Chapter 232: Born-Talented Contestant, Fed by the Heavens

"Holy shit! Over five billion! Did that kid Bai Liang hack the game?!"

If Yang Xing had seen Huang Jingyu acting this jumpy before, she would have surely scolded him a bit, telling him not to make such a big fuss and to calm down.

But this time, she couldn't stay calm either.

What the hell is this movie, how did it suddenly shoot up to over five billion?!

Even with Yang Xing's extensive experience in the industry, this was still far beyond her imagination—by more than a little.

How to put it—regret, deep regret!

Now she felt she hadn't been fast enough back then, and even more, not ruthless enough!

She should have tried every possible way to sign Bai Liang.

But actually, this wasn't the first time Yang Xing felt regret. She'd reviewed it several times and still felt she probably didn't have any good way to do it.

She thought for a long time and felt the only chance was at that commercial KTV.

Back then, Bai Liang could work under Old Zhou, so naturally he could work under her too.

Because at the time, he knew nothing about the entertainment circle.

Unless she had "taken in" Bai Liang on the spot back then, she had no chance at any point afterward.

Starting from the second film, companies like Tang Ren came to compete, and by then it was already too late.

Whose fault was it that Bai Liang rose too fast and had too much luck?

Who could have imagined that a contestant who ran solo from debut could charge straight to top-tier fame and keep soaring higher.

After being depressed for a while, Yang Xing noticed Huang Jingyu looked even more depressed than her, so she teased: "Aren't you two good buddies? No need to be this unable to stand his success, right?"

Huang Jingyu wore a face as if mourning his parents. "His rise is certainly a good thing, but... we made a bet!"

"A bet? Betting on what?"

"Betting on the box office of 'Wolf Warrior 2' and 'Operation Red Sea'—both male second leads, both modern warfare themes..."

As he spoke, he scratched his head frantically. Damn, we're done for!

He felt that Bai Liang had already started grinning and plotting against him. God knows what underhanded tricks that guy would come up with.

He can't really make me streak, can he?

Brother Liang, please no~

Alright, alright, alright!

Yang Xing, who had been depressed, suddenly burst into laughter.

That was over five billion at the box office!

Just for this courage, she was willing to call Huang Jingyu the strongest!

"Think on the bright side—since their 'Wolf Warrior 2' is a massive hit, 'Red Sea' with the same theme can also benefit from the audience and theme dividend. Do you know how many similar themed projects have been greenlit in the circle now? Those bandwagoners chasing easy money, one—they don't have enough time, and two—they can't possibly match 'Red Sea's' production and crew."

Hearing this, Huang Jingyu felt much better. Though he lost the bet, it seemed his good brother was still looking out for him.

The other guy gets the meat, and can still bring him some soup~

"Sister Yang, do you think our movie can hit five billion at the box office?" Huang Jingyu asked the next second, putting on a fawning face.

Sister Yang:... Really want to punch him so hard his canines fall out.

"When you have nothing to do, spend more time bonding with your Brother Liang. If you don't make it big in the future, you might still need him to give you a leg up."

Huang Jingyu noticed that Sister Yang, who used to always call him "Little White," now rarely used that form of address.

Although calling him "Little White" felt more intimate, it also somewhat carried a sense of placing oneself above the other.

The current Sister Yang no longer did that.

Not to mention Bai Liang—even with Sister Yanzi, Sister Yang no longer used that senior-giving-advice tone, but communicated as equals in the same industry.

It still makes one somewhat wistful.

In the past, when Huang Jingyu and Bai Liang stood before Sister Yang, they were like lackeys; whatever scraps fell from her fingers were enough to fill them up.

But now, Sister Yang didn't even bring up the matter of signing Bai Liang anymore.

The reason was simple—she couldn't afford to.

How to sign him? Give him half the company? Whether he'd even want it was doubtful.

Just then, Huang Jingyu's phone suddenly buzzed with a WeChat message. After reading it, he couldn't help exclaiming again:

"Damn! That's way too real!"

"What now?"

"The 'Jie Ai · My Lord's First Love' side asked me to check—during next year's drama promo, can they tag Bai Liang's name and stills on Weibo? He only had a cameo in two scenes!"

"That's perfectly normal. With such huge buzz, anyone would want to ride the wave," Yang Xing felt it was quite reasonable—she'd do the same.

"Yeah, makes sense. When he did the cameo earlier, the female lead also wanted to ride the wave a bit..."

"Song Qian?" Yang Xing looked at Huang Jingyu speechlessly. "She's your female lead. How is it that when Bai Liang went over once, he even stole your female lead away from you? Can you show some backbone?"

"Sister Yang, his show seems to have its finale tonight. That kid Bai Liang was bragging to me, saying this episode is super awesome."

The topic change was pretty clumsy, but it piqued Yang Xing's interest.

How awesome?! —

'Divas Over the World' Season 3, the final episode!

On the day this episode aired, 'Wolf Warrior 2's' box office had already reached 5.5 billion.

But honestly, the box office trend was already starting to show some signs of fatigue.

This could barely be considered in line with market logic—after all, so-called experience and the market had long lost their reference value in the face of this film.

Still, many breathed a sigh of relief now that it was finally starting to "falter."

You bastard finally started dropping.

Looking at it this way, it probably couldn't break six billion.

When it comes to movie box office, every billion is a hurdle.

"Wolf Warrior 2" suddenly pushed the original box office record of just over three billion up to over five billion, which was already absurdly exaggerated. If it were to climb another sixty, it would really make a lot of people question their lives.

Similarly, according to the latest news, Wu Jing's roadshow schedule has already ended, and Bai Liang has entered the production team again.

These two probably won't stir up any more trouble.

As for "Divas Over the Wild 3," which had earlier caused a huge stir with its "solo challenge in the African wilderness," it's actually "calmed down" quite a bit recently.

The CP is sweet, but it definitely doesn't have that overly outrageous show effect from before.

However, the final episode's wrap-up gave everyone a "sudden blow to the head"!

From this episode onward, no more nonsense, no more holding back. When the Red Bull crew appeared, the audience already sensed something was off.

It wasn't until the production team announced that this episode would involve skydiving, and that Bai Liang would complete a solo skydive, that the heat instantly shot to the top of the trending searches.

Production team: It's back! It's back again! Still that same feeling, not a bit changed.

"Holy crap! Every time I think Bai Liang is out of tricks, he always comes up with something so shocking it makes my eyes go dark."

"Solo skydive? Does he even have a license?"

"If the production team dares to let him jump alone, he definitely has one. Would they let a guest gamble with their life as a joke?"

"For anyone else, definitely not. But if it's Bai Bai Daxian, hard to say—he doesn't even seem to value his own life that much himself."

"Why does this guy always play things so intense? Racing, wilderness adventure, skydiving... I clearly remember when I first got to know him, he was a top student who could pass the judicial examination and the civil service exam."

"Honestly, if all the top stars in the domestic entertainment industry were like this, I'd be willing to be a fan. This is too outrageous!"

"Everyone, step it up to this standard! What about the other top stars? Can't you even copy the homework?"

"Other top stars say they want to live a few more years... With the way Bai Daxian plays, ordinary people wouldn't live to his age."

"Is he really going to jump? Several kilometers up in the air, just thinking about it makes my heart tremble."

"Weiwei fans here. Our Xiao Nai is like this—a hexagonal all-rounder god. Isn't being well-rounded perfectly normal?"

"If you're solo fans upstairs, you're very welcome. If you're CP fans of Xiao Nai and Bei Weiwei, we're going to start spraying. This is Nazha and Bai Liang's territory. Dilireba's dogs, scram."

"Wait, she just lucked into a five-billion-box-office pendant female lead and now she's acting all high and mighty? What's there to be proud of? What does that movie have to do with your master? Would swapping in anyone else affect the box office at all?"

"Anyway, the female lead isn't Dilireba. Heh~ makes you mad! Oh, our Nazha is now the highest-grossing female lead in domestic entertainment, top 1. Some ordinary TV actresses shouldn't try to ride the coattails, okay?"

"Gulnaza's dogs really forgot how she used to ride Dilireba's coattails before. So shameless, the dog bit its owner." "..."

The inevitable CP fan war—these kinds of topics always seem to end up like this.

Ordinary melon-eating netizens always silently give up their turf, watching the fierce battle between these two sides, clicking their tongues in wonder.

These two sides really seem to have it in for each other, with every sign that neither wants to let the other off the hook.

The key thing is, unlike other stars who basically only have fans jumping in to fight, Nazha and Reba have already evolved to the point of competing offline too.

Encrypted call?

Even encrypted calls are useless now.

There are just too many talented people online!

Even if it can't be fully translated, once some video clips leak out, there are always experts who understand Uyghur who can piece together some information from lip-reading.

The result is that everyone discovered these two Xinjiang sisters really do have a grudge! They've already started PK-ing offline.

The aggressiveness in their words is practically spilling off the screen.

These two top beauties are both quite good at passive-aggressive remarks.

No errors, every word, every line, the content is all here for you to read!

But Bai Liang's performance also proved one thing: he really does have a big heart!

Facing a Shura field without changing color, he even dared to say something like: "Give me some face~"

Who the hell are you, why would we give you face?

Oh, Bai Bai Daxian... then yeah, we do have to give him some face.

In short, the drama between Reba and Nazha gives everyone a feeling of being transported back to the era of the Four Dan and Double Bing.

Back then, the A-list actresses would tear into each other themselves.

Many people still remember plenty of iconic scenes from that era—like Fan Fan Bingbing and Zhang Zhang Ziyi snarking at each other on a show, Li Bingbing directly calling out another Bingbing, Zhou Xun and Zhao Sister Yanzi publicly tearing into each other on set over billing.

All kinds of big moves the moment they met, neither wanting to let the other off the hook—the drama was really too brilliant.

Unlike the 85 Flowers, who when they meet either huddle together to isolate someone or completely ignore each other, treating the other like air.

Anyway, on the surface, always smiling and pleasant.

And this round between Nazha and Reba... a Renaissance!

Right, it should be like this—the main characters themselves rolling up their sleeves and fighting is the most fun.

And likewise, when the main characters jump in, it drives the fans' passion and motivation to tear into each other even more.

The idols are leading the charge—what do they have to hesitate about?

Just go for it!

However, today's tearing match clearly can't go all the way to the end.

Because the battle has become unbalanced.

"I want to go with you!"

On the show, when Nazha said this line with a determined face while also being scared, the bullet comments instantly exploded.

Question: What's the difference between this line and a confession?

Answer: This line is way more powerful than a confession!

But there's something even more explosive.

It's not the skydiving part, but before that—Nazha's usually not-so-bright head seemed to suddenly have a light bulb go off.

Maybe because she had recently watched a certain anime, and watched it with Bai Liang, and slightly modified a certain line of dialogue...

Then quietly leaned close to Bai Liang's ear:

"Across ten thousand mountains and rivers, I'm willing to go see them all with you."

The bullet comments seemed to freeze for two seconds, and immediately after came countless neatly arranged bullet comments that instantly took over the screen!

Frantically repeating the very sentence she had just said.

If anyone had turned on full bullet comments, they'd find the entire screen blocked by them, unable to see any of the picture.

Dilireba's CP fans were forced to retreat—at a moment like this, if they jumped in again, the attacks coming at them wouldn't be limited to just Nazha's fans.

Probably everyone would come after them.

At this moment, even Dilireba herself, who really couldn't help it and was watching this episode with her assistant at the hotel, was subconsciously a little dazed.

Her assistant Lingling beside her widened her eyes even more, seeing Nazha really tying herself together with Bai Liang, insisting on skydiving with him, muttering: "Is she crazy?"

Honestly, assistant Lingling suddenly felt a bit of sympathy for her own Sister Reba.

How did she end up with an opponent like this?!

This isn't even at the level of being love-brained anymore—just how much must she like him to do something like this?

"Sis"

"I'm actually fine~"

Reba smiled at her, propped her chin on her hand, and watched the two on the screen leap down from the plane.

The next second, she turned off the TV—no shattering sound appeared, and instead she seemed more determined than ever.

"Then bring it on."

—

Without a doubt, tonight's episode of "Divas Hit the Road 3" was the most perfect and most thrilling finale.

Almost everything the audience wanted to see, they saw!

At the same time, it pushed the CP of Bai Liang and Nazha to an entirely new height.

Tonight was Nazha's fans' carnival—nearly all of her current fans were CP fans of the two, with almost no exceptions.

Poor Red Bull thought they'd planned such a great event on their side, even teaming up with the production crew, only to find in the end hardly anyone was talking about them.

Can't these people see the Red Bull logo on that giant parachute?

In a fit of anger, they made a decision.

Add one more spokesperson!

Didn't Nazha say it herself—across ten thousand mountains and rivers, she wants to go see them all with Bai Liang?

Come on, here at Red Bull we'll power your dream.

We'll cover your travel expenses from now on, alright?!

Can only say—Nazha, through her own efforts. Well, maybe talent, successfully stole the show!

This is a born talent, the heavens feeding her a living.

All these years since her debut, Nazha has finally found another lane of her own beyond being a pretty face.

This lane is so narrow that, looking across the entire entertainment industry, you can't find a second person walking this path.

Maybe the risk is too great, because one person alone can't play it this way.

At the same time, it seriously tests the composure of the other player.

But without a doubt, she succeeded!

Somehow, in a bizarre posture, she stood at the very top of the traffic—and stood there remarkably steadily.

Before, people kept saying her fans and traffic couldn't compare to Dilireba's.

But after "Wolf Warrior 2" and "Divas Hit the Road 3," the gap between the two will probably be erased at an extremely fast pace.

One might even say, she's overtaken her!

From today on, who exactly is the number one top female traffic star among the post-90s generation—well, that's not so easy to say anymore.

Perhaps, we have to ask our dear Capybara classmate.

The fact that these two have made it this far is all related to him.

And it's greatly related, at that.

The win-loss relationship between the two of them seems to have always been held in Bai Liang's hands—just a word from him could potentially destroy a top female traffic star.

And before that, the situation among the post-90 flowers seems to have gradually become clear.

From the Four Dan and Twin Ice to the Four Little Flowers, by their generation it had become a two-pole standoff.

A Cold War structure!

Only the two of them are far ahead; everyone else has to chase from behind.

At this moment, Jiaxing and Tang Ren, these two companies, were about to go crazy!

(End of chapter)