Chapter 865: So that's how it is

Huang Tianlin used to be a person who insisted very much on himself.

At the same time, he was highly sensitive and had an inferiority complex that was very easy to trigger.

His first meeting with Lu Yan He was not pleasant, but the result was beyond everyone's expectations. And in the process of creation, it was also rare for two people with very strong opinions to have almost no disputes, and in the process, slowly get closer, become friends, and forge a good friendship.

In the field of creation, disputes, quarrels, roaring, and falling apart are the norm.

However, after the great success of *Tropical Rainy Season*, the various flaws in Huang Tianlin disappeared. He was still proud, even a bit conceited, but no longer so sensitive, would not worry about gains and losses, would not hold groundless hostility toward all "successful people," and would not rather hold the steering wheel tightly himself than add a little gas to his car.

Huang Tianlin spent a long time creating the script for *The Original Father*. In *Tropical Rainy Season*, he wrote a family story from a child's perspective. In that story, the father figure was absent.

In this script, Huang Tianlin had created several scripts, always feeling that something was a bit wrong, and even some scripts were almost entering the production stage, only to be called off in the end. Finally, until he wrote the script for *The Original Father*, he felt that everything was right.

And after Lu Yan He read the script, he gave very positive feedback immediately, which made him even more determined in this idea.

Some directors, throughout their lives, cannot detach their created works from their own life experiences, and even in many people's eyes, it is nothing more than the same story, repeatedly told over and over again.

However, for some directors, this is not a bad thing.

After a period of time, Lu Yan He replied that he was willing to appear in this film.

Huang Tianlin actually felt a sense of relief in his heart.

He didn't even know when he started to value Lu Yan He's attitude so much.

Huang Tianlin asked him: "Is it this script that moved you? Is it the script itself, or the experience of me working with you on the previous film?"

"It's the script." Lu Yan He said bluntly, "Our last collaboration is certainly a reason, but as far as this film is concerned, the script is what moved me the most, and you are secondary."

After hearing this, Huang Tianlin smiled with satisfaction.

He wanted to hear this kind of answer from Lu Yan He even more.

When the film *The Original Father* started shooting, no press release was issued.

However, the news of Lu Yan He joining the crew made the entire world's film industry hear that this film had started shooting.

Five first-tier Hollywood film companies came to negotiate distribution rights.

The artistic directors and selectors of the four major international film festivals all contacted them, inviting this film to participate in their main competition units—

Even without a finished film, they were directly invited to enter the main competition unit.

This was because of the success of *Tropical Rainy Season*.

Once the film information was released, major media outlets listed this film on the "seed player" list for the awards season at the end of this year.

No one thought that the film *The Original Father* would fail.

Such attention only belongs to such films.

As the attention of major international media shifted over, the crew of *The Original Father* had to further strengthen security and confidentiality management, not allowing some paparazzi to disguise themselves, sneak into the crew, shoot some things, and send them out—

Heaven knows to what extent they would risk everything for the benefits that could be converted from the current heat.

Four or five media outlets were stationed near the crew, just to capture the one or two glimpses of Lu Yan He on his way to and from work—

Even such photos could sell for a good price.

Lu Yan He could do nothing about this and could only endure it.

If you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight; the logic is the same.

And after *Love is Not to Win* was released for 10 days on New Year's Eve, the box office exceeded 400 million RMB, becoming the box office champion of the New Year's Day slot.

For this film, Lu Yan He had no time to return to China to help with promotion.

However, with a leading cast like Li Zhibai and Jiang Yuqian, relying on the "emergency battle" of the past two months, *Love is Not to Win* finally achieved a 19% screening rate, catching up from behind to take nearly one-fifth of the screenings on New Year's Eve, ranking third, and achieving a box office of nearly 80 million that day, winning the first place in the daily box office.

Afterward, starting from the second day, the screening rate steadily rushed to 25%.

The box office is the real gold and silver.

Li Zhibai and Jiang Yuqian cooperated with the most important roadshow for domestic film promotion, running for a total of six days.

Similarly, just as Lu Yan He had expected, the film *Love is Not to Win* was a topical explosion on social media platforms.

A large number of golden sentences were widely circulated on the Internet.

For example, "Today's little boys, loyalty is worth a thousand gold, but it's not worth four taels of breasts!", and another, "I am worthy of myself, worthy of that love."

These sentences were so hot on the Internet.

I don't know how many people updated them as their social media signatures.

For the two leads, whether it was Li Zhibai or Jiang Yuqian, their popularity, discussion, and especially media acclaim, all ushered in an unprecedented rise.

Many media outlets said that Li Zhibai and Jiang Yuqian had almost performed the most breakthrough roles of their acting careers to date.

Li Zhibai's performance in the film also shocked a bunch of his fans, and some fans even didn't understand why he wanted to play such a self-destructive role.

Li Zhibai replied directly in the comment section: Self-destructive? No, it just destroyed the impression you had of me in your mind.

Fans asked: Do you really not care about your image in the eyes of fans?

Li Zhibai: As an actor, when I am playing a role, should I care what image I have in the eyes of fans?

Anyway, he and his fans had a war of words.

Conversely, Jiang Yuqian received almost unanimous praise.

The character Huang Xiaoxian had a great persona.

It is very difficult to create a modern urban female character that can attract a large number of fans. Otherwise, looking at the history of domestic cinema, aren't the classic female images in films often dominated by female characters in ancient or period backgrounds?

This is the same thing as literature. A critic once said that in China, there are many classic rural literature works, however, modern urban literature is as barren as a desert. That sentence certainly has its bias and absolutism, but it must be admitted that because China's modernization has only lasted for twenty or thirty years, and modern cities have not existed for many years, it is fundamentally impossible to compare with the heavy past in terms of years.

Therefore, the appearance of a female character like Huang Xiaoxian is the same as when *Go Lala Go! * could sell out and be enshrined as a bible for urban workplace women. A serious urban chick, with no dramatic processing in character background and origin, and a persona so good that men find it cute and even a little sexy, and women feel that a role model of our generation should live like her, appeared out of nowhere; it was too scarce.

The media and audience word-of-mouth for *Love is Not to Win* even made the entire industry look sideways.

Because it is extremely rare for an urban comedy work with obvious commercial nature, with not many romantic elements, to receive such high media and audience evaluation. Such momentum, if placed in the United States, would definitely be a hot player in the awards season and would definitely be recognized by the Oscars.

Some even said that Linghe set the wrong slot.

*Love is Not to Win* should have been released during the Spring Festival slot.

With such good word-of-mouth, if it were released during the Spring Festival slot, the box office volume should have been far more than 500-600 million.

Chen Yin looked at such criticism and just smiled, not taking it to heart at all.

Because he knew very well that the facts were not like this at all.

If this film were to be placed in the Spring Festival slot, many audiences, constrained by the fact that they often watch movies with classmates or family during the Spring Festival, might not necessarily choose it as their first choice, and if the box office didn't hold up in the first few days, the screening rate would inevitably decline, followed by the long-tail effect where even if word-of-mouth could guarantee the box office, the box office volume would inevitably shrink due to the shift in everyone's attention, and in the end, it might not even reach 500 million.

A film to be placed in the Spring Festival slot must be a film with potential and the possibility of becoming a priority choice for viewing.

However, it doesn't matter, so let everyone say it; anyway, *Love is Not to Win* has succeeded once again.

Oh, no, recently there are still quite a few haters saying that this film's box office is a big flop.

Starring Li Zhibai and Jiang Yuqian, written by Lu Yan He, and it looks like it can only take 500-600 million at the box office; isn't this a big flop?

Linghe unceremoniously announced the cost of *Love is Not to Win*, strongly thanking Li Zhibai and Jiang Yuqian for starring, opening the door to the market for such an urban-themed film with authorial expression and lines with a threshold for understanding. Linghe even unassumingly announced that *Love is Not to Win* allowed Chinese chick flicks to revive, once again proving the possibility of being a box office hit in the market, and also let everyone see that even with innovative, breakthrough, and non-mainstream protagonist settings, one can still achieve box office success.

In short, in summary, Linghe just wanted to express one thing.

*Love is Not to Win* is very successful, you haters go aside.

And after the topical craze set off by the New Year's Day slot films ended, the key news in the entertainment industry gathered on the Spring Festival Gala.

Which artists will appear on the Spring Festival Gala has become the most eye-catching thing. Whether Lu Yan He can appear on the Spring Festival Gala is the same.

However, this year, the Spring Festival Gala director team really didn't send an invitation to Lu Yan He.

To be precise, the Spring Festival Gala director team had contacted Chen Ziyan early on, and after knowing that Lu Yan He definitely wouldn't have time, they gave up this plan.

Even if every year at this time, the call to see Lu Yan He on the Spring Festival Gala is particularly high, suddenly surging like waves.

Lu Yan He didn't appear on the Spring Festival Gala, and although Li Zhibai and Yan Liang received invitations, they also declined.

Although they had never discussed this aspect of things, nor had they formed a so-called agreement, Li Zhibai and Yan Liang both had a tacit idea—in the past, every time they appeared on the Spring Festival Gala, all three of them appeared together. If possible, they hoped to continue this tradition.

Of course, the main reason was that this year, Yan Liang's parents would stay in Yuming for the New Year. After Yan Liang's mother's surgery was successfully completed, they had been staying in Yuming to rest, and Yan Liang wouldn't let them go back, worried, specifically hiring caregivers, nannies, and drivers for them—and specifically buying a house for them in Ziyuanqiao, allowing them to live peacefully.

Li Zhibai laughed.

If this continues, their circle will contract Ziyuanqiao in the future.

Yan Liang wanted to accompany his parents for the New Year this year.

Li Zhibai planned to follow Jiang Yuqian back to her home to see her parents.

After the paparazzi threat in December, both of them felt that rather than waiting for this bomb to explode at an unknown time, it was better to step on it themselves.

Before that, they needed to make it clear to their families.

Then, publicly announce their relationship during the New Year, let everyone digest it for a period of time, and when everyone is back to work, everyone will have digested it enough, and the two of them can go to Europe and America to promote the film.

Both teams had made a lot of preparations for the public announcement of the relationship.

It was quite a case of "everything is ready, only the east wind is missing."

And on Yin Xincheng's side, it had been confirmed that he was preparing to announce his marriage on the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month—

This date was also carefully chosen by them.

No matter what kind of uproar their matter would set off, one day later, it would be New Year's Eve, and all media resources and public attention would inevitably have to be placed on the Spring Festival Gala.

Choosing such a date, one can actually see how pessimistic his team was about the public opinion that this marriage announcement would cause. They needed to forcibly rely on the Spring Festival Gala to divert public attention.

Regarding Yin Xincheng's announcement of his marriage, the *Friends* crew had also made preparations.

Regarding this matter, everyone had unified their stance and would not answer any relevant questions in front of the media, only the two words "blessing."

As the first person in *Friends* to announce his marriage, the situation Yin Xincheng would face next was also something everyone was curious about.

It was a bit like testing the waters.

As for Lu Yan He, he actually didn't take it particularly to heart. The sitcom *Friends* itself was already a bit beyond what everyone could accept in terms of common sense, such as having a child out of wedlock, various CP pairings, etc. Back then, the news about the stars of *Friends* was flying everywhere, but it didn't affect the popularity of the show at all. Therefore, Lu Yan He didn't worry at all that Yin Xincheng's marriage announcement could affect the audience base of *Friends*.

Those who think so are either too worried themselves or simply don't understand the status of *Friends* in the hearts of the audience.

Therefore, Lu Yan He stayed in the *The Original Father* crew very peacefully, not worrying about this matter at all.

On the contrary, He Yingzi was a bit puzzled.

She originally planned to bring Lang Xia out to have a good chat with him about signing with Zhou Ping'an after her current contract expired.

Before talking to Zhou Ping'an, she wanted to sound out Lang Xia first, at least get Lang Xia's consent first.

Zhou Ping'an was not Chen Ziyan after all.

For Lang Xia, he would definitely think Chen Ziyan was a good choice, but he might not necessarily think Zhou Ping'an was a good choice.

He Yingzi was prepared to have a good talk with Lang Xia about this matter.

Who knew, before she had time to find Lang Xia, Lang Xia took the initiative to contact her, saying that he had some ideas of his own about the arrangements after the contract ended and wanted to communicate with her.

Hearing this, He Yingzi was surprised, but immediately understood. Although she had always protected Lang Xia well and had never thought of irresponsibly abandoning Lang Xia, including the fact that her own health had problems, she was still here helping Lang Xia contact the next party that could take over. Standing from Lang Xia's perspective, the brokerage contract was about to expire, but there had been no discussion about contract renewal, so Lang Xia must have felt a bit panicked and restless.

He Yingzi decided to just take this opportunity to tell Lang Xia about her future plans, including some of her health conditions.

However, soon He Yingzi realized that she was really, really wrong.

When He Yingzi came to Lang Xia, before she even had time to say that she was sick, Lang Xia spoke up: "After the contract expires, I won't renew it."

He Yingzi was stunned.

Lang Xia said: "Some time ago, I already contacted someone else. After the contract expires, I will start a collaboration with someone else."

"Oh, is that so?" He Yingzi wanted to say these words in a relaxed, indifferent tone, but anyone could see that such relaxation and indifference were performed too reluctantly.

Lang Xia said: "I am very grateful for everything you have done for me in the past few years, but when I found out that the reason you became my agent was actually because you were my father's former lover, I couldn't look at you straight."

He Yingzi heard these words and felt a pain as if she had been pierced by ten thousand arrows.

"What did you say?" She looked at Lang Xia in disbelief.

Lang Xia looked straight at her, not backing down, "Did I say something wrong? Do you want to deny it?"

He Yingzi was so angry she laughed.

"So that's how it is."

The night of the Galaxy Awards ceremony.

Lu Yan He returned to China.

He asked for two days off, just to attend the Galaxy Awards.

Among the three major domestic film awards, *Storm Calmer No. 1* was a big nominee.

Lu Yan He had already attended the previous two, so it was impossible not to come to this one.

Especially since these three major domestic awards seemed to have reached a consensus to collectively honor the film *Storm Calmer No. 1*.

Tonight, what he cared about most was whether Teacher Wen Shengming could win an award.

Who knew, as soon as he entered the inner venue, Lu Yan He bumped into a nemesis.

Lang Xia.

However, by his side, He Yingzi's figure was nowhere to be seen.

This was truly a bit strange; on such occasions, usually He Yingzi was almost certainly around Lang Xia.

Lu Yan He was a bit surprised.

Then someone told him that Lang Xia was not renewing his contract with He Yingzi, and the two sides had broken up.

When Lu Yan He heard this for the first time, he didn't believe it at all.

Until more and more people said it, he couldn't help but believe it.

Judging from the signs in front of him, it seemed that this was indeed the case.

Lu Yan He really found it incredible.

However, he soon realized that this was just the beginning.

Zhou Ping'an actually appeared by his side!