In the Huayi artist manager's office, Jiang Hua's former agent rushed in.
"Director Ji, Jiang Hua got into a fight. Someone recorded a video and posted it online."
He quickly opened the video.
The footage was a bit shaky and from a distance, but Jiang Hua could be seen fighting fiercely.
"Good, very good. Immediately find some internet trolls and smear him hard."
Damn, trending twice in a row made Director Ji feel uneasy. This guy wanted to make a comeback.
That was something he absolutely couldn't tolerate.
"Alright, I'll arrange it right away. This time we'll make sure Jiang Hua is thoroughly disgraced."
Soon, a video was pushed to the top of the trending list.
[Former Youth Group member brawling, low quality, shocking]
The video was edited, showing only Jiang Hua beating five people.
This was a blatant distortion of facts. The police had released Jiang Hua.
But this is how the internet works. They only needed to achieve their desired goal.
There were also some people at the scene who recorded videos, and even the hot pot restaurant's surveillance footage was obtained as evidence.
But what kind of company is Huayi? This was their hype tactic - buying trending topics, driving traffic.
These were all basic operations.
Jiang Hua was still oblivious.
...
The next day, as soon as Jiang Hua arrived at the theater entrance,
He was surrounded by a crowd of people who had rushed over.
"Jiang Hua, we heard you sent three people to the hospital. Any thoughts?"
"The other party is preparing to hire a lawyer. How will you respond?"
This was Huayi's operation. Jiang Hua was all too familiar with it from his past life in the entertainment circle.
Many celebrities had been brought down this way, even big bosses had been targeted like this.
He calmly said, "It was self-defense. If they sue, I'll cooperate fully with the investigation."
He walked away with a cold face, but those people didn't want to let him go. This was big traffic.
"Jiang Hua, are you trying to avoid something?"
Hearing this, Jiang Hua stopped, turned around and looked at the person who just asked this question.
"I don't know how you judged that I'm avoiding something. If I'm guilty, let the country and the people judge me."
His voice was loud, silencing everyone present. No one dared to step forward.
Jiang Hua silently turned around and walked into the Butterfly Theater, his expression calm.
This time he was truly angry. Usually, he was very emotionally stable. Having lived two lives, he had come to terms with many things.
But the other side was so aggressive, still unwilling to let him go.
...
In the art troupe's office, Director Cai was rubbing her temples.
She felt that this Jiang Hua was a big trouble. It hadn't even been a month since he started working.
He had trended three times, each time bigger than the last.
This time it was even a brawl. She wondered if she had made the wrong choice.
Why couldn't he stay out of trouble?
"Knock knock knock!"
The door was knocked, and Jiang Hua walked in with a grin.
"Boss, you were looking for me?"
Director Cai gave him a side-eye. This guy could still smile, with comments cursing him all over the internet.
But this guy didn't show it. He looked refined on the outside, but one against five, even sending several to the hospital.
"The online public opinion storm is too big. What do you think?"
Jiang Hua rubbed his nose and said, "In the entertainment circle, this is all too normal. Stirring up controversial topics, then exploding a hot point, finally reversing to harvest a wave of traffic."
"This is practically a gift-wrapped trending topic from the opponents."
This guy was still using entertainment circle tactics. Director Cai couldn't understand. This guy seemed to know everything, how could he have been banned?
She angrily said, "Jiang Hua, don't try to fool me with your entertainment circle tactics. We're in the opera business."
Jiang Hua quickly patted the director's back.
"Director, don't worry. Isn't our new play's attendance rate declining? Other plays' attendance rates aren't high either. We need traffic, we need exposure. This is the era of traffic being king."
This sounded somewhat reasonable. She knew the troupe needed exposure now, but not like this.
However, seeing his calm demeanor, he must have a plan in mind.
"Tell me, what do you plan to do?"
Jiang Hua organized his thoughts and said:
"Let the bullet fly a bit longer. I'll lay low for a few days, then I plan to release a big move, bringing a flood of traffic to our troupe."
"Tell me your plan. I want to know everything."
Not easy to fool, Jiang Hua had to say, "I want to wait until my fans exceed 500,000, then come out to clarify, release an album to stabilize the traffic, and finally create a CP to attract a large number of CP fans."
Release an album? This guy seemed to have reported it before, and she had agreed. After all, he was doing it off work hours.
During work hours, this guy was still very serious. New Dragon Gate Inn was a bold attempt, and it seemed to be going well so far.
"I've listened to the songs you recorded this time. They're okay, the concept is good. Let's give it a try. But I warn you, you must report to me before any operation."
Rarely praised by the teacher, Jiang Hua became more confident.
Jiang Hua massaged the director's shoulders and asked, "Then my leave application?"
"Follow the procedure."
"Alright! Got it."
He left the office, bouncing happily. This guy seemed quite pleased.
Was this an excuse he found to slack off? Very likely.
But it was indeed as he said, with the traffic, the troupe's recent attendance rate had improved a bit.
Although it still wasn't full, wasn't this also an attempt?
As Jiang Hua left the office, two heads poked out from around the corner of the corridor.
"Jiang Hua, are you okay? The director didn't punish you, did she?"
Jiang Hua looked at the two people in front of him and decided to create a CP with them.
After all, Yue Opera also had a CP tradition.
The male lead and the female lead were naturally a CP. These two often performed Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, they had chemistry.
He clapped his hands and said, "You two go perform first. I'm fine."
Jiang Hua slipped away through the back door. Two days to finish recording the remaining songs was still quite challenging.
The online public opinion was becoming increasingly unfavorable to Jiang Hua. Recently, several celebrities had fallen from grace.
Some even went to jail. People were very resentful of the current entertainment circle.
Jiang Hua's appearance seemed to provide an outlet for everyone's frustration.
But quite the opposite, there's a saying in the entertainment circle: whether you become famous through negative publicity or however else,
It's all good. The fear is having no topic to discuss.
It must be said, these haters were also crazy, digging up Jiang Hua's old scandals from years ago.
Jiang Hua's few fans were also anxious, frantically trying to defend him online, but their voices were too weak.
However, Jiang Hua's fans increased rapidly, most of them just spectators.
Among them were even funnier fans. One person beating five, some fans found a blind spot - this was definitely boyfriend material.
Strong, good-looking, it also attracted some fans.
Soon the number of fans broke 500,000. Could these be reinforcements sent by the Monkey King?
Jiang Hua just posted one video, and it topped the hot list.
He had been waiting for an opportunity.
...