Chapter 285: At the age of thirty-something

Sister Hong is under immense pressure, and she knows it well. Old Chen is also under great pressure; the investment in *The Promise* is simply too massive. Don't let the domestic box office of nearly 200 million fool you—it is still a long way from recouping its costs.

Zhang Yimou has already proven himself through *Hero*, and Cao Yang goes without saying; his influence here in Hollywood is shockingly large.

If Old Chen's *The Promise* doesn't sell well, let alone comparing it to Cao Yang, he probably won't even be able to compare to Zhang Yimou.

Unable to sleep anyway, she threw on some clothes, opened the door, and went out, wanting to gaze at the night view of Los Angeles to relieve some of her stress.

The night at Arcadia Villa is very quiet, especially here at Cao Yang's villa. It is already one of the most high-end villas, so the environment is naturally better, and it is even quieter at night.

Thus, a faint, indistinct sound drifted into Sister Hong's ears in the quiet night.

Sister Hong was stunned for a moment; the sound was somewhat familiar.

Realizing what it was, Sister Hong secretly spat, never expecting that Cao Yang, this kid, wouldn't be sleeping in the middle of the night and would instead be doing some exercise.

Sister Hong is a smart person, and she associated a lot from the earlier knocking on the door.

Only the three of them live in this villa; who would knock on Cao Yang's door in the middle of the night? It goes without saying.

Pfft!

Little vixen!

She already has a boyfriend, yet she is still so proactive; she truly is from the Xiangjiang entertainment circle.

Driven by some impulse, Sister Hong, like a thief, tiptoed to the outside of Cao Yang's room, took a deep breath, and felt her heart pounding wildly, not knowing what had come over her.

Then, she gently pressed her ear against the door.

In that instant, the screaming and talking inside became clearer.

After listening for only a moment, Sister Hong felt her face heat up, her breathing quickened, and deep within her heart, there was a restless impulse.

She pursed her lips and tiptoed back to her room.

Old Chen has been busy with *The Promise* for over a year, and he is under great pressure.

And when a man in his fifties is under great pressure, he has no mood for it at all, and he is also a bit powerless.

Chen Hong is only thirty-something.

A woman in her thirties—those who understand, understand.

The next day, Sister Hong acted as if nothing had happened, showing no signs of anything unusual, and took Zhang Baizhi to meet up with the people from Warner Independent to run promotions.

Cao Yang wasn't idle either; *Zhu Nuo* was going to be released in another week, and he had to accept a few interviews these days to help promote the film.

*Zhu Nuo* won the Oscar for Best Picture, which is the greatest promotion and boost for the film, so everyone has high expectations for *Zhu Nuo*.

Fox Searchlight attaches even more importance to it; they not only arranged for the actors and director to promote it these days but also directly contacted 3,200 theaters, and they will increase the screening circuits depending on the situation later.

In the evening, Cao Yang returned and saw Sister Hong's low spirits. Not far away, Baizhi was on the phone, seemingly mentioning something about "tickets." Since it was in Cantonese, Cao Yang couldn't understand.

"What's wrong, Sister Hong?"

Cao Yang asked.

Chen Hong sighed and said with a bitter smile: "*The Promise* is suffering from culture shock. Yesterday's box office for the day was 80,000 yuan, 213 theaters, a box office of a little over 80,000 US dollars. Sigh..."

Cao Yang was silent for a moment, not knowing how to comfort her. 213 theaters, over 80,000 in box office, an average box office of 380 per theater—this is simply a total flop.

Saying an average box office of 380 per theater might not give a concept, but Ang Lee's *Brokeback Mountain*, which was released in December before the new year, had an average box office of over 30,000 per theater on its opening day.

This comparison should make it clear.

"Sister Hong, ever since *House of Flying Daggers* was released in North America, foreigners might not be interested in our Chinese costume blockbusters anymore. They were just looking for something fresh; once the freshness wears off, they won't pay as much attention."

Cao Yang thought for a moment and then continued: "Americans generally lack historical knowledge and their cultural level isn't very high. They don't understand our costume blockbusters, let alone comprehend them, so don't take it too much to heart."

Sister Hong smiled reluctantly. "I understand everything you said, but the expectations were too high, so it's inevitable to be a bit disappointed."

"Maybe the promotion wasn't in place. Who knows, maybe after these two days of promotional fermentation, tomorrow's box office will be better."

Cao Yang comforted her.

"It's okay, you don't need to comfort me. The people from Warner Independent went to the theaters to investigate today, and the result was that the attendance rate was about the same as yesterday, which means today's box office is still around 80,000 or 90,000."

Sister Hong shook her head and continued: "The people from Warner Independent held an emergency meeting today and decided to stop the promotion. This film's box office is too low; it's already beyond saving."

"Director Cao, you're back."

After finishing her call, Baizhi came over and smiled at Cao Yang, seemingly not affected by the box office of *The Promise*.

"Baizhi will stay one more night today and return to Xiangjiang tomorrow."

Having said that, Sister Hong looked up at Cao Yang and then continued: "Old Chen said that since the promotion has started, even if the box office is not satisfactory, we must finish running through the three cities we planned to go to. He might not be back until the day after tomorrow."

Cao Yang nodded, not knowing how to comfort Sister Hong, so he could only find some light topics to chat about for a while before returning to his room.

Just past twelve o'clock at night, Cao Yang heard a light knock on the door again.

He got up and opened the door. Baizhi had changed into a dark red silk pajama, and this time she wasn't wearing anything underneath.

Cao Yang closed the door and happened to see Baizhi about to take off her pajamas. He hurriedly said: "Don't, keep it on, it's quite good."

Sister Hong suffered from insomnia again tonight.

This was her first time being a producer for a big production, and she had originally thought she could make a splash, but she didn't expect it to be a dud.

This made her very disappointed.

There was also disappointment in Old Chen.

At twelve o'clock, she got out of bed and walked to the door, opening it a crack, not knowing why she wanted to do this.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before a knock on the door came from outside, followed by giggling, then a scream, and then the sound of a door closing.

Sister Hong bit her lip and reached out to close the door, but hesitated and opened it instead.

She lifted her foot and put it down again; she didn't leave the room, but her face turned red.

After hesitating for a long time, in the end, she tiptoed carefully to outside Cao Yang's door, bit her lip, and pressed her ear against it.

Sister Hong only lasted two minutes before returning to her room.

Closing the door and leaning against it, her heart could never be calm.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 286 =====