Who Touched My Tail!-Chapter 200
14.12 – Moving forward daily
translator: xiin
editors: alamerysl & BlueBug
Xue Ling stayed at home for a few days and went through the entire script for <Asking Heaven> that Su Liunian had provided as well as reading his novel, a few of the spin-offs and fanworks, and even some works that were based off a similar premise, in order to gain a rough understanding of what kind of character Feng Qianyun was.
He wanted to know what kind of person he was in the author's eyes, in the readers' eyes, and even in the fan and fanfiction readers' eyes, as well as understand how many people had already studied his character in-depth. After reading so much of these things, the image of Feng Qianyun naturally appeared in front of Xue Ling.
This was a version of Feng Qianyun that carried his own understanding of the character; he was arrogant when acting wantonly in public, but not domineering. When he was low-key, he was introverted, but not self-destructive. He was a nearly perfect character, with Zhu Yifan providing a sharp contrast for his personality. But it was precisely such a person that ultimately chose death as his ending. Many people were dissatisfied with his death, and many fans did not feel as though Feng Qianyun, Zhu Yifan and Qingxi were the same person. They seemed to be completely different individuals, and for the two of them to finally disappear and become parts of a complete Qing Xi made people sad.
Others speculated that Qing Xi split back into two people after becoming a god, which was why he never reappeared. Many fan works had used this as a setting and started new stories from it.
But the Feng Qianyun that Su Liunian wrote about really died. Amongst the three of them, Feng Qianyun left the fastest, his death was the simplest, yet also the most magnificent.
Feng Qianyun sacrificed himself and died; Zhu Yifan offered himself to the devil and died together with him; Qing Xi became a god that left no traces of himself behind. At the very end of <Asking Heaven>, nobody knew exactly who was asking heaven.
When Su Xuanyan saw him asking the heavens too, he asked him curiously, "You're acting as Feng Qianyun?"
Xue Ling raised his brows and looked at him, then retorted, “Can't I?”
“I don't mean that.” Su Xuanyan sat down behind him and said, “Zhu Yifan is Little Nian, Qing Xi is Xuanqing, and now you. I'm not involved, but if I were, the cast would be our whole family."
Xue Ling silently rolled his eyes and thought to himself, who was in the same family as you?! After that, he was too lazy to pay attention to him and went to record songs on the virtual network.
The audio drama <War Sword> broadcasted earlier had stirred up a fuss due to the sudden change in cast. The people who were eating melon seeds to one side without knowing the truth accused Xue Ling of stealing other people's roles - the cast had already made all the arrangements, and even before the broadcast, news that Forgotten Shore could no longer continue recording had already been sent out. Those who should be in the know already knew what was going on, and the haters who were left were simply there to kick up a storm. Xue Ling was too lazy to pay attention to those people.
The audio drama gave him another round of fans as everyone praised him for his control over the role. He had originally thought that he would lose out when compared to Forgotten Shore, but unexpectedly, he had created a different effect with his recording.
Xue Ling habitually ignored those who were rolling around acting cute, begging for support, or purposely joking around. He looked through his Weibo, took note of the posts pushing <Lost Track> and then closed the app.
The filming for <Lost Track> was already finished. Xue Ling had taken time to attend the banquet, and the official Weibo announced that the film had already entered the post-production stage and would soon reach the audiences.
Xue Ling realized that it had been more than a month since he obtained the system, and huge, life-changing things had happened. First of all, not mentioning his virtual network hobbies and work, even just in his daily life, there was suddenly an extra person in his home! In addition, he had suddenly learned that he wasn't even a person. Xue Ling was still rather muddle-headed about it all.
He stayed at home for half a month and didn't accept any work at all. He took a walk after waking up every morning, then slept and ate, ate and slept. He read books and drank fine wine, occasionally chatting with Su Xuanyan, and when Su Xuanyan was free, they went out for a walk, playing their way through the city from east to west. As long as it was something Xue Ling felt that he had never tried before, he was enthusiastic about giving it a try.
Half a month later, he finally returned to work and attended the public premiere for <Lost Track>.
The publicity events for the launching of <Lost Track> had already been scheduled, and Xue Ling was set to attend a total of six events that were basically all in City X and City B. After confirming the time and schedule for the events, he packed up his things and prepared to head out. At the same time, the trailer for <Lost Track> was also released to the public.
The two of them were watching the first announcement on TV during dinner. They had locked down the peak viewing time, but the TV announcements were not the main focus; they had simultaneously broadcasted the main trailer online. Xue Ling went onto Weibo to take a look after finishing dinner, and saw that there were waves of praise under the trailer.
The original author also forwarded the trailer, describing it in exaggerated terms; he was very excited, so his fans also came over to take a look. All of a sudden, the fact that Xue Ling had given such a remarkable performance as the protagonist came to light.
He was in many scenes in the trailer, both as the righteous personality as well as the evil one, and the trailer ended with a strange scene of laughter. Many people who had not yet read the original novel were also asking what kind of story it was in the comments.
Xue Ling very helpfully forwarded the post, and in just one minute after he had reposted it, his Weibo was completely filled up with comments. Some people were particularly excited, and Xue Ling's interface vibrated endlessly. The sounds of notifications made even Su Xuanyan, who was washing dishes, glance over.
After that, he did half a month's worth of publicity. Xue Ling could now be considered someone who had relied on this work to become popular overnight. His Weibo fan count soared, and he also became a rapidly rising trending topic. All of a sudden, endorsements and scripts were offered up to him in an endless stream, but he told Shen Yue to push them all off first, because he wanted to first concentrate on the filming for <Asking Heaven>.
Xue Ling was a strange creature amongst popular stars. Normally speaking, anyone who became popular overnight would choose to start increasing their sense of existence by appearing in the media constantly. Even if they had no works to push, they could still maintain their popularity, striving to keep their newfound crazy fans and make them continue to follow them. Regardless of whether it was through doing endorsements or variety shows, they needed to continue showing their faces so that everyone could see what they were up to and conveniently harvest another round of fans.
But what Xue Ling was doing was completely the opposite. Other than attending various publicity events for <Lost Track> where reporters could get a glimpse of him, he seemed to stay at home, completely disappearing from view. His information was well hidden, and the reporters couldn't find him, nor could they snap photos of him. He wasn't a top line star yet, so many of the reporters soon gave up on catching shots of him. Xue Ling didn't accept any variety show appearances or endorsements, and it was as though he did not belong in the circle at all, with no publicity or further news. There was no gossip, no hot topics, and he didn't make use of any of the methods available to increase his popularity. Many people began to suspect that he had somehow offended the company because otherwise, the company would not treat him in such a way, allowing such useful popularity levels to directly disappear.
Xue Ling did his own thing. He had been given a high degree of freedom when he signed the contract, and if he wanted to relax, then Shen Yue couldn’t force him to do anything. He was too lazy and uninterested in the variety shows to attend them, and with a Su Xuanyan supporting him from the back, all he wanted to do was simply shoot a few films.
It was true that Shen Yue had not set up any announcements to increase his sense of existence, but when the rumors spread all over the internet, he went ahead and told someone to share Xue Ling's current special status within the company.
The post was very useful. Many fans seemed to have understood the general intent behind it, and understood that their idol's goals were probably not as simple as merely being an idol or star.
The market was very clear that sometimes, 'stars' and 'actors' did not always mean the same thing.
Many fans expressed their opinions in the comments section under the post. [ Dong Dong Dong: ⊙▽⊙ I only realized after the original poster explained that our new male god and the little film emperor are from the same company! No wonder. This company has always offered a lot of freedom. Even just based on the little film emperor, it seems that the number of random publicity events he's attended are pitifully few. ]
[ Black Hair: o(*￣)￣*]o The little film emperor belongs to the absolute power class—using his works to create his own personal brand step by step. Oh, and his background, when it was finally exposed, I always wanted to say that those media reporters must have been insanely stupid. Now, it seems that male god Xue is the little film emperor's junior. Perhaps he'll be the next film emperor? ]
[ Wind, Flower, Snow and Moon: Previous poster, don't say those kinds of things. The little Film Emperor has a lot of fans, and the little fox can't afford that kind of attention right now. ]
[ Sound of Debauchery: (～￣▽￣)～It's better for the little fox to have less random publicity and focus on filming so that we have more works to watch~ ]
Not long after this post was released, Su Liunian also sent out a post saying that <Asking Heaven> was about to start filming. He casually mentioned Xue Ling in the post and expressed his hopes for a pleasurable cooperation.
Therefore, everyone understood that originally, Xue Ling hadn't accepted anything new because he was preparing for <Asking Heaven>~ Many people were looking forward to seeing the two male gods cooperating. Of course, while some people were looking forward to it, there were others who were busy hating. Xue Ling had never paid attention to them, doing only what he wanted to do without considering other people's opinions.
During this period, the audio drama issued two more broadcasts, which brought about a new round of attention. Xue Ling could be considered to have still made an appearance to the public, and it was enough.
<Asking Heaven> would be filmed across all of Hua Country. Director Fan had insisted that some scenes be shot with a real background, and the crew had already selected the locations for the sets. The entire crew would be travelling around within and outside of the country as they filmed. Xue Ling did not bring much with him; he planned to purchase what he needed when they arrived.
Su Xuanyan had already lived with him for a month, and the interactions between the two had already reached the stage where they acted like an old couple. Although the two of them never said anything on the surface, Xue Ling had already tacitly accepted the label of 'lover' that the system had given him. It was just that he showed all kinds of disdain for Su Xuanyan on the surface, and his words always contained the implication that Su Xuanyan should move home.
Su Xuanyan seemed to have more matters to deal with after returning to the country, and it was unlikely that he would follow Xue Ling to shoot the film all over the world. Xue Ling was very happy about finally not having to share the same room with the man, because Su Xuanyan's sense of existence was so strong that as long as they slept in the same room, Xue Ling would always dream of him at night. The contents of the dreams seemed to be their past memories and it made Xue Ling's heart distressed every time he watched them, but he could never recall anything when he woke up. Recently, it had negatively impacted his quality of sleep.
When he was really angry, he would go and hit Su Xuanyan a few times; it was unknown what the other party remembered, but his gaze when he looked at him was increasingly gentle. Sometimes, it was so tender that Xue Ling had no way to take it out on him, and would simply smack him a few times before choosing to make up for his lost sleep during the day.
He didn't dream when he slept during the day, and it was very easy for him to sleep through the entire afternoon. Xue Ling found that this kind of lifestyle was a little too decadent.
So, he brought his luggage and arrived at the set ahead of time.
<Asking Heaven> was a cultivation film, but the three thousand small worlds all had their own differences. The crew was split up into several different groups, and shooting was split into several different locations. They also needed to cover Feng Qianyun and Zhu Yifan's early lives and what they experienced before they met each other. This meant that Xue Ling and Su Liunian were separated during the first part of the filming.
There was only one Director Fan, so he was the busiest of all. He basically never stopped as he ran back and forth between sets, making use of the material taken in one side to start the production and editing on the other while he went somewhere else to supervise the entire process.
Xue Ling had originally wondered why Fan Yueze had been so large and clearly overeaten so much when he first arrived on set, but later on, he realized that Fan Yueze's workload meant that he was burning through too much, too quickly. In the beginning, his face was fleshy and overweight, but after going through the pressure he gave himself, he turned skinny enough to become a melon seed face.
Fan Yueze’s requirements were particularly stringent. Even with Xue Ling's high standards and acting ability, he still needed to repeat some scenes several times.
However, Director Fan was not someone who liked to curse loudly and make a scene. He simply wanted to finish everything as quickly as possible. Xue Ling's spirit didn't take much of a hit, but the misery he felt on his ** was directly showcased on his Weibo account.
He would regularly send some updates on his daily life. Recently, his face had been thinning down at a speed visible to the naked eye. Xue Ling didn't mention it directly, but he sent greetings to Su Liunian on his Weibo, saying that he finally understood why Su Liunian had told him to eat more before entering Director Fan's cast.
Su Liunian laughed and forwarded his Weibo with the comment, 'Right? I said earlier that Fan Yueze worked without regard for his life."
The two of them acted like a pair of brothers who were suffering together, and very quickly, their discussions made them appear as though they were all one big family. All of their fans expressed that the two of them really appeared to have a great relationship with each other~
Xue Ling really treated Su Liunian as a good friend that he could complain to, but it was a little more strange for Su Liunian. He had originally treated Xue Ling as a talented person he could put to use. Later, he discovered that he was a pretty good person who was worth getting to know, and become friends with. After that…
He was told that Xue Ling was his future sister-in-law, and he needed to establish a good relationship with him.
So, Su Liunian was very careful about building this relationship. Regardless of how poisonous his eldest brother's means were, and how he first took photos of the other party before barging his way into their personal home, Su Liunian firmly believed birds of a feather would flock together. He should properly take care of this pitiful little junior of his.
The second week after Xue Ling joined the crew, Su Xuanyan made a special visit to the set. He came privately and only told Xue Ling that he was coming. Xue Ling was busy filming and couldn't find time, so he asked Shen Yue to arrange for an assistant to bring him in.
At the time, Xue Ling was filming a scene in mid-air, and his entire body was suspended in the air with a machine. Even if he had good control, he still needed to concentrate properly when shooting this kind of scene. If he slipped and fell, even if he didn't die, he would still lose a layer of skin.
While the machinery being used still had the same function as machines of old, the modern ones were simply two devices that could be hidden behind a person's body. They were a little more troublesome to control, but technology had already made great progress when compared to the machines that required other people to pull him back and forth.
When Su Xuanyan came in, Xue Ling was filming a scene of coming down from a tree. He was flying around in a set of red clothing, and his ink-black long hair fluttered around him as he acted out his role of a Young Master from the demon faction that laughed wantonly and boldly. The scene that he made as he flew down from the tree was stunningly beautiful~
Su Xuanyan’s footsteps stalled as he suddenly recalled that this man had worn red clothing for him several times. Every time, it had been just as beautiful and fascinating as now.
