A Guide to Breaking Up Couples [Entertainment Industry]

Pairing people up is the best way to whitewash a scumbag. Everyone in the entertainment industry knows it.

CP pairings, marketing, forced tie-ins, fanbase conversion: run through the whole playbook, and even a scandal-ridden celebrity with a history of doing awful things can breathe freely online again. As for the CP partner reduced to a tool for cleaning up the scumbag's image, they're just out of luck.

Recently, idol Song Zihan has been relentlessly hounded by his scumbag ex-bandmate. The man was once a top-tier star in the domestic entertainment industry, but after his downfall, netizens called him “a walking pile of scandals,” a six-sided scandal-ridden wreck. Song Zihan had cut ties with him years ago. Seeing their CP posts spreading across every platform again made his stomach turn. He knew the CP's sudden popularity was thanks to his former company pouring money into marketing. Unfortunately, Song Zihan was mild-mannered, and his agency was utterly useless. Faced with the aggressive, parasitic marketing campaign, he got mad for a moment, then tucked his head down and played the coward.

While he was feeling down, newly crowned top-tier star Shang Rong gave him some advice: “Breaking up a CP isn't hard. The best way is to pair up with someone new and keep posting sweet content together. In no time, you and that scumbag ex-bandmate will be free of each other.”

Song Zihan felt as if a light had dawned. What a brilliant way to use one force to counter another!

Under his admiring gaze, the other man spoke slowly, like a sage beyond the mortal world: “You can't just pick anyone to be your new partner. They need to be decent, and they need to be able to crush that scumbag in talent, achievements, and fame.”

Song Zihan nodded vigorously.

“Someone like me.”

Song Zihan: …Huh?

[Devious, long-planning, favored son of heaven top & been through hardships, gentle on the outside but strong within, optimist bottom]

My other novel, After the Dragon-Pride Protagonist Was Expelled from His Sect, is currently serializing:

Gu Xunzhi was the biggest crime boss in the cultivation world. As a child, he became twisted after enduring hardship under Immortal Lord Fuguang. Once he rose to power, he destroyed countless sects, and eventually died in a siege.

Reborn, Gu Xunzhi was still bent on taking revenge on society. He switched sides and took the transparent, overlooked senior brother Bai Li as his master. In his previous life, Bai Li had sacrificed himself for the Dao at a crucial moment and gravely injured Gu Xunzhi. Several of Bai Li's disciples had also been the culprits behind Gu Xunzhi's death. This time, he was determined to bring down his enemies from within.

Instead, Bai Li took great care of him out of sympathy for the orphaned child. He personally tutored him in general studies, and taught him everything he knew about military strategy, formations, talismans, and other practical skills.

Under Bai Li's guidance, Gu Xunzhi evolved from an uncouth, low-class demon with nothing but cultivation into a wily, ambitious mastermind. He was no longer troubled by inner demons, and his cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds.

Gu Xunzhi was grateful to Bai Li and had planned to mend his ways and become a dutiful disciple. But he carelessly let Bai Li discover his demonic cultivation, and nearly got expelled from the sect.

Bai Li's sudden coldness, acting as though he'd never known him, left Gu Xunzhi utterly devastated.

He decided to show Bai Li what he did best: betraying his master and ancestor.

But before he could make a move, Bai Li was set up by someone and ended up disgraced.

Gu Xunzhi was furious. He knew that stubborn man couldn't get by without him!

He rescued his unfortunate master and brought him to his own territory as quickly as possible, then loudly gave the culprit a taste of their own medicine.

What the hell? Who dared to lay a hand on his master before he did?

Subordinates: I feel for you and what you've been through, but the way you act says you love him.

Theme: What's true can't be faked, and what's fake can't be made true.