An Extraordinary Chemical Reaction.

He smiled helplessly, then said, "Just one, okay?"

"Huh?" Isha looked up, a little confused.

"I said, just one. Only one," Shivam reiterated.

"Yes, yes." Isha quickly nodded and smiled.

When she got the ice cream, her footsteps were light again. She was almost hopping.

Today, there were especially many fans and audience members who came to watch the movie.

Some people were here to see if they could bump into Isha and Jay Chauhan, so they had prepared cameras.

In the end, they didn't get to take a photo of Isha but of Shivam Pratap and Isha's sweet love. President Pratap accompanied Ish Pratap to buy ice cream with a doting expression. President Pratap looked just like a teenager in love. If he had a tail, his tail would probably be wagging non-stop.

Even though it was their second time watching the movie, it was still exciting, not to mention Isha had durian ice cream to eat.

When Isha and Shivam came out, they were very satisfied.

She clicked on Twitter to check the box office results. As expected, she saw Shivam and Ish Pratap on the list of hot searches.

Perhaps it was because the two beautiful men were dating, so even though the two of them were not as popular as Isha, the chemistry between them was exceptionally shocking in the eyes of others.

The comments and tweets were explosive.

[Ahhhhhh, my ship has appeared again!]

[They're too sweet. Please get married.]

[The Civil Affairs Bureau is waiting for you guys!]

[When are the two of you getting married?]

[I just want to be that durian ice cream in Ish Pratap's hand.]

[This ship is really too good. Quick, quick, give me insulin. My sugar level has already exceeded the limit!]

[I support you! Hurry up and consummate your marriage on the spot! It's best if you bring forth a child into the world!]

[Commenter upstairs, may I ask how they'll do that?]

"Not only can my ship get married and consummate their marriage, but they can definitely have children and live happily ever after too!]

[So Shivam and Ish Pratap also went to watch Isha's movie. Boo-hoo, how good is this movie that so many popular ships are watching it?]

[I'm going to watch it too. If I watch a movie like that, maybe I'll be able to pretend that I'm in a sweet relationship too.]

As Isha read the comments, Shivam leaned over and said calmly, "These netizens have good taste. Our ship is the best."

"This is crazy. The number of comments and likes is actually 20 times more than my scandal!" Isha was really puzzled.

"Yes. After all, we're real."

Isha reached out and pinched his face. "So, you wanted to come here and watch the movie for the second time just to show off our love, right? You're jealous!"

"No, it's just that your movie is really quite good. I was planning to watch it a second time anyway. It just so happened to be a good time for public displays of affection as well."

Hmph, they were indeed here to show off their love!

However, this wave of affection was really worth it. While everyone was paying attention to their news, the movie's publicity also soared.

The few movie theaters that had taken the lead in adding screenings for Isha had made a lot of money and were grinning from ear to ear.

There were only Isha Sharma's and Tinki's movies being screened during this period. Tinki's box office results were average. Even if they kept adding more screenings for Isha, it would not affect the overall profits of the movie theater.

Those movie theaters that had accepted Manish and Tinki's money could no longer sit still.

Now, Isha's box office results had already surpassed Tinki's. Seeing that the other theaters were making a lot of money, they knew that their annual report would look very ugly if this continued.

They would probably be replaced by other movie theaters!

"We really can't go on like this. Although we've received some money, our movie theaters have lost more than what we've received. If we give Isha more screenings, our bonus will be more than what we received as well. Moreover, the bonus is legal!" A manager couldn't help but complain!

"Why don't we secretly give Isha some screenings? When the time comes, we can say that we really coudn't withstand the pressure of the gap in performance."

"I think it's fine. Tinki's movie is disappointing. We gave her 90% of the screenings, but she still didn't beat Isha. At this rate, we can only retreat first."

It didn't take long for these movie theaters to secretly arrange more screenings for Isha.

As soon as the number of showtimes increased, Isha's box office results rose uncontrollably, leaving Tinki's movie far behind.

Tinki's movie was actually really good in all aspects. It had a Best Actor, a big director, a big investment, and all kinds of scriptwriters.

However, Tinki was too desperate for a crushing victory, so she edited the script till it was nothing like what it was in the beginning. When she saw any popular points that attracted the audience, she wanted to add them in and try her best to please more viewers.

However, there was a limit to how long a movie could be. The movie length was only two hours, yet she wanted to give the audience everything possible. Hence, it lost its integrity.

Sometimes, one had to practice the art of subtraction when it came to making movies. It wasn't easy to master the balance needed to make a good movie. It was like cooking a dish. One couldn't cook a good dish with just any seasoning. Only the right seasoning could maximize the main points of a dish.

Tinki's failure was inevitable.

Tinki also realized that there was something fishy about these movie theaters. They had secretly increased the number of screenings for Isha's movie.

She was so angry that she wished to ask them to clarify the situation.

However, her manager stopped her. "It's not easy for Boss Manish to cultivate these relationships. Besides, they did give you the most screenings in the first three days. Even now, they didn't give Isha too many screenings. If things get too ugly, Boss Manish won't be able to maintain his reputation. You can only blame Isha for being too good at creating hype. She used so many people to create hype for her movie."

Tinki reluctantly accepted this explanation.

However, if her movie's box office results were suppressed after only three days of screening, it would be really difficult to turn the tide after this.

All she could do was increase the movie's marketing budget.

But how could they promote it as naturally as Isha did?

Seeing that the box office results were getting lower and lower, Tinki was very worried. "What's going on?"

The manager had no choice. "The producers have already thought of many ways. However, when some movie theaters saw that Isha's box office results were better, they took down ours and switched to just solely screening Isha's movie. Besides, there are no other movies at this time. Isha really has the advantage."

Tinki closed her eyes heavily. "My dad spent so much money to ensure that only our movie could be released during this period, but it wasn't to help Isha make more money!"

"There probably isn't much else we can do right now. Many people aren't choosing to watch our movie... and a lot of the movie theaters are going to have to reduce our screenings."

Once the number of screenings decreased, their box office results would plummet even more.

Tinki gritted her teeth. "Get the assistant to find someone to make arrangements at the movie theaters."

The manager paused. "Do we really have to do this?"

"Don't you understand what I'm saying?"

The manager had no choice but to turn away.

The movie theaters would schedule a number of screenings for each movie. If no one watched a particular movie, they would switch to another movie.

This was the situation that Tinki was in now. If no one watched her movie, it would be replaced with Isha's movie.

Hence, Tinki got her assistant to buy one or two tickets for each movie screening to lock the venues so that the movie theaters would not replace the movie.

However, in that case, the movie theaters would be the ones on the losing end. Therefore, such an action would offend the movie theaters.

That was why the manager had tried to dissuade Tinki.

However, Tinki did not want to lose too badly. Not only was she starring in this movie, but she had also invested money in it. Furthermore, she had bet all her future honor on this.

If Isha pressed her against the ground with her movie this time, she would never be able to raise her head again.

Hence, this was the only solution she could think of.

...

The producers of Isha's movie wanted to give Isha, Jay Chauhan, and Ish Pratap a sum of money for helping them with their movie's publicity.

Clearly, the momentum of the entire movie was influenced by them. After the audience watched the movie, they felt that the movie was good. When they went back, they recommended the movie to the people around them.

The movie theater managers who had accepted Manish's money were now filled with regret. They watched helplessly as the other theaters made money. Although they had given Isha more screenings, they couldn't give her too many. After all, they still had to consider Tinki's request.

They had no choice but to suffer the consequences.

They could only wait until no one watched Tinki's movie. Then, they would naturally switch to Isha's movie.

However, it was also at this time that many movie theaters discovered that there were people buying tickets for Tinki's movie.

However, only one or two people bought tickets for each screening.

They examined the situation carefully. The purchaser had bought all the tickets almost at the same time, and they paid through the same software.

"Someone's locking up our venues!" The manager was quick to spot the fact.

"I wonder if it's Tinki herself or her fans."

"But no matter who it is, it's so unethical! If no one had bought the tickets, we could have naturally switched to another movie that would sell well. Now, we have to screen this movie while making a loss."

"Right. I noticed too. Even though there were people who bought the tickets, no one showed up to watch the movie. The whole theater was empty."

"Previously, we were worried that we would let Boss Manish down by replacing Tinki, but since they're so heartless, we can only do the same. Return all these tickets to the buyer immediately and change Tinki's movie to Isha's movie!"

"Yes, change it to Isha's movie!"

Everyone had long wanted to change it. After all, it was really too uncomfortable to see a lot of money not being earned.

Now that they had found such a good reason, they would act immediately.

With this change, the box office results of Isha's movie completely soared. Tinki could only occupy a fraction of Isha's results.

Tinki said to her manager, "Let's announce it to the public directly. Let's say that Isha maliciously snatched our showtimes and made the movie theater managers deliberately refund the tickets to our movie. She doesn't want people to watch my movie, so she's forcing everyone to only watch her movie."

Soon, many people posted photos of the refund notice for their tickets.

They claimed: [We originally wanted to support Tinki, but after we bought the tickets, the movie theaters refused to let us watch the movie and forcibly refunded our tickets. We later discovered that the tickets they gave us were all for Isha's movie.]

[Is it so difficult to watch a movie we want? We like Tinki. Is that wrong?]

[The movie theaters should give us an explanation. Why did they do that?]

[Must Isha treat us like this just because she has the support of a famous director?]

The matter caused a huge commotion. After all, a Best Actor and other popular actors were also in Tinki's movie. The fans of these people were not to be underestimated. They followed suit and said: [No wonder the box office results of the movie were surpassed by Isha's movie. Later on, we couldn't even catch up. So there's such an inside story. If you don't give us an explanation, you can't blame us for not letting it go.]

[Isha Sharma, you're really too much. Did Jay Chauhan give you the courage? You contracted all these movie theaters? Why are you still making movies when you're so rich, then?]

[That's right. It was all hype before, but now, you're promoting your movie in such a vicious way. Don't tell me we can only watch your movie with our heads down? What about our dignity as movie-goers?]

Manish also flared up at the movie theater managers. "Everyone, we've been working together for many years. Your actions this time are too disrespectful to me. What benefits did Isha give you?"

The managers had no choice but to give the evidence of the venue lock to Manish.

Manish was also an expert in this area. When he saw this, he understood what Tinki had done.

Although these managers had indeed been paid, they just did what they had to do. No one watched Tinki's movie, so it was their freedom to replace Tinki's movie with Isha's.

Tinki had maliciously locked their venues first. Manish was indeed in the wrong.

"This must've been done by fans. I hope that you won't ruin our many years of friendship because of the actions of some brainless fans!" Manish said and turned to leave.

The managers breathed a sigh of relief. At least they knew they wouldn't have to take full responsibility for this.

The reprimands online were too fierce, but the managers couldn't be bothered to clarify things for Isha. Wouldn't it be a slap to Tinki's face?

They would give Manish face, but not Isha.

This was especially so for Manager Lakhan, who was leading the group. He said to everyone, "There's no need to respond to the matters of the outside world. When something like this happens, the blame will all be on the celebrities. Everyone, let's just guard our own cinemas well. We won't get involved."

When he got home, he counted the money he earned from Isha's movie and used her popularity as a stepping stone. However, he was not the slightest bit swayed despite seeing how badly Isha was being scolded online.

"What are you so happy about, Dad?" his son and daughter asked.

"Why shouldn't I be happy? I've made money."

Manager Lakhan went to sleep after drinking.

His son and daughter were both Isha's fans. They planned to check his computer to see if there was any news about Isha. As high school students, they had a lot of lessons and a very packed schedule. Manager Lakhan usually didn't allow them to use the computer.

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