A City, Cao Family Villa.
Yu Shangmei had a great night’s sleep and was woken up by her internal clock. Like always, she headed downstairs for breakfast and called her personal beautician during the meal.
Once breakfast was done, the beautician arrived. Then she went upstairs for her beauty regimen, even soaking in an essential oil bath.
Only after all this did she change clothes, do her makeup, and head to the office.
Just as she walked into her office, her secretary’s panicked voice followed close behind—
“Chairman Wu! You can’t go in!”
“Out of the way!” a booming male voice snapped with authority.
A second later, the door swung open without so much as a knock.
Yu Shangmei raised her eyes coldly. “Chairman Wu, you’re really pulling rank now, huh?”
“Hah, pulling rank? Don’t flatter yourself—I’ve got better things to do.” The man sneered, his dark suit accentuating his harsh expression.
“Then what is this? Barging into my office first thing in the morning, making a scene?”
“President Yu, do me a favor and check the time. It’s almost lunchtime—‘first thing in the morning’ my *ss.” His tone was dripping with sarcasm.
Yu Shangmei’s eyes flickered. She always came in around this time, and the board had never complained—after all, she managed the Cao brand well and delivered healthy annual dividends. But today…
Her brow furrowed. “What happened?”
Chairman Wu’s anger only grew seeing how clueless she was. “Check the news yourself! We’ve become a laughingstock in Linhuai—every restaurant in the country is mocking us. Do you even understand the damage this has done to our brand? The blow to our reputation? Oh wait, I forgot—our carefree president doesn’t bother to know anything. Must be nice being this hands-off!”
Yu Shangmei was momentarily stunned by the man’s tirade.
A laughingstock? What? Wait… the news?
She quickly took out her phone and browsed the restaurant business group chats.
99+ unread messages.
The chat history went all the way back to yesterday.
Then she opened a news app. The day’s headlines stared her in the face:
“Opening on the Same Day: Jiang Ji Booms, While Neighboring Cao Ji Is Completely Ignored — Rise of a New Power or Decline of the Old Guard?”
Yu Shangmei’s heart skipped a beat.
But it got worse.
Internet sleuths—dubbed “World’s #1 Detectives”—had already pieced together the full story, and the discussion was trending in A City’s local hot searches.
It started with a few news outlets releasing press bulletins yesterday evening about Cao Ji’s Linhuai branch grand opening.
Typical fluff—“busy business,” “great customer reviews,” “packed house,” etc.—accompanied by a few photos to make it believable.
No one batted an eye at first—same old tricks, everyone knew the drill.
The real mess started when one article took a jab at Jiang Ji.
It claimed Jiang Ji was faking its popularity, using hired actors to queue up and create hype.
50 yuan a day, with meals included.
It was written as if it were the absolute truth.
They even posted some dubious chat screenshots to “prove” their point.
The article further alleged that Jiang Ji’s viral rise was pure marketing, naming a man in a trench coat—Wu Qian, a manager at an influencer agency—as the mastermind behind Jiang Ji’s pancake hype campaign.
The article was 3,000 words long, praising Cao Ji’s consistent quality and craftsmanship while subtly undermining Jiang Ji.
Disguised as neutral, it was clearly slanted on close inspection.
Then came a full-blown “exposé” on Jiang Ji’s “phony success”—loaded with sensationalism and insinuation, crafted by a veteran who knew how to hook readers.
By morning, the article had gone viral, shared tens of thousands of times.
Naturally, Jiang Ji fans saw it. And they did not take it lying down.
In the Jiang Ji super-topic thread:
[Who’s this clown of a site? Jiang Ji’s so hot even random dogs are trying to leech off it now. Congrats!]
[I was literally there yesterday. Guess I better hit up Uncle Jiang for my 50 yuan now.]
[Forget the money, just feed me a meal and I’m good.]
[Same. Just give me food.]
[Actually, give me the dishes.]
Then came the big reveal—
[It’s 2052 and people still don’t know Wu Qian is Chenxing’s agent?]
[Looked it up. Xingyue Agency only manages two signed individuals, not some influencer marketing firm.]
[Spreading lies is now a hobby? Mix in half-truths and make up the rest?]
[OMG! Xingyue = Chenxing + Fuyue?! I might be focusing on the wrong thing lol.]
[After the legendary Jiang Uncle and Auntie Han, now we have star siblings Fuyue and Chenxing. What kind of lucky charm is the Jiang family? Can I just hang around and catch some of that luck?]
[Ladies! Unite and report that scummy media outlet “Linhuai Jianghu Affairs”! Also report their public accounts!]
Thousands of users swarmed to report the media outlet’s accounts across platforms—Douyin, Weibo, Toutiao, Kuaishou, Yidian…
And they didn’t just spam. They cited actual violations—explicit content, clickbait headlines, and even adult ads.
That alone was fatal for any media outlet—let alone repeated, large-scale offenses.
By noon, “Linhuai Jianghu Affairs” was wiped off the internet.
Three years of effort—gone in a flash.
“What the hell happened?!”
The operations head was furious, pacing like a mad frog.
“Find out now!”
And so, the investigation began.
“What article?”
“A piece… about trashing Jiang Ji…”
The manager nearly passed out.
“You dared to bash Jiang Ji?! Do you have a death wish?! The city is currently pushing influencer-led tourism and Jiang Ji is their flagship example! Are you insane?!”
“W-Wait, the government’s involved?! We didn’t know!”
If they’d known, they never would’ve dared.
Turns out, they’d taken Liu Shanhua’s money from Cao Ji, agreed to hype Cao Ji and bash Jiang Ji.
At the same time, they wanted to stir controversy for clicks.
But they went way too far.
“What do we do now? It’s all over the trending list…”
“Quick! Jiang Ji just posted a statement!”
It was under 300 words—
Firmly denied hiring actors, denied any marketing stunts, and stated they would pursue legal action.
Fans erupted in cheers and support.
“They’re suing us!”
The ops manager rubbed his chin, paused, then said:
“We have to sacrifice the pawn to save the king.”
“Pawn?”
“What pawn?”
“You—the content team. Draft a statement blaming everything on Cao Ji. No need to sugarcoat it. Say they paid us to smear Jiang Ji for promotional gain. Say we now realize our mistake and offer Jiang Ji our deepest apologies. Make it dramatic.”
“But… if we do that, no brand will ever work with us again…”
“It’s life or death right now. What good is reputation if we don’t survive? Got it?!”
What’s one Cao Ji in the grand scheme of things?
By 10 a.m., “Linhuai Jianghu Affairs” released a public apology via Linhuai Daily, exposing Cao Ji for bribing them to smear Jiang Ji.
They even attached chat logs between their journalist and store manager Liu Shanhua, discussing how to hype Cao Ji, how to defame Jiang Ji, payment details, etc.
Everything was laid bare.
And just like that, Cao Ji was publicly humiliated and became a national joke.
