I'm Rich - 27
Chapter 27
For the next few days, while Guan Zhiyi was resting at home, she kept finding excuses to wander over to Qi Chengyan's place. Sometimes it was for a meal, sometimes to chat with Grandpa Qi. Really, any excuse to hover around him. Unfortunately, Qi Chengyan seemed to have gotten busy again. Half the time, she'd barely arrive before he was already heading out the door.
Her break was short. After a few days of this, it was time to get back to work.
Ever since Guan Zhiyi finished filming The Imperial Court, Liu Yun had been paying closer attention to her career. Choosing her next script had become a careful, almost nerve-wracking process. Liu Yun was determined not to let her slide back into bad projects following such a major production. After exhaustive deliberation, she picked a modern drama called Emergency Room. The production team had an outstanding reputation, Liu Yun felt confident about it.
Guan Zhiyi liked the script too. After a few promotional events, she was back on set in no time.
Filming was in the same city, on her days off she could still sneak home.
A month into shooting, the travel variety show she'd filmed earlier, Wandering the World, premiered. A few hours before it aired, she posted on Weibo as her contract required.
"Tonight at eight, Wandering the World invites you to set off with us! First stop: London, England. Super, super intense! Don't miss it~"
Comments came flooding in almost immediately.
Her performance on Get Lost, Fat! had won over a huge audience, plenty of people had been looking forward to her next variety appearance. So when word got out that she'd joined a travel show, fans rushed over to check it out. But where there are fans, there are always haters. Guan Zhiyi had no shortage of those, and the criticism came right along with the praise.
[So excited, so excited! I've been waiting for your variety show forever]
[I laughed so hard during Get Lost, Fat! I really hope our girl gets enough spending money this time]
[Give our daughter more money to play with, it hurts my heart watching her pinch pennies!]
[Guan Zhiyi: Ha! A trip where you don't spend money is a trip where you make money!]
[Have fun, baby~]
[A country bumpkin going abroad?]
[Bet she'll be totally out of her depth... probably can't even string a sentence together in English]
[Don't embarrass yourself overseas, just come back]
Guan Zhiyi was too busy filming to check her phone after posting. But her assistant Mao Mao was absolutely seething while scrolling through Weibo.
After spending so much time with Guan Zhiyi, Mao Mao had completely adopted her as one of her own. Reading those mocking comments felt like watching someone insult her directly.
But angry as she was, Mao Mao would never bring it up in front of Guan Zhiyi. She was afraid it would upset her.
At eight that evening, Wandering the World went live. Guan Zhiyi was still filming night scenes. Her manager Liu Yun happened to be on set that day, while waiting for Guan Zhiyi to finish, she sat down with Mao Mao to watch the premiere.
Liu Yun had thick skin. Wanting to see genuine audience reactions, she told Mao Mao to turn on the bullet comments.
"Yun-jie, maybe we shouldn't turn those on... I'm scared we'll see people badmouthing Zhiyi-jie..."
Liu Yun shot her a look. "You're such a rookie... can't even handle this much? Turn them on! How else are we supposed to know what people are saying?"
"But..."
"Come on, come on, it's starting."
Mao Mao had no choice. With her heart in her throat, she turned on the bullet comments. Sure enough, barely minutes in, several nasty remarks about Guan Zhiyi were already floating across the screen. But with Liu Yun watching, she forced herself to keep going.
Though as she watched... she eventually stopped paying attention to the comments entirely. Because just like so many others in the bullet chat, she was completely stunned by Guan Zhiyi...
"Yun-jie, was Zhiyi-jie always this fluent in English?"
Liu Yun didn't answer, she was just as shocked inside. Managers weren't allowed to accompany talent on this kind of show, aside from the general outline, she had no idea what the actual content looked like. Like the audience, she was seeing it for the first time.
Guan Zhiyi hadn't been an artist she'd paid much attention to before. She didn't know much about her, only that she'd attended a very good university in the capital before entering the industry. But in entertainment, a university degree was just a bonus. When nobody was looking at your acting or your talents, that kind of thing meant nothing.
So Liu Yun had genuinely forgotten that Guan Zhiyi was a top student from a top school.
While Liu Yun and Mao Mao sat there stunned, the bullet comments went absolutely wild.
[Holy crap, Guan Zhiyi's English is so smooth, her accent is gorgeous]
[Standard British accent, 6666]
[I'm shook, I didn't expect her to be the one handling all the communication out of six people]
[She seems all cute and ditzy but she's actually really good at getting things done. Look, she's the one who sorted out the car rental and everything]
[Hehehe, this is my hidden treasure]
[All you people saying she'd embarrass herself abroad, come back and talk after you get into Jingda]
[Wait what? What does that mean? Jingda?]
[As a longtime fan, I can proudly tell you all! Our Yiyi graduated from Jingda]
[Are you serious? Guan Zhiyi went to a top-tier university?]
[I actually didn't know that... I just thought she seemed sharp and smart on her shows. Turns out she's a straight-A student]
[Waaah switching from casual viewer to fan! Who doesn't love a girl who's both adorable and brilliant!]
...
After the first episode of Wandering the World aired, #GuanZhiyiEducation# and #GuanZhiyiEnglish# both hit the trending charts.
By the time Guan Zhiyi finished her night shoot, it was already the early hours of the morning. Mao Mao and Liu Yun were grinning ear to ear as they showed her her phone. Only then did she learn she'd landed two trending topics in one day.
"This is a thing too..." Guan Zhiyi said.
Liu Yun patted her shoulder. "Of course it is. These days, the more labels an artist has, the better. Especially a label like this."
"But I'm not a straight-A student."
Mao Mao looked at her in disbelief. "You got into Jingda! How are you not a top student!"
"I got in, sure. But my grades were honestly pretty average compared to my classmates..."
She wasn't joking. She'd applied to that school because her father forced her to. If it had been up to her, she would have chosen a drama academy. And since she'd never had any real interest in her major, she'd poured all her energy into standing out in talent shows, filming, and honing her acting. Her grades had barely scraped by each semester.
If anyone deserved the label of top student, it was her classmates.
"But getting in means your high school grades were amazing." Mao Mao said enviously. "You don't even know. Where I'm from, getting into Jingda is the kind of thing that brings honor to your entire family!"
Guan Zhiyi looked a little embarrassed. "Luck. I just got lucky..."
Wandering the World pulled in great ratings. After the first episode took off, the second and third episodes drew several times more views than competing variety shows airing at the same time, instantly claiming the number one spot.
And of everyone on the show, Guan Zhiyi was the one who gained the most.
It was strange, really. Her dramas only seemed to attract haters, but her variety appearances consistently boosted her reputation and sent her popularity soaring.
But nobody expected what happened next. Right when Wandering the World was at its peak, a gossip account dropped a bombshell one evening.
"A certain actress whose career has been on the rise lately used to get terrible resources, but recently she's been landing one good variety show and script after another. The reason is simple: she's gotten herself a financial backer. And the one she's attached to is a returnee who's been making big moves in the industry since coming back to the country, spending serious money to promote her. Feel free to guess who. She just wrapped filming on The Imperial Court not long ago."
Once the post went up, netizens flooded the comments:
[This is way too easy to guess, it's gzy]
[I knew it. How else does someone who used to do nothing but fluffy rom-coms suddenly land a role opposite Xiao Ran]
[What do you mean my girl landed good variety shows, she couldn't have known they'd blow up before signing!]
[No comment, my Yiyi is just being cute on her own]
[Fans, stop pushing that innocent sweetheart image, okay? Behind closed doors she's probably working overtime to hook a rich guy]
[She came from nothing, you really think she has no schemes?]
[Selling herself for resources]
[Which rich guy? Can someone fill me in!]
[According to insiders, it's the new boss of Yixing. For reference: check the March issue of American Financial Circles from last year, front page has a surprise]
[Holy shit! I actually found it, he's so handsome! (photo attached)]
[Oh my god... if it were me I'd shoot my shot too. His name is Qi Chengyan? I'm officially declaring him my new crush :)]
[Ahem, I think you're all missing the point]
[Qi Chengyan has a fiancée, she's even been to Yixing! Everyone at Yixing knows she's their future boss's wife]
[What? Scumbag! He has a fiancée and he's still keeping gzy?]
[The capital circle is disgusting, people keeping mistresses left and right]
[The real point is Guan Zhiyi has no shame, homewrecker climbing her way up, and she even stole someone else's role in The Imperial Court]
[I used to like her, I didn't expect this]
...
Within an hour, the post had tens of thousands of comments and shares. After that, "insiders" kept crawling out of the woodwork, the claims that Guan Zhiyi had seduced her boss to get ahead only multiplied.
Guan Zhiyi's popularity was high, but most of her fans had come from variety shows and weren't deeply loyal yet. So when the scandal broke, many who'd just started liking her only dared to watch from the sidelines, unwilling to pick a side. Her die-hard fans' rebuttals were quickly drowned in a sea of hate.
**
The Emergency Room crew was filming other actors' scenes these days. Guan Zhiyi had no call time, Liu Yun had scheduled a magazine shoot for her instead.
After the last set of photos was done, Guan Zhiyi's work was over. She stepped away from the camera and stood by the photographer's computer to look at her shots.
"Yun-jie, how is it, any you're happy with?" Guan Zhiyi asked casually. But when she got no response, she found it odd and turned around. "Yun-jie?"
Liu Yun's expression didn't look good. Guan Zhiyi glanced at her assistant and raised her eyebrows in a silent question. Mao Mao only shook her head, pointing at her phone.
"What happened?" Guan Zhiyi straightened up and asked Liu Yun.
Liu Yun had known about it two hours ago, but because Guan Zhiyi had been shooting the whole time, she'd held it in until now.
"Someone's smearing you all over the internet." Liu Yun said bluntly.
Guan Zhiyi blinked. "Why?"
Liu Yun looked at her, said nothing, and just led her toward the dressing room.
Only when there were no staff members around did she speak. "My guess is this came from someone inside Yixing. Otherwise, who would know you have any connection to Qi Chengyan?"
"Qi... Qi Chengyan?" Guan Zhiyi froze. "What are they saying online? Let me see."
Liu Yun said furiously, "Even your own people can't stand to see you succeed! I want to know who's behind this! You finally built up a decent reputation and now it's all ruined! I'm so mad I could spit blood!"
While Liu Yun was talking, Guan Zhiyi had already opened Weibo and scrolled through.
Recently, public opinion about her on Weibo had been overwhelmingly positive. Her own page was full of praise. Was she happy? Of course. As an artist, who wouldn't want to be liked?
But perhaps because she'd been reading so many kind comments for so long, opening Weibo now and suddenly seeing a flood of people attacking her, even more viciously than during her "fluffy rom-com" days, made her heart go cold for a moment.
It wasn't that she'd never been criticized before. But in the past, people had criticized her for doing fluffy dramas, which was at least somewhat true. Now they were calling her a homewrecker, saying she'd slept her way to the top... Nobody could take that kind of malice calmly.
And what was worse, people were attacking Qi Chengyan too?
Guan Zhiyi scrolled further and saw people digging up everything about him.
Qi Chengyan had always been someone untouchable in her heart. She could swallow her own abuse, grit her teeth and bear it. But him? It made her angrier than if they'd been attacking her directly.
He wasn't even in the industry, but was being dragged into this and insulted for no reason, all because of her...
---
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