Traffic Star Development Program

Chapter 93 Sending Warmth

Chu Ran thought for a moment: "I haven't seen it."

"Then we have to make it happen tonight. We'll watch the first episode from the beginning. You'll definitely be hooked after watching it."

Chu Ran pulled her legs together and leaned against the headboard: "Not missing an episode? Can't I fast forward?"

"That's right, just start brushing from the beginning."

The two pulled the blanket over their legs, placed the computer in the middle, the screen lit up, and the classic opening theme slowly began to play.

Chu Ran didn't say anything, pulled her coat tighter, and focused intently on the screen.

Tian Xiwei tore open the snack packaging and handed her a handful. She reached out and took them. The two watched the show quietly without saying a word.

The winter night was deep and dark, with streetlights forming a soft glow that seeped in through the window cracks, casting narrow shadows on the ground.

On the screen, the alley of Ssangmun-dong in 1988 comes into view, with ordinary neighbors and everyday life unfolding scene by scene.

Chu Ran munched on snacks, pulled the blanket up, and immersed herself in the story.

The day was uneventful; no social engagements, no meetings, just a simple meal and watching a TV series with a friend. Before we knew it, we'd finished the first episode and then casually started watching the second.

Later, she drifted off to sleep, and Tian Xiwei gently woke her up: "Are you going back, or will you just stay here for the night?"

She rubbed her sleepy eyes and thought for a moment: "I'll go back."

Tian Xiwei handed her her coat and opened the door: "Don't forget to lock the hallway door when you leave."

"I understand."

At 10:17 a.m. the following day, the approval results for "Ning An Ru Meng" were officially released.

The reason the time was recorded so precisely was because Zeng Hao and Xu Wen were checking the publicity plan for next month. Xu Wen's phone vibrated first. He picked it up, glanced at it, and immediately turned it face down, remaining silent.

Zeng Hao glanced at him: "What's going on?"

"We just received a notification from headquarters regarding 'Ning An Ru Meng'," Xu Wen paused, "It's been approved smoothly."

Zeng Hao put down the schedule in his hand, picked up his teacup and took a sip: "We've finalized the launch date for the second quarter."

"That's right, it's planned to premiere in April, and the official schedule will be released next week."

Xu Wen waited for his boss to say a few words of congratulations, but Zeng Hao picked up the documents again: "Immediately reserve the publicity period for April. The second phase of promotion will start immediately. All materials must be prepared this week."

Xu Wen opened his notes app and quickly jotted down some notes. Halfway through, he couldn't help but look up and say, "Boss, it passed the review smoothly. Shall we celebrate?"

"Should we celebrate after finishing the work, or celebrate first and then get back to work?"

Xu Wen lowered his head and continued typing: "Get to work first."

"Then let's get to work steadily."

Xu Wen silently deleted the word "celebration" from the memo and focused on organizing the publicity process.

The news of the approval spread quickly within Sunshine Entertainment, much faster than Zeng Hao had anticipated.

While he was still coordinating the scheduling, the channel department employees were already buzzing in the work group. His colleague, Sister Liu, used the excuse of delivering documents to come and go from the office twice, standing at the door hesitating for a long time before finally not daring to say anything to congratulate him.

Zeng Hao knew exactly what she wanted to say, but deliberately didn't respond.

It wasn't that he was unhappy; he simply didn't have time to indulge in joy. From project initiation to approval and implementation, he single-handedly overcame all the difficulties, big and small.

Once you've made it through, turn the page. The next tough battle is yet to come; there's no time for looking back and reminiscing.

At 2 p.m., he completed the final review of the second phase of the entire publicity and distribution plan, marked thirteen rectification details, and arranged for Xu Wen to go to the channel department for a meeting to implement the plan.

He was the only one left in the office. He pulled back the curtains a crack and looked out the window.

In late February, Qianhu City was dry and cold under a clear blue sky. The sunlight was thin and glaring, offering no warmth, and reflected off the glass curtain wall of the office building across the street, creating a blinding glare.

He closed the curtains, sat back down at his workstation, and flipped through the next document to be processed.

Little did anyone know that Chu Ran had started having a fever the night before last.

At first, she only had a dry and sore throat. She drank a lot of hot water, thinking that she would feel better after a good night's sleep.

The next morning, she took her temperature, which was 37.8 degrees Celsius. She put away the thermometer, washed up, and took an ibuprofen, thinking that she could just tough it out and recover.

But to everyone's surprise, it couldn't be contained at all.

At night, his body temperature soared to 38.3 degrees Celsius.

Tian Xiwei messaged her to ask if she had eaten, and she lied and said she had, without mentioning her fever at all.

It wasn't that she was deliberately hiding it; she just felt there was no point in telling them, as she could handle it herself. Besides, Tian Xiwei had been practicing hard in the rehearsal hall until late at night, and she saw the timestamp of the other person's WeChat Moments post, so there was no need for them to go through the trouble of making her travel back and forth.

She curled up on her dorm bed, wrapped herself tightly in the blanket, and felt dizzy. All her roommates were in the library, leaving her alone in the room. The heating was on full blast, and the windows were tightly closed, but she felt cold all over.

She placed her phone on the pillow, casually scrolled through Weibo for a while, but lost interest, so she closed her eyes for a nap. Just as she was about to fall asleep, her phone suddenly vibrated.

It was a message from Xu Wen.

"Sister Chu Ran, 'Ning An Ru Meng' has passed the review smoothly. President Zeng asked me to inform the artist team that it will be broadcast in April."

She nestled in bed, staring at the screen for a long time, before slowly replying with a single word: "Okay."

Xu Wen: "Sister Chu Ran, how have you been lately? Follow-up announcements are being arranged, and there's an interview scheduled for next week..."

She hesitated for a moment, typed "I have a fever," then deleted it after some consideration and edited it again: "I'm fine, I'll cooperate with the schedule as usual next week."

After sending the message, put down your phone and close your eyes to rest.

She was fully aware of the significance behind the approval and release date being set for April.

She was, after all, a student. She started filming this drama during her freshman year at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, working overtime during winter and summer vacations, filming in her spare time, and even skipping two classes, which led to a meeting and criticism from her professor. One scene in the drama where she was waiting was reshot seven times.

The director was dissatisfied with every take, until the seventh take, when he put down his coffee cup and said, "This time, it's perfect."

Now, this long-awaited drama series is finally about to meet the audience.

Her thoughts were racing, her body was still cold, and her head felt dizzy and sore.

She propped herself up and sat up, rummaging through the bedside table until she pulled out a packet of cold medicine. After reading the instructions, she realized it needed to be dissolved in boiling water. The dormitory kettle was empty; she'd have to go to the hallway to get some.

She slipped on her slippers and got out of bed, a wave of dizziness washing over her. She quickly grabbed the edge of the bed to steady herself. After regaining her balance, she took the kettle out of the dormitory to get water, turned on the kettle to boil water, and sat quietly on the edge of the bed to wait.

Outside the window is the small courtyard of the dormitory building. A girl is making a phone call downstairs, and her voice can be faintly heard but not clearly.

After boiling the water, she poured in the powder, stirred it to dissolve, and drank it in small sips. The taste was cheap and cloyingly sweet, not exactly pleasant, but it brought a warm feeling to her stomach.

She put down her water glass, lay back in bed, and pulled the blankets tighter around herself.

Footsteps echoed down the hallway, stopping at the door of her dormitory, followed by two soft knocks.

She assumed her roommate had forgotten her keys and got up to open the door.

Zeng Hao was standing at the door.

He was carrying a supermarket plastic bag, bulging out of its container, in one hand, and had his other hand in his coat pocket. He glanced at her, then shoved the bag into her hand: "Fever reducers, cold medicine, and hot porridge. Put them at the bottom, eat them while they're hot."

She asked, startled, "How did you know I wasn't feeling well?"

"Xu Wen let it slip." He took a half step back. "Take your medicine and rest well. Don't worry about next week's schedule. I'll have Xu Wen readjust the schedule."

She stood at the door, about to thank him, when he turned and left. The motion-sensor lights in the corridor turned on one by one with his steps, and after he reached the bottom of the stairs, the lights slowly went out a few seconds later.

She looked down at the bag, closed the door, sat back on the bed, and opened it to examine it.

Two fever reducers, ibuprofen and acetaminophen. A sticky note on the ibuprofen box reads: "Take this first."

There were also two boxes of the same cold medicine, and in the bottom insulated bag was a sealed bowl of preserved egg and lean pork congee. When the plastic wrap was lifted, it was steaming hot.

She sat on the edge of the bed, picked up a sticky note, read it, tore it off, folded it neatly, and put it in the drawer.

He then took the pills with warm water and slowly savored the hot porridge.

The warm porridge was much more comforting than cold medicine.

That afternoon, Bai Lu waited on set for a full three hours for her call to go.

During the long wait, she only did two things: repeatedly study the scenes to be filmed that afternoon, and browse Weibo in her spare time.

She doesn't often get addicted to the internet, but today the news that "Ning An Ru Meng" has passed censorship is all over the industry, and she has seen a lot of related updates.

Some praised the high quality of her sample footage, saying that the newcomer's acting was lively and her eyes were full of expressiveness.

According to sources, Sunshine Entertainment is moving quickly; after the series passed censorship, iQiyi has already accelerated preparations for its broadcast.

Some netizens commented that the overall atmosphere of this drama far surpasses that of other online dramas released at the same time, making it a class of its own in terms of quality.

Bai Lu read through each entry, took screenshots, saved them, and archived them in her personal photo album, which now contains twenty-four records.

She put down her phone and looked up at the Hengdian film set. The afternoon sunlight was pale and thin, and a breeze swept up the fallen leaves on the ground, which then gently fell back down.

The sight of the scenery stirred up memories of the past for her.

On the day she failed to pass the SM audition in 2012, she sat alone at Incheon Airport for two hours. Next to her sat a middle-aged Korean woman who ate snacks the whole time, leaving behind a mess of packaging bags after she left.

Looking at the messy ground, she silently thought, "That's it, I should just go back to China."

After returning home, she didn't cry or make a scene. Instead, she felt a hollowness in her chest, not a sharp pain, but an extreme sense of emptiness.

When she got home, her mother asked about the results, and she truthfully told her she hadn't been selected. Her mother simply said, "Wash your hands and eat. The food is ready."

Simple and straightforward, without any unnecessary comfort.

Later, she settled down in the entertainment industry, starting from extras and background characters, working her way up from a single line, and striving step by step from an inconspicuous supporting role to where she is today, participating in "Ning An Ru Meng" and settling down in Hengdian film studio.

The emptiness in my heart was gradually filled, I don't know when it started. It was the endless announcements and filming sessions that, day after day, slowly filled the void in my heart.

The assistant director walked out of the film set and waved to her: "Bai Lu, get ready to come on set and start filming."

"receive."

She got up, put her phone away, and quickly walked into the film set with her script.

After taking a few steps, I looked back at the chair I had just sat down in. A gentle breeze stirred the thin lines on the chair surface, causing it to sway softly before settling back into stillness.

She withdrew her gaze, walked steadily to the camera position, took a deep breath to adjust her state, and got into character to start filming.