Chapter 274: The Four Top Stars All Start Beefing at Once!

Dr. Zhai's set visit was just a small interlude in the filming of "Joy of Life."

Still, his Weibo post did stir up some buzz.

Everyone says he's now a fairly popular, capable actor in the industry, and his character portrayals in several dramas have been noteworthy.

Even though his dissertation never got written, his acting is worthy of a doctorate.

Plus, he's not that old — just past thirty — so he can genuinely be slotted into the young actor category, without having to fight for runway against those ruthless middle-generation stars.

Seen this way, him being a bit cocky is actually pretty normal.

Before the "CNKI" incident, his reputation was solidly positive.

Sure enough, once the post went up, the comments below were quite harmonious, and the fans who came over from Bai Liang's side were also singing Dr. Zhai's praises.

Saying things like "these two are both solid actors, looking forward to a collaboration."

Except for a few of Bai Liang's anti-fans hopping around, saying stuff like "what's the act, talk after you actually pass the exam."

Indeed, this whole "mortgaging Peking University" stunt is pretty absurd.

From this angle, Bai Liang is pretty cocky too.

On the show he said he was "giving fans a strategy guide" — daring to say that before even taking the exam, and Peking University would actually work out?

It's foreseeable that there'll be a big wave of drama at the end of this year.

Either Bai Liang's bragging pays off, in which case he's genuinely amazing — his genius halo fully cemented, and his Weibo comments will truly become a holy site for prayers for grad school, civil service, and judicial exams.

Or he drops a massive bomb, his genius halo shatters completely, triggering mass mockery and all kinds of piling-on.

Sister Yanzi is feeling a bit regretful right now, thinking it's her fault.

She hadn't followed up on the show in time, otherwise that line could clearly have been cut.

It's not that she doubts Bai Liang's ability, but as his manager, she should have done her best to avoid this extremely risky "mortgage" situation.

Way too easy to get slapped in the face.

The entertainment circle isn't without cases of "mortgaged awards" that ended up being mass-mocked.

But what's done is done, let's order first. When it comes to choosing to trust her own Little Bai, Sister Yanzi has long had plenty of experience.

And as Xin Zhilei joins the cast of "Joy of Life," the filming of the entire drama is about to enter a new phase — the Northern Qi storyline.

Li Xin and Li Yitong are both about to wrap and get lost.

The two are actually quite reluctant.

They finished off an entire case of champagne and still didn't manage to pull off a joint "sassy sisters" sortie.

The main one agonizing here is Li Xin, much like how she once paced around like a headless fly under Bai Liang's hotel for over half an hour.

Can't make up her mind~

Even though last time she finally gritted her teeth and went up, that doesn't mean this time she can make a snap decision.

Every decision stands on its own.

Going from zero to one takes a process.

As for Li Yitong, she was pretty calm about it, then roasted Li Xin: "You up for it, skinny girl?"

Look at you, so useless and clueless.

In this crew, she's practically "slept through" everyone's room.

Besides not staying in her own room, whose room hasn't she visited? Jin Cheng's, Meng Jie's, Li Xin's, Bai Liang's — which one hasn't she "raised hell" in?

Now she really only needs to reach out and feel the size to know which Miss she's sharing the bed with~

Wrapping now is fine too.

After all, if this keeps up, she'll probably have to drink some Chinese medicine, and worry about someone secretly swapping it for an iced Americano.

Meng Jie: Hehe, everyone's wrapped, everyone's leaving, everyone go.

Now it's just me, right~

Swaying her head, happy as can be.

Though her screen time isn't as much as Li Xin's and Li Yitong's, she's been on set longer than either of them.

Actually, the same treatment happened back during "Ever Night."

But back then Meng Jie was cursing up a storm, feeling the crew looked down on her as a small-time nobody, and it was only thanks to Bai Liang pulling strings that she got brought over early.

But on the "Joy of Life" crew, it's still the same — few scenes, but a long timeline.

Meng Jie didn't have a single complaint this time.

Long is good, she wants to stay right up until Bai Liang wraps too.

Especially when all the other girls have run off and only she's left.

However, this notion lasted less than three days.

A little over a week after Xin Zhilei joined the cast, a gentle girl with a soft voice, a domme's height and a lolita's face, also appeared on set.

This person was Meng Jie's college classmate, Chen Yao.

"Long time no see~"

"Uh, long time no see."

After greeting Meng Jie, Chen Yao pressed her lips together and looked around the set, seemingly trying to find someone.

And Meng Jie, inexplicably a bit deflated, simply said: "Stop looking, he's out. He just wrapped a batch of scenes in a rush, his movie's about to release, he's swamped."

Chen Yao pressed her lips together, rubbed her hands together behind her back, reached up to smooth her hair, then said rather self-deceptively: "I'm not looking for Little Bai."

Meng Jie: With those eight hundred little moves you're doing, who are you trying to fool?

Fortunately, she's no longer the old Meng Jie — her mindset is great now.

After a moment of resignation, she simply grabbed Chen Yao's hand. "Come on, I'm buying you something good to eat."

"I haven't even checked in with the crew yet," Chen Yao said, a bit troubled.

Meng Jie waved her hand. "Just give the director a call, won't that do~"

The other party stared at her for a moment, then sighed: "You really have a lot of face."

That comment made Meng Jie blush a little. "It's not that I have face, it's that he has face. I'm just the fox borrowing the tiger's might."

Chen Yao: And you just admit it like that?

When the two of them were in school, they actually didn't have much interaction at all — they just knew of each other.

After all, both of them had started acting quite early.

From that previous contact at the Weibo Night, she actually didn't understand Mencius that well either; she had basically made her judgment based on stereotypes — that is, on the other party's looks.

She had the feeling that Mencius was the kind of very capable girl, not someone to mess with.

But now, it didn't really feel that way anymore.

The light in those big eyes was quite sincere, not quite matching up with the original little green tea image.

So Chen Yao simply got a little more "outrageous" and asked: "Do you know when he's coming back to the crew?"

Meng Jie waved her hand. "He's the most popular artist right now, very busy. But we'll just wait for him obediently at the crew, don't worry. I won't hide him away."

"I didn't mean it that way."

Meng Jie: Hmph! Every single one of you means exactly that!

She declared that one day she would truly evolve into a bad woman, and then deal with all these little vixens!

——

There's one thing Meng Jie said that wasn't quite right.

In the spring of '18, the hottest person wasn't Bai Liang. The one truly dominating every headline, bursting into the audience's view like a dark horse, was that guy who sings, dances, raps, and plays basketball.

Without a doubt, "Idol Producer" is this year's phenomenal idol survival variety show; its explosive popularity has reshaped the landscape of China's domestic entertainment idol industry.

During its broadcast, it occupied Weibo's trending searches over 600 times, topic reads exceeded 20 billion, and each episode's peak trending count hit 50+.

Fans crowdfunded over 20 million yuan for the trainees, ushering in the era of scaled "voting culture."

Cai Xukun, as the champion of the show, became the representative of the new generation of top-tier idols—he was, after all, the show's overwhelming C-position.

A new top-tier idol has emerged!

The problem this created was: the long-standing hierarchy of the original four top-tier idols was about to be overturned!

Mainly because Cai Xukun's fans were already eager to beat the previous wave dead on the beach, to clear a spot for their brother.

Old-timers, time to cough up the gold!

But for now it was still just that one voice — after all, 2018 had only just begun not long ago; no matter what, they'd have to wait until the year-end "awards galas" to sum things up.

But the new top-tier idol's fans were very loud.

Every chapter, every song, every release — content available only here!

Not wanting to listen to the "old things" babble, they wanted to build their own — Xin He Lian Sheng!

Oh no — the second generation of top-tier idols!

Generally speaking, each generation lasts about five years; consumers update and replace idols, and trends shift accordingly—this holds true for the entertainment industry as well.

The traffic-driven era that began around 2014 has now lasted about four years. Excluding Bai Liang, who emerged midstream with terrifyingly overwhelming power, the top-tier idols also need to undergo normal generational renewal.

So Ah Kun's fans felt their demand was very reasonable — their brother deserved a seat at the table.

Wu Yifan's fans were a bit triggered, because Kun's path overlapped somewhat with their Fanfan's.

Singing, dancing, rapping, playing basketball?

Damn — Wu Yifan is also rather "good" at those very things! Clearly a rival house~

Damn it, why is there another rival house again?!

The last rival house, Bai Liang, literally stepped on Wu Yifan's head to climb into the ranks of the four top-tier idols. Now another one pops up this year? Targeting our Fanfan, huh?!

When it rains, it pours — because of this year's "The Rap of China," Wu Yifan and his 30 million fans got into it with Hupu, which had gathered 45 million straight men.

It got torn apart to the point where other houses piled on with mockery, and in the end, forced and helpless, the man himself even stepped in.

Lu Han's fans were still attacking Guan Xiaotong—if they didn't shake off this "terrible woman," their idol was truly going to be "finished"!

But there was nothing to be done — he was super into her.

Meanwhile, compared to his "good teammate" Wu Yifan, whose fanbase had only minor overlap with Ah Kun's and hadn't officially started fighting yet, Lu Han's side had already plunged headfirst into open war with Ah Kun.

The reason was that they had both taken on endorsements for vivo phones.

Among them, the brand gave Lu Han the title of vivo spokesperson, while for Cai Xukun it was only spokesperson for the new x23 model.

At first it was just small-scale skirmishes — Lu Han's fans mocked the other side's tier wasn't high enough; Ah Kun's fans mocked Lu Han for only living off his past glory, his traffic almost gone and yet he's still putting on airs?!

Back and forth, the war of fire quickly spread.

This "blood case" triggered by the title burned into both fandoms.

In the end, fans from both sides launched threads to compare strengths—dragging out every metric from professional ability to data and traffic, all with the intent of grinding the other's idol into the dirt.

Two of the four top-tier idols were in motion, and the "Three Little Ones," who were their equals in fame, also couldn't sit still.

As the domestic super first-tier boy group, every time they reunited for an anniversary, there was bound to be blood and gore.

The start of 2018 was indeed all about battle — exhilarating!

Besides those fighting, there were also those who were more laid-back or funny.

Yang Yang's fans: We're done — the top-tier idol goalkeeper can't hold the gate anymore.

Feels like we can only count on one of those above to deliver a "Hand of God" and knock this newcomer out.

Or rather, if the four top-tier idols become six, that works too~

They were even a little happy about it. Yang Yang, squeezed out of the four top-tier idols' ranks, had the name of a top-tier idol but couldn't make the first tier — that had been a bit awkward before.

Now that Ah Kun had come, that awkwardness was gone.

Similar were Bai Liang's fans. They glanced at the newcomer: What tier is that? Not enough for our Great Immortal to bother with~

Then he continued sending capybara meme stickers to duel, while also looking forward to the release of "Love and Time" and the broadcast of "The Story of Ming Lan," amusing himself.

This isn't like back when "Love O2O" had just aired, when he still needed to wield a sharp sword and compete with the heroes of the Heshuo region.

The Ziwei Soft Sword was almost being set aside, and it was time to pick up the Dark Iron Heavy Sword.

He couldn't be bothered with whatever so-called newly risen top-tier celebrities, and besides, they really hadn't come to provoke Bai Liang—after all, he only played basketball and didn't dabble in the other party's main business: singing, dancing, and rap.

However, capybaras have a strange law.

It just sits there spacing out, but there's always some itchy-handed person or dog that has to come poke at it.

Li Yifeng's fans said our brother is going to transform, from now on he'll be both a powerhouse actor and a top-tier celebrity, not something some newly emerged upstart can compare to.

Those words carried a double meaning—seemingly mocking the Aikuns, but who they actually meant, anyone in the fandom circle would know, wouldn't they?

Giving you face, do I? And you dare try to ride on this?!

Even though Bai Liang's capybara fans reacted a beat slower, it didn't stop them from striking first.

Throw the first punch, and ask all the questions while throwing it.

And after these two sides suddenly clashed together, at this point—

The four top-tier celebrities all started fighting at once!

It's gone crazy, the whole of northwestern Shanxi has gone completely insane.

Such a spectacle truly stunned the passersby—Holy crap, it's this intense?!

A brawl of this scale breaking out all at once was truly unheard of.

Yang Yang's fans: Suddenly feeling a bit grateful that our guy is just the gatekeeper of the top-tier celebrities, things are actually peaceful and quiet on our end now.

Other people's fans are about to beat each other's brains out, and they're still over there doing their makabaka thing.

However, the fan conflict between Bai Liang and Li Yifeng quickly became the focal point of the top-tier celebrity war.

Countless eyes focused over.

Because the fans of the other top-tier celebrities tearing into each other wouldn't produce any real outcome.

But these two are different.

They're both about to appear in movies—"Love and Time" and Li Yifeng's "Animal World" releasing one right after the other.

And both are playing lead male roles, single-handedly carrying the box office.

This kind of fan war can be settled entirely by the movies' box office results.

Who's truly the one with the most box office pull among the four top-tier celebrities, who's all talk and no substance—the moment the box office numbers come out, it'll be clear at a glance.

And for Bai Liang's fans, Li Yifeng was the final piece of the puzzle for their brother's "achievements."

Without beating down all the other top-tier celebrities and grinding them into the dirt, on what grounds could he truly ascend to the top?

Just missing you now, little Fengfeng~

As long as he takes him down too, this would practically be a grand slam of sorts!

Trampling all the top-tier celebrities beneath his feet, ascending to the top in a league of his own!

Bring it on!

Hearing the news, Xu Zheng went wild with joy!

Holy crap, you can pull in attention like this?!

A bizarre top-tier celebrity fan war suddenly brought so much traffic to "Love and Time."

Now he could just casually scroll through Weibo and feel like he'd see topics discussing this everywhere.

Too absurd!

Is this what a top-tier celebrity is?

Sister Yanzi also stared somewhat dumbfounded at the situation online, quite unable to figure it out.

Because she discovered that their little Brother Bai seemed to gradually be drawing in all the attention and traffic from passersby drawn in by the other fan wars.

To put it strangely, this wave almost felt like all the top-tier celebrities were helping him build momentum.

Probably nobody intended to do this, but it inexplicably produced exactly such a result.

This freaking works too?!

Under such a spotlight, "Love and Time" was finally about to be released!

(End of chapter)