The public relations department keenly sensed that President Feng disliked Xue Ninglu. Logically speaking, in the entertainment industry, there are many who try to ride on the coattails of others' popularity. There have even been female stars who became famous by putting down other female stars or creating CP pairings with other male stars. In the end, they all said that they got it all through their own efforts, and others could only feel annoyed and could not do anything about it.
Of course, this is a minority. People like Xue Ninglu have no backing, no acting skills, and are too tall, so their career paths are too narrow. Even if they are pretty, they will not become famous. At most, they can only create some buzz and try to marry a wealthy CEO to improve the genes of their next generation. They are not worth paying attention to at all.
But since President Feng had given the order, the public relations department naturally had to act immediately. Before taking action, they even contacted Xu Zifan to ask for his opinion.
Xu Zifan paused for a moment, then chuckled and said, "Cut together the part where I avoided suspicion during 'Survival on a Desert Island' and add the part where I've stayed away from female celebrities and 'gentleman's hands' in various situations over the past six months. Make a video and spread it around, emphasizing that I'm afraid of being falsely accused and that I want to be a celebrity with zero scandals. I'll post on Weibo later to reassure my fans. What others do is their business; I can't let my fans be used."
His words pointed the public relations department in a clear direction, making the clarification more effective. The public relations department immediately abandoned its original clarification statement and cooperated with Xu Zifan to have the company's hired online trolls spread a video to avoid suspicion.
The video begins with Xu Zifan refusing the meatballs Xue Ninglu offered him, insisting on avoiding suspicion. Then it shows Xu Zifan's positioning at various press conferences, variety shows, and events. Even when several people are standing in a row, if there is a female star next to him, he will stand closer to the male star on the other side. It is obvious that the distance between him and the female star is the greatest.
In group photos or games, he always maintains a gentlemanly hand, avoiding touching anyone if possible, making it very obvious that he is trying to avoid suspicion. Moreover, after each event, he would subtly move to the side and never stand with the female star.
Xu Zifan did this to make his actions consistent with his words, and usually no one paid much attention to it, but now it's coming in handy.
Xu Zifan posted a Weibo message to his fans: "[Don't be curious anymore, I don't have any close female celebrity friends right now. I'll let you know when I have a stable girlfriend. Gossip is nothing compared to delicious food! Today I'm giving away three servings of cold-served rabbit. Good luck everyone!]"
Netizens flooded the comments with "666" and dug up screenshots of Xu Zifan's old Weibo post where he said he wasn't familiar with Xiao Hua. They all said that Xu Zifan is still the same Xu Zifan; if you're not familiar, you're not familiar, and he doesn't stand on ceremony at all.
The phrase "not familiar" suddenly became a hot topic, not only embarrassing Xiao Hua but also Xue Ninglu.
Seeing things were going wrong, Xue Ninglu quickly told the online trolls to stop, but it was too late. Even though everyone was busy forwarding the giveaway, they didn't forget to mock her. Her experienced fans immediately realized that Xue Ninglu was just creating hype, and they swarmed in to ridicule her mercilessly. Netizens were also happy to watch the drama unfold.
Originally, even after Su Yanchen's career was ruined, no one spoke ill of Xue Ninglu; in fact, she garnered some sympathy and attention. But this time, she ruined her own career, attracting a huge wave of hatred. Netizens jokingly call her and Su Yanchen a "fake couple," saying they both look decent enough, but each one is more fake than the other.
Su Yanchen behaved himself for more than half a year, desperately looking for a rich woman to support him. He finally won the heart of a divorced rich woman in her fifties, who invested money to cast him as the lead in a low-budget web series. Who knew that he would run into this scandal as soon as the series aired, and his career suffered another major setback.
He hated Xue Ninglu to death. Since he couldn't make it in the entertainment industry anyway, he simply released their old chat logs, exposing all sorts of things Xue Ninglu said about Xu Zifan behind his back, as well as their conversations about how to create hype. In one fell swoop, he stripped Xue Ninglu bare, letting everyone know that all the sympathy they had for her was unnecessary, and that she was not innocent at all.
After this incident, Xue Ninglu dared not show her face again. She and Su Yanchen completely disappeared from the entertainment industry. Su Yanchen tried his best to cling to a divorced rich woman, but unfortunately, he was already 25 years old. How could he compare to a 20-year-old fresh-faced young man? He was rejected by the rich woman in less than two months and left aside. Then he continued to repeat this kind of life.
Xu Zifan was labeled as someone who was immune to female celebrities. In subsequent events, he continued to keep his distance from female celebrities, and no one dared to pair him up with other celebrities for publicity. His fans were dubbed the strongest team, and his company team was also incredibly powerful. No one dared to mess with him easily, and his career began to soar.
Feng Xuanqi gave him all the company's top resources to choose from. He filmed a Lunar New Year comedy, a Valentine's Day romance film, two luxury brand endorsement commercials, and a reality dating show featuring ordinary people, where he served as the MC in the observation room.
He's just as busy as Feng Xuanqi, earning him the nickname "workaholic" in the entertainment industry. His previous film with director Chen once again proved his superb acting skills, gaining him many fans and making him a representative of the talented young actors in the entertainment industry.
At the end of the year, Xu Zifan won the Most Popular Actor Award for his role in the TV series "Twins". At another awards ceremony, he won the Best Actor Award for his role in Director Chen's film, thus becoming a film emperor.
Fans cheered. When they first became fans, he was still a pretty boy criticized online. How many of them were fans of his looks? How many were fans of his food? Yet, he repeatedly surprised them with entertaining variety shows, dramas, movies, and heartwarming gestures, making them grow increasingly devoted and committed to him.
And now, he's given them an incredible surprise. He won Best Actor for his very first film, and his TV series became the best of the year. He used his talent to show everyone that they weren't fools; they admired someone so outstanding.
Not blind at all!
When Xu Zifan gave his acceptance speech on stage, he especially thanked his loyal fans and Feng Xuanqi for rescuing him during a difficult time.
He looked at Feng Xuanqi across the crowd and said with a smile, "Back when I was in trouble, only the Holy Emperor insisted that I was a thoroughbred horse. I think if I really am, then President Feng is my mentor. Today, I want to give this award to President Feng. No matter how far I go in the future, my glory will always be shared with President Feng and with the Holy Emperor."
Everyone else thought he was grateful to the Holy Emperor, so grateful that he made a promise that no matter how high he flew, he would stay with the Holy Emperor for the rest of his life.
Only Feng Xuanqi's heart raced, and she understood the confession in his words. Her smile lost some of its sternness and gained warmth.
Xu Zifan stepped off the stage, handed the trophy to her, hugged her, and whispered in her ear, "Thank you, I love you."
Feng Xuanqi gripped the trophy tightly, her heart pounding in her chest. But her years of composure as a domineering CEO helped her maintain her smile and reply, "Me too."
Xu Zifan smiled at her, let go of her, and sat back down next to the director. The two of them looked normal in front of the camera, and no one noticed anything unusual.
After the banquet ended and everyone got into their cars to go home, Xu Zifan finally took Feng Xuanqi's hand.
Feng Xuanqi was a little nervous, "What if reporters take pictures of this? Your fans will stop supporting you, right?"
Xu Zifan chuckled and said, "I'm a talent-driven actor, not just someone with good looks. Why would I want to lose fans? Besides, I promised my fans I'd tell them if I got a girlfriend. Don't you want to go public?"
"I... want to." Feng Xuanqi gave an honest answer. Her boyfriend was so outstanding, handsome, and a great cook. Wasn't she afraid someone would steal him away if she didn't announce it to the world?
Xu Zifan looked at her expression, then suddenly leaned closer to her and said, "Are you thinking that you can eat delicious food for the rest of your life?"
Feng Xuanqi blushed immediately, "What? I wasn't after food! Am I that greedy?"
Xu Zifan nodded: "Of course there are, but it doesn't matter. No one cooks better than me. You'll definitely lose your appetite if you marry someone else."
"Who's going to marry... marry what? You..." Feng Xuanqi stared at him with wide eyes, "Is this your proposal?"
Xu Zifan chuckled, propping his head up with his hand. "Of course not. I just wanted to tell you that I'm dating you with marriage in mind," he said, shaking their intertwined hands. "I'm very serious."
Feng Xuanqi touched her slightly hot face, her face turning red for a long time, and she even stammered, "Me, me too."
She silently complained to herself. Everyone called her the Iron-Blooded Queen, saying that when she berated the executives, everyone was silent and trembling. But she didn't know why she had no presence at all in front of Xu Zifan. He always dominated her, as if he were the real CEO.
She stole a glance at him, a smile playing on her lips. Of all the men she'd ever met, it seemed only Xu Zifan could truly awaken her girlish heart. She doubted she'd ever felt this blush and heart-pounding with anyone else. And his cooking was so delicious—she was so lucky.
Neither of them had any elders in their families. They traveled to Europe together during the Chinese New Year. Xu Zifan's New Year film was released. The film was made in collaboration with an actor and director who had become very popular in the past two years. It was full of laughs. The director's name alone was a box office draw, and he was also highly anticipated by many people after winning the award.
After its release, the film received rave reviews, becoming the top-rated film in the Lunar New Year season and leading the box office by a wide margin. It became another representative work of the director and Xu Zifan.
A few days later, Valentine's Day arrived, and Xu Zifan's romance film was released.
Although this movie wasn't a huge hit, it still received very good reviews. Those who watched it said it made them want to fall in love and they really wanted a boyfriend like Xu Zifan.
Xu Zifan's fans exclaimed that they had fallen in love with their idol after seeing the video, and they never expected him to have such a sweet and considerate side. Some fans even started to worry that since this was Xu Zifan's first time filming a romantic scene after his comeback, would this lead to rumors of a romance or a romantic relationship?
Unexpectedly, on the evening of Valentine's Day, Xu Zifan posted a photo of himself and Feng Xuanqi. The two were wearing matching beach outfits, holding hands, facing away from the camera, smiling at each other. In front of them was the clear blue sea, and a large heart was drawn on the sand, with their initials written inside. The caption read: "[My girlfriend, 100 days of dating. @FengXuanqi]"
Feng Xuanqi quickly reposted this Weibo post, expressing her serious attitude: [Please guide me for the rest of my life. @Xu Zifan]
There was an eerie silence on Weibo for a few minutes, and then the comment section exploded!
Fans kept asking if it was true or false, and then they answered themselves, saying that since it was officially announced, of course it was true.
Weibo crashed for quite a while, and fans were extremely frustrated because they couldn't post anything they wanted to. Weibo staff were also exasperated; they were all spending Valentine's Day with their girlfriends, why should they have to work overtime because of other people's PDA?
When Weibo finally resumed operation, fans wanted to comment but found themselves at a loss for words. Normally, they should have been shouting for their idol to stop dating, but their idol was a talented performer, and CEO Feng was young, beautiful, worth billions, and good to Kris Wu. They had been praising CEO Feng and Kris Wu to the skies not long ago, so what were they criticizing now? Wouldn't that be a slap in their own face?
Someone asked timidly: Are we just going to accept this? Should we stir up trouble?
Then someone asked: emmm... are you going to unfollow... are you willing to give up Kris Wu's delicious food?
Of course... I can't bear to part with it!
My idol's cooking is so delicious, I didn't even dare to make a fuss about him going public with his relationship. It makes me feel so sorry for myself after my breakup.
It's Valentine's Day. I just finished watching my idol's sweet romance movie and was completely smitten with him when suddenly I broke up with him. This is such a colorless Valentine's Day. I need some delicious food to cheer myself up!
Suddenly, comments asking for delicious food started flooding the Weibo post announcing Xu Zifan's relationship...