Ye Zhou, who had inadvertently achieved his e-sports dream, forced a smile and reached out to grasp the edge of the trophy, pulling his team captain’s hand. He looked towards the other team members and said with emotion, “I should be the one saying thank you. Thank you for all your hard work, for fulfilling my childhood dream that seemed unattainable.”
As he spoke, his gaze swept across each person’s face, taking in the expressions of the five members of the Chenzhou team. Although the dream was false, the blessings were genuine.
He genuinely admired these young men. Ye Zhou only provided the funds, but for them to reach the finals of the “Devour” tournament this season and win this trophy with such high scores was not something that could be achieved simply by having money. The effort they put in behind the scenes was known only to them.
A team rising from nothing, from being underestimated to now being the center of attention – every victory was hard-won through their full dedication. Ye Zhou’s e-sports dream may have been inflated, but theirs was not, but theirs was not; they had steadfastly pursued their dreams step by step.
Today, just moments ago, they proved themselves to Ye Zhou, to the doubters, and to everyone else. They had done it.
Every dreamer who gives their all for their dream deserves applause and cheers. Xu Wei was one, He Feiyang and Liu Zhao were another, and the members of the Chenzhou team were as well.
As Ye Zhou’s gaze returned to the trophy, the previous awkwardness and daze had been replaced by an unprecedented seriousness. He returned the trophy to the hands of Xu Cheng and the others, saying, “This honor belongs to you. It only shines brightly when it’s in your hands.”
Their interaction was all faithfully recorded by the live cameras on site. Since the match was being broadcasted live, there hadn’t been much of a stir yet, as the audience watching was mostly e-sports fans who were more focused on the players themselves, so Ye Zhou had not been recognized.
It wasn’t until the video was made available online for repeated viewing that people gradually started to take notice.
The forum created for “Chasing Light,” even though the movie had been taken down from theaters, still maintained its popularity online, with users remaining very active. While it may not be as large as the major forums, for a niche film and TV forum, this level of activity was still surprisingly lively.
However, the majority of the discussions on the Chasing the Light forum were focused on the plot or the two lead characters. As the director, Ye Zhou was still very much behind the scenes, and even those who took notice of him were not part of the mainstream.
The general public’s impression of a director tends to fall into one of two categories – either they are seen as “talented” if the audience enjoys the director’s work, or they are labeled as a “hack director” if the viewing experience is poor. When these labels get redefined depends entirely on when the audience is willing to give the director another chance. If lucky, it may only take a few months, but bad luck could mean a lifetime of an irredeemable reputation.
Despite the mixed reviews, Ye Zhou’s past two films – “A Farce” and “Chasing the Light” – found success. The former, while not critically acclaimed, satisfied the general audience with its box office performance. Despite various criticisms and nitpicking by professional film critics, in the hearts of most viewers, it was still a passable comedy movie.
As for the latter, the low-budget, niche-themed film managing to carve out a spot amidst the summer blockbusters and secure the third-highest summer box office was already a considerable achievement.
Not to mention, even within the film critic circle, the reviews of “Chasing the Light” were no longer predominantly negative, with a significant number of professional critics acknowledging Ye Zhou’s capabilities through this film.
However, no matter how brilliant a director’s resume may be, the attention they receive has its limits. Even though Ye Zhou had gained a modest reputation in the industry through these two films, this was still evident from the forum’s overall posting activity.
But, today brought an unexpected turn of events.
Yu Xiaoyu was a fan of Ye Zhou’s work – in other words, she was a fan of Ye Zhou himself. To be more precise, she was originally a fan of the movie blogger “Flying Melon”.
From a young age, Yu Xiaoyu developed a deep interest in films. This passion only grew stronger as she aged, to the point where she would visit the cinema two or three times a week – she was a true film enthusiast.
She started following “Flying Melon” because of a star-studded flop that had been released some years ago. Despite the mind-numbingly dull plot and cringe-worthy acting by the young actors, the power of capital was too strong, with many movie stars endorsing it and critics backing it every day during its release.
Only a few critics were not swayed by money. They spoke out righteously and published scathing reviews that meticulously pointed out various flaws of the movie. ‘Flying Melon was one of those rare critics who dared to speak the truth.
It was precisely because of this incident that Yu Xiaoyu became his fan, actively engaging with him on a daily basis and consistently ranking among his top three commenters. She had been a genuine, long-term fan.
Back then, “Flying Melon” was just a small blogger with barely 30,000 followers, not even verified, but each of his film reviews was clearly written with care – sharp, biting in tone, and offering unique insights that could pinpoint a film’s strengths, weaknesses, and the shortcomings of the actors.
However, as his follower count grew, at some point, he began accepting advertisements. Yu Xiaoyu completely understood that a blogger needs to make a living; she even bought a lot when he took on his first ad and went out of her way to leave a message on the advertiser’s Weibo, thanking the brand for giving ‘Melon’ the opportunity to earn a living.
What Yu Xiaoyu didn’t anticipate was that with his growing fame, the advertisements only increased, and the quality of his blog posts and reviews steadily declined. He even started injecting his own biases into the reviews, artificially inflating the scores of mediocre works to an undeserving 80 out of 100.
Unknowingly, he had become the very type of person he once so strongly disdained.
Seeing this, Yu Xiaoyu felt deeply saddened, and even considered unfollowing him.
But after all, she had been a fan for so many years, and although she began to unintentionally neglect his homepage, she still couldn’t bring herself to unfollow him.
The next time she paid attention to him was when she saw that he had trended on Weibo for publicly criticizing the comedy film “A Farce”. Out of curiosity, she clicked on the link and read his review, finding traces of the old spirit she once admired in his writing.
She felt a sense of excitement then – she thought “Flying Melon” had finally come to his senses and reclaimed the courageous, outspoken persona she had once loved.
Before the film’s official release, she regained her old fighting spirit, confronting trolls on ‘Melon’s’ Weibo who reposted brainwashing packages claiming “A Farce” was a flop, often battling until dawn.
When the film was finally released, Yu Xiaoyu quickly secured tickets for the premiere screening, ready to watch this ‘flop’ and find more faults to update her brainwashing package.
But perhaps her expectations were too low, after actually watching the film, Yu Xiaoyu found herself pleasantly surprised. While it had its shortcomings, it could still be considered a fairly decent comedy movie.
The film’s subsequent surge to nearly three billion in box office during the National Day holiday period only further proved this point. With that, when Yu Xiaoyu revisited “Flying Melon’s” old reviews, she immediately unfollowed him.
Feeling somewhat guilty, Yu Xiaoyu began to research this film and eventually saw the director in a film interview.
It was no exaggeration to say she was astounded.
Ye Zhou’s appearance was striking even among the sea of good-looking celebrities in the entertainment industry. Not to mention his immense talent, not only in his unique filmmaking techniques but also in his fearless approach to marketing.
Before the movie was released, there was almost one-sided negative news and bad reviews. Even the best public relations team would have a hard time making a comeback under such circumstances.
Unfortunately, there was not much positive information available about Ye Zhou, with most of the existing material being unfavorable. Yet, this did not deter Yu Xiaoyu from her determination to become his fan—she unhesitatingly became a devoted career fan.
She had expected her fandom to be short-lived, but Ye Zhou continued to pleasantly surprise her. Less than a year after “A Farce,” he returned with a new film.
Initially, Yu Xiaoyu was concerned about Ye Zhou’s choice of subject matter, but he quickly proved her concerns to be unnecessary with his talent.
He was practically a treasure trove! Not only did she not unfollow him, but Yu Xiaoyu found herself falling deeper and deeper into genuine fandom, to the point that she was almost transforming from a regular fan into a devoted mother fan.
Before the forum existed, Yu Xiaoyu was active in the comments on Ye Zhou’s Weibo, which rarely saw any updates, leaving it overgrown with virtual weeds. But Yu Xiaoyu still faithfully checked in every day, almost as diligently as going to work.
After the Chasing the Light forum was established, in addition to her daily Weibo check-ins, Yu Xiaoyu became highly active on the forum as well. Thanks to her extensive experience as a cinephile, her film reviews, though not as professional as critics, were still far above the average viewer.
Moreover, due to her work, Yu Xiaoyu was skilled in various techniques like Photoshop and video editing, making her a valuable and respected member of the community. Her insightful film reviews, character analyses, and edited videos were all featured, with replies reaching tens of thousands – she had become a beloved “madam1太太 (tài tai) – married woman / Mrs. / Madam / wife ” figure within the fandom.
But everyone knew that despite her prolific content creation, her true bias was not any actor, but the die-hard fan of the Chasing the Light director, Ye Zhou.
So interspersed among the exclamations of “Wow!” on this trending post were frantic tags directed at Yu Xiaoyu.
That morning, Yu Xiaoyu had just woken up, checked Ye Zhou’s Weibo as usual, and then logged onto the Chasing the Light forum, only to be startled by the 99+ message notification in the top right corner.
Though the film’s box office success had brought more traffic to the forum, it still operated on an invitation-only basis, with under 50,000 registered users. Excluding the inactive zombies and those who only lurked without participating, the truly active users were likely less than a tenth of that.
Yu Xiaoyu thought to herself, she hadn’t recently uploaded any videos or other fan content, so why would she have so many messages all of a sudden?
As she opened the notifications, she was bombarded with an endless stream of tags directed at her. Her comment section was also jam-packed, the most recent message being just 10 seconds old, from a fellow Ye Zhou fan.
Amidst the sea of “Ahhh!’s”, Yu Xiaoyu scrolled down for a while before finally finding some useful information.
Wandering Little Boat: Ahhh! awsl, our Zhou Zhou is seriously a treasure trove! I’m crying! How are you still asleep, I can’t wait to share this explosive news with you!
Seeing that it was related to Ye Zhou, Yu Xiaoyu immediately perked up and quickly replied: “I’m here, I’m here! What happened? What’s going on, what’s with Zhou Zhou?”
Wandering Little Boat responded almost instantly.
Wandering Little Boat: [Link] See for yourself, I haven’t slept all night, just waiting for you! Sister, I can only help you this far!
After sending that message, without waiting for Yu Xiaoyu to ask anything further, her friend’s avatar quickly dimmed, and the status changed from online to offline.
Yu Xiaoyu clicked on the link her friend had sent, and after a brief loading, the title immediately caught her eye:
【You’ll never guess who I saw at an e-sports tournament final!】
The original poster was evidently a fan of the game “Devour” and seemed to be a supporter of the Chenzhou team.
The OP first devoted a lengthy passage vividly detailing Chenzhou team’s impressive performance this season, describing it as a growth story of the team from obscurity to the pinnacle.
After this preface, without further ado and amid eager requests for more details, the OP proceeded to share several screenshots.
The first image showed a group of young men excitedly holding a trophy, the second had one of the young men walking off the stage towards the audience, and the third showed the team handing the trophy to someone.
But that wasn’t the main point…
I Eat Hot Pot: Holy sh*t, am I seeing things? Does that guy look a bit like Director Ye?
Lemon Eater or Not: Although the image is a bit blurry, but… that familiar ‘Zhou-style bewildered look’, there’s no doubt that’s Director Ye himself.
Here is the continued English translation:
I Have a Pair of Little Wings: ??? Director Ye is an e-sports fan too? *shocked pikachu face2Sorry, I can’t stop myself. It just says surprised.jpg in the raws.*
Cool and Rich Kid: Holy sh*t, I’m actually rooting for the same team as Director Ye’s fans, I didn’t even notic, lz3lz = 楼主 (lóu zhǔ) – original poster (in an online forum) / landlord of a building (traditional). It feels like the dimensional walls have shattered, so exciting!
After posting the photos, the OP finally reappeared after half an hour.
OP: You all can be a bit bolder. I just researched Director Ye’s identity. Do you really want to know?
Naturally, there was a flood of replies demanding more updates, with dozens of layers of the three-letter acronym “gkd4Gkd = 搞快点 (gǎokuàidiǎn) Hurry!/ Go ahead and tell us!“. The OP then posted again.
OP: Here’s the thing, there’s so much news I don’t even know where to start.
OP: Anyway, let’s start with the e-sports part first. I won’t keep you in suspense—after verifying multiple sources, the conclusion is that Director Ye is actually the behind-the-scenes owner of the Chenzhou team, the champions of “Devour” tournament this season.
As soon as this message was posted, the entire thread was flooded with “????” and “!!!” reactions.
However, as if the OP still didn’t think it was chaotic enough, they posted again.
OP: While researching, I also came across some rather shocking information. Here, I’ll share an interview video, and you can all take a guess. [Video] [Video]
These two videos were backstage interviews, with a bit of a chaotic background and people passing by. The interviewee was an elegant-looking woman in her early 30s.
Through the reporter’s questions, everyone learned that this was the producer of the suddenly viral talent show “Starlight Youth.”
When the reporter asked for her thoughts, the poised woman hesitated for a few seconds before her eyes suddenly became glassy.
“My thoughts? The only thing I can say is… I’ve met a blessing in my life. If not for him, I wouldn’t be who I am today, and ‘Starlight Youth’ wouldn’t exist either.”
“I’ve thanked him more times than I can count, but every time I mention him, aside from gratitude, I really can’t find the words to say anything else, except for one thing…”
“Thank you to my investor, Mr. Ye.”
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