Matters began spiraling out of control as a post featuring photos of Wang Zhuo’s “official girlfriend,” Gan Lin, exploded on the Tianya forum, instantly drawing a massive crowd eager to claim their digital space. Soon, Qi Fei and Guan Yingying were also dragged into the swirling rumors, and He Ye and Xu Chu even had their online photo albums completely ransacked, with the caption “Tons of beautiful photos available for download—limited time!”
Unlike the Edison Chen incident back in ’08, the current protagonist, Wang Zhuo, rarely appeared in online photos, providing insufficient material for public entertainment and fantasy. Therefore, the crowd quickly pivoted, discovering a unique new form of amusement.
In contemporary society, the “Three 180s” standard for choosing a mate is quite popular: a height of 180 cm, living space of 180 square meters, and a lower extremity length of 180 mm—these are often the targets women pursue. However, Wang Zhuo’s rumored 250 vastly exceeds this standard. Furthermore, nearly every photo taken with Irene focused heavily on that specific area, even featuring close-ups from various angles.
Oh God, this is far more compelling than what they called “Little Intestine Chen”!
In reality, the term “Little Intestine Chen” was purely a tactic to disparage Edison Chen; scientifically speaking, Edison Chen’s measurements surpassed the Asian average. Putting that aside for the moment, the current situation suggested Wang Zhuo had enough assets to become an adult film star in Europe or America—a highlight capable of making both men and women intensely envious!
Can’t find your photos? Fine. We won’t look for photos; we’ll use what’s already available!
Also known as the Image Factory, though in China, people are more accustomed to simply abbreviating it, or even shorter—just that photo, immediately.
Tianya forum was never short on members who enjoyed digital graffiti. M had posted ninety-seven images on the movie clip site, a much faster delivery rate than the slow, toothpaste-squeezing pace of one or two photos during the ’08 Edison Chen scandal. Exactly fifty of these featured Wang Zhuo and Irene. With such abundant material, they had plenty of inspiration to exercise their creativity!
Can’t find a clear frontal shot of you? No problem. Brother is bringing out the sausage!
As Wang Zhuo drove away from the school campus, the first doctored image appeared atop the digital skyscraper of the Tianya forum. The original creator was highly inventive: they cropped out Wang Zhuo’s “sausage” and pasted it onto a large headshot of He Ye.
Followers immediately swarmed in like a torrent of fish crossing a river; this game was simply too hilarious. Of course, many voices rose up in defense of the “innocent” He Ye. In short, the atmosphere was wild with all sorts of commotion.
Countless forum pseudonyms surged forward, one after another, only to have the posts in this hot thread deleted and re-deleted by administrators and moderators.
“Does anyone have Director Wang’s contact information? This sister needs to dedicate herself!”
“What do you think he ate when he was little? I’m a robust guy at 182 cm, but my little brother is a full ten centimeters shorter than his!”
“Sobbing past, you talented people are too much for us mortals. How is a naturally disadvantaged pure man like me supposed to cope…”
“Sigh, Irene, whom I’ve silently admired for so long, has been ruined by such scum. Go die, rich second generation.”
“Why is the gap between people so vast? I’m twenty-three this year, and Director Wang has already traveled abroad, yet I haven’t even managed to hook up with a local girl.”
“The final episode of Magic Academy hasn’t even aired yet, and this massive scandal breaks out. What impact do you think this will have?”
“This guy’s thing is so big, little sister likes it a lot, I really want to try it too, hehe.”
“The user above, you transvestite, go die! Do you think that’s something anyone can just taste? He’s already enjoyed the likes of Irene Top; why would he care about your foul mouth!”
“Women are just cheap. Treating them well doesn’t work; pushing them around makes them cling closer! Look at Irene’s shameless face; she looked as pure as an angel in the movie, but in reality, she’s just as wild, kneeling down for Chinese men to wrap around her!”
“All men are damn hooligans! They cheat, have no self-respect, and once they get a little money, they forget their own name, playing with women! Irene is still a minor girl, how could someone like Wang Zhuo lay a hand on her? He deserves to be hit by a car and die!”
The number of people cursing Wang Zhuo behind his back with the most venomous language was likely beyond even God’s count.
Yet, quite a few people also called Wang Zhuo to gloat, and Yang Ru was among them.
Seeing that even she dared to bully him, Wang Zhuo chuckled and said, “Don’t get too cocky. Next time, I’ll definitely make you wrap around me for a full hour until you’re too tired to speak.”
Yang Ru immediately retreated. Wang Zhuo would certainly follow through on such a threat, and she couldn’t resist, especially since Wang Zhuo enjoyed spraying that gushing, hot stream onto her face, turning it into a sticky mask for her—she had long experienced his domineering nature!
This time, Wang Zhuo did not return to his small home; being in a residential complex meant too many eyes and too little security.
He was finally tasting the troubles that came with fame, especially fame achieved in such a manner—a notorious fame.
When he drove back to the Wetland Villa, his mobile phone lines were completely jammed by countless unknown numbers. The number he was using was supposed to be private, but he had dozens of contacts who knew it. It seemed someone had made a slip-up, leaking this number.
He could ignore the calls, but the texts kept chiming incessantly. Digital forensics truly knew no boundaries; this mobile number was probably already spreading widely.
“Looking for sponsorship, will warm the bed.”
This was a relatively uncreative prank text.
“May your entire family perish in one household registration!!!!”
These were Irene’s fans; Wang Zhuo had desecrated their dream girl, so their frenzy was understandable.
“Wang, immediately transfer ten million to my bank account, or beware of losing your head and limbs. Account number is…”
This was opportunistic extortion, but it lacked any technical finesse—only meant to fool simpletons.
“Idol, brother worships your ability to pick up girls! Tell me, was the incident where you fell into the sea that afternoon something you meticulously planned? Right?!”
This was someone seeking advice on seduction techniques; they revered masters of romance, for there is a way to woo!
The texts were a motley collection, and Wang Zhuo soon grew weary of them, even seeing messages in full English, and some in Japanese and Korean.
Irene truly is an international superstar… Wang Zhuo sighed wryly, realizing this mess was substantial. He was likely heading for widespread infamy!
As soon as he parked the car, his father, Wang Zhengdao, rushed out, immediately demanding, “Why didn’t you answer my calls?”
“How could I answer?” Wang Zhuo held up his phone, a mixture of frustration and amusement on his face.
The phone was ringing continuously, vibrating violently, as if having a seizure.
“You’re in deep trouble this time,” Wang Zhengdao said, pointing at his son with an expression mixing annoyance and amusement. “You’ve been too obsessed with lust!”
Wang Zhuo shrugged, asking with a wry smile, “How bad can it be?”
“I don’t know exactly, but someone else had it worse than you,” Wang Zhengdao shook his head. “The final episode of Magic Academy hasn’t been released, and four hundred million dollars have already been invested, and it’s the last installment of a whole series. Suddenly, such a serious scandal erupts; the losses for Warner Bros. are hard to estimate.”
As Wang Zhuo walked toward the entrance, he asked, “I don’t care about Warner or Paramount right now. You know more about the entertainment industry than I do—what kind of impact do you think this will have on Irene?”
“My son, as expected; thinking of cherishing the beauty at a time like this,” Wang Zhengdao chuckled, observing Wang Zhuo’s expression. “You should ask what kind of contract she has with Warner Bros. This incident will definitely have a huge effect on the box office for the final Magic Academy. If there are relevant clauses in the contract, she might face huge compensation fees.”
“How huge?” Wang Zhuo raised an eyebrow.
“She might have wasted all her efforts over these years.” Wang Zhengdao pursed his lips. “If it’s a predatory clause, she might have to work for the company for free for the next several years just to pay off the debt.”
Wang Zhuo’s brow gradually furrowed. Seeing his son deep in thought, Wang Zhengdao teased, “What’s wrong, son? Are you planning to cover that expense for her?”
“That is a consideration,” Wang Zhuo nodded slightly.
Wang Zhengdao immediately clicked his tongue repeatedly. “Then you are truly setting a record this time.”
“What record?” Wang Zhuo looked at his father in confusion.
Wang Zhengdao forced a dry laugh. “An old classmate of mine ran into a blackmailer after a one-night stand a while ago and was shaken down for five thousand yuan. I thought that was expensive then. Yours is also basically a one-night stand, right? How much will you have to pay? Fifty million? USD? Doesn’t that set a record?”
“It wasn’t a one-night stand,” Wang Zhuo shot him an exasperated look. “It was her first time. I will take responsibility.”
Take responsibility, my foot! Wang Zhengdao almost burst out laughing but refrained out of respect for his standing in the family. He scrutinized his son, thinking: How many women have you got on the outside? A good half of them you personally developed. Even if our Wang family ledger has enough pages, the ‘Spouse’ column can only hold one name. How will you take responsibility? Do you have three heads and six arms, or can you split into multiple bodies?!
“You don’t have to look at me like that,” Wang Zhuo jutted out his neck and huffed. “There’s nothing you can imagine that I can’t do. Do you believe it or not?”
Wang Zhengdao immediately gestured for him to continue his boasting.
“Fine, fine, we’ll just wait and see,” Wang Zhuo pointed at him unhappily and quickly headed upstairs.
His father suddenly called out from downstairs: “Gan Lin is waiting for you upstairs!”
Wang Zhuo nearly missed a step, turning back to glare fiercely at him—why didn’t he mention something so important earlier!
Using his Clairvoyance ability, he scanned upstairs and located Gan Lin in the bedroom, browsing the internet. She was staring expressionlessly at the webpage, which was the massive thread on the Tianya forum.
Unluckily for Wang Zhuo, just as he was looking at her, she happened to see one of the doctored photos. However, this particular vandal had replaced the 250 with a spiky desert cactus placed over Irene’s face, which is why the moderator hadn't deleted it.
Seeing the accompanying text posted by the original creator, Wang Zhuo instantly flew into a rage. Damn it, what was that nonsense about “Unclean sexual contact can spread AIDS”? And they used a cactus to replace my treasure! Wasn’t that insinuating I had a disease?!
Without another word, he immediately took out a different mobile phone and issued an order to Siyuan—Block the Tianya domain name resolution immediately!