This director is vindictive.

Chapter 590 The 30th day since my sisters went into hiding, I miss them.

The cruel reality of the entertainment industry is like a never-ending meat grinder—your commercial value depends entirely on your current popularity and online buzz.

In this fast-paced era dominated by short videos, celebrities are more like mass-produced consumer goods than the meticulously crafted works of art of the past.

Initially, brands didn't take the collective retirement of seven top celebrities seriously at all. A director of one international luxury brand even boasted in an internal meeting: "China has no shortage of pretty faces; we can produce seven new spokespeople tomorrow!"

Reality, however, delivered a harsh slap in the face to everyone.

Data doesn't lie:

After Yang Mi became the spokesperson for a certain beauty brand, her quarterly sales were halved after she replaced her with a rising young actress.
The sales volume of kitchen and bathroom appliances that Zhao Liying once endorsed is now less than a fraction of what it was at its peak, thanks to the new spokesperson.
The most outrageous example is the car brand endorsed by Zhang Yuqi, whose stock price plummeted by 5% on the day the new spokesperson was announced.

Why? Because while the current star-making industry can mass-produce "top stars," they're like instant noodles—they smell good and are quick to consume, but they can't withstand close scrutiny. Look at these so-called new top stars:
A young male idol who debuted as the center of a talent show was completely ruined within three months due to a scandal involving sleeping with fans.
The male actor who became famous through a BL drama was criticized by the audience for his disastrous acting in his second drama;

The "national girlfriend" who became an overnight sensation on Douyin was replaced by a new internet celebrity just two months later.

It can only be said that these stars, created by the industrialization of the fast-paced consumer era, rise to fame quickly, but fade away just as quickly.

Hong Kong director Wong Jing once said, "Creating stars now is like fast food hamburgers, while a true superstar should be like Buddha Jumps Over the Wall—it needs to be simmered over a low flame."

Which of these seven top female stars hasn't been working their way up in the entertainment industry for over a decade? Yang Mi took a full ten years to go from playing Guo Xiang in "The Return of the Condor Heroes" to Bai Qian in "Eternal Love"; Zhao Liying went from playing minor roles to becoming a "ratings queen" in seven years.

In contrast, what about today's newcomers? One agency owner bluntly stated, "The idols we mass-produce have a shelf life shorter than yogurt. They buy trending topics in the morning, announce endorsements in the afternoon, and by evening, their careers might be ruined."

What's even more frightening is the severe homogenization—all of them have Korean semi-permanent makeup, uniform internet celebrity faces, and even their personas are copied from each other: foodie, old cadre, academic genius.
Moreover, many brands and merchants have discovered that the most impressive thing about these female celebrities is that they have stood the test of time.

Especially in this era, celebrities are under scrutiny, so most celebrities rise quickly and fall just as quickly.

This is an era where only the survivors reign supreme.

That's when they realized how rare it is to have female celebrities who have remained popular for so many years.

After all, nobody wants to sign a spokesperson today and then have to worry about when that spokesperson might backfire tomorrow.

Do crisis public relations!
Meanwhile, fans haven't stopped idolizing celebrities; they've just been heartbroken. Xiao Lin, a 25-year-old white-collar worker, said, "I've been a fan of Sister Mi for ten years. Now you want me to cultivate a new idol? Sorry, I don't have that much youth to waste."

This is what makes these seven queens so formidable—they have built unique and irreplaceable personal brands over time. As one veteran entertainment reporter put it: "You can copy Yang Mi's makeup, but you can't copy her 'sophisticated and clear-headed' persona."

You can imitate Zhao Liying's style, but you can't learn her true story of 'grassroots success'.

Just like when Zhao Liying faced the desperate situation of being hated by the entire internet, she managed to become a top-tier actress with "The Journey of Flower," sweeping away her previous decline.

But what about now? Faced with that situation, most celebrities simply never recover. They have no chance to make a comeback.

Ironically, while brands are scrambling to find alternatives, the market has given the most honest feedback – a recent survey of a high-end skincare brand shows that 67% of consumers said, "I'd rather buy a classic product without a celebrity endorsement than a new product recommended by a popular celebrity."

All of this confirms the ultimate truth of the entertainment industry: quick money can buy trending topics, but it can't buy sincerity; traffic can create hits, but it can't create legends. The retirement of these seven queens has torn away the last fig leaf of the entertainment industry's "fast-food star-making" model.

A month has passed. Although it's not a long time, the trending topics related to the sisters and Chen Mo, which used to be frequently seen, have suddenly disappeared for more than a month.

This has made many people nostalgic.

Data analysts on the social media platform were the first to notice the anomaly—a month after Chen Mo and seven other top female celebrities collectively withdrew from the entertainment industry, the platform's daily active users dropped by 12%. One executive, looking at the reports, muttered to himself, "Have these people really turned the entertainment industry into a 'withdrawal syndrome'?"

On Weibo's supertopic, under the hashtag #PleaseMakeTheSistersComeBack#, fans' lamentations have reached new heights:

"What kind of weird and wonderful things are trending on social media these days? A certain young actress fell at the airport and bought her way to third place on the trending list. In the past, even Yu Qi's toenail wouldn't have gotten as much attention!"

The accompanying image is a classic GIF from last year of Zhang Yuqi chasing paparazzi in high heels, which garnered over a million likes.

"I used to think that Liu Yifei was the most resilient actress in the Chinese entertainment industry, but she didn't have any acting skills. Now, looking at those glamorous and cheap actresses, and then looking back at Liu Yifei, I suddenly realize that everything is really difficult to compare!"

"Please, Chen Mo, let the wives out! The red carpets in the Chinese entertainment industry are making my eyes hurt—at the last fashion gala, those newcomers didn't even have the basic skill of 'carpet-holding magic,' their dresses got stuck in the seams after a few steps, and they were still forcing smiles!" (Top comment reply: "You might as well just give me a certain female celebrity's ID number.")
"Recently, when I'm scrolling through short videos, all I see are wonderful clips of the seven sisters from the past. It's the 30th day since I last saw them."

Brands are kicking themselves. A director of a mid-range luxury brand was found lamenting on social media: "These days, even the 'nine-grid selfies' of our spokespeople have to be redrawn by the photo editor! It reminds me of Li Ying filming an ad back in the day, carrying a hoe and working in the fields."

After the screenshots were leaked, clips of Zhao Liying's rural drama were unearthed and trended on social media.

Hot searches on Weibo:

#30th day without Chen Mo in the Chinese entertainment industry, I miss him# (Breaking news)

#My happiness disappeared after the sisters retired# (Hot)

#Please come back, the Chinese entertainment industry is really doomed# (New) Many people thought that with so many sisters leaving, they could fiercely compete for the resources they left behind, but it turns out they were wrong.

Damn it, even disappearing can make it to the trending topics, and it just happened out of nowhere.

The key point is that no one was pushing or encouraging it behind the scenes; it was entirely spontaneous nostalgia from netizens.

A popular post on a well-known gossip forum:
Title: Rational Discussion: After Chen Mo and the Seven Fairies retired from the entertainment industry, has the Chinese entertainment industry completely given up?
Landlord:

Sisters, I really can't take it anymore! Before, I would see Chen Mo and the other sisters' silly trending topics on Weibo every day. It was either Zhang Yuqi doing something funny again, or Yang Mi's witty remarks, or at the very least, I could see Zhao Liying's silly daily life.

Now? The trending topics are all about a certain young actress falling at the airport, a certain young actor posting a nine-grid selfie, and a certain couple promoting their on-screen romance. It's so boring I want to uninstall Weibo!
"Didn't we agree to do a live-streaming e-commerce event with my girlfriends who are leaving the entertainment industry? I've been waiting for a month! Do you know what I've been through this past month?"

These are nothing.

The most outrageous thing is that a certain female celebrity posted a "no-makeup photo" yesterday, which went viral, but it turned out that she had photoshopped her skin so much that the background wall was distorted... It reminds me of when Sister Yuqi did a live broadcast to remove her makeup, she directly rubbed her face with a wet wipe and even confronted netizens: "Did you see clearly? This is what I look like!"

Of course, some netizens with a "clear head" pointed out the truth: "Stop wailing! They retired from the entertainment industry because they achieved upward mobility—Chen Mo has earned enough money to feed an ordinary person for ten lifetimes! Just like those female celebrities who marry into wealthy families, unless their husbands go bankrupt, how many of them will come back to work?"

He retorted, "Shut up! Let us dream a little longer!"

Zhang Yuqi's Weibo account has remained inactive since the sensational "3 million yuan charity gala" livestream. Fans have been waiting for updates every day, only to be met with silence.

However, today, her latest Weibo post's comment section suddenly exploded—

"Qiqi! You promised to do live-streaming e-commerce after retiring from the entertainment industry? You didn't keep your word!"

This comment became the top trending comment, garnering over 100,000 likes, and the replies were filled with outrage:
"Liar! He promised during the live stream that he would take us on a shopping spree, but now he's nowhere to be seen!"

"I even got my wallet ready, but I waited in vain! Zhang Yuqi, you have no heart!"

Even worse, some netizens photoshopped a picture of Zhang Yuqi lying in a pile of banknotes in her pajamas, with the caption: "The daily life of a retired rich woman: counting money, teasing her husband, and ditching her fans."

The hashtag #ZhangYuqiLivestreamFraud# quickly became a trending topic, and the Weibo accounts of six other female celebrities were also flooded with negative comments.
Yang Mi's comment section: "Sister Mi! Sister Yu Qi has run away, are you going to do anything about it?"

Zhao Liying's Super Topic: "Yingbao, quickly persuade your tiger moms, the fans have been waiting so long they've withered!"

Liu Yifei's latest post reads: "Fairy Sister, have all seven of you fairies become obsessed with 'family life'?"

Jing Tian's comment section: "As the official wife, aren't you going to keep an eye on the 'tiger wives'? Hurry up and make them come out and do some work!"

Seeing the public outcry escalating, although she decided to retire from the entertainment industry, she hadn't officially retired yet. Moreover, Chen Mo was protective of his own, and he couldn't just stand by and watch his woman incur public wrath.
So, after a month, he finally responded for the first time.

He posted a photo on his Weibo account—on the terrace of his villa by Erhai Lake, Zhang Yuqi was gritting her teeth and tapping her phone screen, with a thick stack of documents in front of her.

With text:

"It's being revised! Someone was so scolded that they wrote a live broadcast plan overnight, but there are too many charity foundation cases (see attached image for proof)."

In the corner of the photo, Yang Mi, Zhao Liying, and others are laughing so hard they're practically falling over, clearly watching Zhang Yuqi being "forced to perform."

Fans' expressions changed instantly:

"You should have said so earlier! So you were doing charity work!"

"We're sorry, Qiqi! We misunderstood you! Take your time, there's no rush!"

"Chen Mo, let her go! Let my sister do her live stream first!"

Wow, the song "Go to Where the Wind Blows" has come true! This is Erhai Lake!

"So that's why you were standing up! Turns out you were doing charity work!"

That evening, Zhang Yuqi finally appeared. The "Tiger Girl" is still the same "Tiger Girl," and she posted a voice message on Weibo:

In the background, there was Chen Mo's muffled laughter, and she angrily roared:
"Hurry up! If you keep pushing me, I'll start selling 'Three Yangs Bring Prosperity' pre-made meals tomorrow! Let's see who dares to buy them!"

The comments section instantly turned into a massive "I was wrong" moment:
"Buy! I have to buy it! Is shipping included for 9.9 yuan?"

"I recommend pairing it with the '10 Billion Yuan Subsidy Soup,' I'm ordering ten cases right away!"

Zhang Yuqi: I wanted to retire from the entertainment industry and become a wealthy lady, but my fans wouldn't let me!

(End of this chapter)