Chapter 11: The Rise of Su Xuan

Shen Chao’s side didn’t say to kill, but the publicity department and fans had already started working at a fast pace. CP fans are absolutely not allowed to wait until the New Year to act!

Cancel hot searches, wash the square… until the CP name ‘God’s Choice’ had become a blocked word, the department head of the publicity department of Star Culture ceased their actions.

But he had stopped, the CP fans had not.

To promote a CP with a current top star and a bottom-ten artist, it must be done in secrecy. Su Xuan and Shen Chao’s CP fans took this to the extreme. You couldn’t find any related content in the super topic; all you could see was a jacket and a school uniform twisted together. Hundreds of comments below were just [hehehe]. Occasionally, there were a few [Adult love should be naked!] slogans.

It was clear that this CP had been through several rounds of ‘bloodbaths’ by Shen Chao’s fans. They didn’t even have a big name, and the super topic avatar was a yellow background with red text, bloody [Prohibit real people, circle and self-love], which looked like a seal. This was not a normal CP.

But promoting a CP is like promoting adult content. The more it’s forbidden, the more rampant it becomes. Shen Chao’s team could control the RPS fans, but they couldn’t stop the derived CP from the movie – the third young master and the mute. This was normal promotional work during the promotion period, and stopping it would make Shen Chao’s team seem unreasonable.

The movie’s promotion of this CP was expected by all parties. But what they didn’t expect was that this CP would explode.

By Monday morning, the box office for ‘Four Courts’ had broken 200 million, and the theater screening schedule had increased. Hot keywords were trending with ‘Shen Chao Mute’, ‘Shen Chao’s debut’, ‘Shen Chao’s acting skills’, with a discussion degree of 30 million. The following keyword was [Su Xuan Third Young Master], with a discussion degree of 16 million.

Liu Pangpang was so frightened that he almost thought the company had bought data for Su Xuan. After checking, he found it wasn’t the case. He looked at the computer screen with the increasing number of discussions in a daze. Was it possible that Su Xuan was going to be famous?

Su Xuan was indeed going to be famous. At 4:30 AM on Monday, Su Xuan’s Weibo broke 3 million followers. Someone congratulated under Su Xuan’s repost of the promotion: [Brother!! Congratulations on 300,000 followers!! New fans here! Any fan benefits?]

Liu Pangpang called Su Xuan at 5 AM. Su Xuan quickly picked up, and there was a muffled sound on the other end: “Uh… Su Xuan, you have fans now! So many real fans! Look at them!”

Su Xuan had fans before, but they were mostly bought by the company and Liu Pangpang. These new fans were different; they were active and talked in Su Xuan’s comment section. Su Xuan said softly, “I see. Thank them.” His voice was light, but Liu Pangpang knew he meant it.

These fans might not be many, and their language was immature and unreal. They might leave at any moment. But in this world, they were the ones who stayed up all night waiting for Su Xuan to reach 300,000 fans. Their love was virtual, but at that moment, Su Xuan’s side was no longer a magical scriptwriter or a complaining agent. It was a group of people who believed in him without reason and with all their hearts.

Fame is usually presented as a result to the public, but when it’s happening, those involved can feel the strange expansion, like a toast, with the fragrance of ripe fruit, making one unconsciously proud and dazzled, and afraid to leave.

Liu Pangpang sat in the office specially cleared for Su Xuan by Leaf Media, still in disbelief. “Su Xuan, you have your own office now?”

Su Xuan nodded silently. Liu Pangpang licked his lips, “What are you thinking, Su Xuan?”

Su Xuan said deeply, “I’m wondering if this office is part of the 5%.” Liu Pangpang immediately stood up, his face serious, “Don’t be immersed in joy, come to work! Build on the foundation you’ve created!”

After a while, Liu Pangpang looked down at his phone and couldn’t help but laugh until his face hurt, looking at Su Xuan, “Su Xuan, the box office is over 400 million!”

Since Monday’s flat box office, the rise of ‘Four Courts’ was like a rocket, so fast it was shocking. Someone even did a data comparison with Shen Chao’s all-time box office, and ‘Four Courts’ was currently second, only behind ‘Nine Streams’.

But ‘Nine Streams’ had a final box office of 4.7 billion! And it was a commercial work co-produced by a domestic and foreign big company, aiming to make a big IP with a series, with a star-studded cast, a promotional budget of over 100 million, excellent special effects, and a national promotional tour with the cast four years ago.

‘Four Courts’ was nothing compared to that. It was banned for four years, moved up the release date, and almost had no promotion. Apart from Shen Chao, there were not many famous actors in it, and it was a cryptic art film. The rise was completely unreasonable. At the same time, some exposure began to appear on the internet, saying ‘Four Courts’ bought box office tickets, with some cinemas empty.

The meaning of empty cinemas is that someone bought tickets but didn’t go. Sometimes, to create a scene where everyone was watching this movie, there would be a movie company buying tickets, a kind of illegal marketing method. On Friday afternoon, after five days of release, ‘Four Courts’ had a box office of 9.7 billion. At the same time, a few companies from the ticket union and a few leading directors issued a joint statement to report, demanding an investigation into ‘Four Courts’ box office. They believed that ‘Four Courts’ had a large-scale empty cinema phenomenon, that is, so-called ‘buying box office’. The leading figure was the director of ‘Nine Streams’ – Hua Wei.

Hua Wei angrily slammed the table, shaking off the frame of his clothes, “This is not about whether Old Liu (director of ‘Four Courts’) will buy box office or not, but that a literary film cannot increase by 300 million in a day, and it’s working day box office, not even weekend, will it increase by 500 million on the weekend?”

In front of him sat the representatives of Leaf Media, Star Culture, and some representatives of the cinema. Hua Wei was very resentful, “You can’t start this. If the market gets messy, what will I do when I prepare ‘Nine Streams II’? Will I have to buy 50 billion box office?”

The representative of Leaf Media was embarrassed, “Well, Director Hua, to be honest, look at our company, does it look like we can spend 300 million on box office? We haven’t made so much money in many years…”

Hua Wei, “…”

The representative of Leaf Media said solemnly, “I won’t hide it from you, our last project that made over 300 million was ‘Horse Hoofs’, and then our boss was snatched by Star Culture…”

Hua Wei coughed, unable to hold back, “That was a project from four years ago, is your company still there? Have you returned to the roots?”

Leaf Media, “Although we’re poor, we’re still here.”

The representative of Leaf Media glanced at the people from Star Culture, and the meaning was clear. Their company was small and couldn’t afford so much money, but Star Culture was famous for being rich. This company had never been stingy with money for its cash cow, Shen Chao. Hua Wei had experienced this. The last time he shot ‘Nine Streams’, he was directly in contact with many project teams of Star Culture. To be honest, in his many years in the industry, he had rarely seen a boss so generous to his own artist. If he didn’t know that the company behind it was not just one big shareholder, and the executive director was a Madame Liu with a very good reputation in the industry, he would really suspect if Shen Chao was the son of the boss of this company. Hua Wei’s suspicious eyes fell on the representative of Star Culture. He had cooperated with this company, and he didn’t want to be too direct, “What is the… attitude of the higher-ups towards this matter?”

The representative of Star Culture raised both hands in a surrender gesture and sighed, “Director Hua, we checked and found that there was indeed a phenomenon of empty cinemas, but we really didn’t buy box office. The buyers were the fans.”

Hua Wei frowned, “Why would Shen Chao’s fans buy box office for this movie?”

Shen Chao’s fans were famous for their keen sense of smell, and they could tell which movies could be pushed and which could not, probably better than this director. Hua Wei knew that he couldn’t let Shen Chao’s fans push for this movie. The representative of Star Culture also showed a very puzzled expression. “… Those who bought the box office, they didn’t look like Shen Chao’s fans, and Shen Chao couldn’t benefit from the box office of this movie…”

This was the truth. Hua Wei and the representative of Star Culture’s eyes slowly moved towards the representative of Leaf Media. Leaf Media representative, “No, we really don’t have the money! Although Su Xuan seems to benefit the most, we really don’t have the money to collect funds for Su Xuan’s fans to buy the box office!”

The representative of Star Culture patted the shoulder of the representative of Leaf Media kindly, “Don’t panic, think carefully, where did the 3 billion that Shen Chao made for you 3 years ago in ‘Horse Hoofs’ go? Was it given to Su Xuan recently?”

Leaf Media representative, “…”

Su Xuan made a [What?] expression, looking at the director sitting behind his office, with a head full of question marks, “… Someone said my fans collected funds and bought a few billion box office?”

Su Xuan asked sincerely, “Director, you know how many fans I have, right?”

The director looked at Su Xuan’s Weibo interface on the computer – 6.75 million fans. The rate of new fans was already very fast, but it was still a long way from collecting funds for 3 billion to give money to the main character. The director coughed, feeling a bit embarrassed, “This is not what I said. So, who bought the box office?”

Su Xuan tried to reason with this old man with an unclear mind. He took out a draft paper and began to calculate in front of the director, “It’s like this, Director. My 6.75 million fans, but in fact, there are fans bought by Liu Pangpang, and there are fans bought by the company, and there are a lot of passersby. We remove the water from this data, and it’s already very good to have 100,000 fans willing to collect funds and spend money for me.”

The director, “…”

This idol, do you live too clearly?

Su Xuan looked at the director with a [Why haven’t you given up on your daydream?] expression, continuing in the complex gaze of the director who was about to speak, “Director, if my fans can collect funds for 3 billion now, why not let my fans directly collect funds and give me money, and pay the middleman the difference?”

The director, “…”

What you said made sense. The director touched his face with his hand, “But this is said to be not done by Shen Chao’s fans, so it’s more than half related to you. This is a sign of the arrival of the purple star. Su Xuan, you are going to be a big star!”

Su Xuan interrupted the director’s superstition calmly, “Director, if this is someone buying box office illegally, you should stop this anomaly before you are invited to drink tea.”

The director, “…”

This man really bothers me!

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