Chapter 98 Rising to Fame
Xu Kun went back to discuss the matter with the county government. When he heard that they wanted to send vegetables to Beijing and Taiwan, the county leaders were eager to agree with it.
So after coordination, when Xu Kun escorted the car into Beijing for the second time, under the leadership of Director Liu Heng, he sent several large cars of love vegetables to Beijing and Taiwan, and guaranteed that a batch of fresh vegetables would be sent every three days during the YQ period.
This not only solved the urgent needs of Beijing and Taiwan employees, but also left enough room for Taiwan leaders to do favors.
The result is of course everyone is happy.
The county's "Love Vegetable Team" was singled out for praise by Beijing and Taiwan, and the first-round broadcasting rights for "The Young Emperor" were also purchased by Beijing and Taiwan, and will be shown on Beijing Satellite TV in September at the latest.
Although Xu Kun seemed to have gained nothing, he earned a lot of favors from county leaders, director Liu Heng, and Beijing and Taiwan.
As the news spread in the entertainment industry, from early May to the end of June, Xu Kun became the circle's firefighter. People told others about it, and in the end, even Xu Kun himself didn't know how many people in the industry he had helped.
In addition to Jingtai, the staff canteen of the People's Art Theatre was also contracted by him, and the specific people in charge were Pu Cunxi and Song Xinxin.
And he finally met old man Lan Tianye. The old man had an immortal look and did not look like an ordinary person. No wonder he would become the only person in the entire literary and art world to receive a national medal of honor in the future.
By the end of June, when the lockdown was gradually lifted and the news spread further, Xu Kun's name was almost known to everyone in the entire Beijing circle. Even if you had never heard of Xu Kun's name, you knew that there was such a young man delivering vegetables in the snow in the circle.
At the same time, "Conquer" officially landed on Tianjin Satellite TV on May 5th. It received rave reviews as soon as it was broadcast. In addition, as the country is in the midst of the epidemic, people in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei are staying at home. It is no exaggeration to say that the ratings are overwhelming.
Seeing such popularity, other satellite TV stations also competed for the second-round broadcast rights. From May to the end of September, Conquer almost dominated the charts across major satellite TV stations and became the biggest dark horse of 03.
Liu Huaqiang buying watermelons has become an indelible memory for a generation or even several generations.
Xu Kun's Han Yueping also became a little famous. The scene in which he opened beer in various ways in the play also became the object of imitation for countless men, so much so that bottle openers became decorations for a time.
The news of accidents caused by fancy beer opening methods even made it to CCTV news.
When Han Yueping was on trial at the end, his laughter full of helpless self-mockery and the phrase "if it were changed to Chinese" also attracted a lot of attention and discussion.
Some entertainment newspapers even used this as evidence to seriously analyze whether it was Han Yueping who betrayed Liu Huaqiang, or whether Liu Huaqiang wronged Han Yueping first and then used this to bring up the discussion of whether Liu Huaqiang was loyal to his brothers.
Naturally, his hometown was also affected to a certain extent, especially since many people knew that Xu Kun was performing in his true colors.
Someone found out that he lived in Zhang Yong's house, and people came to hang out with him every day. Even a big brother from Heng City came to him despite the epidemic and asked how to get on TV and become famous.
But the most excited person would have to be Chen Xuebin. He called all day long to urge Xu Kun to learn some talents, at least to be able to sing Nayoung's "Conquer" fluently.
After the epidemic was over at the end of June, Xu Kun immediately started his first performance in his life under the arrangement of Chen Xuebin.
Xu Kun originally thought that performing for money meant performing for the general public in a movie theater or on some other stage.
This time I personally participated and found that the small stars' performances are mainly for celebrating the birthdays of rich people or various weddings and funerals - ordinary people are very stingy even to cheer from the audience, let alone buying tickets and paying for them.
Under the name of Hengzhou Han Yueping, Xu Kun would go on stage and sing "Conquer" wherever he went, although this song actually had nothing to do with the TV series, the sponsor recognized it.
If an encore is needed, Xu Kun will sing "Hero Song" or "Loyalty to the Country".
In addition to singing, fancy beer opening techniques are also often performed.
Because many of the wealthy people who came for "Conquer" were not decent people, so before and after almost every performance, there would be people from the society who came to visit, and occasionally there would be enemies who came to disrupt the show.
An ordinary actor would have been terrified, but Xu Kun felt like a fish in water when mixed in with it.
As the saying goes, he performs martial arts for ten minutes on stage and practices martial arts off stage. Whether it means fighting with others in the literal sense or in the physical sense, he never shows any fear.
In this way, over a period of three months, Xu Kun traveled almost all four provinces of China and even went outside Shanhaiguan.
The harvest is naturally fruitful.
When he left, his total assets were less than 3 yuan - he had previously spent more than 1 yuan on a notebook and another 2 yuan on groceries out of his own pocket. Although the county and Zhang Yong said they would reimburse him, he was eager to do it just to gain fame, so of course he had to keep his public and private lives separate.
By the time he returned to Beijing from Northeast China at the end of September, Xu Kun's total assets had skyrocketed to 21. After deducting all expenses and shares, he earned 18 from this trip, which is almost catching up with the level of second-rate singers. This shows how popular "Conquer" was.
At this time, "Young Emperor" had already aired more than 30 episodes. Because it was first broadcast in Beijing and Taiwan, its popularity was much higher than the original historical line - of course, it was still far behind "Conquer" and failed to reach the level of "The Emperor of Han Dynasty". But the popularity that Jidu brought to Xu Kun was no less than that of Han Yueping.
Among this group of young actors in the play, the most admired is the queen played by Hao Lei, followed by Ji Du played by Xu Kun.
Neither of them is a positive character in the play.
The Queen's character was sarcastic, stubborn and overbearing, and she even caused Huabuzi's miscarriage and the Fourth Prince's death.
Jidu killed people like slaughtering pigs and dogs, which fully demonstrated the Tartar high-level officials' cold contempt for the Han people.
Originally according to Xu Kun's idea, the former could win some sympathy from the audience through delicate performance - Hao Lei's performance was indeed classic enough, especially her half-crazy and half-insane state in the last episode.
But Xu Kun himself has been trying his best to create the image of Jidu as a bloodthirsty and racist person, and he has no intention of whitewashing Jidu at all.
As a result, after the first round of broadcasting, Xu Kun secretly asked someone to investigate and found that most of those who liked Han Yueping were young men, while most of those who liked Ji Du were women.
The sisters didn't see Jidu's coldness at all, they only saw his coolness.
One even thinks that Jidu's behavior of raising an army for his niece and punishing the unfaithful scum Shunzhi is simply too cool, and that he is even more lovable when he finally sacrifices himself when the truth is revealed.
"Before he died, Ji Du was still thinking about his grandson and nephew. Not only was he not afraid at all, but there was even light in his eyes. I also want to have an uncle like him - or a boyfriend!"
After listening to these comments, Xu Kun went back and remained silent for a long time, then called Big Mouth Elk.
I don't know whether to say it was unexpected or expected. Although "The Thirteenth Princess", which he originally commented as extremely weird and the screenwriter was blind, failed to continue the popularity of "My Fair Princess", after it was broadcast on the Shanghai Entertainment Channel at the end of May, the ratings were actually among the best.
It even appeared on Dragon TV this month.
This left Xu Kun completely speechless.
It turns out that the audience’s thoughts and tastes are completely different from what he thought!
He had originally been thinking that once he became famous he would choose scripts according to his own preferences, but now he has lost his mind.
At the beginning of October, Gao Qunshu specially organized a party. This time it was not held at Jiang Shan's house, and the number of people was much smaller than the previous two times. There were only a few actors with more roles, such as Jiang Shan, Liu Weiwei, Sun Honglei, Li Yixiang and others.
This time Xu Kun did not refuse.
When he arrived at the banquet, he found that except for Jiang Shan and Li Yixiang, Sun Honglei, Shi Zhaoqi, Liu Weiwei, Chen Bing, Zhang Li and others were all the same as himself, both thinner and fatter.
What's thin is the body, what's fat is the wallet.
After they met, Sun Honglei put his arm around Xu Kun's shoulders, smiled and said, "Great, Kun'er, it's not in vain that you followed me. I've seen The Young Emperor, and the aura there is quite similar to my brother's style."
Xu Kun smiled and did not refute. After all, he did learn from Sun Honglei.
"But your last look..."
Sun Honglei's expression became more serious. As the saying goes, the layman watches the excitement while the expert watches the details. When he was watching TV, he keenly discovered that Xu Kun seemed to be trying to adjust his eyes.
Especially the final death scene, it looked like there was light in his eyes.
Xu Kun smiled and said, "I met two seniors on the set who taught me step by step."
"Then you are really lucky."
Sun Honglei said this and patted Xu Kun on the shoulder again. Although he was smiling on the surface, he was secretly on high alert in his heart.
Xu Kun's speed of progress has somewhat exceeded his expectations. While constantly expanding his acting range, he has also earned a lot of favors by delivering vegetables in the snow.
Don't wait until then...
However, thinking about how popular Liu Huaqiang was, Sun Honglei soon felt relieved. It was still a long way to go for Xu Kun to surpass him.
(End of this chapter)
