Chapter 325

On the night of April 2nd, *The Ballad of Bai Yu*, which had been airing for nearly two weeks, suddenly exploded.

The plot that night was that the immortal played by Li Zhibai, in order to save the little demon played by the heroine, injected his own cultivation into the little demon's body, helping her pass the death tribulation, and he himself became a mortal, falling into the human world.

It is a common plot in Xianxia dramas, but the two protagonists acted with all their might, completely invested, completely bringing the audience into the plot. After one episode was broadcast, Li Zhibai and the name of his character directly went on the hot search.

The hot search was bought by the drama party, however, there were many people speaking in the hot search, and, more and more.

The most critical thing is that a large number of marketing accounts suddenly "live people chasing dramas," no longer sending that kind of cookie-cutter template copy.

The segment where Li Zhibai shouted at the little demon with red eyes and all his might was also forwarded in large numbers, especially on short video platforms, almost brushing the screen.

Lu Yan He smiled and @Li Zhibai in the three-person group, saying: Look, stop being stubborn, the drama Zhou Ping'an picked for you exploded again.

In the past two weeks, Li Zhibai has been complaining about Zhou Ping'an in the group, blaming him for picking such a dragging Xianxia drama for himself, not only being laughed at by many people on the Internet, but also being complained about for poor acting skills, ice-cold face, saying that when watching *Accompany You to the End of the World*, he felt Li Zhibai still had acting skills, but when he got to the Xianxia drama, he showed his true colors.

These remarks made Li Zhibai very angry.

Lu Yan He and Yan Liang have been soothing his irritable emotions, saying that Xianxia dramas can wait and see, because generally, such long Xianxia dramas, if not broadcast to the middle, can't really see the true effect.

Didn't expect, halfway through the broadcast, it really exploded.

Li Zhibai: You don't know how smug Zhou Ping'an is, he called me immediately.

Lu Yan He: Who told you to keep saying he was bad-mouthing you? Blame him for picking a bad play for you.

Li Zhibai: Whose side are you on? You forgot the pain after the wound healed, right? Actually helping Zhou Ping'an speak.

Lu Yan He: I'm closing my mic.

For many dramas, they are actually just missing an opportunity, a topic that explodes.

In *Accompany You to the End of the World*, the rich second generation played by Li Zhibai was the role that took on the "fire" and "topic degree." Now in *The Ballad of Bai Yu*, it started to catch fire from this scene of his again... Overnight, Li Zhibai's identity as an actor finally officially entered the sight of many film and television companies.

"It's only April, and all three of them have big hit dramas."

For the brokerage company Star Entertainment, the first quarter of this year was like stepping on dog shit luck, ushering in too many unexpected joys.

*Friends* established Lu Yan He's status today in one fell swoop and made Yan Liang popular. Now *The Ballad of Bai Yu* has also exploded as Li Zhibai's first male lead drama broadcast. Three idol artists who came out of the Fengzhi group actually all became popular in their own encounters in the two years after the group disbanded.

This is something Star Entertainment never expected.

Star Entertainment doesn't just do the idol artist type.

Actors represented by Jiang Yuqian are also the reason why Star Entertainment has a firm foothold in the entertainment industry.

It's just that Star Entertainment's previous actors always had the characteristic of "yin flourishing and yang declining." Female actors appeared in the grand occasion of "three first sisters"—the so-called three first sisters, that is, no one is convinced who is the first sister, so they are jokingly called "all three are Star Entertainment's first sisters" by many media. Among male actors, there is only one Zhang Zhiwen who became a late bloomer relying on *Hongzhou*.

This has an impact on Star Entertainment's actor lineup and when negotiating cooperation with major platforms.

Now that all three have representative works on the path of male actors and have entered the first line, how can Star Entertainment not be proud.

However, Vice Ma Zong is not particularly happy. Because he is mainly responsible for the idol artist sector in the company, the fact that Lu Yan He, Li Zhibai, and Yan Liang have become popular and recognized on the path of actors means that they may tilt their focus to the path of actors later.

Then the achievements made by these three popular stars have nothing to do with Vice Ma Zong.

Especially Lu Yan He—

Lu Yan He rushed out as a dark horse and now has the momentum of a leader of the young generation in their early twenties.

A film *Sanshan* that he guest-starred in, under his influence, has so far received a box office of nearly 80 million, becoming an incredible miracle recently, making many film companies want to replicate such a box office miracle.

Not to mention *Friends* and the Golden Tripod Awards.

Vice Ma Zong's regret is beyond words. This mood is like watching the stock you just threw away suddenly soar four or five times. At this time, he naturally wouldn't think that even if he returned to the past and knew that Lu Yan He would become so popular in the future, he couldn't change his attitude towards Lu Yan He.

What makes Vice Ma Zong even more annoyed now is that Chen Ziyan firmly controls all of Lu Yan He's affairs. They can't intervene at all. After *Friends* was broadcast, how many platforms and film and television companies wanted to find Lu Yan He for cooperation, found Star Entertainment, and took out generous benefits, as long as they could negotiate Lu Yan He.

At this time, it's not just a simple matter of the benefits that Lu Yan He alone can exchange.

This means that mastering Lu Yan He means mastering the initiative in negotiations.

But whether it's Vice Ma Zong or other senior executives of the company, they can't bypass Chen Ziyan to intervene in Lu Yan He's affairs at all, let alone master Lu Yan He.

The contract Lu Yan He re-signed with the company clearly stated that Lu Yan He's brokerage affairs are the responsibility of Chen Ziyan.

They can completely ignore others in the company.

"Fortunately, Yan Liang has also risen," Zhou Ping'an said to Vice Ma Zong with a smile, "Ma Zong, look, I told you before that Yan Liang could get into Jingyi, he would definitely be popular. Keeping him in our own hands won't be a loss."

Vice Ma Zong looked at Zhou Ping'an's smug look and curled his lips, "Do you have any self-awareness in your heart? Was Yan Liang made popular by you? He was made popular by Lu Yan He. Didn't you not want Yan Liang to act in this play at the beginning? Do you think I don't know?"

Vice Ma Zong's output made Zhou Ping'an's face red.

Zhou Ping'an: "..."

"Now you have three first-line male stars in your hands, plus Cheng Hai, other agents in the company have come to me to complain. If you continue to be so smug, just divide two people out," Vice Ma Zong said.

Zhou Ping'an was shocked, "This won't do, Ma Zong, these were all pulled up by me, who wants to pick my peaches!"

Vice Ma Zong sneered, "Was Ma Zhiyuan pulled up by you?"

Zhou Ping'an was furious: "Is it that dog thing Lin Suyang?!"

Vice Ma Zong: "I'm not alarmist, there are four first-line stars in your hands, even Chen Ziyan doesn't have that many."

"That's because she doesn't want to bring so many people. Is it easy for me to work hard every day? The first-line stars I pulled up, just because there are many, have to be brought by others. Then why should I be so conscientious and painstaking in the future? Since it's all making wedding clothes for others, what the hell am I weaving cloth for."

Zhou Ping'an had the posture of "if you dare to snatch my artists, I will fight you."

Vice Ma Zong looked at him for a long time before happily curling his lips, "The acting is quite in place. Alright, stop acting in front of me, save your energy to act elsewhere. I definitely support you, does this still need to be said? You are my person, if I don't support you, who do I support?"

Zhou Ping'an immediately smiled and said: "I said so, Ma Zong, how can those villains affect the relationship between us."

Vice Ma Zong looked at his shameless look and said angrily: "I think you are the villain!"

*The Ballad of Bai Yu* popularity broke 10,000 in the station, starting with three hot searches every day, data on major platforms soared, and it really started to explode.

Lu Yan He was very happy for Li Zhibai.

Strictly speaking, Li Zhibai's popularity and fans in terms of idol artists are indeed a bit different from Ma Zhiyuan. Li Zhibai's popularity is mainly based on his personality charm outside the stage. In short, his real personality of "being arrogant, true temperament, and lazy" has attracted a lot of fans in this Internet era, and his passerby popularity is good.

Ma Zhiyuan is really relying on business ability and one stage after another to attract fans, and his fans are far more fanatical than Li Zhibai.

In *Idol Era*, although Li Zhibai was always in the first echelon, he still lost more and won less compared to Ma Zhiyuan.

If the previous *Accompany You to the End of the World* made Li Zhibai explode a little bit by relying on the role of a rich second generation and attracted a lot of fans, then this *The Ballad of Bai Yu* made Li Zhibai successfully explode as a male lead.

Xianxia dramas are the easiest to produce big hits, and the easiest to explode the male lead—no way, the main audience of this type of drama is women. Based on the principle of opposites attracting, what female audiences like more is often the male lead who is moved by substituting into the female lead's perspective.

Once Li Zhibai exploded, he immediately entered the candidate list for all subsequent big dramas suitable for him to act in.

Many people will think—especially Li Zhibai's fans, people who don't know the situation, feel that Li Zhibai is already very popular, a proper first line, no matter who he is compared with, he can't compare a significant difference. Being so popular, for film and television dramas, he is definitely a first-sequence candidate.

But in fact, this is not the case. Li Zhibai is indeed popular, and many plays hope to invite him, but big male lead, S-level big dramas, will be more cautious about Li Zhibai. Because he has no record of carrying dramas, and there are countless failed cases of idols transforming to carry dramas. Li Zhibai's popularity in *Accompany You to the End of the World* before was mainly interpreted by the industry as the role's setting just hitting the audience's point, which was an accident, not how good Li Zhibai's acting skills were, or how popular he was.

This is one of the reasons why Li Zhibai seems very popular but has never reached the top in the male actor sequence.

No matter how popular an actor is, he needs to rely on solid work results to brush his gold body.

A popular supporting role play cannot carry such a status.

From Li Zhibai, Lu Yan He reflects on himself, and it is actually the same.

Everyone says that the protagonist and supporting role are not important, as long as the role is good.

However, the positioning of supporting roles in the industry means that all actors want to act as protagonists—before *Friends* was broadcast, Lu Yan He was popular, but he was only popular, and in everyone's eyes, he didn't carry dramas.

It wasn't *Friends* that exploded and let him fly up. Chen Lingling might not have thought of cooperating with him on that streaming crime film. That was a serious double male lead, and the other partner was Zeng Qiao.

Artistic pursuit is one thing, and realistic problems have to be considered.

The so-called "protagonist and supporting role don't matter," that really has to wait until the status in the world is solid, to be so willful.

Chen Ziyan said: "Fortunately, *Friends* exploded, otherwise, if you keep filming like this, the industry's positioning of you will probably become a golden supporting role."

Lu Yan He's performance as a supporting role is indeed awesome.

*The Ballad of Bai Yu* exploded, but other dramas flopped.

*Sinking Ice*, which Yan Liang acted in as a supporting role, was broadcast, but there was almost no splash.

A bit awkward.

Lu Yan He also watched a few episodes, and must say, this drama was really filmed very badly.

"It's rotten from the script level, Zhou Ping'an also picks this kind of play for you," Lu Yan He complained about this matter when he was eating with Yan Liang privately, "I feel many lines are mentally retarded when I listen to them."

Yan Liang said: "This is said privately, I think so too."

Lu Yan He: "Why did Zhou Ping'an pick this play for you at the beginning?"

Although Lu Yan He had many unpleasant things with Zhou Ping'an, he still recognized Zhou Ping'an's ability.

Zhou Ping'an's eyes are very poisonous, otherwise he wouldn't pick plays for Li Zhibai, one pick is accurate.

Yan Liang said: "The production side of this drama, Wenxia Zhiyin, they want to film a magic big drama *God Map* adapted from a game, which is a big IP. At that time, what Zhou Ping'an wanted to fight for me was actually a role of an important male supporting role in this drama. At that time, Wenxia Zhiyin proposed that giving me this role is fine, but I also have to help them film two more plays, one of which is *Sinking Ice*."

"So that's it, no wonder," Lu Yan He understood, "Then did you film *God Map*?"

"Not yet," Yan Liang shook his head, "It won't start filming until the second half of the year."

"Zhou Ping'an took a fancy to *God Map* just because it's a big IP?"

"Yes, there are many fans, the kind that is popular before it is broadcast," Yan Liang said, "At that time, Zhou Ping'an wanted to use this drama to open up my popularity. If I can act in a role in this drama, not to mention whether it is popular or not, but I can be known by many people."

Lu Yan He heard Yan Liang say this, and a thought suddenly popped into his mind.

Zhou Ping'an wouldn't want Yan Liang to withdraw from the drama *God Map* again, right?

If the reason Zhou Ping'an picked this drama for Yan Liang was to open up Yan Liang's popularity, now that Yan Liang has already opened it up through *Friends*, the role of *God Map* has become chicken ribs.

People like Zhou Ping'an, as long as the contract is not signed, can do this kind of thing.

In fact, how does the saying go? The person who knows you best is often your enemy.

Lu Yan He's understanding of Zhou Ping'an has indeed reached the point of "penetrating the wood."

Zhou Ping'an had long wanted Yan Liang to withdraw from *God Map*. No matter how big the IP is, Yan Liang now has no need to act as a male supporting role.

Just worrying about having no excuse, now that *Sinking Ice* flopped, the excuse came.

Zhou Ping'an said to the people on Wenxia Zhiyin's side: "*Sinking Ice* is broadcast so badly, look at the Internet, many people are asking why Yan Liang wants to act in this kind of drama. Alas, it is not easy for small actors to rise. It is not easy to climb up by relying on *Friends*, it hasn't been two months, and this *Sinking Ice* is broadcast like this."

Zhou Ping'an's usual method—raking back.

#Rumor has it that Li Zhibai stars in *God Map*, Yan Liang is unwilling to be a supporting role for his old friend, withdraws from *God Map*#

This news was sent to Lu Yan He by Li Pengfei, asking: Is this true or a rumor?

Lu Yan He was filming on the set, saw this news sent by Li Pengfei, was a bit confused, and asked: I just saw it, let me ask.

Lu Yan He sent it to the three-person group:???

Li Zhibai: The people at Wenxia Zhiyin have problems with their brains.

Yan Liang sent an embarrassed expression covering his face.

Lu Yan He asked: So, what is going on?

Li Zhibai: Zhou Ping'an talked about this play for Yan Liang before. Now Zhou Ping'an is not happy to let Yan Liang act as a supporting role, so he went to communicate with them. Then, Wenxia Zhiyin said, if Yan Liang can continue to act, they will let me act as the male lead, and also increase Yan Liang's scenes, becoming the second male lead.

Lu Yan He:... Then how did the news that you two broke up because of this matter spread?

Yan Liang: Wenxia Zhiyin wants to hype up the popularity.

Lu Yan He:... Count me asking too much, however, is Zhou Ping'an willing to see the news of you two breaking up spread like this?

Li Zhibai: Zhou Ping'an is now satisfied with the salary given by Wenxia Zhiyin. He is too lazy to care about these things, it's not his life or death, and, he wishes that the relationship between us would break up a bit, which is convenient for him to break through one by one.

Yan Liang: As a result, the awkward thing happened now. It became that I pushed it away in order to increase my scenes, and now I have achieved my wish and became the second male lead. The previous second male lead is probably scolding me now.

Lu Yan He asked: Who was the second male lead of *God Map* before?

Yan Liang: Don't know, I also don't know what the original actor lineup was, various lineups have been rumored on the Internet.

Lu Yan He: That's good.

Li Zhibai: When can the script you wrote for us be written?

Lu Yan He: Don't worry, it's already being written. Isn't it because I'm busy filming recently?

Li Zhibai: I don't want to act in these plays, I want to act in the kind of play you act in.

Lu Yan He: What play do I act in?

Li Zhibai: A play like *Sanshan*.

Lu Yan He: I only acted in that one, and actually only acted for one night.

Li Zhibai: Alas, I'm really fed up with these plays about gods, ghosts, immortals, and Xianxia falling in love.

Lu Yan He: Isn't *God Map* a story about adventure?

Li Zhibai: Is it? I haven't seen the script yet.

Lu Yan He: I have seen the story outline, it is a very hot-blooded and moving story.

Li Zhibai: Really?

Lu Yan He: Haven't you played this game?

Li Zhibai: I'm not interested in this kind of role-playing game.

Lu Yan He: This is not a role-playing game.

Li Zhibai: Have you played it?

Lu Yan He: Li Pengfei dragged me to play it. You and Yan Liang can go play it. If it weren't for doing the magazine *Jump Up*, I might have gone to play this game with Li Pengfei from time to time.

Li Zhibai: There are not many games that can make you so addicted, then I'll go take a look.

Lu Yan He called Li Pengfei.

"I said why would you suddenly pay attention to their two things, it turns out it's *God Map*, I forgot, you are a fan of this game," Lu Yan He said with a smile.

Li Pengfei: "This game is really not bad."

Lu Yan He said: "Indeed."

Li Pengfei: "Alas, I don't look forward to this game being adapted into a TV series at all."

His tone was full of sighs of not looking forward to it.

"Why?" Lu Yan He asked.

"The worldview of this game is very huge, I don't think they can film it," Li Pengfei said, "And, there are no successful game-adapted TV series works."

Lu Yan He heard this and subconsciously wanted to say "How can it be, isn't there *Chinese Paladin*?"

Then realized, this is not a work of this world.

For Lu Yan He, *Chinese Paladin* is a memory that is hard to forget.

That was a TV series that the whole school was chasing when he was in junior high school. For the first time, regardless of gender, it was a TV series that everyone liked to watch.

At that time, Xianxia dramas were not yet popular. At that time, Xianxia dramas had love, but it was not based on love. Lu Yan He remembered how uncomfortable he was when he saw the scene where Zhao Linger died. The next day when he went to the classroom, the eyes of half the girls in the class were swollen.

When to get *Chinese Paladin* done?

Li Xiaoyao and Tang Yu Xiaobao... aren't these two ready-made people? Lu Yan He was racking his brains to find a film script for Li Zhibai and Yan Liang to act in, and thought of *Dumb and Dumber*, but it also needed a lot of adaptation. How could *Chinese Paladin* be suitable for them? Even the original characters and settings could be directly copied, without changing at all, it was too similar to the two of them.

"When will your *Late Spring* finish filming?" Li Pengfei asked.

Lu Yan He said: "At the end of this month, if everything goes well."

"May Day holiday, shall we go on a self-driving tour together?" Li Pengfei asked, "I want to go to the desert to see."

"If I have time, I will accompany you," Lu Yan He said, "I haven't rested for a long time either, I need to go to a place far away from the emperor to relax."

Li Pengfei said with a smile: "You... aren't you asking me to arrange two little sisters for you?"

"What are you saying? Are you asking me to call Xu Zijun?"

"Get lost."

"Hehe."

Lu Yan He scolded with a smile and hung up the phone. He hadn't seen Li Pengfei for a long time. After making this call, he actually missed this guy a bit.

He turned back and saw Wang Jing walking over with a few books in her arms, completely overlapping with the image of the stubborn, taciturn Zuo Lanlan in the play.

"Yan He, after work today, I have something I want to ask you for advice, do you have time?" After she finished asking, she bit her lip lightly and looked at Lu Yan He.

Lu Yan He heard this, was stunned, nodded, and said: "Yes, I have time."

Wang Jing immediately smiled with relief and said: "That's great, thank you."

She bowed slightly to Lu Yan He, turned and left, her steps even lighter.

Lu Yan He didn't know what she was looking for him for.

However, it was probably because the story of the few of them in *Late Spring* made him slowly develop a feeling of friendship for these actors who were filming together.

"Hey, Old Lu!" Kong Fan suddenly patted Lu Yan He on the shoulder from behind, with a bright smile, "Why are you staring at Wang Jing? You don't like her, do you?"

Kong Fan followed Lu Yan He's gaze and looked at Wang Jing's back.

Lu Yan He: "... If you have something to say, say it, don't spread rumors."