Perhaps because she had just woken up, Ji Mingshu felt a bit dazed. Her eyes were still swollen and sore from crying the night before, but having received Cen Sen’s comfort as she wished, she didn’t feel any particularly intense emotions when she saw the even more frenzied insults on Weibo.
Last night, she had thought she would be too angry to sleep. Unexpectedly, after finishing her call with Cen Sen, she fell asleep quickly.
However, upon waking up, she was still quite bewildered to find that the matter, which should have been suppressed, had now become a city-wide scandal.
Coincidentally, Gu Kaiyang called to check on her. Yawning, she said she was fine, then listened to Gu Kaiyang’s vivid and dramatic recounting of the "Ji Mingshu Incident" launched late last night while brushing her teeth.
Truly worthy of being Editor Gu, even casually coming up with such a sensational narrative title. Ji Mingshu was jolted awake by the sheer shock of it.
But upon closer listening, the main content seemed to be a long chain of online reactions triggered after her family intervened.
Gu Kaiyang said her family was particularly tough. After discovering that blocking the three characters "Ji Mingshu" didn’t reduce the heat, they went on to block a series of derived keywords like "designer" and "JMS" across major forums.
Thanks to these moves, Ji Mingshu overnight gained her own exclusive title on major forums—Silencer :)
The gossip queens even created derivative buzzwords and innuendo phrases for her, such as "Quiet as Ji," "When Night Falls, Please Shut Up," and "It's Getting Cold, Let Me Treat You to a Meal of Ji Jihong."
What should have been a rather depressing affair actually made Ji Mingshu laugh, spraying toothpaste foam all over the mirror.
After brushing her teeth, she quickly called her Second Uncle, alternating between whining and swearing, promising she could definitely handle the situation. Only then did her Second Uncle withdraw the series of actions he had taken earlier.
Unsurprisingly, Ji Mingshu ended up getting a lecture, filled with the usual clichés about not showing her face in public and needing to nurture her relationship with Cen Sen properly.
She patiently responded with "uh-huhs" and "mm-hmms," waiting for her Second Uncle to say, "Think it over carefully," before hanging up.
But unexpectedly, after lecturing her early this morning, her Second Uncle somehow added a new argument: "Xiao Shu, you two aren’t young anymore. In the next couple of years, you should start preparing to have a child. After giving birth, you can rest for a year or two. You can still have a second child before thirty—it won’t hold you back."
"...?"
Ji Mingshu was stunned. She never expected her Second Uncle to think about children at a time like this, and even jump straight to a second child. Truly worthy of being Bureau Chief Ji, who always closely follows national policies and has the highest political awareness in the family. She was left speechless for a long moment.
Come to think of it, she and Cen Sen had been married for over three years and had never really considered the issue of children. Neither of them seemed to have given it any thought, maintaining a highly consistent and unspoken agreement on contraception since their marriage.
As for their families, they probably didn’t push the issue because Cen Sen had been in Australia for the past two years, and urging them would have been pointless anyway.
After hanging up, she propped her chin on her hand and zoned out on the bed, following her Second Uncle’s train of thought about having a boy or a girl, a first child or a second. Nearly half an hour later, she finally remembered she had serious matters to attend to.
After Cen Sen comforted her last night, she had drafted a lengthy Weibo post on her phone but fell asleep before she could post it.At this point, the situation had changed. After sobering up and reviewing yesterday's lengthy post, she also felt that many parts were quite inappropriate. So she spent some more time on her phone, deleting and revising, even dragging over Gu Kaiyang, the big editor who deals with words, to review it for her.
At eleven in the morning, Ji Mingshu posted:
"I admit, I am a person with a bad temper, but I am not someone who loses my temper without reason. The program recording lasted a total of fifty-three days. Miss Yan Yuexing knows very well what kind of work attitude she brought to the show.
"As for the program's editors, with such superb skills, I wonder if your annual salary has already reached a million? If not, perhaps you should consider changing jobs—I'll hire you.
"Some of Miss Yan's fans have been posting long, fabricated stories in the comments under my Weibo posts, baselessly speculating that my family evades taxes. Well, I can respond directly: my family pays taxes to the country openly and honestly every year, and we welcome any form of verification. It is not me who is bullying others, but the self-righteous Miss Yan Yuexing and the program team I once trusted.
"This is an era of rapidly developing self-media, where having more followers and more channels to speak gives one more power over the narrative. I think that without my family, not so many people would pay attention to my updates, and the Weibo post I'm making today might not even appear before everyone. But since it has, I must restore the truth as stated above.
"I originally thought Designer was a home design program with ideas that didn't just follow trends, with the original intention of bringing design into life. Little did I know its purpose was to bring popularity and money into its pockets.
"Seeing how things have evolved, I deeply regret it. At the same time, I firmly believe that artists and program teams who stoop to any level for the sake of popularity should not have such a vast space to survive. This is the loudest slap in the face to all the hardworking staff on the front lines of the entertainment industry, striving tirelessly for quality work.
"Finally, thank you all for your patience in reading. I am Ji Mingshu, an interior designer, not a Silencer."
Less than a minute after Ji Mingshu's Weibo post went up, there were already hundreds of comments, all from Yan Yuexing's fans who had been camping on her Weibo to hurl insults. They probably hadn't even read the content, just seized the opportunity to unleash a torrent of abuse.
But as her keywords were lifted from restrictions and her post was shared across various forums, the tone of the comments began to shift:
【She speaks quite logically, firm yet rational. I believe you, sis! (Mainly because you're pretty! Doge face)】
【Wasn't it revealed that she's the daughter of Huadian? YYX fans are out of their minds tagging official media to investigate taxes, xswl. This is literally the funniest joke I've heard all year.】
【After reading the last part, I think the truth is that a socialite hid her identity to join a small show she was interested in, only to get played by the program team and a minor celebrity. She must have been so furious she could see stars, and now she wants to take control of the entire entertainment industry, hahahaha!】
In fact, since last night, both the program team and Yan Yuexing's side had been trying to contact Ji Mingshu to apologize and reconcile. Especially Yan Yuexing's side—they were regretting it so much their intestines were turning green!Originally, Yan Yuexing had been negotiating for the female lead role in a major production. This big project came with its own buzz and prestige, so once officially announced, she wouldn’t need to rely on a home renovation design show like Designer to stay relevant.
But for some reason, just when they were about to sign the contract, the production team suddenly canceled the collaboration unilaterally, claiming they had found a more suitable candidate. They didn’t even let her ride the hype of a makeup test photo!
Her company had long hinted at this major role to her fan leaders, who then teased the news to the smaller fans. While everyone kept saying "no official announcement, no expectations," the fan community had already joyfully started fundraising to celebrate. Who would have thought that "no official announcement" would actually mean no chance at all.
Not only were the fans disappointed, but Yan Yuexing had also cleared her schedule early to accommodate the production. With this sudden change, all her previous preparations went to waste.
Her team had no choice but to focus on the winter break variety show Designer to make up for the losses caused by the lack of exposure during this empty period.
As for choosing to maliciously edit Ji Mingshu, there were three reasons: first, the show’s production team was willing to cooperate; second, Yan Yuexing herself really disliked Ji Mingshu; and third, suppressing an ordinary person came at a low cost. So without much thought, they finalized the collaboration with the production team. Whether it would attract new fans was another matter, but at the very least, it could rally existing fans and generate some buzz.
—If the ordinary person they were suppressing wasn’t named Ji Mingshu, their collaboration with the production team would have been a complete success.
Yan Yuexing’s team worked hard all night, but the results were minimal. Communication with the production team was strained, and reaching out to the fan groups proved useless.
The fan groups seemed to have lost their minds, stubbornly convinced that Yan Yuexing had been wronged. The more the team tried to stop them, the angrier they became. Some even went directly to the agency and the company’s Weibo accounts, calling them cowards who didn’t do their jobs! "Our Xingxing shouldn’t have to swallow her pride! If you won’t stand up for her, we will!"
Even when Yan Yuexing personally posted on Weibo saying it was all a misunderstanding, her fans insisted she was being coerced by the company. Some even speculated, based on differences in the Weibo client, that Yan Yuexing’s account had been taken over by the heartless company and that the post wasn’t her true intention!
By the time Ji Mingshu personally spoke out, Yan Yuexing had already lost all hope and was resigned to her fate.
No wonder the project she had been eyeing suddenly fell through. The primary producer of that project was Junhe Film and Television, a wholly-owned film and television investment company under Huazhang Holdings, which, in turn, belonged to the Junyi Group.
And the notice of the collaboration’s termination had arrived the morning after the wrap party for Designer.
Recalling how the unpredictable man had glanced at her coldly that night before silently getting up and leaving, everything she hadn’t understood before finally made sense.
Meanwhile, at Mingshui Mansion.
After posting on Weibo, Ji Mingshu didn’t check it again, not wanting to ruin her mood.
She lay on her bed scrolling through WeChat, but after going through all the unread messages—not a single one was from Cen Sen.
Seriously… She might be understanding, but did that dog of a man Cen Sen genuinely think a few comforting words would solve everything? Unbelievable.
Staring at Cen Sen’s chat window, she wanted to say something but was afraid of disturbing him at work. As she hesitated and debated… she accidentally missed the sudden and unexpected follow-up post from the Junyi Group’s official Weibo account just three minutes ago.Yes, that's right. Even a group like Junyi, whose leadership exudes the aura of ancient tomb sects, has a Weibo account. Not only do they have Weibo, but they also have a WeChat public account, with content pushing themes like "a heart full of red devotion to the sun" and "the hotel industry is thriving."
Compared to the WeChat public account, Junyi's Weibo activity is relatively low, with the last post dating back to March of last year, when they reposted news about hotel industry reforms.
This time, however, the group's official Weibo suddenly sprang back to life, posting three consecutive updates.
One was a repost of Ji Mingshu's lengthy Weibo post, accompanied by the words "Support";
Another was a lawyer's letter notification tagging the Designer program team, stating that Junyi would pursue accountability for the program's violation of sponsor terms;
The final post had a rather unusual tone—it was a letter of accountability issued on behalf of Ji Mingshu:
Junyi Group: 【1. We request that the Designer program team immediately remove related program videos from all major websites, cease causing harm to Ms. Ji Mingshu, and hope the program team provides the original footage from the recording as soon as possible to restore the truth of the recording. 2. The internet is not a sanctuary for anyone to spread malice. We ask fans of Ms. Yan who have maliciously attacked Ms. Ji Mingshu to apologize to Ms. Ji immediately. The list included in the following lawyer's letter is preliminary; we will expand the scope of statistics in the future. This letter is not an empty warning. If apologies are not publicly issued within the specified time, we will spare no cost and pursue accountability indefinitely.】
The online spectators had only just learned about Ji Mingshu's deep family background, with various rumors circulating and no one knowing which were true or false.
So, when they saw the final Weibo post, many were puzzled. Shouldn't the sponsor support the program team? Even if they didn't support the program team, what was the deal with helping the designer issue a letter of accountability?
Many people flocked to the comments, and surprisingly, the group's official Weibo account began responding online.
Passerby B: 【"Spare no cost and pursue accountability indefinitely"—can this land someone in jail? Isn't this taking things too seriously?"】
Junyi Group replied: 【It can't land someone in jail, but it can make them apologize.】
Passerby A: 【Why are you posting this? This is too righteous, I'm stunned...】
Junyi Group replied: 【No, it's because Ms. Ji is the CEO's wife.】
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