Chapter 47: Clamor

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Cui Xing had many followers on Twitter. His recent tweets were related to “The 99th Love Letter” while his latest tweet was a photo of him and the female lead, Zhu Pan, in character.

Although Jiang Se had been on set that day, she had yet to meet the lead actress, Zhu Pan.

Cui Xing’s photo was aesthetic. His head was lowered, and he appeared to be shy. After some editing, the picture had a refreshing feel to it. The main female character, portrayed by Zhu Pan, was looking at him as if he meant the world to her.

The photo of them looking into each other’s eyes sparked a flurry of comments from the fans. Besides expressing their anticipation of the film hitting the theatres in January next year, to Jiang Se’s surprise, there were mentions of her character. In fact, there were quite a number of mentions.

A Cloud That Drifts Without A Resting Place: [I can’t wait for the actual movie to come out just by looking at this photo of Brother Xing and Panpan. However, I’m also curious about the rearview goddess. Who is the person that has managed to captivate my great Brother Xing’s heart?]

It was clear that there were many others asking similar questions. Jiang Se scrolled down and saw another comment.

[Panpan’s looks are already a cut above many of her peers. I wonder what kind of rearview goddess is capable of mesmerizing my god without even showing her face and caused Panpan to endure her unrequited love for many years before it came to fruition in the movie.]

That comment resonated with many other users. Most of the others shared similar views.

[I agree. Usually, those portraying an otherworldly beauty aren’t all that in real life.]

There were also fans of Cui Xing and Zhu Pan who clearly did not think much about Jiang Se’s character. They began to attack her.

[Too many people don’t know their own capabilities in the entertainment industry. The number of the current famous actresses with looks that surpasses Panpan can be counted with one hand. Don’t get me started on the third-rate small-time stars. They’re all freak accidents of cosmetic procedures. I hope that Director Zhao didn’t randomly pick a person off the street for this role just because her face won’t be seen. That’ll degrade the film’s quality for sure. When this rearview goddess appears, I’ll just close my eyes and wait until the scene passes.]

Angela: [I’m skeptical about the production team’s capability of finding a goddess that everyone can accept. If this so-called goddess can’t even captivate us, she won’t be able to captivate Brother Xing in the movies—not even in her wildest dreams.]

The production team had leaked some of the film’s story from the start. Also, they were skilled in leveraging the audience’s curiosity. They turned this “rearview goddess” into a hot topic to attract the audience’s attention, and the publicity stunt was quite successful.

Throughout Jiang Se’s scrolling of Cui Xing’s Twitter, the comments that mentioned him and Zhu Pan were just the minority. Most of the commenters were focused on the rearview goddess.

She had been scrolling through it for half a day. Most of the comments she saw were doubts about her abilities. They were just waiting to unleash more snide remarks once the identity of the actress Zhao Rang picked for this character was revealed. Jiang Se was not angered though. She smiled and scrolled through the Twitter page some more.

Then, she searched for the three films which she had been involved in.

Zhang Jingan’s and Gu Jiaer’s films were still in progress. They were not like “The 99th Love Letter” which was nearing completion. Therefore, although there was some information about them online, there was not much.

Most of the results were photos that the reporters had captured when they had visited the set. Furthermore, the pictures were not clear.

In comparison, Zhao Rang had ordered many of the film’s photos to be released beforehand and they created a wave online.

However, the crowd of these users who learned about the film through these leaks were all skeptical about the looks of the actress who portrayed this rearview goddess. The production team did not offer much explanation on this. Instead, they maintained a peculiar silence.

This situation made more fans feel more anxious by the day. Many of them commented on the Weibo accounts of Zhao Rang and members of the crew. They pressured them to give them more information about the film so that they would feel relieved.

Jiang Se browsed through them for a while and soon felt bored, so she closed the page.

It was getting late. She stood up and caressed her stomach as she went to her kitchen with a slight feeling of helplessness.

She had bought some simple cooking utensils for her kitchen. She even spent slightly more than $100 on a small electric rice cooker.

However, she had never cooked a day in her life. She studied the manual for a long time before carefully adding water to the rice and closing the lid of the cooker.

She had also bought a pack of cold dishes on discount from the supermarket. That should last her for a while.

Half an hour later, the rice was cooked. Although she had cooked it with slightly too much water, and it nearly turned into porridge, it was fortunately still edible.

Compared to her life with the Du family, living on her own felt much better as she expected.

She initially wanted to look for a character to audition for. However, she was not signed to any talent management company, thus she could not find any good opportunities for now. Although she could land some background actor role, the pay was too low for her liking. For Jiang Se in her current situation, the meager pay would never satisfy her needs.

She was looking at the phone number the script supervisor, Li Yi, had given her on the “Pretense to Reality” set. She initially intended to bolden herself and call to ask if there were any available roles. To her surprise, in mid-August, “The 99th Love Letter” production team had transferred the remaining $28,000 remuneration into her bank account.

This relieved her financial pressure immediately. Her account balance was now more than $30,000.

She did not have to worry about food or drink. She paid the two months’ rent and the deposit she owed to the landlord. There were still nearly $30,000 in her bank card.

With this amount of money, she naturally did not have to rush to join the filming of another film. The beginning of the semester soon came around.

She picked History as her major. In the First Academy, literature, history, and philosophy were unpopular majors because the career prospects were not as great as the other majors. However, the minimum requirements were low and the chances of getting accepted were high.

Jiang Se did not have enough time to do her revision after her rebirth. In the beginning, she did not have complete confidence in getting accepted by the First Academy, hence she chose an unpopular major. As a result, she was accepted by the First Academy.

Among the literature courses, she had studied the languages of Huaxia. Back then, she did not have any pressure to look for a job as Feng Nan. Naturally, she chose a major that she was interested in.

The Fengs did not require her to inherit the family business in the future. The family’s only expectation of her was for her to have a decent academic qualification to prove that she was not an empty vase. This way, she would still have some dignity even if her marriage was for alliance purposes. Naturally, the family did not meddle in her studies.

This time, she chose a History major. Although it was an unpopular career choice, her recent experience piqued her interest to enter the entertainment industry. Gu Jiaer’s and Zhao Rang’s words had changed her previously biased views on the entertainment industry.

Up until now, all three films she had been involved in did not give her any negative impression about the industry. Instead, Cui Xing’s acting skills had moved her deeply.

On top of that, the Feng family’s “Feng Nan” was also interested in entering the entertainment industry. Because of this, Jiang Se had the urge to investigate her secretly.

If there were no other accidents, it was highly probable that she would continue to live on as Jiang Se. Since the income from the entertainment industry was much higher than that of a regular office job, establishing a career in the entertainment industry was enough to guarantee her a high quality of life. So, when it came to choosing her major, she chose something that she liked which was History. It was also less stressful compared to other majors.