Translator: Vian
Editors: namio, celes
The incident with Han Yanghao's poser act had continued on till now, but in reality, it had basically died down already.
The party that denounced him as acting like a poser didn't continue to make any big movements, Han Yanghao also relied on his "Justice is in People's Hearts" statement to "prove" his innocence in a roundabout way.
According to the normal routine for fighting between fan circles, this matter should have ended at that. At most, some reporters would come from an interview with Han Yanghao, and with those actors who have worked together with him before.
Normally speaking, these stars would not continue to throw stones down the well.
As mentioned before, in the entertainment circle, as long as it wasn't anything major like drug abuse, no one would rush to beat them down. Because no one knew if the next person to have something happen to would be themselves. To give others a leeway was to leave a path of retreat for yourself.
Either way, after this incident, Han Yanghao's reputation was greatly impacted, and it was estimated that he wouldn't be able to return to first-tier in the next few years.
But now, the "Ambush" crew actually came out and even bluntly posted such a statement. All that was missing was them pointing at Han Yanghao's nose and yelling: You're lying! You're obviously acting like a poser yet still say, 'Justice is in people's hearts!' You have no conscience!
It was two in the middle of the night, many netizens had thought that today's drama was already over but didn't expect that it was just starting.
Then at 4:30, "Ambush"'s Director Zheng posted another statement on his private Weibo: [There is some truth in the news. I originally didn't want to say much about the situation. This drama was specially produced by an investor for a certain actor, so if the actor wanted to kick someone out of the crew, it was not impossible to do. Later, due to the online crowdfunding, "Ambush" was able to continue to film. This is the whole truth of the matter.]
During this late night, Director Zheng's words stirred up thousands of waves.
You thought it was over? No!
Soon, "Ambush"'s Assistant Director Li, Assistant Director Wang, the leaders of the makeup group, the props group, and the camera group… numerous crew members appeared on Weibo and supported Director Zheng's statement. These crew members appeared in groups of twenties or thirties at a time, each calling out and criticizing Han Yanghao.
Acting as a poser! There was far more than that!
He also scolded and dismissed others, didn't appear on set at all till the opening ceremony, changed the script however he wanted…
After many of the netizens had sweet dreams and happily woke up, they found that the world had changed drastically. This earth-shaking change made countless melon eating passers-by drop their melon. Everyone was dumbfounded.
[…It turns out to be true?! Damn, this is has to be the biggest drama to start out the year, this is so exciting ah. So many twists and turns!]
[Front row is selling melon seeds, peanuts, and soda! Front row is selling! Such exciting drama, won't this guest come and enjoy?]
[Hahahahaha Originally, I thought aimed at the wrong person when I scolded Han Yanghao yesterday morning, looking at it now, I really have foresight. This Han Yanghao is simply a scum, for the entertainment circle to have a star like him is like rat poop spoiling the whole pot of congee! ]
Han Yanghao's water army didn't sleep all might, and one could say, even Han Yanghao didn't sleep!
When "Ambush"'s official Weibo posted the "no conscience" statement, Han Yanghao was yanked out from under his warm blanket by his manager. He was irritated from being abruptly woken-up, but before he even had time to yell at his manager, his manager exploded first: "Ah Hao, quickly think of something! Why didn't you tell me when you went to look for someone to blacken Rong Xu? Now great, something big happened! You go plead with President Li and see if she can quickly resolve this situation!"
Han Yanghao's irritation immediately disappeared, and he quickly learned about the situation. His first reaction was to find Director Zheng and ask what he meant by this. Who knew that Director Zheng would just directly hang up, and when he called again, he was actually blocked by the other!
Everything had already reached this point, how could there still be any room for leeway?
That night, Han Yanghao contacted his lawyer and PR team to make sure to stop the actions from Director Zheng's side.
However, Director Zheng's actions were faster than he thought. Han Yanghao's team still hadn't come up with a solution when a large number of crew members all stepped out to testify against Han Yanghao. At seven in the morning, people woke up from their dreams. As soon as they saw this huge drama from the middle of the night, they couldn't be any more excited and stirred up the situation even more.
The fans of Rong Xu, Zhang Tongtong… and the many stars who had cooperated with Hang Yanghao before were all shocked still.
[To what extent did Han Yanghao act like a poser? He actually really wanted to drive our Rongrong out of the cast? He even actually oppressed our family's Rongrong on set? Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah I'm going to beat Han Yanghao to death! No one stop me, I need to beat him to death, beat him till he doesn't want to live anymore!!!]
[QAQ Rongrong is so cute, how can he bear to bully Rongrong!]
[So disgusting, I actually had a good impression of Han Yanghao because of "Ambush" and even bought a magazine that had him on the cover. Hell, throwing it away throwing it away, this disgusting thing is simply polluting my bookshelf! Actually dare to bully Rongrong! Where did my family's Rongrong offend him, does he dare say it? And "Justice is in People's Heart", he actually has the face to say this shameless thing?]
The single #HanYanghao hashtag immediately became the headline of the day. Countless fans continued to scold and curse him, yelling at him to get out of the entertainment circle. There were some passersby who originally were just watching the liveliness, but with the profanities coming out of Han Yanghao's fans, they also started being disgusted by this star who acted as a poser.
Han Yanghao already withdrew all the water army accounts he bought, but it was already too late. How would he think that for most of the night, Rong Xu's fans actually didn't sleep. Hundreds of fans teamed up to total the majority of the water army accounts and came to the shocking conclusion——
Among the people who supported Han Yanghao yesterday, more than half of them were the water army!
In addition, this water army and the blackspots that framed Rong Xu and the "Black Clouds" crew were extremely similar!
Although not many of the IDs overlapped, the things they forwarded, commented on, and like were all similar. For example, user A forwarded a star's selfie on January 3rd. User B actually forwarded the same selfie the very same night; even their comments only differed by a few words!
[The water army that blackened Rongrong wouldn't actually happen to be bought by Han Yanghao's people right? What kind of freaking hatred freaking resentment is this, how did my Rongrong offend him? When they're filming together, he wants to suppress our Rongrong and drive him out the crew. Now that they're not even filming together, he wants to buy the water army to blacken Rongrong… eh? It can't be that he's jealous of Rongrong and wants to bury him right?!]
Once this conjecture came out, it was unanimously agreed on by the fans.
If it's not burying, if it's not jealousy, then you tell us, why are you always making it difficult for Rong Xu? As long as you can give out an answer, as long as you can prove that Rong Xu did something unforgivable to you, you can go ahead and directly say it!
By eleven at noon, Han Yanghao still hadn't said anything. His post, "Justice is in People's Heart", actually got over one million comments and forwards from numerous people scolding him as shameless. There were also many passersby who expressed that this kind of cancer needed to scram out of the entertainment circle.
By twelve, Han Yanghao still had not moved, but the "Ambush" crew had posted a lawyer's letter. They demanded that Han Yanghao compensate for the losses the crew suffered from having "Ambush"'s filming process dragged out and the withdrawal of the investment.
This made this whole incident reach a small climax, while the real climax came from a Weibo post from the director of "Black Clouds".
[Director Liang Chao: What kind of bad trick is this! You're not even an actor from our cast, what kind of means did you use to get insider news about our crew and disrupt our filming and PR plans too! What are you planning!]
What followed was a statement of where "Black Clouds"'s position stands——
["Black Clouds" crew: Solemn Statement [picture]]
Once one click open this picture, the opening words were:[Recently, concerning the disclosure of "Black Clouds"'s cast and the slander of my crew's actor, Rong Xu, the crew hereby solemnly states that Rong Xu entered the cast through a formal audition. The cast selection was strict and done carefully. Due to Mister Han's leak, it caused the crew to suffer huge monetary losses and reputation losses. This is a final warning to Han Yanghao's studio…]
...Hold up?! "Black Clouds"'s leak was actually related to Han Yanghao?!
Then, could it be that the water army that blackened Rong Xu a few days ago was really bought by Han Yanghao?!
For a moment, the whole internet was in chaos. No one thought that a simple "poser act" matter would actually have so many things involved behind it.
Slowly, as evening approached, many of the workers in the entertainment circle and small stars who had contact with Han Yanghao published some of their brief opinions on their own Weibo and official website.
They didn't straightforwardly step on Han Yanghao, but still confirmed it intentionally or otherwise: Han Yanghao indeed acted like a poser and often oppressed others.
That same night around eight, some netizens wanted to go to Han Yanghao's Weibo to scold him, when suddenly! They were startled to find that Han Yanghao's Weibo was completely emptied and even changed its name! He completely left Weibo!
This kind of pretending-to-be-dead behavior made the netizens even more enraged. Their scolding and cursing continued ceaselessly, but Han Yanghao didn't come out no matter what.
As for what happened next, President Li kept on extravagantly investing in dramas for Han Yanghao, but these dramas couldn't be sold to the TV stations and could only be aired for free online. But this was something that happened later on.
Han Yanghao's hope of returning to first-tier was completely cut off, and when he wanted to go privately find the "Black Clouds" crew for an explanation, he was also directly rejected by Director Liang.
"He wanted to say that he also heard about our cast from someone else, and didn't intentionally leak it? Let him scram! He should have a problem with that person who told him then, he went to find the marketing account himself and even dared to buy the water army. Since he dared do that, then he should know that from now on, not a single one of the TV Stations that are familiar with me, Liang Chao, will buy his dramas! Didn't he have a wealthy Golden Master? Let his Golden Master hold him forever then!"
Director Liang's attitude made Han Yanghao angry and anxious, but he didn't know that Director Liang had already long known who had told him about Rong Xu. When Han Yanghao's matter blew up, that person came to Director Liang and distressedly said something like, "Han Yanghao was extremely curious and they later had a lot of drinks, so he may have accidentally let slip when they were chatting."
Regarding this, Director Liang sneered and directly hung up.
As for what Ling Zhen was thinking, Director Liang had no interest in paying it any extra attention. Who knows if Ling Zhen deliberately told Han Yanghao and made use of him as a gun or if he really did unintentionally reveal it? In any case, for this kind of person, Director Liang would never work with him again in the future and would likewise remind his director friends to not contact Ling Zhen.
Even if you're rather popular right now and have a bunch of fans, by relying on a pretty face and setting people up, movies won't miss someone like you. You just go and film your idol dramas.
"Han Yanghao's poser act" incident thrived vigorously for three or four days. Later, with the appearance of an affair from a second-tier star couple in the circle, the heat finally stopped.
The conclusion of the incident ended with Han Yanghao being drenched from head to toe in dog blood by scolding and cursing. Some of his fans also found their conscience and stopped being fans; some couldn't stand others' criticism and ridicule and could only stop being fans. There were also some loli fans who continued to use filthy and colorful words to swear at those who criticized Han Yanghao. These braid-dead fans were treated as a joke by the other netizens.
And within these three to four days, the "Black Clouds" crew finally finished filming the final scene and wrapped up all the filming.
Rong Xu wholly did not expect that Director Zheng and the other members of the "Ambush" crew would so directly expose Han Yanghao's behavior. When Rong Xu asked him about it, Director Zheng laughed from the other side on the phone: "It's not a big deal, this kind of person should've been dealt with long ago. He really thought that since he found some President Li's backing, he could look down on people?"
Rong Xu smiled and indirectly continued to ask, but Director Zheng changed the topic.
There was no clear answer for this matter.
Rong Xu did not think this was because Director Zheng suddenly had a righteous heart and couldn't stand what Han Yanghao was doing and thus decided to deal with him. However, since Director Zheng wasn't willing to say why, Rong Xu had no way to find out the truth. No matter, for whatever reason it was, Director Zheng still helped him this time, and the result was good.
During the wrap-up party, Rong Xu looked at the message sent by Director Zheng—— "I wish you success in your new film.", and fell deep into thought. Everyone was lively celebrating and eating, only the youth had his eyebrows slightly knitted with a heavy expression.
To be able to make Director Zheng step out and expose Han Yanghao… Who was it?
Either way, with tonight's wrap-up party, "Black Clouds"'s filming was finally finished. The next day, Rong Xu didn't leave S-City. He returned from Film City to S-City with the crew, and arrived at a skyscraper.
This place was Huaxia Entertainment's branch in S-City. Here, there were first-class actor training classes, first-class PR team, as well as first-class recording studio and the best recording equipment in the country.
The author has something to say:
Qin Orangeorange: Someone's scolding Baby, why aren't you guys rushing to speak up for Baby and only focusing on the fact that Baby bought the water army humph!
Rongrong: #Everyday I want to apply for a change in gong