On the night of the wrap party, almost everyone got drunk. Li Xun was the exception. He knew his own limits, so no matter who tried to persuade him or how hard they pushed, he refused every drink. At first, some of the actors and crew thought he was being aloof and looking down on them. But when they saw him turn down drinks from even director Kong Teng and the big shot Chen Minghao, they felt better about it.
Early the next morning, the crew members went their separate ways. Executive producer Tang Jiahe handled the wrap-up, director Kong Teng immediately began preparing for post-production, and Dai Ying called Li Xun back to the company headquarters.
Li Xun boarded the coach home at 10 a.m. and showed up in Dai Ying's office at 2 p.m. that afternoon.
"You need to get started on the script for the second arc of Young Bao Qingtian. As soon as director Kong finishes editing the first arc, we'll start production on the second one. Don't wait until the last minute and end up scrambling." When Li Xun met with Dai Ying, she was standing with her back to him, gazing out the window.
Li Xun grumbled to himself, Even the donkeys on a production team don't get worked this hard! I've been away on a business trip for half a month, and I haven't even made it home yet, but she's already piling on new work. This capitalist lackey really is even more ruthless than the capitalists!
He could gripe all he wanted in his head, but there was no way he would say that out loud. He simply smiled and assured Dai Ying that the production schedule wouldn't be delayed because of the script.
"By the way, you need to be more careful about what you say and do from now on. Think before you speak, and know what you can and can't say." Dai Ying spoke from her place by the window.
Li Xun scratched his head. "What do you mean, President Dai? Did I say something?"
Dai Ying turned around and pointed at her computer. "Take a look for yourself!"
Li Xun leaned over to look at Dai Ying's computer. Her browser was on Weibo's trending page, and the number-one trending topic was: Uncle Ming Got Carried Away!
He went through the trending topics from top to bottom but didn't find anything related to him, so he asked, "You mean the one at number one?"
Chen Minghao was generally known in the industry as Uncle Ming. After looking through everything, that was the only topic that might have something to do with him or the company.
When Dai Ying nodded, Li Xun puzzledly pulled over her chair and sat down, then clicked on the topic.
Dai Ying watched Li Xun sitting in her chair, her delicate brows unconsciously drawing together.
Once you told a lie, you often had to tell countless more to cover up the first one.
Dai Ying was now in a bit of a bind. To put it simply, her parents had taken a liking to Li Xun.
The time before last that she spoke with her family, she'd lied and said she had a boyfriend who worked under her. The last time they spoke, her mother had eagerly demanded a photo of the young man. On a whim, Dai Ying had sent her a picture of herself and Li Xun together from her social media feed.
After that, her parents, her grandparents on both sides, her aunts and uncles, her older cousins, and the rest of the family had all seen that photo.
Don't ask how so many relatives had seen it so quickly. She swore she had set that post to be visible only to family, and "family" was definitely supposed to mean just her father and mother.
But no matter how carefully she'd planned, she hadn't counted on her mother's urge to show off.
Her daughter's being well past the usual marrying age and still single had always been a sore spot for her mother. In the early years, she could at least brag about her daughter's high income. Back then, whenever she ran into friends and relatives, they'd shower her with compliments for raising such a capable daughter.
But over the past two years, conversations with relatives had turned to the thorny problem of her once-precious daughter being unable to find a husband.
Now her darling daughter finally had a boyfriend, and he was so handsome, too. The two of them standing together—what was that saying? A talented man and a beautiful woman!
How could she not show him off?
She'd originally planned to use Li Xun as a shield, but she hadn't expected to end up with a magnet instead.
Just now, she'd hung up after a call with her grandmother. Her grandmother had prattled on over the phone: "Yingying, have you two decided when you're going to have a baby? Does that young man smoke? Does he drink? You need to keep an eye on him. If he has any bad habits, make him quit right away. You're not getting any younger, so the sooner you have a baby, the better!"
She'd gotten several calls like that over the past few days, including from her grandmother on the other side of the family, her aunt, and her father's sister.
She really was getting older, and her grandmother and aunts had all meant well. But who was she supposed to have a baby with? Her "boyfriend" still had no idea when he'd suddenly gotten a "girlfriend"! The woman's family was already urging them to start trying for a baby, while the man knew nothing about it. How was she supposed to have this child, and with whom?
She didn't know how things had gotten to this point. It was just one photo. Was all this really necessary?
Dai Ying looked at Li Xun, who was studying Weibo intently, and ground her teeth in frustration.
Every time she saw him, something went wrong!
Maybe their horoscopes were just incompatible?!
Dai Ying had never believed in such superstition, but now she was even tempted to find a fortune-teller and ask.
What gave her an even bigger headache was that her mother was insisting on coming to the capital to meet her brand-new son-in-law. Her mother was getting worried.
Ever since Dai Ying had posted that photo, not a single man had appeared on her social media feed. Her mother had started imagining all sorts of things.
Had her daughter and her boyfriend had a fight?
Otherwise, why weren't they interacting on social media anymore?
Her daughter's boyfriend hadn't appeared on her feed for a whole half month. What was going on? Had they broken up?
The older woman was so worked up that she insisted on staying at her daughter's place for a couple of days.
Dai Ying had only managed to talk her mother out of it after a lot of effort. She didn't dare tell her the truth. Now the whole family—even distant relatives several times removed, people who were barely connected to them at all—knew. If the truth came out, wouldn't her parents and the rest of her family become a laughingstock?
She had to keep this lie going!
Dai Ying could only explain to her mother that things were going great between her and Li Xun, but he'd recently gone on a business trip. Men were like that; they were focused on their careers. She promised her mother that as soon as Li Xun got back, she'd send them another video.
She didn't know how long she'd have to keep up this lie. And when the day came that she and Li Xun got their marriage certificate, would he even know that he'd somehow acquired a wife?
Dai Ying pushed all those jumbled thoughts out of her mind and secretly took out her phone, pretending to read the news while actually opening the camera to record.
This time, she needed to record for longer. From now on, it seemed she'd have to post things about her "boyfriend" on social media whenever she got the chance.
Li Xun carefully read through the trending topic. To put it simply, someone had recorded the events at the Young Bao Qingtian wrap party the previous night and posted the video online.
In the video, Chen Minghao had said confidently, "Fourth, the script for Young Bao Qingtian is outstanding. I can even say, without exaggeration, that it's the most impressive script I've seen in twenty years. Our screenwriter is incredibly talented—one of the most talented young people I've met in all these years. For all these four reasons, Young Bao Qingtian is sure to become a massive hit, a phenomenon-level drama!"
That was all the video showed, but it was obvious that the person who posted it knew more than what was in the footage. The anonymous poster claimed that an unknown junior screenwriter from the Young Bao Qingtian crew had brazenly declared that Young Bao Qingtian would surpass The Coroner and become another massive phenomenon-level hit.
The unknown junior screenwriter had given four reasons:
First: Young Bao Qingtian had a bigger budget than The Coroner.
Second: The cast of Young Bao Qingtian was more famous than the cast of The Coroner had been when filming began.
Third: The director of Young Bao Qingtian and his team were more capable than the team behind The Coroner.
Fourth: As Chen Minghao had said in the video, Young Bao Qingtian had a genius screenwriter!
Then the whole internet exploded.
You could be confident, but why take a shot at The Coroner? Did you know how highly television fans regarded it?
Nearly every internet traffic company was buzzing with excitement. How did you get traffic? The more famous the person involved in a controversy, the more traffic it could generate.
At times like this, the opinions themselves didn't matter. If you attacked him, you could attract the traffic of people who disliked him. If you defended him, that traffic would flow to your account instead.
Soon, an online war broke out between the two sides.
And among those speaking out against Chen Minghao, one line came up more than any other: Uncle Ming Got Carried Away.
There were plenty of TV dramas that met the first three criteria, and many of them were on the same list. The list was called: A Look at the Biggest Money-Losing TV Dramas in History!
The first three points had clearly been made by Li Xun. But he wasn't famous, so attacking or defending him wouldn't bring in much traffic. So even though Li Xun had said most of it, Chen Minghao became the center of the online storm.
Both sides tacitly assumed that those were Chen Minghao's opinions.
Gradually, a consensus formed among Chen Minghao's critics: Penguin Video must have spent a fortune this time!
Even a celebrity with such principles had started selling out and speaking against his conscience for money.
Wouldn't these celebrities be afraid that, once the drama aired, they'd ruin all the goodwill they'd built up over the years?
It seemed things had gotten a little out of hand!
Li Xun had a bit of a headache.
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