4: Chapter 4: I'm a comedian, so it's reasonable for me to know a little martial arts, right?

Three days after Roast! aired, Yu Liang's followers on both Weibo and Douyin surged to five million.

[Remember this site's domain name w̲̲̅̅k̲̲̅̅a̲̲̅̅n̲̲̅̅.c̲̲̅̅o̲̲̅̅m̲̲̅̅, your choice]

In the comments section, waves of praise rose higher and higher.

[I've watched Yu Liang's roast twenty times on repeat; the foundation of a Crosstalk actor is truly no joke.]

[Please, go on more variety shows. It's been a long time since the internal entertainment industry had someone this interesting.]

[From a fashion blogger to the ceiling of talk shows, how many more surprises does this man have in store?]

But some people were not happy.

Starting from some unknown forum, a tide of anti-fans flooded into the Weibo comments section.

[A Crosstalk performer wants to be an actor? Every single one of you in the Deyun Society, which one of you is qualified to act?]

[The movies your society makes are like crap. And all that 'Yun, He, Jiu, Xiao, Long, Teng, Si, Hai' talk—those who know think they're seniority rankings, those who don't would think they're tattoos you need to get to join the club.]

[With so many people in the whole society and so many movies made, the only thing worth mentioning is that one line, 'Yanzi, Yanzi'.]

Yu Liang originally didn't want to pay them any mind.

But as he scrolled, he got angrier and angrier.

"No, are these people sick in the head?" Lying in bed, he suddenly sat up.

"If you want to bash acting skills, go curse under Old Guo's posts. I've only been in a few plays, how many lines have I even had?"

The key was—while these people had foul mouths, some of what they said actually made sense.

Deyun Society's film and television works... were indeed nothing to write home about.

However, the original owner of this body only had a cameo in the drama General, appearing for less than five seconds. What kind of acting could you even see from that?

Bashing me?

It's war.

Yu Liang rolled up his sleeves and began replying to the comments one by one.

[Pointing out shortcomings is for my own good? Then why are you bringing my family into this!]

[Advising me to be magnanimous?]

[When facing this kind of person, you should stay far away from them, so you don't get caught in the crossfire when they get struck by lightning.]

[A Crosstalk performer who doesn't even have a partner and yet delusions of being an actor?]

[You get worked up after just a few words? What kind of monsters and demons are coming out of the Deyun Society?]

Yu Liang replied: [Me, worked up? This is called looking down on every Keyboard warrior equally.]

And so, Yu Liang huddled on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket, taking on a hundred opponents alone, bickering from ten at night until four in the morning.

Halfway through, Wang Churan sent a WeChat message: "Yu Liang, you're not asleep yet?"

Yu Liang replied instantly: "In the heat of battle."

Wang Churan: "..."

Wang Churan sent a face-palm emoji and didn't say anything else.

At five in the morning, Yu Liang finally finished retorting to the last comment and threw his phone aside.

His eyes were too sore to keep open, but he felt comfortable in his heart.

---

At two in the afternoon, Yu Liang was woken up by his phone vibrating.

Dazed, he opened it to see his notification center exploding again.

But this time, it wasn't people praising his looks or mocking him for being as jobless as a widow.

Instead, his battle records from last night had been screenshotted and compiled into a collection by netizens, going viral across the internet.

[I'm dying of laughter, this guy didn't close his eyes all night!]

[His combat power is off the charts! Why did you blind fools have to provoke him? Don't you know he has nothing to do right now? Hahahaha!]

[This is the first time I've seen an artist bickering back and forth with anti-fans, and the key is that every sentence is hilarious!]

[Yu Liang: Me, worked up? This is called looking down on every Keyboard warrior equally. — I declare this sentence my motto for the year.]

[There were even netizens who didn't mind making things bigger and compared him with other artists:]

[Other artists being cursed at: I don't want to live anymore.]

[Yu Liang being cursed at: Here comes the work!]

[He didn't dare sleep at all this night, for fear that others would think he had admitted defeat. I'm dying of laughter!]

[Such an interesting artist, and the key is he's handsome too. Fan for life, fan for life!]

As Yu Liang scrolled through the comments section, he suddenly remembered—

Wang Churan seemed to have sent him a message last night.

He scrolled to the chat records and felt a bit embarrassed seeing the conversation from after three in the morning.

Yu Liang: "The battle was intense last night, I didn't get a chance to reply to you."

Wang Churan replied instantly: "I watched the whole night."

Yu Liang: "???"

Wang Churan: "The whole internet was watching you retort to people. Ms. Ma Sichun called me in the middle of the night, laughing so hard she couldn't even speak properly."

Yu Liang: "..."

Wang Churan: "She said you're the first artist in the internal entertainment industry to fight with anti-fans until five in the morning."

Yu Liang: "This is called convincing people with reason."

Wang Churan sent an "Are you sure?" emoji.

Yu Liang didn't reply again because he scrolled to a new anti-fan comment.

This person was cursing particularly nastily, and every comment included things like "a Crosstalk performer doesn't deserve to act".

Yu Liang took a deep breath.

Then he changed into black training clothes, picked up his phone, and set up the camera angle.

A video of him dancing with twin blades was completed in one go.

Leaping into the air, spinning, doing a split, and a flying kick to the blade.

The blade edge grazed past the lens, bringing with it a gust of wind.

He captioned it: [If reasoning doesn't work, then this old man also knows a bit of martial arts.]

The video was posted.

The comments section was stunned for a moment.

Then it exploded.

[No, how is there even a sequel?!]

[This caption is too fierce!]

[Wait, don't just focus on the caption, look at the video carefully!]

[Yu Liang's blade dance is way too cool!]

[Leaping! Spinning! Splits! Flying kick to the blade!]

[Holy crap! This is special effects, right?]

[I watched it frame by frame, couldn't tell it was special effects.]

[I tried it, the knife fell, my feet are still spinning in the air, what do I do? Waiting urgently!]

Those anti-fans from before suddenly went quiet.

It wasn't that they were scared,

But this guy really didn't treat himself like a celebrity.

You curse him once, he curses you ten times.

If you keep cursing, he's going to take a blade to you.

How can you play like this?

One of the anti-fans who had cursed the most fiercely before silently started deleting comments.

But Yu Liang didn't let him off.

He went to that person's account homepage and commented under their only work:

[Young man, you have no martial virtue. You'd better Reflect on yourself.]

The netizens watching the drama were dumbfounded.

[No, he's actually chasing them down to curse them! I'm dying of laughter!]

[Look quickly, that hater set their account to private hahahaha!]

[This is the true 'convincing people with virtue'—martial virtue.]

[If this guy Yu Liang goes crazy, would he even hit himself?]

Just as the whole internet was enjoying the drama—

---

Beijing, New Classics Media Building.

In the casting meeting room for the joy of life crew, the atmosphere was a bit heavy.

"Is there still no suitable candidate for the role of Teng Zijing?" Director Sun Hao flipped through the materials in his hand, his brow furrowed.

The casting director sighed: "A dozen or so have come these past few days. Those with a good image have no martial arts foundation, and those with a foundation have an image that's a bit lacking."

"The requirements for this role are too high. Not to mention a handsome appearance, they also have to be able to actually fight."

"But filming starts after New Year's Day."

Sun Hao rubbed his temples. "If we still can't find anyone, we'll just have to settle for the next best thing."

In the corner, a young staff member was looking down at his phone.

He was originally slacking off and following the drama, scrolling through the #YuLiangKnowsALittleMartialArts trending topic, and casually clicked on that blade dance video.

Thirty seconds later, he suddenly looked up.

"Director! Quick, look at this!"

He handed the phone over.

On the screen, Yu Liang was performing a flying kick to a blade, the blade edge passing by with a whistling wind.

Sun Hao took it and watched it once.

Then he watched it again.

The meeting room was silent for five seconds.

"Who is this?" Sun Hao turned to look at the casting director. "What has he acted in?"

The casting director leaned in to look at the face on the screen and was stunned for a moment: "Yu Liang? Isn't this the... Crosstalk performer on the trending topics these past two days?"

"Crosstalk performer?" Sun Hao frowned. "This flying kick move can't be done without ten years of practice."

The staff member quickly added: "Director, he was previously a Crosstalk actor for the Deyun Society and has been extremely popular on Douyin recently. He was even on Roast! a couple of days ago."

"His image is absolutely no problem."

Sun Hao didn't speak, watching the video one more time.

Leaping, spinning, splits, flying kick—the movements were clean and crisp, without a hint of hesitation.

"Contact him." Sun Hao put the phone down. "Have him come for an audition."

"Director," the casting director hesitated, "he did start out in Crosstalk, after all. He has no acting experience..."

"Acting skills can be polished."

Sun Hao interrupted him, "But this foundation is something I've been looking for for three months."

He paused and added another sentence: "By the way, did you say he's from the Deyun Society?"

Sun Hao remembered that he had just finalized Guo Qilin for the role of Fan Sizhe a few days ago.

"Yes."

"Give Guo Qilin a call in a bit and ask about Yu Liang's situation."

---

Chaoyang District, rental apartment.

Yu Liang had just come out of the shower when his phone rang.

An unknown number.

He picked up: "Hello?"

"Is this Mr. Yu Liang? I'm the casting director for the joy of life crew."

Yu Liang was stunned for a moment: "...joy of life?"

"Yes. Director Sun Hao saw your blade dance video and would like to invite you to audition for a role."

Yu Liang's hand holding the phone tightened slightly.

joy of life.

Of course he knew this drama.

In his previous life, this drama was a hit across the entire internet and made a whole group of actors famous.

Especially the role of Teng Zijing; although he didn't have much screen time, the character setup was excellent.

Loyal and righteous, dying for a friend—it was the first major tear-jerker of the whole drama.

"Auditioning for which role?" he asked.

"Teng Zijing."

Yu Liang took a deep breath.

As expected.