Chapter 554: Auto-Matching an Evenly Matched Opponent

"N-no, nothing, I just had a bit too much coffee, I need to use the restroom~"

Hearing Wang Churan say this, Meng Jie glanced at the barely-touched coffee in the other's cup and thought, Is this stuff really that diuretic?

Gotta drink more, then.

Detox and beautify!

Bottoms up, bottoms up!

Watching Meng Jie over there hugging her coffee and chugging it, Wang Churan was actually more curious about the "switching mentors" thing she had mentioned.

This plotline is way too much like those domineering CEO dramas or romance novels—one wave of the hand and "I've booked this whole fish pond for you!"

So of course she really wanted to know more details.

Meng Jie: Hey, I want to know too~

When chatting about this matter, she was actually a bit fuzzy-headed, only vaguely remembering that Bai Liang seemed to have mentioned it.

Though he said it pretty casually, more like joking around~

But she just felt that pulling this kind of stunt didn't really seem like her little hedgehog's style.

What domineering CEO could ever beat a warm, cozy capybara!

So Meng Jie didn't bother asking more.

But the way she let slip a little something then held the rest back only made Wang Churan even more curious.

Dying to know!

The two of them really did have different tastes in this regard—Meng Jie liked capybaras a bit more, while Wang Churan preferred the more "manly" type.

Of course, this was just a minor preference.

On the big picture, the two sisters were aligned—they liked handsome guys!

Although Bai Liang basically never showed off his domineering CEO side, after all, it had been a long time since he'd "not eat beef."

But in his own story, he actually had a bit of a passive domineering CEO vibe going on.

After all, the downfall of those two former top-tier superstars—a lot of people pinned that "credit" right on his head.

The reason he had passively become a "scene-stealer" had quite a bit to do with this.

Anyway, it was already enough to fuel Miss's imagination.

See, Wang Churan figured the capybara was just the surface—the domineering CEO was the true essence.

She was now especially looking forward to how this matter would unfold next.

"Sister Yanzi really is a domineering CEO!" Bai Liang sighed.

The reason he'd suddenly brought this up with Meng Jie was because he'd asked Sister Yanzi about it.

The other had domineeringly declared, "That short guy's about to have bad luck! I'll deal with him!"

The current Sister Yanzi was really overflowing with swagger—just back from "training troops" in the summer slate, she was different now, giving Guan Hu a whole head full of bumps, the effects even spilling over onto the not-yet-released "The Sacrifice."

With the movie's release date drawing closer and closer, the voices of boycott online were growing louder and louder.

Sister Yanzi actually deserved a big chunk of the credit for that.

As for Guo Xiaosi, that guy had even more dirt.

Sister Yanzi had only learned a bit of the ins and outs from Bai Liang before declaring she'd handle this matter.

But before two days had even passed, she suddenly gave Bai Liang a call in a really strange tone: "Brother Dou Xiao Bai, we're getting payback for Meng Jie, targeting Guo Xiaosi, right?"

"Huh? Pretty much~ Did you get the full picture?"

"I did just get the full picture, but now things aren't right." Sister Yanzi continued in that odd tone.

"What's not right?"

"He's in trouble, but it doesn't really have much to do with us."

"Oh? Really~"

Hearing that flat, emotionless tone, Sister Yanzi suddenly raised an eyebrow. "Brother Dou Xiao Bai, did you do it?"

"I didn't do anything~"

Right after saying that, Bai Liang realized his words were off—a bit too absolute.

He hadn't done nothing.

After all—this was Meng Jie.

One Guo Xiaosi didn't have what it took to put Bai Liang into "not eating beef" mode. He hadn't even done anything extra besides letting Sister Yanzi know, and hadn't even thought about this matter in the past two days.

But—Meng Jie's luck lately should still be pretty good.

Back then, Nazha playing the little-crocodile finger-clipping game with Reba had nearly broken Reba's Dao heart when the little crocodile bit her. From a certain angle, that might have been Bai Liang's behind-the-scenes assist.

Although he wasn't really keen on admitting he might actually have a bit of a luck-bead factor to him, long experience told him the odds of this kind of thing happening were actually not small~

If Meng Jie's luck had been good lately, then whoever made her uncomfortable would most likely not be in a great mood—and manifested in concrete events, that meant… about to have bad luck!

This metaphysical logic was very sound.

But Sister Yanzi found it baffling, so she couldn't help asking: "Brother Dou Xiao Bai, do you have other people outside helping you with marketing, connections, that sort of thing?"

"Nope~"

"Then I'm relieved, but this really is one heck of a coincidence!" Sister Yanzi giggled and sighed.

Just how much of a coincidence~

Sister Yanzi had just been getting ready to give Guo Xiaosi some grief, to make him smarten up a bit and stop his damn yapping at Meng Jie on the show.

And then today, the other side just "went down!"

111 screenwriters, directors, producers, and writers released a joint open letter online!

The open letter stated that recently, on various online platforms and TV variety shows, screenwriters and directors with plagiarism records had repeatedly appeared under the guise of show mentors and guests, hyping topics both on and off the show in pursuit of click-throughs, ratings, and eyeballs.

And that "this approach of valuing nothing but ratings and traffic has aroused great disgust among relevant industry workers and all sectors of society," calling on media platforms to "uphold the righteous spirit of the times, promote artists of both moral and artistic excellence, proactively refuse these repeat-offending creators, deny plagiarists a stage, and drive them out of public media."

The joint signature list included many well-known film and television industry professionals.

Not long after, the number of signatories on this joint letter expanded to 156 people.

Oh right, this thing specifically named Guo Xiaosi, plus a Yu Zheng.

Actually, the screenwriters who put together this joint letter didn't hold out much hope themselves; it was more just a statement of position.

Because those two old rascals — one lost his lawsuit fifteen years ago, the other six years ago — but they just stick to "however much the fine is, I'll pay it, but an apology is impossible."

Just stubbornly refusing to back down like that, and all these years there's really been nothing anyone could do about them.

So, Guo Xiaosi just kept going on to record the show as usual, seemingly not taking this pack of chickens and dogs to heart at all.

Meng Jie and Wang Churan, who had also come to record this episode, looked at the news online, then looked at Guo Xiaosi on set completely unaffected, and each had their own thoughts.

Meng Jie found it a bit unbelievable. On one hand, she was surprised that Guo Xiaosi could still act as if nothing had happened, and she even felt a bit envious — if only she could have that kind of mindset.

On the other hand, she suspected this couldn't be the work of her own little hedgehog, could it?

Probably not, right? So many industry insiders signing jointly — it felt like it had been plotted for quite a while.

Wang Churan, meanwhile, was more direct: "It must be Brother Xiao Bai! What fast moves! What impressive methods!"

Looking at her bestie whose face was already flushing red, Meng Jie couldn't help scratching her head. "I don't think it looks like him."

"You're underestimating him too much!" At this point, practically in full fan-girl mode, Wang Churan — who believed her "brother" was omnipotent — immediately set out to correct Meng Jie's "incorrect" thinking. "Trust me, there's definitely more to come, this isn't over!"

"What more could there be?"

"Switching mentors!"

"For real?"

Looking at the utterly convinced Wang Churan, Meng Jie was starting to be swayed by her a little.