novelden Chapter 625: Xiao He Defends His Rights, the Competitive King Finally Gets Off Work
Chapter 625: Xiao He Defends His Rights, the Competitive King Finally Gets Off Work
Actually, the issue of "same kind of items" was unavoidable. After all, even big-name brands and major manufacturers couldn't escape being copied and imitated. So when they had announced the mecha design in advance, they already knew there would be factories following the trend, making knockoffs, and selling them to harvest fans like leeks.They just hadn't expected to run into it here.
And right in their line of fire.
Xiao Zhou was pretty sharp. He immediately pulled out his phone, took photos, and searched for the same kind of item. Sure enough, he found similar stores on a certain shopping platform.
"Brother Xiao, Sister Liu, there really are scumbag merchants selling these!" Xiao Zhou immediately reported. "And it's linked to a bunch of stores, all selling fake goods under the banner of official merchandise!"
If it were just ordinary items, like hats, glasses, or other small accessories, having the same kind of item might be let slide. Usually, celebrities wouldn't pursue it. But the clothes and shoes Xiao He wore on a regular basis were from legitimate brands! Using them to sell knockoffs could easily hurt his commercial value.
Not to mention this little figurine—it was something they planned to use to make money later!
"I'll have the company's legal department follow up on this later, and I'll also notify Young Master Huang to protect our rights in time." Liu Rulan said, finally shifting her gaze back to the profile picture of that account. "And if I'm remembering correctly, this person has been coming after me for nearly half a year now."
"What?"
Xiao He immediately sat up straight, looking at Liu Rulan with surprise.
"Really."
Liu Rulan tossed her phone to Xiao He. "Ever since you jumped straight into filming *Thief Catcher 2* last year, she's been hounding me. She was really unhappy about you giving up on recording the variety show *Journey Across Mountains and Rivers*. She thought we held you back, that we made the wrong choice for you."
Xiao He immediately picked up Liu Rulan's phone and scrolled through it. Sure enough, it was the same profile picture, the same account, and the same IP address.
And that wasn't all.
She had also listed seven major charges against Liu Rulan, each one funnier than the last—basically fabricating crimes out of thin air. Xiao He kept reading, his expression growing stranger and stranger, until he almost couldn't hold back a laugh.
It was just too amusing. The angle she was using to find fault was so bizarre, nobody else could match it.
But as he kept scrolling down, Xiao He couldn't laugh anymore.
This person hadn't just listed all of Liu Rulan's "crimes." She had also hurled all kinds of abuse at Liu Rulan, saying Liu Rulan and her team were inhumane, hoping Liu Rulan would get hit by a car and die so Xiao He could get a better, more obedient agent.
…Some of the things in there, they were unspeakable.
Xiao He's face darkened a bit.
Leaving that private chat window, Xiao He flipped through some of Liu Rulan's other DMs. Sure enough, besides some collaboration offers, he also found plenty of "warm greetings" from his own fans.
Some were genuine greetings, expressing approval of Liu Rulan's work and hoping she would continue to help Brother Xiao improve.
Naturally, others were curses, calling Liu Rulan too domineering, accusing her of controlling the artist's work, of exploiting him. There were even worse ones, directly insulting Liu Rulan, claiming she had an improper relationship with him, and taking it all the way to explicit sexual language.
To be honest, Xiao He had always thought being a celebrity was a high-risk profession.
But after looking at the agent's account, it was just as bad.
Liu Rulan noticed Xiao He's complicated expression. She just let out a calm, detached laugh, took the phone back from his hand, and said casually, "You know why the team always ends up being the opposition to the artist in the fans' eyes? Because the artist is absolutely perfect. Every decision they make is absolutely correct."
So all the imperfections, all the failures, naturally had to be blamed on the team.
This was just a small price they paid for being part of an artist's career.
Luckily, Liu Rulan was already used to it.
If this hadn't happened, she wouldn't have connected the dots with this person.
Oh, right, and mainly because this one was pretty persistent. She basically came to check in every so often, very regularly.
Xiao He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Anyway, that's not the point."
Liu Rulan steered the conversation back.
"Since we've already found this situation, let's take care of this person sooner rather than later."
Liu Rulan sighed. "I just didn't expect that she could make money for herself while also being a fan."
Making money off a celebrity while being their fan—a lot of professional fans did that, and the celebrity's team usually didn't stop them. But to be so completely without scruples, to deliberately trick young fans and sell fake goods… that was a rare sight.
Xiao He's voice was low. "Go call the lawyer. I want to do a proper clean-up of a bunch of fans."
Fans like this, these cancerous tumors, they were better off gone.
…
About a week before Spring Festival, Xiao He officially announced he was entering vacation mode.
He directly posted on Weibo, making his upcoming plans public.
[Linghui Actor - Xiao He: Finally getting ready for vacation. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year in advance! [Photos]*9]
The attached photos were snippets of Xiao He's work from the past year. Some were from the production team, some from daily life. Although Xiao He himself wasn't great at leaving traces of his life, the people around him had long since captured his presence everywhere. Ever since Xiao Chen took over the relevant tasks, he had even prepared a phone with particularly good pixel quality specifically to record Xiao He's life.
In response to this outstanding performance from his assistant, Xiao He generously prepared a big red envelope for Xiao Chen.
So Xiao Chen, who had already received the company's year-end bonus, happily took Xiao He's personal red envelope and went back to his hometown for the New Year.
As for the rest of the company, they were still toiling away at their posts until the very end.
Even the usually idle legal department had finally found its purpose just before the New Year, taking on the higher-ups' rights protection work.
And the always-busy Operations Department was still busy lately. Both of Linghui Entertainment's golden geese had new works and activities recently, so they still had to keep up with daily online operations.
But at least things had been quiet lately, with no trouble.
At most, when Xiao He posted on Weibo today, they'd follow the comment section to keep an eye on things and manage public opinion.
By now, Xiao He's comment section had long been taken over by jubilant Little Box fans.
[Wishing Brother Xiao a happy Spring Festival in advance!]
[Brother Xiao can finally go home for the New Year this year, right? Congrats, congrats! You can really tell he's happy.]
[Brother Xiao, you've worked hard this year!]
[Brother Xiao, you're a real model worker! Jumping into intense filming schedules while still maintaining your character's performance quality. The title of competitive king in the entertainment industry is truly well-deserved.]
[Haha, congrats to the competitive king on getting off work!]
[Happy New Year, Bro! I've been catching up on *Corner Also* lately! Can't wait for the upcoming plot.]
[Who managed to snag tickets to the premiere of *The Phantom Thief Alliance 2*? Oh, that would be me! Hoo hoo hoo.]
[Xiao He's back in Shanghai, huh? Then he must have already finished recording the Spring Festival Gala for the Beijing station, right? I heard it's a magic show! I'm already looking forward to it.]
[Ah, there's just a little bit of regret. Brother Xiao is going home for the New Year, and I haven't heard anything about a birthday party. Looks like he's not planning on doing anything big this year.]
[Organizing a birthday party is really complicated. Brother Xiao's team just did one last year, and they were running around like crazy. This year, let him rest. Besides, it's not like he needs to hold one every year.]
Seeing these fans' comments, Xiao He's mood finally relaxed quite a bit.
"Most of my Little Box fans are pretty reasonable!"
Xiao He put down his phone and let out a long breath, feeling like that stifling, unpleasant air had finally been blown away.