In reality, Wang Baiyuan actually hadn't fallen that hard. Plus, when he had bumped into Ruan Tian on the way down she had helped him cushion the fall a bit more.
Thus, he was able to slowly stand up again with the help of the crowd. His waist and his legs were more or less alright, but his arm seemed to have been dislocated.
Even if these people usually had to treat Wang Baiyuan like an ancestor, right now he had no choice but to rely on them.
However, the whole time he was very noisy, as if he were a patient with an incurable disease.
Ruan Tian walked over and said with a cold face, "Shut up."
Wang Baiyuan seemed to have been successfully bluffed by her because he really stopped his voice after that.
Ruan Tian raised his arm gently and said, "Let me take a look at it for you."
However, in Wang Baiyuan's ears, those words sounded like: "Hold still, I'm going to kill you now".
Wang Baiyuan stepped back in horror. "Ruan Tian, what do you want to do?"
Ruan Tian gently squeezed his dislocated arm but didn't answer his question.
Wang Baiyuan felt a bolt of pain. He immediately burst into tears and began to make a scene, "What do you want to do? You let go of me! ****, I'm in terrible pain, are you trying to murder me?! Help! Help me! This crazy woman has lost her mind again!"
He looked around at his assistants who didn't dare to approach Ruan Tian and shouted, "Are you all dead? She's going to kill me, and none of you care! ? When I go back, I'm going to fire all of you! Ahhhhh, **** you!"
"Ruan Tian! TianTian! Sister Ruan! I was wrong, let me off, okay?"
"Ruan Tian, **** your mother! Don't you hear me? **** you! Are you even listening?! Help! Someone help!"
Ruan Tian finally found the right position and, with a swift movement, she forced the dislocated arm back into position.
Wang Baiyuan only felt a burst of severe pain, and then his arm seemed to be healed.
His face turned ugly like he had eaten shit.
He fell silent for a long time while he pinched and twisted his injured arm. Finally, he said, "Couldn't you tell me before doing good deeds?"
That really scared him to death!
He was almost scared enough to faint, okay?
Except for his dislocated arm, Wang Baiyuan hadn't really been hurt, but he insisted on calling an ambulance to take him to the hospital for a physical examination anyway. In the end, he ended up staying in the hospital for two days.
On normal days, the fact that an ambulance was called to the film city could be a big matter or a small matter.
However, today was slightly different. As soon as the ambulance left the set there were already rumors swirling around that Ruan Tian and Wang Baiyuan were fighting again! According to the rumors, Ruan Tian had directly put Wang Baiyuan into the hospital this time.
Since something similar had happened in the past, plus there was a video of an ambulance driving out of the film city, the majority of people believed the rumor.
"I declare this news to be one of the top 100 most hilarious pieces of news from this year."
"Can't those two do anything other than fight?"
"Speaking dangerously, perhaps they could also fight in bed…"
"Wow, Wang Baiyuan unexpectedly ended up suffering such a disaster in the hands of Ruan Tian. Sister Ruan is really powerful."
"Oh, my God, do the posters above even have a conscience? She's already beating people so badly they need to go to the hospital, but you're still praising her? I think Ruan Tian is a madwoman prone to violent outbursts!"
"Is Wang Baiyuan alright? Brother Wang, quickly take out your usual domineering king style and destroy this Ruan Tian! I firmly support you."
Meanwhile, Wang Baiyuan underwent a comprehensive physical examination at the hospital. However, there was nothing wrong with him, not even a single piece of broken skin.
Thus, the doctor told him to quickly leave and go back to where he came from.
But Wang Baiyuan was like a broken tape recorder playing on loop, he only said: "Are you sure I don't need to be in the hospital? Are you really sure I don't need to be hospitalized?"
The doctor didn't have time to play along with this crazy guy. After he finished writing up his report, he turned around and said, "Sir, you are in good health. There's nothing wrong with you."
Wang Baiyuan immediately pointed to his arm. "But is my arm alright? It was just broken."
"It wasn't broken, it was just dislocated, but now it's already been returned to the right position."
"Wuwuwu…"
In the end, Wang Baiyuan could only go back to the hotel where the crew was staying. He tossed and turned on the bed for a long time but was unable to fall asleep. Finally, he got up and knocked on the next door down the hallway.
Ruan Tian sleepily opened the door to see who it was. When she recognized the man outside, she didn't think for a second and was about to close the door immediately. Seeing that, Wang Baiyuan was furious and raged, "Ruan Tian, what do you mean this?"
However, he calmed down a bit and decided not to bother to argue with her. He proudly raised his chin and said, "Well, thank you for today."
Ruan Tian: "Oh."
"Oh"? Why was she being so cold? Shouldn't she be grateful and want to make friends with him right about now?
Wang Baiyuan could only angrily storm back to his room.
The news that Wang Baiyuan had been admitted to the hospital had already spread out on a small scale.
Zhao Meng'er, who was always waiting for more news about Ruan Tian, saw it as well. Then, her hand "slipped" and happened to like a certain post on Weibo:
StarEntertainmentGossip: 【Wang Baiyuan is so miserable. He's always bullied like that by Ruan Tian while he's in the crew. I hope Ruan Tian will one day stop bullying others. 】
Wang Baiyuan looked at this post and smiled coldly.
He was well aware that these people were just waiting for him to fight with Ruan Tian. They wanted them to play the clam and the crab so they could be the fishermen that reaped the benefits on the side!
Completely daydreaming!
They could just dream on!
Coincidentally, a reporter called him to verify the authenticity of the matter, so Wang Baiyuan gave a response that was the opposite of what they expected and pretended to be pure and goodhearted: "Those rumors online are all fake. I actually have a very good relationship with TianTian. She even buys me water and drinks to drink every day, and we often have meals together in private."
Actually, the reason why Zhao Meng'er had been so determined to go against Ruan Tian recently wasn't just because of the losses she had suffered in the past. It was more because she knew that both of them were working on TV shows that would start broadcasting soon, what's more, their two shows had very similar themes and would undoubtedly be pitted against each other and compared. Thus…
It was either her or Ruan Tuan!
There was no third option.
…
That night, Shen Shu once again dreamed of himself and Ruan Tian forlornly hiding in that cave. In the dream, Ruan Tian's eyes were washed with tears.
She was crying pitifully and looked very sad.
Seeing that, Shen Shu's heart was full of gloom and felt as if it were being pressed down by a big stone.
When he finally woke up, he noticed that for some reason the pillow under his head was half wet.
Shen Shu slowly sat up in bed and flicked the bedside lamp on. His eyes were complex as he looked over at a ragged scrap of paper on the bedside table. It was the merry-go-round ticket that Ruan Tian had torn up and thrown into the trash that time.
He really never would have dreamed that he would one day find himself digging through the trash for some scraps of paper.
On that day, Shen Shu had been like some sort of deviant, digging out the scraps of this ticket so he could painstakingly glue them back together and then put the "repaired" ticket nicely on his bedside table.
But every time he saw the ticket, he only felt it was ridiculous.
Whenever he saw it, he would be reminded of the time back then, when he had also promised to accompany her to the amusement park. But back then, the price for his company had been clearly marked: 500 milliliters of blood.
Back then, Shen Shu really hadn't regarded Ruan Tian as a fellow human being. He hadn't thought of her as a person who could cry and feel pain, and when he saw the needle poking into her veins, his eyes had only been full of apathy and indifference.
At that time, he had clearly seen her reddened eyes, but he hadn't felt anything.
Also, even after she had gone through all that, he hadn't even properly escorted her at the amusement park.
He remembered that day, Ruan Tian had wanted to board the pirate ship ride. She had bought him a cola and dragged him to a shady spot and told him to wait obediently and not run around because she would be right back after riding the ride.
He had agreed to her words casually. However, as soon as she was far enough away he had thrown away the things she had given him and directly left the amusement park without a word.
Clearly, he had just been bullying her and playing with her heart.
Sitting on his bed, Shen Shu blinked a few times. His eyes felt hot and sour, and his throat felt choked and stuffy like he could hardly breathe.
And even when he managed to draw a breath, the air flowing through his clogged throat felt sharp and painful.
Shen Shu felt he could see something in the room with him. Perhaps it was a hallucination. It was Ruan Tian. She was sitting near the bedside sitting in her pajamas. She giggled and said, "Am I good-looking in this?"
He was just about to nod and say she was very good-looking…
But then wet tears welled up in the apparition's eyes, which quickly turned bloody red and left two scarlet tracks on her cheeks. She said mournfully, "Shen Shu, can't you be nicer to me?"
"Can you show me a little pity?"
Shen Shu reached out and wanted to hold her, but his fingers only clutched empty air.
He blinked again and then shook his head with a wry expression. In this cold and empty bedroom, where could she be?
They had already gotten divorced a long time ago.
Ruan Tian had also already left a long time ago.
That night, around 3:00 in the morning, Shen Shu's lawyer received his call and heard Shen Shu's raspy voice: "Get me the divorce agreement Ruan Tian and I signed."
During the final month of filming for 'The Story of Xie Wan', everyone on the crew were extremely motivated, as if they had gotten a shot of chicken blood.
Wang Baiyuan felt embarrassed to fall behind the rest, but he really just wasn't the type who could bear any hardship or bitterness. At first, he would often feel too tired to continue or lose his temper directly. But one day one of his assistants with a better relationship with him stepped forward to coax him and said: "Brother Wang, don't you want to be famous? If you still want to be famous, we will need to grit our teeth and get through this. Anyway, there are only a few days left to work."
Wang Baiyuan seriously considered his assistant's words. However, after analysis, he discovered that whether he was famous or not didn't actually seem to make much of a difference to him. After all, no matter how famous he was or wasn't, thanks to his backer he wouldn't have to worry about finding shows to shoot or endorsement deals to sign. And, although he didn't have many fans, the ones he did have were very loyal and seemed to love him very much.
It seemed he didn't really have much reason to pursue fame.
Having reasoned this far, Wang Baiyuan was even less motivated to work hard.
However, his assistant had continued to analyze for him: "Brother Wang, there are so many award ceremonies that happen at the end of the year, if you gain some fame now it will certainly let you take the best position in the crowd. But if you don't you'll probably only be able to sit in some small corner that no one cares about." After a short pause, he continued: "Moreover, that Ruan Tian seems to be very hard-working and also likable. If you lose to her…"
In fact, they both knew that no one on this crew was more serious and hard-working than Ruan Tian.
She had thoroughly memorized the script and never forgot her lines, she was strong and hardy enough that her martial arts double was almost unnecessary and, of all the actors, she had undoubtedly spent the most time with the crew.
Thinking of this, Wang Baiyuan had unexpectedly felt the stirrings of his conscience for the first time in a long time. Therefore, however reluctantly, for the sake of Ruan Tian's face, he had decided to show off the full extent of his acting skills during the final month.
On the day that filming for 'The Story of Xie Wan' finally came to an end, the crew had stayed very late to film the last scene, and the work wasn't done until after 3:00 in the morning.
After the shooting was done, Ruan Tian bounded off set happily. In the lounge, she found a bouquet of flowers that her fan club had sent, as well as many letters that they had written her.
Ruan Tian happily held the flowers in her arms and was in a beautiful mood.
At the same time, the director, a full-grown man who usually had an even temper, found his assistant director and cried loudly. He muttered, "I'm so reluctant to wrap things up…"
He had finally re-discovered the joy of being a director and putting in his full effort for a project while working with this crew, but now he would have to part from those things again.
The assistant director also felt very reluctant to wrap things up. He and the director had worked with a lot of different crews over the years, but it had been a long time since they had filmed anything so seriously.
The director quickly wiped away his tears and immediately returned to being his usual stoic self. He declared: "I've decided! I won't waste away even one more day from now on."
He wanted to find the true meaning of being a director! And to follow his soul that yearned for freedom!
The assistant director nodded, "I don't want to fool around anymore either."
The director sniffled and silently looked over at Ruan Tian. Finally, he couldn't contain himself and went forward to hug her, "Ruan Tian, you child, you're really too good. Next time, I'll look for you and Wang Baiyuan again!"
Their 'The Story of Xie Wan' crew would always stand together!
Ruan Tian: "…"
She really wanted to interject!
Director, couldn't you calm down?
She felt very thankful for his kindness… but he really didn't have to!
In the end, the whole crew stood together on set and took a group picture. In the middle, Ruan Tian and Wang Baiyuan stood shoulder to shoulder, very close together.
Ruan Tian held her bouquet and smiled at the camera and used her fingers to make a "V".
There were so many people in the group photo that Ruan Tian and Wang Baiyuan were unavoidably squeezed together. Wang Baiyuan quickly found that he had no places to put his hands. He pursed his lips and put on an unsightly expression, completely unwilling to put his hand on Ruan Tian's shoulder.
The next instant, the shutter was pressed. At that moment, Wang Baiyuan happened to be glancing down at Ruan Tian's face. Meanwhile, Ruan Tian was leaning toward him a bit because of the surrounding crew members and smiling happily.
The crew's official Weibo only had around 50,000 fans, and half of them were probably robots.
However, this corpse-like official Weibo finally made a move on the day that filming wrapped up!
TheStoryofXieWan: Young heroes, next summer, let's meet again! 【picture】
The picture was sent with the text in one breath, and in it Ruan Tian and Wang Baiyuan unexpectedly seemed very harmonious. In the photo, Ruan Tian seemed to be leaning her head against Wang Baiyuan's shoulder, and it gave the onlookers the feeling that these two were actually quite a good match.
At least, like this, they were beautiful enough to let people forget how the two of them had fought and quarreled before.
【Who's this little sister with Brother Wang? Oh my god, what a pair! 】
【Brother Wang's eyes are too full of doting. 】
【Are they saying that the show will be broadcast next summer? I think I've already fallen in love with this show in advance. 】
【Someone contact the officials, I've cracked this case. Is there anything that can't be solved by fighting it out on top of the bed? 】
Since filming was finally done, Ruan Tian also posted a selfie to her own Weibo as usual.
Then, filled with exhaustion, Ruan Tian went back and had a good sleep in her hotel room.
The next day, Jiang Lili came in her car to take her home.
By now, the weather was already turning colder and Ruan Tian could see that the people on the street had begun to wear their autumn clothes.
Jiang Lili talked a lot about work with Ruan Tian along the way. "TianBaby, 'Destined Immortals' will finally begin broadcasting next month. It's going to be broadcast over Christmas in one of Fruit Station's primetime slots. There are a total of 60 episodes, so if they do the usual two episodes a day and one episode on weekends, it will probably be ongoing until the Spring Festival."
Ruan Tian was very happy to hear that her first TV series in which she played the female lead was finally going to be broadcast and replied, "En, understood."
As she drove, Jiang Lili continued: "However, I've heard that Zhao Meng'er's 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' will also begin broadcasting on the same day as your show. It will also be released over Christmas with a joint broadcast from Blue Channel and Red Channel. Moreover, this show also seems to be in the same genre as 'Destined Immortals'."
The most important point, which Jiang Lili hadn't mentioned, was that the novel that 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' was based on was much more popular than the novel that 'Destined Immortals' was based on. The two IPs were on different levels.
Of course, she had no idea what kind of quality 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' had after being adapted into a script.
However, now that these two very similar dramas were being released at the same time, there could be no win-win situation where both would coincidentally benefit.
If there was going to be an explosion, only one would be able to explode, otherwise, they would just both flop together.
Ruan Tian snorted and made a particularly pretentious remark, "Well I suppose it's up to each one's individual ability then."
—-
All the major film crews were wrapping up their current projects by the end of the year, so currently there weren't many scripts for actors and actresses to start work on.
Of course, that didn't mean that these stars were just sitting around scratching their feet at home. Major award galas and ceremonies were being held one after another. However, they were mostly just grand events where the female stars competed to show off their beauty, so the male stars would hardly show their faces.
Ruan Tian also received some invitations to these ceremonies, and this time she didn't even need to find Jiang Lili and have her look around so she could borrow some clothes.
These days, her company had finally arranged a properly qualified agent for her. Her new agent was a professional who had a good relationship with the various major clothing brands, so there was no longer any need for her to borrow clothes from random people if she wanted to attend an upscale event.
Also, after Qin Yu seemed to have gone crazy that day, Ruan Tian hadn't seen him again since.
Furthermore, there was completely no sign of anyone living in the apartment next door anymore.
Ruan Tian estimated that Qin Yu must have moved back to the old Qin Estate due to some accident.
As it turned out, this time she had guessed right. Qin Yu had really returned to the Qin Estate to rest and recuperate for the past half a month. His health these days was sometimes good and sometimes bad, and the family doctor was coming over every day to check on him.
Meanwhile, ever since the first day his brother had returned home, Qin An felt like each day was a year, and he began living like a dead man. He spent every day feeling afraid and keeping his tail firmly between his legs.
On that day, when Ruan Tian had called him to pick Qin Yu up, he had eventually really gone over to pick his brother up. When he arrived, he found his brother with a nightstick in his hand and eyes that were as red as blood. When he saw Qin An had arrived, he merely gave him a cold stare and spat one word: "Scram."
Of course, Qin An really scrammed immediately.
But after that, Qin Yu returned home on his own. Since then, he had been at home for half a month now and seemed to be behaving just like a normal person.
He would get up early and go to bed early. He had a very regular schedule and properly ate his three meals a day.
However, the more normal his brother behaved, the more frightened Qin An felt.
It was as if there was a sharp sword hanging over his head, ready to swing down at the next second.
Today, Qin An was playing a videogame in the living room, when Qin Yu suddenly walked in and turned off the power. The lively background music from the game immediately disappeared, leaving nothing but stifling silence.
Still holding his controller, Qin An turned to look over and asked in a tiny voice, "Big brother, is something the matter?"
Qin Yu was standing there with furrowed brows. The sunlight outside was reflected by the floor-to-ceiling window onto his body, exposing his cold and delicate but deathly pale face. Uncharacteristically, today Qin Yu seemed a little uneasy, as if there was some quandary he couldn't unravel. He murmured: "Am I no good for Ruan Tian?"
Qin An, whose immediate impulse was to shout "Yes!", quickly swallowed his words back.
"Well, I think you're okay for her." He finally choked out.
Qin Yu smiled and said, "I think I'm okay too, but she seems very angry with me."
Qin An pressed his lips together firmly. In his heart, he really wanted to tell his brother that he was lucky Ruan Tian didn't want to directly have him killed!
Qin An, as an outsider, had never been able to tell that his brother liked Ruan Tian before. That was because his brother was really too excessive and overboard with the way he had treated Ruan Tian in the past.
Of course, when he thought about it, it seemed that the only person his brother liked to treat that way was Ruan Tian. So it was special treatment, in a sense.
But he really wanted to say… big brother, that's just not how you chase girls!
You'll definitely never be able to find a wife if you chase girls like this!
After realizing the problem, Qin An had thought up ten thousand different ways for his brother to get Ruan Tian to forgive him. But whenever he thought of Ruan Tian's bullheaded temperament…
Well, his brother should just wash up and go to sleep instead.
It would be easier if he could just give up as soon as possible!
Qin An finally said in a small voice: "I think Sister Xiaoqiao is much better than Ruan Tian, brother maybe you… could change the person you like?"
After all, Sister Xiaoqiao was gentle and elegant, she had good character and high culture, and overall she was a refined woman that was very pleasing to the eye, right?
Qin Yu directly ignored this suggestion. Then, before he went back to his own room, he even confiscated the game machine that was worth tens of thousands of yuan on his way out.
Qin An, with no more games to play, felt bored and sent a message to Ruan Tian for help: 【Sister Ruan, you were right. My brother seems to be crazy recently. Please help me, your favorite little brother. 】
Ruan Tian:【If it really isn't working, maybe you should try to find a bigger and better hospital? 】
Qin An: …
One thing Ruan Tian didn't expect was that, even after she had scolded Qin Yu so badly and even called him "disgusting" before ruthlessly kicking him out of her house with both feet, he still didn't give up.
These days he would often send her messages and photos. Many of the photos were from their high school days, and who knew when Qin Yu had found the opportunity to take these strange pictures.
For instance, there was a photo of her dozing off on her desk during lunch break, then there was a photo of a time when she was in front of the teacher's office because she had made a mistake, and other such innocuous photos of her life from back then.
In fact, Qin Yu was most fond of how Ruan Tian looked whenever she was asleep. At those moments he felt that she looked soft and obedient and not disagreeable at all.
Back then he had watched her closely every day like a lunatic, so he had often seen Ruan Tian indulging in her habit of piling up her textbooks on her desk and secretly sleeping behind them.
Whenever she did that he face would press against the desk until it turned red with an imprint of the desk.
But one thing that never changed, whether she napped through the class or not, was that as soon as the bell would ring she would immediately spring up for her desk and go try to cozy up to Shen Shu.
In the eyes of that seventeen-year-old Ruan Tian from back then, it was as if she had never met a person called Qin Yu.
Not once.
As if no such person existed.
And when he thought he that he just…
Meanwhile, the one receiving the messages all the time, Ruan Tian, could only feel both helpless and speechless about Qin Yu's continuing crazy behavior.
—–
It was already early December, and winter had begun.
Fruit Station released their first trailer for 'Destined Immortals', and it was officially announced that the show would begin its broadcast on December 25th.
A day later, 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' also officially announced the day they would begin their broadcast.
It was a day and a minute off from a direct clash.
Before the broadcasts began, the data showed that all aspects of 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' were suppressing 'Destined Immortals'. Its novel had been a trendsetter in that industry, so right from that start it had a large number of fans drawn over from the book.
These fans saw the promotional videos and stills from the production and had their appetites thoroughly whetted, so now there were all very excited for the show and couldn't wait to see it.
Zhao Meng'er, as the production's female lead, was already raking in dividends before the broadcast even began thanks to the IP behind her, and she had gained more than 100,000 fans in the past few days.
Meanwhile, when compared with the explosive popularity of 'Emperor's Bound Songstress', 'Destined Immortals' seemed much less conspicuous. Its IP was not as well-known and the advertisement campaign behind it proved to be not good enough. In the end, its current popularity was mediocre, probably only at the level of an ordinary drama.
Zhao Meng'er was elated. She had been waiting for this day for a long time.
She wanted nothing more than for Ruan Tian to be humiliated!
Furthermore, after her own popularity exploded, she really hoped that her fans would scold Ruan Tian half to death, and preferably they could implement some actual cyber-violence against her.
A few days before the broadcasts began, there was already the smell of gunpowder in the air.
A certain influencer who mainly covered topics related to TV and dramas even held a vote.
As a result, they found that more than 80% of respondents said they would go to see 'Emperor's Bound Songstress', while another 70% said they were optimistic about 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' chances of shooting to fame.
At 7:30 p.m. on Christmas night, 'Destined Immortals' finally made its debut without much fanfare.
The first episode showed the pretty martial younger sister, who was played by Ruan Tian, being picked up by her handsome and powerful master.
On the screen, the girl turned her head back and her shining black eyes gazed over at her handsome master, her beauty like a fairy.
This single glance, a person would remember for the rest of their life.
Meanwhile, in a certain forum full of fans supporting Zhao Meng'er's appearance in 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' this time, an inconspicuous post appeared:
【Everyone here has been talking about 'Emperor's Bound Songstress', but let me break some bad news. I actually went to take a look at 'Destined Immortals' tonight with the mentality of wanting to see how bad it was compared to 'Emperor's Bound Songstress'. However, after watching the first two episodes, I can only say that it's much better than I expected! 】
Two dramas with very similar themes were being released at nearly the same time, moreover, their two female leads had both new and old grudges, so it was inevitable that the two shows would be compared against one another as soon as they began broadcasting.
'Destined Immortals' primarily relied on Fruit Station's built-in base for viewership, so it's first episode just barely crested a 1.0 audience rating, which wasn't very high. However, the numbers showed that the ratings gradually got higher and seemed to be showing an upward trend after the second episode.
(tl note: So TV show ratings are always in percentages and usually there would also be an accompanying demographic. In the entertainment industry, the "default" demographic most numbers refer to is 'Adults 18-49'. So, for example, a rating of 1.2 means 1.2% of all adults aged 18-49 saw the show.)
Fruit Station itself actually hadn't ever expected much from this show. After all, when compared with the powerful PR campaign and legions of fans of the novel that were behind 'Emperor's Bound Songstress', their own show simply paled by comparison.
They expected that this "competition" would more or less be over as soon as broadcasting began.
And the ratings of 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' really did live up to expectations. Before long the number for the first episode had climbed up and up until it broke 3.0, which was astonishingly high. However, Zhao Menger didn't even have time to feel happy before she saw that the ratings for the second episode were instantly cut by more than half.
The fans of the original novel had all been pumped full of expectations for the show, and all of their excitement had crescendoed with the release of the first episode.
But for those fans of the novel who watched the first episode and felt their expectations hadn't been met, their subsequent anger was equal to their previous excitement.
They were raging. What the **** was this? Had the people making this show treated their lines, the book's plot, the show's special effects, all as a ****ing joke! ?
Just like that, 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' had broken a terrible taboo. In this industry, whenever an adaptation provoked the ire of those 'novel fans', the fallout was often impossible to bear.
【I turned on my TV in high spirits and happily flipped channels to watch the 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' adaptation. However, I, your father, only felt confused while watching the show. What kind of portrayal of Dengxi is this? Hasn't her character been completely ruined? If you can't properly shoot a show, then just don't, okay? 】
【Damn it, who is that woman playing the female lead? Why didn't you ever open your damn eyes? It looked like you were still asleep the whole time you were filming! 】
【My favorite sister from the novel is nothing like this, nor is my favorite big brother. This whole crew is nothing but liars. There are really too many shady people in the entertainment industry these days. 】
【Hey, director, I hope your mother is dead! Also, all of those people on the cast, you will be buried by me! I will tell everyone that it would be better if this show never existed. As a ten-year-long fan of the book, I just can't accept this terrible adaptation. I will personally destroy it! 】
Much of the PR surrounding 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' used their "great respect for the original work" as a selling point to attract over the fans of the original novel. Unfortunately, now that it was revealed that their show couldn't match the original novel in quality, it only resulted in a backlash a hundred times stronger from the enraged novel fans.
Only a few hours after the first episode was released, on a certain site that reviewed TV shows, the section for 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' had already been turned into a warzone, and the comment area was filled with a flood of one-star ratings and terrible reviews.
Zhao Meng'er was a person who always paid a lot of attention to which way the wind was blowing online. At first, when she had seen the initial super-high ratings, her heart felt like it was about to blossom with joy and she could already almost see all her beautiful dreams of exploding in popularity and rising to the top being realized.
However, the subsequent flood of bad reviews and the sudden halving of the show's ratings made her begin to panic.
Meanwhile, her most recent Weibo post was suddenly filled with angry novel fans scolding her like crazy. Just before the broadcast, she had posted something simple with a slight bragging tone complimenting her own acting skills and now, just a few hours later, it was being deluged with a flood of hateful comments. What would normally be an innocuous post that wouldn't attract a second glance had backfired on her terribly.
She hastily went into the comment section and deleted several posts from people scolding her. But she quickly found that she had no way to delete these toxic comments! As soon as she would delete one, three more would pop up.
In the end, Zhao Meng'er just gritted her teeth and decided not to bother trying to delete them anymore.
Anyway, getting scolded was also a kind of traffic!
If she thought about it optimistically, wasn't this just what really famous people had to deal with every day? So she was already living the life of a famous person!
But who could have expected that in the following hour or so, 'Destined Immortals' climbed up step by step. Its ratings only went up and up and it became the topic of many positive discussions online.
Fruit Station had a lot of influence in this industry, so as the audiences bored of 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' all ran away from Red Channel and Blue Channel, many of them ended up pouring over to Fruit Station instead.
Many people were unknowingly ensnared.
A certain housewife who had been disinterestedly flipping through the channels, a certain student who had flopped down to watch some TV in his dorm, and many other besides who had sat down to casually watch some TV suddenly found themselves sucked into 'Destined Immortals' before they knew it. Then, after watching both episodes, they were surprised to find that this show seemed to be not bad at all?
Not only was the female lead beautiful, she also had excellent acting skills. She really seemed to bring the pure martial junior sister character to life.
Ruan Tian's name flew up the hot search list that night, and she also reached the top of the Entertainment Industry Hot Person of the Day List.
#WhoPlayedTheJuniorMartialSister#
This topic gained powerful momentum and blasted up to the top of the hot search that same day.
If before Ruan Tian had only been a small actress with a little bit of fame among her personal fan circle, after tonight, she had already completely walked out in front of the national public eye.
For the following week after 'Destined Immortals' began to air, the ratings continued to shoot up like crazy. If it could maintain this momentum, it was bound to break the ratings records at Fruit Station from the last five years.
Ruan Tian's name was suddenly being searched every day, and her Weibo followers blew up to more than 10 million.
Meanwhile, the director of Fruit Station's TV show department was stunned. When he had bought the rights to this show back then, he had only felt that it should be able to gain a little bit of traction, but he had never expected it to explode like this.
It had only aired a little over a dozen episodes but it was already so huge!
Since it was already so big now, he really didn't dare to imagine what the finale would look like.
It was shocking, and the director was so happy that he didn't know what to do with himself. At any rate, he knew that his year-end bonus this time wouldn't be anything small!
At the same time, no one was paying any attention to 'Emperor's Bound Songstress' anymore. The enraged fans of the novel seemed to have unanimously decided that not watching or discussing this show and just letting it die quietly was already the best revenge.
Jiang Lili was still in a bit of a daze even until now. Although she would often jokingly tell Ruan Tian 'You must go out and get famous this time!', now that the day had actually come she could hardly believe it.
It wasn't until a few major national food chains came to her door to talk about getting Ruan Tian to endorse their products, as well as seeing the seven-figure endorsement fees they were offering, that everything began to feel a little more real.
Of course, Jiang Lili didn't dare to rashly accept these sorts of food and beverage endorsements on Ruan Tian's behalf. Now that Ruan Tian seemed to finally be hitting the big leagues, Jiang Lili was only that much more cautious and careful. She didn't want to end up somehow dragging Ruan Tian down by accepting some shady endorsement deal.
Ruan Tian, who had been happily staying at home to rest these days, was completely unable to sense any magical change in her life with the arrival of "fame", so it all still felt a bit unreal. "Ah? Did I really explode and become famous?"
Was that true? Really? Why couldn't she feel it at all?
Jiang Lili looked over at her friend blankly. Then she sucked in a deep breath and, like a chicken pecking rice, she nodded her head up and down. "Yes, you did. You've really blown up this time TianBaby. You don't know how many people have been coming to find me to talk about endorsements these days, or how many magazines have been trying to kick down my door. There are five different women's magazines who found me to ask you to shoot their New Year's issues in January."
It was no exaggeration. These days requests for endorsements, magazines, films, and television were falling down like snowflakes.
She had even been approached by a certain top-tier women's magazine, which was the kind of resource that could usually only be obtained by those famous national-level goddesses.
Jiang Lili almost felt like she was still dreaming. She sighed and muttered, "These days I really feel a bit scared to answer the phone."
"Can I make a lot of money then?" Meanwhile, Ruan Tian's considerations were very realistic.
She even felt a bit excited. If she could use this to gather enough money to finally pay off the damages she still owed from that botched lawsuit, she could immediately say goodbye to Qin Pictures!
Jiang Lili said: "The endorsement fees for the several endorsements already in front of us right now already add up to more than 10 million. Moreover, as you become more and more popular, your fees will only keep going up. In the future, it will be hard for you not to make money even if you don't want to."
Ruan Tian nodded. "That's good then."
—-
Ever since 'Destined Immortals' was broadcast, it was as if Ruan Tian was the only person being discussed in the entertainment section of various forums.
【How could this be possible? Has Ruan Tian really blown up this time? 】
1L: Yes. She's just amazing, all right? Anti-fans should get out of here!
2L: Ruan Tian is the most explosive woman in the universe. Haters get out of here.
3L: There's no need to be so grumpy OP. You sound too sour. Truth be told, Ruan Tian has really done it this time. Before people used to mock her for her poor resources, but who would have expected that she would suddenly become known all throughout the country? It's true what they say, us humans really can't see through the machinations of the heavens.
4L: My whole family, from my seven aunts and uncles all the way down to my five-year-old little cousin, have all been following this show every day. Whether you want to admit it or not, Ruan Tian has become very popular!
The show 'Destined Immortals' still wasn't even halfway through its run but, unexpectedly, it had already broken records for numbers of viewers. With an average of 300 million online broadcasts a day, the show was already a big hit no matter which way you looked at it.
At the same time, in the first few days of the show's run, Ruan Tian had already attracted a large number of fans with her pure and lovely image, and her fans increased by over a million a day.
To put it simply, Ruan Tian was currently soaring.
In a certain episode, the little martial junior sister was finally discarded by her master who she admired and, when she was driven out of the sect, she burst into silent tears. On the screen, the cold rain mixed with the tears streaming down her face, and the audience's noses all suddenly felt a bit sore.
The little martial junior sister had been badly injured and there was blood trickling from the corners of her lips, but she still firmly crawled up from the ground and stood tall. Her curtain of black hair was drenched by the rain and fell heavily over her thin back, and her small face was pale like a sheet of paper.
She looked terribly fragile, but her beauty caused chills.
The audience felt as if their hearts had been broken just like the little martial junior sister in the show.
"Wuwuwu… wow, little junior sister is so miserable. Why does such a good little sister have to be so miserable? Does her master even have a heart?"
"I think I'm crying. Ruan Tian's portrayal of that scene is just too good. I almost can't watch."
"Why is it so painful? When will there be some sweetness between the little sister and her master?"
"Ruan Tian's acting skills completely trounce Zhao Meng'er next door. She really makes the little martial junior sister seem so alive."
"TianBaby, we're all cheering for you. Just beat up that useless master and then overbearingly rise up to the top of the cultivation world alone! Who needs a man?"
"It seems Fruit Station was really discerning when they picked Ruan Tian this time. Even I, who haven't chased any new stars in many years, have completely fallen in love."
Before anyone knew it, 'Destined Immortals' was already regarded as a phenomenal TV series.
At the same time, Ruan Tian had also become the hottest actress of the minute. As long as someone mentioned her name on Weibo it would attract a lot of responses.
Smelling opportunity, the marketing accounts were working overtime to tirelessly pump out content related to her.
A certain marketing account:【 After a certain star shot to fame overnight, she has already signed four or five new endorsement deals. According to our sources, the endorsement fees were not low at all. Moreover, it's rumored that she has already won the spot on a certain top-tier woman's magazine's New Year's issue. We'll just say congratulations to this mystery star in advance. 】
With her newfound surge of popularity, the number of Ruan Tian fans had greatly increased. Nowadays their combat effectiveness was already more than ten times greater than it had been in the past and the anti-fans couldn't beat them at all anymore. Whenever an anti-fan appeared, they would only be drowned out by an endless deluge of counterattacks.
At the same time, Ruan Tian had finally lost her ability to sit around and do nothing at home like she had in the past. Before long, Jiang Lili appeared to tell her about her new itinerary: "On the 30th you'll need to attend the National Film Festival's award ceremony, and then on the 31st you have to attend Fruit Station's New Year's Concert. Also, you have ads to film for that beverage company and that mobile phone company, and you'll need to show up to do the New Year's issue of that woman's magazine as well."
Jiang Lili rattled that all off in one breath and coughed to moisten her throat before sighing and continuing, "TianBaby, the days where we used to be able to sit around at home and do nothing are already gone forever."
It was rare for a TV show to explode and soar. Even when one did, the "flowers" of the show would often fail to be pollinated.
After all, the "pollen" on the entertainment industry was truly hard to attract no matter how beautiful a flower might be.
But perhaps Ruan Tian was just born to be famous, because she achieved it all effortlessly.
Ruan Tian felt a bit dazed. This feeling of being overwhelmed by too much work all of a sudden was really a bit wonderful.
Suddenly, she sobered up and asked in a cold voice, "How long will it take for me to earn 80 million?"
Jiang Lili was a bit shocked by her friend's sudden change and fell silent for a moment. After thinking it over, she responded: "It shouldn't take too long. But what do you need so much money for?"
"I want to terminate my contract with Qin Yu! ! !"
"? ? ?"
Ruan Tian held her head high and said proudly, "I can't stand the way Qin Yu likes to act all high and mighty all the time! I'm already famous now! I'm going to make a big move and terminate my contract!"
If she couldn't win in court, couldn't she just win with money?
She wanted to use her money to smash Qin Yu to death!
Jiang Li was so shocked she swore twice before exclaiming: "He set an 80 million yuan penalty for breaching your contract? Why doesn't he just go die! ! !"
Ruan Tian said, "Heh, he probably wants so much money so that later on he can get someone to burn it for him so that he can take it with him to the afterlife."
Jiang Lili: "…"
Today, Huai Mo had a fever.
He had taken his own temperature and discovered that he had a fever of thirty-nine degrees.
However, he didn't take any medicine and completely didn't do anything to treat himself.
Then, he took out his phone and deleted all of the numbers in his contact list except for Ruan Tian's.
The next day his fever continued to rage, and Huai Mo went to class as usual. Predictably, he suddenly fainted shortly after the students began arriving, startling his fellow classmates in the lab.
See that he was burning up, his classmates quickly sent Huai Mo to the infirmary. That done, they wanted to contact his family to let them know. However, when they looked at his phone they found there was only one number in his contact list: Ruan Tian's.
Of course, his classmates called the number immediately.
Ruan Tian had just finished washing her hair when she suddenly got a phone call. Picking it up, an unfamiliar man's voice said: "Excuse me, do you know Huai Mo? He has a high fever and fainted. Can you come to pick him up?"
Ruan Tian said, "I do and I can. But where is he now?"
"At the school infirmary."
"All right, I'll head over then."
Ruan Tian quickly found Jiang Lili to drive her over to the school. As she got out of the car, she put on a mask and a hat so she wouldn't be recognized.
When they entered the infirmary, Ruan Tian saw that Huai Mo's face was white like a sheet. He looked pale and sickly.
When the two stepped inside, Huai Mo's eyes paused in Jiang Lili. Jiang Lili suddenly felt a chill up her spine and had the illusion that Huai Mo was looking at her as if he were looking at a dead person.
But then Huai Mo smiled weakly, as if he were feeling guilty, and the illusion disappeared. He said softly, "I'm sorry, I didn't expect that they would call you."
Ruan Tian sighed, "I just knew that you couldn't take care of yourself."
"Well, I'm sorry to have worried you. Aren't you busy these days though? You don't need to mind me, just handle your own business." Huai Mo immediately spouted some high-sounding words.
Ruan Tian sighed again. Every time she saw Huai Mo she would feel sorry for him.
He was like an abandoned puppy.
Her heart softened and she said, "It's okay, I can afford to take the time to bring you to the hospital."
Jiang Lili felt Huai Mo's eyes sweeping over her again and another chill swept up her spine. She uncomfortably looked down at her shoes and said, "I just remembered I have an order I need to pick up. If I don't go now they might not hold it for me anymore, so I'll leave first hehe…"
After that, Ruan Tian really brought Huai Mo over to a big hospital and let him see a doctor. The doctor prescribed some medicine so Ruan Tian sat down beside the bed to wait until it was ready to be picked up.
After sitting for a long time, Ruan Tian began to feel sleepy.
Her head drooped a bit and leaned on Huai Mo's shoulder until she almost fell asleep.
But then she suddenly remembered why she was here, and Ruan Tian jolted awake. She sat up and said, "Let me go find someone and ask how much longer it will be."
Huai Mo felt regret in his heart, but on the outside, he said calmly, "Okay, thanks for your hard work."
Ruan Tian walked over to the outpatient desk and asked the nurse who was sitting there about the medicine. After asking, she found that the medicine was already ready and that they could go home after paying and picking it up.
She yawned tiredly and slowly walked back toward Huai Mo's room.
However, as the saying went, "enemies will meet on the narrow path". In fact, that phrase had probably been invented to describe the relationship between Ruan Tian and Qin Yu.
Ruan Tian looked up and saw Qin Yu standing there. Judging by the piece of paper that looked like a medical report in his hand, he had probably come to the hospital for a check-up or something.
Spotting Ruan Tian as well, Qin Yu raised his eyebrows and asked, "Are you sick?"
Ruan Tian shook her head slowly.
Qin Yu immediately hit the nail on the head by saying, "So you came to the hospital for a man?"
****! How did he instantly guess it right?
Ruan Tian decided she didn't want to talk to this guy and tried to walk around him, but Qin Yu moved and blocked her way.
Impatiently, Ruan Tian asked, "What do you want?"
Qin Yu reached down and took off her mask and said, "What are you doing in the hospital if you're not sick?"
Ruan Tian wanted to get her mask back.
She wasn't the same as how she used to be, okay?
She was already a top flower in the entertainment industry!
"Hurry and give me back my mask. If someone takes a picture of this how am I supposed to live?"
Qin Yu raised an eyebrow and then snorted out a chuckle. He said, "It's fine, let them take pictures if they like."
Ruan Tian rolled her eyes. As expected of Qin Yu, this dog man, he just wouldn't feel well if he saw her doing good so he especially came over to try to cut off her road to fame. Unforgivable!
Finally, Ruan Tian looked up at him expressionlessly and began to spout nonsense in a serious tone: "It's because I thought I might be pregnant, so I came here to take a pregnancy test. Do you have some problem?"
Qin Yu: "…"
Ruan Tian continued spout lies blindly, "Anyway, you stay further away from me. I don't want to have a miscarriage."
The corners of Qin Yu's lips gently tugged upward in a smile. He gave a joyful laugh and said, "Is it my child? Is it a boy or a girl?"
Ruan Tian's eyes went round. What the **** was this lunatic spouting off about?
Meanwhile, Huai Mo had gotten tired of waiting. He indifferently yanked the IV out of his arm and walked out of the room with blood trickling down from where the IV had been. Looking down the corridor, he quickly spotted Ruan Tian and also the man standing opposite of her and blocking her way. His eyes narrowed slightly for a moment, and then he started to walk over.
This was the first face-to-face meeting between Huai Mo and Qin Yu.
Both men saw each other but continued to behave calmly.
Huai Mo continued to act innocent like usual. He walked over to Ruan Tian and smiled softly. "I'm ready, let's go back now."
Qin Yu felt very angry in his heart, but his face remained impassive and didn't show any displeasure. He put on a sardonic smile and said, "Wow, you're even more suitable to be an actor than Ruan Tian is."
Huai Mo just continued to smile faintly.
Qin Yu took two steps forward and said forcefully, "Someone who killed both of his parents with his own hands, who drove his own aunt out of the family, why are you here pretending to be all innocent and naive? It's ridiculous to look at."
"You have your people following Ruan Tian and monitoring her every move, but you still dare to come and act pitiful in front of her. Don't you feel ashamed to bully and trick her like this?"
Qin Yu snorted.
In this world there was no one he needed to give face to and nothing that he feared to say.
In fact, he had long wanted to expose Huai Mo, this unseemly son of a bitch.
Now such a perfect chance had appeared, so how could he not seize the opportunity?
Ruan Tian: QAQ
The amount of information in Qin Yu's words was too scary, ah.
Ruan Tian suddenly felt a wave of confusion in her heart.
—
After this unpleasant meeting at the hospital, Ruan Tian had no choice but to rush off so she could attend an award ceremony, so she didn't have time to digest any of this new information.
Her hairdresser and stylist arrived at her house ahead of time to help her do her hair, put on her makeup, and change her clothes.
Tonight she would be wearing a custom-fitted evening dress from a certain brand's "Celebrity Series". It was a tube top made from stylish and gauzy materiel.
Ruan Tian asked the stylist, "If I somehow get this dress dirty, do I have to pay for it?"
"…there's no need."
"Wow, I never knew there was such a good thing in this world. It's good to be famous." Ruan Tian blurted.
The stylist just stayed silent. Of course, what the stylist didn't tell her was that this custom-made evening dress had already been bought and paid for by Mr. Qin at the cost of a few hundreds of thousands of yuan, so there really wasn't any need for Ruan Tian to worry about getting it dirty at all.
In fact, unbeknownst to her, all of the evening dresses that Ruan Tian had worn before had actually been bought directly, not borrowed or rented.
Finally, at around 4 p.m., Ruan Tian walked down the red carpet alongside the director and cast members of 'Obscurity'.
'Obscurity' had been shortlisted for around ten awards at this ceremony, so they were the most high-profile crew of the evening.
Unexpectedly, the number of Ruan Tian's fans on the side ended up outnumbering even Qin An's fans. Of course, most of these little sisters had been pulled in thanks to the explosively popular 'Destined Immortals'.
When Ruan Tian appeared on the red carpet, the sudden wave of screams were loud enough to almost pierce her eardrums.
"Ahhhhh, Sister Ruan!"
"Our TianBaby is the best!"
"Ahhhhh! TianBaby, you're so beautiful! "
As the most honorable film festival in China, even receiving one nomination was enough for the fans to brag for a lifetime, so the fans were filled with enthusiasm.
At this moment, someone online anonymously made a poisonous oath:
【I have to say, even being unbiased and putting my own admiration for her aside, those organizers definitely need to give Ruan Tian that Best Supporting Actress award no matter what! (If they don't, then just let my whole family be killed by a car the next time they go out). 】
This post was actually personally posted anonymously by Zhao Meng'er, purely in the hopes of stirring up some trouble.
After all, Ruan Tian had already blocked her way twice now.
Thus, these days Zhao Meng'er was feeling so angry that she could almost vomit blood.
Moreover, she was a person who couldn't fathom doing things in an upright fashion. Her brain was only capable of thinking up crooked plots and schemes.
Thus, this masterpiece of a post. She was confident that whether Ruan Tian won the award or not tonight, a post like this would cause her to be implicated.
However, the feedback wasn't as good as Zhao Meng'er expected. Her imagined legion of fans filled with righteous indignation never appeared. Instead…
"Thank you for your auspicious words."
"Thank you. Ruan Tian is definitely worth this much sacrifice."
"Hah, I'm relieved to see everyone else feels she deserves that award too!"
Zhao Meng'er: ?
Wait, this wasn't how the script was supposed to go!