The director was stumped.

“There’s no need for you to worry over its ratings. Your show still has Yun Shishi and the other A-listers. Besides, the publicity stunt now is about her being this incident’s victim. The fanbase from her winning debut, ‘The Green Apple’, will be more than enough to sustain the interest in the upcoming show. Audience nowadays is just looking for entertainment through this gossip. You can take this as a pre-released publicity for your drama.”

Ji Lin had been around in this industry long enough to know what the audience was thinking.

Would the viewers truly boycott the production upon its release?

Hardly.

He had full confidence in the period drama. Since everyone knew that both artists were at loggerheads now, they would show more interest in the show featuring both.

This was a part of Huanyu’s strategy.

One, stepping on Lin Zhi would help create more buzz for the production.

It would rake in more attention to the newcomer. The TV program would surely come under the limelight with the conflict of the two female leads.

After all, with all the drama raging online, the TV production must be even more exciting.

Look: The netizens hardly made up a fraction of the total number of audience, so there was nothing to fret about.

Those people talked big but were unlikely to go beyond that.

Two, TV viewers hardly went online. This audience segment was only interested in the quality of a show—not so much on the rest. Those people would be easily satisfied with a good production.

All in all, this would be a good opportunity for the young actress to increase her viewership.

Yes, they lost the Best Actress, but the newbie received rave reviews for her acting in return. Everyone stood to gain from this incident.

The director had nothing to say after that.

Thus, with a simple instruction to continue his good work, Ji Lin sent the director away.

Meanwhile, the gossip, instead of slowing down, merely fermented as time went by.

The newcomer did not state her stance despite the continuous apologies from Lin Zhi’s camp.

This meant that her fans would not take this lying down, too.

As the actress flipped through the comments on her Weibo account, she could not help feeling happy and resigned with her fans’ reactions.

Her diehard fangirls had caused quite a stir on the other actress’s Weibo with their vicious slurs. After getting banned by the site’s admin, they resurfaced under a different account.

She was perplexed by their actions.

Following that, she checked the comments under her account. That was when one comment caught her attention. [Yun Shishi is a vixen! She’s a third party! Only diehard fans like you will fancy a b*tch like her! Do you know whom she owes her success to? She’s got a man’s support after getting rid of his fiancée, Mu Wanrou! Don’t be fooled by her sweet and innocent look! She’s the mastermind behind an evil plot to clinch an heir to her name!]

The actress was alarmed when she read this. Despite her fans’ criticism over this particularly vicious comment, she was unable to settle her uneasy mind.

Who… was it?

How did that person find out about her relationship with Mu Yazhe? Not many knew about her relationship with the man inside the circle, so how did a fan come to know about this?

Was there a traitor in her midst? Who could that be?

Could it be Lin Zhi?

The actress suspected that her enemy had come prepared to attack her.

Oh, well; that only makes her a vicious loser.

Even now, she still had the chills whenever she thought of Mu Wanrou.

Before her husband’s harried departure from Sea City, she had a short call with him. The man said nothing more other than giving her a customary greeting.

However, from her manager, she got to know his reason for rushing back to the capital.

Song Enya had gone missing, and her family was in chaos due to that.