How did I become famous?

July 28th, sunny.

There was a rare gentle breeze tonight, which dispelled some of the sweltering heat of the past few days.

At 10:30 p.m., Fang Tangjing met Wang Ming at the entrance of the mall.

"Where are the tickets?"

"I bought it, but..."

"But what?"

"It's a 3 AM showing, and it's in a small theater, not IMAX."

"Not buying a ticket for the premiere?"

"I got these tickets through our website. Do you think you can still buy tickets now?"

Wang Ming was also unhappy.

What is most important to a journalist?

time!

If you release your news later than others, can it still be considered news?

But there's nothing we can do; our own magazine doesn't get many votes, and they're basically all taken by the big shots.

He's lucky if he can get two tickets for 3 a.m.

Looking at the throngs of people heading into the mall behind him, Fang Tangjing felt a little dizzy: "What are we going to do for the next few hours?"

"Let's go see 'Life Is Not Worth Living' and 'You Are the Apple of My Eye' first. There are still tickets available for both premieres." Wang Ming pushed up his glasses and pulled four tickets out of his pocket. "Let's go, just to kill some time."

Fang Tangjing expressed his disapproval: "What kind of garbage was Wu Kai's last movie, 'Iron-Blooded Sand'? And Xu Kuangfu too, I can't be bothered to watch their movies, it's a waste of money."

"I'm a film critic, I'm here to work, okay?" Wang Ming sighed. "Just keep me company. If you really don't want to watch... you can go to sleep. There's air conditioning there, it's better than staying outside."

"I was actually quite envious of your job, being able to go to the movies on the company's dime, but I didn't expect you to be so unlucky." Fang Tangjing sighed, then made a condition, "I'll accompany you to watch movies that are too painful to watch, but you have to promise me one thing."

Tell me about it.

"Write more good things about our director Fang in your film review, or I'll gather a bunch of people to bombard your magazine's Weibo account."

"..." Wang Ming snorted coldly, "I don't have as little faith in his movies as you do."

"Hey bro, I was just kidding. The online trolls were targeting Director Fang's character before, I was worried you film critics would do the same." Fang Tangjing turned and walked into the mall. "Come on, come on, I'll treat you to DQ."

Rum raisin waffle crisps, plus brownies and Oreos!

This is his favorite!

He decided to share this hobby with Wang Ming, who was standing next to him.

............

"What are we going to do? We can't even buy tickets for our own movie... If word gets out, our competitors will laugh at us."

In a hot pot restaurant in the mall, Liu Mang and others sat around a group of people with worried faces.

"By the way, who got these tickets? Why didn't you reserve a few for our crew beforehand?"

Liu Mang was the first to launch an attack.

"Isn't it you?" Pan Xiao ranted. "During the meeting, you assured us there was no need to worry about the tickets, and now you're trying to shift the blame?"

Liu Mang's face flushed red from the steam rising from the hot pot: "I'm Lao Fang's handpicked executive director! If he's not on set, then I'll definitely be the one keeping an eye on the editing room! How could I have time to deal with movie tickets!"

"What should we do then? Should we skip the movie tonight?"

Although they had already seen it when they watched the sample footage.

But watching it on a computer is never as enjoyable as watching it on a big screen in a movie theater.

Moreover, this film, "Shadow of Light," also features a large number of cool special effects and music.

The red broth in the hot pot bubbled and simmered, and the group of guys, each with a cigarette in hand, began to keep quiet.

The atmosphere became tense.

At this point, we need a "rope-twisting guy" to step forward and unite everyone into one.

Liu Mang slammed his fist on the table: "Damn it! Call Yoshikage Kira and the others! Why aren't they coming to our team building event? Are they antisocial? Or do they think they're about to become big stars?"

So someone dialed Yoshikage Kira's phone number.

Then, less than five minutes later, he hung up the phone.

"Yoshikage Kira and Yongren Chen bought tickets, but they were for the 3 a.m. showing."

"Are there really no tickets left?"

"Really, they're all sold out. I just checked the app. All four screenings tonight until 3 a.m. at cinemas within a 200-kilometer radius are sold out. Forget about cinemas further away; even if we drove there overnight... it wouldn't be enough time."

"Sigh..." Liu Mang frowned, puffing on his cigarette, and started shifting blame again, "It's all your fault! If you guys had been faster with the editing, special effects, and rendering, none of this would have happened!"

"F*** you!" Nie Fang cursed, "You said you'd take care of everything, and now you're trying to shift the blame onto us?"

"Heh, if you guys hadn't been so long-winded, would I have forgotten?"

"If you hadn't forgotten, would we have missed the movie?"

"What should we do then?"

Then the group started repeating the year.

After a while, a girl pushed open the door and walked into the private room.

She frowned as she entered, waving away the smoke in front of her: "Are you eating or playing with fire?"

Liu Mang glanced at her, still looking worried: "Why did you take so long to arrive?"

Zhao Qiumei sat down and then instructed the waiter to turn on the ventilation fan for air circulation.

After that, she prepared the dipping sauce and said while eating, "I went to deliver tickets to our investors, what else could I be doing?"

"Hmm..." Liu Mang nodded at first, then keenly noticed something, "Huh?! Free tickets?! What tickets!"

"Movie tickets, what else could it be?" Zhao Qiumei picked up a piece of freshly cooked mutton and put it in her mouth. "Our CEO Su and a few female classmates came to see a movie. I just went back to the company to get the tickets for them."

"What movie? Which showing?" Liu Mang's small eyes sparkled.

Zhao Qiumei felt a chill run down her spine under his gaze: "It's 'The Shadow of Light,' the premiere at midnight. There are a lot of people with President Su and her group, so I gave them seven tickets in total."

"Hmm? So there are still extra tickets..." Liu Mang's smile became even more disgusting: "Qiu Mei, how do we usually get along?"

Zhao Qiumei shuddered: "Don't give me that crap, I know what you mean."

She turned around and took a stack of movie tickets from her bag hanging on the back of the chair: "Here, your tickets. President Su prepared them a long time ago."

"Nice!" Liu Mang snatched the ticket and asked, "Where's Lao Fang? He's not going to the movies with Miss Su, is he?"

"No." Zhao Qiumei waved her hand. "When I went back to the company to get the tickets, I found Director Fang sitting on the sofa with the lights off. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was contemplating life."

"So he's not going to the movie?" Liu Mang took out his phone and dialed. "Hey, Lao Fang. Aren't you coming to the movie tonight?"

"I'm not watching anymore," came Fang Bie's tired voice from the other end of the line. "I'm thinking about how to sing a new song."

"You're writing another song?" Liu Mang was a little surprised. He hadn't forgotten that he had joined Fang Bie's company specifically to learn songwriting from him. "What's the new song called?"

"Cooling Down".

Snapped--

The call was disconnected.