Chapter 1

Su Ning still remembers that when he came out of the film festival awards ceremony tonight, it suddenly started to rain heavily outside.

The sky was covered with rain and dark clouds were rolling, reflecting the brightly lit venue like a pearl on black velvet.

Because of the heavy rain, the organizers kept everyone for a while. There was a cocktail party after the film festival. It was raining heavily outside, but there was laughter and joy inside.

But the person who attracted the most attention at this awards ceremony was not the winners of the Best Actor and Best Actress awards, but Su Ning.

He was not the star receiving the award today, nor was he a member of the crew, but his seat was in the center of the front row.

At the reception, after Su Ning had just exchanged greetings with the organizers of the film festival, the best actor who won the award tonight took the opportunity to come up to him and said, "Mr. Su! I didn't even have the chance to talk to you just now, and I haven't thanked you properly yet."

His tone was flattering, completely different from his previous aloof demeanor on stage, and he added: "If you hadn't chosen me to play this role before, I wouldn't be where I am today."

Upon hearing this, Su Ning turned to look at him.

If others saw Su Ning's face, they would be surprised. In terms of appearance, he looks more like a star than most of the stars tonight, but in fact, he is a very famous investor in the industry, known as the "Golden Finger".

This man started from scratch at a young age, from an artist assistant to an agent, and then founded his own company. He is a legend in the industry. The dark horse at today's awards ceremony is the work he discovered.

Such a person is naturally more important than ten stars combined, and is the object of flattery for many current traffic stars.

After a while, I noticed that it was not just the actor standing there alone. Several new and popular young actors also came over and surrounded him, making it look like a group of stars surrounding the moon.

The actor smiled and said, "Boss Su, it's raining so hard. I remember your home is far from here. Why don't you come to my place first? My hotel is nearby."

Several people at the back joined in and invited him to stay at their places first. Someone else said that they were familiar with the organizers and it would be easy for him to find a place to stay above the large venue where the awards ceremony was held.

"No need, don't worry about me," Su Ning shook his head and thanked everyone one by one, saying politely, "I have a meeting tomorrow and have to go back to the company. If there is a chance in the future, I will talk to you again."

When he saw that the rain had subsided a little, he left quickly, leaving these people looking at each other in bewilderment.

This Mr. Su Ning is a well-known workaholic who doesn't care about anything. For such a long time, I haven't heard that there is anyone around him. He is always very businesslike and it is impossible to get close to him.

Last time, something happened where a celebrity he had worked with publicly confessed her love on a social network while drunk, and she didn't delete the post even after she sobered up. In the end, she didn't get any reply at all.

But who made him Su Ning?

Didn't you see that there were so many celebrities at the awards ceremony today? Even when the Reuters photos were released, they were not as popular as the blurry photos of Su Ning. He was wearing a suit and his eyes looked like stars when he looked at the camera. Even the candid photos were so beautiful.

Su Ning really has something important to do.

If he wasn't familiar with the organizer of this film festival, he wouldn't have come today. He's not a star, so he might as well stay in the company and work overtime.

He left quickly, and those who remained at the party looked at his back. Some stars felt it was a pity that he didn't get to talk to him, while others stared at him in the dim light with a clearly unfriendly look.

Recently, Su Ning has been too popular, making it difficult for other people in the industry to make a living. He is liked by many people, but also hated by many.

Su Ning didn't care much about these emotions. When the rain stopped a little, he got in the car and prepared to go back to the company and immediately started talking about work with the vice president. It seemed that the achievements he made at the award ceremony tonight were immediately forgotten by him.

Su Ning always looks forward.

Tomorrow is the company's internal copyright meeting, so even though it's already this late today, he wants to hurry back. The vice president flips through the materials at hand and talks to him about several key projects in the second half of the year.

When the car was halfway there, the vice president had turned to the last project book in his hand, and Su Ning heard him exclaim "Huh".

Su Ning: "What's wrong?"

"Boss, do you remember that the company had a very evil project called "Bush of Thorns," the vice president said, pulling out the last project book, "This is it. We had originally decided not to adapt or film it, but I don't know how it got in."

After he said this, Su Ning seemed to have some impression, but he couldn't remember it completely at the moment.

Seeing his expression, the vice president reminded him again, "It's what I mentioned to you last time. There's a villain with the same name as you, Mr. Su. In the book, the company went bankrupt and the man is still alive. It's really a thorn in your side."

"And the protagonist in this book is also miserable. Nothing goes well for him, and he dies in the end. Sweet dramas are popular these days, and there is no market for this kind of abject and sad novel."

After he said this, Su Ning remembered something.

"The Bush of Thorns" is a BE entertainment industry abuse story. It tells the story of a protagonist who enters the entertainment industry with dreams and talents, encounters setbacks again and again but always persists, and ultimately dies in depression before getting the trophy of his dreams.

This book was one of the first copyrights purchased when the company was established in Su'ning. It has accompanied him step by step on the way up and he can be considered an "old employee" of the company.

If I must say, this original novel is quite mediocre and its performance is average, but the author is very famous, so I brought it with me when I packed my things.

Nowadays, it is not even ranked among the many S and S+ big IPs waiting to be adapted by Su Ning Company. Its initial film and television rating was only A, and it was only by relying on the author's fame.

Generally speaking, such ordinary A-level projects do not require the intervention of Su Ning, the CEO of the company. It has been so long and should have been canceled long ago. However, the adaptation of this project was somewhat wicked and it was repeatedly aborted during the preparation period.

Either the director suddenly canceled his contract and joined another project, or the screenwriter was diagnosed with health problems and stayed in the hospital for several months and then turned down the offer, or the scheduled filming location was temporarily closed...

This book is not a popular adaptation, nor does it have many fans. When something unexpected happened, the person in charge had more profitable projects to deal with and did not have much time to make adjustments, so it has been delayed for nearly ten years.

Seeing that the copyright was about to expire, the department remembered this play and mentioned it in the previous report.

The vice president even contacted the original author for this purpose. He has written so many books that he almost forgot about this book. After thinking for a long time, he replied that this book was written during a period of confusion during his transition.

At that time, there was a period of popular abusive literature on the platform. The settings of the protagonist and some supporting characters were quite melodramatic, and a lot of popular memes were forced into them. As a result, the performance during the serialization period was mediocre and the novel was hastily concluded. The protagonist also died in a rather aggrieved and sloppy way, and was scolded by readers for a while.

This project is so bad that it is unique in the industry, and people in the entertainment industry are somewhat superstitious. The vice president has made the decision, so it is better not to change it and just leave it alone.

From the protagonist of this book to the real life, the characters are unpopular everywhere, as if they were born to be abandoned.

But I don't know how this book got in. Maybe I accidentally took the wrong one.

After listening to him, Su Ning did not intend to interfere with his opinion. However, when the vice president took out the project book and was about to throw it aside, he suddenly had an idea and said, "Wait."

"Give it to me and let me have a look."

He happened to see the cover of the project book, and at that moment he felt as if he was possessed by a magic spell, perhaps because he did not want to give up any of his projects.

The vice president was surprised, but still handed it over. Su Ning was about to take it, but his hand suddenly shifted and he did not receive the document.

It wasn't his movements that changed, it was the entire body of the car that suddenly changed.

Then, he saw the project book flying upwards and the cover was opened. Before Su Ning could shift his attention away in a very short time, he saw a few sentences on the introduction on the first page.

[I came from a small town...but I dreamed of the crown in the art hall - the trophy of the Thorn Award...I signed a contract to enter the light and shadow entertainment industry and saw the dark side of the entertainment industry for the first time.]

[But Li Chu... cheated... and was bullied in the entertainment industry... was suppressed and even hidden by the upper echelons...]

[Guangying Entertainment eventually went bankrupt and was acquired by Shen's Films. This old tree standing in the circle fell down in an instant. This seemed like a new life, but...]

It was intermittent and I couldn't see clearly what came later.

These words passed before his eyes and turned out to be the last things he saw.

It rained too hard tonight and there was a lot of water on the road. The driver might have had a few drinks backstage at the awards ceremony and kept it a secret, because Su Ning did smell a little bit of alcohol at the last moment.

This happened so fast.

Su Ning actually didn't feel much at that moment, he just felt confused. When he woke up again, he had a splitting headache, and the last words he saw in the project book were still engraved in his mind.

For some reason, the smell of alcohol became stronger and stronger, and someone was pushing him and calling his name softly.

"Master Su, Master Su, wake up."

"Master Jiang is calling you."

Nowadays, no one calls him Su Shao, they all call him Su Zong.

Su Ning, who had been demoted a grade for no reason, frowned and tried to open his eyes. Then he saw a round-faced little girl squatting beside him. She looked very young and had heavy makeup on. She was obviously relieved to see him wake up.

There were quite a few people standing behind her, the lights were bright, the music was blaring, and they were staring at him.

This...is obviously a noisy nightclub that people from Su Ning would never come to.

What's going on?

"You finally woke up."

As soon as she finished speaking, another person came out from behind and smiled at him, "Master Su, are you awake? Look, I specially found a little toy to play with you. Isn't that nice of me? Just consider this person as something I gave to you. In addition, I promised to remove the black hot search for you. These conditions are not too much to exchange with you for Li Chu to play with, right?"

"You promised to call Li Chu today, why hasn't he arrived yet? Are you kidding me?"

Su Ning's head was buzzing. He only heard fragments of words and did not understand what the other party said.

He propped himself up and sat up. When the other party was about to push the girl to his side, she glanced at him, then looked around, frowned, and the smell of alcohol seemed to surge up all of a sudden, as if she was about to vomit.

The man, who had a nonchalant look at first, quickly stepped back when he saw this. He could only swallow the words in his mouth, cursed the man as a drunkard, waved his hand, and asked someone to take him to the bathroom.

The person who helped Su Ning up at this time was the little girl who woke him up. When Su Ning walked to the bathroom, he could still hear the impatient voice of "Jiang Shao" behind him: "Take him out quickly after he vomits, and call Li Chu to ask him to come over quickly."

"I've given you enough face tonight. Don't forget what you asked me for."

The latter sentence was addressed to Su Ning.

There was a separate bathroom behind the private room. When they got there, the girl wiped his face with a towel, and then Su Ning leaned against the sink and vomited all over the place.

She patted him on the back carefully, but she was still in a daze and felt uneasy. Then she saw a familiar girl outside the bathroom making a furtive gesture to her.

After Su Ning vomited, he leaned against the sink without moving, with his eyes closed, as if he had fainted again.

The girl's name was Zhou Chunqing. She was not willing to take care of a drunkard and was obviously busy with her own things. She called his name a few times, and when she saw that Su Ning did not respond, she put him aside.

There were benches next to the washbasin here, so I tiptoed out and then pulled the little sister aside.

The two of them had no other place to talk, and they were afraid that something might happen to Su Ning inside, so they didn't dare to go too far. So they closed the bathroom door and talked quietly outside under the sound of running water.

The first thing her friend said was: "Why did you go to help Su Ning right after you came back? Stay away from him."

"Those people asked me to go over there, and I had no choice." Zhou Chunqing was an 18th-tier celebrity. She had just returned from filming when she was called to the party by the rich second generation. She put away her usual flattering smile and asked in a low voice, "When did Young Master Jiang... set his sights on Li Chu?"

She was thinking about the name that Jiang Shao had just mentioned, "Li Chu" who she wanted to call to play with her.

"I came here to tell you about this. When you were filming in the mountains, Li Chu went out to do odd jobs to earn money. I don't know how she got targeted by that bastard Jiang Chenfeng. He came to see her several times, but Li Chu refused to agree and hid whenever he saw her." Her friend sighed, "Jiang Chenfeng probably doesn't know that you two are cousins. He has so many crushes on people that he has never failed to get them."

"Originally, Li Chu was unwilling, and it was not that easy for him to succeed. But you just heard it, it was this Su Ning inside, he is the prince of Light and Shadow Entertainment, this Su Shao has something in the hands of Jiang Shao, so the group of people wanted to recruit him tonight and let him send Li Chu over to play, and Su Ning has already nodded."

Li Chu is a trainee in the entertainment industry and is signed to the company Guangying Entertainment.

"How come?"

Zhou Chunqing's face turned pale, and he couldn't understand: "Isn't Guangying Entertainment a big company? They are different from us. They have never had such a thing before. How could this happen?"

The other party sighed: "Isn't it because Su Ning needs help?"

"You have been filming in the countryside and haven't been online recently, so you don't know that this young master Su is also a second-generation rich bastard. He is very famous and the whole country has to know about it."

After her explanation, Zhou Chunqing finally learned about the major Internet events that had recently occurred regarding this Su Ning.

It turns out that this prince of light and shadow entertainment also wanted to enter the entertainment industry as an artist like them, but the starting point of the rich young man was naturally different from theirs. He participated in the fourth season of "Idol Star Map", a 101-series idol talent show. This season was a big hit and has been extremely popular in the months since its launch. With the blessing of his family background and good looks, he had a lot of shots and quickly became famous. His ranking has never dropped below the debut position.

It's a pity that this singer is terrible at singing and dancing. Although he ranks high, there has always been dissatisfaction among the audience, and there has always been a mixture of fans and haters, causing a lot of controversy.

Until something happened a few days ago, which caused him to have a big fall and was even scolded on the top of the trending searches.

In the extra broadcast segment prepared by the Idol Star Program team, there was a small interactive game among the trainees, which was originally intended to be entertaining. However, Su Ning took advantage of the opponent's inattention while playing the game and injured the opponent in front of the live camera. The opponent fell under the competition platform and broke his arm on the spot.

The injured person was Sang Le, a popular contestant of the program. He had a baby face, a thin body, and many mother fans. He looked very pitiful when standing next to Su Ning.

Coincidentally, Sang Le and Su Ning live in the same dormitory. Their rankings have always been very close, both around the debut position. Although their styles and positioning are different, the competition is obvious.

There were rumors before that Su Ning isolated and bullied Sang Le many times, and fans of both sides had quarreled several times because of these things, but there has been no evidence.

This time, in front of the eyes of many viewers in the live broadcast, they watched Sang Le accidentally fall under the game table in pain, leaving Su Ning standing there in shock, his hands even maintaining the gesture of pushing people forward.

The live broadcast was quickly cut off, and the news that Sang Le had a fracture after being sent to the hospital was also quickly released.

The finals are coming up soon, and the impact of an arm fracture at this time can be imagined. Although the program team said that he has been quickly sent to the hospital to help recover as soon as possible, it is still unknown whether he can make it to the finals in this condition.

Sang Le was born in an ordinary family and had no one to rely on as a trainee, which was in stark contrast to Su Ning, who had a strong family background. After the accident, the trending searches took a long time to come up, and it was obvious that someone was suppressing the popularity. There were also many internet trolls who confused people and said that there was a problem with the safety rope of the program crew and that this was just an accident.

Just when the majority of fans were extremely angry, a marketing account suddenly broke the news, which was like adding fuel to the fire.

The revelations included both videos and pictures, proving the rumors that Su Ning had bullied Sang Le many times.

There is a scene in which when the two were assigned to the same team, Sang Le stayed alone in the corner, while the other teammates gathered around Su Ning, the well-known royal family member, and ignored Sang Le. Even when Sang Le took the initiative to communicate with everyone, he received no response, which did seem a bit isolated.

Combined with the clip of the team choosing the center position broadcast in the previous program, although Sang Le's performance was deliberately cut, from the results, everyone else actually unanimously chose Su Ning, who was so poor that he even got the beat wrong, and they said that he tried hard to give him a chance. At the same time, the part list of the original performance repertoire was also revealed. In comparison, it is obvious that Sang Le's part was severely cut, and the original part was given to others.

As a popular contestant, Sang Le only sang two lines in the second public performance and was at the back of the dance the whole time, which caused some doubts at the time. However, because he performed very well and the lively and cute dance music happened to be his style, in the end, it was his straight-shot video that had the highest number of views in the team, which seemed like a comeback. As a result, he attracted a lot of loyal fans, but after a while of commotion, the issue of his small number of views was left unresolved.

At present, due to the renewed controversy surrounding Sang Le's injury, these blurry videos and pictures were said to have been secretly released by the staff of Idol Star Chart Season 4. The marketing account also directly released several anonymous screenshots of the submissions.

"I really can't bear to watch this. The safety rope of the program crew today was fine. Sang Le's rope was deliberately cut in half, which caused him to fall. Some people are really lawless."

"It's too pitiful for a trainee with no background. Being bullied is fine, but they have to completely destroy their livelihood. It's disgusting to think that someone like Su Ning wants to debut as an idol."

At the same time, some revelations also appeared on the Internet. Some accounts claimed to be Su Ning’s college classmates or high school and junior high school classmates, saying that he was unlearned. Many people also said that Su Ning deliberately did not allow Sang Le to eat or go back to the dormitory to rest on the show.

All the words with or without hammers were mixed together, so today many negative entries such as "Suning hurts people", "Suning is bullying", and "Suning gets rid of Ou Si" have been rising all the way, and it is impossible to stop it.

The talentless and unethical resource-rich people have been suppressing the hard-working unknown people for a long time, and even want to ruin their future at a critical moment. Even passers-by who don't watch the talent show will feel angry after seeing the hot searches.

Although the live broadcast did not directly capture him pushing people, the situation was such that most people believed that he did it.

Only Su Ning still insists that he did not push anyone, but who would believe him now?

Zhou Chunqing understood after hearing this.

No wonder it was said before that Young Master Jiang had something on Su Ning. Langbo, operated by Jianghai Media, is one of the largest social media platforms in the country. The hot search list in it is a barometer of popularity in the circle. If you want to suppress the popularity, you naturally need Jiang Chenfeng.

"No, we have to rescue Li Chu as soon as possible," Zhou Chunqing stopped thinking about him and said firmly, "He must not end up like me."

The friend was also anxious, but even holding her hand, he still couldn't think of any solution. The two discussed for a long time and could only sigh at each other.

Because they were so engrossed in the conversation, they forgot about Su Ning who was still vomiting in the bathroom. The door was ajar, and they didn't know that their conversation was heard clearly by the person who was talking to them.

Su Ning had just vomited out everything in his stomach, turned on the tap and flushed it all out, then used water to wash his face.

Although the smell of alcohol had faded a little, he was still a little confused. In the blink of an eye, he had transformed into the evil young master Su.

Looking closely in the mirror, this face looks exactly the same as when he was young, but the striking hair color, the completely hairless hands, and the physical condition that makes him somewhat intolerant of alcohol are obviously very different from himself.

Mr. Su, who has been in the entertainment industry for nearly 20 years and has made his fortune from scratch, has read countless ridiculous scripts, but he never thought that one day he would be the one to travel through a book.

——Also, this sounds a lot like the project of "Bush of Thorns" that I just saw, the book that is said to be a bit evil.

After vomiting, his mind became clearer and the memories of the original owner began to recover in his mind.

The few points that Su Ning was able to obtain from his memory all matched the information in the few sentences of the introduction he recalled.

The "Thorn Award", the world's top film and television award, fits the sentence he saw describing the protagonist's goal, and also echoes the title of the book. The company "Light and Shadow Entertainment" is his own company, and the second name he saw in the introduction is the character "Li Chu".

——Li Chu really exists here.

As he just heard, the original owner was planning to give this innocent young intern to Jiang Chenfeng, who had ill intentions towards her, tonight because she couldn't suppress the negative search tonight no matter what. Her purpose was just to suppress the negative search.

The two little stars outside should be Li Chu's friends, and they are worried about this, but what they said about the hot searches is only part of the surface.

Judging from the original owner's memory, the things on the hot searches accusing him of bullying Sang Le were not that simple, and the revelations were a mixture of truth and falsehood.

Su Ning is indeed an unlearned young master, and the conflict with Sang Le is long-standing. He and Sang Le were assigned to the same group twice on the stage. Although the opponent's strength is not at the top level, it is much better than his. Naturally, he was used by the audience to drag him down, which made the original owner unhappy. The two of them are still entangled in the rankings, and are currently hovering around the debut position. Fans have fought with each other several times since the first episode, and an antagonistic situation has been formed.

But these are just small matters. The most important reason is also the main reason why the young master Su Ning insisted on making his debut in the show.

——Shen Huai, the special guest mentor of the program Idol Star Map, is someone he likes.

Shen Huai made his debut at a young age and has been in the industry for ten years now. He is now 26 years old. He used to be an idol and has now successfully transformed into an actor. He is a well-deserved popular figure, a national male god, and privately, Su Ning's engagement partner.

Shen Huai's Shen Pictures and Guangying Entertainment are of similar scale and have always cooperated closely. The two companies have a very good relationship and had an engagement a long time ago. The world view set in the original book seems to be very open to same-sex relationships, and since it is a business marriage, the engagement has continued and both families have acquiesced.

However, due to Shen Huai's special celebrity status, this engagement has never been made public. Only a small number of people in the circle know about it, such as Jiang Chenfeng, so it was not wrong to mock him for being "infatuated" just now.

Su Ning is an out-and-out love-brained person. She has been secretly in love with Shen Huai for many years and decided to make her debut because she wanted to be closer to him.

Shen Huai had always been nice to him, and had been tolerant of him since he was a child. But in the show, Sang Le seemed to have particularly attracted Shen Huai's attention. He was very concerned about him and personally guided him many times, sometimes even more than he cared about himself.

After seeing this, Su Ning was jealous from the bottom of his heart, and thus he disliked Sang Le very much. He had a bad temper and was not a friendly person at all, so the other players knew the situation, and many of them naturally flattered the powerful and looked down on the weak.

The reason why the revelations are half true and half false is mainly because the original owner really didn't dare to do anything in the show. In order to make his debut, he really restrained his temper to a certain extent. At most, he would ignore or respond to a few sarcastic remarks.

Even though he is a member of the royal family, he is not so powerful that he can cover the sky with one hand in the show. The rumors about not allowing Sang Le to eat and go back to the dormitory to rest are pure rumors.

It is true that Sang Le's part was squeezed out as reported in many revelations, but the original owner did not take the initiative to do anything. At that time, the other members of the team were not ranked high. In order to curry favor with Kasu Ning and gain resources, he was chosen as the C position without a blind eye. Sang Le's part was also divided up by them after discussion.

The most important thing is that it was not Su Ning who caused Sang Le to fall. During the live game broadcast, the safety rope on Sang Le suddenly broke and he fell down. Su Ning was completely stunned - he really just heard someone calling his name and then turned around, and he did not touch Sang Le at all.

The camera angles were tricky and no camera position could prove his innocence. He panicked when malicious comments came. Many revelations were a mixture of true and false. Su Ning had no way to explain, and even Guangying Entertainment did not believe that he did not push anyone.

The original owner felt very aggrieved. He felt that he had done nothing, did not want to withdraw from the competition, and did not want Shen Huai to think that he was really that vicious. He had no other choice but to seek help from Jiang Chenfeng, with whom he had always been at odds with.

But he didn't expect that coming to this club called Diaochunjiang tonight was also a trap.

He thought that after being forced to drink a few glasses of wine and being ridiculed by Jiang Chenfeng a few times, it would be enough. Since they were acquaintances who grew up together, they should be able to help. However, Jiang Chenfeng took the opportunity to suggest that he call a trainee named Li Chu from the company to come here to play before he would agree.

Su Ning was reluctant at first, mainly because she didn't want to give Jiang Chenfeng, who was always having fun with both men and women, too much benefit, nor did she want to continue causing trouble at this critical juncture.

He wanted to ask someone else to go, but when he wanted to leave, he found that he couldn't.

Su Ning had never been to Diaochun River before and was not familiar with the place, so he could only follow them. When he came here, Jiang Chenfeng drove to pick up Su Ning secretly from the variety show training camp. Su Ning had no car and no mobile phone on him. It was not easy to get out of the remote Diaochun River. He couldn't even find the way out.

At this moment, the talent show was still being filmed and had not been suspended. According to regulations, mobile phones had to be collected and trainees were not allowed to go out. Su Ning had gone out of his way to avoid people, which was already a violation of the rules. He also appeared in a place like Diao Chun Jiang, which made the situation even worse if word got out.

The original owner, this idiot, was completely controlled by Jiang Chenfeng. Under coercion and inducement, he finally had to do as the other party wanted and called Li Chu with Jiang Chenfeng's mobile phone in his trembling hands.

He had been undergoing intensive training in the practice room of Light and Shadow Entertainment for half a month before participating in the talent show variety show. He had come into contact with a trainee signed by Li Chu's company. He had the impression that Li Chu was a gentle and kind person, young, and had not experienced much. When he heard Su Ning's anxious, fearful, and coaxing tone over the phone, he obediently agreed.

Jiang Chenfeng's people went to pick him up immediately, but the journey took some time. While they were waiting, those people drank a lot of alcohol, so he got drunk and fell unconscious on the sofa.

Then, Mr. Su Ning, who had been in the entertainment industry for many years, came in.

Even though he had seen many ups and downs and many monsters, it was rare to see a fool like the original owner who played a good hand so badly and hurt others and himself.