Chapter 277: The Rule of the Jianghu Requires a Red Envelope

Movie box office — turns out this thing can sometimes be used as an aphrodisiac.

Luckily, this wasn't Bai Liang's first time experiencing something like this.

Back during "Wolf Warrior 2," that Nazha was way crazier than Miss Jing Tian.

The cute thing about girls as a species is that when they're being "fierce," they bare their claws and wave their fangs, but when they back down, they can roll right into acting cute and coquettish — silky smooth.

Oh right, Miss Jing Tian doesn't even compare to Nazha~

She only held it together for less than ten minutes.

But here's the anti-science part: even though last night she was nearly pounded to dehydration, by the next morning, Miss Jing Tian somehow woke up even earlier than Bai Liang.

By the time he got up, she had already done her makeup.

"Get up already, we still have to do the roadshow!"

"Sister Tian Tian, no cinema opens before nine-thirty."

"You have to call me sis!"

"What did you call me last night?" Bai Liang struck a thinking pose, instantly breaking Miss Jing Tian's defense on the spot.

She immediately stopped fussing about the "sis" thing — after all, last night Bai Liang's seniority had already received a super-double, and calling him "sis" again would really be a bit impolite.

"Then you should get up early and get ready too, today's roadshow schedule is pretty packed, we have to hit quite a few cinemas."

Get ready? Ready for what?

Bai Liang froze for a second, looked at Miss Jing Tian sitting prettily by the bed doing her makeup, then glanced at the time, and figured a little warm-up prep really wouldn't hurt.

He gently caught the hand she was using to push him away, then with a slight pull, drew her right into his arms.

At this point Miss Jing Tian still thought Bai Liang was just being mischievous first thing in the morning, but once she felt the heat, it was already too late.

"Aiya~ don't be like this, let's wait until tonight."

An incomplete rejection is the same as no rejection at all.

The early bird gets the worm; the early girl gets the bird.

"Sorry sorry! We're late."

A little past nine, Miss Jing Tian apologized sheepishly to Xu Zheng and Su Lun and the others — the latest arrivals were her and Bai Liang, while the rest of the roadshow crew were all waiting for the two of them.

"It's fine, you're only a few minutes late."

Su Lun wore a full auntie-smile, watching the two arrive fashionably late — not only did she not mind, she was even willing to wait a bit longer~

Tsk tsk, that "we're late" line was beautifully said!

She had originally only been ninety-nine percent sure, but now even that last one percent had been filled in.

And then look at Miss Jing Tian's cheeks — that flush definitely wasn't from rushing over in a hurry; anyone with a little life experience would know this was "morning exercise."

The young — truly have great stamina!

And just like that line about "wanting to have breakfast with you," if they could do morning exercise, it naturally proved they slept together last night too — and probably quite intensely.

Su Lun: Good good good! I've finally been vindicated.

Back when "How Long Will I Love U" was still filming, she had always hoped the male and female leads would spark more chemistry — best if it sparked all the way to the bed.

But back then Miss Jing Tian was obsessively practicing her fadeaway, and Bai Liang, that "blockhead," didn't know what initiative meant.

All that intimate contact on set, and they stubbornly maintained the maximum level of "restraint."

Sometimes as a director, running into artists like this is pretty helpless.

Especially for someone like Su Lun, who treated this film as her own "child" and poured so much heart into it — she really hoped the story on and off screen could converge.

Miss Jing Tian had a blast last night, and today Su Lun was thrilled too — she now counted herself as these two's number-one CP fan.

Almost on par with those folks from the "Love O2O" director's team back then.

Her head was full of nothing but the male and female leads being lovey-dovey.

Seeing the director's expression, Miss Jing Tian couldn't help but glare at Bai Liang.

Stinky little brother, always up to mischief!

If he hadn't had such bad aim — like a shotgun — and messed up her makeup, Miss Jing Tian was sure they wouldn't have been late.

The roadshow is such an important thing — how could they be late!

Three hundred million on opening day!

To put it bluntly, she wouldn't even dare dream in that position.

"Liang-ge!"

One shout of "Liang-ge" snapped Miss Jing Tian out of her thoughts; she looked up and got a fright.

That huge bald head, gleaming as if polished with oil, was especially eye-catching.

Xu Zheng's face was glowing red — clearly he didn't care at all about something as trivial as being late — and the way he looked at Bai Liang was downright scorching.

That shout of "Liang-ge" had zero technique, just pure reverence for the God of Wealth.

So damn reliable!

Now THAT's what you call top-tier!

"Director Xu, what are you doing? Pulling this kind of stunt first thing in the morning." Bai Liang said, puzzled.

"Heh, I barely slept last night — three hundred million on opening day! We're gonna make a killing this time."

As he said this, Xu Zheng turned to glance at Miss Jing Tian, beaming: "Sister Tian Tian's pay was so low, I'll make it up to you with a big red envelope later."

"I should be thanking Director Xu for giving me the chance — let me give you a big red envelope." Miss Jing Tian blinked, the very picture of generosity.

Awesome! Truly worthy of being a flower of worldly wealth and splendor~ What class!

But Xu Zheng thought for a moment and decided to pull something cheeky: "You have to give Liang-ge a big red envelope — that's the rule of the jianghu."

"What rule of the jianghu?" Miss Jing Tian asked curiously.

"Hehe~"

Xu Zheng said nothing, just stood there laughing smugly.

Su Lun leaned close to Miss Jing Tian's ear and, with a grin, gave her a little lecture on the so-called "rules of the entertainment world."

In an instant, he made her blush bright red.

What the heck!

Judging by how skillfully Bai Liang had casually arranged her into all sorts of positions, what red envelope was there to give?

Miss Jing Tian couldn't help but turn her head to glance at Bai Liang, and sure enough, the guy actually reached his hand out toward her.

Asking for a red envelope?!

Damn it, how outrageous~

But Bai Liang noticed Miss Jing Tian's unease and shyness, and very considerately helped smooth things over with a line: "Sister Tian Tian, you're the one who took my first kiss."

"Y-you're talking nonsense, I don't believe it at all!"

"Really, my first kiss resets every night at midnight."

"Huh? Then I'm still a virgin too!" Xu Zheng suddenly cut in.

"Director Xu, you look like a virgin at first glance, just like me—a pure-hearted big boy, that's me."

Everyone was spouting dirty jokes, and Bai Liang figured he couldn't be the odd one out.

Oh right, he reached his hand out to Miss Jing Tian again. Sister, red envelope~

"Alipay received: 8,888 yuan."

"Sister Tian Tian is so generous, next time too—"

Before he could finish, Miss Jing Tian clamped her hand over Bai Liang's mouth, terrified he might blurt out something even more outrageous.

And her action naturally drew another round of heckling.

The carriage was filled with a cheerful atmosphere. The 300 million first-day box office not only brought joy to the crew of "How to Love," making everyone beam with happy smiles.

It also made the entire film and television industry sit up and take notice.

Good lord. This time there's no Wu Jing around to back Bai Liang up~

Bai Liang's first two films, "Duckweed" had the big names Han Han and Deng Chao carrying it, and the later "Wolf Warrior 2" had Wu Jing—it's hard to say how much of a role Bai Liang played in those films' massive box office success.

As for his box office draw, one still has to put a question mark next to it.

But this time. It's different.

It's not just a matter of carrying the film alone—he was also "plodding forward under a heavy load"!

A "wild claim" had previously appeared online: the reason Bai Liang cooperated with Miss Jing Tian was to prove he had the ability to shoulder a film's box office on his own.

That was of course nonsense—who would be so bored and idle as to insist on proving something like that~

And it was also disrespectful to Miss Jing Tian.

Yet Miss Jing Tian herself said: That's right! They're not wrong!

The fact that she could say last night, "If the box office doesn't work out, just put the blame on me," already shows just how insecure she really was.

No errors, no ads, first release, full content, all here for you to read!

At today's roadshow, Miss Jing Tian said it again right in front of the media and audience, and then burst into tears.

It was a wave of genuine emotion, and it was quite moving.

The film's publicity team naturally wouldn't "let her off the hook"—that very evening, Miss Jing Tian started crying all over Weibo, Douyin, and other platforms.

Even she felt a bit embarrassed when she scrolled past it herself, thinking she looked kind of ugly when she cried.

Girls, after all, always care about this sort of thing.

It's fine to cry, but you can't be ugly doing it!

"Miss Jing Tian is really such a nice person. I'm taking back what I said before about her shamelessly clinging on. Her personality is genuinely super sweet."

"I'm kind of becoming a fan. She doesn't even want to drag the Great Immortal down with her—how insecure must she be to say something like that."

"The Great Immortal wouldn't pass the buck, because the Great Immortal has never flopped."

"Holy crap, it's true—from debut until now, from TV dramas to movies, it seems the Great Immortal really hasn't flopped once. Isn't that ridiculous?"

"Actually, there was a flop: that one 'Xian Jian Yun Zhi Fan.'"

"Was Bai Liang in 'Yun Zhi Fan'? How come I didn't see him?"

"Hahaha, in that drama he played Long Ming, with pitifully few scenes—just a prop, really—but his look was pretty handsome."

"That role is something even fans barely know about, no wonder it flopped. The 'Bai Liang content' was way too low."

"Haven't you guys noticed something off about what she said? She said she told the Great Immortal that last night, and then already knew the first-day box office—what time was that? These two didn't sleep together last night, did they?"

"Holy crap! The poster above spotted the blind spot! They're dating, they must be dating!"

"."

Netizens are always so sharp-eyed. Miss Jing Tian just said one extra sentence, and people already sensed the information and story behind it.

Of course, this sort of thing couldn't really stir up much.

Just say the main cast were all waiting for news together and that's that—perfectly reasonable.

And only a minority were focused on this vague piece of gossip, because a real movie marketing campaign had begun.

The Confess and Make-a-Wish Plan!

Masterminded and launched by Sister Yanzi herself, the hype was around a single topic: confession success rate.

Whether on Weibo or Douyin and other platforms, related topics popped up, with people sharing stories of whether their confessions succeeded or not.

Some were real—because before the film was released, this topic had already built up some buzz—but there were certainly plenty of paid posters helping to boost the hype.

It's nothing new for romance films to use emotional marketing. Last year there was a film that played it brilliantly and ended up becoming a box office dark horse.

That film was called "The Ex-File 3: The Return of the Ex."

After precise targeting and viral marketing came spontaneous participation from netizens.

After the first day, quite a few on-the-spot confession videos popped up online, and honestly, the success rate was damn high.

Anyway, Bai Liang scrolled for ages and didn't see a single failed confession.

"Is our movie really that effective?!" Miss Jing Tian remarked, a little astonished.

At the same time she felt a small thrill of pride, as if she'd played matchmaker herself.

Bai Liang thought for a moment: "Generally, young men and women who go to the movies alone together are at least in some kind of ambiguous relationship, right? It'd be weird if that kind of confession didn't have a high success rate."

That explanation was actually very scientific and made a lot of sense.

But Miss Jing Tian didn't want to hear it.

She puffed out her cheeks and stared at Bai Liang without saying a word, just looking at him like that.

So Bai Liang could only change his tune: "Must be that we acted too romantically."

"That's right!"

Three days, one billion in ticket sales!

That was the short-term answer delivered by "How to Love a Million Times."

Actually, a lot of movies starring traffic stars don't usually have low first-day box office.

But afterward they often face a very rapid plunge—box office drops so steep it's heartbreaking to hear about and tear-jerking to hear of, and the distributors feel like committing crimes.

The ones who curse this phenomenon the loudest are still the theater chains, because many theater chains will increase screenings based on a movie's strong first-day performance.

And then they get duped.

The neighboring "Us Later" pulled exactly this kind of stunt, but their operation seemed even more outrageous.

Ticket refunds.

Their movie's promotion used director Liu Ruoying's signature song "Later" as its emotional core, repeatedly emphasizing "missing out and regret" in the marketing.

What they were really playing was the nostalgia card.

But the content somewhat imitated the formulas of youth films like "The Ex-File 3" and "Fleet of Time," and the ratings were never that great from day one.

The most outrageous part was that on opening day, large-scale ticket refunds appeared at numerous theaters nationwide, with refund rates far exceeding normal levels.

At the same time there were data anomalies—massive "ghost screenings" and seat-locking behavior, suspected of inflating pre-sale box office to grab screenings, then refunding tickets to cash out.

This directly triggered industry outrage; theater chains bore direct losses from the refunds and accused the film's side or related parties of manipulating the market and breaking industry rules.

The direct result was a single-day box office drop of over 70%.

"Us Later," which had originally broken 200 million on its first day, dropped straight out of the race for same-period box office champion.

Although Jing Boran was an old defeated foe, Bai Liang hadn't expected that this time the other side would "fall" so quickly, and in such an outrageous way.

But this matter didn't really have much to do with him as an actor anymore—what it exposed was the loophole of ticketing platforms being tied to the film's side in terms of profit-sharing, prompting the National Film Administration to announce an investigation.

This counts as the first bomb to go off in the film circle, not a particularly big one.

Because a much bigger one is about to come!

A former CCTV host, due to disputes with Xiao Gangpao and others, is about to single-handedly overturn the "entire" entertainment circle.

—

Updates resume tomorrow, muah!

(End of chapter)