Huayu Entertainment: The Birth of a Succubus Top Star

A persona or label can increase the audience's memory of a celebrity.

When people mention "Fairy Sister", they think of the pure and beautiful Liu Yifei.

When people mention "workaholic," they think of Yang Mi, who is always busy pursuing her career.

When the term "time management master" is mentioned, a gossipmonger chimes in: "It's Lo Chih-hsiang!"

Of course, a well-developed persona, coupled with witty variety shows, and a marketing team with superb editing skills are essential.

Naturally, they attract fans much faster than ordinary celebrities.

However, the higher one's image is established, the more devastating the fall will be.

Especially the "academic genius" persona—almost anyone who tries to create one will fail miserably. Not to mention academic geniuses, even the broader "cultured person" or "artistic youth" personas have all failed countless times.

For example, Jin Dong, a retired cadre, quickly became popular among middle-aged and elderly women by playing a series of elite roles and his mature and refined image.

Perhaps he was "too immersed in the role," because his persona is that of a successful person who is well-read and knowledgeable.

On his social media platforms, he often posts his thoughts or essays on word choice and phrasing.

He could quote famous sayings with ease, and even followed trends by writing a lot of modern poetry.

These posts suggest that he must have a high level of cultural refinement.

Until one interview, he fabricated a "Nobel Prize in Mathematics" out of thin air for the scientific community in just a few words, which was truly laughable.

For example, a member of a certain idol boy group who always marketed himself as a top student failed the college entrance examination because his academic scores did not meet the admission requirements for art students.

What's even more outrageous is that he scored an exceptionally high 25 points in math, which is considered exceptional because he usually scores in the teens.

A flurry of actions, but the score was only twenty-five.

The above are harmless; at most, they'll just be ridiculed after the mishap.

Dr. Zhai has created an incredibly prestigious persona for himself, with titles like "Doctor" and "Postdoctoral Fellow," which sounds impressive and intimidating. Now, a bunch of people in the industry are fawning over him, so it's no wonder he's getting so arrogant.

So his car crash was the worst—or rather, the house collapsed.

Of course, this involves academic fraud.

Dr. Zhai single-handedly promoted thesis plagiarism detection. After the CNKI incident, many universities raised their thesis plagiarism detection standards to prevent academic misconduct, reducing the required plagiarism rate from around 30% to 20% or even 10%.

At the same time, the blind review of theses has become more rigorous. In the past, a few departments conducted random blind reviews, but later most departments required blind reviews before the defense, and the number of blind review experts increased from three to five.

In addition, the cost of plagiarism checking has also risen sharply due to the surge in demand, putting considerable financial pressure on students.

Every graduation season, graduates often leave polite comments on Zhai Tianlin's Weibo account due to the pressure of plagiarism checks on their theses.

If we're talking about who's the best at hating people, it has to be Dr. Zhai from CNKI.

Because his haters have the highest average education level in the entire entertainment industry, and they keep coming in waves, with new people joining every year.

As the saying goes, no one will criticize Dr. Zhai every year, but people criticize Dr. Zhai every year.

Gu Zhiyan could already foresee that after this matter came to light, someone would definitely target his graduation thesis.

As a celebrity who carries the label of "academic superstar," this is inevitable.

Fortunately, Gu Zhiyan can withstand any investigation.

Perhaps this is not necessarily a bad thing for him.

"Little brother, what are you thinking about? You didn't even react when I spoke." Xin Zhilei raised her hand and waved it in front of Gu Zhiyan's eyes.

"Oh, it's nothing. What did you say, sister?"

"I need your help. Tianlin will be visiting the set in a while. Could you please talk to him for me? After all, you're both top students, so you should have something in common."

Gu Zhiyan: There are different kinds of top students. Dr. Zhai is way out of his league.

Besides, if even his girlfriend can't persuade him, how can an outsider do so?

However, Gu Zhiyan still nodded in agreement: "Okay, I'll do my best then."

"Little brother, you're so kind. I'll treat you to a big meal sometime."

Xin Zhilei found Gu Zhiyan more and more pleasing to the eye. If Zhai Tianlin were replaced by…

She quickly shut out the terrible thought; she couldn't think about it, she couldn't think about it.

"What are you two talking about?"

At this moment, Li Xiaoran walked over.

"Oh, it's nothing, we just talked about the new movie I'm in that's going to be released soon."

Gu Zhiyan picked up the conversation and changed the subject, presumably because Xin Zhilei didn't want others to know what they had just talked about.

"Your movie is going to be released on the first day of the Lunar New Year, right? I'll definitely buy tickets to see it," Li Xiaoran said to Gu Zhiyan with a smile.

The crew of "Joy of Life" will have a few days off during the Spring Festival, but the time is not very long. Filming will stop on New Year's Eve and resume on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

"Then I'll thank you in advance for your support, sister."

Gu Zhiyan glanced at Li Xiaoran, and couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

Why does this woman look at him with such a resentful gaze?

He didn't provoke Li Xiaoran, so what's going on?

"Ran-jie, let's go together then," Xin Zhilei said, linking her arm with Li Xiaoran's. "You seem to have dark circles under your eyes. Didn't you get enough rest yesterday?"

"This is all someone's fault."

As Li Xiaoran spoke, she gave Gu Zhiyan a reproachful look, and it was obvious who the "someone" she was referring to was.

"Huh? You two?" Xin Zhilei was completely surprised, looking at Li Xiaoran and then at Gu Zhiyan.

Did Li Xiaoran make a move on Gu Zhiyan?

Although she and Li Xiaoran often joked about this in private, it was just casual banter. But Li Xiaoran actually…

"Sister Ran, you need to make yourself clear. I didn't do anything to you."

Upon seeing Xin Zhilei's reaction, Gu Zhiyan quickly offered an explanation.

What is Li Xiaoran up to?

He was in Li Qing's room last night, he didn't go to the wrong room!

Why is he being blamed?

"It's all your fault," Li Xiaoran rolled her eyes at Gu Zhiyan, pulled Xin Zhilei a little further away, and whispered in her ear, "Let me tell you, it was a bit stuffy in the room last night, so I opened the window to let some air in, and then I heard the next room... making noise for most of the night. Do you think I could sleep well?"

"Wow, he's that amazing? Is Li Qing your neighbor?"

After hearing Li Xiaoran's explanation, Xin Zhilei realized she had misunderstood. However, Gu Zhiyan was too bold; no wonder so many girls were attracted to him…

"Do you think I wronged him? If not him, whose fault is it?"

"It's definitely his fault, but Ran-jie, why don't you just close the window? Are you... addicted to listening to this?"

"Hehe, let me tell you, this is super exciting..."

"You've been listening for so long and you haven't reacted at all?"

"How is that possible..."

……

Gu Zhiyan: ...

The two thought that if they moved further away and spoke softly, he wouldn't be able to hear them, little did they know that his hearing was far beyond that of ordinary people, and he could hear their conversation clearly.

These women dare to talk about anything in private; they're all "dirty devils."

It was a bit stuffy last night, so Gu Zhiyan opened the window.

I never expected someone to be eavesdropping!

Looks like I'll have to be careful next time; I absolutely mustn't open the windows!