Chapter 36: Chapter 36: System-Provided Safeguards
The next morning, Gu Bai woke up to Deng Bo’s loud shouting.
"Deng Bo, what’s wrong with you! Classes start officially tomorrow, shouldn’t you be catching up on sleep today? Why are you yelling so early in the morning!"
Wen Cunming was woken up and started scolding Deng Bo from his bed.
Gu Bai also touched his still heavy head and sat up.
Deng Bo didn’t bother explaining to Wen Cunming but said to Gu Bai, who had sat up, "White Pieces, check Weibo, you’ve gone viral!"
"???"
Gu Bai, who had just woken up, was bewildered by Deng Bo’s strange words, but he still reached for his phone on the bedside table and opened the Weibo app.
As soon as he looked at Weibo, Gu Bai finally understood what Deng Bo meant by going viral.
Because the fifth trending topic was #Shanghai Theatre Academy’s Wildest Student#
The discussion volume was already close to seventy to eighty thousand.
Gu Bai opened one of the most popular videos.
The video showed the interview from yesterday featuring himself.
His incredibly handsome face appeared in the center of the screen, followed by the reporter’s conversation with him.
"May I ask, what is your name?"
"Gu Bai"
"I noticed earlier that Gu drove a supercar to school, suggesting that your family background is quite good. Was there any special reason for applying to the Shanghai Theatre Academy? You look quite handsome, it’s rare for someone with such high looks to be in the directing department, wouldn’t you agree?"
"Why apply to the Shanghai Theatre Academy, of course it’s to study. What else would you come to school for if not to study?"
"Most people apply to the Shanghai Theatre Academy because of some idol. Does Gu have any idols or something?"
"Idol? No.
If I had to name one, I quite admire Hu Ge. After all, as a representative celebrity in the entertainment circle with more male fans than female ones, whether in acting or character, Hu Ge is top-notch, much better than most of those with stiff acting skills."
Then came some words from the reporter facing the camera.
In general, the video wasn’t maliciously edited, and those were all words spoken by Gu Bai himself.
Of course, that’s because Gu Bai’s answers didn’t need any editing; just the last sentence about most with stiff acting skills would be enough to spark discussion.
As for the comments below, they were varied, and Gu Bai glanced through a few of the hottest topics.
"Are the guys at the Shanghai Theatre Academy all this good-looking now? I didn’t expect he wasn’t in the acting department!"
"Driving a Lamborghini to school—that’s a scene I only dream of. I didn’t expect there really are people like that in reality. I admit I’m jealous. Lemon tree, lemon fruit, under the lemon tree is you and me..."
"I think this guy isn’t wrong, aren’t most of those traffic stars weird-looking with bad acting skills? They get the top fees to play disgusting roles, isn’t that an undeniable fact?"
At first glance, there weren’t any negative comments until he scrolled down a bit to find a few.
"Is everyone just some random dog that can now ridicule seniors? If you’re so capable, why don’t the directors ask you to act? What gives you the right to call them funny-looking? Do you know how hard they work normally? Acting isn’t an innate skill; don’t they need experience? They’re also slowly improving!"
This comment seemed reasonable at first glance, until Gu Bai saw the Weibo ID "Guarding the World’s Best Lu Lu".
"Hu Shang Fortress"?
Then there’s nothing to worry about.
After browsing for a few minutes and looking at some popular comments, how should I put it?
It was a mix of good and bad.
After all, he didn’t name names, and though most understood who Gu Bai was talking about, since it wasn’t explicitly stated, the fans pretended to be confused. After all, no one wants to crown themselves with such remarks.
But Gu Bai was a bit puzzled. He had also checked the Weibo account of the self-media that interviewed him.
It only had over a million followers, most of whom were probably fake accounts. They shouldn’t have had the ability to push this interview to the top of the trending list.
Following the topic, Gu Bai saw a retweet and comment, finally discovering the real culprit.
Wang Siming: "I think this guy’s telling the truth. Like some certain Lu and Tao nowadays, which one isn’t making dirty money off traffic? Also, I think the use of the term ’weird-looking’ is very apt."
As a figure who argues about everything on Weibo with the title of National Husband, Principal Wang naturally has the ability to stir up this trend.
Though ever since Panda declared bankruptcy, this leading second-generation wealthy person has toned down a lot, rarely posting combative remarks on Weibo. But Gu Bai still remembered a few days before his rebirth, the topic of "missing your liquid" made him a subject of online chatter once again.
Moreover, it’s 2017 now, and this top rich second generation is still very active on Weibo. Usually, even a single like from him can push a topic to the hot search, let alone this time when he personally stepped in to repost and comment.
But whether he hits the hot search or gets a comment from Principal Wang, it doesn’t really matter to Gu Bai.
With his current mindset, he doesn’t have any loser mentality to feel honored just because Principal Wang reposted or commented. He doesn’t need to bow to anyone; only others need to bow to him.
What caught his attention was a not-so-noticeable comment.
"I am a loyal sports car enthusiast. The sports car behind this guy can be checked on Lamborghini’s official website. It’s called Night Shadow, a custom-made supercar with an official website price of 2.5 million USD, which is over 15 million RMB! There’s another detail, someone might have noticed the watch he’s wearing. It’s a Patek Philippe 6002G model, completely sold out from the market, and currently priced over 20 million. In other words, this sophomore in the directing department at Shanghai Theatre Academy is wearing nearly 40 million!
Imagine what kind of family this student comes from, so is it strange to make such a comment?
After all, the stars you see as unattainable might not even count as a fart in his eyes. He might even be going to Shanghai Theatre Academy just for fun."
This comment, although not very impactful and with few likes, didn’t say anything bad about Gu Bai, just gave a bit of a science lesson on the luxury items on Gu Bai.
What made Gu Bai nervous were the last two sentences.
His own family.
Doesn’t he himself know what kind of family he has?
Compared to ordinary families, it’s certainly much richer, but by no means one of immense wealth.
What Gu Bai is worried about is not that he can’t pretend to be modest once his family conditions are exposed, nor that the identity of a rich second generation is so worthy of flaunting.
But it’s because the current Gu Bai still needs such an identity to cover up his large sources of funds. Once his cover is blown, and his bank balance gets exposed, causing an investigation, how will he explain the sources of his funds?
Thinking of this, Gu Bai felt a bit troubled.
After all, in this internet age, it’s too easy for someone to become known by the public. Gu Bai didn’t expect that just one interview could put him in such a hot spot.
It seems as if sensing Gu Bai’s thoughts, the system, which only appears when the Confidence Value increases, suddenly popped up.
"World sample collection complete, social network sorted.
To ensure the stealth of the system and the host’s safety, the system has virtualized the host’s social role to obscure the public’s curiosity about the host. (Note: This cannot change the actual social status of the host, only upgrade the external investigative authority on the host.)"
Seeing the system suddenly pop up, Gu Bai couldn’t help but cheer internally "The system is awesome 666 my baby"
The system’s explanation is very simple: now it will be very difficult for ordinary people who want to investigate his background. Of course, it’s still very easy for top big shots to investigate.
However, there’s no need to worry about this.
The big shots are dealing with all sorts of major affairs daily; they don’t have time to pay attention to him.
Several hundred million in capital flow looks huge, but in the eyes of those dealing with significant national affairs, it doesn’t even count as a splash.
So, this system benefit wave is more than enough for Gu Bai.
His only concern is just now, but after a while, once he fully realizes the business blueprint in his mind, he won’t need to care about so-called investigations at all—he will be a big mogul!
Moreover, he feels that once the system levels up to Level 2, it won’t just be about giving money simply; after all, reaching full level from Level 1 is just 10 small goals. What about Level 2? 10 billion? And Level 3? 100 billion? Gu Bai doesn’t believe that hundreds of billions of cash flow would not only cause a sensation in the country but would be enough to cause a worldwide stir.
Deng Bo, seeing Gu Bai staring blankly at his phone, quickly said: "Didn’t I tell you before not to speak out randomly? How about we contact that media now and ask them to delete the video?"
Deng Bo thought Gu Bai was still worried about the hot search issue.
Gu Bai put on a short-sleeved shirt and got down from the bed.
"Alright, it’s no big deal, nothing to worry about."
"I’m afraid there might be some impact from the school’s side."
As one of the leading art schools in Hua Country, the school atmosphere at the Shanghai Theatre Academy is quite rigorous, absolutely not allowing anything that could negatively affect the school’s image.
Gu Bai casually picked up his toiletries and walked into the bathroom.
After a while, his voice came from the bathroom.
"Do you think the school leaders, like you, have nothing better to do than care about these hot topics? Besides, I was just giving a normal interview, and what I said was perfectly normal, what impact could it have?"
Deng Bo also thought this made sense.
He, too, was just worrying in vain. If even Gu Bai didn’t care, why should he be so anxious?
Moreover, in his eyes now, Gu Bai is just a rich young master coming out to experience life, and those ordinary people’s worries probably mean nothing to him.
After a while, as Gu Bai finished washing up, he said to the few people, "I’m going to have breakfast, anyone coming with me?"
As a result, except for Deng Bo, Lou Xun and Wen Cunming fell asleep again, so after waiting a bit for Deng Bo to finish freshening up, the two of them headed to the cafeteria together.