Just like that, the Lantern Festival movie took all the glory and attention away from its New Year predecessor, before the latter could even savor its success.
Yan Huan closed the laptop. Her revenge, it’s finally done. She had retaken the glory and pride that should have been hers in her previous life. Everything that should have been hers, was hers again.
This was most likely the furthest Su Muran and Lu Qin could go.
And it wasn’t over yet. They were all waiting to see who will win the best actress award internationally.
Lin Lang’s fame had been swelling lately, some of its actors in the peak of their stardom. Even a few rookie actors had sprung to fame overnight.
To concrete its foundations, Lin Lang released a new drama in the new year. With the success of Before the Beginning, the viewership ranking for the new drama was gradually on the rise.
It started at fifth, then fourth, second, and eventually became the first.
The cast for this film, which had a great plot, was nearly made up entirely of rookie actors, who had risen up to the challenge and put on a brilliant performance that earned them the support of the public.
Who was the one that said that good-looking people can’t act? Lin Lang’s actors were all top-notch in their trade. As a company, Lin Lang was focused on the holistic development of its actors, and strictly barred out anyone who couldn’t act. Anyone who wanted to get in through connections had to think twice about whether they had the power to match up to the three families behind it.
With the Lei, Lu, and Ye Family as its shield, Lin Lang became a company no one dared mess with. Anyone who was in the industry could assure the quality of Lin Lang’s productions, and testify to how well-received they are by the public.
As the drama swept the nation by storm, Before the Beginning began to fade away from the public’s eye. Whenever there was a new film, the fickle public never fails to take their attention off the older films. There were new films every month, both good films and bad, but none had even come close to surpassing Before the Beginning.
It had a box-office income of 5.3 billion, after all. With its global income, it had even made it into the Top 30 highest-grossing films. This was a result that pleasantly surprised everyone.
Of course, everyone in Lin Lang was still working hard.
In the domestic charts, Lin Lang had taken both first and second place in the top-grossing category. Everyone was optimistic that they could come up with another sell-out film that succeeds in both reviews and sales. When that time comes, they could finally get rid of that foreign film hogging the spot of number three.
It had been chaotically busy within Lin Lang’s internal departments; it has been days since Luo Lin returned home. There was a pile of notices piled up on her desk, including work schedules and endorsement offers.
She pulled at her hair. What was she to do with this huge stack? How annoying.
She sighed, her hair standing on their ends.
It was starting to drive her crazy.
She picked up the telephone and dialed Yan Huan’s number.
“Tell me, Yan Huan, what are you doing right now?”
“Giving Little Lei a bath,” replied Yan Huan, switching her phone to speaker mode. Little Lei was in the bathtub, playing with a yellow rubber duck.
“Yan Huan!” yelled Luo Lin. Thankfully, they were speaking through the phone, and Yan Huan had already turned the volume down. If they were face-to-face, Yan Huan might have gone deaf.
“Yea, I’m listening,” said Yan Huan, sitting at the edge of the bathtub as she gave Little Lei a good scrubbing. Little Lei giggled, naked and covered in bubbles. His plump little body explained his weight. She couldn’t even find a spot on him where she could feel his bones.
“Get over here and accept these endorsement offers right now!” yelled Luo Lin like a lunatic.
“No thanks,” said Yan Huan, uninterested.
Rich people can do what they like. That was how it is. Back then, she acted as a stunt-double, rushing from set to set, doing whatever it took to appear briefly in the screens. And now? Even international endorsement offers couldn’t interest her.
Before Luo Lin could say, or rather, yell again, Little Lei reached out and grabbed the phone. Yan Huan saw, but didn’t stop him.
The phone slipped right out of his bubbled hands, into the bathtub.
Little Lei pointed his fingers together, his face covered in bubbles.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Yan Huan, brushing a finger across his face. “You can ask your Dad to buy me a new handphone.”
“Okay,” said Little Lei, nodding hard. “Dad will buy new. New handphone for Aunt.”
“That’s right,” said Yan Huan as she rinsed the bubbles off Little Lei. The kid was a neat freak, and behaved well during his showers, unlike most kids that screamed and howled at the prospect of a shower. Little Lei was content, as long as he had his rubber duck to play with.
Yan Huan took a towel and wrapped the little guy up. If he gained a little more weight, she might actually not be able to carry him anymore.
She toweled him off, then fed him his meal. With those done, there was nothing left to do.
“Dad, buy a new hand for Aunt. Leilei had dropped into the water,” Little Lei babbled to his Dad through the speakers.
Lei Qingyi pondered on it at length, but couldn’t fathom the meaning behind those words.
He consulted his secretary for a second opinion.
“My son told me to buy a hand, and something about dropping himself into the water. Do you have any idea what he’s trying to tell me? Could he be washing his hands, perhaps?”
The secretary chewed on it, but was equally clueless.
Suddenly, it came to him.
He understood it now.
“Sir, I think what your son meant is that he had dropped his handphone into the water, and is asking for a new one,” he offered.
Ah… Lei Qingyi nodded. That made sense.
Looks like his son had been naughty again. He bought a phone on the way home; he didn’t know which model Yan Huan liked, so he just picked one that was popular among youngsters these days.
When he returned to the Lu Family, she saw Yan Huan feeding Little Lei an egg. Little Lei sat on a stool, complying.
“Have you bought me a new one?” asked Yan Huan, reaching out.
“Yes,” replied Lei Qingyi, giving the phone to her. Yan Huan passed him the bowl for him to feed his son, but Little Lei only shook his head profusely.
