Even Chen Kaige couldn't help but chuckle.

At home, in front of his wife and children, he burst out laughing.

"Dad, what are you laughing at?"

His youngest son wasn't the brightest and couldn't get what tickled his father.

"I'm not laughing at anyone else; I'm just amused at Jiang Wen's arrogance and Qi Hao's lack of brains. I tried it before, and the epic production tagline shouldn't be used, but he insisted on blindly following me. What can I do?"

After all, he's a poet.

Though his son wasn't very smart, he was forced to read a lot and often heard his dad recite literature, so he joined in with silly laughter.

Beside them, Chen Hong watched her talented husband and obedient son with a blissful expression.

The family had finally walked out of the shadow of their box office flop.

However, their happiness didn't last long.

Like the calm before the storm, Chen Kaige hadn't even finished his lunch before he received a call.

The first screening of "Let the Bullets Fly" had just ended, especially the premiere, and a flood of positive reviews appeared online.

Marketers know marketing best.

They can instantly tell which accounts are paid shills and which so-called film critics are on the payroll.

The positive reviews for "The Orphan of Zhao" were mostly like this.

But the praise for "Let the Bullets Fly" was different. This overwhelming number of regular accounts—if it were orchestrated, you'd need billions to pull it off.

"Let the Bullets Fly" only had a total budget of one billion for production and promotion.

Where would they find the money to hire so many fake reviews across the internet in such a short time?

Moreover, if it were such a large-scale marketing campaign, their marketing circle wouldn't be this quiet.

Even some people from "The Orphan of Zhao" marketing team went to see the movie.

They came back exclaiming Jiang Wen's brilliance.

They were real film fans.

Organic word of mouth!

They had to tell Chen Kaige about this.

Director, stop sleeping, wake up.

The sky has fallen!

Take dreams as your horse; the more you ride, the sillier you get. Poetry and distant places, the further you go, the dirtier they get.

Chen Kaige wasn't sure if he was hallucinating.

He listened to the urgent voices over the phone, the sound fading, his mind buzzing...

Chen Hong, seeing her husband's poor complexion, quickly supported him and shouted:

"Ge Ge, Ge Ge, it's just a movie; it's not like we haven't lost before. As long as the green hills remain, there's no fear of running out of firewood..."

Please don't have a cerebral hemorrhage, stroke, or any other brain attack…

Leaving us mother and son behind, what would we do?

"Thank you, Hong Hong!"

Chen Kaige let out a long sigh, yeah, I have rich experience with flops, and every movie release comes with the experience of being cursed by fans. What more could I not see?

"You're welcome!"

There's no need to thank me; this is my duty.

Though he had calmed down, Chen Kaige still felt a blockage in his heart, a chest full of frustration:

"How did Jiang Wen manage to make a film everyone can understand?"

First, fear life's hardships; second, fear brothers who are too smooth.

"I know, Uncle Jiang Wen said it's about making money while standing!"

The kid suddenly had a flash of insight.

"Arthur, shut up!"

Chen Hong wanted to smack this annoying kid; do you want your father dead?

Bringing up those untactful topics.

Your mother is over forty and doesn't have the ability to find you another good dad.

"Ha, making money while standing... If Qi Hao hadn't given him fifty million, could he have made money? He's just working for Qi Hao; the money he earns is Qi Hao's. What does it have to do with him, Jiang Wen? Making it sound like others are kneeling, Jiang Wen just has a screw loose."

Chen Kaige and Jiang Wen always got along well.

He didn't think many people in the industry were worthwhile, but a person needs friends, or else it seems like you have poor relations.

Jiang Wen was one of the few he approved of.

But today's "humiliation" was too much; he even suspected this "brother" stabbed him in the back.

"He's just a little man who got too pleased with himself. Arthur, where are you going? Sit down!"

Chen Hong saw her son wanting to leave and quickly called out.

You silly boy, when your dad is depressed, don't you think of comforting him more?

"I... I want to go watch 'Let the Bullets Fly' with my brother..."

Little Arthur was filled with curiosity.

Uh...

Nobody cared whether Chen Kaige was upset or not, not even Jiang Wen thought of him at this time.

Ever since the movie premiered, Jiang Wen had been receiving congratulations from peers, surrounded by praise.

Even Qi Hao posted a congratulatory message on Weibo.

Qi Hao V: The birth of a masterpiece; honored to participate. From now on, my representative work is "Let the Bullets Fly"!

An Feng followed up with a repost, proudly stating, "My husband acted in 'Let the Bullets Fly'."

The entertainment circle immediately followed suit in large numbers.

Especially those female celebrities who had been rumored with Qi Hao; upon seeing others post, they copied and pasted as well.

My former rumored boyfriend acted in 'Let the Bullets Fly'.

If just one person posted, it would feel like a challenge to An Feng, the legitimate girlfriend, but now that everyone was doing it, it became a meme and part of the fun.

What's ridiculous is that some female celebrities who were never even rumored with Qi Hao also joined in for fun, and even tagged Qi Hao and An Feng in the post.

Is there anything more ridiculous?

Yes, it's one thing for female celebrities to post, but male celebrities also joined in.

This made it hard for Qi Hao to maintain composure.

Fortunately, this nationwide frenzy really did boost the movie's box office.

As the largest producer of 'Let the Bullets Fly,' Qi Hao had no choice but to accept it.

Later, he just went with the flow and interacted with others on Weibo, reminiscing about the past, like, oh, which rumors was it that we were involved in filming?

Actually, being able to speak so openly like this.

It just proves that there was nothing shady between Qi Hao and the others, no emotional entanglements.

'Let the Bullets Fly' was a hit, attracting many to join in the excitement.

Like Lu Yu.

After being imprisoned twice and released, Lu Yu, whose reputation was already ruined, congratulated Jiang Wen on Weibo, calling him his teacher.

Which was just bewildering.

Recently, Lu Yu didn't take any breaks despite his tarnished reputation.

His financial situation was extremely urgent.

Preparing for 'The King's Feast' cost a lot, and it was all financed by the producers.

This project definitely couldn't be completed.

Those who invested wouldn't take an empty loss and would certainly make Lu Yu return what he had taken.

After all, the project's failure was Lu Sang's fault.

Damn, who told you to be so reckless?

Your box office hit of a girlfriend you ignore, and you spend money on gaming? You've got to be out of your mind.

Some say Lu Sang got set up by a rooster last time.

Hurt his self-esteem, couldn't perform with his girlfriend, so he turned to gaming.

Only being with a rooster could he perform.

This is also why he was easily manipulated.

But anyway, Lu Sang has gone mad now.

He rushes to any trending topic, hoping a friendly ally will help him out.

On Qi Hao's side, 'Uncle's' screenings were cut by at least half because of 'Let the Bullets Fly'.

Luckily, both movies were under the same company.

It's just that 'The Orphan of Zhao' was quite unfortunate, their screening was already reduced, and it got even worse now.

In addition, there were other films being released.

These subsequent "pursuers" were not to be underestimated, Zhao Benshan and Xiaoshenyang brought 'Laughing in the World' into the New Year slot; though it was no threat to 'Let the Bullets Fly' and couldn't even hold its own against 'If You Are the One 2' releasing on the 22nd, but Old Zhao is one of the top comedians in the country, and with his disciple's assistance, further squeezed 'The Orphan of Zhao's' market.

'Magic Legend' starring Guo Mansion, Zhang Ziyi and others was purely a cannon fodder.

In contrast, Wang Jiawei's 'Grandmaster' received quite a lot of attention.

After all, it's been delayed for so long.

Even 'Yip Man', which started later, is already on its second installment, with Zhen Zidan milking the benefits of the role dry.

However, it originally wasn't resilient, and now it ran into 'Let the Bullets Fly'.

Movies released in the same period paled compared to 'Let the Bullets Fly' and 'If You Are the One 2'.

Even 'If You Are the One 2' felt challenged.

This kind of New Year slot had no absolute winner; with such a wide range of choices for audiences, no film could guarantee to dominate the box office.

'If You Are the One,' which took a whopping 350 million at the box office last year, its sequel faced 'Let the Bullets Fly' this year, and breaking the 300 million mark seemed difficult, with industry predictions at 260 million.

The harsh reality was, it coincided with 'Let the Bullets Fly'.

Qi Hao, while filming and keeping an eye on how far this masterpiece could go, discovered an awkward fact.

That was, he had too many movies released this year.

Scheduled too tightly, leaving nothing decent for the next year.

However, Zhonghao Entertainment's film investment department was also helpless.

After reviewing repeatedly, they still couldn't find projects worthy of investment.

1.5 billion investment for 'Warring States'?

1.5 billion investment for 'Guan Yu'?

1.8 billion investment for 'Legend of the White Snake'?

The supposedly 2 billion production cost 'A Chinese Ghost Story'?

Or the approximately 1.8 billion cost 'Wu Xia'?

It's not that no one wanted Zhonghao Entertainment's investment, not even Zhang Yimou and Zhang Weiping's 'Jinling Thirteen Cai'.

However, upon hearing that the film would cost 600 million to make,

Zhonghao just wanted to say:

Get the hell out of here!

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