Chapter 596: Inviting Her to the Victory Banquet

All along, in the love story between Yang Tianbao and Sect Leader Huang, there always seemed to be rumors of a mistress climbing her way up.

After all, the stories from various marketing accounts and the timelines dug up by netizens all seem to prove this point.

Of course, Yang Tianbao's ex also seems to have had her own "troubles" in this area.

But the ones who always get tangled up in this kind of thing are the current partner!

Whoever ended up winning in the end, everyone watches them closely — that's pretty much the usual routine.

You can't just grab the "loser" and keep chewing them out forever, right? That'd be a bit unsportsmanlike.

But now, Yang Tianbao clearly doesn't want to be chewed out like this anymore — in simple terms, she's grown wings.

When she was Lady Huang, as the winner who already had everything to gain, being talked about like that was whatever. But she's not Lady Huang anymore — why would she want to keep at it?

Besides, before she and Sect Leader Huang officially announced their divorce, there had to be some buildup.

So today's Weibo post is freshly out of the oven.

She publicly posted a detailed response to the years-long mistress rumors surrounding her, and directly called out Sect Leader Huang, declaring she refuses to keep taking the fall for this matter.

In this Weibo post, she directly named Sect Leader Huang's ex-girlfriend Li Fei'er, saying it was the other party who claimed to be the mistress during a magazine interview.

She even addressed Sect Leader Huang by his first name, opening with the three characters "Huang Xiaoming," and then referred to him throughout as "Mr. Huang." She said he told her back then that he was single — that line is pretty interesting. She denied being the mistress, but if she really did accidentally "get made into a mistress," then it was "Huang Xiaoming" the "scumbag's" fault! Nothing to do with her~

After a Weibo post like that, the gunpowder smell and the sense of falling-out hit you right in the face!

It barely differs from a declaration of war, so the melon-eating netizens went absolutely wild!

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Hurry up and fight!

Of course, given that Yang Tianbao's reputation with the general public really isn't that great, even after she posted her "declaration of war," there wasn't any one-sided online consensus where everyone rushed to help her curse the scumbag.

At most, her fans were deployed in full force.

As a top-tier female artist, although she doesn't really have any works to her name, her face itself is quite the masterpiece — she has plenty of fans.

So the full-force deployment did look rather intimidating.

As for the melon-eating onlookers enjoying the show, quite a few of them did offer some "fair words":

Without Sect Leader Huang, you Yang Tianbao are nothing~

From a certain angle, this should count as a prophet's statement!

However, this kind of talk was mainly on other public platforms. On Weibo — the main base of fan circles, with primarily female users and where they're most active — Sect Leader Huang's treatment was naturally obvious.

Still, Sect Leader Huang is, after all, a man of dignity. Even facing a situation this close to an all-out falling-out, he didn't go online to argue with his ex-wife from afar.

And he responded pretty quickly.

A very standard response. First, naturally, he denied the bit about Yang Tianbao being the mistress. The rest was just boilerplate, nothing too nutritious — definitely not as exciting as Yang Tianbao's "declaration of war."

He also didn't use her full name like Yang Tianbao did, or any "Ms. Yang"-style address.

Old Huang is, after all, a man of dignity~

Getting off the plane and having this big a melon to eat — it really stuffed everyone to the brim.

Chen Duling and Zhou Ye "made up on the spot," the two girls chattering away wildly, trying to speculate more about the story behind it all.

Trying to figure out what exactly was going on between Yang Tianbao and Sect Leader Huang.

The two of them clearly didn't have many insider sources in the industry, and found the whole thing very fresh and exciting.

Zhou Ye is a little newbie. Even though her boss is Li Bingbing, who is a long-time friend of Sect Leader Huang, she couldn't possibly ask her boss about something like this.

As for Chen Duling, the phrase "she's not doing so well" explains it all — the shareholder of the company behind her is her own mother.

So after discussing it for ages, the two of them didn't come to any conclusion — it was all pretty subjective guessing.

So, almost at the same time, they both looked at Bai Liang, who was sitting in the front row of the business car, trying to file a melon-eating application.

"Senior, you don't seem very surprised, huh~"

"Huh? What's there to be surprised about? You guys didn't know?"

"How could we possibly know that!"

"Honestly, I'm not that clear on it either, but I'm free anyway, let's hear it~" Wu Jing actually chimed in with this line too, which was quite shocking.

Didn't expect this thick-browed, big-eyed guy to be so interested in melon-eating.

"You didn't know either?" This time Bai Liang was genuinely a bit surprised.

Wu Jing spread his hands. "I don't have any connection with that couple, and we're not even in the same circle. What would I know?"

Fair point!

But Bai Liang figured that he and Sect Leader Huang and Yang Tianbao weren't actually in the same circle either.

The entertainment circle might look like a tiny little place, but there are actually tons of circles, all kinds of cliques.

But Bai Liang had been exposed to quite a lot of circles. In the past, it was purely thanks to good luck and cheats; later on, once he got awesome, people were dying to pull him into their circles.

And Bai Liang, in a certain sense, counts as part of the Shanghai circle, because his earliest connection was with Tang Ren.

Even online, plenty of people think so. After all, that classmate Nazha ran through Bai Liang's debut career — the two of them were tangled up from his very first drama, and later he almost signed with Tang Ren.

Oh right, Tang Ren's boss Cai Yinong herself told this story in an interview once — how back then she wanted to sign Bai Liang, but this guy slapped his civil service exam scores and judicial exam scores "right in her face."

At the time, she thought it was pretty WTF, feeling like there was nothing she could do about this kid, and quietly held a grudge on the side.

But now, it's clearly become a fun anecdote.

Telling it to give everyone a laugh, something novel, and it helps build rapport too.

And the Shanghai circle itself clearly has designs on Bai Liang. The previous "Blossoms Shanghai" was actually a kind of goodwill and recruitment.

This show was basically the Shanghai circle's internal party — the main cast were basically all Shanghai locals.

Bai Liang himself isn't a Shanghai local, but he's in the Yangtze River Delta region, and his company even pays taxes in Shanghai.

When Sister Yanzi was helping him land the role in "Blossoms Shanghai," she even received another kind of olive branch.

Someone hinted at the Magnolia Award

As one of the three major mainland television awards alongside the Golden Eagle and Flying Apsaras, the Magnolia Award clearly carries quite a bit of weight, and Bai Liang has already taken the Golden Eagle Best Actor, so shouldn't he be thinking about the Grand Slam next?

Isn't that what most actors think?

And these awards—everyone who knows, knows—while they carry weight, each also has its under-the-table dealings.

The Magnolia Award also has its regional protectionism.

Take a drama like *Blossoms Shanghai*—even though it hasn't finished filming yet, everyone knows it'll definitely reap a hefty harvest at the Magnolia Awards when the time comes.

Yes, this thing still hasn't finished filming. Barring any surprises, by the time Bai Liang finishes shooting the two-part *Battle of Chosin Reservoir*, this thing still won't be done.

But although Bai Liang ultimately still withdrew from *Blossoms Shanghai*, Sister Yanzi is still quite something—nobody knows what she said to people or what backroom deals she made, but in any case, she really did handle things quite well with the Shanghai circle.

Relationships like these, aren't they all built up gradually~

As for Bai Liang's relationship with the Beijing circle where Brother Huang resides.

"Jing-ge, isn't the person I have the best relationship with in the Beijing circle you~" Bai Liang tilted his head and said to Wu Jing with a grin.