Chapter 118: Buying an Autograph Gets You Toilet Paper

Xu Heng told Ren Man about this matter and asked if she had any good candidates on her end.

Xu Heng felt that as a capitalist with money like her, she should know quite a few acquaintances within the circle.

As it turned out, Ren Man said she didn't have any candidates either.

Because having money doesn't mean you can make it in the entertainment industry; on the foundation of having money, you also need fame and works.

And she belonged to the category of transparent figures in the entertainment industry who had neither works nor fame, so how could she know any stars?

"If you really can't find a male lead, then try auditioning for one. I currently know several third-tier minor actors who are interested in this role."

Xu Heng didn't have any good solutions for the moment, so he could only helplessly say alright.

In fact, finding a third or fourth-tier star to play the male lead is a huge blow to a movie's box office.

Especially in 2007, at this time when the domestic film market was still in its development phase.

If you say a movie has some fresh meat or a recently exploded young actor or actress playing the lead, even a trashy film like *Mysterious Island* can sell hundreds of millions.

But if the leads of your film are all unknown fringe actors, even if the film's rating is very high, it cannot save the embarrassment of low box office.

Xu Heng's initial idea was good: find Hu Ge to play the male lead; even if he couldn't act out the sissy feeling, he could use Hu Ge's first big-screen movie as a gimmick to attract passersby's attention.

This was even Hu Ge's first participating work after his car accident and comeback.

Unfortunately, Tangren did not agree.

Xu Heng made a wasted trip and returned to Jinling with a headache.

The other three in the dormitory were all there today.

Sheng Bo asked: "I heard from reporters that you went to Jin City to talk about cooperation with Tangren. Which star under them were you looking for?"

Xu Heng replied: "Hu Ge, it didn't work out."

"Hu Ge, that definitely wouldn't work out. He's a first-tier big shot. For your small movie, finding a few minor stars is enough, and it can save some costs," Zhao Gaoyang said. "If you ask me, Cheng Ge is quite suitable; his features are upright, and he has the potential to be an idol."

He turned his head and found Cheng Huaiyu still posing as The Thinker there: "Cheng Ge, Old Xu is calling you to go film a movie, are you going?"

"A movie? What am I playing?" Cheng Huaiyu hadn't snapped out of his meditation and asked blankly.

"A sissy," Xu Heng laughed.

"Damn! What do you mean? You want me, such a masculine and upright boy, to play a sissy?" Cheng Huaiyu waved his hand in dissatisfaction. "Even if you paid me, I wouldn't go."

"Cheng Ge, acting in a movie comes with pay. Are you in menopause or is your brain muddled?" Sheng Bo snickered.

"Sigh, it's not that I'm saying, Old Xu, you told the brothers about filming a movie too late. Otherwise, no matter what, I would have helped you out. It's a pity I have something on recently."

Cheng Huaiyu hooked his arm around Xu Heng's shoulder and whispered in his ear, "Old Xu, support your brother."

Xu Heng saw him making a money-counting gesture and immediately understood his meaning. He frowned and asked: "What do you need money for?"

"Didn't I sell the wingman service before? Let me tell you, that group of people really has something. In less than a week, Yueyue's schedule and which classes and locations she'd be at were all figured out by them. But they said my flirting technique wasn't good enough and told me to take their training course, called something like the Love and Dating Art Course. The tuition is quite expensive."

"A few thousand?"

"Five thousand," Cheng Huaiyu said embarrassedly.

Xu Heng said: "Don't you think they are scamming you?"

"I thought about that at first, but later they proved themselves with their strength."

"Then how much money do you want to borrow from me?"

"Five thousand."

"So you have no money left at all?" Xu Heng said speechlessly.

Cheng Huaiyu rubbed his hands and chuckled: "Buying their service costs money too, right? More than half of this month's living expenses are spent, and only a little food money is left. Old Xu, you can't just watch your brother eat steamed buns, right?"

Xu Heng thought for a moment and said: "Lending you money is fine, but you have to write an IOU and specify the repayment time."

"Damn! We are all brothers, does borrowing money need to be so formal?" Cheng Huaiyu complained.

"Even close brothers must settle accounts clearly."

"Sigh, fine, fine, fine. Then I'll pay you back before New Year's Day, okay? I'll ask my parents for more living expenses next month."

Cheng Huaiyu clicked his tongue, harboring some complaints against Xu Heng in his heart, thinking he was a bit too calculating.

Everyone was a roommate; if he borrowed money, he couldn't run away. Could it be that he wouldn't pay it back?

After writing the IOU, Xu Heng went to the bank downstairs to withdraw five thousand yuan and gave it to him, while reminding him: "If you find out they are a scam gang at that time, remember to call the police immediately. Maybe you can still get the money back."

"Oh, that's impossible. Just rest assured. When your brother returns after completing the training, I'll treat you all to a meal."

After getting the money, Cheng Huaiyu's expression immediately became joyful, and the depression of being forced to write an IOU was thrown to the back of his mind, forgotten completely.

Seeing that Cheng Huaiyu borrowed money from Xu Heng so easily, Zhao Gaoyang thought that his own leverage also required as much principal as possible, so he also cheekily ran over to borrow money.

This time, Xu Heng directly refused him with the excuse that all his money was invested in the movie and he had none left.

This unfair treatment made Zhao Gaoyang very unhappy.

Why is it that when Cheng Huaiyu asks to borrow money from you, you have money, but when I ask to borrow money, you don't? Is that five thousand yuan you lent Cheng Huaiyu the only money you had left?

Xu Heng nodded and said yes, that was all that was left.

Zhao Gaoyang was rebuffed and stopped talking; he snorted coldly and returned to his seat to continue studying stock theory.

This business of borrowing money caused the dormitory atmosphere to undergo a subtle change again; both Zhao Gaoyang and Cheng Huaiyu's attitudes toward Xu Heng became somewhat distant.

Although Sheng Bo was the same as before, he also felt that Xu Heng was a bit strange.

It was mainly because Xu Heng now had too much of a worldly air; these little calves who hadn't left school yet found it hard to accept his seemingly harsh behavioral attitudes.

Xu Heng, however, didn't care about this. He knew that slowly drifting away from these roommates was a normal phenomenon; after all, there was a generation gap in their ages.

Not to mention he was a reborn person who had seen the world's development and changes over the next dozen years. What he saw and knew was different from them, so naturally, it was hard to find common topics in the dormitory.

Xu Heng began to calculate in his heart when to move out.

On the 5th, the first batch of finished *Sanguosha* products were made. The initial quantity wasn't much, just twenty thousand sets. The suggested retail price was thirty-nine yuan. After deducting costs such as labor and materials, the profit per set was about ten yuan, which meant that only by selling them all could he earn two hundred thousand.

The workers in the factory were even worried about whether these twenty thousand sets could be sold. Some discussed that if they couldn't be sold, everyone should pay out of their own pockets to buy some, otherwise, once the little boss went bankrupt, there would be no one left willing to pay their wages.

The result was beyond their expectations: twenty thousand copies of Three Kingdoms Kill were sold out in less than a week, with over eight thousand copies sold through the online Taobao store alone.

Just as the factory workers were still in a state of bewilderment, a new batch of order requirements from above was distributed without a moment's delay.

This time, it was two hundred thousand copies!

Everyone felt a bit dizzy, not understanding how the little cards they were making could sell so quickly.

In fact, the real reason behind it was not that Three Kingdoms Kill had such great influence or was so deeply loved by people.

It was entirely because Xu Heng had launched a fan tactic.

Buy Three Kingdoms Kill and receive a random autograph from him and Liu Yiyan!

Of course, while they were called autographs, they couldn't sign that many copies; only a few hundred in this batch were genuine signatures, while the rest were printed copies.

However, this still could not stop the crowd from scrambling for them; some were passersby who were already interested in Three Kingdoms Kill, and others were fans drawn in by the few songs from "The Wind Rises".

For thirty-nine yuan, one could buy an idol's autograph and also get a playable card board game; there probably wouldn't be such a good deal for the next twenty years.

Therefore, the first edition of Three Kingdoms Kill at this time was also jokingly referred to by later fans of the game as toilet paper that came free with an autograph.