Your Rival in Love Gets Prettier Every Day

Chapter 40: Exploded Overnight

The storm brought heavy rain and thunder all night. Like the storm, Shen Jintai exploded overnight. As expected, he became popular. When he woke up the next day, the autumn morning light shone on his body, highlighting the may cherries that were slowly ripening for the picking. Fermentation takes time.

After a TV series was broadcast, public opinion would peak the next day. Shen Jintai was awakened by Li Meilan’s call. Li Meilan couldn’t control her groundhog scream: “Jintai, you are on fire!”

What could best prove that an actor was on fire?

Hot search? Can buy.

Forum swiping? A water army can been deployed.

These public platforms couldn’t provide solid evidence. The best testament was the circle of friends! Li Meilan sent a screenshot to him from her friends circle.

“This is not my work number. This is my personal alt account, and the people who added it are all relatives and friends!” Li Meilan specifically emphasized.

Shen Jintai, who was still a little sleepy, rubbed his eyes. He saw that the Moments on the screenshots were all stills from <The East Palace>, and he had the most stills. One of them posted a video that was the scene where his clothes were torn off.

It seems that all heroes see the same thing.

Shen Jintai’s voice was still a little hoarse. He was happy in his heart: “Low-key, low-key. Only two episodes have been broadcasted so far.”

Li Meilan: “You made such a big splash for just two episodes! Will there be more in the future?! Do you know how high the wild list* rating was yesterday? I don’t think it’s a problem at all to break 1* with two stations! Do you know what this concept is?”

*Wild list (野榜) = basically like a polling list that shows which TV show is popular.
*Break 1 = it’s some kind of TV rating system in China. I’m not sure how it works but breaking 1 means it’s really good.

He did not know.

Li Meiland: “Let me tell you, this year’s ratings champion is <Metamorphosis in the Workplace>, with an average of 1.5 on both stations. If <The East Palace is Coming> can break 1 on both stations when it debuts, I dare not think about the popularity in the later stages!”

Although the premiere was high, it mainly reflected the high expectations of the audience and good publicity. Nevertheless, Shen Jintai was extremely happy that his comeback debut was off to a great start.

He jumped up from the bed with a kip-up*. The sun was shining outside. He opened the window, and fresh air blew on his face. After the autumn storm, the air still carried the aromas of rain and osmanthus. The sky was clear and blue, and the white clouds were light.

*Carp (鲤鱼打挺) = kip-up.

—

Yan Qiuchi was motionless as he woke up at 7. After waking up, he noticed something strange and went to the bathroom to wash his underwear.

The maid came in to tidy up his room. When she saw him doing laundry she hurriedly said: “Oh, just put it there. I’ll take care of it.”

“I can do it.” Yan Qiuchi said calmly. He always had one or two days in the month that made him feel impetuous. In fact, it had nothing to do with Shen Jintai. It was simply a young man’s inexhaustible energy at work.

To the eyes of outsiders, he was a very self-disciplined person, and indeed he was. But only he truly knew how much he desired. These heavy desires, coupled with his skin hunger, were stronger than ordinary people’s. He had them since he was a child.

It’s just that he was good at controlling it. But still, no matter how good you are at controlling it, there are days in a month that you couldn’t hold back, like yesterday. The sultry weather made him sleepless and when he can’t sleep, he started to think about it.

It actually has nothing to do with Shen Jintai. At least that’s what Yan Qiuchi thought to himself.

After getting dressed and he headed downstairs. As he walked to the second floor, he heard Shen Jintai’s laughter. Shen Jintai was sitting in a chair browsing his phone while laughing uncontrollably.

Mrs. Yan smiled at him as she put breakfast in front of him: “Don’t look at your phone when you eat.”

“The comments are so interesting.” Shen Jintai looked up with a grin. When he noticed someone was entering the dining room, he turned around and saw it was Yan Qiuchi. He flashed a smile and greeted him: “Hey, good morning.”

Maybe it was the early morning after the rain, and the halos were all golden, which made people’s reflections look brighter, but Yan Qiuchi thought that Shen Jintai’s smile was dazzling.

Shen Jintai couldn’t be considered a superb beauty. In terms of facial features, he’s not as delicate as Bai Qingquan or Liu Hui, but wrapped around the autumn light, it made him look very pure and sunny.

While radiant in personality, in physique…

Shen Jintai wore a white T-shirt, showing only his thin and fair arms. The allure from yesterday was covered, leaving only a thin outline. He was like two different people when he wore clothes and when he had them off. What a contradictory attraction.

Yan Qiuchi nodded and sat down to the opposite of him. A maid brought over his breakfast. Mrs. Yan, who was next to him, asked: “Will you go out later?”

Yan Qiuchi let out a “Nn” and said: “Going to work.”

“If you go to the film and television city, please take Jintai with you.” Mrs. Yan said: “He didn’t drive.”

“It’s alright. I’ll have my assistant pick me up later.” Shen Jintai said.

“It’s on the way. No need to bother your assistant.” Mrs. Yan said.

Shen Jintai looked at Yan Qiuchi, thinking that if Yan Qiuchi’s eyes showed any reluctance, he would wittily refuse. He hasn’t forgotten the embarrassment of the last time he was in the same car with Yan Qiuchi.

Unexpectedly, Yan Qiuchi didn’t look at him. He simply nodded and said: “Okay.”

Mrs. Yan looked at Shen Jintai with satisfaction. She still hasn’t given up.

Shen Jintai took a sip of porridge and said: “Thank you.” After he finished speaking, he continued to browse on his phone. His attention was still focused on the comments of netizens.

<The East Palace is Coming> had four hot searches on Weibo, of which two were related to him.

“Eunuch’s love” rose to first place, with the word “explosive” hanging on it. There was also a hot search about him, “Shen Jintai Comeback”, with the word “boiling” hanging on it. Though he has long since returned, this comeback debut was at the public level.

He clicked on the popular Weibo hot search and looked. The light, freshness and excitement of the character covered his own black history. He didn’t even see bad reviews. Only a swarm of groundhogs.

“Hahahahahaha.” He couldn’t help laughing again. Yan Qiuchi looked up at him and saw Shen Jintai with lowered eyebrows and distinct fingers scribbling on the phone. When good things happen, it raises people’s spirits. He knew why Shen Jintai was so happy.

Was the brilliance from his body because of this? Even his mood improved.

<The East Place is Coming> was a hit. For him, the CEO of Sunshine Media, it was also a joyous occasion. When he turned on his phone early in the morning, he saw Gao Qiao and the others were blowing up the work group.

The whole company had invested a lot of effort in this drama. It took more than a year to prepare it. Now that the premiere was a hit, everyone’s hard work was not in vain. Gao Qiao also posted in his friends circle.

Of the top 9 spots, Shen Jintai took 4 of them. The people weren’t taking about the male and female leads but was focused on Zhou Ying and Li Xu. Shen Jintai’s reborn performance particularly caused an uproar in the circle.

“Shen Jintai has been out of the circle for two years. He’s returned as a completely different person.”

“Yes, at the press conference, I was a little surprised when he changed his red hair and heavy makeup that he usually dons. But, if he wants to make a comeback, he must draw a clear line from his rock bottom image of the past. I get it. I just didn’t expect him to act so well. I was worried about your company at the beginning, thinking about how Director Guo could choose such a person to play the villain.”

Gao Qiao was a little excited, and couldn’t help but said: “Are you really fragrant? Let me tell you, there’s still tons of his good performances that have yet to come.” He still remembered the scene of the poisoning case where Shen Jintai burst into tears. When Shen Jintai acted, he didn’t care whether he looked good or not. The effect he displayed was very impressive when Gao Qiao watched it live.

The role of Li Xu was vicious and extremely sad. The villain of this drama was not that bad. Destroying the deposed crown prince Zhou Ying who represented the bright side of his humanity was the purpose of the show.

The power of same-sex CP fans was the most terrifying. Only one day after the broadcast, “Mrs. CP” had its own super talk, and the CP fans were very happy.

“I can’t wait to watch the third episode, whether it’s sugar or a knife, don’t pity me because I’m a delicate flower. Hit me hard!”

“Why did I chase a weekly drama and now have to wait a week? I hate it!”

“I strongly recommend adding more episodes. If the number of episodes does not increase, it is okay to increase the duration. It is only 48 minutes per episode. It’s more sincere for weekly episodes to be played for an hour!”

“Two episodes at a time is great. The crew has only been filming for a month. That’s out of their hands even if they wanted to broadcast more. Good shows are not afraid of being delayed and it doesn’t matter if the update is slow. Quality must be maintained.”

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

“Shit, what happened?!”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”

“Sisters, don’t just ahhhhh, tell me what happened?!”

“Go and check Shen Jintai and Zheng Siqi’s Weibo! The spring of CP fans came too early!”

Shen Jintai couldn’t help but chuckle while sitting in the car. Yan Qiuchi, who was working with a tablet and sitting next to him, turned his head and glanced at him.

Monsoon Entertainment truly is a big hype player, and really deserves its reputation.

Zheng Siqi’s Weibo took advantage while hot iron was hot and posted the first Weibo of the day by retweeting the official blog’s preview for next week while @ing him: “A’Xu*, see you next week.”

*Reminder: putting A’ in front of a name is a very intimate way to call them.

This should have been posted by Zheng Siqi’s company. Zheng Siqi had told him that young artists in their company have ran into issues before due to improper Weibo posts so newcomers social media was all managed by the company.

Shen Jintai of course will also respond. It’s foolish not to do business during opening hours. Shen Jintai retweeted and commented on Zheng Siqi’s Weibo: “His Royal Highness, see you on the set.”

He laughed after posting it. He was too damn good at this. Hahahaha.

The two of them directly sent CP super talk to the hotspot on Weibo. For a while, the popularity of their topics on Weibo, forums, and TikTok soared again.

“Hahahaha, isn’t this open for business so soon?”

“So finally, Shen Touhua, who’s not a good stubble*, has meet Monsoon Entertainment that’s known for hyping. This scene is just too normal. How pitiful for Bai Qingquan and Lang Lizhi!”

*Not a good stubble (不是善茬) = refers to being difficult to deal with. A good stubble is opposite of it (easy to deal with).

“Hahaha, this pair of CP is sucking the heat dry. No one remembers the male and female protagonists, right?”

“No way, this pair is too good. I think Zheng Siqi, a newcomer, has a bright future and Shen Jintai turning red isn’t a problem!”

“It’s different. Zheng Siqi eats a newcomer bonus. He doesn’t have a lot of parts. His role as the white moonlight is set. Though, as a newcomer this kind of role is just right for him and the dividends from it are enough to eat. Shen Jintai plays the big villain. From beginning to end, he’ll definitely benefit the most. After seeing the plot, if it can HOLD, I’m optimistic that he’ll be very popular in this drama!”

“If he turns over and becomes the male lead later, it’ll be too fucking ironic!”

“Right, right. Who wants to see the heroine and the male lead fall in love? It’s all the same old routine of palace fighting dramas. I want to see the beautiful love between an eunuch and a prince! Hurry up and arrange it for me!”

“It’s strange that the direction of this building is like this. Why hasn’t moonlight powder arrived yet? Doesn’t your district claim to have 100,000 moonlight fans?”

“Moonlight powder died down last night.”

“Hahahahaha, if you can’t prevent the explosion, just give up.”

“Hahaha, the gold powder in this building has exceeded the standard, and they have begun to climax so quickly.”

“Catch a moonlight powder!”

“Moonlight powder, don’t run. I want to interview you and see how you are feeling right now!”

“Hahahaha, are you guys in good or bad condition.”

—

Xiao Hong was a moonlight powder. Like all moonlight fans, she doesn’t like Shen Jintai. After entering the Moonlight Fan Group, she has read about Shen Jintai’s countless crimes every day causing her to hate him even more.

Shen Jintai, this rotten chicken! This black lotus! If you don’t have strong acting skills, you can always rely on looks!

In contrast, their brother was simply the deity Bai Yueguang. Extremely handsome and gentle that you cannot put it into words.

Even after Shen Jintai made his comeback, he seemed to have changed a lot, and he was no longer the flirtatious bitch he used to be.

However, a country is easy to change but the nature was hard to change*. How could he change his nature so simply? It must be driven by interests. Since he’s bankrupt, he turned to the entertainment industry to make money. It’s obviously like that!

*Reminder: change in human nature is more difficult than to change the country. AKA old habits die hard.

She thought like this until last night when she squatted to see <The East Palace is Coming>. At first, she was still licking her brother’s face with the fan group. How could one not be moved by the prosperous beauty of her brother in a beautiful costume? As for Shen Jintai’s role… fortunately he didn’t have too many scenes!

Accompanied by her brother’s beauty and prosperity, she continued watching without skipping any scenes, not to see Shen Jintai, but was afraid she would miss out on the plot and won’t be able to understand it.

Who knew that Shen Jintai’s scenes in the second episode skyrocketed, and such a move came in the last ten minutes!

Fuck!

The moonlight group, who had been discussing lively went silent for several minutes.

She knew that everyone was in the same mood as her.

Holy shit! It was so exciting. So, so exciting. Wow! Wow! The clothes were torn! Did you see that the clothes were torn?!

How can anyone understand the heart of a rotten woman like her! She actually wanted to secretly poke and nibble on the sugar of her bitter enemy!

After talking for a long time, she couldn’t scold Shen Jintai anymore. Although she only liked Li Xu, Shen Jintai was also a part of Li Xu. It was difficult but she really wanted to jump ship.

But you can’t be a fan of two stars at the same time, especially if they are rivals, or you will commit a crime of a flower heart*. Wuwuwu!

*Flower heart (花心) = metaphor for men or women who are not focused on love. Inconsistency in love.

Xiao Li was also a moonlight powder, but she was a very lucky moonlight powder because she was a makeup artist of the crew. Although she wasn’t Bai Qingquan’s makeup artist, she felt happy that she could see him every three to five minutes.

As a firm moonlight powder, she will not easily jump ship. No matter how dazzling Shen Jintai was, he couldn’t match the beauty and prosperity of brother Bai in her heart.

As she got out of the taxi carrying a box, she suddenly noticed a car driving over. She hurriedly stood aside and looked at it and saw it was a luxury car. She recognized the brand. It was a Maybach, but she didn’t know the specific series.

The driver in a black suit got out of the car first, then quickly ran to the back, bowed his waist and opened the door.

A handsome young man got out of the car. With long legs in black pants, black leather shoes and socks, and three-dimensional features. He was more handsome than many celebrities she had seen. She didn’t remember there being an actor like this on the set of <The East Palace is Coming>.

The driver went around to the other side again, and before he reached the door, the person inside opened the door and came out. The sun light basks on him. In a white T-shirt with black pants, a handsome and upright posture, with a youthful and bright appearance, was Shen Jintai.

The two men were tall, young, and attractive. One was bright while the other was calm. As a moonlight powder she knew about her enemy’s gossip. After seeing Shen Jintai she suddenly remember who the other man was. That man… Yan Qiuchi!

It turned out to be their Yan son-in-law, Yan Qiuchi. Yan Qiuchi had actually personally sent Shen Jintai to the set! What’s the situation?!

As soon as Shen Jintai got out of the car, he heard <Moths to a Flame>, the theme song of <The East Palace is Coming>.

This was one of the reason the drama exploded. The lyrics of the song was cheesy but catchy and expressive. The melody was breathtaking causing people who listened to it be touched by dog blood, especially the climatic passages. It was especially suitable for some heartbreaking scenes.

The song had reached the climax as a high-pitch female voice sang out:
“I am a moth drawn to the flame.
Love and hate burn inside of me.
History does not leave my name,
still I remain in your memory.”

While tackiness is tacky, it could still be linked to the love and hatred of the characters in a play. It made the sad ending even more touching. As soon as Shen Jintai heard the song, he remembered the scene of Li Xu running inside the palace walls in the opening scene. He felt all those emotions at once.

[The white-haired Li Xu was sitting madly while talking about Zhou Ying.]

The author has something to say：

The hot theme song just needs this kind of vernacular!

Thank you all for your love. Thank you for following the article, casting thunder, commenting, and irrigating the nutrient solution.

It takes time to ferment to become popular, and the next step is even crazier. Let me go to the end. Red can nourish people. I’m excited when I think about it. Ahahaha.

Kinky Thoughts: So… all those moonlight powder are just fujoshis LOL. In the end (gay) love triumphs over hate <3.

Those song lyrics were pretty good… but begging the author please don’t make me translate an entire song. I took a little artistic liberty to make the lyrics rhyme. Here’s the original lyrics:

“我是飞蛾，扑向火，爱恨燃烧我，青史不留我姓名，只有你记得.”