Villain? No, I'll catch up with the protagonist after passing the civil service exam.

Inside the most upscale private club in Jinghai City, the air was thick with smoke and the smell of alcohol.

A group of financial tycoons who usually pontificate on the covers of financial magazines now looked like a group of gamblers who had lost everything, their faces ashen and their eyes bloodshot.

Mr. Wang, the boss of Huayi Media, gulped down a glass of expensive Romanée-Conti like it was draft beer, and then smashed the crystal glass on the ground.

"This is outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!"

With red eyes, Mr. Wang looked like an enraged hippopotamus. "That good-for-nothing Lin Feng is in jail, and we can't even balance our hundreds of millions of yuan in debt every year! And now, that little bastard surnamed Lu still won't give up, he's started investigating our artists again! If he keeps investigating like this, we'll all have to go in and work alongside Lin Feng at sewing machines!"

"That's right! We can't just sit here and wait to die!"

A young heir standing nearby gritted his teeth and said, "One of my trainees was arrested and taken away from the practice room by the Special Investigations Unit today just because he got into a fight at the club last year! How are we supposed to play now? How are we supposed to 'select concubines' in the future?"

"He's trying to cut off our lineage!"

Panic and anger spread through the private room.

They are used to controlling everything with capital. Making a star famous and destroying a rival is just like playing a game to them.

But now, this policeman named Lu Jingyan is acting like an unreasonable GM, directly overturning their table and even wanting to ban all of them "players".

"Ban him!"

Mr. Wang slammed his hand on the table, his bulky frame trembling. "Doesn't he love trending on social media? Then let him trend to his heart's content!"

"Use all our media channels, online trolls, and marketing accounts! Portray him as a cruel official who 'abuses his power, suppresses the cultural industry, and competes with the people for profit'! I refuse to believe that he can remain in his position under the pressure of public opinion!"

"That's right! Smear him!"

The young master chimed in, "Not only do we need to smear his reputation, but we need to get his family into trouble too! Isn't he the second young master of the Lu family? Is his father Lu Zhenhua's business really that clean? Investigate! I refuse to believe we can't find a single blemish!"

"As long as we bring him down, Jinghai City will be ours again!"

A group of capitalists, driven to the brink of desperation, decided to unleash their most proficient weapon—public opinion.

At this moment, a massive online storm targeting Lu Jingyan quietly began.

……

Early the next morning.

Lu Jingyan, who was still on vacation, was woken up by Su Xiaoxiao's phone call.

"Captain Lu! Something terrible has happened! Check Weibo right now!"

On the other end of the phone, Su Xiaoxiao's voice was filled with anger and anxiety.

Lu Jingyan rubbed his sleepy eyes and turned on his phone.

The trending topics list is a mess.

#Lu Jingyan abuses his power#

#A Cold Winter for the Entertainment Industry in Beijing#

#Special Investigation Team Get Out of Jinghai#

Clicking through reveals nothing but distorted and misleading essays and video clips taken out of context.

Some say that Lu Jingyan arrested Xiao Huohuo because he was "taking revenge" on official business, since Xiao Huohuo stole the woman he had his eye on.

Some say that Lu Jingyan shut down the film crew in order to support his own business and create a monopoly.

There were even "insiders" who revealed that Lu Jingyan had groped female celebrities in the interrogation room and was a sex fiend disguised as a police officer.

The online trolls controlling the comments and uninformed netizens were swayed by the narrative.

"I knew it! How could a rich kid genuinely want to be a policeman? He just wanted to bully others!"

"This is disgusting! Breaking the law knowingly is an even greater offense! We demand a thorough investigation!"

"I used to be a fan of his, but I never expected him to be such a hypocrite! I'm unfollowing him!"

Lu Jingyan looked at those offensive comments without any change in expression.

He even had the leisure to click on the short essay that accused him of "molesting female celebrities" and read it with great interest.

"The writing is good, much better than that plagiarist. It's a pity that the imagination is still lacking."

He yawned, tossed his phone aside, and prepared to wash up.

"Captain Lu! What time is it and you're still so calm?"

Su Xiaoxiao was so anxious on the other end of the phone that she was stamping her feet. "These people are so dirty! They're going to ruin you! The public relations department can't handle it anymore; so many reporters are blocking the entrance to the Municipal Public Security Bureau!"

"What's the rush?"

Lu Jingyan's voice carried a hint of sleepiness, "Let them make a scene, the bigger the better. The higher they jump, the harder they'll fall."

He walked to the window and drew back the curtains.

The sunlight was blinding.

"A bunch of parasites living off online traffic and paid commenters, do they really think they can control everything?"

Lu Jingyan picked up his water glass, took a sip, and a cold smile curled at the corner of his lips.

"To blacklist a serving police officer?"

"You want to bankrupt my family?"

"Did they drink fake alcohol last night, or were they all just not fully awake?"

"Captain Lu, what do we do now? Are we just going to watch them throw dirty water on us?"

"Of course not."

Lu Jingyan put down his water glass, picked up his phone, and found that familiar number.

"Xiaoxiao, you don't need to do anything right now. Just watch the show."

"Watching a play?"

"right."

Lu Jingyan dialed the number. The moment the call connected, the laziness on his face vanished, replaced by a tone that carried a hint of grievance, helplessness, and even a sense of "complaining."

"elder brother."

Lu Mingze's booming voice came from the other end of the phone: "What's up, Second Brother? What big fish have you caught this time?"

"I didn't catch any fish."

Lu Jingyan sighed, his voice sounding weak and listless, "Brother, I think... I've been bullied."

"What?!"

On the other end of the phone, Lu Mingze, who was in a meeting, suddenly jumped up from his boss's chair and slammed his hand on the table, startling all the company executives into silence.

"Who? Who dares to bully my brother? They're asking for trouble!!"

"It's those people from Huayi Media."

Lu Jingyan's tone became increasingly aggrieved, "They said they'd make it impossible for me to stay in Jinghai."

"They even said... they'd bankrupt our family."

There was a full three seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

Immediately following was Lu Mingze's roar, which had become somewhat distorted due to extreme anger:

"Rebellion! Outrageous!"

"A bunch of actors, how dare they mess with the Lu family?!"

"Second brother, you just wait! Don't be afraid! I'll show these arrogant bastards who's really the boss in Jinghai!"