Finally, among the dozens of rows of temporary shelves, Chu Xi once again spotted the telltale gnaw marks of rats on numerous cans!
She picked out several dozen cans and handed them to the group behind her.
By the end of their tour of the shelves, the general manager, the factory manager, several department heads, and a few senior employees all had their arms full of cans.
They looked at each other and then at Chu Xi, completely bewildered.
Seeing their baffled expressions, Chu Xi kindly reminded them,
"I did a quick scan. These are all the problematic drinks. Take them to be inspected, and then you can figure out where the rats are coming from."
A few of the executives hesitantly picked up the cans in their hands, examining them from top to bottom and side to side-
They really couldn't see anything wrong with them!
Was this young woman just making things up for attention?
The general manager and the factory manager exchanged a look. After all, the facts would speak for themselves. They kept their composure, and the general manager ordered,
"Take them to be inspected."
Hmph! If Chu Xi dares to lie to me, I'll settle the score with the Three Kingdoms crew later!
Meanwhile, on the internet.
The secretly filmed video, titled "Three Kingdoms Crew Dumps Perfectly Good Scholar Ox Drinks, Causing Waste," which the general manager was supposed to have bought off, had somehow been released by another media outlet!
The reason was that the person who had secretly filmed the footage wasn't one of the media's paparazzi.
The original footage was in the hands of Jiang Zixi. When she saw that the first media outlet was taking too long to release the dirt on Chu Xi, she quickly passed the information to a second one.
In the entertainment industry, there was never a shortage of people or major media outlets eager for a scoop.
The second media outlet released the story with lightning speed. While Manager Wu was busy, he never anticipated that a second copy of the footage existed.
He had wasted his money for nothing. In the blink of an eye, the truth was out.
The video of the Three Kingdoms crew dumping the drinks was exposed after all.
Furthermore, Chu Xi's face and voice were at the very beginning of the video, perfectly clear and recognizable.
-Chu Xi: "Dump them."
#ChuXiDumpThem#
Her name and the "famous quote" instantly shot to the top of the trending topics!
This was a major incident that went against public order and morals!
As public figures, celebrities have a responsibility to lead by example, and netizens and the public subconsciously hold them to a higher moral standard.
Now that Chu Xi had dared to openly encourage the crew to waste resources, it was no surprise she was instantly blasted to the top of the trending list.
Schemers took things out of context.
The paparazzi fanned the flames.
Netizens, in the name of justice, launched their attack.
The history of online gossip was always repeating itself.
A world where only the Milkshakes got hurt had arrived once more.
After all, their idol never bothered with social media, no matter what netizens said. TvT
Only the Milkshakes were left fuming, angry that their idol was being slandered yet again!
【Is Chu Xi getting popular? Whose toes did she step on? Why is everyone trying to slander our little artist lately? /[Kneeling]】
【Can the people posting these rumors every day be any more ridiculous? On Our Restaurant, Xixi was the kind of person who couldn't even bear to throw away half a can of leftover peaches and ate them herself! How could she possibly be the one to dump so many drinks!!!】
【If you read her lips, Chu Xi obviously hadn't finished speaking! They definitely cut the beginning and end to maliciously mislead people, okay? Stop trying to pin everything on her.】
【There's a reason for everything. Xixi must have had a reason for doing this. Maybe there was something wrong with the drinks? Can you please not just attack everything you see without thinking?】
The Milkshakes' comments were gentle, but tinged with a hint of helplessness.
Their idol was being slandered again and again and again!
Fighting off these rumors every day is exhausting!
Xixi, can't you come online and stand up for yourself for once!
It seemed that of all the times Chu Xi had been slandered, she had never once clarified things herself, except for the incident concerning her relationship with Ren Zhi.
It was all up to the Milkshakes to pour their hearts out, posting counter-arguments everywhere to defend her!
The Milkshakes had some fighting power, but not much.
Their weak attempts at persuasion were no match for the iron-clad evidence of the video, which clearly showed her face and captured her voice.
In the trending topic, netizens cursed, flamed, accused, and lectured as they saw fit.
But after all the lengthy denunciations, Chu Xi hadn't read a single one.
These people were just entertaining themselves.
After they'd had their fun, everyone discovered that another topic about Chu Xi had appeared out of nowhere-
#MinorCelebBigAttitudeWhatDoYouThink#
Although the topic didn't mention Chu Xi's name, clicking on it revealed it was full of stories about her recent diva-like behavior on the new set.
One explosive scandal took Chu Xi from obscurity to infamy, and with the increased attention, some of her previous minor scandals were also dug up.
Netizens who loved digging up dirt took this opportunity to compile all the recent rumors about Chu Xi from the set.
Chu Xi Demanded the Screenwriter Work Overnight Without Rest to Revise the Script
Chu Xi Didn't Even Look Up When the Director Was Speaking in a Meeting
...
Chu Xi Bullied a Supporting Actor and Personally Gave Them a Warning
This was too much!
As soon as some celebrities join a film crew, all their diva tendencies come out!
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