What exactly was Better Days telling us?
Was it about a young man’s growth? Was it a depressing love story between a young man and a young woman? Or was it a struggle about the younger generation in the concrete jungle?
After watching the movie, most people were thinking about that.
When Xing stood on the streets, staring sideways under the lights of the city, everyone was lost in thought. Maybe the story was an epitome about all of those topics.
An epitome about the younger generation who had to uproot themselves for a better life.
Youth, love, confusion, until he bade farewell to his youthful days and grew up.
The audience burst into thunderous applause.
Qi Le An was involved in the whole shooting process, and all the characters in the movie were familiar to him. But even so, the movie felt so refreshing to him.
The static script had turned into a dynamic film scene. Under the effect of lighting and editing, the movie told a similar but different story from the script.
He didn’t see Wei Chang Feng or Ya Ting in the movie, what he saw was Xing and Susan, but he had seen himself, a young and reserved boy.
Yes, reserved.
Fortunately, Cheng was a reserved person and his performance didn’t look stiff. However, after watching this movie, Qi Le An saw the gap between him and the best actors.
Compared to the other characters in the drama, he still had a lot of shortcomings!
In other words, his performance was like Sang Jia Yi’s, kind of plain compared to Wei Chang Feng or Ya Ting…
At that thought, Qi Le An couldn’t help but look at Sang Jia Yi.
Sang Jia Yi felt very good about her performance in the movie. When she saw Qi Le An suddenly turn his head to look at her, she was startled, “What are you doing?”
Qi Le An withdrew his gaze.
Sang Jia Yi couldn’t help but frown. ‘Why does he look so arrogant now? he is younger than me and now he is giving me the funny look! How dare he!’.
She was so angry! But there was nothing she could do, she feared Qi Le An since she had that nightmare.
The lights in the venue lit up and the crowd was still whispering to each other to talk about the movie. Director Chen smiled as he walked to the stage.
Director Chen bowed to the audience. “First of all, thank you for taking the time to attend the premiere of Better Days.”
Sang Jia Yi straightened her gown and was ready to get up.
The crew members who were sitting in the front rows were supposed to walk back the backstage and got ready for the last session where everyone walked to the stage for a curtain call.
Qi Le An and Sang Jia Yi went backstage through the side door. Wei Chang Feng was sitting on the sofa and talking to Ya Ting with a smile. When he saw Qi Le An coming over, he waved from afar.
Qi Le An was about to wave back when Sang Jia Yi dashed towards Wei Chang Feng holding the train of her gown in hand.
Qi Le An, “…”
This woman was becoming more and more ignorant, come on woman, read the room!
Sang Jia Yi took her phone and took a photo with Wei Chang Feng Ya Ting. Qi Le An snorted and decided to buy a smartphone as soon as he went back to Hai City!
Now Qi Le An was less cash-strapped, he could afford a smartphone with nice cameras and probably nice filters as well!
The crew members backstage were radiant with joy, they felt so rewarded by the audience’s reaction. Everyone was discussing how to celebrate this huge success, where they should go for dinner to celebrate.
A staff member gave them the cue that they needed to go back to the stage soon, Wei Chang Feng and the others got up and prepared to go on stage. This was the first time that Qi Le An was going to appear on such a big stage, and the most audience were either big shots or seniors in the industry. Qi Le An’s heart started pounding.
Wei Chang Feng finally found the opportunity to talk to him alone and he asked, “what do you think of the movie?”
Qi Le An nodded wildly, “Great! Wei Sama and Sis Ya Ting Jiejie are just amazing! You guys are not you in the movie, you are the characters through and through, I wish I were that good… ”
Qi Le An’s voice got lower and lower as he said that, Wei Chang Feng couldn’t help but laugh, “It’s just an experience problem. You’re great, too.”
Ya Ting, who was walking past them had overheard this, she smiled and said, “Yes, An, you are very talented.”
Being praised by the Best Actor and the Best Actress, Qi Le An blushed crimson! He was determined once again that he would work harder and harder, he didn’t want to disappoint the two perfect role models!
Together they walked to the stage. Wei Chang Feng and Ya Ting stood on either side of Director Chen, and Qi Le An on the right of Wei Chang Feng.
Everyone on stage bowed to the audience and did several group photos at the request of the reporters.
A lot of audiences asked to take photos with the crew after the screening finished, reporters swarmed backstage for intensive interviews as scheduled, the crew members became busy.
Qi Le An was so excited, he knew the premier would set the tone for the entire promotion cycle, the reporters and influencers would spare no effort to write reviews about Better Days and suggest the movie was a must-see. Qi Le An had never been more confident about the box office of a movie, ‘Better Days is going to be a box office smash when it’s officially on three days later!’
It suddenly occurred to Qi Le An that Weibo would serve as the perfect promotion platform.
(T/N: Weibo is the most popular social media platform in China, it’s like Twitter.)
‘Wait, it’s 2012 now, shall I seriously consider this? I remember it’s in this year that Weibo has dominated all social media platforms!’ Qi Le An’s eyes lit up. An actress with the most following was crowned as Queen of Weibo that year, and her career had just taken off after that.
Director Chen decided to have a celebration dinner after the premier. They just booked the venue at the exhibition center, preparing for a party.
Qi Le An was a little worried about Wei Chang Feng’s legs. Wei Chang Feng had been standing all day.
But before he found an opportunity to ask Wei Chang Feng, Sheng Chang’an suddenly appeared and took Wei Chang Feng away.
The most amazing thing was that the crew seemed to be accustomed to it, no one had said a thing about that! A makeup artist who was on good terms with Qi Le An whispered, “Look over there, An, look how close Wei Sama and President Sheng is, I heard they have been this close since Wei Sama shot the Yangtze River years ago… Something is going on between the two…”
The other makeup artist chimed in, “Love me tender, Mr. President!”
Qi Le An who knew the truth found the two girls quite amusing.
Suddenly, one girl turned to Qi Le An and said, “An! You and Wei Sama are so close, did you find any gossip you can share with us?”
Qi Le An pretended to be confused and he murmured, “Gossip? No… ”
The two girls looked so disappointed as they glanced at Qi Le An with expecting eyes.
Qi Le An was not in a great mood, either. It did bother him a little bit that the entire world thought his Wei Sama was someone else’s lover. And there was nothing he could do about that.
As night fell, everyone was having a great time, including Qi Le An. Although Wei Chang Feng wasn’t around, Tong was there, every crew member knew her and they enjoyed her company. As the director’s only daughter, Tong basically grew up on different sets, she loved celebration parties. Plus, they were all similar ages, they had a lot of common topics to talk about. But Qi Le An’s new assistant looked so out of place, he looked so scared all the time.
Fortunately, no one judged Qi Le An for he still couldn’t drink.
Qi Le An drank too much juice and he went to the bathroom. He took out his phone and was surprised to find that there were two missed calls.
One was from Wei Chang Feng and the other was from Chen Shan.
Qi Le An thought about it and called Chen Shan first.
“Chen Ge! How did your exam go?”
Qi Le An missed Chen Shan, even more, this day thanks to the scared little assistant.
“Meh, I nailed it,” Chen Shan said calmly, “It’s just one or two questions I’m not 100% sure.”
‘Good job, Young Master Chen!’ thought Qi Le An.
“Where are you now? How did the premier go?”
“It was a hit, I’m still in the exhibition center,” Qi Le An washed his hands with his head clasped on his phone and said, “Everyone else wants to party till tomorrow morning, I think I’ll leave soon though.”
“Okay,” Chen Shan respected Qi Le An, he didn’t want to give Qi Le An any peer pressure that he should stay with his friends and party all night as well. “I’ll head to the exhibition center now. I’ll call you when I arrive.”
The two of them discussed the meeting location and hung up. Qi Le An smiled at himself in the mirror and called Wei Chang Feng.
“Wei Sama, Sorry I missed your call, the music was too loud…”
“Well, I’m leaving soon, haha! Chen Shan is picking me up later, don’t worry.”
“Tomorrow? I’m free tomorrow. I haven’t booked my flight back yet… ”
“Really?! Great! See you in your café tomorrow morning!”
Qi Le An put down the phone and looked delighted.
Wei Chang Feng asked him to go to his cafe to taste new products the day after!
Happy!
‘Wei Sama asks me to hang out with him!’
Qi Le An grinned at himself in the mirror and walked out of the bathroom happily.
Not long after he left, a cubicle in the bathroom was suddenly opened. Chu Cheng Yuan walked out and looked thoughtfully at Qi Le An’s back.
‘Will Qi Le An and Wei Chang Feng meet tomorrow? What time? Where?’
‘Does Wei Chang Feng have a café?
Chu Cheng Yuan washed his hands and thought carefully.
Qi Le An, who had yet to realize that the bathroom was not a place where he could have private phone conversations, happily returned to the banquet hall. The new assistant who had been looking for him all over the place finally breathed a sigh of relief on seeing Qi Le An. Qi Le An felt so sorry, he hesitated for a moment and handed the phone to the assistant. “Chen Ge is coming to pick us up. Remember to pick up the call.”
The assistant quickly nodded and nervously held the phone in cupped hands.
Qi Le An set up a password for his phone so he wasn’t worried about the private messages, he returned to Tong’s table.
Tong and Qi Le An were the only two people who didn’t drink. Tong had to participate in the award ceremony the next day and she had to leave early as well. Qi Le An didn’t have the guts to leave early when the seniors and big shots were still there, but it was different with Tong. After all, she was the director’s daughter.
Tong just lived in the hotel of the exhibition center. As she walked outside, she said to Qi Le An, “Do you want to watch the photographic exhibition tomorrow afternoon?! I have two spare tickets.”
Qi Le An thought about it. It sounded perfect! He could try the new products with Wei Chang Feng in the morning and watch the photography exhibition in the afternoon! So, he nodded promptly.
Tong was still wearing a gown and heels. She yawned and said, “You are still waiting for Chen Sha, right? Why not chill in my room for a bit?”
Qi Le An nodded, he asked his new assistant to pack up his stuff in his room and he went to Tong’s room with her.
After the two of them entered the room, someone took quite a few candid photos of them stealthily.
It was Chu Cheng Yuan, he looked at the pictures of Qi Le An and Chen Jing Tong walking to her room together with a cunning smile.
‘It seems that Qi Le An is not just “lucky”, he is just kissing the right ass! Chen Jing Tong is Director Chen’s daughter.’
‘Don’t blame me, Qi Le An. You are in my way, I have to do something about this! I want to succeed!’
At that thought, a fierce look flashed across Chu Cheng Yuan’s eyes.