Reborn in the Chinese Entertainment Industry: My Childhood Sweetheart is Boss Yang

Time passed amidst the hustle and bustle, and December 1st arrived in the blink of an eye.

Chongqing, Jiefangbei.

The fog of deep winter carries a damp chill, but long queues have formed in the ticket hall of UME Cinema.

Most people went there because of Harry Potter, but there were also some young people who held colorful flyers in their hands and searched the movie schedule with their eyes.

"Hey, Mouse. This is it, 'Crazy Stone'."

A college student wearing glasses pointed at the poster and said to his companion, "Everyone on Tianya is raving about it. They say it was filmed in Chongqing, and Huang Xiaoming even played a silly character in it."

"Really? That handsome guy who played the Emperor of Han Dynasty? No way!"

"I'd be a fool to lie to you! And it also features Liu Yifei, Ling'er! My goddess!" the bespectacled man declared confidently.

The two squeezed to the front of the counter.

"Hey sis, give me four tickets to 'Crazy Stone,' from the most recent showing."

The ticket seller didn't even look up, her fingers flying across the keyboard: "Only the 3 PM and 6 PM shows are left; the rest are taken up by that magic movie."

"Yes, yes, six o'clock!"

After getting their tickets, the group wandered aimlessly around the lobby until six o'clock. When they entered, they thought it would be an obscure film with no audience, but when they pushed open the door, the small theater with only eighty seats was surprisingly 70-80% full.

"Wow, there are so many people?" Mouse was a little surprised.

"I guess they're all here because of Liu Yifei and Huang Xiaoming."

The lights dimmed, and the dragon emblem flashed by.

However, ten minutes passed.

There is no fairy sister, no emperor of the Han Dynasty.

The only scenes are shaky camera work, a filthy toilet, and a few oddly-looking men who surrender to the police station without being questioned.

"Didn't they say they were in the show? Where are they?"

"Isn't this a scam? I knew you couldn't trust those posts online!"

A couple in the front row started to get restless; the girl was crunching her popcorn loudly, clearly impatient.

Mouse frowned, and was about to turn around and curse the bespectacled man when several bumbling thieves speaking broken Mandarin and authentic Chongqing dialect appeared on the screen.

That familiar, down-to-earth atmosphere, reminiscent of hotpot, immediately caught the attention of these Chongqing locals.

Then, a can of Coke that fell from the sky onto the cable car made everyone burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha, holy crap!"

"This isn't a soda can, it's a mortar shell!"

The atmosphere in the theater changed.

When Huang Bo, playing the character Hei Pi, sincerely shouted out the brand name, "Baleno," a man in the front row sprayed his Coke directly onto the back of the seat in front of him.

Finally, after much anticipation, it has finally arrived.

When Huang Xiaoming and Liu Yifei appeared, the audience's first reaction was not to scream, but to be dumbfounded.

"Huh? The two actors from The Return of the Condor Heroes played Aunt and Yang Guo, how come they're Uncle and Niece here? This generational confusion is unbelievable!"

Before the audience could recover from the stark contrast, a flamboyantly dressed, greasy-looking man and woman swaggered into the entrance of Luohan Temple.

The man wore a high-necked polo shirt with an air of nouveau riche, carrying a briefcase and looking down his nose. The woman had an afro, a leopard-print skirt, and swayed her hips affectedly.

"Oh dear, what's so interesting about this dilapidated temple? It's filthy!"

The woman's voice was so sweet it sent chills down your spine.

Just moments ago, Mouse was laughing so hard he was practically falling over, but he suddenly sat up straight, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets, and grabbed his companion's arm tightly: "Holy crap! Look at that guy! Doesn't that guy look like that picture of the most handsome guy at Beijing Film Academy on Tianya?"

"That's Gu Heng?! And that woman is Yang Mi?!"

"Holy crap! Have these two gone mad? They're completely disfigured!"

On screen, Gu Heng, who plays a nouveau riche, is impatiently shoving Huang Bo. His portrayal of the arrogant "I'm rich and I'm the boss" attitude is incredibly convincing.

"Is this the same guy who scored 665? He looks like that slacker selling rat poison in Jiefangbei!"

As the end credits rolled, the lights came on.

Mouse rubbed his face, stiff from laughing, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he sent a message to the dorm group chat: "Everyone except those who're spending the night at internet cafes, get to UME right now! Anyone who doesn't watch will regret it for a year! It's absolutely hilarious!"

The same scene unfolded in Chunxi Road in Chengdu, in Mianyang, and in some cinemas in the Yangtze River Delta region, like a spark that quietly but rapidly spread.

Early morning of the 2nd.

Beijing, Vision Entertainment.

Ning Hao had already spun around in front of the floor-to-ceiling window eight hundred times, and the carpet under his feet was almost worn bare.

"Mr. Gu, why haven't we heard anything yet?" Ning Hao's voice was hoarse, and the bloodshot in his eyes was clearly visible. "Did it flop? I knew it, this kind of film definitely wouldn't be successful in big cities..."

Now all he can think about is the signboard of the wedding photography shop in his hometown in Shanxi.

"Old Ning, can you sit down? You're making me dizzy."

Gu Heng leaned back on the sofa, holding a copy of "Zhiyin" magazine, reading it with great interest.

"Don't worry, Ma Jie is probably doing the math right now and is still in shock."

Just then, the landline on the desk suddenly rang.

Gu Heng calmly pressed the speakerphone button.

"Hey, Mr. Ma."

There was an eerie silence on the other end of the phone, broken only by heavy breathing.

Ning Hao's heart was in his throat.

It took a full five seconds for Ma Jie's voice to come through.

"Mr. Gu...you...did you invite someone to sleep at the movie theater?"

Gu Heng raised an eyebrow: "What do you mean by that, Mr. Ma? I, Gu, have always been honest and fair in business, treating everyone fairly, young and old."

"If this wasn't orchestrated, then this data... is incredibly bizarre!"

The usually refined Ma Jie suddenly swore.

All that could be heard on the other end of the phone was the sound of papers being turned over: "Opening day box office: 3.6 million!"

"How many?!"

Ning Hao let out a loud scream, his voice cracking.

Ignoring Ning Hao's loss of composure, Ma Jie continued reporting the data, his voice growing increasingly louder: "The national average occupancy rate is 77%! In Chongqing, it surged to 89%, and in Chengdu, it reached 86%!"

"Mr. Gu, 85%! Harry Potter only had a 60% occupancy rate today! This is like a Hollywood blockbuster!"

"The ticket office phones have been ringing off the hook, all asking if we can add another show tomorrow!"

Gu Heng smiled slightly, but his eyes were calm, as if he had expected all of this.

He spoke into the microphone, "Mr. Ma, what about tomorrow's screening schedule?"

"Add it! We absolutely must add it!"

Ma Jie's voice was firm and decisive on the other end of the phone: "Anyone who turns down money is a coward! I'll immediately notify the Southwest region to pull all those art films that nobody watches and free up half of them for 'Crazy Stone'! Tomorrow, the screenings will be increased to 20%! No, 25%!"

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Mr. Ma."

Gu Heng hung up the phone.

"89%...3.8 million..."

Ning Hao muttered to himself, only jolting when the cigarette burned his fingers. But he didn't have time to cry out in pain; he just stared blankly at Gu Heng, looking like he had just finished a marathon, leaning against the wall, exhausted and covered in cold sweat.

It became.

It really happened.

No need to go back to Shanxi to open a wedding dress shop anymore.

"Alright, stop looking like you're about to cry. Go back and wash your face and change into some decent clothes."

"W-what?" Ning Hao's mind hadn't quite caught up yet.

"A roadshow, huh?"

"The fire in Sichuan and Chongqing has already been lit, but this is just the beginning. We must take advantage of this momentum and spread the fire throughout the country."

"Don't forget, Chen Kaige's 'The Promise' will be released in just half a month."

Mentioning "The Promise" made Ning Hao's heart, which had just settled down, jump again. It was a big-budget production with an investment of hundreds of millions of yuan, an all-star cast, and an Oscar contender.

"What's there to be afraid of?"

Gu Heng saw through his thoughts, reached out and pulled him up, patting his wrinkled shoulder.

"Remember this sentence."

"When faced with absolute quality, the fancy facade built with capital is a joke."

The next day, the number of screenings of "Crazy Stone" in the Sichuan and Chongqing areas surged to 28%.

But this is not the end.

Although audiences only realized upon arriving at the theater that Huang Xiaoming and Liu Yifei's combined screen time was less than five minutes, that didn't matter anymore. Before they could even feel angry about being cheated, they were bombarded with the film's dense humor, laughing until they were breathless.

As word-of-mouth spread among the first wave of viewers, a viral effect began to emerge.

"Dao Ge", "Ding Ni Ge Fei", and "Brand, Baleno" have frequently appeared on various forums and become popular online terms.

The most unexpected part was the scene between Gu Heng and Yang Mi.

Despite being a cameo appearance with only a few lines, the contrast was so striking that it was turned into a GIF and went viral on various QQ groups and BBS forums.

[Shocking! The top two beauties of Beijing Film Academy are actually like this in private!]

When it comes to acting, I only admire this pair! Their cheeky, irreverent charm is just amazing!

The box office reached 558 million on the second day.

610 million on the third day.

In an era when a box office exceeding 100 million was considered a miracle, a low-budget comedy with a budget of six million yuan broke even and began to generate huge profits in just three days.