Chapter 17: Riding on Her Coattails
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
“I am the only one who noticed that during the basketball match, Wei You spotted Yang Qi and he deliberately let his opponent knock him down. Yang Qi’s eyes were full of worry. Even though she didn’t voice it out, her lips were obviously mouthing ‘be careful’!”
“The genius and the top student, why didn’t they end up together? Ah, someone explain it to me!”
Obviously Qi Xiaoran and Xu Chen had more screen time, but Yun Xiangxiang never expected that she and Yi Yan would become a hot topic of discussion after the movie aired. She only understood why after she personally watched the movie as a spectator.
It was because of her mature acting skills. Yi Yan’s natural acting skills also added to the appeal as he had more experience compared to Fang Nanyuan and Wei Shanshan who were still new to acting. It wasn’t intentional, but she and Yi Yan truly grasped the theme of the film.
Early in the movie, the audience were compelled by Yang Qi and Wei You; this effect peaked when Wei You got hurt and was electrocuted to death. Even Yun Xiangxiang’s mother, two aunties and her fourth aunt couldn’t help but cry. The entire cinema bawled uncontrollably at the scene Yang Qi stood beneath the dim streetlamp, silently holding back her sobs that was hard to hold back.
Maybe it was due to Yun Xiangxiang’s excellent acting, even Yun Zhibin and a few other men had red-rimmed eyes.
After that climax, the audience’s emotion did not stir up even when Qi Xiaoran later committed suicide, or when Xu Chen murdered someone or when the tutor was revealed to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Everyone was simply solemn, upset and enraged.
The final scene in the movie was set during the sunset. Yang Qi cradled the photo frame Wei You gifted her, walking slowly in a paddy field in the evening sun. The more she walked, the further she got, the more lonely her silhouette got. It was much like dusk or like the wilted straw that was cut.
A girl who was around sixteen to seventeen years old should be full of bright colors at that youthful age, but all that surrounded her was a heartbreaking sense of dread, as if her life ended when it just started.
It brought on another wave of tears.
When the screen faded to black, a string of words appeared: Dear parents, please give your children the love they need.
The lights in the cinema lit up, and people started to leave, covering their faces with a piece of tissue. The people who watched this movie, whether they were male, female or students, they all had solemn and sorrowful expressions on their faces.
Yun Xiangxiang was the only exception. She was very calm.
“Caring Love” became popular in a short amount of time. Althought its box office sales didn’t increase exponentially, it was rising very steadily. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the film only had twenty million in sales, but on the second day it surpassed a hundred million. On the fourth day it hit two hundred million in the morning, taking the third spot on the weekly ranking; the momentum that afternoon was looking good. The presale numbers for the fifth day were impressive still.
There was an exceptional amount of discussion online, especially among the younger generation. Students that went through a bitter time in high school and students currently studying in high school had the most fervent opinions. The film was leading in terms of word-of-mouth. When the distributors saw how profitable it was, they began to promote the film heavily.
All of a sudden, Yun Xiangxiang became every student’s muse. Her identity , her school, and how she joined the cast of “Caring Love” were immediately exposed.
Immediately, Yang Qi being a real top student became a topic of discussion, pushing Yun Xiangxiang to new heights of fame. The one who was most pleased by this situation was definitely the school. The publicity the school received surely exceeded their expectations.
Her followers on Weibo increased in masses. The comments were mostly marvelling at her acting skills and her exceptional beauty, and some were even begging her to upload photos of herself.
[Wei Shanshan: Ah, Xiangxiang, you did a great job!]
During filming, Wei Shanshan already knew that Yun Xiangxiang was better at acting, but only after watching the film did she realize the stark difference in skill between them. However, Wei Shanshan wasn’t jealous, because after watching the movie, she became a supporter of Yang Qi and Wei You!
[Yun Xiangxiang: I just acted as myself.]
[Yi Yan: Don’t be modest. Our film would not be this successful without you.]
[Fang Nanyuan: Two thumbs up.]
[Wei Shanshan: Thumbs up with both hands and legs. Hahahaha, I feel like no one could have played Yang Qi as well as Xiangxiang. When I secretly went to watch the movie, many people were attracted by Xiangxiang’s poster. Even I got a small boost in popularity. A few talent agencies already got in touch with me. I received a number of scripts. I wouldn’t dare to dream about this before!]
[Yi Yan: The company informed me that they are changing my agent {😊}]
[Fang Nanyuan: My father watched the movie, and he won’t stop me from entering the industry anymore. My mother cried like hell. She even thought I was really living a miserable life like Xu Chen. She even told me that if there is a girl I like, I can bring her home. As long as her family background is clean, my parents won’t nitpick about anything else. I suspected that my real mother got kidnapped by aliens on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and this was the fake one {😱}]
[Yun Xiangxiang: Hahahaha, this shows that you all did a great job. That is why there is a sense of immersion.]
The success of the film brought the four of them great rewards and many benefits.
The happiest was probably Zhou Wei. He was extremely proud of turning a film that had a budget of five million into a film that had pulled in three hundred million in the box office!
The one most troubled by this was Yun Zhibin. His phone was about to blow up. Yun Xiangxiang was still a minor, so Yun Zhibin always acted on her behalf prior to this. He even put down his number as a method of contact. There were too many people trying to get in touch with Yun Xiangxiang, but Yun Zhibin rejected all of them in favor of her academics.
Han Jing called to congratulate Yun Xiangxiang and even joked, “Thankfully I acted quickly, if not it would never be my turn.”
She wasn’t wrong. If Yun Xiangxiang never signed a contract with Han Jing, she would have taken the opportunity to pick a good script to build up her career to increase her chips to negotiate with Huan Yu Century Entertainment.
However, with “University Dream”, Yun Xiangxiang didn’t plan to take on more films. She wanted to concentrate on studying in the first half of the year before devoting herself to filming in the second half of the year. Han Jing mentioned that “University Dream” would be on premiere next summer, so even if the ratings in the future were poor, she could still try again in university. After all, if she didn’t have the capital to get Huan Yu Century Entertainment to personally hunt for her, she would not easily sign the contract.
The box office of “Caring Love” was beginning to decline, getting left in the dust by the two box office giants in the end. However, its word-of-mouth rating was still the highest, and its popularity did not decline. Yun Xiangxiang became famous overnight. Half her fans became her fans because of her appearance while the other half consisted of “Caring Love” fans. They even created a montage of Yang Qi and Xu Chen where both of them excelled in appearance equally.
Now that she was popular, naturally someone would try to ride on her coattails. Before school started for Yun Xiangxiang, a hot topic appeared on Weibo: #The lost school belle Yang Qi#.
The words Yang Qi became a hot issue these days. The original poster uploaded a Yang Qi’s concept photo, but it wasn’t Yun Xiangxiang in the picture. It was a different girl who also studied at Huaying University.
Yun Xiangxiang soon found out that this was the original casting for Yang Qi. She got injured at school and the doctor said she needed one month to recover. Zhou Wei could not afford to wait, so he chose Yun Xiangxiang.
This girl was the one chosen to play the school belle. Naturally, she was very pretty, hence many conspiracy theories appeared in the comments.
Why did they change the actress out of nowhere? This girl was more beautiful than Yun Xiangxiang. Various comments appeared like bamboo shoots grow in spring, claiming the suspicions of Yun Xiangxiang bargaining for the role, or that her father used his power as the school’s leader to forcefully get it.