Chapter 42: One Against Five

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【Entertainment Insider V】

【Ranking the Top 5 Anti-Korean Pioneers in Domestic Entertainment: Li Yifeng Takes the Top Spot by a Landslide! Are the Five Returnees Actually Inferior to Local School Grasses?】

The attached photo is a campus-style photoshoot of Li Yifeng wearing a white shirt, emphasizing a pure and natural beauty. This stands in stark, tragic contrast to the red carpet photos of the four XO members, who all sport exquisite makeup.

The comment section was instantly flooded with a massive influx of "Bees"

"Leave Fengfeng alone to shine in his own beauty! Some heavy-makeup, K-pop style artists should stop trying to clout-chase!"

"Just look at the ratings for *Bone Sword*; this is what a national-level idol looks like!"

When someone mentioned Gu Qing, the tone shifted abruptly

"LMAO, a certain variety show celebrity thinks they qualify as a top star? Just a little thing who used to be a foot-washing maid in South Korea."

"Our Fengfeng is a recognized school grass; isn't he a hundred times better than those factory-produced trainees?"

At 3:00 AM,

#GuQingSouthKoreanFootWashingMaid# shot to the top of the trending searches.

A hot post suddenly appeared on a gossip forum

《Deep Dive into a Certain Variety Show Royalty's Rise to Power: Using Self-Pity to Suck Blood from Baby, Does a Discarded K-Entertainment Product Deserve to be a Top Star?》

The attached photo was a blurry picture of a practice room, where a figure suspected to be Gu Qing was seen helping someone tie their shoelaces in the corner.

In the [Protect the Best Fengfeng in the World] Super Topic, major fan accounts were distributing "mass-posting" scripts

"Focus on spamming #Domestic Entertainment Doesn't Need K-Pop Puppets# to tie Gu Qing to the four returnees!"

"Make sure to avoid official accounts; focus your attacks on the casual observers!"

A massive campaign against the five returnees was launched in full force.

Aside from Li Yifeng's own company, many other entertainment agencies were also pushing from behind, eager to use this opportunity to take down a few top stars.

But these people made one mistake: they were trying to attack too many people at once!

If they had united to target Gu Qing alone, it would have been easy to suppress him.

After all, as a newly risen top star, he had good public appeal but hadn't had time to cultivate a die-hard fanbase.

Furthermore,

His company lacked powerful support, making it nearly impossible to resist a coordinated smear campaign.

But by dragging the four returnees into it,

The chaos became much larger.

Currently,

XO's fans were in a fierce war with the fans of the "Three Little Ones."

However,

Relying on their advantage in age and wealth, the XO fans had thoroughly beaten the "Three Little Ones," whose fanbase consisted mostly of elementary school students.

Just as they were preparing to celebrate as a group, another "flamboyant wench" came to provoke them!

"Do these dead Bees think our Planet Fans are pushovers?!"

"It's one thing for the Three Little Ones to provoke us, but where did this random weed come from to act all high and mighty? Is he lacking seasoning, or is he just looking for a beating!"

"Pah! How dare he try to link Gu Qing to our third-generation group? Does an untrained trainee like him even qualify?"

"Sisters, don't rest yet! Follow me and tear down this hive of Bees!!"

The personal fan groups of the four returnees,

The Planet Fans' group chat,

Every fan capable of commenting online launched a counterattack.

Some went even further, lurking in the Bees' fan groups before starting to spam

"A certain silicone-faced person has the nerve to brag about being a natural school grass? Do you need me to release the Blu-ray version of the video where his acting in *The Heiress Arrives* gets crushed by a supporting actress?"

"National little brother? Your old face is so oily you could fry vegetables with it; how dare you pretend to be pure?!"

"Watching the bitter haters jump around—while your master was winning big awards at MAMA, that 'school grass' was still playing bit parts in small theaters."

"Surely no one is unaware that the difficulty of debuting for that idiot is higher than getting into Tsinghua University?"

The fans of the four XO members formed a rare united front to launch a violent rebuttal.

Amidst the melee,

Someone dug up a screen recording of Li Yifeng's manager's alt account liking and bashing others,

The hashtag #LiYifengBullying# instantly exploded.

Onlookers also discovered that the producer of *Bone Sword* had actually followed Gu Qing's personal blog.

At the same time,

The official Weibo of *Running Man* specifically posted a tweet: @GuQing: Welcome, our national little brother.

The attached photo showed Gu Qing in a white shirt, looking like a cool breeze in early summer, possessing an untainted purity that acted as a "dimensionality reduction strike" against the previous propaganda.

Public opinion spiraled completely out of control!

In the past,

By leveraging the current domestic public's dislike for the Korean wave, they might have been able to fight the four returnees single-handedly.

But now, the "four" had become "five."

Based on his performance on *Running Man*, Gu Qing had become a temporary top star solely by attracting a massive wave of casual fans; his public appeal was incredibly high.

They had both the fierce combat power of the Planet Fans and Gu Qing's immense public popularity.

The anti-smear plan was a total failure!

Bookings were withdrawn, marketing accounts deleted their videos, and the Bees collectively retreated to their hives...

The five returnees achieved a grand victory!

Who would dare say the five were no good now?

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While the domestic fan circles were entering their [Second Century War],

What was Gu Qing, one of the protagonists, doing?

He was studying a script!

"Sha Qianmo... Sha Qianmo... how on earth am I supposed to act this?"

In his hotel room, Gu Qing sat with a furrowed brow, hunched over his bed while reading the script sent by the *Eternal Love* crew.

He hadn't been idle during this period; aside from filming variety shows, he had been studying scripts.

This was the first time he had ever acted in his life, so he naturally had to be fully focused.

According to the advice provided by Teacher Zhang,

An actor should usually finish reading the script first, and ideally, use a pen to record and analyze the character's personality.

This is commonly known as a character biography.

Gu Qing had not only read the script but had also read the original novel in its entirety.

Whether it was the TV drama from his previous life or the original book,

Sha Qianmo was an extremely charismatic and complex character, whose persona blended glamour, dominance, and deep affection.

His dominance stemmed from his identity and status; as the ruler of both the demon and immortal realms, he was revered as the "Holy Monarch."

His glamour came from his "transcendent beauty that defies gender," recognized as the most beautiful being in the six realms; he was even narcissistically obsessed with his appearance and attire.

He was naturally eccentric and unbound by worldly conventions; even when Hua Qiangu mistakenly called him "Sister," he didn't correct her, but instead viewed it as a compliment to his beauty.

His deep affection appeared in the later stages.

In the early stages, Sha Qianmo's first encounter with Hua Qiangu was driven by a sense of familial attachment stemming from his obsession with the death of his sister, Liu Xia.

Later, it evolved into a standard romantic transformation,

Shifting from familial love to selfless devotion.

Eventually, during the war between immortals and demons, he lost control due to hatred and was consumed by demonic energy.

In the end, to save Hua Qiangu, he used his life to seal the Demon God, taking her last wisp of soul to assist her reincarnation, and died in her arms.

He was a relatively traditional, devoted "second male lead" archetype in film and television.

If played well, the role was highly sought after and could easily garner the audience's sympathy.

The problem was,

Gu Qing understood the dominance and the deep affection that Sha Qianmo possessed.

But when he actually demonstrated the expressions and movements in front of the mirror,

Gu Qing felt a sense of secondhand embarrassment so intense it made his scalp tingle.

It was exactly like the points made by the YouTubers in the critique videos he used to watch when they roasted "little fresh meat" actors.

Eye-twitching, lack of emotion, lifeless lines, and nothing but a "poker face"...

The only good news was,

His looks were indeed flawless, perfectly fitting the persona of Sha Qianmo, so he wasn't completely hopeless.

"I have tomorrow off. I might as well go to Teacher's house to take a look."

Gu Qing made up his mind.

Rather than mulling it over himself, it was better to find someone in person to help him figure out how to improve.

With hands-on guidance,

Gu Qing felt that even if he were slow, he could make some progress.

At the very least, he couldn't be worse than those poker-faced "little fresh meat" actors!

After waking up from a sleep, Gu Qing headed straight to Teacher Zhang's home with his assistant.

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(End of Chapter)