Chapter 56 – New Opportunity

While Bai Lang was occupied with filming “Ending”, Kang Jian’s entire heart and focus was placed on his trading company.

Long before Kang Jian’s thoughts had moved to Li Sha’s apartment, Qiu Qian had already made the arrangement to allow Kang Jian to use the money he had on hand to experience the sweetness of doing business. This way, he could lure Kang Jian to borrow more money and place it down this bottomless black hole. If at this time Kang Jian’s company went under, then it would be enough for Kang Jian to lose entire life savings and never be able to raise his head again in front of Li Min. However even so his supporting mountain Li Sha probably would not be able to be moved. After all at that time Kang Jian had not actually cheated on her.

But then the addition of Lin ChenYuan’s matter really made Qiu Qian lose his temper. He vindictively decided to make Kang Jian even greedier. The more greedy he became and the higher he reached, the greater his fall would be. So when Kang Jian borrowed 6 million against Li Sha’s apartment, Qiu Qian very generously allowed him to first make a windfall. This way the 6 million, plus the 3 million that Kang Jian originally had, was flipped a few times. Within half a year of Kang Jian’s company operating, it was already worth approximately 20 million.

20 million.... This number was enough to make Kang Jian’s mouth go dry. Even the current popular film emperor could only earn this amount by working for more than half a year. In addition when it came to doing business, Kang Jian completely didn’t need to use his brain to remember any script lines, stand out in the sun and rain, or miss out eating because he had to rush to different locations. All he had to do was attend a few functions and parties, and the money started raining down. It was so easy that the amount of effort he put in completely didn’t compare to the reward he got out.

After experiencing a taste of this sweetness, Kang Jian didn’t want to accept any more roles. All he could think about was investment, investment and more investment.

When his manager gave him scripts he rejected all of them. If it was a simple advertisement of product representation, he would casually undertake them. He didn’t have any time to spend on his fans website or meet and greets.

When he had free time, Kang Jian either spent it flipping blindly through thick financial magazines, or he would try to get close to Xiao Xu. Xu Li was the person that Qiu Qian had arranged to be by Kang Jian’s side from the beginning.

It was only that after earning the 20 million, Kang Jian thought it was maybe because Xiao Xu was now jealous of his success, the other man now became evasive and didn’t seem to want to pay any more attention to him.

Not only Xiao Xu, but all of Kang Jian’s friends who knew he had started a company, including Li Min, didn’t seem to look very highly upon his success. The people who didn’t know the details would only smile and congratulate him in a superficial manner, however their expressions clearly showed that they didn’t really believe him. As for those who knew the details, such as Li Min, they would only faintly say a few words of “you’re very lucky”.

Lucky!? Lucky!? Being lucky was also a form of talent okay!! When Kang Jian proudly and gloatingly showed off his bank deposit slip to Li Min, and only received these three words “you’re very lucky”, his face almost turned green.

So when he returned home, Kang Jian violently smashed the table. For the very first time he yelled furiously at Li Sha, “You saw what happened today ba!! Your father is so great!! He completely doesn’t put me in his eyes!! Luck!! This is only luck!? After all my hard work and running around, he only says it’s goddamn luck!?”

“Ah Jian....” Li Sha was frightened by Kang Jian’s sudden violent outburst. She held onto her son and stood to one side. In her view, she thought her father Li Min’s words weren’t wrong. Kang Jian really probably was just lucky. However on the other hand she also wanted to believe that her husband was capable, and she didn’t want to splash cold water on him. So she only carefully replied, “No matter what, didn’t we earn money? The result is good and so in time daddy will definitely recognize it. Let’s use this money and repay the loan a little, then buy another house–”

“Buy!? Buy what!? This is the important funds from my company! You and your dad both need to shut up and watch me closely!! I will let you know what I’m truly capable of!!” Kang Jian responded furiously. He didn’t even take one look at this son who was crying because of the fight, and left slamming the door behind him.

Li Sha was shocked into silence. She even forgot to call out to him. Previously, Kang Jian had only ever shown her a warm and tender side.

However right now Kang Jian actually finally felt a sense of relief and joy at being finally able to express his true feelings.

Because Kang Jian realized that he could now depend on himself to earn money. He could earn lots and lots of money. He no longer needed to be led around by the nose by Li Min. So why did he need to bow his head like a grandson in front of Li Min, or act like a servant in front of Li Sha? Look, just now he had stood with his back straight and yelled at Li Sha. The feeling was pretty good.

Just thinking about it like that made Kang Jian’s mood even more beautiful. He quickly headed towards Lin ChenYuan’s small apartment. He felt as though his life was turning around. And this was only the beginning, there would be an even more glorious future waiting for him. Because of this, Kang Jian decided that tonight he would take Lin ChenYuan to an exclusive club to experience some good living.

The club was something that Xiao Xu had introduced to him. The yearly fee was expensive enough to make people vomit blood. However the important thing was that many big bosses would appear here.

And this would mean business opportunities.

Since Xiao Xu was jealous of him, then he wouldn’t use him any longer. As for the next opportunity, he would find it for himself....

***

“I’ve never cried so miserably in a cinema before. If I knew earlier then I wouldn’t have taken my wife to see it. Although she cried even more than me. Haha, she kept asking me for more tissues, stacks and stacks of it.”

“During the middle part, it was really difficult to control myself. My whole body was trembling. However in the end my neighbour suddenly let out a sound, haha. My neighbour lost control and cried first.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“When I left the cinema, my entire head felt dizzy and I was sweating everywhere. Probably because I cried until I was exhausted, however my emotions felt quite light. It was like I had a dream. I think the psychological effect of reducing stress is quite good hahaha.”

“After I finished watching it, although I know it’s just a movie, however I felt like my problems really aren’t real problems. Sure sometimes there are little things which are frustrating or irritating, but it’s really no big deal. When I think about what happened in the movie–”

“Masochists will like it, however I would never watch it a second time. It’s enough, really too tiring. However if I meet someone who hasn’t seen it, I will definitely tell them to watch it. It’s definitely worth experiencing once.”

“The applause is real. I know it sounds a bit stupid but this is really the first time I’ve ever clapped at the cinema. Although they are only people in the movies however I really, from the bottom of my heart, want to... how should I put it... show my support?”

***

The above six people’s words spoken with red and swollen eyes, was the content of the trailer for “Ending”.

In the end they added a clip of the entire audience standing and clapping while the credits rolled. This formed the entirety of the promotional trailer.

In other words, during the promotion of “Ending”, not a single clip from the movie was shown.

The poster for the movie also didn’t show any characters. All it showed was an ordinary, single bed.

This type of promotion method naturally elicited the audience’s curiosity and made them walk into the cinemas. The other reason was because any individual clip of the movie wouldn’t have any meaning. Only by watching the entire story would they understand the messages the movie was trying to convey.

So the promotions for “Ending” was also not like other movies which required the lead actors to go on various programs and variety shows to introduce the content of the movie. Even some programs which actively tried to invite them, such as “In Front of and Behind the Cameras”, were all rejected in order to cooperate with the promotional method of “Ending”.

The promotion for the movie only kept playing the feelings the audience had after watching the movie. Each word showed their real thoughts about “Ending”. There were many versions of these clips. When “Ending” was finally released to general cinemas, there were more than 100 people who had expressed their short thoughts. Each promotional clip included 5 people and so there were almost 20 different versions of it.

So because the clip was continuously refreshed and became stronger, it didn’t cause people to get sick of it but only made them more and more curious.

When it came to the expense needed to do this kind of promotion, it was actually a bit counter-productive for an artistic film like “Ending” which didn’t have a high budget. However who asked “Ending” to have asked Bai Lang to come on board? Of course behind Bai Lang there was Qiu Qian. Qiu Qian had agreed not to interfere during the filming process, but once the film was completed, Qiu Qian naturally took over the promotional activities. This wouldn’t interfere with Bai Lang’s artistic expression.

Thus on the first week of “Ending” being shown, the box office completely overshot Director Xu Wei’s expectation, and earned approximately 80 million.

The second week it continued to rise, expressing that word of mouth was good and it’s good performance was assured.

From this, any insider could tell that this movie was definitely bound for success. Not only was it eye-catching and artistic, the box office returns was also not bad. When it came to most artistic films, the box office would only started to grow on the second week. It was like a sugar cane that as you chewed it, would become more and more sweet.

***

As “Ending” continued to be popular at the cinemas, Bai Lang’s time was freed up quite a lot.

Because of the emotional problems he ran into while filming “Ending”, Bai Lang agreed to Qiu Qian’s request for him to rest for a while after finishing. Heavy work such as filming a movie or television series were all stopped, and Qiu Qian even instructed Fang Hua to not annoy Bai Lang with advertisements and brand representation jobs, unless they were the type of opportunities that only came once in a lifetime.

Fang Hua rolled her eyes at this statement “once in a lifetime”. She grumbled that he didn’t need to raise this kind of barrier, he could directly just close the door and be done with it. But she didn’t expect that only a few days passed when an opportunity that really fulfilled this requirement came knocking, making her directly rush to look for Bai Lang in excitement.

It turns out that that series of books that Bai Lang had purchased the Chinese rights for, which this year had begun filming its fourth movie in a series, actually had a role for an Asian student. They wanted to invite Bai Lang to play him.

It should be mentioned that from three years ago, this series of books had started being adapted into movies in its original G country. After filming for one year, the first movie was shown to great success. The amazing special effects of the movies brought out the fantastical and imaginative elements of the book to greater heights, and brought on a new wave of popularity for this franchise. The fame of the books reached a new level.

Right now the adaption of the books had entered into its fourth year. This would also be the movie adapting the fourth book in the series.

From this movie onwards, there was the introduction of an Asian character. He was approximately 20-something years old and was a student. The Director Jackson Shaik was looking for an Asian actor and he saw that Bai Lang’s acting was very mature. Although his age was slightly older, but from a Western person’s perspective, his looks were very tender and they completely couldn’t tell. His qualities were very suitable so they came to enquire whether he would be interested. Also, Bai Lang had the special identity of being their Chinese agent.

So when Bai Lang heard this, he reacted just like Fang Hua and couldn’t believe it at first. After pausing for a long time he finally nodded his head. This was really an opportunity that you could even pray to obtain, the timing wasn’t important because to Bai Lang, the possibility of participating in these movies seemed too far away and fantastic, but now it was actually right in front of his eyes.

However when he heard this news, Qiu Qian’s face was so black it almost dripped ink. Even though this movie wouldn’t start filming for another half year, but the fact that he had already agreed to this job meant that he probably wouldn’t be able to completely relax and enjoy his freedom. Bai Lang couldn’t deny the truth of Qiu Qian’s words, he really did want to use this freedom to carefully research and practice the foreign language. So he could only try to compensate Qiu Qian by reassuring him that this half year he would definitely rest well. If Qiu Qian wanted something he would definitely be obedient and listen.

Qiu Qian saw Bai Lang’s expression. He ordered in a dissatisfied manner, “Then tomorrow you go with me to the club to take a look.”

After talking he stuffed a beautifully designed pamphlet into Bai Lang’s hand.

Bai Lang flipped through it and saw that the photos were very beautiful, making the club’s environment look very luxurious and comfortable.

This was probably Qiu Qian wanting to coax him to rest but at the same time scared of making him bored, so he thought of this method to take him out to play.

Bai Lang devotedly embraced Qiu Qian. “Okay, I’ll go with you.”

However they didn’t expect that on the very first day, Bai Lang and Qiu Qian ran into two people they didn’t expect.

Kang Jian and Lin ChenYuan.