Chapter 66

This stirred up a pang of guilt in Xu Can—out here making a living, ten thousand miles from home, he couldn't even return for the New Year.

But if he didn't hustle, all he could do back home was scrape by as an extra, with no way to earn the money to give his parents a better life.

Back then, Xu Can had reported a vested interest group under his real name, and Huayu has no directors willing to cast him anymore.

Now that he'd carved out a path for himself in Hollywood, he'd sent quite a bit of money home, enough for his parents to buy a new house.

Unfortunately, the old couple refused to move to North America; after decades of life back in their hometown, uprooting themselves would only make them unhappy.

"Oh right!"

Something suddenly occurred to Xu Can.

"My movie should be hitting theaters in a couple of days—you'll be able to see me on the big screen."

"Really? Then I'd better hurry up and grab tickets."

"Get Xiao Ling to buy them for you. I'll give her the money—treat the whole family to the movie."

……

Huaxia, Zhenhai City Experimental High School.

With the New Year approaching, the senior-year students still had to keep up their make-up classes. Xu Yuling was grinding through practice problems during self-study when she suddenly overheard the boys behind her discussing Spider-Man.

Because Spider-Man was a smash hit overseas, some rumors had trickled back to China.

"Spider-Man's about to come out—are you guys gonna go see it?"

"I heard Spider-Man is played by a Chinese guy?"

"No way, would Hollywood ever let a Chinese person star in it? You actually believe the media?"

"What's so great about Spider-Man? Is he as cool as Superman and Batman?"

"He'd wipe the floor with Batman, no problem."

At this point, Chinese kids' concept of American comics was limited to Superman and Batman. Spider-Man had a bit of name recognition, while Captain America had only ever shown up in those 8-bit FC games.

As for Iron Man, Lei Shen, and the rest—nobody had ever heard of them.

The classmates around her all joined the discussion, and Xu Yuling couldn't resist jumping in herself.

She knew her cousin was playing Spider-Man in Hollywood, though she had no idea yet what that really meant.

"Spider-Man really is Chinese—my cousin is playing him."

Xu Yuling's words made the whole classroom go silent for a beat… then burst into laughter.

"That's hilarious—then I'm Superman."

"That's one heck of a brag. Might as well believe my brother's the President of North America."

"It's true!"

Xu Yuling, unable to swallow the mockery, pulled out her hidden phone and scrolled through Xu Can's stills.

"That's just cosplay."

"I could buy a skin-tight suit and claim I'm Spider-Man too."

None of the other classmates in the class bought it.

After all, the domestic promotion of "Spider-Man" in mainland Huaxia had all been outsourced to China Film.

Whether by design or by accident, they had failed to highlight the fact that the actor playing Spider-Man was Chinese!

Every poster, online and offline, only showed Spider-Man in his masked look, and the cast was never explicitly listed!

Xu Yuling had no clue about the undercurrents at play.

She only knew that the movie itself was ironclad proof!

"If you don't believe me, just go watch it—see if Spider-Man is my cousin. If he isn't, I'll bring you breakfast for a whole month. And if he is, you guys have to bring me breakfast for a whole month."

"Deal!"

The classmates in the back row had wanted to see the movie anyway, so they happily agreed to the bet.

Even if Spider-Man was Chinese, there was no way he was Xu Yuling's cousin.

Two days later, the film would hit theaters, and the truth would be revealed!