AITFYMIBP Chapter 97

TL: Hua

When Lin Yanran finished his shower and headed downstairs, he saw his parents sitting together watching TV.

Just as he was about to call out to them, he heard a familiar voice from the screen.

“There is still one thing in this world I care for. I still want to start over with him.”

The moment Gu Siye’s voice rang out, Lin Yanran froze.

He looked up sharply and saw that the TV was playing “Imperial Power,” the project he and Gu Siye had filmed together.

When he was filming those scenes with Gu Siye, Lin Yanran hadn’t felt much. After all, it was just a production.

But now, finding his parents following the show, he was instantly mortified.

Specifically, the TV was currently showing the finale at the Zhaixing Tower, interspersed with several flashback montages.

Among them were the passionate scenes of him being held captive and… Gu Siye licking his hand…

Although Director Guo Fang’s cinematography was aesthetic and subtle rather than explicit, it was still quite clear what the two were doing.

Especially the madness in Gu Siye’s eyes. Every time he looked at him, it was like he wanted to devour him. Anyone who wasn’t blind could see what he was up to.

Lin Yanran glanced at his mother, who was immersed in the drama and crying her eyes out, then at his father, who was handing her tissues while also watching intently.

At that moment, the screen flashed back to a scene of Gu Siye pressing him down, bullying him until he cried…

Lin Yanran: “…”

This is ridiculous!!!

Lin Yanran’s face turned bright red. He couldn’t understand why his parents, who hadn’t turned the TV on in ages, were suddenly following The Best Screenwriter and the premiere, no less!

Lin Yanran didn’t dare look at the screen for another second. Paralyzed by the second-hand embarrassment, he didn’t dare make a sound. He turned around and bolted back to his room.

Since his parents hadn’t noticed him, Lin Yanran figured that as long as he pretended he hadn’t seen anything, it would be fine.

However, just as he lay down on his bed to check his phone, the family group chat [Baby Ranran and His Family] started blowing up.

Grandpa: Ranran’s acting is great [Thumbs Up]

Grandma: Ranran is so talented [Clapping][Clapping]

Mom: Our baby acted so well! [Crying Hard]

Dad: [Thumbs Up]

Grandma: Ranran is truly our pride and joy. [Rose]

Grandpa: [Clapping]

Older Brother: [Smirking Face]

Facing the unanimous praise from his family and that particularly meaningful emoji from his brother, Lin Yanran wanted nothing more than to board a rocket and flee the Earth immediately.

It wasn’t just his parents watching. The entire family had tuned in for the premiere!

The viewership ratings for the first episode of The Best Screenwriter broke 2.5 around 10:00 PM, making it the first massive variety hit of the year.

A closer look at the ratings curve showed that the peak occurred during the final segment, “Imperial Power.”

As the audience sat before their TVs watching the close-up of the poetry on that final drifting lantern, they completely broke down.

Before the background music of “Imperial Power” had even faded, the official Weibo for The Best Screenwriter was flooded with over 4,000 comments, a number that grew by the second. It was a chorus of wails from fans driven mad by the heartbreak.

[I came here to ship the Siran CP, but this plot just sliced me into pieces.]

[Wuwuwuwu, my tears are worthless, I’m crying so loud.]

[Lighting a cigarette. Screenwriter, come out, I want to talk to you about life.]

[No BE! No BE! I want an HE, I want Yizhao sweetness!]

[Wuwuwuwu, my baby Xiao Zhao, my heart ached for you.]

[I saw them acting all warm and fuzzy while he carried him back, confessing their hearts, and I thought we were getting a happy ending. Then you show me him jumping off a building??]

[That final poem is too much to handle. How can Xiao Zhao be so kind? Even at the end, his heart was full of that dog Sheng Yi, wanting to stay by his side.]

[I’m traumatized. I just recommended “Imperial Power” to my friend as a ‘super sweet drama’.]

[“Imperial Power” is so sweet, heeheehee.]

[Look at what the heartbreak did to them; they’ve lost their minds.]

The emotional impact of this heart-wrenching drama was immense, and coupled with the fact that the short series was excellent in terms of the lead actors’ looks and acting skills, as well as the overall visuals and production quality, it generated a huge buzz overnight, and the topic exploded in popularity the following day.

Regretful beauty is always the most unforgettable. Because the tragedy of “Imperial Power” was so devastating, the show dominated Weibo trending topics, WeChat Moments, and short-video platforms.

This popularity trickled back to the variety show itself.

The daytime reruns easily broke a rating of 2.0, leading the TV station to play “Imperial Power” on a loop every afternoon.

Lin Yanran’s final leap became a legendary aesthetic tragedy scene, edited into countless montages by creators across the internet.

Because he was so stunningly beautiful and the scene was so poignant, his character became the white moonlight of the masses, and his ancient-style appearance was directly ranked as the top beauty in ancient fashion.

A dark horse who had never acted before suddenly snatched the top spot in the ancient-style beauty rankings. Some people were not convinced, so they messaged a famous ugly-shot bot¹A blogger who captures unflattering screenshots of celebrities., hoping for some “collapsed” photos to prove he wasn’t that good-looking.

The blogger responded by posting a public Weibo.

Ugly-Shot Bot: Stop DMing me, damn it! I’ll say it one more time!! Yanran has no ‘collapsed’ frames!!! Not one!!! He is beautiful from beginning to end! Every single frame is natural and brilliantly acted!!!! Stop talking about it, I’ve been crying for three days! You guys mentioned it and now I want to cry again!

The blogger then shared two high-quality screenshots.

One was of Sheng Zhao crying; the other was the leap.

The other party was clearly good at taking screenshots; after adding some filters, the image was even more visually appealing.

Lin Yanran’s crying shot was heart-wrenching; the leap was tragically exquisite.

It wasn’t a forced, “look-at-me-being-pretty” expression, but natural, authentic acting as if he were born to be Xiao Zhao.

[Yanran’s final jump from the building was breathtakingly beautiful; the more beautifully he smiled, the louder I cried.]

[Is Teacher Yanran really acting for the first time? He’s so amazing wuwuwu.]

After collecting countless beautiful stills, the audience members whose hearts had been tempered into “diamond hearts” from repeatedly rewatching the tragic ending finally began to calm down.

They started to realize that for a work like this to ignite such raw emotion, it wasn’t just the script; it was, more importantly, the actors’ performances.

Everyone had eyes to see Gu Siye’s acting; there was no need to emphasize it.

However, the person who surprised everyone was Lin Yanran, who was acting for the first time.

Before this, no one imagined his acting could be this good. In fact, many people had been waiting to see the final product specifically to mock him for his lack of experience.

The result, however, was a slap in the face.

Not only did he hold his own in scenes opposite Gu Siye, but even compared to the professional actors in the other three short dramas airing in the same episode of The Best Screenwriter, his acting didn’t lose out at all. It was even more brilliant and empathetic.

Lin Yanran’s performance in “Imperial Power” was so far beyond expectations that many organic fans spontaneously wrote numerous film reviews regarding his acting skills.

Among them, a relatively famous film critic specially made a video edit and wrote a mini-thesis of several thousand words. He took screenshots frame by frame and analyzed every detail of how legendary Lin Yanran’s acting as Xiao Zhao was.

Finally, he focused on comparing Lin Yanran’s eyes.

Blogger: I have to say, in my eyes, Yanran’s acting has already reached god-tier status. If he continues acting, the Best Newcomer Award will undoubtedly be his. After all, for someone who has never filmed before to complete their first role with such high quality is truly no easy feat, especially when his partner is Gu Siye. I’ve already interpreted his acting through micro-expressions and movements; finally, let’s talk about his eyes.

The blogger posted two sets of photos showing Sheng Zhao’s eyes while ill.

The first set was from the sweet period of Yi and Zhao.

At this time, although Sheng Zhao was sick, even when he was seriously ill and bedridden, his eyes were full of stars. He was lively and adorable, possessing total trust and zero defenses toward Sheng Yi.

But later on, when he looked at Sheng Yi again, there was no longer any light in his eyes. He looked like a stone that had lost its edges, with all his sharp spirit ground away.

But this was only the surface.

While his gaze had become submissive, it perfectly retained the resilience of a prince.

This also reflected his character. He appeared soft, but at critical moments, he possessed the pride and backbone of a noble son.

Finally, the blogger commented on Lin Yanran’s gaze during the final jump.

The blogger, who had been speaking eloquently at great length, simply wrote one sentence.

—He loves Dog Yi so much wuwuwuwu (Dog Yi is just the character Sheng Yi. I don’t mean any disrespect to Teacher Gu).

This post was quickly reposted by various people, and more and more participants joined the discussion.

[Wuwuwuwu, Teacher Yanran is the GOAT, you are amazing!!!]

[Thank you, Teacher Yanran, for portraying our best Baby Xiao Zhao.]

[The name ‘Dog Yi’ is so well-chosen. This scumbag clearly had a chance at the end but just wouldn’t explain things to his wife. Otherwise, Xiao Zhao wouldn’t have died.]

[Even if he explained, it wouldn’t change anything; Xiao Zhao would still choose to die. The foreshadowing was already there: the royal bloodline was either mostly killed off during the fight for the throne or wiped out by Dog Yi after he became the emperor. Now, Xiao Zhao is the only legitimate royal heir alive. Even if he didn’t jump and chose to leave Sheng Yi, those old-fashioned remnants of the previous dynasty would still use his mother to force him back into a rebellion to kill Sheng Yi. Personally, I think a big reason he jumped was that he didn’t want to become Dog Yi’s weakness. If you carefully savor the line when Xiao Zhao destroys the jade pendant, he says, ‘There is no longer anything in this world that can threaten you.’ He seems to be talking about the jade, but he’s actually talking about himself. He knows Dog Yi’s feelings for him and understands that his own existence is the greatest threat. During the jump, Xiao Zhao’s final gaze was on Dog Yi from beginning to end. I feel like he actually wanted to start over, but being born into the imperial family, he simply wasn’t the master of his own fate. Sigh.]

[Holy crap, sister, was the dialogue really that nuanced? I didn’t even notice until I read your analysis. In the last scene, I was only focused on crying and thirsting over my wife, Xiao Zhao. I didn’t realize there was so much depth. Teacher Yanran’s acting is second to none wuwuwuwu]

[After reading this interpretation, it feels even more tragic. Wuwuwuwu, my Xiao Zhao! The screenwriter is amazing; he must be number one for the first episode, right?]

[Uh, let me say this quietly, but this drama actually doesn’t have much to do with the screenwriter. That screenwriter isn’t good at romance; the original script was actually written quite poorly and didn’t even have that line. The fact that the drama turned out like this is entirely supported by Yanran and Teacher Gu’s acting. Plus, the two of them must have analyzed the characters very seriously; they added a lot of small emotional interactions between the leads and changed many small details. That’s why the final work is so good.]

Because The Best Screenwriter is a competition, the original scripts are released after every episode.

Since “Imperial Power” was so popular, it naturally received immense attention.

Upon hearing the news, everyone flocked to read Sun Hangyi’s script.

In less than an hour, the page views for Sun Hangyi’s script surpassed ten million.

After reading the script content, the audience only had one thought in their heads:

—Thank you Siran for saving lives!!!

[Damn, the script and the final product are basically two different stories. If it weren’t for Guo Fang’s directing and Siran’s adaptations and acting, this drama would just be a bucket of pungent dog-blood. There’d be nothing worth watching.]

[And Yanran and Teacher Gu both used their original voices! Too cool!! (Shouting loudly!!)]

[So I’m begging Siran to please act more, let’s have another collaboration, okay? I want to see it so badly.]

[I don’t care what they collaborate on, I’ll just treat it as a sweet alternate universe after-story for Yi and Zhao.]

[Begging for a Siran collab +1.]

The bad ending of Yi and Zhao was so unforgettably painful that, under the impact of the plot’s regrets, many people transferred their feelings for the characters onto the actors Siran.

At this moment, the quick-witted team of The Best Screenwriter struck while the iron was hot and released some carefully collected behind-the-scenes clips of Siran’s usual interactions during filming.

Watching the clips, Gu Siye was seen wiping tears and fixing hair for Lin Yanran.

The videos were given pink filters and sweet background music; the Yizhao fans found it extremely intoxicating!!

[Don’t you think Siran is so shippable? While Teacher Gu’s character is cool, he’s a bit of a scumbag. The highlight of the final jump was all on Yanran. Sacrificing for the sake of love. How sweet.]

[Gu Siye and Yanran are both handsome, their acting is great, and they have a good relationship. Their interactions on the previous variety show were also super sweet. Ahhhh, so please collaborate again, just one more time!]

[Yanran and Gu Siye really match well (only talking about the drama, no other meaning).]

[Ahhhh, I don’t care, I don’t care, Siran get together (for filming)!!! Make up for the regret of Yi and Zhao, waaaaah!!]

[Sisters, get the hashtag #SiranQuicklyCollaborateAgain trending! You have to have dreams; what if they actually come true?]

The Siran CP fans were stunned to see their Super Topic climb to the number one spot among all CP topics, with people from all walks of life joining in to ship them overnight.

It was… very sudden…

The Siran fans, who had been keeping a low profile for a long time, reflexively started clarifying.

This really has nothing to do with us! They chose to ship it themselves!! We didn’t promote it!! We really didn’t promote it!!

After all, our ‘Big God’ editor in the Siran circle hasn’t even brought out the legendary ‘Three Lives, Three Worlds’ past-and-present life epic romance video to promote yet!!!

Drama fans who saw these comments: “?”

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  A blogger who captures unflattering screenshots of celebrities.