Chapter 1: 001 Disbanded Group

Chapter 1: 001 Disbanded Group

Lu Xu rubbed his eyes hard, wondering if he was seeing things.

He had just won the most prestigious acting award in the industry and was using a secondary account to browse the forum, liking all the praise he was getting. But after dozing off for a bit and looking back at the screen, he found a sarcastic post about him pinned to the top of the forum's front page—

"Do you think Lu Xu regrets breaking up the group now that he sees how successful the other Verse members are?"

"What's there to regret? Didn’t he bring this on himself?"

"Laughable. He's a prestigious web drama actor now, don't try to compare him to Xie Qingyang, Gu Sinian, and Meng Qin, please!"

"Please don't try to glorify this person with Verse. Lu Xu doesn't deserve it!"

Seeing the comments below the post, Lu Xu's brows furrowed into a deep frown. After graduating from film school, he had been acting non-stop. Some of the dramas and movies he acted in flopped, while others were huge successes, but overall, audiences generally praised his performances.

He had rarely faced such harsh criticism before.

Lu Xu scrolled down the post, and almost all the comments were mockery and humiliation. The forum moderator made a light comment about avoiding personal attacks, but no one bothered to remove the insulting posts.

The more he scrolled, the more something felt off.

What was Verse? And who were Xie Qingyang, Gu Sinian, and Meng Qin?

When did he start starring in web dramas?

Was his memory malfunctioning, or—

Lu Xu's gaze shifted slightly, and he noticed that the room he was in was unfamiliar.

The room was a mess. Comic books and albums were casually placed on the table, along with half-eaten snacks. Clothes were piled higher than the sofa on the treadmill. The bookshelf was relatively empty, holding seven or eight trophies, none of which Lu Xu remembered winning.

The screen went dark, and the face staring back at him made Lu Xu gasp in surprise.

He rushed to the only mirror in the room, and the face that looked back at him was one he had seen seconds ago but was not his own.

From an actor's perspective, it was a handsome face, with bright eyes and sharp features. Even though it had only appeared in the mirror for a few seconds, one could easily imagine the impact it would have on camera.

Thinking of the post he had just seen, Lu Xu typed his name into the search bar.

Sure enough, searches for 'Lu Xu’s new work' or 'Lu Xu winning awards' were nowhere to be found. Instead, trending topics included 'Verse disbanded,' 'Lu Xu slacking off for three months,' and 'Lu Xu tossing a fan’s gift.' Clicking on one, he found that the black hot searches were everywhere. Even though some of these negative posts were likely paid for by rivals, the lack of support proved how much people disliked this version of Lu Xu.

Lu Xu dialed his own phone number, his agent's number, and the numbers of his parents and close friends, but they were all out of service. In this world, there was no trace of the actor Lu Xu. No records could be found of the heavyweight awards he had won or the TV dramas he had starred in, as if they had all vanished without a trace.

Lu Xu let out a soft sigh and took a long time to calm his emotions.

After years as an actor, he was used to weathering storms. His career had not been smooth sailing, and he had encountered numerous setbacks but had always managed to pull through.

Lu Xu realized he was now in a different world.

The entertainment industry in this world bore some resemblance to the one he had worked so hard in. In this world, the owner of this body, Lu Xu, had been a member of the once extremely popular idol group Verse.

Unfortunately, by the time he had arrived here, Verse had already disbanded almost a year ago.

Within the popular group Verse, the original Lu Xu was seen as the weakest link, with the other three members being far more popular and talented. Though Verse quickly became famous, Lu Xu’s good looks had initially helped boost their image. However, Lu Xu’s talents were mediocre, and his personality was rather bland. His EQ and sense of style were average, and anything he said could be twisted into multiple meanings by marketers and fans.

Since Lu Xu wasn't favored by the agency's higher-ups, his resources during Verse's activities were minimal, and his exposure was low. He could only piggyback on the group's resources. As the group was about to disband, while others were expressing their reluctance to part with fans, a wave of blackmail material about him started to surface.

Things like slacking on stage, using an alt to insult seniors, lip-syncing, stealing teammates' clothes... Even having 11.6 more seconds of screen time in the MV than the center member, he was dragged through the mud by the other member's fans again and again.

Lu Xu: “……”

Seriously, they could time Olympic races with those decimals.

In Lu Xu's view, these so-called blackmail materials were clearly not the original owner's fault. They were just leaked to hasten Verse's disbandment.

Verse didn’t break up because of the original owner’s average skills; it was due to conflicts over popularity and interests among the members.

The messier it got, the more it damaged Verse's image in the fans' eyes. After all, an idol's career is limited. In another ten or twenty years, they might still need to cash in on the "brotherhood" from back then.

At that point, with low popularity and no internal support, the original owner naturally became the scapegoat.

After dumping all the blackmail material on the original owner, Verse disbanded smoothly. The other three members continued to sign with the original agency, forming their own personal studios, while the original owner was kicked out, left to fend for himself.

"Is it really necessary to go to such extremes?"

Whether searching online or on forums, Lu Xu hardly found any positive comments about the original owner.

Even worse, after Verse disbanded, the original owner's resources dwindled significantly. Even if he managed to land a business deal or two, the brand would be bombarded by teammates' fans, leading to a hasty end to the collaboration. The agency that was supposed to sign him also backed out just before the contract, and all the promised resources went down the drain.

In contrast, the other three members of Verse were doing very well, filming movies, appearing on variety shows, and occasionally getting together to flaunt their "brotherhood." Each time they posted, the original owner's DMs and comments would flood with hateful messages telling him to "die" or "disappear."

The fact that Verse no longer existed made the fans hate Lu Xu even more.

The venom in those words sent chills down Lu Xu's spine, despite his previous success as an actor.

Lu Xu soon figured out the reason for his transmigration—he found a pill bottle in the closet.

For the original owner, being an idol was his sole means of survival. His personality wasn't strong enough to begin with, which was why he ended up in this situation despite having decent popularity early on.

But Lu Xu believed that being weak wasn't a reason to be hurt.

The original owner was no longer in this world, and now he had to live in this world with his face, trying to live as well as possible.

...

Lu Xu opened the phone.

Most of the original owner's WeChat chat records were still from the time when Verse disbanded about a year ago. Many entertainment agencies had reached out, expressing interest in signing him. However, after that period, most of those contacts went silent.

With years of experience in the entertainment industry, Lu Xu could quickly read between the lines when others messaged him. The original owner was slow to reply, often forcing himself to greet people and taking forever to awkwardly state his purpose.

Partly because of this, he still hadn't signed with an agency.

As for the other members of Verse, the original owner didn't keep much contact with them. Before the group disbanded, they sent messages like "Believe that Verse won't disband," "Verse is forever a family," "We'll talk to the agent and the boss, so don't worry."

The original owner would reply with sincere gratitude.

He genuinely believed that his teammates were willing to help him, even though he was already covered in blackmail material.

From Lu Xu's perspective, this was just them not wanting to leave any handles.

Reviewing the call logs, it was evident that during Verse's final days, the agent was the one primarily contacting the original owner. The agent likely broke the news of the disbandment to the original owner.

A year ago, the original owner's WeChat was still buzzing with quite a lot of messages, but six months ago, there were only a handful of very brief business contacts. In the last month, only an account marked as "Director Hua Zhu" had been in relatively frequent contact with him.

Lu Xu took a look at their chat history.

After fifteen minutes, he found himself in stunned silence.

The script from Director Hua Zhu left Lu Xu baffled—how could anyone even call this a script?

There was no logic, the plot was nonsensical, the lines were embarrassing, and it was titled *My Beloved Young Master*.

Lu Xu: "..."

As expected, this was likely the web drama that had become a laughingstock on the forums.

The catch was that in *My Beloved Young Master*, his role wasn’t the male lead but the second male lead—a rival to the hero and obsessed with the heroine.

Lu Xu originally thought the drama would be read as *My/Beloved Young Master*, but... "Beloved" was actually the name of the female lead.

Thanks to Verse’s former fame, he secured a hefty 500,000 yuan for this role.

If his agent had landed him a script like this before, he’d have gladly paid the breach-of-contract fee to walk away. But now, the penalty for quitting this show was... 5 million yuan.

His current assets barely topped 100,000 yuan.

Even selling everything he owned wouldn’t cover it!

Author’s Note:

New update! Check out the first chapter of my latest story—please support! ❤️