Chapter 63: Scandal Perspective + Malice Detection, What's Wrong with Clicking Madly?

Xu Qingfeng did not doubt Lin Chen's words—of course, purely out of trust.

As if.

In reality, Xu Qingfeng did not trust anyone. From the moment he decided to start dropping bombshell exposés, he had stopped trusting anyone easily. Naivety would only get him killed without a single bone left.

After his consecutive exposés, the system provided him with a new function called [Malice Detection]. As long as anyone harboring malice toward him appeared within a three-hundred-meter radius, the system would flag them as dangerous and prompt him to evade them.

The system had certainly gone to great lengths to prevent him from suddenly dropping dead.

With formidable physical attributes, 24-hour operation, and a 360-degree all-weather monitoring radar with no dead angles, it was difficult even if he wanted to die.

How much use was a 300-meter range?

Suppose a heavy dump truck sped toward Xu Qingfeng at 120 kilometers per hour, intending to give him a taste of sudden fortune; Xu Qingfeng would have nine seconds of reaction time. Combined with his physical prowess, this time allowed him to sprint nearly one hundred meters away.

This was a terrifying capability, meaning that physical sanctions against Xu Qingfeng were nearly impossible to execute.

The moment Lin Chen and his companions walked in, Xu Qingfeng had scanned them, and there was no malice.

Combined with the fact that the two parties were already partners, this was the real reason Xu Qingfeng trusted him.

The moment Xu Qingfeng finished speaking, Lin Chen began making phone calls.

"They've been keeping an eye on Starlight Entertainment for a long time. Arrests can be made immediately."

The reason they chose to strike at Starlight Entertainment first was that the company had actually prepared to track him down offline and settle scores physically. Moreover, according to Zhao Kaixin's disclosures, Zhou Zhengyi used to run with street gangs.

The hulking, muscular men who occasionally appeared inside Starlight Entertainment were former subordinates of Zhou Zhengyi.

Prompted by Zhao Kaixin, Xu Qingfeng had scanned Zhou Zhengyi long ago. He wouldn't have known if he hadn't checked, but checking gave him a tremendous shock.

This fellow's hands were stained with blood, and he acted with reckless lawlessness—making him extremely dangerous to Xu Qingfeng.

Today, he would take advantage of this opportunity to completely take him down.

An hour later, Xu Qingfeng started his livestream.

Just like before, the stream hit 100K+ concurrent viewers the moment it went live, generating terrifying popularity.

Out in the real world, a group of burly men had already sneaked over to the apartment Xu Qingfeng previously rented, only to find the place completely empty.

"President Zhou, the target has fled!" the lead man said in a deep voice.

Zhou Zhengyi's heart sank, and he abruptly stood up. "The information leaked! Fall back immediately!"

A chaotic flurry of noises echoed from the other end of the phone call.

"Number Three?!"

A clutter of hurried footsteps followed, accompanied by bursts of pained groans before the phone was abruptly hung up.

Decisive as ever, Zhou Zhengyi packed his belongings and prepared to run for it.

Years of caution told him the situation was deeply abnormal. They had just located Xu Qingfeng's residence, only to find it deserted—that was the biggest red flag of all.

On the other side, the moment Xu Qingfeng started his livestream, he put on his glasses.

[Did the Wind God change locations?]

[This room doesn't look like the previous place.]

[It looks kind of high-end and slick.]

[Look at you cashing in now, aren't you, kid?]

Xu Qingfeng nodded. "That's right, the host has changed locations. However, it's not because I'm making big money, but rather because the host almost got hunted down offline and physically dealt with."

[?? What the f*ck?]

[Really? You got tracked down and jumped already?]

[Huh? Is that actually a thing?]

[Wait, isn't Shanghai's public security supposed to be really good?]

[Bro, forcing a sob story isn't funny anymore.]

Quite a few viewers remained half-skeptical. Even though everyone joked about being careful of offline retaliation, deep down, most people didn't take such threats seriously.

This was 21st-century Shanghai, China's most prosperous metropolis. Someone claiming powerful syndicates were going to hunt you down offline?

Are you kidding me?

Xu Qingfeng calmly stated, "Someone provided the host with extremely vital information through special channels—information so critical that I couldn't possibly speak of it before the dust settled."

"Fortunately, matters have reached a conclusion, so let's have an open and honest conversation about how utterly ugly the malignant tumors hidden within the entertainment industry truly are."

[Who is it?]

[I'm guessing it's Animal Chen. Life must be tough inside the police station.]

[It's Zhang Hongbo, who else could it be!]

[Playing Werewolf, are we?]

At that moment, Xu Qingfeng's phone rang. He hummed in acknowledgment a couple of times and then hung up.

Bucking his usual demeanor, he was no longer radiating that manic, unhinged energy from before. Instead, he was unexpectedly tranquil. "As many people know, the 1980s and 90s were an era best left unremembered for many stars. Celebrities back then not only lacked the high status and income they enjoy today, but they also suffered from all sorts of violent coercion. A famous movie star's manager was shot ten times in the street, and a certain superstar's manager had a knife held to their throat during contract signings. All of that belongs to the past—yet certain people are attempting to resurrect those 'glory days'."

Xu Qingfeng's expression was indifferent, the lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses flashing with a cold glint.

The audience in the livestream room grew exceptionally quiet, thoroughly shocked by his words.

Did similar incidents still occur in the 21st-century entertainment industry?

"That's right. It is none other than the host's former agency, Starlight Entertainment, and its boss, Zhou Zhengyi. The irony is that while his name contains 'Zhengyi'—meaning justice—everything he actually does constitutes the filthiest, most vile underworld dealings."

"In the late 1990s, Zhou Zhengyi started out as a street hoodlum, gathering a pack of idle scoundrels under his wing who fought, brawled, ran bars and nightclubs, operated arcade halls, ran gambling dens, collected protection money, and worked as hired thugs. There was nothing they wouldn't dare to do."

Xu Qingfeng produced a stack of photographs, showing them one by one to the audience in the livestream room.

A photograph of Starlight Entertainment's CEO, Zhou Zhengyi, was prominently among them.

"Zhou Zhengyi, formerly a punk at the Binjiang Road vegetable market, seized control of market stalls through violence and collected so-called stall fees. He accumulated his initial capital through blood-soaked methods. After gathering a massive crowd of rogues and ruffians, Zhou Zhengyi embarked on his path of transformation."

"His very first target was internet cafes. Back in those days, Zhou Zhengyi used violent threats and dispatched lacklings to stir up trouble in internet cafes as a tactic to gradually establish a foothold in the cybercafe industry. Having tasted success, he immediately set his sights on nightclubs and gambling dens."

Xu Qingfeng calmly introduced information that made anyone listening feel deeply uneasy. Zhou Zhengyi, a chairman whom countless people referred to as a powerful mob boss, was being stripped completely bare right here in the livestream room.

The viewers expressed their shock through barrage comments and virtual gifts, vaguely sensing that Xu Qingfeng seemed somewhat different now.

Plenty of people dared to expose celebrities, and numerous paparazzi made a living doing just that.

However, very few dared to expose capital power, because doing so required paying a heavy price—a price that might very well be death.

As for exposing someone like Zhou Zhengyi, who had deep ties to criminal syndicates, they had truly never witnessed it before.

[Shocking!]

[So Zhou Zhengyi is a mobster?]

[Host, are you going to be okay saying all this?]

[Bro, I'm genuinely worried you're going to get hurt.]

Xu Qingfeng adjusted his glasses and offhandedly remarked, "Don't worry about me. Zhou Zhengyi won't be hopping around for much longer."

"After operating nightclubs and gambling dens, Zhou Zhengyi suddenly realized that his methods for amassing wealth were still too crude and exposed. While nightclubs made money, the risks were massive—until he accidentally came into contact with the entertainment industry. That was when Zhou Zhengyi discovered an even more lucrative and far safer method. That's right, he set his sights on showbiz, and thus, today's Starlight Entertainment was born."