On stage, the classic scene of King Zhouyou lighting the beacons to trick his vassals in order to amuse the beautiful but cold Bao Si was being performed.
The performance naturally continued the style of the previous act.
The actress was a beautiful woman with delicate features. Although she had left the entertainment industry for several years, her makeup restored her to about 70-80% of her peak beauty from when she first debuted. She leaned despondently on the windowsill, her expression sorrowful, her eyes full of emotion. It was a look of melancholy, as if she were a bird in a cage.
Qin Zhao, playing King Zhouyou, passed by, seemingly quite troubled: "How can I make the beauty smile?"
A treacherous official stepped forward and suggested putting on a grand show to trick the various feudal lords, which would surely amuse the beauty.
King Zhouyou thought this sounded very interesting, so he laughed heartily and immediately made up his mind.
Soon, Bao Si was brought up to the high platform, looking listless as King Zhouyou held her in his arms and joked with her. Her whole demeanor screamed that she was there against her will.
Until the beacons were lit and thousands of horses galloped, the feudal lords and generals urgently rushed to the base of the high platform with great fanfare, inquiring where the enemy was.
But on the high platform, there was only the sound of King Zhouyou's laughter, with the sycophants around him joining in.
Bao Si looked at the scene below, her expression as if stunned. How could she understand the meaning of the beacons? How could she have seen such a spectacle before? She only felt that the people below were imposing and terrifying, as if something very serious had happened.
"My beauty, this is the good show I specially arranged for you. Why aren't you laughing? Don't you find it funny?" King Zhouyou asked.
Bao Si's eyes were full of panic, as if she felt at a loss in such a grand scene. Faced with King Zhouyou's questioning and hearing the laughter around her, not smiling seemed out of place, so she could only force a stiff smile.
With the beauty's smile, King Zhouyou was naturally pleased, while the feudal lords below naturally realized they had been made fools of. Some angrily questioned him.
But King Zhouyou foolishly said: "Being able to amuse my beauty is your honor."
Bao Si's face turned pale in an instant, because she saw countless eyes below staring at her, as if she were someone unforgivable, deserving to be cut into a thousand pieces.
"You actually bewitched the king to do such an absurd thing!"
"This witch has made fools of us! She should be executed!"
"..."
Countless accusations and curses, accompanied by the background sound of a nation's downfall, continued until rolling text appeared on the big screen, displaying centuries of historical criticism of Bao Si.
"The great Zhou dynasty ended because of her." "She brought chaos to the world." "A beautiful woman brings disaster."
The stage went dark, with a spotlight on the actress.
She stood up trembling, stumbled a few steps, as if unable to face the big screen, and covered her face, crying and pleading.
"It wasn't me, it wasn't... Why do you say such things about me!"
"I was originally a beauty captured by King Zhouyou when my hometown was defeated. Far from home, forcibly married, I was unhappy, I missed home, I couldn't smile, not deliberately refusing to smile waiting for the king to coax me."
"Even though I didn't find the trick with the beacons funny at all, the king had gone to such lengths to make me smile, making such a big fuss, and everyone was laughing, how could I dare not to smile?"
"But I never thought that just one smile would make me bear the blame for the downfall of a nation."
"I don't understand, I don't know, why is it me!"
It was real crying, every word dripping with blood and tears.
...
The audience was stunned. Compared to Ji Fei's amateur acting, this was truly professional. Just one look conveyed the emotion, immersing everyone in the play, feeling Bao Si's helplessness and injustice.
The comments section couldn't help but discuss.
"I have to say, great acting, great looks, if she hadn't retired, she'd be a top star now."
"She entered the acting department with the highest score in her major, so of course she has this level of skill."
"What? Does the internet have no memory? She was kept by a sugar daddy as soon as she entered university, using someone else's husband's resources to forcefully promote herself, but failed miserably, nearly bankrupting the guy's company. His wife even angrily posted a video questioning if she had no shame climbing into her husband's bed. This kind of morally bankrupt woman is just like Yu Rouyin."
"I used to support the top flow group, after all, they had the reputation of being the judge of the entertainment industry, but how could they think of using this kind of person to perform? I'm very disappointed."
"Is she trying to make a comeback? I have to say, the buzz is really big. Even the original wife who drove her out of the entertainment industry has spoken out, condemning the top flow group for using such a morally corrupt actress."
"Please, use your brains, will you? Our top flow group doesn't lack capital or popularity. Inviting her to perform this theme is clearly intentional. She's already a retired actress, apart from being the judge of the entertainment industry and upholding justice, I can't think of any other reason. So now I'm going to check the gossip from back then, see if there's any twist."
"My intuition tells me that believing in Sister Fei is not wrong, there must be something fishy here."
"Regardless of the truth, back then the man beautifully disappeared, only saying he was bewitched by a woman and lost his mind. The whole time it was the actress who came out to take the beating. It's very similar to this play, clearly it was King Zhouyou who lost the kingdom playing around, but most of the blame fell on Bao Si."
"It really is similar. King Zhouyou did a bunch of things to amuse Bao Si and lost the kingdom, that CEO invested in a bunch of projects to please the actress and nearly ruined the company. The result is the same, the man hides behind the woman, and when the spit of curses comes, it's the woman who gets drenched first."
The comments and online attitudes were almost evenly split, at least not blindly smearing this actress. Perhaps because this actress had indeed been retired for a long time, people's feelings of disgust were not as strong as they are now towards Yu Rouyin.
...
On stage, Bao Si's weeping voice grew quieter, but at a certain moment, her voice suddenly changed, as if she had suddenly awakened and exploded.
"Why!"
She turned and frantically grabbed King Zhouyou's robe.
"It was clearly you who couldn't distinguish between important and trivial matters, who acted recklessly, wanting to use your power to show off in front of a woman."
"Did I ask you to do this for me? It was all your one-sided desire to please a beauty!"
"Why, when problems arose, did you become a coward, allowing others to blame all the mistakes on me!"
Then she turned and kicked down those feudal lords.
"What? You don't dare to blame your king for foolishly making fools of you and losing the country, you don't dare to blame yourselves for not fulfilling your duty to advise, you only dare to vent your anger on me? Just because I'm a weak woman? Hypocrites, disgusting, shameless!"
The camera gave her a close-up shot of her face. She was cursing frantically, her eyes full of grief and resentment, as if venting something, acting even more convincingly than when she was crying earlier.
It was as if she was really cursing at someone.
Finally, she picked up a bow and arrow from the ground and shot an arrow at the big screen.
The big screen cooperated by playing a special effect, instantly shattering the words criticizing her.
As the wind rose and clouds surged, Bao Si stood alone, turning to face the camera. Tears still hung at the corners of her eyes, but her gaze was resolute.
"I am a beauty, but not a disaster."
As the scene ended, the audience below couldn't help but applaud for this excellent performance.
However, the comments section suddenly changed tone, as netizens were checking various gossip in real time.
Just as this actress finished her performance, a exposé post was released, revealing the truth behind the actress's retirement from the industry.
It stirred up a huge wave on the internet.
The comment section of the CEO's wife who had earlier criticized the actress completely flipped, from enthusiastic support to angry questioning.
Actually...
When she was still a student, the actress caught the eye of the CEO. To pursue her, he specially invested in a movie and invited her to play the lead role. As a new actress, of course she would seize every opportunity to act. It's not like she could investigate before accepting a role whether the investor wanted to sleep with her.
So the student new to society accepted the role, worked hard on her acting, was shown favor by the CEO, realized what was happening and quickly refused. But how could an old man easily let go of a young, naive girl? He used various methods, using the failure of the movie as an excuse, using both soft and hard tactics to make the girl keep acting in the movies he invested in. He thought this way he could let the girl see his financial power, and ultimately be corrupted by fame and fortune, willingly understand the rules of adults, and obediently become the CEO's kept woman.
However, due to poor management and poor investment vision, the funding chain broke, nearly bankrupting the CEO's company.
Those so-called videos were actually the result of the boss's fury after losing money and failing to get the girl. In his humiliation and anger, he drugged her and filmed videos. These eventually fell into the hands of the boss's wife, who was even more enraged and chose to publicly release the blurred videos. Although only the girl's face was visible, it was enough to ruin her reputation.
The leaked post also contained various audio and chat evidence proving the girl's non-consent, as well as financial reports showing that their company was already in trouble.
This revelation caused quite a stir. Due to the psychological suggestion created by this unique twist on the "beacon tower" story, netizens began to consider the issue from a different perspective and were no longer harsh solely towards the girl.
