Chapter 625: Urgent hope (10,000-word update!)

The main reason *Love Letter* held its domestic premiere, which was also a special screening for friends, at Zhenhua University was that it seemed to be able to become another "base camp" for Lu Yan He.

Around him, the two forces that can truly help him outside the entertainment industry are the network of contacts behind Chen Ziyan and the *Jump Up* team led by Chen Siqi.

Moreover, everyone is in the entertainment industry, and they are all spinning in the same pool to a greater or lesser extent; no matter how fast they spin, they can't get out of this pool.

Chen Ziyan has told him many times that he should firmly grasp the alumni circle of Zhenhua University.

The alumni circle of Zhenhua University is definitely one of the circles with weight. After they graduate, they are distributed in all walks of life, and they are likely to be elites in all walks of life. Especially the financial circle, which is closely related to the entertainment industry, is even more so.

Chen Ziyan also said: "It's not just that you need their help many times; they also need you many times. Of course, if they want you to be a spokesperson for some capital games, that's still not okay. Many capitals will have one or two stars as spokespersons in front of the scenes."

Lu Yan He nodded: "I definitely won't participate in this kind of capital game."

"It's not that you don't participate in capital games, but that you can't be their spokesperson in front of the scenes; the risk is too great," Chen Ziyan said. "Not all capital games are traps or pits. If the game can be played, it means there must be winners."

Lu Yan He: "But I don't understand either. If I really participate, won't I be fooled like a fool?"

"You don't understand, it's enough that you have people around you who understand," Chen Ziyan said. "Your Linghe, Chen Siqi's *Jump Up*, and even my *Shihuo*, with the gradual development of the company, we will inevitably participate in such capital games. This is not something we can refuse just because we want to refuse. When you reach a certain height, if you still think about staying out of it, you will inevitably be squeezed out of the market by larger capitals working together. No one will allow you to occupy such a large market share while staying out of it; what you are grabbing is other people's cake. And if you have the support of this Zhenhua circle in various fields behind you, whoever wants to target you will have to weigh their own weight."

Lu Yan He: "Alright."

"However, what does this have to do with me having to hold a screening activity at Zhenhua?" Lu Yan He asked.

Chen Ziyan: "Yes, you have graduated, but your relationship with the school is still close. You need to release this signal to the outside world, especially to people in this Zhenhua circle. Besides interests, there is also human sentiment. With the school bridging the gap for you, the basis for cooperation is far deeper than those people outside. The most critical thing is that you have to let people in the Zhenhua circle see you from time to time and think of you. You are the first top star who has truly come out of Zhenhua in these years. Believe me, with your current popularity and the achievements you have made in this line, there will be many of your seniors who will be proud that you are their junior."

Lu Yan He nodded. "Alright."

The person responsible for docking with Zhenhua for the special screening activity of *Love Letter* at Zhenhua is the Youth Association. Now the president of the Youth Association is still Wang Xiao—the first president in the history of the association to serve for four years, and he is about to break history further.

There will still be a red carpet and a photo area.

This time, walking the red carpet with Lu Yan He are his three roommates from his undergraduate years.

This was also specially arranged by the company.

Chen Siqi will walk the red carpet with her high school classmates from No. 13 Middle School, such as Linyu and Li Pengfei.

For such a film that has a bit of "cherishing youth" meaning, the company hopes to play the "classmate card" to let the outside society see the impression that Lu Yan He attaches great importance to his old classmates.

Many stars and artists, after becoming famous, often reduce contact with old friends due to changes in their social circles. It's not that they do it on purpose, feeling they can't associate with them, but common life and common topics are getting fewer and fewer, and such a result is unavoidable.

But Lu Yan He has truly kept in touch with his old classmates.

When Lu Yan He's "high school classmate group" and "college classmate group" appeared on the red carpet, the media invited to the scene all showed a bit of shock.

For this screening at Zhenhua University, Lu Yan He did not invite any friends from the entertainment industry—if you don't count Miao Yue, who is also a screenwriter in the entertainment industry, the only ones present were the three leads: Lu Yan He, Chen Bige, and Zhang Ruozhi.

The media never expected that the first public screening activity of *Love Letter* in China would be so "star-sparse."

Of course, at this time, no one would say that Lu Yan He has poor popularity and couldn't invite stars to attend.

Even the most shameless media couldn't say such words. As long as Lu Yan He invites, he can absolutely turn his film screening activity into a scene comparable to an awards ceremony.

Obviously, this is the arrangement of the film side.

A friend screening is a friend screening.

It really is a friend screening.

When Lu Yan He, Zhou Mukai, Mao Jiayang, and Xiao Jing walked onto the red carpet together, this feeling was even deeper.

Accepting interviews.

When asked why he chose to walk the red carpet with three roommates instead of his girlfriend Chen Siqi, Lu Yan He smiled and said: "I'm back at Zhenhua today, so I'm with my old classmates."

"Chen Siqi is also here today. For such a romantic film, are you worried that Siqi will be jealous when she sees you having intimate actions with other girls in the film?" A reporter asked with a smile.

Lu Yan He blinked and said: "After you finish watching the film, you shouldn't ask this question."

Sorry, there are no intimate actions in this film.

Pure love, definitely pure love.

Seeing that he couldn't dig anything out of Lu Yan He's mouth, the reporter immediately turned the microphone to his classmates.

"Can you tell us what Lu Yan He was like at school?"

"Just like this," Mao Jiayang said. "About the same as what you see on camera, no difference."

"No way? There must be some difference, right?" The reporter asked deliberately as if joking.

"It really is just like this. He is very abnormal. I watch him on the show; sometimes when there are cameras filming, he will relax and be lazy. Usually at school, except for sleeping, you basically won't see him in the dormitory; he is either in the classroom or in the library," Mao Jiayang said very seriously. "When he was writing scripts at that time, he often stayed in the library for a whole day. On our school's internal forum, there were people checking in every day. As long as Yan He went to the library, someone would post."

Zhou Mukai added: "In the second semester of his junior year, he had basically completed the first draft of his graduation thesis. Very admirable."

"Don't praise me anymore; you're praising me as if I'm a super university bully. My grades at school have never been in the top 15%," Lu Yan He quickly stopped. "So hard-working, yet the grades are so ordinary."

Xiao Jing laughed loudly.

Lu Yan He "threatened" the media reporters: "You are not allowed to report this part."

Laughing and talking, they finished the interview and entered the auditorium.

The auditorium was very lively.

The auditorium, which can accommodate 500 people, was mainly filled with teachers and students from Zhenhua University today.

Lu Yan He's group of friends and relatives only occupied a very small part.

The dean of the School of Literature and a vice president of the school attended.

These were all contacted by Wang Xiao.

As soon as Lu Yan He entered, Wang Xiao strode over, patted him on the shoulder, and welcomed him enthusiastically: "Finally back at school!"

Lu Yan He smiled: "If I don't bring some works, how can I be embarrassed to come back."

Wang Xiao: "You are the biggest work yourself; stop talking this nonsense."

He pulled Lu Yan He to greet several school leaders first, then Lu Yan He sat down, and Wang Xiao went on stage. As the host, he first gave a brief introduction to this screening activity, especially introducing the two major awards the film won at the Hexi Film Festival, and then the film screening began.

Although Chen Siqi didn't walk the red carpet with Lu Yan He, her seat was still arranged next to Lu Yan He.

It was not Chen Siqi's first time watching *Love Letter*.

During the screening of the film, Lu Yan He and Chen Siqi were not very focused, talking to each other in a very low voice from time to time.

When the film screening ended and the lights in the room came on, when Lu Yan He came back to his senses, many people around him had red and swollen eyes.

"..."

Alright, it seems that a film like *Love Letter* is even more of a tear-jerker for students at school.

Thunderous applause erupted at the scene.

Lu Yan He and Chen Bige both stood up, turned around, faced the audience, waved, and greeted them with bright smiles.

Zhang Ruozhi, who had no experience, only stood up as if waking from a dream under the reminder of others, standing shyly beside Chen Bige, greeting everyone.

The reaction at the scene was very enthusiastic.

The people from the Youth Association had already begun to move chairs onto the stage, and later, they would hold an exchange activity.

Wang Xiao was the host, Miao Yue was the guest, plus the three leads of *Love Letter*.

Lu Yan He shook hands or hugged the important guests sitting in the first row one by one, expressing his gratitude for their arrival.

Some had other work arrangements and left first. If there was nothing to do, they would continue to participate in the following links.

Only a few invited media were filming at the scene, unlike general screening activities where the participants were mixed.

Ten minutes later, Lu Yan He and the others sat down in their seats on the stage.

Wang Xiao first asked routine questions, and after leading everyone into the topic, he invited everyone to share their feelings about filming this film.

Lu Yan He had already shared such sharing several times before, so he didn't say much, just said a few words simply, and then handed it over to Chen Bige and Zhang Ruozhi.

Chen Bige said: "Now that I think about it, I'm still quite scared. I am an actor who is very cautious about taking plays, especially in the last few years. But because I had already collaborated with Yan He on *Seventeen Layers* and filmed *Rouge*, which he wrote, when he said he had another script he wanted me to act in, I didn't think much and agreed directly. As a result, he wrote, directed, and acted in it... Haha, I only dare to say this now. At that time, I was actually very worried in my heart, wouldn't it be messed up?"

Lu Yan He laughed along with the audience.

"Before filming this film, he said that this film might not be able to help me gain anything in acting awards. He said this is not a film that focuses on actor performance," Chen Bige continued. "But he told me that although I might not be able to win an award, this film and this character might become a milestone in my acting career. I was shocked at the time, and I thought to myself, young people, they are just easy to talk big."

Everyone laughed again.

Lu Yan He could only make a "helpless" expression and gesture.

"But as I filmed, I slowly realized that maybe it wasn't him talking big, but I underestimated this film," Chen Bige said. "Seeing everyone's reaction after watching it today, I became more firm in this idea. I originally thought... uh, I found that I have quite a lot of prejudices. I originally thought that Zhenhua students were all rationalists, not so emotional, and might not be moved by this film. As a result, your eyes are no harder to turn red than others."

Everyone laughed even harder.

Chen Bige: "Filming this film was a very beautiful process. The two characters I played in the film are actually not very similar to my own personality, but in filming, I can truly feel their inner hearts and understand their thoughts. This is all based on a good script, and I can get the non-real reality. In the last few years, I have collaborated with Yan He on many plays. Except for *Seventeen Layers*, the other few plays were all scripts written by Yan He. Sometimes I also wonder if I have collaborated with Yan He too much, and if it will make everyone have aesthetic fatigue."

"How could that be." Wang Xiao faithfully fulfilled the duty of a supporting role, "As long as you are willing to act, we want to watch whatever play."

Chen Bige looked at Wang Xiao with a smile and thanked him with her eyes, "However, Yan He's scripts are completely different, whether it is the subject matter, characters, or style. Sometimes I wonder if there are different souls living in his body, so he can write so many works with completely different styles."

Lu Yan He showed a surprised and unexpected smile.

He didn't know if there was any "guilty conscience" on his face at that moment.

When it came to Zhang Ruozhi, Zhang Ruozhi was almost exactly the same as in the film, a very green but not introverted girl.

Her makeup and styling were very clear student attire, not like many young female stars who are prone to an out-of-place "transitional feeling" due to heavy makeup.

She said: "For me, filming a movie was a very sudden thing. He and Sister Siqi... at that time, they were in a bookstore, and they suddenly appeared in front of me and asked me if I would like to film a movie. I was shocked."

Lu Yan He said: "You were not just shocked; your first reaction was whether we were liars."

Zhang Ruozhi showed a shy smile.

She was very embarrassed.

However, her reaction was very "Fujii Itsuki," very consistent with her image in the film.

Someone asked Lu Yan He if he would film a movie with Zhenhua University as the background in the future?

Lu Yan He said that there is no relevant idea for the time being. If he thinks of a good story in the future, he is very willing to film a movie with Zhenhua University as the background, and he also welcomes everyone to send good ideas and creativity to the public mailbox of Linghe Production. Once there is a good story, he is very happy to create a movie about Zhenhua with everyone.

After saying this, applause immediately erupted at the scene.

This is Zhenhua's home court, and Lu Yan He being able to say this in public naturally gained cheers and applause from the scene.

"Someone commented before that this film was clearly written and directed by you, why did you prepare a male vase role for yourself?" In the Q&A session, a girl asked with a smile.

As soon as the question came out, the whole audience burst into laughter.

Lu Yan He also laughed.

He waved his hand and said: "I don't think the role I prepared for myself is a male vase role. To tell the truth, in a sense, I believe this role will become the role that I have been remembered for the longest and most unforgettable in my film career."

Miao Yue thought Lu Yan He was joking when she heard Lu Yan He say this, but after waiting for a long time without waiting for Lu Yan He to give a signal of "I am teasing myself," she was a bit surprised and asked: "Why do you say that?"

Lu Yan He sold a pass.

"It wouldn't be good if I broke it myself. Let's wait for the audience's reaction. After a few years, let's see if my judgment today is correct," Lu Yan He said with a smile.

With the special friend screening at Zhenhua University, the promotion of *Love Letter* was fully opened.

The next day, the show *How Are You? I'm Fine* descended, released a trailer, and announced that the first episode would be online in three days.

"Do you remember who you had a crush on back then?"

"Do you know who had a crush on you?"

"After so many years, how are you?"

Sentence by sentence, the theme of this show was revealed.

The last sentence: This show is inspired by the film *Love Letter*, which is about to be released in the Qixi Festival file.

Chen Siqi forwarded the trailer and wrote—

This show is planned by Xin Zixing, the producer of the hit show *Rooftop Confession*. P. S. Behind-the-scenes story: I asked, Sister, any good ideas for promoting *Love Letter*? Sister said, she has to watch the film first. After she watched this film, she said, she wanted to make a show. I said, Sister, our promotion budget is limited, we can't use a film's promotion budget entirely on making a show. Sister said, I don't care about your promotion, I want to make this show. I was stunned, Sister said she would do it, and she did it.

And as this show began to ferment, the screening activities of *Love Letter* also continued.

It didn't take the long-line film route like *Road to Glory*, but held special screenings in various places.

They were mainly university campuses.

The domestic distribution of *Love Letter* is handled by Maowei. Long Yan wanted to compete at the time, but the price and distribution conditions were not as good as Maowei's. Coupled with Maowei's distribution strategy for this film, it was more in line with Lu Yan He's ideas. Long Yan's distribution strategy for this film actually wanted to take the simple and rough big star, big film route, and Lu Yan He shook his head as soon as he heard it.

If this film dared to take that big star, big film distribution route, it would probably be questioned by a large group of audiences for "hanging a sheep's head and selling dog meat." This is not a romantic comedy like *Can't Even Fake Death*.

*Love Letter* should indeed take the audience word-of-mouth route, especially student word-of-mouth.

Use the "youth cherishing" topic it stirred up in the student group to see if this topic's heat can be operated to achieve greater results.

Lu Yan He and Chen Bige split into two paths and began to attend screening activities at various universities across the country.

If a star is to appear at a university, basically the teachers and students of this school can hear the relevant news. The teachers and students of a school basically have tens of thousands.

These screening activities all require grabbing tickets. At this time, Maowei's ability as a distributor is reflected. Every time they go to a city or a school, someone has to step on the school's screening venue in advance, bring the screening equipment and tapes to debug, and then formulate a ticket purchase procedure online. Maowei has technology, a national network, and its own ticket purchase platform, so it can fully realize such national university screening activities.

Lu Yan He ran such promotion for five days.

It really consumes energy and spirit.

Subsequently, he and Chen Bige, Zhang Ruozhi, Li Songfan, and Wan Xin went on two of the hottest variety shows in China to promote the film.

The show *How Are You? I'm Fine* has natural topicality.

*Jump Up* made relatively large concessions in the advertising revenue sharing and copyright cooperation of this show, so that Beijiguang Video and Bingyuan Video would invest higher promotion funds on the internet for this all-amateur show to divert traffic.

This show also unexpectedly became popular on the internet.

The word "crush," just by saying it, will definitely attract people to click and watch on certain specific platforms.

And this show, in the current situation where various observation shows are emerging one after another, suddenly pulled the relationship between men and women, which had been dissected to the point of being riddled with holes, back to the two ends of the long corridor of time, making people once again re-experience the nervous shyness of not daring to open their hearts when they were young, as well as the disappointment and deep regret of looking back on the past after growing up.

The most hazy and ambiguous sense of heartbeat between men and women also returned to people's hearts because of this.

And the broadcast of the two episodes would, at the beginning, end, and transition in the middle, cleverly insert *Love Letter* in the form of "film lines" or a certain film shot screen, seamlessly combining the film with the content of this show, directly raising the audience's expectations for the film.

When July came to an end, the film *Love Letter* had already spread topics on various social platforms, especially platforms where university students were active.

This is a film that is not afraid of spoilers at all.

After all, the film threw out the fact that the male lead died at the beginning.

This film is even a film that attracts more people to the cinema to watch it the more it is spoiled.

Because the biggest feature of this film is emotional resonance and infection.

And at this time, the promotion journey of *Love Letter* is ready to pause for a few days as planned.

Lu Yan He has to go film *Hurricane 2*. After filming and returning, it will be another promotion line for *Love Letter*—the media screening.

That is another battle.

Of course, their offline promotion as main creators is paused, but the online one will not.

◆Co

In half a month, the number of people who want to watch *Love Letter* has exceeded 350,000, and the box office forecast by box office institutions has also exceeded 500 million, and the promotion effect is extremely significant.

Next is to see if this good situation presented by the data can really be converted into real money at the box office.

There have been too many "Waterloos" in the past. Everyone is still not daring to really let go of their hearts.

Film release is always like this. Until the first-day box office comes out, you can never truly know with peace of mind whether this film really attracts the audience to walk into the cinema to watch it.

Wanting to and really going are two different things.

At the end of the month, Lu Yan He flew to the United States very low-key with his team.

This time it only took three days to film, which is still very fast, but the round trip still needs to take two more days.

And this time, Lu Yan He truly witnessed what an A-level production in Hollywood is.

For just three days, the crew equipped Lu Yan He with a car and a full-time driver. At the same time, the bodyguards and service team for these three days in the United States were all provided by the crew.

This is not included in Lu Yan He's 1.5 million USD.

The hotel was actually a high-end suite priced at tens of thousands of dollars a night.

Lu Yan He was stunned.

Is it this rich?

Rich and inhumane.

Lu Yan He didn't enjoy such treatment at all when he filmed *The Mist* before.

Of course, that film was also a low-budget film with a cost of only over 10 million USD.

*Hurricane 2* had a production budget of over 100 million alone, and the publicity budget would likely be another equally exorbitant figure.

At this moment, Lu Yan He suddenly realized firsthand what kind of treatment truly top-tier Hollywood stars enjoyed.

What surprised Lu Yan He even more was that when he arrived at the hotel, the crew's liaison staff asked quite suggestively if he needed someone arranged to provide certain services, specifically emphasizing that it was safe and reliable.

Lu Yan He declined directly.

The next day, Lu Yan He was picked up and driven to the studio.

All of Lu Yan He's scenes for these three days were filmed inside the studio.

Some were green screens, and some were built sets.

Because he was playing an Asian elite, his look was actually quite simple—just a suit and tie.

But even so, the crew had prepared fifteen suit styles for him to choose from.

Business style, casual style, elite professional... actually, if you didn't look closely, the differences weren't that big.

However, for the film's costume designer, they were completely different.

While he was trying on clothes, the film's lead actor and producer, Derien Dillen, came by.

"Hey, brother!" Derien greeted Lu Yan He very enthusiastically as soon as he walked in.

Derien had a very robust build and a traditional, handsome look that was very "Superman-esque."

"Glad to have you on board," Derien Dillen said, patting Lu Yan He on the shoulder.

Lu Yan He smiled and said, "I'm a fan of *Hurricane*, so I'm very happy to be able to film *Hurricane 2*. I was very surprised to receive the invitation."

In reality, he had only watched *Hurricane* on the plane flying here.

Some false social pleasantries.

Derien Dillen looked at the outfit Lu Yan He had just changed into.

"I have to say, I suddenly regret inviting you to participate in *Hurricane 2*," he said, frowning with a straight face.

Lu Yan He looked at him and smiled, "Why?"

He had already guessed what Derien Dillen was going to say next.

"Because you damn guy are too handsome, you're going to steal my spotlight!" Derien Dillen deliberately put on a "terrible" expression and tone.

Sure enough.

It was guessed correctly.

"..." Lu Yan He laughed, "Alright, the media wasn't wrong; you really are a nice guy."

Derien Dillen laughed immediately.

"After we wrap up today, let's go have a drink!" he said. "After I watched *The Mist*, I really wanted to get to know you, and now I finally have the chance."

Lu Yan He nodded and said okay.

Lu Yan He really didn't have much room to display his acting skills in *Hurricane 2*.

Although he had quite a few scenes in the film, his shots popped up from time to time; he was a character that ran through the whole story.

From the beginning, he was an investor who didn't quite get along with the meteorologist played by Derien, and because of a project Derien had for a weather tracking system, he had some conceptual disagreements with him.

By the time they encountered a once-in-a-century hurricane disaster, he tried to contact Derien and his team but couldn't reach them, so he decided to drive to find them and lead them to escape this impending doom.

As it turned out, by the time he found the main cast, it was already too late. They still had to help the people in the town escape the disaster together. When the main cast was trying to find a way to lead people to survive the hurricane, Derien was almost blown away by the wind; he urgently grabbed Derien's hand and tried his best to pull him back.

However, just as they all breathed a sigh of relief and exchanged a few words, explaining the misunderstanding from when they first met and finally clearing the air, a piece of glass debris, blown from who knows where by the hurricane, suddenly shot into Lu Yan He's neck.

The Asian character played by Lu Yan He just died like that.

A quintessential "tool" character.

Only a few scenes in total.

But fortunately, his character had a reversal in the middle and the act of saving the protagonist at the end, which made his character's image very positive, so he wasn't purely a tool.

Today they were filming the scene where Lu Yan He and Derien have an argument.

He didn't intend to design a whole backstory for his character.

A tool character should just do the job of a tool character—

With Lu Yan He's current ability, if he were to try to "three-dimensionalize" a small supporting role, the actual effect might be the same as "even a wise man makes a mistake," acting too much and becoming incompatible with this simple and crude plot.

When Lu Yan He was thinking about how to play this role, what he was actually thinking about in his head were the settings of those supporting characters in the *Mission: Impossible* series.

In *Mission: Impossible*, Tang Mu Cruise is the absolute lead, but many other supporting characters, even if they don't appear much, have absolute highlights and brilliance. Tang Mu Cruise also did a beautiful job in this regard; he didn't forbid other supporting characters from having their own brilliance just because he was the absolute lead.

Those were all very labeled characters, but those actors were incredibly good at taking one trait to the extreme, thereby leaving a deep impression on the audience.

Lu Yan He thought for a moment, and inexplicably, he substituted himself with Zhou Ping'an.

A character setting that wasn't that good nor that bad, and acted entirely out of practical interests.

If he carved this character based on Zhou Ping'an's likeness, it seemed he could find a fulcrum.

But after hesitating for a moment, he gave it up.

In the script, this character wasn't actually a "bad character"; he just had different ideas from the protagonist, and his choices were more conservative, not as adventurous as the protagonist.

He was essentially a good person; otherwise, he wouldn't have driven to find them himself when he couldn't reach the main cast, to warn them that the disaster was coming.

Lu Yan He didn't want to play his Asian character as a "worldly person" in such a global blockbuster.

Therefore, he finally decided to use the safest way of acting, but to amplify the emotions in every scene, rather than the restrained acting he was usually accustomed to—

Amplifying the performance meant externalizing the character's personality and emotions dramatically.

For the first scene, Lu Yan He arrived on set.

This scene was a built set, an indoor set—the weather forecasting center.

There were over a dozen extras playing researchers at the center, acting as background boards.

Lu Yan He was the representative of the center's investors.

The director was a man named Raul Ward, bald, looking like a very mediocre and ordinary person.

Lu Yan He greeted him.

Raul Ward nodded at Lu Yan He and briefly told him how to film it in a moment.

Lu Yan He nodded.

No further communication.

Instead, after Derien arrived on set, everyone suddenly seemed to have a backbone, shifting their attention from their previous busy states.

Raul Ward was the same.

Lu Yan He looked at the situation and made a judgment; it seemed this was a film crew where Derien was the absolute core.

Of course, this was also normal; Derien was a Hollywood A-lister, a true top movie star.

It was perfectly normal for him to have such a say in his film series.

Lu Yan He was just a little worried now, not knowing if Derien would nitpick his performance.

He knew some actors liked to do that.

Especially actors who occupied an absolute core position in a crew.

Fortunately, Derien was quite respectful to him.

Probably because he only gave three days of filming time, Derien didn't nitpick Lu Yan He's performance, but instead kept saying "That's great," "You acted exactly how I imagined when I read the script," and so on.

Lu Yan He hadn't expected a Hollywood A-lister to be so friendly and enthusiastic toward him.

The first day of filming went much smoother than he had imagined.

In the evening, he went to a bar with Derien.

At first, he was surprised why such a big star wasn't worried about being watched in a bar, and then he realized that with seven or eight bodyguards, once he entered the hotel, a place had long been reserved for him, and the area was guarded by his bodyguards; it was impossible for others to get close.

Even in a place where all kinds of people mixed, there was a spot he had marked as a "no-go zone" for strangers.

Besides the two of them, several other actors from the crew also came.

Because Lu Yan He was there for the first day, everyone's topics basically revolved around him at first, asking many curious questions.

When they learned that Lu Yan He was currently promoting a film, and that the film he won an award for at the Hexi Film Festival would be released in about ten days, they all showed shocked expressions.

Derien was also surprised and said, "Don't you need to be fully committed to the promotion at this time?"

In Hollywood, after a film is released, there are usually all kinds of promotional activities, and the lead actor's schedule basically revolves around the film.

Lu Yan He said bluntly: "Our Chinese film promotion is different from Hollywood. You have already formed a very fixed promotional model here. When a film is released, how it should be promoted has a set pattern. But in China, if we relied entirely on your way—holding screening events one after another, mainly through media reports and critics' word-of-mouth, or recording one or two talk shows to promote a film—the box office would likely be very bad. Even if I weren't here filming this movie, my current promotional schedule would have had to stop."

Now was the time to let the topics stirred up by the previous university screening events and the *How Are You? I'm Fine* program ferment slowly.

They, the creators of the film, should disappear for a few days; otherwise, after half a month of promotion under Maowei, with news about them every day, people would get tired of it, and by the time the film was finally released, everyone might already be sick of seeing them.

Derien immediately asked: "*Hurricane* only took in over 40 million dollars at the box office in China. Do you think *Hurricane 2* can get a higher box office in China?"

Lu Yan He nodded and said, "Of course."

"Do you think Chinese audiences will like this film?" Derien asked.

"They will. The first film didn't reach your box-office expectations mainly because *Hurricane* was positioned in China as a disaster special-effects blockbuster. Unlike other types of blockbusters, these types of films haven't had different ones released continuously over the years, so they have a larger base. It had been a long time since there was a big production like *Hurricane* for disaster special-effects films, so many viewers didn't know what this type of film looked like and might have chosen to watch another film instead," Lu Yan He explained according to his own understanding. "However, the word-of-mouth for the first *Hurricane* in China was quite good. With its subsequent broadcasts on television and the internet, it should have accumulated quite a few viewers who liked the first one and are willing to support the second."

Lu Yan He's words made Derien very happy.

"I believe that with your participation, it will definitely drive more Chinese viewers to watch this film. I heard that your films have never failed in China." Derien raised his glass and clinked it with Lu Yan He's.

Lu Yan He smiled.

Derien didn't seem to think that Lu Yan He, who had just become an overnight sensation in North America and even globally thanks to *The Mist*, actually had influence that wasn't limited to China.

Of course, perhaps in the eyes of a global superstar like Derien Dillen, Lu Yan He's influence wasn't enough to be noticed.

Previously, Lu Yan He didn't have such great ambition to star in films in Hollywood, thinking he would take it slow and let things happen naturally.

But at this moment, he suddenly felt an urgent hope, hoping to be able to shoulder the responsibility alone like Derien Dillen as soon as possible.