Chapter 707: Get Out! (7000-word update)

The events of the "Shijin Night" triggered nearly three or four days of heated discussion on domestic social media.

This time, more information regarding Yang Zhouli and Yang Zhoujin was dug up.

At this point, one has to admit that in this era, if you want to keep a secret, unless only the person who wants to keep it knows, the secret always seems to leak out in all sorts of ways.

While various social media platforms were buzzing about these matters concerning the Yang family, Chen Siqi demanded that all media outlets under "Jump Up" refrain from discussing it and simply ignore it.

For the media, doing so meant missing out on a wave of traffic.

For the matrix of self-media outlets owned by "Jump Up," the loss was significant.

However, Chen Siqi's stance on this matter was resolute.

Sure enough, before long, many media outlets that had published related news not only deleted their reports, but some with greater influence even received lawyer's letters from the Shijin Group.

It wasn't for anything else; they were suing these media outlets for fabricating and spreading rumors.

For a time, this matter also climbed onto the trending searches.

In this internet age, perhaps because everyone has accepted that "everything can be entertainment," many people initially criticized the Shijin Group for this direct legal action.

However, for a group as large as Shijin, their public relations power is not to be trifled with.

The Shijin Group didn't need to do anything else; they only needed to emphasize one point—which, of course, was also the point they needed to clarify themselves—

that the rumors circulating on the internet were all fabrications and not true.

And such rumors were not only an attack on Yang Zhoujin and Yang Zhouli, but also an act of unfair commercial competition where business rivals paid marketing accounts to smear the Shijin Group.

As long as such information was released, no further evidence was needed. Given the current internet trend of favoring conspiracy theories, people would naturally let their imaginations run wild, not to mention that the Shijin Group's PR power would further guide the topic.

Many media outlets suffered in silence under the PR guidance of the Shijin Group—though, of course, they brought it upon themselves.

When they were chasing traffic, they hadn't realized that they were facing a force they couldn't easily provoke.

The public opinion on the internet was secondary; the key was that the Shijin Group's lawsuit against them was real, not just a feint or a formality. They were determined to create a legal outcome to firmly shut their mouths and clarify the truth.

This dispute involving the Shijin Group actually made many people aware of their intention to enter the entertainment industry.

Because previously, various media and marketing accounts, when describing the competition between the brothers Yang Zhouli and Yang Zhoujin, had spoken of it as a struggle for this specific business sector.

A photo of Lu Yan He and Yang Zhouli eating breakfast together at a hotel was even posted online.

Lu Yan He, who had originally been on the sidelines, was suddenly dragged into it.

—Is Lu Yan He seemingly about to collaborate with the Shijin Group?

Before Lu Yan He could respond, the Shijin Group suddenly held a media press conference.

Yang Zhouli attended.

Contrary to the Shijin Group's previous hardline attitude of "striking hard" against those media and marketing accounts, the image Yang Zhouli projected at this press conference was that of an elite, refined gentleman, smiling throughout and speaking in a gentle tone.

"Our Shijin Group will be exploring new business areas in the entertainment industry moving forward..."

"During this time, everyone has been very concerned about the true relationship between Zhoujin and me, whether we are truly fighting for power, and whether some so-called melodramatic wealthy family feud is taking place."

After Yang Zhouli finished speaking, he laughed himself.

"This is just our family's private matter. By private matter, I mean it's a matter between brothers, unrelated to the company's business," Yang Zhouli said. "I believe that if any of you have siblings, you must know how headache-inducing it is to have a younger brother at home who is hot-tempered and going through a rebellious phase. I would rather he truly wanted to compete with me for something than simply... not look favorably upon me as his older brother."

The people at the scene all laughed.

Yang Zhouli shrugged his shoulders. "As for the rumors online that Lu Yan He and the Shijin Group will be collaborating, I certainly hope that a top creator like Lu Yan He can collaborate with us at Shijin. However, I must clarify that our relationship between Shijin and Lu Yan He is still in the 'unrequited love' stage. If you all truly hope for us to collaborate, please help us put in a good word and help Shijin win Lu Yan He over."

The laughter at the scene became even more enthusiastic.

Yang Zhouli used a relaxed, "unofficial" attitude to hold a media meeting that caused everyone's favorability toward Shijin to soar.

This was clearly very consistent with the impression previously cultivated by the Shijin Group's PR—

Yang Zhouli and Yang Zhoujin are biological brothers; they are indeed not on good terms, but it is fundamentally not the content fabricated by the rumors online.

Chen Ziyan watched the entire press conference from start to finish, then said to Lu Yan He: "This Yang Zhouli is really not simple. He uses four ounces to move a thousand pounds; he understands too well how to make people like him. If he were to become an artist, he would definitely be more popular with fans than you."

Lu Yan He: "... Don't build one up by tearing the other down."

Chen Ziyan: "I am actually quite curious about the relationship between the two brothers now. What is going on with Yang Zhoujin? He has disappeared again."

"Probably grounded by the family," Lu Yan He teased.

"That might actually be the case," Chen Ziyan said. "Since the Shijin Group officially arranged for Yang Zhouli to do this, and Yang Zhouli said these things in a public setting, it means the Shijin Group has officially defined the nature of this matter, and clearly, Yang Zhouli has won in this regard."

Lu Yan He nodded.

"The public today doesn't like a traditional entrepreneur. Yang Zhouli's few public appearances have all garnered widespread support and praise. For a large capital entity like a family business such as Shijin, he is now the most suitable spokesperson."

Chen Ziyan's eyes darted. "Now that you mention it, it seems Yang Zhoujin's various actions were also intended to accumulate fame or a public image for himself, only he took a crooked path to gain attention."

Hearing Chen Ziyan say this, Lu Yan He had some thoughts.

"They—the Shijin Group—care very much about their influence on the internet and the public?"

"Perhaps," Chen Ziyan nodded. "It's just that this is the commonality presented so far."

Lu Yan He: "That's a bit strange. Does the Shijin Group hope they will debut as artists?"

"Or perhaps Shijin needs a Yang family member to step forward, like many first-tier enterprises today, to make the person in power an internet celebrity to promote the brand's fame and influence," Chen Ziyan said. "Almost every traditional enterprise is facing the problem of transformation; the first is technological transformation, and the second is the transformation of brand image and brand promotion."

Lu Yan He nodded thoughtfully. "I have indeed read some reports before saying that many second-generation entrepreneurs rely on the development of the internet market to consolidate their status within their own companies and gain recognition from the older generation."

"Two different things, although they have similar meanings," Chen Ziyan said. "I am more interested in knowing what this has to do with the Shijin Group suddenly laying out plans in the entertainment industry. After all, to be honest, compared to the other industries Shijin is involved in, the scale of the entertainment industry is really much smaller."

"However, Sister Ziyan, almost all major capital entities have laid out plans in the entertainment industry. This is not just a matter of profit; it has strategic significance," Lu Yan He said. "Of course, it is also because the entertainment industry itself has the special characteristic of ultra-high attention."

Chen Ziyan: "Yang Zhouli's modern-day version of 'respecting the wise and condescending to the scholars' speech at the media meeting might not just be to make the public like and accept him more; to some extent, it also has strategic significance."

"Hmm? What other strategic significance could this have?"

"To put it mildly, his olive branch has already been thrown to you in front of everyone. Whether you accept it or not, this move puts him in the active position," Chen Ziyan said. "To put it broadly, this posture of his is for the public to see, and also for people in the entertainment industry to see, meaning that Shijin is not some nouveau riche that throws money around and looks down on people; they are treating people with sincerity."

Lu Yan He: "So many meanings."

"It could also be that I am over-interpreting," Chen Ziyan laughed. "I have to be honest, it's been a while since I've been this interested in someone. This Yang Zhouli is quite interesting; he makes me want to ponder him a bit more."

Lu Yan He: "You wouldn't be interested because he's handsome and hits your aesthetic points, would you?"

Chen Ziyan: "There is that factor as well."

She actually admitted it quite openly.

Lu Yan He looked at Chen Ziyan in utter shock.

Chen Ziyan: "However, it is mainly because of the effect he achieved in his few appearances before the public—I do this for a living, to be honest, if he didn't have a top-tier PR person operating these appearances for him, I would have to praise him as a natural talent. Even if I wanted to design such public favorability for every one of your public appearances, it would be difficult."

Lu Yan He: "It's over. Attracted by his image, then attracted by his talent. I feel like your spring has arrived."

"Hahaha," Chen Ziyan laughed heartily and generously. "My spring was already cut off by my own hands when I was in my twenties."

Lu Yan He: "..."

"Don't play matchmaker," Chen Ziyan shook her head helplessly at Lu Yan He. "I'm just looking at a handsome guy who catches my eye a few more times; I have no other thoughts."

Lu Yan He wanted to say something but stopped.

Chen Ziyan: "Alright, this topic ends here. Don't ask anything else."

Lu Yan He missed the opportunity to ask.

"Fine."

The matter of Yang Zhouli and Yang Zhoujin continued to ferment on the internet.

Although Lu Yan He was paying attention, he just treated it as gossip for after-dinner conversation.

What he was more concerned about was Shijin's moves in the entertainment industry.

However, after the self-media press conference, Yang Zhouli seemed to have no new moves.

Lu Yan He also reached the time to join the crew to film the sequel to *The Mist*.

The sequel to *The Mist* had always been highly anticipated.

The first installment unexpectedly grossed over 200 million USD globally, far exceeding expectations, and was the horror film champion of that year.

Just as talked about as the film's box office performance was its promotional and marketing method, which was considered unreplicable and also very "crazy."

Because, by the later stages, D19 basically pushed all the film's promotion and marketing onto Lu Yan He alone, playing the "Asian revenge" card.

The result was that it "succeeded."

This meant that when developing the sequel, the focus could only be placed on the Asian ghost character played by Lu Yan He.

If they didn't do this, it would be very difficult to effectively convert the audience from the first film to the second.

D19 certainly wouldn't want to see such a thing happen.

And for this sequel, except for Lu Yan He, none of the other actors from the first film returned, because the script was set ten years after the first film.

However, because of the success of the first film, the actors participating in the sequel were basically well-known actors.

The production budget was raised to 50 million USD.

Of this, the salaries of Lu Yan He and Mukan accounted for nearly a quarter.

However, for a thriller horror film, the proportion of production staff salaries is often higher, especially for sequels.

This type of film relies heavily on the director and the lead actors.

Before going, Lu Yan He did his homework on the people he would be working with one by one.

Among the actors coming to participate, two had actually been nominated for Academy Awards, though the years of their nominations were a bit far back, both having received them seven or eight years ago.

Even so, it could be seen how popular the sequel to *The Mist* was in Hollywood.

In fact, if you understand Hollywood carefully, you will realize one thing: basically, if a film's box office performance is good, the mainstream trend in Hollywood will not say that this film is a bad movie.

It is rare to see situations like in China where some films gross over a billion but are still cursed by all sorts of people as "blockbusters."

Simply put, Hollywood adheres to the principle that "box office is king." If a film can sell at the box office, it means the audience likes it. If the audience likes it, it means the film is good.

Even the Oscars have a filter for works with high box office, especially in a certain sense.

For example, *Wicked*, which just ended not long ago; by Chinese standards, this is a proper commercial film.

And yet, it took all the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress nominations that others were fighting tooth and nail for.

Going further back, whether it was Matt Damon in *The Martian*, Sandra Bullock in *Gravity*, or Johnny Depp in *Pirates of the Caribbean*, none were conventional Oscar contenders, but because of high box office and industry representativeness—and of course, the foundation was that the actors all delivered truly excellent performances—they all received acting award nominations that year.

The success of the first *The Mist* made its sequel eyed by many first-tier actors. If it weren't for the fact that the first lead of *The Mist* sequel was Lu Yan He, Lu Yan He believed that even ultra-first-tier actors might have been willing to come and act in the second one.

Think about the cast of the adult section of *It* Chapter Two after the first film exploded at the box office; you might even think it was a film aiming for the Oscars or by a top director. Otherwise, how could they manage to get so many big names to act in a commercial horror film?

In many entertainment novels, one thing is often written: horror films are a marginal genre, and generally, first-tier big names won't come to act in pure horror films.

This is not wrong; such an ecological chain does exist.

But *It* Chapter Two broke this conventional phenomenon.

The reason is none other than that ultra-first-tier actors also need a work with a global box office of 500 million USD.

No one wants to miss such a work.

The sequel to *The Mist* was just such a situation.

Fortunately, Lu Yan He himself had actively or passively participated in several American awards seasons and attended two Academy Award ceremonies as a presenter, so he had been "disenchanted" with these Hollywood first-tier stars.

Perhaps he would be attracted again by the acting skills of some of them during collaboration, but that kind of "star aura" would not exist in his world.

This time, Lu Yan He specifically brought a stylist to be responsible for his character's look.

D19 didn't agree at first. However, during the first film, Lu Yan He did have friction with the crew due to the character's look, and the root of the problem lay with the stylist the crew had hired.

Plus, Lu Yan He's attitude was very firm this time, so they compromised, but they still required that the final look adopted would be decided by D19 and could not deviate too much from the first film.

Lu Yan He said: "I didn't want a major makeover either; I just didn't want to be screwed over again."

This time, they were not filming in Canada.

They were in the United States.

Mainly because the real-life location could no longer be used.

In the sequel, this small town had undergone ten years of desolation and decay, changing significantly from the real-life location, filled with a sense of ruin and loneliness.

This meant the sequel could only use CG to process the town scenes.

Therefore, many scenes had to be shot in a studio with green screens.

This actually had one benefit: shooting in a studio meant the conditions were much better than shooting on location.

Mukan Zorge came to the crew alone this time.

Hua Ruzhen was busy with her own work and could not accompany Mukan at the filming location throughout the process like in the first film.

So, Mukan's invitation to Lu Yan He for a meal changed from cooking in his own room to going to a restaurant.

It was just an ordinary restaurant.

A fast-food place.

Lu Yan He and Mukan Zorge hadn't seen each other for a long time and found that he seemed to have gained a little weight.

Seeing him size up his figure, Mukan explained with a bitter smile: "Ruzhen is not home most of the time now, and with no one to manage my diet, I've been a bit indulgent."

Lu Yan He laughed.

"Mukan, then you need to be more self-disciplined in the future. Sister Ruzhen won't be able to manage your three meals a day like before."

Mukan Zorge: "That's not up to me. People lose their reason when they are hungry."

Lu Yan He laughed, deeply agreeing.

At the fast-food restaurant, Lu Yan He ordered fried chicken and a vegetable salad, which wasn't healthy, but Lu Yan He felt it was fine to eat occasionally.

Mukan Zorge went straight for a Big Mac, a portion of fries, a bowl of cream of mushroom soup, and a Coke. After finishing it all, he shared half of Lu Yan He's fried chicken.

Watching him devour the food like that, Lu Yan He felt strangely jealous.

Being a director is great; there really is no body anxiety at all.

Lu Yan He wouldn't dare eat like that even when he was being indulgent.

Then, he felt a craving—

A craving for food.

"We should eat together less often next time," Lu Yan He suddenly said.

Mukan Zorge was stunned. "Huh? What's wrong?"

Lu Yan He said: "You eat too deliciously."

Mukan Zorge was stunned.

Lu Yan He: "I'm afraid I won't be able to help myself either."

Mukan Zorge: "..."

"Have you met all the other actors?" Mukan Zorge asked.

Lu Yan He shook his head. "Not yet, I haven't had any dealings with any of them before."

Mukan Zorge: "Then you have to be careful."

"Hmm?" Lu Yan He asked. "What's wrong? What should I be careful about?"

"In my work experience, once there is more than one popular actor in a crew, that crew will not be very peaceful," Mukan Zorge said.

Lu Yan He's understanding of this sentence was that they were all difficult characters.

He paused and nodded.

Whatever.

Let soldiers come and block, let water come and earth cover.

"Actually, compared to this, did you express to D19 before that you didn't want to film the *The Mist* series anymore after this one?" Mukan asked again.

Lu Yan He: "I didn't say it directly, but when they were negotiating the contract, they wanted to sign me for several more films in one go. I refused, so maybe they guessed it."

"Then what are your own thoughts?" Mukan asked. "I am also doing planning for the *The Mist* series. If you really don't intend to act in it, tell me early so I don't do useless work."

Lu Yan He hesitated for a moment and said: "It's not that I don't want to act in it at all in the future, but I really don't want to film the third one immediately in the near future. Even if the second one performs very well, the fire of this film exceeded our expectations. However, it can already be seen from the script of the second one that if this story continues to be filmed just for the sake of filming, it's a bit forced. It's better to slow down."

Mukan nodded.

"I agree with what you said."

Lu Yan He asked: "What about you? Mukan, do you want to continue filming?"

Mukan: "I am thinking about this matter. D19 very much wants to develop this film into a series."

A horror film series, low cost, high box office, and a fixed audience group—it is simply a cash cow that can continuously bring in revenue. D19 certainly hopes it can continue to be developed.

Mukan Zorge is almost touching the threshold of a "master" in the horror film field.

Having three consecutive films achieve good box office results and audience word-of-mouth is not easy.

Mukan Zorge has his own horror-thriller aesthetics.

Lu Yan He said: "Actually, I have written a horror-thriller film script for you. If you are interested, I can give this script to you to film."

Mukan Zorge showed a look of surprise.

"You wrote a horror-thriller film script?"

"Yes," Lu Yan He said. "Sister Ruzhen told me before that you have been looking for a good script to change people's perception that horror films are just simple, crude sensory films. You want to change the mainstream voice."

Mukan Zorge: "But this genre is marginal; there's no way."

"Actually, the social issues that *The Mist* possesses should have garnered the attention of the Oscars, but it missed the awards season at the time, and no PR was done. No one felt *The Mist* met the Oscar standards," Lu Yan He said. "Do you want to see the script I wrote?"

o￠o

Mukan nodded: "Of course, did you bring it?"

Lu Yan He took a script out of his bag.

Mukan received it in his hand and glanced at the cover.

*Get Out*.

Below it was also written a line of Chinese: *Escape from the Death Town*.

After *The Mist*, Lu Yan He didn't intend to act in horror films in the short term because no matter how much Hollywood touts itself, it is essentially a place full of discrimination and prejudice.

If Lu Yan He's horror film label is too deep and the box office performance is too outstanding, even if he has already accepted *Godless*, looking back, even if *Godless* performs well at the box office, Hollywood's positioning of him will definitely still be a horror film actor.

Because *The Mist* was a box office success carried by him alone.

In the history of Hollywood, there aren't that many actors who can carry the box office alone based on one person's attributes. This is entirely a factor of timing, location, and human harmony.

However, Lu Yan He also doesn't intend to give up his advantage in the horror-thriller genre.

Whether it's *Buried* or *Red Eye*, they are actually films with thriller elements.

Especially since Linghe started producing films in North America itself, horror-thriller films are a very good genre to complete "primitive accumulation."

Small cost, big return.

Too many cases.

They can't make big money like *Avatar* or *Titanic*, but small money can be earned continuously.

Does the money James Wan has earned in Hollywood over the years compare less than James Cameron?

Judging by his output and box office explosion rate, it's really not necessarily so. (Purely the author's own thoughts, without any basis)

So, Lu Yan He is actually using these scripts one by one to prove to Hollywood that he has a success rate in the North American market that is no weaker than the local one.

While Mukan Zorge was reading the script, Lu Yan He sat opposite him alone, looking at his phone.

Halfway through reading, Mukan Zorge looked up and said: "This film—"

His expression was a bit complex.

Lu Yan He nodded: "Just as I said just now, this is a horror-thriller film with social issues."

The box office explosion of *Get Out* largely stemmed from the echo of this story with the history of "black slavery." It's not about racial discrimination; its core is actually the spiritual fear that black people still hide deep in their hearts regarding that history in a modern context. Therefore, once the film was released, the discussion in American society was so heated that it was more than just a film.

This is also exactly a script that is most suitable for Mukan Zorge right now.

A theme with social issues, a thriller core of spiritual fear, plus Mukan Zorge's horror aesthetics—Lu Yan He can imagine that after this film is made, it will definitely become a film more popular than *The Mist*.

Because in the United States, the voice of black people is far greater than that of Asians.

Recommend the new entertainment novel *I Became a Scandal Heroine Overnight*. ===== CHAPTER 708 =====