Chinese entertainment industry has been booming since 2008.

In the practice room of the Central Academy of Drama's acting department, the mirrors were crowded with students doing their morning exercises, but today, everyone's eyes were drawn to a figure in the corner: Chen Xiao.

"Chen Xiao, is that the same jacket you wore in 'My Love from the Star'? It looks so good!"

"Last night, 'My Love from the Star' broke 10% in ratings! Chen Xiao, you're amazing!"

Several girls surrounded her affectionately, their voices sickeningly sweet, while a small group watched coldly from a distance.

"Stop pretending, you just got lucky and picked up a role."

"I heard he got the role by selling his body..."

This scene changed after the viewership rating of "My Love from the Star" surpassed 8.

Some people were genuinely happy for Chen Xiao, like Feng Qilong, who shared a room with him, and Lin Peng. But many more were unconvinced, or even envious and jealous. They didn't think they were any worse than Chen Xiao, so why should he?

Outside the training room, Song Wei stubbed out his cigarette. He had a good relationship with Chen Xiao, and together with Feng Qilong and Chen Xiao, they formed a basketball team called "Green Vine". However, now that Chen Xiao had become somewhat famous after the broadcast of "My Love from the Star", he was still unknown.

There's a saying that goes something like this: "I'm afraid my friends are suffering, but I'm also afraid they're driving Range Rovers. Many people can share hardships, but they can't bear to see you become successful."

"Why should he? His professional courses have never been the best. Several times, if I hadn't guided him, he wouldn't have even remembered his lines for the drama performances."

These words quickly reached Chen Xiao's ears. He just smiled and continued to study his acting skills. After all, he was already used to such discussions. Having entered this industry, he had long been prepared to deal with the intrigue and deceit in the world of fame and fortune.

Just as Chen Xiao was about to enjoy his moment of glory, a number of posts suddenly appeared online exposing Zhang Yang's secrets.

On the evening of October 8th, a post titled "Deep Dive into Zhang Yang's True Colors" quietly appeared and quickly spread across the internet.

The post lacked direct evidence but used extremely inflammatory language to portray Zhang Yang as someone who "relied on his sudden fame to be disrespectful to his seniors, bossed around his staff, and had a chaotic private life."

"A newcomer surnamed Z openly criticized senior actors' acting skills on set and even made his assistant queue for three hours in the freezing cold just to buy a cup of hand-ground coffee."

"It's said he has an extremely active nightlife, frequently visiting private venues. As for the photos... those who know, know. They were bought out for a high price."

Fan Bingbing pushed the tablet computer in front of Zhang Yang, her brows furrowed: "Huayi is starting to resort to these underhanded tricks again."

Zhang Yang glanced at it, chuckled, and said disdainfully, "The methods are even more low-level than I imagined."

"Don't let your guard down!"

Fan Bingbing said seriously, "A lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth. They don't need solid evidence; they just need to label you as 'arrogant' and 'having a messy private life' to ruin your public image."

As Fan Bingbing had predicted, the online trolls hired by Huayi started to exert their influence in unison. They seemed to be making "rational analyses," but in reality, every sentence was misleading, and they were all posting messages about "character collapse" and "disappointment and loss of fans."

Zhang Yang had seen this kind of tactic many times in his previous life, so he naturally knew how to break the deadlock.

In response to this sudden barrage of negative information, Zhang Yang did three things.

First, he had the company's publicity department release a half-hour behind-the-scenes documentary of the entire filming process of "My Love from the Star" online. In the footage, he was polite and courteous to every staff member, helped the crew move things, apologized proactively when there were bloopers, and patiently rehearsed scenes with Fan Bingbing when she wasn't in a good mood. This is completely contrary to the image portrayed in the leaked information.

Secondly, he personally contacted the coffee shop that supposedly had a "three-hour wait." Encouraged by Zhang Yang (who used money to pave the way), the young owner voluntarily agreed to a media interview: "Zhang Yang himself is extremely polite. That day, his assistant came to buy the coffee herself, only waited ten minutes, and even took a photo with us!"

In the attached photo, Zhang Yang's assistant is indeed in line, but the time displayed doesn't match up at all.

Third, and most ruthless, Zhang Yang instructed his team to rehash the dirt they had collected about Lin Ziwei's past framing of Er Kang, targeting her with subtle suppression. They also dug up clips of her explicit remarks on local entertainment programs.

In an instant, those who had been blindly criticizing online suddenly transformed into rational observers.

"After watching the behind-the-scenes footage, all I want to say is, Zhang Yang, I'll be a fan of yours forever."

"Those who spread rumors will die a horrible death; the coffee shop CCTV footage proved them wrong so quickly!"

"Wait a minute, Lin Ziwei seems to be even more interesting. Isn't she supposed to be a 'pure and innocent girl'? I didn't expect her to be so daring on a local program."

Netizens' attention was instantly diverted, leaving Lin Ziwei's team in a state of chaos and forced to release a flawed statement, causing their reputation to plummet.

Wang Xiaoer smashed his beloved teacup in the office. He never expected that Zhang Yang, a seemingly inexperienced newcomer, would retaliate so swiftly, accurately, and ruthlessly!

Although Lin Ziwei is not Huayi's top female star, doing this to Lin Ziwei is a slap in the face to Huayi. Do they really think Huayi is easy to bully?

Huayi Wang Xiaoer's counterattack came quickly; overnight, many sarcastic posts appeared online.

A film and television data platform that claims to be an "objective third party" suddenly released an in-depth analysis report. The report acknowledged that the viewership rating of "My Love from the Star" exceeded 10, but then changed its tone and began to "dissect" its viewership composition: "According to the analysis, the viewership of 'My Love from the Star' is highly concentrated among women aged 15 to 30. The audience profile is singular and lacks coverage across all age groups, raising doubts about its subsequent commercial conversion."

Later, an "industry insider" explained: "Litchi TV went all out on promoting 'My Love from the Star,' with press releases everywhere. Those in the know understand how much of that data is inflated."

These so-called "industry insiders" deliberately ignore the quality of the series itself, attributing its success to the power of capital, as if the heated discussions and word-of-mouth recommendations were all illusions.

Mango TV's online trolls and marketing accounts started stirring up trouble, comparing "My Love from the Star" to "Princess Pearl." As for the copywriting, it was mostly like this: "You say 'My Love from the Star' has high ratings? Laughable. Compared to 'Princess Pearl' back then, it's just a drop in the ocean. This kind of fast-food drama dares to call itself a classic?"

This attempt to diminish the value of "My Love from the Star" involves using works from different eras and genres to create a deceptive attack.

The above practices are most likely to fool some netizens who blindly follow the crowd.

When Lin Ziwei was interviewed and asked about her opinion on Fan Bingbing's acting in "My Love from the Star", she casually said, "The character Zhang Wangshu is very lively, which suits Bingbing very well. Isn't that how she is in real life? Loud and boisterous, which is very cute."

The phrases "very suitable" and "isn't that what life is like?" reduce all of Fan Bingbing's performance efforts to "playing herself," completely negating any breakthroughs she has made in her acting.

Lin Ziwei's words were practically a veiled mockery of Fan Bingbing, but that's just how the entertainment industry is, and Zhang Yang was already used to it.