From unemployment in crosstalk to top star in Chinese entertainment

In the days since Yu Liang's accident, his phone has been ringing non-stop.

Guo Qilin and Reba both called.

Yang Mi called in the middle of the night. Yu Liang had just finished filming a night scene, and was still wearing her makeup, leaning back in her RV chair scrolling through a compilation of her own scandals, when the screen lit up.

"Hey, Honey."

"Still not asleep?" Yang Mi's voice was slightly nasal, as if she had just woken up.

"No, I'm still admiring my trending topic." Yu Liang paused the parody video. "This is the third episode of 'Liang's Commentary'."

A soft laugh came from the other end of the phone.

"How does it feel to be criticized by the entire internet?" Yang Mi asked casually.

She, who is always trending on social media, sees Yu Liang's current troubles as if they were just elementary school kids arguing.

"Some of the things I said really weren't my words," Yu Liang said with a smile.

There was a half-second silence on the other end of the phone.

Then Yang Mi's voice rang out again, the last syllable rising slightly, carrying a knowing, mischievous tone: "Yes, you didn't say those words..."

Yu Liang waited for the second half of the sentence.

"...Yeah, right."

The phone hangs up.

Yu Liang stared at the words "Call Ended" on the screen, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Okay. Yang Mi.

It wasn't just her. Guo Qilin had said something like this during the day: "Brother, I've read it all. To be honest, these words do sound like something you would say."

He finally understood.

Most of what's said online is fabricated, and a small portion is what he actually said but with the beginning and end cut off. The problem is that even the people closest to him think, "These are things that Yu Liang would say."

Yu Liang couldn't help but exclaim, "This is what reputation is all about!"

---

In the past few days, the official account of "Joy of Life" seems to have received instructions from Xinli Media and has been continuously releasing behind-the-scenes footage of Teng Zijing's filming.

First, there was the behind-the-scenes footage of the fight scene on Niulan Street. Yu Liang was suspended by wires and flipped twice in the air. When he landed, he slipped and almost fell into the prop box. The first thing he said when he got up was, "Can we use that last take, director?"

Then there's a candid shot of me and Wang Churan while waiting on set.

In the winter of Duyun, both of them were wrapped in thick down jackets. Wang Churan was looking down at his phone when Yu Liang said something. Suddenly, she looked up and smiled, her eyes curving into crescent moons.

Next up is the video of Wang Churan sewing buttons for Yu Liang on the set of Hengdian.

The comments section is even more interesting than the behind-the-scenes footage.

[Teng Zijing and Ye Ling'er don't even have any scenes together in the drama, right? What does the production team mean by this?]

[This means there's drama behind the scenes]

My heart melted when the boat girl smiled. What's the relationship between these two?

Stop asking. If you ask, they'll say they're colleagues; if you ask again, they'll say they're friends; if you ask any more, they'll say it's "personal business and I can't comment."

[No, is it my internet speed that's too slow? Didn't Yu Liang's career collapse?]

[How can someone like this have a girlfriend? Does the person upstairs have some kind of existential crisis?]

I hereby announce that the "Liangchu CP" is officially established today.

As Yu Liang scrolled through the comments, he felt a little dazed, then smiled.

He took a screenshot and sent it to Wang Churan.

---

At this very moment, in the conference room of Xinli Media, Zhou Jiajia is standing in front of the projection screen.

Today, she was wearing a navy blue suit dress, her hair neatly styled as she analyzed Yu Liang's fabricated CP (couple pairing) scheme.

Zhao Mingyuan put down his teacup. His original idea was to have Yu Liang and Li Qin or Xin Zhilei create a romantic pairing.

Artists from the same company are easier to manage and cooperate with, reducing the likelihood of a public relations disaster. Especially for Li Qin, as Xinli's top rising star, mentoring newcomers is the safest approach in the industry.

But he dismissed the idea in his mind in less than ten seconds.

"Joy of Life" is still filming. Li Qin plays Lin Wan'er in the drama, Fan Xian's official love interest.

If they were to create a romantic pairing between Lin Wan'er and Yu Liang, who plays Teng Zijing, at this point, and the audience saw "Lin Wan'er and Teng Zijing are a couple off-screen" when the show aired, then the romantic storyline of the show would completely collapse.

"Use Wang Churan," Zhao Mingyuan said.

Zhou Jiajia nodded.

Wang Churan, a graduate of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, has a good image and her popularity is on the rise. Most importantly, according to her in-depth investigation, she found that Wang Churan and Yu Liang do have a lot of ready-made interaction material.

"The advantage of the Liangchu CP lies in its realism."

Zhou Jiajia turned to the next page of the PPT, "The two of them have a real foundation of interaction on set, and we can cut things out from the behind-the-scenes footage. It's not forced marketing."

Audiences nowadays hate industrial saccharin; they want "sweetness they discovered themselves," not "sweetness you force-feed them."

This is indeed an area that Zhou Jiajia was familiar with during her time at Jiahang.

Pairing up celebrities with established partners, using experienced actors to mentor new ones, generating trending topics across all platforms, managing public image, creating stars in film and television, and crisis management—these are all assembly-line operations at Jiahang, and Zhou Jiajia is an expert in them.

Even if there are no scenes between the actors, they can still create hype, let alone if there are already things going on off-screen.

Zhao Mingyuan made the final decision.

"Two things are being done simultaneously. First, we're sending a lawyer's letter to hold the marketing accounts that maliciously edited the footage accounted for, and removing Yu Liang from the 'scumbag quotes' incident."

Second, generate buzz around the Liang-Chu couple, shifting the focus from "What Yu Liang said" to "Who is Yu Liang with?"

---

After Yu Liang sent the screenshot to Wang Churan, it took nearly twenty minutes for the other party to reply.

There are no words.

There's only one emoji—a cat burying its face in a pillow, with only its two bright red ears showing.

Yu Liang stared at the emoji for two seconds and then laughed.

He then scrolled through the comments section of that CP video.

Amidst the heated debates and arguments, a few discordant voices occasionally broke the silence.

Although Yu Liang has denied the rumors, judging from his interactions with Dilraba on variety shows and the teasing he received from the other contestants on "Back to Field," he's clearly not a peaceful person. Any woman dating him would definitely suffer.

[A comedian by trade, quick-witted, cunning—the epitome of a scumbag.]

[I'm a fan of the boat girl's looks, and I don't approve of this marriage.]

Just as Yu Liang was about to scroll down, a new comment suddenly appeared at the top.

The ID that posted the comment was "My sister called me to catch her cheating and showed me the 'tide' on the scene," and the profile picture was a Ragdoll cat giving the middle finger in front of a computer.

[What's wrong with crosstalk performers? Let me tell you, people like Yu Liang have the best eloquence.]

Yu Liang's smile froze on his face.

He stared at that ID for a full five seconds.

Then I pondered her words for a moment.

No, how did you know I have the best speaking skills?

Forget it.

He tossed his phone aside.

If this had happened before the incident, and he had encountered a girl who dared to be so celibate with him, he would have definitely given her a verbal dressing-down.

Now is not the time for empty talk.

He's been incredibly popular these past few days.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

I started mentally rehearsing the scenes from this afternoon.

This is a scene between Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie in the tomb passage. There aren't many lines, but the details of their eyes and movements are very important.

Zhu Yilong has been getting more and more serious about filming lately. Yesterday, he was not satisfied with a key scene involving a tomb mechanism, so he insisted on arguing with his uncle for half the night. Yu Liang was also dragged along to go over the blocking several times.

Acting alongside this kind of arrogant guy is truly exhausting.

---

A hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.

Yu Liang opened her eyes.

Chen Minghao stood behind him, holding two iced Americanos. He handed one of them over and then gestured with his lip towards Yu Liang's back.

Yu Liang followed his gaze.

Mao Xiaotong was sitting at the other end of the dressing room. She held a script in her hand, but her gaze wasn't on the page. She was looking at Yu Liang.

That look wasn't exactly resentment; it was more like a sense of helplessness.

Yu Liang was stunned for a moment.

I realized it immediately.

The scandal involving Mao Xiaotong's ex-boyfriend Chen Xiang cheating on her last year, which was widely discussed, has been brought up again in recent days because of Yu Liang's situation.

Some people compared Chen Xiang and Yu Liang, and seriously judged online which of the two was "more of a scumbag".

When the old story was brought up again, she was also innocently dragged into the mess.

Yu Liang had heard about this. After joining the crew, he didn't have much contact with Mao Xiaotong. Bai Haotian's scenes were mainly with Zhu Yilong and Chen Minghao, and he had very little interaction with Zhang Qiling.

In the few times they acted together, Mao Xiaotong gave the impression of being professional and quiet. When not filming, she would sit in a corner reading the script and rarely participated in the jokes and chatter of Chen Minghao's group.

But that's how the entertainment industry is. Even if you haven't done anything wrong, just because you were in the same production crew as the person who got into trouble, netizens will bring up old gossip again based on their online memories and drag you into the vortex.

Yu Liang glanced at Mao Xiaotong, and thankfully, he couldn't tell from her eyes that she was dissatisfied with him.

If she suspects that she paid to create hype around her and Chen Xiang to shield them from criticism, then there would be a huge misunderstanding.

Yu Liang suddenly remembered that Mao Xiaotong and the couple Zhang Ruoyun and Tang Yixin were good friends in the industry. It was Zhang Ruoyun who recommended her for the role in the remake of "Snow Leopard," which was also her first leading role in a drama.

Furthermore, she also played the eldest princess of Northern Qi in the second season of "Joy of Life".

Yu Liang thought that it would be better to bring her along to the set of "Joy of Life" next time, so that she could get to know director Sun Hao in advance. This would not only eliminate the estrangement between the two, but also do Mao Xiaotong a favor.