Chapter 77: Accumulation
“Such interesting people!” Mu Nan murmured to herself as she listened to the gentle melody playing through her earphones.
Before this, Yu Wanwan had been the only junior in the entertainment industry that she paid attention to. But from now on, Pu Tong would have to be counted as well.
She wasn’t a professional singer, so how powerful Pu Tong was at writing songs had nothing to do with her. What truly made her value him was his ability to understand characters and stories.
Being able to gain unique insights from a story was undoubtedly extremely important for portraying a role well. Yet Pu Tong had actually managed to interpret two completely different emotions from the same story, which surprised her.
As for her attention toward Yu Wanwan, that had started much earlier.
When she first met Yu Wanwan, the other girl was still just a little girl. At that time, Mu Nan had already been amazed by the young Yu Wanwan’s lively and expressive acting skills… From then on, she began paying attention to this young actress.
At the beginning, everything was fine. Yu Wanwan acted seriously and had her own methods. Although she never showed it, Mu Nan genuinely thought highly of her from the bottom of her heart.
But later, Yu Wanwan began to take the wrong path…
Her acting became formulaic, and she only played the same type of characters, staying comfortably inside her own safe zone.
Mu Nan had always refused to participate in variety shows. When the production team suggested this drama-variety show collaboration, she initially wanted to decline as well. However, after hearing that Yu Wanwan would be one of the guests, she decided to participate.
She wanted to see whether Yu Wanwan had made any progress…
What happened afterward was obvious. Just as she expected, Yu Wanwan’s acting had indeed become very predictable. It felt as if she had gradually lost herself while surrounded by constant praise.
After the episode aired, Mu Nan also heard about Yu Wanwan being compared negatively by netizens. In her opinion, this was actually a good thing.
Yu Wanwan’s journey had been too smooth, causing her to remain stuck in place for the past few years. Experiencing some setbacks would help her realize the problem and make changes in time.
“She adjusted really quickly!”
From this song, Mu Nan could clearly sense that Yu Wanwan’s mindset had changed.
It seemed she had already taken the most important first step.
“Really looking forward to it…”
On the way back to school in the afternoon, Pu Tong’s mood was quite complicated.
In just one lunch break, he felt like he had experienced so much…
From looking forward to the new song, to feeling happy when the song received countless praises, to the unbelievable ending of the comparison controversy—it had all happened within only two hours.
Thinking about it now, he even felt somewhat ashamed of himself.
Mu Nan was too pure…
In his previous life, when his accident happened, he was around the same age as Mu Nan. In a certain sense, he and Mu Nan could even be considered people of the same generation.
Because of that, he could personally feel just how high this woman’s level of understanding was.
She used her actions to give the best explanation of what a “pure actor” meant.
For many people in the entertainment industry, achieving the word “pure” was harder than reaching the sky.
Nowadays, how many so-called actors actually only focus on acting?
For popularity and profit, how many people weren’t acting today, directing tomorrow, singing the day after, shooting advertisements after that, and appearing on variety shows the next day?
Over time, they might gain more public recognition and earn more money, but they would lose the most basic ability of an actor—
acting skills.
When Pu Tong talked with Yu Wanwan on the phone, he learned that this episode of When You Are Young was actually Mu Nan’s first variety show appearance.
Even for her first appearance, she still participated because she wanted to portray a character in the short drama.
That kind of purity made Pu Tong feel embarrassed.
He could never become someone like her.
But that didn’t stop him from admiring such a person…
When Pu Tong arrived at the classroom, he noticed Yu Wanwan sitting there with an equally complicated expression on her face.
Seeing someone who seemed even more troubled than himself, his own frustration immediately eased a little.
At least he wasn’t the only one suffering.
“Ah…”
Yu Wanwan sighed deeply when she saw him sit down.
For Pu Tong, this experience was still relatively simple. After all, he wasn’t part of the entertainment industry. His feelings toward Mu Nan were mostly admiration.
But for Yu Wanwan, this was definitely a very meaningful lesson…
“I really became too comfortable with where I was…”
Even after he sat down, Yu Wanwan continued talking to herself.
Seeing that his deskmate looked like she was silently saying “please comfort me,” Pu Tong decided to ask something that had confused him for a long time.
“Seriously, I don’t understand why you wanted to become a celebrity. Your family is so rich. Wouldn’t it be fine to just inherit the family business?”
Could this really be the legendary thing called a dream?
Long ago, becoming a celebrity was considered a last resort…
The older generation often had a saying:
“Who with money would willingly become a celebrity?”
Back then, simply making a living was already difficult. Dreams were considered unrealistic things. Being a celebrity was not as glamorous as it was now. It was a high-risk, high-pressure career, and the income was not even that impressive.
At that time, a single appearance fee, converted into today’s value, might only be worth a few thousand yuan. Even slightly better ones were only tens of thousands.
Back then, becoming a celebrity was often just a choice people made because they had no other options.
But as entertainment became more popular, being a celebrity gradually became a prestigious dream.
The entry barrier became lower, the money became easier to earn, and because everyone realized that being a celebrity was a very good profession, competition became more intense.
More and more young people began entering this industry.
“Don’t tell me you became an actress just to fulfill some kind of dream?” Pu Tong joked.
There had to be some kind of reason why she became an actress…
Yu Wanwan thought for a moment before slowly speaking.
“When I was little, I especially liked crying and laughing. I would cry while laughing and laugh while crying. My grandmother always said:
‘Someone who is so good at crying and laughing will definitely become an actress when she grows up.’
“I was very young at the time, but I still firmly remembered those two words—
actress.
“Later, I really became an actress. My parents always brought this up, saying that my grandmother’s words had come true…
“But she can no longer see it now…”
Pu Tong frowned slightly. He felt that the topic had suddenly become a little heavy.
“I think this was fate. A naturally born actress.”
“Maybe…” Yu Wanwan sighed softly.
“Later, I really did fall in love with acting. Perhaps what I liked was that feeling of acting.
“A feeling of stepping beyond myself, of reaching another level.
“Like every pore in my body opening up, like my soul entering another person’s body.”
She gestured with both hands while speaking. The indescribable excitement on her face could still infect her deskmate even from a short distance away.
“As long as you’re happy, that’s what matters.”
“But thinking about it now, I really was a little too impatient these past few years.”
Yu Wanwan looked calmly at Pu Tong.
“Before, after I finished acting in that role… I received so much praise that I completely lost my direction.
“Big sister Mu Nan really taught me an important lesson!”
She was already calling her “big sister”?
It seemed that she had truly been convinced by Mu Nan.
Perhaps professional ability could be trained, but Mu Nan’s level of dedication and professionalism was something neither of them could easily learn.
They had no choice but to admire her.
“It’s fine. It’s not too late to work hard now.”
“Yeah, I’ve decided to seriously improve my acting skills. Recently, I won’t accept any more commercial jobs…”
Yu Wanwan paused.
“Of course, this variety show has already been accepted. There’s nothing I can do about that.”
Actually, after thinking carefully, this variety show might have given her the perfect opportunity to slow down and improve herself.
If it had been before, she probably would have spent every day filming and rarely even returned to school.
“Use this period of time to properly accumulate yourself.”
“Speaking of yourself but not actually speaking of yourself—be civilized, you and me!”
“Huh?”
Actually, Pu Tong also felt that it was a good thing for Yu Wanwan to slow down and accumulate experience.
As a good actor, spending time polishing acting skills and building up quality works would never be wasted effort.
As class was about to start, students gradually returned to the classroom.
When they passed by Pu Tong and Yu Wanwan, they all commented on how good the song was.
The popularity of “The Ring of Years” was terrifying.
In just two hours, almost everyone in the class had already listened to it.
They were very happy about the fact that:
“Pu Tong is my classmate.”
Although the person who was impressive was Pu Tong, not themselves, whenever they said:
“That amazing person is my friend,”
it somehow felt like they also gained some pride.
This was similar to how many people liked talking about their impressive friends when chatting…
Of course, Pu Tong was easy to get along with.
He didn’t act arrogant at school just because he had achieved something outside.
That naturally made everyone feel comfortable around him.
“Oh, so you two were secretly doing this behind our backs!”
Lin Yuxi and Yi Zhi Xuenai finally realized what had happened.
They felt like they had been completely left out.
“Nothing we could do. The situation happened suddenly…”
Yu Wanwan felt slightly embarrassed.
“But Wanwan’s song really is amazing!”
“Wait!”
The Japanese girl suddenly realized something.
“Didn’t you say that after I finished updating the second chapter of my manga, you would give me a song?”
“I finished updating it last Sunday. Why haven’t you given me one yet?”
Pu Tong froze.
Ah…
That really did happen.
This weekend, he had been completely focused on creating “The Ring of Years”, so he had totally forgotten about it.
Updated?
He didn’t even notice.
“Uh… next time, definitely!”
“Why did things become like this?”
Yi Zhi Xuenai’s face collapsed into a disappointed little cat expression.
“I was the first one… clearly I was the first one…”
(End of Chapter)
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