CH 7

Translator: Aafkee

Proofreader: ChaiTea

“Brother Shen really is a nice person.”

“Brother Shen, you’re back.”

“Brother Shen, Brother Shen, you should at least put on makeup next time.”

After Shen Yu and Mei Fei discussed the audition, he left the makeup room to return to the film set. Every single staff member of the cast and crew he met on the way back to the set greeted him while trying to restrain their laugh, as if something extremely amusing had happened to him.

Shen Yu was unable to make sense of the situation. He honestly had no idea which part of him warranted such responses from others. His makeup was not ruined, his costume was not in a mess, nor was his wig slanted. He quickly checked himself over once without a trace and still could not find out why so he could only respond to each of them with a smile as per usual. He felt would end up walking with his hands and feet on the same side under those teasing gazes, albeit with goodwill.

“Erm, what are you guys laughing at?”

After being stared at with teasing eyes for half a day by the novel’s original author and screenwriter after he returned to the set, Shen Yu finally could not help but ask.

“Sigh, you don’t know about it? This is all over.”

Their screenwriter, He Caicai was an erratic and mischievous young lady from a rich family. She had just grown into adulthood not long ago and had a babyface. She looked sweet and warm when she smiled but when Shen Yu saw her smiling eyes right at this moment, he felt a sense of foreboding in his heart.

“Trending on Weibo, Good Samaritan Mr. Yu, have a look yourself.”

He Caicai tried to keep Shen Yu in suspense, making him feel nervous before she explained herself. 

When the Good Samaritan Shen Yu himself heard that term, he immediately thought of the ‘People’s livelihood program’ from last night.

Was he recognised after the program was broadcast? If so, what happened to the man last night? To be caught lingering on the street while being drunk in the middle of the night was not good news for anyone that came from the entertainment circle.

Shen Yu’s heart tightened the moment he thought of that and quickly took out his phone to look at the Weibo trends. He found the tag “Shen Yu, the Good Samaritan Mr. Yu” ranked sixth on the list of hot searches.

Weibo hot searches and trends had always been the playground for popular celebrities and capital. Shen Yu had never thought that he would end up trending on Weibo one day and at top ten at that. However, he could not feel a single ounce of happiness in his heart as he tapped on the tag to read more.

“Shen Yu, the Good Samaritan Mr. Yu, smiled awkwardly yet politely. Shen Yu’s acting. This afternoon, Jing-City’s local ‘People’s livelihood program’ who would go through ups and downs to help our people calm their worries had a specially themed broadcast regarding the collapsed pavements in Jing-City last night. During the program, a Good Samaritan, who claimed to be Mr. Yu, helped a middle-aged drunk man and accepted the television program’s interview. The interesting thing is, fans are able to identify this Mr. Yu from the broadcast, whose real name is Shen Yu, 08 level graduate of Beijing Film and Acting Academy. He is Zhong Simo’s and Zhou Chuzhi’s junior under the same teacher. He was involved as an actor in the ancient drama Corpse Searching Widow. For an actor to be identified as a Good Samaritan by a television program, it is both awkward and amusing, what do you think?”

This Weibo post, which was written by a famous user who was known for getting news scopes in the entertainment circle, had been trending for a while now. The post looked to be written in a typical marketing style that caters to the hot searches.

Shen Yu was stunned for a moment when he saw the term “middle-aged drunk man”. He looked for his earphones and connected them to his phone before he tapped on the post to play the attached video.

The quality of the video was not very high and the video started from the scene where the workers were repairing the collapsed pavement. A few seconds later, a man, carrying an umbrella and a plastic bag from the convenience store, entered the camera shot suddenly. He glanced towards the camera and his expression froze in an instant and yet, the program host moved the mic towards him quickly.

The man’s expression immediately transformed into a polite smile and answered every question harmoniously that came his way. An apt narration spoken in an expressive voice was inserted at the perfect timing after the man bid his farewell and left the camera’s shot.

“Without a doubt, Mr. Yu, whom we have interviewed today, is extremely warm-hearted. The drunk middle-aged man was spared from a bone fracture only because of Mr. Yu’s help. However, there will not always be a Mr. Yu to help you every time an accident occurs. The problem with Jing-City’s pavement must be brought to attention.”

Shen Yu took out his earphones at that point. He finally had a full understanding of the situation.

It was raining heavily last night, so the program’s interview team did not catch the man in his car on screen. And when the worker said “drunken man”, it had an image closer to an uncle plus the television program usually focused on middle-aged people anyway, so it reinforced the image of the person he saved that night as a “drunken middle-aged man”. By a freak combination of different factors, it actually served as a protection for that man from last night.

Seeing that he did not tarnish any innocence by becoming one of the hot searches, Shen Yu finally sighed in relief. His becoming a hot search on Weibo was wholly unexpected so he decided to browse through the comments and see what exactly the masses thought.

“Hahaha, ‘People’s Livelihood Program’ who would go through ups and downs to help our people calm their worries… What kind of hilarious program title is that? How is it that this young lad could hold his laughter when he first heard the title?”

“Goddammit, this is too hilarious. That subtle expression management that Shen Yu did when he was labelled as the Good Samaritan has vividly visualised what self-control and cultivation are as an actor. [doge][doge]*”

(T/N*: It is an emoji commonly used on Weibo. If you are interested, it looks like this.)

“As someone who simps for people with a good face, I think I should appreciate this young lad’s good looks. This is him without makeup, right? Yet, my mind is filled with him as an emoticon. I must have started up Weibo the wrong way. ”

“This young lady journalist’s behaviour is exactly how I would behave if I met Mr. Perfect in real life. Shen Yu looks pretty good, his good look is not ruined even under the unforgiving camera lens of the small television station. How is it that I have never heard of him?”

There were a few thousand comments and at first glance, almost all of them had “hahaha” in them. For a celebrity, who usually has an image of being aloof and out of reach in the public’s eyes, to have such interesting and down-to-earth news about them, the entertainment journalists were in glee. Of course, there were some non-peaceful comments as well.

“Who’s Shen Yu? Hype himself up all he wants, but what right do you have to get our Zhou Chuzhi involved?”

Shen Yu’s resigned smile froze for a second when he saw that comment. Zhou Chuzhi was a handsome idol who got popular in recent years, both his skills and popularity were equally outstanding. Although Shen Yu graduated from the same acting academy as him, he did not have any interactions with him. Now that they were mentioned side by side by the marketing social media accounts as a junior and senior from the same academy was, in all honesty, embarrassing, especially when one was doing so well while the other was just scraping to get by. He tapped on the threads and surprisingly found that many netizens had already helped him refute back.

“It’s only a marketing account and they merely mentioned it once. They didn’t even mention anything negative about him, is there a need for his fans to be stirred up so much?”

“Zhou Chuzhi’s fans are all brainless, I have experienced that countless times.”

“Pfft, don’t be so salty. Our Zhou Chuzhi just got awarded the best male actor award, was nominated for the Oscar award and even collaborated with major directors in Hollywood while your Shen Yu was doing so bad that he couldn’t even be the male lead in a third-rated television drama. What right do you have to judge?”

“I’m speechless. Your big sister here didn’t even know who Shen Yu was before this morning. I merely passed by and commented and I’m already labelled as Shen Yu’s fan. Where are your brains? Zhou Chuzhi’s brainless fans should just lie down obediently and be mocked.”

The fans’ destructive power was definitely unbelievable in the eyes of an outsider. They had their own organisation, their own rules and “specialised terminology”. If they were to start a fan war, the destructive power would definitely be off the charts. The comments were completely occupied by passing Zhou fans*, Zhou anti-fans* and passersby, where they thoroughly displayed the art of language without restraint. Until that particular thread appeared.

(T/N*: Zhou Chuzhi’s fans and anti-fans respectively.)

“Oh please, stop climaxing by yourself just by looking at Zhou Chuzhi’s name. Look carefully whose name it is before Zhou Chuzhi’s, it’s Zhong Simo. Do Zhou fans think so highly of themselves that they think that Zhong Simo’s name does not deserve to be mentioned alongside Zhou Chuzhi’s name?”

This comment was, indeed, twisting the logic a little. In the first place, the marketing social media accounts picked two other people with status and popularity to set off Shen Yu, which unintentionally provoked the fans of one of those three celebrities. It ended up becoming a topic of Zhou fans being unsatisfied with Zhong Simo. However, the more people involved, the more misunderstanding there was. Seeing that the Zhou anti-fans were taking this opportunity to stir up trouble, the Zhou fans were afraid of provoking someone whom they could not afford to provoke so they could only change from being aggressive to being defensive, their tones softening up.

Shen Yu browsed the comments section a little longer before withdrawing from the comment threads. That was basically all there was to it to the gratitudes and grudges in the fans circle. As long as the other party was not doing as well as your own idol, you had to find faults* with them and take full advantage of it to show off your sense of superiority and to stabilise your idol’s status; And if the other party was more outstanding than your own idol, you must express your goodwill cautiously and make sure to never give others any opportunities to find faults with their idol. Showing your own superiority by stepping on others, relying on force to bully others, such flaws of human social relationships were blatantly and vividly displayed in this little circle.

(T/N*: Just an FYI, the idiom used here is “鸡蛋里挑骨头”, which is directly translated to “picking bones out of an egg”, which is obviously impossible because there are no bones in an egg. So this idiom basically means to find faults in someone who actually has no faults.)

Shen Yu let out a sigh. In any case, such things had not much connection to him. The ‘People’s Livelihood Program’ this time was only a tiny incident, the short-lived enthusiasm will pass in the blink of an eye. His main job was to know his own place and shoot his movies as an actor should.

The afternoon sun was indeed a bit too warm. Shen Yu tidied up his wide and long sleeves, preparing to grab himself a bottle of water. His hand, which was about to close off the Weibo app on his phone, stopped subconsciously when he glanced at a particular comment.

“I unintentionally saw Brother Yu’s name on the hot search when I opened up Weibo in the afternoon and I was so shocked that I checked it out immediately. Who would have thought that it would be such a piece of silly news? I did laugh at it, but only to feel sad afterwards. He didn’t get angry at all when he was taken to be a warm-hearted passerby by the small television station and even answered their questions so earnestly. Everyone, this is exactly how Shen Yu is.”

“He is obviously extremely good looking and yet, he has never paid much attention to his own appearance. He would try so hard when shooting a film, so much so that he fainted and ended up in the hospital and yet, he didn’t want others to know. He would be so surprised when he received gifts from his fans that his hands trembled, he would even send back an even more expensive gift as a thank you. He would only laugh foolishly while scratching his head when he was mocked as being an old actor. He would rub his own hands quietly whenever he is nervous, always saying that he is an uninteresting person but how is he uninteresting? Everyone, please just take a proper look at our little handsome man; take a look at how good of a person he is.”

This long and pitiful comment was lying somewhere, inconspicuous, among thousands of comments which were filled with “hahaha”s and other aggressive comments, which made it appear even more inharmonious in comparison. It was as if a well-behaved student in his school uniform had accidentally entered a nightclub where everyone else was poking fun at him joyously while he looked around confused and at a loss.

Shen Yu took a few deep breaths as he tried to control his slightly trembling fingertips. He stood quietly for a long while before he switched to his sub-account on Weibo, liked that comment and even replied to it.

“Thank you, for liking him so willingly.”