Chapter 12.012 Lu Xu, The Fan-Pamperer

Chapter 12.012 Lu Xu, The Fan-Pamperer

"Lu Xu is such a lowlife, I seriously can't take it anymore. How can someone be this despicable!"

"It's just some trashy web series. It's really ugly seeing someone act so smug."

"Some washed-up celeb gets a little attention and acts all high and mighty. It's no wonder he's the most unsuccessful member of Verse."

Lu Xu's comment section was already full of hate, and after he posted this Weibo, the comments quickly surpassed 10,000. Various obscenities and insults involving sexual organs were mixed in, but Lu Xu couldn't be bothered to look at them.

He didn't care either.

No matter how viciously Gu Sinian's fans attacked him, there was one fact they couldn't deny—the gap between *The Noble Son* and *Watchmen* was closing fast. Probably in another day, *The Noble Son* would surpass *Watchmen* in popularity.

However, *Watchmen* was Grape Film and Television's big-budget production of the year, with an investment of over 100 million. What was *The Noble Son*?

Industry insiders say the total budget for *The Noble Son* might not even hit 10 million.

The popularity of *The Noble Son* continued to rise day by day, naturally catching the attention of industry professionals. To some extent, the fact that *The Noble Son* could rank in the top ten of the popularity charts had already broken Chenxi TV's record for in-house dramas.

And if its average popularity broke 5,000, the drama would already be considered a success.

Right now, its popularity had reached over 8,000, getting very close to *Watchmen*, which was ranked number one on the charts.

Even with its terrible visuals and plot, *My Baby, The Noble Son* was still the biggest winner right now.

Some industry insiders think if *The Noble Son* keeps up its popularity till the end, it could make back dozens of times its production cost.

…

"Isn't it just a terrible drama?"

In a high-end apartment in City C, a loud "thud" echoed as the marble floor vibrated. Gu Sinian had just smashed his watch. Seeing his action, his agent gave him a disapproving look.

The watch came from a top luxury brand Gu Sinian had been chasing, hoping *Watchmen*'s success would land him an endorsement deal.

With *Watchmen* not blowing up as expected, the endorsement deal might be in jeopardy. Fortunately, Gu Sinian had smashed the watch in private. If the brand had seen it, it would have been a huge loss.

Gu Sinian was furious.

He'd always dismissed *The Noble Son*, thinking it wouldn’t make any waves—just like Lu Xu. But now, after only a few days, *The Noble Son* is almost catching up to *Watchmen*?

With that garbage show behind him, Lu Xu thought he could lord it over me!

He had consumed a large portion of Ling Ge Entertainment's resources. Of the former Verse members, Gu Sinian was the only one focusing on acting, hogging most of the resources Ling Ge Entertainment had to offer.

But that didn't mean he had no competitors in the industry.

*Watchmen* was designed to explode in popularity, with Yue Hui and Ren Ningyi supporting him. Gu Sinian was on the verge of becoming a huge star. For agencies that had young male actors to promote, this wasn't good news.

However, Ling Ge Entertainment was determined to promote Gu Sinian, and they had set up the *Watchmen* project for him. Other companies couldn't stop them.

It was inevitable that another top star would rise, and other young actors would lose some of their resources.

The lineup for *Watchmen* was there for all to see. Not only was Ling Ge Entertainment optimistic about it, but the industry as a whole generally believed that the drama would become a huge hit.

Who would've guessed *Watchmen* would flop!

When *Watchmen* was at its peak, these rivals might not have praised it, but now that *Watchmen* is about to flop, it would be a disservice to their own anxious top star if the rivals didn’t come out to kick it while it’s down.

So overnight, various marketers, social media accounts, and drama critics came out to analyze—how could a production like *Watchmen* possibly fail?

The director has been in the industry for many years, with nearly 100% positive reviews for his works and is a regular at major award ceremonies.

The scriptwriter has extensive experience, and their last drama of the same genre won both awards and acclaim.

As for the actors, does anyone doubt the acting skills of Yue Hui and Ren Ningyi?

The problem lies with Gu Sinian, who seems awkward no matter who he acts opposite.

"If Gu Sinian had deeply understood the character, he would have realized that Yue Hui's understanding of the Watchmen identity runs deep, while his is superficial."

"His awkward acting and despair-inducing scenes. *Watchmen* teaches us that you can cast an internet celebrity actor, but such an actor shouldn’t have too much screen time, or the main plot of a drama will collapse."

"Bad acting, unaware of its own shortcomings. One person single-handedly ruined the entire drama."

Gu Sinian, still unsatisfied after smashing the watch, stretched out his foot and kicked the already cracked watch even further away.

So now that the drama flopped, is it all his fault?

When they chose him, wasn’t it because of his large fanbase? Otherwise, why didn’t the crew choose someone else?

"Grape Film and Television needs answers," the agent said in a low voice.

Despite the significant investment, the drama's popularity couldn't even compete with Chenxi TV’s self-produced web series. For Grape Film and Television, this result was undoubtedly catastrophic.

Although *Watchmen* wasn’t the biggest flop in Grape Film and Television’s history, the fact that it barely competed with *The Noble Son* made the failure especially humiliating.

When the *Watchmen* crew was being assembled, both Grape Film and Television and Ling Ge Entertainment had plans to promote Gu Sinian.

If Gu Sinian became popular, it would mean Grape Film and Television would have a long-term collaboration with a top-tier young actor.

Thus, adjusting Gu Sinian’s character and even reducing Ren Ningyi’s screen time were part of the mutual agreement between the two companies.

But now the situation has shifted dramatically.

Although only eight episodes of *Watchmen* have been aired, judging by the popularity trend, it is clear that the drama will not meet Grape Film and Television’s goals.

If the drama doesn’t become a hit, the plan to promote Gu Sinian naturally falls through.

But with such a large investment in the drama and high promotional costs, someone has to take responsibility, right?

And it just so happens that the audience has the biggest grudge against Gu Sinian.

Who else could they blame?

The director and scriptwriter are big names, and on the actor’s side, both Yue Hui and Ren Ningyi are established Best Actor winners who aren’t afraid of Grape Film and Television. If they were to shift the blame onto these two, Ren Ningyi might even come out and blame Gu Sinian for adding unnecessary scenes.

As for Grape Film and Television itself—it’s well known that platforms can’t possibly be at fault. Even if they are, it must be a problem elsewhere.

Before, when they were trying to promote Gu Sinian, Grape Film and Television thought giving Gu Sinian more scenes was the right decision. But now that the drama flopped, the responsibility falls on Gu Sinian.

If they hadn’t given Gu Sinian so many extra scenes, would *Watchmen* have failed?

Besides, didn’t Gu Sinian fail to handle the extra scenes he was given?

The agent was equally dissatisfied.

He was originally the agent for all members of Verse. Before Verse disbanded, Lu Xu approached him, expressing his desire to stay at Ling Ge Entertainment and continue working with him.

However, for the sake of profit, he fabricated a lot of negative rumors about Lu Xu. After Verse disbanded, he was only responsible for Gu Sinian.

Managing just Gu Sinian now brought in more income than handling all of Verse had before. After all, with the three former Verse members having formed their own teams and their business resources fully open, Gu Sinian, who was focused on the film and television route, was bound to have a more stable career than the others.

Who would’ve guessed that *Watchmen* would end up being just as popular as the critically panned *The Noble Son*?

Gu Sinian’s collaboration with Grape Film and Television hadn’t broken down yet. Before they even discussed *Watchmen*, he had already signed contracts with them for several other dramas.

This was also why Ling Ge Entertainment didn’t dare to pass the buck.

If they really offended Grape Film and Television, who knew if those collaborations would continue?

Just thinking about Lu Xu made Gu Sinian’s blood boil.

If *The Noble Son* had been played by someone else, he wouldn’t be this angry, but the drama happened to have Lu Xu as the second male lead!

"Is there no way to take him down?" Gu Sinian asked his agent. "Isn’t everyone praising *The Noble Son*?"

The agent shook his head. "There’s plenty of criticism too."

"Then get more people to slam it hard."

…

Lu Xu hadn’t really thought about how *Watchmen*'s failure might affect Gu Sinian’s acting career.

He just thought that Gu Sinian’s performance in *Watchmen* was subpar. As for *Watchmen* not being as hot as *The Noble Son*, he hadn’t expected that at all.

In fact, no one from *The Noble Son* crew had expected that either.

"…Recently, our classmates have been asking me about the drama. You know, in our graduated class group, no one chats for half a year." Yang Shu sent several emojis. "Popular classmates tend to be pretty distant. People only congratulate them when they win awards or have box office hits."

Getting congratulated wasn’t something Yang Shu could expect. He was just a nobody in the class.

But recently, his presence had surged.

His Weibo followers had skyrocketed.

When the heat for *The Noble Son* soared, his agency’s boss didn’t even know that Yang Shu was signed under his own company. It wasn’t until a peer said congratulations that the boss realized the recently trending lead actor of *The Noble Son* was from his own company.

Xia Xuewen was in a similar situation. She hadn’t been significant in her agency either, but recently, the agency assigned her a personal agent, and she even saw promotional articles dubbing her the designated lead actress for youth dramas.

She did receive invitations to other youth dramas, generally starting as the second female lead.

Thinking about this, both Yang Shu and Xia Xuewen felt like they were in a dream.

A 100,000 yuan salary + a Chenxi TV web drama + a poor setup—if anyone told them they could become popular with this drama, they would have thought it was a dream.

But now, on the heat charts, *The Noble Son* was really getting closer to *Watchmen*.

Both mentioned their increasing Weibo followers, and only then did Lu Xu notice that his Weibo followers had also increased.

"Is it that fast?" Lu Xu blinked.

"…Have you underestimated how much fans love the character Yu Wei?" Yang Shu looked helpless.

He suspected that during the Verse period, Lu Xu had been bullied so much that he didn’t realize how popular he was.

Otherwise, how could *The Noble Son* have broken out?

*The Noble Son* gained attention because Yu Wei is extremely handsome, and Lu Xu's acting perfectly held the character together.

As the saying goes, the second male lead is there for the audience to love.

He broke out. Although *The Noble Son* has a terrible plot, it's at least not toxic. The audience had a reason to keep watching, and the show's popularity naturally increased day by day.

No matter how much Lu Xu trolls people on Weibo, his face is undeniably captivating!

As soon as Yang Shu opened Weibo, he saw comparison pictures of Gu Sinian and Lu Xu's characters.

Putting their acting aside and focusing only on their appearances, Yang Shu couldn't help but wonder if they had ever been in the same group.

Gu Sinian looks old no matter how you look at him, his face full of flaws, while Lu Xu, it's no exaggeration to say, outshines Gu Sinian in terms of looks.

Just as they were staying up to celebrate the show's success, they received another piece of good news—

Chenxi TV's prime-time show finished airing, and since *The Noble Son* had good momentum, they moved its broadcast time to the prime-time slot.

On the fifth day of *The Noble Son*'s broadcast, the show finally had a chance to compete in the same time slot as *Watchmen*.

Industry insiders were clear that by this day, barring any accidents, *The Noble Son*'s popularity would surpass *Watchmen*'s.

The real question was, by how much would *The Noble Son* surpass *Watchmen*?

"Do you honestly think the audience is as tasteless as Lu Xu's fans, treating this trashy drama like gold?"

"Even if it wins, it won't be by much. *Watchmen* has already entered its climax."

"+1, *Watchmen*'s plot is getting more interesting. Recommending it to the whole world."

Gu Sinian's fans were sparing no effort in promoting *Watchmen*. As they said, *Watchmen*'s plot had indeed entered its climax, but at the same time, Gu Sinian's screen time had become excessive to the point of annoyance.

The fans' recommendations not only failed to have a positive effect but backfired.

The following day, when the prime-time viewership numbers for *The Noble Son* were released, Gu Sinian's fans collectively went silent.

Because, inexplicably, *The Noble Son*'s total heat broke 10,000.

While *Watchmen*'s heat dropped to just over 8,000.

The positions had swapped.

"??？？"

"？？？？"

Actually, there had been warning signs all along—

Because everyone knew that *The Noble Son* is a ridiculous drama.

Despite the crew barely affording cars, the actors' efforts were clearly visible.

The heroine's resilience, akin to a weed; the rare chemistry between the leads; and a group of fools united to protect her—these could all be reasons for the drama's success.

Of course, the plot remained utterly ridiculous.

After the popularity metrics were released, Lu Xu noticed the same message flooding his comment section and private messages—

"Can you do that again for me? You know, that one!"

Lu Xu: "?"

Which one?

He quickly caught on to what the fans wanted.

And so—

Lu Xu: "Let's take a screenshot for the memories, it's only the fifth day after all!"

"Hahahaha!"

"You're nuts! But we fans love it!"

"True fan-pampering Lu Xu right here."