Chapter 579: Chapter 578: Distance (4)
Over the next few days, Xia Siyu was engulfed by work. She didn’t head straight back to Yancheng but went to Shangcheng first to make an appearance for a brand. Then she went to a charity dinner in Nancheng called “New Stars Night.” Nowadays, audiences had wised up; they knew that if you were attending a charity event, you’d have to cough up some cash. Xia Siyu, being someone who’d lightly drop a fortune just for a laugh without a real sense of money, casually bid two million yuan for a painting by a contemporary calligrapher and painter, becoming the biggest spender of the evening in terms of charity donations.
Of course, she paid with her own money; the company didn’t contribute a cent. However, even though she had spent so much, Qin Baizhou still gave her a little push, helping her trend on the hot search.
Using charity for marketing, although there would still be trolls cursing her, as long as the money was right, most onlookers were pleased to see it. But because of that incident on the train, Xia Siyu hoped the company would change its strategy—not to overhype or expose too much anymore, especially with charity. The more earnestly she engaged in charity work, the less she wanted it to become a point of hype.
Of course, she also knew that she had been arguing with Qin Baizhou a lot lately and that the company was willing to spend money to get her on the hot search, which was good for her. But she really hoped to be an actress and didn’t want too much exposure of her personal life. She just hoped to appear on the hot search when her work was released; at other times, she needed to film, to reflect, to live her own life.
But Qin Baizhou wanting to maintain her popularity wasn’t a problem either. Ninety percent of stars rely on their youth, and even if they continue to act in films or television as they age, very few can reach their past heights, and most of them eventually fade from the limelight.
To fade away meant that you would start losing roles, get overshadowed by other artists, and be both elevated and put down.
She wasn’t wrong, and neither was Qin Baizhou; it was simply that their methods had begun to diverge.
Qin Baizhou was afraid that if he said too much, he would push her further away, so as long as she didn’t openly object, he would silently carry out his plans behind the scenes.
And Xia Siyu, naturally lazy to argue, let him do anything as long as it didn’t affect her filming.
The two unspokenly avoided discussing each other’s affairs, which, on the surface, seemed more harmonious, but only they knew any underlying disagreements.
The next day, Xia Siyu still had tasks to attend to, with an interview during the day, followed by a live broadcast in the evening.
But this time the live broadcast was in Yancheng, so after the interview, she didn’t even remove her makeup before taking a flight back.
This sort of jet-setting life was something Xia Siyu had long grown accustomed to. For celebrities, it’s not the insults that are feared but the lack of them. It’s not being busy every day that’s dreaded, but having nothing to keep busy with.
After finishing the live broadcast, with three days left before the start of shooting, Xia Siyu could start preparing to head back to the Northwest. But Qin Baizhou seemed intent on her picking up a few more business deals before the shoot began, with three advertisements and a magazine feature awaiting her.
He had packed her three days full to the brim.
When Qin Baizhou informed her at the last minute, Xia Siyu indeed felt a bit annoyed. An artist’s schedule was usually arranged well in advance. It’s not that ads and magazine shoots couldn’t be squeezed in, but they shouldn’t be crammed to the point of exhaustion. After all, there’s a limit to human energy, and for several days in a row now, she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep or a day of peace.
But since the work had all been scheduled, what else was there to say? Get on with it, for who wouldn’t want to earn the money?