In the entertainment industry, the silly system claims it's the immortal realm.

Chapter 106 You always call other women to sleep with you

Early September.

Conference room on the fifth floor of Hehuan Film and Television.

When Han Sanping pushed the door open and came in, he couldn't suppress the smile on his face.

He put his briefcase on the table and started speaking before he even sat down.

"It's done."

Yu Dong looked up. Li Hua put down his pen. Wei Yi leaned back in his chair, twirling a ballpoint pen in his hand.

"Third Master, what's done?"

"The 'Outstanding Domestic Film Screening Month' has been approved." Han Sanping sat down, picked up the teacup in front of Wei Yi, took a sip, and said, "It's been approved by the higher-ups."

Yu Dong was stunned for a moment, then suddenly stood up: "Really?!"

"When have I, Lao Han, ever told a lie?"

Han Sanping opened his briefcase, took out two official documents, handed one to Yu Shu, and pushed the other in front of Wei Yi.

Wei Yi looked down and flipped through it.

To put it bluntly, it's a protection month for domestic films.

It's just changed to a better-sounding name.

The core of the document is just one point: imported films will be subject to limited screenings during this year's National Day holiday.

The film "Miami Vice," originally scheduled for release during the National Day holiday, has been postponed to November due to "insufficient quota for imported films."

The release schedule only includes two or three Hollywood films that flopped in Europe and America, and their screenings are reduced to the minimum.

"Third Master, this was handled beautifully."

Yu Dong read the document twice, his eyes shining as he looked up. "With 'Miami Vice' pulled, the entire National Day film slot will be left to domestic films. How many more screenings can our 'Detective Chinatown' get?"

"Conservative estimate, over 30%." Han Sanping held up three fingers.

Li Hua, standing beside him, quickly pressed buttons on a calculator: "With 30% of the screenings, a seven-day National Day holiday, and an average ticket price of 30 yuan—is there a chance the box office will break 100 million yuan in the first week?"

"Breaking 100 million is the passing grade." Han Sanping leaned back in his chair, turning his gaze to Wei Yi. "Little Wei, why aren't you saying anything?"

Wei Yi closed the document, picked up his teacup, and took a sip.

"Third Master, the market is bigger, but so are the competitors. 'Rob-B-Hood,' 'The Banquet,' and those other Hong Kong films. Huayi Brothers has been saying they'll postpone it by two or three days, but the National Day holiday only lasts seven days. Postponing it by three days is like losing half the box office. Are they really willing to do that?"

"And there wasn't a 'Month for Showcasing Outstanding Domestic Films' before. Now that they've realized they have no Hollywood rivals, will they really postpone it?"

Han Sanping smiled and said, "We have to be willing to let go, whether we want to or not. Right now, Huayi Brothers is having two films competing against each other, with Jackie Chan and Little Cannon neither willing to give in. Wang Zhongjun's leak was a test to see the market reaction. If we gain too much momentum, he might really move on."

"Then let him move."

Wei Yi slammed the ballpoint pen on the table.

"We won't move. We'll go in on the first day of National Day. A head-on battle."

The meeting room was silent for two seconds.

Yu Dongxian laughed: "I like Director Wei's temperament."

Han Sanping laughed too, but after laughing, he added, "Fighting head-on is fine, but it has to be done well. Xiao Wei, your blog marketing for 'One Shot' was really impressive last time, but that time you were just playing by yourself. This time you're surrounded by wolves, you have to step up your game."

"We will definitely increase the stakes."

Wei Yi leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and pondered for a moment.

The system panel unfolds on the retina.

"Void Drawing Symbols" LV3, simulates the propagation path.

The skill's current potential has been expanded to include the ability to roughly analyze how information is disseminated.

While it can't simulate real life, it's more than enough to predict the spread of a publicity campaign.

A few seconds later he opened his eyes and held up one finger.

"First Move: Tang Ren's Street Detective Cases" video series.

Han Sanping took out his notebook and began to take notes.

"Have Baoqiang, using the persona of Tang Ren, film randomly with a DV camera in Bangkok's Chinatown. No professional equipment needed, the more shaky the better, the rougher the better. The content is him solving cases in Chinatown." It's basically about finding a cat, chasing a thief, arguing with local vendors—all sorts of trivial, funny little things. Each video ends with a cliffhanger: Who is the real culprit? Find out in the movie theater.

Yu Dong frowned: "Shoot a short video and put it online? Will that even work?"

"Mr. Yu, go home and ask your children whether they spend more time watching TV or surfing the internet."

Yu Dong was stunned for a moment.

Han Sanping answered for Wei Yi: "My nephew just turned eighteen and has just finished the college entrance examination. I heard from his mother that after the exam, he spent more than ten hours online every day, and he didn't turn on the TV at all during the summer vacation."

Yu Dong fell silent.

Wei Yi continued: "Upload the video to Tudou and 56.com. Make the headlines sensational. Like, 'Real footage from Bangkok's Chinatown! Chinese tourists chased for three blocks,' or 'This guy solves a case on the streets of Thailand; even the local vendors know him.'"

"Young people who see this kind of headline will almost always forward it to QQ groups. If one video is forwarded to ten groups, that's several thousand people. With dozens of videos, reaching millions of people is no problem. That's called viral marketing."

Li Hua quickly jotted down the key points in his notebook, muttering, "I need to write this down."

"Second move, Qin Feng's deduction time" (audio).

Wei Yi raised his second finger.

"Have Liang Jiahui record several short audio clips in Qin Feng's voice, each one minute long, with a deep voice and slow speech, like a late-night radio broadcast. The content shouldn't directly mention the movie; instead, it should recount real unsolved cases from the Republican era, old Chinatown legends, or even ghost stories. Each clip should end with the line: 'I am Qin Feng, I only look at the evidence.'"

Han Sanping stopped writing: "How do you transmit audio?"

"Two options. First, put the MP3 on major forums for people to download for free. Second, burn it onto CDs and send it to radio stations across the country during midnight hours. Many radio stations lack content for midnight hours, so as long as the content is good enough, we'll let them play it for free. Besides, people who listen to the radio at midnight are naturally drawn to mystery and suspense. If all else fails, we can charge extra."

Yu Dong slapped his thigh: "I know that trick! When I was young, I listened to the midnight radio every day. If the host had a nice voice, he could scare people so much by telling ghost stories that they were too scared to go to the bathroom!"

"The third move." Wei Yi raised his third finger, revealing the "Chinatown Nine-Square Grid" interactive mystery.

He pulled out nine photos from the drawer, all of which he had casually taken while scouting locations in Bangkok.

A faded signboard of a San Francisco jewelry store. A tabby cat crouching at the alley entrance. A blurry reflection in a puddle. A woman's sandal on a dilapidated staircase.

He spread the photos out on the table.

"Post these nine photos on Tianya and Sina Blog with the title 'Warning: Enter at Night! Nine Photos I Took in Bangkok's Chinatown—Something Just Doesn't Feel Right.' Include a detail related to a movie's plot in each photo, and let netizens find it themselves."

Find all nine details and you'll be entered into a draw for fifty movie premiere tickets.

Li Hua peered closely at the photos: "What does this have to do with the movie plot?"

"It's okay," Wei Yi said matter-of-factly. "But they were all filmed at locations featured in Detective Chinatown. Once netizens start searching, they'll look at these nine photos repeatedly and memorize these scenes. When they go to the cinema and see the same alley, the same gold shop, the same cat on the screen, that feeling of 'I recognize this place' will significantly increase their positive impression of the film."

He paused, then added, "Also, set up another reward. Anyone who can deduce the core plot of the movie based on these nine photos will receive a reward of 100,000. A generous reward will surely attract brave men."

Yu Dong: "One hundred thousand?!"

"Didn't you have a generous marketing budget this time? Ten thousand dollars can buy you tens of millions of people online actively researching your movie's plot. This deal is incredibly profitable."

The meeting room was quiet for a while.

Han Sanping took off his glasses and slowly wiped the lenses with his sleeve.

Then he laughed.

"Mr. Yu, you know, our two PR departments together have dozens of people, how come we can't come up with anything like this?"

Yu Shu smiled wryly: "Third Master, I told you long ago. This man isn't here to film a movie; he's here to teach us how to do business."

The first time, a 20,000 yuan publicity fee generated 300 million yuan in box office revenue.

He turned to Wei Yi: "How much will these three moves cost?"

"The video was shot by Baoqiang himself with a DV camera, costing a few hundred yuan for a few DV tapes. The audio was recorded by Hui Ge, costing zero. The photos have already been taken, with a printing cost of five yuan." Wei Yi counted on his fingers, "Adding the fee for the Tianya forum moderator and the cost of the premiere tickets, plus the bounty for the adult content, the total won't exceed two hundred thousand yuan."

Yu Dong remained silent for a long time.

Then he threw the pen on the table, leaned back in his chair, and sighed.

"Luckily, I'm on your side this time."

Han Sanping closed his notebook, stood up, and patted Wei Yi on the shoulder.

"Huayi invested 30 million to promote 'The Banquet,' and Jackie Chan invested 20 million to promote 'Rob-B-Hood.' We invested 35 million. We're throwing money at it both online and offline. Xiao Wei, this time I'm not just after box office success, I want the whole industry to see how domestic commercial films should be marketed."

He paused, his eyes filled with the ruthlessness of a seasoned veteran.

"We must push for a new box office record."

Less than two hours after the meeting ended.

Li Yi then broke down all three plans into detailed implementation tables.

The video team: Baoqiang shot over ten hours of discarded footage in Bangkok, enough to edit thirty short videos. The editor started rough editing that very night.

Audio team: Liang Jiahui has received the script. He replied with a short message of only four words: "Recording tomorrow."

Nine-grid group: The photos have already been posted on the Tianya Film and Television forum.

The moderator was an old acquaintance of Li Hua, and immediately pinned and featured the post.

The title was not changed at all, just as Wei Yi intended.

Within a week.

The "Tang Ren Street Detective" series has accumulated over 500,000 views on Tudou.com.

It was reposted to countless QQ groups, and someone turned the scene of Baoqiang chasing the thief and falling into the ditch into a GIF emoticon, which started to go viral on various forums.

The night "Qin Feng's Deduction Time" premiered on Yanjing Music Radio's midnight slot, the director's office was inundated with calls.

The questions were all about "When will this show officially premiere?", "Who exactly is Qin Feng?", and "That voice is so magnetic!"

of.

The radio station director personally called Hehuan Film and Television to ask if Qin Feng's Deduction Time could be made into a regular program.

Li Hua said this was just movie promotion and would be gone after the movie was released.

The station director paused for a moment, then asked, "When will you film the sequel?"

The most outrageous "Chinatown Nine-Square Grid" on Tianya is...

The post received over a million views on the third day after it was published.

The comments below have evolved from "finding details" into a "reasoning contest".

Someone printed out the nine photos and posted them on the wall, marking the suspicious points with a red pen.

Someone wrote a 3,000-word mystery analyzing the hidden connection between "women's sandals" and "gold shop sign".

Someone started a QQ group specifically to discuss the nine-square grid, and it gained over a thousand members in two days.

Until someone posted a complaint: "My boyfriend is now scrolling through the nine-grid photo collage until 2 AM every night, he doesn't even sleep. Wei Yi, I don't ask for much, just become my boyfriend and make up for it!"

This post was pushed to the top of the most popular comments.

Many female netizens copied and forwarded it.

Even some male netizens who might be from Chengdu felt the same way.

Wei Yi replied in the comments section using the official account of Hehuan Film and Television: "He'll be back when the movie is released. I can't, I have a girlfriend."

The reply exploded instantly.

That evening, the interaction was screenshotted and forwarded to dozens of forums.

A lot of people are speculating about who his girlfriend is.

Mu Tingting, Fan Binbin, Gao Yuanyuan, and Yang Mi were all naturally making guesses.

Yuan Shanshan, Zhang Xuan, and Zhang Xiaofei were not spared either.

The remaining names, such as Huo Shiyan, Chen Zihan, and Li Binbin, were also guessed by some people.

Even the other members of the "Four Dan and Two Bing" group have been speculated to be his girlfriend.

Huayi Building.

Wang Zhonglei slammed the data sheet on the table, his face grim.

"Bro, tens of thousands of people have already started acting as free online supporters for Detective Chinatown under that nine-square grid post. They write mystery articles, share videos, and even pay for their own nine-square grid photos to distribute flyers in the university town."

"And that comment Wei Yi made, it's trending more than anything else right now."

Wang Zhongjun was looking at the screening schedule for "The Banquet" without looking up: "Tell your men to learn this trick too."

"I can't learn it."

Wang Zhonglei sat down, his tone unusually frustrated. "Our publicity department held three days of meetings, trying to replicate a similar plan. The conclusion was that we couldn't. The raw quality of the video, Bao Qiang's character, and Liang Jiahui's voice were all perfectly on point. If we put someone else in the role, it would either be too deliberate or too refined; it just wouldn't have the right feel."

Wang Zhongjun took off his glasses.

Wang Zhonglei continued, "And the most bizarre thing is the nine-square grid. We had the art team take more than a dozen similar photos, but they just didn't look right. Later we found out that Wei Yi's nine photos weren't taken randomly at all."

He pulled out a large, printed nine-grid photo and pointed to a shadow: "Look at this. The neon lights of this gold shop's sign cast a shadow on the wall. We tried for three days, changing three lighting technicians, but we couldn't replicate the same texture. Even though the photo is blurry online, it still has an indescribable magic."

Wang Zhongjun looked at the photo for a long time before returning it to him.

"Then let's not imitate it. Let's shift the focus of 'The Banquet' promotion from the internet back to television and print media. Let him play his new tricks, we'll stick to our old ways."

Wang Zhonglei gritted his teeth: "What about 'Project Baby'?"

"Let them hold out for the first three days. After three days, 'The Banquet' will follow."

After Wang Zhongjun finished speaking, he stood up and walked to the window.

The traffic below looked like a glowing river.

"Also, schedule more gigs for Fan Binbin recently. Her contract expires next year, so squeeze out as much value as possible before she leaves. Oh, and also give Li Binbin a heads-up. She's got some ideas, right? Let her get closer to Hehuan Film and Television."

A few days later, in the evening.

Fifth floor of Hehuan Film and Television.

Wei Yi was looking at the latest data of the nine-grid post on his computer when the door was pushed open.

Yang Mi brought in a cup of hot coffee and placed it on his desk.

She worked overtime at the company all night recording demos of lines for "Scarlet Heart," and her voice is a little hoarse.

"Why haven't you left yet?" Wei Yi asked without looking up.

"I saw your office light was on, so I came up to check on you."

Yang Mi pulled up a chair and sat down opposite her, then suddenly laughed, her voice brimming with barely suppressed pride.

"I tried your 3x3 grid this afternoon with a secondary account. I found all the answers in ten minutes; it wasn't difficult enough."

Wei Yi looked up at her: "Of course you know the answer. I told you the answer last night in bed."

Yang Mi's face flushed red.

Last night, she brought Guo Xiang's costume to the hotel and sent Wei Yi a text message.

Wei Yi didn't want to go out, but when he saw the words "Little Guo Xiang", he got dressed and went outside.

Afterwards, she nestled against his chest and asked him, in a coquettish tone, about the plot of Detective Chinatown.

Unable to resist her persistent questioning, Wei Yi revealed the core trick of the nine-square grid to her.

"I didn't leak anything," Yang Mi said matter-of-factly. "I even registered several alternate accounts and posted misleading threads on various university forums. The titles were all different—'The Communication University of China version of the Chinatown nine-square grid decryption,' 'The Beijing Foreign Studies University version of the Bangkok mystery,' and 'The Sichuan University version—I just feel something's not right.' The clues in each post were in different locations, and no one realized it was the same group of people doing it."

"Working so hard?"

"Nonsense. This is your film, this is our company's project. If I don't put in the effort, who will? Besides—" Yang Mi paused, her voice suddenly softening, "I'm just an employee, and I'm working this hard. How are you going to reward me, boss?"

After she finished speaking, she lowered her head, her ears turning slightly red.

Wei Yi put down the mouse, leaned back in his chair, and stared at her for a moment.

Then he lowered his voice: "Come here. I have a special reward for you."

Yang Mi got up and leaned closer, pouting, "Don't just kiss and touch me again. You'd feel better that way, and you'd be the one getting the reward—"

Wei Yi whispered a few words in her ear.

Yang Mi suddenly sat up straight and screamed, "You won't get away with it—!"

"Don't even think about it!"

Footsteps echoed down the corridor.

Mu Tingting's voice.

Yang Mi immediately took a few steps back to create distance.

The door opened.

Mu Tingting walked in carrying a bag of fruit.

Her gaze swept around the room, lingering on Yang Mi for less than a second.

"Mimi is here too."

"Sister Tingting."

Yang Mi smiled and spoke as naturally as if she were reporting for work, "Senior Brother Li asked me to deliver the script demo to the editing room. I saw the lights were on here, so I just came up to say hello. I'll be going now."

She walked to the door, and Mu Tingting stepped aside to let her pass.

As the two passed each other, Mu Tingting suddenly spoke softly.

"Honey".

Yang Mi paused in her steps.

"Your voice is a little hoarse. Don't drink coffee anymore, go back and make some pear soup."

Yang Mi paused for a moment, then nodded: "Thank you, Sister Tingting."

She turned and walked quickly down the corridor, her back to the door, and hurried away.

Mu Tingting placed the fruit on the table and sat down opposite Wei Yi.

"Come with me to look at houses next week." Before she could ask, Wei Yi spoke first. "Teacher Tian's courtyard house is not ours after all, and we can't keep living in the school dormitory forever."

Mu Tingting was taken aback for a moment: "Looking at houses?"

"Yes. Buy an apartment in Yanjing. So that when you finish filming and come back, you'll have your own place."

Wei Yi didn't say the second half of the sentence.

The Olympics are coming soon.

He knew all too well that housing prices in the capital would skyrocket after the Olympics.

If you don't buy now, you won't be able to buy even half the area later with the same amount of money.

Mu Tingting stared at him for a moment, but didn't ask "Why do you suddenly want to buy a house?" nor did she say "I'm embarrassed to ask for one".

She was silent for a moment, then said, "Okay. I'll choose the bed in the master bedroom."

"What kind should we choose?"

She stood up, carried the fruit to the break room, her back to Wei Yi, and said in a flat tone as if she were saying that the weather was nice today: "Pick the biggest ones."

Why?

"You'll always have someone else come to sleep here anyway. It's too small and not big enough."

The tea room was quiet for a moment.

Mu Tingting turned around, a faint smile on her face.

Am I right?

Wei Yi decided to play dead.