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Chapter 60: Black Powder on the Face
Shen Jintai stared at Yan Qiuchi’s photo trying to figure out the difference between him and the male protagonist. Why did everyone think that compared to Yan Qiuchi, he was the receiver when they saw him?
After a while of contemplating, he thought that their thoughts couldn’t be blamed. After all this was a gentleman-type attacker that the author had spent a lot of time shaping. However, if they didn’t use Yan Qiuchi as a reference, he felt that he would be the more obvious attacker if it was between him and Bai Qingquan.
The mind determines the temperament, and he is resolutely an attacker, even if his physique currently didn’t resemble one. It’s just not possible for him to a receiver.
The East Palace will be finished filming in less than month and Shen Jintai’s schedule had been vacated. Qiu Hong however encountered difficulties. He couldn’t attract investment for the original version of the script. The original edition was a literary and artistic film that had warm and soft feelings and no explosive point.
Shen Jintai: “How much investment do you need?”
Qiu Hong: “About 20 million*.”
*About $314,000 USD in today’s exchange rate. Compared to the average for an indie film, it’s not that expensive (of course I’m looking at it from a US market).
Shen Jintai “What if I don’t take remuneration?”
Qiu Hong: “It’ll still be more than 10 million. The film is a chronological film that spans for a long period of time, which makes it more expensive. If I produce this film, I still hope to make it an abstract* film.”
Clarity: the word used here is “textured”, which I have been using a lot in the previous chapters. I did some research, and this is what they mean when they say texture in films:  All films have texture. Texture has an important sensory dimension; it expresses the feel of something and thus evokes responses. It also encompasses broader expressions of quality and nature relating to the weaving of a cloth, a web, or a narrative.
If it was one or two million, Shen Jintai felt he could sponsor it. However, 10 million was out of his range.
Now that Shen Jintai was popuar, he could probably pull in investments using his name for <Welcome Rain on a Spring Night>. As the hottest actor in The East Palace, everyone was focused on what Shen Jintai’s next project would be.
“I was really impressed with Touhua. After he made a big hit, he chose a literary and artistic movie. It seems that he truly wanted to take the path of an actor.”
“The director of <Welcome Rain on a Spring Night> is Qiu Hong who made <Yellow Flowers of Yesterday>. I quite like this new director. He seems to have won an award for his last film.”
“Although I admire Touhua’s choice, I am not optimistic. Look at Bai Qingquan. He followed up The East Palace with a modern idol drama. This is the wisest choice. Touhua needs to explode again to consolidate his position to continue to flow this year and overflow next.”
“Is <Welcome Rain on a Spring Night> the same plot your district was talking about? If so, I want to watch it. There should be a lot of passionate scenes. And Touhua’s figure, tut tut.”
“Touhua’s figure is really the best. He was broadcasted last week laying on a bed with a loose-fitting shirt. I saw the barrage of all his fans complimenting him. Made me laugh to death.”
“If the barrage is on when The East Palace is showing Touhua without clothes, it’s almost impossible to watch. If <Welcome Rain on a Spring Night> is really the plot that we have seen before… My god, the flow of Touhua will explode.”
“As a passerby fan, I really don’t want him to take on this kind of meat-selling drama. Are his follow up resources so abusive? There’s no other cake besides this movie?”
“Looking at it now, Touhua’s sexual orientation greatly affected his career. He was so crazy for love at the beginning, but the man didn’t want it and it had impacted his career. I wonder if he regrets it now.”
“Lost east, reaped mulberry*. If he hadn’t like men in reality, how could Li Xu’s character become so popular? The audience is divided. The character filters that Li Xu brought him were terrifying, which directly contributed to his comeback against the winds.”
*Lost east, reaped mulberry (失之东隅收之桑榆) = metaphor meaning initially lost or temporarily lost in one aspect but was compensated in the end.
Xiao Qi was an extremely determined black fan. Her aversion to Shen Jintai was not diluted at all from Li Xu’s role. On the contrary, seeing Shen Jintai getting more popular, it made it more unbearable for her that she couldn’t even eat. She would blacken him on Weibo, TikTok, and forums whenever she caught an opportunity.
“It’s a bit of an exaggeration to say that his comeback is against the wind,” she replied: “Who doesn’t know how much Monsoon Entertainment loves to hype and how much he himself loves hype. If he was really popular, his follow-up resources wouldn’t be so abused. He would be able to secure reliable film and television resources. It’s just there was nothing better for him. <Welcome Rain on a Spring Night> is most suitable for him. Sell it, show it, charm it, that baby knows best*.”
*Translation help: (卖，骚嘛，沈媚，娃最会了) Not really sure about the translation here.
Unfortunately, the Shen Jintai of today was no longer the easily blacken Shen Jintai of the past. He had countless gold powders with fierce combat power. Xiao Qi was immediately scolded so badly that she cried while holding her phone.
Those group of mean maidservants, those group of idiots! Why are they so angry with her!
She retaliated by posting a lot of moving pictures of ghosts and animals doing the “head flower dance” in a row, but no one was surprised by the meme anymore. A while ago, moonlight powders and plum powders were dissatisfied that Shen Jintai had absorbed all the heat of The East Palace alone, so they jointly besiege gold powder and issue waves of the meme. After surviving that wave, it became old news.
The GIF of The East Palace where Shen Jintai’s clothes were torn off was more attractive than a lot of head flower dances. What’s more, Shen Jintai’s transformation was so thorough that everyone could truly see his changes. It didn’t make sense then to catch someone in the dark.
Xiao Qi opened a summary post of Shen Jintai’s black history in the Rabbit Area and the eight groups and posted it every other day hoping it would stink Shen Jintai. She didn’t understand. Shen Jintai’s black history was all real. Such a disgusting person was so popular. What was the reason? Such a person’s popularity in the entertainment industry is simply a poison to this circle.
It must be because too many passersby didn’t know his black history. She wanted to popularize it to them so they could all join her in scolding Shen Jintai like the bitch that he was. She realized that she couldn’t do it alone.
Fortunately, as long as a star is hot enough, there were no shortage of black powder. Even if Shen Jintai was now sought after by a majority of people, there were more than a billion people in the country. As such there would always be a group of haters.
Xiao Qi soon encountered these people and together they established an official black fan group: “No matter where you’re from, as long as you hate Touhua, you are our sister. You’re welcome to share black spots*, stone hammers*, and ugly pictures of Touhua. Note: Don’t mention other artists in this group. Just focus on the blackspots of Touhua.”
*Reminder: black spots = the information or historical records (which can be either true or not) that will have a negative impact on a celebrity or a project.
*Reminder: stone hammers = irrefutable evidence.
The number of active black fans soon reached more than 300 people. They all brainstormed and felt that Shen Jintai’s acting skills and strength could no longer be blackened. His appearance was also improving drastically so that couldn’t be use either. They decided then to ridicule his endorsements.
“As a star to have an endorsement like this is an embarrassment to the word star.”
“Touhua still makes good movies. Seducing a married man is very suitable for him. It matches his real character.”
Xiao Qi had worked so hard that she became famous with the gold powders that even Shen Jintai had heard of her.
“If they didn’t know any better, people would think that I dug up her ancestral grave or something.” Shen Jintai said as he read at her posts. He really couldn’t understand how the two people who had never known each other in their lives had such a great hatred that they would chase him so crazily like this.
“Have I had a dispute* with her before” He asked Li Meilan. He recalled that his previous black history didn’t involve this person… did it?
*Holiday (过节) = was the word used here. It means contradiction and disputes with others, or in the literal sense, carry out celebrations and other activities on festivals. I used the translated meaning to make it flow better.
Li Meilan said: “Ignore it. The world is so big, and there are many lunatics. They are those who are empty inside or failures in the real word. Giving them attention will only cause resentment.”
Becoming popular was a double-edged sword. For the first time, Shen Jintai felt that so many people liked him, and likewise, felt that many people he didn’t know hated him.
“When will the new endorsements be announced?” he asked.
Li Meilan said: “Two this week and two next week. xxx’s global endorsement is two days before New Year’s*.”
*Clarity: she’s using (春节) which translate to spring festival AKA Chinese New Year. However, the next chapter indicates it’s the end of December so I’m not sure why the author is using that word unless it’s also use interchangeably for regular New Years on the Gregorian calendar.
Despite the show being on air for more than four months, his endorsement was late to come. The main reason was because of his poor image in the past. The well-known brands were still weary. Now, with The East Palace success, they came in droves.
The later global endorsements were obtained by Monsoon Entertainment for him. This was the strongest. There had been many celebrities who have served as promotional ambassadors from Asia before, but he was the first to be a global endorser from Asia.
Shen Jintai nodded.
Xiao Tang said: “When the time comes, slap this person hard in the face and make it swell. Brother Jin, don’t be angry. The blacker we are, the redder we’ll be. Just think about it. They get angry whenever they see you and one day you’ll be seen everywhere. Wouldn’t that be funny?”
It really is. Even if they don’t understand me, they won’t get rid of me.
Shen Jintai found that it wasn’t only the love of fans that could motivate him, but black powder could influence him to work harder as well. He wanted to become popular everywhere.
His stint at The East Palace was coming to an end as his popularity reached its peak. Two high-end luxury endorsement and two national brands were announced consecutively. At the beginning of New Year’s, Shen Jintai had debuted in the January issue of Harper’s Bazaar as the global spokesperson for xxx.
Xiao Qi cried angrily for an entire day. She went out to buy deep-fried dough sticks*. She waited in line for a long time with her arms crossed. When she got her dough stick, she realized the owner gave her one less egg.
*Deep-fried dough sticks = AKA Jianbing guozi. It consists of pancakes made from mung bean flour, eggs, and fried dough sticks, served with sweet bean sauce, diced green onions and optionally chili sauce.
She was in a bad mood, so she scolded the owner angrily. The customer next to her pulled her aside and said: “Sometimes, people are busy and forget. It’s only one egg less, you have to be forgiving.”
“Fuck your mother*!” Xiao Qi flushed angrily, grabbed her deep-fried dough sticks and left. She turned her head to see the newsstand next to her, and a magazine was placed on it. Shen Jintai was on the cover. A red scarf was wrapped around him as he was looking up, smiling brightly at the falling snowflakes.
*Fuck your mother [cao ni ma] (肏你媽) = refers to grass mud horse (alpaca). Play on word for the mandarin words cao ni ma which means fuck your mother.
The big characters on the cover: “Nirvana returns*, the scenery is just right.”
*Nirvana returns/rebirth = usually refer to the Phoenix Nirvana. In legends the phoenix is the messenger of happiness. Every 500 years it will bear all unhappiness, hatred, and grievances accumulated in the world and throw itself into a raging fire, burning itself to death in exchange for peace and happiness. It is then reborn into a better body after going through tremendous pain and hardship. || This basically portrays Shen Jintai’s comeback.
The author has something to say：
There is really this kind of crazy black powder in reality.
To deal with this kind of black powder is to fight hard.
Kinky Thoughts: “It’s just not possible for him to a receiver.” Shen Jintai’s going to eat those words…
As I said before, I don’t really understand the mindset of haters/black powder. Sure, I have celebrities I dislike, and mind you their actions are way worst than what past Shen Jintai ever did, but I don’t make it my mission to actively hate and post hateful stuff about them. Like most normal people, I just ignore them, don’t buy/listen/support their products, and move on with my life.
The best way to show your dislike to a celebrity? Don’t support them. Crazy how some people can’t wrap around that concept. It’s much harder to actively hate someone than to just not think about them.