Chapter 615

Xie Tingfeng set down his wine glass: "Preparations are almost done; the stage design is something I personally participated in, and I specially added many elements from the past." He turned his head to look at Lin Mo, his eyes sincere: "Director Lin, will you still be in Xiang Jiang on June 11?"

"Yeah." Lin Mo smiled and nodded.

"Great! I'd like to invite you to come watch my concert!"

"Of course I have to go!" Lin Mo readily agreed, "Xie Tingfeng personally invited me; how could I not give him face?"

As for Cheng Long and Hua Ge.

They don't even need to be mentioned.

Xie Tingfeng's concert, they'll definitely go.

After all, the two of them can be said to have watched Xie Tingfeng grow up.

You know, the Hong Kong media used to regard Xie Tingfeng as Cheng Long ge's successor.

As they chatted, the light show over Victoria Harbour outside the window happened to start, and the brilliant neon lights bathed the private room in a dreamlike glow.

Around 9:30 p. m., Lin Mo finally returned to the hotel.

Starting at 7 p. m., after eating, chatting, and having a few drinks, over two hours passed.

As for the second round, none of the four had the interest.

After all, they all have families now.

In a...

Besides Lin Mo, the other three—Xie Tingfeng being the youngest—are all in their forties, fast approaching fifty; who still has the energy to play?

He had just finished his shower and was about to blow-dry his hair when he heard the notification tone of a video call on his phone.

The screen showed a request from Re Ba, and he smiled as he pressed the answer button.

"Honey~" Re Ba's voice came through; on the screen she was sitting on the bed holding little Nuan Nuan, the little one wearing a pink pajama, and upon seeing Lin Mo on the screen she immediately excitedly waved her little hands: "Papa! Papa!"

"Eh! Baby misses Papa?" Lin Mo's voice unconsciously softened by eight degrees.

Re Ba brought the phone closer: "That's right, she kept pointing at your photo and calling papa~"

Was Nuan Nuan well-behaved today?

She was very well-behaved, she just kept asking where papa went. Re Ba imitated her daughter's babyish tone.

Lin Mo listened to Re Ba share her daughter's daily life while blow-drying his hair.

"By the way, husband, I saw on the hot searches earlier that Cheng Long ge and Xie Tingfeng went to visit the set?" Suddenly, Re Ba brought it up.

"Hmm," Lin Mo adjusted his posture, leaning against the headboard, "Xie Tingfeng wants to transition into directing, so he came to the set today specifically to learn."

"Wow! It's really true—I saw netizens discussing this~" Re Ba's eyes lit up, "How did your chat go?"

Lin Mo laughed as he recounted the evening's gathering, specifically mentioning: "He also invited me to watch his concert on June 11; you should bring Nuan Nuan along then!"

Re Ba held Xiao Jiahuo in her arms: "Go! Go!"

Lin Mo was made to laugh by the mother-daughter pair: "Perfect—then I can spend a few days playing in Xiang Jiang, and my side will also be about wrapped up!"

"Great! Papa's work is about to be done~!" Re Ba happily kissed her daughter's little cheek,

"Papa~" Nuan Nuan mumbled indistinctly, her little hand reaching for the phone screen, as if she wanted to pass through it to find papa.

The video call lasted nearly an hour, ending when Nuan Nuan started rubbing her eyes and yawning; before hanging up, Re Ba softly said: "Husband, rest early, don't overwork yourself."

Lin Mo kissed the screen: "Good night, my two treasures."

Putting down his phone, Lin Mo walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the night view of Victoria Harbour, the corners of his mouth unconsciously turning up.

It's been a while since I've seen my wife and daughter.

And don't even get me started—I really miss them.

This is the first time since Nuan Nuan's birth that he has been away from his daughter for such a long stretch.

The promotion for Nezha: The Demon Child's Sea Chaos is in full swing; this is the first time Chen Guang has pushed a film not directed by Lin Mo onto the global market.

Domestic presales topped 320 million on the first day, reaching 980 million yuan in the first week; overseas presales were just as booming.

Of course, these figures are in yuan, not dollars.

Soon, it was June 1, the premiere day of Nezha: The Demon Child's Sea Chaos.

The screening was scheduled for 8 p. m.

Logically, Lin Mo should have gone to the Nezha 2 premiere, but he didn't fly to Hong Kong at the moment.

Still, he had to make the call.

Here it is.

On the other end of the line, Lin Mo could clearly hear Jiaozi's nervous voice, along with the noisy atmosphere at the premiere.

"Boss..."

"Hearing your voice, someone who didn't know might think you're about to face execution," Lin Mo joked.

Yang Yu gave a wry smile: "More nervous than facing execution... Even though the first film was a success, I'm still worried the audience won't be satisfied."

Don't be fooled by the huge success of the first Nezha.

But...

Yang Yu still lacks confidence.

He's really afraid the audience won't be satisfied.

"What's there to be nervous about? Tell me, in what ways is Nezha 2 stronger than the first?" Lin Mo interrupted.

Yang Yu paused, his voice gradually steadying: "The visual detail has improved by 30%, the world view is more complete, the emotional line is richer. Especially Ao Bing's growth arc, we made a bold innovation..."

"Isn't that enough?" Lin Mo laughed. "The first film grossed over 6 billion; this one will only be higher, so hitting a hundred billion is no problem."

Although, when he time-traveled, Nezha 2 hadn't been released yet.

But in this world, with Chen Guang as his backing and the success of the first film, Nezha: The Demon Child's Sea Chaos breaking the hundred-billion mark is truly no problem.

Afterwards, Lin Mo chatted with him a bit more before hanging up.

He's in the screening room right now.

Today he specially rented out a whole cinema, giving the cast and crew a day off to come watch the premiere of Nezha 2.

Besides that, he also invited Cheng Long and his crew.

This isn't.

Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao shows up.

Lin Mo had just replied to Re Ba's message when he heard Cheng Long's voice: "Mo Zai!"

He looked up and saw Cheng Long, Bao Ge and his group arriving, with Xie Tingfeng, Gu Xiaozhang, Ceng Zidan and others following behind.

You could say all these big names from Xiang Jiang have shown up.

"Long Shu, you're right on time," Lin Mo said with a smile as he stood up.

Cheng Long strode in, patted Lin Mo on the shoulder, and said: "I even took a special look at that Nezha animation earlier—it's really well done!"

Hong Jingbao leaned on his cane, joking: "Director Lin, I pushed aside three dinner engagements to come here, so you'd better treat us to a meal later!"

"When Bao Ge speaks, it must be arranged!" Lin Mo readily agreed.

Everyone exchanged pleasantries as they entered the screening room.

In this theater, aside from Cheng Long and his group, it's just the core cast of Fast & Furious 3; the other staff are in the neighboring theater.

Lin Mo took the center seat in the theater, with Cheng Long on his left and Hong Jingbao on his right.

Xiang Tai and Xiang Huaqiang sat in the front row, occasionally turning around to join the conversation.

"Director Lin," Xiang Tai turned and asked curiously, "What box office do you predict for Nezha 2?"

Before Lin Mo could speak, Cheng Long chimed in: "I'd guess at least 8 billion! The first one already made over 6 billion."

"Ah Long, you're being too conservative," Hong Jingbao shook his head, saying, "If you ask me, with these presales, we're looking at a starting point of 10 billion!"

From behind came Er Dongsheng's voice: "Director Lin, what do you think?"

Lin Mo chuckled: "Bao Ge is right—10 billion is the floor; as for how high it could go, who knows~"

Meanwhile, on the other side,

Fan Di Sai Er, Jushi, Jason, and Gal Gadot were discussing a China‑US issue.

They each held a bucket of popcorn.

"This is too amazing!"

"Terence, why is your Huaguo popcorn sweet? In Mi Guo it's all salty!"

This question made Yin Ziwei laugh, while Xu Dongdong beside him froze for a moment—because she had been learning English from her boyfriend on Douyin for the past two years, her English was actually pretty good, so she could understand what they were saying.

"Huh? Honey, is Mi Guo popcorn salty?" Xu Dongdong also asked curiously.

Yin Ziwei smiled and explained in fluent English: "It's related to dietary habits—Mi Guo folks like to pair movies with cola, and salty popcorn balances the sweetness; we Huaguo people prefer sweet foods, so our popcorn is sweet too."

He worried Xu Dongdong might not have understood, so he also repeated it in Chinese: "This is just like our sweet‑vs‑salty zongzi debate~"

Having spent a long time in the mainland, Yin Ziwei naturally also knew about this news.

"I love this sweet flavor! I'll have my assistant buy a case when I get back."

"I still prefer salty… but this isn't bad either."

As they were chatting, the theater lights suddenly dimmed.

The movie's about to start!