This director is vindictive.

Chapter 418 Lying down is for a better start to run; I'll lie down first as a sign of respect.
In fact, the sudden popularity of this "playing it off" trend was baffling not only to the three of them, but also to Zhang Yuqi herself, who was the instigator.

She initially just wanted to give up, and her campaigning for Tong Liya was purely an act of revenge against Yang Mi.

But no one expected that it would become an unexpected hit.

Of course, there are even more outrageous things these days.

There's a reason why this wave of "retreating and lying down" trended on social media.

Some bloggers have analyzed that Zhang Yuqi's sudden surge in popularity and trending status despite her apparent indifference to the role selection process is not without reason!

While other candidates (Tong Liya, Dilraba, and Gulnazar) were fiercely competing—practicing dance, learning Uyghur, and filming immersive vlogs—Zhang Yuqi appeared in a nonchalant manner, "lying down and eating cantaloupe" and "slurping snail noodles while watching her opponents dance." This contrast of "others are struggling to survive, while I remain unmoved" perfectly reflects the weariness of working people in the competitive workplace, using absurd comedy to alleviate the pressure of competition.

Netizens' jokes, such as "Even if An Lushan came, I'd be too lazy to arrest him" and "He's already dead, burn some paper money for him if you need anything," combined historical allusions with the contemporary mentality of giving up, creating a viral effect of secondary dissemination.

At the same time, there is also a sense of identity. Zhang Yuqi's reasons, such as "not being able to learn Uyghur" and "not being able to dance as well as others," are essentially the real sense of powerlessness that ordinary people feel when facing intense competition. Compared to the professional performance of other celebrities, her "self-abandonment" is closer to the living conditions of ordinary people, making netizens feel a sense of identification with her.

She publicly complained that "someone refused to make a pre-arranged deal" (alluding to Chen Mo), which on the surface seemed like a coquettish complaint, but in reality, it was a satire of the unspoken rules of the workplace by working people. This attitude of "knowing it's impossible but still giving up" perfectly reflects the mentality of young people who "mocking the rules when they can't change them."

Netizens compared Zhang Yuqi's "playing it off" photos with the meticulously edited images of other candidates, captioning it "When female celebrities give up on the cutthroat competition...", essentially using her image to express their own protest against this competition. This kind of collaborative content elevates "playing it off" from an individual act to a collective symbol.

Zhang Yuqi's apparent surrender, though seemingly accidental, actually struck three emotional triggers in contemporary society: weariness with the cutthroat competition, a cynical questioning of fairness, and an urgent need for identity. Her "loser" persona became a vessel for public emotion, while the collective creation of netizens transformed this surrender into a performance art piece for the working class—after all, when hard work doesn't guarantee a reward, at least humor can defuse the absurdity.

Even Zhang Yuqi was a bit stunned after reading this blogger's analysis. But after reading it, she had to admit that what the blogger said actually made a lot of sense.

Meanwhile, the other three, seeing this, also began to abandon their infighting tactics.

Tong Liya, who was originally ranked first, was in jeopardy because Zhang Yuqi was playing slack off. So she decided to use magic to defeat magic.

I'd also sell out!
So Tong Liya took the lead in posting "Zhao Feiyan's Diary of Slacking Off" on Weibo: In the video, she was sprawled on a bench in the Shaanxi History Museum's rest area, covering her face with a picture book of "Ladies Wearing Flowers in Their Hair" and falling fast asleep. The caption popped up: "This dancer has been dancing for Emperor Xuanzong of Tang for 1300 years and is applying for paid leave."

The scene shifts, and she suddenly uses her pipa to open the picture book, humming weakly, "Your Majesty~ My Hu Xuan dance... can we change it to slow motion?"

The comments section erupted in laughter: "It only takes one Zhang Yuqi to go from a flying swallow to a useless swallow!"

"Why do I suddenly feel that YaYa's lying flat is the epitome of eternal beauty!"

"Sister Yaya finally understands: rolling around is temporary, but lying down is for life!"

"Sister Ya Ya has even found a new kind of beauty in lying down, hahaha! If she's so beautiful when she's just lying down, why bother trying?"

Fat Di went completely wild, uploading a video titled "A True Account of a Cantaloupe Stall Going Bankrupt."

In the video, she is wearing a headdress that reads "Princess on the run from the Western Regions," but she is squatting next to a pile of melons, frantically eating the rind of her tenth melon, and shouting indistinctly, "Family members, please stop voting! If you vote again, I'll eat the ancient city of Kuqa into a 'melon-free ruin'!"

Finally, she held up a handwritten sign: "Hua Yun designer, run! My flame dress has been stained 'tomato and egg' color by melon juice! #How to ruin a haute couture piece by slacking off#".

"From a Sogdian caravan to a 'Sogdian mukbang streamer,' this is the Fatty Di we know!!"

"I still remember when we were live streaming 'Candle in the Tomb,' Fatty Di was eating the whole time. It's really not used to seeing her all curled up like this. Thank goodness, thank goodness, the foodie Fatty Di is finally back!"

"@YangMi, please do something about your artist! She's turning the Silk Road into a 'watermelon seed road'!"

"So, the pressure is now on Nazha, lol!"

"If everyone's just lying flat, what about Zhang Yuqi? Did you pay the copyright fees? Are you just going to copy her?"

Indeed, the pressure did put pressure on Nazha.

Sometimes, netizens can be just that silly.

Originally, when people saw Zhang Yuqi lying down and giving up, they started voting for her.

If you feel you can't compete, just lie down. There's nothing wrong with that.

However, after Tong Liya and Dilraba also started to play dumb and lie down in various ways, everyone went to leave comments under Gulnazar's Weibo.

"Three of them have already fallen down, Nazha, please don't follow the example of those three good-for-nothings!"

"Exactly, lying down once is unique, taking a different approach, but if three people lie down, you're the last one standing!"

"Don't lie down, don't lie down! We were wrong, we want to see dancing!"

You see, sometimes the wind direction changes so quickly.

Everyone used to take pride in lying down and giving up, but after seeing three of them actually doing it, they suddenly felt like they wanted to see them dance. Unfortunately, they realized it too late.

Naza's ultimate act of surrendering came unexpectedly—she had her team set up an inflatable swimming pool in front of the Kizil Caves ruins and released "The True Story of the Escaped Princess of Kucha's Surrender".

At the beginning of the video, she was wearing a beaded skirt and dancing the "Zhezhi Dance" with a serious expression, but halfway through the dance, she suddenly threw off her golden bell and fell into the pool with a splash.

In a swimming pool filled with cantaloupes, she held up a whiteboard with her hair still wet: "Our Sogdian ancestors said there were three things you needed to do on the Silk Road: dancing, accounting, and lying flat. @Tong Liya and @Pangdi have already mastered the first two, so this princess requests to specialize in the third!"

The accompanying image shows the words "Hu merchants' afternoon nap custom" highlighted in a highlighter on an archaeological report.

The ending surprise was even more unexpected: when the camera turned to the grotto murals, Nazha, who was originally in a flying apsara pose, was suddenly photoshopped into a Ge You slouch, and a line of graffiti appeared in the corner of the mural: "AKA The number one person to slack off in Kucha".

Netizens were absolutely in stitches, and the entire second round of casting took a completely different turn from that moment on.

Netizens were completely dumbfounded.

"I'm tired, let's lie down. This is still casting! What the hell are you doing?! Chen Mo, who are you going to cast?!"

"Haha, even when others are just slacking off, they still have some basic logic. You're just directly rewriting history, okay? After all, the original mural didn't have a swimming pool or a melon rind!"

"Are those watermelon rinds floating in the pool leftovers by Fatty Dilraba? Silk Road sisters, even when you're just putting on a show, you're inseparable?"

When the surreal scene of the four candidates collectively giving up went viral, Chen Mo was looking at the backend data with mixed feelings of laughter and tears—Zhang Yuqi's votes had surpassed Dilraba's and were closing in on Tong Liya's top spot.

"Haha, this generation of netizens understands performance art."

Yang Mi, with her legs crossed, scrolled through her phone, laughing as she spoke: "My darling Di's video of her melon stall going out of business has twice as many views as the video of her wearing a flaming dress."

"They really are..." Chen Mo was completely baffled.

However, he didn't care too much; in fact, the hype had far exceeded his expectations.

To put it bluntly, whether it's becoming famous through dancing or unexpectedly becoming popular by simply lying down and doing nothing.

He and the film are the beneficiaries.

Of course, he really hadn't expected this situation.

Chen Mo looked at the backend data and couldn't help but smile.

This unexpected surge in popularity for the "laid-back and easygoing" trend not only boosted the casting hype for "The Great Tang Dynasty: Northern Desert" but also sparked a derivative culture surrounding the "Hezi skirt"—netizens even began creating their own designs for the "laid-back Hezi skirt," embroidered with the following on the chest:

Even An Lushan shook his head upon seeing this.

"I am already in bed, do not disturb."

Silly captions like "You work hard, I'll work hard to slack off!" have sparked a wave of "slacking off and lying down culture" online, with many working people posting various poses of slacking off and lying down.

A netizen posted a photo of himself lounging at his workstation, captioned "A deserter from the Anxi Protectorate, refusing to fight because his pay hasn't arrived."

Someone imitated Tong Liya's "Zhao Feiyan's Diary of Slacking Off" and submitted a sick leave application with a pipa illustration: "Your Majesty, my KPI has served the Tang Dynasty for 1300 years, I apply for paid coma."

Office workers photoshopped piles of documents into a "pleated hem skirt like that of a concubine," complaining, "The clients' demands are more demanding than An Lushan's!"

The short video "Silk Road Lazy Alliance" went viral, showing a group of Hanfu enthusiasts cosplaying as four candidates and "lying down and eating melons" on a park lawn, with the background music being a slow version of "Desert Camel".

Caption: This is truly the last lunch break in the northern deserts of the Tang Dynasty!
It suddenly swept across the internet, and the instigator was none other than Zhang Yuqi's unintentional act.

Sometimes, things on the internet are just that surreal.

Suddenly, giving up and lying down became a nationwide frenzy.

Even state media eventually chimed in with their jokes: "From the 'Tang Dynasty Hezi Skirt' to the 'Workplace Ge You Slouch,' young people are using humor to relieve stress—but don't forget, lying down is for getting up and running better."

Zhang Yuqi's Weibo post about giving up was hailed by netizens as the "modern bible of working life," with reposts unanimously commenting: "Thanks for the invitation. I'm at my desk, just finished dealing with KPIs. Now I believe it, giving up is the best way!"

This absurd carnival even alarmed the academic community. A researcher from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences wrote in the Beijing News: "When the 'Four Beauties of the Tang Dynasty' became a phenomenon, it was actually a creative resistance by young people against systemic pressure—using the openness and inclusiveness of the Tang Dynasty to contrast the rigidity of the contemporary workplace, and using the freedom of the Hu Xuan dance to deconstruct the constraints of KPIs."

Ultimately, this cultural phenomenon sparked by casting in the entertainment industry evolved into a nationwide "workplace performance art exhibition."

As one highly-rated comment put it: "We don't really want to give up; we just need a grand conspiracy to prove that it's not ourselves who are absurd, but the world."

(End of this chapter)