A Billion Stars Can’t Amount to You

After lunch, Ji Yi went back into her room to get changed. With various-sized bags in hand, she went out with her parents to make their annual new year visits.

Before she went to sleep last night, Ji Yi forgot to charge her phone. After she left the house, she realized she only had twenty percent battery left.

Even though Ji Yi carefully monitored her usage while outside, her phone still ran out of battery at half past four in the afternoon.

It was already nine in the evening by the time she got back home.

The first thing Ji Yi did when she went to her room was to charge her phone and take a shower.

After drying her hair and applying skin care products, her phone had automatically turned on by the time she climbed into bed.

Ji Yi laid against the headboard. After snuggling into a comfortable position, she picked up her phone.

She unlocked the screen and glanced at her Weibo message notifications. There were almost double the usual amount.

After opening Weibo, Ji Yi saw most of the messages were from other people’s @myself.

Ji Yi figured that the story during tonight’s showing of ”The Tempestuous Grand Tang” stirred up some debate. She thought this must be why so many people posted @myself, so she didn’t think much of it and casually tapped into the conversation threads. Who knew that she would see a wall of curses and abusive hate messages?

”Plagiarizing b*tch! Not one of them are innocent!”

”To think that the new YC artist must be talented. I never imagined she’d be a plagiarizing b*tch!!”

”Trash actress! Is she worthy of working in showbiz with that kind of personality?”

Ji Yi read the series of hate messages in a daze for an entire half minute before she saw the first Weibo post. It was from that ”I love eating mangoes” user’s Weibo, but it wasn’t the same post she saw earlier; it was a new Weibo post.

It was another post with two gifs.

The first gif was of Qian Ge’s ”The Legend of Qingcheng.” When the main actor got injured and fell unconscious, she stayed by his side and stared intensely at him. She couldn’t help but reach her fingers out to touch the man’s forehead. She revealed a sentimental expression on her face.

The second gif was of Ji Yi’s ”The Tempestuous Grand Tang.” The difference between this and ”The Legend of Qingcheng” was that the main actor wasn’t injured or unconscious but he was drunk instead. Deep in the night, Ji Yi took care of him without getting any rest herself. After the male lead fell deep asleep, the scene played out exactly the same as Qian Ge’s ”The Legend of Qingcheng.” Ji Yi stared at the main actor in a daze then slowly reached her fingers out to trace the outline of his face. When she touched the corners of his lips, Ji Yi’s fingers trembled softly. Even the motions of her trembling finger were the same as Qian Ge’s; there weren’t the slightest bit of difference. The expression on Ji Yi’s face was the same as Qian Ge in the ”The Legend of Qingcheng” - her pupils shifted as she wore a shy smile.

If the two gifs from the afternoon were considered just a coincidence, Ji Yi found that quite unbelievable with this side-by-side comparison.

She clearly remembered how she found it difficult to adjust to acting when she first started shooting scenes at Hengdian studios in the evenings. She could never seem to grasp the right emotions, so she had endless outtakes. Eventually, the director couldn’t take it anymore and asked her to take a break and called in other actors to shoot first.

To help her get into character, she hid alone in the restroom and reread the script from start to end just to completely immerse herself into the story. Once she grasped the emotions, she finally came out of the restroom and made an ”OK” hand gesture to the director. She got her makeup retouched and smoothly finished shooting the scenes.