Chapter 537

After the trailer for "Black Myth: Wukong" went online, its spread exploded with unprecedented momentum!

It topped the trending chart on Bilibili in under two hours and held the number one spot for daily views.

Daily views surpassed twelve million, shattering Bilibili's record—unprecedented in history.

It simultaneously dominated Zhihu's trending list and Baidu Index, forcing the official website to urgently renew its servers twice due to traffic overload.

On Weibo, the epicenter of fan culture, its presence was wildly exaggerated—the trailer's reposts broke one million.

The fan girls didn't care about 3A or not 3A; they only knew: My bro is so hot!

The actual gameplay footage was just for fun—they focused entirely on the final Easter egg.

Now they were already debating who was the most handsome Erlang Shen in history.

Aim for Jiao Enjun, charge forward!

Fortunately, Sister Yanzi stepped in to calm things down; after all, it was just a trailer Easter egg—inside a game, no less—and stoking this kind of momentum wasn't a good thing.

But that's how fan culture works: their bro is number one in the world, and fan girls truly dare to do anything.

Even if fans mirror their idols, Bai Liang's fanbase was relatively honest and restrained—but the essence of fan culture never changes.

If there's a trend, they jump in full force; if there's a spectacle, they never miss it.

Fortunately, his fanbase had always been well-maintained, so nothing truly outrageous ever happened.

But fan culture rarely sticks to one path—it turns into a two-way blockade; if one trend is blocked, they pivot elsewhere.

For example, gamers might care more about the game itself; after seeing Yang Jian's face and recognizing it, they'd merely sigh: Oh~ It's Bai Bai Daxian!

And that's it—maybe just marvel at how broad his range of involvement is.

They didn't care much about the story behind the game; they just wanted to play it.

But fan girls would!

Within less than a day, while the "Black Myth: Wukong" trailer was blazing hot, the fan girls had already dug up the identities of several other female stars who served as face models but didn't appear in this trailer.

They even knew exactly which character each one portrayed—efficiency so fast it was absurd and outrageous.

Truly, each displayed their own unique magic!

But considering fan girls can track celebrity flight schedules down to the minute—and even steal their mileage points—this didn't seem particularly strange.

Some stalkers even knew celebrities' exact home addresses.

Fortunately, Bai Liang had no such troubles—he did have stalkers, but he'd never bought a house himself.

He mostly stayed in production hotels and luxury RVs, or else at Miss's place.

As long as he knew enough girls, he had enough homes.

Where could stalkers even find him?

This wasn't even a matter of having three burrows—the cleverest hunter couldn't catch a rabbit like him.

But the reason information about "Black Myth: Wukong" surfaced so quickly was likely because some wealthy female fans used their connections to investigate.

Otherwise, they couldn't have figured out which roles Meng Jie and the others portrayed—someone probably just called Feng Ji directly.

This kind of thing simply can't be hidden.

Of course, the girls hadn't hidden anything—it was just that the fans acted too quickly.

Once exposed, they openly reposted and commented, helping promote it.

Hmm… or maybe just riding the trend.

After all, the trailer had blown up this badly, dominating trending lists—why would they need extra promotion? At most, they just provided some gossip.

But fan girls wouldn't stop here.

Soon they dug up more info—for instance, the game's developer, Youke, had a shareholder with the surname Bai.

Of course, the surname wasn't rare—but in fan culture, once they caught it, how could they not connect the dots?

They immediately labeled this Bai shareholder as Bai Liang's father.

It was blunt and crude, no doubt.

Big Mi Mi saw this and laughed: "Haha, you got a new dad~"

"Saying that, sis, you got a new dad yesterday too," Bai Liang said calmly.

Big Mi Mi blushed and kicked Bai Liang.

It wasn't that she was shy about this kind of thing—mainly because Zhao Jinmai was still there.

As the older sister, she'd stood the little sister up yesterday—promised to take her out to eat, didn't show, left her hungry all night.

Now, chatting about such wolfish remarks right in front of her? It was embarrassing.

And the little girl was sitting in the RV right now, eavesdropping.

That was just not cute!

Big Mi Mi wondered: How many days had she even been on set? Couldn't the little sister be given some space?

But she quickly steered the topic back: "So, how does it feel to have a new dad?"

Bai Liang felt utterly baffled, glanced at her helplessly, and shrugged with a little bear emoji: "That's my dad—they didn't get it wrong. What do you mean 'got a new dad'?"

"Huh?!"

Looking at Bai Liang's innocent eyes, Big Mi Mi felt her scalp itch.

Because Bai Liang was Bai, the shareholder was Bai, and Bai Liang had done the face modeling and voice acting for the game—therefore, the shareholder was his father.

This logic made sense in fan culture—even normal people wouldn't find it too flawed.

But Big Mi Mi just felt that it was so "reasonable," so "logical," it looked fake.

It was just too damn smooth—so bluntly and simply deduced—it felt weird~

Is this how the entertainment industry works? Don't even bother hiding?

Bai Liang: What's there to hide? Do you know what "pure gold" means when even your first bucket of gold is spotless?

His parents aren't some kind of deadbeats or anything.

"Your dad works in gaming?" Big Mi Mi asked curiously.

"These days he just plays around with this—maybe in a few years he'll go do something else. At his age, he still won't settle down and start a business—he just knows how to gamble."

Bai Liang had zero psychological pressure talking behind his father's back, going off nonstop.

Someone who didn't know might think his dad was day-trading stocks at home~

Big Mi Mi burst out laughing at that—so he's old and still won't settle down?

So you want your dad to take the civil service exam now?

As for starting a business, Big Mi Mi actually had plenty of experience with it.

During those years of gambling, she was worn to the bone—and even got a divorce along the way.

At that moment, she suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "So earlier you said you'd give me this game—"

As she spoke, she got angry: "So the wool comes from the sheep itself? You really think you don't have to pay a single cent? You're going through internal channels for a few hundred bucks? This is your family's product?!"

"Don't worry—I'll pay for it myself! I'll buy you the collector's edition," Bai Liang solemnly promised.

Big Mi Mi, who had suddenly gotten angry, quickly laughed again. She thought she was weird—why did she get so emotionally up and down over something so small?

Zhao Jinmai: All the joy belongs to them—I have nothing.

The happiness she felt when she first joined the set had long since vanished.

She had originally thought that, since she and Bai Liang were playing the lead couple, they'd at least be together all day long on set.

But then a big sister showed up—more proactive, more mature and beautiful, and even more seductive. Now she didn't dare even half-hug Bai Liang the way Big Mi Mi did, almost brazenly.

This was just… outright provocation!

To be honest, Zhao Jinmai had dared to stand up to Zhou Ye before, glaring at the other girl—but before Big Mi Mi, just one look from her and Zhao Jinmai went silent.

She literally couldn't move a muscle.

It felt like a little rabbit encountering a fox.

Pure, predator-prey-level oppression.

In front of her, Zhao Jinmai couldn't even jump.

If Big Mi Mi had been harsh or rude to her, Zhao Jinmai might've mustered up some youthful bravado—but instead, the older woman treated her well, at least on the surface.

That was really annoying.

It was as if her only option was to sneak tears into her pillow at night.

Luckily, she still had hope—Big Mi Mi's scenes were only five or six days long on set; after that, her brother's time would be hers again!

All she had to do was wait~

That terrifying big sister would leave eventually! Persistence is victory!

Zhao Jinmai clenched her tiny fists, turning grief into appetite—I eat eat eat eat~

It was the big sister's treat anyway—she'd make up for it here!

At this moment, Big Mi Mi had no idea about Zhao Jinmai's complex and dramatic inner monologue—her attention was elsewhere.

Right now, she was looking at Bai Liang, her eyes faintly glowing.

"Tell me the truth—really—are you a rich heir?"

Because she often said seductive things, Bai Liang paused, briefly figuring out which kind of "rich heir" she meant, then answered: "The most awesome person in my family is definitely me—I was awesome from birth. My dad's just a leg-hugger. Don't take it too seriously."

This was an absolute, super-duper truth.

Before Bai Liang was born, his dad was just average—barely even middle-class.

He's the one who lifted them all~

But Big Mi Mi's expression at this answer was incredibly strange.

She imagined a dramatic family feud—rich family, father-son conflict?

Before entering entertainment, Bai Liang was a male model—she'd already confirmed this from Huang Jingyu and various online sources.

Even Bai Liang himself admitted it to her, and Huang Jingyu had even talked about their part-time jobs and protein powder on a show.

This sounded exactly like the story of an ordinary boy breaking into entertainment and changing his fate.

But now it seemed more like a rich heir who'd fallen out with his family, lived among commoners, and carved out his own path.

Isn't that how all the TV dramas go? ~

The plot was a bit cliché, but the more she thought about it, the more reasonable it became.

"What weird thing are you imagining?" Bai Liang quickly noticed Big Mi Mi's odd gaze and asked.

"Hey, do you have any fiancée or something?" Big Mi Mi asked, suddenly brimming with gossip.

". Of course not."

"Really? I don't believe you!"

Big Mi Mi turned into a fish, declaring today she wanted to hear a rich family melodrama!

Even Zhao Jinmai stopped clenching her fists and stopped eating—her ears perked up high.

She wanted to hear too!

Bai Liang:.

This was truly difficult—he had no melodramatic rich family stories at all.

He did have a legendary tale about his 60-year-old grandma dominating the Summoner's Rift—wasn't that more interesting than rich family feuds?

But since the big sister and little sister were both so eager, he could make one up…

After all, Capybara never lets anyone down!

Rich family feud, rich family feud… got it!

Reincarnation fan, time to be a literary thief once~

Of course, Bai Liang wasn't copying a story from the future — he was copying one from the past.

After a bout of brainstorming, he told the two of them a story about brothers fighting for power, sidelining their father, and the mother rising to the top.

At first, both Big Mi Mi and Zhao Jinmai listened with great interest — Yes! Exactly! This was the wealthy-family drama they had imagined!

So on-brand!

But soon, both of them started feeling something was off.

No choice — neither of them was a poor student. Zhao Jinmai, who had just taken the college entrance exam not long ago, had scored over fifty points above the undergraduate cutoff and over one hundred and seventy points above the arts cutoff, making her this year's Central Academy of Drama double first place.

So under these circumstances, the more the two listened to Bai Liang's made-up story, the more familiar it sounded.

In the end, it was Zhao Jinmai, who was currently at the peak of her life's knowledge, who couldn't hold back and asked first.

"Brother, the story you're telling... why do I remember the protagonist's surname being Li, not Bai?"

Hearing this, Big Mi Mi couldn't help but slap her thigh and reach out to pinch Bai Liang.

"You brat, you even used Emperor Li Shimin's story?"

"Not just that!" Zhao Jinmai eagerly added: "The second half is a magical rewrite of Wu Zetian... but it's still the Li family's."

Bai Liang thought for a moment, "Then you've inspired me — I'll name this story Love You, Mom — See You at Xuanwu Gate."

"Still playing dumb?!" Big Mi Mi pretended to be angry.

But she didn't forget to praise Zhao Jinmai: "Mai Mai is really smart!"

Having shown her presence, Zhao Jinmai smiled a little sheepishly, then shrank back.

So weird — even though she'd been praised, that older sister's gaze still made her a little scared.

"Hey~ you're the one who insisted on hearing a story. I don't have one on hand, so I could only make one up on the spot." Bai Liang said innocently.

He figured he'd made it up pretty well — he'd integrated the Old Li family's stories and even transformed them into a modern setting.

A wealthy family~ could there be any wealthier than the Old Li family?

"I wanted to hear something normal about your family~"

"What story could my family have? Parents in love, happy household, loving relatives, kind elders, peaceful life... just a very ordinary family."

Big Mi Mi: Honestly, being able to gather so many elements together isn't all that ordinary — for plenty of people, it might even be quite enviable.

The key point is this doesn't even include the condition of "being rich."

"Then why did you become a male model before debuting?"

"I was introduced to it right after graduation, and a male model is the same as an actor — just a job, no real difference." Bai Liang said, not particularly bothered.

The way he said it carried quite a bit of the style of Teacher Ma saying "I've never touched money, I'm not interested in money, because the happiest I ever was was when I was making 91 yuan a month as a teacher."

Damn pretentious! And damn ridiculous!

But when it was Bai Liang saying it, people instinctively believed him.

They felt he probably really did think that way.

(End of chapter)