TL: Hua

Chapter 121: Baby, I bought you a small car

The charity gala Lin Yanran attended was hosted by Choyz, one of the top five fashion magazines in the country.

Every year on its founding anniversary, Choyz holds a banquet on a massive scale, inviting a lineup composed entirely of trending artists.

With so many stars in attendance, it naturally drew immense attention from fandom circles.

Lin Yanran’s red carpet walk was scheduled for the mid-to-late segment.

He had dyed his hair black and wore a black patterned suit over a white shirt; on the red carpet, he looked high-class and gentlemanly.

Fans were not allowed inside the venue, but many media outlets were present.

“Yanran, please look over here.”

“Yanran, please give us a smile.”

“Yanran…”

The reporters’ lenses flashed incessantly at Lin Yanran.

He was simply too handsome in person; the reporters wanted to take as many photos of him as possible, so they all hoped he would look into their specific cameras.

Lin Yanran did his best to accommodate the photo requests made by the press.

Afterward, a lady led him to his seat.

Lin Yanran was never included in these events before, but now, on his first time participating, he’s been given the center position among the rising stars of the entertainment industry.

Lin Yanran didn’t care about these things, but the organizers cared immensely.

Regarding the guests present today, the seating and ranking of every table and every person were clearly divided according to their status and popularity.

People in the entertainment industry are shrewd, but those in the fashion world are the shrewdest of the shrewd, being exceptionally sensitive to any form of heat or popularity.

The movie “Becoming An Older Brother Again” had shown such explosive box office numbers and word-of-mouth over the past few days that while no one dared to guess the upper limit of its final earnings, everyone knew the lower limit: at the very worst, it would rake in at least a billion.

With such impressive acting and box office results for his first film, his future prospects were boundless.

Therefore, Choyz took note of this and treated Lin Yanran with great hospitality.

It wasn’t just Choyz that knew this; the stars in the industry knew it as well.

As soon as Lin Yanran sat down, many social butterflies from the industry whom he had never met before came over to chat and exchange WeChat contacts with him.

Lin Yanran did not enjoy socializing in these vanity fairs, so he wouldn’t actively seek out connections.

However, if someone approached him, he would converse with them politely and like a gentleman.

During their chat, several people mentioned “Becoming An Older Brother Again,” which had just surpassed 100 million in earnings yesterday, praising his acting and congratulating him on the box office success.

After chatting with these people for a while, Lin Yanran felt somewhat exhausted from the social cues, so he looked into the distance to see if there was anyone he knew.

As it turned out, he actually found someone.

Ye An, seated three tables away, also spotted him and was waving.

Lin Yanran picked up his wine glass and walked toward Ye An.

On the way, he passed a certain table.

This table was very lively and full of stars; almost all of them were lead actors from “Sparrow Feather,” including Si Mingxu.

Si Mingxu had walked the red carpet earlier than Lin Yanran, so he had noticed him from the moment Lin Yanran entered.

While drinking and chatting with others, Si Mingxu was also secretly sizing Lin Yanran up.

Watching those people come and go to flatter him, Si Mingxu was consumed with jealousy.

They had scheduled their release date on the same day as “Becoming An Older Brother Again” precisely with the intention of suppressing it.

It was just a role; if it was snatched, so be it. It wasn’t that big a deal and was common in the industry.

But Lin Yanran’s team had been so undiscriminating and somehow managed to get Gu Siye’s team to blacklist everyone in their social circle as well.

So, they had intended to teach Lin Yanran a lesson and show him who was boss.

Who would have known that the other party’s small-budget film would pull off a direct box office counterattack, simultaneously elevating Lin Yanran’s prestige?

One can always sense it when being secretly observed with unfriendly eyes.

Lin Yanran had long noticed Si Mingxu’s intermittent gaze falling upon him from the shadows.

However, he directly ignored it, skipping even the step of secretly glancing back.

He didn’t care about Si Mingxu, so he didn’t even bother to give him a look.

Lin Yanran remembered what Hong Huixue had said before.

If he ran into Si Mingxu, he should avoid contact as much as possible to prevent any “accidental” friction, lest the other party latch onto him to ride his heat or smear him during this critical movie release period.

It was already a fact that “Sparrow Feather” had flopped, but that production crew was very dirty.

They had already used many methods to sabotage the “Becoming An Older Brother Again” crew, and their next target would likely be the lead actors, digging up dirt on them and spreading it widely to achieve the effect of slandering the movie.

The entertainment industry is already full of filth, and when interests are involved, it becomes even more sordid.

One cannot control others, but being careful oneself is never a problem.

After Lin Yanran sat with Ye An and chatted about their recent lives for a while, the charity gala began.

As the lights dimmed, the stars who had been scattered about returned to their respective seats.

Lin Yanran also returned to his spot. The stars at the same table weren’t very familiar with each other, so after a few simple pleasantries, they all looked up at the stage ahead, where singers and idols would be performing.

Although fans couldn’t be at the scene, the live stream continued online.

Most of the time, the director cut to the performances on stage, occasionally switching to close-ups of the stars in the audience.

Currently, a popular singer was performing a song with lyrics that were hard to understand; many stars couldn’t quite appreciate it and were so bored they wanted to check their phones.

But because of the presence of the camera, they all appeared to be watching with great interest while also clapping their hands.

The camera cut to Lin Yanran. Just as the fans watching the stream started screaming “ahhh,” the image was cut away.

Subsequently, the director pulled back for a wide shot, and thus the seating arrangements of the stars, the thing fans and haters cared about most, were accidentally exposed for the most part.

Netizens have piercing eyes; even in such low lighting, they could reconstruct everyone’s position based on their outfits and the people sitting around them.

Soon, someone made a spreadsheet, mapping out who sat at which table, thoughtfully marking the C-position of each table as well as the overall C-position of the venue.

Netizens are just that bored; it’s not as if no one has made such spreadsheets in previous years.

But when this table arrangement came out today, it caused significant friction in the fandom circles.

The trigger was some netizens taking screenshots to compare the seating of Lin Yanran and Si Mingxu, whose movies were competing in the same window.

Si Mingxu’s fandom wasn’t new to snatching roles or offending people, and fans of many other celebrities in the industry had grudges against them.

Seeing him being outranked by Lin Yanran this time, they used Lin Yanran as a pretext to directly mock Si Mingxu for being washed up, while simultaneously ridiculing his box office flop as karmic retribution.

Since Lin Yanran wasn’t their favorite idol, they didn’t feel any protective sympathy for him; they simply used him as a tool to ridicule Si Mingxu.

Lin Yanran’s fans immediately jumped out to defend him, not wanting to give Si Mingxu’s camp any attention at this juncture.

But even so, in the eyes of Si Mingxu’s fans, these actions had already become Lin Yanran’s fans intentionally gloating at their expense.

The box office being surpassed was already painful enough for Si Mingxu’s fans; being dragged out and mocked at this charity gala by those arrogant Lin Yanran fans was more than they could bear, so they immediately started picking a fight with Lin Yanran.

There wasn’t much to criticize about Lin Yanran himself; those past points of criticism had long been clarified and had even become tragic points that helped clear his name. These people were smart enough to know they couldn’t dig into those.

Coincidentally, there was someone on a certain forum who posted photos of tonight’s red carpet. Many people in the thread felt that Lin Yanran’s look outshone all the other male celebrities tonight, so this group used this as a pretext to go berserk.

On the red carpet, everyone’s favorite thing to do is to identify which brands the stars’ outfits come from.

Fans and certain “professional bloggers” love to brag about luxury brands.

If a star wears haute couture from a high-end luxury brand and is officially acknowledged by the brand’s social media, the fans will brag about it endlessly.

If a star wears out-of-season haute couture, mediocre runway pieces, or outfits from unknown brands, they are easily labeled by the public as washed up, unambitious, or unable to even borrow a good brand’s current season…

Lin Yanran’s red carpet photos looked the best tonight, and his outfit was equally eye-catching; so many people went to look for the brand.

But after searching high and low, no one could figure out what brand it was.

Furthermore, the official accounts of several other common luxury brands had already claimed the outfits of almost all the other male celebrities, leaving only Lin Yanran’s unacknowledged.

Seeing this, Si Mingxu’s fans felt something was fishy and began to dig deep into this point.

Ordinary netizens didn’t actually care much about these things; in fact, they couldn’t even distinguish between most brands.

Their focus was simple: they only cared about who looked the best.

[Yanran undoubtedly looks best tonight]

[I used to think male celebrities on the red carpet were boring, but I didn’t expect Yanran’s appearance to be so stunning.]

[I’m begging Teacher Yanran to walk the red carpet more often. You rarely show up for events to bless us visual fans. Are you even doing justice to that face and those long legs!!]

[Does anyone know what brand Yanran’s outfit is? I really want to buy the same one for my husband QWQ. Although he definitely won’t look as good as Yanran, hahahaha.]

[It’s probably some big-name designer. Looking at the texture and cut, it’s excellent. It looks like it was custom-made for Yanran.]

Watching everyone praise Lin Yanran like this, Si Mingxu’s fans felt their eyes bleeding with jealousy.

However, hard work pays off. They actually managed to dig up a similar-looking outfit.

It was from a very niche brand.

But the designer of this brand had actually started their career by plagiarizing. While the styles were decent, every piece carried the shadow of a famous designer’s work.

Consequently, the brand had a poor reputation in the industry. Usually, only C-list celebrities who weren’t very popular would wear their gowns.

Once they found the match, Si Mingxu’s fans immediately spread the discovery everywhere to slap the faces of the public and Yanran’s fans.

[LMAO. The high-quality and custom designer piece the fans were bragging about turned out to be from a low-end brand that started with plagiarism.]

[A big star actually wears a brand like this? So low.]

[Omg, wasn’t he supposed to be the most popular guy in the universe? This is it?]

[His team is so useless. Even borrowing a seasonal runway piece from a decent brand would be better than this.]

[There can’t actually be a male celebrity who can’t borrow designer clothes, right? No way, right?]

While people didn’t necessarily mind if Lin Yanran wore luxury brands or not, that didn’t mean they were okay with him wearing a low brand built on plagiarism.

Immediately, some people felt disappointed…

[No way… wearing such a low brand… suddenly this outfit doesn’t seem so chic anymore.]

[Yanran is supposed to be one of the smarter celebrities in the industry; why was he so careless?]

[It’s impossible that Siyu couldn’t borrow Haute Couture! And his manager is very capable; there’s no way they lack the connections. Did you guys find the wrong brand? The clothes don’t look exactly the same…]

Seeing people still defending Lin Yanran, Si Mingxu’s fans immediately posted side-by-side comparison screenshots.

They compared the details of the outfit they found with Lin Yanran’s outfit.

They picked apart the dark patterns on the suit, the pockets, the collar, the brooch, and so on, one by one.

Then, they reached a conclusion—

Indeed, they weren’t identical, because the one Lin Yanran was wearing was a knock-off counterfeit…

Ordinary people didn’t understand much about these things. Seeing the comparison and the descriptions of what was off, they were somewhat convinced.

However, what convinced everyone the most was the brooch pinned to Lin Yanran’s suit.

Someone had already found the exact same one on Taobao… for 30 yuan.

[Fine, forget the low-end brand, but why buy a knock-off…]

[Even the brooch is a Taobao find. I’m done…]

[I don’t understand. I’m so disappointed in Yanran…]

[How broke do you have to be to wear a knock-off like this?]

There’s being frugal, and then there’s this. He’s a celebrity; he earns so much…]

The haters, having secured a temporary victory, began to revel.

They realized that Lin Yanran might be covered in fakes from head to toe and that his financial situation was likely in the gutter.

Connecting this to the recent industry crackdown on tax-evading celebrities, the haters suspected that Lin Yanran had been fined, and probably a significant amount.

If a celebrity was caught with one counterfeit, they couldn’t possibly have just one. So, the haters started digging even harder, pulling up all of Lin Yanran’s old photos.

They discovered that Lin Yanran used to be very frugal, wearing unknown brands or domestic products worth a few hundred to a thousand yuan.

The haters mocked his tacky and penniless taste, but since those were at least legitimate brands, there wasn’t much to say other than calling him poor.

But as they kept digging, they suddenly found a photo posted a few days ago by a passerby on Weibo.

In the photo, Lin Yanran was riding a bicycle and happily slurping noodles at a roadside stall.

It was rare enough for a celebrity to eat at a cheap roadside stall, but what made the haters go wild was that he was wearing a washed-out, old white T-shirt.

In the glitzy entertainment industry, if a celebrity accidentally wore an old shirt with fabric pills, netizens would examine it under a microscope and mock them for being “frugal” despite a daily salary of 2.08 million.

Not to mention that Lin Yanran was wearing an old T-shirt that looked cheap and worn out; even a dog would find it shabby.

The haters were thrilled; they were dying of laughter.

[So this is a big star? This is beyond pathetic.]

[What do you know? This is called pure and unpretentious.]

[Is the poor male college student persona that’s been trending? I feel pity just looking at him.]

Previously, Si Mingxu had been suppressed by Lin Yanran in terms of red carpet presence and seating arrangements, and he had been fuming. Seeing Lin Yanran’s reputation collapse due to his poor appearance, his fans immediately jumped out to trample him.

[Look at Brother Yanran saving money with a knock-off brooch and being eco-friendly by recycling an old T-shirt. What a positive, hardworking, and thrifty man! No wonder he’s been on the official trending searches a few times. Unlike our Brother Mingxu, who not only wore this season’s Haute Couture for the red carpet but also wore a watch worth over a million. So extravagant! No wonder they didn’t invite you to be a Traffic Safety Ambassador, and you can only “pitifully” be a Brand Ambassador for luxury goods~ lol.]

Perhaps influenced by the previous knock-off incident, everyone looked at the photo with a biased lens, feeling that for a big celebrity like Lin Yanran, wearing such clothes was truly low.

A portion of the public actually felt there was nothing wrong with it. Some people are just thrifty, and there’s no need to promote extravagance or constant comparison.

But Si Mingxu’s fans were at the height of their arrogance. Seeing people still stubbornly defending Lin Yanran, they continued to dump more evidence they had unearthed.

[I wanted to leave your idol some dignity and not go this far, but since people are still trying to whitewash him, don’t blame me for being ruthless. As the old saying goes, “If you don’t go looking for death, you won’t die.” Honestly, his fans are the reason he’s crashing and burning so fast.]

With that, the haters posted several screenshots.

The screenshots were taken from behind-the-scenes footage of a variety show Lin Yanran had participated in.

The production crew had filmed a shot of him before he set out, and the camera had inadvertently swept past a piece of calligraphy and a painting hanging in his living room.

The haters screenshotted the calligraphy and painting and began educating the public.

[I have to say, Yanran is just too low. It’s one thing to wear knock-off clothes, but as an art student, I really can’t stand him buying fake paintings. Do you know the origin of this painting? This is “Girl Playing the Flute” by the famous national painting master, Ms. Gu Wanrong, painted three years ago. Many collectors wanted to buy it back then, with some even offering nine figures! But the master herself liked it so much she didn’t sell it to anyone and kept it in her private collection. Pray tell, Yanran, how did you buy it?]

[And this calligraphy. I found it was signed by Master Lin Zhenbo when I zoomed in. I must say, this high-quality fake is actually pretty good; it has a bit of the old man’s soul in it. But I really don’t want to comment on the content! “May happiness always accompany you, grow up happily”? What the hell? I’ve studied the master’s work for years. He only writes sophisticated sentences. He would never write such childish words!! Do you think the master is coaxing a three-year-old? Yanran, if you want to build a persona, at least put some heart into buying your fakes!]

[Some fans might argue that as a big star, Yanran could afford these. BUT!!!! Yanran might seem popular, but haven’t you noticed? He hasn’t taken any commercials, and the movies he acts in are all from broke production crews with no money. With this financial situation, can he afford a nine-figure painting?]

[And what I find most ridiculous is that these two masters are a married couple. Their works are the kind you can’t necessarily buy even with money. Even if you, Yanran, have money, you’re just a celebrity—how much face could you possibly have to invite both masters to write and paint for you at the same time? Fake, it’s just too fake! My blood pressure spiked just looking at that calligraphy and painting!]

After being educated by this art student, everyone realized it was true.

Although they didn’t know these two artists well, a quick search revealed that the elderly couple was truly legendary and incredibly difficult to commission. It really made no sense for such discordant items to appear in the shabby home of an artist like Lin Yanran.

Under wave after wave of slap-in-the-face evidence, everyone finally believed the haters.

Lin Yanran’s persona collapsed instantly, making him a synonym for “fake” and “low.”

The voices previously defending him were drowned out. His reputation had been so good before that many couldn’t believe this was the person he was behind the scenes.

It’s fine if Lin Yanran is poor, but if you’re that poor, don’t try to act cool or be so fake!

[Yanran is truly a treasure boy. Just how many more fakes does he have on him that we don’t know about?]

[Before, people were bragging about some fan buying a congratulations message for Yanran’s exam success on a building LED screen that charges by the second. Do the fans know their idol is this poor? You’d be better off just sending money to his Alipay.]

[Low low low low low!! Lin Yanran is the lowest in the entertainment industry. Let’s send him to the hot searches so everyone can see how low he is.]

The haters joined forces and finally pushed Lin Yanran onto the Hot Search list.

Once there, Weibo even sent out a push notification.

Thus, Xie Roufei and Lin Yanhui saw the news: #Yanran Persona Collapse#.

They clicked the notification. The first thing they saw was a photo of Lin Yanran wearing a plain white T-shirt, riding a bicycle, and slurping noodles at a roadside stall.

After skimming the content, the two frowned and opened the comments.

Lin Yanhui noticed these messages:

[Can’t even afford a scooter worth tens of thousands? Does anyone actually like riding bicycles these days?]

“After all, he’s the thrifty good guy who took a taxi to Super Idol. Truly impressive (dog face).]

Xie Roufei saw these:

[LOL, a male celeb eating noodles at a roadside stall? What kind of modern performance art is this? Mouth smelling like garlic. The fans’ dreams are about to shatter.]

[Oh my god, is this big star so grounded? Roadside noodles? Do you not have money for Japanese food or a Michelin restaurant?]

The haters had dug up too much info, but the marketing accounts had different focuses. This particular account focused on mocking Lin Yanran for being destitute.

Lin Yanran had indeed lived a hard life in the past. Now, seeing everyone use this point to attack him, the couple felt an immediate pang of heartache.

Xie Roufei and Lin Yanhui looked at each other, their eyes flashing with regret and guilt.

Then, both of them made a phone call.

After the banquet ended, Lin Yanran’s WeChat started buzzing. His family had sent him messages.

[Dad: Baby, I bought you a small car to get around.]

Attached was a photo. The “small car” his father mentioned so casually was a Rolls-Royce Phantom.

[Mom: Baby, I’m sorry, I forgot to send you your allowance this month.]

Lin Yanran checked his texts in confusion.

Two minutes prior, a notification read: Your account has received 20,000,000.00.

While Lin Yanran was dazed, he received a message from his older brother.

Lin Yunzhe’s words were simple and to the point.

[Brother: Which company is buying hot searches to blacken your name every day?]

Lin Yanran, still completely out of the loop, looked down at his family’s messages again.

Lin Yanran: ????

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