Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

The next day was sunny and clear, and the photoshoot went smoothly.

Worried they might pull some dirty tricks, Sister Wei kept a close watch on the entire process.

They brought their own food and drinks, which a member of their team held at all times. Sister Wei personally inspected every outfit before allowing Ni Bingyan to wear it. During lunch, Ni Bingyan didn’t touch a drop of alcohol. When it was time to change, Sister Wei inspected the dressing room multiple times and stood guard at the door, only relaxing once Ni Bingyan was safely changed.

Her level of caution was truly a sight to behold!

"When you’re on someone else’s turf, you can’t afford the slightest slip-up. Often, a single moment of carelessness can get you trapped in a way there’s no coming back from."

Wei Shuojie sighed and warned her, "This industry will eat you alive. You should never have the heart to harm others, but you must always be on guard against them. You’d better remember that!"

Knowing she meant well, Ni Bingyan thanked her and took her words to heart.

When they wrapped up for the evening, Ni Bingyan saw Sister Wei get another call from her mother-in-law, asking if she could join them for dinner. Sister Wei replied, "We just finished shooting and haven’t gotten back to the hotel yet. You guys go ahead and eat." Ni Bingyan felt quite bad about it.

"It’s rare for you to get to travel with your family, and because of me, you can’t even be with them. You don’t have to come to the variety show taping the day after tomorrow. Sister Li, Yaoyao, and I will be fine."

"Mm, don’t overthink it. We’re planning to stay here and have fun until the New Year, so I’ll have plenty of time to spend with them. Don’t you worry. As for you, this is your only variety show before the year ends. Make sure you do a good job, you hear?"

Sister Wei was a very career-driven woman. But because her husband was away from home year-round, she would always go home to be with her kids whenever she wasn’t working. She was a very family-oriented, good wife and mother.

Seeing that she had her own plans, Ni Bingyan felt relieved.

"You can count on me! As long as I’m not on vacation, I’m golden!"

Even Duanmu Li couldn’t help but laugh at her self-deprecating joke.

"Then you just behave yourself with the production team! You’re on vacation right after the taping, so don’t come looking for me. This place is close to your maternal grandma’s house, so you can visit her first before heading home for the New Year."

"That’s what I was thinking, too."

’It’s almost the New Year, and I have to take my cousin home first anyway! This works out perfectly; it’s right on the way.’

’When my uncle and his family see that my cousin has kicked her obsessive fan-girling habit, they’ll probably jump for joy!’

Despite a few bumps in the road, the trip was ultimately a success.

The next day, the trio of Ni Bingyan, Duanmu Li, and Lu Yao packed their bags early in the morning and drove Northeast along the island’s coastal highway.

The filming location for this episode of the variety show "A Beautiful Life" was a small fishing village in the next city over.

The scenery along the way was pleasant. Around noon, the three of them stopped, laid out a blanket next to a patch of flowers, and had a picnic.

Don’t be fooled by Duanmu Li’s quiet nature; she was full of hidden talents.

For this picnic, she had specially prepared a small basket containing sandwiches, fruit, and a bottle of low-alcohol plum wine.

"I have to drive later, so I won’t be drinking."

There was one sandwich for each of them. The cut fruit was placed in the middle, and Ni Bingyan handed out forks to everyone.

Duanmu Li took out the wine but didn’t put a paper cup in front of herself. Instead, she pulled out a carton of milk and started drinking it.

Lu Yao, with nothing else to do, was scrolling through Weibo.

She had gained a lot of followers recently, and the gushing compliments from her fans kept her in a constant state of excitement. Whenever she had a free moment, she couldn’t resist taking a look.

Ni Bingyan and Duanmu Li were already used to it and paid her no mind.

Seeing that Duanmu Li wasn’t drinking, Ni Bingyan poured herself a glass and sipped it slowly while eating her sandwich.

And she had to admit, the wine tasted exceptionally good.

Before it even touched her lips, the rich, natural aroma of plums drifted into her nose.

"Whoa, Sis! Something huge is happening!"

Lu Yao suddenly cried out as she was looking at her phone.

Ni Bingyan had just taken a bite of her sandwich and was chewing when she saw her cousin’s reaction. She took the phone from her.

The top trending topic was, surprisingly, #EntertainmentIndustryMajorCrackdown.

"Oh? A major crackdown? How major could it be?"

’They talk about cleaning up the industry every year, but doesn’t it always end up being a cesspool anyway?’

Ni Bingyan casually tapped on it and saw an official red-header document: "Notice on Carrying Out Comprehensive Governance Work in the Culture and Entertainment Fields."

Before she could read it in detail, she saw her cousin staring eagerly at the phone in her hand. Ni Bingyan handed it back to her and opened Weibo on her own phone.

But she hadn’t logged in for so long that the app needed to update. She wasn’t in a hurry. She put her phone down and quietly watched the seagulls flying over the sea while she waited.

After eating, they got back on the road.

Ni Bingyan finally got to see the document. Worried she might misinterpret it, she also carefully read through the comments.

The state was finally taking action, rectifying the industry from the top down.

The document explicitly stated that artists with scandalous records were forbidden from making a comeback by switching platforms or fields.

This marked the end of an era of savage growth and "amusing ourselves to death."

The culture and entertainment sector naturally has a role in guiding public opinion. If the atmosphere in this sector soured, the general social climate would follow suit.

The first to be affected would be the young people whose values hadn’t yet fully formed.

At an age when they should be learning skills, they were all busy chasing stars. Their days were spent controlling the online narrative for their idols, boosting engagement data day and night, or frantically buying their idols’ digital albums and endorsed products. When they weren’t fighting with rival fan groups, they were drooling over pictures edited to perfection by master retouchers.

’It’s long overdue for a cleanup.’

Lu Yao was incredibly excited, stuffing herself full of gossip. She held a sandwich in her hand, having only taken three bites in two hours.

The whole way, she chattered on and on about who had just been exposed in a scandal, who had broken the law, who was caught cheating, who had secretly had a baby...

Weibo today was as chaotic as the Warring States period, but Ni Bingyan was just staring blankly at the coastline.

Waves crashed against the reefs with thunderous force, sending up sprays of white foam—CRASH, CRASH...

At a certain moment, she thought she was hearing things, as if a crowd was cheering in unison—"Gossip, gossip..."

’Just like in her past life, this industry’s problems have been festering for a long time.’

She knew this major crackdown would come sooner or later; she just didn’t expect it to be so soon.

Capital control, the "traffic is king" mentality, distorted beauty standards, the chaos of fan culture... The industry was infiltrated by people with low integrity, a weak sense of the law, and declining morals. They commanded exorbitant fees, signed fraudulent "yin-yang contracts," and committed tax evasion...

All these things were objective realities.

In the past, even if a rival bought negative press to smear someone, they rarely went for the kill. That was because even if you made a huge mistake, you could still make a comeback after lying low for a while. There was no need to waste effort on completely destroying someone.

But now, with the official document released, as long as you threw a punch, you had a chance to hammer your rival into oblivion—the kind of oblivion with no chance of resurrection.

Who could resist that?

Even with their agencies trying to hold them back, celebrities who held deep grudges and believed themselves to be clean started to make their moves.

In just half a day, all kinds of gossip had turned Weibo into a bustling summer fruit stand.

People were discovering that the stars they idolized were "gold and jade on the outside, but rotten cotton on the inside." They had no bottom line, bearing no resemblance to their glamorous on-screen personas. One can only imagine the shock.

It was a carnival for the gossip-loving masses.

It was also a catastrophe for the industry.

Ni Bingyan didn’t get involved.

She wasn’t tearing anyone down, and no one could dig up any dirt on her.

Jiang Feifei’s side might have bought a trending topic about her being a diva, trying to smear her name, but it collided with this whole affair and didn’t even make a splash.

If her cousin hadn’t been bored and specifically searched her name, she probably wouldn’t have even noticed.

Wei Shuojie called, ready for a serious battle, but upon hearing Ni Bingyan’s calm voice, she felt she might have overreacted.

The group arrived in the neighboring city, checked into the hotel arranged by the production team, had dinner, and then returned to their respective rooms to rest.

For Ni Bingyan, the most profound impact of this great purge was that the variety show had changed its guest lineup three times overnight.

Those who couldn’t make it would likely never have the chance to appear in public again.

Compared to them, Ni Bingyan, who had always been involved in charity and held herself to a strict standard, seemed incredibly farsighted.

At ten o’clock that night, Ni Bingyan closed the newly released script for *Soul Ferryman* and fell into a particularly peaceful sleep.

Every year from now on, she would continue on like this—keeping a clear head, holding herself to a strict standard, and moving forward slowly but surely.