Chapter 80: The Purest One
What Yun Xiangxiang said was food for thought for the crowd. Not many people in the acting industry had the guts to say something like that; it would be akin to destroying their source of income, since a lot of them didn’t have any piece of work. But when probed deeper, who didn’t rely on their works to become famous among the actors of the last generation?
Soon, Yun Xiangxiang was trending on Weibo again. The topic this time was #YunXiangxiangTalksaboutChasingafterIdols#
A famous verified account posted a long wall of text on Weibo.
[The World is Changing V: “If it’s possible, I hope that one day, everyone can treat actors the same way as they would other staff. I hope that their craze is only directed to the film and the character played by the actor. I hope they don’t for some reason get unconditionally obsessed with some stranger that they don’t know, don’t understand, and is irrelevant to them.” @Actor Yun Xiangxiang
I really cried when I heard this. My uncle used to have a complete family, until my cousin started chasing after her idols when she was in her rebellious stage. She played truant, stole, lied, and even fought with someone until she got herself into the hospital. All for the idol she liked.
She fought with her parents like they were her most bitter enemies at home, but she would give her everything to a stranger. It was chilling to the heart.
But what could they do about it? They still had to raise their own kid themselves. To that end, my uncle’s family never found peace for even a day. I hope that my cousin can wake up even as I dream. I believe that there are a lot of families like this. I have always hoped that a public figure would stand up and wake these sorry souls up.
I have never expected these words to come out of a minor. It doesn’t matter if you can or cannot do it in the future; I am now your fan just because of your speech! As long as you remain unchanged, I will not give up.]
Had it been someone else who said those, they would be completely roasted by those who pretended to be enlightened. They would accuse them of being a case of sour grapes. They would accuse them of revealing their ugly face of jealousy just because they couldn’t get the glory and be in that spot.
But Yun Xiangxiang was different. She was an actual actress. Since she was just starting out, naturally she wasn’t an A-lister. But she had the chips to say that; going by her age, current abilities, and her debut work.
Those who disagreed had no grounds to criticize her no matter which side they were on.
She wasn’t wrong. Fans weren’t idol’s appendages. Nor were they their students or children. They also weren’t tools for the idols to gain something. No fans would degrade themselves just to rebuke her.
These fans of various idols couldn’t move a finger. Those who didn’t chase after idols wished they could like the post more than once. The actors who disliked or even despised Yun Xiangxiang didn’t dare to stand up at this moment.
So there was only praise for Yun Xiangxiang on the Net. A great deal of old artists and actors followed her.
Yun Xiangxiang didn’t care much about online affairs concerning herself. She basically wouldn’t say anything unless someone called her out to bash her.
She put all her effort into the military training. Her reputation in school was gradually rising. Since their course only had six girls and they lived next to each other, the other five basically formed a clique with her as their core. It was because she was generous, knew a lot, and acted like a leader even though she was the youngest among them.
Yun Xiangxiang made little to no mistakes since military training started. Putting Song Qian’s tips aside, her ordeal during the filming of “University Dream” was already tougher than the military training.
“Oh, Xiangxiang. Are you made of steel?” Half a day’s military training was over. Zhu Yuan, who became Yun Xiangxiang’s fangirl because of the incident last time, collapsed beside her.
She wasn’t just looking at her with normal admiration when she noticed that she still looked fresh, “Look at the boys over there. They aren’t as relaxed as you are. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that you came from a military family and were used to this.”
“It was plenty hotter when I was filming ‘University Dream. Sometimes I have to walk a stretch of path countless times from the mountaintop to the bottom.” Yun Xiangxiang smiled modestly, “The instructor is already very humane. She did her best to pick a place with shade for us. And she didn’t even torture us during the hottest period.”
Who knew why the instructor was obviously gentler to them than to other units. Maybe it was because their unit performed decently.
Of course, although it was relatively gentle, the training was still herculean in reality. Not a bit of the necessary training was reduced. Emergency roll calls at midnight started recently. It was devastatingly torturous.
“You completely changed how I view celebrities…” Tao Manni flopped down on the chair. She looked like a soft jello who didn’t have an inch of bone in her body.
“I have also watched ‘University Dream.’ You really could sacrifice yourself to turn yourself into that horror. Also I noticed that there wasn’t any editing in some scenes where you were wounded. Those were real wounds.” Ma Linlin already wanted to ask about that for a long time.
“Those were accidents during the filming. It wasn’t arranged in the script. I only endured it to not mess up the scene. Teacher Han kept them because of that.” Yun Xiangxiang nodded.
Teacher Han and the others were terribly nervous when she was wounded in the beginning. She even had to reassure them.
Han Jing gradually reached an understanding with her when she saw her not being squeamish. Quoting Teacher Han, she couldn’t get hurt for nothing. That was why those scenes must be added into the film for the audience to see clearly. It would also enrich their film which used this theme by leaps and bounds.
“I have decided to never miss even a single film where Xiangxiang appears. I’ll also drag everyone around me to the cinema,” Feng Xiaolu raised her hand.
Everyone else agreed to it.
“I don’t really make that kind of sacrifice in every film. I was fearless because I knew nothing at that time. I’m not sure I would dare to do it if you want me to do it again now.”
She almost lost her life horrifically a few times, “Artists back in the day used to do this too. They would sacrifice their health to learn a skill for a film.”
“That was back in the day. Everything relies on professional stuntmen now. That, or magical editing,” Ma Linlin ranted, “That’s why I really don’t like to watch dramas or films now. Dramas are unnecessarily dragged out, and I don’t know what the films are trying to say.”
“There are still excellent pieces of work.” There weren’t a lot of them, but they were still there. Yun Xiangxiang thought that some pieces were great.
“Hey, Xiangxiang. You said nobody pursued you before on the interview last time. Was that true?” Tao Manni found it unbelievable.
“It’s true. Our school has elementary, junior high, and senior high departments. My dad’s a teacher in the senior high department. Nobody dared to pursue me. The most they did was give me some gifts,” Yun Xiangxiang’s relationship history was a complete blank.
“Hahahaha. Oops, I didn’t expect the prettiest one among us to be the purest,” Ma Linlin teased.
“Xiangxiang, I think that there won’t be a lot of people in our university who can work up their courage to pursue you,” Zhu Yuan thought that it was lamentable, “You’re almost a myth in our university now. You’re standing somewhere too high up there. And now you’re an existence they look up to.”
The kind that was put on a pedestal and made everyone else feel inferior.