TRMP Chapter 81

After filming a variety show filled with scheming and power struggles, Jiang Yifeng finally stepped off the stage.

He stretched, preparing to change out of his costume when he heard a loud commotion from next door, followed by intense arguing.

Jiang Yifeng recognized the voices as belonging to the male celebrity who hadn’t been able to answer the questions on stage earlier, and his teammate.

He instantly lost interest. After changing, Jiang Yifeng went out, where Luo Qi was waiting for him in the hallway.

He didn’t want to get involved in their affairs, but the argument was echoing loudly through the corridor.

“Xu Dongyang, are you doing this on purpose? I can’t recite it, I can’t recite it, but did you bring in Jiang Yifeng to deliberately embarrass me?”

“How would I know you couldn’t even recite such a simple line of poetry?” Xu Dongyang said lazily, “Besides, Jiang Yifeng didn’t recite it either, did he?”

“Xu Dongyang, how many of the dozen or so poems you had to recite did you actually manage to do? Weren’t the rest recited for you by Jiang Yifeng?”

“You have the nerve to talk about me? What’s my education? I started dancing and acting after high school. What about you? You’re the highly educated one in our circle, a doctoral student. Are you comparing yourself to me?”

The two were arguing fiercely, and no one dared to approach them. It wasn’t until the noise in the room subsided a little that an assistant carefully knocked on the door to remind them.

Jiang Yifeng was too lazy to watch the farce.

He left in a hurry, never expecting that night’s variety show would be just a fuse.

As expected, after the variety show aired, the scenes of the celebrity repeatedly failing to answer questions in front of the guests attracted the attention of troublemakers.

Marketing accounts edited the show’s content into short clips and spread them widely on the internet. Some people ridiculed the artists for being uncultured, while others argued that poetry was a niche classical subject, and the poems mentioned on the show weren’t very common, so it was normal not to be able to answer.

And Jiang Yifeng, with his bright smile, was once again singled out as the most important target.

“Jiang Yifeng can’t even recite such a simple line of poetry? Is he illiterate?”

“Not everyone knows poetry, and Jiang Yifeng can even recite that XX poem. That one was on our high school league exam, and the accuracy rate was less than 2%.”

“Several of the poems were niche ones, so it’s normal not to be able to answer them, but for Xu Dongyang to have Jiang Yifeng answer even XXX shows just how fitting his ‘nine-leak fish’ persona is, right?” (nine-leak fish, translates to someone who slipped through nine years of compulsory education.)

“The show crew did it on purpose, right? They want to promote Jiang Yifeng. Who doesn’t know that? Look at Jiang Feng, a doctoral student in performing arts, and he still couldn’t answer four or five of the poems. He’s the only one who answered so many correctly. Isn’t the script too obvious?”

People were discussing animatedly.

However, the number of people who genuinely cared about poetry was, after all, a minority. Those who watched variety shows were usually just looking for entertainment.

Jiang Yifeng, as one of the best performers on the entire show, gained many new fans, and the fans were happy that their idol was knowledgeable.

With Jiang Yifeng’s increasing popularity, the new “poetry” variety show added another halo to his head, and Jiang Yifeng’s fan base continued to grow.

That night, he even made it onto the trending searches solely based on his search volume, without the company having to buy a spot. The number of active fans on the forum was even higher than the marketing and bot accounts.

And the promotion for the new drama had also begun.

The filming of Guan Shaodong’s new drama was nearing its end, and Zhao Wenjun finally had time to give interviews.

And in his interviews, he specifically mentioned “a promising new director, Zhu Kuoyang.”

Zhu Kuoyang gradually entered the eyes of the entertainment circle. Although everyone didn’t know who Zhu Kuoyang was, Zhao Wenjun’s endorsement garnered Zhu Kuoyang some attention.

Zhu Kuoyang didn’t directly mention the new drama’s fundraising, but he participated in several small interviews, repeatedly mentioning the past glory of martial arts films and his love for martial arts, creating a lot of hype.

Zhao Wenjun used Guan Yiqiang’s resources to start promoting the martial arts drama, resonating with the audience and evoking emotions.

In recent years, martial arts had declined, and everyone felt the same way about Zhu Kuoyang’s words. Thinking back to the classic masterpieces of the past, everyone couldn’t help but feel regret for the passing of that era.

And when everyone’s emotions had reached a fever pitch, Zhao Wenjun suddenly revealed a little bit of information at the right time.

He would be serving as the producer for a martial arts drama series and would be working with an admired director to construct the martial arts world in their hearts.

Zhao Wenjun had a big name in the industry, and as soon as he spoke, both the audience and investors were immediately stirred.

However, everyone in the entertainment industry was cunning. Big stars were unwilling to take the risk of filming a martial arts drama that might lose all its investment, while small stars… some of them saw the potential hidden behind it and tried their best to submit their resumes to the production team.

When the time was ripe, Zhu Kuoyang also released the news that Jiang Yifeng might be participating in the drama and that the drama was open to public investment.

Even though Jiang Yifeng had gained some fame recently, he was still far from being able to play the male lead in Zhao Wenjun’s drama.

Zhu Kuoyang and Zhao Wenjun were just relatives, but Zhao Wenjun’s relentless promotion of Zhu Kuoyang recently clearly indicated that they had some kind of connection. Jiang Yifeng climbing onto Zhu Kuoyang was equivalent to climbing onto Zhao Wenjun, and that kind of luck and ability made many people in the entertainment industry grit their teeth with hatred.

Everyone felt that Jiang Yifeng had gotten incredibly lucky.

And the creatures hidden in the depths of the entertainment industry’s pool were also starting to stir.

“Deep Dive into ‘Poetry Prodigy’ Jiang Yifeng’s Education: A ‘Nine-Leak Fish’ with No Bachelor’s Degree.”

Finally, someone couldn’t hold back and released the first wave of material.

Marketing accounts, like blood-sucking insects, saw the heat and immediately latched onto it, using their mouthparts to break open the flesh and spread malice to their heart’s content.

“Marketing a poetry talent, we were all deceived by his hypocritical face.”

“‘Nine-Leak Fish’ Jiang Yifeng, graduated from high school to become a celebrity, when will illiterate celebrities end?”

“‘Nine-Leak Fish’ should read more books and market less of the book-loving persona.”

Marketing accounts were constantly spraying, questioning Jiang Yifeng’s education. Some people were digging into Jiang Yifeng’s high school, even trying to dig out Jiang Yifeng’s college entrance exam scores, to show everyone how bad he really was.

“Didn’t go to school,” “Unlearned,” “‘Nine-Leak Fish’,” “Illiterate.”

Jiang Yifeng thought he had become immune to online attacks, but when he saw comments like these, he instinctively felt a sting in his heart.

People need to pay the price for their youthful impulses.

Just like him.

Jiang Yifeng looked at the comments on his phone and silently squeezed the phone’s shell.

He took two deep breaths and pressed his fingers hard against his forehead, his eyes a little blank.

A knock on the door interrupted Jiang Yifeng’s thoughts. He turned his chair and said, “Come in.” A senior executive entered with a few pages of proposals.

The other party’s face was wearing a warm smile, seemingly unaffected by the sudden outburst of public opinion today. Instead, he put the proposal on the table and seriously wanted to discuss the subsequent magazine shooting with Jiang Yifeng.

Jiang Yifeng tilted his head, his voice hoarse: “I, do I still have magazine invitations? Yesterday’s incident was so big…”

“It’s okay, there are too many people in the entertainment industry with only a high school education, and there are even those with lower education levels. It’s just an education level.” The senior executive didn’t take Jiang Yifeng’s grades to heart.

It should be known that the youngest in the entertainment industry may only have a junior high school education, and whether they can even get into high school is still unknown, let alone Jiang Yifeng who has already graduated from high school.

The entertainment industry doesn’t worry about people’s cultural level at all.

After all, there are not many people with culture, and there are a lot of people who pretend to be cultured with 300 points (out of 750 on the college entrance exam) to make “deep” movies.

Jiang Yifeng: “…”

Jiang Yifeng rubbed his forehead a little helplessly.

He really didn’t expect that a thorn in his heart was irrelevant to others.

The corners of his mouth lifted, and his expression also seemed a lot gentler.

He picked up the proposal handed to him by the senior executive and looked at it quietly, preparing to continue participating in the next magazine shoot.

However, things were not as simple as Jiang Yifeng thought.

Perhaps seeing that no one was reacting, the person hiding behind the scenes finally stirred up public opinion, going deeper.

Marketing accounts in the entertainment industry, who love to watch the excitement and don’t mind the trouble, didn’t know where they got Jiang Yifeng’s high school and college entrance examination scores, but the news that Jiang Yifeng was admitted to Yan City University of Posts and Telecommunications with a high score was dug up.

More than 600 points, although not top-notch, Yan City University of Posts and Telecommunications is not as easy to get into as imagined for people from small places outside – and it is definitely a score that most netizens can’t reach.

The Internet was silent for several hours, and only Jiang Yifeng’s fans were celebrating wildly.

“I thought I could dig up something, but I didn’t expect to mock Jiang Yifeng and mock myself?”

“Even if it’s not a top university, but a college entrance examination score of 660, I don’t know if those who mocked him for being a ‘nine-leak fish’ have higher scores.”

“Seriously, is this the legendary illiterate? Then what am I?”

“I really want to ask the troublemakers, can your brother pass 400 points in the cultural subjects of this year’s college entrance examination?”

“Wow, I wanted to dig up a bad student, but I dug up a top student. Don’t you feel ashamed? Don’t you come out to apologize? You still haven’t come out to apologize?”

The fans vented their anger on the Internet for the day.

However, the marketing accounts led the rhythm to another direction.

Jiang Yifeng did not graduate from college.

He does not have a bachelor’s degree. Someone claimed to have obtained Jiang Yifeng’s Xue X (learning) account and confirmed that he only had a high school education.

The marketing accounts did not show weakness, pointing directly to a question – “Since Jiang Yifeng was admitted to such a good university with a high score, why does he only have a high school education? Why would Jiang Yifeng only have a high school education after being admitted to such a good university?”

And soon someone claiming to be Jiang Yifeng’s university classmate submitted a post.

“He was expelled from the university for fraud.”