Chapter 413 - 409: Fame Made Manifest

A commercial plaza in Jovar.

"Lily Sterling! Lily Sterling! Lily Sterling!"

"Lily Sterling! Lily Sterling! Lily Sterling!"

"Ah, there she is! She’s here!"

The door of the black car opened. The fans, who had been waiting for a long time in the sweltering heat, lost none of their enthusiasm, swarming forward with signs, gifts, and flowers.

Several tall, burly bodyguards blocked the front to clear a path. The excited, high-pitched screams from some of the fans made them instinctively furrow their brows.

"Don’t push, everyone! Be careful!"

Yuna jumped out of the car, startled by the terrifying number of fans before her. But her voice was too quiet, and her words were instantly drowned out by the passionate wave of noise.

"Everyone, listen to me! Everyone, listen to me!"

Just then, a clear, powerful male voice with incredible projection rang out, repeating "Everyone, listen to me!" several times in a row.

Surprisingly, it actually managed to draw the fans’ attention to him.

This person was none other than Jared Keaton, the president of Lily Sterling’s "unofficial fan club."

Jared Keaton seized the opportunity and shouted, "Don’t just surge forward all at once! If you maintain order, Lily can say a few words to you all. If this becomes a total mess, it’ll be a security risk, and the guards will take Lily away immediately!"

His words clearly had an effect, and many of the fans nodded in understanding.

Yuna recognized Jared Keaton but had no time to greet him. She addressed the fans instead. "Thank you all for coming to Lily’s opening ceremony. We won’t be accepting gifts or flowers. If you have any letters, could you please give them to the male assistant in the white shirt behind us in a little bit? Lily will read them."

The moment Yuna finished speaking, the car door opened again. Lily Sterling leaned out with a smile and stepped out of the car.

"Lily! Lily!"

"AHHHHHHH! She’s so beautiful and precious!"

"Holy shit, it’s a real-life Flora!"

The fans screamed wildly. Lily Sterling looked out at a dense sea of people—many, many times more than the fans who had greeted her at the airport the first time.

What Connie had been telling her—that she’d "made it"—had become tangible at this very moment.

"Stay in order, everyone! Quiet down and listen to Lily!" Jared Keaton again made use of his booming voice. He was tall, so when he spoke, fans throughout the crowd could both see and hear him.

The fans’ voices instantly dropped by more than half.

Lily Sterling recognized him at a glance. "You’re here again?"

Singled out first by Lily Sterling, Jared Keaton’s face immediately flushed red. "Lily, you remember me?"

"How could I forget?" Lily Sterling said with a smile. "Thank you for all your hard work, coming all the way from Lorcain."

Jared Keaton shook his head, saying it was no trouble. He hadn’t snooped for Lily’s flight information this time; the production team for the new show had put out promotional material for the opening ceremony, and all these fans had come on their own after hearing the news.

"Lily, I came from Cyrine!"

"I’m from Silvana!"

"Lily, I came from the farthest away! I’m from Aethelgard!"

The fans grew passionate again. As Lily Sterling heard them call out names of places farther and farther away, she was incredibly moved.

"You’ve all been through so much, waiting out here in this heat," Lily Sterling said, then turned to Yuna to give an instruction. "Yuna, order some milk tea for everyone in a little while so they can cool down."

Yuna, who wanted nothing more than for Lily to become a massive star, nodded happily. "No problem! I’ll order the expensive stuff. Our Lily spoils her fans the most!"

Hearing this, the fans erupted in cheers, the sound wave carrying far into the distance.

Not far away, another luxury van slowly pulled to a stop. A middle-aged actor in a suit stepped out.

The moment he stepped out, he was taken aback by the cheers in the distance. He glanced over curiously and couldn’t help but frown. ’Which flavor-of-the-month celebrity is this?’

His assistant craned his neck to look for a long time, but Lily Sterling was completely swamped by layers of fans and impossible to see. He shook his head. "I don’t know. Heather Keaton, probably? She’s the most popular one right now."

"Mr. Hughes, you’re here."

Just then, the bodyguard assigned to meet Jett Hughes came forward. He didn’t have to worry about fans, so only one bodyguard was sent for him—unlike Lily Sterling, who had six bodyguards standing like sentinels in front of her car before she even stepped out.

"Who’s that over there?" Jett Hughes asked casually. "Heather Keaton?"

"Oh, that’s Lily Sterling."

As soon as the bodyguard said the name, Jett Hughes remembered: Lily Sterling, the actress who was finally cast as the second female lead.

"Isn’t she a rookie? She’s this famous already? With this many fans?"

The assistant beside him remembered too and quickly explained, "Apparently there’s a huge hit Ancient Idol Drama airing right now. It’s natural you wouldn’t recognize her, Mr. Hughes. You don’t watch those kinds of shows. They’re mostly for young people."

Upon hearing she was an actress from an Ancient Idol Drama, Jett Hughes scoffed, a look of disdain on his face. "The bar for actors is getting lower and lower these days. With such a good script, couldn’t they find some real actors? Why insist on using these flavor-of-the-month types?"

Seeing no one else was around, his assistant chimed in, "Well, that’s just how the market is these days. You should be used to it by now."

As they spoke, they followed the single bodyguard inside, a starkly quiet procession. He wore sunglasses, and none of the few people who passed by even recognized him.

But the entertainment industry places great importance on seniority. Even if you have earth-shattering popularity and an ego to match, you must be humble on the surface and respect your seniors.

So, the moment Jett Hughes appeared, the junior actors inside all stood up to proactively greet him. Those meeting him for the first time also made sure to give a proper self-introduction.

"Dad!"

Heather Keaton immediately called him "Dad." The two had played father and daughter in a previous project, and this was their second time collaborating in the same roles.

"See? I’m back to be your daughter again!"

Heather Keaton was beautiful and a top-tier actress in this age of online popularity. Most importantly, she had genuine skill and had won many prestigious national awards.

Therefore, even Jett Hughes, who disliked so-called "traffic stars," made an exception for Heather Keaton.

He chuckled and said, "I just saw a huge crowd of fans outside surrounding someone. I thought it was you, but a staff member said it was Lily Sterling."

"Ah, your younger daughter!" Heather Keaton teased with a smile.

In the show, Lily Sterling was playing a rebellious teenager—Heather Keaton’s sister, and therefore, Jett Hughes’s younger daughter.

The smile on Jett Hughes’s face faded a bit. "Sigh, that role was up in the air for so long. I even recommended several excellent actors to the crew, but the director didn’t pick any of them. In the end, they still went with one of these hype-driven actors."

Heather Keaton knew Jett Hughes was prejudiced against young, popular actors, so she just smiled and explained, "Actually, they considered Lily Sterling for this role from the very beginning. The only reason it took so long to cast was that Lily was still thinking it over. The director would only have considered other people if she had officially turned it down."

"What?" Jett Hughes’s eyes widened. "They were that dead-set on her? With you in the cast, does this show really need more ’hype’?"

"It’s not about the hype, Mr. Hughes. Just you wait and see. That girl, Lily Sterling, has a real spark. She can really act."