But the hardest thing about Pei Yubai wasn't his family background. It was his temper.
There was a widely circulated story in the industry.
Backstage at an awards ceremony once, a popular young actor approached him and said, "Mr. Pei, I've always admired you. Could I take a photo with you?"
Pei Yubai glanced at him and said, "No." Then he walked away.
When someone later asked him why, he said, "We're not close."
It was that simple.
He was exactly the same on set.
Every director who had worked with him said Pei Yubai was a great actor, but his tongue was too sharp.
He held his own acting to extremely high standards and was just as merciless toward everyone else's.
Once, a rookie actor on set botched a shot more than a dozen times, leaving everyone tense and afraid to speak.
Pei Yubai sat watching for a long while before finally saying, "If you edited those fifteen takes together, you could make a film called 'On the Limitations of Human Expression.'"
The rookie burst into tears on the spot.
But Pei Yubai had told the truth. He never bothered with polite pretenses. If you were good, you were good. If you weren't, you weren't.
If you were good, he was willing to talk to you a little longer. If you weren't, he couldn't even be bothered to glance at you.
People in the industry had summed up Pei Yubai's defining traits.
Aristocratic, sharp-tongued, and utterly self-important. Outside of acting, he saw everyone as trash.
And he had the credentials to back it up.
Every role he had played was different, from nobodies at the bottom to elites at the top, from powerful ministers in period dramas to modern-day assassins. He nailed every single one.
Some said Pei Yubai "looked the part in everything he played," but it was more accurate to say he "became whatever he played."
He wasn't acting. He transformed himself into that person.
That wasn't a skill anyone else could learn.
So despite his less-than-friendly temper and cutting tongue, every director still fought to cast him.
Because once Pei Yubai joined the cast, the film was already halfway to success.
As for variety shows-Pei Yubai never appeared on any.
In the six years since his debut, he had received countless variety show offers, with the highest reaching eight figures per episode.
But Pei Yubai had never accepted a single one. His reason was simple: "I don't need variety shows to boost my popularity. My acting is enough."
One media outlet had counted the public events Pei Yubai had attended since his debut. They could be counted on one hand.
Three awards ceremonies, two film festivals, and one brand launch. He spent all the rest of his time on set.
His fans had already grown used to this "vanishing act."
They normally never saw him. Only when a film came out would he emerge for a few days of promotion before disappearing again.
So when the name "Pei Yubai" appeared on the official cast announcement for Travel to Those Little-Known Places, the entire internet's reaction could be summed up in three punctuation marks-
"???"
The trending topic arrived faster than anyone had imagined.
Less than ten minutes after the announcement, "Pei Yubai's variety show debut" shot to the top of the trending list, followed by an orange-red "Explosive" tag.
The comments had already gone wild.
[Moon off duty: Am I still dreaming? Pei Yubai??? THAT Pei Yubai???]
[Has Pei Yubai joined a production today: Hold on, let me process this. This man barely even does interviews, and he's going on a variety show???]
[White moonlight collector: Director, did you put a curse on Pei Yubai? Or did you buy the Huateng Group???]
[Your Pei is still your Pei: I've followed Pei Yubai for six years. He's never even done a birthday livestream, and now you're telling me he's going on a variety show???]
[Melon-eating girl Xiaoyuan: This is fake news, right? It has to be fake news, right?]
[Pei Yubai's back dimples: I have a weak heart. Production team, you're going to have to take responsibility.]
But some were a little calmer.
[Old Zhou: Honestly, with Pei Yubai's standing, he has absolutely no need to use variety shows to stay relevant. He must have his reasons for going. Whatever the case, this is his variety show debut, and I'll definitely watch.]
[Entertainment observer kk: Of the six people, I understand the other five, but I can't figure out Pei Yubai. A broke variety show like this can't afford his fee, can it? What's he after?]
Soon, a comment with an explosive number of likes appeared under the trending topic. It came from a blogger supposedly well connected in the industry, whose username was "Among Melon Fields and Plum Trees."
[Among Melon Fields and Plum Trees: Here's what I know. The boss of the company producing Travel to Those Little-Known Places is surnamed Meng. His name is Meng Xu.]
[Among Melon Fields and Plum Trees: Meng Xu is Pei Yubai's childhood friend, the kind who grew up together. This guy used to work in investment, but recently he suddenly decided to make a variety show for fun, so he roped Pei Yubai in to anchor the lineup.]
[Among Melon Fields and Plum Trees: Pei Yubai had just wrapped a film and had nothing to do between projects, so he agreed. No need to thank me. Just call me Lei Feng.]
The moment that comment appeared, thousands of replies flooded in.
[I don't eat melons, I eat lemons: Childhood friends??? So Pei Yubai was dragged in by his buddy to fill out the lineup???]
[Little gossip reporter: LOL. Pei Yubai: Can't I just lie around at home? Childhood friend: No, you have to come. Pei Yubai: ...Fine.]
[Has Pei Yubai posted today: That explains it. I knew he couldn't possibly go on a variety show for no reason. Turns out his childhood friend dug the pit for him.]
[Helpful netizen Xiao Zhang: What kind of god-tier childhood friend is this? His very first move lands Pei Yubai's variety show debut. I want to be friends with Meng Xu.]
[Eating my fill of melons: So this show is basically-a rich second-generation heir taking the crown prince of the Beijing circle into the countryside to experience life??]
More information was dug up right afterward.
Meng Xu, twenty-five that year, was the young heir to the Meng Group and Pei Yubai's childhood friend, whom he had known since kindergarten.
Thanks to Among Melon Fields and Plum Trees filling everyone in, Meng Xu successfully made the trending list.
Now this young heir Meng had suddenly stepped into variety show production. And on his very first attempt, he had secured Pei Yubai, who hadn't appeared on a single variety show in six years.
What a flex was that?
The fans went into a complete frenzy.
[White moonlight protection association: Let me be blunt. Even if this variety show filmed nothing but Pei Yubai sleeping the entire time, I could watch a hundred episodes.]
[Pei Yubai's eyelashes: Listen up, director. If Pei Yubai gets bumped, scraped, tanned, or unhappy, we fans will be the first to hold you accountable.]
[Another day of wanting to see Pei Yubai: Although this still feels surreal, if he's going, I'm watching. Whatever he does, I'll watch.]
Meanwhile, Pei Yubai's fan club and his fans all sprang into action, preparing to boost the numbers and make sure his variety show debut delivered impressive results.
Some people also wondered what Pei Yubai himself thought about all this.
Twenty minutes later, Pei Yubai reposted the official announcement on Weibo.
He wrote only a few words: "Going for fun."
With those three words alone, the combined reposts, comments, and likes instantly passed a million.
In the comments, the fans collectively lost their minds.
[Moon off duty: Going for fun??? Do you know how many people those three words have given heart attacks???]
[Your Pei is still your Pei: He's so relaxed. He really is so relaxed. "Going for fun," as though he really were just dropping by a friend's house.]
[Pei Yubai's back dimples: I'm actually crying. It's been six years. I can finally see him alive and in the flesh on a variety show.]
[White moonlight collector: Get ready, girls. For Pei Yubai's variety show debut, we're going to show the whole world how gorgeous he is!!!]
But some fans were worried.
[Has Pei Yubai joined a production today: Wait, what's this show called again? Travel to Those Little-Known Places? Little-known places? Does that mean they're going deep into the mountains and forests? Pei Yubai, what are you going to a place like that for? Can't you just make a movie?]
[Helpful netizen Xiao Zhang: I have a bad feeling about this. Shows like this are usually tough. A pampered young master like Pei Yubai, who's lived in luxury since childhood, staying in the countryside? I don't dare imagine it.]
[Among Melon Fields and Plum Trees replying to Helpful netizen Xiao Zhang: Relax. Meng Xu won't really make him suffer. But there'll definitely be entertainment value. Just wait and see.]
Casual onlookers also poured in to eat melons.
[Ordinary netizen Xiao Wang: I don't follow celebrities, but I've still heard the name Pei Yubai. Him going on a variety show is pretty novel. I might check it out when it airs.]
[Variety show enthusiast 007: I'd never heard of this show before, but the moment Pei Yubai joined, it instantly became the most anticipated variety show of the year. Is this the power of a top star?]
[Melon-eating girl Xiaoyuan: Now I'm really curious about what this Meng Xu is like. Anyone who can get Pei Yubai onto a variety show is no ordinary guy.]
An hour after the announcement, the official account for Travel to Those Little-Known Places had skyrocketed from fewer than twenty thousand followers to three million, and the number was still soaring.
And all of this had started with a Weibo post Pei Yubai had casually reposted, along with three words-"Going for fun."
But amid all the feverish discussion, one question remained unanswered: where was Pei Yubai's stop?
The other five people on the list each had a half-body photo and a silhouette of the scenery, but Pei Yubai's box was blank. No photo, no location, just his name.
Under the production team's pinned Weibo post, the most-liked comment was a fan's question:
[White moonlight protection association: So where exactly is Pei Yubai going?]