Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 496 Returning to China
The day the couple went whale watching in Norway, the Golden Rooster Awards announced its nominees for this year's awards.

Li Qiutang's "The Invisible Guest" was honored to be nominated for seven awards, including Best Feature Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Editing.

Li Qiutang has already won the Best Director award, and according to the Golden Rooster Awards tradition, it is highly unlikely that he will win another Best Director award.

The same goes for Huang Xiaoming; "American Dreams in China" has already won him a Golden Rooster Award.

The nominations for these two individuals are likely more of an encouragement than a motivation.

The company didn't even notify Li Qiutang, who was in Norway, that he had been nominated for the Golden Rooster Award.

After arriving in Sweden, neither of them wanted to go through any more trouble. The temperature in Sweden was only 20 degrees Celsius at the moment, which was a pleasant time of year.

The two planned to stay in Sweden for a while longer.

On the 25th, Liu Yifei posted a nine-photo collage on Weibo to celebrate her birthday. All nine photos were taken recently.

As usual, her friends sent their blessings, and her husband, Li Qiutang, reposted it right on time—not reposting it was unacceptable, and being late was also unacceptable, or she would be attacked by her fans—Liu Yifei is a regular topic of discussion on this day every year.

The next day, Liu Yifei posted another nine photos on Weibo to celebrate her husband's birthday: "Happy birthday to my dear husband."

These nine photos are all intimate pictures of her and Li Qiutang along the way, including some of them kissing.

After accompanying her husband diving in Öland, Liu Yifei prepared to head home. They'd been traveling for almost a month, had seen enough, and tasted enough international cuisine—they were both craving Chinese food.

At 9 PM on September 1st, the couple landed in Beijing, officially ending their month-long honeymoon.

Liu Yifei posted photos on Weibo with the caption: "I'm back!"

The assistant came to pick up the two of them, and the first thing he said to them was, "The director looks darker and thinner."

Li Qiutang said, "Working as a laborer outside, and not eating well, of course I got dark and thin."

Liu Yifei quickly tried to distance herself: "Make it clear, it's not like I abused you during the month I was away."

The assistant glanced at Liu Yifei and said, "Yifei's gotten a bit darker too."

It's normal to get a tan after running around and playing like this outside, but Liu Yifei said, "Have I gained a little weight?"

"You've got a happy kind of fat."

"You've still gained weight," Liu Yifei laughed. "You're using a name like that to make people happy."

"Is there such a thing as 'happy weight gain'?" Li Qiutang asked.

"Yes. Many people gain weight after getting married," the assistant said, quite truthfully. "When you're married, you eat more and are more relaxed than when you're single, so it's easy to gain weight."

"That seems to be the case."

When the couple returned home, Liu Xiaoli wasn't there. The young couple had gone on their honeymoon, and Liu Xiaoli had also taken a break to travel. She had joined a tour group for middle-aged parents and was now enjoying the breeze on the grasslands.

They ordered a table full of dishes from the community clubhouse and had them delivered to their home. The two of them enjoyed the meal immensely. Liu Yifei rested at home, while Li Qiutang went back to the company after dinner, promising Liu Yifei that he would have dinner with her that evening.

Nothing much happened at the company during the month Li Qiutang was away.

"Monkey King: Hero Is Back" will be taken off the screens this week after its theatrical run ends. Its total box office has now surpassed 13 billion yuan, reaching 13.22 billion yuan, fulfilling the promise made on the promotional poster to "open up a new era for domestic animation." There's nothing particularly urgent to do after that.

During the National Day holiday, Mahua FunAge will release its first film, "Goodbye Mr. Loser," which will be distributed by the company; they'll just follow the established procedures.

Two highly anticipated blockbusters will be released during this year's National Day holiday: "Lost in Hong Kong" and "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe".

Both films have released release date announcements, with the former set for the 25th and the latter for the 30th.

"Why should I worry about him?" Li Qiutang didn't understand why she should worry about "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe". "Let's see if he can beat 'Goodbye Mr. Loser' first."

"Impossible! 'Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe' is a special effects blockbuster, how could it be inferior to a low-budget comedy?"

Many people share this view. No one had high hopes for "Goodbye Mr. Loser" beforehand. The name itself seemed incongruous, so how could it possibly be a big hit?

Li Qiutang's reason was: "I don't have confidence in Mahua FunAge, I don't have confidence in Director Lu. He will definitely mess up this film."

Judging from his previous interviews, Lu Chuan looks down on tomb raiding themes, but "looking down on" and "not being able to film" are two different things.

Tomb raiding is illegal. This is a consensus between the production teams of "Mojin: The Lost Legend" and "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe," and both teams know that they cannot film tomb raiding.

However, unlike the original novel, the "Mojin: The Lost Legend" crew fully respected the original work and did not allow tomb raiding, but still filmed ancient tomb exploration. On the other hand, judging from the various trailers released so far, the "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" crew did not show any tomb exploration elements in Lu Chuan.

Lu Chuan despises tomb raiding from the bottom of his heart, so how could he possibly film an authentic tomb raiding movie? The released trailers and posters also try their best to avoid the core elements of "Ghost Blows Out the Light," such as ancient tombs and tomb raiding.

"If I can't even beat him in filming, then I've wasted my life." Li Qiutang was relaxed in the face of a competitor whose film was released ahead of schedule.

Another crucial point is that, in Li Qiutang's opinion, the post-production time for "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" was too short. The film wrapped up shooting in January and was released at the end of September, leaving only 8 months for post-production. This was far too rushed for a blockbuster that focused on monster special effects.

Filming for "Mojin: The Lost Legend" wrapped up at the end of December and was released during the Lunar New Year holiday. Even after a full year of post-production, Li Qiutang still felt that time was not enough. If the release date hadn't been fixed, Li Qiutang would have even considered giving post-production another two months to release the film during the Spring Festival.

“We filmed so much on location, and it still takes a year to do post-production. He only had 8 months. I really don’t know how to do it.”

Speaking of "Mojin: The Lost Legend," Li Qiutang remembered that he still hadn't received his director's fee: "What's going on with Wan Da? Why are you dragging your feet on such a small amount of money?"

The staff member smiled and said, "We were just about to tell you about this. We've negotiated a very attractive revenue-sharing agreement for you, and we're just waiting for your approval."

"Tell me about it." Li Qiutang was also curious about how the company would discuss her compensation.

"We're confident we can bet them we'll reach 300 billion in box office revenue. Within 10 billion, the 1000 million deposit will be your entire salary. After 100 billion, between 1000 billion and 15 billion, you'll get 200 million for every 10 million in box office revenue; between 15 billion and 20 billion, you'll get 1000 million for every 10 million; and above 400 billion, you'll get 20 million for every 10 million. Plus, if the total box office surpasses 2000 billion, you'll receive a 20 million cash bonus. How about that? Not bad, right?"

It's not just good, it's absolutely fantastic.

Based on the revenue sharing, this agreement is likely the highest-paid contract for a Chinese-language director.

But all of this has one prerequisite: the box office of "Mojin: The Lost Legend" must exceed 10 billion yuan. If it doesn't, Li Qiutang is just working for Wan Da for free.

Li Qiutang was confident in herself and in her film: "Okay, let's sign it like this."

He then laughed and said, "Getting married is too expensive, so I need to earn some money to recoup my losses." It was as if the money was already in his pocket.

(End of this chapter)