Neither of them had anticipated that Chen Hao would lose the memories of his past life upon returning to his own body, catching Fairy Sister somewhat off guard.
After losing her cheat code, Fairy Sister still ended up walking down her old path.
Chen Hao had told her that signing with Sony was a trap. But with Chen Hao gone, she had no better options at the time.
Fortunately, Chen Hao had left her quite a few songs. Because he was somewhat of an idealistic rebel who disliked plagiarizing songs by domestic artists, he had copied plenty of Japanese and Korean songs instead.
Thus, although she signed with Sony, her path differed somewhat from her past life: instead of going to Japan to learn singing and dancing, she became a singer-songwriter.
She released two albums under Sony. Her first album, released just as she reached adulthood, adopted a cute, girly style. It included the Chinese song "Fairyland Town", the Japanese song "Renai Circulation", and the Korean song "Gwiyomi Song".
However, the entertainment industries in Japan and South Korea had been surging with momentum over the past few years, so sales of this album in those countries were mediocre. It sold very well domestically, though, given that her domestic fan base was unrivaled.
Her second album took a youthful, inspirational approach, featuring the Chinese song "Chasing Dreams with a Child's Heart", the Japanese song "Blue Bird", and the Korean song "Bingo"—the very BGM associated with Ma Dong-seok throwing a punch in *One-Punch Man*.
That album actually sold quite well, making sales charts across the entire East Asian region, though its critical acclaim was just so-so.
Mainly, Fairy Sister's vocal timbre was truly mediocre, and her singing ability was at the level of a karaoke queen. Having the songs Chen Hao wrote for her earned her the title of a talented singer-songwriter, but in an era of fierce competition within the music industry, that title wasn't particularly standout.
Realizing that she was indeed not very suited to being a singer, she sought to develop her career in film and television instead.
Mindful of Chen Hao's warnings, she naturally steered clear of the muddy waters of *The Forbidden Kingdom*.
During the time Chen Hao possessed her body, they had chatted idly about various domestic and international films, such as *Wanted*, which was released last year.
Because that film's comic book had just been published when Chen Hao time-traveled—remaining an obscure comic with only six issues—Chen Hao had simply mentioned in passing that the movie was the masterpiece of the Hollywood action star Jolie, and that Jolie had made a name for herself as an action actress, meaning she could star in it herself.
Right after signing with Sony, the young girl went to the United States and acquired the comic book adaptation rights to *Wanted*.
Later, when she no longer wanted to sing, she used Sony's connections to reach out to Sony's subsidiary, Columbia Pictures. Eventually, she also invested some of her own money and co-produced *Wanted* with Columbia.
In this film, since she couldn't flaunt her sex appeal the way Jolie did, her image was that of a ruthless female assassin with blunt bangs and long, straight black hair. Her name wasn't Fox, either, but Nightingale.
The film was released last year, and Chen Hao had watched it as well. It was fair to say it had its own merits compared to Jolie's version. Jolie's figure was sexier, and her acting skills were better. But our Fairy Sister had her own advantage: her action sequences were more thrilling, and her fight choreography looked much better.
Though its box office performance fell slightly short of Jolie's version, it still brought in nearly 300 million US dollars, making it a modest blockbuster hit.
And so, our Fairy Sister was now truly international.
Yet, after finishing *Wanted*, she panicked because uncle hadn't mentioned what movies she should film next!
In particular, *The Forbidden Kingdom*—which was also released last year—had turned out to have box office earnings and reviews that matched uncle's predictions down to the exact detail.
That film had indeed approached her in the beginning, but remembering uncle's words, she stood firm against her mother's pressure and resolutely turned it down.The Forbidden Kingdom had a budget of seventy million US dollars, but its global box office was only one hundred million, resulting in a massive loss. Moreover, its reputation was in the gutter, and it was heavily panned at home.
Compared to Liu Yifei, who played Golden Sparrow in that film, Nightingale—the star of Wanted—had won by a landslide.
Wanted had generated nearly triple its investment in profit. Back then, to get that movie made, she had gone all in, investing every penny she had earned from commercials and albums over the previous few years.
Not only had she made a fortune, but she had also added another definitive masterpiece to her resume. Her fans were acting like it was New Year's Day; even though more than half a year had passed, they were still going strong, constantly praising her in all sorts of creative ways online.
Yet lately, she had been worrying nonstop. The failure of The Forbidden Kingdom proved that the uncle hadn't lied to her after all: her mother really had no eye for picking scripts.
In the past, when Chen Hao told her that her filmography was a string of nineteen consecutive box office flops, she hadn't really believed it, thinking he was just fooling with her. But looking at it now, that was very likely the truth.
That was why she had become extremely cautious. Whenever a pile of scripts was delivered to her mother, she rejected every single one of them.
To her surprise, a few days ago she received a phone call from Chen Hao: he had recovered his memories.
The young girl was beside herself with excitement. Her cheat-code uncle was back, and she had almost rushed all the way to Chen Hao's hometown to find him. However, Chen Hao talked her out of it, arranging to meet after school started instead.
Yet she hadn't expected that upon meeting, the robust and handsome uncle would have turned into an unpolished, frail, pale-faced freshman.
Actually, she had anticipated this to some extent, but she missed the uncle so much that her mind was stuck entirely on the image of the handsome older man. Seeing him turned into his current appearance felt genuinely awkward.
Chen Hao kept dipping beef into the hotpot without a pause. He was still a bit of a picky eater, but he forced himself to eat more. He was very thin right now and needed to eat heavily to build his body back up.
After the two of them caught up on what they had been through, they finally got down to business.The young girl asked impatiently, "Uncle, what are you planning to do next? Are you going to start a film and television company? How about I come work with you?"
Although the young girl did not care overly much about fame and fortune, this golden thigh of an uncle was exceptionally thick, and the two of them had even shared the same body for a period of time—they truly knew each other inside and out. With such a bond of fate, she certainly would not give up this chance to latch onto a powerful backer.
She was older now and understood the ways of the world. As close as she and Chen Hao were, rules still had to be observed; it was impossible for him to keep helping her unconditionally, so tying her fortunes to his company was the most sensible choice.
"I don't have any money. Will you lend me some?" Chen Hao immediately asked the young girl to borrow money.
He didn't stand on ceremony with her. They were so close, and moreover, whether it was the Fairy Sister's albums or her films, all those ideas had come from Chen Hao in the first place, so borrowing a bit of money from her was only right.
"Don't talk about borrowing; just consider it your dividend. I have over 20 million RMB on hand right now, and in another two months, my share of the profits from Wanted will be more than 40 million US dollars. Is that enough?" The young girl was remarkably generous, laying out her entire net worth right on the spot.
"I only did the talking; this is all money you earned through your own hard work. Just lend me the 20 million RMB you have on hand, and I'll pay you back once I make some money."
Chen Hao was a bit too proud to accept a woman's money. As someone who had been reborn, he had plenty of ways to make money.
Still, borrowing a startup fund from the young girl would save him a lot of trouble.
"Oh, so are you still going to start a film and television company?" The young girl was single-mindedly set on joining Chen Hao's company to latch onto his success.
"A film and television company can wait; I'm going to make some money in the stock market first." The young girl's money wasn't all that much—it wasn't even enough to finance a single movie. Naturally, he had to roll the snowball in the financial market first.