Chapter 123 - Get Into The King’s Bed And Serve Him Well
"What great news! As soon as I arrived home today, the townsfolks gathered around me and treated me like a hero. I never thought that I, a man married into a woman's family, would one day be able to walk with my head held high!"
On the other side of the screen, Chow Mingrun was beaming with joy.
"According to my incomplete count, apart from the three sponsorships we received last time, there are now more than 20 businesses in my village lining up to use my connections to advertise in King Guan's movie. Now we've really earned both face and money! Even my demanding father-in-law gave me a pat on the back for the first time!"
Chow Mingrun's smug look reminded people of an opening peacock.
"The things to be advertised this time won't all be pickled turnips, will they?" Du Jinghai teased.
"That can't be. There has to be something else, like cabbages and cucumbers or something. I'll talk to King Guan when the time comes. It's an ancient costume drama anyway, surely they must eat pickles too …"
They all laughed happily. Yuan Ge didn't know what to say.
"By the way, Yuan Ge, just now Liu Sang sent me the electronic copy of the script for everyone to read during the holidays. Remember we signed a non-disclosure agreement, be careful not to leak it out or we will be sued our pants off!"
"Got it, and I found the original work online as well. No need to remind me, I've already started reading it."
"Our Yuan Ge is the most professional! I know I can count on you!" Chow Mingrun said with a smirk, looking like he was coaxing a child.
At this point, Amélie Jiang interjected, "Yuan Ge, I see that you have added a few millions new fans, and they are begging to see your photos and some personal from you. What's your plan? You've had your TweeChat account for over a year now, but you haven't shared any personal updates other than a bunch of technical posts. If you don't want to share photos, you should at least upload a profile picture!"
"Uh … I'll try to find some time to do it later."
Amélie, however, was a little impatient and couldn't wait to tell the world how handsome Yuan Ge was.
"Will you stop being so low key? If you don't want to, let me do it. I know what women like to see, and I can post something that fits their aesthetic and preferences. Anyway, I have enough cool photos of you in my phone to choose from. Jinghai, please tell me Yuan Ge's account password and I'll manage his account for him."
Yuan Ge had always been a low-key person who didn't bother to run any social media accounts. Upon his return to China, his TweeChat account was set up with the help of Du Jinghai, an experienced social media user, and he had been managing it for him as well. Du Jinghai was obsessed with photography and would often post summaries of his chats with Yuan Ge at work on TweeChat. Due to the high technical content, most of Yuan Ge's followers were people interested in the technical aspects of filming, directing and photography.
"Amy, you're finally back in Canton, so it's better to enjoy New Year with your family. I haven't checked these accounts for a while, I'll have to look for the password and see where it's written down."
Du Jinghai clearly didn't mean what he said and didn't want Amélie to take over Yuan Ge's account.
"Old Dude, you set up our official website and TweeChat account, didn't you?" Chow Mingrun interjected.
"Yeah, I only just finished the verification process for our company's official TweeChat account early this morning. I didn't expect the power of King Guan's official announcement to have such an explosive effect. As soon as the news was released, our official account also increased by more than 100,000 followers. It's only been one day, and the web traffic is already scarily high. It looks like this movie is going to be a huge hit!" Du Jinghai exclaimed.
"Then, 'Qingqing' is going to be shelved for now, right?" Yuan Ge finally managed to voice out the worries he had been having for days.
"My dear Yuan Ge, forget about Qingqing! We'll first send you into King Guan's bed and hope you serve him well, then we'll jump on his bandwagon to become rich and famous! Amy, Old Dude, how much do you think our company is worth at its current value? …"
The conversation soon ran all the way to fame and fortune. Sure enough, all three had their egos inflated and didn't care about Qingqing anymore. Thinking of how perfect Qiuchen looked in his dreams, Yuan Ge's heart was filled with loss and he ended the long video conference early on the pretext of reading the script.
When he thought of Amélie's repeated urges for him to add a profile photo on his TweeChat account, Yuan Ge picked up a supermarket paper bag, dug out two eye holes, put it on his head and casually took a selfie. Underneath this quirky profile picture, director Yuan Ge, who had now been forced to become an actor Yuan Ge, added a deliberate self-mocking remark - "You all asked 'who the hell is Yuan Ge', and how dared he play the male lead, so here it is, a not-so-daring Yuan Ge!"