Huayu 1999: Starting with nothing but getting something for nothing

If "Hibiscus Town" was an unintentional event, then "In the Heat of the Sun" was definitely organized and premeditated, after all, one was distributed by Golden Harvest and the other by Mei Ah Entertainment, and the producer and executive producer was Manfred Wong.

The method is simple: by repeatedly "leaking information - debunking rumors - re-leaking information," trending topics are generated at a very low marketing cost. This solves the problem of new film awareness before release, and after release, ambiguous topics or controversial revelations attract non-core moviegoers to pay attention and go to the cinema, maintaining exposure and achieving box office growth against the trend.

For Yang Che, this can be described as a case of being unlucky in love but lucky in business.

Fan Bingbing had already arrived in Hong Kong. With her long hair flowing down her shoulders, she wore a red headband, a loose green sweater, and a jacket slung over her arm, looking playful, glamorous, and dashing.

On the way out of the station, everyone, regardless of age or gender, paid attention to her.

She was all smiles the whole way, and when a tourist occasionally raised their camera, her smile would become even sweeter, giving her a superstar aura.

It is said that she has never given the audience or fans a sour face in her 30 years in the industry.

As she walked towards the driver who was supposed to pick her up after leaving the station, she was stopped by a man who looked like a reporter.

The reporter was startled. When had this mainland girl's bodyguard suddenly appeared in front of him? After a moment of hesitation, he shouted in broken Mandarin, "Fan Bingbing, congratulations! 'My Sassy Girl' is number one at the Hong Kong box office! Do you know when Wang Fei and Yang Che started dating?"

Fan Bingbing patted Li Xiangdong's arm, revealing a row of white teeth: "As far as I know, Yang Che has a girlfriend, not Wang Fei."

Who is it?

"That's his privacy. I'm sorry, I have to go."

Do you like Yang Che?

"Hehe, every girl likes him, and I'm no exception."

After Fan Bingbing finished speaking, she walked away with Li Xiangdong and the driver who came to greet them, and got into a Mercedes-Benz MPV, which was driven by the hotel driver.

Of course! You can't rely on Star Overseas. Star Overseas doesn't even care about its own signed artists, let alone those who come to audition. No matter how big a star you are, even Feng Xiaogang has been snubbed by Stephen Chow and they won't associate with him anymore...

After waiting in the car for about 20 minutes, Zhou Liren and Li Xiangdong met up. Although they hit it off immediately and had been communicating by phone, the moment they met was still very awkward.

Luckily, I didn't bring Yueyue this time, otherwise it would have been even more awkward.

However, the two girls sitting in the middle were very natural, like old friends who knew each other very well.

After all, they immediately started to dislike each other upon meeting. One said the other's red and green outfit was utterly ridiculous, while the other said the other's braces looked like they had chives stuck to them.

The latter was clearly a slander, but it succeeded. Gao Yuanyuan took out a makeup mirror from her bag and examined herself thoroughly.

Then the two ran out of things to say, since they couldn't talk about any of their common topics in front of "outsiders," so they could only look out the window at each other.

During this time, they both received calls from Yang Che.

They didn't say the two of them were together, they just said they'd be there soon.

Yang Che said the same thing to both of them: he had ordered food and they would eat in their hotel room.

The two people made eye contact twice during the phone calls, their eyes meeting but quickly looking away, which was quite embarrassing.

When they arrived at the hotel, it was already 12:30 pm.

Zhou Liren and Li Xiangdong escorted the two to Yang Che's door, gave a brief greeting, and then ran off, each one faster than the other, showing no respect for their boss, Yang Che.

Yang Che had no interest in chatting with them. Looking at the two women who were now eight feet apart, he felt no embarrassment at all. Instead, he stretched out his arms and grinned from the bottom of his heart.

I missed you so much!

Fan Bingbing, who had been keeping a straight face, suddenly smiled, her eyes full of laughter, and then she pounced on him.

Yang Che held her and looked at Gao Yuanyuan.

Gao Yuanyuan smiled, then her lips twitched, and her eyes welled up with tears, but her expression was not one of longing or emotion.

Yang Che patted the little fat boy's bottom.

The chubby boy grumbled, "I haven't even started eating it yet."

Upon hearing this, Gao Yuanyuan's sadness vanished instantly. She sniffed and walked over, but brushed past him and headed towards the restroom.

At this moment, Little Fatty had already grabbed his collar and pulled him down.

"Hmm."

Yang Che had no choice but to deal with the chubby little guy first, giving him kisses, rubs, and pinches.

Only after hearing the sound of the bathroom flush did the chubby boy, who had had his fill, push him away.

"Didn't you two plan this?"

Yang Che asked questions as he approached Gao Yuanyuan.

Gao Yuanyuan turned away from his embrace and whispered, "We met at the airport."

Little Fatty pursed his lips: "Yeah, we bumped into each other at the airport, so we have to give face to Brother Li and Brother Zhou, right?"

Yang Che clicked his tongue, but still grabbed Gao Yuanyuan's hand.

"Bingbing, why don't you go to the restroom too?"

The chubby boy rolled his eyes: "So pretentious."

Despite his words, Little Fatty still gave Gao Yuanyuan face and went to pee.

However, Gao Yuanyuan only hugged his waist; she still avoided him, not only physically but also with her eyes.

"Okay, the food will get cold soon, and I haven't eaten anything today."

This reaction made Yang Che even more certain that Gao Yuanyuan believed he and Wang Fei were having an affair, and that she hadn't told Fan Bingbing, since the chubby boy couldn't keep secrets.

Yang Che paused, then said nothing. It wouldn't be appropriate to say anything, since Xiao Pang still had an audition that afternoon. After all, no matter what Gao Yuanyuan was like, she was only 21 years old.

The three then sat down at the dining table, with Yang Che at the head of the table and two people on either side.

"Yuanyuan, how's it going in Hong Kong?"

Gao Yuanyuan pouted: "Mmm... the air is so fresh. As soon as I got off the plane, I felt like the air was sweet."

Fan Bingbing nodded: "That's true. I've been to so many places recently, and the only places with good air quality are Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Other places are not good, and the further north you go, the more pungent the air becomes."

"It's an inevitable process of development. Don't be fooled by the fact that Hong Kong is located by the sea. Twenty or thirty years ago, the air quality was very poor. There was industry, and the buildings were tall and dense. It was only after the factories moved to the mainland that things improved."

After peeling a shrimp for her boyfriend, Gao Yuanyuan casually asked, "So, where will the factories in mainland China move to in the future?"

Yang Che knew that she was trying to distract him, so he pondered for a moment and said, "Even if China no longer has advantages in land and manpower, China's major factories will not be relocated. This is determined by national character."

The collectivist tradition of the nation and its people being intertwined; the historical trauma of being vulnerable to attack due to backwardness and the need for industrial development to save the country; and the self-reliant consciousness—these are like drugs, like the Qing Dynasty's ceding of territory and indemnity treaties, deeply ingrained in the DNA of every Chinese person, and very difficult to change.

Gao Yuanyuan nodded at her boyfriend like a fangirl; she loved his thoughtfulness and his ability to organize his thoughts.

Fan Bingbing rolled her eyes several times: "Is this all you two talk about when you're together?"

Gao Yuanyuan looked up: "Not entirely, we also talk about philosophy, literature, music, art..."

Fan Bingbing quickly raised her hand to stop Gao Yuanyuan from showing off: "Okay, okay..."

Then she looked at her boyfriend and asked, "Aren't people from Hong Kong Chinese?"

"Yes, but it needs to be modified, otherwise something bad will happen sooner or later."

Think about it, if we hadn't had the land reform, the literacy campaign, the ideological transformation, and the elimination of the ideological poison left by the Qing Dynasty's colonial legacy, simply shouting "We have stood up from now on" wouldn't have been enough to make us stand up.

Just like Nehru proclaimed many slogans about India becoming great, India is still a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country—no, it's even worse than being semi-colonial and semi-feudal. At least the Philippines has a clear understanding of itself.