Studio Superstar: Chapter 30 Part 2

The quarrel on the Internet continued to escalate. Xue Xiao simply turned off his Weibo completely and didn’t look at it.

Fortunately, his parents weren’t people who loved to surf the Internet. They usually didn’t like to open the barrage when watching online videos because it was too distracting… They only sent messages to him to work hard and pay attention to rest. It was a cliche, but it revealed the true feelings between family members.

Zhang Chengyu was different. The group of them couldn’t help going to quarrel with netizens.

Xue Xiao repeatedly told them not to argue. Don’t set themselves on fire!

The brothers and sisters told him, “We’ll stick together. We aren’t afraid!”

Xue Xiao: “…Maybe you will be popular one day?”

Brothers and sisters: “Thank you for your blessings. Thank you, thank you!”

Xue Xiao: “…I’m serious!”

They started to play dead.

It wasn’t easy for Xue Xiao to speak up as the ‘party’ involved, but it was impossible for them to hold back. They would stay up late tonight to fight with the sunspots until the end!

There was also his childhood friend, Ye Xingxing. He sent a message after practicing songs with his band. “What is this show?”

…Xue Xiao really wanted to disconnect from the Internet, but he was busy until midnight before he could put down his phone!

At this time, he was already dizzy and unable to think about anything. He directly fell asleep.

—

No matter how much arguing there was on the Internet, everyone had to rehearse normally the next day.

Just starting with breakfast in the cafeteria, the whole atmosphere wasn’t quite right.

Many people cautiously peeked at Xue Xiao, but what about the other party involved?

—Fan Xue directly called a sick leave.

It wasn’t known if it was because he didn’t dare to meet Xue Xiao or if he was angry because he spent money but failed to blacken Xue Xiao.

Jin Xiaochen rolled his eyes. “Leave him alone and practice your parts.”

After breakfast, the group of people headed to Building 3.

As the days passed, the temperature rose every day.

It was only 8:30 in the morning, and the outside temperature was approaching 38 degrees.

Old Gao met Shen Tingyan on the way out of the camp and found that the latter was facing the sun, his handsome face containing a world-weary expression.

Shen Tingyan was still a bit sleepy. He bumped into his friend and casually asked, “Are you going to headquarters so early?”

Old Gao looked like he was in a hurry, and there was a folder under his arm. He definitely wasn’t going back home.

Old Gao hurriedly nodded. He hesitated and asked, “…You didn’t watch the first episode that went live yesterday?”

Shen Tingyan paused.

He was really busy yesterday and didn’t watch it.

Old Gao told him, “…You had better not look at it.”

“Why?” Shen Tingyan asked lazily. He had already taken out his phone to open the Guantian APP and clicked on the first episode.

He was just so rebellious.

Old Gao: “……”

Seeing Old Gao sighing, Shen Tingyan directly pulled the progress bar to the part related to him.

No matter how much Guantian didn’t want to release all his words to the audience, they would never dare to cut all his words, let alone use editing to smear him.

Shen Tingyan knew very well that Old Gao’s expression definitely wasn’t because of him. This person would be speechless and angry because of something else.

He quickly found the part.

He sneered like it was absurd and pulled the progress bar forward again. After watching it, he looked up, and there was a sentence written on his face, ‘What is the meaning?’

Old Gao hadn’t slept all night, and his expression was ugly. “Didn’t I tell you? Xue Xiao and their group had some problems during rehearsals. I thought I had solved it! I didn’t expect that Zhang Luyang finally submitted this version for trial. This idiot actually did such a thing. I told him before that it is his business how he wants to edit the parts with Fan Xue, but Xue Xiao’s group has already been tripped up, and they must not be edited viciously. The show can’t do this type of thing!”

“I argued with him for a long time yesterday, and I figured it out. Fan Xue acted like that, and Zhang Luyang doesn’t really want to praise him. He just feels that I always violate his will and doesn’t take him seriously. He wants to give me some setbacks. He treats Fan Xue as his knife while Xue Xiao and the others are mine. He is really sick…”

Shen Tingyan once said, ‘Don’t treat the audience as fools.”

Of course, this didn’t mean that contemporary netizens were so independent in thinking or that they weren’t easily led astray. It was just that in cases where the contrast was too stark, netizens were indeed not so stupid.

In fact, it was just as he said. The trend of public opinion on the Internet proved this. Zhang Luyang actually overturned a bit with this wave.

But it didn’t have to be like this. Xue Xiao and the others could’ve appeared innocently in the eyes of the audience. Maybe their popularity wouldn’t be so high without the help of the black hot search, but with the personalities of these people, how could they not be willing to proceed step by step?

Shen Tingyan’s vision of seeing people and things was extremely precise. He rarely made mistakes in his judgment. He just didn’t think that the internal struggle of ‘Studio Superstar’ would be so fierce and Old Gao would suffer a crushing defeat in this struggle. He couldn’t even maintain the bottom line, and Xue Xiao and the others were also caught in this whirlpool.

Old Gao looked ashamed. “I plan to go back to headquarters to find the leader. This matter must not be left alone…”

Shen Tingyan put down his phone and said in an extremely light tone, “Then what? Your boss is so touched by you and agrees to let you send the ‘correct version’ for review and replacement? The truth will come out, and everyone will be happy?”

Old Gao was stuck.

Shen Tingyan put his hands in his trouser pockets. His sarcastic tone was very cool under the scorching temperature, making the hands and feet of the old master feel cold.

“You have been in this industry for so long. Don’t you know the rules better than me?”

“Unless there is a broadcast accident or any artist who appears in this episode is officially banned, no platform will agree to change the edited version at will.”

If the edited version wasn’t replaced, then it was useless to say anything.

Even if he took a step back and the leaders explicitly promised Old Gao that they would never viciously edit other participants later, there was still the ‘trophy’ of the first episode. Zhang Luyang could make the decision without authorization, and the leaders could turn a blind eye. If they could close their eyes once, couldn’t they do it a second or third time?

Old Gao knew that Shen Tingyan’s words were true.

He became weak, powerless, and unwilling. The 30 year old stood in place like this, thoughts spinning around like a trapped bull. His eyes turned red.

Shen Tingyan looked at him coldly.

Old Gao said with red eyes, “But the show shouldn’t be like this. If Zhang Luyang continues like this, everything will be ruined…”

“I should always try it, right? I can’t just do nothing and let him mess around! I—”

“Gao Jianqi, there is one thing you don’t seem to understand until now,” Shen Tingyan interrupted him impatiently.

Old Gao was stunned and looked at him with tear-filled eyes.

“Do you feel that since you are in a circle of literature and art, you should be reasonable and talk well? You think you shouldn’t act like a scoundrel. But can’t you see clearly?”

“In this circle, there are scoundrels everywhere.”

“Do you know why your leader likes Zhang Luyang?” Shen Tingyan cocked his head. “Because they are both the same. No matter whether it is immoral or not, it is best to attract traffic and make money.”

“Do you know what your leader hates the most? It is just empty talk and a big truth that won’t make money.”

Shen Tingyan took a step forward.

He leaned down slightly.

Old Gao heard the cold and sarcastic voice of his friend beside him. “Do you know how to defeat scoundrels?”

“Be harder and crazier than them.”

“As long as you back down a bit, they can force you to take another step back, one more step back, until you give up your house completely. You will become a homeless person, and they will become the new owner of the house.”

“Gao Jianqi, do you want your house to be stolen?”

Old Gao froze.

At this moment, his phone vibrated.

It was a WeChat message sent by an employee, saying that the participants’ vlog homework had been collected. One of the vlog videos needed to be watched by Old Gao himself…

Old Gao froze for a while. Slowly, his eyes darkened.”

He gritted his teeth.

He said in a hoarse voice, “…I know. Go to the classroom.”

Shen Tingyan straightened up and looked at him.

Old Gao turned around and went back to the office building.

He wasn’t going to go to headquarters to find some terrible leader.

—

Shen Tingyan turned on the air conditioner when he arrived at the classroom.

The air conditioning slowly blew away the hot air in the whole room. It wasn’t powerful, but it was better than nothing.

He lit a cigarette and leaned against the window.

His phone buzzed and vibrated. Fang Lei had sent him a message to remind him, “Yesterday, the show aired. You remember to send something to cooperate with the publicity. A nine grid photo or something…Nine grids aren’t necessary. One grid is also fine! [Sweats]”

Shen Tingyan replied casually. Then he switched to his Weibo and casually looked through it.

In the middle of the night, a certain marketing account revealed the news that Xue Xiao had played a background actor in Fan Xue’s crew. During this time, he flattered the director, and the director personally said he wanted to replace Fan Xue, the starring actor, for Xue Xiao.

The marketing account also sent a blurry photo of the set, in which the director was suspected of reprimanding Fan Xue. Fan Xue’s entire body was very stiff.

The fans in the comment area controlled the comments. All of them felt sorry for their brother and scolded Xue Xiao for wanting to get the position, overthinking his capabilities.

The corners of Shen Tingyan’s lips twitched.

Want to get that position?

That little light bulb who was stupid all day long and only thought about how to act well?

There was the sound of footsteps and talking from downstairs.

Shen Tingyan moved his phone and glanced down, just in time to see a large number of participants who came together.

The young man walked in the middle of the line, listening to the person on the side. Then he seemed to suddenly notice the gaze from above his head and raised his head blankly.

The golden morning light hit the young man’s fair face.

The two of them looked at each other. Then the young man’s eyes lit up. His eyebrows curved, and he revealed a smile that was brighter than the sun, as if there were no troubles.

Shen Tingyan gently exhaled a puff of smoke.

Perhaps he was afraid of being discovered by the people around him and causing a big battle, but Xue Xiao quietly fell a few steps behind.

Once he reached the end of the group, he waved excitedly at Shen Tingyan.

Sneaky sneaky, like some small animal… A little hamster? A bunny? He didn’t know. It wasn’t clear.

In any case, he was pretty cute.

There were noises from the trees, and a hot breeze was blowing.

It was coming again.

Shen Tingyan rubbed his phone with his left hand while placing his right hand against his chin. He looked down and thought—

It was the fragrance of flowers.

—

At noon, they were eating in the cafeteria when Jin Xiaochen’s chopsticks suddenly dropped.

Zhao Dong asked him, “What for? You can’t eat anymore?”

Jin Xiaochen quickly wiped his mouth and stared at his phone. “That’s not it… F*k, did the show’s staff go crazy?”

Everyone was taken aback.

Jin Xiaochen continued, “Or is Old Gao crazy?”

White Lily

Avid fan of danmei novels! If you want access to advance chapters, you can subscribe on Patreon. Thanks!
https://www.patreon.com/WhiteLily476