Become famous another day.

Wen Shengming.

Another male protagonist in "Dingfeng No. 1".

The senior who asked Lu Yanhe to have breakfast with him every morning after he joined the team.

One of the ceiling among China's living male actors.

Lu Yanhe replied: Okay, Mr. Wen, when is it convenient for you?
Wen Shengming made his debut very early, in the 1980s. In that era when movies had not yet been commercialized, he was already a popular young actor, famous all over the country.

Not only was he popular and well-known, he also had representative works and representative roles. In the 21st century, he starred in two TV series that were so popular that people watched them on the streets, which established his position in the industry.

In the following twenty years, the Film Association, representatives, industry role models, and film crews that were able to invite him to appear in a film were considered to have "extensive connections" and it was an honor for the film to have him in their productions.

For such an actor, no one can shake his position even in the era of traffic capital and hot money.

This is also what Lu Yanhe lacks at this stage no matter how many honors he wins.

Witness of the times, baptism of time.
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Lu Yanhe didn't know what kind of person Wen Shengming was.

He really had no dealings with them.

He is already a person who doesn't like attending events, and Wen Shengming is even more so.

Lu Yanhe found some interviews and reports about him on the Internet and vaguely formed a general impression.

An intellectual, a man of principles and artistic integrity.

In his past acting career, there are many stories with younger actors.

As is customary, there are also scandals.

No one knows whether it is true or false.

Fortunately, most of the stories that have been spread are positive. The younger actors who have worked with him basically praised him for the practical help he provided.

There are specific examples for all of them.

How to judge whether a person's praise of another person is just for show or is truly from the heart of gratitude depends on whether the words are general or meaningful.

The more Lu Yanhe learned about Wen Shengming, the more curious he became about this legendary actor.

He does not have any international fame, unlike Chen Pinhe, Shang Yongzhou and Lu Yanhe, who have performed on the international stage and have overseas best actor trophies.

But no matter in the past era of "worshiping foreigners and fawning on foreigners" or in the present era of advocating "both moral integrity and artistic excellence", he, an actor who has neither international fame nor outstanding "personal virtues", has always been firmly promoted to a "leader" position by the entire industry, and this has not changed for all these years.

From the perspective of the industry, Lu Yanhe will definitely be the beneficiary of the cooperation with him.
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This has nothing to do with strength, it has to do with cultural background.

This has been the case in China for thousands of years.

No matter how strong young people are, they are still young people.

The position of the leader of the martial arts world will definitely not be occupied by those young heroes.
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Lu Yanhe went to Wen Shengming's home politely.

It was Wen Shengming who suggested going to his house to have lunch together.

Wen Shengming lives in Yulong Villa, the most upscale residential area in Yuming.

A single-family villa with a yard, surrounded by scattered woods, with sunshine shining down, creating a picturesque scenery.

You can’t afford a house here for eight figures.

Wen Shengming, wearing casual clothes, welcomed him in with a smile.

"Xiao Lu."

Lu Yanhe greeted politely, "Teacher Wen."

Wen Shengming is already in his early sixties, but he takes good care of himself and doesn't look that age.

The media often says that among the older generation of Chinese actors, he is the most suitable to play an intellectual.

A question kept lingering in Lu Yanhe's mind: why would an actor like this ask to have breakfast with him every day?

He believed that Wen Shengming was not trying to make trouble for him on purpose.

Why? To help them get into the role later? No. He and Wen Shengming were not in a hostile relationship in the play, so there was no need to increase his disgust and rejection of Wen Shengming in this way.

Wen Shengming's wife is Yuan Zixing, who is elegant, gentle and kind.

She gave Lu Yanhe the sense of propriety of a traditional educated woman.

After saying hello, she left the living room and went to the kitchen to make lunch with her aunt.

This is what Wen Shengming said. We had lunch at his house at noon.

Lu Yanhe was a little reserved because he was unfamiliar with the situation and had no one familiar to help him broker connections.

In fact, it would be great if Liu Bigo came today.

Lu Yanhe thought so.

Wen Shengming said: "Am I that scary?"

Lu Yanhe was stunned.

Wen Shengming raised his hand and nodded at him, saying, "From the first time I saw me, you were very reserved, making me think you were a newcomer who had just debuted and started acting."

Lu Yanhe said: "In front of you, I am just a newcomer who has just debuted."

"After a new actor wins the Best Actor award at the Citol Film Festival, he won't be as reserved as you." Wen Shengming chuckled. "When Chen Pinhe won the Best Actor award at the Citol Film Festival, he was much more popular than you."

Lu Yanhe was a little surprised.

First, it was unexpected that he mentioned Chen Pinhe, and second, it was unexpected that he would directly mention something that was not so glorious for Chen Pinhe in front of him.

"I--"

"I've been observing you for a long time." Wen Shengming said suddenly.

Lu Yanhe looked at him in surprise.

"It's been a long time since China has produced an actor like you who is like a 'star from heaven'." Wen Shengming said, "In fact, you and your two friends are all good."

"Li Zhibai and Yan Liang?"

Wen Shengming nodded.

"I'm quite curious. You have every right to be more proud, but you don't seem to be a person who can be proud." He looked at Lu Yanhe carefully. "But if you say that you are a person who focuses on creation, you are also very practical. Many of your actions are completely for the pursuit of a practical result."

Lu Yanhe raised the corner of his mouth slightly.

He said: “I’m actually quite proud.”

Wen Shengming still looked at him and asked, "Do you think the pride you mentioned is the same as the pride I mentioned?"

Lu Yanhe felt as if a gust of wind was passing through his heart.

My heart, which had just relaxed a little, tensed up again.

There was a complex, exploratory look in Wen Shengming's eyes when he looked at him.

There is even a hint.

But Lu Yanhe didn't know what this was.

"What did Teacher Wen say?" he asked.

Wen Shengming picked up the teapot and refilled Lu Yanhe's cup with water.

"Drink tea."
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"Xiao Lu, when do you and your girlfriend plan to get married?"

At the dinner table, Yuan Zixing asked with a friendly smile and a caring tone.

"It's being planned." Lu Yanhe took out the panacea and answered, "The specific time has not been determined yet."

"You two have been childhood sweethearts since your school days. What an enviable love." Yuan Zixing said, and then glanced at Wen Shengming, "Next time, you have to bring her along."

Lu Yanhe nodded obediently and agreed.

At the dinner table, the person who dominated the topic changed from Wen Shengming to Yuan Zixing.

What remains unchanged is Lu Yanhe, the person who answers the questions.

Because the other party was too senior, Lu Yanhe couldn't really relax no matter what.

Even though Wen Shengming and Yuan Zixing have never acted majestic, arrogant or even superior.

This feeling made Lu Yanhe very uncomfortable.

He felt very uncomfortable in his heart, but he couldn't say it.

A very subtle feeling of anxiety gradually emerged in his heart.
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At the same time, Chen Ziyan was having lunch with Shang Yongzhou.

When talking about Lu Yanhe's upcoming cooperation with Wen Shengming, Shang Yongzhou showed an extremely complicated expression.

"You have worked with him, right?" Chen Ziyan asked.

"Yes." Shang Yongzhou nodded. "Once we have worked together, it will be a memory I will never forget."

Chen Ziyan looked at him in surprise.

"Your cooperation with him was the end of your cooperation with me. By that time, you had been acting for many years and had won the Best Actor Award. From what you said, how come the cooperation was not very pleasant?"

"I can't say it's unpleasant." Shang Yongzhou shook his head immediately, "But I can't say it's pleasant either. I can only say that he is a very - let's put it this way, no matter who you are, he seems to respect who you are, but in fact he is always trying to guide you."

"Guide you?"

"Yes." Shang Yongzhou said, "Ordinary drama maniacs drive themselves crazy. What makes him special is that he even unconsciously uses a strong mental pressure to force you to shape your performance according to his expectations. Many people don't know this, and many people even think that they can get into the role more easily and give a better performance when acting with him."

"That's because their own acting skills are not high enough. Under Wen Shengming's guidance, they can reach a higher level." Chen Ziyan said immediately, "But for an actor like you, it will be very painful."

"Yes." Shang Yongzhou nodded, "But you can't say anything yet, because he will never tell you explicitly what he wants you to do. I said, I even think he does it unconsciously. When you don't meet his expectations, many of his subconscious reactions and the mental pressure he gives you make you involuntarily reflect on yourself and want to compromise. Then, starting from the compromise, you can't help but steer the wheel according to his direction."

The reason why he can do this, of course, is because Wen Shengming himself possesses very strong abilities, so strong that he can even lead his opponent actors to elevate their performances to a higher level.

However, this may not be a good thing for actors like Shang Yongzhou and Lu Yanhe.

They need the opposing actors to give good stimulation and response, rather than an oppressive guidance.
-
In the story of "Dingfeng No. 1", Wen Shengming plays the deputy chief of the intelligence station, and Lu Yanhe plays a person who works in the intelligence station.

One day, Lu Yanhe received a secret mission, which turned out to be to monitor the deputy station chief because there was evidence that the deputy station chief was suspected of being a spy.

The movie tells a story with such a background.

These two characters seem to be in an antagonistic relationship. But in fact, in the script, they are not in an antagonistic mode most of the time.

Lu Yanhe's surveillance was not public, and only he knew about it. On the one hand, he was monitoring Wen Shengming, and on the other hand, he was also under great mental pressure. The mental pressure was twofold, with the pressure of monitoring and the pressure of being discovered. No matter how anxious and uneasy he was, he could not let Wen Shengming see it.

Lu Yanhe thought that this feeling was probably the same as he was feeling now.

It was obvious that Wen Shengming did not give him a good feeling, and even made him feel uncomfortable, but he had to hide it completely and not let anyone see it.

Only after leaving Wen Shengming's house did he let out a long sigh, just like a drowning man finally climbing ashore.

He got in the car and called Chen Ziyan immediately.

"He gives me such a strong sense of oppression." Lu Yanhe said, "I can't even tell you why he makes me feel so oppressive."

Chen Ziyan: "I just had lunch with Shang Yongzhou. He has worked with Wen Shengming before, and he mentioned it to me."

"What did he say?"

Chen Ziyan told Lu Yanhe what Shang Yongzhou had said to him.

Lu Yanhe really hasn't felt pressure about acting for a long time.

The current situation made him worried.

"So, it's possible that he met me today not only to pave the way for the filming, but also because he already had an idea of ​​how to act in this play, so he was guiding me into the role?"

"That's possible." Chen Ziyan said, "From what I heard from you just now, isn't it very similar to the relationship between you and his character in Dingfeng No. 1?"

Lu Yanhe fell into silence.

After a while, he said, "If he thinks this will guide me to act according to his ideas, then he thinks too simply of me."

Chen Ziyan: "In any case, since Wen Shengming can stimulate your true emotions, then make good use of them."

Lu Yanhe responded.

"It's a bit magical. I really don't know how he did it. He didn't say anything or do anything, but in just one lunch, he made me feel such a strong resistance and rejection towards him."

Chen Ziyan: "Whether he is deliberately creating this kind of relationship between you and him for the sake of the later filming and making you feel the corresponding emotions, anyway, he has made a move, and it depends on how you respond."

Lu Yanhe: "How can I deal with it? I can only push it back calmly--"

In an instant, a thought flashed through Lu Yanhe's mind like lightning.

——Isn’t this his attitude towards Wen Shengming in the movie?
When dealing with a traitor, he has hatred, confusion and anger in his heart, but on the surface he has to restrain himself, be patient, and keep everything as normal so as not to alert the enemy. Therefore, the underlying tone of his performance is to remain calm.

Another problem arises.

Is this the state that Wen Shengming hopes he will present?

Lu Yanhe fell into shock and silence.

Liu Bigo's worries resurfaced:

I'm worried that you'll get stuck.

Is he worried about "you" or "you facing Wen Shengming"?
After Lu Yanhe returned, he tossed and turned, constantly recalling the scene of his meeting with Wen Shengming, thinking about it, and thinking about it over and over again.

He was clearly aware that he was being "guided".

His current mood and state must be what Wen Shengming wants to see.

This made him even angrier and more anxious.

However, the angrier and more anxious they are, the more successful Wen Shengming's methods are.

So infuriating.
-
In July, the sun is scorching and the temperature seems to be roasting people.

"Burning Fire" had a very grand premiere.

Nowadays, Chinese-language films rarely hold premieres before being released in the country. This is the practice of European and American films.

However, Longyan did it for "Burning Fire".

Because "Burning" has an all-star cast and because "Burning" requires extensive publicity, even if there is no premiere, a media meeting will be held.

There was a red carpet at the premiere.

Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi attended the event together.

This is his first commercial blockbuster starring role and it has attracted much attention.

Previously, this film received a lot of praise from the international media at the Netherlands-Spain Film Festival, which gave Longyan the confidence to hold such a premiere before the release.

A blockbuster should be promoted in the same way as a blockbuster, using a variety of methods to tell everyone:

This movie is very good.

This is Longyan’s publicity and promotion strategy.

Before the release, an all-star cast was used to boost the film's popularity, and special effects blockbusters were used as the base.

Lu Yanhe watched the movie "Burning Fire" with everyone again.

The special effects scenes in the movie still amaze Lu Yanhe.

Several hundred million yuan was spent on the production.
-
Longyan directly used the publicity and promotion standards of the Spring Festival movies to make "Burning Fire".

Not only that, at the premiere, Long Yan also announced that "Burning" will be released simultaneously in nine markets including North America, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Australia, shocking the media present.

"Burning" was sold at the Jose-La-Señora Film Festival and was a real success.

As the biggest selling point of the film overseas, Lu Yanhe has also cooperated with distributors in various places to record VCRs and shoot some promotional materials.

A series of operations were used to push the attention and popularity of "Burning" to a peak. The day before "Burning" was released, the first-day box office pre-sale exceeded 40 million.

On the first day of its release, the box office unsurprisingly exceeded 100 million yuan.

Afterwards, the special effects of "Burning" sparked heated discussions on social media.

The marketing team of "Jump Up" began to promote "the compatibility of the top acting skills contributed by the two movie kings and the best special effects in the history of Chinese-language films."

This is the publicity and promotion purpose set by Longyan. Three days after the release, the core focus of the promotion will shift from stars to special effects.

Longyan has been making commercial blockbusters for many years and understands the market very well, especially the Chinese market.

As expected, celebrities can make a huge contribution to popularity and fame, but when it comes to box office conversion rates, special effects are more effective.

It is no longer the era where people go to see what movies are released when they have nothing to do. Now is the era where people will go to the cinema to watch a good movie when it is released and it is really worth going to the cinema to watch it.

Therefore, all publicity and promotion should revolve around the word "worth it".

Three days after its release, when the box office of "Burning Fire" exceeded 5 million, the marketing team of "Jump Up" promptly discussed "the box office performance of Lu Yanhe's first commercial film as the leading actor", using the box office performance to prove that the movie is good.

In addition, there are also related topics such as "The reason why Shang Yongzhou took on the role in "Burning Fire"" and "Why many stars are willing to star in "Burning Fire", all of which use the star card to prove the quality of the film itself.

After the first weekend, the box office results in nine major overseas markets were also released.

350 theaters in North America took in $170 million at the box office (Lu Yanhe felt it was a pity, and in the end Longyan sold it to Green Valley at a higher distribution price for insurance purposes, so Green Valley only agreed to release the film in 350 theaters).

In addition, the box office in other markets performed well in the first weekend. Added together, the box office in the first weekend exceeded 1000 million US dollars.

Especially in the Korean market, the first weekend box office revenue of 190 million US dollars was even higher than the two new films in South Korea, ranking second.

Longyan's publicity and promotion team was no pushover, and they keenly noticed that many people in China gave very positive feedback when the overseas box office results were mentioned. Immediately, everyone began to use this overseas box office performance to promote the overseas achievements of "Burning Fire".

On Monday, although it was a weekday, thanks to the summer vacation, "Burning Fire" still earned 9500 million at the box office. Moreover, on Tuesday, it returned to 1.03 million, reversing the decline.

According to the box office prediction agency, the box office forecast for "Burning" jumped from 12 billion to 20 billion.

Longyan hopes to strike while the iron is hot and wants to increase the number of roadshows and arrange for actors to appear on the shows to maintain the publicity heat.

However, after completing the promotional tasks stipulated in his contract, Lu Yanhe did not participate in any of the events.

At the Jose-La-Hilton Film Festival, Lu Yanhe had conflicts and disagreements with Long Yan due to the accumulation of several small incidents, which were not resolved at the time.

That doesn't mean he doesn't remember.

Mrs. Huang called personally.

Lu Yanhe didn't try to be polite with her and said, "I think I made it very clear when I was in Hexi before."

Mrs. Huang said, "Yan He, the previous incident was indeed caused by the people below. I'm sorry, but "Burning Fire" is now so popular that the box office may even exceed 3 billion. This is the time when we need you the most. If you have any questions, we can talk about it after the promotion of the movie is finished, okay? I will never treat you unfairly."

Lu Yanhe: "Even if you called me a week earlier, I would have agreed now."

He hung up the phone directly.
-
During the road show of "Burning Fire", because Lu Yanhe did not show up, at a stop in the middle, a media asked: "Why didn't Lu Yanhe participate in the promotion after the premiere?"

Neither the director nor Shang Yongzhou said anything.

They knew what the reason was, but they certainly couldn't say it.

It was Mrs. Huang who smiled and raised the microphone to explain: "Yan He will soon join the crew to shoot another movie of our company. He is preparing. The road show is very tiring, so he will not participate for the time being."

The publicity for the entire crew refused to reveal even a hint of the unresolved conflict between Lu Yanhe and Long Yan.

Mrs. Huang also issued a gag order.

During the roadshow, the second most pressing issue everyone was concerned about was the sequel.

It’s obvious that “Burning Fire” is going to have a sequel.

Mrs. Huang said: "As long as the first film performs well, we will definitely make a sequel."

The box office performance of "Burning Fire" is indeed good.

In the first week of its release, the box office exceeded 9 million.

The 20 billion target seems to be set in stone.

All the actors involved were actively forwarding the film's promotional materials and box office celebration posters, except for Lu Yanhe, who, after the premiere, did not appear in the promotional schedule except for an interview program that was launched online to cooperate with the promotion.

No matter how busy Lu Yanhe is, doesn't he even have time to post on Weibo?
Gradually, some voices appeared on the Internet about Lu Yanhe's refusal to cooperate with the promotion of "Burning Fire".

"Burning Fire" has many fans now.

They all went to Lu Yanhe's Weibo and asked him why he was unwilling to promote "Burning Fire".

Lu Yanhe did not respond.

Another day passed, and suddenly, news appeared on the Internet that Lu Yanhe was dissatisfied with Shang Yongzhou and that Shang Yongzhou's salary was higher than his, so he did not cooperate with the promotion of "Burning Fire".

As soon as this news came out, major marketing accounts started to report it in an overwhelming manner.

Chen Ziyan came online and posted a picture with a huge word "fake" written on it.

However, beyond this, no further explanation was given.

When the box office of "Burning" exceeded 20 billion, a picture went viral on the Internet.

Longyan's publicity director Zhang Yang posted a message on WeChat Moments to celebrate the box office of "Burning Fire" exceeding 20 billion yuan. At the same time, he also wrote a sentence: Many people are asking me why someone did not participate in the subsequent publicity. In fact, everyone has seen the result. Whether someone participates or not does not affect the box office, right?

After this screenshot went viral on the Internet, many people interpreted it as: This so-and-so is obviously Lu Yanhe.

Not long after, Zhang Yang posted another circle of friends: I was clearly talking about someone in our publicity team who "deserted at the last minute", how did it become Lu Yanhe? Can you stop making false accusations? (End of this chapter)