When the second episode of *Sleepless City* aired, its momentum was even greater than the first.
After all, when the first episode was broadcast, there were only a few gimmicks and a trailer that might have been a scam. Few people would squat and wait for the broadcast on time. Most people just went to take a look when they were free. Of course, once they started looking, they got hopelessly hooked.
But now, the quality of the series had been verified, and the suspense from the end of the last episode was hanging over everyone. Far more people than last week were squatting on the series’ page, waiting for the new episode to refresh.
The cast and crew of *Sleepless City* were no exception. The scenes for the Mohe setting were completely finished last Sunday, and this week, they had completed filming other parts of episodes three and four. A small milestone. Director Wang generously gave everyone another night off.
The second episode was much shorter than the first, only about twenty-five minutes, but the amount of information was no less, leaving viewers shouting that it was satisfying. Even though they were part of the show, it didn’t pull them out of the story at all.
However, these actors already knew the plot, so they watched this episode with more of an appreciative mindset. The audience members, who had no idea about the future direction of the plot, had a completely different reaction.
If they had turned on the bullet comments while watching, they would have seen those poor viewers yelling “Holy shit” from beginning to end.
When they discovered Xie Chu was really cheating and had truly fallen for the fox spirit played by Qin You, the bullet comments said, “Holy shit.”
When they discovered the fox spirit played by Qin You took the USB drive and left, the bullet comments said, “Holy shit.”
When they discovered that the fox spirit’s education and resume were even more impressive than Fang Ziyu, the “Original Female Lead,” but she still used her beauty as a weapon without any psychological burden, the bullet comments said, “Holy shit.”
When Xie Chu’s Father came out and scolded Xie Chu, telling him to get lost and reflect, the bullet comments said, “Holy shit.”
When Fang Ziyu finally reappeared, her expression shifting as she looked at Xie Chu drinking himself into a stupor under the dim lights, finally settling on a look that was extremely similar to Ling Yu’s as she walked towards him, and her final line of narration sounded, the bullet comments said, “Holy shit.”
In short, the bullet comments were “Holy shit” from beginning to end.
The comments in the review section were a bit longer than a simple “Holy shit,” but it was still a chaotic mess of loud screaming.
“Adult fairy tale my ass!! ‘Ultimate Vicious Chatterbox’ really screwed me this time! I only came to watch because I read his review and thought, ‘I love adult fairy tales’… What kind of dark fairy tale is this!!” — This was from someone who fell for false advertising.
“It’s so good!! So good!! Hurry up, I want to see the next episode! Isn’t this so much more interesting than a simple college student leveling up and fighting monsters?!” — This was from someone who originally thought the show was a fine work but with a mediocre story, and was now completely hyped after the second episode.
“Ling Yu is so cool!! Sob sob sob!! So beautiful and cool!!” — This was from someone who had fallen for Ling Yu.
“Ling Yu is really charming… but the thought of it being Qin You makes me sick.” — This was someone struggling between the character’s charm and real-life morality.
“Is this considered clearing her name? This character is obviously not cannon fodder. I told you this show was to clear the name of a mistress.” — This was from someone insistent that Qin You should not be whitewashed.
As everyone knows, the hottest topic isn’t necessarily the one with the most discussion value, but absolutely the one that’s easiest to argue about. Therefore, as interactions between comments gradually increased, other topics temporarily took a backseat, leaving only one issue that was being fought over to high heaven—”Does this show count as clearing Qin You’s name, and does it need to be boycotted?”
The affirmative view: This show is clearly shaping Ling Yu as a positive character, or at the very least, a controversial, charming anti-hero. Many people will undoubtedly transfer their feelings from the show, which will then lead to clearing the name of Qin You, this morally corrupt actress. We should boycott this kind of trashy series that has a negative influence!
The opposing view:
“What the hell! Go boycott those dramas with idiotic plots and shoddy production! That’s what you call a trashy drama!”
“Qin You is a mistress, and Ling Yu is also a mistress. Qin You interfered to become famous, and Ling Yu interfered for her career. Isn’t that exactly the same? How is that clearing her name? It’s not like Ling Yu has some tragic backstory. She has no tragic backstory at all. She just broke up a little couple for her own selfish desires. What’s so inappropriate about having Qin You play her?”
In response to this last point, the affirmative side began to argue again:
“How can a fictional story be the same as reality?!”
And so, whether in the comment section of *Sleepless City* or on other social media platforms, the two sides were at each other’s throats. Occasionally, viewers who didn’t care about Qin You and just wanted to discuss the show itself were quickly suppressed.
In the midst of this chaotic battle, Qin You’s Weibo, which hadn’t been updated for a full two months, suddenly showed new activity.
@Qin You:
“These chat records should have been posted two months ago. At that time, Chen Ren deleted the chat records from my phone, so he started spouting nonsense with full confidence. After I recovered the chat records, I could have posted them at any time, but I was busy trying to get the role of Ling Yu in *Sleepless City*.”
“The role of Ling Yu is very difficult to play. She is someone who doesn’t care even if she is hated by ten thousand people. It was hard for me to understand this mentality because I had never had a similar experience.”
“Therefore, when Chen Ren announced his version of the story, I suddenly felt that this was a good opportunity, an excellent opportunity to experience what it’s like to be cursed by everyone.”
“And this could also increase my advantage in fighting for this role. This way, when the first episode aired, I could maintain the image of a mistress when Ling Yu was supposed to be mistaken for one. And when the second episode aired, I could complete a reversal outside the show at the same time as the reversal happened in the show—no one could be more suitable for Ling Yu than me. This ultimately helped me convince the director to let me play this role that I love so much.”
“I was very lucky to encounter the most suitable scandal at the most suitable time.”
“Without Chen Ren’s slander, I absolutely would not have been able to get the role of Ling Yu. Because if I had played it under normal circumstances, someone would have definitely guessed by the end of the first episode that there might be a reversal for Ling Yu’s character, otherwise they couldn’t understand why I would choose a purely cannon fodder role.”
“So, thank you all for your cooperation during this time.”
Then there were eighteen pictures, each one showing the chat records between her and Chen Ren.
Never had the retweets for a Weibo post been so uniform—a neat row of “Holy shit.”
Besides “Holy shit,” there really was no better word to express everyone’s feelings at that moment.
It wasn’t until a few minutes later that other comments appeared, though they all still carried a hint of “Holy shit.”
“Holy shit, so cool! Qin You is basically the real-life version of Ling Yu, right?! No wonder the director said she was suitable, how could she not be?!”
“Holy shit, if she was just trying to clear her name, I might have looked down on her. What kind of love-brain is that? But this, this, this… she’s a real badass!”
“What badass? She’s clearly a savage!! I’m shocked… Is it really worth enduring being flamed by the entire internet for so long just to get a role?”
“I don’t know if it’s worth it… If it were me, I definitely couldn’t do it. If someone slandered me, I’d throw the evidence in their face even if I had to stay up until two in the morning.”
“Weakly going off-topic… is two in the morning really that much of a struggle… which young person today sleeps before two…”
“Damn, Chen Ren is a dead scumbag, straddling two boats and then slandering a beauty for pursuing him. What kind of person is he! So disgusting!”
“Qin You’s name has been cleared. Does this mean you guys can finally stop discussing whether *Sleepless City* is clearing her name? Can I find someone to talk about the plot with now…”
“You believe it just because she posted some chat records? Couldn’t they be photoshopped?”
“Chen Ren only posted chat records too, right? Why don’t you suspect him of photoshopping? Besides, the avatars in the chat records posted by both of them are the same, okay?”
“Chen Ren’s fans, stop your dying struggle. It’s already Thor’s Hammer. I advise you to unfollow him.”
“…”
A few minutes after Qin You released the chat records, Chen Ren’s Weibo was completely overrun. The post where he had confidently claimed Qin You was pursuing him was dug up and reposted over and over again.
The trending topics were once again a neat row.
#Qin You#
#Sleepless City#
#Chen Ren#
And the new review from “Ultimate Vicious Chatterbox” came much faster this time.
@”Ultimate Vicious Chatterbox”:
“[The following content contains spoilers]”
“The face-slap came so fast I was caught off guard.”
“But I’m happy to take this face-slap. This is the kind of content I want to see.”
“Although I know that if I say now that I actually had a feeling the plot wasn’t that simple, many people will probably think I’m just playing armchair general, but it’s true… It’s just that I felt the fairy tale in the first episode was too much effort for just one episode of setup. After all, even without the reversal in the second episode, the script was already in the realm of a fine work.”
“And I have a bit of a reputation to uphold here. I’m a famous person too. What if I confidently said this or that was foreshadowing, and it turned out not to be? Wouldn’t I lose a lot of face? And at the time, I felt the probability of losing face was quite high. After all, this is this director’s debut work. I had to leave some room for immaturity.”
“Who would have thought someone’s debut would be a complete version of a Gundam!”
“Ahem, in short, it’s not my fault I got my face slapped.”
“Now, let me talk about the sense of incongruity I felt when watching the first episode, which is also why I said yesterday that I was a bit disappointed.”
“Whether it’s the director’s resume or the behavior of the other characters in the plot, they are too disconnected from Fang Ziyu.”
“I liked the part at the beginning of the first episode, seeking investment at the banquet. A striking opening, a highlight that every script should have.”
“I also really like the character of Fang Ziyu’s Superior. The female demon boss is a common character type, but it’s rare to see one written so realistically.”
“But the more ruthless these supporting characters are (to others, and to themselves), the more they will do anything to succeed, the more absurd it seems. Because Fang Ziyu, the ‘protagonist,’ is a person living in a fairy tale. It’s not that her circumstances are so good; she’s not a lucky girl born a princess. In terms of circumstances, her best friend Le Qing is more like a princess than her. She comes from a relatively ordinary background, but she studies hard, strives upward, and at the same time, abides by morals, and in the end, she gets a good result. She’s an almost perfect role model and an inspiring protagonist, but even Le Qing, who was born a princess, seems to live more in reality than her.”
“Because her life has a kind of deterministic luck. Whatever she wants, she strives for it, and then she gets it. God, who has a wicked sense of humor and loves to casually mess up everyone’s life trajectory, made an exception for her, letting the dice she throws always land on double sixes. Her biggest struggle is just balancing her career and love life. The world she lives in is very much like the causality world that teachers concocted to protect our fragile hearts when we were in school.”
“A perfect fairy tale world.”
“Good is rewarded with good, and evil is rewarded with evil. Every loss you take for abiding by your bottom line, heaven will silently compensate you for.”
“If everyone lived in such a fairy tale world, it would actually be great. I actually love watching such fairy tales. I’m not the kind of scoundrel who loves to see people suffer.”
“But it’s only her.”
“She’s actually a very likable person. If I had to choose in real life whether I like someone like Fang Ziyu or someone like Ling Yu, I would definitely choose the former without hesitation. Fang Ziyu is great, it’s just that her success is out of place with the atmosphere of this story.”
“So she failed.”
“Striving hard is touching, but you’re not the only one striving hard. When others are using every means possible, tearing off their noble masks, and exhausting every bit of their interpersonal relationships, you, with your student-like effort, want to preserve your perfect dignity and face and surpass them. On what grounds?”
“I actually really like stories about unruly young geniuses trampling on established social norms. I’m not a guardian of the conventions of this boring world. Friends who are familiar with me should know that my favorite movies are all of the ‘young genius appears out of nowhere and is invincible’ trope. I’m very cliché.”
“But the premise is, that person has to be a real genius.”
“You want to trample on every disgusting rule of this disgusting world, sure, but are you strong enough to ignore the rules? If not, on what grounds?”
“When I was watching the first episode, this was what echoed throughout my head.”
“This is a good story, but it made me extremely frustrated.”
“It’s like a grafted plant. The stem is the ugliest monster grown from the most wretched soil, but a flower shimmering with a dreamlike light has been forcibly stuck on top, and then it’s pushed out for exhibition.”
“So the more I watched, the more frustrated I got. This is a story that someone who has struggled in the investment world for nearly twenty years could write. My mind was filled with thoughts of whether I had overestimated the cruelty of real life, or if it was because industry bigwigs have seen so much cruelty that they wanted to forcibly create a fairy tale.”
“When I clicked on the second episode, I was actually still immersed in frustration. After watching so many works over the years, I should have been numb by now. The last time a work made me watch with genuine feelings was… well, the last time.”
“But the first episode of *Sleepless City*, how should I put it, it’s like a small black dot on a piece of glass, but you can’t scratch it off no matter what because it’s embedded inside the glass. The only way to make it disappear is to smash the entire piece of glass—yes, it was that uncomfortable for me.”
“The plot twist in the second episode didn’t surprise me. In fact, with the plot twist, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.”
“The character of Ling Yu, in reality, would definitely be detestable. Everyone is properly walking on a crowded road, and she alone finds a shortcut and reaches the end. How could that not be infuriating?”
“But in this story, it’s just right. If someone has to win in such a harsh environment, that person has to do something that we ordinary people can’t do, or rather, can’t bring ourselves to do, to be convincing.”
“Her moral compass is very weak, and she is a pure egoist. If Fang Ziyu were to grow to a point where it doesn’t feel like a fairy tale, she would probably need to accept some moral struggles. What she needs to abandon for success is definitely not just a boring love affair; she needs to abandon something more fundamental.”
“And Ling Yu is inherently that kind of person.”
“Actually, the plot doesn’t explicitly state or imply whether Ling Yu’s personality is innate or acquired. It doesn’t write about whether she has ever experienced moral struggles, but I believe, and hope, that she hasn’t.”
“She’s too smart, so smart that she can see through which morals are man-made at a glance. So she doesn’t need to struggle hard. She is naturally born for this battlefield.”
“After watching the second episode, I finally let out a long breath. Although it has become a detestable story of ‘evil is rewarded with good,’ I finally feel comfortable. The black dot on that piece of glass has dissipated. It didn’t disappear, it dissipated. It was diluted into every corner of the transparent glass, completely dyeing the flawless piece of glass black.”
“This story is no longer perfect, but this story is also complete.”
“…”
“By the way, a little something off-topic. When I was watching the first episode, I felt the most interesting part was actually the drama outside the drama.”
“I’ve also heard about Qin You’s scandal. After all, it’s not like I haven’t been online for the past two months. And what I find interesting is that when the character Ling Yu appeared in the first episode, you can see that the director put a lot of effort into highlighting her beauty, and Qin You really lived up to that effort, displaying two hundred percent of her beauty.”
“It should be said that making the audience feel she is astonishingly beautiful is the effect the director wanted. This is a very objective fact, but most of the people I saw trying to praise her appearance were very secretive about it, as if feeling that she was beautiful was a kind of sin. And the source of this guilt was her previous scandal.”
“Even more people just forcibly ignored the existence of this character. That secretive feeling I found very interesting.”
“And after Qin You just posted that Weibo, clearing her name, I didn’t follow the gossip. I was mainly watching how everyone suddenly started praising Ling Yu’s beauty without any burden.”
“Actually, beautiful is beautiful. Whether she’s a good person or a bad person hasn’t changed her appearance as part of the work. Yes, I don’t see Ling Yu’s beauty as belonging to Qin You; I prefer to see it as a component of the show *Sleepless City*. Her appearance hasn’t changed; what has changed is the attitude of the viewer. So I can’t help but sigh—Ling Yu is truly a rare species.”
“…”
After “Ultimate Vicious Chatterbox”‘s review was posted, it was immediately retweeted like crazy.
“I feel like the jumbled mess in my head has been perfectly expressed… Thank you, Chatterbox.”
“Yes, I was also uncomfortable watching the first episode, but seeing everyone praising it, I couldn’t figure out what I was uncomfortable about, so I held it in. After reading Chatterbox’s review, I finally know what I was uncomfortable about…”
“I completely get it. Fang Ziyu is great, but she makes others look like a joke and makes me in front of the screen look like a clown. Her sacrifice is a sacrifice, but others’ sacrifices aren’t? Others give up face, dignity, and morals; she gives up love. I’m just… what the hell! It’s as if no one else in this show has love except her! Before, because I thought it was another ‘big female lead’ who cleanly reaches the peak while all the dirty work is done by supporting characters, I wanted to drop the show. Having Ling Yu as the protagonist makes me much more comfortable. At least I know I can’t be like her. If it were me, I’d struggle in a moral dilemma eight hundred times and then lie down peacefully. The peak of life is not for me to climb [dog head emoji].”
“I really like the term ‘causality world.’ The real world is indeed more like chaotic random motion.”
“Actually, I still prefer Fang Ziyu. She’s like a dream of mine. When I saw the beginning of the second episode, my heart skipped a beat. When I saw the end of the second episode, I couldn’t help but sigh. She’ll probably become more like Ling Yu later on. Although I usually like blackening plots, at that moment I still hoped she wouldn’t change, even if she had to endure a social beating next. I’m depressed.”
“That comment about Qin You herself is too funny. He called me out. It’s true. The past two days, I had to repent eight hundred times in my heart just to admire her looks.”
“Too extreme. I don’t agree with the blogger’s views.”
“I don’t think changing one’s attitude towards her appearance based on whether Qin You is good or bad should be mocked. If you readily accept that she is beautiful, over time, you might start to feel that what she did was harmless. The power of a fan filter is very strong. I think Chatterbox ignored this point.”
“Sob, the blogger is so good with words. The evaluation of Ling Yu is both precise and cool. She really was born for this battlefield!! Go for it, Mom!!”
“Damn, Ling Yu even has ‘mom fans’…? I’m so shocked I forgot what I was going to say.”
“Masterpiece in the making. It was originally just a fine work.”
“Well written. A shattered dream made for a good work.”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to say! Fang Ziyu is suitable for making friends with in real life, Ling Yu is suitable for admiring in a virtual work [heart][heart].”
“Hahahaha yes!! I can finally praise how beautiful Qin You is without restraint!! She’s so pretty!! It makes me wonder if she had plastic surgery in the last two months! Finding the right style is really like getting plastic surgery! Listen to your big sister’s advice, never go back to playing little white flowers!”
“The part about the glass, is Chatterbox indirectly praising *Sleepless City* for being flawless? Wow!”
“…”
The internet waves stirred up by the broadcast of *Sleepless City*’s second episode and Qin You’s self-vindication were enormous.
The entire internet was buzzing from night until the next day.
The liveliest discussion was actually not about the plot of *Sleepless City*, but the curses directed at Chen Ren.
The barrier to entry for gossiping is somewhat lower than for watching a drama.
And it was really a kind of anger from being thoroughly deceived.
If you want to deceive and play with the netizens of the internet, you have to be prepared to be drowned when you mess up.
After Chen Ren’s exposé, Qin You didn’t post anything for two months, which was mocked by netizens as “playing dead.” This time, the person playing dead was Chen Ren.
Under the Weibo post where he claimed Qin You was pursuing him, the comments skyrocketed by over a hundred thousand overnight, all calling him a dead scumbag, a narcissist, and that only in his dreams would a great beauty pursue him.
Although Qin You’s every word didn’t say that she was just incredibly unlucky to have met Chen Ren, and instead said that it provided her with a good opportunity, the harsher she was on herself, the angrier the masses who empathized with her became, unleashing the full breadth and depth of the Chinese language.
What pushed the heat of the incident to its peak was a Weibo post from Gu Tianbai. Two simple words.
@Gu Tianbai:
“Broken up.”
The netizens instantly felt vindicated.
“Good! A scumbag who has his eyes on the pot while eating from his bowl deserves to get nothing!”
“LMAO, Chen Ren’s fans used to love saying their brother was ‘beautiful alone.’ Now he’s really beautiful alone. Aren’t you happy?”
“How did he build the persona that everyone else was pursuing him before? Karma really is a bitch.”
“The narcissist has finally messed up. No matter who he worked with before, he would post a bunch of press releases saying his co-star was pursuing him, and his fans would still say it wasn’t his marketing. Pfft, if it wasn’t his marketing, did someone else specifically post a press release saying they were pursuing him?”
“A young miss is a young miss. Dumping a scumbag is faster than buying a bag. Tsk, Chen Ren didn’t choose his targets well. He thought both boats were soft persimmons, but it turns out they were all tough nuts to crack. LMAO, is this the most idiotic phoenix man in history?”
“…”
.
No matter how lively it was online, words, after all, couldn’t turn into sound and drill into reality. It was still separated from the real world by a layer, especially for the *Sleepless City* crew.
Although they were at the center of the storm—the show they were acting in was being discussed all over the internet, and they had the eye of the storm right beside them—Qin You, the center of the gossip, was less than ten meters away.
But no, no matter how excited or gossipy they felt, they had to endure it and focus on their work first.
When work started in the morning, some people’s minds were still wandering. After all, the news Qin You dropped last night was too explosive. They didn’t know how Qin You had slept peacefully; anyway, they, as long as they had a phone, couldn’t help but watch the whole night.
But ever since Director Wang yelled at a co-star who tried to comfort Qin You and cheer her on before filming started in the morning—”Is there something wrong with your brain, trying to find ways to pull her out of character?”—everyone instantly turned back into quails.
Besides, Qin You didn’t look like she needed comforting at all.
.
Qin You walked out of the makeup room. She had just gotten her new makeup and styling done. The scenes at Mohe were over, so Ling Yu’s attire was once again formal and exquisite.
For example, the outfit she was wearing now: a black and white halter dress, long straight black hair, and stiletto heels.
All she was missing was a pair of black or white long gloves, and people could be kissing her hand.
In this scene, the character played by Li Shan, the managing partner of Tomorrow Capital, assigns an “assistant” to Ling Yu. He says it’s an assistant, but he actually feels that Ling Yu is a bit too unconventional and reckless, so he’s planting someone to monitor her.
Qin You walked to the desk and sat down. She picked up the documents placed on the table for show, adopted a casual and lazy posture, and waited for filming to begin.
“Action!”
Ling Yu sat with her legs crossed, leaning halfway against the back of the chair. Her right hand rested on the armrest, holding a document, while her left hand idly played with a strand of her hair. Her whole person exuded a nonchalant laziness.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
Someone knocked twice on the already open door. Ling Yu lifted her eyelids, and what came into her view was a girl with a smile as bright as sunshine.
“Hello, Ms. Ling. I’m the new assistant partner. From today on, please guide me!”
Ling Yu raised her eyebrows high. She maintained her original lazy posture, not moving, and reached out to tap the keyboard a few times. The screen lit up, and the message sent over was—”Newcomer, you train her for two months.”
She closed the window without a change in expression, flipped a page of the contract in her hand, and asked calmly, “What’s your name?”
“Lu Yu.”
Ling Yu couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows again. A smile touched her lips. “Did the person who named you have a grudge against you?”
Lu Yu showed a charmingly troubled smile. “I’ve complained to my dad many times, but he refuses to let me change my name.”
Ling Yu smiled. She looked like the kindest superior, but her next sentence was not so kind. “It’s too hard to pronounce. Just call you Lucy.”
The sunny girl’s brilliant smile froze on her face.
“Cut!”
Director Wang called cut. Qin You straightened up.
It was actually very tiring to maintain this seemingly casual sitting posture. This posture, which looked lazy and elegant, beautiful and comfortable, actually required the use of all her back muscles. If they filmed for much longer, Qin You suspected her back might twist into a pretzel.
The role of Lu Yu, the undercover assistant, was not a major one; she was more or-less a tool person, so it didn’t really matter what her personality was. The reason Director Wang wrote her as this sunny, cheerful, and slightly naive character was so she could ask a certain question.
For Qin You, she had just gone for lunch and changed her clothes, but for Ling Yu, the scenes had instantly jumped forward a whole month.
After Lu Yu and Ling Yu became familiar with each other, she finally couldn’t hold back one time and asked.
“Sister Ling Yu, you’re so smart and so capable, why do you still do that? When people say you rely on your looks, don’t you get angry?”
The question was a bit offensive, but Ling Yu never got angry, especially since she had always treated people with this kind of silly personality but capable abilities with rare favor.
Whether it was Li Ruixi or Lu Yu.
Her expression remained faint. She didn’t look up, just asked in an indifferent tone:
“Why should I be angry?”
“Beauty and intelligence are both innate advantages I was born with. Charm and knowledge are skills I acquired through hard work. What’s the difference between them? Does it make any difference which one I use?”
“Do you think being sexy is easy to achieve?”
“If being sexy were easy, then everyone would be a great beauty.”
“Since being sexy was also earned through my efforts, why should I give up using this weapon because of others’ opinions?”
“Do I look like a fool to you?”
“Cut!”
“Alright, take a short break.”
Director Wang walked over to the monitor, waved for the two of them to go rest, and stood by the monitor himself, lost in thought.
Director Wang would occasionally have these moments of contemplation, sometimes for ten-odd minutes, sometimes for as long as half an hour. Everyone was used to it. This was their rare breathing room.
In other words, it was also one of the few times these young people, who all had a bit of a smartphone addiction, could play on their phones.
As soon as Director Wang fell into thought, several people took out their phones from their jacket pockets and started scrolling—
“Wow… my Weibo followers have gone up again… Yay!”
“Me too, me too!”
“…”
They were all young actors starring in a hit drama for the first time, and they were all experiencing the joy of gaining followers for the first time. This feeling of seeing new followers every time they opened their phones greatly stimulated their dopamine secretion. If they didn’t have scenes to film, they would have loved to do nothing all day but watch their follower count rise and scroll through the comments, grinning like fools.
The girl playing Lu Yu wouldn’t appear until the fifth episode, so there was nothing about her on Weibo for now, but she happily took out her phone and opened Weibo as well.
After a while, she excitedly sidled up to Qin You.
“Sister Qin You!! You gained several hundred thousand followers in one night yesterday!!”
“Right, right, I saw that too!” The two girls who had just been discussing their own follower counts also came over, exceptionally excited, looking even more thrilled than if they had become famous themselves. “It started right after Sister Qin You posted on Weibo last night, just shooting up! Like a rocket!”
They actually wanted to say, “Well done! Crush Chen Ren!” but the unlucky guy from this morning had been yelled at by Director Wang for trying to cheer Qin You on, so they were a bit hesitant to bring it up. But congratulating Qin You on becoming famous should be fine… right?
Qin You smiled. The girls noticed that Qin You’s smile was a bit different from Ling Yu’s. They couldn’t quite say where the difference was, maybe the curve of her eyes? Maybe the way her smile muscles worked? But it looked much gentler than Ling Yu’s smile.
Qin You smiled and said, “I know.”
Despite saying so, she didn’t seem as happy and excited as the others, and she hadn’t even taken out her phone. She had the air of a big star, making the young girls feel a sense of admiration.
This is what it means to be unmoved by glory or disgrace…
“What’s with all this fidgeting! You young people, all you do is look at your phones… Next time, I should put a big box on set and have you all throw your phones in before we start filming. If your minds are restless, won’t your acting become restless too?”
Director Wang had come over at some point. The girls lowered their heads like quails. How were they supposed to know that Director Wang would be done “contemplating” in less than two minutes this time?
They had walked right into the line of fire. Because of Yang Qiu’s backstabbing, Director Wang had been forced to move up the broadcast time of *Sleepless City*. One of the downsides of the shoot-and-air model was that these young actors lacked self-discipline. Ever since the first episode aired, the difficulty of managing the set had risen by more than one level, which annoyed Director Wang to no end. He got angry just seeing these young people who pulled out their phones at every opportunity.
Only Qin You was calm and steady, never causing him any trouble.
Thinking of this, Director Wang’s expression softened a little. When he turned to Qin You, his face could even be described as somewhat benevolent.
“I need to change your next few scenes a bit. We’ll film other people today. You can finish work early and rest.”
Qin You was slightly stunned, but she quickly smiled and said okay.
She changed out of the long dress she was wearing and walked towards the hotel in her usual casual wear.
The Makeup Artist watched her back and couldn’t help but think of the day of the opening ceremony.
That day, Qin You had also worn a similar outfit: a black jacket, blue jeans. It was the most unremarkable attire, yet she stood in the wind with an elegant grace. At that time, she was being vilified by the entire internet, carrying the label of a shameless mistress. The people on set, even if they didn’t curse her openly, there was no shortage of gossip behind her back, and no shortage of judgmental looks. So much time had passed, and the meaning in the gazes that fell upon her had done a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn, but what hadn’t changed was her demeanor.
The Makeup Artist couldn’t help but sigh in her heart. Perhaps this is what it means to be unmoved by favor or disgrace. Whether it was curses or praise, nothing could make her change her expression.
.
Amidst several enthusiastic greetings, Qin You walked into the elevator that gleamed with a metallic luster, then walked out of the elevator, and then crossed the long corridor, finally entering her own room.
With a “click,” the hotel room door closed.
In the silence, an almost crazed laughter gradually rose from low to high, finally becoming a loud, unrestrained laugh.
“Hahahahahahaha!”
“Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!”
Qin You turned and leaned against the door, letting herself slowly slide down to the floor.
“Hahahahahahaha!!!”
“…”
One burst of wild laughter after another was the only sound in the silence, almost seeming somewhat terrifying.
She was finally famous.
What damn unmoved by favor or disgrace.
She was more excited than anyone; she wanted to scream louder than anyone. But she was going to be a big star. In the future, when people interviewed the actors and staff who worked with her before she was famous, what they had to remember was that she was like a perfect big star from the very beginning.
Qin You raised her head and looked at the glass door directly in front of her. The glass had been deliberately made with a somewhat cloudy texture, so her reflection was a bit distorted, making the already twisted smile on her face look even more frightening.
And in her eyes, there was madness, and also hot tears.
A “ding-ding-dong-dong” sound came from her pocket—her phone was ringing.
Qin You didn’t look down. She took the phone out of her pocket and, out of habit, put it to her ear and answered the call.
“Qin You, how could you do this?!”
On the other end of the line was a familiar voice, but strictly speaking, it was the first time Qin You herself had heard it—the voice of this body’s Original Host’s ex-boyfriend, Chen Ren.
The voice on the other end sounded almost exasperated, constantly accusing Qin You of breaking their previous agreement.
“Didn’t I tell you… this is just temporary. Once I’m famous enough to get rid of Gu Tianbai, I’ll come back for you. By doing this, all our previous efforts are wasted, you know that?!”
Qin You stood up, her gaze distant—or rather, a gaze that wasn’t listening at all. She looked out at the world beyond the floor-to-ceiling window. The hotel Director Wang had booked for them was over twenty stories high. Qin You was on the twentieth floor, and with the wide floor-to-ceiling windows, she could take in more than half the city with a single glance.
“…How can you not even endure this little grievance?!”
On the other end, Chen Ren was still chattering on, accusing Qin You of “betraying” him, accusing her of being impatient, accusing her of only thinking of herself.
Qin You pushed open the glass door.
“Chen Ren, guess if I’m recording this?”
“And guess what will happen if I release this recording?”
The other end of the line went silent, as if a noisy duck had its neck wrung. In an instant, the call was disconnected.
Qin You indifferently threw her phone down and rested her hands on the pure white balcony railing—letting the high-altitude wind lift her hair.