Chapter 590: Stuck in the Mud and Too Lazy to Bother

Chen Ziyan: "What are you thinking?"

Lu Yan He: "Afraid that you will hand over all the work to others, so you can easily get rid of the job of my agent."

Chen Ziyan: "I can't say I don't have this idea, but that's just planning for a rainy day. In the short term, I don't plan to change my career plan. In the cooperation with you, I am basically happy and have gains."

Hearing Chen Ziyan say this, Lu Yan He breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Life will always have accidents. You can't expect your work to be based on me not getting sick, not having accidents, and being able to work for you like an old yellow ox for a lifetime." Chen Ziyan said, "Although I haven't married and had children yet, what if I have them later? Pregnancy, bringing children, where is so much time and energy to manage your affairs."

Lu Yan He looked at Chen Ziyan in shock and asked: "You won't be in love, Sister Ziyan!"

Chen Ziyan: "You go aside, what are you thinking, there is no such thing, I said, planning for a rainy day!"

Lu Yan He laughed very loudly.

"Sister Ziyan, if you are in love, feel free to fall in love, get married, and have children." Lu Yan He said.

Chen Ziyan: "Thank you, thinking so much for me, but my private life doesn't bother you."

Lu Yan He actually doesn't know much about Chen Ziyan's world outside of work. Almost every time Lu Yan He contacts and talks to Chen Ziyan, it is about work or his life. They have known each other for so long, and Lu Yan He neither knows Chen Ziyan's family life nor what kind of life circle and friend circle she has outside of work.

However, this also seems to be Chen Ziyan's unwillingness to share her private life with others.

Lu Yan He also noticed this point, so he actually pays attention to not asking Chen Ziyan about these things on his own initiative.

The Hexi Film Festival is about to be held, and Lu Yan He has received invitations to the premiere of many participating films one after another.

Finally, besides accepting the invitation to the premiere of *Fake Death Won't Work*, Lu Yan He also accepted the invitation to the premiere of a Japanese film and a Spanish film.

These two films were communicated by Darren Wilson of the Williams Agency.

The producers of these two films know Darren Wilson and have a good relationship.

Lu Yan He will basically participate in the entire Hexi Film Festival this time.

There is no filming task, and his time is much freer.

And the screening schedule of the shortlisted films in the main competition unit of the Hexi Film Festival has also come out.

The premiere of *Love Letter* is on the fifth day of the film festival, and the position is very good. Generally speaking, film screening attaches great importance to the star halo of the film's creative lineup. Those with big stars and media attention are often placed in the first week, while those with average creative lineups can only be arranged later. This is also because the funds are limited, and many media actually cannot stay for a complete film festival, and many media even leave after filming the opening ceremony.

*Love Letter* is on the fifth day, and *Fake Death Won't Work* is on the sixth day.

The premiere times are all very good.

However, Lu Yan He didn't expect that he would suddenly receive an invitation from Zeng Qiao before he was ready to set off for the Hexi Film Festival.

An action film he starred in is scheduled for the May Day file and is about to be released.

The recent market market, if you don't count *Someone Under the Bed*, is actually very cold, and the box office of other films is really average. There are seven films scheduled for the May Day file, all starring first-line stars. This also means that several films must fail to get the box office.

Because of this situation, the competition for the May Day file is extremely fierce.

The war started from publicity.

It is also because of this that Zeng Qiao temporarily contacted Lu Yan He and asked Lu Yan He to support his film.

Lu Yan He attended the special screening of *Thunder* for friends—this is a screening held by the film's publicity department for the friend group of the film's creators.

At this screening, after watching the film, Lu Yan He will express his feelings about this film as Zeng Qiao's friend.

Simply put, it is to attract everyone to walk into the cinema as much as possible through the views of these stars on this film.

Lu Yan He met Zeng Qiao in *Phoenix Terrace*, started to cooperate, and later cooperated in *River of Silence*. The relationship is quite good.

This time, many creators of *Phoenix Terrace* and *River of Silence* also came to the scene, which is enough to see that Zeng Qiao usually has good popularity.

After watching *Thunder*, Lu Yan He encountered a very embarrassing problem, that is, he felt that this film was quite mediocre and not a very good film. Of course, there are merits. The action part is still quite exciting, but the story mold is too old, and the character setting is also old.

Of course, Lu Yan He still can't tell the truth. This field is to say good things.

Lu Yan He can't praise it against his will, so he picked a lot of praise for the action scenes of this film, and seriously praised Zeng Qiao's performance in this film.

Zeng Qiao's performance in the film is still quite hard. It can be seen that he spent a lot of effort to act in this film.

Many action scenes were fought by himself—without using a lot of doubles. From this point of view, the sincerity is very sufficient.

As a result, a very bad thing happened.

When a fairly famous film critic Lu Shan was invited to stand up and comment, Lu Shan actually looked at Lu Yan He publicly and questioned: "After watching this film, you actually feel that this is a good film and can get so much praise?"

Lu Yan He knows this film critic.

He is usually a film critic known for his sharp views.

However, Lu Yan He has not dealt with him, and does not know why he would suddenly open fire on him on such an occasion.

It's just that for a moment, Lu Yan He felt guilty.

Because he really didn't feel that this film was filmed very well, it was indeed mediocre.

The scene was in an uproar.

Lu Shan continued: "I really didn't expect that it is this era, and I can still see such an old, such a cliché action film, almost no innovation from previous action films, just a vulgar work of stacking big scenes and big stars."

Lu Yan He: "..."

On the scene, the creators on the stage all had some faces that couldn't hang, sinking.

The host had to stand up to smooth things over at this time.

"Teacher Lu is indeed a very strict teacher." The host said with a smile.

Lu Shan turned to the host and said: "Don't interrupt me, my words haven't finished yet."

The host represents the attitude of the film party.

He also knows this, so after being pointed out by Lu Shan, he did not continue to forcibly stop the topic and made a gesture of please speak.

Lu Shan: "Actually, I shouldn't have said such things today, but to be honest, I really can't look at the film party always filming this kind of film that fools the audience. Can you film a little more innovative and adventurous films?"

Lu Shan said this very sharply, and it can even be said to be mean.

If Lu Shan's first sentence made Lu Yan He feel a little guilty, the subsequent speeches of Lu Shan can only be said to make Lu Yan He feel incredible. Lu Yan He also felt that Lu Shan was deliberately looking for trouble.

Lu Yan He looked at Zeng Qiao with a stern look.

The film *Thunder* is a subject that Lu Yan He has been afraid to touch since he participated in so many film projects.

Why?

Because the subject of *Thunder* is heavy on action design, heavy on editing style, heavy on visual effects, heavy on director ability, these are not what young people like Lu Yan He whose film theory is far greater than practical experience are good at.

He has been accumulating industry resources, increasing his understanding and experience of post-production and cost control.

The more familiar he is with this line, the clearer he is, if you don't understand, you will be fooled.

For the same play, if you understand, you know how to open source and reduce expenditure, you can even cut the cost in half and complete the same quality.

Film production, human cost is one aspect, site production loss rate and waste rate are also a key to cost control, not to mention the connection between site shooting scheme and post-production.

But because of this, although Lu Yan He felt that *Thunder* was mediocre and not surprising enough, it was enough for the audience to see sincerity.

The praise he gave was not aimless. Whether it was the design of action scenes or Zeng Qiao's investment in the film as an actor, it was something that the audience could see with their own eyes.

Lu Shan gave a long speech about his insights on what a good action film is before sitting down.

The scene was inexplicably awkward and cold.

The host smiled and still tried to make the scene lively again very professionally.

He said: "Teacher Lu Shan's understanding of film history and film theory is indeed a lot, whether it is praise or criticism, we sincerely accept it. Hmm, Yan He raised his hand—"

As soon as he said it, others looked in the direction of Lu Yan He.

I saw Lu Yan He sitting in the audience, raising his hand high, indicating that he still wanted to speak.

Someone immediately sent the microphone over.

Lu Yan He stood up, took the microphone, said thank you, and then smiled and said: "It is rare to hear criticism in a preview screening of a film, very fresh."

He took a deep breath.

"Originally I have already expressed my feelings about this film, I shouldn't speak again, but Teacher Lu just asked me how I can praise this film, and expressed his film aesthetic view, I think, I may need to respond."

Lu Yan He nodded and said: "First of all, what do I need to respond to? Was my praise for this film just now really what I thought, or was it polite? I want to say, it is true. Today I came to watch this film, it was invited by Zeng Qiao, but we are all speaking with microphones in our own hands, and we are responsible for what we say."

"Secondly, how should we evaluate the film *Thunder*?" Lu Yan He said, "If you ask me to evaluate this film from a very high evaluation scale, it is indeed not good enough, but such an evaluation is not fair. Let's give a simple example. If we all use the standard of ninety points to evaluate all students, then more than half of the students are poor students. Because the best is always the least. For films, my evaluation standard is the same. This is not an art film, it is an action film. Is action film simple, rough, and cool? If it is so simple, I wouldn't have been an actor for so long and haven't officially filmed an action film yet."

"Then the film *Thunder*, why would I praise its action scenes for making me very surprised, because it is very simple, it is done well in this regard. For action film lovers, you can see many surprises from this film—I must admit, I am not an action film lover, of course, I think Teacher Lu is not either. Teacher Lu just parsed why he thinks *Thunder* is vulgar from the angles of characters, stories, and director techniques, but he did not evaluate the core of this film from the angle of action design and action scenes, action, so, I rashly have such a guess, if I guessed wrong, Teacher Lu please forgive me."

"For me, I am just an audience who is a practitioner. I am not a participant in this film, and I don't know the production story behind it. I was invited to watch this film, and on the basis of telling the truth, I actually have a task, which is to stand from my angle and tell the audience who have not walked into the cinema to watch this film what they can see from this film."

"Then I want to tell the audience, does this film explore complex humanity? There is no spiritual richness? Or, hmm, this film is very vulgar because it is very stylized. I say a rude word, please, which action film is not stylized? How many stylized action special effects blockbusters does Hollywood make every year? Does this affect their big sales at the global box office? Does it affect the audience who likes this subject and style to continue to like it?"

Lu Yan He shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

"I respect everything Teacher Lu said, but although films belong to all audiences, we must realize that different subjects have different audiences, and different audiences have different needs. Except for a very few classic films, it can break boundaries and get the love of the vast majority of audiences. At other times, we can let our target audience like it, which is not an easy thing."

After Lu Yan He finished saying these things, the audience suddenly applauded.

The creators on the stage also eased their faces.

This small episode subsequently triggered heated discussion on the internet.

In fact, many people still feel that Lu Yan He is wrong. Everyone thinks that Lu Yan He is quibbling. It is clearly a discussion about whether a film is a good film. Although Lu Shan said it a bit too much, he did not lie. He was telling the truth.

Lu Yan He was silent and hesitant.

He really couldn't say that he really felt *Thunder* was very good and worth watching. Moreover, if it weren't for Lu Shan's words at the scene, making him feel that Lu Shan was very targeted, and even gave him a feeling of deliberately grandstanding, he would not have made such a long speech.

Under these circumstances, *Thunder* was released on April 30.

The first-day box office exceeded 37 million, ranking first on the daily box office list.

Also because of this box office result, it still retained 17% of the screenings on May 1, when four films were released.

However, the audience's reputation for this film is indeed very average.

It doesn't mean that many people scold it as a big bad film and regret watching this film.

However, Lu Yan He's speech about supporting this film was taken out by many people, made into screenshots, and expressed disappointment with Lu Yan He.

Many people said that they watched this film because they saw Lu Yan He's recommendation. How could they not think that Lu Yan He would recommend such a film.

This was a "Waterloo" that Lu Yan He himself did not expect.

His team can only try their best to help him reduce the negative impact of public opinion.

Chen Ziyan said: "You should

Lu Yan He felt quite uncomfortable.

On one hand, emotionally, he believed that when a friend has a movie out, helping them hold the stage and shouting a few words of support was only natural. However, on the other hand, he knew in his heart that the controversy sparked by "Thunder" this time could not be blamed entirely on Lu Shan; he himself had been unable to set aside personal feelings to speak the truth, and he had to bear the consequences just the same.

Or rather, reposting and promoting it was fine—it was something one could do to "increase exposure"—but one should try to avoid glossing over the facts and saying things that made one feel guilty.

"But, Sister Ziyan, I haven't even figured it out myself yet. If I also think that if a movie isn't good enough, I shouldn't publicly recommend it... honestly, there are very few films that I truly want to recommend from the bottom of my heart," Lu Yan He said, expressing his confusion. "But, rationally, I really feel that what I said wasn't wrong, which is why I said it—does a movie that only scores six or seven points not deserve a recommendation? If it has bright spots, or if it is indeed a movie worth watching for a certain segment of the audience, can I not recommend it?"

If Lu Yan He weren't so conflicted himself, he would have simply learned his lesson and stopped doing such things in the future.

Chen Ziyan said: "Yan He, regarding this situation, I only have eight words for you: 'In the position, out of one's control.' Since you have now become one of the representative figures of Chinese cinema and are the most influential filmmaker with the most pulling power, you must cherish your reputation even more, especially the words that come out of your mouth. You will never know who might take your words as golden decrees; that is because they trust you one hundred percent. You have a good relationship with Zeng Qiao, so you go and help him with some promotion—okay—but don't endorse it lightly, especially when you yourself realize that the film isn't that good. It has merits, okay, I admit that, but will the film's producers use your statement objectively? No, the film's producers will use you as promotional material and advertise it on a massive scale: 'Lu Yan He supports *Thunder*.'"

Lu Yan He let out a long sigh, the scales in his heart slowly tilting, and he knew what he should do in these matters from now on.

That evening, "Thunder," which had already surpassed 200 million in box office, released a celebratory poster.

At the same time, search terms related to "Thunder is ugly" also hit the trending list.

Lu Yan He's team was still very capable, doing their best to suppress the heat surrounding Lu Yan He in this matter and promoting his upcoming trip to Hexi instead.

They tried to use the Hexi Film Festival and the film "Love Letter" to shift the focus away from Lu Yan He in this incident.

However, it seemed Lu Shan did not intend to let go of this opportunity to build his own golden reputation so easily.

He took screenshots of many messages online cursing the movie "Thunder" and cursing Lu Yan He, posted a nine-grid collage on Weibo, and said: The eyes of the audience are still sharp.

Some of Lu Yan He's fans couldn't take it and commented: Making it seem like the movie "Thunder" is Lu Yan He's problem.

Lu Shan replied righteously: If it weren't for his recommendation, there wouldn't be so many people going to see this movie. He is stifling the motivation of those viewers who are still willing to walk into a cinema to do so again!

Lu Yan He had always felt he was good at retorting, especially when countering, but at this moment, he found himself tongue-tied, unable to refute a single word.

Chen Ziyan also said not to bother with Lu Shan and just let him jump around for now.

However, while Lu Yan He didn't pay him any mind, Zeng Qiao couldn't take it anymore.

Late at night, he posted on Weibo: I am very sorry. It was I who invited Lu Yan He to attend the screening of "Thunder," causing him to be dragged into this dispute for no reason. With things fermented to this point, I am now filled with debt toward him. For those viewers who watched "Thunder" because of Yan He's recommendation and felt disappointed, please send your ticket purchase screenshots and order numbers to my studio's email, and I will arrange for a full refund.

Five minutes later, he posted another Weibo: Yan He was only helping me stand on stage, so he picked out the merits of the film to praise it a few times. "Human Joy," which Teacher Lu Shan invested in, is now the box office champion of the May Day holiday. Our "Thunder" can no longer pose a threat to "Human Joy," so Teacher Lu Shan actually doesn't need to keep disparaging "Thunder" to ensure its box office surpasses "Human Joy." Anyway, it's just a vulgar, formulaic film; it's not worth Teacher Lu Shan wasting his precious time repeatedly focusing on it.

Zeng Qiao's mood was truly miserable right now.

He had mostly acted in television dramas before; it was rare for him to star as the male lead in a big production like "Thunder." The box office results were quite good, and although the audience word-of-mouth wasn't as good as expected, it hadn't reached the level of a "rotten film" that everyone cursed. Because the action scenes were indeed quite good, it had sparked a viewing craze among the market demographic that loved action films, preventing its box office trend from being too dragged down by public opinion.

Originally, "Thunder" could have been a work that helped him gain a firm foothold in the film industry.

Who knew that because of this movie, Lu Yan He would instead become the person cursed the most severely.

How could Zeng Qiao bear it in his heart?

He would rather the audience curse him than have Lu Yan He be cursed.

At this very moment, his disgust and hatred for Lu Shan reached their peak, but because he still had his reason, he didn't directly curse him out on the internet.

If he weren't a celebrity, he would have really cursed him out directly.

This person is truly a bastard, a real villain.

Reasonably and emotionally, Lu Yan He neither exaggerated the facts to praise "Thunder" to the skies nor did anything more than come to help stand on stage, yet he was stirred into this muddy water by Lu Shan as if he had become the sinner of the industry.

Zeng Qiao was truly too angry to let it go and started being sarcastic directly.

The fact that Lu Shan invested in "Human Joy" was only discovered later by the producer of "Thunder."

When they found out about this at the time, they gave the publicity staff who contacted Lu Shan to watch the film a thorough scolding.

To be honest, the audience word-of-mouth for "Human Joy" wasn't much better, but because it was the only comedy film for the May Day holiday, it had the advantage of being a family-friendly choice.

Zeng Qiao had no other thoughts at this moment; his heart was filled with guilt toward Lu Yan He.

And precisely because of this, he thought, then let's refund the tickets for the viewers who didn't like "Thunder."

Even if it was the most troublesome and cost him his own capital, he would still refund them!

Lu Yan He hadn't even expected that Zeng Qiao would actually do this.

Chen Ziyan was also stunned.

In all these years, she had never seen an actor refund money to people on such a large scale.

Zeng Qiao's two posts late at night also became the most talked-about event the next day.

And what surprised everyone even more was that the very next evening, Zeng Qiao's studio tallied the refund applications received so far and published a statement: A total of 927 viewers' refund applications were received, totaling 38,934 yuan in refunds.

Zeng Qiao reposted his studio's statement and directly tagged Lu Shan:

I have refunded the viewers who regretted watching "Thunder." As an investor in "Human Joy," have you refunded the viewers who regretted watching "Human Joy"?

Attached images:

First image: "Human Joy" Ye Mai website rating: 6.3.

Second image: "Thunder" Ye Mai website rating: 6.1.

Third image: 0.2 points higher; the eyes of the audience are truly sharp!

Lu Shan suddenly lost his voice; after this, he didn't pop up again.

After Lu Yan He reflected painfully for a few days, he felt it was time for him to come out and speak.

The situation had changed, and Lu Yan He felt that remaining silent would only further lose the audience's trust in him.

After discussing it with Chen Ziyan and his team, he posted:

I want to say sorry to the friends who trust me. Although my original intention was never to trick everyone into going to the cinema to watch a movie, my statements—which only talked about the merits and didn't mention the flaws—did indeed lead many viewers, based on their trust in me, to watch a movie they might not have liked. I hope Brother Qiao doesn't feel guilty or upset. I take responsibility for what I said. I didn't say those words of praise based on my relationship with Brother Qiao; I only, based on my relationship with Brother Qiao, didn't say the parts of "Thunder" that I didn't like. Of course, objectively, this resulted in "glossing over the facts," and that is my own problem. In the future, I will be more cautious in my words and actions.

First Zeng Qiao, then Lu Yan He—their attitudes toward this matter and the stance they displayed lessened the frustration of the viewers who had been stirred up by Lu Shan to launch a massive crusade against Lu Yan He.

Mainly, many people didn't expect that they would actually receive their refunds immediately.

Lu Yan He's apology also allowed many people to calm down and start thinking about one thing—

Put yourself in their shoes: in this life, who hasn't said a few words to support or flatter someone for the sake of human relationships and face?

Emotions come quickly and go just as quickly.

If Zeng Qiao and Lu Yan He had displayed a stance of refusing to admit their mistakes or being stubborn, people might have been even more furious.

However, that was not how the two of them acted.

Thinking about it again, Lu Yan He didn't even make a movie that disappointed everyone, yet for these past few days, it was like a carnival where he was viciously attacked for commenting that the action scenes in "Thunder" were good, being accused of lying with his eyes open—when clearly "Thunder" was, as Lu Shan said, extremely mediocre, with no innovation in its action scenes, still the same old routine.

Now looking back, he didn't even say the movie was that good; he only said the action scenes were good.

The action scenes in "Thunder" were indeed good.

Chen Ziyan quickly captured the shift in online sentiment toward Lu Yan He.

She immediately arranged for public relations staff to take a PR action: analyzing, point by point, how Lu Shan's every statement had cleverly misinterpreted Lu Yan He's original words and put him on a pedestal.

By the time the May Day holiday passed, the spearhead of public opinion had already turned toward Lu Shan.

Lu Yan He saw Lu Shan being accused and criticized by many under the onslaught of public opinion. At this moment, unlike his feelings toward the audience, he felt not a shred of guilt.

The things Lu Shan said and the things he did left him with only one feeling at this moment: he deserved it.

Lu Shan was like a turtle pulling its head in, suddenly going silent and playing dead.

At this time, someone from the film company behind "Human Joy" suddenly came to find Chen Ziyan, asking them to show mercy and let Lu Shan off the hook.

Chen Ziyan rolled her eyes directly back at them.

When Lu Shan was standing on the moral high ground, stirring up everyone's emotions to attack Lu Yan He, why didn't they stop Lu Shan then?

Chen Ziyan couldn't be bothered to pay them any mind.