In the mirror, a tired and slightly unfamiliar face is reflected. Xu Huaiyu, who has entered middle age, examines himself in the mirror, and has mixed feelings in his heart.
She couldn't help but let out a self-deprecating laugh, recalling the years when she was known as the "civilian diva", radiant and eye-catching.
However, at present, she has a bad reputation and lacks resources in this highly competitive entertainment industry. Even the assistants around her broke the news, revealing the arrogance, difficulty, mood swings, and negligence of her work.
Wu Peici, a friend who had worked with her, also publicly accused her of always putting on a cold face.
Xu Huaiyu sighed deeply, she knew that the root of all this came from her past sharpness. When a person is at the top of her career, people will naturally praise her strengths, but when she falls into the trough, people will turn out all her shortcomings and problems, and it is best to describe her as "a misfortune does not go alone".
Her name, in the minds of the majority of audiences, seems to be just a "dream" that once shone briefly, fleeting and failed to leave any deep imprint.
The audience only remembered her glorious moments, but quickly forgot about her as a short-lived star.
Nowadays, when the name Xu Huaiyu is mentioned, everyone either feels unfamiliar, or sighs that she is sharp, withdrawn, and has a loose work attitude. Even people in the industry have stayed away from her to avoid getting involved in her right and wrong turmoil.
Xu Huaiyu clearly realized that the reason why she fell into such a situation, in addition to the ups and downs of her career, was more because she had never been able to fully integrate into this complex circle.
She has a straightforward personality and disdain for manoeuvres, she has a fiery temper and often loses control of her emotions, she is arrogant and willful, and she is often negligent in her work.
These qualities undoubtedly make it difficult for her to move forward in this circle full of calculations.
Xu Huaiyu has been destined to a bumpy fate in his life since he was a child. She was born in 1978 into a traditional patriarchal family in Taipei City. As the only daughter in the family, her grandfather was never able to accept her feminine identity, and he used wine to drown his sorrows, and even had a deep prejudice against this granddaughter.
What's even more tragic is that Xu Huaiyu's father couldn't bear the heavy pressure from the family in the end, and chose the desperate path of suicide when she was still young.
Faced with many difficulties, Xu Huaiyu's mother resolutely decided to lead her and her younger brother away from home and embark on a new life journey. However, the mother's second marriage was not a happy one, and the stepfather spent his days idle, living a leisurely life.
Soon after, two more lively and amiable twin sisters were added to the family, and the burden of the family was all on the weak shoulders of Xu Huaiyu's mother.
Xu Huaiyu was well aware of her mother's hard work since she was a child, and she often accompanied her mother to work in the cramped kitchen, gradually mastering the skills of cooking home-cooked dishes.
When her mother had to work outside the home to make ends meet, she took on the responsibility of caring for her younger siblings.
When she was 13 years old, Xu Huaiyu began working at a nearby restaurant to earn money for her family. Singing has become her only spiritual sustenance, and she often releases her inner fatigue through singing.
Growing up in an impoverished environment, she went through many other hardships that other children could not have imagined. It is these experiences that have shaped Xu Huaiyu's tenacity and perseverance today.
However, this also indicates that she may face challenges in the future in the entertainment industry that it is difficult to completely let go of the past and fully adapt to the new environment.
In 1996, at the age of 18, Xu Huaiyu was standing on the small balcony of his home drying clothes when he inadvertently hummed a song that was played on the radio. Who would have thought that this short moment would completely change the path of her life!
By chance, the producer Weng Xiaoliang heard this beautiful singing, and he was deeply moved, and he did not hesitate to discover Xu Huaiyu, opening the door to her career.
After a series of rigorous training and meticulous carving, Xu Huaiyu finally won high praise from Li Zongsheng, the owner of Rolling Stone Records at the time, and successfully signed his first professional contract.
Although she didn't make a name for herself when she first joined the company, as a newcomer, she was not discouraged by this, but worked harder.
Eventually, the opportunity came, and she was followed by a new EP, Flying, which was not well received but laid a solid foundation for her future success.
In the following moments, Xu Huaiyu successfully won the music scene with the strong influence of the title song of her charming debut novel "I Am a Girl", and won the honorific title of "civilian diva"! In just three months, this album sold a record 1.5 million copies!
However, in this stormy music wave, her second solo album "Rush Forward" also brought an amazing counterattack again.
The styles of the two albums are extremely similar, and they all show her lively and cute girly image.
However, behind this dazzling halo is Xu Huaiyu's extreme diligence and unremitting pursuit of work.
At that time, she was under tremendous work pressure and a busy schedule every day, and she was often so tired that she couldn't even sleep peacefully, let alone enjoy food.
According to her stylist, "Xu Huaiyu was almost alone in the operation of the entire Rolling Stone record at that time."
Just as Xu Huaiyu's career was in full swing and his reputation was rising, the haze of fate quietly came. In 2009, an unexpected incident happened - she was recording for a variety show in Nanjing, when suddenly everyone left the table, and then fell into a dispute with her agency.
The contradictions between the two sides escalated rapidly, and in the end they could not be reconciled, so they had to resort to law. The agency accused Xu of violating the terms of the contract between the two parties, and Xu countersued the company's boss for sexually harassing her.
In the face of the sudden lawsuit, Xu Huaiyu naively believed that as long as she worked hard to learn relevant legal knowledge, she would be able to seek justice for herself and defend her due rights and interests.
However, the cruel reality is that she lost the lawsuit and was finally ordered to pay a huge amount of compensation of up to 2 million yuan to the other party.
This is undoubtedly a fatal blow to the already stormy cause. Overnight, Xu Huaiyu fell into an unprecedented predicament in life. According to people familiar with the matter, during that time, her life was almost destitute, and it was difficult to maintain even basic food and clothing, and she only had a meager one or two thousand Taiwan dollars left.
At this moment, Xu Huaiyu is still bearing the huge responsibility of supporting his mother and several younger siblings, and is forced by the predicament to condescend and humble himself, imploring the majority of fans and die-hard fans to lend a helping hand, generously donate money, and borrow money to get by.
In the rain of tears, Xu Huaiyu cried in pain: "This is simply forcing me to a dead end, and there will never be a day to turn over!" Seeing that the former idol has fallen to this, how can it not make people sigh with emotion? However, Xu Huaiyu did not succumb to this, with tears in her eyes, she made up her mind with perseverance to open up a new path for herselfTwo years later, in order to repay all her debts, Xu Huaiyu decisively chose to return to the entertainment industry, devoted herself to various variety shows, and worked tirelessly to reshape her brilliant acting career.
Xu Huaiyu's comeback once ignited the flame of hope in people's hearts. However, the good times were always short-lived, and her career hit a low point again.
The turning point came in 2000, when a large number of talented new generation singers emerged in the entertainment industry, such as Jolin Tsai, Stefanie Sun, etc., their rise brought unprecedented pressure to Xu Huaiyu In order to seek a breakthrough, she bravely tried to change, innovated her music style and stage image, and gradually approached the image of a mature and sexy woman.
In this torrent of transformation, Xu Huaiyu launched a new album "Miss Right". Unfortunately, the response to the album was far less than expected, with mediocre sales and failing to make much of a splash in the music scene.
In this way, Xu Huaiyu's acting career once again fell into a trough of stagnation.
Just when her career was at its lowest, something even more ridiculous happened. Xu Huaiyu's grandfather, who was once prejudiced against her, actually stepped forward at this critical moment and made a public statement, claiming that he had not had any contact with this granddaughter who had already made a name for herself in the entertainment industry for more than ten years.
In the face of this sudden pressure of public opinion, Xu Huaiyu seemed helpless. She could only stand in the spotlight with a tired and haggard face, and painfully recounted her unbearable growth and hardships.
Despite all her sincerity, she was able to win the understanding and sympathy of some members of the public, but for her, the process was undoubtedly a trough of despair, and it was once again hit hard at the limits of her physical and mental exhaustion.
In this way, Xu Huaiyu, who was highly praised in the past, suddenly slipped his professional achievements and personal prestige, and entered the darkest moment in his life. Not only was she ruthlessly denigrated as a "short but beautiful moment" and a key phrase such as "the loss of a civilian hero", but even the last of her inner attachments began to waver.
The root cause of all these tragedies has to go back to the turmoil in 2004 when she broke up with the then hot actor Wu Dawei.
Although the latter used "conceptual disagreement" as a tactful explanation, Xu Huaiyu remained silent about it and chose to bear it alone.
Perhaps it was from then that she gradually moved towards loneliness and became a loner, which became the initial fuse for the change in the trajectory of her later life.