Chinese Entertainment: Top-Tier Boyfriends of Young Actresses

On July 1, the program officially began recording.

The film crew arrived at Su Yu's rented apartment early in the morning. He had cleaned the apartment thoroughly the day before, just to leave a good impression on the audience.

His phone rang as soon as the show started recording.

An unfamiliar number popped up on the screen, with the location showing as Beijing.

"Hello, is this Su Yu?" A slightly lazy Beijing-accented female voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Yes, it's me, Sister Wei." Su Yu sat up straight subconsciously.

"That's right, I'm the store manager."

For some reason, Zhao Yanzi on the other end of the phone suddenly burst out laughing, probably because she felt it was a bit ridiculous to say the title "store manager" out of her own mouth.

"Hello, store manager." Su Yu smiled as well.

"By the way, can you cook?"

"I can cook some home-style dishes."

"That's good, that's good."

After a few more awkward words, the two hung up the phone.

After the film crew finished shooting the footage in the rented apartment, Su Yu carried his suitcase downstairs, got into the crew's car, and headed to the Capital Airport.

Su Yu was the first to arrive at the airport.

He dragged his suitcase to a seat in the waiting area and sat down quietly, waiting for the others.

According to industry norms, a newcomer like him, who is the youngest and not particularly famous, should arrive before the others.

Besides, he was used to arriving early, a habit he developed in the laboratory in his previous life; he always prepared in advance for everything he did.

Not long after, Zhang Liang and Jin Mengjia arrived at the airport one after the other.

Su Yu stood up and greeted them: "Hello, Brother Liang, hello, Sister Meng."

Zhang Liang looked up, glanced at him, and politely replied with a "Hello" in a calm tone. He then found a seat next to him and sat down before looking down again to continue scrolling through his phone.

When Jin Mengjia saw Su Yu, her eyes suddenly lit up.

She had only seen Su Yu's photos on Weibo's trending topics before, but she didn't expect him to be even more handsome in person than in the photos. He had three-dimensional features, a sharp jawline, and his peach blossom eyes were particularly eye-catching under the airport's fluorescent lights.

She subconsciously lowered her voice slightly, responding very warmly, "Hello, hello, nice to meet you!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Sister Meng," Su Yu replied politely.

Jin Mengjia then sat down next to Su Yu and started chatting with him casually, to which Su Yu responded politely.

As they were chatting, a commotion came from the entrance of the waiting hall. It was Zhao Yanzi, Huang Xiaoming, and Zhou Dongyu who had arrived.

Zhao Yanzi walked in front, dragging a magenta suitcase. Huang Xiaoming followed behind her, pushing a luggage cart piled high with several suitcases. Zhou Dongyu walked at the very back, swaying back and forth with a small backpack.

Su Yu and the other two stood up from their seats at the same time and greeted each other.

Zhao Yanzi nodded to them and said, "You've all arrived," her tone indifferent, her gaze not lingering on the three of them.

Huang Xiaoming walked around from behind the luggage cart, first shaking hands with Zhang Liang, then smiling at Su Yu and Jin Mengjia, his tone warm: "You're all here so early? I thought we were the first to arrive."

"You're definitely overthinking it." Zhao Yanzi had already found a seat and waved to him from behind. "Stop standing around exchanging pleasantries, come and sit down."

Zhou Dongyu looked up at them, then slowly replied, "Hello," and said nothing more.

Everyone took their seats and waited for the plane. Since there was no recording while waiting, no one had to pretend to be very familiar with each other.

Most of the time, Zhao Yanzi only chatted with her old classmate Huang Xiaoming. The two talked about everything from the old stories of the Beijing Film Academy to their recent projects, and occasionally mentioned Zhou Dongyu.

After all, apart from the two of them, Zhou Dongyu is the highest-ranking celebrity here, and she also graduated from the Beijing Film Academy, so they are considered to be from the same school.

As for the remaining three people, Zhao Yanzi didn't actively try to talk to them.

Su Yu didn't try to win him over.

While others may not know this other side of Sister Wei, he knows very well the "shell company acquisition case" that shocked the entire financial circle at the end of last year.

This woman and her husband used 60 million yuan of their own funds to leverage a 3 billion yuan acquisition, a leverage ratio of 51 times. They were ultimately punished to the fullest extent by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, plus a five-year ban from the securities market. Netizens jokingly called her "Zhao Feite".

Going back further, in 2001, she caused a national sensation with her "military flag dress" incident. She took a set of fashion photos in New York, and the dress she wore was printed with a neon military flag pattern. The photos were published in "Fashion" magazine, and after netizens discovered them, public opinion exploded.

Because of this incident, at a concert in Changsha at the end of that year, an angry audience member rushed onto the stage, pushed her to the ground, pulled her hair, and splashed her with diluted feces that had been prepared in a plastic bottle.

The incident escalated to such a great extent that she vehemently denied it afterward, until a clear photo was published in a Hong Kong magazine at the beginning of the following year, which finally confirmed the truth.

These successive scandals led her to move directly from the big screen to behind-the-scenes work.

Su Yu remembers clearly that just a few years later, this Sister Wei was named by the authorities and directly labeled as a "tainted artist." All her TV dramas, movies, and variety shows were taken down, and classic dramas like "Princess Pearl," which the whole country had watched for more than ten years, disappeared completely from all major platforms overnight.

He always keeps his distance from people with a dark past who are bound to make a fool of themselves sooner or later. He only needs to be polite and courteous during the recording of the show and avoid having any deep contact with such people.

Huang Xiaoming, on the other hand, truly lives up to his reputation as a seasoned veteran in the entertainment industry; his emotional intelligence is exceptionally high.

Zhao Yanzi only chats with old classmates and people of high status; she's the type to treat people differently depending on who they're talking to.

Huang Xiaoming would occasionally call on the others and actively find topics to chat about with the relatively unknown Su Yu and others.

It can only be said that this person is indeed very pleasant to be around, which explains why he has such a good reputation in the industry.

After several hours of flight, the plane landed at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport.

The group then transferred in Bangkok and flew to Dharam Airport, arriving in the afternoon.

The sun in Siam is much stronger than in Beijing. As soon as you step out of the airport, a wave of heat hits you. The air is filled with a humid, salty smell, and the palm trees in the distance sway their leaves lazily in the hot wind.

The production crew's car was already waiting in the parking lot.

Su Yu glanced at the seating arrangement and immediately understood. The space inside the car was implicitly divided into two areas.

The three seats in the back row were reserved for Zhao Yanzi, Huang Xiaoming, and Zhou Dongyu. These three were not only all graduates of the Beijing Film Academy, but also the three with the highest status. Zhang Liang, Meng Jia, and himself were seated in the front row and in the middle.

This was clearly planned in advance by the production team before the trip; it wasn't just a casual visit.

Sure enough, the allocation of screen time and the establishment of character personas in variety shows begin from the moment they get on the bus.