Economic recession, then recovery, the entertainment industry is once again dominated by traffic. However, today's fans are more frenzied and irrational than sixteen years ago.
For celebrities, love elevates them to the heavens, and hatred tramples them into the ground.
Jiang Ling's long-time fans were relatively rational and restrained about Xu Feifei potentially playing Li Shengnan. They simply felt that Xu Feifei's acting skills were insufficient to perfectly portray the role, and that her performance would only ruin a classic, hence their grumbling.
The younger, new fans were different. Their tempers were extremely impetuous. Having become fans of Jiang Ling because of the role of Li Shengnan, their extreme favoritism and possessiveness overshadowed their reason.
At this moment, in their eyes, Jiang Ling was Li Shengnan, and Li Shengnan was Jiang Ling. Xu Feifei daring to play this role was as disgusting as thinking of someone else when seeing a beloved.
They would not allow someone whose looks and acting skills were both inferior to their "sister" to tarnish Li Shengnan.
Whoever dared to harbor such thoughts would be cursed to death by them!
Xu Feifei watched the younger fans and her brainless supporters engage in a fierce online battle, spewing all sorts of vulgarities incessantly, and her face turned green with anger.
In what way was she inferior to this woman who had been out of the spotlight for sixteen years?
And they dared to say she was not fit to play Li Shengnan? In what way was she not fit?
Sister Wang, seeing Xu Feifei's face change expressions, guessed her thoughts and quickly switched pages, bringing up several nostalgic videos that the new fans had posted on Bilibili.
Xu Feifei saw the woman in the videos, with her lustrous hair and rosy complexion, her beauty surpassing snow. Although furious, she had to admit that this woman's looks were indeed far superior to hers.
Especially those dark, limpid eyes, as agile as a fox, as radiant as stars, unseen in this lifetime.
Her eyes seemed to speak, conveying amusement, anger, joy, and affection, appearing vividly alive, as if Li Shengnan had walked out of the book.
Since her debut, Xu Feifei had never encountered an actress with such exquisite acting skills.
She could hardly believe that Jiang Ling was two years younger than her when she played this role.
"Jiang Ling, isn't she... isn't she just a traffic star?"
"How can this woman have such good acting skills?"
"What good would it do you to play something else, if you insist on playing Li Shengnan, whom I've set my sights on? With your perfect performance preceding me, wouldn't my attempt be like a clumsy imitation?"
"Why am I so unlucky? I finally landed a good role, only to encounter such a situation?"
Xu Feifei's voice trembled, feeling a deep sense of powerlessness against Jiang Ling's formidable performance skills.
Although her own professional abilities were not great, she knew how much potential a traffic star with acting skills possessed.
With such a beautiful face and such excellent acting, if her management company hadn't been blind back then, they would have spared no expense to support her with resources.
No wonder her fans still remembered her fondly after sixteen years and could stir up such significant discussion and buzz.
No wonder CEO Zhang had thrown such a tantrum, calling her overconfident and telling her to give up the role of Li Shengnan.
A deceased white moonlight could never be defeated.
Jiang Ling had played Li Shengnan so well.
Now, both old and new audiences were left with lingering regrets. If she forcibly took on the role, she would not only be cursed to death but also lose a massive number of fans, potentially leading to her downfall.
What Xu Feifei didn't know was that CEO Zhang's furious tirade wasn't solely because Jiang Ling had portrayed Li Shengnan too perfectly. It was also because the secretary had discovered that besides being a performing artist, Jiang Ling held two other remarkable identities.
One was the daughter-in-law of the Jian family, the wife of business magnate Jian Zhou. The other was a major shareholder of three luxury goods conglomerates.