World Hopping: Avenge Our Love
Translator: translationraven
First Published on Chaleuria
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This was quite a low blow from them. There was no obvious dissing of Shen Yi in the headline, just a comment on how the big names in the industry were so close with Xie Qianchen.
The whole situation with the award-winning actors and actresses, capable director, and legendary scriptwriter banding together like this to help Xie Qianchen let Shen Yi debut in a ‘higher’ form of media was almost inconceivable to the average person.
No one had noticed this before Luo Tong’s post on Weibo, since the announcements made yesterday by Xie Qianchen had flooded all of Weibo. Little no-name Shen Yi really wasn’t anything to take note of.
Now, however, Shen Yi had been thrust under the spotlight. He was a newbie, through and through, so how could he have a leading role in this big group of industry heavyweights? He must be a very cherished boy.
All of them had gone along with the whole thing willingly though, so no matter how you looked at it, you could only marvel at how these people had such good relations with each other. As for those who had responded to the stilted promotion post in the same stilted fashion to promote it further, this highlighted how stalwart their friendship with Xie Qianchen was.
This was something which would tarnish their reputations after all — what if Shen Yi could not act well?
“Mmhmm, my goddess has such a big heart. I love her more now!”
“Li Xuyang too! He’s not making any money from this short film. He can just go and do one commercial and get all the cash he needs to cover this.”
“I love Director Yang and Wen Ran the most. Do you guys know how big these two are in the industry? I heard that Director Yang dropped filming for the New Year project to come work on this. Wen Ran is even more amazing. He wrote the script on the spot.”
“Woah, woah! Xie Qianchen has such solid connections in the industry? Shen Yi is so lucky!”
Everyone was now envious of Shen Yi’s great luck in life, to have Xie Qianchen as his manager. Soon, however, the tone of the messages changed.
The reach of the headlines had gone far and wide, it seemed, and had drawn people who knew Shen Yi out of the woodwork. Unfortunately, these people were not happy for Shen Yi — they were deliberately throwing dirt on his name.
“What the hell, this venomous views-hogger is still around? The web drama with idols was ruined because of him, and he’s moved on to ruining the work of award-winning actors and actresses?”
“Shen Yi is the worst newbie actor I’ve seen. I have no words, so here’s some visual proof. [gif1] [gif2]”
“Oh lord. That retarded level of acting in the web drama… in Wen Ran’s script? I mean, yeah, this is a short film but it’s still my great god Wen Ran’s script! My heart suddenly aches for my god of scriptwriters.”
Messages popped up like snails after rain, insulting Shen Yi’s acting skills. Someone even dragged out the old news about the stalker fan’s father who was put under investigation because of the incident involving assault, and pointed out that the victim of the assault was Shen Yi’s current manager, Xie Qianchen.
The netizens felt like what their preconceptions of the world were overturned again when that truth was out in the open.
“OMG, this guy’s… he even plotted to get his own manager hurt? I followed the news back when it happened. Xie Qianchen’s door got chopped up with an emergency fireman’s axe. That was an anti-theft steel door too.”
“So what about the door? Did you know what the stalker fan had in her hand? Sulfuric acid! Highly concentrated sulphuric acid! If you get splashed by that…”
“Man, this Xie Qianchen’s a saint to be still working with a person like Shen Yi. Still, he should just go be an idiot on his own. Why rope our great gods and goddesses into this?”
“I can’t take this anymore! Can this Shen Yi get lost? Like, out of the entertainment industry? I don’t wanna see this guy pretending to be all pure when he’s actually rotten inside.”
“Yeah, that’s right! Get lost, pretender!”
“Get lost, Shen Yi!”
Luo Tong and his associates’ posts started gaining traction and more and more people jumped on the bandwagon to scold and insult Shen Yi. It took just one short night to let practically everyone in the entertainment circles know that there was a venomous snake of a newbie with rubbish acting skills called Shen Yi.
“What do we do about this?” The public relations managers of Picture Domain were in a panic. It wasn’t because they were not professional, but because there really was nothing they could do. Luo Tong’s team had worked too fast, and though most of what his team wrote was hearsay and meant to lead others into thinking a certain way, the facts were rooted in reality.
Shen Yi was a newbie too, and his general fans were not loyal to him yet. He hadn’t had any work which spoke of great quality either, so he had no leg to stand on. The public relations team were trying to clean up his image but they could find no good opportunity to interject. All they could do was to give Song Yucheng a harried call.
“I got it. You guys don’t need to concern yourselves with this. I’ll take care of it.”
“No, Qianchen, I mean, you have to tell us if it’s too much to take on. We represent the same company after all.”
“I know. Relax! I have a plan.” Song Yucheng put the phone down and called Yuan Yue.
“Luo Tong and his guys are behind that headline.” It was as if he’d been waiting for him to call. Yuan Yue picked up right after the first ring, and he went straight to it.
“I’d guessed as much.” Song Yucheng’s expression was knowing. “Do me a favour, bro.”
“Say it.” Yuan Yue waited as he spoke, and he laughed. He sputtered into the phone, “Hahaha, you’re a riot, Xie Qianchen!” He hung up and went to work.
Yuan Yue was impressed by Xie Qianchen though he rebuffed him. He knew that the method he’d proposed was definitely the quickest way to boost Shen Yi up the rankings. If done right, they wouldn’t need to spend a penny to get into the trending search terms again.
Yuan Yue felt a sudden pity for Luo Tong at that thought. He’d spent money to get someone else’s talent up into the trending search terms list — he must feel like he got stabbed.
While Song Yucheng and Luo Tong worked on their followup actions, the netizens, influenced by the posts of Luo Tong’s hired help, were agitated and had become quite outspoken.
“Get out of here, Shen Yi!”
“Shen Yi is a stupid c*nt!”
The big-name stars who had helped to forward Song Yucheng’s message were taken aback by this too. The conversation in their WeChat group took on an anxious note.
Director Yang: What do we do now? We’re going to hold a press conference soon. Lil’ Shen is one of the main characters, so it’ll get dicey if this goes on.
Li Xuyang: Nothing we can do. Shen Yi’s old web drama performance really was rubbish. I tried watching a bit of that drama to see if I could highlight something about his acting skills, but damn, what I saw nearly made me go blind.
Ning Lan: Hey, the problem we have here is not about you going blind, OK?
Actress: Yeah, the problem is what do we do with Shen Yi? My inbox is being flooded with questions.
Song Yucheng, who had been silent all this while, finally wrote to the group.
Xia Qianchen: Relax. I’ve got a solution. Luo Tong’s being a gem, coming over to get his head chopped off. I love him! Another free round on the trending search terms. ^_^
The people in the chat group were struck dumb for a bit. Luo Tong, a gem? Love him? Their eyebrows were on fire here, but Xie Qianchen didn’t seem worried at all.
He was Shen Yi’s manager after all. There was no use in them getting worked up over the situation. They could only watch and see how Xie Qianchen would respond.
They waited hours and hours, and what they finally saw was not an explanation from Xie Qianchen, but two image macros which pretty much angered everyone.
Xie Qianchen: @GossipExpert That’s right! Our baby Shen Yi is so adorable that everyone falls for him at first sight. He’s a sweetie pie and the darling of half the bigwigs in the entertainment industry. Even if he has no acting skills, we’ll still have him debut at the expense of our reputations! How about that, eh? Jealous much? [image macro] [image macro]
“. . .”
The netizens slinging insults went silent. All of them had the same thought at the same time: This damn Xie Qianchen is 100% shameless!
Xie Qianchen then posted a picture collage which made the netizens so mad they were rendered speechless.
The nine gifs were all of Shen Yi, and the captions on all of them read: What can I do? My life is awesome.
His smug face, repeated nine times in nine gifs, was like a slap to the faces of those who had been insulting him. After that first slap however, they got slapped many more times. The big-name celebrities the netizens thought were being duped by Shen Yi actually liked and upvoted the post!
The most incomprehensible one was Wen Ran. He just straight out wrote: My goodness! How is my baby Yi so cute~
“Holy sh*t, my god of scriptwriters! What are you doing?” The fans following Wen Ran’s Weibo page were foaming at the mouth. Their cold and aloof god had become a smitten kitten in an instant. What the hell was wrong with him? And that tone! Plus this show of support! Just how deep were his feelings for Shen Yi?! Was he pulling a prank on them?
This was outright face-slapping. The whole world’s saying that Shen Yi’s an empty, pretty flower, but this hollow flower’s loved by many. Whatcha gonna do ‘bout it?
This pissed off a whole lot of people right away. The verified gossip magazine account Song Yucheng had tagged was quick to retort too, and they threw another insult at Shen Yi. “So what? His acting skills are rubbish. He won’t be acknowledged no matter how good of a person he is.”
But Song Yucheng was even quicker to shoot them a reply.
Xie Qianchen: Good relations with others is also a skill. Go home and tell your master Luo Tong that trash is trash, and there is no use in being jealous. Come hit me if you got the guts! [Draws_Sword_for_Challenge.jpg]
The netizens felt like they’d swallowed a fly. Grossssss.
They also felt like they were spectating at some sort of overblown schoolyard fight — they felt like their IQ was being insulted.
“Am I seeing things? Is that how a professional manager should respond?”
“This is just too effing thoughtless! Can’t you have some self-awareness? Yer bein’ shat on ‘ere! [HEYwtf.jpg]
“I don’t think I’m reading this bit of gossip at the right angle. Hold on, I’m gonna flip my phone to the horizontal view.”
Later, however, someone noted that though what Xie Qianchen had written seemed retarded, there was a lot of hidden meaning in his words. The ones who had started it was the Weibo gossip magazine account, so why did he give a shoutout to Luo Tong? Wasn’t Luo Tong the elite manager of Double Universe?
Why the need for jealousy from Luo Tong? How was this not an utter joke? Luo Tong had way more talents under his care than Xie Qianchen did. What was there to be jealous about?
Soon after that, Yuan Yue posted evidence, and what the netizens thought they knew about what was going on was blown away.
It really was Luo Tong behind it. Yuan Yue was number one paparazzi indeed. He’d gotten all the details, from Luo Tong hiring a company to create paid posts, to digging out the reporter who had written the headline. This stamped and sealed it. Luo Tong really was jealous of Xie Qianchen!
This revelation from Yuan Yue was just the beginning of Song Yucheng’s counterfire. Next, Director Yang made his posts of the film set, makeup and a short trailer of the film, and this was a true slap to the faces of Luo Tong and his group.
Shen Yi’s got no acting skills? Heh heh, what a joke!
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