This director is vindictive.

Chapter 451 Thirteen Years After the Whale Fall, A Kiss Awakens the Old Times

Time flies, and November has arrived.

In fact, Ocean Wedding is already quite familiar to the public.

Furthermore, because of the previous three promotional videos for the Huayun Wedding Dress series, this is no longer just a mockumentary, but has evolved into a ritual.

In particular, the promotion for this film used a nostalgic approach, reminiscing about a thirteen-year promise, which made many people treat the film as a ritual, a way of remembering the past.

On the evening of November 10, the premiere of "Ocean Wedding" was held at Wanda Cinema in Beijing.

Besides celebrities and film critics, the audience members who were invited to attend the event were all audience members who received free tickets as part of the thirteen-year commitment.

Among them are men and women who broke up many years ago but reunited because of a "thirteen-year promise".

Of course, these were all specifically selected based on big data analysis after these viewers participated in the "Thirteen-Year Promise" event online.

After all, this is "Ocean Wedding," so with the idea of ​​bringing together as many couples as possible, most of the "audience" tonight is this group.

In the waiting area for the premiere, under the dazzling crystal chandeliers, invited audience members held replica ticket stubs and gathered in twos and threes to take photos.

After all, with the sentiment of a thirteen-year promise, the sense of ceremony can be said to be at its maximum.

Someone held up two yellowed original ticket stubs and a brand-new "Ocean Wedding" movie ticket to form a heart shape, and flashes went off one after another.

Meanwhile, Lin Ran, a lawyer who came from Shanghai, had no time to pay attention to any of this; she had already reapplied her lipstick for the third time.

The mirror reflected her taut jawline—underneath her dark gray cashmere coat was a newly bought lace-trimmed shirt, and she had even changed her perfume to the one he had given her seven years ago.

His fingertips swiped across the phone screen again and again. His last message was from three hours ago: "I've landed. I'll go straight to the cinema to find you."

She kept looking up towards the entrance, because the original appointment was for tomorrow, and the tickets were already prepared, but she unexpectedly received an invitation to the premiere of "Ocean Wedding", so it was changed to today.

She didn't know why, even though they had broken up for many years, she was still incredibly nervous at this moment.

I'm so afraid of missing out again!
At this moment, another group of people entered the venue one after another. Under the lights, her eyes kept scanning around, searching for that familiar figure.

But he was still not among this group!
Is he not coming?

For some reason, the usually shrewd and capable lawyer acted like a young girl in love at this moment.

It was filled with trepidation and anticipation.

Slightly disappointed, she turned her head to look at the men and women taking selfies, her heart filled with envy.

Just then, cheers suddenly erupted from both sides of the entrance.

She turned her head sharply, only to see celebrities entering the room.

Her fingers were intertwined and turned somewhat white.

Because of the order of entry at the premiere, these invited ordinary audience members did not need to walk the red carpet, so they were the first to enter.

Now all the celebrities have started to enter, but the one she's waiting for hasn't arrived yet.

At that moment, she truly understood what it meant to be part of a group's revelry and one person's loneliness!
That describes her right now.

Two middle-aged people, a man and a woman, were sitting in the next two seats, having reunited after a long separation. They were pouring their hearts out to each other, but to Lin Ran, it was incredibly painful to listen to.

Because the seat next to her was empty.

She picked up her phone several times wanting to ask him, but hesitated and didn't press the dial button.

Just as she suddenly smiled bitterly.

Suddenly, a familiar voice came from above.

"Sorry, there was a traffic jam, I'm late!"

She suddenly looked up and finally saw the man she had been dreaming of.

After many years, he seemed to have matured. His suit jacket was still cool from the cabin air conditioning, and his tie clip was the graduation gift she had given him years ago.

Up close, you can smell that familiar, faint scent of cedarwood perfume. I remember when she gave him the perfume years ago, he looked disgusted and thought, what do men need to use perfume for?

I never expected that he would actually need it now.

However, she could see the fatigue on his face from the long flight.

Lin Ran somehow forgot all the words she wanted to say at that moment.

His mind went blank. He sat down in the seat next to her and took a yellowed EMS envelope out of his briefcase: "Found it at the Shenzhen branch."

"What is it?" Lin Ran asked curiously.

He reached in and took it out; inside were two movie ticket stubs from 2011, their edges oxidized and brittle.

He ran his finger over the blurry seat numbers on the ticket: "Row 6, seats 9 and 11, you said the numbers were auspicious."

"I originally bought tickets for tomorrow, and it was in the same order, but I never expected to receive an invitation to the premiere," he said with a smile.

"Shall we go see another one tomorrow?" Lin Ran blurted out.

"Okay!" He smiled indulgently.

She was about to speak when the cheers from the audience interrupted her.

It was Chen Mo who led Zhang Yuqi onto the stage in front of the big screen.

Chen Mo stood under the spotlight, his gaze sweeping over the audience members below, who were clutching their ticket stubs and had reddened eyes. His voice, tinged with laughter, came through the microphone:
"Thirteen years ago, we planted a time capsule in 'Love is Not Blind'. When we opened it tonight, we found that some tears turned into pearls and some wounds grew into roses."

He turned to the side and pointed to the live close-up shots of the audience on the big screen: "Look at that couple in the third row holding up their ticket stubs arranged in the shape of a heart—the screenshot of 'I no longer believe in love' that you posted on Weibo back then has now become the sweetest irony."

The audience member who was photographed stood up gracefully, holding the hand of the girl next to him, and the two raised their hands high.

A round of applause and blessings erupted from the audience.

Zhang Yuqi held up her tablet at the opportune moment, displaying the data she had just received: "The backend shows that 217 couples who had previously separated sat together in the same theater tonight. This number is still increasing—for example, the lady in the sixth row who is secretly wiping away tears right now, the 1314 yuan you deposited in the Love Bank seven years ago has just been automatically converted into a honeymoon voucher for two to the Maldives."

However, you can apply for a refund if you don't need it!

A good-natured cheer erupted from the audience, and the camera captured lawyer Lin Ran blushing as she buried her head in the shoulder of the person next to her.

Her ex-boyfriend, standing beside her, reached out and hugged her tightly with affection, a smile on his face.

Chen Mo gently tapped the microphone: "Don't be too moved yet, the next movie will tell you—"

He deliberately dragged out his words: "If Huang Xiaoxian could have foreseen today, she might have replaced the paper shredder with a wedding ring display case."

Suddenly, the opening credits of "Ocean Wedding" lit up on the big screen, with the sound of waves mixed with Chen Mo's final blessing: "Please remember, all heartbreak is just paving the way for true love. Now, let's finish the lines we didn't say thirteen years ago and give it a happy ending."

As the lights dimmed, the sound of ocean waves washed over the theater from afar. The brand logo of Huayun·Guofeng appeared on the big screen, but unlike before, this time the logo was enveloped in flowing seawater, shimmering with a shimmering blue light.

The camera rises from the sea level of the Maldives, a drone sweeps over the emerald atoll, and suddenly swoops down to the seabed—a gasp erupts from the audience. The entire underwater wedding scene was actually built on the real seabed, with white seashells adorning the coral reefs, and the bride and groom's seats were antique carved chairs made from shipwreck debris.

On the screen, Chen Mo is wearing an indigo robe and writing on a specially made waterproof marriage certificate. The gold powder made of nanomaterials does not disperse in the seawater, and as he writes, the lines from the Book of Songs appear: "In life and death, in separation and reunion, we made a vow."

Suddenly, there was movement on the sea.

A ship shaped like a seashell broke through the water, and most strikingly, twelve bottlenose dolphins leaped out of the water at the same time, their tail fins slapping out in shimmering arcs.

These marine creatures, which have undergone three years of special training, each wear a red collar woven from nanofibers—which, upon closer inspection, are actually miniature versions of concentric knots. The built-in miniature sonar devices allow them to precisely control their formation.

Exclamations of surprise rang out from the crowd.

The main reason is that Zhang Yuqi's entrance as the bride was so unique.

However, this was just the beginning. Soon, the "pearl petals" that floated with the ship bloomed into miniature lotus flowers when they touched the sea surface. Each petal was a biodegradable flexible screen, playing back the memories of Chen Mo and Zhang Yuqi's past.

It contains scenes from "Candle in the Tomb: The Lost City" and "The Mermaid".
Suddenly, some viewers who had seen "The Phoenix Brings Auspiciousness" back then noticed that the details actually echoed the "hundred bushels of pearls as betrothal gifts" in "The Phoenix Brings Auspiciousness". The Nanyang gold pearls mentioned in the documentary are now flowing on the crest of the wave in the form of holographic projection.

Zhang Yuqi's wedding dress was also meticulously designed by Huayun Apparel!

When sunlight penetrates twenty meters into the sea, the coral patterns embroidered on the wedding dress change color with the water flow—highlighting the effect of "coloring in the light and flowing in the water."

The veil is adorned with 3001 crystal starfish that sway gently with the ocean currents. Each starfish contains a black-lipped oyster larva cultivated in Tahitian, which will naturally develop into a real pearl three years after the wedding.

Meanwhile, the camera panned to a swarm of drones. These machines formed an array reminiscent of the "hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix" in traditional wedding customs, while the light and shadow they cast transformed into the Wenyao fish from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, dancing with a pod of real dolphins.

The audience at the scene was already in a state of shock.

This unique wedding was so spectacular that Zhang Yuqi's appearance as the bride alone was breathtaking.

However, this is just the beginning!
When the bride's shell boat was moored in front of the coral reef, all the dolphins suddenly emitted a 52 Hz call!
This is not just something said casually; there's a reason behind such a design.

Some knowledgeable audience members explained, "Ocean scientists say this is the frequency of the 'Guanju' poem that is closest to the rhythm of whales."

Meanwhile, someone exclaimed in surprise: "Holy crap! The Book of Rites records a ritual called 'Fish Salad' in the Zhou Dynasty, and they actually used live dolphins to perform it!"

(End of this chapter)