Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  This interview was extremely rewarding for Fei Luo as he had accidentally found out about Gu Mang’s Miracle Doctor identity. He found it hard to contain his excitement as he made his way back. Never did he expect that the Miracle Doctor he had been looking for so hard and long was just at his side.

  In his state of extreme excitement, he bought two bottles of beer and went to the Yu Residence to look for Yu Zhongjing to chat with him throughout the night, only to be told by the latter, “Look at how ignorant you look.”


  When Fei Luo returned to the hotel the next morning, he was still feeling so charged that he couldn’t fall asleep and kept walking about in the room. Eventually, he decided to sit in front of his laptop and start working on the article and editing the video.

  …


  Eastern Brilliance.

  After discussing with the company’s senior management, An Tong sent someone to the Chinese Reading Society to discuss the film rights of Dark’s two remaining works.

  Dark was signed to the Chinese Reading Society, which g managed Dark’s copyrights.

  Knowing that Dark’s works were very popular, An Tong figured that the film rights of the two remaining works would surely cost a lot. From the moment her staff arrived at the Chinese Reading Society, she had been holding onto her phone and waiting to hear about the other party’s asking price, but she didn’t expect to receive an answer in less than ten minutes.

  [Sis Tong, according to the Chinese Reading Society, Dark sold off the film adaptation rights of all his works half a year ago. It’s just that Dark requested them to keep it a secret; that’s why we didn’t receive any news. The people from the editorial department even complained to me that they have been pressing Dark for a new book every day in the past six months, but they didn’t receive a single reply from him at all. They themselves are also wondering if he’s really dead.]

  An Tong frowned as she read the message on her phone.

  Zhao Xinran, who was sitting across from her manager, noticed that something was wrong with her. “What’s the matter?”


  An Tong looked up and then shared the contents of the message with her.

  The news surprised Zhao Xinran as well, and she was immediately reminded of the rumors floating around the internet. She laughed. “Could it be true that Dead committed suicide because of his depression?”


  It would make everything easier for them if Dark was dead, and Eastern Brilliance might even get to profit off his death. If the company released the news of Dark’s death, the movie’s box office sales would surely soar since it meant that ‘The Black Sea’ was Dark’s swansong. His fans would be emotionally swayed, and Eastern Brilliance could use this chance to make a huge profit from this IP. Sale tactics like this worked very well, and its benefits were enormous. Thus, Dark’s death would be good news to both Zhao Xinran and the entire Eastern Brilliance.

  “Suicide?” An Tong’s eyebrows remained tightly knitted together. “If that’s the case, then who is the one drawing the movie poster for us?”


  Zhao Xinran made a guess after thinking about it for a moment. “Could it be his relative or friend? Or perhaps an assistant?”


  An Tong wasn’t sure, so she didn’t want to make wild guesses.

  “If Dark is well and alive, then why didn’t he produce any work in the last two years? He even sold off the rights of all his works half a year ago. It’s like he’s trying to settle his funeral arrangements,” said Zhao Xinran. “The rumor about his suicide probably isn’t baseless.”


  An Tong didn’t respond to her.

  As Zhao Xinran thought about the movie poster, she was hit with a sudden realization that made her sit straight up in her seat. “Dark refused to amend the poster even when we offered to triple his fee. Could it be that the poster has been drawn long ago, so it can’t be amended since Dark is already dead? Is that why our offer was turned down?”


  Hearing that, An Tong’s eyes snapped to Zhao Xinran.

  Zhao Xinran reckoned that that must be the case. Otherwise, there was no reason for the other party to reply to them regarding the poster but not the Chinese Reading Society about publishing a new book. As Dark’s asking price for the poster was very high, she figured that the other person must be trying to profit as much as possible from this transaction.

  “This makes things easier for us. Get the influencers to influence public opinion when we make an official announcement tomorrow on Weibo. It’s best if they can find evidence to prove that Dark is dead,” Zhao Xinran added as she smiled and rubbed her fingers against the cup of water in her hands.?

  …


  Upon leaving Zhao Xinran’s waiting room, An Tong headed straight for Zhao Huai’s office to report this matter to him.

  “Are you guys sure that Dark is dead and that the person who replied to your messages wants to earn money using Dark’s name?” asked Zhao Huai as he took the cup of water that An Tong was handing over to him.

  “We’re fairly certain about it, Chairman Zhao. It seems that we’ve made the right decision to buy the film rights of ‘The Black Sea,” answered An Tong.?

  Zhao Huai nodded. “Alright, get the publicity department to work overtime tonight. I’ll speak to Nie Changting later and get him to shorten the filming time so that we can release the movie as soon as possible and take advantage of the news of Dark’s death.”


  “Okay.”


  …


  The kickoff ceremony for ‘The Black Sea’ officially began the next day with its official Weibo page releasing the movie’s main cast. Zhao Xinran was the main lead, while Sheng Ting was the second main lead.

  The rational fans weren’t actually too concerned about who was the first or second main lead. All they asked for was they not ruin the original story.

  However, the female protagonist Jiang Zhao was a very mysterious person in the novel. Although she appeared quite often throughout the story, her role appeared slightly lacking compared to the male protagonist.

  But now that the female lead role was given to Zhao Xinran, the fans couldn’t imagine how the movie would turn out in the end. On top of that, the fact that Sheng Ting, who had received awards for Best Actor, was the second main lead instead of the first, totally enraged his fans since Zhao Xinran couldn’t act to save her life.

  The two groups of fans thus took to the internet to express their outrage over the main cast of ‘The Black Sea.’


  [Zhao Xinran has neither the looks nor the acting skills. Just because she’s the daughter of Eastern Brilliance’s chairman, does it mean she has the right to ruin our Jiang Zhao?]

  [Movies require an audience, but since Eastern Brilliance doesn’t respect the audience and the appearance of the novel’s characters, then don’t expect us to respect the movie!]

  [Don’t treat the fans like idiots! You need to do better than this, Eastern Brilliance!]

  [I thought that Zhao Xinran acting as Jiang Zhao was just a rumor. Even though she’s a newbie actress who hasn’t acted in any works, she has some popularity to her name at least. We can understand if you want to use her name to create hype for the movie, but it turns out that you’re casting her for real?!]

  [Ugh, popularity? Is she more popular than the award-winning singer-cum-actor Sheng Ting or the other veterans who are starring in the movie as well? Even the rookie supporting actor is more popular than her. Who needs her to create hype for the movie?! Can’t you tell who’s the one trying to ride on whose coattails?]

  [Doesn’t the production team know that Zhao Xinran can’t hold a candle to Jiang Zhao in terms of looks?]

  [What’s the difference between this and having a 1.6m middle-aged man with a pot-belly to act as a 1.88m domineering chairman? The audience isn’t blind, you know?!]

  [Boycott ‘The Black Sea’! Don’t ruin the original work!]

  [What a joke. The author has already received money from selling the film rights to Eastern Brilliance, so what right does he have to boycott the movie? Is he trying to go back on the deal?]

  [From the moment the author sold the film rights to his work, he has no right to comment anything about the film adaptation. How is it his business how Eastern Brilliance wants to shoot the movie?]

  [I’m appalled by the above two comments. Who said that the author has no say in the film adaptation? Don’t forget that God D has a right to decide the main cast in all of his contacts.]

  [Then get Dark to come out and speak up on this matter. Oh, I forgot, wasn’t there a rumor about him committing suicide because of depression floating around the internet? Are you going to get him to crawl out of his coffin? Hahahaha…]

  Like hundreds of ghosts wandering on the streets in the middle of the night, the internet was chaotic with people leaving all sorts of comments since they needn’t be responsible for their words. As the numbers of comments increased, the topic on ‘The Black Sea’ ranked higher and higher until it became top of the trending list; it all happened in just less than ten minutes.

  The number of comments on Zhao Xinran’s Weibo page surged as well.

  [Please, I beg of you. Just spare Jiang Zhao. There are so many works out there; please go find the right one for yourself.]

  [Sis, you’re really not suitable for the role.]

  [Don’t touch Jiang Zhao.]

  The fans didn’t want to cause trouble for Sheng Ting and Dark, so they tried not to scold or curse Zhao Xinran out.

  Unfortunately, no matter how much they protested, there was no response on the official page of ‘The Black Sea.’ It was as if the production team was bent on casting Zhao Xinran. All their efforts spent on protesting were futile.

  It was then that everyone started feeling powerless. They felt that they were incapable of protecting what they like and could only watch their favorite characters end up getting ruined.

  [Everyone, let’s go leave comments on God D’s Weibo page. He has a one-vote veto right. I don’t believe he’ll agree to let Zhao Xinran act as Jiang Zhao!] One of Dark’s fans immediately took action to get everyone to leave comments on his Weibo page.

  [But God D…] This particular fan believed that the rumors weren’t exactly baseless.

  [We won’t believe it unless it’s been verified. Now isn’t the time to care about all that. Let’s go try getting Dark’s attention first.]

  The group of fans thus left messages on Dark’s Weibo page which hadn’t been updated in two years.

  [God D, don’t you have a one-vote veto right? Quickly come out and cast your vote! We don’t want Zhao Xinran acting as Jiang Zhao!]

  [God D, show yourself! We don’t want Zhao Xinran! We don’t want your hard work to be ruined! @Dark]

  …


  Similar comments flooded the comment section. It seemed like everyone had suffered a great injustice and wanted Dark to stand up for them. All of the messages had crying expressions, and there were actually fans who were so furious that they ended up crying in front of the screens.

  Sheng Ting’s fans soon followed the crowd and went to Dark’s Weibo page to leave comments as well.

  It didn’t take long before Dark’s name topped the trending news as well.

  …


  Meanwhile, over at the kickoff ceremony.

  Su Shui pulled Sheng Ting to a corner before turning around to glare at him. “You changed your Weibo account’s password?”


  The plan was to have Sheng Ting upload a post to appease his fans since the fans of the original work alone wouldn’t be able to do much. However, even Sheng Ting’s own fans had joined in the fray now.

  In a frigid voice, Sheng Ting said to her, “Don’t force me. I’ve already agreed to let Zhao Xinran use my name to create hype for three years.”


  Su Shui knew that Sheng Ting was also a fan of Dark and that he had managed to get the male lead role in ‘The Black Sea’ because he had done a lot of preparation in advance. In order to better fit the character’s image and appearance, he had been working out at the gym for a few hours every day. Thus, she knew that he definitely wouldn’t agree to go against Dark’s fans by publishing that post.

  She stared at him for a good while before taking out her phone to call An Tong. “The fans will resent Sheng Ting if he publishes that post. It’s better if you use the news of Dark’s death to control the fans.”


  …


  Things were still chaotic on Weibo with search terms related to ‘The Black Sea’ taking up a third of the trending list.

  Just then, an influencer with over a million followers published a Weibo post. It read, [After seeing the post about Dark’s suicuide, I went to contact the Chinese Reading Society. I was told that Dark sold off the rights of all his works more than six months ago and that the Chinese Reading Society hadn’t been able to reach him since then. He might’ve really committed suicide out of depression.]

  People didn’t immediately believe what the post said and went to leave comments on the Weibo page of the Chinese Reading Society asking about this matter.

  It didn’t take long before the Chinese Reading Society responded, [It’s true that Dark has sold off the rights of all his works and that we haven’t been able to reach him. However, the rumor about his death that has been circulating on the internet hasn’t been verified, so we’re unsure of his current situation.]

  Although the Chinese Reading Society said that they were unsure of Dark’s situation, it practically confirmed the news about Dark’s death since he used to produce one work every year, yet it had been two years since his last work. On top of that, he sold all of his copyrights half a year ago.

  In everyone’s eyes, Dark appeared to be handling his funeral arrangements, which was what made them believe that something had happened to him.

  The news of Dark’s death immediately swept across the entire internet and topped the trending list of all the major websites.

  #famousauthorDarkdiedofdepression

  #TheBlackSeaauthorDarksuspectedtobedeadsixmonthsago

  #TheBlackSeaDarkswansong

  #Darkfivepartsuspenseanddeductionseries

  With 6.2 million followers on Weibo, Dark had a huge influence in the literary circle.

  The news of Dark’s death overtook the news about the cast of ‘The Black Sea’ and topped the trending list on Weibo. Its search terms were followed by a candle and the word ‘hot’ in red.

  The moment the news of Dark’s death was out, his Weibo page’s comment section became flooded.

  [God D is no longer around, which means that ‘The Black Sea’ is his last piece of work. We can’t let it be ruined! We have to do our best to protect the characters we love. No matter whether boycotting the movie works, we have to boycott it to the end!]

  Despite their grief, all the fans collected themselves and get ready to continue the fight.

  [Just because God D is dead, it doesn’t mean that you can disrespect his work!]

  [We strongly oppose Zhao Xinran acting as Jiang Zhao in ‘The Black Sea’!]

  …


  Eastern Brilliance.

  Zhao Huai and a few other executives were very satisfied when they saw how much discussion there was on ‘The Black Sea,’ for the more talk there was, the more curious people would instinctively be and the more likely they would go check out the movie to see how lousy it was.

  Just the kickoff ceremony alone was enough to get ‘The Black Sea’ topping the trending list. On top of that, there was the news about Dark’s death. Currently, there were almost twenty search terms related to ‘The Black Sea’ and Dark, which had garnered almost 100 million clicks just within a span of thirty minutes.

  Eastern Brilliance’s senior management was naturally delighted to see the marketing campaign turn out so successful. One of them said, “We probably can make a lot of money off this project.”


  “Swansongs are always precious because one can no longer see the work of that person again. The ticket stubs also have a commemorative meaning, so it’s likely that we’ll be able to make a killing since everyone would go watch the movie once it’s out.” Zhao Huai then took a look at his computer screen. “Eastern Brilliance’s stock prices have gone up.”


  Another person raised his cup. “Cheers.”


  Although they knew that Dark’s death would bring them a lot of benefits, they didn’t expect it to be so much. It totally marked a good beginning to the entire project.

  …


  A fight had broken out on Weibo.

  Having lost her cool, Qin Yaozhi couldn’t even be bothered to listen to the lesson anymore as she charged to Weibo and strongly opposed to the movie ‘The Black Sea’ along with the other fans. As she couldn’t freely curse her heart out on Weibo, she would intermittently go to the WeChat group and share the strings of expletives she wanted to say to the production team with Meng Jinyang, Lu Yang, and the others instead.

  [Qin Yaozhi: F*ck it! I can’t believe it! Eastern Brilliance’s share prices rose because of the news of God D’s death! Those people are even starting to celebrate! I really want to ask my brother to buy over the entire Eastern Brilliance!]

  [Lu Yang: Your grandfather will kill you. There’s no way your family will get involved because of a stupid Eastern Brilliance.]

  Even if Qin Yaozhi was the only granddaughter in her family, the Qin family only spoiled her in matters that didn’t matter. They wouldn’t possibly go acquire Eastern Brilliance just because she liked a certain author.

  [Qin Yaozhi: I’m hopping mad! They’re real idiots! Nobody is going to watch that trash even if they shoot it!]

  [Lu Yang: Yeah, nobody’s going to watch that trash! The box office sales will definitely be a flop!]

  Even Meng Jinyang, Shen Huan, and Chu Yao joined in to curse the production company.

  [Zheng Miao: Waaah, is God D really dead? I still can’t believe it.]

  [Tang Xiaoxiao: I cried so badly. He’s my most favorite novelist! There’s none other like him!]

  [Shen Huan: This is so aggrieving. No matter how united we are in boycotting the movie, we can’t make the production team reselect the cast members. We were planning to ask God D to step forward and support us, but… Waaah…]

  …


  At noon.

  Gu Mang’s experiment ended ten minutes late, so Meng Jinyang and the others were already waiting for her at the flowerbeds near the entrance. When she arrived, they greeted her somewhat gloomily.

  Gu Mang raised her eyebrows when she noticed their dispirited expressions and reddish eyes. “What happened?”


  Qin Yaozhi pouted and looked as if she was about to burst into tears at any moment. “Sis Mang, Dark really committed suicide because of depression. Even the Chinese Reading Society has confirmed it on Weibo…”


  Gu Mang was confused by the whole situation.

  “The official Weibo page of ‘The Black Sea’ officially announced its cast lineup today, and it turned out that Zhao Xinran is acting as Jiang Zhao! We’ve voiced our disapproval, but it’s useless. Dark has a one-vote veto right, so we wanted to comment on his Weibo page and asked him for help. But now that he’s dead, there’s nothing else that we can do about it…” Qin Yaozhi felt aggrieved and angry at the same time. “I feel so helpless!”


  Gu Mang frowned. She didn’t know who Zhao Xinran was, so she took out her phone and clicked into the Weibo app. Right at the top of the page were top trending search terms that included Dark’s name and a candle. Speechless and expressionless, she clicked on one of the pages to view the cast of ‘The Black Sea.’


  The showbiz industry was a place that relied on appearances. There was no shortage of beautiful women, with each having their own unique characteristics. Although Zhao Xinran wasn’t ugly, her looks, height, and demeanor weren’t on par with Jiang Zhao’s. Heck, she didn’t even have the acting skills to pull the role off, which was why the fans were so opposed to having her act the role.

  Even though Gu Mang never appeared for the cast selection of the film adaptations of her works, the production teams usually send her a name list along with videos of the audition for approval before the filming officially started. They had a lot of respect for the authors of the original works.

  However, she didn’t receive any news this time. She had only heard from Qin Yaozhi previously that rumors about Zhao Xinran acting as Jiang Zhao were circulating on the internet, but she didn’t take much notice about it at the time since the news wasn’t verified. She didn’t expect the production team to bypass her though.

  Gu Mang’s handphone screen showed three top searched terms on Weibo. After thinking about it for a moment, she clicked the one about her death news, and appearing at the top was Dark’s Weibo page. She clicked the link and noticed that her account suddenly had two hundred thousand comments under her last post, which was from two years ago. She clicked into the comment section, and the first comment was unusually popular.

  Qin Yaozhi flared up when she saw that comment. “They even asked us to get Dark to crawl out of his coffin to cast his vote! F*ck it, this is so infuriating!”


  “I already reported that person!” Zheng Miao fumed, only to weakly say a moment later, “But it wasn’t successful…”


  The rest of the comments were almost all filled with crying emojis. The readers of ‘The Black Sea’ even said that they would protect Dark’s work even though he was no longer around. However, it was unavoidable that those comments were mocked by some other people.

  Gu Mang coolly exited the comment section and her Weibo page, her eyes narrowing when she saw the red candles on the trending list. Then, she logged into her main account and published a post.

  [GM: I heard that you people have been spreading rumors saying that I’m dead. #famousauthorDarkdiedofdepression]