Chapter 45: Starlight Value Skyrockets

Yan Lieshan wrote emotionally in the manifesto: "I still maintain that Fang Xinghe is the most talented young literary genius of the current era, our biggest pleasant surprise this year.

However, the biggest problem with him also stems from those four words—young literary genius—

His extraordinary talent has also made him excessively arrogant.

The unfortunate experiences of his childhood made Fang Xinghe place extreme value on his own survival experience, yet he had no intention of building a healthy and sound ideological core in terms of emotion and morality; therefore, he lacks the patriotic sentiment of traditional Chinese literati who worry about the nation and its people.

I am deeply regretful about this; regarding him personally, I love him so much that I blame him so severely, hating that he is not steel.

Fang Xinghe is indeed too clever, but when cleverness combines with a childish age, it brings him a second fatal flaw—

Selfishness.

Fang Xinghe, how selfish are your thoughts and words!

Relying on your daring to fight and struggle, you gathered a group of hooligans, taking pride in extorting the weak among your peers, and you actually dare to think you have conquered fate?

How ridiculous!

Everyone might as well think carefully: if Fang Xinghe had not carried out the so-called struggle, but obediently attended school, would he really be unable to survive?

Of course not!

What is the state for? What is the civil affairs department for? What is the school for?

Your predicament was never a real predicament; it is easily solved. Your struggle was not a real struggle; it was merely a dark anger born of extremism.

What kind of irresistible fate is that?

How can it be compared to the torrent of tens of millions of people being laid off?

You accuse the media of eating blood-stained buns, yet you stand with your hands on your hips, spouting a few frivolous nonsense words to gain fame and fortune; does that make you very righteous?

Is it a remarkable skill to live well by bullying, depriving, using violence, deception, and harassment?

What exactly have you conquered?

A group of children shorter than you?

You say you have no sense of justice, no sentiment of pity for the world and its people, and you do not care about the lives and deaths of others; fine, I can understand your coldness and self-isolation after being hurt, and I feel heartache for you.

But you should not abuse your anger time and again. If you truly cannot see the misery of those laid-off workers, cannot see their helpless wailing in the cold wind, then shut up!

If you cannot feel the deep anguish of us media people, you lump us all together as those who stand and talk without feeling the pain in their waists; how arrogant!

I am truly disappointed, so very disappointed. You were supposed to be our pride, but I suddenly realize that the more successful you become, the more direct and intense the negative impact you bring to young people will be.

Regarding this, I am truly heartbroken.

I really do not want to see the new star most favored by the domestic literary world gradually turn into a selfish, cold-blooded, and callous tyrant. This is not my loss; this is the loss of the entire literary and educational circles.

Alas, how sorrowful! When will our country finally be able to give these children who truly possess great talents a good environment where they can grow freely and advance with peace of mind?

Fang Xinghe's personality as it stands now proves precisely that our education is a failure, and such a failure continues to play out again and again.

We can slowly change the problems of education, but Fang Xinghe, do you know that you are collapsing?

In the future, you might write those Fang Xinghe-style articles again, filled with personal style, unique and distinct, carrying strong anger, but you will never be able to write truly good works possessing a great humanistic core.

Scolding people and fighting, you are very skilled, perhaps becoming more and more skilled.

As a literary figure, you are no longer worthy.

Fang Xinghe, you need to truly grow up. Before understanding the hardships and difficulties of adults, stop talking those weightless, childish nonsense. Read more, think more, speak cautiously, act cautiously, and... words end here; take care of yourself."

Once this magnificent article appeared, demons and monsters rose from their seats, cheering joyfully: "What a scolding!"

Yan Lieshan, building on the groundwork laid by friendly forces earlier, successfully deconstructed Fang Xinghe's "halo of fate," and truly managed to "criticize him to the point of stench."

Because the article was written so cleverly, with extremely strong deceptive power, it was the kind of brilliance that even Fang fans would stare at in a daze after reading.

At first glance, it is all plain language; the extremely colloquial expression has no literary flair whatsoever.

However, in terms of content, it uses emotion as a hook, one ring linking to another, while placing himself in the position of a "kind and honest elder," pointing and lecturing from the high posture of hating that someone is not steel, deeply touching the hearts of middle-aged readers and triggering their empathy and identification.

It must be known that the middle-aged people of this era are completely different from the new middle-aged people of the internet age in later generations.

The new middle-aged grew up in the internet age, basically achieving observing the world with open eyes; their thinking is broader, their dialectical ability is stronger, and they are more inclusive.

But the old middle-aged of this moment grew up under special historical backgrounds; most of their lives were consumed in the slow-paced era of print media, yet they suddenly suffered various shocks from the new era precisely when their thinking was taking shape.

Therefore, their characters are rigid and conservative, they emphasize parental authority, they long for the Western moon, and they harbor deep and heavy resentment.

This has nothing to do with the quality of one's character; comparing the two generations of middle-aged people, the overall character background is exactly like this.

Therefore, the conservative middle-aged cannot stand rebellious youths like Fang Xinghe; they will not understand and do not intend to understand, but instead, with hearts surging, they cast their votes of approval for Yan Lieshan, accumulating a surging force.

The small fry also bravely spoke out, howling and charging.

"How dare a yellow-mouthed child speak rashly of national affairs?"

"Fang Xinghe is too bloated, taking himself too seriously. What right does a mere high school entrance exam top scorer have to discuss such obvious policy errors?"

"You are just a middle school student; your understanding of society is so shallow that I cannot bear to look at it."

"A typical figure who studied until he went stupid, the Fang Zhongyong of the new era."

"Originally, he was a person of corrupt morality; what are you expecting? Fang Xinghe even wanted to harm his own biological father; with a character twisted to this extent, isn't he just exposing a bit of his true nature now?"

The black tide surged like an ink sea; the young Fang fans had no power to resist this, and many little girls were so anxious they wiped away tears nonstop. But what about Fang Xinghe?

He remained calm and indifferent, smiling as he watched the dogs panic.

Teacher Fang, Liu Dashan, the old principal, and even Sister Ya Li and Aunt Chen—everyone could not understand why Fang Xinghe did not care at all about the turmoil outside. Being scolded, blacklisted, and slandered, his reputation stank, yet how could he remain so steady?

Because this was exactly what he wanted.

In just five short days, the Starlight Panel completed the KPI of the previous month.

【Fan Value: 4.04 million】

【Starlight Value: 58.88 million】

【Star Glory Value: 3】

The number of fans did not increase much, but the Starlight Value was simply skyrocketing!

Just how many female fans were feeling heartache for their younger brother?

I don't know, it's simply impossible to calculate, but in any case, the head of the water army has made a killing.

His grasp of fan psychology is nothing short of supreme; the situation has unfolded entirely within the boundaries he set, and has finally reached its climax.

As an idol, as long as one does the right thing and says the right words, there is absolutely no need to care about the haters.

In fact, many times, even when an idol does something not quite right, the fans will do everything to whitewash it.

Fans are emotional creatures; when they are lovely, their true hearts seem like crystal, clear and transparent, completely pure, carefully holding only you;

but when they are detestable, they become a combination of love-brained obsessives, control freaks, and the disabled, stupid, blind, and unreasonable.

So fans can be spoiled, but must not be indulged, and must be disciplined.

This is not a good word, but maintaining a cold and tough stance towards them is the approach responsible to oneself, to them, and to society.

Fang Xinghe is not a moral guardian; he is willing to grant fans the utmost respect for his idol status, namely: do no evil, do not lose qualification, do not be treacherous.

Exchange constant radiance for their empathy and support, and then... if they need to be abused, abuse them, without any mercy.

This time, the abuse produced results.

Judging from the increase in fan count and the corresponding rise in Starlight Value, this black tide actively stirred up by the South has refined at least two or three hundred thousand level-two core fans and over ten thousand die-hards for him.

Moreover, no aftereffects were left behind; it was a pure profit.

Too easy.

So easy that Fang Xinghe couldn't help but sigh with emotion: What a desolate yet beautiful era...

Roughly starting from 2018, stars have dared no longer to actively play the black-red game; Fan Fan Bingbing and Yang Mi were the final swan songs.

The core reason is that every track is crowded with similar competitors; everyone fights for traffic, fights for projects, fights for business deals, engaging in a life-or-death resource war with no room for error.

Every time a peer is stepped on, everyone else gets to eat another piece of meat.

For instance, after Brother Qian fell, the new generation of traffic stars collectively had a fat year.

Except for A-Se, who didn't get much, everyone else had their mouths dripping with oil.

Living in such an environment, mutual blackening is inevitable, and anti-blackening naturally must follow.

Fans have too many choices; there are idols everywhere. If you don't maintain your own image well, just wait for fans to run; there is simply no time for you to slowly enjoy the heat of being blackened and red-hot.

Therefore, normal companies and artists are extremely sensitive to black material, handling it immediately upon appearance.

But Fang Xinghe is different; right now, he is in a wonderful environment that "appears to have competitors, but actually has none."

Scouring the whole world, who is his direct competitor?

Han Han?

Not on the same path at all; at most, he counts as half a competitor.

Moreover, Big Brother Hao had no microphone rights before "Three Doors" and "Minus One Degree" were released.

Li Erpeng, Lu Yi?

No, they consider themselves actors, neither understanding nor valuing fan management.

Xie Tingfeng, HOT?

They count as more than half; their fan composition indeed overlaps significantly with Fang Xinghe's.

However, Director Fang opened a separate track for himself, taking a differentiated competition route, so he is not afraid of anyone.

A beauty-oriented Girl President + a literature-oriented crazy wild child + a fashion-oriented rebellious new generation; with such a violent combination floundering in version 1.0 of domestic entertainment, how could he lose?

He absolutely cannot lose a single bit, okay.

So even though the efficiency of converting fans through the writer identity is extremely low and the speed is extremely slow, Fang Xinghe still has ample time to convert haters and sufficient space to digest those negative voices.

Being blackened is not a bad thing; on the contrary, it can aid growth.

Watching the Starlight increase significantly every moment, Director Fang smiled with great delight.

It's already enough to add 5 points of Coordination; soon it will be 6, and in a few days it will be 8... so comfortable~~~

Saving and saving, he simply can't bear to spend it.

When I save up 80 million, I will pull Coordination up to 92 all at once!

Fang Xinghe decided to maintain restraint and delay gratification; at that time, he would reward himself with a big one, which would surely be super awesome.

Turning off the panel, he settled his mind and began reading.

No matter how loud the noise outside gets, it no longer concerns me.

I am just a weak, pitiful, helpless, and focused middle school student; you guys keep cursing, I am going to learn new postures.

Under the guidance of the Mr. Feng professional, Wang Yali bought Fang Xinghe a pile of highly targeted textbooks.

"Director's Thinking," "The Grammar of Film Language," "How to Direct Actors: The Director's Essential Course," "Film Art: Form and Style," "History of World Cinema"...

The above are masterworks for establishing directorial thinking and correctly understanding the director's profession.

The others are question banks for common knowledge on exams.

"Fifteen Lectures on Film Masterpieces," "Industry and Aesthetics of Contemporary Chinese Cinema," "History of Chinese Television Documentaries"...

Teacher Feng and Wang Yali collected all relevant books in the three major categories of film history, directorial vocabulary, and film theory, and included a super reference book, "Film Art Dictionary."

Fang Xinghe was extremely grateful, so he read with great dedication.

Since Zhao Chunhua left, a full five days passed; he briefly went through all the books related to directorial thinking and finally correctly understood what being a director is about.

Three basic abilities: acting, screenwriting, and audio-visual language.

Four management qualities: finding money, assembling the team, controlling the scene, and promotion/screening.

Two upper-limit talents: aesthetic taste and humanistic core.

Acting is not about performing personally, but the ability to perceive good performance and understand what kind of performance effect the film needs.

Screenwriting is also not a hard requirement; a director does not necessarily have to write the script; as long as they have the ability to appreciate, can distinguish good from bad, and communicate smoothly with the screenwriter, that is enough.

The true fundamental skills are audio-visual language; this is what is taught upon entering the directing department, covering everything from composition, color, shot size, camera position, to editing.

Possessing the three basic abilities, one can make a movie.

Management quality is a quite realistic issue; textbooks don't teach it, but you truly can't do without it, especially under the domestic industry atmosphere.

Having management quality without fundamental skills, you can still be a director; Han Er and Guo Si are examples.

Having fundamental skills without management quality, go play on the sidelines.

Unless you have special talent.

Talent directly determines what a director can make of a normal script: a bad film, an average one, or a classic; the difference lies in aesthetic sense and the humanistic core.

The most classic presentation of aesthetic taste is precisely the National Master's Olympic opening ceremony; to praise it as unrivaled under heaven is not excessive, is it?

There are also many good examples of a humanistic core: Wen Muye's "Dying to Survive", Guo Fan's "The Wandering Earth", and Wu Jing's "Wolf Warrior 2"; although their cores differ, they all possess a unique temperament that ordinary audiences can feel.

If Lu Taijun were to direct "Dying to Survive", that would be a disaster; just imagine that scene yourselves.

Anyway, Fang Xinghe was getting goosebumps.

So, how exactly does one become a director? The path is very clear yet difficult.

One, learn basic capabilities.

Two, struggle and grind within the industry to hone management skills.

Three, determine your own talent and find your personal path.

Four, create, grow, reach the peak, decline, and perish...

Combining this with his past life's experiences, Fang Xinghe finally understood why so many great directors came from non-traditional backgrounds.

The upper limit is heaven-ordained; struggling holds little meaning.

Basic capabilities can be learned by everyone, but what level one achieves is not decided by hard work.

In fact, the talent required to be a director is even more stringent than that for an actor.

An actor can grind it out through force, can practice clumsily; a director, go grind an iron pestle!

Right, Director Bi?

Then, comparing and looking at Han Er and Guo Si again, one can understand that they indeed possess talent.

Big Brother's talent lies in the humanistic core; the confused, pretentious, and melancholic style of the literary youth in his films and books is identical, shot with a highly personal style that some audiences love very much.

And Little Si's talent point is in aesthetics; later, when he was rejected by the film circle and went to shoot idol dramas, the stories and pacing were still often terrible, yet he could always make the actors look beautiful, and his compositions often had flashes of brilliance.

And Fang Xinghe...

Upon realizing this was yet another talent-based profession, Director Fang suddenly felt greatly relieved.

There's no other reason; this young master has hoarded a lot of talent.

【Art Attributes: Writing 79, Acting 35, Director 1】

The new attributes lie there blatantly; with our current Starlight Points, we could even raise it to 85 points in one go, so what is there to panic about?

A small start doesn't count as a start; every single Starlight Point was earned through my hard work, so how does that not count as my effort~~~

Xiao Kai happily closed the director's book, reviewing high school courses on one side while waiting for the final moment on the other.

Wang Tong is almost here; the new interview that will sound the horn of counterattack is rushing forward in big strides.

PS: In the chapter deleted earlier, some content had to be used, so it can only be filled in slowly later; don't be strange if you see a sense of familiarity...