Ch8 – Breaking the News
Li Zhao and Zhang Xiaoyuan spent the night looking through the brokerage companies. In the end, they found that most companies were full of empty promises. They didn’t care at all about Li Zhao’s future development. They just wanted to borrow his existing popularity and use his fans as a money-making machine.
If it wasn’t for Zhang Xiaoyuan seeing many artists get trapped after just entering the entertainment circle, they might’ve believed in these empty promises.
“There are many pitfalls in the terms of the contract so don’t rush to sign one.” Zhang Xiaoyuan opened the Green Pepper Video site. “Now there are six free episodes released and VIP members can watch an extra four episodes. The total is 10 episodes. In other words, there are 35 episodes left to be broadcasted. There is an average update rate of two to four episodes per week so you can maintain the current heat of the drama for at least two months. Let’s not panic. Maybe there will be a better choice later.”
“Okay.” Li Zhao nodded. “I will listen to Brother Xiaoyuan.”
Zhang Xiaoyuan laughed. “Are you not afraid that I’m pitting you?”
“I’m not afraid. You helped me when I was penniless and I can start over again.” Li Zhao laughed. “Then again, I believe that you won’t pit me.”
“You became popular this time and will encounter many things. Don’t worry about things you can’t control.” Zhang Xiaoyuan got up to open the refrigerator. He took out the leftover boxes that Li Zhao had brought back, opened the look and then looked angrily at Li Zhao. “Zhao Zhao, did you win the lottery?”
How could he takeaway such expensive food?!
“No, I met a friend after a few months and he invited me to eat.” Li Zhao poured the large bag of food onto a plate. “There are too many dishes. We couldn’t finish them so I packed them up and brought them back. These are untouched and you can eat them with ease.”
“I don’t want to give up eating. The two of us are in our poorest time and can even live on bread with pickets.” Zhang Xiaoyuan entered the kitchen to turn on the fire and heat up the dishes. “Your friend is very generous. He invited you to dinner and there are still so many dishes left over. It is bright and spacious!”
Li Zhao, “……”
He felt he had been physically attacked but there was no evidence.
The episode update of Overbearing Female President that the netizens were anticipating finally arrived. They excitedly clicked in and found that there was a problem with the content. In the entire two episodes, there were many shots of the second male lead. What about their lovely baby Zhao Zhao? Who wanted to see the second male lead holding a wine glass or sitting pretentiously in his car? They wanted to see the sweet love before the overbearing female and the dejected young man.
There were many emotional netizens who ran to the official Weibo of the Overbearing Female President crew. The official Weibo had to personally come out to explain that this was needed for the plot and released some trivia of Li Zhao filming in the crew.
In the video, Li Zhao was wet by the rain as he walked to his place over and over again. Later, a voiceover was added and it sounded particularly miserable. Just as everyone was feeling heartache, the camera suddenly accelerated and they saw Li Zhao bouncing out of the camera range, pick up the milk tea on the table and drink it with a smiling expression.
Fans felt their heart-wrenching tears disappear in an instant.
“My little baby was caught in the rain. It is such a heartbreaking beauty that it makes people feel sad.”
“Mother-in-law, I have the same thoughts as you!”
“Roll, I don’t have a daughter-in-law!”
Everyone was dissatisfied by the reduction in scenes of the male lead but the tidbit released by the official Weibo smoothed things over. There was just one person particularly dissatisfied with this matter.
Lu Renjia played the childhood friend of the female lead in Overbearing Female President. He didn’t have many scenes but the arrangement was pleasing. The unexpected popularity of Overbearing Female President made him very happy. Then later, he found that many plots related to him had been cut off.
He read the commentary under the drama indignantly and the anger in his heart grew stronger and stronger.
He endured his impatient heart and angry pain in his chest. Lu Renjia tossed and turned in bed and was unable to sleep. He took out his phone to see the online comments and found that his Weibo was cold. There were only a few comments and most of them were asking about why Li Zhao didn’t open a Weibo, he should tell Li Zhao to open a Weibo, etc.
He took two deep breaths, replied to one of the comments and chose to forward it.
Lu Renjia replied to Baby Bear: Okay, I’ll help you ask [Cute][Cute] //Baby Bear: Brother Lu, can you help us ask when Baby Zhao Zhao will open a Weibo?
He forwarded this and it quickly attracted a lot of attention from the TV drama fans. In less than half an hour, Lu Renjia’s fans rose by nearly 10,000, giving him a taste of sweetness. Therefore, he found two photos of Li Zhao on his phone and posted them on Weibo.
These photos did attract the attention of countless people.
“Ahhh, my little baby is really white and glowing.”
“My baby is standing with a good posture, like a schoolboy taking a graduation photo. Mother’s baby is the best baby in the world!”
“Thank you to Brother Lu for sharing. This photo is saved.”
This was the most comments and likes Lu Renjia had received since opening his Weibo. This made him both proud and embarrassed. These people were calling him Brother Lu but there was only Li Zhao in their eyes.
Li Zhao, Li Zhao…
He had always looked down on Li Zhao because the other person had nothing but a good face. He had no background, no resources and was so poor that he had never seen the world. It would be difficult for him to mix in the entertainment circle.
No one expected that green smoke was emitted from Li Zhao’s ancestral tomb and he really became popular. How many people in the crew felt regret that they didn’t develop a better relationship with Li Zhao?
Lu Renjia’s mind was indescribably complicated as he opened the Weibo of the crew’s second male lead, Song Yu. He saw this person’s handsome selfie and the hot and lively comments area and couldn’t help sneering. Who didn’t know that most of the praise was bought by a water army?
Thinking about how Song Yu deliberately made things difficult for Li Zhao in the crew, Lu Renjia’s eyes darkened. He changed to his smurf account and sent a private letter to a gossip marketing account.
It was only when the male lead and second male lead collided that he could gain the chance to poke his head out.
For the weekend update, the main plot was back to the male and female leads. The official Weibo of Overbearing Female President ushered in a wave of praise and this moved the staff in charge of the Weibo. Thus, they released three more crew tidbits.
Of the three tidbits, only one was related to Li Zhao. The number of views on this tidbit was significantly higher than the other two. No matter if it was someone in the industry or ordinary fans, the most popular person was clearly the male lead Li Zhao. Some companies saw these figures and were stupefied.
Just as the drama fans were satisfied with the updated plot when a marketing account suddenly broke the news. Song Yu and Li Zhao didn’t get along in the cast. Song Yu relied on his father and often appeared late and left early. He even let the wet Li Zhao wait for him to shoot scenes.
Song Yu’s fans were suddenly dissatisfied and scolded the marketing account for speaking nonsense. Song Yu was just the second male lead. How could he bully the crew’s male lead?
Entertainment 888: Song Yu’s fans, don’t jump up and down on my Weibo. I have a real hammer here. If you continue to make noise then don’t blame me for continuing to break the news.
Song Yu’s fans were even angrier. It wasn’t just the comments area but they also reported the Weibo for false content. The people eating melons (peanut gallery/onlookers) were happily watching the comments area, waiting for fresh melons to fall.
Song Yu’s agent was surprised to see the Weibo post. Song Yu was new to the company and the marketing account was one raised by a rival company. The materials that would be exposed would definitely be bad for them.
He hastened to contact Song Yu as well as the public relations deal to discuss ways to deal with this.
“We don’t know what news the other side will explode. The first thing we have to do is contact Li Zhao’s agent and let the other side cooperate with us to clarify the rumours.” The agent turned to the absent-minded Song Yu. “Did you have a conflict with Li Zhao?”
If there was no deep hatred, there was no need to worry that Li Zhao’s side wouldn’t agree if they opened a price.
Song Yu, “……”
Song Yu’s assistant, “……”
Every day, he didn’t look at Li Zhao and he also fed the other person to fatten him up. Wasn’t this a conflict?
The moment the agent saw their faces, he knew something was wrong. It wasn’t strange for Song Yu to offend people when he had such a temper. In this case, don’t mention helping them clarify it. Li Zhao’s side must be a Virgin Mary descended from the highest of heavens if they didn’t take this opportunity to step on Song Yu.
The team hadn’t come up with a perfect response yet when at 1 a.m., the marketing account was updated.
Entertainment 888: A team contacted me and wanted me to delete the Weibo post a few hours ago. Unfortunately, I’m in a good mood tonight and have decided to meet the wishes of the melon eaters. According to the very reliable insider who broke the news, an actor who liked to be pretentious was praised by others due to his deep background. A well-known online drama originally named him as the lead actor while a poor actor who was bullied was the second male lead. Unfortunately, the pretentious acted abandoned the lead role. He thought it was too poor and forced the crew to change the cast near the start of the show. The poor bullied actor had no background or qualification. He had to accept the role of male lead. Meanwhile, people ridiculed him behind his back for this role. It is a pity that the pretentious man didn’t expect the poor actor to become popular because of the despised role. He was so angry that he hit and scolded his assistant in the middle of the night.
Entertainment 888: I broke the news and didn’t expect fans to doubt the authenticity. You can go to the crew’s Weibo and seen when they made the publicity posts, whose name is first and last in the post and you can see what this crew is like. By the way, I’d like to tell a story to the fans of this poor actor. The poor guy was often pushed out by the second male lead in the crew while the leading actress didn’t take care of him. However, there are a few supporting actors who will play with the poor guy. As for the supporting actors, you can find that out yourself.
This explosion caused countless Li Zhao fans to feel heartache. The comments area on Song Yu’s Weibo was occupied as the public relations team invited a water army to suppress the fan’s anger. However, Li Zhao’s fans were calmer. On Li Zhao’s Weibo, many people said that couldn’t go to Song Yu’s Weibo to make any comments before the matter was confirmed.
Early the next morning, Li Zhao was invited to participate in the broadcasting platform’s act. He had just got off the car when he was surrounded by countless reporters.
“Zhao Zhao, someone on the Internet broke the news that you were unfairly treated by an actor in the crew. Is this true?”
Li Zhao, who was just sending a message inviting Yan Ting to eat hot pot together later, suddenly glanced at the reporters rushing to his side with confusion. “Ha?”
His bewildered expression made him look like a lost child and the reporters like zombies surrounding him.
The ‘actor’ had just got out of the car when he heard the reporter ask this sentence and his face froze.