Chapter 976

In reality, Meng Li was still the lucky one.

Compared to her, Lang Xia was in a worse situation.

He had just changed his agent from He Yingzi to Zhou Ping'an when Zhou Ping'an resigned. His work suffered setback after setback; the projects he was in the middle of negotiating were snatched away because there was no agent to mediate, or the negotiations fell into a stalemate, and nothing could be pushed forward smoothly.

The frustration in Lang Xia's heart can be imagined.

Lang Xia, without He Yingzi and Zhou Ping'an, certainly wouldn't go out of style immediately.

His past works and accumulated fame and fan base were still there.

But he felt like he was now a bit like Tang Monk on the journey to the West without his three disciples to protect him; every demon and monster wanted to pop out and take a bite of his flesh—

No one negotiated with him with an attitude of "respect" anymore, whether it was his salary or other conditions.

Lang Xia had always felt that since he was now a first-tier star, projects should be chasing after him. As it turned out, he was immediately revealed for what he was. Without an agent in this circle to help him maintain a fake first-tier image, not many people actually recognized his ability to carry a project alone.

Yu Jiang, with whom he had collaborated the most, also suspended his cooperation with him because of his refusal of the previous project.

These days, how should I put it, were suffocating enough to drive him crazy.

What Lang Xia couldn't understand even more was that when he wanted to find another reliable agent, not a single person he contacted was willing to take him on.

What was going on?

He was a dignified first-tier star; whoever got their hands on him would be getting a cash cow for free, right?

Even if the agents he contacted were already senior veterans in the industry with mature artists in their hands, that shouldn't be a reason not to represent him.

Didn't Zhou Ping'an represent several at once?

Lang Xia, of course, didn't know that his act of driving away He Yingzi had caused a huge stir in the agents' circle.

He didn't know that before he proposed the breakup, He Yingzi had already been contacting other agents in the industry, asking them to take him on and help him out.

He also didn't know about He Yingzi's cancer.

After his collaboration with He Yingzi ended, he never contacted her again.

"Lang Xia came to find me." Chen Ziyan sneered at Lu Yan He over the phone, "He still doesn't know where exactly his stupidity lies."

Lu Yan He: "Watching him like this, I suddenly understand why some artists, who have clearly been popular for a few years, go out of style in the blink of an eye."

"He Yingzi and Zhou Ping'an were both experts at marketing and hype; they could hype up three points of popularity into seven. But that was watered down." Chen Ziyan said, "Without the person adding the water, the remaining bit of water slowly evaporates."

Lu Yan He: "So that's it for Lang Xia?"

"Depends on the situation. He has filmed some works in the past few years, but he offended his two greatest benefactors, He Yingzi and Yu Jiang. To make a comeback, it depends on luck and whether he can persevere." Chen Ziyan said, "Many stars who were once popular can't start over; they can't let go of their pride."

Lu Yan He: "I always felt he would reap what he sowed, but I didn't expect him to be implicated because of this."

"Zhou Ping'an never thought about paving a way for him. Look at Meng Li; although Zhou Ping'an is gone, there are still Zhou Ping'an's people inside Shijin helping Meng Li manage things." Chen Ziyan said, "Zhou Ping'an's departure was to avoid the limelight, not to leave the entertainment industry forever. It's impossible for him not to have left a backup plan, yet he didn't lay any of his backup plans on Lang Xia. Now you know his attitude toward Lang Xia."

"His treatment of He Yingzi has already chilled everyone's hearts."

"That's exactly how it is." Chen Ziyan smiled, "The two people you hate most in the entertainment industry are now having a hard time climbing back up. Luck is really on your side."

"Lang Xia still has a chance to climb back up, right?"

"Currently, it looks difficult, at least difficult within a few years." Chen Ziyan said, "He clearly doesn't have the ability to carry the load himself. During this period, he has been retreating step by step."

"Lang Xia doesn't have the natural ability to generate topics like Ma Zhiyuan."

"To be precise, it's the ability to cause trouble." Chen Ziyan corrected, "Lang Xia, after all, had his father at the helm. His father has been struggling in this industry for so many years, and in the past few years, he had He Yingzi controlling things for him. Over time, his awareness of the rules is still stronger than Ma Zhiyuan's."

"Come to think of it, that's true."

Lang Xia was not as uncontrollable as Ma Zhiyuan.

The huge changes that have occurred in the entertainment industry over the past six months all started with that livestream of Ma Zhiyuan's.

Ma Zhiyuan could no longer appear in front of the camera, Lang Xia was affected, Zhou Ping'an went abroad, Chen Pinhe's projects were shelved one after another, and Lu Yan He entered "divine hiding" mode—

For a time, a large amount of resources in the domestic entertainment industry were distributed to others because of this.

Especially Jiang Army.

Most of Chen Pinhe's projects, through the efforts of Shi Huo, were brought into the pocket of Jiang Army.

Including one of Chen Pinhe's Hollywood films.

Online, there appeared the theory that Jiang Army was truly lucky to have met Lu Yan He.

Jiang Army was also, as always, not updating his status on social media, just quietly filming.

Saying nothing, responding to nothing.

Chen Ziyan said that Jiang Army's illness previously brought about a very big change in him.

He now basically just films, rests, and occasionally attends some events and award ceremonies.

Besides that, he doesn't take many things to heart.

Lu Yan He envied this state of Jiang Army's.

"Teacher Jiang's rhythm is really comfortable."

"Yes." Chen Ziyan nodded, "He is now being a very pure actor, and he films both domestically and abroad. The themes and genres are different, which also effectively avoids the problem of being too visible and making the audience feel tired. His frequency of appearing in films is actually no lower than yours, but his volume is not as loud as yours. For an actor, this is actually a good thing."

Many superstars have only one film a year, or one every two years.

From preparation to filming, from post-production to release, they are always under close attention.

Such big projects can help stars maintain a high level of attention from the very beginning.

Correspondingly, if he appears in the audience's field of vision too frequently, especially if the characters he performs are all much the same, it is really easy to make people tired. Even for a superstar. Lu Yan He faced this problem.

His way of solving this problem was to highlight different facets in different film projects.

For example, when *No God* was released, his team and the film's team would not promote the fact that "Lu Yan He has good acting skills" at all; the focus of the promotion was entirely on the characteristics of the character Lu Yan He played, promoting the character.

For example, *The Boat*, even during the awards season, they didn't go against the trend to emphasize that Lu Yan He actually had good acting skills, but instead highlighted that in order to achieve a film, Lu Yan He could sacrifice his own high-profile performance in the film.

Different films leave different impressions, rather than promoting handsomeness, good acting skills, or the same traits in a cookie-cutter way.

Even so, Lu Yan He still had to face the problem of excessive exposure.

This was also the reason why he could stay in Africa with peace of mind.

Although it was very hot here.

However, it didn't matter; the hot summer would always pass.