Chapter 85: Zhang Che’s Frustration

Chapter 85: Zhang Che's Frustration

Zhang Che's fans are livid.

"Why does an ambassador for a sub-line get better treatment than the spokesperson???"

"Is M Brand deliberately treating our Zhang Che this way?"

"First question to M Brand: Has Zhang Che missed any event hosted by M Brand since signing the endorsement contract? Second question: After Zhang Che's endorsement, the brand's quarterly sales increased by 20%, as proven by financial reports, so why isn't Zhang Che given the fair treatment he deserves as a spokesperson? Third question: Why hasn't M Brand responded or refuted the fans' demands?"

The fans are furious and have been venting their frustration all day, forcing M Brand's official blog to temporarily close the comments section.

Wild Sea Agency stepped in to calm some fans.

After all, M Brand is a luxury brand, and in their collaboration, Zhang Che's side is at a disadvantage. Wild Sea Agency does not want to strain the relationship with M Brand, so that even if the cooperation with M Brand is terminated in the future, Zhang Che's other luxury endorsements will not be affected.

Unfortunately, Wild Sea Agency's intervention only managed to calm some of the fans—Zhang Che's sensitive and emotional persona has led his long-time fans to believe that no matter who Zhang Che conflicts with, he is always the one who suffers.

The fans are accustomed to fighting for him, even if the opponent is M Brand, they are not afraid.

In fact, because M Brand's power is too strong, even Wild Sea Agency had to step in, which only fueled the fans' determination to fight against all odds.

With M Brand closing the comments, the fans couldn't air their grievances on the official blog, so they targeted M Brand on every platform, even taking over M Brand's overseas social media.

Wild Sea Agency: "..."

Actually, from the beginning, when M Brand privately reduced Zhang Che's treatment, Wild Sea Agency wondered if there was an issue with Zhang Che.

But M Brand gave no hints to Wild Sea Agency, revealing no internal details. After much analysis, Wild Sea Agency still couldn't figure it out.

It wasn't until the Starlight Award red carpet opened that a low-ranking trending topic gave Wild Sea Agency a clue.

This year's red carpet jewelry, celebrities chose C Brand, F Brand, and even some individual designer brands, but seemingly by consensus, no one chose M Brand.

M Brand seemed to vanish from the Starlight Award red carpet.

Thinking carefully, the snub Zhang Che faced seemed to start when M Brand's official cooperation with the Starlight Award was canceled.

Wild Sea Agency had an epiphany and went to ask a few insiders who were close to the Starlight Award.

They didn't mind sharing some details with Wild Sea Agency.

"Just search for the keyword 'Starlight Award,' starting from when your guy took on 'The Swordsman.'"

"Also, search for the keywords 'Lu Xu' and 'Zhang Che.'"

With this information, Wild Sea Agency naturally had a better understanding.

Wild Sea Agency even sent employees to search the Weibo accounts of several primary judges of the Starlight Award—without exception, Zhang Che's loyal fans were questioning the unfairness of the Starlight Award nominations.

The key point is that Zhang Che not receiving a nomination was last year's matter, yet the fans have relentlessly questioned and criticized from last year to this year, every month.

Seeing this, the higher-ups at Wild Sea Agency couldn't help but feel a sense of dread.

Is the Starlight Award easy to mess with?

No wonder M Brand is trying to distance itself from Zhang Che. If celebrities don't wear M Brand jewelry at events like the Starlight Award, how can M Brand continue to survive in the domestic market?

Luxury jewelry caters to the elite, and big-name celebrities are living advertisements. Even for top-tier celebrities, there are only a handful of occasions where they wear haute couture and luxury jewelry, and the Starlight Award is undoubtedly one of them.

What are the fans up to? Have they lost their minds?

Right now, Yehai Agency’s executives seem to have forgotten that they were also involved in various efforts to strengthen Zhang Che's fan base. At that time, the executives were proud of the loyalty and active participation of Zhang Che's fans, which gave him an advantage over male celebrities at the same level when competing for endorsements.

Without delay, Yehai Agency promptly apologized to M brand and offered their most heartfelt apologies to the organizing committee of the Starlight Award.

However, both M brand and the Starlight Award committee remained noncommittal, neither accepting nor rejecting the apologies.

The sharp-tongued director of M brand even mocked, "I've never heard of an apology being made by the agency instead of the person themselves. Where is Zhang Che?"

Yehai Agency: "..."

This bitter pill is hard to swallow. It was M brand that intentionally snubbed Zhang Che, yet now Zhang Che has to apologize first.

But now, Yehai Agency has no choice unless Zhang Che wants to cut ties with all high-end luxury brands.

Although... given the current situation, it won't be easy for Zhang Che to secure another high-end endorsement.

High-end luxury brands each have their own criteria for choosing endorsers, but their arrogance and haughtiness are consistent.

When Zhang Che found out what happened, he was completely lost.

But... the fact is, it happened because of him, and M brand was shut out by the Starlight Award.

His agent reassured him, "It might not be your fault. Maybe the Starlight Award had already wanted to cancel their cooperation with M brand and just found an excuse."

"Why me? Lu Xu didn’t win the Starlight Award before, and his fans never claimed it was rigged?"

"That's true... they didn't."

Of course, Yehai Agency didn’t want Zhang Che to be the only one taking the fall and went all out to dig up dirt on other actors linked to the Starlight Award.

However, among young actors, there are very few who are qualified to aspire to the Starlight Award. After a long search, Yehai Agency only found three or four who fit the bill.

The others are so unknown that no one pays them any mind. Buying negative buzz for these few would only boost their profile.

Only Lu Xu is an exception.

But Lu Xu’s fans never made a fuss about the Starlight Award. The one who won Best Supporting Actor last time was Guo Yining, and Lu Xu still maintains contact with him.

It’s common knowledge in the industry that Lu Xu signed with Feiyang Entertainment thanks to Cheng Yun and Guo Yining’s connections.

"How could there be none?"

Zhang Che was beyond frustrated.

But now he can’t even vent on Weibo late at night because whether he lets his fans go after M brand or the Starlight Award, neither is someone he can cross.

He was already brimming with frustration from filming "The Swordsman," but now he can’t even let it out.

"You also need to rein in your fans. This incident is a wake-up call, and you need to be more careful next time."

"Got it, got it." Zhang Che said impatiently.

This time, he even blamed his fans.

Other people's fans know how to quietly assist from the sidelines, but his fans only cause trouble for him.

Zhang Che slammed his fist into the pillow.

He was feeling resentful, and his Weibo post came off as unusually stiff, far less gentle than usual: "Please be mindful of your words and actions, and avoid making too many misleading statements. This is better for everyone."

"What’s going on with our baby?"

"M brand must have done something to upset Zhang Che!"

"Who made A-Che so cold?!!!"

Fans automatically blamed M brand.

Recently, due to issues with treatment, Zhang Che's fans had only targeted M brand.

So, M brand faced another wave of backlash.

Seeing the trending topics on Weibo, Zhang Che, who had just apologized and forced smiles until he felt sick, was on the verge of tears.

The alcohol in his stomach was churning violently, and he ended up vomiting.

Back on set that night, he kept thinking about his role in "The Swordsman." Maybe it was because Zhang Zhizhen had influenced him so much, or perhaps it was the time spent on the set of "The Swordsman" that immersed him in the art of filmmaking, but Zhang Che felt he was starting to get the character.

Now, his only hope was "The Swordsman."

If this movie became a huge success, everything he was dealing with could be forgotten.

Zhang Che opened the Starlight Award website and stared at the Best Actor nominations for a while.

Being trampled on didn’t feel good, and he really didn’t want Lu Xu to outshine him.

...

The M brand controversy didn’t disrupt the Starlight Awards at all. Lu Xu had been filming in "The Year I Was 18" crew, and two days before the awards ceremony, Mu Qian told him to leave the set: "We don’t need you for these two days, go on."

Lu Xu stayed pretty calm, but since the announcement of this year's Starlight Award nominations, the buzz hadn’t died down.

There were five nominees for Best Actor, and the order of nomination announcement was based on the number of votes each received during the preliminary evaluation. Among the five, Lu Xu ranked third.

Each of the five nominees had their own strengths and weaknesses.

Zheng Yeping had already won two Starlight Award Best Actor trophies, and winning another would clearly make him the first in Starlight Award history.

The Starlight Award might not be thrilled about that.

Yue Hui's performance in "Ups and Downs" was outstanding, but he played a major villain, a pure antagonist. Such a role winning Best Actor would not align with the Starlight Award's usual tone.

As for Lu Xu—his problem was that he was too young.

Additionally, since this year was a big year for the Starlight Award, the overall strength of the nominated series was strong. Although "The Path of Bones" had high popularity, it did not receive nominations for any awards other than Best Actor.

One reason was the limitations of the subject matter itself, and the other was that "The Path of Bones" focused too much on the character Yu Yi.

Generally, the work is the actor's support, and the Best Actor and Actress usually come from the works nominated for Best Long Series.

As for Xia Zhengrong and Liu Fang, both had won the Starlight Award before, and on the other hand, their preliminary votes were even lower than Lu Xu's. It can be imagined that their performances in the two series were certainly not the highest level of their careers.

If nothing unexpected happens, the winner will be among Zheng Yeping, Yue Hui, and Lu Xu.

For Lu Xu, being nominated for Best Actor signifies the industry's recognition of him.

"The Son of Heaven" was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and others could still say he was lucky, that the Starlight Award encourages young actors, but a Best Actor nomination is definitely not something that can be achieved by luck alone.

Among the nominees who didn’t win this year’s Starlight Award, there are also many actors with both fame and talent.

Lu Xu was nominated, and there were no complaints or dissatisfaction from his peers in the industry—his performance in *The Path of Bones* was clearly evident to all.

It’s impossible to say that the Starlight Award is 100% fair, but after decades of development, the Starlight Award has developed a relatively fair set of rules and operational procedures.

"Keep it up! Push through! Take the award!!"

"Win!!!"

↑These are the messages Shao Yao and Zheng Xiao sent him.

One sent puppy emojis, the other sent "Ji Xiuya’s devilish smile" memes.

Lu Xu: "..."

It’s too much to intentionally use unflattering photos!

He doesn’t understand why Ji Xiuya suddenly became an abstract meme online, probably because the frustrations of the average worker are too heavy, and Ji Xiuya’s attitude is very compatible with that of the working class—whether the world is good or bad, he only wants to tear it all down.

Lu Xu and Zheng Xiao had a good relationship when they filmed *The Supreme*. After Lu Xu helped promote Let let on social media once, they started talking more frequently than before.

*Voices of the Dead* wasn’t submitted for this year’s Starlight Award. The annual submission deadline is in late September, so *Voices of the Dead* will have to wait until next year’s awards.

Lu Xu and Shao Yao both figured they didn’t stand a chance. It would be normal for *Voices of the Dead* to be nominated for Best Writing or Best Series, but the possibility of being nominated for acting awards is almost zero.

However, Lu Xu didn’t act just to win awards, and Shao Yao shared the same thought—for an actor, what matters most is nailing every role, and when the moment comes, the awards will naturally follow.

...

This is the second time Lu Xu walked on the Starlight Award red carpet. Last time, *The Son of Heaven* crew had a large entourage, but this time only Lei Ai accompanied him.

"Thank me, otherwise our crew wouldn’t have anyone to back you up," the director said with a smile. "I also called Kong Le, but he refused to come."

Lei Ai was not at all discouraged about not being nominated for Best Director. The popularity of *The Path of Bones* was already unexpected, and being nominated for Best Actor at the Starlight Award was an added bonus.

Kong Le swept away the disappointment of *The Informant’s* failure. This time, with Lu Xu’s nomination for the Starlight Award, Kong Le was the most active in forwarding the news, wanting everyone to know how amazing Lu Xu was.

In fact, this time Lu Xu’s nomination, from the earliest *The Noble Son* crew he participated in, to the latest *The Year I Was 18* crew he is currently filming, the directors collectively forwarded the nomination Weibo post.

"There’s a low-key way of bragging that they once had Lu Xu."

"LOL!"

"Who said Lu Xu has a bad temper? Isn’t his popularity super good?"

"Grape Pictures couldn’t resist sharing it either, tsk tsk tsk, their bragging is really unbearable."

"I can’t help but smile."

Lu Xu and Lei Ai chatted and laughed all the way. When the car arrived at the red carpet entrance, they got out of the car at the same time, and the next moment, Lu Xu heard a roar of cheers.

—All calling his name.

Author’s Note:

Update~

Emm, the characters I write are not very smart, because I’m not good at creating those powerful and strong opponents—I like them to become the protagonist’s friends.

Anyway!! Later, I will create more positive and uplifting friend characters, wait for me!