Whether the little girl agreed or not, Shao Yichen certainly wanted to agree with Li Xingyu.
But glancing at the progress bar, she felt the production team wouldn't let the show end so easily and would definitely create some major drama at the end.
Sure enough, just as the two stepped onto Cinderella's Castle, they saw two hunters approaching from both front and back.
Li Xingyu glanced at the little girl beside him, seemingly concerned about her getting caught, and ultimately decided to temporarily hide behind some decorations.
But just as the two had hidden, another group appeared behind them—Fu Lianghui's team leading two more hunters toward them.
Judging by their movement trajectory, Li Xingyu's hiding place would obviously be spotted.
Well, that's it, they were thoroughly doomed—a no-survivors ending, which was actually fine.
Shao Yichen sighed.
But what happened next surprised everyone—Li Xingyu crouched down and said something to the little girl, then slowly moved forward a short distance. After ensuring he was far enough from the little girl, he stood up completely!
This basically meant directly forfeiting the competition.
But even when giving up, appearances had to be maintained. Li Xingyu ran toward Fu Lianghui's direction. All four hunters noticed him simultaneously, chasing and cutting him off, surrounding him and Fu Lianghui's team. The three surrendered obediently and were firmly held by the shoulders.
And at that moment, the little girl made her move!
All the hunters in the area had been attracted by Li Xingyu, and she had hidden well following his instructions. While the adults weren't paying attention to her, the instant the three were caught, she jumped out from the corner and rushed straight toward the final treasure location!
By the time Fu Lianghui noticed the little girl charging toward the final target, it was too late to stop her. With a burst of energy, she reached the hidden treasure spot, entered the four-digit password, and with two beeps, the combination lock opened, revealing the victory trophy before her.
The winner of this episode turned out to be the little girl whom no one had expected at the beginning!
Shao Yichen: ...Is this kind of strategy even possible?
But she knew clearly that this was purely the little girl being carried by Li Xingyu. Although Li Xingyu was ultimately caught and missed the grand prize, anyone who watched the entire show knew that the prize money was actually earned through Li Xingyu's efforts. If he hadn't been protecting the little girl, he certainly had the ability to win the reward himself—he was essentially the uncrowned king.
Seeing this, Shao Yichen's anger subsided a bit.
Never mind, even though there was someone constantly causing trouble throughout the episode, the final result wasn't bad. Getting angry for his sake wasn't worth it. Don't get angry—let others be angry while I stay calm. Getting sick from anger helps no one.
With these thoughts, Shao Yichen was about to turn off her phone to check how far the filming had progressed. She had fast-forwarded to see the conclusion, watching for about fifteen minutes, so they should have completed preparations and started filming...
But before she could turn off the screen, she saw a WeChat notification pop up.
Seeing it was a message from Li Xingyu, she inexplicably clicked on it.
[Morning Starlight: Director, have you checked the entertainment forum today?]
Shao Yichen immediately smiled.
She indeed hadn't checked the entertainment forum today, but she guessed Li Xingyu was hinting that she should take a look.
And what would be on today's entertainment forum?
Of course, discussions about Li Xingyu's variety show premiere!
He had performed so well in the show that they couldn't even cut his scenes out, surely gaining a batch of casual fans.
Li Xingyu was probably worried she didn't know about his variety show today and was hinting at it!
Who would have thought that while young Li appeared mature and steady normally, he actually had these "praise-seeking" little thoughts! Thinking carefully, he was just a senior college student. Despite his usual serious face, he must be bottling things up inside. Since she was his senior, he was coming to her for validation!
That being the case, she naturally needed to give this junior some encouragement!
With this in mind, Shao Yichen didn't even bother to check how far the filming had progressed and started typing a reply.
[Lose All Million: I didn't check the entertainment forum today, but I've already watched your variety show!]
[Lose All Million: I had no idea your physical fitness was so good, and you're great with kids too. Did you develop these skills from tutoring? Or do you actually have younger siblings?]
[Lose All Million: I bet the forum is full of threads discussing this variety show now, are you feeling the joy of gaining fans?]
Although Shao Yichen wasn't good at complimenting people, she had just finished watching the show and had a bunch of things she wanted to say, so her fingers flew across the keyboard.
She was still wracking her brain for how to praise this junior next when he replied with a simple [No].
Before Shao Yichen could react, Li Xingyu sent her a link.
[Morning Starlight: {forum link} Director Shao, someone is defaming you, and the fabricated accusation is very serious for a director.]
[Morning Starlight: It looks like they're testing the waters on the forum and are about to post on other public social media platforms soon.]
[Morning Starlight: I think you should take a look. Also, I have some suspicious candidates in mind, but it's inconvenient to discuss over WeChat. Call me on an encrypted line when you have time.]
Shao Yichen: ...???
Wait, weren't you seeking praise? She looked back at her sincere compliments and suddenly felt like she'd been casting pearls before swine.
And how could there suddenly be negative rumors about her on the forum when she was just quietly making a film here? And what "serious accusation"? Wasting food? Nepotism? Casting couch? Or disrespecting directors and the film industry? She couldn't help that—she was forced into directing by the System and never wanted to be a director in the first place...
She mentally simulated various possibilities but still couldn't figure out what she might have done to deserve being smeared. Left with no choice, she clicked on the link.
As soon as the webpage loaded, Shao Yichen saw a bold red headline prominently displayed at the top, particularly eye-catching.
[Genius Director? Dark Horse Film? Click to see how a knowledgeable classmate exposes the shameless plagiarism of the so-called director of "The Last Wish" and "The Web"! Evidence included]
The title had somewhat of a tabloid flavor.
Checking the posting time, Shao Yichen saw it was exactly one hour ago, just when Li Xingyu's variety show aired. Looking at the reply count, she found that in just that short hour, the thread had already reached seven or eight pages, with replies coming in faster and faster, showing momentum to become a thousand-floor tower.
Was her "melon" really that sweet?
Shao Yichen actually had no awareness of her current fame. After all, most people might not know "Shao Yichen," but mention "The Last Wish" or "The Web," and most people would have at least heard of them, even if they hadn't seen them. Since the main force of internet surfers were young people—exactly the demographic most influenced by films—putting these two movies in the title immediately attracted many passersby.
But Shao Yichen had no time to think about all this. She quickly scrolled down to read.
The post didn't immediately get to the point but tested the readers' curiosity, casually mentioning the box office of both films, then implying that there were extensive marketing traces behind them, suggesting the popularity was all generated by paid commenters. This made Shao Yichen's blood boil.
Paid commenters? She wished the popularity was all water-injected by well-intentioned people buying fake engagement! Then she wouldn't have earned so much that she couldn't even return to her original world!
But remembering the "evidence included" claim in the title, Shao Yichen reluctantly contained herself and continued reading.
After beating around the bush for about a hundred words, the post finally got to the point.
[As someone studying directing myself, when watching these two films, I felt a strange sense of familiarity, as if they borrowed creative ideas from foreign films.
But I wasn't sure if it was truly plagiarism, since that's a serious accusation to level at a director. Although it's strange that a student who hasn't even graduated could write such films, what if she really did write them herself?
Until I saw the director's name—Shao Yichen.
That's when I became certain my suspicions were correct! Even without concrete evidence, I dare say these two films definitely stole someone else's ideas!
Why? Because the name Shao Yichen was too "famous" in our directing department cohort!
After all, there was only one person in our year with the "glorious achievement" of having their graduation project plagiarize someone else's work, getting caught by the original creator, and being forced to delay graduation for a year!
How could a director who needed to plagiarize just to graduate possibly write meaningful scripts?]
Reading this, Shao Yichen's head exploded with a "boom"!
What? Plagiarism? Delayed graduation? I've never heard anything about this!
She quickly scrolled down through the post and found that this so-called whistleblower had posted a redacted admission letter proving they were indeed an undergraduate from D University in the same class as Shao Yichen, along with that year's enrollment list confirming there was a student named Shao Yichen.
Then they posted that year's graduation list.
Indeed, Shao Yichen's name was not on the normal graduation list!
Instead, her name appeared on the next year's graduation roster.
To strengthen their evidence, this person had even somehow posted a page of Shao Yichen's "plagiarized" script, also handwritten—showing many similarities in writing habits to Shao Yichen's own messy handwriting, confirming it was written by the same person, though for some reason this Shao Yichen's writing appeared more flowing—featuring a script ending.
And this ending was almost identical to the conclusion of an online film released on a certain platform in March of that year! Both featured a conversation between a little boy and an alien!
The only difference was that Shao Yichen had noted in her manuscript that it should be made into a clay stop-motion animation.
This was practically concrete evidence, since the manuscript and film appeared in the same year, and film preparation takes at least half a year, clearly indicating Shao Yichen came later.
The rest of the original post contained only some flimsy facts, such as claiming that the human-ghost identity twist in "The Last Wish" also appeared in certain films, and that a scene in "The Web" resembled a famous storyboard. Collectively they seemed serious, but upon careful examination, the connections were forced.
But once the evidence of previous plagiarism was presented, these originally tenuous connections seemed credible.
Shao Yichen skimmed through a few more pages and discovered that someone had even mentioned finding past information on the school's official website with graduation photos, showing her pale-faced appearance in the next class's graduation photo, looking unwell.
With this, although there was no concrete judgment about "plagiarism," a large portion of the commenters already believed the accusation, denouncing Shao Yichen as a plagiarizing director making easy money, calling for a unified boycott.
Some even mentioned Li Xingyu, saying he "acted in two of this director's films, must have known about her plagiarism, but not only didn't point it out but continued to act, making him complicit in plagiarism and equally deserving of boycott."
Moreover, there were even casual viewers replying: "Just developed some good feelings for him from the variety show, didn't expect he was this kind of person {manual goodbye}."
Shao Yichen was furious and jumped to her feet.
What's going on? How could there be guilt by association?
If I had actually plagiarized, criticizing me would be fair, but the actors knew nothing about this—why attack them!
Besides, she was certain that although the original owner had indeed experienced mental health issues four years ago, there was no trace of plagiarism in her memories!
She sprang up from the director's chair, not bothering to explain anything, immediately halted filming, walked aside, and dialed Li Xingyu's number.
Author's Note: Today's update!
Although I posted a leave notice yesterday, I need to say it again today: I'm starting school on the 15th and am preparing to return to campus, so I'll maintain updates of 3,000 words daily~ I won't stop updating! It'll just be slightly less~
This part is like a prelude before the ending! Thanks to the little angels who gave me Overlord Tickets or Nutrition Solution between 2020-09-09 11:59:42 and 2020-09-10 12:32:18~
Thanks to the little angels who gave Nutrition Solution: Amnesia, Ali 5 bottles; Skylark's Day 3 bottles; Wen w, Shallow shallow shallow shallow shallow Xi, Make a little heart 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!