Chapter 414

After experiencing *Shanghai Fortress*, Bai Liang felt that now, no matter what movie he watched, it would strike him as dazzling.

Put bluntly and crudely: after carefully savoring a pile of shit, everything else tastes good.

Until he went to the premiere of *The Climbers*.

His vision went black!

Are they seriously doing a life-or-death romance on top of Zhufeng?

Did the post-editing cut out all the professional scenes and leave only the love story intact?

In fact, what was filmed doesn't fully determine the final look of the movie.

Sometimes, days of hard work result in only two seconds of footage making it into the final cut.

Like when Bai Liang filmed—he kissed so many girls—but the final film didn't show nearly that many kissing scenes.

This wasn't some rushed production; not all footage was necessarily used.

But the romance in *The Climbers* seemed to have used every single bit of it.

By the time the movie was more than halfway through, Bai Liang couldn't help but want to see Wu Jing's expression.

Too bad they were both in the front row—he couldn't crane his neck to look, and the surroundings were pitch black.

But he was sure it must be absolutely brilliant~

At altitudes of six or seven thousand meters, Bai Liang was so badass he could walk on eaves—but he just pretended to light a cigarette to look cool.

It's gotta be *Wolf Warrior*!

Zhufeng Wolf Warrior! Hahaha~

Wu Jing, watching the movie right now, had his brows tightly furrowed.

Even though he'd felt something was terribly off during filming, the final cut still made him grit his teeth.

His heart was pounding—he felt this time he might be in for a massive disaster.

At this moment, he didn't know if he'd synced mental wavelengths with Bai Liang or just sensed something.

He couldn't help leaning slightly forward and glancing over at Bai Liang.

Their gazes met in the darkness.

Two grown men's stares didn't spark anything.

Wu Jing only felt that, in this pitch-black environment, Bai Liang's eyes somehow precisely conveyed a smug, gleeful emotion.

This guy's eye acting was truly impressive!

But now wasn't the time to marvel at how good this kid's eye acting was.

Bai Liang: Hehe, you're in trouble now~

Wu Jing: Fuck!

As soon as the movie ended, Bai Liang couldn't wait to head over to Wu Jing's side.

Wu Jing, meanwhile, wanted nothing more than to turn and run—he already sensed what nonsense this kid was about to spout.

Too bad he couldn't run.

He was the male lead of this movie~

Today, everyone else could escape, but he absolutely couldn't.

Fortunately, Zhang Ziyi, sitting beside him, stepped forward, grabbed Bai Liang's arm, and smiled sweetly as she asked how he felt~

The question sounded strangely off.

It made Bai Liang feel like he'd just washed his feet and the technician was asking if he was satisfied with the service.

"Great, great~"

Bai Liang still wanted to go after Wu Jing and get some amusement out of him.

But Zhang Ziyi was too persistent—she seemed eager to keep chatting, to build rapport or something.

Logically, a female artist her age couldn't realistically share scenes with Bai Liang anymore.

The upper limit for playing romantic leads opposite Bai Liang was maybe the 85 Flower generation.

Any older, and the audience would find it jarring, unbearable.

But then again, times are changing.

Nowadays, there really are some older actresses playing love interests with young fresh meat—sister-brother romances are clearly more common than before.

Maybe it's to help older female viewers better identify with the story.

Grandma had already set the precedent, and that girl Wen Li was starting to get restless~

Whether Zhang Ziyi had become suddenly warmer toward Bai Liang because of this, it was hard to say.

Was she unsatisfied with dating Wu Jing and now wanted to stir up something with Bai Liang?

But when she insisted she'd admired him since his early roles, Bai Liang almost thought she was cursing him.

Zhang Ziyi's "admiration" was somewhat poisonous.

Previously, she admired that Zhang Xueying—and then the girl caused the Hu Latang incident.

Now she seemingly admires Meng Meiqi—soon she'll cause some 456 incident.

Zhang Niangniang's "admiration" specializes in wrecking romantic relationships!

And Bai Liang, who himself has complicated romantic entanglements, was lucky to have confidence in his luck—otherwise, given her track record, he might've panicked.

After finally shaking off Zhang Niangniang, Bai Liang still caught Wu Jing before the host called the cast onstage.

He chased, he fled, he couldn't escape even with wings!

"Oh! Zhufeng Wolf Warrior—impressive moves!"

"You little—"

Facing Bai Liang's zero-frame opening, Wu Jing's face screamed "suffering"—he didn't even dare retort, instead clasping his hands together and pleading: "Take it easy, don't pull any stunts here."

"How could I let anyone else hear? Don't worry—I'm only mocking you."

Seeing Bai Liang's radiant smile, Wu Jing was utterly defeated—how could this little bastard enjoy himself so much by building his joy on others' suffering?

Beast!

Since I can't escape, I might as well give up.

"What can I do? The production side insisted I go. Even the current director was brought in to save the situation."

"Tsk tsk—using a mortal body to rival the gods? No wonder it's you, Hakai Wolf~"

"Alright, alright, Brother Liang~"

Fine, fine—Bai Liang figured he'd gone far enough.

The two of them bickering like this was quite eye-catching.

In fact, Hu Ge and Jing Bairan, who were closest, had heard every word they said.

But when Wu Jing and Bai Liang turned their heads toward them at the same time, both men made a zipping motion across their lips.

Good. Well-behaved~

But Jing Bairan couldn't help adding: "Great Immortal, you're truly a beast—rushing to roast him the moment he's down."

Hu Ge nodded beside him: "At least wait until after the premiere."

Wu Jing thought these two young guys were quite good—perceptive, unlike that bastard Bai Liang, who couldn't wait to salt his wounds.

Don't you forget whose turf this is, bastard! Watch out for a mob beating!

Bai Liang: "Oh~? Did I just slip up and let you two in?"

Keep in mind, Wu Jing isn't the only one who fell in love in the movie—Jing Bairan's got a share too.

Fortunately, the director and screenwriter didn't go overboard—they each dated different Misses.

Otherwise, if they'd pulled off a "Zhufeng Love Triangle," the entertainment value would've exploded even more!

Jing Bairan: "What, you can date Miss Xinjiang in real life, but I can't date Miss Xicang in the movie?"

After all, he wasn't the lead—he didn't carry Wu Jing's psychological burden.

So he decided to go head-to-head with Bai Liang.

But as he looked at Bai Liang's half-smirk, Jing Bairan suddenly realized—trouble. This guy had just come down from Zhufeng's summit not long ago.

Wu Jing: "Not just recently—he didn't even come down normally. You think his nervousness has no reason? Who hasn't starred in a flop?"

There was no time for more fooling around—the cast was about to take the stage.

The premiere audience still erupted in enthusiastic applause—after all, the film wasn't so terrible it silenced everyone.

And the actors' performances weren't bad at all, but the plot was just… what it was. Nothing could be done.

But you could look at this movie from another angle: Zhufeng Special Ops.

Even 007 flirts and shows off while on missions—why can't Hakai Wolf do the same?

Still, it was a bit of a waste of the subject's meaning.

This should've been a life-or-death climb tied to conviction, just like the famous saying: "The mountain is there." These climbers shouldn't be forgotten.

Ascend for the nation. Not an inch of land surrendered.

These words weren't just empty talk.

—

Play as you will, joke as you like.

Bai Liang didn't sabotage the premiere—he sat below, planning what he'd say when it was his turn.

It wasn't that he needed to be so formal, or prepare a speech in advance.

He simply feared he might accidentally blurt out something ridiculous like "Zhufeng Tragedy" or "Wolf Warrior Special Ops."

Just as the main cast began sharing stories from filming, Bai Liang, who had been tilting his head in thought, felt a tap on his shoulder.

He turned—there stood an old man, smiling at him.

But this old man was clearly no ordinary elder—his lower legs were "steel and bone."

"Old man, you're cool!" Bai Liang gave a thumbs-up. "Cyberpunk—just as trendy as my grandma."

The old man blinked, then burst out laughing. "Your grandma can't be like me, can she?"

"She's different. Recently she told me she's seeing things slower and slower."

"Did you take her to the hospital?" the old man asked, genuinely concerned.

Bai Liang shook his head. "Later I realized—it's not her slowing down. It's her speeding up. I'm planning to enroll her in an e-sports youth training camp. She's got talent, just like you, Elder Xia."

"Hey! You know who I am?!"

Of course he did. Bai Liang had only come to show support, but he always did his homework.

He'd researched before watching "Chinese Captain." He did the same for "The Climbers."

This old man was Xia Boyu—the real-life inspiration for the character Hu Ge portrayed.

He'd been part of the original climbing team. When helping a teammate on Zhufeng, he suffered frostbite that led to the amputation of both lower legs.

Yet this old man had pulled off a real-life version of "flesh is weak, machinery ascends."

He'd never reached Zhufeng's summit back then, but over the years, even without legs, he never gave up—trying again and again.

This year, the biggest sensation on Zhufeng was Bai Liang. Last year, it was him—at age sixty-nine, disabled, he became China's first amputee to summit Zhufeng using prosthetics.

So, in your sixties, you're still meant to fight.

Bai Liang thought his grandma joining an e-sports youth camp was perfectly fine.

Too bad his mom flatly rejected the idea—his grandma still had square dancing, and then she'd represent their community in competitions.

She just couldn't spare the time to contribute to China's e-sports cause.

Elder Xia had approached Bai Liang precisely because of his Zhufeng summit this year—this was a professional exchange of experience.

But Bai Liang heard him say things like "continuous avalanches and earthquakes," "caught in a blizzard at 8,750 meters, just 94 meters from the summit, forced to retreat," "."

Bai Liang encountered none of these difficulties.

He did speak honestly, but the old man listened, stunned: "No difficulties at all? You just went straight up?"

Bai Liang thought for a moment and found one "difficulty": "Not entirely—I didn't eat well."

Damn!

The old man looked at him speechless, almost thinking the kid was teasing him.

Even though commercial climbing is now highly developed, people still occasionally lose their lives on it, proving it remains an extremely dangerous extreme sport.

But how does it sound to him like a stroll through Beihai Park?

"Why didn't you set up a hot pot on Zhufeng?"

"At that altitude, water won't boil—you can't cook a hot pot," Bai Liang thought, isn't that common sense?

The old man choked—he knew it was common sense, but the kid had left him dazed.

Was it real or not?

So Bai Liang casually recommended his documentary to the man, reminding him to get a membership.

Meanwhile, Wu Jing and the others on stage, watching these two passionately chatting below, felt as if these two professional hardcore climbers were teaming up to roast them.

Hope Old Man Xia doesn't come up here to yell at us.

Fortunately, neither of them pulled any weird stunts.

Especially Bai Liang—he was so well-behaved it felt surreal.

He even added: "Our conditions now are different from back then. Modern commercial climbing can't be compared in difficulty to the past. It's precisely because of pioneers like the old climbing teams that later generations kept conquering Zhufeng."

That was humility taken to the max.

It seemed like praise for the movie, but Bai Liang was actually speaking to Old Man Xia and the others from the original climbing team.

The old man instantly understood, smiling and nodding.

Still, he had to see how this kid managed to climb so smoothly—in his mouth, Zhufeng was as gentle as his own mother.

Damn it, does Zhufeng even have two faces?!

He just couldn't believe this nonsense~

The on-site host seemed quite "thoughtful," and brought up Bai Liang's documentary himself.

Apparently someone had given him a heads-up, and he returned the favor by promoting it.

"I was lucky last time—my summit push went very smoothly. Of course, it wasn't as thrilling or dangerous as in the movie, but there were some different things."

Wu Jing: No way—you made it way more thrilling than the movie!

Honestly, after learning how Bai Liang actually came down, he even thought dating on Zhufeng wasn't too far-fetched.

Movies don't need logic—they get roasted by audiences—but real-life absurdity doesn't need logic either.

"Bro Wu, your face looks weird."

After returning to the sidelines, Jing Bairan curiously asked.

Wu Jing waved his hand: "You'll find out later."

"Because of Big Immortal's summit?"

The documentary had just been mentioned on stage—it came out right after the movie premiered, right after National Day holiday ended.

"His climb? Forget summiting—I won't spoil it. In one week, take whatever box office you can get."

What the hell? So pessimistic?

Sure, the movie's plot was exaggerated, but with this cast and promotion, how could it die in just a week?!

And Wu Jing, one of the top box-office draws today—just his name on the poster is worth hundreds of millions at least~

Of course, there's something even crazier.

Jing Bairan couldn't help turning to see what Bai Liang was up to.

But when he turned, he just sighed helplessly.

What a beast.

"Qu Ni Ciren, I know a little Tibetan—speak up if I mess up."

The young lady looked at him in delight: "You're doing great—did you study it specifically?"

"Something like that~"

If he hadn't gone back to Xizang to climb Zhufeng recently, Bai Liang might've forgotten Tibetan entirely.

Of course, his Tibetan was mediocre—nowhere near as good as Xinjiang's.

Learning a language requires constant practice with someone who shares the context—you progress fast only then.

Hmm… Bai Liang didn't know any beautiful Tibetan girls.

But today he met one.

After all, he did his homework before coming—he had to know about every lead actor.

For Qu Ni Ciren, the thing that stuck with him most was a drama called "Reba Love."

From the title alone, you could see why Bai Liang remembered it—he'd initially thought it was promoting Xinjiang-themed content, wondering why they'd cast a Tibetan actress.

Later he found out it wasn't that at all—Tibet also had the term "Reba."

Awesome!

When the guys saw Bai Liang pulling off secret conversations with Qu Ni Ciren, they were utterly impressed.

Okay okay… Tibetan?!

Big Immortal really had the skill to charm girls across China.

With this language-learning ability, he could walk anywhere and be the most familiar stranger.

By the time Bai Liang had chatted with the girl for a while and received from her a special Sangan flower she had brought today

The guys had no idea what to say anymore.

Jing Boren: It's unfair! Even when she acted as my girlfriend, she never gave me anything!

(End of Chapter)