Image Failure

"Today is the 42nd day after I lost my Power Silver Max. I miss it so much… Dad says as long as I leave my lucky money in his keep this Chinese New Year, he'll try to persuade Mum, and let her give it back to me…

"My dad is as unbelievably dumb as he always is. He has probably forgotten that I'm going to be a Year 6 student! That 86 yuan Power Silver Max was nice, but I'm not stupid. Of course, I'm not going to give him all the money my grandpas and grandmas give me for Chinese New Year…

"If I give it to my dad, he'll hand it over to my mom right away. I'd rather give it to mom myself. What they say on TV is right. We should say no to the middleman…"

Outside, stars twinkled in the sky. Zhonghai, an international metropolis, was lit up by the street lamps and headlights of the cars.

Leaning over on his desk, Pan Da was diligently making an entry in his diary.

The diary was the winter vacation homework assigned by their literature teacher. The students were supposed to make an entry every day, and the homework would be considered finished if there were no gaps in the entry dates.

Quickly finishing his diary for the day, Pan Da closed his notebook, which his mother had bought him for the occasion, and had a bear on the cover, and pushed the notebook and his pencil away. He couldn't wait to switch on his computer.

"Dada! Have you finished your diary yet?"

Du Bishu sent him this message 10 minutes ago.

Pan Da typed quickly on his phone, then hit send. "Yes, I have! You?"

"Not yet…"

Du Bishu replied as quickly as Pan Da did.

"I hate diaries, including writing assignments!"

"Me, too!" Pan Da replied.

Abandoning the hope of finishing his diary today, Du Bishu stopped writing all together. Instead, he started talking to Pan Da about yo-yos.

"Dada, take a look at this…"

[Weblink∞]

Pan Da clicked the link, the browser opened automatically, and jumped over to a video on Bilibili.com.

"From Bronze to High King — Yo-yo tutorial from Li Fei, Lecture 1"

This title intrigued Pan Da. He walked over to the door and stuck his ear out to listen to the sounds in the living room. He only went back to his computer after he made sure that both his parents were chatting and watching TV.

"The volume has been set to the minimum!"

Start playing!

Video buffering completed…

10 minutes later!

Pan Da opened a chat box in excitement after he finished watching the video, and started chatting with Du Bishu, whose online ID was [Uncle Du, the late night lover]. "Was that really Li Fei? He was so good. He knew so many tricks!"

"It was him!"

Du Bishu replied. "But his name is He Yifan. Li Fei was the character he played."

"No wonder he's Li Fei! He was invincible!"

Pan Da was very excited. This was the first time he ever saw "Li Fei" play a yo-yo in real life.

He hadn't expected that the actor himself could play it even better!

"Dada, guess what? I can do that trick from the video, too!"

"Seriously?" Pan Da was shocked.

Du Bishu sent him a laughing emoji, then replied, "Of course! I'm a yo-yo genius. Tricks like that are a piece of cake to me. Come over to my place tomorrow and I'll show you…

"I won't invite just anybody! The girls from my class nagged me yesterday, asking me to show them the trick, but I said no.

"Girls are so dumb. They couldn't even do such simple tricks, and they wanted me to show them how I did it. They wish…"

Pan Da was so envious when he read those words.

He was amazed by how open-minded Uncle Du was. His own parents not only wouldn't let him play, but they had even confiscated his yo-yo as soon as they discovered the toy. How unreasonable!

Pan Da was about to reply to Du Bishu's message when he heard crisp footsteps outside.

He jolted, pressed Alt+F4 to pop out the shutdown command, then hit enter.

The footsteps got closer and closer. Pan Da had almost reached out to unplug the computer when he heard the voice of his father, Pan Qiliang, from outside.

"Dada! Your grandmother wants to talk to you. Come out here and answer the phone."

"Coming!"

Rising to his feet, he left the room, and closed the door behind him.

That was close!

…

He Yifan's video had become sensational among yo-yo lovers.

The guy was promoting himself with, well himself.

As a C-list actor, He Yifan had been pretty much ignored by the general public.

After he had finally played the leading role of a hit show, Blazing Teens, instead of the role itself, it was the yo-yo that had gotten all the spotlight.

Even Luo Wei, the actress of Mi Li, had risen from an extra in Hengdian to an influencer with over a million followers on Weibo, which was quite an achievement.

Why was he, the main actor, remaining a nobody?

Since yo-yos were so popular, he thought that he would take advantage of it.

One had to admit that his plan had actually worked. At least, he had gained quite a few followers because of the yo-yo videos.

Although the way he attracted attention was a little pathetic, he had gained popularity nonetheless!

After Blazing Teens, He Yifan's quality of life had noticeably improved. He was invited to various commercial performances and appeared in numerous advertisements. As a result, his agency paid more attention to him and began to give him more resources. It seemed that he was going to reach the prime of his life…

By then, He Yifan had been carried away with his own importance.

When Pengda Pictures went to him and invited him to play in Blazing Teens 2, which was still in preparation, He Yifan turned them down without hesitation.

"No! I'm not playing it!"

"I'm famous now and I don't need another feature show. I'll only take big productions and a sequel of Blazing Teens can go to hell."

Then, something unexpected happened.

When Pengda Pictures announced on their official Weibo page that the character Li Fei wouldn't be included in Blazing Teens 2, because the actor didn't want to play the role…

He Yifan's Weibo went viral!

It really did!

His latest post was a link to his yo-yo tutorial video with a picture of him holding a Power Silver Max.

There were only a few hundred comments in that post. However, almost as soon as Pengda Pictures announced the news, the comments rose to tens of thousands.

"Li Fei is dead. He's in hell!"

"If you're not going to play, why bother making the videos?"

"There I was, thinking that the videos were an announcement in advance to the sequel, but you're really just a free rider!"

"Li Fei has become a free rider of the yo-yo? He Yifan, you're such a piece of work!"

Refusing to play in a sequel shouldn't have affected the career of an actor all that much, for everyone had the right to choose what role they wanted to play. No one else should have tried to decide for them.

However, He Yifan had not only made yo-yo tutorial videos to take advantage of the popularity, but he had also said on multiple occasions that "I love yoyos" and that "I'll play the sequel as long as they want me".

Talking about maintaining one's image!

On one hand, he said he loved playing with yo-yos and that it was an honor to play in Blazing Teens. On the other hand, he turned down the sequel…

As if that wasn't enough, someone working in the circle revealed a secret. He Yifan didn't turn down the show because of the salary. Pengda Pictures was already quite generous in that aspect. He had refused to play for one reason only; he didn't want to play feature shows any more because they weren't high-end enough.

That baffled just about everyone.

He had gained popularity because of a children's feature show, but he despised it now.

Then, why on earth did he make all those tutorial videos?

Images were slow to build, but quick to overturn…

Hence, He Yifan got what he wanted…

He got the attention he had always wanted!