Chapter 84

This was Chen Duling's first kiss, and the intense stimulation made her almost unable to catch her breath.

She suddenly came to her senses and pushed Zhou Jin away with force.

Looking down, her clothes were already messed up.

She was so embarrassed that her face was completely red, and she couldn't speak, stammering as she pushed and shoved Zhou Jin out of the room in a panic.

After closing the door, Chen Duling leaned against it, panting heavily.

After finally calming her heartbeat, she picked up her phone, sent a "Goodnight" to Zhou Jin, and then immediately threw herself onto the bed, burying her burning cheeks deep into the quilt.

Seeing the "Goodnight" on his phone, Zhou Jin smiled lightly and turned to walk back to his own hotel.

The contact just now had completely ignited the fire within him. Thinking that there was still an "evil little kitten" waiting for him in his room, he couldn't help but quicken his pace.

Today, he must make sure this little kitten can't get out of bed tomorrow.

……

The next morning, Zhou Jin was awakened by a phone ringtone.

Li Yitong beside him was still fast asleep.

The thin quilt half-covered her, and her fiery, sexy figure was partially visible in the morning light, exuding a fatal allure.

Zhou Jin picked up his phone and saw it was a call from Deng Chao.

As soon as he answered, Deng Chao's extremely excited voice came through: "Zhou Jin, it's a hit! It's a total hit!"

"What's wrong, Super Brother?"

"The first-day box office broke 100 million! Zhou Jin, do you know what this concept is? First-day box office broke 100 million!"

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Jin was also very surprised.

You know, among the domestic films in the mainland today, the only one with a first-day box office breaking 100 million was *The Monkey King* with 120 million.

And in the original world line of his memory, the first-day box office of *The Breakup Guru* was clearly only 80 million, not breaking the 100 million mark at all.

Logically speaking, since he replaced Deng Chao as the lead, the movie's appeal should have decreased.

But Zhou Jin was different; he and the currently red-hot Yang Mi hyped up a CP crazily during the promotion period, and this wave of operation directly brought unprecedented buzz to the movie, pushing the first-day box office over the 100 million mark in one fell swoop.

*The Breakup Guru* also logically became the second domestic film in mainland film history to break 100 million on its first day.

However, clearly, like *The Monkey King*, it belonged to the typical high-box-office, low-reputation work.

Zhou Jin knew clearly that after this movie was released, whether it was professional film critics or ordinary audiences, the negative reviews were almost overwhelming, and later it even won the Golden Broom Award.

Zhou Jin shook his head lightly; the reputation flop was a matter for later.

Moreover, don't look at how *The Breakup Guru* is being scolded miserably now; wait a few years, and look at the outrageous trash films like *Shanghai Fortress* and *Bureau 749* later on.

Relying entirely on the contrast of peers, this could even be considered a pretty good comedy.

Withdrawing his thoughts, Zhou Jin immediately dialed Yang Mi's number.

The call connected, and Yang Mi's unique, lazy, and sweet little milky voice from just waking up came through: "What's wrong? Missed me?"

"Of course I missed you, we haven't seen each other for a long time." Zhou Jin replied with a smile.

Yang Mi chuckled and teased deliberately: "Cut the crap, you wouldn't call just because you missed me. Tell me, what good news is there?"

Zhou Jin said directly: "Super Brother just called me and said the first-day box office of *The Breakup Guru* broke 100 million."

Hearing this news, Yang Mi on the other end of the line was clearly also taken aback.

But she reacted quickly and teased with a chuckle:

"Not bad, Zhou Jin, you are now a male lead with a first-day box office breaking 100 million. Since it was the buzz brought by us hyping a CP, shouldn't you thank me properly?"

"Of course I have to thank Sister Mi properly."

"Then how do you plan to thank me?"

Zhou Jin smiled wickedly: "I plan to use up a whole box of Durex at once the next time we meet. How about it, Sister Mi, is this gratitude strong enough?"

Yang Mi gave a light huff, her tone carrying a hint of provocation:

"I happen to have an opening in my schedule in a few days. Your *The Left Ear* should be wrapping up soon too, so come find me then. Those few days happen to be my safe period, so we won't need any of those."

"Really?"

Hearing this, Zhou Jin felt a surge of heat in his heart.

Yang Mi said coquettishly: "When have I ever lied to you about this kind of thing?"

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Jin arrived at the set feeling refreshed.

At this time, major media outlets had already begun to report the news of *The Breakup Guru* breaking 100 million on its first day everywhere.

Naturally, everyone on the crew had heard about this great event and offered their congratulations one after another.

Director Su Youpeng saw Zhou Jin, walked over, patted him on the shoulder, and said meaningfully: "Such commercial films having explosive box office is indeed a good thing for you now, but in the long run, it's not entirely a good thing."

Zhou Jin was stunned for a moment, not expecting Su Youpeng to see through the industry's ways so thoroughly.

Su Youpeng sighed and continued:

"The entertainment industry is like this; if you are popular and strong, others will line up to step on you; if you are weak and obscure, others won't even bother to acknowledge you. Why? Because stepping on popular people brings traffic, and acknowledging people without fame brings no traffic."

Zhou Jin nodded with a smile, his tone calm: "Don't worry, Director Su, I have already prepared to be bombarded by negative reviews."

Watching Zhou Jin's calm and unhurried appearance, Su Youpeng was stunned for a moment, his eyes full of appreciation: "This mindset of yours is very rare. With just this personality, you will definitely be able to make a splash in the entertainment industry."

Things turned out exactly as Su Youpeng had expected.

Although the movie's box office was soaring, soon, a large number of so-called professional screenwriters, directors, and well-known film critics appeared on Weibo and Douban.

They began to launch an overwhelming bombardment and group mockery of the movie *The Breakup Guru*.

Zhou Jin opened one of the long reviews with the highest buzz—

Screenwriter Lu Tianming:

After watching *The Breakup Guru*, I only feel disappointment and confusion.

Zhou Jin is an actor with strength and audience appeal, fully capable of filming excellent works, but this movie shows nothing but impetuousness, vulgarity, and exaggeration.

The whole film is filled with meaningless noise, deliberate clowning, and low-level jokes, without any artistic beauty, let alone content worth savoring.

The whole movie makes people feel uncomfortable, the performance is overly exaggerated to the point of near-madness, the plot logic is chaotic, the narrative is loose, and it's more like a pile of sketch segments forcibly pieced together.

The film blindly pursues liveliness and humor, but ignores the bottom line and aesthetics of comedy, with excessive effort and awkwardness everywhere.

I really don't understand why such a base, noisy, and nutritious-less work had to be filmed.

Throughout the whole thing, you can't see sincerity, you can't see thinking, you only see excessive self-expression. A movie shouldn't just be for grabbing eyeballs and earning traffic, it should have basic aesthetics and bottom lines, but unfortunately, *The Breakup Guru* failed to achieve any of that.

Zhou Jin opened Weibo.

Sure enough, the number one hottest search on Weibo was *The Breakup Guru* is a big trash film.

Weibo was full of discussions about the movie *The Breakup Guru*.

"A young film star with very good acting skills, why film such a base, lowly, disgusting thing that wants money but not face?"

"Zhou Jin takes narcissism as talent, vulgarity as humor, and farce as a movie; this film is just a self-indulgent carnival."

"I can only give it a one-star rating; pale and powerless, overly exaggerated performance, low-level jokes, the whole film is awkward."

"The film is just internet jokes + sketches forcibly spliced together, no film narrative, only noise left."

"Jokes piled up, logic collapsed, like a crosstalk meeting, not like a movie."

"Yang Mi and Zhou Jin, two actors without acting skills, competing to see whose acting is more exaggerated."

And as Zhou Jin scrolled through Weibo, he could occasionally find a few comments speaking up for him.

For example—

"To be fair, although Yang Mi's acting has always been average, in this movie, it's already very good, and saying Zhou Jin's acting is bad makes no sense."

But these comments were soon drowned out by a massive amount of negative reviews.

Just as Zhou Jin put down his phone, Nazha's call came in.