Rebirth: A big star falls in love with me

After the first round, both of them were ranked in the upper-middle range.

During halftime, Yang Mi went to the restroom. In the corridor, she encountered a male player from Huayi named Li Hao.

"Yang Mi, right?" Li Hao stopped her, his smile frivolous. "You danced quite well. But do all the artists at 'Hua Yu' have to sleep with Zhang Yu to get ahead?"

Yang Mi's expression changed: "What did you say?"

"You know perfectly well what I'm saying." Li Hao leaned closer to her and lowered his voice. "Who doesn't know that Li Xiaoran is pregnant? Gao Yuanyuan was also photographed leaving Zhang Yu's office in the middle of the night. Isn't your training camp just Zhang Yu's harem?"

"Shut up!" Yang Mi raised her hand to hit him, but Li Hao grabbed her wrist.

"What, you're getting angry because I hit the nail on the head?" Li Hao sneered. "Let me tell you, President Wang said that this show is designed to embarrass the people from 'Hua Yu'. Just wait and see, neither you nor that Tang Yan will advance."

After he finished speaking, he let go of her hand and swaggered away. Yang Mi stood there, trembling with anger.

Back in the lounge, Tang Yan noticed her pale face and asked, "What's wrong?"

Yang Mi recounted what had happened. Tang Yan's face also turned pale: "How could they do this..."

"Wang Zhongjun is determined to destroy 'Hua Yu'." Yang Mi bit her lip. "Director Zhang must be under a lot of pressure right now."

"Then what should we do?" Tang Yan asked. "If the production team has really been bribed, it won't matter how well we perform."

Yang Mi was silent for a few seconds, then said, "No matter what, we have to give it our best. Even if we don't advance in the end, we can't let 'Hua Yu' down."

"Okay." Tang Yan nodded. "Let's work hard together."

The second round was an impromptu performance. The topic they drew was "Breakup on a Rainy Night." Yang Mi's partner happened to be Li Hao.

The performance began. According to the script, the two were a couple who broke up after arguing on a rainy night. But during the performance, Li Hao deliberately added a lot of physical contact, his hands wandering over her waist and back, his eyes lewd.

Yang Mi suppressed her nausea and continued performing. At the climax, according to the script, Li Hao should have grabbed her shoulders and questioned her, but he used too much force, and his nails dug into her flesh.

"Ah!" Yang Mi cried out in pain.

"Cut!" the director yelled. "What happened?"

"I'm sorry, director." Li Hao immediately let go, feigning innocence. "I got too into it and didn't control my strength. Yang Mi, are you alright?"

Several red marks had appeared on Yang Mi's shoulder. Looking at Li Hao's hypocritical face, she suddenly understood—he did it on purpose.

"It's okay," she said through gritted teeth. "Let's continue."

The performance continued. But in the following scenes, Li Hao intensified his actions, harassing her with various small movements from angles out of camera range. Yang Mi's eyes welled up with tears, but she insisted on finishing the performance.

After the performance, the judges gave their comments. One judge, invited by Wayi Entertainment, criticized Yang Mi bluntly: "Your performance was too stiff, and you couldn't keep up with your co-star at all. Moreover, your emotions weren't right. A breakup scene should have pain and struggle, but your performance was too superficial."

Yang Mi kept her head down and didn't speak. She knew this was Wang Zhongjun's arrangement.

Tang Yan's performance went relatively smoothly. Her partner was a fairly decent boy, and their performance was adequate. The judges gave her good feedback.

After the second round, Yang Mi's ranking dropped to third from the bottom, while Tang Yan ranked fifth, just barely making it into the next round.

During the break, Yang Mi hid in the bathroom and cried. She wasn't upset for herself, but for Zhang Yu—he had worked so hard to raise them, only to be suppressed like this.

My phone rang. It was a text message from Zhang Yu: "How did the recording of the show go?"

Yang Mi wiped away her tears and replied, "That's good. Tang Yan performed well and may advance."

She didn't mention the grievances she had suffered. Zhang Yu was already under enough pressure, and she didn't want to cause him any more trouble.

Zhang Yu quickly replied: "And you?"

Yang Mi hesitated for a moment before replying, "I'm doing alright too. Director Zhang, don't worry, we'll try our best."

After sending it, she looked at her red and swollen eyes in the mirror, took a deep breath, and touched up her makeup.

She couldn't give up. Even for Zhang Yu's sake, she had to persevere.

That same afternoon, in the conference room of "Huayu" company in Hengdian.

The atmosphere was so heavy it could be squeezed out of you. Wang Jinghua, Song Qian, Wang Ou, CFO Lao Zhao, and several department heads all looked at Zhang Yu with grave expressions.

“Director Zhang, the situation is worse than we thought.” Old Zhao pushed the financial statements in front of him. “The five companies that Wang Zhongjun has joined together have cut off all our external investment channels. The investors in the three projects that were originally agreed upon have all withdrawn their funds. Now the company’s working capital is only enough to cover the training camp’s expenses for one month.”

Wang Jinghua added: "As for the TV series, the spin-off of 'Awakening of Insects' has been halted due to funding issues. Not to mention the film project, they simply can't find any investment. Moreover... Orange Field has said that anyone who dares to invest in 'Hua Yu' is going against them."

Song Qian sighed, "At the training camp, the parents of three students have already come to inquire about the situation. If the living allowance isn't paid out next month, I estimate some students will drop out."

Zhang Yu leaned back in his chair, his fingers rhythmically tapping the table. The mole under his left eye was clearly visible under the conference room lights.

"Has Warner Bros. in the US responded?" he asked.

“Yes,” Wang Jinghua said. “They are willing to invest in the film version of ‘Awakening of Insects,’ but they have two conditions: first, they want to use an American actor of their own choosing as the male lead; second, they want 51% of the box office revenue.”

"That's outrageous," Zhang Yu sneered. "Tell them the male lead must be Chinese, and they'll get a maximum of 40% of the profits."

“Director Zhang, we have no bargaining chips right now…” Wang Jinghua hesitated.

“If you don’t have any chips, create some.” Zhang Yu stood up and walked to the window. “Wang Zhongjun thinks he can defeat me like this? He’s too naive.”

He turned around and looked at everyone: "Jinghua, go contact Hunan TV and Zhejiang TV and tell them we're willing to give up the title sponsorship of 'New Generation Actors' as long as they continue their cooperation. Song Qian, keep things stable at the training camp and tell the trainees that their living allowances will continue as usual, not a penny less. Lao Zhao, go to the bank to get a loan, using my property as collateral."

"Director Zhang!" Wang Ou exclaimed anxiously, "Those houses were your and Chen Chen's wedding home..."

"We can't worry about that now." Zhang Yu waved his hand. "Let's get through this first. Wang Ou, can you arrange a meeting with Mr. Li in Shanghai for me? I'll go see him tomorrow."

"Mr. Li? You mean Li Binbin's brother?"

“Yes.” Zhang Yu nodded. “Li Binbin is now the top female executive at Huayi, but her brother has his own investment company in Shanghai and isn’t on the same page as Wang Zhongjun. If we can secure his investment, we’ll have a chance to turn things around.”

The group exchanged bewildered glances, all seeing the surprise in each other's eyes—Zhang Yu had actually thought of this connection.

“But Director Zhang, what about President Li…” Wang Jinghua hesitated.

“I know,” Zhang Yu smiled. “President Li likes pretty girls, especially young and promising ones. Wang Ou, could you compile a list of the training camp participants, especially Yang Mi, Tang Yan, Zheng Shuang, and Liu Shishi?”