Chapter 64#
“Charming” Movie King (18)#
Perhaps what Lu Yi had said earlier gave Kong Si a sense of urgency; his drive for career success surged, and he resolved not to be the man behind the big shot, but rather the company’s cash cow.
With such ambition, Lu Yi was naturally willing to invest heavily in Kong Si. Over the past year since the company’s founding, Star Entertainment had signed numerous artists—new talents and A-list actresses who had terminated contracts with other companies—but none could match Kong Si’s status.
With the company’s full support and, crucially, Kong Si’s own efforts—solid acting skills and good looks—he had a string of explosive hits in several dramas. The company spent money to hype him up, and his fame skyrocketed like a rocket.
As for He Xiao, after confirming the truth, Kong Si had his agent stop the probing and simply blocked He Xiao.
Of course, that wasn’t the end of it. He had his agent create a burner account, pretending to be a fan of He Xiao, and infiltrate the latter’s official fan group, lurking there to monitor any movements from He Xiao’s fans at any time.
That way, as soon as He Xiao made a move, they could strike back effectively.
As Lu Yi had said, Kong Si and He Xiao were very similar—not in appearance, but in temperament and positioning. As similar actors, they were often compared in various rankings, TV drama achievements, and box office results.
At first, Kong Si had little fame, but as his fan base grew, major charts began to include this rising newcomer.
In the industry, even if there is no open friction between similar actors, the competition is fierce. Usually, when one rises, the other is inevitably suppressed. For example, with chick flicks, when a good director considers casting, given similar looks and acting skills, they will naturally choose the one who is more popular and better at driving traffic.
Both Kong Si and He Xiao aimed for a high-end, Acting school image, and when selecting scripts, they would strive for roles that were challenging but charismatic.
He Xiao started in youth films, but after a few years, he gradually shifted from TV dramas to the big screen. To showcase his caliber, he chose literary films and high-IQ crime thrillers.
But several of those films flopped.
Meanwhile, Kong Si, besides being blessed by the heavens, also had ample resources. After starring in a few TV dramas, he began making movies. Several low-budget niche films became huge hits. Whether in box office, styling, or word-of-mouth, he outperformed He Xiao’s similar films.
After Kong Si rose, the resources He Xiao could secure were quietly squeezed.
When He Xiao discovered he had been blocked by Kong Si, he felt a vague unease for some reason. He tried to find Kong Si’s phone number, but when he called and said the first sentence, the other party hung up bluntly and blocked him.
He Xiao wasn’t one to give up easily, but after years as a big star, he was used to being adored. Humiliating himself by chasing after someone wasn’t really his style.
He had initially wanted to fulfill a friend’s regret, but failing wasn’t a big deal, he thought. Then he found Kong Si invading his life in another way.
They overlapped in type. At auditions for several major productions he coveted, he always saw Kong Si’s figure, and almost every time, the role he wanted went to Kong Si.
When their dramas or movies aired during the same period, Kong Si’s ratings were always higher, and his popularity was greater.
In fact, Kong Si wasn’t deliberately competing with him. The release of TV dramas and movies, from filming to censorship to distribution, takes a long time.
But who could blame Kong Si for being diligent? Several major productions in a row, and he dominated the screen day after day. Prime time slots were limited, so He Xiao’s shows inevitably overlapped with his for a while. But when it happened repeatedly, it gave the illusion that Kong Si was intentionally suppressing him.
With talent and capital, Kong Si shot up like a rocket, easily surpassing the industry veteran He Xiao.
In the entertainment world, the new wave usually pushes out the old, leaving the former washed up on the shore. Initially, due to a special sentiment inside, He Xiao didn’t want to sour relations with Kong Si. But precisely because of that sentiment, he couldn’t help but focus on Kong Si.
Watching Kong Si’s fan count skyrocket—from nearly 10 million less than his to matching him, to now surpassing him—He Xiao’s mentality gradually unbalanced.
In the industry, besides promoting looks, the most touted thing is acting skills. Fans of idol stars might like someone for various reasons—personality, looks, or roles. But who in this business doesn’t want to be praised for their acting?
If the idol’s acting is passable, fans can hype it to the skies. Especially for someone like Kong Si, who is blessed by the heavens. When you search his name, the hot keywords most associated with him are excellent acting, good looks, and the roles he played in several dramas.
Both are praised for acting—hard to compare with veteran actors, so compare with those of similar age. Who was the male artist praised as a genius actor in the industry? Wasn’t it He Xiao?
Without Kong Si hinting to his fans, gossip entertainment bloggers on major forums started asking, #Both are genius actors, how do actors Yu Si and He Xiao compare in acting?#
On Zhihu, when someone asked #How do you evaluate actor Yu Si?#, others deliberately brought He Xiao’s name into it, comparing them with praise for one and criticism for the other.
To keep one’s mentality from crumbling in the entertainment world, you need a Buddhist-like calm heart. But He Xiao was clearly not that kind of Zen youth. He had climbed up quickly back then and had certainly used tactics like tying others’ names to his and stepping on them—common industry tricks.
But now, watching the topics his fans were posting and the answers on the forums, though he didn’t know whether the respondents were Kong Si’s fans or paid shills, even if they were telling the truth, He Xiao still felt like Kong Si was stepping on him.
Yes, Kong Si was a radiant being, born for this job. But He Xiao was doing perfectly fine outside the industry—why did he have to come into the entertainment world and snatch his rice bowl?
He stared at Kong Si day by day. The more he looked, the less the face matched the one in his memory. The sunny, handsome face grew increasingly repulsive in his eyes.
When Zhao Qian came in, he saw He Xiao watching a recently aired drama. Noticing He Xiao’s grim expression, he said, “Why are you watching that Yu Si again? He won’t be friendly with us anyway. There were rumors in the circle that you two don’t get along.”
He also didn’t understand why his artist was so fixated on this male actor, but he was tied to He Xiao’s fate. If He Xiao did well, he could live well. Since He Xiao focused on Yu Si, Zhao Qian focused on Yu Si’s agent. But that agent was aloof, showing no interest in hyping with them, almost on the verge of an open rift.
He Xiao asked him, “So what do you think I should do?”
Zhao Qian replied, “Do about what?”
“About Kong… I mean Yu Si. Brother Qian, you’re right. With this intense competition, I have to crush him to survive.” He felt he had been too softhearted before, shouldn’t have clung to old feelings and let Kong Si climb up.
Zhao Qian sighed. “I told you before—you didn’t work hard enough during his growth period. Now that he’s up, it won’t be easy to push him down.”
He Xiao frowned. He really regretted not being tougher for the sake of sentimental feelings. “So what do I do?”
Zhao Qian said, “There is one way, but I don’t know if you’ll agree.”
“What way?” The more He Xiao looked at Kong Si’s face, the more uncomfortable he felt. His popularity was slipping; for his career, he had to take drastic measures.
Zhao Qian hesitated for a moment before saying, “Ship a couple.”
“What do you mean? Have me stir up scandal with a female artist?” It was pathetic—once, female artists clung to him for hype; now he had to cling to others and rely on such press releases to attract attention.
It was all Kong Si’s fault.
Zhao Qian shook his head. “What’s the point of hyping with a female star? That’s played out.”
After same-sex marriage was legalized, many male artists in the industry used bromance to stand out. He Xiao had cultivated a straight-man persona to differentiate himself. Now that Zhao Qian wanted him to ship with a man, He Xiao thought his agent must be out of his mind.
“If not a female star, then a male star? Have you forgotten the persona the company set for me?”
Zhao Qian replied, “That was before. When you were hot, of course you stick to the persona. Now that you’re fading, if you don’t want to keep sinking, you have to take a different path.”
He glanced at the actor on the LCD screen. “He’s on the rise now. Unless something big like an extramarital affair or drug scandal breaks about him, it’s tough to crush him.”
He Xiao frowned. “He doesn’t even stir up scandals with others, let alone extramarital affairs.”
In recent years, the country’s moral requirements for celebrities had become stricter. If an affair blew up big, the celebrity would have to keep a low profile in the entertainment world.
But that applied to extramarital affairs within marriage. For unmarried men, scandals like cheating didn’t carry severe negative impact.
As for drug scandals, unless there was actual news of an arrest and the person was jailed, it was possible. Otherwise, they could easily sue for defamation. Unsubstantiated rumors wouldn’t affect Kong Si.
Zhao Qian followed his lead. “Exactly. Since he’s not going to fade anytime soon, why not ride his traffic and ship with him?”
“What if he humiliates me?” He Xiao had no doubt Kong Si was capable of that.
Zhao Qian said confidently, “As long as we don’t openly declare it and you don’t make your stance clear, he can’t humiliate you.”
This time, He Xiao didn’t hesitate much. “Then do as you say. I’ll fully cooperate.”
He Xiao’s previous actions were extreme, but afterward he hadn’t caused any more trouble. Kong Si thought it was better to avoid trouble than court it. Since the other party hadn’t caused harm, actively suppressing him seemed immoral.
But with the precedent, he never stopped having his agent monitor He Xiao. About a year after the scam incident, the atmosphere around him and He Xiao suddenly changed.
A cult-like fandom emerged in the industry, dedicated to shipping him and He Xiao, calling it “Little Fish CP.” In the web novel and manga circles, a wave of fan fiction about him and He Xiao appeared, along with video edits from their dramas.
At first, it was just a niche fandom, so Kong Si’s agent didn’t notice. But as it grew and CP fans started poaching from solo fans, they sensed something wrong.
Those cult fan fics were mostly angsty stories, portraying He Xiao as a good guy and Kong Si as a jerk. Combined with the old incident of Kong Si acting entitled and He Xiao speaking up for him while Kong Si didn’t respond, it cemented Kong Si as a big scumbag.
Kong Si was sitting at home and had the blame dumped on him. Just because he had publicly stated his sexual preference for men, he was now branded a heartbreaker who deceived a straight man’s feelings.
This toxic current seemed to start with a gossip big-shot account and had nothing to do with He Xiao on the surface. But Kong Si wasn’t stupid—he knew who benefited, so he knew who started it.
He initially wanted to tell Lu Yi, but then he remembered that he had asked Lu Yi to let him handle this entirely. He had chosen to be ethical, not actively attacking, only openly outperforming, which led to this situation.
He was too embarrassed to ask Lu Yi for help again. After discussing with his agent, they decided to fight fire with fire in the same space—the secondary (fan) culture.
Amid his busy schedule, he opened several burner accounts and started writing his own fan fiction. Back in school, he was a big name in the literary club, with dozens of published pieces in magazines, so writing angsty, clichéd melodrama came naturally.
Since He Xiao wanted to paint him as the big jerk, Kong Si wrote short, vengeful fics. The first part would be sweet and romantic, but near the end, a shocking twist: everything was a scam set up by He Xiao. In the finale, the jerk gets kicked out or crushed by a meteor.
After churning out a few such fics, he used the company’s channels to promote them.
He also opened another account just for sweet stories—romances featuring a domineering CEO and him, or him and a CEO. The CEO’s name was always simply “Lu.” Thanks to the high-quality fluff, this account became a top-tier fan writer.
One person’s strength was limited, so besides writing for catharsis, he mobilized his own fans to write.
Of course, he didn’t say it directly; he communicated through his official fan group administrators.
Fans didn’t know about him and his CEO, so what should they write? Encouraged by the admins, they wrote about ships like “Yu Si’s Character A x Yu Si’s Character B,” or “Real Yu Si x His Character C”—a self-love cult fandom.
With his explosive growth in fans and popularity, the fan fiction about his self-ships, retweeted by the official fan club, quickly went viral at a terrifying speed. The buzz around He Xiao was soon suppressed by the wave Kong Si had created.
Except for the initial script where he wrote He Xiao as the villain, he resolutely gave He Xiao no further exposure. Black popularity was still popularity; he had no intention of hyping He Xiao.
After doing all this and achieving results, he took the before-and-after data analysis report to Lu Yi. This time, it wasn’t to tattle but to claim credit.
Pointing at the data on the report, Kong Si said, “At first, he poached a lot of fans from me—of course, the ones with weak willpower.”
He continued, “But I quickly noticed the abnormality in this fandom and had my people produce content. Not only did we win back those fans, but we also took some of He Xiao’s fans.”
Among the vast fan population, true fans and toxic fans are always the minority. Most are casual fans who can be swayed by the wind. So when something happens to an artist, these people easily switch from fans to neutrals or even haters.
Humans are naturally fickle; fans’ “husbands” change every day, rarely loyal. But wandering fans are still fans; having them is better than none.
Lu Yi looked at the report, then at Kong Si’s face expecting praise. He cleared his throat and said, “You’ve done well. Keep it up.”
Lu Yi’s style was to nip danger in the bud. Kong Si’s principle was, “Offend me not, I offend none.”
But since he had already agreed to let Kong Si handle He Xiao, he wouldn’t interfere too much. He just silently built up his own capital and influence, so that if He Xiao ever went crazy, he could easily crush him.
Kong Si looked a bit disappointed. “Don’t you have any other reaction?”
Verbal praise wasn’t enough, was it? Kisses, hugs, and being lifted up—he didn’t ask for the last two, but at least the first four words should be fulfilled.
Lu Yi said, “The one who wrote ‘Domineering CEO x Him’—that was you, wasn’t it? And the artist named ‘A Salty Fish’—also you, right?”
Kong Si was shocked and instinctively denied it three times: “No, not me, really. I didn’t.”
After denying it, he remembered his promise not to lie and immediately changed his tune: “Okay, fine, that was all me. How did you find out?”
Lu Yi said, “In the middle of the night, you sneakily got up to write that, and then forgot to delete the document.”
He thought, after all, it was his man’s writing. Even if it was terrible, he had to support it, lest Kong Si lose confidence.
But after reading it, he had to admit Kong Si wrote pretty well—just that the little spicy stories were too unrealistic.
Oh well. Since they lived together, it was only a matter of time before the cover was blown.
With that thought, Kong Si quickly felt better. He pondered for a moment and said, “Actually, even if I write this, it’s still just suppression, which carries risks. If he hires a bunch of ghostwriters to produce content and suppress me back, it’s not impossible.”
Lu Yi could tell from Kong Si’s tone that his lover had something in mind. He cooperatively asked, “That’s a good point. So what then?”
Kong Si said, “We can hire more shills too. After all, I’ve earned the company quite a bit of money over the years, right?”
Lu Yi nodded. “You’re right.”
A media company and its artists are interrelated. The company makes an artist famous, and the artist’s popularity brings continuous profits to the company. Now, Kong Si was the undisputed top star at Star Media. His rapidly growing popularity had brought in very high profits. In the past year alone, his endorsements and film fees totaled 160 million yuan.
Plus dividends from company stock, Kong Si was now a bona fide rich man.
Kong Si went on, “But wasting money on someone like him is pointless. Even though we’re rich, we should be thrifty, right?”
Lu Yi hesitated a bit but still nodded. Thrift is a traditional virtue.
Kong Si swallowed nervously. Even though they were an old married couple, he still felt inexplicably tense at times like this—like proposing. “So I have a great idea to deal with him that saves money. Want to hear it?”
Lu Yi smiled as he looked at him. “Let’s hear it. If it’s as good as you say, I’ll consider it.”
After all this buildup, Kong Si finally revealed his true purpose: “I think the time is about right. Let’s come out publicly.”
He didn’t want his name paired with He Xiao or anyone else. He only wanted Lu Yi. He wanted to announce to the world that this was his man—legally recognized, justified husband and husband.
Lu Yi said, “Okay.”
His voice was short and firm.
“If you…” Before Lu Yi answered, Kong Si had braced himself for rejection. They had been together for such a short time, and not to brag, but as the company’s top star, if he came out, the stock price might take a hit.
Star Media was founded by Lu Yi himself. Kong Si had seen with his own eyes how much effort Lu Yi had put into the company over the years.
If it were him, he would have thought twice. No one is born obligated to accommodate another person.
But Lu Yi didn’t hesitate even a little. He just said okay.
Kong Si had been worried about three-year itch, seven-year itch—now all those concerns were thrown to Java.
“Lu Yi!”
“Hmm?” Lu Yi replied softly, indicating he was listening attentively.
“Let’s come out right now! Immediately, right this second!”
Lu Yi said with a smile, “Okay.”
He Xiao’s first wave of hype wasn’t a complete success, but it wasn’t a total failure either. At least initially, he tasted some sweetness. Just as he was about to habitually browse the charts and consider buying a trending topic, he scrolled upon this headline:
#Yu Si Is Married#