Brother Dao Took the Entertainment Industry by Storm, Fans Beg Me Not to Kill Anymore

Chapter 746: The Qian Family Picks Up Someone

As the netizens chatted, their thoughts started running wild, and Xiao He, whose disguise was starting to feel dangerously exposed, carefully dragged those speculative comments about "Teacher Little Black" to the very bottom of the feed, burying them under the sea of ordinary remarks.

After confirming that no one else was discussing it, Xiao He let out a long sigh of relief.

He had just picked a random nobody's name, "Little White," because he couldn't think of anything else.

How could anyone possibly connect the dots like that?

No way. Were netizens this generation really that sharp?

Xiao He definitely didn't want to get exposed right now.

That would just be adding chaos to an already busy mess.

But despite that, seeing the netizens' focus veer off in all directions still gave him a headache.

He had genuinely, truly just made this thing to annoy people!

And those saying to send it in for competition awards—were you serious?

"Hey, it looks like there's actually an AI special category this year, Bro Xiao!"

Xiao Chen, meanwhile, had already taken the initiative to look up the relevant information for Xiao He.

"This year's Cannes has that kind of award, but it's not an official one yet—just a slot and a title. Seems like they're still testing the waters."

If he could snag the award in their very first year, wouldn't that be a guaranteed spot in history?

Xiao He shook his head without hesitation. "Forget it, forget it. I'm not planning to submit it for any awards."

The main purpose of this animated short was to mock the Yun Family and expose some of the bad habits from the past. It had already sparked a huge uproar and debate within China. If he took it to an international competition, even more people would see it and witness the internal condemnation going on in China.

Xiao He didn't think it was necessary at all.

Besides, if he claimed it was entirely AI-generated, what about all the painstaking modeling he had done? What he was working on now was completely different from those card-drawing AI generators. This auxiliary module required a certain level of professionalism, and he had no plans to release it to the market anytime soon.

What if the officials asked, "Hey, we've never seen this AI software of yours before—what is it?"

How would he even answer that?

To put it bluntly, if he actually won an award in the AI field and got *Echo Chamber* immortalized in history books, wouldn't that end up spreading the Yun Family's fame overseas instead?

Xiao He definitely didn't want that.

A scandal like this, a family like that, should be drowned in the people's spit and completely disappear into the vast annals of obscurity.

Liu Rulan was also interested in the possibility of winning an award, but she knew it wouldn't work this time. "The timing's too tight. Their awards ceremony is almost here. Even if we send the piece over now, we'd only be able to wait until next year."

"Hey, hey, don't just skip over me and discuss this topic!" Xiao He reiterated. "I really have no intention of submitting it for an award."

"Alright, alright, we know."

Liu Rulan shot Xiao He an exasperated glare, and just then, Song Yuanqi's phone call came in.

She gestured for Xiao He to turn down the volume on the projector TV and walked to the other side to answer the call.

Xiao He guessed that Song Yuanqi was calling to discuss future plans with Liu Rulan, but he never expected that the moment she stepped away, she suddenly gasped, "Several members of the Yun Family were taken in?"

"When did this happen?"

That sentence instantly grabbed everyone's attention. In the blink of an eye, Xiao He and Xiao Chen had teleported over to Liu Rulan's side, ears perked up to eavesdrop.

It turned out that Song Yuanqi had called mainly to share good news.

Thanks to the explosive popularity of *Echo Chamber*, a lot of netizens had turned their focus to this situation, and one by one, those hidden secrets were being unearthed.

Seizing this opportunity, the police had smoothly "invited" the Yun Family members in for tea.

In reality, as long as someone was upright and had nothing to hide, the police wouldn't arrest people just because of this level of public pressure. Otherwise, if any random piece of news got exposed and the public made a fuss, everything would descend into chaos.

But as it happened, the police were specifically investigating the Yun Family.

And even more coincidentally, the Yun Family already had issues that couldn't withstand scrutiny.

How could this not be considered a perfect "encounter" between the two sides?

At least the people crying wouldn't be them. Song Yuanqi had been grinning from ear to ear when he found out.

"That's great! We need to speed things up. I'll go find Director Chou. Have you arrived in Beijing yet? Come to XX Hotel immediately—let's meet."

"Okay, okay."

After hanging up, Liu Rulan didn't have time to chat with Xiao He and the others about the competition topic. She quickly packed up her documents and got ready to leave. "I'm heading out. I've been way too busy lately. I don't have time to arrange your next tasks—you'll have to figure it out yourself."

Without waiting for Xiao He's response, she swept out of the room in a flurry.

Xiao He: …

Xiao He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "What do you mean, 'figure it out myself'—"

The entire months of April and May had originally been booked for filming *Imperial Enterprise*, and now that he was forced off work, what was he even supposed to do?

This was a huge disrespect to a competitive king.

But the *Imperial Enterprise* production team was already shut down. Where was he supposed to find something to do?

"Ahh—"

Just as Xiao He was sighing, his phone suddenly rang again. It was Elder Qian.

"Hello, Little Xiao! This time, I really have you to thank!"

As soon as the call connected, Elder Qian's voice came through, brimming with barely concealed joy. "The restoration center has the investigation results. Qian Wenhao's suspicion has been completely cleared!"

Xiao He was stunned for only a second before immediately catching on. "Qian Wenhao's been released? That's great! When? I'll come along and pick him up too!"

"Alright, alright."

Elder Qian seemed to be calling everyone to share the good news. He happily agreed to Xiao He's offer, chatted for a bit, and then hung up.

Xiao He couldn't help but smile.

It looked like everything was heading in a positive direction.

In fact, Qian Wenhao being held by the police had also served as a form of protection for him.

Now that the protection was lifted, it proved that Qian Wenhao was no longer in danger.

How could the Qian Family not be overjoyed?

Without hesitation, Xiao He packed up his things and headed out.

…

As expected of a major family in Beijing, a lot of people had come to pick up Qian Wenhao. Most of them were Qian Family insiders. Xiao He even spotted Qian Wenhao's parents. As an outsider with almost no presence, he stood at the very edge of the crowd, craning his neck to look inside.

Qian Wenhao's parents clearly looked like highly educated intellectuals. Xiao He had heard that during this whole investigation, besides Elder Qian pulling strings, Qian Wenhao's father had also been making rounds to ask for favors, making sure his son wasn't treated too harshly.

But even so, when Qian Wenhao came out, Xiao He was still completely shocked.

It had only been a few days since Qian Wenhao was taken in, but when he emerged, he looked like all the life had been drained out of him. His once straight and tall figure was noticeably thinner. Deep, dark circles hung under his eyes. His cheeks were sunken, his face pale to the point of being almost transparent. His lips were dry and peeling, with none of the vitality he once had.

What was even more concerning was the look in his eyes. They had become dull and lifeless, carrying an inescapable exhaustion and despondency, as if that stubborn resilience and defiance of youth had completely vanished without anyone noticing. He was a completely different person from the passionate young man who had argued with Elder Qian at the art center. All his former vibrancy was gone, leaving only a hollow shell of faded decline that was impossible to hide.

Xiao He could hardly believe it.

It hadn't been that long since their last meeting. How had he turned into this?!