Chinese entertainment: Top stars have no holidays

"You're too naive."

Faced with Yang Yang, who is lost in a dream of ascension and even thinks he is superior to others and has already widened the gap with other top TV drama stars.

Jia Shikai was not going to indulge his pipe dreams.

"You think Jiang Bai's popularity is just a temporary fad?"

"Look at how popular he's been these past few days. His Douyin account has gained over a million followers, and his Weibo followers have increased by two million in a single day."

"Within 24 hours of its premiere, 'A Love So Beautiful' officially announced that it had surpassed 2 million views, and the actual number is estimated to be around 1 million!"

"And the reviews for his dramas were consistently positive!"

"What route did he take?"

"He's a campus heartthrob, a clean-cut young man—the persona and career path you established back then with 'Love O2O' are completely identical!"

"Xiao Nai is just a top student in the TV series; he's a real-life top student!"

Jia Shikai picked up the tablet, opened the relevant data for "A Love So Beautiful," and handed it to Yang Yang: "Look, when 'A Love So Beautiful' premiered, it only had 3 GGs."

"Currently, there are as many as 15 types of video game content, including intros, mid-roll ads, outro ads, and pre-roll ads, and we are in talks with many more video game companies."

Yang Yang glanced at the tablet.

The logos of GG merchants such as Xiaozhu Short-term Rental, Sanjin Watermelon Frost, Aiqianjin, Coca-Cola, Jiangzhong Hougu, Natural Beauty, Momo, and Xiangshang Financial Services come into view.

"Moreover, as far as I know, there are already quite a few scripts and endorsements in the industry that are based on youth and campus themes that have started to contact Jiang Bai."

"In the past, these resources were all offered to you first!"

"After all, you are the recognized campus heartthrob in the industry."

"But if Jiang Bai's 'A Love So Beautiful' continues to be popular, his popularity will only increase, and his public image will improve."

"At that time, he will gradually take away your market share, and all the resources that originally belonged to you will fall into his hands."

"We're direct competitors, not friends," Jia Shikai said, his tone becoming more forceful. "You seem to be in a stable position now, but Jiang Bai's rise is too rapid!"

"We can't just sit and watch him become a sensation, we can't wait until he's established himself before we try to suppress him, or it will be too late."

Yang Yang fell silent.

Yang Yang, who initially didn't care much and even thought Jia Shikai was overreacting, had to admit that Jia Shikai was right.

The competition in the entertainment industry is that ruthless; there are no eternal top stars, only a constant stream of newcomers.

If we're talking about top celebrities from different backgrounds, like Kris Wu and TFBOYS, there's a possibility that they can coexist harmoniously with Yang Yang.

For artists like Jiang Bai, who are aiming to compete with him in the same field, there is absolutely no possibility of them shaking hands and making peace.

Once Jiang Bai comes to power, Yang Yang's resources will be significantly reduced, or even completely taken away.

He became a sensation back then thanks to Xiao Nai, securing his position as the campus heartthrob. Naturally, he couldn't just stand by and watch someone else take everything away from him.

When core interests were involved, Yang Yang immediately sobered up.

However, he was still too embarrassed to immediately change his mind and directly said that he wanted to suppress Jiang Bai.

He's usually quite pretentious.

Therefore, he could only watch Jia Shikai in silence.

"Don't worry, I've arranged everything." Jia Shikai has been working with Yang Yang for several years, so he is naturally familiar with his artist.

He confidently stated, "All the smear articles were published through third-party marketing accounts, leaving no trace of our team."

"Even if someone investigates, they won't be able to trace it back to us."

"Moreover, we were just guiding the narrative; the fabricated dirt was actually just fake chat logs."

"Although such accusations are baseless, they are enough to stir up public opinion in the short term, make passersby question the truth, and generate a lot of negative voices."

"As long as we can disrupt Jiang Bai's rhythm, distract him from public relations, and affect his public image and the popularity of 'A Love So Beautiful,' we will have achieved our goal."

After hearing this, Yang Yang nodded in relief.

It takes only a mouth to spread rumors, but it takes a lot of legwork to refute them.

He understands!

In the entertainment industry, spreading rumors about rivals is the lowest-cost way to prevent backlash, and it's also very difficult for rivals to seek legal recourse.

Because it's very difficult to trace the source of rumors.

Even if they find out, it's just a cover-up.

After a year or two of court battles, the final judgment was a public apology plus a fine of several thousand dollars.

Compared to the negative impact on celebrities, how much is this price to pay?

Black! Utterly black!

Jia Shikai paused for a moment, then continued, "What you need to do now is focus on preparing for the work ahead and not let this matter affect you."

"By the time Jiang Bai has calmed down the negative public opinion, your 'Three Lives Three Worlds' will have been released."

"When the time comes, with the popularity of 'Three Lives Three Worlds' released, good resources will naturally come back to you."

"We don't want to completely defeat him, we just want to buy some time and suppress his momentum."

"Let him know that the position of campus heartthrob is not something he can just take away."

Jia Shikai was quite confident in "Three Lives Three Worlds" and felt that the film had a high chance of success.

So he was just trying to fish in troubled waters, and all the dirt on him was made up on the spot.

He couldn't find any real information about Jiang Bai either, because Jiang Bai genuinely didn't have any.

With a clean academic record, he focused on acting after entering the industry.

Even after staking out Jiang Bai for half a month, the paparazzi couldn't even get a single picture of him going to bars or nightclubs.

According to the paparazzi who were following him, Jiang Bai was either filming or resting at his hotel every day; he was incredibly well-behaved.

Left with no other choice, Jia Shikai only wanted to disrupt Jiang Bai's rising popularity over the next ten days to half a month.

Don't let him ascend to heaven before "Three Lives Three Worlds" airs.

Sometimes, when a celebrity's rise to fame is interrupted, public attention will shift.

When Jiang Bai wants to rise to the top, he will be stuck in the middle, neither rising nor falling.

"Okay, I understand. We'll do it your way." Yang Yang nodded in satisfaction; he still trusted Jia Shikai.

If Jia Shikai says he can't find it, then he's really done it thoroughly from beginning to end.

......

"What are you investigating?"

"No need to check!"

Xu Xu, who had rushed over from Shanghai, placed a large stack of documents on the table and, still catching his breath, said:

"Whoever benefits the most from this is the one who did it!"

"We're not police officers, why would we need to find evidence?"

Leaning back on the sofa, Xu Xu said irritably, "This was obviously done by Jia Shikai!"

"Damn it, Jia Shikai is no good."

Even Xu Xu, who was always gentle and refined in front of Jiang Bai, couldn't help but swear.

"Jia Shikai's approach to managing artists has always been to use a 'black-and-red' strategy, attacking rivals and smearing competitors—he'll stop at nothing to achieve it!"

His most famous quote is, "Friends are for selling!"

"This person has no professional ethics whatsoever. He controls a large number of online trolls and is known in the industry as the head of the online trolls."

"He can easily spread dirt on someone!"

Xu Xu spread his hands, looked at Jiang Bai, and said confidently, "Yang Yang is an artist under his management, and if you develop your career, Yang Yang will be the first to be threatened."

"After all, his most popular role since his debut is Xiao Nai, which is completely similar to your Jiang Chen in 'A Love So Beautiful'."

"Jia Shikai must be frantic behind the scenes; he'll be the first to jump out and cause trouble!"

Although there was no evidence, Xu Xu insisted that Jia Shikai was the one behind it all.

This is undoubtedly shooting the arrow first and then drawing the target.

But Jiang Bai felt that Xu Xu's words made a lot of sense, and Jia Shikai was indeed the most suspicious!

"So what do we do next?" Jiang Bai asked curiously.

Even if he knew a lot about the entertainment industry in his past life, he certainly wouldn't know how celebrities handle public relations and how to divert attention when they encounter a public relations crisis.

Jiang Bai really lacks experience in this area.

"What should we do?" Xu Xu sneered.

"If Jia Shikai wants to cause trouble, then we'll make it bigger!"

"Let's change clothes!"

"To the police station!"

"Call the police!"