Superstar Aspirations

Chapter 24

Translator: Vian

Editor: Shem

From the first episode to the very last episode, the whole audiences' impression of Huo Xi was that he was extremely cruel. He only ever wear different military uniforms, along the glossy marten fur overcoat that moves with the wind, appearing cold and difficult for one to get close to; aloof and high above.

Yet at the very end, for the first time, he was wearing an old and shabby prison uniform, sitting in the gloomy, cold and wet prison cell, waiting for his lifelong sentence.

How glorious was the past, and now, how battered and of a sorry figure he cut.

On camera, Rong Xu leaned against the dirty wall with his head silently lowered, appearing to be in deep contemplation. There were no expressions on his face, looking at this scene, the crew standing at the side inexplicably felt it was desolated and bleak.

This was probably what was meant the winner was the king and defeat was the sorrow of the loser.

In the script, it said that Huo Xi stayed in the cell not eating nor drinking for three days. During this period, Bai Mingde came to see him.

Presently, Bai Mingde had became a senior officer of Ping City. He had many comrades who died in Huo Xi's hands, but the Head decided not to give Huo Xi a death sentence, making him feel resentful and indignant.

Living three days in prison was enough to cause this handsome and cold Marshal to become thinner.

And today's scene was Rong Xu's final scene, the person himself was still the same as he was when filming during the day earlier, sitting there in the same position. The makeup artist gave him a heavy, dark shadow, making his cheeks thin and hollow, giving the illusion that he became a lot thinner. He kept his gaze on the ground and did not move. Until the morning of the fourth day, when first rays of the morning sun shined from the cell's small window, he suddenly moved!

He first slowly lift up his head, seemingly like an elder man. He silently lifted his gaze, squinting at that place illuminated by the light.

Then, he let out a low laugh, as if he saw something on the other side of that light. All of a sudden, his face showed a slight yearning expression, but it slowly turned into sorrow and the smile on his lips slowly dissipated. In the end, he softly sighed and looked up at this cell that wants to trap him for a lifetime.

He was only twenty-four right now. There were still decades ahead in the future.

Looking up at the messy stains on the ceiling with a calm look, his eyebrows slightly knitted together. Rong Xu slightly parted his lips, seemingly wanting to say something, but just as he opened his mouth, he closed it again. For a long time, his lips suddenly moved and bit on the poison capsule that was hidden in his teeth.

Deep red blood flowed down from his lips. For the first time, Huo Xi loosened his upright back and slackened against the wall.

Director Zheng who was staring at the monitor was unable to take his eyes away. He noticed how Rong Xu's body suddenly slackened, and also noticed how Rong Xu's eyes slowly became dazed. This kind of feeling had a taste that shocks the eyes, and astonishes the heart; a horrible sight to see. The red blood lined against the fair skin, he did not know why, but Director Zheng felt a bit of heartache.

Then, in the next moment, Rong Xu slowly lowered his head, completely losing his strength.

The scene ends here.

___

It was just a simple suicide scene, no longer than a minute in total. Rong Xu finished in one setting, with absolutely no NG.

Later on, the crew would add some flashbacks into the scene so that when Huo Xi decided to leave, he seemed to have saw that splendid pear blossom tree from back then. A gust of wind blew, and the white petals scattered like falling snow, drifting slowly to the ground. He wore a cold military uniform, and step by step walked up to the tree. As he looked up, he saw that person still sitting up on the tree.

Liang Linghui, played by Zhang Tongtong, smiled and waved at him, loudly shouting his name: "Huo Xi!"

Her eyes were full of love, as if she became his real wife, and was not the one during their wedding night when he was nervously preparing to enter their new room; that Liang Linghui who had repeatedly whispered that one sentence "What should I do if he really came in?"

That was why on their wedding night, he had slowly withdrew his hand that was on the door of their new room, then turned around and left.

As long as she was not willing, he would never force it. He also had his own pride.

This was Huo Xi.

After Director Zheng looked over the video again and loudly yelled "Done!", the whole crew suddenly broke into a loud applause. Assistant Director Li stepped up with a bouquet of flowers and gave it to Rong Xu as a way of celebrating him completing his filming. This kind of behavior was normal. When Yi Lan finished yesterday, Assistant Director Li also represented the crew and gave her a bouquet of flowers.

Rong Xu held the bouquet and smiled as he received the crew's congratulations.

Soon, several seniors from the crew ran over to give him a yajing red envelope. Director Zheng gave a thick one, Assistant Director Li gave a slightly smaller one, there was also Assistant Director Wang, the screenwriter, the leaders of each group… finally, the female lead Zhang Tongtong also gave Rong Xu a red envelope.

Rong Xu smile: "Zhang jie, does this count as the last bit of warmth Liang Linghui is giving me?"

Zhang Tongtong was still wearing Liang Linghui's costume and her makeup was still on. After hearing this, she smiled and gave Rong Xu a hug. She whispered: "She doesn't choose you, but I do."

This kind of similar confession caused Rong Xu to cannot help but be surprised, but as he listened, Zhang Tongtong continued to explain: "I would have chosen Huo Xi."

Rong Xu smiled and nodded.

This sentence seems a bit familiar?

Rong Xu did not know that when he was filming "Vie for Supremacy", the female lead Tang Menglan had also secretly said something like this.

Xiao Xiang didn't choose you, but I will choose you, Wanqi Yao.

This time, Rong Xu needed to catch the plane going back to B-City early in the morning, so he didn't join everyone else going out to eat. Aside from Han Yanghao, who didn't come to say goodbye, some of the seniors from the crew and actors all exchanged contact information with Rong Xu, laughing and saying: "This period was very enjoyable, I hope there will be an opportunity to cooperate again in the future."

At eleven o'clock in the middle of the night, Rong Xu rushed to Shuoshe Airport and waited for the one a.m. plane at the waiting area.

The airport in the early morning was sparsely populated, everyone coming and going in a hurry. Rong Xu was wearing sunglasses and a mouth mask as he sat in the corner, quietly playing on his phone. His appearance was very ordinary. Aside from his tall height and temperament that was different from other people, he looked no different from anyone else so no one paid attention to him.

It was only before boarding that Rong Xu was only recognized by two fans and autographed for them. The two little fans were very excited and their face flushed, vigorously exclaiming: "Rongrong, I like Marshal Huo a lot! Extremely like! You have to do your best to let our Mashal become Commander! Handsome Commander Huo!"

Rong Xu couldn't help but laugh.

The two girls squealed even more excitedly.

When the two girls left, one of them sadly huffed as they walked: "It's a pity, I just saw the result of the poll. Marshal Huo was in second place with only about a hundred votes less than Bai Mingde. The number of votes clearly exceeded Bai Mingde's at ten, I even dragged my friend into voting for Marshal Huo but we still lost…"

"Don't mention it anymore, I've even registered for over twenty accounts!"

"Wow more twenty accounts, who did you vote for?"

"Obviously for Marshal ah!"

……

The two girls gradually got farther away, and their voices slowly died out. Rong Xu silently opened "Ambush" official Weibo and quickly found out that the poll was officially over at midnight twelve o'clock.

After an entire week, the popularity competition poll that only fans could vote in came to an end.

Bai Mingde: 16,514 votes

Huo Xi: 16,423 votes

Yes, by evening, Rong Xu only had over 12,000 votes, while Han Yanghao has more than 15,000 votes. But by midnight, during this short six hours, Rong Xu's votes suddenly rose by four thousand votes, but Han Yanghao also suddenly gained over a thousand votes! In the end, the result was that Han Yanghao still won first place for the most popular, while Rong Xu got second place.

To suddenly get four thousand votes within six hours? Many people would doubt it.

However this time, while there were indeed some people questioning the results of the poll, but they weren't questioning Rong Xu's number of votes, they were questioning Han Yanghao's!

?Our voting plan this time was a full out effort in the last hour, we have seven Marshal fan groups with about one thousand people in four of the groups. Then in the last hour, we all voted for the Marshal giving him over three thousand votes. Excuse me Han Yanghao's fans, how were you able to gain a thousand votes in the last five minute? …Oh wait! It was gaining a thousand votes in the last three minutes!?

?Too fake! Can't you guys spend a bit more money when buying the water army? Every single water army replies with a "Bai Mingde is handsome and wise, I like Bai Mingde^_^ ", even the emoji is the same. Everyone gather around, I'm already bored from finding over forty water armies that said this [picture][picture][picture]…?

?Our three thousands votes are all from our own Weibo accounts, it's our commonly used accounts. We aren't afraid of anyone who wants to check. Now look at your water army's numbers, you don't even have to look to tell it's fake! Sending chicken soup everyday, even the chicken soup from hundreds of water army is exactly the same! I protest! First place obviously belongs to my Marshal!?

These recent years, how fans vote was also a kind of knowledge.

No one would probably think that there would actually be fans that would use tactics and formulate a plan in this small poll. You should know only would there be PKs in major votings—— like talent competitions—— when it reached the finals, the fans would develop a detailed voting plan.

Do you really think that if you have money, you could push your favorite star into first place in the competition?

Wrong!

Unless you have a few ten of hundreds of millions upon millions and do not hesitate to put in all that money. Otherwise, who could tell who will emerge as the victor later? It was anyone's game.

In the early stage of voting, the more senior figure fans would try out every possible method to scout for information on the approximate number of votes from the "enemy's" previous polls. Around the middle period, they would think up a plan according to the published number of votes, hide some votes, and then swooped down and win in the last minute. Whose information was more accurate, who hid the most votes, whose plan was more flawless, was who would be the winner.

This was a psychological and information warfare, to have such smart and intelligent fans were the blessing of any star. After all, everyone would register for another account and do their best to vote. In just one week, no one could register for several thousand accounts making it evenly matched, so registering for several accounts wasn't considered as going out of bounds.

But if you were to go to Alimama to buy water army accounts, that was a violation!

You could easily buy a few hundred thousand water army accounts, even hundred of ten thousands!

Could fans normally register for so many accounts? Absolutely not!

So on one side was the tactically agreed way of cheating by everyone, and on the other side was by using brainless machines to cheat. Han Yanghao's "Ambush voting" incident all of a sudden jumped up to the 40th on the trending list. Countless fans stayed up late finding evidence of Han Yanghao's fans buying water army accounts and took a screenshot of each and every water army account, finding no less than over eight hundred!

This sort of perseverance let passersby be emotionally moved, endlessly and deeply moved: ?These fans are in true love ah!?

These little sisters may just be ordinary fans of Rong Xu at the moment, but they have already became Huo Xi's loyal-to-death fans.

They angrily posted these screenshots of the water army accounts online and indignantly criticized it: ?Huo Xi is "Ambush" most popular character! We refuse to accept any other argument, we'll just throw the water army in your face!?

***

Rong Xu only saw the result of the poll and then boarded the plane back to B-City. By the time he got off of the plane, it was already three in the morning. He didn't look at his phone at all, even Luo Zhentao was too sleepy to do anything and just send Rong Xu home.

Before leaving, Luo Zhentao said: "Pack up something tomorrow, you can start moving tomorrow Xiao Xu."

Rong Xu gently nodded and then returned to Qin Cheng's apartment. He also did not pay attention to the shoes placed on the shoe rack in the entrance hall and just went straight to his bedroom before collapsing on the bed and fell asleep. It was fine till early the next morning when Rong Xu was woken up by the noisy ringtone coming from his phone. He picked up his phone when his nose suddenly smelled food.

Having his mind refreshed a little, Rong Xu lightly answered: "Hello?"

On the other side of the phone, Luo Zhentao immediately replied: "Your fans are arguing with Han Yanghao's fans online!"

Rong Xu blanked and asked in a low voice: "What happened?"

Luo Zhentao replied: "I wouldn't be able to tell you everything all at once, go look online for yourself and you'll know."

Rong Xu furrowed his eyebrows and pondered when Luo Zhentao's apologetic voice sounded again: "There's one more thing… Xiao Xu, there's no need to move today, I just learned today that the landlord actually sold the place! He didn’t even tell me in advance, this really is too much! I then called the other landlord who was interested in renting a condo, but he also sold it! I don't even know anymore, is the housing price in B-City dropping? That the house are actually selling this well? It's like this, but don't worry. I'll continue to help you find a place today, I am really sorry."

Rong Xu's drowsiness partly disappeared as he supported his body up. He wanted to tell Luo Zhentao that it was okay, and that he can take his time finding a new place, but in the next moment, he suddenly heard a crisp knock at his door.

Ta ta ta——

"I brought breakfast, are you awake yet?"

The voice was deep and elegant, as if it was the rich and mellow sound of a cello. Rong Xu's body abruptly stiffened, the remaining drowsiness he still had instantly disappeared.

——Qin Cheng was home?!!!

Poison Capsule – [??] I've seen a few other translators confused about this so I thought I would mention it. The two boxes means that the Chinese character isn't showing up properly from where you got the raws from. If it really bothers you, just go to another raws source, it usually should show properly in a different source. To find it, copy the few characters before it and use ctrl + f and paste.

Chicken soup – [?? – J? t?ng] Because chicken soup is good for the soul, full of feelings, positive energy, and is warm so it refers to people who frequently forward or publish inspirational quotations.

Although sometimes there are people who do it too often, leading people to hate them.

Alimama – The leading big data marketing platform in China, and part of the Alibaba Group, a Chinese multinational e-commerce, retail, Internet, AI and technology conglomerate that was founded in 1999 that provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business sales services via web portals, as well as electronic payment services, shopping search engines and cloud computing services.

By the way, the water army can be bought and sold online for as little as 4 yuan (63 cents) a thousand, says Wiki anyway.

? ?