Jiang Ye's breath hitched.

... What did this mean?

Was her background a piece of news that the company deliberately released to angst fans?

Jiang Ye quickly switched back to the forum, browsed a few posts, and quickly discovered something.

No wonder the person who first dug up the information had a tone of wanting to play the victim for her, it turned out they were a company plant.

So, the hot search was probably also bought by the company.

That's right, the company had the information she submitted.

Although she intentionally concealed some information about the orphanage in the materials, it would be very easy for Qin Zong to find out if he wanted to.

Jiang Ye closed her eyes, her thoughts racing.

She could roughly guess the company's intentions.

She needed fans, she needed fans who would support her, fans who could help her go further.

The company did this not only to solidify her existing fans, making them a perpetual motion machine of voting during the talent show period with this one heartbreak point, but also to establish a persona of a miserable background in front of the public.

The public's impression of her might have been just a talented contestant, without any special feelings.

But when she debuted and entered the deeper layers of the entertainment industry, inevitably, some people would start to spread rumors and slander her.

But with this background story, people would mostly sympathize with her in the future, the company could even save money on suppressing negative articles for her.

Jiang Ye understood all of this.

But she didn't want to accept it.

She had climbed to the top position with her own strength.

She was confident that she could stay in this position, and even after debuting, she could still continue to gain fans with her own abilities.

Instead of this, she had to expose her past wounds to the public, constantly telling them, look how miserable I was, so you can't scold me, you can only sympathize with me.

This was not what she wanted.

Jiang Ye typed a lot of words, then deleted them all.

Finally, after thinking for a moment, she replied with just one message.

【I understand.】

【But if Qin Zong has time, can I talk to him?】

Soon, the other side replied.

【I'll ask him tomorrow.】

•••

The next morning, downstairs from the dormitory.

The trainees of the "Tiny" group lined up, ready for their daily morning exercise.

"Jiang Ye hasn't come yet?"

"Ah, right, she's the only one missing."

"Uh, I remember, did you guys... see those messages about Jiang Ye?"

"... Ah, yes, I saw them."

"Um... I saw them too."

"So we agreed, don't mention it today. If she doesn't come, don't ask her, let her adjust for a while."

The trainees' voices got quieter and quieter, and after a while, they all fell silent.

It was natural to be upset when someone dug up your past without reason.

Even if Jiang Ye didn't come to practice today, it would be understandable.

But Liang Yu suddenly spoke, "Isn't it still two minutes before the assembly time?"

She adjusted her cap, looking at the entrance of the dormitory building, after a while, she said in a firm tone, "I believe she'll come."

Liang Yu had seen the live stream where Jiang Ye clarified things.

She was the one who could directly sit in front of the camera after being slandered and say, "I'm sitting here waiting for the program team to release the original footage", Liang Yu believed that she had the resilience to overcome any difficulty.

She would definitely not be defeated by this little thing.

Sure enough, less than two minutes later, Jiang Ye came out on time.

"Sorry, sorry."

She smiled and clasped her hands together, apologizing to everyone, "I went to bed too late yesterday, I almost didn't hear the alarm clock."

The trainees were stunned.

They carefully observed Jiang Ye.

She had a slight dark circle under her eyes, but her eyes were completely red, there was no trace of crying.

Did she not see the forum?

Impossible, such a big thing, even if she didn't see it herself, the company should have notified her.

However, Jiang Ye jumped in place twice as a warm-up exercise, then smiled and said, "Everyone's here, let's run, it's still ten laps today, everyone, come on!"

The trainees stared at her blankly, and their morale suddenly went up.

"Go go go! Let's run!"

"I feel like I'm in a particularly good state today, I can run fifteen laps!"

"Me too, I think I can run twenty laps today!"

Before, they felt sorry for themselves, they thought their company was useless, they thought they were unlucky, they thought they didn't have any screen time so no one saw their efforts.

Then Jiang Ye came in front of them, stretched out her hand and said to them, I'll help you, I'll make sure you're seen.

Although they were indeed grateful to Jiang Ye.

But sometimes they also felt that Jiang Ye said this because she was a top trainee herself, her help was inherently a kind of pity from the upper echelon to the lower echelon.

Jiang Ye was so outstanding.

She was like a daughter of heaven.

She was beautiful, talented, she had only practiced for two years, but her skills were better than those who had practiced for seven or eight years, she participated in her first talent show and was immediately touted as the new star of Chinese entertainment.

And she was only eighteen years old, she had a bright future and unlimited possibilities.

They never thought that she had a more miserable, more painful past than everyone else present.

And Jiang Ye herself had never mentioned it.

After running ten laps around the dormitory building, the trainees disbanded.

Jiang Ye went to the convenience store to buy milk for breakfast as usual.

When she came out, she suddenly felt something was wrong.

Usually, when she came out, the station sisters would be there to take the fan call job, even if they didn't take it, they would always greet her.

Today, they were all silent, as if they had made a pact.

Jiang Ye went over herself, smiling and waving to them.

The station sisters, holding their cameras, were stunned for a moment, considering whether they should take pictures.

They didn't shout because they didn't know if Jiang Ye had hidden her phone, so they didn't know if she had seen the messages from yesterday.

In this situation, it seemed like both saying something and not saying anything would hurt her.

But she came over, still smiling brightly as she had before.

As if telling them.

Look, I'm fine, I'm okay, don't worry about me.

•••

When Jiang Ye returned to the dormitory, she found that she had a new message.

Her manager gave her Qin Yue's phone number and told her she could call anytime.

Jiang Ye checked the dorm camera, closed the door, and directly called Qin Yue.

The call was quickly answered.

It was Qin Yue's voice, "You're calling me?"

"... Sorry, Qin Zong, I didn't mean to interrupt you."

Jiang Ye thought about her wording, after a while, she decided to ask directly, "But my family background, did you want to release it?"

Qin Yue, "Yes, what's wrong?"

Jiang Ye said, "... Can we not do that for now?"

Qin Yue frowned slightly.

Actually, Qin Yue had also considered whether releasing this history would uncover her old wounds.

But Jiang Ye didn't look like she had been hurt in the orphanage.

When she called her family, she openly called her grandmother at the orphanage.

So, Qin Yue thought that the experience at the orphanage wasn't a wound for her, it was just an objectively existing past.

Although the public is no longer buying the "playing the victim" routine, you still have to know how to sell it.

If it was the trainee herself who said it, it would naturally be questioned as seeking sympathy, but if it was netizens who dug it up, it would be different.

There was no better natural way to angst fans than this.

And it wasn't contrived at all.

Was Jiang Ye dissatisfied?

Qin Yue thought for a moment and said, "Don't worry, the company is watching, no one is going to black you because of your background, neither netizens nor fans, everyone is very sympathetic to you."

He paused, then said, "And I saw the station sisters' photos, you did a great job."

When Jiang Ye was participating in the talent show, he sometimes paid attention to her updates.

Although this wasn't something he should be personally involved in, he enjoyed it.

So, this time he quickly noticed the message Jiang Ye conveyed to her fans through the station sisters.

She stood behind the railing, still smiling brightly and waving to her fans, adding an important touch to this angst-filled drama.

Sure enough, the feedback from the fans was quite good.

【Oh my god, I'm going to cry, baby, you don't have to be so strong.】

【You don't have to question why she didn't say it before, after all, our Jiang Mei really never plays the victim. She never said a word when she was robbed of the C-position, how could she bring up her background?】

【I've been crying all day, seeing this picture makes me even more heartbroken, little sister, we're the only ones, every word about Jiang Ye is true, she really worked her way up to where she is now, and we're seeing it.】

【The brighter she smiles, the more painful it is for me, I'm not going to say anything, I'm going to go pay, we must make her debut as the C-position.】

Isn't this cooperation going well?

He released the information to tug at fans' heartstrings, and she appeased her fans, the effect was very good.

Jiang Ye was silent for a moment.

She wanted to say no.

Although she also often calculated others or used other people's calculations, she wrote many, many scripts for herself with every step she took, and occasionally when she encountered an unexpected incident like Zhen Jia's slander, she would use this to play the victim.

But not every move in front of the camera was deliberate.

Her interactions with her friends, her encouragement to the little-known trainees, her sincere responses to her fans.

Most of these came from her true heart.

If even she didn't believe that what she was giving was real, how could others believe it.

"... But you should have achieved the effect you wanted, right?"

Jiang Ye thought for a moment and tried to persuade him from Qin Yue's perspective, "Now, if you withdraw the hot searches and articles, it will make people think that the company doesn't want the artist's past to be exposed, which will create a good image for our company."

Although it was they themselves who leaked it in the first place.

Thinking about it, it was really ironic.

Qin Yue said, "It's no use withdrawing it now, it's been up for a long time, those who should have seen it have already seen it."

Jiang Ye insisted, "But the sooner you withdraw it, the fewer people will pay attention to the orphanage."

"Don't you want the orphanage to get more attention?"

Qin Yue asked her, "Maybe the orphanage wants it?"

Jiang Ye was slightly taken aback.

"The orphanage regularly solicits donations from society, isn't it to get more attention in order to give the children better living conditions?"

Qin Yue said, "Now you're a free image ambassador, your orphanage should be very happy."

Jiang Ye: "..."

She was momentarily speechless, silent for a moment before lowering her eyes and said, "I lived there for sixteen years, it's home to me."

"You might understand the operation of orphanages."

"But I think I understand my family better."

Social donations and gaining attention through a celebrity's traffic are fundamentally different.

And even if you want to attract traffic, it's better to do it later, when she has money herself, she can donate to the orphanage, and then use her influence to let everyone pay attention to the orphanage.

Instead of now, essentially using this past to create angst among fans.

Before Qin Yue could speak, Jiang Ye spoke again, "Okay, I'm interrupting you today."

"But I hope that next time something like this happens, the company can notify me in advance so I can be mentally prepared."

Don't let her be the last to know.

After saying this, she politely said goodbye and hung up the phone.

Qin Yue: "..."

He cut off the hung-up call page in dissatisfaction, silent for a moment before calling someone else.

"Withdraw those articles about Jiang Ye and the orphanage. It's been long enough."

"Ah... okay, I understand."

"Then, Qin Zong, the donation you mentioned yesterday, are you still donating?"

"...Yes, donate."

Qin Yue said, "But don't use the company's name."

He originally wanted to donate a sum of money to the orphanage in the company's name, and then use this opportunity to market the company's image.

But since she didn't like it, forget it.

Qin Yue was silent for a moment, then said, "Use Jiang Ye's personal name."