193: How much tax do I need to pay?

After a night of fermenting, public opinion grew increasingly intense. Some marketing accounts even released so-called 'solid evidence.' Many people were particularly worried that the third day of the livestream would be canceled, because a cancellation usually meant the artist was in trouble.

The Director's team of Extreme Heartbeat was also affected by this public outcry. The popularity of this episode was sky-high, and the show's development was at its peak. If the allegations of Lu Qingyu's tax evasion were true, then this episode would be ruined.

The Assistant Director went to discuss a solution with the Director in the middle of the night.

"Director, should tomorrow's livestream continue?"

The Director had read a lot of the online discourse regarding Lu Qingyu. Some people spoke quite convincingly and provided a pile of evidence, but so far, the two most authoritative accounts had remained silent.

That was just how the entertainment industry worked—everything would be magnified. If a person was highly popular, phenomena like this would occur.

However, the Director possessed a very strong psychological fortitude.

"Tomorrow's livestream will proceed as normal."

The Assistant Director said worriedly, "What if Lu Qingyu really did evade taxes? Won't all our efforts for this episode go to waste?"

Director: "The key is that there's no solid evidence yet, right?"

Assistant Director: "The online public opinion has already reached that stage; it doesn't look like nonsense."

"The daily production cost for our program team isn't low either. If it really comes down to it, maybe we should..."

The Assistant Director gave the Director a look, his eyes darting around. The Director knew what he meant; the Assistant Director wanted to postpone the filming.

Tax evasion cases could be investigated quickly, with results appearing in two or three days. The Assistant Director wanted to delay the show for two to three days to see the outcome before deciding whether to continue the livestream.

But the Director didn't think that way. Doing so would make the Program Production Team look like they lacked accountability.

"As long as the Tax Bureau and the official news outlets haven't spoken, we cannot conclude that he is evading taxes."

After the Director made his decision, the Assistant Director notified the Project Team and the Photography Crew to film as usual the next day.

Early the next morning, Song Yushuo started work in a great mood. During the filming process, he even bought milk tea for the Photography Crew and interacted frequently with the audience.

He filmed according to plan, but unfortunately, the audience's tastes had been sharpened over the past two days, and they weren't very satisfied with Song Yushuo's performance.

It was unclear if it was the same person from the previous episode, but the netizen who wanted to see an artist livestream eating feces appeared again. As soon as they posted a comment, others joined in the clamor.

Song Yushuo's fans began to trade insults with the netizens in the comments section.

But none of that mattered. Even if his livestream was boring, it didn't matter; it was still better than someone who was about to face disaster.

At nine o'clock in the morning, during the first round of firepower voting, Song Yushuo's firepower exceeded 100 million, while Lu Qingyu's firepower remained largely unchanged.

Song Yushuo even took a moment to secretly check Lu Qingyu's livestream. He found that Lu Qingyu was still going to the office for work as usual.

Everyone understands how crisis public relations work. He wasn't taking this opportunity to quickly clarify things with everyone, and he still hadn't responded to the public. It seemed he really did have a guilty conscience.

Although Lu Qingyu's firepower hadn't changed much, the number of people in his livestream room remained very high.

At this moment, his fans and the passersby were fighting tooth and nail.

[Shouldn't tax evaders be banned? Why is he still livestreaming?]

[Where did these haters come from? Spreading rumors in public. Reported.]

[If he didn't commit tax evasion, why hasn't he explained himself?]

[Are you blind? Qingcheng Entertainment's official website already said this is false news.]

[If he didn't evade taxes, where did a minor star like him get so much money?]

[Just because you can't make money doesn't mean others can't. Our little brother is a natural at business. Are you jealous?]

The livestream began at 8:00. After Lu Qingyu arrived at the company, he followed his normal rhythm and held a small meeting for about 10 minutes. After the meeting, he reviewed and approved projects submitted by the company. By the time everything was finished, it was around 9:30.

Inside the office, Su Jixing knocked and entered. He held a cup of coffee in his left hand and a stack of documents in his right.

Lu Qingyu took the coffee and rested for a while, taking the opportunity to look at the livestream comments.

Seeing Lu Qingyu start to interact with netizens, a bunch of bored people began to ask sharp questions.

[The internet says you're evading taxes. Is it true?]

[I heard stars make money easily, earning millions from a single event. Since you've already made so much, why can't you pay your taxes properly?]

[There's so much evidence of your tax evasion posted online. Do you have any response?]

Lu Qingyu read a few, each more biting than the last.

The Assistant Director was afraid of an accident during today's livestream, so he had been following Lu Qingyu's livestream team.

Hearing Lu Qingyu read these comments, he broke out in a cold sweat.

What kind of star interacts with the audience like this? Usually, when faced with these questions, stars pretend not to see them and let their Agents respond.

Because if the answer isn't handled well, it's hard to salvage the situation. If a single word is wrong, one might even lose their acting career.

But Lu Qingyu actually read them all out. This meant he had to answer these questions.

Lu Qingyu faced the livestream camera and said, "To respond to the netizens' questions just now regarding the tax evasion issues from yesterday until now: I don't know where the so-called online evidence came from, but I have not evaded any taxes."

[Wuwu, I knew our little brother's character was trustworthy.]

[Little brother finally came out to respond. Now it's fine, no need for everyone to doubt him anymore.]

[You say you didn't, but do you have proof?]

Seeing this sentence, Lu Qingyu took the stack of documents Su Jixing had just handed him and displayed them to everyone one by one.

The taxes Lu Qingyu paid were quite complex because, in addition to being an artist, he was also a boss with entertainment companies, hotels, catering, and more under his name.

To make it easier for everyone to understand, Lu Qingyu directly showed the final summary sheet to the camera.

"From fixed salaries, lump-sum bonuses, corporate dividends, to copyright royalties, the taxes I pay range from 3% to 45%, but every single transaction can be verified."

Before Lu Qingyu spoke, no one had imagined that paying taxes could be so complicated.

Since average people wouldn't deal with such things, what shocked everyone the most was the total amount of tax Lu Qingyu had paid in the past year.

2.6 billion!

[F*ck, am I seeing things?]

[Is it 26 million?]

[Is it 260 million?!]

[F*ck, just how many zeros are there?]