Chapter 486: Zhou Yi, You Really Should Drop Dead

Zhou Yi agreed so quickly that it far exceeded Cheng Long's expectations.

He didn't even consider the question of how much the pay was.

"How did it go? Did it work?"

Watching Cheng Long hang up the phone with a strange expression, the agent hurriedly pressed, a hint of anxiety creeping into his tone without his realizing it.

"He said that if the crew can't find a suitable prop, he's willing to pay out of his own pocket to buy a heavy truck."

Cheng Long paused: "As long as we make the filming realistic."

"……？？？？"

The large hotel room fell into an eerie silence…

After a long moment, the two men, exchanging glances, both instinctively asked the same question at the same time—

"Should we tell Jiang Wen first?"

"Mm… I think we should sign him first. The two of them probably don't have any grudge, otherwise A-Yi wouldn't have agreed to act in it either…" Cheng Long's tone was clearly hesitant, but he decided to lure the man over first.

Far away in the Imperial Capital, Jiang Wen shivered for no reason, and with a sudden jolt actually sneezed uncontrollably—

"Achoo!"

"Bro, you didn't catch something, did you?" his younger brother Jiang Wu frowned.

It's the middle of summer and you're catching a cold?

"Get lost."

Jiang Wen's eyes flashed as he habitually cursed: "Must be some bastard talking about me behind my back. I bet it's that Ning Hao."

Ever since "In the Name of the Father" bloomed inside the wall and spread its fragrance outside through that music video, domestic interest in the "conflict" between Ning Hao and Jiang Wen during the filming of Zhou Yi's MV crew has only grown.

And as Zhou Yi made more and more of a stir in America, more and more reporters began to rewrite history, claiming that the heavy Jiang Wen flavor in "In the Name of the Father" was because his on-set addiction flared up and he seized power on the spot, and that Zhou Yi nearly got into a fight with him on set over it—

Not for any other reason than that such an ambiguous write-up drives traffic and catches the eye.

Mainly because that bastard Jiang Wen really could do something like that, perfectly fitting the public's stereotype of him.

In these past two-plus months, aside from Zhou Yi's award rankings and yet another scandal with someone in America, the unverified gossip about Jiang Wen and Ning Hao has drawn the most attention. Ning Hao even benefited from the disaster and made a big splash domestically—

Everyone knows he's the poor bastard who got body-snatched by Jiang Wen, so sympathy points are maxed out.

"These reporters never change their filthy habits. What the hell have they written me as, some kind of bully? Huh? Do I look like that kind of person?" Mentioning this also made Jiang Wen angry.

Why does that bastard Zhou Yi not only get to stay invisible, but even get portrayed as a righteous man who couldn't stand watching him seize power and stepped in to help Ning Hao?

By contrast, he comes across as the destined-to-be-despised Dafan Sect villain.

"Because you have a record."

Delighted to see his older brother suffer a setback, Jiang Wu smacked his lips a few times: "But you have to admit, that kid Zhou Yi is really something. He's the real deal."

Jiang Wu gave a thumbs-up, deeply moved: "Using racism to actually win over this many people—that's talent."

Though Warner's operations were kept secret and never leaked, both Jiang Wen and Jiang Wu had their own channels for learning about things abroad. Jiang Wen himself had been invited by the American government years ago to go overseas for exchange and study, an attempt to recruit a high-level artistic talent, and he had plenty of connections abroad, so it was easy to learn about some of the shady dealings.

"That's because the work is solid. Only with a strong backbone can you fight like that."

"'Women in Pink' is really raking it in now, cashing in on the biggest dividend of Zhou Yi's peak popularity."

Because of Zhou Yi, "Women in Pink" reached the most-anticipated stage during its promotional phase after passing domestic censorship, and its April 30 premiere date happened to coincide with the SARS outbreak keeping countless people at home, further expanding the audience.

The origin story of the song "Li Bai" was also rehashed over and over by the crew—letting more people at home learn about the inside story from back then.

For example, Zhou Yi really did visit the set only to visit Cheng Hao, agreed to cameo because of Cheng Hao, and even wrote a song called "Li Bai" for his cameo character Li Bai, which became the ending theme. Riding the TV show's heat, it shot straight up, and its catchy melody became a hit on every street corner across the country.

From the initial promotional warm-up through broadcast to now, Cheng Hao, who never attended any of the production's promotional events, was not forgotten for being low-key. Instead, thanks to her god-tier, one-of-a-kind performance in "Women in Pink," she became the Wan Ren Mi who captivated the whole nation.

Her glamorous big waves drove countless men and women in front of their screens wild—truly appealing to both sexes.

Fans who originally came just for Zhou Yi's name were genuinely hooked by the show this time, directly making "Women in Pink"'s ratings firmly lock down the number-one spot in its time slot from the very first episode.

Jie Hun Kuang Liu Ruoyin, Wan Ren Mi Cheng Hao, Ha Mei Xue Jianing, and Nan Ren Po Zhang Yan—the four characters' labels in the show directly set off a firestorm of discussion across the entire TV drama circle.

Cheng Hao, thanks to the Wan Ren Mi role, became the new-generation national goddess—unfortunately, this goddess had already retired from the industry, directly sparking countless viewers' wails of reluctance.

Every internet forum was flooded with incomprehension at Cheng Hao's retirement and calls for her to come back quickly.

"Who's Wan Ren Mi's manager? Got no sense at all? With this kind of hot popularity, why not strike while the iron is hot and get her out there more?"

"I need to see Wan Ren Mi. Without Wan Ren Mi to watch, I'm dying. What's the point of the director filming Jie Hun Kuang? Is Liu Ruoyin as pretty and sexy as Cheng Hao? And the Jie Hun Kuang plotline is filmed so stupidly."

"Where's her company? Willing to let go of such a money tree?"

"Liu Ruoyin's acting is fucking retarded. Hard to imagine she's actually a senior. Cheng Hao, a newcomer in showbiz, leaves her in the dust by miles."

"Zhou Yi's selection, Zhou Yi's selection—Wan Ren Mi made the list too."

"……"

On Tianya, among the forum-dominating posts about "Women in Pink," at least seven out of every ten were discussing Wan Ren Mi and Cheng Hao. Two more were piling on Liu Ruoyin, and one was saying the actress playing Nan Ren Po was actually pretty good-looking too.

The last mainland TV drama to receive this kind of treatment on Tianya right from its domestic premiere was the recently finished Su Youpeng version of "Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber."

By every measure, "Women in Pink" was an absolute mega-hit.

Not only did all the cast including Liu Ruoyin go all out promoting it, even Lu Yi and Chen Kun, who had previously complained that the crew had beefed up their roles into standalone male leads, now kept their mouths shut about it and joined the promotional efforts.

Only the most popular Wan Ren Mi in the show was completely absent outside of it, showing no sign of appearing at all, to the point that the bizarre rumor "Cheng Hao is actually already dead" even circulated for a while.

One piece of evidence supporting this rumor was that paparazzi dug up several addresses Cheng Hao's former classmates and colleagues knew, and even staked out the People's Art Theatre, but for seven straight days didn't see Cheng Hao come or go.

In an era when celebrity blogs hadn't yet become a trend and Weibo didn't even have a shadow, the distance between stars and fans was extremely vast. Even members of some celebrity fan clubs sometimes had to piece together their idol's latest movements from various news sources.

And among the various rumors about Cheng Hao, the one that couldn't be avoided was her relationship with Zhou Yi.

"Something's off, bros. I think something's off. This time we might actually have dug up Zhou Yi's girlfriend. According to Cheng Hao's classmates at Central Academy of Drama, Zhou Yi and her knew each other back in college. These two were stuck together before either of them debuted!"

"The relationship between these two is definitely not ordinary. Although Zhou Yi in 2001 was just a minor Tianwang, he did a cameo and wrote 'Li Bai'—a first for him—just because Cheng Hao was in this crew. That's solid favoritism. Among all his Yi Girls, only Cheng Hao gets this one-of-a-kind treatment."

"If I remember correctly, wasn't the female lead in Zhou Yi's first album's 'Flower Field Wrong' Cheng Hao?"

"Damn, didn't expect Cheng Hao to be hiding this deep. Back when people were listing Zhou Yi's rumored girlfriends, Wan Ren Mi wasn't even high on the priority list—lower than Zhou Xun even."

"If these two knew each other that early, what about the Warner Twins? Wouldn't Sun Yanzi be the other woman?"

"Go to hell, watch your mouth! There's nothing worth investigating about those two; Sun Yanzi and Zhou Yi are the true love, okay!"

"..."

Along with Wan Ren Mi's explosive popularity and Cheng Hao's unique treatment being exposed, the Twin Stars fans who had been comfortably secure on the mainland suddenly felt a strong sense of crisis—

Comparing looks and figure, Sun Yanzi wouldn't stand a chance against Cheng Hao; the latter's nationwide sensation as Wan Ren Mi said it all.

Most crucially, someone dug up that the two apparently lived together before, or at least in the same residential compound, with many people solemnly swearing they had seen the two entering and leaving the same compound and the same building before.

This turned things into a huge spectacle.

At the same time, it made the Twin Stars fans feel as if they were facing a great enemy—

It's over!

Now there's a real rival!

They wanted to find recent news about the Twin Stars, but all they could find was a news photo of Sun Yanzi congratulating Zhou Yi when she went to Hong Kong before...

After that, nothing.

The arrival of the SARS period naturally gave Sun Yanzi a long vacation; except for popping out earlier to tell fans to stay safe, she vanished on the spot just like that...

While other stars were desperate to appear on variety shows every day during the SARS period to keep their faces in the public eye, Sun Yanzi, well, the last time she popped out was for a sponsor's event, and when asked if she was very busy, this person answered with complete justification that she watched TV at home every day—

"I actually really like watching TV programs, especially those dramas and variety shows; I can watch them all day long, hehe."

These were Sun Yanzi's exact words, especially that "hehe" full of joy, which almost made her career-focused fans so angry they stepped on their own left foot with their right and spiraled into the sky.

Of course, what made the Twin Stars fans explode the most was...

At 11:49 PM on May 15 at the Imperial Capital Airport, a paparazzo who had been camping there waiting for Zhou Yi's return took a photo that was enough to blow up the entire Yi-Style CP world—

Cheng Hao, Wan Ren Mi, who had been popular nationwide since the broadcast of "The Pink Ladies" but had never made a public appearance, appeared at the airport.

Not only did she appear at the airport, she was there to pick someone up—she was picking up Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi, who had no public itinerary, returned to the country quietly; as soon as he returned, it made many men grind their teeth—

"Damn your mother! It's actually true?!"

"Wan Ren Mi personally picking up the plane?!"

"Zhou Yi, you really deserve to die! That's Wan Ren Mi!"

"So Wan Ren Mi retired from the industry for Zhou Yi, right?! Damn it, Zhou Yi, you really deserve to die!"

The next day, after the newly established mainland gossip magazine "Star Bigstar" published this exclusive airport photo on its official website, the collision between the two top male and female stars almost crashed the server!

(End of this chapter)