Chapter 19

All-out war was about to pop off.

Right in the middle of the chaos, Shu Mucheng — author of The Favored One — logged onto Weibo.

His health hadn't been great. After several rough waves of drama, he'd basically gone silent on social media except for posting his writing.

His fans collectively lost it — sitting bolt upright like they'd been shocked back to life.

They'd followed him for years, worried sick about him for just as long... and he was finally back.

Shu Mucheng's first post was a retweet of Y03: 'The rights are mine. I can sell if I want.'

'WAIT — is that really you?! You're back — how have you been lately?!'

Shu Mucheng: 'Doing fine, sorry for worrying everyone. A friend just told me to log on and check out the drama.'

'Yu Zhitao and her fans are two peas in a pod — pulling every stunt to stir up clout, harassing the author, who got sick because of it.'

Shu Mucheng: 'Don't use me as your moral shield. I haven't been harassed this time.'

'Readers, please don't go to war on my behalf... I'm disappointed...'

Shu Mucheng: 'Someone jumped in earlier without knowing the full story, declared the "truth," started throwing insults, and dragged me into it. Does dragging my name in somehow make the abuse more righteous? I don't think so. That's why I'm speaking up.'

'That fan who joined the hashtag isn't even a real fan — they were just using it to dunk on Chen Liqi. So why is the blame getting pushed onto the main character? Any objections?'

Shu Mucheng: 'Let me be clear in plain language. My one and only ask has always been: stop using me as a moral prop. Can you read?'

'Are you defending Yu Zhitao? Or just using this moment to take a shot at Chen Liqi and settle old scores?'

Shu Mucheng: 'So what if I am? Don't I have the right?'

'The casting was decided by the production company — it had nothing to do with Chen Liqi. If you can't go after the people who actually made the call, why are you fixating on Chen Liqi?'

Shu Mucheng: 'It's not a multiple-choice question where attacking A means you can't attack B. Right, Guangwen Entertainment? Right, @Guangwen Entertainment — you're option B. You exist. So why can't I go after you? Didn't you benefit? Didn't you? And wasn't it your fans who reported me back then? Who exactly?'

Guangwen Entertainment was the company that had bought The Favored One — they'd dangled the screenwriter credit in front of the author as a PR stunt, then kicked her out the moment it was convenient.

Shu Mucheng: 'If Chen Liqi gets to hold me guilty by association, then I get to hold Chen Liqi guilty by association too. Fair is fair.'

'I support selling the rights — I always have. I never expected anything from any IP adaptation. I only ever cared about the source material.'

Shu Mucheng: 'You readers genuinely move me. But I'll be watching from the outside on this one. They buy the IP for the clout your readership brings — once the money hits my account, I'll be free to... (whispers)'

'Just sell it already... why can't some things stay sacred...'

Shu Mucheng: 'I don't have too much money.'

Film and TV rights work differently from physical book sales — physical books can get repriced if they sell well, but that almost never happens with screen adaptations. Still, even a small cut is better than nothing.

'What if they wreck it again?'

Shu Mucheng: 'That's what negotiations are for. Not every company is Guangwen Entertainment. Right, @Guangwen Entertainment?'

'If the rights actually sell, would you let Yu Zhitao play the lead?'

Shu Mucheng: 'If Sang Yu agrees and she has the availability, I'm all for it. Otherwise, did the two of us just take all that heat for nothing?'

Shu Mucheng: '@Y03 — if Yu Zhitao is willing to take the role, I'll give the rights for free.'

Wait, weren't you just saying you love money?!

Shu Mucheng: 'I can choose not to love money. But I will always love to hate.'

'That line is too savage, I'm writing it down...'

...

The audience watching from the sidelines was shook.

The author was going absolutely scorched-earth — nobody had ever seen him this blunt before.

He'd dug up years of buried beef and ancient drama — the younger stans online had no idea any of this history even existed.

Damn, Shu Mucheng really held a grudge...

He hated Chen Liqi that much?

Would rather walk away from the money just to make sure a new adaptation got made — basically announcing he couldn't stand her performance?

Then people who knew the backstory started chiming in: Shu Mucheng was 'unhinged' because he'd had a mental health crisis — one that was triggered by the harassment campaign Chen Liqi's fans had run against him. Chen Liqi never said a word about it publicly. Somehow the whole thing just... faded away.

They'd pressured someone with a stable government job into quitting, pushed him into a breakdown — yeah, that's genuinely messed up. Hard to argue there was no fault there.

The heat kept climbing.

Over in Chen Liqi's fan community, everyone was spiraling.

'What do we do? Is this real?'

'Real or fake — he's just being stubborn. When it actually sells he'll definitely take the money.'

'He's still holding a grudge, but Liqi literally had nothing to do with it — and she can't control her fans either!'

'Giving it away for free just hands him the moral high ground. Doesn't depression make you exhausted all the time? How is he this energetic? Is he faking it?'

Everyone was waiting for Sang Yu's response.

Because Shu Mucheng had tagged him.

If Sang Yu said no, everything Shu Mucheng had just done would become a punchline — and the other side would win.

The audience was waiting too.

Luckily, the third main character in this whole saga hadn't gone to sleep yet.

Y03 came online.

Y03: '?'

The crowd: ???

What does a question mark mean? Yes or no?

Someone curious asked what was up — did Y03 have something against Yu Zhitao?

Y03: 'I'm making a female-lead drama because I actually want to, not because I'm a fan of the genre. Earlier I was in a good mood, randomly picked a fan's wish to grant, went full Santa Claus mode — and then couldn't even spend the money. My mood took a hit.'

The crowd: '...'

Impossible to understand.

Someone saves you money and you're upset about it?!

Y03: 'But there's drama to watch now, so it cancels out — mood going up —'

The crowd: '...'

Bro, don't bury the lede like that.

Don't ever do that again, okay?!

This person is a genuine internet anomaly — everything they touch turns into a bloodbath...

...

Caught in the middle of all this, the actress Yu Zhitao had also seen the posts.

The Favored One.

Familiar and foreign at the same time...

Yu Zhitao had first heard of The Favored One when someone mentioned the upcoming adaptation on Weibo and called her the 'destined Jiang Wanyin.'

She'd stayed up all night reading it, completely drawn in by Jiang Wanyin — she felt like she understood her.

Then Yu Zhitao stayed up even later writing a character study, building a whole presentation deck, pushing her agency hard to go after the role with her.

She went to the audition.

Didn't get it.

Because the decision had already been made — she was just there to make the real pick look better by comparison.

The actress they'd already chosen had nothing to do with 'stunning beauty.'

The young Yu Zhitao's disbelief nearly choked her.

She found out the reason later.

She wasn't qualified enough.

The producer of that drama said it to her face — her look fit the role, she just lacked a little 'luck.' While he said it, his hand was on her leg. The implication couldn't have been clearer.

Yu Zhitao wavered.

Then she thought of Jiang Wanyin again.

The Favored One wasn't long — a wealthy-family romance about a stunning actress and a business tycoon. The short version: the underdog rises, the powerful man bends, a chase-your-wife-through-hell-and-back story.

From the outside, it looked like mindless entertainment with no depth.

But the situation Jiang Wanyin found herself in during one particular arc felt uncomfortably close to Yu Zhitao's own life.

Especially the part where Jiang Wanyin was forced into a corner with no one to turn to — that hit too close to home.

Yu Zhitao made her decision —

She kicked that producer out of her life and accepted the advances of a wealthy bachelor she'd been turning down for a while — someone whose looks and age she wasn't exactly thrilled about.

That relationship... didn't last, of course.

They parted on good terms.

By the time The Favored One aired, eight years had passed. She was twenty-nine now.

Yu Zhitao never imagined the author would remember her name, would speak up for her and her fans, would clap back at the haters.

She definitely never imagined anyone would recommend her for the lead role — let alone offer the rights for free.

A role she'd once wanted so desperately, chased so hard, never got — and had since forced herself to forget — was surfacing again.

And with it came everything else: the 'destined Jiang Wanyin' label, and then the slut-shaming she'd endured for dating a rich man.

Did she want to resist?

Yeah.

She almost had a visceral reaction to it.

But... did she want to do it?

...

Yes.

Yu Zhitao's first instinct was: if the script isn't butchered, if it follows the source material, she'd do it... for free.

She'd saved up a lot over the years. The Favored One meant something different to her.

But then she saw that Sang Yu was apparently in a bad mood because he couldn't spend his money — and she quietly shelved that idea.

'No pay' on anyone else would be a pleasant surprise.

In front of that guy, it would become 'you're blocking me from spending money.'

If his mood tanked again and he just dropped The Favored One entirely and moved on to something else — or nothing at all — that would be a real loss.

Setting all that aside, Yu Zhitao locked in her decision —

While the opportunity was here, while she still had the assets (the face, the timing), she was going after Jiang Wanyin.

Twenty-nine years old.

In this industry, that's a dangerous age.

She looked young for now, but maybe two, three years? And then it could all drop suddenly — a tiredness that starts showing through.

So this time, if she could do it while she was still at her best and fill in the gap she'd always carried — that would genuinely make her whole.

She scrolled back to Shu Mucheng's 'rights for free' post. The comments had already broken ten thousand.

All that in such a short time — the heat was terrifying.

Yu Zhitao switched back to her own Weibo, retweeted Shu Mucheng's 'if Yu Zhitao is willing' post, and added three words.

Yu Zhitao V: I'm willing. [ring emoji]

The crowd saw both posts and exploded again.

'They're really going at it, huh?'

'This is so embarrassing... teaming up with the author to pile on Chen Liqi — isn't that just another form of cyberbullying? What's the difference?'

'All I see is Chen Liqi getting absolutely destroyed...'

'She got rained on, so she has to rip everyone else's umbrella apart. Finally gets her shot and stomps on someone — isn't that just a petty person having their moment?'

'Of course someone who latched onto a rich guy looks down on Chen Liqi for coming from nothing.'

'Honestly, being able to put a creature like that in your mouth at night is its own kind of talent most people just don't have. [smirk emoji]'