Chapter 29: The Year Draws to a Close

"After resting for so long and preparing for several months, I feel it's time."

Ning Hao was full of confidence and certainty.

"Then I'll have the finance department wire the remaining half to you; leave the rest to me, Brother."

Lin Nan didn't drag his feet and had the finance department handle it immediately.

Ning Hao left, fully satisfied; he needed to arrange the crew right away and prepare to start work.

Lin Nan was full of confidence in *Crazy Stone*; his name was listed as producer, executive producer, and screenwriter.

By the time filming finished next year, he would do his best to promote it, not letting this film be released silently like in the original timeline, relying on word-of-mouth to emerge as a dark horse only in the latter half.

Back at school, he heard that the 2005 enrollment plan was out: the school planned to admit over 680 students, with 30 for the undergraduate acting department, 150 for vocational training, and the animation school surprisingly accounting for 150.

The planned enrollment numbers were high every year, and the final number of incoming students was always a few more; for the past few years, the teachers had wanted to prioritize quality over quantity, but reality never went as they wished.

Wait another two years, and they would still be full every year, with people even trying to find ways to increase the numbers.

Art school entrance exam registration began on February 16th; it seemed Lin Nan wouldn't be able to avoid the third round of interviews, and perhaps not even the second.

Lin Nan was honored to be included in the enrollment brochure as an outstanding student, listed at the very end; those before him were all glorious history, with Zhang Yimou prominently featured in the list of directors.

If one were to take the enrollment brochure of the Drama Academy at this moment, they would find that there were more movie stars there.

The booming development of the film and television industry was destined; one could see it from this year's enrollment expansion—those with foresight were always the insiders.

Many actors entered the industry before applying to art schools, which gave them a great advantage; they had resumes during interviews, and if they had worked with big names, had representative works, or were already famous, admission was almost a certainty.

Lin Nan was in the brochure and was teased by his classmates for a long time, but it was quite suspicious that some classmates knew he would be participating as a judge for the third round of the acting department—wasn't that supposed to be confidential?

On the 9th, *A World Without Thieves* was released, with a first-day box office of 11 million; the media had reported it early on.

For this, Mr. Wang of Huayi gave an interview, speaking of the hardships of the crew's creation and his outlook on the box office.

With Feng Xiaogang's drawing power and the gimmick of Heavenly King Liu, no one questioned whether this film could make money; they only wondered how much it would make.

The first day was Sunday, and a box office of 11 million indicated it would inevitably break 100 million; in a little while, perhaps just a week, the 100-million-director club would add another member.

As expected, Lin Nan's *Return to Youth* was dragged out for comparison, as if it could be easily crushed by Lin Nan.

The first day was over a million more than Lin Nan's had been, but on the second day, Monday, the box office for *A World Without Thieves* dropped by 20% instantly, down to 9 million.

At this time, *Kung Fu* also began its nationwide promotion, and Huayi felt the pressure.

The production cost of Lin Nan's *Return to Youth* was 20 million—everyone could find that out, though it was actually less—and the box office was over 110 million, a huge profit.

But the cost of *A World Without Thieves* was 30 million, and the pressure for profit was much greater; if it didn't earn as much as *Return to Youth* after such a big lineup and such a long, grand campaign, wouldn't that be a slap in the face?

Feng Xiaogang gave an interview, talking about his cameo in *Kung Fu* and how he was rejected when he tried to ask Zhou Xingchi to return the favor.

The promotional effect was good, but it didn't seem to help the box office growth much.

People began to doubt whether the box office of *A World Without Thieves* could surpass *Return to Youth*, because according to the former's box office growth, it was very close to the latter.

With a 10-million difference in production costs, even if *A World Without Thieves* made 10 million more at the box office than *Return to Youth*, it would still be considered a loss, not to mention that at this rate, it wasn't certain it would make that much more.

No one doubted it would break 100 million, and it would definitely make money, but the frustration was absolute.

The promotion for *Kung Fu* came in like a tidal wave, and with its release imminent, it was another heavy blow to *A World Without Thieves*; no one could ignore the presence of Zhou Xingchi.

Lin Nan stayed at school during this time; it was the end of another semester, and the teachers no longer required him to worry about his exam grades.

Other students in the directing department were very serious, and some were already preparing for their graduation films.

Planning a graduation film a year and a half in advance showed Lin Nan what "attitude" meant.

Many families with average conditions would tell their children to study hard, and sometimes they would look down on art and sports students.

But the families that could truly support art and sports students to the end definitely had decent economic conditions.

In addition to a thesis, directing department students needed to direct a film, which could be a short film, equivalent to a graduation project at other universities.

Quite a few came to Lin Nan for help with their scripts, and Lin Nan did not refuse.

*A World Without Thieves* barely climbed to the 100-million threshold, and Huayi opened up the promotion for it; the third 100-million-box-office director in the mainland was born.

Unlike a newcomer like Lin Nan, Feng Xiaogang was already a veteran face; stepping over this threshold this time was a grand and proper establishment of his status as a major director.

The rise in Feng Xiaogang's status would also make Huayi even more powerful.

From this point on, after a surge in the box office of *A World Without Thieves*, the growth began to become slower and slower.

*Kung Fu* was released.

In terms of style, neither *Return to Youth* nor *A World Without Thieves* could compare to *Kung Fu*.

It was released on the same day in the mainland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore, and having already been to the Toronto and Tokyo film festivals in September and October, the release dates for Southeast Asian countries were also set.

The first-day mainland box office hit 10 million, and that was on a Thursday.

*A World Without Thieves* had been out for fourteen days, and its box office, which was already struggling to grow, was completely trampled into the ground by *Kung Fu* on this day.

"It's probably over." The theater chains kept increasing the screenings for *Kung Fu*, and *A World Without Thieves* stalled at 120 million.

A few days ago, the news was all about *A World Without Thieves*, but these past few days it had been replaced by *Kung Fu*, and the title of "King of Comedy" was trending everywhere again.

Lin Nan stopped paying attention to the box office; it was the media that reported *A World Without Thieves* had made 4 million more than *Return to Youth*, which probably wouldn't make Huayi happy.

Three times the cost is breaking even, four times is a small profit—that was *A World Without Thieves*.

He hadn't been in touch with Li Yang for a long time. "Brother Li, still in Germany? I have a film I want to take over there; I invested in it myself, didn't look for anyone else. Alright, then I'll leave it to you, Brother Li."

To enter a film festival, one could just apply through the normal process, but Li Yang had been working in the German film industry for years and had won a Silver Bear, so he definitely knew some people.

The level of attention Lin Nan would receive applying himself versus being recommended was definitely different.

Li Yang didn't hesitate and agreed to help Lin Nan find people, jokingly telling him to bring the film for him to see.

Ning Hao had already taken the crew to the filming location, and they would start shooting in a few days.

The crew didn't have any big stars, so the start of filming didn't attract media attention.

Lin Nan thought he would wait until filming was almost done before conducting promotional campaigns; his name was quite attractive to the media now.

Lu Chuan's *Kekexili* failed at the box office but succeeded at film festivals.

At the Golden Horse Awards earlier this month, *Kekexili* won Best Picture without any question; on stage, Lu Chuan seemed to be holding his breath as he delivered a long speech.

Lin Nan remembered seeing a sentence somewhere: the thing Lu Chuan was most honored by in his life was that he filmed *Kekexili*.

This circle is "deep and treacherous"; there aren't many people with upright values, and even fewer who stay upright, while hypocrites and true villains are countless.

Star's uncharacteristic promotional tour for *Kung Fu* really worked wonders; the speed of the early box office growth was almost double that of *Return to Youth* and *A World Without Thieves*.

At the beginning of the year, Lin Nan was on the set of *Lotus Lantern* and often ran over to the neighboring *Chinese Paladin* set; back then, Tang Ren had planned to include Lin Nan in their marketing.

What was surprising was that Lin Nan became a 100-million-director with *Return to Youth*, and Tang Ren was even happier.

Now *Chinese Paladin* was negotiating its first-run broadcast, and the behind-the-scenes footage they had been holding onto was starting to be released, with Lin Nan prominently featured in quite a few clips.

Someone who didn't know might think he played Li Xiaoyao; Cai Yinong called specifically to talk about this, and for the sake of Zhao Linger, he didn't hold it against her.

Chatting with Liu Qianqian in the evening, the filming intensity of *The Return of the Condor Heroes* was very high, and seven or eight out of ten of Little Dragon Maiden's scenes involved action.

"I really enjoy the process of filming; looking at myself on the machine's screen, I feel very satisfied and happy," Liu Qianqian said happily.

She was also very satisfied with Lin Nan's caring attitude. "I'll probably wrap up around April next year, and then I'll take a break; I'll come visit your company then, I've never been there."

Looking at the message Liu Qianqian sent, Lin Nan replied: "Alright, but you should go rest now; staying up late makes girls age, although it might be slower for you."

"Hehe."

She replied with two words in a second.

Lin Nan smiled and whispered to himself, "I don't just want to be a best friend..."

When he first entered his freshman year, he saw her; she was still a tiny thing back then, just like Bai Xiuzhu, cute and adorable.

Lin Nan couldn't help but feel closer to her. She had few friends in her childhood due to family reasons, and her mother protected her very well.

Slowly, Lin Nan got to know her well and discovered that beneath her quiet appearance, there were some violent factors—she had practiced dance and even martial arts!

Just like that, Lin Nan gradually abandoned his original intentions; he didn't know how much of this circle's "deep and treacherous" nature he could experience, because he seemed to have found that one tree, and as for the forest...

They chatted a few more times, and it was Lin Nan who ended it first, just wanting her to rest early.

Given Lin Nan's current box office record, many investors were contacting him, and those without contact information even ran directly to the company.

Among those who found their way to the company, most wanted to invest in films, but some wanted to buy shares.

For those who wanted to promote people, he kept a few contact details appropriately, but he rejected those who wanted to buy shares directly.

Those who could contact Lin Nan by phone were all industry insiders; if you asked how many people Lin Nan had proactively given his contact information to, it really wasn't many, but quite a few had gotten his number.

Emperor Motion Pictures had contacted Jiang Wen, which Lin Nan had heard of. But them proactively contacting Lin Nan was something he hadn't expected; Hong Kong cinema already had the appearance of a setting sun.

Especially after the "fake acting, real fighting" incident in September this year, mainland actors who had long been suppressed in status by Hong Kong and Taiwan artists began to have voices of resistance; the Hollywood Actors Guild called the victims, and for a time, the scandal spread internationally.