Peninsula: I can steal the luck of disgraced celebrities

Chapter 123 System Upgrade

"Regarding the online rumors that 'Lin Chih-hsun assaulted someone on set,' as the director of 'Silenced,' I have a responsibility to address this."

"During filming, some people did indeed repeatedly block the area outside, attempting to prevent filming."

"These people claimed to be local residents, said they had nothing to do with the real school featured in the film, and said that our filming was affecting their schedules and demanded that we stop filming."

"But when we asked the local residents during filming, we learned that they were not locals."

"As for the 'injured nose' mentioned in the anonymous post, that's pure extortion."

"Could it be that one person can take on more than a dozen armed men without getting hurt?"

After the director posted it, all the other actors in the crew, except Zhang Guang, also forwarded it.

Gong Yoo added a sentence when he reposted the message: "I was on set. Ji-hoon was protecting the staff. A dozen people surrounded him and verbally dissuaded him, but he didn't lay a hand on him."

The number of comments on this repost exceeded 10,000 within an hour.

At the same time, the information of these thugs was also discovered by an "unknown" person.

The gangs in Gwangju.

Someone discovered that three of them had criminal records: two were involved in intimidation and one had a prior conviction for assault.

The tone of the comments section has completely changed.

"The local gangs are so rude. We from Gwangju visited your Gyeonggi Province and they beat someone up so badly that they were hospitalized."

"Hilarious! A bunch of Gwangju residents who are actually from Gyeonggi Province. Is having a Gyeonggi Province residency permit really that advantageous now?"

"So, it was a gang causing trouble and they got beaten up by someone? And then they blamed Lin Chih-hsun because of 'Silenced'?"

"—Who posted that anonymous message? That's the question we should be asking, isn't it?"

Netizens' attention began to shift, moving away from Lin Zhixun and heading in another direction.

The fourth step, the last piece.

At 5 PM, an unverified account posted a thread containing several screenshots.

The screenshot is from the public financial report of a children's welfare institution in Seoul called "Starlight House".

In the "List of Regular Donors from 2009 to 2011", one name appears every year: Lin Zhixun.

The amount wasn't staggering, but for an actor who didn't have much income in the early stages of their career, it wasn't too low, and it had been continuous for more than two years without interruption.

The post was captioned: "Brothers, look what we dug up."

This tone makes it sound less like a public relations statement and more like an ordinary netizen who just happened to be looking at the financial report out of curiosity and discovered it.

Initially, some netizens questioned whether it was a case of the same name, but the next day, Director Cui of Starlight Home was interviewed by a television station.

"Mr. Lin Zhixun has been donating to our organization every month since 2009, and has not stopped so far."

"He often comes to see the children, and they all like him very much. Last time he was filming, I even brought the children to see him."

Dean Cui's smile was simple and genuine, not the kind of smile he deliberately put on for the camera.

He also showed the reporter a photo of Lin Chih-hsun with the children.

The one where you're wearing a reindeer outfit for Christmas.

The reporter pressed further, "Did he ask for help with publicity?"

"No, he said there's no need for special publicity." Dean Cui paused for a moment, "His exact words were, 'It's not a big deal, don't make a fuss about it.'"

The shift in public opinion was faster than Lin Zhixun had anticipated.

On the fifth day, his name was in the top three of Naver's real-time trending searches, but the keywords following the search terms were no longer "violence" and "persona collapse," but rather "wrongfully accused" and "owes him an apology."

Some of the accounts that launched the most scathing attacks deleted their comments and disappeared, while others began posting lengthy apologies, each one more sincere than the last.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have drawn conclusions without knowing all the facts."

"Mr. Lim Chih-hsun, I'm so sorry."

"I've deleted all my previous posts, and I formally apologize. I acted too impulsively at the time, and I hope you won't see these."

There was another group of people who went even further, directly attacking Choi Jong-hoon and those who posted anonymously, with an attack three times more intense than the previous attacks on Lim Ji-hoon.

The pendulum effect.

Kim Bum-soo is right; the backlash is always stronger than the initial goodwill.

The more ruthless these people are when they criticize others, the fiercer they will be when they speak up for you later.

Essentially, they don't care about the truth; what they care about is whether they've chosen the right side.

But for Lin Chih-hsun, it's enough.

Cui Hao called again, but this time his tone was completely different.

"Wow! The sports drink company called us, saying they want to resume the partnership and even asked if we could increase the endorsement fee for another quarter!"

"I don't know anything about this, you can answer it for me."

"Okay, don't worry."

"Also, that skincare brand has come too. They previously said they were pausing their consideration, but now they've proactively offered a new contract."

"Don't tell me one by one, wait until we've all finished talking and then tell me all at once."

Cui Hao chuckled twice on the other end of the phone, with a lighthearted air of relief: "Okay, okay, I'm going to get back to work."

On Friday, the box office figures for "Silenced" in its first week of release were released.

Gong Yoo made another call, this time his voice was trembling.

"First week — 136.4 million moviegoers."

"136.4 million!" The signal on Gong Yoo's end was cracking. "136.4 million in the first week! If this movie continues this trend, then we'll be this year's box office champion!"

"We're making a realistic film, not a commercial one!"

Gong Yoo's breathing sounded rapid even through the phone.

Lin Chih-hsun was drinking coffee at the Murakami Cafe when he put down his cup and asked a serious question: "Has the screening schedule for the second week been confirmed?"

"CGV has allocated 35% of the screenings, and Rakuten and Megabo have also added more. Pre-sales have already opened for the third week of screenings."

"Awesome."

"What does 'awesome' mean?" Gong Yoo's voice was filled with confusion.

"Your abilities are even more impressive than what others boast about."

Gong Yoo was silent for two seconds: "—Are you insulting me?"

"I'm praising you."

"Oh." After a moment of silence, "Thanks."

I hung up the phone.

This is truly a double celebration!

It's not just about box office revenue.

There was also activity on the system side.

[Ding! The host's good deeds points have reached 1000. The system will begin upgrading.]

The upgrade will take 72 hours. During the upgrade period, system skills will be unavailable.

Lin Zhixun stared at the transparent panel in front of him for a few seconds.

1000 points.

Since I first received this system, I've done a lot of things, big and small, and finally accumulated enough.

There are no hints on the panel about what will be unlocked after the upgrade, but the word "upgrade" alone is enough to make people look forward to it.

It's only 3 days, I can wait.

That was Lin Zhixun's original thought, until he received the phone call he least wanted to receive that day.

It's IU.

Lin Chih-hsun originally thought she was there to celebrate the opening week box office success of "Silenced," but she brought news that Lin Chih-hsun never expected.

"OPPA!"

On the other end of the phone, IU's voice was trembling with tears.

"Yisheng jumped off a building."