CH 42

April 28, 2021kaychandra

Chapter 42: Success

Because of the significance of ‘National Industry’, tonight’s premiere was televised live via Imperial Capital TV and two local TV stations. Many young people who weren’t interested in this kind of film were also in front of the TV set on time in order to see their favorite artists.

Who knew that the premiere would be held with so much care that after the artists walked down the red carpet, they didn’t leave, but continued to watch in earnest.

When they saw Director Li, whose hair was already gray, talking about the martyrs’ pasts with red eyes, many people began to reflect on whether they, nowadays, had failed to live up to the dedication and sacrifice of their forefathers.

When the main creators from the ‘National Industry’ crew stood together on stage and bowed, the guests sitting on the stage rose in silence to pay their respects. Whether they were doing it voluntarily or following the crowd, at least no one made the slightest sound now.

After the remembrance of the martyrs was over, the host wiped his slightly red eyes and went to Director Li. “Director Li, I heard that the film was prepared for several years, and the shooting period was almost completely closed off. Under such difficult shooting conditions, did everyone ever complain about the suffering?”

“Suffering is indeed suffering, but when you think about the martyrs, you feel that this suffering is nothing,” Director Li took the microphone from the host and turned to look at the two rows of actors standing upright behind him, “They are all very dedicated actors. Some were sick and some were injured during the shooting. There were even many people who received film contracts and endorsements, but for this film, they persisted with illness and injury, and put off all endorsement contracts. I can say this, their dedication didn’t dishonor the roles they played.”

Such a positive attitude from Director Li made the leaders of the various government departments sitting below nod their heads in satisfaction. The actors shooting a movie with this kind of subject matter should have this kind of hard-working spirit.

Bai Zhong, sitting in the first row, smiled in the direction of Xi Qing, and whispered to him, “President Xi, you’re looking so serious, you seem to be deeply touched.”

Xi Qing’s eyes remained on the stage. The tone of his voice was cold. “As Flower Country people, we all have deep feelings.”

Hearing the mockery in Xi Qing’s words, Bai Zhong smiled and whispered, “President Xi has high moral character. Bai admires this.” The Bai family hadn’t developed as well as the Xi family in the last ten years or so. Recently, the Xi family had rejected the cooperation of an overseas company which was picked up by their Bai family, so now when he saw Xi Qing, he was in an extraordinarily good mood.

This time Xi Qing didn’t even pay attention to him and looked at the people on the stage without even giving him a look.

Being so embarrassed by Xi Qing, the smile on Bai Zhong’s face froze for a moment, but when the camera came over, he still had a kind smile on his face.

Xi Qing’s eyes kept falling on a certain young man in an indigo suit on the stage. He could clearly see a smile, a small movement, and even a frown of the other party.

There were many people on the stage, and many handsome men and women, but he found him in the crowd at first sight.

The Gongxi Qiao under the camera was different from the Xiao Qiao he knew. In private, Xiao Qiao was more lazy and casual, not as graceful and perfect as when he was on stage.

But how could there be a perfect person in the world? A seemingly perfect person was often just trying to make people think he was perfect.

“I heard that besides the child actors, Gongxi Qiao is the youngest actor in the cast,” the host finally brought the topic to Gongxi Qiao. “Do you have anything to say to Gongxi Qiao about his role as Admiral Zheng, the national male god?”

Director Li walked up to Gongxi Qiao with the microphone, reached out and patted his shoulder. “In the future, don’t put up billboards on the side of the street, since it could easily cause accidents.”

A burst of laughter came out from the scene. The host looked at Gongxi Qiao’s blushing face under Director Li’s teasing and smiled, “It seems that Director Li still approves of Gongxi Qiao’s role as the national male god. In the face of Director Li’s advice, what do you have to say to Director Li, Xiao Qiao?”

Receiving the microphone, Gongxi Qiao coughed dryly and smiled somewhat shyly towards the camera, “Thank you for the compliment, Director Li, I will continue to work hard.”

Not expecting Gongxi Qiao to be so “cheeky”, everyone let out a good-natured laugh. The host spoke a few more words before saying, “Let’s see what kind of style Gongxi Qiao played as the national male god.”

The huge screen behind the crowd flashed and played a clip of Gongxi Qiao in the drama.

In a plane from the last century, a young man with neatly combed hair, wearing a suit and glasses flipped through a textbook, and the camera gave him a close-up of his clean, slender fingers.

He was almost surrounded by fashionable foreigners, but he was the only one with black hair and dark eyes, and he seemed to be the most conspicuous presence in the crowd.

The hand flipping through the book suddenly stopped and he looked out of the window, but nothing could be seen outside except white clouds. But even so, he still seriously looked out the window, a pair of beautiful eyes full of hidden love, as if under the white clouds there was his most beloved lover.

The audience who saw this scene suddenly remembered a narrative from Admiral Zheng’s biography: “The moment I set foot on the land of my hometown, it was like I was back in the arms of my most beloved lover. I could live for her, I could die for her, I could give everything for her.”

They didn’t understand what kind of feeling that was, but seeing this look in the eyes of Admiral Zheng, played by Gongxi Qiao, they seemed to understand. It turned out that Admiral Zheng was so in love with his country back then.

In order not to give away more content of the movie, this clip was only a few dozen seconds long. When the big screen went black, the audience at the scene as well as in front of the TV suddenly came back to their senses, and vaguely felt regretful and wanted to see more footage about Admiral Zheng.

After the premiere ceremony, it was the movie premiere. Gongxi Qiao returned to his seat and waited quietly for the movie to open.

The movie opened with black-and-white photos of the forefathers. There were group photos of important occasions and some personal photos. However, with an imposing chorus of male and female voices, the photos seemed to have the magic of going back in time, bringing the audience back to the hard times.

“We will not perish!”

“We will not perish!”

The young boy and girl who fell in a pool of blood looked at the roaring planes in the sky with their eyes open and a cry in their ears.

A mother crying in despair at the loss of her children.

Toddlers standing in the darkness among the corpses of their loved ones, crying in a panic.

Mountains and rivers shattered, rivers of blood flowing.

In the black and white, the two words “National Industry” in red seemed to sting the eyes of the audience, unveiling a heavy page of history.

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Gu Nan looked at the screen. After Gongxi Qiao appeared in the camera, a critical look appeared in his eyes, but as the plot developed, his criticism and contempt disappeared little by little, and finally turned into seriousness.

The film lasted 112 minutes, and no one left early until the end.

No one could use a simple sentence to describe their feelings after seeing this film – sorrow, happiness, joy, pride, but more than anything else, gratitude.

Grateful for the sacrifices and efforts of the forefathers, in order to get today’s prosperity and peace.

The easter eggs at the end of the film were all shots of the actors getting injured during acting. When Xi Qing saw that Gongxi Qiao hadn’t paid attention to his feet while filming and had rolled down the hill and fallen several times, his face changed.

It wasn’t until the end of the film that the crowd at the scene rose to their feet and applauded.

Sitting next to Gongxi Qiao, Mi Yue cried and got several tissues wet. Even her eye makeup was smudged.

Many critics that night made positive comments about ‘National Industry’, and some even said that ‘National Industry’ was one of the most meaningful movies in recent decades.

Movie Critic A: Before the movie opened, I thought it was going to be another political drama that eulogizes virtue with no new ideas, but the moment the movie started, I realized that I was wrong to bring subjectivity to such an excellent movie. This is a movie of conscience. You can see that the director team put in a lot of effort. From the actors’ performances to the editing and even the soundtrack, it’s impeccable. As a centennial tribute, it doesn’t dishonor those words.

Movie Critic B: If the full score of a film is 10 points, I am willing to give this film 11 points. The extra point is because of the crew’s heart, because even the extras in this film are very serious. Everyone’s eyes are full of drama and emotion. Especially the previously controversial Gongxi Qiao, his role as Admiral Zheng is really impeccable. I think as long as the audience has seen the film, they will understand why Qian Lao recommended him to play the role in the first place.

Movie Critic C: I have seen a lot of movies, and very few of them have been able to infect me emotionally, but this one almost moved me all the way to the end. I don’t know what kind of mentality other viewers had. At least I walked out of the premiere with red eyes.

Flower Country people had already gotten used to scolding that came after the release of such movies, but after one night, they found that many professional critics were positive about the movie, and even the most vicious critics gave the movie a high score, which made the audience who originally had little interest in the movie curious.

Even the news of Gu Nan’s strong return didn’t overpower the current popularity of ‘National Industry’, because the movie was so successful that even many department leaders expressed their praise for the movie.

So many people went into the cinema with curiosity and then came out with red eyes. The praise about ‘National Industry’ was continuous, and all the other entertainment reports had to give way in front of ‘National Industry’.

In particular, Gongxi Qiao, who was previously dismissed by everyone, made a name for himself with his superb performance in this movie, defeating all the previous controversial voices. There were even many people who thought that Gongxi Qiao’s performance as Admiral Zheng was one of the highlights of the movie.

Although they hadn’t seen Admiral Zheng in person, they had heard many audio recordings, seen photos of him, as well as read his biography. So the more they respected the admiral, the more critical they were of the actor who played the role.

But Gongxi Qiao as Admiral Zheng was too much in line with the perfect Admiral Zheng they had imagined – talented, bold, yet personable.

On the first day of its release, ‘National Industry’ generated nearly 100 million yuan at the box office, such a good result that it attracted the attention of countless people.

A reporter interviewed Qian Lao and asked him what kind of reason made him make up his mind to recommend Gongxi Qiao to play his grandfather.

“In the beginning, the crew were very worried about the role of my grandfather, and they kept screening all the major performing arts companies to find someone, but they couldn’t find one that they were completely satisfied with.” Qian Lao was very satisfied with Gongxi Qiao’s performance, so when faced with the media, he spoke of Gongxi Qiao with praise. “I saw Gongxi Qiao’s photo on Weibo and thought the young man looked quite spirited. Then, I went to the Imperial Capital University and asked his teacher before making up my mind to recommend him.”

“His performance didn’t disappoint me, and our whole family enjoyed his performance after seeing the movie.”

Being praised by Admiral Zheng’s descendant himself was more useful than any praise from a film critic, so when this interview about Qian Lao aired, Gongxi Qiao’s status in the circle increased substantially, which was more important than the increase in popularity.

The success of ‘National Industry’ brought a huge impact to Gongxi Qiao. Before this, he could only be considered a popular artist, but now he could be considered a popular and powerful artist.

After seeing a lot of positive praise, Senhe Entertainment’s staff was calm, but they didn’t expect that the popular movie star Gu Nan would also praise Gongxi Qiao on a talk show.

“I was present at the premiere of ‘National Industry’, which was a wonderful and meaningful movie. Many people there cried when they watched it,” said Gu Nan on the TV screen with a gentle smile, mentioning ‘National Industry’ with great admiration. “It’s just a pity that I missed the opportunity to appear in this great movie at that time because I was abroad.”

The host was a bit curious and asked, “Did Mr. Gu also receive an invitation at the beginning?”

Gu Nan nodded. The regret in his eyes couldn’t be concealed. “Yes ah, only because of scheduling conflicts. It was painful to reject the invitation. But seeing that Yumeng played the role very well, I’m also very happy.”

“Does Mr. Gu appreciate Yumeng’s performance in this drama?” The host continued to ask.

“His performance was indeed very good,” Gu Nan nodded. The topic suddenly changed, “but the most amazing thing to me was the performance of a newcomer.”

The host was slightly stunned, “You mean?”

“Gongxi Qiao,” Gu Nan’s attractive index finger gently rested on his chin. “His scenes were very compelling and easily drove the audience’s emotions, which is very rare. Anyone who knows Gongxi Qiao knows that his looks are outstanding, but the role he plays makes it easy for the audience to forget about him and devote their entire senses to the plot ……”

Gongxi Qiao picked up the remote control and turned off the TV, with a slight frown on his brow.

He didn’t feel that Gu Nan really appreciated him so much, but in this show, the other party was really building up momentum for him and was vaguely trying to suppress Liang Yumeng.

From an actor’s point of view, Gu Nan’s acting skills could outperform Liang Yumeng’s by a mile, his looks were better than Liang Yumeng’s, and his popularity went without saying. Now that people knew that the role played by Liang Yumeng was given up by Gu Nan, how many people would compare Gu Nan’s acting skills with Liang Yumeng?

With Gu Nan’s popularity and reputation outside the circle, it would be easy to step on Liang Yumeng, and Gongxi Qiao could almost anticipate what would await Liang Yumeng after the show aired.

But even though Gu Nan dug a hole for Liang Yumeng, from the surface, his comments weren’t a word of criticism, but all praise, revealing the gentle temperament of a great god who cared for his juniors.

Liang Yumeng was the top actor in Changhe Entertainment, Gu Nan was the super first-tier star of Ringstar. When Gu Nan came back, he helped his boss trample down a rival film emperor, which was a good tactic.

Gongxi Qiao looked at the Weibo page on his phone, and among his newly added fans was this great film emperor Gu Nan.

He hooked his lips up and smiled, and returned a follow to the other party.

The next day, the news of Gongxi Qiao and Gu Nan following each other on Weibo spread, and the reports about Gu Nan favoring Gongxi Qiao were all over the place.

In the office, Xi Qing flipped through the online entertainment reports. He frowned in discontent. Who was this Gu Nan that caused so much news just by following Xiao Qiao on Weibo?

And just who was this Mi Yue? What did “Qiao Shao showing off his poise on the red carpet” mean?

What did “Golden Boy and Jade Girl, It’s Eye Candy” mean?

Looking at the screen, Gongxi Qiao holding the waist of a young woman, Xi Qing couldn’t help but frown.

He silently covered his chest. Why did he feel some pain in his stomach? Thinking of Gongxi Qiao’s previous request for him to keep an eye on his stomach, he called his assistant to prepare a stomach-boosting soup for him.

It must be a bad stomach making him feel bad.