This actor has something

Chapter 342 Reasonable
If something exists, it must be reasonable.

Just as no one could have predicted, The Promise's box office explosion was so fierce that it reached more than 74 million in just five days.

For the past five days, Chen Kaige has been in the limelight, appearing in interviews on various television stations. He appeared calm and composed, recounting various interesting stories from the filming process, clearly a reliable and accomplished director.

Even though the slight upturn of his lips betrayed his emotions, amidst the media's praise, people simply assumed he was naturally cheerful.

While print media and television stations were praising the box office success of "The Promise," trailers for "Crazy Stone" began circulating online.

For Ning Hao, editing a few suspenseful trailers is relatively easy. Ever since the day the online marketing plan was agreed upon, Ning Hao has stayed up all night editing three trailers.

The premiere of Crazy Stone was a week after the premiere of The Promise. Compared to the grand premiere of The Promise, perhaps only He Daqi's fans would care about the premiere of Crazy Stone.

Five days were heaven for Chen Kaige, torture for Zhang Weiping and Zhang Yimou, and hell for Ning Hao.

The trajectory of The Promise is too ruthless, almost unreasonable. If it continues like this, there's no doubt that any movie released in the next month will be cannon fodder.

Ning Hao could already imagine others mocking him as a clown. How could he be so bold as to run into Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou?

If he had a choice, he definitely wouldn't have chosen this time slot. The problem is, he didn't have a choice; he's just the director, and his word doesn't count.

Now he felt that He Daqi's so-called online marketing plan was ridiculously funny. What was the point? You should know that Wuji spent 100 million yuan on publicity and distribution, and even the so-called art film "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles" spent 20 million yuan on publicity.

Ning Hao stood in front of the window at the end of the corridor, lost in thought. The Monstera deliciosa in front of the window was growing lushly, and one of its leaves was crooked, turning to block the lower right corner of the window glass.

Looking at the swaying trees outside, Ning Hao sighed and thought to himself: The wind outside is so strong, it's making it hard to see the way forward.

Everyone has the desire to be prominent, and Ning Hao is no exception. Originally, Ning Hao wanted to make a name for himself with Crazy Stone, and then return to his original intentions to make an art film that he wanted to make, so that others would know that he has ideals and pursuits. Now it seems that won't work. He should continue to follow He Daqi and make commercial films for a few more years to make money and then settle down.

"Haozi! Haozi! I've been looking for you for ages, what are you doing hiding here?"

Xing Aina called Ning Hao twice, but when he didn't respond, she walked over to him with some concern and patted him on the shoulder.

"I was just spacing out. What's wrong? Why did you call me?" Ning Hao forced a smile in response to his wife's question.

"Are you alright, Haozi? Why do your eyes look bloodshot? I remember you went to bed at eight o'clock last night and got up early this morning. How come your eyes are bloodshot?"

Under Xing Aina's concerned gaze, Ning Hao opened his mouth, but finally made up a perfunctory excuse to comfort her: "It's nothing, I probably just didn't sleep well the other night. I'll be fine after I rest."

There are some things he doesn't want his wife to know, such as the fact that he has been suffering from insomnia for two days.

Xing Aina was silent for a moment, then said with some concern, "The roadshow will start in a couple of days, and then there will be even less time to rest. Why don't you tell Daqi that you're not feeling well and let the lead actor lead the team for this roadshow?"

"It's really nothing. I'm so young, how could staying up all night cause health problems? As a director, it would be unacceptable for me not to go on the roadshow. Okay, stop worrying. Oh! Right! You still haven't told me what you wanted to see me about." Ning Hao changed the subject.

"Good news, The Promise's box office is starting to drop."

"Drop? Heh, how much has it dropped? From over 20 million to over 10 million?" Ning Hao asked casually, seemingly unconcerned.

"It's much worse than that, it's dropped directly to below ten million. Liu Ying just compiled the data, and as soon as I saw it, I started looking for you everywhere, wanting to talk to you about it."

"Really?" Ning Hao asked, somewhat surprised.

How is this possible? Domestic films have never experienced this kind of trend before. What happened?
Ning Hao's first reaction was that the data was wrong. It felt like a player who was in the Glory King rank last week was now struggling in the Diamond rank next week. It was like he was playing ranked games with his feet because both his hands were injured.

“Absolutely right. Liu Ying didn’t believe it at first either. This data was confirmed after several rounds of statistical analysis.”

"Haha, this works? What's going on? Did pirated versions appear, or did the film's reputation collapse?"

Ning Hao's demeanor changed incredibly quickly; it was clearly visible. The dejection he had just displayed vanished completely, and he was now full of energy.

"I don't know either. Liu Ying just said she didn't know either. We'll probably have to wait a couple of days to find out the specific reason," Xing Aina said with a smile, looking at Ning Hao's sudden burst of energy.

The pent-up frustration of the past few days was instantly relieved, and Ning Hao couldn't hide his joy. Just as he was about to say something to Xing Aina, he noticed something was wrong outside the window. Upon closer inspection, he realized that snowflakes had quietly started falling outside while they were chatting.

This is the second snowfall of December this year, and it was heavier than the first. It fell slowly and gradually covered the black cars parked on the street outside with a layer of white.

"It's snowing..." Ning Hao murmured to himself.

"Hmm, it's snowing. Our car... Hey? Whose hands are so idle that they've pinched this Monstera leaf all over with fingernail marks?" Xing Aina was halfway through her sentence when she suddenly discovered evidence of He Daqi's careless hand while he was on the phone that day.

……

……

The snow in the villa's yard was piled up thickly. The branches of the pomegranate tree in the yard were blown by the wind, and the snow fell off unintentionally, like a wisp of white smoke.

He Daqi, who had been playing games all day and was about to take a short walk while answering a phone call, was slightly taken aback when he opened the door and saw this scene.

"Daqi? Daqi?"

Liu Ying's shouts on the phone brought him back to his senses, and He Daqi immediately responded, "Yes! Yes! I'm here, Sister Liu, please continue."

"China Film Group seems to have relented and given up a portion of their investment. Huayi Brothers just called to let us know that they've secured 20% of the investment and are asking if we can expand the scale so they can follow up with more investment and squeeze out the other companies' shares."

He Daqi replied nonchalantly, "Whatever. Anyway, publicity is also an investment. We can just factor in the cost of publicity from the beginning, but we'll have to explain it to them..."

Before He Daqi could finish speaking, the two little ones pulled open the door that He Daqi hadn't closed properly, and rushed out without giving He Daqi a chance to react.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! It's snowing!"

"It's snowing! It's snowing!"

The once smooth snow surface was now covered with footprints left by the two little ones. Just as they squatted down to grab the snow with their hands, Zhou Huimin followed them to the door in a fit of anger.

"Stop playing in the snow! You'll regret it if your hands crack!" Seeing the two children ignoring her warnings and still grabbing snow, preparing to throw it at her, Zhou Huimin angrily shoved He Daqi: "What are you standing there for? Don't you know how to close the door when you come out? Did you let them slip out like that? Go and bring them back right now!" He Daqi looked at the two mischievous kids with a wry smile, and said to Liu Ying on the other end of the phone: "Sister Liu, that's all for now, I have something to do, I'll hang up now."

After hanging up the phone, he yelled and screamed like a big monkey as he rushed towards the two children.

The two little ones giggled and tried to play hide-and-seek with He Daqi, but he grabbed them by the arms and, ignoring their struggles, carried them back to the villa.

The two little ones are almost two years old and are becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Sometimes, if Grandpa He and Grandma He are not paying attention, the two children can quickly get covered in mud. All they do every day is cause trouble.

She pouts after just a few words, looking at you with pitiful eyes. She's cute and fair-skinned, which makes her lovable, and things always end without a fight. She knows that if she goes too far, her parents will scold her, so whenever she makes a mistake, she either runs to her mother or begs Grandpa He and Grandma He. She's very clever.

Sure enough, after He Daqi brought them back, the two little ones immediately ran to Zhou's mother as soon as they landed. They whined and fussed around Zhou's mother, who was sitting on the sofa watching TV, and kept asking her to take them out to play in the snow.

"Grandma, Grandma, it's snowing outside! Let's go out and build a snowman!"

"Let's build a snowman! Let's build a snowman! Grandma, shall we build a big snowman?"

With a smile, Zhou's mother picked up the two little ones and placed them on the sofa. She tapped each of their little heads and said with a smile in her eyes, "No, it's afternoon now, and it's windy outside. Your hands will get cold if you go out to play in the snow. How about we go out to play tomorrow at noon? I'll find your little gloves, and then we'll build a big snowman."

"No, Grandma, let's go out and play now."

"Grandma, please."

At this moment, Vivian Chow came over with the cat and sat down next to her mother, glaring at her fiercely and saying, "You're not behaving, are you? If you don't behave, Mommy will never take you to the amusement park again!"

The two children weren't afraid of her at all, and they tilted their little faces up and argued back with her.

“We won’t go to the amusement park unless you take us there. We’re best friends with Dad, and he’ll take us there.”

"Yes! We're best friends with Daddy. When Daddy takes us out to play, even if he doesn't take you, we'll take the kitten with us."

Zhou Huimin was amused by her anger. She put the kitten aside, reached out and hugged the two children, pinching one's cheek and then the other's. Taking advantage of being an adult, she bullied the two children because they were weak, and kept tickling their little ones. She had learned this trick from He Daqi.

Seeing that Zhou Huimin was about to make the two children cry, Zhou's mother slapped Zhou Huimin's arm in disgust and reached out to rescue the two little ones.

The two little ones were very defiant. As soon as they escaped the clutches of the devil, they snuggled up to Zhou's mother and started yelling at Zhou Huimin.

"We just want to be the best friends in the world with Dad!"

"Hehehe, hehehe, you can't catch us, you can't catch us, you~ can't~ catch~ us~"

Zhou Huimin pretended to go over and catch the two boys again, which scared the two little ones so much that they quickly moved to the other side of Zhou's mother and peered out from behind her to observe Zhou Huimin.

"Just you wait, don't fall into my hands." Zhou Huimin saw He Daqi return to the bedroom, she smiled and scared the two children, then got up and followed him into the bedroom.

Vivian Chow has a great attitude. If she gets upset with her children, she turns around and vents it on Ho Tai-kai. She's determined not to wrong herself.

Upon entering the room and seeing He Daqi sitting in front of the computer and turning it on, she immediately pretended to hug He Daqi's neck from behind: "Why are you playing games again? You've been playing all day."

"Are you going to play games instead of games?"

“It’s not impossible.” Zhou Huimin smiled and leaned forward, pressing her face against He Daqi’s.

"Get lost, you've had enough fun."

"Say that again, you fucking idiot!" Zhou Huimin said, immediately hugging He Daqi's neck tightly and then biting his ear.

"Wrong, wrong, I surrender! I didn't want to play the game, I just wanted to check the news." He Daqi's loose tongue only survived by sliding on his knees and begging.

After surrendering, He Daqi sensed that Zhou Huimin hadn't relented, so he quickly opened a webpage, clicked on a portal website, and pretended that he was genuinely going to read the news.

As soon as the website opened, he squinted.

Because the most prominent part of the webpage is the news interview with Zhang Weiping.

They've got some skills. Wuji is so domineering now, yet Zhang Weiping still manages to jump out and make a cameo appearance.

Zhou Huimin noticed this as well, and immediately let go of He Daqi's mouth, sparing his poor ears, and began watching the interview with him.

Feeling a bit annoyed by scrolling through the text report, He Daqi returned to the homepage and opened a video website: "There should be a video. This guy always pulls this kind of stunt. I'll search for it on the video website."

He was right; there was indeed an interview video.

The smile that Chen Kaige had a few days ago is now on Zhang Weiping's face. Facing one-on-one questions from reporters, he speaks fluently and confidently, showing no signs of bipolar disorder like he did at the last press conference.

"Mr. Zhang, what do you think is the reason for the precipitous drop in Wuji's box office?"

"I think that although Chen Kaige is considered a great director, he still falls short compared to Yi Mou. For big-budget films like The Promise, the waters are too deep, and he can't handle it. Yi Mou does this much better. Hero is the best example from a couple of years ago. You see, they are both..."

Upon seeing this, He Daqi immediately shut down the website.

"Why don't you watch it?"

"There's nothing to see here. I bet they'll start promoting 'Riding Alone for a Thousand Miles' next," He Daqi replied casually.

After he finished speaking, he thought for a moment, then took out his phone and called Wang Rui.

"Brother Rui, are you busy?"

"No, you want to ask about the website event, right? Don't worry, it's all set up. The event will go live at 8 a.m. tomorrow, and it will also be synchronized on Tencent."

"Okay, thank you for your help, Brother Rui."

(End of this chapter)