"If I were you, you should call your previous manager and have her confess already. Though prison life isn't as good as life outside, it should still be better than staying locked up somewhere." Jia Yi left as soon as she said this.
Steffanie stood in the middle of the restroom, feeling the ground softening underneath her feet and slowly swallowing her up.
The feeling of despair, helplessness, and vulnerability that she used to mock other stars to step down on their dignity was now something she could also feel. How ironic is this?
--Riing!
Steffanie was startled by her phone ringing and was about to hang up when she saw that it was her father.
"Daddy, help me. I'm your only daughter, will you be able to take it seeing me being bullied by others like this?"
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Oh? What do you think I should do then?"
Her father's tone was a little bit strange, but at this moment, Steffanie didn't notice the strangeness and quickly said, "Daddy, use your position as the president again and tell those arrogant media reporters to not appear in front of my apartment again! Tell them, you'll fire them if they don't do it and they should delete every news they write about me on the internet! Your daughter really needs you, Daddy!"
Mr. Chang's cold voice rang through the speaker: "Daddy? You still know you're my daughter? Then, why didn't you listen to everything I told you?! I told you to lay low for a while and not act like this anymore after graduating from high school. Look, now the company directors are demanding me to step down from my position as the president!"
Sadly, this time, her position as her father's only daughter could not save her father either.
Earlier this morning, Mr. Chang received several phone calls and messages from different directors in the company, demanding answers from him. Steffanie's name wasn't revealed to the public yet, but it was already exposed that the person in the video was Shi Lian, Steffanie's previous manager.
"What?!! No, how is that possible! Daddy, you own the company, why are they ordering you to step down as president!" Steffanie couldn't believe what she had just heard.
Mr. Chang, however, coldly laughs at his daughter. "What were you thinking by posting that video? Do you think you haven't caused that much trouble in the company and decided to go all-in?"
Steffanie quickly said, "I did not post that video!"
"Then who did?! A ghost?!"
Steffanie was silent. The video of Shi Lian talking to Ran Xueyi and running away with tears all over her face was spread across the internet. It was a harmless video and if people didn't think too much, one would assume that Ran Xueyi bullied the little manager to tears and ran away from her.
To others, this was another tarnation in Ran Xueyi's reputation posted by someone who wanted to bring her down. But a lot of stars and film crew came out to denounce the accusation and praised Ran Xueyi's honest and humble character. Those who worked with her in the past and even from the international industry came out to prove that Ran Xueyi would never do this.
Of course, that didn't mean that nobody sympathized with Shi Lian, the 'victim' in that one minute long video.
But those, who were in the know of what happened, knew that that video was simply a warning.
'I know what you did, but I'm going to release it one by one.'
Ran Xueyi was slowly telling everyone in the entertainment industry that she was not a small fish in a pond where any fisherman could hook and take as they pleased. She was warning the entertainment industry to not mess with her and that she was not the prey, but the predator at the top of the food chain.
And the meaning of the one-minute and that four-minute videos were just two omens that something bigger will happen.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmAs for what it was, only Steffanie and Mr. Chang knew that their lives are in danger.
Mr. Chang took a deep breath and calmed the rage boiling inside of him. He then said, "Steffanie, I raised you the way I did because I thought you'd be able to climb to the top and become successful like me. But you failed me horribly by doing repetitive failures like this."
"Daddy..."
"As your father, the only thing I can do is save you from further embarrassing yourself. So, just don't do anything."
...
[The next news we're reporting today is the video that has been going viral on the internet and on We*bo. Many have been confused by this video and debated whether the actress Ran Xueyi said something to this woman who was seen in the video was crying and running away after speaking to her.]
[We will ask an expert of the authenticity of the video and another expert in psychology and facial expressions will help us in determining the video's content.]
In the studio, an older man in a striped shirt sat beside the newscaster and introduced himself as the video expert. Beside him was a woman wearing formal business attire and she also introduced herself to be the psychologist invited to analyze the video in today's hot showbiz news.
The newscaster felt slightly strange having two experts in the studio and looked at the director behind the monitor again. The director didn't say anything and so, he could only continue today's news and ask several questions to the experts.
"Mr. Liu, you are one of the country's best experts in video and audio analysis. I also heard you're helping the National Police in their jobs. Can you please tell us what you think about the video? Is it an authentic and not fabricated video?"
Mr. Liu, the audio and video analyst, looked at the screen in front where the short one minute video was playing.
He said, "It is real. I see no fabrication nor enhancement in the video. However, there is indeed some bit of manipulation."