Chapter 56: From Prince of Pork to Emperor Kangxi

  He Mu, who returned from injury, was warmly welcomed by the entire crew. In order to catch up with the shooting schedule, Director Kang ordered Tao Yu to lead a small team to shoot Wu Zhe's part in the play.

  After the small test of "The Young Yang Family Generals", Tao Qudu's directing skills have become more and more skilled, controlling a small crew with ease, and the resulting effect is also impeccable. Moreover, compared to established directors like Kang Honglei, Tao Qudu's young and fresh shooting style is more diverse and daring, full of exploratory spirit, which is a rare quality.

  In about two days, He Mu had finished his personal scenes and started filming with the main team. It is expected to be completed by mid-June.

  In the relatively closed crew, He Mu did not know that the news about his upcoming role as Kangxi had already spread like wildfire. Even his girlfriend, Zhang Zilin, who was not very interested in entertainment gossip, saw the relevant news, but she did not ask He Mu for confirmation and only wished in her heart that her boyfriend's career could be elevated to a higher level with this role.

  In short, from Zhang Ji Zhong's side and Hu Liang Ying Shi's revelation, He Mu is almost confirmed to play Kang Xi. Under the circumstance that Wei Xiao Bao's actor has not been finalized, a newcomer who only acted in one web short film and one TV series can gain Zhang Ji Zhong's favor to play the second male lead. Apart from the strong support of his company, people are more curious about what charm this twenty-year-old boy possesses. From then on, many entertainment journalists began to dig into He Mu's background story.

  The surge in popularity of He Mu also brought about the second wave of clicks for "Female Demon", with many people who did not know He Mu before starting to search for this short film online, and after watching it, a large part of them became fans of He Mu.

  At first, the film was popular because of its own network culture phenomenon. The director Tao Qu and the main actors He Mu and Zhang Jiani did not become famous because of it. Now that this short film has been dug up again, people are appreciating the plot while also praising He Mu's acting skills in his debut performance. Even Zhang Jiani has been recognized by people, and she has now advanced to the top four in the sea election of "Finding Purple Lotus". With her already high popularity, plus the boost from "Female Trick", she is now the most likely to win the championship among the top four, and maybe she can really become the new Qiong girl, thus taking a step to the sky.

  As the earliest journalist of Nandu Entertainment News, Guo Siyuan, who saw the news value of He Mu, had already obtained detailed information about He Mu when his colleagues took action, thanks to Xiao Xianlun who spread the news of He Mu on the internet.

  He Mu's former classmate Xiao Xianlun not only posted on He Mu's Tieba, but also spread news about He Mu on other entertainment and gossip forums. Unfortunately, at the time, He Mu was not well-known, so he couldn't attract the interest of netizens, and soon the posts were flooded out. This made Xiao Xianlun feel both disappointed and relieved. He was disappointed that his goal of smearing He Mu had not been achieved, but he was also relieved that He Mu's influence seemed to be not as strong as he thought. He saw a post on Tianya about Liu Yifei being a trans person with tens of thousands of replies, while the posts about He Mu only had a few dozen replies, and they were all just people grabbing seats. Because of this, Xiao Xianlun no longer took He Mu seriously and let his carefully written black materials be flooded out in the sea of posts.

  It's a good thing that Guo Siyuan, who is persistent and doesn't give up easily, dug out Xiao Xianglun's old posts from Tie Shan and Tie Hai, excerpted the content, and personally went to Heng Shui to verify it. A few days later, Guo Siyuan wrote an article titled "From Pork Meat Prince to Kangxi Emperor - Let's Take a Look at the Brilliant Transformation of Newcomer Wang He Mu" and handed it over to Editor-in-Chief Jiang Dajun.

  Guo Siyuan cannot simply copy Xiao Xianlun's post, because his post is obviously filled with hostility towards He Mu. Not to mention that he posted the same thing on multiple forums, which is suspicious in itself, but just looking at the content of the post, it describes He Mu's family as a generations-old butcher family, and even mocked him saying "If He Mu hadn't had such good luck, by now he should have taken over his father's business and become the new leader of the pig-killing industry." However, Guo Siyuan's investigation found that He Mu's father is actually the boss of a meat processing factory, with assets in the tens of millions, and has extensive connections in the local community, and some influence. It would be more accurate to call He Mu a rich second-generation heir.

  Furthermore, the informant claimed that He Mu was a troublemaker in school, notorious for being unruly and disobedient. To verify this, Guo Siyuan personally went to Hengshui No. 1 Middle School, which is famous nationwide for its rigorous exams, and intercepted students outside the school, asking them about He Mu.

  At this time, the news that He Mu had become an actor had not yet spread in school, some people knew him, and some said they had never heard of it. From students who knew He Mu, Guo Siyuan learned that the information and revelations were quite different from what he had expected. According to He Mu, Wang Zheng was a bit too much, and at most, he was just brave and fierce, but mostly fought with outsiders. It is said that He Mu possessed extraordinary martial arts skills and often fought against evil forces inside and outside the school for his fellow students.

  Although it's said to be a bit far-fetched, from the interviewee's scattered words, Guo Siyuan has basically inferred what kind of person He Mu is. He's just someone with some kung fu skills, often fighting for his classmates and outsiders, and mostly winning, making him a hero in the eyes of some younger students.

  Look at the next piece of explosive information, which says that He Mu is actually not a handsome guy. Before high school, he was an extremely ugly fat boy, and even attached photos as evidence, claiming that He Mu had undergone plastic surgery and liposuction.

  Guo Siyuan took a look at the photo and really couldn't associate it with the handsome He Mu, but instead it reminded him of Du Haitao, the new host of Hunan TV's "Happy Camp". Could it be that among all the fake news, only this one is true?!

  Excited Guo Siyuan continued to investigate He Mu's plastic surgery issue, but the result was disappointing. The reason why He Mu looked ugly in the photo was due to the shooting angle. In another high school photo of He Mu found by Guo Siyuan, He Mu was still a chubby and handsome boy with a slightly baby-faced complexion, and his current outline could be seen completely. As for why he became thin now, according to a self-proclaimed high school classmate's sister who hooked up with Guo Siyuan online, He Mu fell in love with a girl in the same class during his second year of high school, so that semester, He Mu went crazy on dieting, running around the playground every morning and evening, from 107 pounds to 130 pounds, and became what he looks like now. His transformation happened bit by bit under the witness of his classmates, completely ruling out the possibility of plastic surgery or liposuction.

  After analyzing the posts of the whistleblower one by one, Guo Siyuan found that they were basically 30% true and 70% false, with strong inducement and deception. Guo Siyuan removed the fake parts, left the real ones, added his own experiences and He Mu's experience in group performances, and wrote this article about He Mu's magnificent transformation. The article was a long piece of writing, and Guo Siyuan became famous by pointing to it.

  Chief Editor Jiang Dawei quickly finished reading Guo Siyuan's manuscript, "The title is not bad...", Guo Siyuan was about to thank him when Jiang Dawei continued, "But the content of the article has no appeal at all, it must be revised!"

  "What should be changed?" Guo Siyuan thought that Jiang Dawei, as a senior in the industry, would put forward some constructive opinions, but...

  "Here, instead of 'father is an entrepreneur, running a meat processing plant', you can just write that his dad is a butcher, isn't that more attention-grabbing? And here, 'good at fighting, often stands up for classmates', why not write it as 'always hangs out with thugs outside of school, a problem child in the teacher's eyes'? And this part, can be written as 'handsome star is completely fake, reborn after plastic surgery and liposuction', what's the point of writing about weight loss? Readers don't want to see that. And this, and that..."

  After listening to Jiang Dajun's unique insight, Guo Siyuan was stunned. He really wanted to ask, "Chief Editor, aren't those online posts yours?" Jiang Dajun had completely destroyed his labor achievements, turning his news draft directly into an online explosive post, without any technical value at all.

  As a journalist's professional integrity, Guo Siyuan wanted to refuse Jiang Dajun, but thinking of his current meager salary and the preferential treatment after being hired, Guo Siyuan chose to obey, "Okay, editor-in-chief, I'll make the change."

  Jiang Dajun nodded in satisfaction: "Hurry up, I'm waiting for you. Tomorrow's headline will be it."

  After hearing Jiang Dajun's words, Guo Siyuan was even more spirited.

  ——————

  The next day, in the general manager's office of Hu Lang, Xiao Fang and Da Tang were both holding a copy of the same newspaper - "Nandu Entertainment News".

  "What do you think of Datang?" asked Xiao Fang.

  Da Tang put down the newspaper, "Actually, we had seen similar posts on He Mu's Tieba before, and at that time, they were deleted directly without being taken seriously. I didn't expect that after so long, it would be dug up and published in a domestic entertainment magazine with such influence."

  "What kind of impact do you think this report will have on me?" He Mu asked with a furrowed brow.

  "It's hard to say," said Da Tang, shaking his head. "It's possible that He Mu became a sensation in the entertainment industry without having any formal works, but this report is basically all negative. If we don't do some image PR soon, once these bad impressions are formed, it will be very unfavorable for He Mu's future development."

  "Any good ideas?" Xiao Fang asked. This was his first time experiencing such a thing and he had no idea how to turn the situation around.

  "After some thought, Datang said: 'Firstly, I must clarify how much of this report is true and how much is false, then I can make a targeted response.'"

  "I'll call Xiao Muzi right away and have him talk to you," said Xiao Fang, but as soon as he picked up his phone, he received a call. He looked at Da Tang and gestured, "It's Zhang Jiming."

  ……

  There was a thunderstorm today, and the power has been out since this afternoon. The nearby internet cafe also lost power. It just came back on now, sorry about that! By the way, I'd like to ask for some recommendation votes. We're currently 12th place, we need to solidify our Victory Fruit!!

  ;