Chapter 58: Second Update

Chapter 58 [Second Update] Actually, no clapback needed.

Because Xuan Leron passed the audition.

Obviously, he was going to take the role.

The news leaked out completely, and it blew up.

At first people were explaining things, but the comments kept getting more aggressive — some were stirring the pot, and the whole vibe turned explosive. · Because Xuan Leron remembered CEO Sang's rule about not letting artists go silent, he jumped in whenever something needed a response.

And since the fan groups were already fighting, comments from multiple sides got pushed to the top.

Right now it split into three camps — First, the ride-or-die stans.

Xuan Leron can do whatever, as long as he's breathing that's fine — this type is called 'life fans' in fandom circles.

Who dares argue?

They'll literally die!

You're not a real fan if you do?!

Second, the hardliners.

Also the type Xuan Leron's cousin and assistant was most worried about.

The moment they heard Xuan Leron was 'lowering his value' to take a short drama, they went ballistic and started rallying the fandom to boycott.

If the boycott fails and Xuan Leron doesn't change his mind... they're serving up the full unfan package.

A little threatening, yeah.

Third type: the 'model student' centrists.

Xuan Leron doing this probably has his reasons, and fans feeling 'stabbed in the back' also makes sense, but let's not fight yet.

So the chaos wasn't just in the comments under the leak account's post 'Xuan Leron May Star as Male Lead in Aurora Entertainment's First Short Drama.' It spilled into Xuan Leron's Weibo comments, his fan super-topic, everywhere.

Not to mention rival fans fanning the flames — Ouyang Changyi's stans — because Xuan Leron's side had mocked her before, so why not?

Plenty of spectators too, since the general public basically agreed: a serious actor wouldn't do short dramas, it's low-tier.

People piled in from every direction, and the related topics were an absolute mess.

Xuan Leron didn't play dead.

His decision had a whole crowd screaming — what's the point of 'watching the fire from across the river'?

So he jumped in too. ['Babe, did someone force you?

Did Aurora Entertainment pressure you with the favor they did for the male lead?'] [Xuan Leron]: ['Nobody forced me.

My decision.

I'm a grown adult, babe.'] ['We're saying this for your own good, don't you get it?!'] [Xuan Leron]: ['I get it, thanks for caring.

I'd rather not take too much advice — I need to assess first, then decide.'] ['...Are you being sarcastic?!

Lol, gonna die laughing, the main character himself comes down to chase fans off, fine I'll leave then?'] ['Is this worth my investment?

I bought so many copies of your magazine, give me a refund!'] [Xuan Leron]: ['I'm sorry.

Please DM my assistant's account — the refund will happen.'] ['Knew it, never stan someone who got rich quick and hasn't found their footing yet — running before they're steady, go be a nobody at home'] ['Chasing your actual blacklist history, go be lovey-dovey with your Xiao Rong squad, I'm out — the biggest forced-push embarrassment in Domestic Entertainment'] ['Now I know why you weren't blowing up before, everything has a pattern'] ['...Just finished The Demolition Office, why don't you protect your image?

Lowering your value to do short dramas, letting the rival fans laugh at us?

Don't you care about your fans at all?

You think no matter how you act up, fans will always support you?'] [Xuan Leron]: ['I never thought that.

And I don't think I'm acting up.

Short dramas are a format in the film and TV landscape — their existence is valid.

As long as the script works and I deliver something good, I'm still being an actor.

Isn't that right?'] That one stirred up a thousand waves — ['Really gonna keep playing innocent?

Chasing your niche 'actor's integrity' thing — don't you know taking this will tank your tier?'] ['Give it a year — no, not even a year — when Aurora Entertainment's new drama drops, let's see how many people remember you.'] ['Lmaooo, didn't you guys mock Ouyang for 'lowering herself to do motion capture'?

Now it's your big bro's turn?'] ['The Xuan Leron fandom's old guard is done, congrats, the 'male' ratio in your fanbase just went way up!

Rebellious-phase big son energy'] ['Such a dad-bro vibe, so arrogant...

I see clearly now, maybe I only liked the character.

Ouyang feels more real than this'] ...

Besides all that, the centrist fans were trying to play peacemaker.

But it was useless — at this point, anything thrown into the white-hot battlefield just added fuel.

So Xuan Leron's tone got a little harder. [Xuan Leron]: ['Everything done 'for my own good' — I'm genuinely grateful.

But if your advice = I must comply, and I have to give up trying and only walk the path 'chosen for me' — I'm sorry.

I understand some people's disappointment.

I also respect everyone's choice.'] [Xuan Leron]: ['I won't dismiss anyone's investment.

If you need a refund, contact my assistant.

It might be slow, but what's owed will be returned.'] [Xuan Leron]: ['Whether you're a mom-fan, girlfriend-fan, or reverse-su fan — you're all my fans.

No hierarchy.

Please don't attack each other, or I'll conclude that 'if I can't have it, I'll destroy it' — and jealousy is something I do have.'] ...

Whoa — !

Netizens lost it.

That rush of getting a fresh, direct response from the main character himself faintly echoed back to when The Favored One was officially announced.

Author Shu Mucheng also pulled out the big guns, blasting the whole field, hyping everyone up.

It happened again.

Gotta hand it to Aurora Entertainment.

Ever since CEO Sang posted that essay blasting celebrities who play dead, it really seemed like people in Domestic Entertainment grew a spine.

Setting that kind of tone isn't bad.

At least it stops celebrities from looking like the beneficiaries in some old-school drama — like those ancient family-drama novels where the old lady up front bullies the main character, drains that branch of the family dry, and funnels it all to her favorites.

While the old man sits in the back smoking his pipe, looking helpless, saying 'I can't stop her' — but he's been cashing in on the dividends the whole time.

The bad rep goes to the old lady (the fans), and the money stays in his hands.

Netizens thought Xuan Leron was impulsive, but they kept watching.

This drama?

A first for Domestic Entertainment.

Refunds!

Something Domestic Entertainment had literally never seen.

Plenty of fans had unfanned and gone scorched-earth before — submission after submission to callout bots, one after another — but no celebrity had ever given refunds.

Not even the ones who got blacklisted.

Money only flows in, never out.

Xuan Leron's move made netizens do a double-take — pretty stand-up of him — but it also kind of threw every other celebrity in the industry under the bus.

He set a precedent.

Next time someone else faces the same situation, what do they do? — Play dead, obviously!

Xuan Leron's the dumb one.

Nobody else is going to copy that kind of dumb move — how much do they even make?

Brand deal commissions are split by percentage; refunding fans means refunding everything.

Can't even give up the commission, let alone cover the full amount?

You'd have to have a hole in your head.

So people couldn't figure out what Xuan Leron was going for with this move.

Wouldn't it hurt his commercial value too?

Short drama actor, after all.

Tsk.

Showing loyalty to CEO Sang?

That's the only explanation.

Otherwise why go this far.

But this one move actually locked in his core fanbase.

The fans who got into Xuan Leron in the first place — mainly because of how perfectly he fit the role of 'Chen Le' and his acting.

They were in the honeymoon phase.

So they'd been defending him all along.

The ones who didn't know much about entertainment industry dynamics and could accept short dramas — they got locked in too.

Decisive and accountable.

On the flip side, the 'unfan callout bot' accounts saw a peak in submissions.

But nothing too vicious was said.

The fans who'd been chased off were upset, but they got their money back — kind of like successfully activating a refund-only skill.

And maybe they felt a little indebted — at least toward Xuan Leron, they couldn't bring themselves to say anything as ugly as what got said about the last few celebrities.

Y03, the Aurora Entertainment power account, also got flooded with messages — real fans and trolls alike.

Sang Yu didn't get it.

Probably because she didn't live in fandom culture, so she didn't feel the whole 'lowering your tier' thing that deeply.

Short dramas are just a filming format.

They got 'colonized' by certain genres only because they're easy to produce and have short cycles.

Like the face-slapping revenge genre.

And that's because the audience for short dramas tends to eat that stuff up — it's not like they're making content more suited to younger viewers right now.

A Cultivator Becomes a Rural Internet Celebrity in the Modern World, though — she liked that one.

She hadn't expected Xuan Leron to trend over it.

Looking at the overall fan group vibe, it felt like it had split in half — one side going 'big bro only has me left,' the other going 'it's over.' Mostly doom and gloom.

Sang Yu had barely made a move when Yin Rong's assistant knocked on the door — 'CEO Sang?' What's up? · A Cultivator Becomes a Rural Internet Celebrity in the Modern World had caught the wave.

Not the kind of wave from decades ago where anyone willing to do business would strike it rich.

The wave of [rural aid] and [rural revitalization] — the key focus of the government's rural support work in the second half of the year.

Poverty alleviation had always been ongoing, but starting this year, newly issued documents brought in coordinated multi-department efforts — the Publicity Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, National Radio and Television Administration... and more.

This work plan, jointly issued by multiple departments, hadn't been officially released yet.

The goal: poverty alleviation, developing rural culture, revitalizing and enriching the countryside.

And by sheer coincidence, among those departments was the National Radio and Television Administration.

The National Radio and Television Administration had been pushing the premium-quality short drama initiative for a while.

Even major professional awards — the Hundred Flowers, the Golden Rooster — had added short dramas to their selection process.

There was no better candidate to 'lead the charge' than A Cultivator Becomes a Rural Internet Celebrity in the Modern World...

The production company had both traffic and reputation, the lead had no controversies, and his fanbase could pass political review.

Especially Aurora Entertainment's developed scenic areas, which also boosted local economies — a genuinely outstanding enterprise.

The short drama's theme aligned perfectly with the document's focus, and the filming content landed squarely on rural aid.

A hexagonal warrior.

The higher-ups took notice immediately.

It was a — A 'model example.' In the best possible sense.

Such a good opportunity — if they didn't lift it up now, when would they?

So after passing layer upon layer of review, from local to central and back to local, Aurora Entertainment got real, tangible support.

Funding and subsidies — Sang Yu didn't care about those, better to give them to the farmers in the author's village anyway, since the production would need to compensate them regardless.

As for the rest...

Priority review, priority recommendation, a green-light fast track for filing, and help promoting the drama.

Priority inclusion in the annual 'Online Audiovisual Premium Project' selection.

Beyond that 'honor student commendation,' if the crew needed anything, the local authorities would actively cooperate — because filming would naturally draw crowds, and at certain points the officials would step in.

In short, it really became 'the whole village's hope.' If A Cultivator Becomes a Rural Internet Celebrity in the Modern World could turn a profit, it would definitely set off a trend.

That's what the authorities needed to see.

So after some time passed — Aurora Entertainment submitted the script and filing, the authorities fast-tracked the review and approved it — things started moving.

First: official media collaboration.

A new media account published a piece: 'Looking at the Future of Premium Short Dramas Through A Cultivator Becomes a Rural Internet Celebrity in the Modern World.' The wording wasn't complicated, the message was clear — It specifically praised Aurora Entertainment's 'proactive alignment with the rural revitalization strategy.' And praised Xuan Leron as an actor who represented 'a traffic celebrity entering the short drama space, exploring a new possibility for art serving the grassroots.' If you could read, you could tell — they were complimenting him.

The city where the author lived — its cultural tourism bureau, culture bureau, and agriculture department — all posted statements, with photos.

What were the photos?

Xuan Leron, bare-faced, sitting among a group of civil servants.

As the lead actor, discussing the details of adapting the story into a short drama.

Looking every bit like he had official backing — clean-cut and politically sound.

Fans: '?' Fans: '!' The fans who'd unfanned: '...?' Actually, they were tempted again.

The prestige level was through the roof! — On the big scale, it aligned with policy; on the small scale, it was actively supporting rural communities.

If the drama did well, it'd get official recognition.

If it flopped, it could be called an official mission — only someone weird would have expectations for that kind of drama.

Some people suddenly shuddered — wait, didn't Aurora Entertainment's CEO Sang always love playing the long game?!

Was this why she'd been waiting in the wings all along? ...Obviously!

Otherwise why change from a full-length drama to a short drama out of nowhere a while back?

Because she'd sniffed out the new wind direction!

They'd been played.

Wait — did the fans unfanning also fit into CEO Sang's plan, as a setup before the big reveal? ...

Regret.

More and more regret.

Can I do a sit-up and get back in?

Re-stanning now, Ah Rong.

That's allowed, right?