FLME Ch9: Trending

The staff coaxed and pleaded, pushing the two of them, Yu Wen and Xiao Li, to the front.

Four figures squeezed in front of the camera. Yu Wen and Xiao Li sat on the two sides, barely fitting into the frame, while Chu Han and the hypeman in the middle were squeezed so tightly they couldn’t move. The four of them sat up perfectly straight; with red scarves tied around their necks, they were so well-behaved they could cosplay as elementary school students.

[Xiao Chu stays, Xiao Yu and Xiao Li stay, the other one get out.]

[Xiao Chu is handsome, Xiao Yu is beautiful, Xiao Li is gorgeous, and the other one is also alive.]

“Oh my, alright everyone, I won’t be an eyesore here.” The hypeman host made a show of getting up to move his stool, teasing, “I’m definitely not in the same art style as these three.”

The bullet comments perfunctorily comforted him with a few words, and he used the out to sit back down.

Yu Wen occupied a corner of the camera frame, his eyes zoning out.

He respected every job, but he really didn’t want to work. Compared to sitting in the front selling goods, he much preferred being a background board in the back.

After all, he was only getting paid to be a background board.

[Make yourself at home, don’t be constrained.]

[This shouldn’t be.]

[Is my beloved concubine actually this well-behaved and adorable? Was that lively appearance from just now all a deception?]

[When a child is quiet, they are definitely up to no good.]

Yu Wen’s sharp eyes caught this comment. His hands resting on his knees moved slightly, and just as he was about to force himself to perk up, dazzling special effects suddenly exploded on the screen. Someone had gifted a Carnival.

Beside him, Chu Han froze for a second, his expression slowly turning cold.

Yu Wen instantly relaxed, slumping back to his original state.

—The protagonist top had made his appearance.

He had just reviewed the book the night before and knew that Feng Chengzhou would crazily send gifts to Chu Han in the live stream. It was roughly some kind of clumsy courtship display of a male peacock; in short, the effect was mediocre, and it even had a bit of a counter-effect.

Anyway, in the final segment, Chu Han’s plot went like this: [He struggled to endure until the live stream ended. Facing the flattery of those around him, he could barely maintain his smile, wishing he could just flick his sleeves and leave.]

Rise! Best Actor was an entertainment industry career-focused novel centered around the protagonist Chu Han. The official pairing was with Feng Chengzhou. He didn’t know if the romance line was easy to ship, but it was truly a bit hardcore.

This Feng Chengzhou was the crown prince of a top-tier entertainment group. He accidentally got to know Chu Han a few months ago; their personalities clicked, and they chatted happily. Chu Han didn’t pay much attention to the inner circles, and combined with Feng Chengzhou’s deliberate concealment, right up until half a month ago, Chu Han still thought this friend was a destitute, pitiful soul with nowhere to stay.

After discovering the truth, he was naturally extremely angry, and in a fit of rage, he deleted all of Feng Chengzhou’s contact information.

And all the various ambiguities brewing from their previous interactions instantly vanished into thin air like a popped bubble.

Chu Han treated people sincerely and was somewhat aloof and proud. Acting was just a job to him, and he absolutely had no intention of chasing after resources. Towards someone in a high position like Feng Chengzhou, he avoided him like the plague.

If Feng Chengzhou had lowered his posture and started from being friends, this relationship still had the possibility of continuing. But unfortunately, Feng Chengzhou, this idiot, had used up all the schemes of his lifetime on their first meeting.

This still-young wealthy heir was equally arrogant. He was clumsy with words in relationships and couldn’t find the right method. After his overtures were rejected time and again, he lost his patience, thinking he would just throw caution to the wind and tie Chu Han to his side. As the grand Crown Prince of a corporate group, could he really not manage to keep a person around?

Yu Wen compared the subsequent plot using his limited book-reading experience and felt that the later stages had a bit of a flavor of… forceful taking, forced love, imprisonment…

It was a pity it was written with so little detail that he couldn’t analyze anything more.

In today’s live stream, Yu Wen was simply Passerby A. After Feng Chengzhou’s account identity was exposed, he would just “be shocked” and “explode” along with the netizens in the live stream room.

There was no acting difficulty; lying flat and eating melons (enjoying the gossip) would do.

Frantically sending gifts in a live stream with an initial gibberish ID—no matter how you looked at it, it smelled like gossip.

At first, the bullet comments were just hyping him up, but gradually, some people couldn’t sit still, clicked into the gibberish ID’s homepage, and followed the clues to analyze the person behind the screen.

Feng Chengzhou didn’t use this account often, but it wasn’t a new one either, otherwise Chu Han wouldn’t have recognized it at a glance.

On the internet where short videos were rampant, although Feng Chengzhou was disciplined by his family’s elite education, it was impossible for him to completely avoid participating in young people’s circles. His feed saved a few skiing videos from a few years ago, not showing his face.

But, but—

The person in the video used a snowboard autographed by a famous snowboarder.

This very snowboard had been shown off by the Crown Prince on social media a couple of years ago.

Then comparing the body shape, location tags, the small mole on the neck…

The whole internet exploded!

[What’s the tea? Huiteng’s Crown Prince chasing his pampered little wife?]

[And so I turned and walked towards Kongtong Mountain.]

[I… you… I’ll fight you gays to the death…]

[Don’t chase shadows, maybe the Crown Prince is just purely supporting agriculture.]

[#CrownPrinceSupportsAgriculture#]

[Hahahaha don’t make me die laughing.]

[Supporting agriculture isn’t something to be ashamed of, why won’t the Crown Prince admit it now? Unless he never expected us to expose him.]

[The Crown Prince: My silence is deafening.]

[Oh my, so clumsy, how can he chase a boyfriend like this.]

[Has it even been half an hour since the Crown Prince started sending gifts? It’s already exposed, this generation of netizens are all secret agents.]

[So, who exactly is the Crown Prince? What does his gift-sending have to do with Chu Han?]

[Did the commenter above lose their internet connection? When Chu Han was filming Fenghua, weren’t there paparazzi constantly leaking that the Crown Prince was chasing him? Sending a secretary to deliver meals every day, making the poor guy look like a Meituan delivery rider.]

[I remember it even went on the hot search.]

[It was taken down in half an hour. I thought the paparazzi were going crazy, I didn’t expect it to actually be true love chasing.]

Chu Han was a third-tier actor with some fame and public goodwill. However, actors inherently didn’t manage fandom circles much, and since he hadn’t signed with a company, he had almost no die-hard fans. Faced with such a scandal, the bullet comments were surprisingly all just teasing.

There were even fans who directly started shipping the couple, opening bets on who was top and who was bottom.

The other host barely managed to pull the rhythm back a bit, but the bullet comments were still chatting about everything under the sun, galloping wildly. Chu Han truly couldn’t sit still anymore. He excused himself to go to the restroom, but in reality, his face sank the moment he left the camera. He grabbed his phone from a staff member and furiously typed away.

Probably confronting Feng Chengzhou.

He left the camera but didn’t go far, sitting in a position slightly forward on Yu Wen’s left side. Yu Wen could clearly see the content on his screen with just a glance.

Chu Han: [Mr. Feng, please explain our relationship clearly in the live stream, do not bring trouble to each other.]

Yu Wen glanced over and subconsciously shifted his gaze away. As a result, Chu Han also changed his posture, the bright screen displayed squarely in front of him.

Yu Wen suspected that his role this time was the Passerby A who “sat next to Chu Han and accidentally saw the chat content, becoming immensely shocked.”

You protagonists really know how to play wild.

Even a chat has to have a third-person perspective.

He had no choice but to rest his chin in his hand and watch.

He generally remembered this part of the plot. The main idea was that Chu Han wanted Feng Chengzhou to explain, Feng Chengzhou refused, their tones turned bad, the negotiation broke down, and then Feng Chengzhou directly came out of the closet in the live stream and courted Chu Han.

This time, the entire internet truly exploded.

At this moment, it hadn’t broken down yet. The two were currently chatting to:

[Why deny it? I like you. This isn’t something shameful.]

Chu Han: [I have already rejected you many times!]

Feng Chengzhou: [And the reason? Because I am Huiteng’s Crown Prince?]

Chu Han: [Is that not enough?]

Feng Chengzhou: [You always like to act on impulse! Clinging to your meaningless self-esteem and pride to push people a thousand miles away. Clearly, between you and me, none of this matters. No one is forcing you to enter my circle, this is just a consensual romance.]

Chu Han: [There is no consensual romance.]

Feng Chengzhou: [Heh. Back then, the one secretly hugging my clothes and masturbating in the bathroom, wasn’t that you?]

Chu Han: […]

Yu Wen slowly sat up straight.

In broad daylight, under the bright sky… you guys… fine, fine, fine, so this is how you chat, huh.

No wonder the book didn’t write out your conversations.

If this was posted on certain family-friendly websites, you’d be locked up in the little dark room!

The bullet comments were still discussing fervently, and only one noticed Yu Wen’s abnormality:

[What is the bro on the right staring at with his big, wide eyes?]

This live stream ended in an absolute broadcasting disaster. Right after the stream went off-air, the hashtag #HuitengCrownPrinceComesOut climbed rapidly to number one on the trending hot search.

Just as Yu Wen got off the plane, Xie Jiamao jubilantly sent a congratulatory report: [Xiao Yu! You’re famous!]

Yu Wen: [?]

No, why? Just because he caught a meme during the live stream?

He hurriedly opened the social media app and took a look, then immediately felt relieved—Xie Jiamao’s words contained elements of exaggeration. This live stream had a lot of traffic, and his looks were passable, so gaining a hundred or so Weibo fans was normal. It didn’t count as being famous.

Adhering to his original intention, his goal was to be an okay minor actor. Becoming truly viral would instead increase his workload too much.

His account, which had just completed registration and verification a few days ago, currently only had over a thousand fans. Yu Wen guessed that his boss’s brain wouldn’t think of buying fake fans, so at least more than half of these thousand-plus were real people.

On one hand, he relaxed, and on the other, he opened his direct messages page. Seeing a bunch of varied and bizarre questions, on a whim, he replied “Thank you” to every single one.

Then he screenshotted those thousand-plus fans to show the boss.

Yu Wen: [Thousand-fan group photo! Yay.JPG]

Xie Jiamao: [LinaBell_holding_her_face.JPG]

Xie Jiamao: [You’re still on the hot search, it’s still growing. I wonder how much it’ll grow tonight.]

Yu Wen: [Hot search?]

Yu Wen opened the social media app again, carefully scanning every item on the trending list, confirming his name wasn’t there.

Until he clicked open the number one trending topic.

#HuitengCrownPrinceComesOut#

[Hot Topic] Huiteng Crown Prince publicly comes out, high-profile confession of love in the live stream…

[Image] [Image] [Image] [Don’t make noise, I’m thinking.JPG]

Yu Wen was that “Don’t make noise, I’m thinking.”

Yu Wen: “…”

How should he put it.

He really was on the hot search.

He was indeed very eye-catching.

And it wasn’t just this one picture. Because it was overly vivid and matched the psychological activities of netizens eating melons, his reactions throughout the entire live stream were screenshotted and turned into all sorts of reaction memes appearing in the comment section. His representative works, besides “I’m thinking”, also included “Oh my god,” “Huh?”, and “What a hearty coming out”…

The screenshots weren’t very clear, but precisely because of this, they were exceptionally funny. In the “I’m thinking” one, his arms were crossed, his small brain spinning rapidly to process the received information, huddled into a tiny ball in the corner of the screen like a badger choking on a melon.

The discussions in the comment section focused on “Is the Crown Prince for real?” and “How did they meet?”, but occasionally one or two missed the point:

[What the hell is this meme hahahahaha…]

[So vivid that I feel like he was right there at the scene.]

[Hahaha he was indeed at the scene!]

[A melon-eating mass who was there for the whole live stream is here! The little brother is super handsome. Later when Feng Chengzhou exposed himself, his eyes widened as big as brass bells!]

[Beauty that can be seen even through blurry pictures]

[He’s an actor right? I haven’t seen his acting, but based on this reaction, I bet he’ll blow up!]

[What’s his name? I’m going to buy some stocks in him.]

[Squatting.]

[Squatting.]

…

[Nothing but butts from all this squatting, no one passing the paper. I have to dig it up myself. @YuWen, it should be this one.]

[Thank you kind Samaritan.]

Knowing the plot in advance, but eating the melon live was equivalent to turning paper text into a 3D scene, which was even more captivating. Moreover, the live version added many details not present in the paper version.

Yu Wen: Good watch, love to watch it.

His live stream reactions were half acting, and the other half were genuine outpourings of true feelings.

He exited the hot search and returned to the chat app. Xie Jiamao had created a group chat, sending the netizens’ comments and hilariously cursed edits into the group, and announced: Our Xiao Yu is about to become a star!

Yu Wen clicked to see the members of the group chat. No more, no less, it was exactly the four-member “backbone” team of Starlight Media.

The live streaming platform had already extended an olive branch to Xie Jiamao, wanting to sign a long-term contract with the four people in the live stream this time. Because of Feng Chengzhou’s involvement, this live stream had enough hype, and the subsequent heat wouldn’t be low. But if they wanted to keep the original cast, the key still depended on Chu Han.

Long-term contract?

It seems this drama of love and hate still has a lot to play out.

Yu Wen nodded, then immediately recalled those baskets of tangerines. As if struck by lightning, he privately messaged his boss to tactfully express his resistance.

The boss didn’t reply, instead diligently dropping screenshots of his negotiations with the platform in the group, looking as smug as if he were the one signing the contract himself.

Director Gao was surprisingly also free. He expressed his different opinion in the group, thinking that since Xiao Yu didn’t have a debut work yet, this kind of exposure was disadvantageous for his future character building.

He sharply criticized those few reaction memes: [Looks like an idiot.]

Yu Wen’s “thank you” got stuck in the chat box, unable to be sent.

The boss disagreed, and the middle-aged men team started fighting. Another member of the group popped up with two short words.

Xie Heyu: [Not an idiot.]

Xie Jiamao: [Right Xiao Xie! He’s clearly cute to death!]

Xie Heyu: [Mn, cute.]

Gao Kaiyu: [Xiao Xie, don’t let Old Xie lead you astray. To survive in the entertainment industry, you need judgment. Blindly spoiling the child won’t do.]

Director Gao forced him to remain silent for two minutes to make a proper judgment.

Two minutes later, amidst the middle-aged men’s verbal crossfire, Xie Heyu popped up again: [Judgment complete.]

Gao Kaiyu: [How is it?]

Xie Heyu: [Cute.]

Gao Kaiyu: […]

Yu Wen inexplicably had his funny bone struck, laughing hysterically in the airport lobby. Seeing that Director Gao was about to call him out personally to uphold justice, he hurriedly went offline to play dead.