Chapter 54

Sun Yuhan thought that she was overthinking things. How could someone like Chang Shi Gui put down his pride and use such a method of please and confess to someone? A man of his calibre would probably prefer to give all sorts of precious jewellery, cars, bags, or even houses, but would never be willing to spend the effort carrying out such romantic gestures.

That’s because in their eyes, women were fond of such material items. They didn't have to think too much to please them. That didn’t mean that they did not like the woman. In their hearts, money was all they were willing and able to give to a woman.  

However, to many women, money was secondary. The thing that they would remember for life was the level of sincerity and thought behind the gifts.

The gift might not be expensive; it might be lesser than a car or jewellery; but what they needed wasn’t money, but the man’s willingness to think of a meaningful gift for her.

Of course, nobody hated money, but everyone also loved sincerity. It wouldn’t be a surprise if a wealthy man was willing to spend on a woman; but it would be rare for him to be thoughtful towards the woman.

Logically speaking, the couple in the picture couldn’t be Ning Xi and Chang Shi Gui. However, her senses told her otherwise.

“Ning Xi…” Sun Yuhan gulped as she mentally prepared her question. “I haven’t congratulated you! Who’s the lucky man who won our Xixi's heart?”

“Thanks,” Ning Xi covered her face as she smiled. “I also think that he’s quite lucky.”

Ning Xi had already officially revealed her relationship. Within a few hours, news had spread all over the entertainment industry. The make-up artists themselves did not dare to ask about it, but when they saw Sun Yuhan mention it, they then started discussing it openly, intentionally saying good things about it.

The people present in the room were not foolish. Ning Xi might not be very popular now, but once the Legendary Adventures of Tanhai was released, unless it failed spectacularly at the box office, Ning Xi was bound to be popular with her performance.

In fact, she might even rise to the top of the ranks in the industry.

The role of Fairy Qingyan was simply too important, and it was a role that fans were attracted to. This was the reason why Director Qian had spent so much time and effort looking for a suitable actor, and eventually chose Ning Xi.

Moreover, who wouldn’t want to establish good relations with a celebrity that had high EQ and was destined for success?

Sun Yuhan and Ning Xi shared a good relationship, but she acted extraordinarily warm and friendly towards Ning Xi that night. Even if others did not see the difference, Ning Xi could distinctively feel it.

There was no one who would voluntarily treat others well. Ning Xi felt that Sun Yuhan might have suspected something. However, that did not bother Ning Xi. She knew that Sun Yuhan was a smart woman who wouldn’t spread the news, or even better, would help hide her secret.

This woman would never hit on you when you are down, and would also be by your side if you were successful.

Ning Xi admired such a person. After all, few would already be kind enough to practice the former.

Sun Yuhan quickly saw through Ning Xi’s reciprocation, and once Ning Xi’s makeup was done, she pulled Ning Xi into a wefie, and even used some filters to make them look fair and beautiful.

Sun Yuhan: Mirror, mirror, please tell me. Aren’t we the two most beautiful women in the world?

Ning Xi: Yes! [PS, I’m the magic mirror] (RT Sun Yuhan: Mirror, mirror, please tell me. Aren’t we the two most beautiful women in the world?)

Netizen A: One look and you can tell that these two are true friends.

Netizen B: A, you seem to know a lot, kekeke.

Some people would normally choose their best pictures to post on Weibo. If there are friends in the picture … they just had to look ordinary. Someone had actually used many group pictures to extrapolate if two people were true friends.

Netizen C: Looking at how unabashed the two goddesses are, I suddenly feel that I’m also becoming brazen.

Netizen D: Yes, yes, all beautiful, both of you are the most beautiful.

There were also a few netizens asking who Ning Xi’s boyfriend was; while others congratulated Ning Xi. The thread was lively, and soon enough, the topic “The picture of the two goddesses Sun Yuhan and Ning Xi is as beautiful as a painting” started trending in Weibo. It hit the top spot, pushing the topic “Zeng Xue is the woman in the romantic confession” into number two.

Zeng Xue’s PR team quickly noticed the situation, and invested more resources to generate more hype for Zeng Xue in order to bring Zeng Xue’s topic back to the top spot.

“Zeng Xue, let’s forget about it.” Her manager saw that more celebrities had started to repost Sun Yuhan and Ning Xi’s Weibo posts, and was worried. “If the media finds out that we have been generating hype, it’s going to be troublesome for you.”

Zeng Xue was also concerned about this, but when she saw on her main page that other celebrities were reporting Ning Xi and Su Yuhan’s post, she couldn’t contain her jealousy.

During the production of My Heart Longs for You, Ning Xi was only a rookie with a small supporting role, and Zeng Xue had already become the second female lead. Just one year on, Ning Xi had started to flaunt her relationship with an A-lister like Sun Yuhan, while she still had to use an unknown romantic proposal to gain media traction, just so that she could get a shampoo endorsement deal.

“Has the agreement for the product been settled?” Zeng Xue pursed her lips, and asked scathingly. Ever since she gained some popularity from My Heart Longs for You, she had never been able to get any good roles. The dramas that she acted in had also not been scheduled for airing. If she failed to get this deal, she’d probably find it even harder to fight for better roles and deals in future.

“The manufacturer has yet to reply.” What Zeng Xue’s manager did not tell her was that the manufacturer had initially wanted Ning Xi to endorse this product, but Zhang Qingyun did not agree to it.

The manager lamented Zeng Xue’s situation. After all, his celebrity was in a state where she had to try all sorts of means to secure a deal that a rookie from My Heart Longs for You did not want.

“Let’s hold on for a while longer.” Zeng Xue hesitated, then her eyes looked determined. “After the premiere of the Legendary Adventures of Tanhai begins tonight, then we’ll let the news drop down the trending list to number three.”

If she did not try, how could she survive in the industry?

After all, there were so many things happening in the industry, and she wasn’t the only one who was using a hot topic to gain media traction. Didn’t Ning Xi also use the trend of school violence to gain favour publicly?

What’s wrong if she had used the proposal news to increase her popularity?

The premiere of the Legendary Chronicles of Tanhai had yet to begin, but the invited film critics, reporters and special guests were already seated. The hosts for the premiere were also two A-list hosts for national television, who would normally not take on such gigs. The television stations would also not allow them to take on such jobs privately. However, their presence tonight at the event to help Director Qian showed how respected Director Qian was in the industry.

Chang Shi Gui used his special invite to enter the venue. As one of the investors of the film, he was placed in the first role, with the best viewing angle.

Some celebrities who were sitting nearby recognised Chang Shi Gui, and appeared excited. However, the venue was swarming with reporters; they could not act too brazenly, or their actions would be called out by the media. Hence, they could only throw a few glances in his direction.

Shortly after, the venue was full, and the lights in the hall suddenly dimmed. The venue was shrouded in darkness.

“Dong,” a zither sounded, and the screen suddenly lit up. Presented to the audience was a scenery of the venue of a cultivation clan amidst the clouds.

A graceful fairy appeared from the clouds. Even though the audience had yet to see her face, she exuded a godlike aura and an unknown chilly vibe.

Then, a few images of a stunning, godlike scenery appeared, and the subtitles that accompanied the image also made use of ancient Chinese words.

The sounds of the zither faded slowly, and finally, a mountain surrounded by a vast ocean appeared. Then, the words Legendary Chronicles of Tanhai, appeared on the screen.

The venue lit up again, and the hosts came onstage to start the event. However, the audiences were mostly still immersed in the scenes that they had just watched.

A layman would look for responses to the snippet, but the experts would focus on the creation of the snippet. It was clear to them that the fantasy-like visual effects of the scene that they had just watched probably cost a lot of post-production fees to create.

The production was lucky though. The President of Chang Enterprises had voluntarily offered to sponsor the production during the later part of the production. This allowed them to spend so much on post-production efforts. Otherwise, most directors wouldn’t have been able to pull this off as Qian Conghai managed to!

As the audience listened to Qian Conghai’s account of the crew’s difficulties and how they managed to overcome them, a few of the directors in the audience sighed. If they could garner as many investments for their movies, they would be more than willing to endure even harder difficulties than Qian Conghai encountered.

Unfortunately, life’s not fair. There was no point in competing.

“Now, let us invite the male and female leads of the movie.” The emcees gestured an inviting pose. The stage, which had a door in the shape of an auspicious cloud [1], slowly opened. Shao Chong and Sun Yuhan stepped out hand in hand.  

Both of them were A-listers in the industry, and their shows were usually box-office hits. Hence, their appearance was matched with thunderous applause from the audience.

After introducing the two leads, the hosts then invited the more prominent celebrities among the supporting cast. Zhou Haili was among them.

These celebrities might not be the leads for the movie, but the emcees treated them with the same, or at times, even more respect than they did with the leads.

“Seeing so many incredible actors here today, I’m truly excited. I can’t wait for the emceeing job to be over, so that I can start watching the movie.” The female host looked both excited and anxious. “Director Qian, you can’t blame me for not doing a good hosting job today. You’ve only got yourself to blame. The movie looks really well filmed, I’m already thinking so much about it that I can’t actually do my job properly now.”

“No matter how anxious you are, we can’t overlook an important role in this show!” The male host said mysteriously, “Everyone, what role is this?”

“Fairy Qingyun!”

The response came from the lucky fans who had managed to win tickets to the premiere.

“That’s right, it’s Fairy Qingyun.” The male host then raised his voice, saying, “Let us welcome the actress for Fairy Qingyun, Ning Xi!”

Who? Ning Xi?!

Many people were shocked. Ning Xi had actually entered the production of the Legendary Chronicles of Tanhai, and had even secured the role of Fairy Qingyun?!

Most people were still overcome by shock, hence the applause for her was scattered.

“Clap clap clap!” Chang Shi Gui raised his hands, the clear and loud applause from him bringing the audience around him back to their senses, and all of them started clapping heartily as well.

From the beginning of the event, Mr Chang had mostly clapped out of courtesy. However, he had such a strong response this time, it was clear that he had a good relationship with Ning Xi.

Other things being equal, they still had to give Mr Chang some face.

Applause! They had to applaud loudly!!

Ning Xi walked up on stage, and after some interactions with the hosts, she stood quietly at the side. She did not try to impress or steal the limelight. This increased her likeability with the audience. Compared to celebrities who would try to flaunt their popularity and act flamboyant, they preferred down-to-earth and low-key celebrities.

“Director Qian, there are so many beautiful actresses in the cast. In your opinion, who performed the best?”

The male host intentionally put on a gossipy face, and passed the microphone to Director Qian.

Director Qian laughed, as he glanced at the male host. “I was sure that you weren’t going to let me off easily today.” He turned around and looked at the few female actresses behind him. “As a director, I’m satisfied with all my actors. That’s because if there are any scenes that I’m unhappy with, I’ll make them redo it”.

Applause from the audience immediately filled the venue.

“As expected of Director Qian, he's such a perfectionist! That’s great!” The male host also started applauding.

Director Qian continued with a smile, “Sun Yuhan was a very good female lead. There’s no need to say anything more about Haili’s acting skills. You won’t be disappointed. What surprised me the most was Ning Xi’s performance. Initially, I chose her for the role of Fairy Qingyun because of her beauty and her charisma. Who knew that she’d give the crew a much larger surprise when we were filming?”

“When she joined us, she had no acting experience, and had never been on the wires. I was always worried that her performance would be sub-par and affect the character setting for Fairy Qingyan.” Director Qian said, then laughed to himself. “Who knew that this child was especially hardworking, just to perfect a scene, she could stay on the wires longer. In order to have a smoother martial arts scene, she would stay by the side to study the moves, hence the effects were really shocking.”

It was not often that Director Qian praised someone. However, those that he had complimented in the past, such as Zhou Haili and Sun Yuhan, went on to become A-listers in the industry.

Now that they heard his compliments for Ning Xi, they looked at her in an entirely different light.

This could only mean one thing - that she was going to be popular really soon!

Ning Xi’s reaction on the other hand, was to smile shyly at the audience, then lowered her head without a word.

Others felt that Ning Xi’s reaction was because she was shy from the compliments as a rookie; on the other hand, Chang Shi Gui smiled when he saw the shy look on her face.

[1] 祥云 (xiang yun) - refers to legendary clouds that were supposed to be used by divine beings