Translator: Vian
Editor: Shem
The "Vie for Supremacy" crew members here at the table could all be considered as senior in the industry. Furthermore among them, Director Guo was the top director for TV dramas in the circle, and Tang Menglan was a popular first-tier star that has won an award before. But even for them, they didn't understand why Qin Cheng would forward "Extremely Entertaining" Weibo post.
Director Guo had made many films and the amount of awards he took were not small, having both fame and fortune, but all of them were for TV dramas. And although Tang Menglan did act in two movies before, they were only low-budget films to test the water and could not be considered as taking a full leap into the movie circle.
There was an unwritten saying in the entertainment circle: When any actor enters the big screen, they would not want to return to the small screen.
The big screen was movies, and the small screen was TV dramas.
The requirements for the actor when filming were higher, because the screen was larger so it would magnify every detail, letting the audience clearly see every expression on the actor's face and every action they make. The slightest lapse could lead to a huge error; once there was even a tiny mistake, it would be amplified several times on the big screen.
Therefore, movies challenge the actor's acting skills, and their quality was also often much higher.
Ever since his debut, Qin Cheng had filmed over twenty movies and not a single drama. His circle and Director Guo's, Tang Menglan's, and the entire "Vie for Supremacy" crew had no relation at all. He had been on "Extremely Entertaining" in a few occasions, but that was all from a few years ago and he seemed to have only been on it once in the past two years.
Under such circumstances, why did Qin Cheng forward this post?
Tang Menglan furrowed her eyebrows in deep thought when suddenly, she exclaimed in surprise: "I heard from my friend the "Disciple" had already finished filming and is currently in post-production and seems to be looking for a singer. Could it be that…" Everyone's eyes were all on her, only to see this award-winning gorgeous person show a brilliant smile: "Could it be that he thought I sang really well?"
Ye Qiao: "..."
Song Mingfei: "..."
Director Guo who lowered his head to continue eating and ignored her: "..."
Dong Zheng who had a rather strong mentality smiled: "This possibility… doesn't seem that big?"
Rong Xu who seemed to be faintly aware of an unusual point softly sighed, and his lips curled into a small smile: "Maybe it's because of me?"
Director Guo didn't pay attention when he was drinking, and the old elder almost choked. Poor Director Guo, he was already in his fifties this year. Looking at this group of children, he helplessly shook his head and said: "Isn't it just asking what's going on? I'll go ask tomorrow. Eat eat, what Qin Cheng does isn't related to us. It's a good thing for him to forward and help promote us. That kid has over three hundred million fans, he didn't need to forward but since he did, we'll freeload off this heat from him."
The crowd immediately laughed out loud.
When they were eating, Ye Qiao and Rong Xu has a pretty good relationship. He came over and whispered: "Xiao Xu, Tang jie was just joking, you don't need to think about it too much. I reckon that Qin Cheng was probably keeping Huaxia Entertainment's image, or maybe he really did unintentionally forwarded it. No matter what, our drama is invested by Huaxia Entertainment. Qin Cheng is also someone from Huaxia Entertainment, it's normal to forward it."
Rong Xu thought for a moment and frivolously raised an eyebrow: "It really can't be because of me?"
Ye Qiao's lip twitched, then picked up a big prawn and placed it in Rong Xu's bowl: "Eat eat eat."
Rong Xu: "..."
***
The "Vie for Supremacy" crew all thought this, but then outside, the fans' imagination was even wilder.
Qin Cheng's fans all thought they had already experienced trials and hardships in these past years. If one problem comes, then they would blow it away, if two comes, then they would blast away the pair! Therefore up till now, there was no one in the circle who could harm Qin Cheng's interest nor were there any idiots who were bored enough to go provoke them. But in these recent months, the fans realized…
They were simply too young and too naive ah!
First was two months ago, their family's male god started to change his profile picture every day and post a selfie every three days. The key word was 'selfie'!
In the past, Qin Cheng did not like to post on his Weibo. Although his Weibo was clearly ran by himself, he would only forward information on his films, help promote his friend's work, occasionally celebrate the holidays and would wish his fans a happy holiday.
Out of all five posts, none of them had selfies!
Yet he suddenly started posting selfies, and each one were so damn beautiful!
Posting selfies was obviously something that most stars do, but Qin Cheng's fans all held a "my family's male god isn't being normal" attitude when looking at the photos while also hoping that their male god could continue being abnormal forever.
However, the world wasn't always how people wish for it to be. Not long after, Qin Cheng suddenly stopped changing his profile picture and stopped posting! He returned to his "clocking in once during the holidays" behavior, his fans were sad and depressed, but there was also a kind of "this is my male god" mentality.
Then today, Qin Cheng suddenly forwarded a post that had nothing to do with him.
"Vie for Supremacy" was a drama that Qin Cheng did not participate in; he was not familiar with the director, neither was he familiar with the actors. As for Rong Xu, although Qin Cheng did follow him before, the two people didn't have any interactions so they probably weren't very familiar either.
"Extremely Entertaining" was indeed a program that Qin Cheng had been on several times, but they had never seen him forward any other drama's post ah! So to say… why the hell did male god forward this post?!
[I think Qin Cheng was definitely hacked! Definitely!]
[You haven't posted for three days now! Three days! Wu wu wu wu I really want to look at your selfie, really was to see "Disciple"! ]
[Can I say that Great God might not be hacked? This song is very good ah, I casually listened to it but Tang Menglan's singing was not bad, and that Rong Xu was even better! I think I'll watch "Vie for Supremacy", when will it be released ah ah ah ah!]
If Qin Cheng was really hacked, they definitely would have posted a statement and delete the post after so long by now. Gradually, the fans' attention was no longer on Qin Cheng after they opened the video link and listened to the song. There so many people in China, it was inevitable that were many people who still have not watched "Extremely Entertaining" or heard about the drama "Vie for Supremacy".
Therefore before soon, many praises sprang up one after another like bamboo after the rain.
[Verrryyy nice! His singing really is veerrryyy veerryyyy nice! The song Qin Shen recommended is really good, that Rong Xu is probably a newcomer, he looks reeaallly handsome~ ]
[Turns out "Vie for Supremacy" was actually going to be released so soon? I've been looking forward to it for a long time now, must mark it down!]
[Ah ah ah ah I'm the most powerless against this kind of clear and pure voice, isn't this Rong Xu also too handsome? His singing voice is also soooo good! Highly recommend it~ hurry up and listen to it~]
[Upstairs don't leave yet, you actually haven't seen my family's Marshal Huo yet! Hurry up and watch it, "Ambush" is reaching the finale next week, you have to grasp the moment in the present~ My family's Marshal Huo is unrestrained and cool, his name can shock the world and make demons cry; My family's Teacher Wanqi comes and goes like an immortal, getting Wanqi means getting the world~! The former is Huo Xi from "Ambush" and the latter is Wanqi Yao from "Vie for Supremacy", both are played by Rong Xu!]
More than three hundred million fans, even if one-fifth are active users, it was enough for tens of millions of fans to see the "Vie for Supremacy" promotion. Not to mention this video was a duet from Tang Menglan and Rong Xu. All at once, the name Rong Xu was heard once again by nth number of netizens.
Some netizens subconsciously voiced: [It seems that in the past months, I would always hear someone mention Rong Xu?]
The PR team of "Ambush" also borrowed this east wind and especially released a behind-the-scenes clip that was originally supposed to be released the day after tomorrow. In the three minute video, there was a lot of tidbits of Rong Xu during the filming period.
The handsome and bright youth was wearing a dark military uniform and leather military cap, having the same noble appearance he has in "Ambush". But totally different from the drama, this Huo Xi was smiling! And his smile was particularly warm and he would even let Liang Linghui hit his hands as punishment!
Zhang Tongtong who was wearing a cheongsam pouted: "Give me your hand, we already said whoever loses will be punished. Everyone is carefully watching, Rong Xu, you're not allowed to act shamelessly!"
The youth looked down appearing like he's suffering a grievance and quietly extended his hand out, enduring a sturdy but actually-not-that-strong of a hit on his palm.
[Ah ah ah ah ah My family's Rongrong is actually so cute! Wearing Marshal Huo's outfit to sell meng is foul play!]
That's right, these actors were actually bored enough to take advantage of their afternoon break to play card games! The netizens had their eyes opened, this was their first time seeing such a leisure crew that they actually had time to play around!
Even the audience knew that weekly dramas usually had a rushed schedule, but this crew was actually leisurely playing card games… indeed the world was wide and full of extraordinary things.
They naturally did not know that the "Ambush" crew's filming progress had always been very fast. Rong Xu rarely NG, Zhang Tongtong and Yi Lan weren't in a good state at first, but everytime they filmed with Rong Xu they would not NG. Gradually, they would also rarely NG.
As for Han Yanghao, he wants to compete with Rong Xu, so naturally, he was strict and demanded more of himself, doing his best not to NG.
The behind-the-scenes clip this time was to raise the "Ambush" audience's excitement for the finale next week. Although they already knew that it would definitely be Bai Mingde's victory, they also didn't think the Hou Xi would end up too miserably. According to their words, it would be: [As a big fan of the BOSS villain, I think that Marshal can definitely escape~ It's good enough to escape to a foreign country, you can live freely and at ease that way.]
"Vie for Supremacy" and "Ambush" promotions both complement one another. Back when Director Guo agreed for Rong Xu to enter the cast, he probably didn't think that this little newcomer could bring in any publicity to his drama. But now, many viewers have started paying attention to "Vie for Supremacy" because of "Ambush", causing Director Guo to have no choice but to notice it.
A week of publicity activities quickly passed. The crew would still have to do a few more promotions, but Rong Xu had already accomplished his role.
This time, everyone said goodbye at the airport. Director Guo especially pulled Rong Xu aside and lightly snorted: "You're doing pretty good right now, but be careful when choosing your next film. There should be a lot of idol dramas coming to look for you, I'm not saying that idol dramas are horrible, there are some good ones out there, but the majority of them are crude and poorly made. Be extra careful when choosing your next work, okay?"
Rong Xu was slightly shocked inside, not expecting that Director Guo would actually advise him this. A glimmer of light flashed through his clear eyes. After a long time, Rong Xu curled his lips, smiled and nodded: "Thank you, Director Guo."
Director Guo snorted again and looked away: "I'm just worried you would waste such a good momentum."
As soon as the words came out, Director Guo turned around and returned to the crew before boarding the plane with the other members.
Looking at the plane slowly flying off and disappearing into the clear blue sky, Rong Xu's slightly squinted. After a while, he couldn't help but let out a laugh.
***
Today was the "Ambush" grand finale. This weekly drama that had been airing for more than two months now was finally coming to an end.
In the last episode, Bai Mingde was almost found out by a higher-up. He skillfully escaped suspicion and misled Huo Xi to pinpoint the spearhead on that higher-up and have him shot dead instead. Then when Liang Linghui returned to the Old Master Huo's house to clean the grave, he handed the news over to Liang Linghui and had Liang Linghui passed it on to the people outside.
"In this world, only you can leave Ping City without being searched. No matter who Huo Xi doubts, he would never doubt you. The lives of thirty thousand people in Liangkou Town is in your hands. Linghui, you cannot fail, you absolutely… cannot fail!"
These words marked the ending of the previous episode.
And in this last, short episode, the audience would be receiving the ending.
Zhao Mei gnawed on an apple as she fixedly watched the TV. The familiar music played and she softly sang along with the song, eagerly looking forward to ending. But as time goes by, her relaxed expression slowly disappeared, and her gnawing on the apple also got slower and slower, till in the end, she stopped eating completely and just held it in her hands.
When she saw a certain scene, the apple suddenly dropped onto the sofa with a loud 'thud'!
"Wuwuwuwu… Marshal, how can this be… Impossible wuwuwuwu… Where's the screenwriter, where's the screenwriter?! I want to send blades! I want to send blades!"
At the same time online, the crazed and agitated fans were also closing in on "Ambush" official Weibo. The newest comments made on the official Weibo were flooding in rapidly at a rate visible to the naked eye; all the fans were screaming that same thing in unison——
[Don't you dare run screenwriter, you come over here. I promise not to kill you! You give me back my Marshal! Give me back my Marshal ah ah ah ah ah ah!!!]
The author has something to say:
Rongrong [Obediently extending his hand]: Ah, I actually lost the game, this is not scientific!
Fuwa [Laughs]: That's because of your mother, me~ I didn't give you a golden finger to be the king of games ah, gave it to a mushroom instead~
Qin Orangeorange [Eyes shining brightly]: Let's play a game, let's play a game~ Baby will play with you, a game where whoever loses will have to undress okay~
Rongrong: ...
Translator's Corner:
Vian: *covers eyes* … *peeks through fingers* That's better /////
Shem: *shemlessly watches them* ⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄
Fuwa – I guess I never really mentioned it, but Fuwa is the author's nickname
Golden finger – A cheat
Meng – Most of you probably ready know it but it means cute.
Liangkou Town – A town in the Conghua District in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province.