/
Actually, even before ‘Obscurity’ was released there had been superstitious people posting all sorts of ‘prophetic posts’ guessing about the movie’s content and who had been frantically following every new update on the film since it was announced. In one corner of the internet, a group of such people had been discussing the film before the premiere:
【I’m buying stocks, will it blow up big or flop? 】
“I feel this movie can only flop. Ruan Tian’s presence has triggered my sixth sense.”
“It isn’t so easy for a movie to blow up, or else there wouldn’t be so many flops every year.”
“The word-of-mouth from the pre-screenings all seems to be good, person above, are you an idiot?”
“Does anyone still believe in word-of-mouth? Who doesn’t know that all those so-called professional film critics are just being paid to talk up new films? Generally, movies that make a lot of fanfare at the beginning tend to quietly flop by the end.”
“Hahahahahaha, I look forward to the day when Ruan Tian is thrown out of the film industry as well.”
However, when ‘Obscurity’ made 200 million at the box office on the first day and broke all sorts of records, this thread was dug up by the netizens and roundly mocked.
“Hahaha, these guys are really rebellious.”
“They like to dig graves for other people so much, but now that they’ve been face slapped by reality. I wish I could see their faces right now.”
“Sure enough, it’s impossible to predict what will get big and what won’t. Especially when Ruan Tian is involved, she seemed to make these kinds of predictions even less likely to be accurate.”
No one had expected that Ruan Tian would suddenly become so popular but it seemed that it was real.
Plus, the heat generated by starring in a film and being acclaimed for her excellent acting skills was completely different from heat that might be generated by some random scandal.
Three days after it was released, the box office performance of ‘Obscurity’ continued to trend steadily upward, quickly breaking the 500 million mark and coming out with a strong start for the summer season.
This was because, while the box office trend had already been excellent on the weekend of the premiere, it continued to spike higher and higher even during the following weekdays.
In the end, the people who actually went into theaters to watch films and the keyboard warriors who were always complaining online were actually two separate groups without much overlap.
Most ordinary audience members had never even heard of Ruan Tian’s messy scandals before. Thus, after these people watched the film they would only see that this actress was acting well and, after inquiring about her name, they would look her up online and then click to follow.
Thanks to that, after three short days, Ruan Tian’s total number of Weibo followers had already risen to 6 million.
And while the movie overall was receiving rave reviews, Ruan Tian’s role was also gaining a lot of recognition.
‘Born actress’, ‘light of the big screen’, ‘the last actress in the entertainment industry who can meld beauty and strength’, and so on
 People were raving and many media outlets and bloggers were using exaggerated words of praise to blow up her name.
And the TianTian Group was even happier than Ruan Tian herself was. They were all excited and full of joy. Taking advantage of this opportunity, they began to organize and hand out tickets to showings of ‘Obscurity’ to passersby so that more people could see their idol for free.
There was even a certain fan who had been following Ruan Tian ever since she had first joined the circle and had been playing tiny side roles for big productions. Seeing her favorite star finally break out and get the recognition she deserved, this fan couldn’t help but cry excitedly.
Back then, Ruan Tian had just been one of many small actors and actresses with less than five minutes of screentime, but even so she had captured this fan’s heart.
After that, the fan had used various channels to chase Ruan Tian. She had secretly gone to the airport to follow Ruan Tian, watched when she had gone to an audition by herself, watched whenever she would occasionally participate in a small variety show or two, and even watched as Ruan Tian would fall asleep out of sheer tiredness while she waited to board her flights. Back then there had been many times when Ruan Tian would be forced to the corners. Times when, even though Ruan Tian was obviously standing on the stage with the other stars, she would somehow seem even more like a member of the audience than the audience members did.
After she cried for a while, the fan wiped away her tears and made a post titled “In this world, effort is really rewarded in the end.”
“Two years ago, I saw a certain little girl. Without any support from her company, she had to fight for everything on her own. She would go to auditions alone and come back with nothing to show for it, but she would never complain, she would just continue trying and trying again. For a long time she had always taken small stand-in parts where she couldn’t even show her face, and this time she finally took on small nth female lead parts with a single line, but she was still willing to come out and act. The role had her running around so much that she was so tired that she was even sleeping in the airport terminal. And then when she arrived on set the crew informed her that the role had already been cut! In the end there was nothing she could do, and she had no choice but to book the cheapest flight back the next morning. I’ve always been watching her, and she’s always been working hard.”
“TianTian got to this point, not because of luck or the blessings of the heavens, but because she was willing to endure hardship and loneliness and wade through a darkness that people outside wouldn’t ever be able to see from a casual glance.”
This sensational post was quickly forwarded over ten thousand times.