Chapter 12 (2/2)

The die-hard smoking addict!

“Can’t you just quit?” Mo Bing asked angrily.

“Too tough,” Jiang Jiusheng replied honestly.

She was especially dependant on cigarettes, practically as a stimulant during her music creation process. She had first learned how to smoke four years ago from her teacher and mentor Master Xie. She had started with hand-rolled cigarettes, but that brat Xie Dang had burned all her cigarette papers and threatened to burn down her house if she continued. So, she’d stopped smoking hand-rolled cigarettes and moved on to imported cigarettes. Of course, Xie Dang hadn’t carried out his threat. He was all bark and no bite—a kind and innocent person, very girly.

“Do you know who’s behind this?” Mo Bing asked.

Jiang Jiusheng reached for her bag, dying for a smoke, only to realize that she had forgotten her cigarettes. Subconsciously, she bit her straw repeatedly, saying, “I can hazard a guess.”

“Let’s talk in the office.”

“K.” As she hung up, the elevator reached level one. Stepping out of the elevator ahead of him, Jiang Jiusheng said to Shi Jin, “See you later, Doctor Shi.”

“Yep.”

Shi Jin waited at the elevator until Jiang Jiusheng had walked some distance away. Lowering his thick-lashed eyes, he took out his phone and dialed a number.

“Sir.” The man at the other end of the phone sounded very polite and respectful.

Reflected on the shiny elevator door, Shi Jin’s chiseled profile was tense. His lips were pursed, and his eyes were half-shut.

Since the entrance to the office was teeming with the media, Jiang Jiusheng was driven directly to the basement carpark where she took the indoor elevator to the office that Tian Yu had assigned for her use only. Mo Bing was already waiting for her there, a tablet in one hand and a frown on her face.

Jiang Jiusheng pushed the door to enter.

Lifting her head, Mo Bing asked immediately, “Was it Liu Xu?” It was a question and also a confirmation.

Surprised, Jiang Jiusheng asked, “How did you know?”

The after-concert celebration party, a closed-door affair with no access given to the media, had been held at an upscale club owned by the Qins and patronized by the uber-rich. Jiang Jiusheng had always remained under the radar and rarely got into scrapes with anyone, so the probability of anyone being present that night with an ax to grind was extremely low. Moreover, the people who had seen her smoking could be counted on one hand, so it was not hard to guess who had ill intentions.

Mo Bing passed her the tablet. Jiang Jiusheng read through a couple of pages and was amused to find that, in the 30 minutes it had taken for her to travel from her home to the office, the netizens’ sentiments had been completely transformed.

“Firstly, a lot of trolls were paid to overcome the original dissidents. Then there were references made to building a case against Liu Xu, eventually smearing her with as much dirt as she had dished out. And all seemingly supported by facts.” Mo Bing summarized her analysis, swirling around in the boss’ swivel chair. “It is no mean feat—and would be very expensive—to turn the situation around in a mere 20 minutes. You could count on one hand those in the industry would have the ability to pull this off: the Wens from Yuncheng, the Qins from Zhongnan, the Yuwens from Jiangbei. Oh, and let’s not forget the stealth player, SJ’s Electronics.”

The dark horse known as SJ’s had broken into the industry three years before. They had started in the electronic products business, quickly becoming the leader in the domestic electronics market within a mere three years. The international rock groups under their label had directly affected the power base of three which had, up until then, dominated the industry. Their immense wealth and capabilities were also competing directly with the Wen, Qin, and Yuwen families.

When the photos of Jiang Jiusheng smoking were circulated, a staggering number of trolls backing Liu Xu had suddenly come crawling out of the woodwork to diss her. There were so many that even Jiang Jiusheng’s 30 million fans were caught off-guard. There were insinuations about how she’d really gotten her big break and veiled comments about a sugar daddy backing her. In a flash, the internet was abuzz with news that was unfavorable to Jiang Jiusheng.

However, within a mere 30 minutes, the tables had turned, with a fresh batch of trolls uploading photos of Jiang Jiusheng’s numerous international music awards and statistics of her album sales, crushing the dissidents in their tracks. This was immediately followed by comments and facts about Liu Xu uploading Jiang Jiusheng’s photos and backing trolls to discredit her. Within seconds, the netizens’ ire targeted Liu Xu’s Weibo account, their white-hot fury bringing down the servers.

This was a truly awesome PR coup, and Mo Bing was beyond impressed. Within three years of her debut, Jiang Jiusheng had made it to the top of the Chinese music industry, partly due to the tremendous support from Tian Yu Media and partly due to her own unique talent. Mo Bing knew that the rumor of a sugar daddy was unfounded and spread by people who were envious of her success and her talent. She strongly believed that Jiang Jiusheng deserved everything she’d achieved and would be capable of taking on the burden of all the accolades that she’d been given. However, this was yet another incident of the manifestation of the curse described as “cross Jiang Jiusheng and pay the price.”

This had her thinking. Only a handful of parties with that kind of power and wealth.

Rousing from her thoughts, Mo Bing rationalized, “Of course, there are other wealthy bosses with this kind of money, but they wouldn’t have the connections within the industry to pull this off so rapidly. Also, they would have no reason to want to help you.” Pausing, she looked at Jiang Jiusheng and asked, “Sheng, what do you think?”