Chapter 101
Even in a luxurious villa on a remote island overseas, a small, round pearl “da-da-da” rolled onto the floor.
Then, like a broken string of pearls, large and small pearls scattered, like a shower of pearls on a jade plate.
“Ya… A- A-Ran, sob!”
Ossi blankly hugged his toy, looking at the rolling credits after the movie “Mountain” ended, his big eyes red from crying.
The nanny was scared and tried to collect Ossi’s pearl tears, but the more she picked up, the more there were.
Shaman, beside him, also wanted to comfort his friend, but the plot was indeed too heartbreaking, and this shark cub, who always considered himself a tough guy, also started crying while comforting him.
“Damn, A-Ran actually died——!”
But how could A-Ran die?
A-Ran wouldn’t die!
And why did even the scene of A-Ran dying look so beautiful?
In the last close-up shot directed by Director Ma Sai, the usually fair and clean face of the educated youth teacher from the city was covered in mud.
Even in his hurried gasps, one could feel his unbearable pain, and bright red blood slowly trickled down his forehead.
Lin Ran’s skin was already fair, and stained with bright red blood, it had a unique beauty.
His dark hair, eyebrows, and eyes were all wet from the heavy rain, and the blood-colored droplets on his eyelashes, whether rain or tears, finally rolled down with his trembling eyelashes.
The next second, he completely stopped breathing, and a young life quietly disappeared in this landslide.
Although most demons couldn’t understand that this was actually a classic “battle-damaged” beauty in cinematic language.
The more a sickly beauty coughed up blood, the more the audience wanted to break the screen and jump in to save them.
But the demon audience couldn’t help but cry while wanting to rewatch it again and again, as if torturing themselves.
And they cried even harder after watching it again.
Some resourceful demons had even posted the movie clip of Lin Ran, playing the young educated youth teacher, dying on the “Demon World” forum right after the first global screening ended.
And the uproar caused by this short clip was beyond expectations.
Because as soon as any demon logged in, whether or not they knew that this was a human movie, their eyes were immediately drawn to the picture in the post that was pinned to the top of the homepage.
Who could resist a battle-damaged, teary-eyed A-Ran!?
“[Ah, what happened to our A-Ran——it makes my heart ache to see him cry, let alone bleed? Heavens, I have thick blood, take mine instead?!]”
“[Is this a new card face from ‘Demon World’? Even if it’s a card, I can’t accept it, how could our A-Ran die, let me spend money to resurrect him! (Frantic breakdown)]”
The comments from the heartbroken and shocked demons instantly exceeded a thousand, pushing the original poster’s explanation to many pages later, frantically explaining that this wasn’t an interaction card from “Demon World,” but a movie from the human world!
“[This isn’t a card, but a human movie! The human actor inside looks exactly like A-Ran, and even the name in the cast list is the same!]”
But this explanation, undoubtedly spreading rapidly among the demons, made everyone even more shocked and tearful.
“[What? So you’re saying that this is actually a real human actor?!]”
“[Wait, I have a bold idea… if this human actor A-Ran falls in love with me (Little cat licking lips.jpg)] Wouldn’t that be self-insert into reality?
Many demons even started to become curious.
Who could resist their favorite character suddenly turning from a 2D NPC into a real human?
“[Hey, the person above, I’m warning you, don’t even think about it, stop! Admin, please block them!]”
Of course, there were also many mom and dad fans who started to scold these delusional fans, and the entire forum became a chaotic mess.
“[Stop arguing, go buy tickets first, everyone. I swear this human movie is really good. There are more scenes of this actor in the movie, not just these!]”
“[That’s right, I admit that A-Ran as a teacher in the mountains is also very attractive. His white shirt seems to glow when he’s teaching]”
“[And the scene where A-Ran reads to the cub for bedtime when the protagonist is feeling down, I also really like it TwT]”
Many demons who had seen the movie at the premiere started to strongly recommend it.
What was the point of arguing now?
Only after seeing how similar they were with their own eyes would they know how shocking it was.
More importantly, how could they be the only ones crying? If they were going to cry, they should all cry together.
“[Help, but the tickets are all sold out? I only managed to get tickets for a showing seven days later? I hesitated for a moment, and even the ones seven days later are gone!]”
And the domino effect was that many demons who were a step slower found that they couldn’t buy tickets.
Countless popular showtimes around the world were sold out?
Was this reasonable?
“Sold out in advance?”
Director Ma Sai and the others looked at the latest global premiere data and felt like they were dreaming.
No matter how popular a movie was, they had never encountered such an abnormal situation.
Moreover, his film wasn’t a commercial blockbuster. Director Ma Sai had even prepared himself for criticism and poor box office performance due to its serious and tragic theme.
“It is said that after watching the first round of premieres, some fans around the world chose to directly buy out all the showtimes for the next few days, resulting in many viewers who wanted to watch it having no tickets.”
“But many cinemas are already urgently adding more showtimes.”
The assistant explained the currently observed data.
Theoretically, this kind of fan-organized group buying to boost box office numbers wasn’t unheard of.
But only popular stars with experimental films would have fans pooling money to buy out showtimes and help boost the box office, trying to make the numbers look better.
“So whose fans are they?”
Director Ma Sai started to recall the cast list.
“Not sure… but the latest news is that after interviewing a few viewers who did this, they all said they only had one request.”
“What request?”
“Make a second film and resurrect A-Ran! And a few even said they could provide additional investment and tried to contact you, the director team, and the production team.”
The assistant’s voice became softer and softer.
After all, how could there be such a bizarre request in the human world? Was Director Ma Sai a director who could be swayed by money?
Director Ma Sai: ?
Lin Ran wasn’t a popular star at all, just an amateur college student.
Therefore, the possibility of fans concentrating their efforts to boost data was non-existent.
Could it be that his proud plot had truly conquered so many viewers?
“Sigh, forget it, no matter how long this craze lasts, at least it’s a good start.”
At this time, Director Ma Sai and the other film executives didn’t take this matter seriously, thinking that this was probably just a few extreme fans expressing their love.
After all, because of a character’s death in a movie, fans angrily investing and demanding a sequel to resurrect the character, this was too ridiculous.
How rich and spoiled did one have to be?
At the same time, the search volume for “Jiang Lin Ran,” this newcomer cameo actor, had indeed skyrocketed. Most human movie fans were simply surprised by the attention he had attracted.
But considering his performance in the movie, it didn’t seem too unusual.
As for the countless flights to Country C being sold out, no one could link this phenomenon to the premiere of “Mountain.”
At most, after confirming that the data wasn’t wrong, the ticketing team curiously thought:
Who was in Country C?
Why was everyone going to Country C?
Fortunately, Lin Ran, as a cameo actor, was taken away from the venue through the staff passage by the experienced An Xun before the premiere ended.
Therefore, he perfectly avoided being caught by the excited audience and, while Grandma was in the restroom, comforted the cubs in the car who were crying like fountains.
“Look, there’s no injury on your forehead? You’ve already checked it five times, Sootball.”
Lin Ran looked at Sootball, who was like a black, fluffy sponge squirting water, and was amused and exasperated.
“Cheep, cheep!”
Sootball sobbed in A-Ran’s arms, crying “Cheep” while his tears soaked Lin Ran’s collar.
He even pitifully tried to repeatedly confirm that A-Ran’s forehead hadn’t been hit by a rock, and his arm hadn’t been broken or twisted by the landslide.
Little Feather wasn’t much better.
He started sulking while crying, angry at himself.
He hated himself for not thinking of blowing up all the mountains in the world in advance to prevent them from collapsing and burying A-Ran in the rainstorm!
After finally comforting Sootball, Lin Ran found that Little Feather was sitting in front of him with tears in his eyes, and he almost sighed.
It was so difficult to coax them, help.
Now, they were all crying.
As for the only one who wasn’t crying…
Looking at Shao Mian, Lin Ran found that his expression hadn’t improved either, staring at him intently, as if something would happen to him if he wasn’t careful.
Lin Ran inexplicably had a bad feeling, wouldn’t he be treated like a glass doll for the next few months?
It was all Director Ma Sai’s fault for filming those scenes so well, they were so moving that Lin Ran couldn’t even believe that he looked quite good even when coughing up blood.
Although he felt a little embarrassed praising his own good looks.
Lin Ran, sighing inwardly, finally had time to take out his phone and, as expected, found that the messages on his social media accounts had also exceeded 999+.
[Chaotic Roommates Group]
[Zhu Yao: Lin-zai——my god, your acting was too good! I’m bowing down in worship. My sister became a fan of both you and An Xun after coming out of the cinema]
Zhu Yao’s sister had always been a die-hard fan of An Xun. She never expected that after specially getting tickets to support the premiere of “Mountain,” she would be moved by the interaction between An Xun and Lin Ran.
[Luo Xiao: You acted really well, Lin-zai, are you planning to develop a multi-faceted career?]
Luo Xiao, finally having a short holiday, had just walked out of the cinema with his family, his mood still unsettled.
After learning that Lin Ran was Luo Xiao’s roommate, his family couldn’t help but ask him all sorts of questions.
Luo Xiao’s mother, a sentimental lady, even wiped her tears and asked Luo Xiao to invite Lin Ran to their house for dinner so that she could see him in person.
It made Luo Xiao feel that Lin-zai had truly become a giant panda, everyone wanted to see him.
[A-Ran: [Line dog crying and lying down.jpg]]
Lin Ran really couldn’t reply to the messages and only had time to send a crying puppy emoji in the dormitory group chat.
Zhu Yao and the others couldn’t help but laugh after seeing it.
They thought that it was a good thing Lin-zai had gone back to his hometown for the short holiday, otherwise, he would be surrounded by people when he went to class.
The “Demon World” main consciousness, after noticing the data fluctuations on the forum, also sneaked into a cinema and watched the entire movie while squatting on the ceiling.
The blue light ball trembled for more than ten minutes, shedding countless water-drop-shaped data before instantly disappearing.
Countless demons who were either going to Country C to try and find A-Ran, or browsing the forum to see if any big shots had found the latest information on this human actor, suddenly found that “Demon World” had launched a limited-time rescue event for “Bandaged Little Man” A-Ran!
As long as they completed a series of tasks, they could successfully rescue A-Ran, who was crushed by a mountain on their phone screens.
After activating the “Bandaged Little Man” limited-time card face, A-Ran would have a white bandage wrapped around his forehead, quietly sitting on the phone screen in a hospital gown, his big, dark eyes looking at you obediently.
As for wanting to further heal A-Ran’s forehead and arm, in short, it involved a series of time-consuming and money-spending gameplay!
But after being healed, when the bandage was gently removed by the player, A-Ran would reveal a shy and gentle smile.
“Thank you! It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Round speech bubbles appeared above the chibi’s head, instantly melting the hearts of the demons who were heartbroken.
So, so cute, this was too cute!?
The kind of cuteness that made them want to kiss their phone screens bald.
[Although this limited-time card event is time-consuming and expensive, I have to praise Demon World, this derivative work is well-made, it greatly comforted my sadness after watching that damn human movie]
[Release more of these in the future, okay? It’s so cute, Bandaged Little Man A-Ran!]
[It’s so cute that I want to give the whole world to him, film the second movie according to this! (Fainting)]
The demons on the forum were having a blast, and Lin Ran, finding that Yuanbao was also proficiently spending money on his phone to clear the card levels, looked at Yuanbao with disbelief.
“No, what game is this?”
“Cough, this is the demon version of the ‘Demon World’ game.”
Shao Mian wasn’t guilty at all, although he silently hid the several special card outfits he had collected in his closet.
After studying Shao Mian’s phone screen for a while, Lin Ran realized that he was actually raising a chibi version of himself.
Lin Ran didn’t expect that the demon version of “Demon World” seemed to be a completely different game from his version.
If one was a kind little angel, the other was definitely a money-grubbing demon.
“So what’s so fun about this? Don’t you think this is a scam?”
It just felt like boring dress-up, and it was very expensive and time-consuming.
Any normal player would uninstall and curse, right?
“Mm, it’s indeed not as good-looking as the real person.”
Shao Mian’s words successfully silenced Lin Ran.
Lin Ran blushed and felt that he shouldn’t have discussed this with Yuanbao.
Actually, Shao Mian, seeing that the other little ones had finally cried themselves to sleep in the back seat of the car, really wanted to transform back into a big lion and cuddle them.
Although looking at Lin Ran, who was sitting properly in front of him and even blushing and getting angry, Shao Mian felt that this was very good.
The only bad thing was that the one in the movie hadn’t been resurrected yet.
Just like the trending topic said.
“Forget it, but I’m actually a little worried about Snowball.”
Lin Ran finally sighed, truly unable to understand the fun these demons had.
But at the end of the premiere, seeing Snowball hurriedly leaving with Fu Yan, Lin Ran felt that he really needed to discuss Snowball’s matter with Yuanbao, whether he should get involved.
But just as he thought of Snowball, Lin Ran found that his phone suddenly started vibrating with message notifications again.
[Luo Xiao: Lin-zai, did you go to the premiere with An Xun today?]
[Lin Ran: ? How did you know QAQ]
The moment he received the message, Lin Ran subconsciously looked out the car window, wondering if he was being monitored, how could he guess that?
[Luo Xiao: You were photographed and are trending. Everyone was heartbroken after watching the movie, but there’s candy outside the cinema.]
Although Luo Xiao didn’t say what he really wanted to ask, which was, who was that mysterious person beside him?
Actually, just as the popularity of “Mountain” continued to ferment, a new trending topic unexpectedly appeared.
This time, it was simply because of a photo.
But after this photo was privately circulated, it spread at an unimaginable speed among the heartbroken fans’ phones.
[Stop crying, everyone, isn’t it good to have some behind-the-scenes candy! Although it’s a bad ending in the movie, we’re doing well outside the movie. It seems that An Xun and A-Ran watched the premiere together! Here’s the proof——[Photo]]
And the timing of this photo was undoubtedly superb.
Lin Ran was holding An Xun’s hand, seemingly asking the little guy if he wanted to buy some snacks, his casual clothes giving him a gentle and refreshing aura.
Although An Xun was wearing a mask, familiar fans could still vaguely recognize him.
And his sparkling eyes looking at A-Ran instantly reminded everyone of the movie “Mountain.”
This was clearly a modern remake sequel of An Xun and A-Ran!
[Sob, sob, sob, okay, okay, the actors personally filmed a modern version of the sequel, right? This time, we’re not in that special era anymore, the ending must be a happy one!]
[It’s so beautiful, truly so beautiful, as expected, they look good even in modern clothes! I knew it from the photos dug up from the S University campus posts, A-Ran looks even better in modern clothes.]
Of course, while countless movie fans were amazed and comforted, some experienced netizens also found clues.
[But doesn’t everyone feel that this photo seems to be cropped? ]
An Xun’s other hand seemed to be held by someone.
“So who took this photo?”
Although the tone of a certain big lion, one of the protagonists, didn’t change, his aura and mood clearly changed after seeing the trending topic.
“There’s no need to be angry about this, Yuanbao? Although it was taken secretly, it’s quite a good shot.”
Lin Ran chuckled in surprise.
If it could comfort those who had watched the movie, it was good that this photo was taken.
“But why were you cropped out? Because you’re not a public figure?”
Then this paparazzi was quite professional.
Because the photo was really good, Lin Ran even wanted to print it out and frame it, but Yuanbao was cropped out.
“Heh.”
At this moment, Shao Mian, with an expressionless face, had already decided to find this paparazzi and personally teach him to repost the photo with all three of them.
If he couldn’t take photos, he shouldn’t.
What was the point of leaving someone out? Could it be that he wasn’t presentable?
He couldn’t even expose news properly, and he still wanted to be a paparazzi!?
[Big lion furious.jpg]
In fact, this was somewhat wronging Yu Le, the reporter.
Because after watching the movie, Yu Le finally realized that he had taken an incredible photo.
The two people in the photo were 99% certain to be An Xun and Lin Ran, these two actors!
And Yu Le also recalled many rumors about “Mountain,” such as An Xun still studying and catching up on his cultural knowledge while filming, and even the university student who tutored him had a cameo role.
But most people who heard this gossip from the film crew basically assumed that this cameo was just a background actor with no prospects.
At most, they would sigh that An Xun was a rare child star who didn’t neglect his studies.
But if this person was Lin Ran, then they were really interested now.
But his sense of professional crisis made Yu Le subconsciously search and confirm the identity of the other unfamiliar but impossible-to-ignore protagonist in the photo before posting it.
Since Lin Ran and An Xun could be recognized, what was the background of this person?
Could he also be an actor?
And after searching, seeing the few words of professional background information that popped up a few seconds later, Yu Le froze.
Although this person wasn’t an actor, he could totally be an investor, right!?
Strangely, Yu Le searched for a long time, but he was certain that Morson, this famous multinational giant, wasn’t among the investors of “Mountain.”
After hesitating, Yu Le still decided to manage his own risks and carefully cropped out this non-public figure, so as not to offend someone of this level for the sake of a momentary hot topic.
Otherwise, who knew what the consequences would be.
But what Yu Le never expected was that the person he carefully cropped out after much deliberation might actually want to be exposed by the paparazzi.
Being deliberately cropped out made a certain large golden tabby furious.
And at the same moment, a shipping press conference on the other side of the world unexpectedly attracted huge attention.
“We are indeed considering investing in the filming of ‘Mountain 2,’ but I don’t know if Director Ma Sai has any relevant plans.”
At the press conference, when Atylanthos said this, the cameras of all the reporters started flashing frantically.
What kind of cross-dimensional news was this?
Ross Marine, the most famous and professional shipping company in the Southern Hemisphere, was actually starting to invest in the film industry, and even clearly expressed their optimism about a sequel to Director Ma Sai’s new work, “Mountain”?
Then the rumors of Director Ma Sai being unable to attract investment in recent years due to critical acclaim but poor box office performance were completely debunked.
Ross Marine’s cash flow was famously excellent, and it was said that there were no goods they couldn’t transport on the sea.
“As for the reason for considering expanding into the film industry in the next ten years, it might be because my younger brother really wants to see a second film. He’s currently a small fan of that Chinese actor, Lin Ran. Of course, I am too.”
Atylanthos smiled slightly at the camera, certain that he would be the most eye-catching in the news photos from this angle.
The spread of news reports was definitely much more efficient than personally flying to Country C to find someone.
“Ya——!”
As for Ossi at home, watching his brother on the TV screen, he also seriously raised his hand and agreed, the pearls in the small box he was holding rattling.
If he wasn’t being held back, Ossi felt that he could swim across the ocean to find A-Ran, there was no need to wait for a human visa!
