Chapter 33: Secured!

"Spicy Love Soup" tells the story of a young, engaged couple preparing for marriage—meeting the parents, furnishing their new home, registering the marriage, buying rings, and taking wedding photos. Using this as a narrative thread, the film weaves together five short stories about love at different stages of life, divided into five segments: "Sound," "Photo," "Toy," "Thirteen Spices," and "Mahjong." These five segments are held together by the overarching thread of the couple's wedding.

At first glance, it didn't look like a box-office hit.

But on second thought, the domestic film industry at this time wasn't exactly known for its commercial prowess. In my previous life, I remember watching many series on social media looking back at the past twenty or thirty years; it wasn't until Zhang Yimou’s "Hero" that the era of grand domestic commercial blockbusters truly began.

So, for this era, is this film actually not bad?

It doesn't matter. After all, my wife is in it!

The only frustration is that Gao Yuanyuan’s role is in the "Sound" segment, where she plays a high school student—a role that, given her age, is perfectly natural. As for her scene partner, Lin Jielu is age-appropriate, but his temperament makes it impossible for him to pull off the role of a naive, green boy.

If he were to play opposite Gao Yuanyuan, that segment would fall apart.

After a careful look at the roles—both cast and uncast—there were only two suitable for Lin Jielu: the male lead or the wedding photographer, Xia Xiaowan. Both were age-appropriate.

Lin Jielu certainly couldn't play the male lead; filming that would take at least two months!

So, after going back and forth, the only role he could take was Xia Xiaowan. "How many days will it take to film?"

"Your time is precious, so we’ll work around your schedule. Everyone else can wait. Once you arrive, we’ll shoot your scenes first. We’ll try to get it done in a week!"—Damn it! When he was trying to sweet-talk me earlier, he said two days!

Actually, I still didn't really want to do it, because I wouldn't be playing opposite my wife anyway!

After much hesitation, since I had already talked myself into a corner, I had to go through with it. The main reason was to have an excuse to hang around the set and seize the opportunity to meet my wife. Eventually, I reluctantly agreed.

Having secured the promise, Zhang Yang left, picking his teeth and looking pleased with himself.

That same afternoon, he called to say that the Xi'an Film Studio had agreed to provide a one-million-yuan grant. "Hey... from today on, you're my brother. Your name is truly effective! But I have some other business; can we chat more when I come over?"

"Don't even mention asking for investment!"

"Don't be like that..."

...

On May 1st, Rene Liu’s new album, "Lemon Tree," was released. The title track, with lyrics by Lin Jielu, was an instant hit. In its first week in Taiwan, the album sold over 70,000 copies, and by the second week, it had surpassed 100,000. During that same week, after dominating the charts for ten weeks and selling over 100,000 copies for nine consecutive weeks, "Cold to the Bone" finally dropped to second place. It could be said that Rene Liu used Lin Jielu as a stepping stone to reach the top.

A hundred thousand and a few hundred copies—it was still over the 100,000 mark! She could even boast about 120,000 copies to the outside world!

Rene Liu had successfully taken a big step forward thanks to this!

The album was well on its way to exceeding 500,000 copies in sales!

When she called again, she was triumphant and arrogant, claiming she had avenged Lin Jielu's earlier taunt that she could only pass 100,000 weekly sales with the help of Old Duan’s hype!

But by the third week, she crashed—"Cold to the Bone" maintained sales of 70,000-plus, returning to the top spot, while "Lemon Tree" plummeted to just 40,000 copies.

When she called again, she was dejected.

"It's okay. Just think, you once trampled on the wildly popular Lin Jielu and crushed him for a whole week! A whole week! Isn't that enough to be proud of?"

"Pfft... what you said... is so dirty!"

"Hey, don't have a dirty mind, you pervert!"

"You're the one with the dirty mind! You're the one who said something dirty!"

"If you keep this up, I'm going to tell you a dirty joke!"

"Go ahead, let's see how dirty you can get!"

"Heh... you asked for this! So, there's a student learning the alphabet, and they get to 'B.' It's perfectly normal, but the student refuses to say it. The teacher is angry and asks what's going on. The student says, 'My mom told me not to say B, it's a bad word!'"

"Pfft..."

Despite her tough talk, Rene Liu was actually very easy to tease and had a very low threshold for humor.

"The teacher says, 'Your mother’s B and the teacher’s B are not the same thing, they aren't the same concept...'"

Before he could finish, Rene Liu was laughing so hard on the other end of the line that she could barely breathe. As Lin Jielu spoke, she covered her mouth, seemingly shaking with laughter.

Heh, the perfect cure for a sharp tongue—got her!

However, after hanging up, he felt a sense of emptiness. He had heard too many dirty jokes and knew how to tell too many, enough to make almost anyone laugh, but somehow, it was becoming increasingly difficult for anyone to make him laugh.

...

Old Duan wanted more music videos filmed!

With the broadcast of the "Bei Er Shuang" music video, a somewhat casual promotional tour had kicked off across Southeast Asia. The result was an unexpected surge in album sales across the region. Even though the subsequent "Fairytale" music video was said to have moved countless people and dominated the charts in Hong Kong and Taiwan, "Bei Er Shuang" remained firmly at the top in many Southeast Asian countries!

Old Duan called personally to say that the popularity of the "Bei Er Shuang" video had driven many non-Chinese locals to buy the album—a significant boost!

It was all thanks to that dance!

Of course, in the passing month of May, "Fairytale" remained the hottest.

The distribution of the music video across the mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong kept "Fairytale" at the top of the charts almost everywhere. Even in Japan and South Korea, the video was reported as having "touched the hearts of thousands of young men and women." As a result, album sales in various regions barely dipped, and in some places, they even increased.

Considering this powerful, pervasive influence, Rock Records decided to push back the release of the "Ten Years" music video, originally scheduled for mid-May, to early June, which naturally pushed back "Flower Field Mistake" as well.

In short, Rock Records was determined to make "Cold to the Bone" the first massive, long-selling album in the Chinese music scene! Moreover, given the incredibly strong sales channels in the mainland, the company even felt there was a chance to break the 9-million or even 10-million global sales record!

In that case... there weren't enough music videos; they had to keep filming!

Rock Records even planned to film the remaining six songs and release them as a "Cold to the Bone Video Collection." They hoped Lin Jielu could find time to go to Taiwan to discuss selecting one or two songs for a remix version or something similar. Once the album reached a certain stage of sales, they would bundle it with the "Cold to the Bone Video Collection" and release a "Ten Million Celebration Edition."

How should I put it... you guys really know how to do business!

With this bundle, wouldn't it sell for 599 New Taiwan Dollars a set? Selling 10,000 sets would be 5.99 million NTD, which, converted to RMB, is about 1.4 or 1.5 million—enough to cover the costs of filming the music videos!

Everything sold after that would be pure profit!

It was within his duties, so whether he liked it or not, Lin Jielu had to agree—it's about making money; you've made money from them, and they've supported you, so you can't shirk your responsibilities.

So, Rock Records demanded that the remaining six music videos be high-quality, which meant they all needed story scripts. By this time, the friends he had made previously came in handy. Lin Jielu started making calls, inviting directors and screenwriters out for meals.

"Let's cook up some stories, Rock Records is paying."

But after distributing the tasks, Lin Jielu suddenly remembered that this time they were filming six videos, and since they all needed stories, they all needed female leads—damn! If I try to make sure the female leads are all different, where am I going to find six young, beautiful girls?

Jiang Qinqin filmed "Flower Field Mistake," Rene Liu filmed "Fairytale," and Gigi Leung filmed "Ten Years." The bar had been set way too high! In this day and age, finding young girls with beauty comparable to those three wouldn't be easy! Should he go find Gao Yuanyuan? Would that be pushing things too fast?

He called Xue Zhongding, and Old Xue laughed out loud.

Half an hour later, he personally delivered a thick stack of profiles. "You want to film music videos and you're worried about not finding female leads? Look, we received all these in three days. You choose!"

Lin Jielu took them and opened the stack. Good heavens...