Chapter 270: Chapter 270 - 267: Nowhere to Hide

"Yes, it’s really me." Shi Su smiled lightly.

Knowing Shi Su well, Jun would certainly believe it’s true; Shi Su wouldn’t use such matters to tell lies.

Jun pressed her hand against her heart as she sat across from Shi Su. After a long pause, she said, "Shi Su, I don’t know the full story behind this. If you’re willing to share, I’d love to listen and help you come up with ideas. But remember, you’re an artist of Yijia Entertainment, and ’Yao Platform’ is currently airing. No matter what kind of deep-seated hatred you have, you must be cautious and consider the consequences carefully."

"I understand." Shi Su calmly looked her in the eye, "I won’t drag down the studio or the company. This drama offers a significant growth opportunity for me and is also one of my representative works for the future; it definitely won’t affect its broadcast."

"As long as you understand. I don’t really mind otherwise; the main concern is if something serious happens, it’ll be hard to explain to the company."

"Don’t worry, I will be mindful of my limits."

Jun’s phone rang, and she got up to take the call outside.

Shi Su sat alone in Jun’s office, casually opened Weibo, and glanced at it. The heat surrounding the matter was intensifying, and the range of public opinion fermentation was expanding.

She had no intention to find ways to stop it, even logging onto her main Weibo account and seemingly accidentally liking a post comparing Shi Su’s dance in the drama to her dance from five years ago, both stitched into moving images.

Ten minutes later, Jun returned after finishing her phone call. She already heard from the staff outside that Shi Su liked the marketing post comparing the animation.

Upon returning to the office, Jun saw Shi Su still sitting there. She walked over, reopened the chair in front of Shi Su, sat down, and stared at her intently, "The bigger the uproar gets, what exactly are you planning?"

"Let the situation continue to spread and ferment." Shi Su was holding the crystal chess set from Jun’s desk, apparently too bored waiting and playing with it.

This chess set usually served as a decorative item on the side of the desk, but now the transparent crystal pieces in Shi Su’s hand looked quite interesting.

Jun stared at her for a long time, "The longer the event ferments, the more unwarranted criticism you face, and the greater the pressure from the company. I managed to temporarily stabilize the company over the phone, but in two days, that might no longer be the case."

She paused and then asked, "At least give me a timeline, how long are you going to keep at this? Or to what extent?"

Shi Su toyed with the beautiful crystal chess pieces, not hurriedly making a move, instead looking at the crystal chessboard in front and said, unhurried: "Until everyone knows, and there’s nowhere for me and Shi Yunyin to hide."

"Even if the dance five years ago was performed by you, and Shi Yunyin won awards for a dance stand-in, which is enough to ruin her, but where’s the evidence? The scene was shot behind a veil, right? The dance shown in the movie was also behind the veil. The film staff didn’t notice she was a stand-in, so how could audiences watching through a screen? Apart from your own testimony, nothing else counts as evidence."

"If evidence were so easily guessed, how could Shi Yunyin confidently and worry-free be an actress for so many years?" Shi Su said as she made a move, then picked up another crystal piece and spoke softly, "Let the bullets fly for a while, no rush."

...

The online arguments continued incessantly. Shi Su now had quite a few fans backing her, making clips of Shi Su’s fight scenes and behind-the-scenes footage to prove Shi Su’s actions, whether in fight or dance, were all authentic without any traces of stand-ins or edits, then took out Shi Yunyin’s works to compare. Many of Shi Yunyin’s action scenes were completed by stand-ins, proving Shi Su clearly superior in skill, insisting Shi Su wasn’t deliberately mimicking Shi Yunyin’s dance moves, only claiming it as coincidence.

Once a person becomes famous without changing their real name, it’s easy for someone investigating thoroughly to find out Shi Su’s academic background.

Years ago, she studied dance for seven years at Jiang City Dance Academy, winning various awards, which fans proudly dug up for comparison.

But this point wasn’t convincing enough; having studied dance and plagiarizing are two separate things, not something that can be conflated.

Shi Yunyin’s fans recently gathered in small groups with Xia Yilin’s fans, trying to find evidence to discredit Shi Su, discovering Shi Yunyin also studied dance back then. Though no awards were seen, since both learned dance, Shi Su doesn’t have the upper hand; plagiarism is plagiarism.

Shi Su’s fans said Shi Yunyin was leeching off her fame.

Shi Yunyin’s fans said their dear Yunyin, a renowned actress, doesn’t need to sponge off some minor N-list artist’s fame?

Using her lead role relationship, Xia Yilin’s fans, led by major fans, controlled much of ’Yao Platform’s drama group chat, certain forums, and other promotional platforms, stating clearly in platform bios no plagiarizing Shi Su’s fans are allowed, any thread about Shi Su gets deleted immediately, Shi Su’s fans posting clarifications are also blocked and removed.

The direction of events had always been suppressing Shi Su unilaterally, as if the heavy hammer had crushed her entirely, with no chance to stand back up.

Amidst all the scolding, ’Yao Platform’s producers initially wanted to abandon Shi Su to protect the show, releasing a statement distancing Shi Su’s dance moves from the production, minimizing the damage to the drama through maximum efforts.

However, hindered by Jiang Jing Ru Hua, the financial backer behind them, sending explicit and implicit warnings, they couldn’t really step on Shi Su, thus temporarily deleting all Shi Su and Tian Yuli character promotions, saying nothing about the second female lead, nor releasing any statements, maintaining absolute silence.

This led fans to determine the producers were defending Shi Su, further bombarding the drama’s official blog with critiques.

An entire day spent in chaos, from production to marketing to studios, while Shi Su calmly went home, peacefully cooking steak for Shi Mianmian, as if nothing had happened.

In the afternoon, Shi Yunyin was about to step outside for a business event she needed to attend that evening.

Before departing, she learned from her assistant and manager about the current situation, all the trends and developments benefited her. Now, whether Shi Su decides to step forward and explain or say anything, no one will believe her.

Back then, Shi Yunyin had worried that Shi Su, having returned to the country alive and entered the entertainment industry, might disclose the matter.

Looking at it now, Shi Su was just like that.

Heh.

Even if Shi Su speaks up, would people believe her?