Chapter 130 - 128: Lily Sterling Saw Them
Lily Sterling stayed at the hospital for about an hour before leaving. She had assumed that by keeping a low profile, she wouldn’t be discovered. To her surprise, less than two hours later, the news of her visiting the injured extra was trending on X—and it had shot straight to number three on the list.
Lily was dumbfounded.
"Was it Connie?"
She looked at Yuna quizzically. Since she was now signed with Connie, Yuna reported all her daily activities to her, including today’s hospital visit, which Connie had approved.
Yuna shook her head. "I doubt it. Connie has always disdained using this kind of thing for publicity."
Finn, who had been staring at the trending topics, said, "It was probably paparazzi. Look at the angle of this photo. It was clearly taken secretly from the doorway of the hospital room."
He then reassured Lily, "It’s alright, Lily. Starwood is crawling with paparazzi. Someone on the crew got hurt last night, and the story was trending by early this morning. I bet plenty of reporters and paparazzi wanted to go to the hospital to interview the injured extra today. They wouldn’t dare cause a scene in the hospital, so they’d sneak in. We probably just happened to be in the room and got caught on camera."
After all, the production of *Heavenly Destiny as Phoenix* had always been a hot topic, and the media loved stories that came with built-in buzz.
Finn made a good point, and Yuna nodded in agreement. "That must be it. This is actually a good thing. It’s positive exposure. There’s never been news like this in the industry before."
To put it bluntly, no one on a film set usually cared about an extra. Lily had set a precedent.
The comments on the trending topic were overwhelmingly positive, praising Lily for being as kind-hearted as she was beautiful. The few malicious users who tried to smear her name by accusing her of orchestrating a publicity stunt were quickly drowned out by the flood of praise.
Marketing accounts, always quick to see which way the wind was blowing, saw the wave of positive sentiment online and jumped on the bandwagon, praising her to drive traffic to their own accounts.
But as Lily read the news, she felt a pang of discomfort. She had never intended to use something like this for exposure. Now, with the topic trending so high and praise flying everywhere, it made her look as if she had ulterior motives.
Lily was a simple person, so her thoughts were easy to read. Yuna knew what she was thinking just by looking at her expression.
"It’s okay, Lily. As long as we have a clear conscience, that’s all that matters," Yuna said, patting her shoulder reassuringly. "Even if you don’t want to be a celebrity who lives off of buzz, actors often end up trending because of secretly taken photos. You’ll have to get used to it."
Finn chuckled. "This is what other people dream of. Some professional PR teams plan elaborate marketing campaigns that don’t even get this kind of result, yet Lily achieved it without even trying. It’s a classic case of those who want it can’t get it, and those who get it didn’t even want it."
His comment was meant as a joke, but it suddenly snapped Lily out of her internal struggle. Her head shot up. "Oh my god, you’re right. I can’t look too bothered by this. Otherwise, won’t people think I’m playing coy after getting lucky? No, no, I can’t do that..."
Her reaction made both Yuna and Finn burst out laughing. Yuna grinned. "Exactly. If those celebrities who are desperate for attention but can’t get any knew you were turning your nose up at this, they’d definitely call you pretentious behind your back. After all, how many people in this business truly don’t care about getting buzz?"
The realization slowly dawned on Lily, and she nodded, murmuring to herself, "I guess I just have to accept it. Let the media say what they want. We just need to focus on doing our own thing."
And just as they had said, someone was indeed losing their mind over this.
Jessica Reynolds stared at the number three trending topic, "#LilySterlingQuietlyVisitsInjuredExtraInHospital," her cheeks trembling with rage. Her entire face was contorted with anger and jealousy.
Just yesterday, she had celebrated her birthday on set and immediately posted a group photo of the whole cast celebrating with her. She had even hired some of her usual marketing accounts to boost the post, and the topic had quickly climbed into the top ten.
But in less than a day, Lily had suddenly shot to number three, while the topic related to her own birthday had plummeted off the charts at lightning speed. Her name was no longer even in the top thirty.
Worse still, people were flooding her birthday post on X to curse her out, saying things like, "An extra on your own set broke a bone and you can’t even be bothered to check on them? All you know how to do is throw yourself a birthday party."
’What does someone else getting hurt have to do with me?’
’It’s not like I’m the one who hurt them.’
But that was how it was. Once there was a point of comparison, people would inevitably make one.
It wouldn’t have mattered if the other actors had stayed quiet, but she was the only one who had posted about a birthday celebration on set, so she was the only one taking the heat.
"Jessica, maybe... maybe we should delete that X post?" her assistant, Mia, suggested cautiously.
Jessica whipped her head around and glared, her expression utterly vicious. The rest of her team fell silent.
"Is *this* your idea of damage control?" Jessica snarled, her eyes sweeping venomously over each member of her team. "What the hell do I even have you for!"
Everyone kept their heads down, staring at their feet, not daring to speak. Their boss had a terrible temper. At a time like this, if you couldn’t offer a perfect solution, it was best to keep your mouth shut.
Less than half an hour later, another topic related to Lily Sterling shot directly to the number one spot.
The reason was that someone had found the X account of the unknown extra, Yuri Tucker, and discovered the group photo he had posted with Lily’s team.
Yuri Tucker’s X account was suddenly flooded with visitors, and he was diligently replying to many of the comments below his post.
Among them were replies stating:
"I had never met Ms. Sterling before. We’d never run into each other on set or even exchanged a single word."
"Ms. Sterling’s visit today was a complete surprise. I never expected it."
"There were no paparazzi or publicity stunts, just her two assistants with her."
"Mr. Archer’s assistant, Drake, also came. I’m very grateful to Mr. Archer as well."
These replies from Yuri Tucker added fuel to the fire, further boosting Lily’s public appeal. Yuri himself never imagined that his first time trending would be at number one, and that it would be because of Ms. Sterling.
As the topic exploded across the internet, Lily’s genuine act of kindness not only won her a huge number of casual fans, but also deeply touched one particularly crucial group of people.
The extras!
Their numbers were vast, on a scale unimaginable to many outsiders, yet they were a group often ignored by those within the industry.
And in that moment, it was Lily Sterling who had seen them.
Because Yuri Tucker was a microcosm of the millions upon millions of extras just like him.
That evening, as soon as Lily arrived on set, the extras who normally wouldn’t dare approach the main actors greeted her cheerfully, calling out, "Ms. Sterling!" Some of the more enthusiastic ones even struck up a brief conversation with her.
Lily didn’t shy away, treating everyone with warmth and kindness.
It wasn’t until they were waiting for the scene to be set that Jessica Reynolds came up beside her. Lily had just called out, "Jessica," when Jessica spoke, her tone deceptively playful but dripping with sarcasm. "I saw the trending topics. Congratulations. Such rave reviews!"