Chapter 322: Mad Profits
The movie that lasted for around 100 minutes made everyone laugh their heads off. The Uncle and the Flower was a comedy, but there were deeper messages behind it.
Uncle was foolish but shrewd.
Qing Hua was stupid, but she knew how to take revenge, espeically in the scenes where she clobbered someone with a brick, her eyes savage like a beast while she did it. It was hard to believe that she was the same person as the goofy Qing Ha.
There was also the license part where Uncle acted as Qing Hua and Qing Hua acted as Uncle. Qing Hua’s impression of Uncle was spot-on. When they were playing a game of wits and courage with the traffic police, Qing Hua had brought a hoodlum to life with the slap she landed across Uncle’s face.
At the end of the first day, The Uncle And The Flower had topped 50 million at the box office, which was not bad for a start.
At that time, Three Kingdoms had already made two billion in the box office.
To be fair, there shouldn’t have been competition between the two.
Three Kingdoms was a 3D film, which naturally made its tickets twice as expensive as 2D films. With the screen-rate it had, it naturally sat comfortably at first spot in the top-grossing list.
On the third day, 2.5 billion for Three Kingdoms and, surprisingly, 1 billion for The Uncle And The Flower.
On the fourth day, Three Kingdoms’s box office earnings fell to a billion, while The Uncle And The Flower skyrocketed to 2 billion despite its relatively low screen-rate in major cinemas and lack of golden screen-timings.
On the fourth day, The Uncle And The Flower was screened from when cinemas opened till they closed.
On the fifth day, it hit nearly 3 billion.
Three billion, 3 billion! Nearly 7 billion in total in merely 5 days. On the sixth day, the box office saw a slight decline, but 2 billion was still very high. The momentum was retained on the seventh day, but by the eighth day, both movies began to see a slide in earnings.
The Uncle And The Flower maintained a daily income of around 1 million while Three Kingdoms’s earnings fell day by day. Still, it managed to stay well above the ten million line.
However, when compared to The Uncle And The Flower in the first spot, they ran out of gas later on and fell way behind their 2D counterpart.
The Uncle And The Flower had never held any conferences. Since the beginning, they had stayed a low-profile. Apart from a few advertisements earlier on, they didn’t have any events. On the other hand, Three Kingdoms had endless conferences since the revelation of leading roles, and they had gone all out in commercial and private advertisements.
In the end, Huang Ming decided to hold a long-due conference for The Uncle And The Flower, partly in hopes that it might give The Uncle And The Flower another boost at the box office.
The conference was nearly nation-wide, so they had to move to a new place nearly every day.
Most of the leads were asked to tag along with the conference. Initially, Yan Huan was hoping for some quality time with Inspector Lu, but Director Huang managed to drag her along. She was secretly one of the largest investors, so she naturally had to be there at the conferences.
Everywhere she went, she could feel the palpable love and support from her fans.
When she heard their chants of admiration—we love you Yan Huan, we love you, tears of gratitude trickled down her cheeks.
This sight was captured and posted to the web. Some shed tears from pain or sorrow, but Yan Huan’s were tears of happiness. Warm tears.
For a long time, her photo was referred to as a classic. The conferences in different cities managed to spark conversation for The Uncle And The Flower, along with Divorced, also directed by Huang Ming.
The Uncle And The Flower continued to impress at the box office, killing the competition at first spot, when the 3 Kingdoms struggled at millions.
After a month, Yan Huan’s sore legs could hardly support her weight. The Uncle And The Flower had already garnered 26 billion.
With their shares and other incomes, she and Lu Yi could at least get 14 billion.
14 billion, 14 billion!
When Yan Huan handed the card to Lu Yi, it was the first time she saw him that stunned.
“What?” he squinted. “How much is there in here?”
“8 billion,” replied Yan Huan smilingly.
“The movie made nearly 27 billion at the box office. Taking away the production cost, we get the biggest cut—16 billion. A few ten millions for 17 billion. They have struck gold this time.”
She took out another card. “Here’s mine. Oh, by the way, there will be a sequel to The Uncle And The Flower next year. Interested in investing?” she looked up at waved her ringed finger at him. “Is this how you ask for my hand, Inspector Lu? Where’s your sincerity?”
Lu Yi pushed the card into Yan Huan’s hand. “How’s this for a betrothal gift?”
Yan Huan smiled until her eyes bent, like a little money-grubber. However, she didn’t want the money. She returned Lu Yi the card. “Take it. It might come of use.”
She enveloped her face in Lu Yi’s large hands and rubbed against his fingers gently.
She liked that a lot.
“Take it,” Yan Huan knew what he was going to say. “It’s not my money. You had earned this through your investment. Money can always come in handy someday.”
It will come in handy. The Lu Family wasn’t in a safe spot, so she had to make Lu Yi stronger financially, lest that scoundrel Lu Qin sets him up someday. What had Lu Qin relied on during her past life? Money, no? If that’s the case, she’ll crush him with heaps of money.
Lu Yi reached out and pressed Yan Huan’s head against his chest. Lowering his head, he looked at the ring on her finger.
Does that mean I have her consent?
Yan Huan had to continue advertising The Uncle And The Flower. This was just the start. In the next year, she had to film the sequel to the film. The sequel was what she wanted the most, since it was a film that she had wanted to be a part of but gave up for Lu Qin’s sake.
A woman must never give up too much for a man.
Including your pride.
He won’t give you any pride, but you can’t let go of your own pride.
Therefore, she will lead in the sequel. That would mark a perfect end for her past life. For that reason, she left with the crew. Publicity stunts are necessary evils at times.
However, this trip might take a few months, which means that she would be away from Lu Yi for that much time.
But she wasn’t worried; she knew that Lu Yi would prevail against the trial of time.
Yan Huan left on the following morning without telling Lu Yi or requesting a send-off. Parting was an awful thing. Yan Huan hated parting and goodbyes, so she stole away with Yi Ling. Before departing, she was on the verge of tears while Yi Ling bawled her eyes out. Luo Lin only stared at the sky, her thoughts unbeknownst to the others.