Chapter 250

……

The 30-second teaser trailer alone has already broken 100 million views on YouTube.

Such a star-studded lineup has people brimming with curiosity about the film!

What on earth kind of movie did Xu Can make?

But after watching the trailer, fans' questions weren't answered — instead, even more questions piled up!

"A movie about a time-space loop? *Groundhog Day*?"

"No, it seems like a simulated world, kind of like *The Matrix*!"

"Why does it feel like there's only one space? The setting is kind of interesting."

"Taylor looks so pretty in the trailer!"

"I have to go see it! I'm going to buy tickets like crazy!"

The film was already a brain-teasing suspense sci-fi to begin with, and the trailer content leaves people even more foggy and baffled.

But judging from the one-minute clip in the trailer, Taylor Swift's acting isn't as terrible as the experts claimed.

On the contrary, under the foil of Best Actor and Best Actress winners, TayTay's performance was commendable — she didn't hold anyone back!

Overnight, public opinion on TayTay flipped from one extreme to the other!

Countless music fans and Xu Can's movie fans flooded the comments to support her.

This thrilled TayTay immensely, and she rushed to Xu Can to show off at once.

"Look, all of these are praising me."

"Don't you get praised by fans every single day? How can you still be this happy?"

"That's different." TayTay's grin stretched almost from ear to ear.

"These are all praising my acting. My performance isn't worse than Emma's — does that mean I could win an Oscar for Best Actress by 520 too?"

"Ah, well, sure, I believe in you."

Xu Can praised her against his own better judgment, unable to bear crushing the confidence she'd finally managed to build up.

In truth, TayTay's acting really did have something to it — better than a lot of Hollywood actresses.

But there was a huge gap between her and truly top-tier actresses, and that wasn't something a couple of casual film appearances could fix.

Besides, her battlefield was the music world; movies were just an occasional pastime.

An Oscar for Best Actress was pure fantasy.

Whatever — looking at TayTay's silly, gleeful face, Xu Can preferred to let her stay lost in her sweet daydream.

"Right, next month I'm afraid I won't be able to accompany you to the premiere, you know."

TayTay gazed at Xu Can with pleading eyes.

Xu Can of course knew — because he was the one who had arranged it.

With the release of her third album *Speak Now*, TayTay was also going to hold her very first world concert tour.

It would be held in succession in New York, Los Santos, Shibuya, Hong Kong Island, Songhai, Paris, London, and Barcelona,

TayTay would basically be drifting around the world for nearly half a year.

The thought of not seeing Xu Can for the next month instantly deflated the smug mood she'd been riding just moments ago.

Her cute little face drooped too.

"You should be happy — after this concert tour, you'll make another big pile of money and become a global superstar."

"Isn't it all just earning money for you anyway."

TayTay hugged Xu Can's arm and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I don't want to go out, I just want to stay here."

She was the spitting image of a little girl who didn't want to go back to school, acting coquettishly nonstop.

Clearly a cool, dashing 180-cm girl — how did she get more and more into acting cute?

"Isn't music your dream? In the past, whenever you held a concert, you'd be so excited you couldn't sleep."

"Before is before, now is now. Not being able to see you now is of course hard to bear."

TayTay said, then buried her head in Xu Can's chest again.

"What if my movie flops? I'll still need your music to keep me afloat — you're my last trump card."

Xu Can held her shoulders, looked seriously into her foxy eyes, and said gravely,

"Huh? That serious? Haven't your movies always made money? The company is worth how many billions already?"

"No, it's possible that one movie could wipe out all the liquid capital. You know, Marvel is now filming three movies at the same time, and all the money is sunk into them."

What Xu Can said was also fact — Marvel was all big-budget productions, starting at an investment of 150 million US dollars.

Producing three films simultaneously really did eat up his bonus of 600 million US dollars; the roughly one-plus billion in box-office share earnings from before had basically all been poured into it.

Never joining forces with other film companies to share the risk, always investing independently,

Xu Can's crazy behavior had continued to this day, and investors and filmmakers in the industry still called him a gambler.

"Really? Is my songwriting really that important?" TayTay was intimidated by Xu Can and stopped acting coquettish.

"Yes. Even if the film company completely collapses, as long as you're here, I still have a chance to make a comeback."

"Darling…"

Taylor Swift was deeply moved, and with her lovesick head spinning, she was practically in tears, clinging tightly to Xu Can.

Xu Can trusted her so much, placing all his hopes on her — how could she slack off?

"Mm, I'll definitely put on a great concert and earn you loads of money! So you can make more movies."

TayTay patted her own flat chest and said, pretending to be bold and generous,

"Don't worry, as long as I'm here, there definitely won't be any problem!"

"Mm, sweetheart, I've always believed in you."

Mei Mei's heart was buzzing with sweetness, brimming with motivation to work.

No matter how grueling the concert tour was, as long as she could earn money for Xu Can, she was happy.

Xu Can held the silly girl in his arms, doing his best to keep his expression in check so he wouldn't give himself away.

Because of Emma Stone's high-profile declaration of love a few days earlier, Mei Mei was full of a sense of crisis and had been a bit clingier than usual lately.

No matter how cute she was, being too clingy wasn't great either — too much of a good thing.

Xu Can had her go out on her concert tour, hoping she could get some fresh air; by then the two of them would have their "brief parting sweeter than a honeymoon," and their feelings could heat up a bit more.

……

Soon, the day of the "Source Code" premiere arrived.

Xu Can and Stone Sister finished their styling in the company's makeup room, taking a short break as they waited for their grand entrance that evening.

Now that they were already Best Actor and Best Actress, the pomp and treatment naturally differed from before.

Emma Stone looked a bit weary, leaning back against the chair and resting her eyes.

Besides taking on advertisements, she also had some variety shows to attend; her schedule was almost packed solid.

Xu Can felt a pang of heartache for her and told Stone Sister to take on fewer engagements.

This workaholic said she didn't mind, saying it was a perfect chance to ride the Best Actress influence and promote Xu Can's new movie.

"How about we cancel that Conan show later? You should rest well at home — otherwise flying off to New York tomorrow will be too tiring."

"It's fine, baby, I don't feel tired. I can go on the show and advertise the movie."

"I'm worried about you."

"Ayy, you're so sweet," Emma Stone gently stroked Xu Can's cheek.

"Don't worry about me. Back in the day, running extras at auditions was way more tiring than this — I had two part-time jobs every day on top of that."

"Oh right, that film offer — you can think it over, it's a good script."

"Mm, I do want to take this movie."

Having won the Best Actress crown, Xu Can had snagged an excellent film, "An Education" — in his previous life, Carey Mulligan had earned an 82nd Academy Award Best Actress nomination for it.

Xu Can figured he could let Stone Sister snatch it up and compete for next year's Best Actress.

If things worked out, Stone Sister would be a back-to-back Oscar Best Actress — absolutely unmatched in the spotlight, becoming Hollywood's top leading lady!

With Emma Stone's acting skills, she really shouldn't be confined to superhero movies.

"But I'd rather film Spider-Man 3 with you…"

Stone Sister was starting to get clingy too.

"Playing Spider-Gwen should be a lot of fun."

"Definitely this year — once you finish 'An Education,' we'll start Spider-Man 3 right away!"