Chapter 247: Changes
Despite multiple phone calls and even directly offering to meet at their company headquarters for a detailed discussion, Caibi dodged and gave a perfunctory excuse. Their plan was already set. The animation would premiere in January of the following year. To build hype and even extend the animation’s length, Yu Linna would have to rush to write more of Ballad of the Enchantress, creating more content for adaptation.
Yu Linna felt a vague sense of unease, but the copyrights had already been sold and were in their hands. She couldn’t interfere with anything at this point. She could only hope that her work would be treated with respect and not just as a money-making tool. That was all she could hope for.
This month, a lot had happened in the industry. Shion-sensei’s popularity remained high, even surpassing Air-sensei’s at one point, making her the pillar author of Wenqing. But in terms of sales, Shion-sensei still couldn’t beat the authors from Qidian. After all, they were supreme gods, and their annual income reached hundreds of millions. It wasn’t something Shion-sensei could compare to.
And in the entertainment industry, there were recent rumors that Dream Life might be nominated for a Golden Horse Award and compete. And Tang Yumeng, who had gained a certain level of fame from this film, had her exposure rate increase, getting opportunities to attend commercial events. Businesses were already approaching her to shoot commercials, and several directors were in talks with her about cooperation. In short, Tang Yumeng had succeeded. Her fame had finally begun to rise. Her acting skills were not bad to begin with; she just hadn’t had the opportunity. When the opportunity came, she would seize it, and she had indeed won the chance for exposure.
Pop star Zhou Shilan’s new album was released and sold out quickly, once again demonstrating her influence as the queen of the music world. People no longer doubted this future superstar. And her album, Time, set a new record for her career, even becoming the ringtone for many middle school students for a while.
The new movie of the rising star of the entertainment industry, Nangong Ying, was about to be released. The trailer was officially released, titled Blue Pupil, and it was positioned as a police comedy. It tells the story of Lan Tongtong, a talented but unruly new female police officer who has no opportunity to advance. After making a mistake, she is on the verge of being dismissed from the police force. Just then, a case requires an undercover agent. Lan Tongtong volunteers, hoping to make up for her mistake. For this, she takes on the alias “Blue Pupil” and infiltrates a gang.
The film was still produced by Chenghe, and Nangong Ying continued her usual cool female style, only the story’s setting had changed from ancient to modern times. The film was also considered an action film, with a large number of fight scenes, featuring exciting fight choreography by Nangong Ying. The male lead’s name was not announced, perhaps to arouse the audience’s curiosity. In short, the moment the trailer for this modern film, marking Nangong Ying’s transition, was released, it received a lot of clicks. Everyone was looking forward to the movie’s release.
The film was officially scheduled for release on October 1st, competing head-on with a domestic blockbuster.
And after that, there was news about Air-sensei. The animated adaptation of this extremely lazy yet very humane author’s work, The Rich Man’s Game, was finally scheduled for release in January of the following year, going head-to-head with Ballad of the Enchantress. This aroused the interest of many onlookers, who were discussing the topic on Weibo. After all, Air-sensei and Shion-sensei were both authors from Wenqing, and their works were actually going to compete against each other. Everyone was very interested. But some were also worried, because the announcement of the animation for Air-sensei’s work was at the end of last year, while the announcement for Shion-sensei’s work was just recently, and it was immediately scheduled for January. They were worried about the quality.
At this time, Shion-sensei’s die-hard fans stood up and flamed these people, saying they were very confident in Shion-sensei’s work. Because of this, Ballad of the Enchantress also attracted a lot of haters.
Finally, the popular Bilibili uploader, Dancing Angel, was revealed to be a freshman at Guangnan University. Moreover, her daily photos were very beautiful; she was clearly a great beauty. Her popularity soared, once ranking at the top of the Bilibili uploader list. In this era, people still judged by looks. Fang Jiangning was good-looking, so she naturally had many fans who were just there for her looks. At the same time, everyone was also puzzled. She was clearly very good-looking, so why had she never shown her face before? It wasn’t as if she was ugly; on the contrary, she was very beautiful. But she just wouldn’t show her face before. Some fans even said that their Little Angel didn’t rely on her looks to make a living, but on her talent.
Only those who had seen Little Angel’s first live stream knew that it was because of her family that she had never turned on her camera.
After Fang Jiangning was revealed, she felt uncomfortable on campus. It was fine during class, but when she went to eat, people would always surround her like a rare animal, asking for her autograph and a photo. At first, she just politely smiled and dealt with it, but after a while, her smile became stiff. She finally experienced the pain of being famous. After that, she decided to hide in the dorm and not go out, except for classes.
That girl, Xiao Yanhan, had been gone for a while. Although she had taken leave, taking leave so soon after school started, the counselor would probably give her a hard time.
And many onlookers in the outside world were hotly discussing that Little Angel was at the same school as Air-sensei. This university was really interesting.
Yes, it would be even more interesting if they knew that Shion-sensei was also at this school.
…
“You’re working again? You’re not taking a break.”
Fang Jiangning made herself a cup of coffee and also made one for her. Having two workaholics in one dorm, one of whom was a fighter jet among workaholics, it was impossible not to prepare more coffee. Fang Jiangning was because she had a lot of videos she hadn’t made before, plus she had been MIA from her live streams for a long time, so she had to work overtime. As for Yu Linna, she was the one who voluntarily gave herself more work. She wanted to publish two more books next month, which meant she would have to publish two more volumes in November. This crazy workload meant that Yu Linna was either in class or working every day, with almost no time for entertainment.
Lan Ranyan had never seen her work so crazily before. When she saw this blonde girl typing on her keyboard with full concentration every day, without stopping for a moment, except for classes, meals, and sleep, she was also stunned. When a person becomes crazy, can they really be this terrifying?
“Why don’t you take a break? I’ve seen you pulling all-nighters for three nights in a row. Don’t you want your liver?”
Lan Ranyan gave her a chocolate bar, signaling her to pay attention to rest and not to overwork herself.
Yu Linna sighed, twisted her neck. Working in front of the computer for a long time made her neck a little sore.
“It’s a good thing to write a little more. The animation is coming soon. I have to speed up and get it done. The length needs to be longer.”
Although she said so, you could still see the dark circles under her eyes and her slightly pale face. No matter how you looked at it, she didn’t look like a healthy person.
In the past, Fang Jiangning didn’t live with her, so she didn’t know her living conditions or her work situation. Now that she lived with her, seeing her current state, she felt that her life was really boring. In the past, she had worked everywhere to make a living, with no entertainment at all. Now that she was finally well-off, had her own profession, and didn’t have to worry about food and clothing, her life was still so boring. You never saw any joy in her life.
She shouldn’t be living this kind of life. At least with her current net worth, she could live any kind of life she wanted, no matter how luxurious. But she just didn’t do it.
Sometimes she would wonder if this person was pushing herself too hard.
The her now was a bit different from the her before. The most obvious point was that she didn’t smile as much as before.
“Linna, give yourself a break once in a while. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”
She also knew that these words of encouragement were useless, but she still wanted to say them. Because they were friends. She couldn’t just watch her torture herself like this.
“Yeah, alright. I’ll just take a break then.”
Yu Linna knew that continuing to argue was meaningless. It was better to show weakness first and take a break. Anyway, she still had to work after resting.
Taking this opportunity, she drank some coffee. Although it was just instant coffee, it tasted surprisingly good. But it would be better if it were brewed with real coffee beans. Coffee still tasted better with a bitter taste. In the past, she didn’t like bitterness and couldn’t drink it, but as she got older, she actually felt that bitter coffee was the best.
Perhaps this was growing up.
“When is Xiao Yanhan coming back?”
“I don’t know. No reply. Probably in these two days. The comic con is only for three days. She won’t stay in her hometown for too long.”
Xiao Yanhan went to the Magic City to attend the comic con. She even queued up overnight for those one thousand autographs. As a fan, she had already done well enough. Yu Linna also didn’t expect her to be so crazy, to be able to do such a thing for her idol.
“Actually, you just have to tell her and give her your own autograph,” Lan Ranyan said.
Yu Linna held her cup and drank her coffee, not saying a word. She was also thinking that living in the same dorm, it wasn’t a solution to not say anything. Sooner or later, people would find out. Her work schedule was so regular, and her workload was so large. Unless she didn’t live in the dorm, her identity couldn’t be hidden at all.
She hadn’t planned to hide it in the first place.
She just couldn’t find the right opportunity.
“I will,” Yu Linna said faintly.
The three of them in the dorm drank their respective drinks, chatted about random topics, and began a pleasant evening life. Chatting and chatting, they all forgot that they had class tomorrow. And then they would be yawning in class the next day.
And Xiao Yanhan finally returned the next day. No one had expected her to come back so quickly. But her state was very wrong when she returned. The moment she opened the door, her face was crestfallen, she was dragging her suitcase, and she looked like she was on the verge of tears.
“What’s wrong? Who bullied you?”
Seeing her like that, Lan Ranyan asked with concern.
It would have been better if she hadn’t said anything. As soon as she did, tears welled up in Xiao Yanhan’s eyes, and she threw herself onto her and started crying.
“What are you crying about? What’s there to cry about? Tell me, what’s wrong…”
Lan Ranyan could only comfort her and tell her to calm down, but Xiao Yanhan was still crying.
“I queued up from four in the morning, but when they went on sale, I still had to queue. I didn’t get an autograph! That was a limited edition of only one thousand! These people are not human! Wuwuwu!!”
Xiao Yanhan cried very loudly. At this time, Yu Linna also took off her headphones, not knowing what to say.
