Chapter 108 2/2

Wu Ying quickly checked her private messages, and indeed, the company had contacted her. Opening the message, five glaring words appeared before her:

Upper limit of twenty billion!

Wu Ying: “…”

In that moment, her breath suddenly became unobstructed.

Before her eyes, she seemed to see a beautiful future where she would rise to the pinnacle of her career, becoming vice president with a salary increase.

Wu Ying tightly held her phone. She had never expected the company to approve such a high amount all at once.

This was already one of the largest funds allocated for all major projects in the company.

She remembered the time when she was hesitating between Xingmang Entertainment and another well-known company while submitting her resume.

In the end, her senior at Xingmang advised her:

“Xingmang is an entertainment company. It might not be easy to become globally famous, but the advantage of Xingmang is that for every effort you put in, you get a corresponding reward. If you give one hundred percent, you get one hundred percent.”

“If there are problems, the company will quickly solve them, and they won’t burden everything on the workers. Just based on this, I plan to work at Xingmang for a lifetime.”

At that time, Wu Ying thought her senior was exaggerating a bit, but at this moment, she felt nothing but gratitude, grateful that she had listened to her senior and joined Xingmang.

However, she felt her senior was wrong about one thing.

Why couldn’t Xingmang be globally renowned?

***

In a small entertainment company, a young man was expressionlessly scrolling through various messages on his phone.

He wasn’t very old; he appeared to be around seventeen or eighteen. His facial features were exceptionally delicate, and in terms of looks, even in the heavily competitive entertainment industry, he could be ranked at the top.

Just sitting there was enough to attract a crowd of fans solely based on his looks.

Of course, there were also many critics.

“Tuzhu, why are you reading comments again? Didn’t I tell you not to look?”

The manager snatched away his phone, glancing at the malicious comments, and scolded him with a frown, “Which star doesn’t have haters? If you care about these, when will you become famous?”

Even though his phone was taken away, the young man remained expressionless. “They’re not wrong. My acting skills are poor, and I ruin whatever I act in. It’s normal for them to criticize me.”

But the manager didn’t care. “So what if your acting skills are poor? With this face, even if your acting is bad, you still have a lot of people who like you.”

“We live by our looks.”

The young man, with his dark eyes, looked at him, his expression unchanged. “I don’t like myself.”

The manager was helpless. Sometimes, you had to admit that if someone lacked talent in certain aspects, they just lacked it. Tuzhu originated from a talent show, and whether it was singing or dancing, he outshone his peers. However, in acting, no matter how hard he practiced, he couldn’t improve. His facial expressions on stage were extraordinary, but once filming started, he turned into a stiff actor.

The entertainment industry worked this way. If you have a face, you have fans. Tuzhu had few works, but he had a lot of fans. If he had thicker skin, he would be overjoyed. Unfortunately, Tuzhu couldn’t be happy.

His acting skills were poor; even before the haters criticized him, he criticized himself. No matter how hard he worked, there was no hope of improvement. No matter how many acting classes he attended, it was as if he lacked the talent for acting; his performances were simply garbage.

The manager had given up. He advised Tuzhu to focus on making money, but Tuzhu became increasingly silent and sleepless.

“I’ve figured it out. I’m not an actor; I want to be on stage.”

He suddenly blurted out this sentence, and the manager was stunned, then quickly refused, “On what stage? Do you think being an idol can stay popular for more than a couple of years? At most, you can dance for two years before fading away.”

“Regarding your acting skills, don’t worry. Your schedule is full for the next year; filming seven or eight movies in a year will surely make progress. Even if you don’t improve, fans won’t mind.”

Tuzhu had anticipated the manager’s response.

He continued to look at the manager with his dark eyes. “As you know, my strength lies on the stage.”

“Before, you all told me there were no stages in the country. Now, Xingmang Entertainment has a holographic stage, and I want to participate.”

He seemed calm, just turning eighteen this year. His delicate facial features still had a touch of youthful innocence, but his once bright and sparkling eyes now had no trace of radiance.

The manager knew he wasn’t always like this.

Before signing with the company, his beautiful eyes always seemed to be burning with a brilliant flame. He loved singing and dancing and was lively like a young deer leaping in the jungle.

But when he signed with the company, he was too young. Once in the company’s hands, he was basically no different from falling into the fire. At the beginning, Tuzhu protested, but with the breach of contract penalty looming over him, the company used various means to pressure him, and in the end, he silently compromised.

For several years, Tuzhu had never been on stage again.

The company only saw him as a money tree, and they didn’t consider anything for him. While he made money for the company, Tuzhu, who “lingered in the entertainment industry without acting skills,” gained a large number of haters.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Tuzhu had more haters than A-list actors. Every day, curses and insults filled the comments section under his Weibo.

The worst part was that Tuzhu believed it too. He was once so confident and happy, but now he feels increasingly insecure and depressed.

The manager looked at Tuzhu. He was really handsome, and such looks could be considered a gift from heaven—not the kind that could be easily distinguished between male and female but the kind that was so beautiful it moved the soul. It was this face that gained him thousands of fans and also a massive amount of haters.

However, now that once radiant face is covered with a layer of heaviness and gloominess. Appearance could indeed be affected by one’s temperament, and even though Tuzhu’s features hadn’t changed, he didn’t look as stunning as before.

The departure of Tuzhu’s fans was also due to this reason, and their leaving would only become the straws that broke the already burdened Tuzhu.

The manager knew clearly that Tuzhu was gradually falling apart.

And now, he was trying to save himself.

Under his gaze, filled with a trace of hope, the manager forced himself to harden his heart, turned his head away, and no longer looked at this young man who had fallen from glory into darkness.

“No, the company has already received the remuneration.”

There was another major reason. The company was afraid that once Tuzhu became famous, he would leave. Right now, even though he was battered by criticism, at least he could continue to stay in the company and earn money.

If he truly soared to greater heights, what would the company have to hold onto him?

Tuzhu’s eyes dimmed in an instant.

“I want to go,” he said softly. “I really want to go.”

The pleading look in his eyes made the manager uncomfortable all over. When his gaze inadvertently shifted to Tuzhu’s wrist, covered by long sleeves, he quickly averted his eyes, as if avoiding an electric shock.

He knew that the covered area was filled with scars.

Tuzhu was sinking.

And he refused the plea for help.

Closing his eyes, the manager turned away. “I’m leaving. I’ll hold onto your phone for now. Come find me when you’ve calmed down.”

As the manager left, Tuzhu walked to the computer and sat there blankly for a long time. Half an hour later, he cautiously looked around, ensuring no one was at the door, before opening the computer.

In the forum [Sheng Dong’s Mighty Harvest of Countless Grains], a new post appeared:

“Does Sheng Dong only sign people based on their abilities? Can you sing and dance? I’m good at dancing.”