Chapter 64: The Impending Collapse, The Doom of Starlight Entertainment

As a prominent and influential entertainment company, Star Shine Entertainment's boss actually started out as a street thug. This was even more thrilling than celebrity gossip.

After a long period of public conditioning, everyone already knew that celebrities were not as glamorous as imagined. Above the celebrities were those collectively referred to as "capital," and Zhou Zhengyi was one of them.

At his peak, he commanded two top-tier traffic stars and three first-tier traffic celebrities, allowing him to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the veteran entertainment agencies.

For such a company to have an unknown dark history of its boss left the viewers in the livestream completely spellbound.

Xu Qingfeng's expression remained calm. Unlike the anger and radicalism he displayed when exposing Zhang Hongbo at the beginning, he now exuded a chilling composure.

"After witnessing the dizzying luxury and decadence of the entertainment industry, Zhou Zhengyi transferred his ownership of nightclubs, bars, and a series of other gray-market industries, gambling his entire net worth on the entertainment business. In the beginning, he wanted to groom and promote people himself, but unfortunately, the entertainment industry wasn't as easy as he thought. For the first two years, Zhou Zhengyi achieved nothing, and the company was plunged into a desperate crisis."

Xu Qingfeng pulled out a piece of paper. "On the verge of desperation, Zhou Zhengyi decided to resort to his old tricks. He set his sights on Ma Jun, the chairman of Shanghai Entertainment Company, whom he had met during his nightclub-running days. While Ma Jun was filming *Grandma's Bridge*, Zhou Zhengyi disrupted the production by sabotaging equipment, extortionately overcharging for venue fees, and obstructing the shoot under various pretexts such as safety hazards, unsanitary conditions, and disturbing the peace."

[?? Is this a mafia syndicate?]
[Holy shit, you can play dirty like that?]
[Damn it, that is utterly outrageous!]
[No wonder this guy looks so fierce.]

"When Ma Jun refused to submit, Zhou Zhengyi gathered his underlings to beat up the extras hired by Ma Jun, drove them away, and installed eavesdropping devices at the shooting location to blackmail the celebrity actors."

"In the end, he even used the safety of Ma Jun's family, particularly Ma Jun's daughter, to force Ma Jun into submission. Driven to a dead end, Ma Jun finally chose to compromise, selling the majority of Shanghai Entertainment's assets to Zhou Zhengyi at rock-bottom prices. Consequently, Zhou Zhengyi took control of a portion of the artists formerly under Shanghai Entertainment. Among them, veteran artist Qian Bengui was coerced into signing a 30-year exclusive long-term contract until his accidental death. Publicly, Zhou Zhengyi claimed it was a sudden heart attack, but in reality, it was because he frantically exploited Qian Bengui, causing him to fall seriously ill from chronic overwork."

"The original chairman of Shanghai Entertainment, Ma Jun, died of depression and resentment."

[Beasts!]
[Such a scoundrel, Zhou Zhengyi truly deserves to die.]
[How could a person like this become the boss of Star Shine Entertainment?]
[This is simply too outrageous!]

Xu Qingfeng's voice also grew lower. "After entering the 21st century, Zhou Zhengyi sensed potential dangers and reined himself in somewhat, but he still ruthlessly exploited the artists under his agency through draconian contracts, intimidation, coercion, and every imaginable vile tactic. Using their families as threats, he treated his artists practically as slaves."

[No way? If that's the case, how did you escape?]
[Right, if it were like that, you would have been killed off long ago.]
[Aren't you afraid he'll threaten your family?]

Xu Qingfeng fell silent for a moment and gently shook his head. "Of course I'm not afraid."

Faced with the wave of skepticism in the bullet comments, Xu Qingfeng did not explain the reason and instead continued presenting his materials.

"After successfully laundering his background, Zhou Zhengyi stripped all of his former underlings away from Star Shine Entertainment and established Star Security Company. While called security guards, these people still operate essentially as thugs. The day I made my exposé, a group of them broke into the apartment where I was living, and today they tracked me down to my newly rented place."

The photographs showed one ferocious and menacing face after another—the kind that normal people would go out of their way to avoid.

[Anchor, with an exposé like this, haven't those people fled long ago?]
[I'm dying of anxiety, hurry up and call the police!]
[Damn it, watching this livestream is making my blood boil.]

Xu Qingfeng shook his head. "Everyone doesn't need to worry about them running away. In fact, before the anchor even started the livestream, they had already been arrested."

"Let's continue. Since we are exposing this tumor buried deep within the entertainment industry, let's talk a bit more. Star Shine Entertainment, under Zhou Zhengyi, not only coerced artists but also forged accounts and inflated expenses—claiming an investment of one million was actually ten million, and ten million was actually two hundred million—all for the purpose of money laundering. They even manipulated and fabricated box office numbers to wash the dirty money of the black market, collecting exorbitant commissions in the process."

Page after page of documents was laid out on the table, and Xu Qingfeng held them up for the livestream viewers to see. "Every single document is 100% authentic."

[Anchor, what are you even aiming for?]
[Prepare to go on the run for your life.]
[Come to my place, I'll cover you.]
[Come to my house, I don't believe they can find you deep in the mountains.]
[Feng Shen, I support you!]
[Stay strong, hang in there!]

Xu Qingfeng, who had been expressionless since the broadcast began, suddenly smiled as if thawing out.

"Thank you everyone, I will be fine. Zhou Zhengyi has already been brought to justice, and an official announcement will be released soon."

The atmosphere of the livestream exposé had been relatively heavy all along, a stark contrast to his previous unhinged style, and the viewers were still a bit unaccustomed to it.

Xu Qingfeng reined in his emotions and chatted with everyone for a bit. In less than ten minutes, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau issued a notice:

"Zhou Mouyi (male, 55 years old), chairman of Star Shine Entertainment, is suspected of extortion, operating a gambling den, money laundering, intentional injury, rape, indecency, and other crimes. Zhou Mouyi has now been arrested in accordance with the law by the Shanghai police, and the case is currently under further investigation.
Zhu Moufang, Zhao Mou, and Ma Mou, vice general managers of Star Shine Entertainment, have all been arrested, and related personnel have been placed under police custody."

A single stone stirs up a thousand ripples.

With the arrests of several individuals from Star Shine Entertainment, combined with Li Deshou who had already been staying in the detention center for quite some time, the company's senior executives were practically all gathered in the detention facility.

This entertainment company, which had survived for over twenty years, turned into ruins overnight.

The entertainment industry was in an uproar.

"Old Zhou got locked up too?"
"Xu Qingfeng plays really ruthlessly."
"Cross anyone, but never cross Xu Qingfeng," someone warned.

Some didn't understand, thinking he was just a madman. "Is he really that terrifying?"

That person didn't answer directly, but instead asked rhetorically: "Do you know the police's processing procedure for real-name reports?"
"No, what about it?"
"The normal response time for a real-name report is within 7 days. For instance, when Xu Qingfeng reported Zhang Hongbo for the first time, the response time was around seven days. Reporting things like this isn't something where you just say it exists and it's accepted; it has to go through a detailed investigation."
"And then?"
"How fast was Shanghai's response for these past few recent reports?"
"They responded almost immediately."
"Exactly. Under normal circumstances, that is impossible to happen. For Shanghai to respond so quickly, it can only indicate one thing: Xu Qingfeng has already reached a certain level of cooperation with Shanghai."

There wasn't just one person in the entertainment industry making such a guess. No matter how advanced Shanghai was, it wouldn't respond the moment someone made a report, let alone a livestreamed report.

That left only one explanation: standing behind Xu Qingfeng was the official authority.

Taxation was one example—following Xu Qingfeng's reports, they reaped billions in tax revenue, while the police uncles successfully cracked three cases in succession.

That Xu Qingfeng, who fought the enemy pillbox all alone, seemingly now had a powerful backing after all.