64 Chapter 64 – Lotus Seed Paste and Orange Stuffing: I Love You, Truly, I Love You
Zhao Kun's Weibo once again aroused heated discussions between fans and music enthusiasts.
Throughout the screening of Black Clouds, this movie occupied the netizens' attention. Everyday, on all the major media platforms and movie review sites, you could see the praises and discussions of movie enthusiasts.
However, it wasn't like there was no one criticizing this movie. After all, there was no single movie that could cater to everyone's preferences. There were some fans who thought that the movie Black Clouds was too mainstream and overly commercialized. When you should be low-key, you should be low-key. When there should be a climax, then put in a climax. The artistry was weak and could not give the audience any aesthetic or value improvement.
However, Black Clouds was indeed a successful commercial film.
On May 19, the film was finally taken off screen and only a few theaters still had occasional screenings. Due to the high box office value, the screening duration of Black Clouds had been extended by half a year. If movie enthusiasts still wanted to go watch it, they could go relive it in theaters. However, these purchases no longer had any major impact on the box office numbers.
More than a month of release, "Black Cloud" has a cumulative box office of 9.7 billion. It is expected to break through 10 billion when it is officially removed from the country in October, becoming a member of the Huaxia Billion Film Club.
During this period, fans are looking forward to the release of "Lost Wings" every day. Zhao Chuyi also used television, radio, news magazines and Internet platforms to carry out a certain degree of marketing operations. Even in the development of the release time, I also cleverly used the film itself -
As soon as Black Clouds was taken off screen, "Lost Wings" was officially released.
This gives movie enthusiasts the feeling that "Lot Wings" is the sequel of Black Clouds and would inspire purchasing.
So on May 20th, when Rong Xu opened his cell phone and looked at his private forum, he saw a pinned note.
"A butterfly that had lost its wings, let it fly once more!"
Upon opening the post to see, it turned out to be the Rosie United Fan Forum's moderator urging fans to purchase the "Lost Wings" CD single. In this post, Rosie publicized a few of the main selling times and locations, and at the same time, released some news about the single: there are Rong Xu's CD posters, photos, and promotional videos for the variety shows that Rong Xu had participated in before.
They did not pressure every fan to go buy singles, but rather gave fans who wanted to buy singles a purchasing method and channel.
This post was done beautifully, a combination of various tags and pictures with the information being concise and clear. Scrolling down, Rong Xu froze slightly. After examining it for a while, the corner of his lips involuntarily hooked up and he shook his head helplessly.
[Places where you can purchase the "Lost Wings" single in Ning city, Z Province include 318 ChunHua Road's RongJia Records Store, 71 MingZhao Road's nearby newstands, 8 GuangHua Road's ZhaoDe Bookstore...]
[I went searching for a bit this morning. Friends in S City, People's Square's TianQi Bookstore, Lu Qing Records Store... you can also purchase "Lost Wings" at these places. I haven't had time to look into other places yet. Everyone, if you want to buy, you can go take a look! ]
[Huaxia Entertainment's official web link has already been released, but other than Alimama's purchasing channels given by LZ[1], there is also this place...]
If it could be said that Weibo was a highly public platform where anyone, regardless if you were a sunspot or a passer-by, could comment, then a celebrity's personal fan forum was a fan's haven. For example, stars under Huaxia Entertainment's flag could all create private fan forums hosted by Huaxia Entertainment's official website.
If you wanted to join the fan forum, in addition to paying a specific amount of membership fee each year, you also had to answer fifty questions about the celebrity. The allotted answering time was limited to one hour and the questions were decided by the moderator. Once the number of wrong answers reached a certain percentage then you could not enter the forum.
This method of auditing greatly improved the quality of the forum fans. Fans who were able to enter were all basically a celebrity's die-hard fans. Although there were still sunspots who infiltrated the fan forums after spending a lot of hard work, they were ultimately a minority.
In this sort of fan forum, it was rare to see any trace of sunspots. Throughout the forum, there were resource posts and confession posts.
The post by Rosie also received enthusiastic responses from the fans. Not only were there a mountain of "Buy, Buy, Buy" shouts, but also many fans who went out in search of their own city's selling locations.
The purchase locations divulged by Rosie were all very large stores. Huaxia was huge, and the CDs were all circulated from distributors to retailers around the world for sale. There was no way for her to list all of them. However, with the help of fans, the selling information of "Lost Wings" was better detailed, and fans who were unable to buy the CDs gained more sources to purchase from.
Throughout the entire morning, Rong Xu laid on the sofa and constantly read the fan messages.
After Rong Xu finished the commercial shooting for Luck Potato Chips last month, he also participated in several music related programs to promote "Lost Wings". Then, he returned to B City to rest and prepare for this month's filming of Maze City.
During this time, Rong Xu always stayed alone in B City, occasionally meeting up with Tang Menglan, Ye Qiao and others for a meal. But, most of the time, he still stayed at home to rest. In this empty apartment, he was the only person. Thus, he caught up on many movies in the theater room by himself; cooked by himself; cleaned the house by himself; and silently browsed through his phone for a month.
After reading the more than 5,000 comments on this post, it was already noon. Rong Xu cooked some noodles casually and ate while opening up his Weibo, reposting a post.
[Rong Xu: If. If you say there is a tomorrow, then tomorrow's you... will you still appear? "Lost Wings", 5·2·0, I love you. [Smile][Smile][Smile]// Huaxia Entertainment Music Station: "Lost Wings" is coming to meet you, May 20 (05/20), The meeting is decided. Purchase locations: official website [link], Alimama [link], Music station [link]]
Before long, fans exploded this Weibo post, crazily brushing comments.
[Rong Rong! I love you! Look at the CD I just bought! [image]]
[Love Love Love Love Love, I also love you, Rong Rong! Come see my "Lost Wings" [image]]
[I can't wait any longer Aaaahhhhh, I just placed an order on the official website but it won't be delivered till the day after tomorrow. No, I'm going out right now to a physical store to buy, buy, buy! I like Ling Xiao the most, like Rong Rong the most, like "Lost Wing" the most! ]
Somehow, below Rong Xu's Weibo, fans all started to share pictures of their own "Lost Wings" CD. Some pictures only had one CD, some pictures included a fan's notes to Rong Xu, and some pictures had more than one CD, there were two, three ... even 10 CDs!
[Tang Menglan: Meeting, Meeting, Meeting, Sounds good~//Rong Xu: If. If you say there is a tomorrow...]
[Yeqiao: Haha, I also bought a CD~[image]//Rong Xu: If…]
[Zhang Tongtong: I just had my assistant go fight for one. It's terrifying. It was a sea of people, so many people, ah [2] ~ [Image]//RongXu: If...]
[Director Liang Chao: I have employee benefits, don't need to fight for it~[image]//Rong Xu: If…]
After Rong Xu reposted this Weibo, many celebrities, including his friends, crew members of Black Clouds, and even some of Black Clouds' big-name guest stars, also reposted his Weibo, lending free publicity for "Lost Wings".
This was a matter of mutual benefit. For example, Tang Menglan helped Rong Xu repost his Weibo to promote "Lost Wings" now. Whereas, last week, Rong Xu also helped Tang Menglan repost her Weibo to promote her new drama.
With these people's promotion, more and more netizens came to know about "Lost Wings"'s release news and purchasing information. Some netizens have long known that "Lost Wings" was going to be released. However, they didn't know that it was going to be released today and could be purchased online. So after they saw the Weibo posts, they would click on the link and conveniently buy it.
By eight o'clock that night, the cumulative sale of "Lost Wings" had reached 290,000.
As a CD single, the unit price of "Lost Wings" was not expensive and cost far less than music albums. But, that the sales could reach 290,000 within 12 hours proved that "Lost Wings" had the potential to break millions!
By midnight, the first day's sales statistics for "Lost Wings" was released: 320,000!
Once midnight struck, Huaxia Entertainment's sales list was updated, and in the third place the two words "Lost Wings" were written in large font!
Love Music sales rankings was Huaxia's most official album sales ranking list showing the weekly sales statistics of every music CD released in Huaxia. This list was updated every day at midnight and records the total number of sales for every CD per calendar week, ranking them according to specific sales figures.
Since this list is a weekly chart, assuming that an album was released on Sunday, even if its sales on that day far exceeded that of other albums on the same list, it still would not be ranked first since it only had one day's worth of sales while other albums had seven days of cumulative sales. Only when all album sales are reset on Monday would it be ranked first.
This time, "Lost Wings" was officially released on Wednesday.
The single-day sales of 320,000 allowed it to reach third place in one fell swoop, only below the first place, "Road", and the second, "Daylight Forest". However, "Road" was released three days ago and "Daylight Forest" had been released for six days already.
Such good results made the fans cheer for joy. All over the internet, there were people discussing "Lost Wings". It was also rare that Rong Xu did not go to bed early. Once he got the accurate sales data, he put down his phone. After coming out of the bath, he received one message after another, and he opened them while replying at the same time.
[Zhao Kun: Congratulations! Based on this momentum, it is likely to break through 10 billion! ]
——[Thank you, Brother Zhao, sharing the joy]
[Luo Zhentao: Hahaha Xiao Xu [3] , want to invite several producers for a party tomorrow? Really is too wonderful!]
——[Sure, it's up to you to plan it, Brother Luo.]
...
Many friends sent their congratulations to Rong Xu. Some of these blessings were sincere, but others would be mixed with traces of envy because 320,000 in sales also meant high profits. That Rong Xu's first CD could attain such high profit was in large part due to Black Clouds and borrowing Ling Xiao's fame. It could be said that luck was a major factor.
But, they did not know that Rong Xu would not get any income from this CD. It would all be donated.
[Zhao Chuyun: 320,000 in sales is very good. I will continue to carry out simultaneous promotions. Rongyun Foundation's specific account details will be sent to you within three days, and I will also make this matter public. Thank you, Rong Xu. ]
——[No need for thanks. Troubling you, Sis Zhao. ]
After replying to Zhao Chuyun, Rong Xu looked at the text sent by the other party for a long time.
The current him was just getting started. For him, this amount of profit was a huge number and would improve his status well. However, some money would be too hot to hold onto[4].
This was Ling Xiao's legacy work in which he put in an endless amount of effort and feelings. It is a good key for Rong Xu to enter the music industry. With this stepping stone, if he desires to walk on the path of music in the future, it will be much smoother.
From this song, he gained popularity and also certain things that couldn't be seen with eyes alone.
As for the missed profits...
Forget it. Anyways, in the future, he will also organize a foundation just like he did in his previous life. No matter how much money a person earns in their life, they can only spend so much. However much power one holds is however much responsibility they carry. Only in this way would he be able to uphold his conscience.
After completely putting aside the profit's astronomical figure, Rong Xu was preparing to clean up and go rest but then his phone vibrated again. He glanced down. When he saw the Weibo notification, he became stunned.
[Qin Cheng: "Lost Wings", 5·2·0, I love you. //Rong Xu: If. If you say there is a tomorrow, then tomorrow's you... will you still appear? "Lost Wings", 5·2·0, I love you. //Huaxia Entertainment: ...]
His eyes widened slowly, and the young man's eyes were strongly fixed on the phrase "I love you". Only after a while later did he chuckle softly. At this exact moment, his phone received a text message.
[Qin Cheng: Before, I was still on the plane. Just arrived in America. Congratulations, CD sold very well.]
The implication was: He reposted the Weibo so late because he had been on the plane and could not turn on his phone.
The youth smiled slightly and quickly replied: [Thank you, I saw your repost.]
A minute later, the phone suddenly began singing. Rong was surprised and picked up the phone.
"Not asleep yet? I remember it should be midnight back home[5]?" A low and mellow male voice sounded and was transmitted steadily through the phone.
On that side, Qin Cheng seemed to be walking, and there was the faint sound of wind drifting into the microphone, making his voice seem a little wispy. Rong Xu held his phone and slowly laid down on the bed, wearing thin pajamas. He smiled and replied: "En, waited for the CD sales statistics for a bit. It's currently 00:22 in the country."
Qin Cheng paused a little and asked: "How was the sales."
Rong Xu laughed softly: "Quite good."
Qin Cheng: "... En."
At this moment, they had nothing else to say. Qin Cheng was silent for a long time, seemingly unable to find a conversation topic. There was only the soft sound of breathing. But even so, he didn't hang up the phone, and the awkward atmosphere spread instantly.
Listening to the silence on the other end of the phone, a trace of cunningness flashed across the youth's eyes. He felt both helpless and amused. He waited quietly for another few minutes, his lips raised slightly further. When the other party seemed to be unable to hold up any longer, he finally asked: "How has your filming been going? I thought you were still in New Zealand."
"Not too smooth. Female No. 2 recently decided to participate in this quarter's Fashion Week Show. The director is considering a replacement."
Rong Xu continued to lead the conversation: "That is indeed quite troublesome."
Qin Cheng continued to answer: "I am fine, but the director has a headache."
After saying this, Qin Cheng continued being silent. Rong Xu silently raised the corner of his lips again. Only after waiting a whole minute did he once again ask: "In a while, it will be time for the Golden Phoenix Awards' Award ceremony. Will you come back to the country?"
Qin Cheng continued answering.
The two spent a long time in this state of you ask, I answer. Whenever Qin Cheng lacked a conversation topic, Rong Xu would wait again before stirring up the topic. 20 minutes later, this international call finally ended. The youth then got up as if nothing had happened and continued to clean up, turning off the lights to go sleep.
On the other side of the ocean, a handsome and tall man slowly stopped his footsteps and looked at his cell phone thoughtfully.
Xu Jin turned around and asked: "Why aren't you leaving? The Crew is still waiting for us."
His gaze slowly moved away from the phone and the man frowned slightly, asking tentatively: "Is he chatting me up?"[6]
Xu Jin's mouth twitched: "Huh?!"
"... He seems to be, seems to chatting me up?"
Xu Jin: "…I didn't hear wrong. Just then, you seemed to be having the most normal of conversations, ba[7]. Unless, you talked about something unspeakable? How come I didn't hear anything?
Qin Cheng raised an eyebrow: "Am I overthinking it?"
Xu Jin showed his hands, a look of "isn't that obvious" was written on his face.
Qin Cheng: "..."
With a soft hmm from his nose, Qin Cheng glanced at his agent and said quietly: "How's your emotional intelligence?" He walked forward as he spoke.
It was clearly a question, but inexplicably, Xu Jin heard a negative connotation.
His eyes widened immediately, and Xu Jin quickly chased after him: "Hey, hey. Speak clearly. How dare you, a single dog, say in front of me, a married man, that my emotional intelligence is not high? Do you understand, I have a wife! My wife is a jade flower. My wife is smart and capable. My wife makes more money than I do each month. My wife..."
"Your wife makes more money than you?"
Xu Jin: "...What's wrong with that?"
Qin Cheng silently raised the corner of his lips, gently shaking his head and saying meaningfully: "More than you, ah... En. Nothing."
Xu Jin: "…" Not like he was eating soft rice[8]!!!
Clearly, when this man was on the phone just then, he had seemed clumsy. How come he got his poisonous tongue back after hanging up the phone
...
Xu Jin lowered his head and kept vomiting (vomiting blood) in his heart. When he was almost at the door of the airport, he seemed to suddenly think of something and mumbled with a great smile: "Yi, someone's (RX) CD has sold quite well. Someone also has properties to inherit. Based on these words, I also don't know who compared to someone (QC compared to RX) will earn more in the future..."
Qin Cheng: "..."
At this moment, in an American airport on the opposite side of the earth, smog contaminated the air (rush hour). Yet, in Huaxia, it was deep into the night.
The Weibo status reposted by Qin Cheng aroused the support and praise of many fans. For Rong Xu's fans, this was just a situation of a Black Clouds crew member reposting to promote "Lost Wings". It was just that this crew member's identity was a little special. For Qin Cheng's fans, since the male god has spoken, they must support, support, support!
But, for a certain type of fan——
[Ao Ao Ao Ao! What did I just see! Rong Rong said "I love you", and Qin Shen answered him "I love you"! Ahhhhhh, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care. They are straight up confessing, They are straight up confessing! Just like that!!!]
Was it a confession? This point, no one knows. After all, if the parties involved have not said anything, then no one can prove it.
However, at three o'clock in the morning in Huaxia, a Weibo account with only 3,000 fans left silently posted a new update——
[Lotus Seed Paste and Orange Stuffing: I love you, truly, I love you.]
This Weibo, after the storm from the photo incident, had not posted any more special news. Its number of fans dropped by more than 1,000, leaving only 3,000 people. After posting the update this time, it gained the support of more than 10 CP fans. But at the same time, because of this Weibo update, the number of fans who left also weren't many.
Early morning the next day, for this "I love you" Weibo, the CP fans had already created many new works. They continued to be active within the individual fan forum, competing with other "LanYao" CP fans and "HuoLiang" CP fans.
Everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly, and the sales for "Lost Wings" were climbing higher and higher. On Friday, it finally surpassed "Daylight Forest" and became second place on Huaxia's Love Music sales rankings. After another day, on Saturday, the four day sales for "Lost Wings" was at 690,000, surpassing "Road" and becoming first place!
Countless fans celebrated "Lost Wings'" climb to the summit and the topic #LostWings# was also pushed into fourth place on the trending list.
Observing the right timing, Luck Potato Chips posted an update at 8:30 the next morning and also brought with it four pictures.
[Luck Potato Chips: With the emergence of the new superpowered messengers, inside an icy blue skeleton cave, will Rong Xu be able to seize the third key to the treasure! [Image][Image][Image][Image]]
Once this official announcement came out, it immediately attracted a crowd of fans, riding on the tailwind of "Lost Wings'" popularity and Rong Xu's fame. Four exquisite and handsome photos were excitedly reposted by fans.
[Oh my goodness gracious!!! A Rong Rong with silver hair! A Rong Rong with silver hair! Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhh, how can he be so cool!]
[An expressionless Rong Rong is also beautiful, how can he be so beautiful AoAoAo! ]
[Baby fell down. Needs Rong Rong to hug hug, kiss kiss, and lift high to be willing to get back up~!!!!]
The fans were all immersed in the state of licking their screens, unable to extricate themselves. But no one noticed that a few announcements were quietly posted on the homepages of multiple major media websites. They were not posted in any particularly obvious places, but rather straightforwardly posted on entertainment pages. There was Rong Xu's name, the names of other stars, and… the name of one same person.
"Check out the ranking for the top ten hot newcomers. Dong Zheng, Rong Xu, Yeqiao, Qiming… He turned out to be number one! "
"These most handsome little trainees, who do you like most? Rong Xu was elected as the strongest newcomer king, He steadily stayed the King of Popularity"
"The new member of Luck Potato Chip's Ultimate Adventure. Rong Xu has face value, Deng Yiwen has acting skills"
The author has something to say:
Orange Qin: He really did chat baby up, really!
Rong Rong: ...How come I don't understand what LS baby is saying? [Spreads out hands while smiling]
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[1]LZ: Original floor owner/original poster
[2] Sea of people: original: people mountain, people sea
[3] Xiao Xu: term of endearment, translating to "Little Xu"
[4] 'Some money would be too hot to hold onto': He's referring to potential consequences of him making profit from something that became popular mainly due to factors other than himself. Ie: Black Clouds and Ling Xiao
[5]'back home': original: in the country
[6]他是不是在撩我: popular slang referring to pursuing someone through conversing about topics two parties have in common
[7]Ba: an ending particle used to imply the sentence is questionable or asking for confirmation from the receiving party
[8] Eating soft rice: relying solely on women
