The paparazzi thought it was over.
Little did they know something even more dramatic would happen moments later. That minor celebrity returned to the underground parking garage.
This time, he brought someone to film him.
Suddenly, he appeared in extreme agony: “Why can someone who bullied me have a resurgence? Tell me… why is this happening?”
“Enough, stop talking. The company is fully supporting him now. You should lay low for a while.” The speaker was still that manager.
The person recording nearby kept shaking the camera back and forth.
This technique? The paparazzi hiding in the car felt an oddly familiar sensation.
After thinking for a moment, hey… wasn’t this exactly like a candid shot angle?
What’s this? He suddenly became excited.
Suddenly, the other party spoke again: “I know… he’s good at singing and dancing, so I turned to acting. Now he wants to act too. All the acting contracts I secured were given to him. Do I still need to keep avoiding him?” After saying this, he actually broke down and crouched down, shoulders shaking as if crying.
The manager could only offer dry comfort: “It’ll be better after this period passes. Hey… don’t cry. Oh my god. Please don’t attempt suicide again. You nearly scared me to death last time… Maybe I should schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist for you.”
After saying this, the person recording swiped the camera lens and played back the footage they just recorded.
They saw Li Ziyue, who had been crouching on the ground, stand up and approach the camera to watch, his face full of admiration for his own acting skills.
“How was it?” Li Ziyue said.
“Not bad acting, this counts as one take, right?” The male manager commented: “But will this approach work? If the company finds out we’re behind this…”
Li Ziyue snorted coldly: “That’s none of your concern!”
The male manager looked at his own pathetic, repetitive appearance in the footage and felt frustrated: “If we release this, we’ll definitely get criticized.” After all, Li Ziyue did have some fans.
Li Ziyue said: “So what? Didn’t I agree to have a secret relationship with that dead fatty for you!” Then he glanced sideways at him: “It’s not like you’re suffering any losses.”
The male manager responded: “Don’t talk about these things outside. Such matters should remain buried in your Heart.” Going down this path wasn’t exactly honorable.
Li Ziyue gave him a cold smile, then put on sunglasses and lowered his head to enter the van.
Unbeknownst to him, everything he just did had been completely recorded.
Although the paparazzi didn’t capture footage of the young starlet coming and going with a married man.
But after reviewing the recording they just made, they felt somewhat impressed.
This small studio’s methods were truly ruthless.
These days, everyone deeply detested bullying. Once an artist gets associated with this, it’s essentially career suicide.
The key point is that once the false accusation is confirmed, there’s basically no way to prove innocence.
Although he had never met this Gu Yanqiu mentioned in the conversation, the paparazzi now felt some sympathy for him.
…
At this moment, Gu Yanqiu and the others remained completely unaware of the approaching danger.
They were still on the trending search. Ever since Chen Duo sent him to trending search with that godly photo last time, many people had started following her.
When the second godly photo came out, even industry professionals were impressed.
No one knew what photography technique created such oil painting-like light and shadow colors. Even the ripples pulled from the clothing appeared filled with classical romanticism.
Gu Yanqiu was no longer as unknown as before. He had just appeared on “The Singer.” Although he didn’t succeed in the challenge match, he still gained some new fans. Combined with this godly photo, many more new fans became devoted followers.
Even his management company felt fortunate. Before they could even roll out their operation plan, another wave of popularity had been delivered.
At this very moment, a fan from Gu Yanqiu’s group chat posted a video of him singing in front of a tripod during a live broadcast.
It was a completely different feeling from the show. Even with subpar recording equipment, one could still hear the subtle beauty in his singing voice.
Driven by the trending search promotion, even the number of people criticizing Gu Yanqiu had decreased these days. His fan count had increased by nearly a hundred thousand. Don’t underestimate these fans—they were all active fans!
Two photos had brought Gu Yanqiu such popularity. Those with a keen eye in the entertainment industry saw it clearly.
As for Chen Duo, the fan photographer, they were extremely envious. Their efforts to poach her grew increasingly intense, and the treatment they offered kept getting better.
But what they didn’t expect was that Chen Duo didn’t care about money.
At that moment, Xu Kaiming saw the constant pinging from Chen Duo’s computer backend. Many entertainment companies were lobbying her to join their teams, promising she’d only need to take photos every day.
From a freelance fan photographer to a professional one, they even offered to cover the five social insurances and one housing fund.
After reading the messages, Xu Kaiming sneered, “Duoduo, if you want a job, just come to my factory. You can pick any position you want. It’s way better than this.”
Chen Duo couldn’t help but laugh. “You want me to work in a factory?”
Xu Kaiming immediately scratched his head. “No… I have a position that’s perfect for you.”
“What is it?”
Xu Kaiming said, “How about being the factory director’s wife? I’m the director.” His tone was somewhat proud. In fact, after returning from studying abroad, he was supposed to take over the family factory.
But he had negotiated with his parents to wait another two years. The main reason was that his girlfriend was traveling all over the world chasing stars. He was genuinely afraid she might run into some guy with dyed blonde hair and elope with him. To prevent that possibility, he had dyed his own hair blonde in advance!
“We’ll see,” Chen Duo said.
Xu Kaiming let out an “oh,” feeling slightly and subtly unhappy.
Chen Duo glanced at him once, then again.
Sure enough, Xu Kaiming grew embarrassed and avoided her gaze.
He busied himself to hide his awkwardness, picking up his phone to scroll through social media. Suddenly, his expression changed. “Duoduo, your idol is in trouble.”
Hearing this, Chen Duo immediately closed her game and opened a social media app.
As soon as she logged in, she saw “#Gu Yanqiu Bullying#” trending, followed by an “explosive” tag.
Chen Duo clicked on it and saw a shaky, candid shot taken in an underground parking garage. In the video, a minor celebrity was talking to his manager about some matters and eventually crouched down, sobbing helplessly.
Anyone who had watched the talent show would recognize this person as Li Ziyue. Back then, he was quite talented.
Unexpectedly, he failed to secure a spot in the final stage and didn’t debut, becoming a regret in many people’s hearts.
Later, he acted in web series and had made a bit of a splash over the years. At the very least, he was much more popular than Gu Yanqiu.
But in another world, this Li Ziyue was also quite problematic! He slept with fans, both men and women.
He was even exposed in a video.
After being banned from the entertainment industry, he turned to live streaming e-commerce. Relying on his remaining fans, he spoke indiscriminately online, attracting a wave of trolls to follow him.
But in that world, Gu Yanqiu was a top-tier idol. Anyone who dared provoke him would be torn to shreds by his fans.
Yet in this world, he’s just a poor thing that anyone and everyone can push around.
Li Ziyue’s manager also revealed two things: first, Li Ziyue had attempted suicide over this matter, and second, he suffers from severe depression. This was practically stacking buffs on the path to vilifying Gu Yanqiu.