Chapter 592: Hunger, Stolen Box Office, and an Opportunity

Watching the young boy stuff the leftover food into his brown paper bag as much as he could, a hint of anticipation seemed to appear on Lanse's smiling face.

"You think highly of this young man?" Aierwen asked.

Given their current ages, it wasn't strange to refer to this boy as a "young man."

Lanse nodded, then shook his head. "Once the federal government forms a military alliance with Silade, more refugees will flood in here."

He turned his head to look at Aierwen, then at the others behind him. "Why did we 'stand up' in the first place?"

Aierwen replied, "Because they wanted to deal with Yisen."

Lanse nodded. "That is one reason, our reason. What about Hailamu?"

Hailamu shrugged and said nothing.

Lanse didn't demand an answer, as he had already stated it himself. "Because of poverty, because we couldn't survive without changing."

"Look at the many refugees in the Xingang District. How many of them can fill their stomachs, and how many are already struggling on the boundary of life and death?"

"It won't be long before a large number of refugee gangs emerge in this city."

"At first, they might just want to huddle together for warmth, to obtain more resources, to let themselves and those around them survive."

"But as you have seen, once you step onto this path, besides reaching the end, there is only becoming history halfway through."

"Instead of waiting for these challengers to grow rapidly, to grow to the point where they can challenge us, it is better for us to support a few first, give them hope for survival, and let this power be controlled in our hands!"

Aierwen could understand a little, but only a little, not much.

He still nodded, keeping what Lanse said in his heart. He believed that one day, he would understand!

Lanse tilted his chin toward the boy. "He is lucky to have met us at this time."

"Arrange for someone to follow him, see how he distributes that food, and how he deals with trouble."

Going back with so much food is not a smart choice. If Lanse were in his position, Lanse would not bring that much food.

He would stack the bread together, then press them against each other with a dinner plate, using gravity to compress the soft bread into "biscuits."

This is both easy to carry and hunger-resistant. Then he would consider bringing some meat-based food, but not too much; it should look like it's only enough for himself.

This way, although those refugees might be greedy, they wouldn't move to snatch a child's food before completely losing their minds.

But if he brought too much, someone would always feel that he couldn't eat that much, so it wouldn't matter if they took some away from him.

That way, a conflict would occur between them, and in the end, he might be left with nothing.

"Do not intervene, just watch, and record everything."

Lanse looked at the boy holding the two large paper bags, an expectant expression on his face. He was looking forward to a good story.

The boy did not know that he had become the "protagonist" in Lanse's story. He carried the two paper bags of various meats, and after saying goodbye to Lanse, he ran toward the Xingang District with his younger brother and sister.

He ran very fast. He was desperate to return to the place where they lived and tell his mother that he had a job and that they would be able to fill their stomachs.

When running inside the Imperial District, people only looked at him occasionally, but when he entered the Xingang District to run, people's eyes were fixed on the two brown paper bags he was holding.

The fat seeped out of the brown paper bags, and that fragrance made many people stand up one after another.

Many of them had not yet been able to put down their pride, but under the continuous influence of hunger, some began to lose their reason and morality.

"Hey, what are you holding?"

A very thin man in his thirties walked toward the boy. The eyes of others, after a brief moment of astonishment, all became dangerous.

Some people sitting on the ground enduring hunger glanced at the two greasy paper bags and couldn't help but stand up.

Driven by the desire for survival, they walked toward the boy.

The boy was stunned for a moment. Looking at the people surrounding him, he immediately realized what had happened. "It's nothing!" he shouted, speeding up toward the place where they lived.

But how could the people who were starving now let him leave?

Without anyone even shouting, someone stretched out a leg and tripped him to the ground. He fell heavily, the paper bags tore open, and the greasy meat fell out, rolling on the ground, and then lay quietly still.

The eyes of everyone around were stunned for a moment, but immediately after, they ran toward the meat on the ground.

Regardless of whether there was sand on the meat or if it was already dirty, as long as they could grab it, they stuffed it into their mouths!

The guy running in front shouted, "It's all mine," while trying to press all the food under his body.

But soon he felt someone kicking his head hard. He hugged his head, unwilling to leave, but was still dragged away and thrown to the side.

People frantically snatched the meat on the ground. In less than two minutes, the meat the boy brought back was all gone.

Those two brown paper bags were even snatched away, torn apart, and eaten in strips!

People were crazy!

The boy stared at all this, unable to recover for a long time.

He returned to his "home" in frustration, which was actually just a small tent temporarily built with some branches and rags. His mother was inside.

Because there were two younger siblings who were very small, she stayed here all day.

"What's wrong with you?" She looked at the boy. "Didn't you beg for food today?"

The two children behind him took out the seven cents they had snatched, and the woman breathed a sigh of relief.

Seven cents was enough for them to buy some food.

"You look very frustrated."

"Yes, Mom, I lost the food a gentleman gave me, two big bags of meat."

His mother was stunned for a moment, then beckoned to him, letting him sit beside her and lean on her lap.

She gently stroked the boy's hair. "If it's lost, it's lost. At least we still have seven cents and can still eat food."

The boy rested his head on his mother's lap. "That gentleman said he was willing to let me work for him."

The woman asked, "Then are you willing?"

The boy nodded. "Willing."

He wanted to change his life. People cannot, or at least should not, lose their reason and live like vicious dogs.

He wanted to earn money, to take his family away from here. He wanted to be like a man, to protect this family and his mother!

This was his promise to his father!

Later, they used the seven cents to buy a pound of whole wheat bread, and following his mother's words, they tore it into small pieces outside the bakery and put them in their pockets to bring back.

Although it was a bit scratchy to eat, the fragrance it emitted was intoxicating.

This bread had to be divided into two days to eat.

He ate very carefully, even finding the bread crumbs in the gaps of his fingernails and eating them into his stomach.

Although he didn't eat meat today, he hoped to change all this through his own efforts.

At night, occasional tragic cries came, and someone else had starved to death.

This place was completely different from the world they imagined. They had all heard rumors about the Federation more or less, and this place seemed to be another heaven.

But after really arriving here, they discovered that no one would give you food just because you were hungry.

If you want to eat, you have to pay.

He clenched his fists, letting saliva surge in his mouth, and after feeling the fragrance of the whole wheat bread again, he swore that he must be able to fill his stomach every day in the future!

Early the next morning, he followed the address on the business card and arrived outside Lanse's company.

The huge doorway and luxurious decoration made him feel a bit at a loss, but fortunately, the lady at the front desk was very gentle and asked him the reason for coming here.

He handed the business card to the other party, and soon, the lady told him the path to where he wanted to go.

Lanse was frowning in his office, the director called.

"... Someone is stealing the wealth that belongs to us, Mr. Lanse."

"'The Mystery of Angel Lake' has had a good response in all aspects, and the box office revenue of most cinemas is good, but here at 'Keargan Cinema', our movie has almost not generated any valuable box office."

"If they aren't not playing our movie, then they are deceiving us." Lanse let them distribute the movie this time using a box office revenue-sharing system. He didn't know much about this aspect, but indeed there is a revenue-sharing system now.

From the beginning, it was almost all for the cinema, with a 90% share.

Then, as the playing time increases and the number of times increases, the proportion the cinema gets from the box office will decrease to the final 5%.

This revenue-sharing method is obviously not very scientific, but from the current market point of view, it is the most accepted and the most in line with the cinema chain's willingness to share.

Many cinemas have accepted this revenue-sharing plan, first because the movie "The Mystery of Angel Lake" does not provide a buyout service, only a revenue-sharing contract.

That is to say, if they don't accept revenue sharing, their cinema cannot play this movie.

Secondly, because it is revenue sharing, they can say that there are depreciation costs and electricity costs, without any extra expenses.

If it were a buyout system, it might cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars or more to buy the movie film, and whether it can break even in the end depends on God's will.

At this time, a very strange phenomenon often occurs: a cinema in a certain area buys a movie, and it is overcrowded when it is shown.

But after a cinema in another area buys it, no one watches it.

Even for a big hit movie, not everyone dares to guarantee that it will definitely make money. Now the revenue-sharing model reduces the possibility of their losses, so the acceptance is higher.

No errors, read it all at once!

After all, as long as the movie is good, the most profitable part is the early stage, not the middle and late stages.

So they all agreed to revenue sharing.

The overall box office effect is good, and some film review magazines have opened up a new genre for this movie—thriller horror genre.

No matter what the future holds, it will have a place in the history of cinema.

Under various hype, people also want to see what this so-called movie that created a new genre is like.

The continuous increase in box office also makes everyone satisfied, but some obviously nonsense box office is obviously not quite right.

Stealing box office, whether now or in the past, exists.

"Is this cinema one, or a company?" Lanse asked.

"A company, they have a total of fourteen cinemas, but the box office shared with us is less than one hundred dollars."

Lanse felt funny when he heard this number. "One hundred dollars?"

Current cinemas are basically around one hundred to two hundred people. Taking a median value and calculating based on a 60% attendance rate, ninety people watch a movie.

Movie tickets have broken away from the early loss-making price of five cents. Now twenty-five cents is more common, and there are thirty-five cents and fifty cents, depending on the time.

Just calculating based on the cheapest twenty-five cents per ticket, ninety people is twenty-two dollars and fifty cents.

They can get 10% from it, which is two dollars and twenty-five cents per show.

Fourteen cinemas, playing one show on average, can get thirty dollars from the box office.

As long as they play a few shows on average, they can get almost one hundred dollars.

Now that it has been playing for so many days, there is actually less than one hundred dollars...

"Where are they?"

The director vaguely knew that Lanse was going to find trouble with them, and then said, "Lidomu."

Lidomu is a city in Jinzhou, not too far from New Jin City, and can be said to be a satellite city on the outskirts of New Jin City.

"I will solve this problem. Are there any other problems?" Lanse asked.

The director stammered for a while and then asked, "Is our own movie box office... a bit too high?"

"Is this a kind of publicity strategy?"

The cinemas under the company's name almost all maintain a 100% attendance rate, which is simply outrageous!

He thought this was Lanse's publicity method, because many cinema operators would not buy the film at the first time. They would observe the ticket sales of cinemas in other places and then decide whether to show these movies.

He thought Lanse did this to make people feel that this movie was very good. Producers had indeed done this before to deceive those cinema chain bosses.

Lanse laughed twice when he heard this. "These are some accidents, you don't need to worry about it."

"Are there any other problems?"

The director couldn't figure it out, so he simply didn't think about it. "No other problems."

"Very good, then how much money have we made from the box office now?"

Hearing a piece of good news after bad news can keep him in a good mood.

The director's tone was slightly excited. "According to the data they reported now, our income will probably exceed eight hundred thousand to one million, and the profit is between six hundred thousand and seven hundred thousand."

"And the screening is not over yet. Most of the money from the current screening is ours. In the end, our income may be around one million."

This income is not much for Lanse's criminal businesses, but this money is clean, and it is not bad in the film industry.

Perhaps from other people's point of view, it may not be as good as selling the film directly, but people's habits are always cultivated slowly.

As long as the movie is good enough, they will definitely obey.

"Don't stop the shooting plan, continue to select good scripts, we don't consider the cost issue, we will talk about it when we have time later."

"If there are other problems, contact me. If not...", he glanced at the person standing outside the door, "I have other things here."

Although the director did not attend Lanse's engagement ceremony, mainly because he was not qualified enough, he heard about the grand occasion of the day!

He now believes more than ever that following Lanse will definitely be bright in the future!

"Boss, no other things, you can hang up the phone."

After Lanse put down the phone, he looked at the door and said "Come in." The boy entered the room a bit restrained.

He had been a bit uncomfortable since entering this building because the decoration here was too luxurious!

The mirrored parquet marble floor looked like walking in a palace. He couldn't imagine that the Federation people's buildings would be so beautiful, and that they were so rich!

In fact, he had already seen the richness of the Federation people yesterday.

During the day, piles of food on the table were not eaten by anyone. He asked, and that food would be poured into the trash can and then disposed of.

And in the Xingang District, people die of starvation every day because they can't get food, or die from injuries or diseases.

There is no difference between people, in terms of species, but there is a huge difference between people, so huge that the gap might be impossible to bridge in their entire lives!

"Is your family satisfied with the food you brought back?" Lanse asked.

In fact, he already knew that the boy didn't eat any of that food, and neither did his family.

An expression that couldn't be described appeared on the boy's face. He shook his head. "The food was snatched away."

"Do you hate them?" Lanse asked.

The boy still shook his head. "Hated them at first, they overturned my food and snatched my food."

"But later I didn't hate them, because they just wanted to live too."

Lanse sighed with approval. "Yes, people just want to live, but living is the biggest challenge for human beings coming to this world!"

He paused. "I have two jobs for you, you can choose for yourself."

"Be a dog, or be a wolf?"

The boy thought for a while. In fact, he didn't know anything, what be a dog or be a wolf, but he instinctively replied, "I want to be a wolf."

Lanse nodded. "What is your name?"

"Boni, sir."

"Very good, Boni, I will send someone to help you establish a gang in the Xingang District."

"You can choose a group of people you know, or people you think are suitable, mainly those who fled from your side."

"I will give you some work, work that can earn money, you have to manage the gang."

"I hope you can grow as much as possible in the Xingang District and control the order of the entire Xingang District. Can you understand what I am saying?"

Boni was actually a bit confused, but he was trying his best to understand in his own way. "Order, sir."

"You are a smart person, I believe you can do it well. This is an opportunity, grasp it!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 593 =====