My cousin asked me to go to Wuha, and Hanikezi stuck to me.

Chen Yi pushed open the door to Lao Wang's room on the second floor, where Lao Wang was yelling into his phone.

"I don't care what methods your legal department uses! Give me a copyright statement within half an hour!" Old Wang was sweating profusely, his voice hoarse. "We paid for that footage of Lao Qiao! Unauthorized disclosure is illegal! Sue them!"

The legal representative on the other end of the phone said something that made Old Wang so angry that he slammed the script on the table onto the ground.

"Can't find the source? What are you doing! Where are the server room surveillance cameras? Where are the copied logs?" Old Wang paced anxiously.

Chen Yi went inside and closed the door behind him.

A soft click.

When Old Wang turned around and saw Chen Yi, he forced back the anger on his face and forced out a smile that looked more like a grimace.

"Chen Yi," Old Wang said, rubbing his hands together after hanging up the phone, "Don't worry, I've already had the legal department handle it."

Xiao Fang walked out from behind Chen Yi and placed the tablet computer heavily on Lao Wang's table.

"Director Wang, how can we not be anxious?" Xiao Fang's voice trembled, but he forced a strong tone. "It's been trending at number one for an hour! The whole internet is condemning Chen Yi for workplace harassment and using her position for publicity! This material leaked from within your 'Five Ha' production company; you have to give us an explanation!"

Old Wang wiped the sweat from his forehead and walked around the desk.

"Xiao Fang, you can't blame the production team entirely for this," Lao Wang tried to shift the blame. "Our internal management has always been very strict. That long-range footage was scrapped and has been locked in the backup library for a long time. Even the post-production editors don't have the authority to touch it."

"If you don't have permission to touch it, how did it end up in the hands of a marketing account?" Xiao Fang persisted. "Did it grow wings and fly away?"

Old Wang was speechless.

Chen Yi pulled over a folding chair and sat down with an air of authority.

He crossed his arms on his knees, his posture extremely relaxed, which was completely out of place with the anxious atmosphere in the room.

"Old Wang!" Chen Yi said.

Old Wang quickly looked over.

"Mr. Zhou's move was aimed at me, but he also sold out your production team in the process." Chen Yi's tone was extremely calm. "By issuing a copyright statement now, you are essentially telling the entire internet that the video is real and that your production team did indeed film me harassing female artists."

Old Wang gasped.

He was only thinking about protecting copyright and didn't consider the backlash from public opinion at all.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Old Wang was completely at a loss. "Play dead and not respond? Netizens will flood the official Weibo account with complaints!"

Chen Yi raised his eyelids and stared into Old Wang's eyes.

"The video has been tampered with," Chen Yi dropped a bombshell.

Old Wang stood there, stunned, his mouth slightly open.

"Impossible!" Old Wang retorted instinctively. "Our materials are all high-definition original code. How could they be so easily extracted without leaving a trace?"

"President Zhou has a top-notch post-production team in the country." Chen Yi slowed down his speech, emphasizing each word. "They slowed down Hanikezi's half-step back due to her unsteady high heels frame by frame, and combined it with my action of pulling her, creating the visual illusion that I was forcing her. This thirteen-second edit was flawless."

As a veteran variety show director with many years of experience, Lao Wang is all too aware of the destructive power of such malicious editing.

Cold sweat trickled down Old Wang's temples.

"Boss Zhou is really trying to ruin you!" Old Wang slapped his thigh. "Then let's just release the original footage! Let's slap them in the face with the complete version!"

Old Wang turned around to grab the walkie-talkie.

"Do you dare to release it?" Chen Yi suddenly retorted.

Old Wang's hand froze in mid-air as he turned to look at Chen Yi.

Old Wang knows better than anyone what was actually filmed in the original movie.

That day on the old bridge, Hanikezi blushed and asked Chen Yi that question. The way their eyes met was so intense it could be straight out of an idol drama.

If this original video is released, the rumors of her being paid off will be debunked, but the secret relationship will be definitively confirmed.

Sister Hong will definitely come in the middle of the night with an excavator and level the inn.

Old Wang swallowed hard and silently withdrew his hand.

"We can't release the original footage!" Old Wang deflated like a punctured balloon. "If we release it, our production team will face a lawsuit, and we won't be able to explain it to Sister Hong."

"Proving yourself is a dead end!" Chen Yi stood up and walked to Lao Wang's desk. "The only way to break this deadlock is to expose the culprit and let the public see that this is a malicious frame-up orchestrated by capital."

Old Wang nodded repeatedly.

"Yes! We need to catch the mole! But the legal department says there are no abnormal login records in the server room." Old Wang looked worried.

Chen Yi placed his hands on the table, leaning forward, creating an extremely imposing presence.

"Surface login records can be forged or erased." Chen Yi stared into Lao Wang's eyes. "Retrieve all the material storage logs for all cameras in the current period, as well as the lowest-level copy records."

Old Wang looked troubled.

"Chen Yi, you have no idea how much work this is." Old Wang tried to bargain. "For the Lao Qiao episode, we set up more than 30 camera positions. The amount of footage is enormous. If we want to check the underlying logs, the technical department will have to check until tomorrow morning at the earliest."

Chen Yi sneered.

"Tomorrow morning, President Zhou's second press release will portray Hanikezi as a victim of persecution, completely erasing my commercial value." Chen Yi straightened up. "I want to see the results before 5 PM today."

Old Wang gritted his teeth.

"We can't possibly investigate everything! The technical department isn't manpower enough!" Old Wang was still struggling.

"If we can't find out the results, I'll immediately withdraw from the show with Hanikezi." Chen Yi didn't back down and directly revealed his trump card, "I'll pay double the breach of contract fee, but for the new season of 'Five Ha', you can prepare to broadcast nothing."

Old Wang's defenses completely collapsed.

Chen Yi is currently the guarantee of the show's ratings. If he leaves, the investors will tear Lao Wang apart.

"Investigate! I'll have them find out, no matter what!" Old Wang grabbed the walkie-talkie and practically roared, "Technology Department Head! Take everyone and stop everything you're doing! Investigate the lowest-level storage logs of the backup database for the Dali Old Bridge!"

A chaotic sound came from the other end of the walkie-talkie.

Chen Yi pulled over a chair and sat down again.

He took out his phone and glanced at the time: 2 PM.

Xiao Fang's phone suddenly started vibrating wildly.

The caller ID displayed the words "Sister Hong" in large letters.

Xiao Fang was so startled that her hand trembled, and she almost threw her phone away.

Chen Yi glanced at the screen.

"Connect it!" Chen Yi commanded, "Put it on speakerphone!"

Xiao Fang pressed the answer button with trembling hands.

"Is Chen Yi next to you?!" Sister Hong's forceful voice blared from the loudspeaker, filled with immense anger. "What's going on with the trending topics?! I don't care what your production team is up to, Hanikezi's reputation cannot be ruined! I'm booking a flight to Dali right now!"

Chen Yi leaned closer to the phone microphone.

"Sister Hong, it's me, Chen Yi!" Chen Yi said.

There was a pause on the other end of the phone.

"The video is fake. President Zhou is setting a trap." Chen Yi said calmly, "If you fly over here now and take her away, it will only help President Zhou confirm the script that the woman suffered all kinds of grievances and fled in panic."

Sister Hong gave a cold laugh.

"If I don't take her with me, am I supposed to leave her there to continue being cyberbullied?" Sister Hong retorted.

"Give me five hours!" Chen Yi glanced at the clock on the wall. "By five o'clock, I'll have the chain of evidence slapped in President Zhou's face. If you can't do that, you can take her away tonight, and I won't stop you."

There was a deathly silence on the other end of the phone for a full ten seconds.

"Fine, I'll wait for you for five hours." Sister Hong's voice was extremely cold. "If this isn't handled properly, Chen Yi, we'll settle all our old and new scores together."

The phone hangs up.

Old Wang, who was listening nearby, was terrified.

A long wait ensued in the room, broken only by Old Wang's heavy breathing and the ticking of the wall clock.

Two and a half hours later.

The walkie-talkie suddenly emitted a piercing electrical sound.

"Director Wang! Director Wang, can you hear me?!" The technical supervisor's voice was extremely excited, hoarse from staying up all night to troubleshoot.

Old Wang suddenly lunged at the table and pressed the call button.

"Tell me! What did you find out?!" Old Wang roared.

"The underlying logs were cleaned up, but they overlooked the synchronization records of the physical backup!" the technical lead said rapidly. "We found anomaly in the data flow!"

Chen Yi slightly raised his eyelids, his gaze sharp as a knife.

"Time!" Chen Yi asked directly into the walkie-talkie.

"Three days ago, at 1:45 AM," the technical supervisor replied, "a spare hard drive containing unusable long-range film from the old bridge was forcibly accessed by an unauthorized external device!"

Old Wang slammed his hand heavily on the table.

"It really is an inside job!" Old Wang cursed angrily. "Have you found out which workstation read it?"

The sound of rapid typing came from the other end of the walkie-talkie.

"It's not a workstation!" The technical supervisor's voice tightened. "The other party is cunning; they're using a remote port jumper, but we've captured the MAC address and IP address of their real device in the underlying logs!"

Chen Yi stood up and walked to the walkie-talkie.

"Where is the IP address located?" Chen Yi's voice was icy, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the walkie-talkie.

"We've located it." The technical lead swallowed hard. "It's not in the inn, nor in the production team's control room."

"Where is it!" Old Wang pressed.

"The IP address points to a budget hotel in Dali city."