Chapter 24: The Fallen Child Star (24) Part 2

[Ahhhh! Did Xu Yiyuan turn off his mic? What did he just say to Xu Weiheng?!]

[Xu Weiheng is so alpha!]

[Welcome back, Heng-zai! This time you’ll definitely reach the top!]

The break ended quickly, and everyone resumed their positions.

But this time, Xu Yiyuan’s state couldn’t even be described as terrible – it was a disaster. He was completely unable to connect with his character or the plot.

“Xu Yiyuan…” Wen Qiu began, but remembering her microphone was still on, she swallowed the rest of her words.

“He seems to have… lost his confidence in acting,” Shi Qingqing commented diplomatically.

“He’s completely fallen apart,” Yao Rong said bluntly.

The audience didn’t blame the trio for their observations. In fact, even they could see that Xu Yiyuan was entirely detached from both his character and the plot during filming.

Viewers with their god’s-eye perspective immediately recalled the earlier scene.

[Is it because of what Xu Weiheng said to Xu Yiyuan earlier?]

[Ahhhh suddenly so curious about what Xu Yiyuan said when he muted himself!]

[Curious +1]

[What Xu Weiheng said wasn’t wrong though. Xu Yiyuan’s attitude is just too poor to handle honest feedback.]

[I can’t take it anymore. Xu Yiyuan’s acting is so painful to watch. Every time I look at him, I have to look at Xu Weiheng ten times just to heal my wounded soul. Director, please just wrap this scene up quickly! /praying hands]

After confirming that Xu Yiyuan was temporarily beyond help, the director decisively made some changes: he decided to film Xu Yiyuan collapsing and sacrificing himself, while Xu Weiheng’s part remained unchanged.

Hearing the director’s decision, Xu Yiyuan’s hand hanging at his side unconsciously clenched into a fist.

Are you satisfied now?

He mouthed silently to Xu Weiheng, his back to the live broadcast cameras, his eyes almost overflowing with tangible resentment.

Xu Weiheng glanced at Xu Yiyuan, finding it amusing: in all these years, he had never given Xu Yiyuan such a look, yet Xu Yiyuan would look at him this way.

Shaking his head, Xu Weiheng couldn’t be bothered to engage with Xu Yiyuan any further.

He’d rather use this time to refine his performance for the upcoming scene.

Without Xu Yiyuan holding things back, the third scene was finally filmed successfully.

As Xu Weiheng and Xu Yiyuan went backstage to change clothes, the show’s host reappeared, microphone in hand, to interview Wen Qiu and Shi Qingqing. After all, both were known in the industry for their acting skills and were Xu Weiheng’s seniors.

“What do you think of Xu Weiheng’s acting skills?”

Wen Qiu: “…”

Shi Qingqing: “…”

The show was clearly trying to stir things up.

However, the two were quite cooperative.

Wen Qiu smiled and said, “He has a natural talent. When he’s acting, there are moments that really catch my eye.”

Shi Qingqing, as a popular actress who had won several major domestic awards, added thoughtfully, “He’s very confident when acting. This confidence that radiates from within gives the audience a strong sense of conviction: he is the character in the play.”

Yao Rong listened with a proud smile, feeling a sense of accomplishment.

Once the crew had settled the salaries for Yao Rong and the others, today’s tasks were more or less complete.

As Yao Rong and the others went for dinner, topics related to the show once again climbed the trending list.

As the most anticipated variety show of the summer, ‘Dear Family’ was certainly not lacking in popularity. Among the various trending topics, #IsXuWeiheng’sActingGoodOrNot# had the highest heat.

Judging solely from Xu Weiheng’s performance today, it was undoubtedly good. At the very least, his acting skills were sufficient to portray the character well.

But how was Xu Weiheng’s acting in the past, especially in ‘2050 II’?

A popular movie critic who had harshly criticized ‘2050 II’ made a brief video analyzing Xu Weiheng’s performance in the film. The conclusion was:

「Perhaps we should re-evaluate Xu Weiheng’s performance in the movie. He certainly wasn’t the best, but he wasn’t the worst either. The failure of ‘2050 II’ was a comprehensive failure of the director, scriptwriter, special effects, marketing, and lead actors.

Has the ‘2050 II’ crew become so incompetent that they need a young actor to bear the responsibility for their failure?」

Many netizens agreed with the critic’s analysis and comments.

Some users even reposted their old Weibo posts supporting Xu Weiheng.

During the time when he was overwhelmed by malice, there were indeed people who stood up to defend Xu Weiheng. It’s just that rational voices often don’t have the advantage in blind public opinion. But this doesn’t mean there was no sunshine during those dark and desperate days.

At least now, Xu Weiheng saw it.

He read those missed Weibo posts over and over again, until he could almost recite the words, before posting a Weibo: 「Thank you」

He doesn’t blame the blind public opinion, but he will forever be grateful for those supportive voices.

After Xu Weiheng posted this Weibo, the heat of #IsXuWeiheng’sActingGoodOrNot# increased dramatically.

By midnight, many netizens were @ing the official ‘2050 II’ Weibo account, demanding that they make another statement on this matter instead of playing dead.

The director of ‘2050 II’, Director Chen, wasn’t faring well either. His new movie was currently in the promotional phase and about to be released, but some netizens spontaneously called for a boycott of Director Chen’s new film, and quite a few people responded.

Moreover, Xu Yiyuan and Xu Ji, who had previously kicked Xu Weiheng when he was down, as well as Xu Weiheng’s friends in the industry, all had their Weibo comment sections flooded with a large number of curious netizens.

Even Xu Weiheng’s former manager and agency weren’t spared from the backlash, caught in the storm of public opinion.

[Has Xu Yiyuan apologized today?]

[Firmly boycott tainted celebrities. We demand Xu Yiyuan and Xu Ji disappear from ‘Dear Family’ immediately!]

[I still remember what Xu Yiyuan’s fans said: “Can a few ‘sorry’s make up for the harm done to our idol?” Hah! Now you should realize the damage you’ve done to Xu Weiheng is truly irreparable.]

[Xu Yiyuan, get out of the entertainment industry!]

[Xu Yiyuan, get out of the entertainment industry!!!]

The calls for Xu Yiyuan’s removal from variety shows and the entertainment circle grew louder, making the Xu family so anxious they gathered to discuss how to handle the crisis.

As Xu Ji talked with their mother, he became so frustrated that he began pulling at his hair, feeling helpless about the situation. Slumping on the sofa, he suddenly realized that Xu Yiyuan hadn’t uttered a word the entire time.

“Yiyuan!” Even with his favorite son, Xu Ji had lost all patience. “Do you realize what time it is? How can you still be so absentminded?”

Xu Yiyuan raised his head, staring blankly at Xu Ji. It took him a few seconds to process what his father was saying.

Seeing his son’s state, Xu Ji grew even more dissatisfied.

If Xu Yiyuan hadn’t performed so poorly today, public opinion wouldn’t have turned against them so completely.

Meanwhile, the trending topics on Weibo had already alarmed the ‘Dear Family’ production team, prompting an emergency meeting late into the night to discuss their response.

After much debate, the head director made a final decision: “With Xu Yiyuan’s current reputation, letting him continue filming could potentially cause even greater harm to our show. So, I plan to terminate the contract with Xu Yiyuan after we finish the second episode.”

“The day after tomorrow is the last day of filming for the second episode. We need to find a way to maximize the Xu family’s value in these two days, aiming to break our record for live stream viewership!”

Xiao Xi, who had a decent relationship with Xu Ji, was the first to raise his hand in agreement with the head director’s proposal.

After all, Xiao Xi and Xu Ji had only been tied by business interests. Now that the Xu family was clearly about to be sacrificed by the show, standing by Xu Ji would show a lack of foresight.

The deputy director quickly followed suit in raising his hand.

The head director nodded at the two of them: “Then I’ll leave this task to you both. By noon, I want each of you to submit an event plan.”

Because ‘Dear Family’ had been a highly successful and long-running variety show on the network, and with a deputy station director about to retire, the head director, as the show’s leader, now had an opportunity for advancement.

If he became the deputy station director, the position of variety show head director would be vacated.

Both Xiao Xi and Deputy Director Xiao Zhou had worked with him for many years, and their capabilities were almost equal. Promoting either one would leave the other dissatisfied. So, he decided to have them both submit event plans and let their abilities speak for themselves.

The deputy director was unaware of the head director’s intentions.

Nevertheless, the deputy director put his all into planning the event.

His relationship with Xiao Xi was terrible—almost like fire and water. He could lose to anyone but Xiao Xi. If Xiao Xi won, he’d mock him about it for a year. So after returning to his room, the deputy director continued brainstorming.

But even as daylight broke, the deputy director still hadn’t come up with a plan that satisfied him.

He sighed, running his fingers through his already thinning hair.

This won’t do, he thought. With no ideas coming to mind, he decided to grab some breakfast before returning to work, hoping for inspiration.

On the beach, Yao Rong, wearing a long dress that was too tight around her thighs, was crouching down watching Xu Weiheng dress Ping’an.

Not far away, a cameraman was pointing his camera at them.

After wrapping up the first episode of ‘Dear Family’, the production team had informed Yao Rong and Xu Weiheng that the second episode would involve a pet activity. So when they traveled to G City, they brought Ping’an along.

After two days of good food and rest, it was finally time for Ping’an to make an appearance.

Catching sight of the deputy director from the corner of her eye, Yao Rong stood up, brushed the sand off her skirt, and said to Xu Weiheng, “I’m going to get some drinks.”

Xu Weiheng, still struggling with Ping’an, absentmindedly responded, “Go ahead.”

Yao Rong stepped out of the camera’s frame, turned off her microphone, and approached the deputy director: “Director Zhou, busy?”

The deputy director had just been taunted by Xiao Xi during breakfast and was about to return to his room to continue working. Hearing Yao Rong’s words, he paused before smiling and asking, “Is there something you need?”

“Yes, I wanted to discuss something with Director Zhou, if you could spare a few minutes.”

If it were anyone else saying this, the deputy director would have refused immediately, but for Yao Rong, he felt obliged to give her this courtesy: “A few minutes is no problem!”

Yao Rong looked around, making sure there was no one nearby and no hidden cameras, before saying, “It’s like this, I have some ideas about tonight’s activity…”

The deputy director’s eyes lit up, quickly interrupting Yao Rong’s words: “What ideas?”

Yao Rong raised an eyebrow slightly.

The deputy director coughed, realizing he had appeared too eager. He weighed his options internally, then revealed to Yao Rong that he was struggling with planning tonight’s event.

Since he couldn’t come up with any good ideas himself, perhaps Yao Rong could help him out.

Yao Rong thought to herself, this is perfect: “It’s like this, I think tonight’s activity could use a ‘Truth or Dare’ game.”

“Truth or Dare? Isn’t that a bit too conventional?” The deputy director looked puzzled.

With such a good opportunity presented to Yao Rong, logically she should have seized it firmly. Why would she suggest such an ordinary segment?

It’s well known that when playing Truth or Dare, no one knows if the answers given by the guests are true or false.

This game is unlikely to create excitement and might easily turn into a sentimental competition.

“Yes, Truth or Dare,” Yao Rong nodded affirmatively.

Before the deputy director could ask again, Yao Rong continued, “However, this activity will require the production team to prepare some equipment.”

“What equipment?”

“Lie detectors.”

With lie detectors, the concerns the deputy director had just moments ago were resolved.

The deputy director’s brow first relaxed, then furrowed again as he thought of something: “Can the accuracy of the lie detectors be guaranteed?”

Yao Rong coughed lightly: “If the production team needs, I can recommend a lie detector with 99.99% accuracy, guaranteed to be the most accurate and authoritative on the market. Even judicial departments have used this lie detector.”

She believed Xu Ji and Xu Yiyuan would certainly not escape the lie detector’s detection.

Even if Xu Ji and Xu Yiyuan could remain calm, she would find a way to make them lose their composure.

Of course, lie detectors cannot legally convict a person, and judicial departments only use them as a reference.

But Yao Rong didn’t need to convict the Xu family either.

“Isn’t it too late to buy lie detectors now?”

Yao Rong smiled brightly: “It’s not too late. The institution that developed this lie detector is right here in G City. If the production team needs them, they can deliver eight lie detectors within two hours at most.”

The deputy director felt reassured.

At this point, he was already leaning towards the Truth or Dare idea.

Looking at Yao Rong, the deputy director rubbed his hands together, asking if she had any other suggestions.

Since the deputy director was humbly seeking advice, Yao Rong naturally didn’t hold back and added two more points:

First, the production team could project the live stream comments onto a TV screen, letting the guests play Truth or Dare while watching the comments.

Second, the questions for the guests could be selected from the live comments, increasing audience participation and helping to boost the live stream’s popularity.

Of course, the production team would need to monitor the selected questions to some extent, maintaining an appropriate balance.

Hearing this, the deputy director nodded enthusiastically: “Ms. Yao, rest assured, I will do my best to get the head director to adopt your ideas.”

“No, these aren’t my ideas,” Yao Rong shook her head with a smile, “These are all Director Zhou’s own ideas. With talented people like you, no wonder ‘Dear Family’ is getting better and better.”

Having achieved her goal, she decided to give all the credit to the deputy director.

Consider it building goodwill.

The deputy director now truly wanted to grab Yao Rong’s shoulders and shake her.

Not only did she solve his big problem, but she also gave him such a huge favor.

What a good person.

This is truly a good person helping in times of need!

The deputy director didn’t want to accept benefits without giving something in return: “I accept your kindness. Is there anything I can help you with, like preparing questions for Xu Ji and Xu Yiyuan? You can decide the content of the questions.”

Yao Rong hesitated: “This… is this appropriate?”

The deputy director waved his hand, reassuring her again: “It’s fine. I can arrange such a small matter.”

Yao Rong bit her lip: “Alright, then I’ll write the questions for you by noon. Thank you, Director Zhou.”

The deputy director was finally satisfied: “No need for thanks.”

Yao Rong was also satisfied.

This deputy director is indeed a sincere person.