Chapter 125: It’s All Lu Xu’s Fault!

The creators of Feather of Youth never expected that the growth in box office sales would actually drive up badminton equipment sales—during the time the movie was in theaters, badminton courts across the country were fully booked.

[Are we going to play a celebrity match?]

In the group chat, Guo Yingyu sent a cautious and incredulous voice message:

[Does that include me?]

[The main focus is on the three lead actors] the director replied. [You all should start preparing.]

Feather of Youth had already reached 1.5 billion yuan at the box office. As the year-end approached, it was becoming harder to achieve further growth. Nonetheless, within the youth drama category, it was undoubtedly a representative piece.

Since the film crossed the 1-billion-yuan mark, Lu Xu and the others had been attending various forums and panel discussions. Although these were official events, after participating in a few, they realized that audiences who loved Feather of Youth had a much deeper understanding of the movie than they had initially imagined.

Knowing that their work was deeply loved inevitably moved the group.

At one particular forum, an experienced industry veteran even remarked that Feather of Youth could also be considered a work of realism. Realism wasn’t limited to narrow definitions of suffering.

The netizens naturally picked up on this implied critique.

[…I’m dying of laughter. Is this a direct jab at Song of Tears?]

[Song of Tears earned 150 million on its opening day and a total of 190 million overall. Its current rating is 6.9. But hey, the production team has already submitted it for next year’s international awards. Isn’t it amazing? Domestic films for the win—the king has arrived!]

[Song of Tears? You call that suffering? That’s the kind of thing that makes you want to slap someone hard in the face!]

The creators of Feather of Youth had long noticed a peculiar trend—comments mocking their movie often lavishly praised Song of Tears. However, as Feather of Youth continued to soar at the box office, eventually earning more than Song of Tears could even dream of, the mocking voices gradually faded away.

Of course, even the lead actors hadn’t expected Feather of Youth to reach a ten-digit box office figure!

Every penny counted!

Although Hu Yan and Guo Yingyu weren’t the type to brag about the film’s earnings—mainly out of modesty—there was no denying that Feather of Youth was the most impactful project of their acting careers!

Hu Yan’s opportunities immediately improved.

Within Ningshi Entertainment, which was rife with internal factions, the company had secured Feather of Youth for him. However, before the film’s release, this project wasn’t considered particularly prestigious—after all, Ningshi Entertainment had once tried to block Lu Xu and would never assign their most prized young actor to work alongside him.

But now… Hu Yan had suddenly become the highest-grossing actor in Ningshi Entertainment’s history.

It sounded absurd, but it was true.

Ningshi Entertainment’s actors primarily dominated the television drama market, where their top stars performed well. But their performance in the film market had always been mediocre.

This was partly due to the exclusivity of the film industry, where major directors produced only a limited number of works, leaving Ningshi Entertainment’s resources out of reach.

In short, Hu Yan was now being cast as the male lead in dramas arranged by the company. If the opportunity arose, Ningshi Entertainment was even eager for him to collaborate with Lu Xu a few more times—Lu Xu’s inexplicable career success was almost supernatural, and no management company could afford to ignore it.

As for Guo Yingyu, she was already signed to a renowned director’s studio, so her resources had never been lacking. What she had been missing was popularity, and Feather of Youth perfectly filled that gap.

As for Lu Xu—

Not long ago, Feiyang Entertainment updated its official website, moving Lu Xu’s photo to the top spot. He had officially become the company’s number one star.

In truth, ever since Lu Xu signed with Feiyang Entertainment, the resources the company could provide him had dwindled. Most of the opportunities he took were external, while Feiyang’s “legacy resources” were divided among their other signed artists.

At this point, Feiyang Entertainment had essentially adopted a hands-off approach with Lu Xu, leaving him to operate independently. After all, movies like Deception and Feather of Youth, each surpassing 1 billion yuan at the box office, were far beyond anything Feiyang could reach, no matter how hard they tried.

Although Feiyang Entertainment remained a well-known agency in the entertainment industry, the company’s annual financial reports were closely tied to Lu Xu’s success. Unlike other stars who, after becoming famous, went on a spree of endorsement deals, Lu Xu’s commercial partnerships were relatively few.

The difference was that the partnerships he signed typically lasted three years or more, with astronomical endorsement fees. Combined with his film earnings and appearance fees for variety shows—well, to put it simply, he was loaded.

Recently, a media outlet released a ranking of box office earnings for young actors under 30. Lu Xu was placed firmly in first. Since there were so few young actors with leading roles in films, the media decided to list every eligible actor—

Lu Xu took the top spot, while Qi Di, the lead in Song of Tears, ranked thirteenth.

[Wait, Qi Di’s leading-role box office earnings are this low???]

[He always used How Much Do You Know for clout—people actually thought he was the lead actor in that film!]

[…To be fair, he’s only the third lead in How Much Do You Know, right? And isn’t there even a second lead? He’s always acting like the flagbearer of the new generation, but his actual leading-role stats are awful. The only reason he clashed with Lu Xu was because he just had to steal the spotlight.]

[Hilarious. Lu Xu doesn’t give him face at all.]

[With two films raking in over 3 billion yuan domestically—and even more if you include overseas box office—Lu Xu’s stats are maxed out. Honestly, I’ve been wanting to say this for a while: doesn’t anyone think Qi Di is just trying to piggyback off Lu Xu’s fame? He keeps comparing himself to Lu Xu, but when you look at the numbers, he’s nothing more than a rookie.]

[!!! If it weren’t for this stats breakdown, I wouldn’t have known Qi Di’s leading-role performance was this bad. Unbelievable! And yet, every actor ranked above him is more low-key than he is!]

[Actually… if you look at third-lead stats, there are actors with better numbers than him. But they stay humble, don’t rely on marketing, and are content to play supporting roles.]

When Qi Di saw the trending topic, he was attending an event for a film week. His expression immediately faltered, and his face darkened in an instant. It wasn’t until his assistant quietly reminded him that Qi Di managed to force a smile and finish taking photos with fans.

During the promotion period for Song of Tears, Qi Di had been working very hard, accommodating all kinds of fan requests and trying to dispel the rumors about his “double standards.”

For him, maintaining a low profile was no easy task.

“Take down that trending topic,” he said coldly the moment he got backstage. “Are you sure this wasn’t something Lu Xu bought?”

The assistant stood silent.

First of all, it was just a ranking list. Trying to take it down would only make it look more suspicious.

Second, Lu Xu had no reason to buy a trending topic.

The assistant remained motionless, which only made Qi Di’s expression even darker. “Didn’t you hear me? Hurry up and deal with it!”

Feather of Youth wasn’t even in direct competition with Song of Tears, but in the eyes of the public, Feather of Youth had easily defeated Song of Tears.

Lu Xu’s decision to abandon Song of Tears in favor of Feather of Youth was heavily promoted by marketing accounts, painting Lu Xu as exceptionally wise and making Qi Di seem like a fool by comparison.

Qi Di was practically seething with rage.

Those people simply didn’t understand the depth of Song of Tears.

They were all tasteless fools!

Now, Qi Di could only hope that Liu Rennong Studio would speed up its efforts to secure an award for Song of Tears. With an award in hand, he wouldn’t have to keep being compared to Lu Xu.

In the end, Qi Di couldn’t hold back his emotions. After the film week event concluded, some reporters cornered him and asked for his opinion on Feather of Youth.

Qi Di could barely conceal his impatience anymore. “Some actors need box office numbers, but I need a good reputation. Is that so hard to understand?”

Qi Di’s tone was so unpleasant that the reporter froze in place. Without waiting for a follow-up question, Qi Di walked off and left the scene entirely.

The reporter repeated Qi Di’s words verbatim to Lu Xu.

Lu Xu responded with a smile, “I’m different. I want it all.”

“I think my reputation is pretty good too. Isn’t it?”

Fans immediately chimed in:

[You can have it all! You can have it all!]

[Of course, of course, of course!]

Online, however, the discussion about Qi Di quickly spiraled:

[Qi Di’s double standards are acting up again. Back when How Much Do You Know had a massive box office, he couldn’t stop bragging about it. Now that Song of Tears flopped, he’s suddenly all about his so-called ‘reputation.’]

[‘Song of Tears’ and ‘reputation’ don’t belong in the same sentence. It’s a scam movie!]

[Reputation = a 6.9 rating? Hahaha!]

Qi Di, once again, was infuriated by Lu Xu.

After both actors gave their interviews, some viewers even put together a direct comparison of their works’ reputations. Lu Xu’s films were consistently rated around 9.5, while Qi Di’s, apart from the high-budget How Much Do You Know—where he wasn’t the lead—hovered around the 8.0 mark.

[Of course, Lu Xu needs box office success. His average global box office per movie is only 3 billion yuan. Clearly, there’s room to grow. [doge emojis]]

[Lu Xu will never in his life get to star in a grand production like How Much Do You Know. Hahaha, I can’t stop laughing.]

What truly pushed Qi Di over the edge was hearing that a movie he had been longing to star in was now considering Lu Xu for the male lead.

“What for? What does Lu Xu have?”

When Qi Di roared in frustration, even his assistant looked at him like something was off.

Lu Xu, after all, had films with tens of times the box office return, massive popularity, and the highest-tier awards in the TV industry.

Whoever can generate box office revenue is naturally who film companies will turn to.

The box office for Song of Tears didn’t even reach 200 million yuan—let alone 2 billion. Yet, Qi Di didn’t seem to have a clear understanding of this reality.

Even with all the resources at Liu Rennong Studio’s disposal, they couldn’t possibly make up for the multi-billion yuan gap between Feather of Youth and Song of Tears.

Qi Di was pinning his hopes on winning an award, but the problem was—Zhang Zhizhen had also won plenty of awards, but The Swordsman flopped so hard it sent everyone into a frenzy.

Making movies costs money. Even the worst films, if they can turn a profit of tens or hundreds of millions after covering costs, don’t need the director to ask—the production company will enthusiastically greenlight a sequel.

Look at Deception 2—neither Yue Hui’s nor Director Gao Xingchuan’s schedules have been locked in yet, but that hasn’t stopped the industry from pushing for a second installment to rake in overseas box office revenue.

Profit is the ultimate driving force.

Even Qi Di’s assistant felt that comparing him to Lu Xu was inappropriate at this point. Sure, Feather of Youth was a simple film, but that didn’t mean Lu Xu’s role was easy to play. And even if Lu Xu’s acting were utterly mediocre, it wouldn’t stop Feather of Youth from being a box office smash.

Qi Di had completely lost touch with reality.

Liu Rennong Studio, which hadn’t signed many actors, initially brought Qi Di on board because of his perceived potential for growth. But over the years, his results had been lackluster, while his temper only seemed to grow worse with each passing day.

In truth, being rejected by the production team wasn’t even the height of Qi Di’s humiliation. What made it even worse was that Lu Xu had actually turned down the very movie Qi Di had been eyeing for so long.

Qi Di had spent ages trying to win that role, only to be ignored by the production team—while Lu Xu outright refused it!

And Qi Di was convinced it was all because of Lu Xu’s fans!

To this day, Qi Di believed that the viral set of photos exposing his differential treatment of domestic and international fans had been leaked by Lu Xu’s fans. That incident was the biggest setback of his acting career.

He even blamed Lu Xu for unrelated things, like not finding toilet paper in the restroom, claiming it was because his popularity had declined and why he wasn’t taken as seriously as before.

His recent insomnia and hair loss? Also Lu Xu’s fault.

In Qi Di’s eyes, everything was Lu Xu’s fault!

Of course, Lu Xu had no idea what Qi Di was thinking. But if he did, he would probably send toilet paper to Qi Di immediately—because even that was too ridiculous a burden for him to carry.

He’d never resort to such clumsy tactics.

In fact, Lu Xu joked that if he really wanted to, he could endorse every brand of paper products on the market just to ensure Qi Di would never have any to use.

Even if Lu Xu were startled awake in the middle of the night, he’d probably think: There’s something seriously wrong with Qi Di.

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