Chapter 91

  Location: IM company conference room

  Event: Wednesday Meeting

  "I'm nervous."

  "Don't be nervous."

  "I'm nervous."

  "Don't be nervous."

  "I'm really nervous, if 'Star Fire' doesn't get a good response, I won't be able to film any more movies with leading roles. That's the male lead of an award-winning movie! If I don't win an award, I'll never become a top actor. In two or three years, I'll be old and this face will be useless. I'll quietly fade away, holding onto my past glory... Years later, when people mention 'Yuan Jinran', they'll say 'Oh, that has-been actor who never won the Golden Flower Award?' Waaaahhh..."

  The man sat in the chair, one hand grasping the mouse and the other hand's long, slender fingers flying across the keyboard with a series of "whooshing" sounds. After a string of "Frostbite Blasts" and finally an "Ace", Jiang Chuan tossed aside the mouse, raised his hand to casually ruffle the black hair of the young man sitting beside him, before withdrawing his hand to continue typing - amidst the cheerful keyboard clacking sounds, he suddenly looked up: "...do you know that the boss knows you're playing games at work?"

  "The company's internet speed is fast." Jiang Chuan said without even lifting his head.

  "You can actually play games too."

  "I'm young, of course I play games."

  "You can't play games in a serious place like the company either."

  "Hasn't the meeting started yet?"

  "I thought Fang Yu asked us to come first so you could comfort me a bit."

  "Am I not comforting you?"

  "Are you playing games?"

  "While playing the game, comfort." Jiang Chuan said expressionlessly, and as he spoke, the laptop screen in front of him was flashing with various skills. He stretched his head over to take a look, thinking to himself that it was hard to tell who was who, luckily Jiang Chuan was playing with a serious face. At this time, he heard a faint voice floating over from beside him, "Tomorrow night, I'll accompany you to Chuan Na?"

  Jian Ran's expression on his face paused, subconsciously withdrawing his gaze from the computer screen and looking at the man beside him - only to see that at this moment, the light on the computer screen was flickering on and off on the man's handsome face, staring at the high nose and staring at the long and dense eyelashes that were slightly drooping when looking at the computer screen. Jian Ran blinked, sat up a bit straighter, pulling away from Jiang Chuan, moved his lips, and hesitated: "......Don't need to anymore?"

  Jiang Chuan said "oh" and continued: "If you want me to go, just say so. If you keep refusing me in such a vague way, I really won't go."

  Sure, here is the translation:

  "Sure enough, as soon as the man finished speaking, a young man with black hair said, “...Shall I let Fang Yu come pick you up tomorrow?””

  Jiang Chuan murmured "uh-huh" and fell silent for a moment, then suddenly seemed to think of something and said: "I saw the promotional video for 'Mysterious Seeds'."

  Suddenly, he came to his senses, straightened up and sat upright, slightly widening his eyes as he looked at the man beside him with an expectant expression. If a tail grew out of his buttocks, he would wag it happily: "How is it?"

  Jiang Chuan thought for a moment, then directly cut out the game and opened the webpage. He clicked on a URL in what was probably his bookmarks (he couldn't understand German), and after a brief buffering, the man pressed the play button.

  The three-minute trailer for "Mysterious Seed" starts playing, and the first shot is an aerial view of the ruins of Washington Street. The sky is dark and cloudy with no sunlight in sight. As the camera moves rapidly, the sound of human heavy breathing can be heard. The camera zooms in on a street and alleyway from a bird's-eye view, and in the next second, people see the male and female leads running out of an abandoned building while holding hands. The female lead looks panicked and disheveled, while the male lead has a bruise on his face. As soon as they run out of the building, the entrance suddenly starts shaking violently, followed by a loud "boom" sound, and a giant insect-like monster with saliva dripping from its mouth emerges from the building, causing the female lead to scream.

  The screen reads "Salami Milla Wawa, starring Tom John Johnson".

  The scene cuts to a laboratory, where the male protagonist is lying on a hospital bed, surrounded by countless white coats. One of them mentions: "We must find the origin of the mysterious seed and create more warriors."

  The scene changes again, this time to a place similar to a training ground. The heroine's long hair is tied up high, and she focuses intently on the moving target in front of her. At one moment, she gazes at it with a concentrated expression, raises one hand slightly, and swings it lightly. In an instant, countless metal knives appear out of thin air, shooting towards the target like a rain of swords. When the target falls to the ground, someone calls out the heroine's name from behind her. Her face immediately changes from a killing intent to a joyful smile as she turns around and runs towards the male lead, who is still wearing his hospital gown, and passionately kisses him. After they separate, the male lead says, "My dear, we have a new mission."

  The video then cuts to scenes of deserts, glaciers, and plains, with each shot flashing by quickly along with the protagonist's status and encounters in that location. In the final scene on the glacier, the male lead is holding a trembling female lead who seems to be on the verge of an emotional breakdown. He kisses her, then says in a shaking voice: "Listen to me, I have an idea. Maybe the 'mysterious seed carrier' we're searching for... is a living being... it has consciousness, it's intelligent, and it's hiding from human pursuit."

  The scene then made its final jump - as it slowed down from the previous tense atmosphere, it came to a lake surrounded by lush green trees, and the scene finally became slow and peaceful. The familiar scene caused Jian Yan to subconsciously hold his breath, as if he knew what he was about to see next.

  As expected, after the screen slowed down, the impression of the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the treetops came, followed by a melodious flute solo from the sky - the camera quickly zoomed in, passing through countless dense branches and forests, and finally when the camera was aimed at the green lake that was almost blue, only to see a ripple on the originally calm water surface, and under the water, a young man with his whole body naked was swimming agilely like a fish, and then, just heard a loud splash, from the water, a slender figure jumped out!

  Her pale skin was almost translucent under the sunlight, and her black hair clung tightly to her three-dimensional facial features due to the wetness.

  The camera zooms in quickly, the Wang Fu draws people into those deep black pupils, and then the screen darkens, the previous melodious flute sound starts again.

  The subtitles of "Mysterious Seed: Origin" appear with special effects, bursting and burning.

  The entire video has been played.

  Jiang Chuan turned off the video and switched back to the game, ignoring the various curses in the bottom left corner of the screen about his suddenly disappeared teammate. The man quickly typed out "What's the hurry" and sent it out, and started playing again while saying "How come you're not speaking, are you being beautiful to death?"

  "Not at all."

  "This promotional video is well-made, it was forwarded millions of times on foreign social media platforms the day you got off the plane. It looks like Claire's company is going all out to make a big production, and you almost refused this movie earlier," Jiang Chuan said with a hint of a smile, "It's really making Xu Qianqian act in this role, isn't it infuriating enough for her to jump off a building?"

  Jin Yan didn't say a word, just stared at Jiang Chuan with wide eyes. The latter seemed to have felt his gaze and turned around lazily, his bright blue eyes moving slightly as he glanced at him and said the words Jin Yan most wanted to hear: "Now, even on foreign media websites, everyone is passionately guessing who that Asian person is... Ah, I saw a comment yesterday saying just seeing your bare butt swimming in the distance made them want to marry you..."

  She slowly raised her hand and covered her face.

  Jiang Chuan continued: "The video was just posted on Weibo yesterday, I think those rice grains of yours should have been recognized by now. After all, even if you were turned into ashes, they would still be able to tell..."

  He put down his hand calmly, took a deep breath: "After watching this promotional video, I suddenly feel that tomorrow's 'Star Fire' is fine even if it flops, after all, I am someone who will one day become famous in Hollywood."

  Jiang Chuan turned his head and looked at the young man with black hair who was dancing with excitement, shaking his head in dismay. At this time, on his computer screen, the opposing team's votes were being defeated, and the scene shifted to an explosion at the opposing base - Jiang Chuan didn't even look up as he casually closed his laptop lid. Just then, IM company leaders started coming in one by one from outside, with Luo Cheng walking in front, looking embarrassed, and saying to Jiang Chuan, "Sorry about that, we got stuck in traffic, you must have waited for a long time?"

  Then, with a calm gaze, Jiang Chuan said expressionlessly: "Yes, it's so boring. If you don't come soon, I'll leave."

  Jian Ran: "......"

  ……

  The next day was October 1st, the first day of National Day Golden Week.

  On this beautiful day when the vast masses of people have declared a holiday, the entire Kana is in an uproar over the premiere of "Star Fire" tonight. The external propaganda department is working overtime, and the director and main actors are arriving at the conference room one after another. Jin Yan and Jiang Chuan arrived relatively early, and when they did, the directors had just arrived. Since there was still some time before the broadcast, everyone sat down to chat casually. Jin Yan looked around at the busy staff and was also a bit surprised: "Is it always so lively before every Kana TV series is broadcast?"

  It seems that Qiana, who appears calm on the surface, is not as calm as she seems.

  Li Rui: "Not really, it's just that this TV series is our main entry for awards this year, so everyone is a bit nervous."

  "In other words, if we don't make it tonight, everyone in the company will have to go home and eat by themselves for the rest of the year."

  Jian Ran: "......You guys are making me nervous too."

  "Relax."

  He shook his head slightly, took out his phone and scrolled through Weibo to see the praise for the promotional video of "Mysterious Seed", which calmed down his tense mood - because he had not announced on Weibo that he was participating in this movie after all, so before the official domestic promotion began, everyone was speculating wildly - of course, as Jiang Chuan said, some fans really loved him to death, and just by looking at a butt (......) plus a pair of eyes, they were absolutely sure that the person in the video was Jian Ran.

  Of course, some mistakenly believed that it was Takeshi Kaneshiro's and were overjoyed to the point of being speechless.

  At dinner time, everyone gathered in the restaurant to have a meal together. Jian Ran reposted the previous drama photos with the caption "Tonight at 8 o'clock, if you don't see it, it's scattered". The response under Weibo was quite enthusiastic, probably because there were tens of thousands of people brushing "don't see, scatter" with him. Jian Ran put down his phone and took a look at the time, which was now 7:15.

  At 7:30, all personnel of the Kunna Works took their positions.

  Jian Ran sat with Bai Wen Qi, Dong Rui and other main actors in a luxurious conference hall with a large screen TV, waiting. Although the armchair was very soft, he seemed to be sitting uncomfortably as if his buttocks had grown thorns - ignoring Bai Wen Qi's teasing that "his psychological quality is not good". At 7:45, the TV started playing the preview of the next program, and when they saw the four golden characters "_", the staff pushed in the door and told the producer that at this time, the ratings of CCTV-8 were floating around 0.92%, with a market share of 4.33%, ranking third nationwide during prime time.

  Hearing this number that was a bit far from the expected "1.5%", Jian Ran stood up decisively, saying he wanted to go to the balcony to calm down for a moment.

  Bai Wen begged with a smile: "Don't panic, there are still fifteen minutes left, the mothers haven't started grabbing the remote control yet."

  Bai Wen's words successfully made the others in the conference room, who had been serious and tense, burst out laughing. After a wave of harmonious laughter, the atmosphere slightly improved - he took a deep breath, temporarily bid farewell to everyone, turned around and walked to the balcony, closed the door, leaned against the balcony door, and could still hear the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his chest...

  At this time, he heard a rustling sound coming from not far away, looked up and found that it was Jiang Chuan who was leaning on the railing with a cigarette in his mouth, lazily spitting out white mist. It seemed that he had heard him come onto the balcony, the man turned his head around, and his bright blue eyes sparkled in the night. He beckoned to the young black-haired man, indicating for him to come over.

  He leaned back, rummaged through Jiang Chuan's pocket and pulled out a cigarette, asking him to light it for himself. After taking a puff, he furrowed his brow slightly and asked, "When 'Republic of China Mystery Record' first aired, the internet was also abuzz with excitement, talking about ratings every day, how many were there?"

  "I don't remember," Jiang Chuan said vaguely with a cigarette in his mouth, "it seems to be around 1.98% to 2.05% on average."

  "...expressing admiration, envy and hatred."

  Jiang Chuan saw him with a speechless face, thinking he had missed the broadcast time. In fact, "Star Fire" had already started and was confirmed to be a flop. He couldn't help but pause for a moment, then looked down at his watch and found that his sense of time was still fine - it was 7:55, five minutes before the broadcast. Jiang Chuan looked at the young man with black hair and a vacant expression, saying helplessly, "You haven't even started broadcasting yet, why are you already looking so dejected?"

  "Just now at 7:45, the ratings were reported to be only 0.92%..." Jian Ran said, "In the past, for TV dramas with a rating of over 1.5%, the ratings would start to slowly increase to around 1.1% about ten minutes before the official broadcast..."

  Jiang Chuan thought for a moment: "Maybe CCTV's ads are just not that interesting..."

  His lips trembled at the corners, and he shot Jiang Chuan a speechless glance. He moved his lips as if to say something, but suddenly a dark shadow flashed before his eyes. The person who had been quietly standing beside him smoking extinguished the cigarette butt and stretched out a long arm. In an instant, Jian Ye fell into a warm embrace with a faint scent of tobacco. His eyes widened, listening to the strong heartbeat in the chest pressed against his ear. The other man's large hand pressed on the back of his head, holding him tightly against himself.

  "It's okay, don't worry."

  A simple four-character phrase, closer than ever before, rings out - when a man speaks.

  This brief hug lasted for about thirty seconds.

  Thirty seconds later, Jiang Chuan let go of Jin Ran and lowered his head to ask: "How is it now?"

  Jìnrán:“…………ā……”

  "It seems to be calm." The man calmly said, raised his hand to look at his watch again, this time the time pointed to 7:58, he straightened up, "It's almost time, let's go in---"

  Jin Ran nodded with a blank expression and followed Jiang Chuan back to the conference hall, where almost all the important members had arrived. Even Bai Wenqi was no longer chatting with anyone and was sitting on the sofa watching the last advertisement on CCTV-8. Jin Ran found a seat and sat down, with Jiang Chuan sitting next to him. As soon as he sat down, the theme song of "Star Fire" started playing.

  He slowly raised his hand to rub his face, which was almost stiff, and only then did he realize that his palms were all sweaty... At this time, a staff member pushed the door and walked in, still holding a small board for recording. The people in the conference hall turned their eyes to him without exception. After the staff member stood firm, he announced: "As of 8:01, the ratings have stabilized at 1.2%, ranking second in the national unified time slot, just surpassing Zhejiang TV, and there is still a Hunan TV above..."

  "1.2%? Well, that's okay, that's okay." Teacher Bai Wenqi let out a long sigh and seemed to relax a bit as he walked back, "This is just the opening song, it'll go up later after the show starts - giving moms some time to wash dishes and grab the remote control."

  "Lao Bai, can you stop joking about this?" Li Rui said with a look of exasperation. "I'm getting a bit tense, can't you be a bit more serious?"

  Bai Wen begged with a smile and waved his hand, answering: "Okay okay okay, be serious."

  He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and the only thing left in his mind was the single number Li Rui had mentioned on the phone earlier: 1.5%.

  Come again 0.3, come again 0.3, don't ask for much just a little more ——

  He stared intently at the TV, so tense he almost wanted to pee. At this moment, just as the staff member had left, Shirai Kō sitting next to him received a call. The person on the other end of the phone was also very excited. Jin Yan listened and it seemed like something was up, so he quickly sat up straight and perked up his ears. Sure enough, the next second, he saw Shirai Kō jump up with a "whoosh" sound. His eyes were wide open as he shouted: "What? It's going to break 2?! - Really or not Old Mu, don't trick me!"

  Everyone: "......"

  Everyone in the conference hall showed an expression of "Are you kidding me?"

  Until Bai Yan Song hung up the phone and announced to everyone with a happy face, 10 minutes after the TV series started, "Star Fire" had a national rating of 2.01%, surpassing Hunan Satellite TV's strong drama "The King of Land" by 0.01% and ranking first in the same time slot nationwide!!!!

  Everyone likes Da Pu to run fast.

  "I finally earned some face for CCTV-8!!!" This is what our producer said.

  "Broken 2! The first set is broken 2! What's next?" said Teacher Li Rui.

  "It seems that mothers who have finished washing dishes successfully grabbed the remote control!" This is what Bai Wengui teacher said.

  He was trembling all over, his mind a complete blank. He turned his head to look at Jiang Chuan with a delighted expression on his face. The latter raised his hand and patted his head: "See, isn't it fine?"

  With trembling hands, I took out my phone and snapped photos of the TV screen, posting them on Weibo with the caption: "[Watching 'Star Fire', heard that tonight's ratings might just take first place by accident! Haha! Looks like everyone is obediently staying home to spend quality time with their parents!! PS: The me on screen is still so handsome.]"

  Weibo just sent out thousands of comments, and many rice balls reacted very enthusiastically.

  Refuse strangers: ... The person passing by with my parents thinks it's good-looking, and she is a brain-damaged fan of Bai Wenqi.

  Future 123: Originally just browsing casually, now decided to follow seriously.

  Urala: I suddenly found that this drama is actually quite good-looking, and it's not easy to come up with a set that doesn't make me vomit... By the way, Dong Rui is almost 35 years old, but he looks like a young girl in his early twenties, which is also very impressive.

  "Fu**ing hell: Wake up!!! You weren't even in the first episode!!! Not a single hair of yours was shown!!!"

  He slightly curled up his lips and replied: What's the hurry, it's at the beginning of the second episode.

  This reply was forwarded out, and under this Weibo, another wave of "deceiving people to get attention" was triggered, with 40,000 replies in a short period of time. Jian Ran fantasized that these 40,000 people were equivalent to 40,000 TV sets, wondering how many ratings points they could bring in. At this moment, not far away from him, the theme song for episode two had finished playing.

  On TV, just as previously mentioned, a green pickup truck with a band-aid flag appeared, and the pickup truck stopped among a group of little devil soldiers. When the little devils saluted uniformly, the car door was opened, and a pair of black military boots that had been polished to an extraordinary shine stepped down from the car. In the next second, a familiar face emerged from the car - on the screen, the young man with black hair pressed his military cap, and he spoke in fluent Japanese: It's been many years, I didn't think I'd finally be back in this place again.

  This is the first line of dialogue played by Saito in the film.

  A young black-haired man sat on the sofa, staring at the screen as if recalling various experiences during his acting days, with a million emotions in his heart, unable to help but curve up his lips. Just then, the conference room door was suddenly pushed open from outside, and the staff member in charge of data statistics rushed in with an ecstatic expression.

  "Teacher, teacher! According to the statistics from 30 seconds ago, when the theme song of episode 2 finished playing, our ratings were 3.11%, and our share was 14.35%——we broke through 3%! Ahhhhhh! Back then, the highest rating for 'Blood-colored Battlefield' was around 2.5%. Congratulations to the director, congratulations to Teacher Bai Wenqi, it's a success!"