Chapter 29
Chapter 29
A popular thread appeared on an entertainment forum.
The poster’s username was HisHighnessIsOffDuty.
The account was not especially active, but the forum widely regarded its owner as a legend. Over the years, the account had broken news many times. No matter how absurd the claims sounded, they always turned out to be true in the end.
[Today, let’s talk about some gossip from a certain production. Big budget, star-studded team, and expected to become a hit.
Late one night a few days ago, a certain staff member, A, suddenly went mad and started screaming in the hotel. The uproar even brought in the police. Tests showed A hadn’t touched any illicit substances and was mentally lucid, but A insisted the production was haunted. Even now, A spends every day at the police station and refuses to return to work.]
Post #1: First! A photo with Your Highness!
Post #5: Damn, you people are fast. What is this? A haunting? Seriously? I live alone and suddenly my back feels cold.
Post #17: Has Your Highness run out of material too? What’s worth exposing here? Either work stress caused a breakdown, or this person wanted to quit and pretended to go crazy. Nothing to see, everyone.
Post #77 (OP): [All right, appetizers are over. Time for the main course.
As I mentioned, this is a major production with plenty of people who got in through connections. One of its principal cast members, whom we’ll call C, is widely known as industry royalty and has plenty of haters.
C is actually a pretty nice person–polite and modest–but the whole production has ostracized her. It’s rather miserable.
Actor B is one of the biggest stars in this section. In private, B has a huge temper, is obsessed with maintaining an idol image, and loves throwing tantrums. B’s assistants are often reduced to tears. Somehow, C offended B, who has deliberately been overpowering her in their scenes for some time.]
Post #135: I knew Your Highness would never disappoint us. Everyone who said there was no material, come out here!
Post #144: Decoded in seconds. Big production, industry-princess heroine, superstar male lead–it’s that certain Swordsman, right?
Post #199: Superstar B is SL, isn’t it? Everyone knows he loves acting like a diva. Someone even photographed him making an assistant kneel to tie his shoes, and he brings his own screenwriter to change scenes.
Post #233: Whoever is spreading lies above can go to hell. The assistant tied his shoes because he’d hurt his back while filming. Every director my fave has worked with praises him. He’s a dedicated actor. Leave him out of this argument.
Post #266: Is OP a paid shill for Landi’s new princess? The princess debuted as the lead in a major production, with a superstar cast as her love interest. Who would dare isolate and bully her on set?
Post #287: OP is the princess’s paid shill. I’ve heard some gossip too. Her acting is atrocious, and neither the director nor the male lead can carry her. Are they laying the groundwork early because they’re afraid she’ll be attacked when the show airs?
Post #299: Of course the princess starts her PR campaign this early.
Post #404 (OP): [This is my personal account. No one paid me, and I’m not a hired shill. I only share gossip and accept no responsibility for anything I say.
Let’s continue. The real focus of today’s gossip comes next.
A few days ago, something suddenly clicked for C. Maybe she finally understood the role. Not only did her bearing perfectly match the character, but her physical skills improved too. And so, Superstar B, who had always overpowered her in their scenes, lost the upper hand for the first time. Beside C, B’s fighting looked like children playing make-believe.]
Post #414: ? Your Highness, I may be a longtime fan, but have you looked at what you just wrote…?
Post #456: Nothing to see here. OP was obviously paid to make this post. I can just barely understand something suddenly clicking and getting into character, but how could her physical skills improve overnight?
Post #499: Did Your Highness sell the account?
Post #599 (OP): [You’re all confused too? What a relief. It seems everyone here is normal.
And that was far from the only absurd thing that happened to C.
Superstar B picked a fight with C, and C was outnumbered. That was when C’s assistant, Y, entered the scene. That’s right. Y is actually the protagonist of today’s story.]
Post #611: ??? I understand this thread less and less.
Post #623: I was starting to suspect Your Highness had sold the account. But ignoring the direction of the thread, talking entirely at your own pace, and exposing gossip with seemingly no logic or purpose at all–that really does sound like you.
Post #700 (OP): [Y is an assistant C hired recently. C had more than one person attending her only a few days ago. Y is slender and delicate, with a very innocent, harmless appearance. I generally don’t like commenting on anyone’s looks; I only mention this because of what happened next.
And this is what happened: with one hand, Y picked up an adult man a head taller than she was and tossed him onto a horse.
From that moment onward, no one in the entire production dared bully C again.
All right. End of gossip.]
Post #722: ??? I waited all this time, and that’s it?
Post #777: What the hell? There’s no beginning or end. So is it really the set of The Swordsman?
Post #800: Unbelievable. OP is just messing with us. So many people got dragged around for more than half an hour.
HisHighnessIsOffDuty did not post another word.
The thread briefly gained some attention because of its bizarre direction and baffling ending, then quickly sank from sight.
Only much later, after certain events came to light, would the thread resurface and add another chapter to the legend of HisHighnessIsOffDuty.
.
On the set of The Swordsman.
Ever since Zhu Yin’s display that day, Lu Yao had noticed that the crew treated her much more politely.
With Zhu Yin around, there were no more incidents in which someone “accidentally” knocked over the water prepared for Lu Yao or “accidentally” ordered too few boxed meals and told her to find food herself.
That was because Zhu Yin would smile at them and explain that her fists might also develop ideas of their own and accidentally land on someone.
Everyone else: …They could not afford to offend her.
Even Xu Qiaoqiao, usually the loudest troublemaker, became quiet as a mouse, especially after watching several more of Lu Yao’s scenes.
Recently, Sun Lie’s life had been nothing short of torment.
There was some bad blood between him and Lu Yao, although it was entirely one-sided.
Sun Lie had debuted as a child star and grown up before the eyes of many viewers. Since he had pursued the idol route, maintaining his personal image was extremely important.
But he was already twenty-nine, an adult man with normal physical and emotional needs.
His most recent girlfriend was also in the industry, and they had secretly dated for years. Sun Lie had originally planned to secure the role of Chi Lian for her. They could promote themselves as costars who fell in love while filming, then naturally make their relationship public and hype their pairing at the same time.
His girlfriend attended the audition, while he gradually released promotional articles that led fans to believe the role of Chi Lian had already been settled.
Who could have guessed that Landi, one of the investors, would suddenly intervene and claim the still-unassigned role of Chi Lian?
Anyone with eyes could see that Lu Yao was not particularly suited to it, but investors called the shots and had no need to reason with anyone.
Sun Lie remained cautious at first. Then he discovered that although Lu Yao was supposedly “Landi royalty,” her actual treatment was nowhere near as privileged as it appeared. Landi seemed to give her resources and ignore everything else. Whether this was deliberate tempering or something else, no one knew.
During one shoot, he had just argued with his girlfriend and was in a bad mood. He failed to restrain himself while filming and suppressed Lu Yao’s performance.
As her senior, that was rather like bullying her.
But the rookie opposite him did not understand.
The director somehow failed to “notice” as well.
And the Landi employee accompanying Lu Yao did nothing.