Chapter 67: CH 67

The road Li Su Li was taking was to be on the negative side of the press, using her notoriety to become a hot topic. But since her debut seven or eight years ago, all the tricks in her book had pretty much been used up, and the general public were starting to have visual fatigue. Although they would still pile on hate comments and scream at her when they see her, her popularity was not as high as it used to be, only moving up the charts every now and then, becoming very rarely mentioned.

When they were headed back into the village house they stayed at, Li Su Li discovered her manager standing by the tent the director and the filming crew set up temporarily. She immediately scowled in disdain as she saw her looking back at her, as if a murky dark ocean was lying behind her. She quickened her steps and slammed the door with a bang behind her.

Zhao Ke Yi was following closely behind, and she reacted just in time to avoid the door hitting her right on the nose. Her eyes turned red, as if tearing up from the anger rising in her, but she couldn’t expel it out. She hid from the cameras, heading into the washroom to wipe her tears away.

Fu Xiu Nian was just putting rice in the pot when the filming crew suddenly notified them that each person must individually do a small interview that would not be included in the main program. Instead it will be as packaged as a hidden extra in the full exclusive package for members of the streaming platform, and because the girls weren’t quite ready for their emotional outbursts, the guys would start first. The order was decided to be Ah Qi, Fu Xiu Nian and then Chen Yi.

The interview spot was chosen to be in the temporarily set up tent by the production team. The first two went fairly straightforwardly, being asked only about what they felt throughout the entire filming, after their hard work and all that, but when it was time for Chen Yi’s turn, the crew were asking very sharp questions, full of traps every step and turn of the way.

Film crew: “When the program announced your participation, it actually caused quite a stir online. Have you known about it or understood what the fuss was about?”

A good phrase was “caused a stir”, but in reality, it was a one-sided negativity fest.

Chen Yi raised his eyebrows and answered with a very dismissive response, 

“No. I don’t make myself search for unhappiness.”

The crew member choked on his words but quickly came back to his senses and changed to a different question. He smiled and continued, 

“We can see that you have quite the blunt personality. During the filming of this program, everyone has been sleeping together, eating together, so you must have some understanding towards each other through your interactions. And in those, there have been multiple times where there was rough understanding between some of the other guests, especially with you. Have you ever thought about why?”

This question, no matter how one answers, was just one big trap. Since its inception, this variety show << I Came From Far Away >> has been on the rise, looking to be quite the contender for the year. Yet there had been much hidden puppetry going on behind the scenes, even privately exposing its scripted personas of each celebrity. One day or another, it will soon shoot itself in the foot with its schemes.

This was in the script that Zhou Ming gave to Chen Yi, and Zhou Ming had even prepared an answer for this exact question to make sure he netted even more hate: 

I think Su Li is not really a team member. She’s a bit more of an uptight, high maintenance kind of person, more of a city girl. And she’s not very good at interacting with other girls. Perhaps it was because there was always someone helping her before, so the road she had been walking on was very clear and flat, and didn’t make her taste any hardships. Put into this environment all of a sudden, she hasn’t accepted it very well, nor has she adapted quite well.

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The answer seemed like he has a slight frustration, but the more you think back on it, the more it gives you a deeper implication. The biggest rumor that Li Su Li was involved in was that she had a sponsor. There were some that gossiped about how she used her body to climb up in ranks, to claw her way up using other female celebrities as stepping stones. 

At first she was getting torn apart by the fans of those female celebrities with hate comments, and it almost got to the point where it culminated in a plan to throw acid at her. In fact, it had just only been about two years since she tossed out the “public bus” title she had been associated with.1

Facing up the film crew’s hidden anticipatory gaze, Chen Yi pushed back his hair and said with disinterest, 

“Oh, her mouth’s missing common sense, my mouth’s honesty can’t be stopped, so perhaps the tension comes from that.”

The other was not ready to give up and asked, 

“Is there anything else other than this?”

Chen Yi spread his hands and arms wide open, showing a face that said no matter what you do, you won’t be ready for me, 

“Xiao-Yi Ge, Ah Ya’s new concert to promote her single is on its last show, at the World Trade Stadium. Zhou-Ge said that you’ll be a guest, and to be there by 7:30. It has already posted this on weibo…… 2“

Ah Ya was one of Global Entertainment’s female song artists. Supposedly she had the backing of a high up company executive and the moment she debuted, she was able to release a solo album. These past years, she had achieved some fame, and without speaking about her singing ability, she had gathered quite a few fans for her clean, graceful image. However, she has always lacked the “trend”, the something to be on the charts, and this time, making Chen Yi be a guest for her last show was meant to help her create some buzz.

This kind of thing was obviously hard work and only for generating negative press. When the status post was published, Ah Ya’s fans were first shocked from the surprise and then they blew off their tops. They immediately ran to Chen Yi’s page and started a new tornado of hate comments, tearing apart everything and anything about him, and the storm did not seem to be ending anytime soon. Passive aggressive and directly cursing him, all sorts of comments were sworn at him, saying that he’s trying to leech off their idol.

Notes:

*1 “public bus” means, well, to say it more politely… the female is “open” to the general public (like a public bus), for anyone to have a gander with her

*2 weibo: this is like facebook/twitter/reddit combined. Basically their social media all in one (the thing to note especially about this is that there are fan groups, so to say, some of which are usually “officially” backed up, with resources, time scheduling etc. that may be released to the fan club organizers (usually if official, is appointed/approached by the celebrity’s manager or agency). Stanning an idol is quite a dedication to be honest and requires “a bit” from your wallet, and depending on the celebrity and their size/amount of fans, there are usually requirements to even get in/to keep staying in the group (mostly able to speak/talk (be active basically) + donate + do stuff for the celebrity as part of the fanclub). There are a few more things but that will be revealed by the characters in this volume very soon 

It’s been a very busy few weeks since the start of the year, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop anytime soon for me, but I promise I will try and reply to all comments as soon as I can  Thank you to all those who leave such supportive and kind words and letting me know you enjoy the novel as I did! And of course, I can never forget to thank all the readers who has joined in on the ride (or come to check it out too!)  Each and every one of you have made my day(s) (and Plum’s) for the ongoing interest in the story(-ies) ever since I started and I always look forward to the responses and stats as I publish a chapter everytime (and use it to fuel my energy trying to keep up with the translations haha)! Thank you so very much ₍՞◌′ᵕ‵ू◌₎♡

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