The undercover agent caused such a commotion when she spilled a whole table of soup that Chu Yanzhe also turned around, holding his phone, and hesitated for a moment before looking at her.
He still remembered that she was a customer, so he pulled out a few pieces of tissue and handed them to her, asking,
“Are you alright?”
The undercover agent froze for a moment, her face covered in mess as she frantically searched for paper to clean the table.
But at that moment, it was Chu Yanzhe who had given her the tissues.
She stared at him blankly.
Earlier, she truly thought Chu Yanzhe wouldn’t care about them, that this was just a stunt.
But he was really this serious.
After handing her the tissues, Chu Yanzhe heard someone talking on the phone, so he turned his attention to it, muttering a few “mm-hm”s in response.
Then, he hung up, put the phone in the pocket of his apron, and seriously rolled up his sleeves.
He took a cloth and wiped down the table, his movements swift and focused as he took on the role of a server.
Afterward, he moved away to another area to take the call.
The undercover agent watched him, dumbfounded.
Suddenly, she felt something strange in her heart.
It wasn’t the time to dwell on it, so she quickly shook her head to rid herself of these unsettling thoughts and checked her phone to see what had happened with Ruan Nian!
“Bang!”
The camera dropped to the floor and shattered into pieces.
The director’s eyebrows shot up, and he froze for a moment!
Being in the industry, he, of course, knew how expensive the equipment was, especially for fanatics.
They often buy camera bodies that cost a fortune just to take pictures of their idols from afar, not to mention the lenses that are priced astronomically!
Upon closer inspection, the director’s pupils contracted, his heartbeat skipping a beat.
The kind of people who could afford to follow Ruan Nian around were rich women.
Camera body: 50,000.
Lens: 100,000!
He almost stumbled and nearly cried.
He thought,
“Rich women, what could you possibly want this money for? Why become a ‘sasaeng’ (a fan who invades an idol’s private life)? You’ve followed Ruan Nian all the way into a hidden room?!”
The two fans stood frozen, staring at the shattered camera on the floor.
They still held onto a sliver of hope as they lifted their heads to look at Ruan Nian, hoping she would give them an explanation.
But Ruan Nian, in the midst of this intense conflict, blanked out in panic.
Her first reaction was to be flustered, and then she quickly spoke,
“Please don’t expose this, okay? We can pay you however much you want for a non-disclosure agreement!”
After the door was closed, they scolded the fans and shattered their expensive camera.
Ruan Nian nearly blacked out, unable to comprehend how big the storm would be if this incident were exposed!
But upon hearing her words, the two fans’ expressions dimmed.
They had not received any explanation from Ruan Nian, nor did they get any compensation for the damage to their camera.
Since they could afford such expensive cameras, they clearly weren’t lacking in money.
Their pursuit of Ruan Nian was purely out of love.
Now, seeing Ruan Nian act like this, they felt their hearts turn cold.
Everything they had done seemed meaningless.
One of the fans merely said with disappointment,
“Forget it, let’s go.”
But they didn’t manage to leave.
The director quickly grabbed one of their hands!
“Let go of me! I warn you, if your program team tries to stop us, that’s restricting our personal freedom, and we’ll call the police!”
During the struggle, one of the fans shouted, and the director panicked, yelling,
“You can’t leave! The problem isn’t resolved yet!”
Li Xunxi, who had been watching from the side, grew impatient and rolled her eyes.
She glared at Ruan Nian, shouting,
“Call the police, go ahead, call them!”
“Let go!”
“Not letting go!”
“Call the police!”
The struggle continued in the room, but at that moment, someone with sharp ears seemed to hear a police siren.
They froze for a moment before suddenly someone from the program team answered the phone:
“What? The police are here?”
The room fell silent.
Everyone turned to look at the fan!
The fan was also stunned.
She was confused and a little frightened.
She had been struggling with the director and hadn’t had the chance to call the police.
What was going on?
Was this some kind of supernatural event?
Or did some other fan outside hear the commotion and decide to call the police?
When the police arrived, they were immediately taken aback at the scene.
“What’s going on? How did so many people gather here?”
Turning around, they saw Ruan Nian, who looked dazed.
They quickly realized,
“Oh, it’s because a celebrity is here, that’s why the crowd gathered?”
The police officer’s expression became serious.
“How could you organize such a large gathering in a narrow hallway? This violates fire safety regulations! Who organized this?”
“And why wasn’t there a barricade set up outside the building to prevent such a large crowd from entering? The elevator is completely stalled now, severely affecting the normal work and movement of everyone in the building. We’ve received numerous complaints!”
Ruan Nian’s face turned pale.
She opened her mouth and stammered for a moment before hurriedly explaining,
“I’m not the organizer, we’re filming a show here, and when the fans heard about it, they came over. We didn’t know anything about it…”
“Officer!”
The fan whose camera had been broken suddenly spoke up, her voice resolute.
“That’s not true! They’re the organizers, they’re the ones who brought us here!”
Ruan Nian froze, her pupils dilating in disbelief as she looked at the fan—she had betrayed her too!
In an instant, she felt her favorability drop sharply, to a terrifying level!
“It was Ruan Nian’s manager, Sister Li, who told the fan club that Ruan Nian had an event here today, and they needed to organize the fans to come and show support by spending money. Each group even had spending requirements!”
“What?”
The police officer was stunned too.
A recording show with a restaurant, and they asked fans to come and spend?
That was bizarre.
Ruan Nian’s face grew even paler as she avoided their gazes in fear, praying someone would suddenly appear to save her.
Lately, her favorability had been too low, and she didn’t have enough to use any system cheats or props.
She felt utterly hopeless.
It was as if, despite all her props and backstage support, she had been stripped of all assistance and was left relying solely on herself.
It was terrifying—this feeling was terrifying!
She suddenly looked towards Li Xunxi, her mind racing.
Surely, Li Xunxi, as a rich heiress, would know what to do, right?
Couldn’t they settle this privately?
She couldn’t let this blow up!
Li Xunxi took a deep breath, her eyes filled with disdain, as if she was looking at a particularly foolish person, almost wishing she could slap her.
Without hesitation, Li Xunxi spoke to the police.
“This was all arranged by Ruan Nian and her team, we had no idea about it. We had already done a commercial plan for this restaurant, trying to attract customers using our brand effect. We never intended to organize fans to come and disrupt the surrounding order!”
Li Xunxi took out a notebook from her bag and showed it to them, saying,
“This is our business plan. It’s clear we never intended to invite fans. This is all Ruan Nian’s fault!”
Ruan Nian’s eyes widened in shock.
What?
Now they were putting all the blame on her?
Didn’t they tell her just yesterday to attract as many fans as possible?
At that moment, the two fans looked at her with nothing but disappointment in their eyes.
Outside, other fans were still gossiping in confusion.
“What happened? Why did the police get involved? Is Ruan Nian hurt?”
At this point, the police rushed out, holding a loudspeaker and sternly directing them to disperse.
“You can’t gather in the hallway! Please leave in batches through the safe passage downstairs!”
Some fans, still unwilling to leave without seeing Ruan Nian one more time, reluctantly made their way downstairs, muttering among themselves.
Meanwhile, the fan whose camera had been broken seemed to have made a decision, and raised her head to say,
“Also, their production team broke my 150,000 yuan equipment and tried to restrict my personal freedom!”
“I’m going to take this further!”
The director stared wide-eyed.
Li Xunxi suddenly closed her eyes, sucked in a cold breath, and held her temper in check.
It was over.
Everything was falling apart!
Just then, Gu Zhaoping and the others, who had been busy with lunch during the peak of their business, heard the news.
They were told that Ruan Nian’s manager had been taken in for questioning.
At that moment, all the customers in the restaurant began discussing the huge scandal that had just broken.
The group was too busy to check the news until now.
Chu Yanze quickly saw that Ruan Nian had made it to the trending search due to the police report.
The official announcement read: “Star Ruan Nian, while filming a show, had her manager organize fans to come and spend money without properly counting the numbers, causing traffic problems and affecting the entire building’s normal operations. An investigation has been initiated after receiving reports, and a fine of X amount has been imposed…”
It exploded on the trending searches!
It spread at a terrifying speed.
Soon, everyone online and even those passing by in real life were discussing it!
Ruan Nian—this was Ruan Nian!
Her reputation was so good that when this negative news first came out, no one believed it.
It wasn’t until the official announcement laid out the full story, and photos from the scene continued to circulate, that people truly believed it.
“Wow, so many people! Are they crazy?”
The photo was taken from a building across the street, showing the road below, packed with people, clogging up two nearby intersections.
Delivery people, dressed in yellow, were stuck in the crowd, honking their horns anxiously, but they couldn’t get through and could only move forward with the flow of people.
Some people trying to get to work were forced to go in the opposite direction!
Others were just passing by, but got swept into the crowd, their feet nearly off the ground, unable to escape!
It was terrifying—this was worse than some New Year’s Eve crowd gatherings.
Previously, people only knew that Ruan Nian had strong influence, but they hadn’t expected it to be this powerful.
Only now did they truly get a vivid picture.
“So many people gathering—if someone isn’t careful, there could be an accident, right? What were they thinking, having no awareness of safety at all?”
“It might not have been Ruan Nian herself. How could a big celebrity personally organize something like this? It was probably her manager being reckless! Didn’t the official statement say it was the manager who organized it?”
Some people were still defending Ruan Nian.
“LOL, seriously? You think the manager would’ve done this without the celebrity’s orders?”
“Wait, I just realized they’re filming a show! Does the show require them to open restaurants? Are they competing on earnings? So Ruan Nian brought in fans to boost business? That’s just being a sore loser…”
“More than a sore loser—this is straight-up cheating! The show has its own rules. Bringing outsiders in? That’s manipulating results. Isn’t that a character issue?”
“No need to make it about character. Celebs having fans show up to support them is normal. Why aren’t you criticizing other stars?”