Ch 82 (Part 1): Rebirth of the Tool Man in a Pampered Protagonist Novel

“How did it come to this!”

Yan Tong looked at the hot search on the internet and was absolutely infuriated.

Lately, he hasn’t been doing well at all. In fact, ever since Fang Ziyang turned the tables in the bullying video incident, his days have been miserable, and nothing has been going smoothly!

He deeply regrets pressuring Fang Ziyang so harshly in the first place. How could he forget that Fang Ziyang is like a spring? The harder you push, the stronger the recoil. He shouldn’t have been so hasty. He should have taken things slowly, like boiling a frog in warm water.

It’s only now that he realizes this is not a paper world that can be controlled by words alone. It’s not a stagnant world where everything remains the same. Even with his advantage in the plot, it’s not as easy as he imagined to live well in this world.

Since Fang Yandong and Fang Qianhao fell from power and went to prison one after another, it has become increasingly difficult for him to get things done.

Unlike Fang Qianhao, Xie Wenxu has a natural antagonistic relationship with Fang Ziyang. Xie Wenxu can’t help him deal with Fang Ziyang like Fang Qianhao did. He even has to be cautious and hide his actions from Xie Wenxu.

This is extremely restrictive for him.

But the harsh reality is that he can’t do without Xie Wenxu in the short term. He needs Xie Wenxu as his backer, especially since he wants to use the Xie family’s cheat codes to make money. It involves a cooperative relationship, and it’s not something he can easily break away from…

Previously, he was too agitated and couldn’t help but have Shi Meijing take action against Fang Ziyang ahead of time. But who would have known that Fang Ziyang would be fine in the end, while Shi Meijing ended up disabled.

On the night when things escalated…

He had originally planned to tie up loose ends and get rid of Shi Meijing to silence her. But when he arrived at the location, he was knocked unconscious. When he woke up in the middle of nowhere, he heard the news that Shi Meijing was hospitalized.

Now, just thinking about it, Yan Tong felt a chill down his spine.

At this moment, he finally understood one thing: he had always treated Fang Ziyang as a fool to manipulate, but in reality, he was probably the real fool! Fang Ziyang must know everything!

He was too arrogant and completely forgot that even without the protagonist halo, Fang Ziyang had intelligence. If Fang Ziyang could see through his schemes during the bullying video incident, why wouldn’t he have any defenses against him afterwards?

While Shi Meijing suffered, he was only knocked unconscious. It was clearly a warning.

Although he didn’t know why Fang Ziyang spared him, Yan Tong felt a deeper fear than death itself, a sense of insignificance in the face of the contempt of death.

–

Despite feeling unwilling, after returning home restless and anxious for a while, he couldn’t muster any thoughts of scheming against Fang Ziyang anymore.

He even began to regret why he had been greedy and opposed Fang Ziyang, fighting for the protagonist’s position.

His mind must have been flooded with water to have such thoughts! He knew the plot, he could have obtained Fang Ziyang’s golden finger, and with these two advantages, he would have lived a prosperous life. Why did he have to be so short-sighted and confront Fang Ziyang unnecessarily? Look at how he had messed up his own life now.

After a few days of fear and anxiety, when he realized that Fang Ziyang didn’t seem to have any intention of killing him, Yan Tong finally breathed a sigh of relief. He decided to temporarily avoid provoking Fang Ziyang and focus on managing his own career.

After all, he had already obtained Fang Ziyang’s golden finger and snatched away the man Fang Ziyang loved the most. Fang Ziyang would never achieve the achievements described in the book.

Fortunately, Xie Wenxu hadn’t been reliable lately, and he had encountered Fang Ziyang’s little uncle, Lu Yan. Moreover, Lu Yan had developed a liking for him and was willing to help him enter the entertainment industry and fulfill his dream of becoming a star.

Thinking about this, Yan Tong felt quite proud and satisfied.

So what if Fang Ziyang was amazing? The people around him didn’t like him. It might be understandable if the Fang family father and son didn’t like Fang Ziyang, but even his own uncle, Lu Yan, felt the same. Didn’t that mean he was more charming than Fang Ziyang?

Lu Yan was a popular movie star and had connections in the entertainment industry. He even arranged for him to shoot an advertisement for ZD perfume.

ZD perfume was an international brand, and only A-list celebrities could appear in their advertisements. If they chose an ordinary person for once, that person would become an overnight sensation after the perfume ad was released!

–

This was a great opportunity, but who would have thought that the stylist he encountered during the shoot would be Zhong Ning?

He naturally remembered Zhong Ning well. It was this stylist, along with Fang Ziyang, who tricked him at the family gathering organized by the Fangs. Zhong Ning made him lose face at the gathering and stood him up, which made him furious.

He had always remembered that incident.

So when he encountered Zhong Ning again, he couldn’t help but use him as a punching bag to vent all the pent-up frustration from the past six months. He made things difficult during the advertisement shoot.

But who knew that Zhong Ning had such a bad temper? They ended up arguing right on the set.

After returning home, he was naturally angry. How could a mere stylist not take him seriously? In a fit of impulsiveness, he used a dummy account on Weibo to expose the incident.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

First, it served as an outlet for his anger. Second, it was an opportunity to gain sympathy and use it as a platform to counter the negative rumors about him on the internet.

He really didn’t expect things to turn out like this. Zhong Ning directly confronted him on Weibo! What was even more hateful was that Zhong Ning uploaded a video!

Zhong Ning’s Weibo post was as follows:

Zhong Ning V: [Today, I saw something interesting on Weibo. Although it didn’t trend, it still had a wide reach. Let me chime in… Yes, it’s about this, a certain top stylist bullying a newcomer during the ZD perfume ad shoot… It’s truly a fascinating story, isn’t it? Well, now I’ll tell you all that I’m the top stylist in this story.]

[That’s right, just like the newcomer said, I did indeed use a very harsh tone to scold this newcomer at the shoot. I don’t think I was wrong. As a professional stylist, I never slack in my work. When some ignorant person unreasonably criticizes my professional abilities, I think it’s only natural for me to be angry…]

[To the well-intentioned netizen who exposed this, I ask you, dare you release the complete video? If you don’t, then I can kindly help you with that.]

[…Now that I’ve taken my place, does anyone want to know who the “bullied” newcomer in this story is? Haha, it’s quite amusing. It’s none other than Yan Tong, who has been quite familiar to all of us in the past six months. The one who caused a stir with high school bullying, the illegitimate child of a wealthy family, the heir dispute of the Xie Group, the dramatic events in the Fang family, the college entrance exam score substitution case… and so on. Classmate Yan Tong.]

[I won’t pass judgment on Yan Tong’s legendary achievements in the online world for now. I just want to ask Yan Tong one question: Are you retaliating against me so blatantly? Do you want to be in the spotlight?]

[Very well, I’ll grant your wish now, no need to thank me.]

Finally, two videos were attached.

One was the complete footage of the incident during the ZD perfume ad shoot.

The other was the video of Zhong Ning receiving defamatory accusations from Yan Tong during his work as a stylist at the Fangs’ place.

These two videos, along with Zhong Ning’s Weibo description, were enough to let everyone understand the truth behind the whole incident.

Without a doubt, any insider claiming that a certain top stylist bullied a newcomer was pure fabrication. It was clearly Yan Tong taking advantage of the situation to seek revenge and engage in malicious publicity before his debut!

After Zhong Ning’s Weibo post, many A-list celebrities in the entertainment industry reposted it and added comments expressing their admiration for Zhong Ning’s character and professional skills.

With the fate of these A-list celebrities, public opinion had an unsurprising and complete reversal.

Netizens were amazed and astonished:

“Damn, this Yan Tong is such a master at creating drama. Previously, there were rumors online about his character issues, that he was a hypocrite with a sinister nature. I thought those rumors were a bit excessive because although those things happened because of him, it was the people who liked him acting on their own accord. I felt a bit sympathetic. But now… well, previously there was no evidence, but this time, he is truly not innocent.”

“Forget about the past. Regarding this incident with Zhong Ning, the stylist, it’s truly unbelievable. It’s obvious in the video that Yan Tong was intentionally making things difficult for Mr. Zhong, picking faults and pushing Mr. Zhong to his limits before he lost his temper. How dare they claim that a certain insider in the industry exposed Mr. Zhong bullying a newcomer? Haha… that insider is probably Yan Tong himself.”

“After watching the second video, it’s clear that when Mr. Zhong was styling Yan Tong at the Fangs’ place, Yan Tong didn’t listen to advice and made a fool of himself with his outfit choices. Instead of reflecting on himself, he blamed Mr. Zhong and Young Master Fang for conspiring to embarrass him. He even complained like that to Fang Yandong back then, trying to shift the blame. It seems he held a grudge against Mr. Zhong and now took the opportunity for revenge and publicity… but who knew it would backfire.”

“What kind of twisted logic is this? Who does Yan Tong think he is? Would Mr. Zhong accept a bribe to conspire against some unknown small figure? Perhaps Yan Tong doesn’t know much about Mr. Zhong? Mr. Zhong comes from a wealthy family too, and money is not an issue for him.”

“Exactly, I heard Mr. Zhong’s partner is a big boss in the entertainment industry, one of the heads of the two major entertainment companies. It’s just that Mr. Zhong keeps a low profile and doesn’t boast about it…”

“It’s ridiculous. Previously, there were discussions online about Yan Tong being wrongly accused, but with his character, all the incidents involving Young Master Fang are definitely connected to him, even if he didn’t do them personally!”

“And he still wants to become a star? Well, congratulations on your debut! Are you happy? Surprised?”

“He’s a professional drama queen. He’s already so famous, does he still want to be popular? Tsk, tsk…”

After several trending incidents, Yan Tong’s image in the minds of most netizens had truly taken a nosedive.

Before, Xie Wenxu had supported him, using his family’s connections and power to suppress the trending topics, control public opinion, and whitewash his image. But now, Xie Wenxu had become clear-minded and couldn’t possibly continue to unconditionally support him. Moreover, Xie Wenxu disagreed with Yan Tong entering the entertainment industry and didn’t want to be involved anymore.

Lu Yan wanted to help, but his capabilities were limited. Zhong Ning’s partner was the CEO of one of the two major entertainment giants in the industry, and Lu Yan hesitated to make a move.

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