Chapter 611

The premiere venue.

"I came early to observe potential competitors for the box office champion~ This is the final stretch; if I get overtaken, it'd be really frustrating."

"You're too kind, Liang Ge," said Chang Yuan, the director and lead actor, grinning broadly.

His expression mirrored exactly the line from another film, The Billionaire of Xixiang City: You really know people well! ~

The familiar line, only the listeners had changed.

What remained the same was that everyone who heard it really liked it.

Of course, some people wondered why Bai Liang's words sounded so familiar.

Li Xin looked at Bai Liang with a strange expression, because she closely followed his affairs and knew he had previously given this line to another film.

And just a few days ago, on the premiere day of If Sound Doesn't Remember, Bai Liang's "compliment" was used in their press release—it naturally drew plenty of attention.

Then the film's reputation collapsed on its opening day.

Bai Liang, the guy who blabbed nonsense, didn't get criticized, but many teased him about whether he'd been paid off~

Some jokesters rewrote his line: "I came to observe the box office champion's competitor—observed it. The champion is secure!"

Meanwhile, a bunch of people dragged Guo Xiaosi out again to scold him.

He truly had a knack for attracting hatred; no one cared about the director or the lead actors—every criticism of the film was directly pinned on him.

Of course, Warm Hug was backed by the Mahua FunAge team, so its reputation was certainly far better than Guo Xiaosi's side.

But after their 2018 film, My Uncle Li Cha, Mahua FunAge had also been on a downward trend.

My Uncle Li Cha was adapted from Mahua FunAge's same-named stage play, which had performed excellently at the box office, but the film's reception plummeted after release.

The film's opening-day screening rate reached 35.8%, yet its final box office totaled only 604 million yuan, far below expectations.

Of course, the reason was later found—and that's where the term "Shen Teng content" came from.

It successfully revealed that the real box office draw was Shen Teng, not Mahua FunAge.

Still, even below expectations, given the film's production cost of just a few tens of millions, it still made a lot of money.

It essentially gave this group a "wealth code."

They started squeezing Shen Teng relentlessly.

This time, although the male lead of Warm Hug was Chang Yuan, the person placed center-stage on the poster was Shen Teng and Li Xin.

It looked exactly like the male and female leads.

Bai Liang didn't immediately realize it; luckily, he didn't say to Li Xin, "Great, you're now playing the lead couple with Shen Teng," or else the young lady would've definitely given him a piece of her mind.

She might even have pouted, "Why not just take me to act in a movie then?"

If she'd actually said that, Bai Liang guessed he'd have agreed—but girls like this often enjoy making you guess.

Of course, she also felt a bit embarrassed about directly asking for roles or collaborations.

In the past, when Li Xin relied on Bai Liang, she was quite bold—her approach was to ask him beforehand.

But over time, she had become less open than before.

It wasn't that her desires had decreased; on the contrary, they had grown.

With more thoughts came greater complexity; with complexity, some words became hard to say aloud.

Because she automatically imagined the worst—even though she'd known Bai Liang for so long and understood his character, what if?

So during the casting battle for the role in Police Glory, the girls had nearly turned into a brawl, yet Li Xin and Li Yitong never asked Bai Liang to intervene.

In the end, both of them lost—through their own merit.

"Aren't your words some kind of cursed jinx? I feel kinda uneasy."

"Mahua FunAge's name is on it, and Brother Shen Teng is starring—this film will still make hundreds of millions at the box office."

Hearing this, Li Xin didn't feel happy; instead, she grew anxious. "Only hundreds of millions?"

"I haven't even seen it yet—I just gave a conservative estimate. Besides, hundreds of millions is already a lot~ It'll definitely rank in the top ten this year."

Li Xin wanted to speak but held back; with Mahua FunAge's name and Shen Teng starring, she'd hoped this film might break 2 billion, securing her firm footing in the film industry.

A story of a single film catapulting her to stardom—she longed for it deeply!

And this was already the best resource she could access; naturally, she placed great hopes on it.

Seeing the young lady's troubled expression return, Bai Liang guessed what she was thinking.

So he decided to say something cheerful to shift her focus.

"We just left the hotel—weren't we in a bit of a rush?"

This worked; Li Xin immediately gave him a side-eye. "It's all your fault, taking so long to—"

"It's not a bad thing, but that's not what I meant. Let me ask you a small question: besides me, haven't you gotten close to talk with anyone else?"

"Huh?"

The question was odd, leaving Li Xin confused.

After recalling, she nodded—of course not! With Bai Liang beside her, why would she go near others to chat?

"Good. I suggest you go to the restroom now."

"Did my makeup smudge? My lipstick?"

Li Xin's heart skipped—a hand flew to half her face as she prepared to call her assistant for touch-up supplies.

"You're being childish."

"What are you talking about? Where am I being childish?" Li Xin looked puzzled; she'd spoken normally today, hadn't tried to act cute or young.

They stared at each other for several seconds—Bai Liang's expression didn't seem like a joke.

Suddenly!

A flash of insight!

Li Xin's eyes widened slightly, then she cautiously exhaled a breath and sniffed it.

A few seconds later, she silently stood up and shot Bai Liang a fierce, embarrassed glare.

That expression was fierce~

You could tell from her puffed-out cheeks that her teeth were clenched tight.

When they'd come out of the hotel earlier, the two of them had indeed been in a fluster, so Li Xin hadn't even had time to brush her teeth.

In her haste she'd just rinsed her mouth, swiped on some lipstick, and once she'd confirmed her makeup was fine, headed out the door.

On the surface there was indeed no problem; the problem was on the inside.

Sure enough, the moment she opened her mouth to talk, the baby smell came right out.

Bai Liang didn't mind smelling it himself—even a tiger doesn't eat its cubs, so a little sniff was no big deal.

But if anyone else caught a whiff, it would still be a bit awkward.

By the time Li Xin came back, fifteen minutes had already passed.

This time she swore every trace of baby smell had been cleaned away completely—she was now at a stage where a direct kiss would be perfectly fine.

But after her little round trip, she discovered that the spot beside Bai Liang that had originally been hers had been taken.

If it had been some clueless actress who'd dared to do that, Li Xin would have absolutely gone straight in to teach her a lesson.

But the one who'd taken her spot was Shen Teng, who was currently arm-in-arm with Bai Liang, grinning away, chatting about who knows what.