Chapter 658: Someone Wants to Step In and Deal With Her

Bai Liang really is very easy to talk to.

When other actors in the production discuss issues with him about screen time or character setups, he basically never refuses, though generally speaking, he still discusses things most with the female actresses.

And off-screen, he's also very easy to talk to, even accommodating some pretty strange requests.

For example, teaching a girl how to live off a man like a man would!

Actually, it's not like it can't be done~

After all, the other party insists on saying she's a boy.

Speaking of which, the CP of Dou Xiao Tian and Zhou Ye is being hyped like crazy right now~

At the moment, "The Son-in-Law" just premiered, and some of their pure-hate CP fans, upon learning that Zhou Ye had a cameo in this drama, actually started looking forward to it in the bullet comments, even though the characters they played didn't interact at all.

"There's one question we need to sort out first!"

"Go ahead!" Bai Lu immediately straightened her sitting posture, looking like an obedient student ready to listen.

"Do you actually want to live off a big sister, or live off a big brother?"

Bai Liang's face was full of mischief, feeling that this topic was actually quite interesting!

Mainly because Miss Bai Lu's usual "I'm a boy" catchphrase was indeed a bit outrageous, so it's no wonder the internet gave her a derogatory nickname, calling her something like "Mr. Bai."

Actually, the persona that Bai Lu and her team set up, if it were some years earlier, wouldn't have been such a big problem, and wouldn't have been framed and criticized.

But what is the online environment like now?

Just look at how some extreme trend has been intensifying over the past two years—if a female celebrity dares to play the "pandering to men" card online, it'd be a miracle if she didn't get blasted to smithereens~

Besides Bai Lu, Bai Liang actually knew another unlucky soul who had already taken a hit in this area and was about to take an even bigger one.

Zhang Ruonan.

First of all, her name itself is a typical case of valuing boys over girls, but that's the previous generation's baggage—if handled well, in terms of public opinion she could place herself in a pitiful position and actually gain a wave of sympathetic fans.

And her fan name is actually called "Nan Friends."

That name is actually quite well chosen—it can strengthen the "internet girlfriend" feeling, making male fans feel she's as亲切 as the girl next door.

But from a certain angle, this is a huge landmine.

Zhang Ruonan, as a rather rare case among young actresses where she actually has more male fans than female fans, there's nothing wrong with catering a bit more to male fans, but her fan count grew while her commercial value stayed pretty much the same.

Because most male fans really don't spend a damn cent~ Their probability of spending money is way lower than that of idol-fan girls!

Bai Liang has had deep personal experience with this, because he actually has quite a few male fans too, but the brothers mainly just offer companionship.

The ones willing to spend a little money to watch his movies are already considered decent people; there's still a bunch of birds who call themselves fans, support the great immortal, then turn around and go find pirated copies~

It's just that Bai Liang doesn't fleece his fans, so he doesn't really care about this, and even finds these birds quite interesting—as long as they don't act out his scenes in games.

But Zhang Ruonan is probably pretty desperate—fans grew, commercial value didn't, it's even equivalent to going backwards.

But the upside is, at least there's some cheering.

After all, although the brothers don't spend money, their voices are really loud, and can play a big role in "showing up to support."

As for Bai Lu...

Before she could answer his question, Bai Liang suddenly had a brainwave. Just when the girl was still a little embarrassed, not knowing what to say, he suddenly clapped his hands: "I know what you wanted to ask!"

Bai Lu:???

Huh? How do you already know?

At this moment she was completely at a loss because her little scheme seemed to have been completely exposed by the other party~

After all, the entire production crew knows she's "sucking up to" Bai Liang!

Occasionally some people look at her with slightly odd gazes, but Bai Lu's mentality is still pretty good—she keeps sucking up, basically not letting any opportunity slip.

In her best friend's words: even if she can't sleep with the man-god, just getting a whiff is good enough!

Of course, that's a bit too crude!

To put it another way—even if the development of a certain kind of relationship is already too late, or won't work out, at least get familiar, build up the friendship, right! Maybe in the future if there's some suitable opportunity on Bai Liang's side, he'll think of her~

But some things can be done, yet cannot be said.

Adults, after all—whether seducing or currying favor, ultimately place themselves in a lower position.

Although Bai Lu herself is quite willing, and doesn't feel wronged, if Bai Liang really called it out, it would indeed hurt her pride a bit.

And then at this moment, Bai Liang said: "Having it both ways is really hard~ I can't do it myself. Very hard to do."

Hearing this, Bai Lu's head almost dropped to her chest, a huge wave of shame sweeping over her whole body.

It's over, is he really going to lay it bare? Should she make a dash for the door later, or just give up and strip right here?

"The money from male fans and female fans often can't be earned at the same time."

"Huh?"

"Speaking of which, I don't even know if you're trying to appeal to female fans or male fans, I always feel like something's off—are you trying to purify your fanbase?"

Indeed, Bai Lu's operation didn't really seem like she was trying to pander to male fans, because not many men would be attracted to a girl who calls herself a "man"—just think about those tomboys back in school days, at most they'd treat her as a buddy.

But when a star builds a fanbase, one of the main selling points is actually sexual fantasy.

Why do top male stars have higher commercial value than top female stars? Isn't it precisely because female fans are more likely to spend money!

Right right right! Everything you say is correct!

Bai Lu actually couldn't take in any of Bai Liang's "rational analysis"—she just felt relieved.

As long as it wasn't the extremely awkward and shameful situation she had originally anticipated, she could accept anything!

But then~ clever as she was, she didn't think Bai Liang was really analyzing fan-attraction factors with her at this moment.

I'm gonna cry! He's really too gentle!

It's obvious he's using this method to save her face~

After all, it was she who was being Tang Tu just now, saying something she shouldn't have said, making it hard for him to respond.

Bai Lu mulled it over in her head, and indeed found that what she had said earlier was problematic—it felt like showing up in a tight pencil skirt secretary outfit to ask some rich guy how to keep a mistress~

How the hell could something like this be made public?!

After a bout of mental turbulence, Bai Lu picked up Bai Liang's thread, and while watching the TV drama, chatted with him for a while about topics related to pleasing fans.

She didn't dare say any extra words for now, feeling that her mouth could be rather "wild-tongued" at times.

Speaking of wild-tongued—

Wait, why is it that after that Meng Jie went wild-tongued, she could still go on a crazy fan-gathering spree?

The trouble that woman kicked up is way bigger than hers~

Thinking of this, Bai Lu couldn't help sneaking another glance at Bai Liang, because right when Mencius was getting cyberbullied the worst, her male lead here suddenly took leave from the crew and disappeared to god-knows-where.

Naturally, the crew didn't dare ask more, didn't dare say more, not even anyone privately gossiping about it.

But Bai Lu secretly checked, and Bai Liang that day was completely in an "out of contact" state—no temporary notices, no public appearances, basically just vanished from the crew and no one knew where he went.

Obviously, this was a very abrupt case of throwing his weight around, after all, taking such urgent leave was almost equivalent to abandoning the entire crew.

God knows whether the producer and director burned incense and prayed to Bodhisattva to protect them, hoping Bai Liang wouldn't suddenly "act up" and dump the job.

After all, this kind of thing wasn't unheard of in the industry.

Luckily, he came back early the next day, and everyone tacitly pretended nothing had happened.

On top of that, Bai Liang very politely had his assistant treat everyone to drinks and snacks, and even made up the delayed filming through overtime—oh, and Bai Da himself forked out double overtime pay. After all this, the crew actually kind of hoped he'd do it a few more times~

Throwing his weight around? No way! Throwing his weight around with extra pay? Welcome!

As for where Bai Liang actually went on his leave—

Bai Lu: So hard to guess!

Because the next day, Meng Jie came back online at full health, even trying to argue with the haters~she'd previously been sprayed so badly she had to close her comments section.

After secretly figuring out the situation, Bai Lu didn't really have many other thoughts—only that after her envy, Meng Jie's turning misfortune into blessing made her eyes go red with even more envy!

However, no matter how envious, Bai Lu still didn't quite dare to charge in. She hadn't even done anything yet, and those two sluttish sisters already wished they could tear her apart.

At first those two just wanted to steal her role, but after meeting face-to-face on set, that ready-to-fire-at-any-moment stance, looking like they wanted to wipe her out, was even more terrifying than the mistress-tearing scenes in TV dramas!

If she really lost her head and rushed in to "join the battle," getting dragged into this kind of Asura field—she didn't dare imagine what her already-not-great reputation would turn into.

Even if she wasn't afraid of those two sluttish sisters, in Bai Liang's story these two weren't exactly bosses.

The truly formidable ones have been beating each other up for years without stopping.

Completely not comparable to the small fry she'd seen.

So under these circumstances, Bai Lu only dared to wildly probe, walking back and forth on the edge of danger.

Overall mentality: didn't want to get involved in that obviously super-troublesome conflict, but was also a bit drooling over the capybara wandering in front of her every day. A total纠结怪 hidden under a funny-girl disguise.

Bai Liang felt this was pretty normal. Honestly, given his current level of "fame as a playboy," it wasn't hard to understand young girls who just turned adult getting worked up, and it was also normal for relatively older mature sisters to crave a taste. But the batch of misses in the middle should have some "awe" toward him.

It's the time to fight for their careers—even if hormones got to their heads, reason would calm them down.

Those who still dared to come forward at this point were either scheming bad women, or rare silly-sweet types.

Basically couldn't be normal people.

So... this little Bai Lu is actually a normal person!

Bai Liang immediately looked at her with new respect!

Bai Lu, looking at his gaze, felt a strange sense of being affirmed—even though she didn't know what she'd done to deserve it, she still proudly puffed out her chest.

Then she brewed Bai Liang another pot of tea.

Her tea-brewing skills had indeed improved quite a bit now; that tea-slick flavor from before had finally been tucked away.

But the evolution seemed to have gone a bit overboard—brewing tea while sneaking peeks at him, and when caught, lowering her brows and pressing her lips together, shy yet flirtatious. It created a strong contrast with her exaggerated funny-girl persona.

Honestly, if it were a young boy, he'd really fall for this.

Bound to get him all dazed.

Luckily, Bai Liang wasn't a young boy, and he truly贯彻 the word "passive" in his life.

He just sat there purely appreciating, while not stinting on his praise, giving her plenty of emotional value and motivation, and then... said goodnight~

And after Bai Lu returned to her room, her bestie once again couldn't help asking about her progress.

"Bai Mengyan, why are you back again?"

This left Bai Lu completely baffled. "Wait, it's my room, can't I come back?"

Her bafflement was obviously fake—besties for years, how could she not understand what the other meant?

"Stop playing dumb, can you land him or not?"

Alright~no more pretending.

Bai Lu said very crisply: "Honestly, can't land him. Teacher Bai is pretty decent—he really hasn't given me any hint to stay."

"A modern Liu Xiahui?"

"Uh, what do you think?"

Obviously not! After all, Bai Liang's scandals are so numerous they could fill a storybook—Liu Xiahui, my ass.

Even if some are fake, the ones she witnessed with her own eyes must be real, right?

Those two sluttish sisters clearly don't look very innocent with him—they barely even bother pretending in front of Bai Lu.

So—

"Case closed, he just doesn't fancy you at all!" the bestie said in anguish.

Now Bai Lu was genuinely a bit hurt. Though she was a little scared of the Asura field around Bai Liang, she absolutely could not accept any denial of her own charm—a thousand times no!

The key point was, as one of the three look-alike sisters, Bai Liang fancies the other two but not her—what does that mean?

That she's the ugliest?

So Bai Lu immediately fired back hard, presenting "evidence": "Bullshit! He even praised my tea-brewing today~said I had a very special aura!"

"He was just being polite~you go there every day with that eager face to curry favor"

"Bullshit, bullshit!"

After a bout of horseplay, the topic returned to the main track, and her bestie also grew much more serious. "So what are you saying now? Are you going to keep pursuing him or not?"

Bai Lu lay sprawled on the bed and thought it over for a moment, then finally heaved a sigh, looking like a salted fish all over: "I'm giving up, I'm giving up."

Hearing this, the bestie who had been hitting her with jabs the whole time actually started encouraging her again. "Giving up just like that? You're Bai Mengyan! The peerless beauty Bai Mengyan, the milk-skinned Bai Mengyan!"

Bai Lu:... Having a bestie like this is really this old lady's blessing!

I really want to kill her!

But no matter how the "grudges and entanglements" with her bestie developed, when it came to Bai Liang's side, Bai Lu really was preparing to "give up."

After all, she'd done everything she could. She couldn't exactly show up at his door late at night wearing some sexy outfit, could she?

If she went that far and he still didn't take the bait, there'd truly be no way to save face.

Better to "cut her losses in time." The current slightly ambiguous friendship was actually pretty nice. Anyway, she needed to focus on her career now, so she could wait a couple of years and see if there was still a chance.

—

The specific viewership numbers for "My Heroic Husband" don't need belaboring—any drama starring Bai Liang starts off with traffic and attention maxed out.

Everyone was already used to him churning out hit dramas like wholesale goods; the discussion about results was more about whether it could become this year's Drama King.

But nowadays, evaluations of the Drama King have started to diversify, with even multiple "Drama Kings" beginning to appear.

For instance, the one with the best numbers among web dramas, or the one with dual certification from reputation and the industry, or the one with the best mainstream ratings among satellite-TV dramas, and the one with the strongest artistic merit.

Only a small part of 2021 has passed, but the race for Drama King has already shown signs of taking shape.

Among pure web dramas, the just-premiered "My Heroic Husband" was unquestionably the best in both numbers and influence—its viewership, buzz, and breadth of audience all had a somewhat phenomenal feel to them.

Mm. It had already surpassed "Rattan."

Single-platform viewership, peak popularity, market recognition—a comprehensive overtaking.

Regarding this, Sister Tian Tian even felt she'd held things back. After "My Heroic Husband" premiered, she specifically had a moment of reflection with Bai Liang, saying she was too weak and the like.

After all, "Rattan" was a female-led drama, while "My Heroic Husband" was a male-led drama. She felt the latter was obviously better able to bring out Bai Liang's pulling power and broad appeal.