Chapter 49

  In the second shot of the commercial, Jiang Chuan is a student. When he sits steadily in his seat wearing his school uniform, the director's assistant rushes over and hands him a thick stack of test papers - Jiang Chuan looks down and finds that it is indeed a high school math test paper, with some notes on it, but obviously the questions have not been solved, and are scribbled all over the place.

  "My son is in his third year of high school, this is his weekend homework that's due on Monday. I just borrowed it to use for a bit, and I'll return it to him later. He said he still hasn't finished the last question and will continue working on it tonight." The assistant scratched his head, looking embarrassed, "Sorry to trouble you, Mr. Jiang, please be careful not to mess it up, or else my son will scold me to death..."

  Jiang Chuan nodded and said "oh".

  He bowed his head and took a glance at the test paper, then gave the director a hand gesture to indicate that filming could begin. Everything was still the same as when they filmed the first segment - the lines, actions were all repeated again, only this time his right hand changed from typing on the computer keyboard to writing quickly with a pen on the test paper, while his other hand went to grab potato chips from the hamster... For the second time, it was unclear whether the hamster's performance was a real explosion of acting skills or if it had been robbed and became impatient, but in any case, this time it really jumped up and played with its owner in front of the camera, competing for potato chips. When Jiang Chuan picked up the potato chip, he also lifted up the hamster that was tightly holding onto the chip, swinging it around in mid-air, the fat hamster's paws kicked twice in the air before finally letting go and falling onto the table, rolling around in a circle.

  The hamster got up, shook its head, picked up a potato chip and threw it at its owner.

  The director shouted "cut", and at the same time, Jiang Chuan raised his hand to catch a potato chip that was flying towards his face. With a flick of his wrist, he stuffed it back into the hamster's mouth. The hamster quickly hid the chip in its cheek, changing its expression from "oo" to "oo". Everyone on set was shocked. The director's assistant rushed forward to clean up the table, muttering in disbelief: "Jiang Chuan, this hamster is too amazing! Its acting skills are like they were computer-generated..."

  "Hmm, Ah Fei has the IQ of a six-year-old."

  "What? What?"

  "The boss who sells hamsters said."

  Jiang Chuan replied without lifting his head, grabbed the hamster whose face was puffed up into an "oo" shape by potato chips and stuffed it into his pocket. He then picked up a stack of test papers, shook off the potato chip crumbs on top, and handed them to his assistant. The latter saw that he had taken his previous casual remark about not messing up the test papers to heart and thanked him repeatedly. However, when he took a look at the last question on the test paper, he found that it was filled with formulas written in bold and cursive script. His assistant: "Huh? This..."

  "Your son's approach to solving the problem was wrong," said Jiang Chuan, "so I helped him write it down."

  Assistant: “......”

  So he was solving a high school math problem while shooting an ad?

  Kang Chuan saw his assistant not speaking, preparing to walk away but had to backpedal and come back, slightly bowing his head and frowning: "Will this also get you scolded?"

  The assistant shook his head repeatedly, shocked in his heart that he could swallow a large elephant: This Nima is simply a god-like ability of three hearts and two intentions!

  Seeing the assistant shake his head, Jiang Chuan scratched his head and muttered "that's good" before taking his pet hamster to change into a third set of clothes - the assistant tidied up the table, taking advantage of everyone still preparing for the third segment, squatted down and pulled out her phone to send a WeChat message to her son: [Congratulations, before you go bald, someone has solved the last question on your test paper for you.]

  After waiting for a few seconds, the phone vibrated. I opened it and saw that the text message was from my dear son: "How is that possible? That's Huanggang mock exam paper! Aren't all those in the entertainment industry supposed to be illiterate?"

  Suddenly appeared a strange and talented student.

  I don't believe it.

  The assistant rolled her eyes, and the son's questioning of his father's dignity was severely challenged. He took out the test paper, took a photo of the answer sheet, and was about to send it over when Jiang Chuan came out of the dressing room wearing a "sports uniform" - a basketball vest, shorts, and running shoes. The basketball vest fully exposed the man's sturdy muscles... Jiang Chuan's physique, which had been hidden under his clothes for so long, was finally revealed, and from the look in the eyes of the female staff members, who were about to shoot heart shapes out of their eye sockets, it could be seen that his muscle distribution curve was beautiful...

  The assistant thought for a moment, then aimed the mobile phone camera at Jiang Chuan, took another photo with a "click", and sent it to his son along with the previous photo of the solved problem, with the caption "just him". The WeChat side was silent for a long time, about three minutes later, before slowly responding with four words: [I'm going crazy.]

  She imagined her own son's shocked face on the other end of the phone and was satisfied to put it in her pocket.

  At this time, when everyone was infatuated with Jiang Chuan's "dressing up" and "how handsome he looked", Fang Yu quietly ran behind Jiang Chuan, circled around him once, touched his chin, and asked the makeup artist to apply some powder on his back. It wasn't until then that everyone noticed that there seemed to be a bruise on Jiang Chuan's back that hadn't faded away. They thought about it for a moment and remembered that there was a rumor online before that he got injured while filming, which turned out to be true. At the time, because there were no pictures or evidence, and Jiang Chuan himself didn't come out to clarify, this news was actually blackened as a publicity stunt for a period of time.

  This rumor is self-defeating — the girls present were so heartbroken that they couldn't wait to take out their phones and go online to clear Jiang Chuan's name.

  This time, because he was playing an athlete, the required image was a sunny and healthy one - Jiang Chuan's wheat-colored skin tone was just right. The makeup artist applied some oil to make his muscle lines more prominent, and then let him go on. This time, it was still shot very smoothly, in one take. When Jiang Chuan stood up with an expressionless face to change into the fourth set of clothes, the director and staff estimated that they would finish work several hours earlier than expected, and everyone's mood was exceptionally good. They kept praising Jiang Chuan, and Fang Yu was beaming with joy, as if his tail could wag all the way up to heaven.

  It's as if they were praising him.

  Sitting quietly like a hamster, sourly rolling his eyes repeatedly, thinking to himself: "Damn it, in the past I've been praised by many people, why didn't you seem so happy then, you son of a bitch, wall grass."

  Jiang Chuan changed into the last suit, representing a white-collar worker in the city, and walked out. Everyone exclaimed that this was not a white-collar worker, but a domineering CEO. Jiang Chuan seemed to be quite used to wearing formal attire and didn't show any signs of subconscious rejection towards it like young people usually do. He maintained an expressionless face from head to toe as he sat down. Because the image setting for this urban white-collar worker was also serious, he didn't even need to smile when reciting his lines this time. He truly recited his lines with a straight face until the director yelled "cut", symbolizing the end of the torture in the true sense. He let out a long sigh and quickly stood up.

  He was forced to quickly eat a whole bag of potato chips after seeing this ad on top of the previous NGs, and almost threw up.

  "Great, great, Jiang Chuan, it's really too good!" Director Pang walked out from behind the monitor and shook Jiang Chuan's hand. "I really want to thank you for your cooperation, the hamster is very smart and photogenic, and you're also very handsome and photogenic. I have a feeling that this commercial will be a huge hit..."

  Jiang Chuan nodded and said politely: "You're welcome, you've all worked hard too."

  The director was excited and said "looking forward to our next collaboration", when Jian Chuang, who was squatting on the table, clearly saw a fake smile on Jiang Chuan's face twitching for a moment - but before anyone else noticed his mistake, that momentary "expression variation" was perfectly covered up by his expanded smile.

  The director promised that after the sample was released, he would send a copy to Jiang Chuan's side for review and make modifications if necessary. Fang Yu thanked him repeatedly and left with Jiang Chuan from the Shangjia Advertising Building. When they got in the car, she looked at her watch and it was only 4:30 - which means that from the start of filming to the end, plus the time spent changing into four different outfits, had taken a total of two and a half hours.

  Jiang Chuan was in good condition except for a few ng at the beginning.

  "Hundreds of thousands in hand, and for the next month at least, you can eat meat every meal!" Fang Yu said with a smile, tapping his leg and humming a tune in the car. "This ad was really worth it, it instantly changed four styles for you, you didn't disappoint everyone by doing what you did, do you know what this means?"

  Gang Chuan turned his head, expressionless, and glanced at the agent. "It means I never want to see potato chips again in my life... No, just mentioning those two words makes me want to vomit."

  Fang Yu pretended not to hear, and happily asked himself: "Not at all! - This means that anyone who sees this ad will know that Jiang Chuan can play not only a cold, elegant, noble, and natural Taoist priest, but also has a wide range of acting skills that can be combined with anything. And then again, which director nowadays doesn't watch TV? Right? - Wait and see, after the commercial is broadcast, those directors will go crazy to find you to film!"

  “……”

  "Before long, I'll be back in the position where I can pick and choose scripts with a cool and noble attitude."

  Jiang Chuan looked at Fang Yu's excited face, slightly raised the corner of his lips, and then leaned to one side to meditate with his eyes closed.

  Jiang Chuan returned to the crew of "Republic of China Mystery Record" at dinner time.

  Sit down at the dinner table and gossip time begins.

  A girl from the crew came up to Jiang Chuan and said with a smile, "Dear Brother Chuan, you're trending again!" - As soon as Jiang Chuan heard this, he got a headache. He thought about it and realized that earlier when he greeted Jiang Luocheng, the guy looked at him with an eerie expression, as if he was going to kill him at any moment... Jiang Chuan waved his hand, indicating that he didn't want to hear it again, that he had been blackened once more. At this time, Fang Yu, who had overheard the conversation, quickly pulled out her phone and checked something, then looked up at Jiang Chuan with eyes wider than a cow's: "......When are you free this afternoon to solve math problems?"

  "......" Jiang Chuan thought for a moment and said, "When we were filming the second segment of the commercial, wasn't I dressed as a student? The assistant who handed me the test paper also told me not to get it dirty, saying that it was still going to be used - isn't that awkward? If you really want to write on it, how can you possibly not get it dirty? After thinking about it, the only way to not get a test paper dirty while writing on it is to solve the problems on the test paper......"

  Fang Yu: "......That one segment you shot from front and back wasn't even three minutes, right? And in the middle, you even threw away your pen..."

  "Of course."

  Fang Yu: "......"

  The broker was silent for a moment, then silently handed his mobile phone to Jiang Chuan.

  The latter inexplicably took it over and looked at it, only to find that it was a very ordinary person with just over 200 followers who had posted a Weibo this afternoon. The post included two pictures: one of him wearing a basketball uniform walking out of the dressing room, slightly lowering his head to talk to Fang Yu beside him, with the studio lights shining on his profile; the other was a screenshot of a math test paper, with font that was all too familiar to him.

  Weibo post:【Received a work photo from Dad's frontline, the left picture is that new guy Jiang Chuan who has been very popular recently, and the right picture is Huang Gang's high school math problem, I heard it was written casually while shooting an ad, and when the ad comes out, you can see him actually writing... Suddenly feel like I'm so ugly, even my IQ can't compare to his, living in this world is really meaningless[bye for now].】

  Weibo was forwarded 80,000 times again.

  It's his mother's 80,000 demons again.

  "Scholarly superstar", "Who says the entertainment industry has a low cultural level?" and other topics directly topped the trending list, ranking in the top five.

  Including Wang Mo, many first-line stars who are not familiar with Jiang Chuan have forwarded this Weibo, and they all joked that "whoever says we are uncultured will be shut down by Jiang Chuan" "the snow has been cleared" "my mother asked me why I was kneeling while typing". An older generation actor also forwarded it, saying "my son is taking the college entrance exam this year, hoping for a family teacher who is so handsome and powerful, my son is happy and I am happy too" - among the stars who forwarded it, the stars from IM company are more thoughtful and also @ Jiang Chuan's Weibo.

  Kang Chiang welcomed another wave of fan growth.

  Half of them came for the photo on his left and the other half came for the photo on his right.

  Jiang Chuan was silent.

  "Fang Yu sneered beside him: "Well, well, well. I spent all my energy trying to pull you back from the edge of being a net celebrity, and now you're back in this glorious team again... Let me see if there's another message asking you to pick up soap... Ah, yes! This time the price is 6,000, congratulations! Your worth has doubled!"

  He was ridiculed by the broker, Jiang Chuan ignored him and helplessly handed the phone back to him. At this time, the others sitting at the same table as Jiang Chuan and Fang Yu were laughing so hard they were about to fall under the table. Wang Mo looked on with great interest and stretched out his hand to pat Jiang Chuan's shoulder, loudly praising him for his heroic demeanor. Jiang Chuan silently removed the paw from his shoulder: "It's just a math problem... why react so big."

  "Stars, after all," Wang Mo said. "Whatever they do will be magnified, and casually speaking a few sentences of English, even if it's just reciting from memory, can make headlines and be touted as a 'study goddess'. Not to mention solving a particularly difficult math problem - in the entertainment industry, this achievement is no different from winning a Nobel Prize."

  Jiang Chuan: "I can almost guess what happens next—"

  "Hmm, already. " Fang Yu raised his phone, "Some people say this is the soft advertisement for your upcoming broadcast - tsk tsk stupid Weibo with such a low forwarding rate compared to Jiajia's promotional power; Oh and some people say that the first photo was taken with such harsh lighting, it must be a posed shot of him eating an elephant - Ah, I really want to see a live person eat an elephant; And there are also people mocking you for coming out to hype again - this one is indeed irrefutable, you said you didn't have anything to do and were solving math problems, let me hold a press conference and say 'my family's Jiang Chuan just loves learning and pretending to be cool how can you bite me' I couldn't even say that..."

  Jiang Chuan: “......”

  The person sitting at the next table, Jiang Luocheng, turned his head around with a pair of chopsticks in his mouth and said half-jokingly: "I can almost imagine that tomorrow's filming scene will have to arrange people to maintain order on the scene - please keep a low profile, okay? Jiang Chuan, if you continue to cause trouble, I'll really tie you up with a rope to your belt and take you wherever I go."

  "Then you'll be trending with me, male director molests/has an affair with male actor, into S&M and all that."

  Jiang Luocheng: "......"

  The people around were almost laughing madly.

  ……

  Jiang Chuan being a study god was a hot topic for two days - and any information is time-sensitive, after a few days, everyone's attention was attracted by new news, except for occasionally someone teasing him with math problems under his Weibo, everyone went to pay attention to other things.

  To sum it up carefully, the whole incident can be considered a very mysterious and wonderful development.

  It all started with a young foreign singer who got into a car accident and fell into a coma.

  When this pop star got into an accident, he was only 16 years old. Born with a great voice, he was called "a person born for singing" and "the real heavenly sound". Unlike those exaggerated titles, he indeed possessed extraordinary singing skills, plus his cool and handsome appearance, and his rebellious personality. He debuted at the age of 13 and rose to global fame in just a few years, winning several prestigious music awards. Even in Korea/China, there were many fans who adored him - but this shining star suddenly fell into a coma due to a car accident, shocking the global media and causing fans from all over the world to be heartbroken.

  When everyone was spontaneously holding activities and praying for him to pass the dangerous period and wake up, another media exposed that in fact this singer had an accident several months ago. It's just that the incident involved underage driving and drunk driving, which was suppressed by his brokerage company, wanting to wait until he woke up to make a public plan. However, after waiting for several months, he still didn't wake up. In the few months before a star disappears, it is still possible to play previously recorded videos to create the illusion that he is still active on the front line. But as time goes by, the truth finally comes out.

  This revelation changed the nature of the entire incident - the most important point is that when a person has been in a coma for several months without waking up, the chances of them waking up again become much smaller than everyone expected.

  And so, naturally, things have entered a second phase of transformation.

  The news of this young foreign singer has spread domestically, making it impossible for people to associate with Yuan Jinyan who is still lying in the hospital at this moment.

  Many people sighed "Heaven is jealous of talented people" - fans felt like they had experienced the same heartbreak as when it first happened. Among them, those who were fans of both were even more devastated, almost to the point of madness. Just at this critical moment, IM company's director Luo Cheng stepped forward and announced that IM company has decided to take Hua Tong company, which was responsible for the renovation of IM building, to court. The reason is that they did not do a good job in ensuring the safety of the construction site, resulting in injuries and deaths of IM company employees, and due to the special nature of these employees' positions, it caused huge economic losses.

  For a time, whether online or in mainstream media, the voices supporting IM Company were almost unanimous. At first, fans who were dissatisfied with IM Company's inaction regarding Yuan Jinyan also got some mental comfort... Unexpectedly, before the trial, the main person in charge of Hua Tong Company came out to speak, insisting that Hua Tong Company's safety management measures for construction sites had always been top priority, believing that accidents on construction sites were not due to management negligence. They expressed their sincerest apologies to IM Company and Yuan Jinyan while also stating that they would investigate the matter until the truth comes to light.

  For a time, all major media outlets became platforms for verbal sparring between Huawei and iMedia.

  After the person in charge of Hua Tong Company came out to speak, Luo Cheng jumped out again.

  He directly held a press conference, first showing a copy of the police investigation that found the billboard fell off due to a missing part during installation. To rule out the possibility of the part falling off due to natural factors, they searched the surrounding area but couldn't find it. This was definitely an accident caused by the company's negligence during installation - In his speech, Luo Cheng also promised that if they win the case, all compensation will be given to Yuan Jinran's mother, Yuan Meizi, without a single cent missing. This announcement greatly increased people's goodwill towards IM Company...

  At one time, Yuan Jingyan's name suddenly rebounded when the search volume plummeted in the past month, and the topic heat rushed to the year he just finished filming "The Sound of Years" - such a name that was about to be forgotten by passersby in a corner of life was mentioned again - and this time, even passersby joined the war of this topic!

  All of this is because at the press conference, Luo Cheng not only made a commitment about the direction of compensation, but also bowed deeply to the camera in his speech, sincerely inviting everyone to supervise and witness the whole process, hoping that someone would stand up for Yuan Jianyan's justice.

  Luo Cheng's last words directly activated the sense of justice in the hearts of passersby.

  It seems like everyone thinks they are a crucial part of the final outcome, and then they join the battle without hesitation.

  Other people's affairs may be fresh for two days and then ignored, but when some people put something on their minds and consider it their responsibility, they will not lose focus on it even if they don't follow up on it all the time.

  He happened to see on TV that what was originally just an accident had become so sensationalized and he felt quite complicated emotions about it - although he didn't rule out the possibility that the higher-ups at IM might have some other motives, but since the company was willing to directly step forward and take charge of the lawsuit to seek justice for him, he still felt moved.

  Although he and his mother are completely different in terms of money, this is simply a matter of intention.

  And the speech at Luo Cheng's press conference... At a glance, it was obvious that Xue Kai had ghostwritten it. This guy is really good at winning people over with his writing skills. The speech was so moving that even I, as the main character of this event, felt my blood boiling and tears welling up in my eyes.

  But things didn't end as smoothly as Jian Ran had thought.

  When he thought the whole thing would end with "IM Company suing Huawei", things seemed to have not stopped and were still developing in a more distant direction... It finally completely out of control approached the third stage.

  A devastating war broke out in the entertainment industry due to a car accident involving a completely unrelated foreign pop star.

  As an agent, Fang Yu has been in the entertainment industry for so long that he naturally considers things more thoroughly than Jing Ran, a pure star. After watching Luo Cheng's press conference, he immediately found Jiang Chuan.

  "No matter what, it seems that the company has not given up on Yan Ran. If a star loses their popularity, it's a terrible thing." Fang Yu said, "This is one of the main reasons why the company decided to sue Hua Tong Company after several months, but this move isn't so clever that it can't be seen as having an ulterior motive..."

  Jiang Chuan asked Fang Yu what it meant.

  "The thing is, doing it this way will have consequences. Once the opposing company realizes that IM Company is trying to hold onto Zhen Ran's popularity, it's hard to guarantee they won't make trouble out of it." Fang Yu patted Jiang Chuan's shoulder, "This morning, the company called me and told us to be prepared, as a war may soon erupt and it's likely to affect you artists under IM Company. You have overlapping fans with Zhen Ran, and your recent surge in popularity is quite strong, so you might be the first one to..."

  "What?"

  Fang Yu: "Before everything starts, I'll tell you a principle in advance: if they really want to deal with you, it can actually prove that they've started to fear you."

  Jiang Chuan: "It's okay, I'm used to being cheated."

  "No matter what happens, bear with it." Fang Yu patted Jiang Chuan's shoulder with a sentimental expression.

  Then in just a few days, their crow's mouth indeed became reality.

  First, it was the marketing Weibo account "Entertainment Circle Exploration" that came out, claiming to have received a tip from an insider, saying that recent events involving IM Company and Hua Tong Company were all intentionally hyped up by IM Company. He raised a reasonable question about "If IM needed to inform Hua Tong, why did they wait so long?" Along with this question, some mainstream media newspapers and entertainment programs also started to appear questioning voices.

  The big hat of "taking advantage of a seriously ill artist to hype up" was put on IM's head, and they seemed to have deliberately ignored the fact that IM was also trying to keep Yuan Jin Yan's topic hot - this point is more beneficial for them to manipulate Yuan Jin Yan's fans' emotions, guide them, hint to them that someone is taking advantage of Jin Yan, and try to trigger their anger value.

  Fans are extremely single-minded and radical when it comes to maintaining their favorite idols.

  This often leads to some of them not being able to calm down and consider the deeper factors behind this matter, becoming a simple and rude group that believes whatever others say - as a result, along with some fans' anger at feeling used, Jiang Chuan's "hospital incident" that first appeared in everyone's eyes is brought up again, and together with IM company's remarks on hype, it is taken out to let everyone discuss.

  Although it is said to be a discussion on the surface, two things are picked out and put together, and even the most dull-witted person will have bad associations.

  All along, because of this matter, a large part of Jing Yan and Jiang Chuan's fans actually overlap.

  Some people are intentionally guiding the "hospital incident" to cast doubt on Jiang Chuan's motives - although this view was raised when he was being attacked at first, it did not become mainstream at that time and was quickly suppressed. Now this view has been brought up with ulterior motives, directly pushing Jiang Chuan to the forefront of public opinion.

  The most obvious thing is that Yuan Jingyan's fans, who were simply and crudely guided, started attacking Jiang Chuan. This was the internal conflict of IM company's own stars' fans; Then, some fans who still maintained their rationality began to try to persuade these people not to be misled by public opinion, but this part of the fans quickly clashed with those who attacked Jiang Chuan, which was another internal conflict among Yuan Jingyan's fans; Finally, Jiang Chuan's own fans jumped out and joined the war.

  So the enemy led the fans to erupt in a small-scale war within the IM company without even showing up.

  Even Fang Yu, who had expected things to turn out this way, was quickly driven to tears by those simple-minded kids who believed whatever others told them, and his hairline receded several millimeters in just one week.

  Jiang Chuan remained silent as usual, doing what he should do - from start to finish, his response to this matter was just a brief statement published in a certain newspaper, and it was only four simple words: Thank you for your trust.

  As a hamster, Jian Ran looked at Jiang Chuan like that, feeling guilty and ashamed for a while, with raging anger burning fiercely - thinking about it, the whole thing was just a mess caused by IM company to protect its own topic, so at this moment, Jian Ran really wanted to wake up immediately and deliver a global public speech: What are you pinching?! Being used as a gun is simply infuriating!!! Wake up quickly!!!!