Huayu: The young actress is heavily dependent on me

"What! You're Chen Li?"

Jin Chen gasped and covered her mouth.

"Huh? You actually know me?" Chen Li was somewhat surprised.

How did I become so famous when none of my shows have even aired?

"Yeah, that's why you look so familiar!" Jin Chen exclaimed, slapping her thigh in realization.

"I went to a company meeting a while ago and I heard Brother Hu and General Manager Cai mention you."

"They said they know a newcomer named Chen Li from Nirvana in Fire, who acts quite well, and you can contact him."

"I thought to myself, there aren't many newcomers who are recognized by Brother Hu, so I made a note of you."

"What a coincidence, we actually met at the gym!" Jiang Jinfu looked at Chen Li curiously from the side.

"By the way, have you signed with a company?"

Chen Li shook her head: "Not yet."

"That's perfect!" Jiang Jinfu clapped his hands, exchanged a glance with Jin Chen, and their eyes conveyed a "you know what I mean" signal.

"Hey bro, why don't you come work for Tangren?"

Jin Chen immediately followed up:

"Yeah, yeah! Look, with you coming to Tangren, we can film together and train together at the same time—it's a win-win situation! Think about it, we're still young, isn't that great!"

"Our company gym is downstairs, you can use it anytime, 24 hours a day," Jiang Jinfu added, his tone quite sincere.

"Besides, Tangren is signing new talent right now, and I think you're really good at it. Even Brother Hu has praised you, so what more needs to be said?"

Chen Li's smile remained unchanged, but she couldn't help but mutter to herself.

Are you from Tang Dynasty?

Tangren was already at the tail end of its peak in 2014.

Hu Jintao is still here, Liu Shishi is still here, and these few pillars are holding things together, making it look glamorous, but in reality, it has already begun to decline.

The biggest problem lies in resource allocation.

Tangren Media doesn't have many top-tier resources to begin with, and they only got the role in "Nirvana in Fire" by collaborating with Shandong Film and Television.

Moreover, the internal pyramid structure has been solidified.

With Hu Ge occupying the leading role, newcomers who want to get ahead can only pick up what their seniors have left over.

Take Jiang Jinfu, for example. He was signed with high hopes, but what happened after he acted in "Xuan-Yuan Sword"?

Tangren Media was giving him fewer and fewer opportunities. Everyone in the industry knows how messy his contract termination was later.

Then there's Jin Chen, who spent several years at Tangren Media, but the role that truly made her famous, "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer," was a resource she received after terminating her contract.

During her time with Tangren Media, she only got a handful of roles, and none of them were particularly good ones.

Chen Li knew perfectly well what was going on.

What he needs is a platform where he can maximize his abilities, not a place where seniority is the only factor and the ceiling is obvious.

But he wouldn't say those things out loud. He could sense that Jin Chen and Jiang Jinfu meant well.

The training ended quickly.

The three of them helped each other stretch and chatted about the movies they were going to film next.

Jin Chen said she will join the crew next month, Jiang Jinfu said he is currently reading the script, and Chen Li mentioned that he just finished filming a drama.

While packing, Jin Chen, still unwilling to give up, asked another question:

"So, Tangren, why don't you consider it? It really suits you."

Chen Li draped the towel over her shoulder and smiled:

"I still need to think about it. After all, signing with a company is no small matter."

"Alright, alright, think it over carefully first." Jin Chen didn't press him any further.

Jiang Jinfu extended his hand and shook hands firmly with Chen Li:

"Brother, no matter where you sign, let's be friends. Keep in touch and train together."

"No problem." Chen Li's smile this time was genuine.

"If we have time in the future, let's meet up for another meal."

He slung his bag over his shoulder, waved to the two men, and turned to walk toward the locker room.

Jin Chen leaned against the wall, watching Chen Li's figure disappear through the locker room door.

Jiang Jinfu poured water into his glass while glancing at her sideways.

"Alright, everyone's gone, stop looking." He nudged Jin Chen's arm with his elbow.

"You don't actually like her, do you?"

Jin Chen rolled her eyes at him, her tone exaggerated:

"How could that be? I'm an innocent female college student, how could I fall in love with every guy I see?"

Jiang Jinfu nearly choked on the water, coughed twice, and looked at her speechlessly:

"What's your connection to innocence?"

Jin Chen ignored his complaints and gave him a standard auntie smile.

That expression gave Jiang Jinfu goosebumps:

"What have you thought of this time?"

"Hehe." Jin Chen rolled up the towel and stuffed it into her bag, lowering her voice.

"I think he and Yitong are quite a good match."

Jiang Jinfu was taken aback: "You mean your classmate Li Yitong?"

"Yes!" Jin Chen thought about it more and more and felt that this was a good idea, her eyes sparkling.

"What do you think? I'll find a chance to introduce him to Yitong later."

......

Time flies, and the year has passed.

In late February 2014, before the Spring Festival was even over, film crews in Hengdian had already started work one after another.

Chen Li filmed for a few days following the schedule of "Ban Shu Legend". After finishing work each day, she would either work out or scroll through her phone, living a very regular life.

During this period, "Bu Ran" quietly gained traction on Kugou Music.

At first, not many people noticed this song.

After all, the singer's name listed was "Chen Li," a name no one had ever heard of.

Without the company's promotional resources or the help of marketing accounts, placing it on Kugou Music, which releases thousands of new songs every day, is like throwing a pebble into the ocean.

But that pebble, by some chance, created ripples.

First, a few users left comments in the comment section:

"This was randomly selected from the playlist, and it sounds great!"

"Such a clean voice, who is this singer?"

Then these people shared the song on QQ Space, Baidu Tieba, and Weibo.

A blogger recommending ancient-style novels casually set "Bu Ran" as the background music for a new post.

As a result, the number of views for that episode tripled.

What truly made this song known to a wider audience was a cover song creator on YouTube.

She uploaded a self-made music video to Bilibili, featuring clips from the TV series "Nirvana in Fire" and audio from the song "Bu Ran".

The editing is rough, but the background music and visuals are perfectly matched.

The comments went from "??? What kind of divine song is this?" to "UP, hand over the BGM or I won't kill you."

The video quickly topped the trending charts in the music section.

One pass ten, ten pass a hundred.

By late February, "Bu Ran" quietly climbed into the top 100 on Kugou Music's new song chart, then the top 50, and then the top 30.

The number of views increased from over 300 initially to over 80,000.

The comment section grew from dozens to thousands, with new people coming every day.

"I came here from Bilibili, and I've been listening to this song on repeat for three days."

"There's a story in their voices. Even though they haven't experienced anything special, listening to them still makes me want to cry."

"Who is Chen Li? Why can't I find any of his songs online?"

"I did a search and found out this person is actually an actor??? A graduate of the Beijing Film Academy???"

Nobody knows how this song became popular. There were no trending topics, no press releases, and no endorsements from influential figures.

It was heard by one ordinary person after another, and then one by one they pressed the share button.

At the same time, listeners who followed the clues also found Chen Li's Weibo account.

The comments section under that Weibo post with the photo of him and Dilraba started to change.

Originally, the crowd consisted entirely of onlookers drawn in by Fan Bingbing and casual fans who shipped the couple. Now, a large number of new fans have come from Kugou Music.

"Did you sing 'Undyed'? It's so beautiful!"

"I originally came to see the handsome guy, but it turns out he can also write songs?!"

"I'm a fan now! He can act, write songs, and sing. What a treasure of a boy!"

"I came from Bilibili videos. I cried after listening to it, so I came to follow the original singer."

The number of followers gradually increased from over three thousand to over six thousand, and then to over nine thousand.

Chen Li gained some popularity with the song "Bu Ran" even before any of her dramas aired...