I woke up to find I have a child - Chapter 61
Han Yiren was desperate. If Yin Jiahe hadn’t said what she said on camera two days ago, Han Yiren would not have reached this level. It was different now as everyone more or less had discovered her true face, including Han Feixu. Even so, this only made her even more determined to get the female lead role.
Han Feixu is like a mountain standing in front of her. She has always discounted this mountain, thinking she will surpass it sooner or later, but at the same time she was afraid of it. Afraid that she will be killed by the mudslides rolling down the mountain while she climbs to the top.
Success and failure is due to one’s actions. This was a mentality Han Yiren has always adopted.
After being stopped in the hallway for questioning by Yin Jiahe, she had called Chang Hao the moment she returned to her room and made her first request with Chang Hao. And that request was to be the female lead of ?Barrier Lake?
Chang Hao agreed without a second thought. He was not one to care about the affairs between women nor did he care for news about the entertainment industry. He didn’t even know that Han Yiren was on this show, but since Han Yiren’s behavior around him has always been so obedient he agreed to whatever she requested.
Chang Hao then sent his secretary to “talk” with Director Cheng and the main producer of the show. He agreed to invest another 50 million yuan into the film with the condition that Han Yiren would be the female lead.
No one would complain about having too much money and what Chang Hao offered was not a small amount. He offered 50 million from the very start, and when the other side hesitated, he added some more. Seeing this, the main producer immediately agreed even though Director Cheng was still reluctant. However, he thought it over. Han Yiren was a pretty good actor and her age was aligned with the role, and so he also agreed in the end.
So after an impromptu meeting, they drew up a new contract and arranged staff to deal with the PR issues that may arise later. After busily working for two days. The producer and Director Cheng rushed to meet with Jiang Lingyan. They were originally graciously invited to watch the filming of the final episode, but end up crashing into a brick wall.
After being threatened by Jiang Lingyan, the producer hurriedly packed up the documents and ran out of the theater in a panic. Then after standing outside the theater for a while he called Han Yiren.
“Hello, Miss Han. It’s not that we don’t want to help you, it’s that the current condition won’t allow it. If you had brought this up earlier, we wouldn’t have to worry about it and run about for so many days to arrange this. Now that this variety show has become popular all over the country, this show belongs to Jiang Lingyan. You see, we can’t even intervene if we want to…”
It’s not that he can’t intervene, it’s more like he didn’t dare to intervene.
On the other side of the phone, it seemed like Han Yiren was currently in a very noisy palace and for nearly a minute the producer did not hear her voice at all, only hearing the voices of various random people passing by. After a full minute, her calm voice sounded out, “If I agree to work on this movie for no salary, will you intervene then?”
My goodness.
Han Yiren’s current salary for each film is about 12 million so if she agrees to film this for no compensation, then they can save 12 million!
Thomas Joseph Dunning once said that if there is 50% profit to be made, then capital will take risks. If there’s a 100% profit to be made, the company tramples on all human laws. With 300% profit, there is not a crime at which the company will scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged. This was an observation made of people more than 100 years ago, yet it is still very much applicable today. This was the same as the saying: “with enough money, you can get even the devil to turn a millstone.”
Han Yiren hung up the phone and then looked up to see one of the content directors walking towards her, “The broadcast will start soon. Please head over to the Eastern Zone. Another staff member will take you to the stage after a short while.”
Han Yiren nodded with a smile, “Alright, thank you.”
Both Han Feixu and Yin Jiahe were already standing in their assigned places. Han Feixu was tugging at the corner of her skirt with a lowered head and only looked up when she noticed a familiar figure walking towards her.
Han Feixu looked at the other party in surprise, “Why are you here?”
Sheen Sanglup stood before her with a bouquet of bright-colored stargazer lilies and two tender green sunflowers in her hands.
“Why wouldn’t I be here? Isn’t today the final round? Besides, I don’t have any other plans tonight so I decided to come here.” Her expression said ‘this is not even worth mentioning’ as she handed the bouquet to Han Feixu.
The bouquet was at least five circles bigger than Shen Sangluo’s face. She solemnly explained as she handed the flowers over, “Stargazer lilies symbolize victory while sunflowers symbolize victory. Classmate Han Feixu, on behalf of all the owners of apartment 1608 of the Yunbin building*, I wish you instant success, success in a single move!” (*T/N: Shen Sangluo is just being dramatic here, she’s like the only owner of her apartment so she’s just telling Han Feixu good luck.)
Han Feixu glanced at Yin Jiahe, who was standing beside her, first and the latter merely shrugged indifferently and turned around to give them some privacy. Han Feixu whispered a quiet thank you before stretching out her hands to accept the flowers.
Shen Sangluo shifted the flowers out of her grasp, leaving her hanging, “I only bought this for you to look at, yet you actually want to take it from me.”
Han Feixu: “….”
Isn’t this bouquet for me?!!
Shen Sangluo smiled at her confused expression, “I’ll hold onto it for you first. You can’t bring flowers on the stage anyway.”
Han Feixu smiled from ear to ear, “How were you able to get on set?”
“Jiang Lingyan sent me an invitation.” She held up a badge hanging around her neck, “See, ‘Organizer’s Specially Invited Guest’. Our ministry also has badges like this and I use them when I’m running errands, but I didn’t expect to be invited as a guest in advance this time.”
Han Feixu didn’t actually care how Shen Sangluo got in. She cared more about who let her in. When she heard Jiang Lingyan’s name her eyes immediately lit up.
Shen Sangluo could clearly see the “Mom! Hurry, come and watch the gossip!’ look in her eyes. Black lines appeared on her forehead as she frowned, “It’s not like what you think!”
Han Feixu put on an innocent expression, “And what exactly am I thinking? I haven’t said anything yet, couldn’t this be considered an admission of guilt from you?”
Shen Sangluo fell silent, “I shouldn’t have come to see you. After the show is over will you be going back to Hengdian?”
“Yes, I have a flight at 1 in the morning.”
Shen Sangluo clicked her tongue twice, “How miserable. I’m so lucky I only have to work my nine to five and I get time off on the weekends.”
“But you work overtime for basically half of the month, every month and half of that overtime results in working till 10 in the evening. You do all that work and still your salary contains two less zeros than mine.”
Shen Sangluo: “….I’m leaving”
She’s afraid if she stays any longer she might get depressed = =
Having her friend come see her only made Han Feixu even more excited and cheerful than before. She lowered her head with a happy expression while Yin Jiahe finally turned back around to ask her blankly, “That’s Jiang Lingyan’s girlfriend?”
Han Feixu looked up in surprise, “How do you know?’
Yin Jiahe put two fingers up into a peace sign near her head as she struck a cool pose with her other hand on her hip, “Don’t forget, I have amazing observation skills.”
And just how amazing are these observation skills? Han Feixu wanted to ask her just that, but the final round had finally started. This live broadcast is not only going to be on one TV station, but also three other major online platforms. While the middle-aged and elderly watched on their TV, the young netizens were actively spamming the online platforms.
Pikachu’s Pipipi: First! Front row, let’s give a big shout-out to our beloved Gu-Gu!
Yijian’s Attentive Listener: I will always only love Yin Jiahe ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Cai-Cai the Cat is Always Flying High: Stop spamming the screen! By the way, let me scream loudly, Nie Kaiyuan please sleep with me!!!!
Changsha’s number one Hunk: Sisters, spewing such obscenities may feel good in the moment but will have dire consequences later.
Aijia feels Joyous: Han-meimei, fighting! You’re the best!
Sweet Girl: Comrade, let’s help out one of ours! Everyone, we must vote! All our votes shall go to Yiren-meimei!
Aijia feels Joyous: You’re mistaken, dear. Aijia is an older sister who is a fan of our Han Feixu-meimei.
….and other such embarrassing sentences.
Most of the guests invited by the directors/producers were representatives of big investors or important figures who have a personal relationship with the Jiang Lingyan or immediate relatives of the judges. So someone like Shen Sangluo looked out of place.
Moreover, there are 5 different mobile phones on her lap. All of them were fully charged, whether it’s a new or old model, and all of them were on the show’s official voting website.
Everyone else: …Could she be a crazy fangirl who snuck in? Will she jump on stage and grab her idol a little while later?
A bald man sitting on her right looked at the badge hanging over her chest and after studying for a long time, he confirmed that it wasn’t fake.
After sitting still for a while, he couldn’t hold back his curiosity and so he leaned close to her and asked in a whisper, “Miss, may I ask which family you’re from?”
Of course, he was asking about her company and not her actual family. Shen Sangluo raised her head and blinked, “I’m from the National Radio and Television Administration.”
Oh fu*k, it’s one of the big daddies from the Radio and Television ministry! (T/N: yes, the author really did write daddy)
The man’s gaze immediately changed as he laughed dryly, “Haha, is that so? Which department do you work in?”
Shen Sangluo stared at him for a few seconds and the corners of her lips raised slightly, “I’m section chief of one of the censorship departments. Do you have any more questions?”
She didn’t specify which auditing department she was from. The man is an admin director of a media company and he often has to deal with the TV censorship department, but he has never met their section chief. He repeatedly shook his head back and forth, “N-No other questions, sorry to waste your precious time, please continue with your work, dad-sorry, I mean, Young Miss, hahahaha….”
The final round finally started and once the audience realized what kind of script it was, most of them were about to burst out laughing. However, as the round continued the audience got serious.
The livestreams found themselves drowning in fans of various artists, all of them soliciting for more votes for their idols. Apart from asking for votes, the brain-dead fans continued to flood the screen with their screams of admiration. The fans for Gu Zhigui seemed to be strongest and so when you watch the broadcast on your phone, you’ll only be able to see words and none of the people on the screen at all.
Shen Sangluo glanced at the people sitting behind the guest-designated seating area. A panel of 100 in-person voters sat there and they would vote after the netizens were done voting. There was an equal number of men and women, young and old, and looked pretty balanced overall. Shen Sangluo turned back around and looked at the phones in her lap.
Jiang Lingyan had set strict requirements for online voting in order to prevent any vote manipulation. So one person could only create one account on one device and cast only one vote. Once you have voted, you can not vote again on that device. That’s why Shen Sangluo brought five mobile phones with her. She even brought the iPhone 4s she had bought back in college.
She felt a bit of sorrow looking at her old phone. Back then, the Apple iPhone craze had just started and it seemed like everyone wanted to use an Apple product and you would be seen as a poor cheapskate if you didn’t. She was only able to buy one with her scholarship and even then the phone cost her more than 5000 yuan. 7 years ago, 5000 yuan was no small change and not to mention she was only a student then.
That was her first time spending so impulsively on something that would only satisfy her vanity. Now, she was no longer that little girl who followed the newest trends but a veteran who knew how to shop around for the best price.
After stewing in her sorrowful past for about two minutes, Shen Sanglup looked at the current results on her phone. In the beginning, Yin Jiahe led the race by a large amount and Han Feixu was ranking near the bottom, even below Han Yiren. However, after a round of voting, Yin Jiahe has now fallen and Han Yiren has beaten her to the number one spot. Meanwhile, Han Feixu and Yin Jiahe were neck in neck and their number of votes changed every second, sometimes Han Feixu was leading and sometimes she was lagging behind.
Shen Sangluo felt that the current result was already pretty good. One must know that Han Feixu and Yin Jiahe’s fan bases are nowhere near the same level. Fortunately, there were more rational voters than crazy fans and Jiang Lingyan was strictly controlling the voting system. Otherwise, Han Feixu would’ve long fallen to the bottom of the list.
In the end, the final score will be made up of both the panel of 100 in-person voters and the netizens’ votes. 60% of the weight went to the panel of in-person voters and 40% to the netizens, and so one could clearly see that the panel of 100 voters was more important.
Shen Sangluo was merely one of the many faces in the guest audience sitting inside the theater. From an audience member’s perspective, she thinks Han Feixu is the best and most brilliant performer on stage. Sure, all of her lines were quite shameful and spicy, but she performed well without a single flinch and there was no hint of laughter in her expression despite the ridiculousness of it all.
Shen Sangluo felt a little proud. Humans naturally divide themselves into groups and birds of a feather flock together. If they are Shen Sangluo’s friend, how could they be useless?
Her smug gaze swept across the stage, but her face immediately darkened again when she spotted Ye Mingxin sitting in the mentors/judges sections and smiling from ear to ear.
Alas, no one is perfect and one’s strength and weaknesses are relative to each other. The more amazing Han Feixu’s acting skills are, the worse her vision becomes!
Although she knows the couple has basically reconciled, Shen Sangluo still held a stomach full of bias against Ye Mingxin. Ah, she didn’t want to think about this anymore. She put away the phones she had used to vote, leaving her with only her current phone to watch the progress as the votes came in.
The final round was slated to last more than 2 hours. About 40 minutes into the final round, Han Yiren’s votes suddenly increased by a large amount. Shen Sangluo had been intensely staring at the growing pillars of votes, so naturally she could see this large difference. She frowned and glanced at the stage.
The current performer is Yin Jiahe, so in terms of increasing votes it shouldn’t be Han Yiren?
Meanwhile, Liang Zhu, who decided not to come on set, was instead overseeing the current competition at the Gan company. Gan Zongming himself was working overtime upstairs and when he came over because he saw the lights were still on in the studio, he saw a dozen of people gathered around a display screen and staring intensely at it.
Everyone else was standing but Liang Zhu. She was frowning at the screen and at a certain point even slammed her fist down on the table, “She’s manipulating the vote! I knew that little wench would eventually start stealing the votes. Quick, everyone, hurry up and steal some votes too! Bite her ass for me!”
Everyone quickly dispersed and rushed to their seats if they had seats or simply sat on the floor if they didn’t have any. They grabbed their laptops as they manually grabbed votes or uploaded words that were scripted in advance by Liang Zhu to gather more votes.
Su Jue had nothing to do tonight but after hearing that the person who was smearing Han Feixu’s reputation was caught and Han Feixu would be having a fight to the death with her today, she ran over in a hurry. She even bought a box of waffles as a late night snack for all the staff.
From the corner of her eye, Liang Zhu saw someone standing behind her and turned around abruptly. She was about to scold the person when she realized it was Gan Zongming standing behind her with his arms folded and bent over as he looked at the screen, “What?”
She swallowed the flurry of curses, almost biting her tongue as she did so, “President Gan….what are you doing here?”
“I wanted to take a look at the situation. Can Han Feixu win?” Gan Zongming asked serenely.
Liang Zhu stuttered, “I-I’m not sure.”
Heavens, when did he come in? Did he hear when she told everyone to steal some votes?!
She doesn’t want to be subjected to “morality” education again TAT
Gan Zongming nodded, “I see. Do you have a spare laptop? I’ll help grab some votes too.”
Liang Zhu froze, “Huh?”
“Don’t you always preach to us about strictly following the core socialist values….?”
Gan Zongming hummed noncommittally, “That only applies if there is no conflict between two parties. Since she started it by stealing the votes, why shouldn’t we retaliate and do the same? Since the other party decided to be spiteful first, they can’t blame us for being unrighteous either. Also, are these waffles any good?”
“….”
Hey, you change the subject a little too fast!
In the end, Gan Zongming didn’t actually help them steal some votes. He had other things to do and there were no spare laptops he could use. Su Jue nervously gave him a box of chocolate waffles and he graciously accepted them before leaving. As he took the elevator up, he clicked on the voting website and voted for Han Feixu.
Both sides were grabbing votes from behind the scene, and Liang Zhu was especially vicious, as if she had a personal grudge with them. When the other party stole some votes, she stole some as well. When they stopped, she stopped as well. This way, she was always right behind Han Yiren, tightly biting on her lead. Thus, the difference in the number of votes slowly decreased to a gap of less than 1000.
Although Han Yiren was still ahead, this gap couldn’t be considered a gap at all. In the final conversion of the score, this difference may only be worth a few decimal points.
In another building, Yu Tingxue sat in her guest seat as she watched two of the female contestants steal votes. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should ask her secretary to do the same for Yin Jiahe. However, she remembered that Yin Jiahe was already negotiating roles for her next movie and didn’t seem to actually want to participate in this movie at all. If she helped her buy votes for the sake of face, it might make Yin Jiahe even angrier with her. Their current relationship is already in a rocky place, so she shouldn’t rock the boat even more.
Yu Tingxue could count on one hand the number of times she’s considered another person’s view before making a decision. She had no choice but to clumsily try to change her ways if she wanted Yin Jiahe to stop being angry with her.
There were a total of three rounds in this final episode and once the third round finished, Liang Zhu looked over at Su Jue and asked, “What do you think of Han Feixu’s performance?”
Su Jue answered seriously, “Very good, much better than me.”
….Of course she is. If she was worse than Su Jue then she would’ve been eliminated in the first episode.
“Then what about Yin Jiahe’s performance?”
Su Jue pondered over it for a while, “Passable, albeit a bit awkward. She also seemed to have strained her voice when she shouted her lines during the second round of lines.”
“What about Han Yiren?”
“Very good.” Su Jue went quiet for a second. She knows that Liang Zhu doesn’t regard Han Yiren very highly right now, and she herself had the same opinion. In terms of familiarity, of course she was more familiar and closer with Han Feixu. However, being close with someone doesn’t mean she’ll blindly lie just to protect their feelings, “Liang-jie, I think she performed really well but from the way she was swiping votes just now, I can tell they don’t actually have confidence in her winning. If she didn’t manipulate the vote then perhaps Han Feixu would be number one right now.”
After a pause, she said in a lower volume, “Do you think…no one would be able to see that she had manipulated the vote?”
Liang Zhu sneered coldly, “That’s the reason why I’ve been tightly biting onto her lead this entire time.”
Su Jue was dumbfounded, “What do you mean?”
Everyone has eyes and Liang Zhu can also see that Han Yiren is performing well, but there is no big difference between her performance and Han Feixu’s. Who is better and who is worse is a matter of difference in opinions. Under such circumstances, one can easily swipe a few votes if they are capable and no one would notice because they subconsciously would think she does not need to steal votes with how well she’s doing.
Thus, Liang Zhu told her team to keep the gap between the votes at 3 digits. In addition to narrowing the gap for Han Feixu, she wanted everyone to see that Han Yiren was stealing votes. For if there was no vote manipulation, the gap would have jumped up and down instead of staying at a steady three digits.
Experts and veterans in the industry will be able to tell that this gap was intentional, an operation carried out by Han Feixu’s team, but the common layperson will not think so. They will only think that Han Yiren must be manipulating the vote because why else is Han Feixu still lagging behind her every single second with no fluctuation in the gap at all? And isn’t she a little too stingy with the botes, to make the gap more than a thousand! Who can’t see that she’s manipulating the votes?
Liang Zhu took out her phone and saw that the screen was covered in comments. Sure enough, there was a big quarrel playing out on the screen. Han Feixu and Yin Jiahe’s fans have temporarily entered a truce with each other and started to target Han Yiren’s fans together. The three different fandoms argued with each other, scolding and insulting the others, and could be considered a “splendid” ordeal.
Aijia feels Joyous: How shameless! If you want to manipulate the votes, then just take them away! Why do you have to be so obvious about it? Are you guys just idiots or are you treating us, the audience, as idiots!
Sweet Girl: If you have evidence, present it. If you don’t, then please leave!
Aijia feels Joyous: The evidence is as solid as Thor’s hammer, yet you still demand more evidence? Are you blind or something?
(T/N: In Chinese, the word “hammer” can also be used as the word “evidence”, thus the comparison to Thor’s hammer)
Sweet Girl: Can our idol not surpass yours simply because she’s better? Yet you say it’s vote manipulation, but have you ever seen vote-rigging with such a small margin? You’re projecting your own actions and crimes onto others. Your desperate tantrums and insults make me wonder if you’re upset because your own attempts at rigging the votes failed. So you’re out here insulting people to vent your own bitterness at losing. Haha, I have no interest in engaging with an immature and crazy chicken-brained fan like you. But I should have expected it, after all an immature celebrity can only have immature fans and can’t amount to anything worthwhile.
Aijia feels Joyous: AHHHHHH! You’re going to anger me to death! I will summon a divine beast to handle you! Come out, divine beast, and curse her to death!
I , the ruler, choose to pass away: Here it comes here it comes, the beast is coming!!!
…..
No matter how one interprets these comments, anyone can see that these fans were showcasing how crazily in love they were with their idols = =
After the third round, the voting for the netizens was closed and the army of fans no longer begged for votes. Instead, the fans began to spam each other with insults. The six remaining contestants stood at the center of the stage as they waited for the final voting from the in-person panel to be counted.
In order to create a tense atmosphere, Jiang Lingyan asked these 100 in-person voters to vote visibility and have the name of the person they voted for read aloud. As more of the votes came in, the more intense the atmosphere would become. Furthermore, among these 100 people, they are all rational decision-makers who are much more professional than the netizens and they were vetted to make sure there wasn’t a single crazy fan among them.
However, even rational judges have their flaws. For example, because they are so pragmatic and rational, they would put their interests first and then show’s interests.
By the time the 20th person voted, Jiang Lingyan’s face had turned completely black. The assistant director has never seen such an angry Director Jiang. He was so afraid that he didn’t dare to even breathe. Meanwhile, her sister Jiang LingYuan, who was still unaware of the scheming going on in front of them, frowned and asked, “Is Han Yiren’s acting that good? Why did so many of them vote for her?”
Among the first 20 voters, 16 of them voted for Han Yiren, 3 for Han Feixu, and only one for Yin Jiahe. This result would’ve been acceptable if Han Yiren’s acting really was that good, but that is not the case here yet she is able to create a gap between her and second place that is as vast and as tall as Mt. Fuji!
Han Yiren didn’t expect this result either, and a surprised look flashed across her face before she schooled her expression and then started cursing the producer in her heart.
Yes, it’s true that she will win for certain now, but who couldn’t tell that this was rigged?!
The producer was sitting at home with a dazed look. He didn’t organize this, he had only approached 30 people and bribed them with money to get them to vote for Han Yiren. Yet, as the total numbers reached 50, about 42/50 of the voters have voted for Han Yiren!
After such a big spectacle, even Han Yiren couldn’t maintain a calm expression anymore. Yin Jiahe, on the other hand, was the calmest of the three as she was just here as a tagalong tonight. Although she was annoyed that Han Yiren would win, she was already feeling much better just thinking about the comments and articles that would be written on the Internet tonight. Out of the three, Han Feixu should be the most depressed.
Thinking along these lines, she glanced to the side only to find that not only was Han Feixu’s expression even calmer than hers, she didn’t look surprised at all.
Yin Jiahe was dumbfounded for a moment. Sensing her gaze, Han Feixu tilted her head slightly and smiled at her.
?????
Meanwhile, sitting in the car outside the arena, Wei Xun looked at the list of names Han Feixu gave him. He carefully paid the final payment owed to these people. They had paid them a deposit first, but after they voted for Han Yiren, he was responsible for sending them their final payment.
Wei Xun sighed silently as he sent over the money. So that old saying was true, “If you’re not part of the same family, you don’t enter the same door”. Madam was just like the Eldest Young Miss, her cunning tactics not at all inferior to the Eldest Young Miss’ schemes!
Finally, the voting was finished. Among the 100 votes, Han Yiren got the extremely high number of 79 votes while the rest were distributed to the other two female contestants. No one had paid the male contestants any attention as they all looked at Han Yiren. Soon enough the words “vote manipulation” instantly reached the top of trending searches and all sorts of curses could be heard endlessly. Now, Han Yiren couldn’t hold onto her darling reputation even if she wanted to.
When Han Feixu returned backstage, Yin Jiahe pulled her aside and asked in a low whisper, “What did you do?”
Han Feixu smiled, “Exactly as I said before, I will defeat her.”
She raised her chin, as if she was looking down on all beings on this earth, “This time, it was a psychological defeat. Next time, I will defeat her in every sense of the word.”