"What do you mean?" Nazha felt there was something more to Zhang Yang's words.
"Just a heads-up." Zhang Yang looked at Nazha's delicate face, his expression serious. "Sister K loves marketing certain labels and personas for the artists under her, all to draw attention and get people talking."
"For example, Tangren put out press releases claiming Sister Shishi was a younger Liu Yifei and Liu Yifei's cousin. And then there's me. After Old Hu became famous, they wanted to hype me up as Little Hu Ge and claim I was Old Hu's cousin."
"Personas like that are a double-edged sword. If you're optimistic about your future, don't accept that kind of arrangement. At the very least, take a page from Sister Shishi and don't get involved in the hype yourself."
Zhang Yang remembered clearly that, in an interview, Nazha had said Master Xing saw her photo in a newspaper and invited her to star in Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons. She had turned him down because she wanted to focus on her studies. At the time, plenty of people had said she'd traded a watermelon for a sesame seed.
That interview had been full of holes, and it had later come back to bite her. But at the time, the whole internet was raving about Nazha's beauty and discussing Xuanyuan Sword. To put it bluntly, Tangren had used Nazha to take a swipe at Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons and promote Xuanyuan Sword. It was a standard tactic.
"Oh, I understand." Nazha smiled brightly, warmth spreading through her heart.
Zhang Yang was probably worried she'd be naïvely tricked by Tangren and Sister K, so he'd found an excuse to give her some advice.
If he wanted to show he cared, why not just say so? Why