Chapter 229: Bai the Official's Heart is Kind

Wu Jing:???

What's going on? We were chatting just fine, why did he suddenly hang up the phone?

His urge to vent at this moment was quite strong, so he prepared to call back and have a good chat. Even though he had a roadshow tomorrow, he felt he could absolutely be as wired as if he'd had an energy shot, and even if he didn't sleep all night, he'd still be full of energy.

Fortunately, at this moment Xie Nan came out and stopped him.

Xie Nan, who had just finished showering, said nothing, just patted the bed.

"What's wrong, wifey?"

"What do you mean what's wrong." Xie Nan pretended to hum casually, "Second baby."

"Cough cough, coming, coming!"

This time Wu Jing also found a way to release his excess energy, and finally gave up on continuing to bother Bai Liang, or the plan to just call him out for a couple of drinks.

And on the other side.

Na Zha buried her head in Bai Liang's chest, and after trembling for quite a while, still refused to lift her head.

Mm. Embarrassed.

How could she possibly lift her head~

Because she had clearly heard Bai Liang instinctively quip: Wow~ faucet~

She wanted to bite him to death on the spot!

But she couldn't quite bear to, so she could only play ostrich~

Fortunately, for this kind of situation, Bai Liang could be considered fairly experienced.

After soothing her for a little while, she finally, blushing and pouting, wrapped her arms around Bai Liang's neck and smooched him hard several times.

Then she said aggrievedly: "You're so mean."

Bai Liang: "This doesn't really have anything to do with me, right? It's all Wu Jing's fault."

"Right, you had to bring up something like this at a time like this, ah hurry put me down, I need to go wash up."

"I think, compared to you needing to wash up... the kitty might need it more."

Kitty: Finally you remembered me, speak up for me! Speak up for me!

Was being cute just fine, then suddenly got saddled with this kind of weight.

Kitties are very afraid of water!

Washing one is washing, washing two is also washing.

Na Zha didn't have the ability to wash herself right now either, so Bai Liang simply helped out.

The kitty that wanted to escape also couldn't get away, was grabbed by Bai Liang, and was forced to take a bath.

Fortunately, Na Zha had brought everything she needed. After blow-drying it, it was once again a soft, cute, sweet, and chubby little kitty.

Oh wait, two little kitties.

Hugging two little kitties while sleeping together, the sense of happiness was maxed out instantly.

One goes meow meow, the other goes whine whine.

One is covered in fur, the other has none.

But the outrageous thing is, the next morning Na Zha actually woke up earlier than Bai Liang!

He always had the habit of getting up early to jog, and if Na Zha, this little piglet, had nothing going on, she could stay in bed forever.

Yet this time it was so out of the ordinary.

Oh right, she also woke him up in a very strange but very comfortable way.

When asked what was wrong, she said: "I just thought about how high the box office of our starring movie is, and I laughed myself awake from the dream."

Generally this kind of talk is a pretty exaggerated description, but Na Zha said she was a realist.

She really did laugh herself awake this morning!

Breaking a hundred million in three hours! What kind of concept is that! Way too outrageous!

And her, the female lead, wasn't a complete prop—she still had quite a lot of screen time, so this movie could absolutely be counted among her real achievements.

Not to mention she could still make money, make big money, later on!

With all these elements piled together, Na Zha was about to die of happiness.

Since her debut, she had never been so glorious~

"I feel like it was only after meeting you that I suddenly became lucky."

"That's not right, meeting you is my luck."

Bai Liang stretched and said that luck was always on his side.

But Na Zha seemed to have misunderstood, and immediately, touched, brought her lips over.

As a result, Bai Liang dodged right away.

After all, even a tiger doesn't eat its cubs.

But Na Zha didn't seem to realize this point. Today she was determined to let Bai Liang have a taste... of losing his "closest kin."

She chased, he fled.

This bout of horsing around, if one wasn't careful, went on until the little assistant came knocking on the door.

She came to remind Na Zha that she should get ready, and prepare for the roadshow schedule.

A female artist, of course she couldn't show up bare-faced, so if she had an engagement in the morning, she had to get up very early to get herself ready.

Of course, Na Zha now was very confident.

She felt that even bare-faced she was invincible under heaven!

But to show respect to the audience, while talking tough she still chose to obediently put on makeup.

Oh right, before heading out she also didn't forget to apologize to the kitty.

I'm really sorry~

Little kitty has no choice either. For the sake of the cat treats, of course I'll choose to forgive her.

—

The last few days from late July to early August.

It would be no exaggeration to say the entire entertainment industry was shaken!

What the hell, who the hell is "Wolf Warrior 2"?!

Broke a hundred million in three hours! Broke a billion in seventy hours! Broke two billion in seven days!

This absurd box office directly shattered every record there was to shatter, clean as a whistle.

From the moment it hit theaters, "Wolf Warrior 2" swept through at a ferocious pace, rewriting countless previous records under its own name.

At a single glance, nothing but big-tailed wolves everywhere.

Mm. Beside them sat a leisurely, dopey capybara, with a little kitty perched on its head.

Wu Jing: My little bro and I are out here going "quack quack slash slash."

Nazha: I'm in charge of the "quack quack"~

Industry insiders: Don't dare open my eyes, hoping it's an illusion

The hell, what happened to the market slump we were promised?

Our films hit theaters and the market slumps, but the moment "Wolf Warrior 2" comes out the market shoots right back up, is that it?!

The hell, that's not fair, rematch!

What's more, because the movie's box office growth was so absurdly heaven-defying, the poster designer for the film's official Weibo account was down on his luck.

No one knows when it started, or who invented it, but once a film's box office passes a hundred million, a box office report poster has to be released.

Everyone in the industry does it, so naturally "Wolf Warrior 2" did the same.

Designer:???

Wait, isn't this workload completely off the charts?!

His speed designing posters couldn't keep up with the speed of releases.

At first he still used various scenes from the film, characters, even carefully selected lines for the posters.

But soon the poster designer really couldn't take it anymore. This won't do, can't keep up, simply can't keep up.

No matter how much overtime pay they offered, this job was impossible.

So much so that one day he simply chose to slack off, went into Bai Liang's super topic, picked a picture of a capybara with a kitty on its head, and threw together a poster.

After posting it, it turned out to be quite popular — the designer had found his inspiration!

The art style immediately went abstract~

Besides capybaras, he also went online to find pictures of wolves, dogs, and the like to make posters.

The reason dogs appeared was because once he couldn't tell the difference between a husky and a wolf, and gave Wolf Warrior Leng Feng a limited-edition husky skin.

As a result, netizens liked it even more!

They started clamoring for a crossover.

Designer: You got it!

Huskies, capybaras, little kitty — bring them all on!

Oh right, the husky and capybara don't need to be paid, but the little kitty still deserves some respect for image rights.

Anyway, Wu Jing waved his hand grandly and said let's invite little kitty to do an "endorsement"~

Gotta give face to the current top star of the pet world.

And little kitty is also the film's lucky star, having contributed to its promotion.

Nazha, delighted, said just swipe her card~

She stuffed another cat treat into little kitty, then smilingly accepted its "appearance fee."

Honestly, she's starting to get a taste of Cai Yi's happiness!

This is what it's like to run a company, have the artists do the work, and sit at the company splitting the profits yourself?

No!

Way happier than Cai Yi.

Little kitty won't be like those artists who, when unhappy, turn traitor, bouncing around causing all kinds of chaos.

Little kitty only needs cat treats and canned food, and it's perfectly content.

It even "sells itself" for pets, providing emotional value.

But Bai Liang says: my little kitty is even better than yours~

Nazha: Impossible!

Yet as she lay in Bai Liang's arms blinking cutely, she suddenly realized... wait!

The little kitty... is actually herself?

Yet beneath all these cheerful scenes among their own people.

The film "Wolf Warrior 2," like it had been pumped full of adrenaline, barreled through the movie market in a way that refreshed everyone's understanding, rampaging with reckless abandon.

Crushing every opponent — not just those of the same period, but also those before and those yet to be released

Yang Mi: Sometimes I really want to call the police.

Originally "Brotherhood of Blades 2" hadn't taken off, so she figured she'd play the long game, take it slow, at least hold onto two hundred million at the box office so it wouldn't look too bad.

Now look — completely dead in the water. And she even went to the film's premiere in person to show her support.

When she went, everything was fine — she just wanted to give a shoutout to dear little Bai, and check out the scene while she was at it.

But when she turned around, she realized she'd contributed far more than just the scene — she'd even contributed the laughs.

The only thing that gave her a little comfort was that *Brotherhood of Blades 2* had, after all, been released ahead of schedule.

It wasn't that tragic, then.

People are just like that — once you have something to compare against, happiness follows.

So Yang Mi searched up the first-day box office of *Eternal Love*, and it actually had a good tens of millions?!

Although that figure included pre-sale box office and such, it was clearly quite a bit higher than *Brotherhood of Blades 2*.

Yang Mi's brow furrowed — hold on, *Wolf Warrior 2*, can you pull this off or not?

Wolf Warrior? Pfft~

Lapdog!

Luckily, after she went and looked up the word-of-mouth and reviews, along with the subsequent blood-collapse of the box office trend, the screenings, and the attendance rate, she immediately felt a lot better.

As expected, this thing would end up with only a little over a hundred million at the box office, topping out at two hundred million — same tier as *Brotherhood of Blades 2*.

No errors, no typos, no duplicate content — read it all here!

In her delight, she almost couldn't help but want to like the Weibo post mocking "Yang Yang pulling noodles in the movie."

What *Eternal Love* hotpot, ah~ hahahahaha.

Yang Yang:. Believe it or not, I'll cry for you?!

Yesterday morning, when he showed up at the airport, he changed his usual grand runway style, wearing a big black mask and hurrying along.

On top of that, he kept rubbing his eyes with his hand, looking like the whole person was immersed in grief.

By evening, when attending the Shanghai roadshow for *Eternal Love*, Liu Yifei was actually quite composed, smiling through all kinds of questions.

But Yang Yang broke down on the spot, turning away again and again to wipe his tears.

So much so that Liu Yifei had to keep handing him tissues.

Originally, the female host of the premiere wanted Yang Yang to say a few words, but after he took the microphone, he handed it back and said nothing more.

The host explained to the audience, "His voice is a little hoarse."

Liu Yifei immediately smoothed things over: "How about I host instead."

In response, Yang Yang's fans, while feeling for him, also offered comfort: it's just a bad movie, no big deal — which actor hasn't been in a bad movie~ Most of the films top-tier stars act in aren't that great anyway.

Clearly this was a competition in badness, but the point wasn't far off — these days, most movies by traffic stars really are pretty, uh, something.

Then at this point, Bai Liang's fans popped up: hehe.

Yang Yang's fans: get lost!

So they simply pulled Liu Yifei into the comparison — look, some of Goddess Fairy's earlier movies were just as dead-looking.

Liu Yifei's fans: what the hell are you saying?! Wanna start a war?!

By evening, Yang Yang posted another Weibo, seemingly cheering himself on.

Something about "not fearing controversy, this is something I must go through as I grow."

But the moment he faced the audience, the tears still couldn't stop flowing — where was the strong, stoic Ye Hua? He was clearly still the Jia Baoyu from the Grand View Garden back in the day.

Honestly, his whole performance made Bai Liang, who was on the roadshow circuit, feel a bit embarrassed when he saw the news.

Bro, you're really crying?

Scratch head, scratch head~

Master Bai is kind-hearted and can't bear to see such "suffering in the human world."

Besides, he had no real grudge against Yang Yang — the guy wasn't some future "talent" like Wu Yifan who'd end up eating prison food and working the sewing machine; liking to pose and act cool isn't a crime.

But *Wolf Warrior 2*, which was already a mud-truck of a presence, after being blessed with a halo of good luck, its destructive power really was indiscriminate.

Whoever it was, they'd "die."

Next door's *The Founding of an Army* wasn't doing much better either — in some ways, it was even worse off.

Because, being the same main-melody genre, it was completely crushed; a whole pile of stars combined couldn't beat Wu Jing and Bai Liang together.

"Tell me, should I send him a message to cheer him up?"

"You're actually pretty nice, huh." Li Xin replied to Bai Liang's message, her face barely holding back a laugh.

Still, she did believe Bai Liang wasn't being sarcastic.

Apart from going a bit wild at times, Bai Liang with his clothes on really was a gentle and kind person — that much, many people agreed on.

He's genuinely super nice!

Put it this way — more than half of Li Xin's team are now die-hard fans of Bai Liang.

Because no top-tier star would be like him, willing to let others ride his traffic in every creative way — not only not minding, but actually encouraging them. God knows how moved Li Xin was that time.

Otherwise, after that last stunt, she really would have blocked Bai Liang.

Instead of ending up with that defaulting posture, lingering under the hotel for so long without leaving, finally getting ready to go with that whoever, only to lose face big-time.

"Don't mind him — he's loved crying since his debut, his eyes are like faucets, tears come whenever he wants." Li Xin secretly complained to Bai Liang.

"Really?"

"He fainted from crying when filming *The New Dream of the Red Chamber*."

Crying as a minor was one thing, but he's still the same now.

Last year, Yang Yang went on the Spring Festival Gala and sang "Father and Son" with Tong Tiexin.

And he cried again — the onlookers were stunned.

Holy crap, lip-syncing while really crying?! What a talent!

After looking into it, Bai Liang felt: nah, that won't do!

He'd have to find a chance to "cry him out" a few more times — consider it some "pressure training" for him.

A celebrity can't be so thin-skinned.

At that moment, Yang Yang, deep in his late-night emo, felt a chill run through his whole body. Just as he was about to have a little cry, he sensed, as if by fate, a capybara grinning wickedly at him.

The tears were instantly held back!

No way! He has to perk up!

The title "Top-Tier Gatekeeper" sounds like it means just below the four top-tier stars, but it's still a bit unpleasant to hear.

The four top-tier stars — why can't there be five?

And the competition below the top tier is actually quite fierce too. Yang Yang not only wants to climb up into the top-tier ranks, he also has to hold onto his own position. Crying — crying also counts as time~

But no matter what, this time there's definitely no chance.

All the major theater chains have already adjusted the screening schedule of "Wolf Warrior 2" to over sixty percent — a nightmare for every other film.

Stop struggling too, just hold hands and lie flat waiting to die, that'll do it.

Of course, it also serves as a fig leaf.

It's not that they're no good — it's that "Wolf Warrior 2" is just too brutal. No one could do anything about this thing.

This summer box office window is a solo performance by a single film.

Online, a bunch of "Wolf Warrior 2" spiritual shareholders have already appeared, watching the film's box office for Wu Jing day after day.

Because everyone knows this film is about to make history — they are all participants.

Shanghai roadshow stop.

After wrapping up this stop, Nazha's roadshow itinerary has come to an end here.

The strange thing is, she actually doesn't feel tired at all. Even though the roadshow schedule was extremely tight, she was basically on the road the entire time except for sleeping at night.

But she really was full of energy — even after running around all day, she still had extra energy at night to have a clingy tangle with Bai Liang before drifting off into a beautiful sleep.

On one hand, she's really about to get rich this time. The direct income this film brings her might exceed all her earnings since her debut. Of course, that's after tax.

But on the other hand, this isn't about money at all!

Walking tall with head held high — walking tall with head held high!

Her Nazha has really stood up this time!

Wait, what? Why isn't the end of the year here yet? The Weibo Night? Any other gala would do too.

She wants to sit together with Dilireba!

Hmm. Surely her own star status hasn't risen so fast that the other side isn't worthy of sitting with her, right?

Of course, that is a bit of an exaggeration.

But Nazha's fans really are like it's the New Year — each and every one of them going crazy, even more excited than Bai Liang's fans.

It's unclear if it's a case of fans taking after their idol, but after Bai Liang's capybara image spread through super topics and among fans, the fans also started following suit one by one.

The movie's a hit? That's fine too~

Fortunately, they can't keep it up for too long either — after all, they're not real capybaras.

But right now they really are holding it in, not as outwardly expressive as Nazha's fans.

Also a case of fans taking after their idol, I suppose~

So, after Nazha finished the roadshow, she was going to head back to Tang Ren for a visit, and she specifically made a phone call to notify Cai Yinong.

Little Cai, come welcome me~

Of course she definitely wouldn't dare say such cheeky words out loud, but in her heart she was naturally swaying with smug satisfaction.

"Oh Nazha baby, was the roadshow tiring? You'll arrive at the company in half an hour, right? Okay okay okay~"

After hanging up Nazha's call, the expression on Cai Yinong's face still seemed quite calm.

At this moment, Nazha's agent said a line: "This little girl seems to be getting a bit full of herself. President Cai, should we knock her down a peg, make her more steady?"

But the moment those words were finished, Cai Yinong's calm couldn't hold anymore — she broke into a beaming smile.

At the same time she glanced at Nazha's agent: "Steady? Who should be steady? Little girl? I think you need to be steadier. She's our company's number one sister! Come with me downstairs in a bit, to the entrance to receive her!"

Agent: Huh?

"Oh right, is Hu Ge at the company? Call him along too."

Okay okay okay. So that's how we're playing it, huh?

Might as well have the whole company mobilize and go to the entrance together to receive her.

At this moment, Cai Yinong looked at the capybara roly-poly toy on the desk — the more she looked at it, the more she liked it! She could hardly resist picking it up and giving it a kiss.

She quickly moved the little thing to a new spot, placing it right in the center.

Huh? A bit dusty — I'll find someone to wipe it down in a bit~

No — she'll wipe it herself!

(End of this chapter)