Chapter 229
It was every celebrity’s dream to get an invitation letter to the Academy Awards ceremony. After all, being
qualified to walk on the red carpet at the Academy Awards ceremony was symbolic of one’s status and
standing in the entertainment industry.
Endorsements for high-end products and the red carpets of prestigious awards ceremonies were
battlefields for the celebrities to unt their standings in the entertainment industry!
Therefore, Cethosian celebrities would do whatever they could to get an invitation letter to the Academy
Awards ceremony in order to show off—even if it meant throwing money around to get invited as
sponsors.
Taylor and Harry had chosen the perfect timing for their return to Cethos, for the Cethosian celebrities
who had attended the Academy Awards ceremony happened to being back around the same time.
Because of that, Bayside International Airport became a battlefield for fans of different celebrities over
these few days.
Exclusive ? material by N?(/v)elDrama.Org.
Before anyone had realized, viewerships and box offices had ceased to be significant benchmarks of a
celebrity’s public influence. Instead, a celebrity’s poprity hade to be defined by how many likes
and retweets he or she received, how frequently his or her name was searched on the Inte, and the
number of fansing to meet him or her at the airport.
As a result, some celebrities pretended to be popr by paying hired supporters to boost their online
poprity; they even hired temporary actors to pose as fans who were there to meet them at the airport.
Before entering the departure lobby, the admins of Taylor and Harry’s fan groups—who were leading the
crowd—warned everyone, “There is no need to care about what others do. Just focus on what we’re
doing, and don’te into conflict with fans of other celebrities. Many fans are hired on a part-time basis
at 100 per day.”
As they entered the departure lobby, Sophia felt as though she had opened the door to a world she had
never seen before.
The departure lobby was already filled with huge crowds of people; fans of different celebrities were
packed like sardines, and some celebrities even had up to thousands of fansing to meet them at the
airport!
For the celebrities, this was a matter of face. Therefore, they had to spend a fortune to hire people to
pose as their fans even if they didn’t have so many followers in reality!
Compared to the swarm of fans who came to meet their idols at the airport in the thousands, the mere
100 fans who came for Taylor and Harry were quite a sorry sight!
There was barely any space for them in the lobby, so the two fan groups huddled together in a corner.
Huddling in the corner, Sophia curiously watched how fans of other celebrities reacted upon meeting
their idols at the airport.
Just then, a celebrity emerged from the exit while being surrounded by seven or eight bodyguards. A
large crowd of fans frenziedly rushed toward them at once, hemming them in and screaming hysterically;
some of the fans even passed out as they were screaming.
Sophia couldn’t help but frown at the sight of the scene. Was this the so-called fandom subculture?
These people weren’t fans, but essentially a bunch of hungry ghosts who leaped at the sight of a glossy
roasted duck as if they couldn’t wait to devour it in one bite!
The celebrity would have been stripped naked if it weren’t for the bodyguards!
Was Tay Tay treated like that every day?
For some reason, Sophia couldn’t help feeling sorry for the celebrities.
The fan group’s admins said to everyone, “Don’t behave like themter. When Taylor and Lord Winston
come out, just spread the banner open and stand at both sides so that Taylor and Lord Winston can walk
in the middle. Also, keep those fat and ugly attention-seekers out; keep them away from our idol!”
Unfortunately, the flight Michael was on board had been dyed. He was supposed to arrive at 1 p.m.,
but he had not arrived even at 5 p.m. Fans of other celebrities had slowly left one after another, yet they
were still waiting.
To make matters worse, an idol named Nichs Yates seemed to be on the same flight as Michael, and
his army of 500 fans had also been waiting at the departure lobby the whole time.
Nichs was a celebrity who had only be famousst year. Presently at the height of his poprity,
he starred in many TV dramas, and his expressionless face appeared on whichever TV channel one
switched to nowadays; even those who didn’t watch TV dramas would see him inmercials and
advertisements.
His acting skills were next to none since he looked just like himself no matter which character he yed.
However, he was blessed with handsome looks typical of the heroes of romance novels, and the PR
team behind him was incredible at attracting new fans. As a result, he was now acknowledged as a
celebrity among the A-plus list.
Not only that, his fans were also the most ferocious of them all. They had dissed all of their idol’s rivals in
the entertainment industry, including Taylor and Harry. In particr, it was because Nichs had often
beenpared to Michael.
Nichs had starred in two films, but theirbined box office sales failed to exceed 500,000,000. On
the contrary, every film Michael starred in grossed at least 500,000,000 at the box office, including niche
art-house films.
Sophia had no idea what was there to bepared between the two celebrities, but Nichs’s fans had
been showing a tendency to pick fights with Michaeltely; that was because Nichs’s team had
seriously overestimated their abilities by acquiring the film rights to a particr novel that had been made
into a film several years ago with Taylor ying the male lead.
Furthermore, Nichs’s fans often shamelessly chanted the slogan ‘We can’t live without Nicky.’
Because of that, Nichs’s fans and Michael’s had been at odds with each other all the time, and
Nichs’s team continued to have the media write disparaging articles to vilify Michael.
However, Michael wasn’t involved in any scandals, nor did he have a stain on his reputation. Therefore,
they could only find ws in Elizabeth, his mother. Besides that, they disparaged him for his so-called
lack of poprity, though the truth was that he always maintained a low profile. Since Michael never
appeared inmercials, they mocked him for never receiving any offers to appear in one. Also, they
imed that he never appeared on variety shows because he was never invited to appear on them due
to hisck of prominence in the entertainment industry.
Michael took acting primarily as a sideline since it was one of his hobbies. He never cared about the
vilifying rumors surrounding him, but his indifference only served to inte these people’s arrogance.
Nichs’s fans were very overbearing; they took up more and more space, shoving Taylor and Harry’s
fans into a corner. They also dropped litter everywhere, and the space they upied was littered with
trash. On the contrary, the space Sophia and the others had upied was impably clean, for the
used instant noodle cups were all packed up and thrown into the garbage can.
It was only natural for two fanmunities that were at odds with each other to get into a squabble when
they were side by side with each other in real life. One of Nichs’s fans approached Sophia and
maliciously struck up a conversation with her. “Our Nicky has juste back from the Academy Awards
ceremony, and there are so many beautiful photos of him walking on the red carpet. Why wasn’t Taylor
and Lord Winston at the awards ceremony?” she asked.
Sophia nced at the fangirl as if thetter was an idiot without answering her question. Our Taylor isn’t
interested in attending the Academy Awards ceremony. Is there any problem with that? she thought to
herself.
However, the fan was going to find ws in whatever she said, so she chose to bite her tongue instead.
Seeing that she didn’t respond, the fangirl started getting impatient. She said, “Say something! I was
asking you a question!”
However, Sophia responded by lowering her head and fiddling with her cell phone instead of talking to
the fangirl, infuriating thetter even further. She said, “Why are you so rude? I’m talking to you! Are
Taylor and Harry’s fans so ill-mannered?”
Several other fangirls of Nichs came over as if premeditated before they each started speaking
sarcastically in support of the first fangirl. One of them said, “Their idol is a megastar who outssed
most of the celebrities in show business. His fans are as aloof as their idol, so they must have disdained
talking to us.”
“That recent film actually did so well at the box office despite being such absolute trash. Nobody is going
to be deceived, though! God knows how much of its box office sales were faked!”
“You’re not going to get an answer to your question. How could a male celebrity who’s past his prime
receive invitation letters? They certainly aren’t going to talk about something so embarrassing!”
“Allow me to tell a joke—they are merely a bunch of fat and ugly attention-seekers praising two queers to
the skies! Haha! Those two queers nevery eyes on them, yet this bunch of bumptious, fat, and ugly
attention seekers show them excessive passion.”