CH 44

Gu Qingchi didn’t pay much attention to what people said about him on the foreign social media. To be honest, he didn’t even pay attention to domestic social media.

After all, he didn’t even use Weibo. Gu Qingchi’s Weibo was only updated every now and then, and it was usually a photo. Besides the comments that were full of confessions and praise, all of the other comments were complaints about how little he posted. 

[Gege, did you finally remember that you still have a Weibo account?]

[Finally! After eight long years, we got an update. Grandma, you can rest in peace now.]

In fact, the few updates on his account were all posted by Xiao Ke. She had already taken over Gu Qingchi’s Weibo.

The person behind Gu Qingchi’s Weibo account was not Gu Qingchi. This was an unspoken fact among Gu Qingchi’s fans. Under each and every post, there would be netizens poking around and showing off their perfect detective skills. 

[This post was obviously made by someone else. I downloaded the photo and checked the metadata. The photo was taken 18 days ago. Heh, did you really think you could hide this from me? Hurry up and come out to promote yourself! You could at least give me a chance to throw my money at you, alright?]

As a qualified agent, Ye Li would usually pay attention to trends on Weibo and in the tabloids. This much was enough.

If it was international media, not even Ye Li would pay that much attention. Unless it was some sort of grand occasion that required his attention, he usually didn’t bother.

International audiences were so far away, so he usually didn’t pay them any mind. After all, Gu Qingchi was still focusing on his domestic development. Ye Li hadn’t considered developing internationally yet, so, naturally, there wasn’t any need for instagram.

Not to mention the fact that Gu Qingchi didn’t even have much work within China. There was pretty much no activity abroad at all.

However, Gu Qingchi actually had quite a presence abroad.

If nothing else, there was at least the film festival not too long ago.

The Xilin Film Festival had attracted a lot of attention in China, but, since there was still the issue of the Great Firewall, it was a little difficult to follow along with it. A domestic video sharing platform obtained the rights to broadcast the festival, so a lot of people tuned in to watch. However, not a lot of people paid attention to what happened afterwards. 

News didn’t really circulate between domestic and foreign outlets. Domestic audiences and international audiences had completely different points of interest.

The major media outlets within the country were more formal. After all, they were media outlets that could extend into the international sphere. They were relatively calm. Their style had always been very humble, and their wording was more subtle. They cared about maintaining an image and winning glory for the country.

Not a lot of netizens who had watched the festival paid attention to the opinions of foreign media.

Most netizens were thinking, “Oh, Best Male Lead is still ours this year. That’s good. Also, some guy named Gu Qingchi performed pretty well.” That was enough for them. 

As for what Gu Qingchi actually did, it wasn’t something within their focus.

Among them, there was also a group of fans who had been following the live broadcast. They had been fawning over all of the celebrities when they ran into the beauty that was Gu Qingchi. Ever since then, their focus had completely shifted.

What foreign media? What film festival? They had completely forgotten about all of that. They simply puffed their chest out and declared with pride, “Did you know? I’ve checked into the Gu Qingchi super topic for 168 days straight!”

However, the spectacle that was the Xilin Film Festival lasted for quite a while within international spheres. 

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However, this time, they were shockingly unanimous in their opinion.

Several media outlets released photos of Gu Qingchi. 

The more respectable media outlets were a bit more subtle. They at least released professional film reviews and articles. This was a film festival after all.

However, those tabloids don’t have so many scruples. They weren’t there for the movies in the first place. They only cared about the gossip. Their cameras were aimed at the superstars, thoroughly implementing the first rule of entertainment.

Such a contentious beauty had suddenly burst onto the red carpet. They naturally weren’t going to let him go.

All kinds of flowery praises were rained down upon him. 

This East Asian youth was the hottest topic for quite some time.

After seeing his face, a lot of people started searching for information on this beautiful young man.

However, aside from the official photos and videos released from the Xilin Film Festival, there wasn’t a single trace of him online at all.

Plus, Gu Qingchi’s name had been reported in Chinese. 

As a result, some of the international fans had no choice but to cross national borders in order to chase after him. Meanwhile, they may not even know how to pronounce the names of their own idols.

On the official Instagram account for the Xilin Film Festival, the likes on the post with Gu Qingchi were going up and up and up. The comments underneath it had already reached an unbelievable number.

[He’s so good-looking! When his eyes turned towards the camera, I think my heart skipped a beat!]

[I fell in love with his dark hair and dark eyes. I grew up listening to the story of Snow White, but who would have thought that the person who best fits that description is a young man.] 

[I watched the video of him being dragged back to the red carpet so many times. I find him super cute every time I watch it.]

[So far, all I know is that he’s Chinese. I can’t find any information about him at all. I tried checking out some Chinese social media, but I literally couldn’t understand a thing.]

[I’ve been studying Chinese recently! I want to study in China someday. I hope to visit his country and see him with my own eyes!]

Under these circumstances, the international student posted the photo she took at the supermarket onto Instagram. 

The photo was very high definition. Even the slight redness of Gu Qingchi’s fingers were crystal clear. He was bending down and listening. The old woman was also pointing at the potato in his hand and saying something.

Gu Qingchi was wearing what any other young person would wear. It wasn’t a brand name. It was very simple. He had a coat on top of it.

The old woman was dressed in flowery, patterned clothing. The clothes looked a little oversized. She looked like any other grandmother, giving viewers a sense of intimacy.

Their two faces were leaned in together. For some reason, this picture seemed to express the hustle and bustle of years gone by. 

The composition of this image was very beautiful. The background hadn’t been edited in any way. The two people were just standing there, yet they seemed to attract every viewer’s attention.

It was simply a wonderful collision of eras. This was how things were. From generation to generation, the things that were passed down weren’t just blood ties. There were also traditions and knowledge that had been passed down by word of mouth for thousands of years.

The photo was both profound and beautiful.

Instagram didn’t have a repost function. At first, she only received a few like here and there. Suddenly, the likes on her post sharply increased. 

First, it had been an foreign influencer. She had liked the post. However, this was only the beginning.

More and more people started liking the post. Among them were several influencers and celebrities. By the next day, seven or eight well-known influencers and celebrities had liked and commented.

[Ah, it’s an Asian guy. They’re so beautiful. I noticed that this post was only tagged with #life. You should add #beauty.]

[I kind of miss my grandma. I’m going to go visit her later. Miss the apple pie she used to make.] 

[When I saw this photo, I instantly felt all warm and fuzzy. By the way, this kid is seriously pretty.]

As the post became more and more popular, more and more celebrities started showing up in the comments section.

It was an impressive sight. There were so many celebrities and influencers under the post of an ordinary girl.

Another Instagram user took screenshots of the number of likes and comments and created a new post. 

[Wow, look at all these celebrities gathered here. Did you guys schedule this in advance?]

Even this post received hundreds of thousands of likes.

He didn’t even take a screenshot of the original post. He only took screenshots of the comments, so a lot of the people who came across this post went to check out the original post. Of course, there were a lot more celebrities there. A lot of fans also started getting interested and tagged their favorite celebrity, calling them to come take a look.

When Kellerman discovered the photo of Gu Qingchi, the post had already become incredibly popular. He immediately gave it a like and left a long string of enthusiastic confessions. 

Actually, Kellerman had been posting on Instagram for quite a long time already. He simply did not tire of it. His only interaction with Gu Qingchi had been at that award ceremony. However, Gu Qingchi seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth ever since then.

It had been too chaotic at the time, so they didn’t have the chance to speak with each other. Kellerman regretted it quite a bit. After the event ended, Kellerman had tried to get Gu Qingchi’s phone number through the Xilin Film Festival, but he was rejected.

Kellerman had actually felt kind of crestfallen about it.

He thought that Gu Qingchi wasn’t going to be an actor anymore. This was rather common. A lot of beautiful people within the industry had short-lived careers, never to be seen in public again. It was truly regrettable. 

In actuality, Gu Qingchi had some mild face blindness. He also had a horrible sense of direction. Meanwhile, Ye Li had been busy with everything that was going on online and hadn’t been paying attention to anything else.

As a result, Kellerman, who had been shouting into the air, only had Instagram to keep him company.

Now, he could speak his heart out.

“This is my sweetheart, my honey, my muse. All my glory belongs to you.” 

After saying this, he immediately started asking questions.

“Hey girl, is he a friend of yours? Or a relative? Did you marry someone overseas? Please be my friend. I want to as well.”

The comments underneath were all playing along with him.

[I want to as well.] 

For a moment, it seemed as though you would be falling behind the times if you didn’t post this comment.

As a result, Kellerman set off a new trend within the entertainment circle.

Kellerman was a very famous international singer, and he had many friends. His friends and friends of his friends all appeared under this post.

They were either joking with him or teasing him. 

They also left likes and comments and went along with the trend.

It almost became normal to see these big names under this one Instagram post.

This spectacle was even reported in the news. After all, the names within the comments section of that post represented some of the biggest stars in the world. No matter what their intentions were, it was a fact that their comments were under that post.

There were tons of entertainment articles popping up every day. A headline like this wasn’t anything special. It wasn’t going to make Gu Qingchi into an international superstar or anything. 

However, it made the fashion world take notice of Gu Qingchi.

The world of fashion was unique territory. It didn’t care for the mainstream. Rather, it revered the unconventional.

They may very likely turn away someone who was deemed attractive by the eyes of the public and, instead, choose a model who was entirely unknown.