Chinese entertainment starts with Hong Shixian

Chapter 474 Am I the kind of person who would cheat others? Absolutely not!
Beach!

The gentle lapping of the waves swayed gently, carried by the sea breeze.

As night fell, a parasol was set up, with a white lamp hanging from it, casting a soft white light onto the beach.

Qi Hui and his group sat around the table, while two assistants were busy around the fireworks not far away.

They were helping Qi Hui and the others with a barbecue.

Meanwhile, Qi Hui and the other three were reading the script.

The script for "The Vanished She" is short; it begins with the male lead, He Fei, seeking help from the police.
His wife has gone missing. He requests the police's assistance in finding her and, ideally, that they open a case for investigation.
However, this is the peak tourist season in the Barandia Islands, and police resources are strained, so they don't pay much attention to minor matters like missing persons.
Yes, missing persons are a minor issue here.

In Southeast Asia, even death is not uncommon.

Going missing is nothing! Being eaten by a crocodile or strangled by a python is not surprising at all!
What's unusual is dying a meaningful death, like taking down a gang leader or a drug lord.
This is Southeast Asia, chaos is not an adjective, it's the norm here, it's a completely different world from China!
So, He Fei was tragically kicked out of the police station, and nobody paid him any attention.

But as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. A Chinese-American police officer surnamed Zheng stepped forward and agreed to help He Fei.
However, he didn't know anything about it either, so he needed to look at the information and would talk about it tomorrow.

He Fei returned to the hotel and slept for the night, preparing to continue his search for his wife the next day. Suddenly, he woke up to find a strange woman sleeping in his bed.

And she claims to be his wife.

This strange woman knew everything about him, including the details of his affair with his wife.
The identification documents in the room, the travel photos, the files in the camera, the hotel staff… all of this proved that the strange woman in front of him was his wife.

He Fei vehemently denied knowing the woman, but he couldn't produce any evidence.

His wife is an orphan with no relatives; she is introverted and has few friends.

For the time being, He Fei was unable to produce any evidence to prove that his wife was not this strange woman.

Faced with the gentle "Li Muzi," he was speechless...

"Isn't this... a bit unrealistic?" Wu Jing thought for a moment and said.

With today's advanced communication technology, finding someone's image or video footage is quite easy.

Chen Duling and Gao Yuanyuan glared at Wu Jing. They were just getting into the exciting part, why did they have to interrupt?
Qi Hui shrugged: "That's a bit unrealistic, so I set the timeframe at 2005, which is 10 years ago!"

Back then, mobile phones weren't as advanced, and making international calls was quite troublesome.

Modifying or replacing documents and information is not difficult in this archipelago nation with its chaotic security and virtually nonexistent grassroots organization.

To this end, Qi Hui also had the props team find and replace many old-fashioned mobile phones from 10 years ago.

"What about the embassy?" Wu Jing asked.

“Archipelago nations,” Qi Hui said, pointing to the script.

"Oh, I understand." Wu Jing nodded. Embassies and similar institutions aren't located on every island in the archipelago, so verifying documents takes time.

You can't exactly fly a plane, can you?
Even if you have that idea, there are no planes here!
Mobilizing an aircraft requires an enormous amount of effort, money, and time. It would be better to use that time to diligently search for clues.

"Can't it be a little more realistic?" Chen Duling thought for a moment and asked.

"No!" ×2
Qi Hui and Gao Yuanyuan answered at the same time
"Uh……?"

“Someone will imitate it,” Gao Yuanyuan said. This movie is about a wife-murder case!

Therefore, it must be placed under an absurd and bizarre premise from the very beginning, otherwise it is easy to cause trouble.

If it were an art film, it would be fine, but this movie is an action-packed film with a large audience. Who knows if it will run into problems?

"Yes, Gao Yuanyuan is right." Qi Hui nodded.

Gao Yuanyuan rolled her eyes at Qi Hui. "You used to call me Sister Yuanyuan, but you've changed it now?"

O man!

Qi Hui ignored her and continued to explain that there were quite a few people who imitated movies to cause trouble.

The most famous example is the 97 North Hollywood robbery in the United States.

Those two robbers were imitating the classic gunfight movie, "Heat."

However... Heat is actually based on a true story.

The original version of "The Vanished" was also inspired by a case of a wife being murdered.

This practice of placing the film's story under an absurd and bizarre premise is not surprising; many films do this.

For example, "Goodbye Mr. Loser" is set in a time-travel setting.

There's also "Never Say Die," which is set under the premise of a man and woman swapping bodies.

The difference is that the former two are comedy films, while Qi Hui's is a suspense film.

……

The next day

The script reading continued, but none of the four had a moment's rest.
Chen Duling needs to undergo diving training, Gao Yuanyuan needs to study her character, and Qi Hui gives her a new requirement: to portray an evil, chillingly wicked woman.

And you can't rely on makeup; you have to go completely bare-faced, wearing an elegant long dress, and then...
Gao Yuanyuan was extremely troubled by this; it was very difficult!
But there was no other way but to look for information, references, and solutions.

After searching high and low, they finally found it on Jiang Yuyan.

The woman who wore a dragon robe and then killed off the entire cast of survivors.

Qi Hui was in charge of overseeing the entire production team, and he had to review everything, big or small.

In the afternoon, things came to a close, and I could finally continue reading the script.
But unexpectedly, someone came to visit the set:
Yang Mi!

"Yang Mi!" Gao Yuanyuan waved. Actually, the two of them hadn't worked together much.

They only collaborated once in "Caught in the Web," but later Yang Mi left the "Caught in the Web" crew for some reason.

"This is one of our investors." Qi Hui stood up and applauded warmly in welcome.

"Let's welcome Boss Yang!"

Clap clap clap!

The applause was incredibly enthusiastic; Chen Duling, Gao Yuanyuan, and Wu Jing all gave it their due.
Investors are all bosses; you have to show them some respect!

Yang Mi smiled, nodded, and accepted it calmly; it felt good.
"What brings you here, Mr. Yang, to inspect our work?" Qi Hui asked with a smile.

"I was promoting my movie and just happened to be passing by, so I stopped by to take a look," Yang Mi said. She was promoting "My Sunshine."

My schedule wasn't too tight, so I came here to take a short break.

Seeing that the two bosses had started chatting, Wu Jing and his two companions tactfully left, leaving only the assistant still nearby.

Actors can leave, but assistants can't.

Otherwise, it would just be him, Qi, and Yang Mi alone together!

After watching the others leave, Qi Hui thought for a moment and decided to discuss his thoughts on the future of the film.

This is important!

"Are you still playing video games?" Qi Hui asked.

"Uh... go for it." Yang Mi hesitated for a moment. She was a game enthusiast and played games frequently.

Online, you can also find many photos of her playing games in internet cafes in her early days.
Qi Hui stroked his chin: "I have an idea, an idea about movie promotion."

"Wh...what?" Yang Mi suddenly sensed something was wrong.

I have an urge to leave immediately. What is this guy up to?

They're bringing up both games and movie promotions!

"Why don't you start a live stream?" Qi Hui said with a smile. "What do you think?"

They're building up their accounts through live streaming now, so they can use them to promote the movie when it's released.

"The Vanished Woman" is a suspenseful film about a wife's murder.
The fact that the protagonist is the murderer needs to be kept secret, otherwise the story won't be interesting later on.

This makes the formal film promotion process and content somewhat restrictive.

The original film, *Gone Girl*, followed the same approach, utilizing a large number of short videos for promotion in addition to the standard film marketing process.
For a while, out of ten videos I scrolled through on Douyin and Kuaishou, at least five or six were about men searching for their wives, filled with anxiety, helplessness, and pain.
Each one gets tens or hundreds of thousands of views and thousands or even hundreds of comments, it's incredibly popular!

Qi Hui also wanted to use short videos, but short videos haven't really taken off yet.

Even A.em, the predecessor of TikTok, hasn't been launched yet.

Therefore, Qi Hui plans to fill the gap by using live streaming!

Yang Mi's face immediately darkened: "This is what you meant by 'idea'?!"

What is live streaming?
The female anchor was engaging in suggestive content, and the male anchor was spewing vulgarities; it was all just crude and awful stuff.
Getting involved in live streaming caused my status to plummet... No, did I even have any status back then?
"That's right!" Qi Hui said with a serious face, "You're playing games and streaming to prepare for the movie's promotion!"

"The live streaming industry is booming right now, and it's on the fast track!"

"By combining live streaming with normal promotional methods, we can achieve extraordinary results!"

"I already... cough cough, what do you think?" Qi Hui asked eagerly.
Yang Mi gritted her teeth: "So, you already had this in mind when you took my investment, right?"

During this time, she actually naively believed that Qi Hui was helping her!
I was wondering why this bastard had changed his ways; he was waiting for me here!

"No, absolutely not!" Qi Hui shook his head repeatedly, denying it outright: "Am I, Qi Hui, the kind of person who would cheat people?"

"I came up with this idea on a whim!"

Yang Mi: "..."

I really want to hit someone!
(End of this chapter)