Chapter 216: I Fell in Love with You

Filming has reached this point, and the drama is now at its ending—what follows is all action scenes, with the female lead cutting through everyone.

It had been building up the whole time, and now it's finally being released.

They kept filming until the end of April; the shoot lasted about a month and a half.

The re-release of Titanic still pulled in 946 million at the box office; Hollywood films once again dominated China's annual box office chart this year.

And this was just a re-release, not even in a prime slot—it opened in early April—which put enormous pressure on domestic film companies.

It got the higher-ups holding meetings again, talking about revitalizing Chinese cinema, but Fang Hong didn't go—he had no time—Chen Zhixi went.

These kinds of meetings are just for listening; you can offer opinions, but they may not be adopted.

Hollywood films are plentiful these days. Just for the May Day slot, besides Jade Rabbit's final installment of the Abortion Trilogy, "You Who Sat at the Same Desk," there was...

... also "The Great Huangjing Heist," "A Common Man," and other films—all garbage. Hollywood had "Ghost Rider 2" and "The Avengers."

"The Avengers" opened on May 5, basically the tail end of the holiday, so it was a staggered release.

Because the movie "You Who Sat at the Same Desk" shares its name with a song of the same title, during the promotional period it was furiously attacked by a man named Ai Dajin.

He said the movie stole their song for its theme.

Director Guo Fan, along with the cast, went on shows during promotion to rebut: "We tried to contact the songwriter but couldn't reach him, so we bought the rights through the Music Association—we didn't steal anything."

The first half of that statement was false, the second half was true; Ai Dajin heard it and was furious.

He fired back: "Pure nonsense. I never received any message from the producer Jade Rabbit about buying the song's rights. This company is truly shameless to the extreme—a literary thief!"

"Just because he didn't receive it doesn't mean we didn't try to contact him." Guo Fan was utterly shameless.

So the two sides argued, which provided free publicity for the film—exactly what they wanted, controversy and conflict.

And Ai Dajin is a celebrity too; whatever he says becomes public opinion. Jade Rabbit's side just needed to find someone to play along and they'd have buzz.

Netizens ate the melon, shared their views, the argument blew up, and along the way the movie got hyped up too.

You could say Jade Rabbit's handling of the film's promotion inherited Fang Hong's consistent style—shameless.

Being shameless makes money. Being decent means promoting the film with proper evidence, but who watches proper evidence? It was never a good movie to begin with.

Riding this wave of buzz, on April 25, "You Who Sat at the Same Desk" opened with 25.63 million at the box office.

The same period's "The Great Gold Heist" only got 8.48 million—simply not in the same league.

That film's plot went completely off the rails, way too clichéd, giving the impression of an anti-Japanese war drama—you could call it a highly controversial work.

But controversy kills the audience's anticipation. Better to let them watch an abortion film—at least that movie has a clear goal, sticking to its youth theme.

As for the other films, they were trash, not worth mentioning! On the 26th it dropped, with 20.65 million at the box office.

On the 27th it continued to fall, 19.91 million.

On the 28th, the weekend, everyone rested, and it suddenly jumped to 43.61 million at the box office, leading the pack by a mile!

In other words, it crossed 100 million in four days—youth films remain invincible.

They keep switching up ways to film abortions, three movies in, why do so many people still watch? You don't get it, I don't get it, do the bosses of all the major film companies not get it?

In any case, this film's success once again proves the importance of marketing.

On the 29th, the weekend, the box office held at 40.57 million.

On the 30th, everyone went back to work, only 29.64 million.

On May 1, the long holiday, 52.77 million at the box office, continuing to lead the pack, crushing all other films.

That was the day it crossed 230 million.

On May 2 it dropped, 48.28 million at the box office.

On May 3 it continued to drop, 31.23 million.

On May 5 there was nothing to be done—"The Avengers" opened that day.

The box office was slashed to under 10 million, but over those days the total reached 320 million, becoming the current box office champion.

The final total would have to wait until it finished its run.

It just got cursed out by netizens. To keep it simple, here are two examples of how they were scolded.

"First time I've seen a trailer highlight keywords like jerking off, AV, shooting J, girlfriend, and so on."

"Begging Jade Rabbit to leave youth films alone, stop ruining youth, please? It's still a child!"

"You who abort."

"If it's trash, I'll only say it once!"

"."

The Douban rating from all the cursing was only 6.0—barely passing.

The media also scolded, calling it a cash-grab.

Apart from squabbling with Ai Dajin during the promotional period, Jade Rabbit didn't dare say a word after release—not a peep.

But the money was made—who cares about being scolded a couple of times? The audience's feelings are understandable.

Fortunately there were also good reviews; among them, People's Daily Online published an article: "'You Who Sat at the Same Desk' Crosses 300 Million: Nostalgia Is Still the Cinema's 'Staple Need'!"

Outside the film promotion chaos, besides the "Zhao-Zhen Battle" still raging, news broke that Wang Zuxian was planning a comeback.

Lin Qingxia's comeback, Yang Yuying's appearance—the media hyped her up as making a comeback, no one knows where the information came from.

Da Mimi and Liu Kaiwei officially announced their relationship.

This year has been full of melons. "Lucy 1" is still in production.

It's already May; they've been filming for over a month—you could say it's been dragging, mainly because Liu Tianxian isn't good at dialogue-heavy scenes. The film demands close-ups, meaning rich facial expressions.

Arrogance, a wicked grin, looking down on the world—conveying her emotions, conveying them fully.

Unlike TV dramas, where as long as the story is clear, people will praise your acting as crushing Gong Huang and kicking Man Shen.

Filming continues, picking up from last time.

Song Jia's character, the doctor, is in danger. Fang Hong, wearing a trench coat, leads a large group of mutants to the rescue, his fierce momentum spilling off the screen.

But the situation changed suddenly—Xie Miao led a large armed force into the base, intending to wipe out all the mutants.

In other words, executing the parent company's purge plan.

Fang Hong let the low-level mutants deal with these people, while he himself went to rescue the Doctor.

In an instant the two sides were locked in a chaotic melee; the mutants were ferocious, and bullets from the armed troops hitting their bodies seemed to do nothing.

"Aim for the head!" Xie Miao commanded.

The armed troops aimed at the heads, and immediately it became a one-sided slaughter of the mutants.

Seeing the situation was decided, Xie Miao chased after Fang Hong—and Liu Tianxian.

But the moment he left, Li Zhuomei walked out in a tight leather outfit, stepping with an elegant catwalk stride, hips swaying, very seductive.

She chewed gum in her mouth, drew the throwing knives from her waist, and wherever the blade-light passed, a life was taken—clean and efficient.

She single-handedly slaughtered all the armed personnel to the last man.

On the other side, Liu Tianxian sensed someone coming, but before she could react, the wall beside her burst open and a person slammed hard into her.

She was sent flying several meters, her body crashing violently into the wall and cratering a huge dent into it.

Here Liu Tianxian was suspended on wires—otherwise where would Fang Hong get that much strength.

"Oh, you've gotten stronger now, haven't you!" Liu Tianxian said with a mocking face, completely unharmed.

Fang Hong glanced at Song Jia lying on the ground in agony and cursed: "You f***ing—"

"I should have killed you back then." Liu Tianxian said with regret.

She was talking about ten years ago, when she had escaped.

"Right—if you had killed me back then, today you wouldn't be dying at my hands." Fang Hong's face was full of contempt. "You're pretty cocky!"

Liu Tianxian stepped forward twice, then her figure vanished; when she reappeared she was behind Fang Hong, going straight for his head.

Fang Hong only had time to block, and Liu Tianxian had already seized his neck with a backhand, pinning him against the wall, the wall cracking apart.

Simply fast as lightning.

"Let me tell you, we are not on the same level at all." Liu Tianxian tilted her chin up slightly, a contemptuous smile on her face.

Then she exerted force with her hand, gripping his neck tightly and lifting him up.

Fang Hong was choked and in pain; he swung his other hand at her, but Liu Tianxian caught it in one grab.

"You're just too slow!"

Liu Tianxian finished speaking, flung his body out and slammed him hard into the wall, then stomped straight toward his head.

Fang Hong barely dodged, grabbed her leg, and slammed her into the wall as well.

The two grappled like this; every fist thrown cratered a huge dent in the wall, but Fang Hong was being beaten down the entire time, without the slightest ability to fight back.

Liu Tianxian still wore that mocking smile: "Faster, faster."

In truth she was just playing with the man, the same way he had teased her before—she was teasing him right back.

She slapped Fang Hong's chest, sending him slamming into the wall—a crisp "smack."

Fang Hong tried to fight back, but Liu Tianxian blocked him—another two crisp "smack smack" slaps, left and right.

Fang Hong was beaten into a fury; he used every ounce of strength to break free and continued to fight, but in the face of absolute speed, he was crushed without a single part of him left intact.

Especially once Liu Tianxian got serious, Fang Hong's arrogance was beaten into outright despair.

If she didn't have that flaw, she would truly be an invincible existence—S-class would be nothing but a noob in front of her.

Fang Hong was beaten until he spat fresh blood; Liu Tianxian stepped on his chest, casually reached out, and a handgun flew into her hand.

She aimed at Fang Hong's brow, still wearing that mocking smile, raised an eyebrow and said: "Goodbye!"

"Bang!"

It wasn't Liu Tianxian who fired—it was Xie Miao, who had appeared and aimed at her.

He had been watching from the shadows the whole time, waiting for the two of them to wound each other, but hadn't expected that even after all that fighting Liu Tianxian was still completely unharmed.

This filled him with dread—he had to cooperate with Fang Hong.

Liu Tianxian was sent flying by Xie Miao's shot, but she stood up without caring at all, and behind her, Li Zhuomei had also arrived.

The three top fighters surrounded her in a pincer formation.

"Heh, come at me together." Liu Tianxian still didn't care in the slightest.

The three wasted no words—Fang Hong attacked from the left with a fist, Xie Miao attacked from the right with a leg, Li Zhuomei used telekinesis to send her throwing knives straight at Liu Tianxian's brow, the assault ferocious.

Liu Tianxian stood stock-still, caught Fang Hong's fist and squeezed, clamped Xie Miao's leg under her arm, and the throwing knives stopped dead at her brow, unable to advance a single inch.

All three attacks were deflected by her with ease.

Her combat power, speed, and telekinesis were all top-tier—as long as she was serious, these three were simply no match for her.

Absolute suppression.

"Didn't you want to see how capable I am? I'll let you witness it right now."

Liu Tianxian finished speaking; the throwing knives reversed course and shot straight at Li Zhuomei's brow, piercing clean through her skull without any obstruction.

Li Zhuomei was instantly killed.

Then Liu Tianxian twisted off Fang Hong's hand and broke Xie Miao's leg—their body durability simply wasn't enough.

Neither of them felt pain, nor did they howl.

Liu Tianxian teleported behind Xie Miao, gripped his head, and twisted his neck clean off—he was dead! Also instantly killed; before she had just been playing with him.

Only Fang Hong remained; the moment Fang Hong prepared to make another move, he was blasted away without any warning.

This was telekinetic control—Fang Hong simply couldn't break through it; Liu Tianxian alone could kill him with telekinesis.

Fang Hong looked at Liu Tianxian before him and could only sit on the ground in resignation: "I'm pretty pathetic, aren't I?"

"You're not pathetic—I'll send you to the Western Paradise." Liu Tianxian said lightly.

Fang Hong gave a bleak smile, then put on that teasing look again: "I want to tell you a secret—I've fallen in love with you."

After saying that, she even puckered her lips at her in a kissing gesture.

"Bam!"

Liu Tianxian expressionlessly stomped his head to bits.

As for the final doctor, Liu Tianxian finished him off directly, and along the way found 6 vials of Blue Potion in the base.

After she left, the police began clearing the base — this was also something she had arranged.

Liu Tianxian returned home and gave her foster father 4 vials of Blue Potion; this could alleviate Alzheimer's disease.

Once a month, split into eight doses for her foster mother's injection.

She still had a conscience.

When she turned to leave, her foster father called out to her: "No matter what you were like in the past, we still taught you with all our heart."

These words hoped Liu Tianxian would become a good person.

Liu Tianxian said nothing and silently left.

Several months later, in a seaside Villa.

She held Cat-Mi in her arms, casually petting the cat, while sitting across from her was a middle-aged woman who looked exactly like the doctor.

And she was the doctor's twin sister, and also the one who had developed the potions.

Liu Tianxian threatened her into handing over more potions.

Just then, a girl brimming with killing intent appeared beside her.

Liu Tianxian noticed, but kept casually petting the cat: "If you dare touch me, watch out for your little life."

Filming up to this point, this movie also came to an end — if the results are good, they'll film a sequel; if not, they won't.

It's a movie series, they're all like that.

At this moment the crew was packing up the props; Liu Tianxian was pressing an ice pack to Fang Hong's face, and a little black kitten was walking around at their feet.

This was Liu Tianxian's own cat, specially brought along for filming.

The main face-slapping scene was filmed many times, and Fang Hong went along with being slapped many times — his face was slapped completely swollen.

Fortunately, makeup carried the scene through to completion.

Filming so many times was because Liu Tianxian wanted that offhand, casual state, and they just couldn't capture that state, so they filmed many times.

"Ah, ow ow ow!"

Fang Hong's face was burning: "Are you taking personal revenge under official pretexts?"

"Do I need an official pretext to hit you?" Liu Tianxian retorted, easing up a little.

At this moment she had returned to that charming, pretty look, without the domineering air from the movie.

"Can you leave me some face?" Fang Hong said.

Liu Tianxian pressed her lips together in a light smile and asked softly: "Does it hurt?"

"It hurts! Give me a little blow and I won't hurt anymore," Fang Hong said.

Liu Tianxian glanced at him, knowing he was being clingy, then took away the ice pack and gently blew.

The breeze she blew was gentle and comforting, like a lover's murmur!

(End of this chapter)