The first episode of "My Acting, Cut!" saw its live viewership numbers explode.
When Ji Fei and Qin Zhao led their performance team to take a bow, the audience erupted in thunderous applause, with Qin's Father and Qin's Mom excitedly waving their hands.
It wasn't hard to imagine the online reaction based on everyone's behavior at the venue.
The current live broadcast content showed the host interviewing other guests in the waiting area, asking for their opinions on the two groups' performances.
Most people gave perfunctory comments on the acting skills, then hurriedly made excuses to leave the waiting area. If it weren't for their excited expressions that they could barely contain, one might think they all had a sudden urge to use the bathroom.
"Damn! They must be going backstage to get the juicy gossip!"
"What's there that I, a VVVVIP, can't see? I'll send rocket gifts, quick, take us backstage!"
"The award-winning actor group went backstage earlier, and now the top celebrity group just went down. Once they meet, I can't imagine how lively it must be backstage right now."
"Let me join in, let me join in, let me be part of the excitement!"
The host struggled to maintain the interview while reading the barrage of comments. She wanted to go too, but this damn job was keeping her from the gossip.
With all the guests gone, she could only proceed with the program by turning to the professional acting school teachers invited for this competition. But even the teachers were distracted, constantly checking their phones for Weibo updates.
The top ten trending topics were almost entirely occupied by this event. The real-time feed was constantly refreshing with new explosive news, stirring up wave after wave of discussion. It was like a domino effect that even capital couldn't suppress.
After this stage play, apart from the completely brainless die-hard fans, everyone else had pretty much figured out what was going on.
After all, if you peeled away the facade of so-called 'true love,' and thought about it logically for a moment, what remained was nothing more than a blatant story of a cheating man and his mistress working together to set up the original wife.
Just as everyone had once been obsessed with shipping the couple, now the entire internet was engaged in catching the adulterers and crucifying the scumbag man and the mistress.
Backstage, Sheng Wenyue seemed to have lost his soul, plunging into a state of intense self-doubt, while his agent was still struggling desperately, constantly issuing orders, trying to find ways to salvage the public opinion.
After all, there was still very little concrete evidence. Most of it was just the mood set by the recent stage play.
Now, the agent only needed to grasp two points: that Sheng Wenyue truly had no feelings for Ruan Jia, and it was always Ruan Jia who was obsessively pursuing him, and that Ruan Jia wasn't really sick at all, everything was just a smear campaign against Sheng Wenyue for revenge. If they could hold onto these two points, they wouldn't be easily defeated.
Even now, the agent didn't believe that what Ji Fei and Qin Zhao had performed was all true. He only felt that it was all a coordinated act, designed to frame them.
In the entertainment industry, if someone wants to bring someone down, the most common tactic is to release a mix of true and false information. He thought Ruan Jia was doing the same.
"Ruan Jia is really vicious, she's trying to completely crush you guys!" The agent, seeing the increasingly out-of-control situation, was so angry he disregarded the setting and said to Sheng Wenyue: "You need to contact her quickly."
Wang Jiani looked at her phone with a pale face. The current situation was beyond her expectations, and she could only turn to Sheng Wenyue for help, saying, "Senior..."
But Sheng Wenyue seemed unable to hear the voices around him, his mind filled with Ji Fei's angry words. Had he really wronged Ruan Jia that much?
He had only been distracted for a while, cared for someone else a bit, how did it turn into this?
Just then, Ji Fei and Qin Zhao walked in. The backstage area, which had been filled with whispers, suddenly fell silent for a moment, all eyes turning towards them.
Qin Rong and Xiao Tao happily came forward to greet the two, while Gao Hao approached with a smile that barely concealed his hostility. However, when he saw Qin's Father and Qin's Mom following behind them, he quickly retracted his hostility and could only force a smile.
Although he could lecture Qin Zhao and Ji Fei a bit, when faced with the previous generation's leader of Qin Corporation, even Gao Hao knew when to be prudent.
The two elders had come, of course, to witness the drama firsthand.
At this moment, everyone's eyes were darting between the two groups.
The next second, Sheng Wenyue's agent made a move, angrily rushing up to Ji Fei and Qin Zhao. Everyone's eyes immediately lit up, quickly settling into their seats or standing positions, holding their breath, waiting for the drama to unfold.
The agent's phone kept ringing, indicating the increasingly difficult situation. He could only throw caution to the wind and start bullying, saying, "If you release a statement now saying that your stage play has nothing to do with us, we can pretend nothing happened."
[Pfft, what is he saying?!] Ji Fei was instantly amused.
Qin Zhao's mouth also twitched as he looked towards Gao Hao.
In this situation, there was no need for Ji Fei and Qin Zhao to step in. Gao Hao directly stepped forward and said, "What are you talking about, senior? This is all just a script, normal acting. How come you're taking it personally?"
"You can't go too far with this!" the agent said, suppressing his anger.
Gao Hao smiled and said, "We're just performing normally as required by the show's producers."
The agent finally shouted, "Are you guys sick or something?! How much did Ruan Jia pay you to frame us like this?!"
Qin Zhao looked at the agent with disdain and said, "Frame you? What framing? Aren't you the ones framing others?"
The agent suddenly looked like someone had grabbed him by the throat.
The onlookers were pinching their thighs hard, trying to hold back their laughter.
"You think you can win like this?" the agent said fiercely. "You have no evidence either! Don't forget, Ruan Jia is Sheng Wenyue's wife. Couples may quarrel, but they always make up. She hasn't come forward with any evidence against Wenyue yet, which proves she can't bear to hurt him. She just wants to force Wenyue to apologize. You're being used as tools. When Wenyue wins her back, you'll be left out in the cold. Everyone will think you deliberately smeared Wenyue. Don't dig your own grave. We're giving you a chance to make amends now."
[What a bluff. He's clearly not confident he can control Ruan Jia anymore, especially since he can't even get through on the phone. But he can try to fool us, make us doubt and back off, giving them some wiggle room. But well... hehe, it's already started.]
The Qin family listened intently: What had started?
But when others heard this, they felt a sense of confusion.
That's right, if Qin Zhao and Ji Fei were really helping Ruan Jia, shouldn't Ruan Jia provide more damaging information?
Could it really just be a 'domestic dispute'? That would be quite disgusting.
Even Sheng Wenyue suddenly brightened up, as if he had found some confidence. His cheeks even flushed.
She loves him, resents him, but in the end, can't bear to let him go, leaving him a way out, just wanting to win back his love. He had almost thought Ruan Jia was being so harsh because she wanted to completely... He knew it, Ruan Jia was just throwing a tantrum.
She just went a bit too far. He would definitely have a good talk with Ruan Jia later.
Whether it was genuine stupidity or an unwillingness to face reality, Sheng Wenyue had somehow managed to comfort himself. He even had the energy to stand up and approach Qin Zhao and Ji Fei, saying seriously, "Ruan Jia and I will reconcile. She will help clarify things. Please don't stir up trouble between us anymore."
Ji Fei looked at Sheng Wenyue's confident demeanor and really wanted to laugh.
[After doing so much to hurt her, you still have the nerve to expect her help. I hope you can still be this confident later.]
