Word around the entertainment industry was that movie star Xu Jiayi and top-tier actress Mu Fu didn't get along.
The two shot to fame three years ago after starring together in a xianxia drama, gaining countless fans who shipped them as a couple. But Xu Jiayi was vehemently against promoting their pairing. Once the drama finished airing, he had his team publicly cut ties with the ship. Their fans spent months attacking each other online, and things got ugly. Xu Jiayi and Mu Fu couldn't stand the sight of each other, and they hadn't appeared together in three years. Even at award ceremonies where they both won, only one of them would attend. They were practically the industry's textbook case of a ship that couldn't be sunk.
Everyone knew that any event featuring Xu Jiayi couldn't invite Mu Fu, and any show with Mu Fu couldn't get Xu Jiayi to appear.
Until one variety show invited the two of them as mystery guests. They were assigned to the same team, and fan photographers captured plenty of pictures of their sweet interactions.
The ship fans went wild, while their individual fans flooded the show's comments, begging the production team to act like decent people and stop writing this kind of script to force the two together and make them cling to each other nonstop.
The show's director relayed the fans' opinions to the two of them and forcibly split them into separate teams.
That night, Xu Jiayi and Mu Fu logged into their fan accounts and posted in their respective fan forums, explaining that the show wasn't scripted, and that Xu Jiayi and Mu Fu themselves wanted to stay together. They were flamed for thousands of comments, and their alternate Weibo accounts were collectively blocked by their fans.
Having lost their alternate accounts, the two had no choice but to post on Weibo using their main accounts.
Xu Jiayi: [Miss you @Mu Fu]
Mu Fu: [Me too @Xu Jiayi]
Xu Jiayi: [Long-distance relationships are so hard @Mu Fu]
Mu Fu: [Hope the production team acts like decent people tomorrow and doesn't put us in separate teams @Xu Jiayi]
Production Team: [...It's really not that bad. The rooms you're staying in are less than twenty meters apart.]
Netizens: [...Don't you two have WeChat? Can't you just message each other privately?!!!]
Theme: Opportunity favors the prepared.
