Chapter 49: Chen Meijing's Trouble

"What's going on?!"

Chen Gang's words caused everyone to frown slightly.

Although they had met Chen Meijing relatively recently, everyone held a very favorable impression of her. She was solidly capable, humble, and even when she skyrocketed to fame and her songs were dominating the charts, she never showed a single trace of arrogance. Hearing now that Chen Meijing was in trouble, everyone naturally grew concerned and took the initiative to ask.

"Damn it, this is so disgusting."

Chen Gang opened up a web page, revealing an entertainment news report complete with a full video.

As everyone opened the link and watched the video play, their frowns deepened.

This was a guest performance on the eve of the MusicHF Music Awards ceremony, meant to boost popularity and buzz for the upcoming event. Unlike professional or authoritative awards like the Golden Melody Awards or the Golden Bell Awards, the MusicHF awards leaned much more toward the entertainment side.

Even so, MusicHF remained a well-known award within the singer circle, considered top-tier in the second tier, and first-line singers took it very seriously. Given Chen Meijing's recent popularity, the high quality of her new album, and her recent achievements, the organizers would certainly seize the opportunity to invite her, possibly even award her something in a mutually beneficial arrangement.

However, the content displayed in the video was utterly sickening.

Chen Meijing was standing on stage, singing *Devil from Paradise*. Shortly after she began, the accompaniment suddenly vanished. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary sudden accident. But Chen Gang and the others were all industry insiders; how could they not spot the problem?

In the video, the person managing the audio equipment and mixing console not far away made no move at all. Unhurried and sitting as steady as a mountain, they didn't even twitch. No one stepped in to save the performance.

It wasn't until Chen Meijing had persevered through more than half of the song by herself that the audio was unhurriedly turned back on. And right as Chen Meijing was singing the chorus of *Devil from Paradise*, they switched the track to *Little Chick, Little Chick*.

It drove the entire venue into roaring laughter.

The moment the music abruptly stopped, the host walked up, said a breezy "sorry," and smoothly glossed right over it.

"This is definitely no accident! It was intentional!" Chen Gang said with absolute certainty.

"Are they seriously this blatant?! He could sit still when the backing track messes up?! He'd lose his job—if it were me, I'd jump straight up!"

This leisurely, perfunctory attitude disgusted Chen Gang to no end. It was glaringly obvious that someone wanted to see Chen Meijing make a fool of herself.

Unfortunately, Chen Meijing's stage presence and adaptability were simply too strong. When the accompaniment cut out, she didn't hesitate; she started a cappella, which only showcased her abilities even more. When *Little Chick, Little Chick* started playing, she didn't feel a shred of awkwardness, instantly shifting her attitude to become lively and working the entire crowd to build the atmosphere.

And the instant the music was cut off and the host took the stage to apologize, she immediately reined herself in, returning to her poised demeanor. Even her emotional transitions were remarkably smooth and natural, and her emotional shifts while singing were extremely rapid and fully immersive.

Any slightly lesser performer would have made a complete fool of themselves right then and there.

"Good grief, Chen Meijing's adaptability is truly legendary. Her reaction speed at virtually every single turn was dialed all the way up..." Zhao Ze said, somewhat dumbfounded.

He glanced at Lin Feng and Han Jiayin not far away; clearly, even these two were somewhat startled. Such reactive capability and performance emotional intelligence were truly rare.

"Fast reactions aside, this whole thing is just vile."

"Truly disgusting. If this wasn't pre-planned, I'll jump off the fourteenth floor."

"Wait, Chen Meijing didn't have any enemies before, did she? Could this just be the price of fame?"

"Who knows? Let me make a call and ask."

Without hesitation, Chen Gang dialed Chen Meijing's number.

After a brief moment, the call connected.

"Meijing-jie, that performance... was someone targeting you?"

"Ah, it's nothing much."

Chen Meijing's emotions couldn't be read through the phone; she sounded very calm.

"Don't give me 'it's nothing much.' Anyone can see that someone was targeting you." Chen Gang exchanged glances with the others, nodded slightly, and continued, "If something's up, just say it straight. You're our studio's collaborative singer now."

"..."

After a moment of silence, Chen Meijing let out a soft laugh and spoke.

"Ha, actually, it's really nothing. It's just that one of the investors tonight wanted me to join him for drinks. I refused on the grounds of protecting my vocal cords for singing, and I suppose that's probably the reason!"

"No way, that can't be it." Lin Feng shook his head, instantly dismissing the possibility.

There were far too many female celebrities who wanted to get famous. If that boss really had such inclinations, he wouldn't have fixated solely on Chen Meijing. If Chen Meijing refused, the worst he would do was withhold an award. As long as the matter didn't leak, he wouldn't lose face. On the contrary, if the boss stubbornly blew the matter out of proportion, it would only make him a laughingstock in the industry.

*He wanted to hit on a female celebrity with money, failed to score,*
*And then flew into a rage, throwing a little tantrum by messing with her sound system... only to get utterly outplayed by her instead.*

People would literally die of laughter if that got out.

"Could it be a peer who's also trying to climb the charts recently?" Han Jiayin pinched her chin, deep in thought.

"Unlikely. It's not like the two of us haven't done variety shows; think about the treatment we get," Lin Feng said, shaking his head to dismiss the theory.

"For a singer, tailor-made songs are extremely vital. Everyone in the circle knows that we have Brother Can, a gold-medal producer, standing behind us. Because of that, singers we've encountered previously all try to part on good terms to make it easier to request songs later."

"Besides, Brother Can has plenty of songs that genuinely need people to sing them. If they can't be distributed widely, how are we supposed to earn royalty income? Starlight Entertainment supports this too, since they get a cut as well. Almost everyone in the industry knows about this."

"Compared to that, what even is a single chart ranking?"

Hearing Lin Feng put it this way, Chen Gang nodded and asked Chen Meijing over the phone, "Who was the investor that approached you? Do you have any details?"

"Yes, it's Yao Jingye, a senior executive at Haifeng Industries. This company frequently develops celebrity brands and is closely tied to the entertainment industry with considerable influence, though they mostly touch the acting circle rather than the music circle."

"..."

Everyone looked at each other, their expressions turning somewhat speechless.

The person who had almost been kicked flying by Li Cai's foot back then was also from Haifeng Industries.

Yet Lin Feng still felt something was amiss.

"That's not right. Would Haifeng Industries pull a stunt like this just for some minor staff member? Chen Meijing has Starlight backing her, after all."

"I... I'm not too sure about that, but really, nothing's wrong at present," Chen Meijing said helplessly over the phone.

"My manager told me that the company is offering some comfort for the grievance I suffered... I'm getting a C-grade promotion resource."

"Well... that's at least something." Lin Feng curled his lip.

Starlight Entertainment was no charity playground. Being able to do this already made them a conscientious company.

"We need to tell Brother Can about this. I still feel like something isn't right," Zhao Ze frowned, unable to help murmuring.

"To be rigorous, the surname Yao isn't very common. When that employee from the other day introduced himself... didn't he say his name was Yao Liang?"

"!"

Everyone felt as though they had been struck by lightning and slowly turned their heads.

They hadn't really remembered the name of that fleeting employee from back then, but they hadn't expected Zhao Ze to be this meticulous.

"Meticulous brother, you are truly amazing." Lin Feng slammed his hand on the table.

Acting smart by oneself was the most foolish behavior of all. Hiding a problem to handle it alone wasn't sharing burdens for a brother—it was just creating chaos. No one knew whether this matter would stop here.

"We need to tell Brother Can about this. Let's not mess around on our own, lest we fail to help and only cause trouble instead. We can go gather some information and piece the details together, and Brother Can will know what to do."

"Alright, let's get to work."