Chapter 201: Ceng Li

On September 26, Ceng Li took several classmates from her class and flew directly to Malaysia on Wei Jin's private jet.

It was also Ceng Li's first time seeing this big toy; filled with curiosity, she took a tour under the guidance of the flight attendant.

After walking through the whole thing, Ceng Li was very satisfied; many of the small details and designs matched her aesthetic.

However, the others were in a state of complete shock, even feeling a sense of unreality.

After holding back for a long time, Liu Ye finally couldn't help but ask the question that was on everyone else's mind.

"Lizi, how much did President Wei pay for this plane?"

The relationship between Ceng Li and Wei Jin was an open secret in the Central Academy of Drama Class of 96, but no one was tactless enough to leak it.

For one, the man was unmarried and the woman was single; it was perfectly normal for two people to be in love. Besides, Ceng Li was semi-retired and Wei Jin was a director behind the scenes, so it caused no harm at all.

For another, Shanhe Media was in its prime in the film and television industry; one would have to be out of their mind to offend Wei Jin.

"I don't know, Lao Zhu might have a better idea."

Ceng Li truly had no concept of material things; she didn't even know how much money she had herself. In her own words, having a few thousand yuan a month was enough to live in Beijing.

However, since her classmate had asked, she was also a bit curious and turned to look at Zhu Wei.

Zhu Wei rarely spoke, and this concerned his boss's privacy. If not for the curious look from the boss's lady, he wouldn't have answered casually. He simply raised his fingers and gestured a 【three】.

"Thirty million?"

Chen Minghao, who had been silent, couldn't help but ask. Zhu Wei shook his head.

Liu Ye's voice trembled slightly as he swallowed hard:

"Three hundred million?"

"Something like that. This matter was handled in North America, so I don't know the specifics. It's very complicated; it's not just the cost of the plane, but also taxes, procedures, airport leasing, crew salaries, and so on. The boss didn't say much."

Everyone fell silent. To them, this price was unthinkable, let alone buying a private jet with "useless" functionality.

What was even more terrifying to think about was that since Wei Jin dared to buy it, it meant he didn't care about this amount of money at all. In other words, his net worth was likely dozens or hundreds of times the value of this plane.

Thinking of this, Mei Ting couldn't help but whisper to Ceng Li: "Exactly how much money does your man have?"

As soon as these words were out, the others also stared at Ceng Li without blinking. They had originally thought Hu Jing might have made the best marriage in the class, but now it seemed that wasn't necessarily true, even though Ceng Li and Wei Jin weren't married.

"I really don't know. I've never concerned myself with these things. Anyway, it's enough, I suppose."

When she first got together with Wei Jin, she had worried about a few hundred thousand yuan. Within a year, she never saw the man worry about money again, but she truly didn't know exactly how much he had. This wave of high-level humble-bragging left her classmates silent. After a long while, Mei Ting finally squeezed out a sentence.

"Lizi, you really are a lucky fool."

Mei Ting's words drew agreement from the other two classmates. Perhaps it was this non-competitive personality that allowed Ceng Li to hold such weight with Wei Jin. —— As the National Day approached, a piece of news shocked the entire circle.

Wei Jin's realistic script was rejected, and the reason given was quite sufficient: "Too much negative content, lacking positive significance."

For the entire film and television circle, this result was an inconceivable matter.

As the highest-grossing commercial director in Mainland China, a Palme d'Or winner, and an Oscar Director, no one expected Wei Jin's script to fail the review.

The moment he received the news, Wei Jin sent an email to Hunter; the North American crew could begin preparations.

Compared to Wei Jin's calm reaction, other directors in the circle were in an uproar.

Although Jiang Wen had no close friendship with Wei Jin, he stood up to support him this time:

"If a script like 'Nanjing' can pass, why can't Wei Jin's?"

Tian Zhuangzhuang also didn't expect these old fogies to act so ruthlessly. Usually mild-mannered, he rarely spoke out to publicly support his student: "I have read the script, there is absolutely no problem. Those who occupy positions without doing their jobs—the old who refuse to die are nothing but thieves!"

The intensity of his mentor's words was something Wei Jin hadn't expected, and he specifically called to comfort the old man, hoping he wouldn't get too angry and harm his health.

Ning Hao also called immediately to offer comfort. He felt a sense of shared bitterness regarding Wei Jin's situation, as his own script was still under review.

The women around him also called one after another, and even Gao Yuanyuan, who was still in a cold war with him, sent a text message.

This actually gave Wei Jin a chance for a group reunion; perhaps after encountering a Waterloo, if he pretended to be depressed, the women would indulge his mischief.

The old fogies' underhanded tactics didn't stop there. The day after Wei Jin's script was rejected, Ning Hao's script passed the review.

This led many industry insiders to speculate that this move was intended to drive a wedge between Wei Jin and Ning Hao—a truly calculated scheme. —— Wei Jin ignored the outside disturbances. He just wanted to finish filming 'Lucy' as soon as possible and complete 'The Hunt' before the Berlin International Film Festival. When the time came, he would take the trophy and slap it hard in the faces of these blind old fogies.

Currently, after a month of filming 'Lucy', the interior scenes set in Tokyo in the script had mostly been shot.

For example, several scenes in the hotel, scenes in the prison, the surgery scene in the hospital, and the gunfight between police and criminals outside the laboratory.

Of course, many fragmented shots were also filmed during this time, such as the scene where the heroine uses her superpowers to demonstrate her abilities to Chen Baoguo, who was playing a professor in a hotel in Hong Kong. This was also Chen Baoguo's only shot in this month.

The remaining scenes of the professor's academic exchange in the school auditorium were scheduled to be filmed during the National Day holiday.

Overall, the progress was very encouraging. After the National Day, Wei Jin could take the crew to Hong Kong and Tokyo to shoot the exterior scenes.

In his spare time from filming, Wei Jin also took time to accompany Jing Tian to watch a movie, Director Chen Musheng's 'Connected'.

How should he put it? Chen Musheng, Gu Xiaozhang, and Liu Ye had all done their best, and the plot was not bad, but the lead actress Da S was truly a drag.

She debuted as an idol and had the backing of Taiwan capital, so her resources were always very good. However, her looks and acting skills were truly hard to describe; he didn't know what kind of mood people were in when they praised her beauty.

This film was also produced by Emperor Motion Pictures. To avoid competing for the schedule with 'Ip Man 2', it was specifically arranged for mid-September.

It had been released for over ten days, and the box office had exceeded 30 million. Compared to the 45 million production cost, Emperor Motion Pictures would likely lose money. Sure enough, with Da S involved, the box office was no surprise.

Regarding this, Emperor Motion Pictures could only pin their hopes on the upcoming 'Ip Man 2'.

On September 30, 'Ip Man 2' was officially released. Thanks to the reputation of the previous installment and the theater screenings, the first-day box office was 18 million.

Entering the National Day, the performance was even more explosive. The box office on the National Day was 23 million, and it remained at nearly 20 million or more every day thereafter, showing extremely strong dominance.

The 'Ip Man' series had become a complete hit. As the absolute male lead, Zhen Zidan gained huge benefits, and many Hong Kong media outlets were already calling him the "successor to Cheng and Li."

As Zhen Zidan's status soared, his market value skyrocketed. The outside world's quotes for his salary were already completely on par with Liu Tianwang.

Boss Yang called to ask for Wei Jin's opinion on the box office.

"President Wei, do you think it's possible to reach 300 million?" "Not very likely. After the holiday, the box office will probably take a big dive, but 200 million is a sure thing."

It wasn't that Wei Jin was conservative; it was just how the National Day slot worked. The holiday basically accounted for over 70% of the box office.

"That's also very good. Once it breaks 200 million, how about we hold a big celebration banquet?"

"Sure, but I might not have time to attend. You can help me hand out red envelopes to the main cast when the time comes."

If this film's box office exceeds 200 million, conservatively estimated, Wei Jin will earn at least tens of millions; giving out red envelopes is only fitting.

"Alright, I will thank President Wei for his generosity on behalf of the crew first, haha" — inside a lecture hall at Peking University that could accommodate five or six hundred people, the crew of Lucy was busy filming.

On the podium, Professor Chen Baoguo, dressed in formal attire and wearing gold-rimmed glasses, looking somewhat scholarly and wise, flipped through some documents and continued: "Let us imagine, if we could utilize 20% of our brainpower, what would life become?"

The content of the PPT on the screen behind him changed accordingly.

"In the first stage, we could fully exert and control our own bodies."

"Professor, may I interrupt?"

Ma Xiaoyuan, who was guest-starring as a student, raised his hand to ask; he looked somewhat similar to Wang Xiaozhang and had been specially invited by Wei Jin.

"Certainly, please go ahead!"

"Professor, I would like to know if this possibility has any scientific verification at present?"

"To be honest, it is currently just a hypothesis. However, everyone can think about why many ancient civilizations knew of the existence of cells long before the invention of the microscope."

Following that was the professor's long-winded speech; Chen Baoguo's command of his lines was excellent, making the filming very worry-free.

"Cut, this take is good, everyone take a break for a while."

Wei Jin shouted into the walkie-talkie, then took off his headset, stood up from his chair, and stretched his body.

The assistant director also directed the extras to take a short break and marked everyone's positions, as they would have to continue with the subsequent shots later and could not afford any continuity errors.

Wei Jin also took this opportunity to go outside to smoke, but received a long-awaited phone call — Beijing, Yanjiao Villa.

Hanging up the phone, Yu Feihong walked back into the room and looked at Gao Yuanyuan with some disappointment: "He is busy filming a movie and has no time to come over. The script matter from before probably has him annoyed too, plus you are not making things easy; perhaps he wants to just break it off like this."

Yu Feihong lied; she knew her best friend too well—at most a few months, and she would revert to her old ways and start causing trouble again.

This time, she wanted to make her best friend recognize her own heart and stop looking for trouble when she had nothing to do.

"He... did he really say that?"

Gao Yuanyuan's voice was already choked with sobs; in fact, she had already thought things through these past few days, but due to her pride, she was embarrassed to take the initiative to speak up.

She had taken the opportunity of her birthday tomorrow to ask Yu Feihong to help invite Wei Jin, to give each other a step down to reconcile and make up.

It was just that she could never have imagined that Wei Jin would be so heartless; she had already handed him the ladder, yet he kicked it away.

"Isn't this what you wanted? He isn't pestering you anymore, you can go pursue the life you want."

Yu Feihong continued to provoke Gao Yuanyuan; the sadder she was now, the more pleasantly surprised she would be later. She felt she had truly exhausted herself for these two people.

"What I want is him, wuwu."

Gao Yuanyuan was currently immersed in the pain of losing Wei Jin; thinking of all the little things since she first met Wei Jin, she regretted it.

Yu Feihong did not comfort her, just watched her best friend cry until her voice was hoarse.

"If he appeared in front of you right now, have you thought about how to handle your relationship?"

"What is the use of saying these things now, wuwu... He doesn't want me anymore... wu."

Gao Yuanyuan did not catch the meaning in Yu Feihong's words, but instead buried her head on the sofa armrest and continued to sob.

Just as Yu Feihong was about to say something, the phone in her bag vibrated; she knew it was time for her to leave.

"Yuanyuan, I have something else to do, so I'm leaving first. Don't be too sad; men, you know, if one doesn't work out, just change him."

Listening to the sound of the door opening and closing, Gao Yuanyuan really didn't expect that at a time like this, her best friend wouldn't stay with her and would even make sarcastic remarks, which made her feel even sadder.

She didn't know how much time had passed, but in a daze, Gao Yuanyuan seemed to hear the gentle words he said the first time she cried in front of Wei Jin:

"Yuan Yuanjie, let's stop crying; you won't be pretty if you keep crying." — Wei Jin looked at the woman in front of him with some helplessness and some heartache; what kind of crazy idea did Yu Feihong come up with.

In fact, he had already arrived for quite a while, but Gao Yuanyuan was completely immersed in her own world and hadn't noticed at all.

"Yuan Yuanjie, if you keep crying, I'm really going to leave."

Gao Yuanyuan suddenly raised her head, only to see the man who was carved into the depths of her heart standing in front of her, looking at her with eyes full of Amour.

Without hesitation, Gao Yuanyuan got up and threw herself into the man's arms, holding him tightly, fearing this was just a hallucination.

Wei Jin patted Da Meiyuan's back gently as if coaxing a child, and the two of them just hugged quietly like that, feeling each other's heartbeats.

Gradually, Gao Yuanyuan finally calmed down, raised her head, and offered her lips; Wei Jin naturally responded passionately.

Suddenly, Wei Jin felt a sharp pain in his lips.

"Yuan Yuanjie, are you a dog?"

"You bad man, who told you to team up with Feihong to lie to me."

By now, how could Gao Yuanyuan not understand that she had fallen for her best friend's trick.

"If not for this, how could I understand how much Yuan Yuanjie loves me?"

Wei Jin gently cupped Gao Yuanyuan's pretty face, looked at her affectionately, and then kissed her heavily again.

This time, Gao Yuanyuan responded to the man passionately and gently, melting all her Amour into this kiss.

After a long while, their lips parted.

Wei Jin knew that from this moment on, Gao Yuanyuan was completely his. The second update of the day, I implore all book friends to reward me with subscriptions, follow-up reads, collections, monthly tickets, and recommendation tickets, thank you everyone! (End of chapter)