After visiting Prof. Wang Shuo, Zhong Shao and Yu Cheng found themselves quickly immersed in their respective work as the holiday season slipped away. Their first task was to record promotional and end credits songs for the movie "Same Or Not".
With over a decade in the industry, Zhong Shao had not performed publicly before and stepped into a recording studio for the first time, displaying ten parts dedication to the task and one part excitement.
During the recording process, the producer Alex showed some admiration towards Zhong Shao and jokingly suggested, "Have you ever thought about venturing into the music industry?"
Zhong Shao simply smiled in response, stating, "I have a specific focus in my craft as an actor, and I have not fully fulfilled my responsibilities in that field yet, so I'd rather not complicate things further."
As for Yu Cheng, he and Alex were old acquaintances, with Alex having been the producer of Yu Cheng's debut album. Being aware of some of Yu Cheng's decisions, such as not intending to further pursue a career as a singer, Alex couldn't help but ask after the recording, "Have you considered branching out into acting or singing in films?"
Anticipating Yu Cheng's predetermined response, Alex patted Yu Cheng on the shoulder understandingly as Yu Cheng shook his head, saying, "Just singing occasionally for fun is sufficient for me."
In the following month, Zhong Shao remained low-profile while Yu Cheng had two brand promotions and a photo shoot, with no other work engagements.
In their spare time, aside from Yu Cheng moving in with Zhong Shao, they engaged in activities typical of a couple, focusing mainly on reading scripts.
The scripts they received had already been sifted through by Tan Ye and Miaomiao, although Zhong Shao had significantly more scripts to review compared to Yu Cheng.
During this period, a video caught the attention of the "Sperm Bank Project Team," and Dong Yi promptly shared the video link in their WeChat project group.
The video was a Vlog titled "When Boyfriend Donates Sperm to the Sperm Bank...," and as the title suggests, the blogger shared the process of accompanying her boyfriend to donate sperm.
What triggered discussions was not the act of "sperm donation" itself, but rather the female blogger's controversial remarks on women's issues in the video.
—— The sperm bank, a saviour for independent women.
Whether the blogger expressed understanding and support for her boyfriend's sperm donation or defined independent women and feminism in the unique context of sperm donation, she offended feminists to a considerable extent.
Dong Yi remarked, "This is probably heaven-sent to help us."
The "Sperm Bank Project Team" originally planned to use female topics to discuss marriage fraud and issues related to being a same-sex partner, and this video hit one of the central points of the project, allowing the PR department to capitalise on the topic's popularity, starting from the sperm bank and heading straight to the core issue.
In this era of information explosion and the rise of short videos on the fast-paced internet, most topics are discussed through keyboard input, in an entertainment-focused manner. However, the team aims to approach public opinion seriously, dealing with it objectively.
This is their ambition.
Many things should not simply follow the trend of the internet, becoming fragmented and entertainment-oriented.
Zhong Shao did not immediately respond in the group chat but posted a Weibo message: "Our country's sperm bank is not open to single women."
The highly informative Weibo post was understood by some, but many others were puzzled.
Yu Cheng knew that Zhong Shao concealed his anger in it. This anger was not due to the essence of the sperm bank being discussed by the public, but rather on the issue of what exactly are they discussing if like-minded individuals who hold up their banners cannot understand each other. When women keep faltering in discussing women's issues, what exactly are the masses discussing - narrow-mindedness, stereotypes, or both?
That night, the "Sperm Bank Project Team's" "Public Opinion Plan" was launched. "Forward" official platform posted a lengthy article on the forum discussion section and social media, calmly and rigorously elucidating the whole story of Xiaohui's deceived marriage, while also hiring a group of online influencers, fueling some topics, and pushing #China'ssame-sexspouse##SpermBankDeception# into the trending topics.
Two hours after the related topics trended, several lawyers from Hengsheng Law Firm successively explained China's sperm bank-related content and legal regulations on their respective social media platforms, discussing the donation of sperm videos and marriage deception events from legal and ethical perspectives, as well as depicting the current survival status of minority groups in China and the lack of related rights and legal regulations.
Of course, Hengsheng Law Firm added fuel to the fire, propelling #SpermBank Deception##China'sSame-SexSpouse# into the top search list.
Subsequently, several prominent civil lawyers in the legal community reposted and commented on the related Weibo posts, amplified by Zhong Shao's previous Weibo post, and the heat around the related topics continued to escalate.
For the first time, words related to same-sex spouses and sperm banks appeared in the trending searches, and no one could anticipate the ongoing development of public opinion.
For now, the "Sperm Bank Team" could only observe the situation.
The next day, the buzz surrounding the issue remained high. Various individuals from different sectors expressed their views, whether scholarly, authoritative, or unknown. Following this, both political and mainstream media published articles approaching the topics of "fake marriage," "gay wives," and "sperm banks" from different perspectives, sparking further societal discussions on the matter.
A multitude of voices emerged in the comments, both positive and negative. The "Sperm Bank Project Team" gathered and analysed all relevant comments, utilising big data keyword searches to map out all valid comments and societal concerns.
Meanwhile, after a night of silence, the sexual minority groups, particularly represented by gay men, openly engaged in introspection and counterarguments online. They acknowledged the presence of "rat droppings" within the minority group category. They also recognised that the gay community had a clearer sense of identity compared to other sexual minority groups. Furthermore, they admitted that the emergence of gay wives was a submission to political culture, a sign of their helplessness and mediocrity.
They countered statements such as "homosexuality is disgusting," refuted the fallacy that "homosexuality is the pathogen of AIDS," and pushed back against society's biases and prejudices towards them.
More gay wives and more homosexual men are standing out, using social media as an intermediary and words as their voice, sharing the inner thoughts that have been concealed for years.
A gay wife revealed that her husband only discovered his attraction to men three years into their marriage. They eventually divorced, with the husband leaving without a trace. She kept this secret buried deep within, but her son's first confession to her as an adult was about his father coming out to her, leaving her feeling the absurdity of her life.
A gay man shared that the most regretful decision in his life was agreeing to marry a girl who knew he was gay but still wanted to hide it from her parents. The happiest moment in his life was when he reached middle age and could spend the rest of his life with the person he fell in love with at a young age.
A teenager suffering from AIDS mentioned how he was bullied since childhood for not fitting the typical masculine image. Two years ago, he was maliciously injected with urine using a discarded medical syringe by a former classmate, leading to HIV infection. He emphasised that the world should not judge one's character based on their identity, as the goodness or evil of a person has nothing to do with categories.
As the day progressed, with the help of big data filtering, Hengsheng Law Firm compiled the top 20 questions the public wants answers to regarding the "gay spouse divorce case" and "sperm bank incident."
Before addressing these questions, Dong Yi, renowned as the lawyer for the gay spouse divorce case, finally stepped down.
@Lawyer DongYi: If society does not unequivocally denounce something, then you cannot punish it, or it will lead to serious hypocrisy and public outrage. — James Stephen's "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Understanding that the law cannot solve all problems, he knows it only resolves the final conflicts in society. Even with the strength of a mantis, making even a slight change brings fulfilment to a lawyer's life, adhering to the principles of thickness, vitality, solidity, stability, clumsiness, and harmony.