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Xiao Chun's father had no choice but to settle for the role of Sun Ce. Who would have thought that as soon as he passed the word along, Wang Chusheng immediately assembled his people and arranged an audition for Chen Mo.

When Xiao Chun's father learned of this, he assumed Wang Chusheng was deliberately disrespecting him and naturally bore a grudge. He had originally intended to "teach" Wang Chusheng a lesson right then, but the incident involving Chen Mo's car accident happened to break out. At the time, the media and the internet were in an uproar, so Xiao Chun's father did not dare make any moves for fear of angering netizens. Thus, he held back until the launch ceremony for The Three Kingdoms: Eastern Wu, when he arranged for reporters to come and stir up trouble.

Chen Mo naturally knew nothing about the schemes behind these events. Wang Chusheng had picked up on some of it, but he had not taken the matter to heart. Hearing the reporter's question, the old man did not hesitate in the slightest. He picked up the microphone and said directly, "I don't know why you would ask that question. I have never considered having Xiao Chun play Sun Ce."

Upon hearing Wang Chusheng's response, the reporter below followed up, "Why hadn't you considered Xiao Chun? As far as I know, Xiao Chun did express through his agent and management company that he was interested in participating, and both his image and acting skills should fit—"

"Whether he fits is not for you to decide. I don't think he meets my standards for casting actors." Wang Chusheng frowned and cut the reporter off impatiently. "Next question."

Another reporter immediately raised his hand. After receiving the host's permission, he asked, "I'd like to ask Chen Mo: did you know Xiao Chun had once intended to play Sun Ce? And do you think your acting skills are better than Xiao Chun's?"

Chen Mo chuckled. He had not wanted to provoke anyone, yet someone had come right up and slapped him in the face again. He truly could not understand it. Did his forehead have the six words I'm soft, come squeeze me written on it?

After laughing, Chen Mo said directly, "I only knew that Director Wang notified me to audition. After that, he chose me to play Sun Ce."

The reporter's eyes lit up at Chen Mo's words, and he immediately pressed on, "So you're saying you believe your acting is better than Xiao Chun's, which is why Director Wang chose you to play Sun Ce?"

Chen Mo laughed again. He glanced at the relentlessly pursuing reporter, then simply nodded. "Yes. At least, that's what Director Wang believes. So naturally, I trust Director Wang's professional judgment. I'll also work hard to play this role well. I definitely won't let down Director Wang's trust in me."

Chen Mo said those words with complete confidence. After all, there really was no one else like him, an actor who would practically travel through five thousand years of history and break through the dimensional walls of multiple novels just to play a role.

However, the reporters below had no idea what Chen Mo truly meant. Hearing him actually admit in front of the media that his acting was better than Xiao Chun's, the reporters immediately erupted. Camera flashes and the clicking of shutters rang out without pause, and everyone focused on Chen Mo onstage. Some had already drafted tomorrow's headline in their minds—

Rising young star makes outrageous claims at The Three Kingdoms: Eastern Wu launch ceremony, declaring war on Xiao Chun. Claims his acting is better than that of the youngest Lily Flower Award Best Supporting Actor nominee.

Not only the reporters below, but even the other actors seated onstage had not expected Chen Mo to say something so arrogant. They immediately looked over with great interest.

Seeing this, the reporters below went even more frantic. "Do you even know who Xiao Chun is?"

"Chen Mo, do you have confidence that this film and this role will earn you a Golden Crow Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor..."

Chen Mo sat onstage with a calm expression, looking at the nearly crazed reporters below. He said directly, "Before this, Xiao Chun and I had never had any dealings with each other. But I think he must know who I am. Otherwise, you wouldn't be chasing me around asking who Xiao Chun is..."

The reporters below went even crazier at Chen Mo's words. Everyone knew this newcomer Chen Mo was talented and somewhat youthful and reckless, but none had expected him to be reckless to this extent... That was Xiao Chun, the acknowledged leader of Huaxia Entertainment's younger generation. Chen Mo actually dared admit before the media that his acting was better than Xiao Chun's. He had even subtly mocked Xiao Chun for hiring reporters to make things difficult for him...

Wonderful. Keep this rhythm going. Tomorrow's front page, and maybe even the bonuses for the next few months, all depended on him.

The reporters below were so excited they wanted to roll around on the ground, but their hands never stopped moving as they recorded every move Chen Mo made.

"...I'm playing Sun Ce not to win awards. Obviously, the Golden Crow Award has clear requirements for how long supporting actors must appear onscreen when awarding Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress—their screen time must not be less than half the film's total runtime. So I can be certain that no matter how well I act, I won't receive a Best Supporting Actor nomination."

There was another front-page headline—Chen Mo boldly declared at The Three Kingdoms: Eastern Wu launch press conference, "The reason I can't win a Golden Crow Award for Best Supporting Actor isn't because my acting isn't good enough, but because my screen time doesn't allow it..."

The other Best Actor and Best Actress winners onstage watched as this little newcomer Chen Mo stole all their thunder the instant he opened his mouth, and they could not help smiling. No wonder media colleagues always said this kid Chen Mo was born with the ability to steal headlines. It seemed they were right. At least when appearing alongside the country's top stars, Chen Mo didn't show a trace of timidity!

Still, this was good too. At least The Three Kingdoms: Eastern Wu was guaranteed media attention after filming began. Let the little guy make a fuss out front.

The launch press conference for The Three Kingdoms: Eastern Wu officially ended two hours later. Yet outside the production, the storm was only beginning.

The media reporters who had attended the event immediately posted Chen Mo's remarks online. The next day, print media outlets also unanimously placed Chen Mo's confrontation with Xiao Chun on their front pages. It instantly caused a huge uproar.

The most intense reaction naturally came from Xiao Chun's fans. They flooded the internet with comments accusing Chen Mo of speaking disrespectfully and failing to respect his senior. They claimed that Chen Mo's terrible acting, only fit for idol dramas, could not compare with Xiao Chun's at all. They even said Director Wang Chusheng was blind; since he looked down on their Xiao Chun, they looked down on The Three Kingdoms: Eastern Wu too. Once the movie was released, they absolutely would not enter a theater to watch it. They also called online for the fans of male and female artists who had worked with Xiao Chun to boycott the film as well. Some particularly extreme brainless fans even went to Chen Mo's Yidu Tieba, intending to flood it.

Xiao Chun had debuted at the age of six and accumulated countless fans over twenty years. These loyal Xiao Chun fans had originally believed they could easily crush Chen Mo's fans, but they had not expected to encounter fierce resistance online and during their attempt to flood the Yidu Tieba.

As everyone knew, although Chen Mo had not debuted long ago and, strictly speaking, had only acted in one historical idol drama as a minor supporting character outside the top three in screen time, he had served as a guest performer at Yuan Haobin, the Heavenly King's concert at the start of his career. His astonishing skill of Lighting Cigarettes with a Piano had stunned Huaxia, and he later gained countless fans through his role as Han Yan in Emperor Wu of Han: The Young Emperor. In the variety show Around the World of Fun, he had dazzled audiences by competing in dance and piano. Later, he had heroically saved Ji Ze, the Heavenly King's "chastity," winning the gratitude and support of Ji Ze's fans. Quite a few Ji Ze fans had thus become favorably inclined toward Chen Mo.

So when Xiao Chun's fans began fighting Chen Mo's fans online, at first only Chen Mo's diehard fans joined the fray. Their comments were mostly fangirl remarks like, "Our idol is devastatingly handsome, and he's just more handsome than Xiao Chun. Even if his acting isn't good, I'd still go to the theater to watch my idol look cool on the big screen just for that face. I have to watch it three times, five times, ten times. You don't need to go—we'll boost the numbers ourselves!"

Later, Xiao Chun's fans could no longer hold back. Egged on by Xiao Chun's management company, they began launching personal attacks against Chen Mo, cursing him for gaining attention by playing the victim and slandering him for using connections to get into Wang Chusheng's production...

Chen Mo's fans got angry as well. They directly dug up Chen Mo's remarks from the launch press conference, accusing Xiao Chun of being the one who had first sent reporters to make trouble for Chen Mo. Chen Mo had been forced to respond.

"Ha, someone was practically pointing a finger in his face and asking him that. Was he supposed to pretend to be modest? His acting is better than your Xiao Chun's to begin with. Otherwise, why did Director Wang choose our idol to play Sun Ce while your Xiao Chun didn't even get an audition?"

"If you're ugly, work harder. If hard work isn't enough, work even harder. If you can't earn Director Wang's approval yourself, what kind of person are you to take it out on our idol? If you've got the ability, get Director Wang to give you an audition. If you've got the ability, act in a movie and get on the big screen too!"

"A twenty-six-year-old who looks thirty-six, broad-shouldered, thick-waisted, dark, and burly, yet he wants to play Sun Ce? Do you really think audiences don't read Records of the Three Kingdoms? The description of Sun Ce in there would slap you right in the face. Do you even know what 'beautiful in bearing, handsome in face, and charming in speech' means? Even if our idol's acting were bad, he has played the breathtaking beauty Han Yan. If your Xiao Chun really fit the image, why wouldn't Director Wang even give him an audition?"

Neither Xiao Chun's fans nor the management company behind them had expected that Chen Mo, despite having debuted only recently, would have fans with such overwhelming combat power. Seeing that the dispute between the two sides would not die down, Xiao Chun's management company immediately bought online trolls to smear Chen Mo and had paid fan accounts incite fans to continue flooding the Tieba.

Chen Mo's fans had to maintain order in the Tieba while also fighting Xiao Chun's fans online, and for a while they found themselves unable to handle both ends. On top of that, Chen Mo had not debuted long, and his fans had yet to develop a sense of organized teamwork. As things went on, they increasingly fell into a disadvantage.

In the end, even the fans of artists who had worked with Chen Mo, such as Yuan Haobin, Huang Lixin, and Lin Xia, could no longer stand watching. They all joined in to help Chen Mo's fans fight Xiao Chun's fans.

Everyone on Earth knew that singers' fans had always been more interactive and better organized than actors' fans, while fans of idol drama actors were more combative and more loyal than fans of actors in historical dramas and slice-of-life dramas. Once all these groups joined forces, even though Xiao Chun had debuted earlier and hired online trolls, the situation immediately tipped toward Chen Mo. Moreover, Xiao Chun's fans displayed such poor conduct throughout the "battle," while fans from every side repeatedly spread the claim that Xiao Chun was calculating and liked to trample newcomers to elevate himself. This made ordinary netizens increasingly disgusted with Xiao Chun.

Yang Qindong had been following the fan war all along. Seeing that the timing was right, he immediately sent his own online trolls into the fray. Posing as enthusiastic netizens, they spread information about Xiao Chun's dark history across major forums: ever since his debut, he had repeatedly latched onto popular young stars and stepped on colleagues to rise; at sixteen, he had already known how to exploit female actresses in the same production through the casting couch; while in college, he had used Shanghai Theatre Academy as an excuse to exploit female classmates; after getting his girlfriend pregnant, he had forced her to get an abortion regardless of her health, then broken up with her.

Most of these revelations had already been exposed by Xiao Chun's rivals. Yang Qindong merely instructed the online trolls to reorganize and spread them across the internet again, so Xiao Chun and his management company did not initially realize the severity of the situation. It was only when the matter spread wildly online and even caused two commercial endorsement deals to terminate their contracts on the grounds that Xiao Chun had damaged their image that Xiao Chun and his management company suddenly realized someone was manipulating events behind the scenes.

But by then, it was too late. Xu Jing, the director of The Cat and Mouse Game, who had nearly finished negotiations with Xiao Chun and had intended to cast him as the third male lead in his film, immediately changed his tune and stopped mentioning Xiao Chun joining the production. Xu Jing's films were commercial films, after all, and box office was what mattered. Now that this fan war had made audiences across the board dislike Xiao Chun, Chen Mo's fans and the fans of several other stars had openly boycotted every television drama Xiao Chun appeared in and every product he endorsed.

Under such circumstances, Xu Jing did not dare risk losing box office revenue by bringing Xiao Chun into the production. Besides, while Xu Jing was unreliable in many matters, he still cared about his reputation when making movies. For an actor like Xiao Chun, who loved latching onto others and stirring up trouble, he wanted nothing to do with him.