This director only directs blockbusters.

Xu Qin jotted it down in her notebook, then asked, "What about the domestic premiere? Where will it be held?"

"BJ," Yang Ning said, "China Film Group is leading the effort, and we'll schedule it for the end of January, the weekend closest to the Spring Festival. We'll invite all the media, film critics, and industry leaders we can."

Looking at the promotional materials on the whiteboard, he suddenly asked, "Sister Qin, what do you think is the biggest challenge in this promotional campaign?"

Xu Qin put down her pen and thought about it seriously.

"Change their mindset," she said. "Audiences are used to domestic films being martial arts, comedies, and melodramas. If a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film suddenly appears, they might not accept it."

"So we need to educate the market," Yang Ning said. "We'll use the best visuals and the best technology to show them—domestic films can be made like this too."

He walked to the window and looked at the street scene below.

In Beijing in 2002, most of the GG brand products on the streets were daily necessities, liquor, and home appliances.

There are very few movie posters.

But soon, the city's streets and alleys will be filled with that hand, wreathed in purple lightning, reaching out from the ruins.

"Liu Yong." Yang Ning turned around.

"exist."

"The posters will be sent to be printed tomorrow. We'll print 5,000 copies and distribute them to major cinemas nationwide."

"Sister Qin."

"Um?"

"Give me the TV broadcast schedule by the day after tomorrow at the latest."

"Han Duoduo".

Han Duoduo raised her head.

"Optimize the video analysis further and add Chinese subtitles. The domestic version can have fewer technical terms, but it can't be lacking in practical information."

"clear!"

Yang Ning looked at the people in the conference room.

Xu Qin's competence, Liu Yong's honesty, and Han Duoduo's cleverness.

And there are also Huang Xiaoming, Fan Binbin, Zhou Xun, and others who are far away in various places...

This group of people spent three months making a movie.

Now, we need to sell this movie in two months.

"Everyone," he began, his voice not loud, but clear.

"From today onwards, our mission has changed."

"It's no longer filming a movie, it's fighting a war."

"The challenge isn't the difficulties within the production team, but rather the audience's preconceived notions, market biases, and everyone's perception of 'impossible'."

He paused.

"But we have three months of sweat, three months of blood, and a work that we can be proud of."

"So we can win this battle."

"We must win."

The meeting room was silent for a few seconds.

Then, Liu Yong was the first to raise his hand: "Director Yang, I'll go to the printing factory and keep an eye on it right away!"

Han Duoduo, holding her laptop, said, "I'll edit two more versions!"

Xu Qin closed her notebook: "I'm going to talk to the TV station."

Everyone got moving.

Yang Ning walked to the whiteboard and carefully took down the design draft of the third poster.

The hand that reached out from the ruins gleamed faintly under the light.

He looked at it for a long time. Then he said softly:

See you during the Spring Festival.

Outside the window, the winter sun shines brightly. A war without gunfire has begun.

…………

The first Monday of December, at 7:00 AM.

The capital city was not yet fully awake. Traffic was sparse on Chang'an Avenue, and buses crawled slowly, belching white steam.

The sanitation worker wielded a large broom, sweeping up the fallen leaves from the previous night.

At the Xidan intersection, a huge outdoor GG sign was covered with a blue cloth.

Several workers stood on the elevator, holding tools in their hands.

The foreman glanced at his watch and shouted to those below, "That's about enough, start lifting!"

The blue cloth slowly fell down.

The first thing to emerge was a hand—reaching out from a crack in the ruins, its skin stained with dirt and blood, its knuckles taut and white.

Then came the purple electric light that coiled around his fingertips, fine, violent, crawling as if it were alive.

Finally, there's a line of text at the bottom of the GG card:

"On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the apocalypse arrives. *The Purple Cloud Era*"

There were no celebrity portraits, no explosion scenes, only a hand and a pile of ruins.

The experienced worker climbed down from the elevator, looked up, and said, "This poster... is quite unique."

A young worker nearby muttered, "They don't even have a celebrity lookalike, how can they sell tickets?"

"You don't know anything," the old craftsman said, lighting a cigarette. "This is art."

---

At the same time, at Guomao subway station.

The morning rush hour crowds surge in and out like a tide.

Footsteps, voices, and the roar of trains entering the station blended into a noisy background.

The light boxes in the subway passage were all replaced overnight.

It's still that same hand.

Inside the different light boxes, the angles are slightly different—some only reveal the wrist, while others reveal half of the forearm, but the electric light is always present.

A young white-collar worker in a suit and tie hurried past, glanced at the scene, and didn't stop walking.

Two female students, carrying schoolbags, paused in front of the lightbox.

"What movie is this?"

"I don't know... but the poster is so cool."

"Look at that lightning, it looks like it's really moving."

They took a picture—with one of those 300,000-pixel flip phones, the image was so blurry it looked like it was pixelated, but they still took it.

---

Nine o'clock in the morning, in the China Film Group conference room.

Han Shanping looked at the five newspapers spread out on the table.

The Beijing Youth Daily's entertainment section headline reads: "First Poster Released for 'Purple Cloud Era,' an 'Adventure' Without Stars?"

The Beijing News: "The Suspense of One Hand: An Alternative Marketing Strategy for New Films During the Spring Festival Season"

The Entertainment News put it bluntly: "Yang Ning pulls out another surprise tactic, 'de-celebrity-ization' of posters sparks controversy."

Two tabloids ran even more sensational headlines: "Art Over Celebrities? 'Purple Cloud' Production Team Responds: Let the Visuals Speak for Themselves."

Han Shanping put down his newspaper and looked at Yang Ning sitting opposite him.

"The controversy arose on the very first day."

"It's good to have controversy," Yang Ning said. "What I'm afraid of is silence."

"The theater chain called me." Han Shanping picked up his teacup. "They said that without celebrities on the posters, it would be difficult for them to do on-the-ground promotion."

They asked if they could change it to a solo photo of Huang Xiaoming or Fan Binbin.

"No." Yang Ning said decisively, "These posters are going to be on display for a month. If we change them now, all the suspense we built up will be for nothing."

"What about on-the-ground promotion?"

"We'll do it ourselves." Yang Ning took out a business plan from his bag. "The studio has hired twenty part-time college students to be stationed at major cinemas in the four cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, starting today."

They don't sell tickets; they only do one thing—show the audience videos explaining the special effects.

Han Shanping opened the project plan.

The list above details the cinemas in each city, their hours of operation, and even includes a USB drive and a portable DVD player.

For those viewers who are willing to stop and watch for five minutes, play the highlights edited by Han Duoduo.

"What are you doing...?" Han Shanping looked up, "Trying to make the publicity right under the audience's noses?"

"That's right." Yang Ning nodded. "TV shows and outdoor shows are like casting a wide net. This kind of face-to-face viewing is like precise fishing. Those who are willing to stop and watch are potential ticket buyers."

"And the results?"

"Today is the first day, the data won't be available until tonight," Yang Ning said. "But I'm confident."

Han Shanping remained silent for a while.

"Yang Ning, do you know what I admire most about you?"

Yang Ning remained silent.

"It's not your talent, nor your drive," Han Shanping said. "It's that you can always suggest 'why not do it that way' when everyone else thinks 'it should be this way.'"

He put down the plan.

"Do as you say. I'll talk to the theaters about it."