There was a trace of struggle on Zhong Hongyan's face, but it was obvious that he did not have the courage to leave home. Even the film editing did not use the name "Zhong Hongyan", but used the up master account ID.
"Forget it." Zhong Hongyan shook his head. "I have lived here all my life. It will be hard for me to adapt if I leave the Zhong family."
Change doesn't happen overnight, and Zhong Jiudao didn't force him.
Zhong Hongyan parked his car in the Zhong family's parking lot. Although it was already past three in the morning, Zhong Jiudao went directly to visit his father.
When my mother heard that he would be back tonight, she had been waiting by my father's bedside. She was an extremely beautiful and elegant woman, and also a powerful figure in the world of celestial masters.
"You're back." Mother Zhong was sitting in front of Father Zhong's bed. Seeing her son coming back, a hint of joy flashed across her face. Seeing that her husband was not conscious, she reached out and held Zhong Jiudao's hand, whispering, "I'm very happy to see your first movie succeed."
Zhong Jiudao was very happy to receive the blessing from his family. But considering that this was in front of his father's bed, he just nodded reservedly and said to his mother: "How is your father's health?"
"He has been sent to the emergency room. He was suffering from anger. Fortunately, he vomited a lot of blood and the anger was not weighing on his mind. It's not serious. He will be fine after some treatment." said Zhong's mother.
Mr. Zhong is not actually that old, he is about sixty years old, but he doesn't want to dye his hair. He insists on making himself look like an immortal, with long beard and eyebrows. His white hair makes him look like he is ninety years old.
"Are you so angry because I beat you?" Zhong Jiudao wondered, "Father is not such a narrow-minded person."
"It's not just because you won, the main reason is that 'Shou Zheng Lu' suffered heavy losses. It's rare for him to lower himself and join the film and television industry, mainly to publicize the greatness of Tianshi's career to the public. His family is not understood by the world, and his one-to-one restoration of the ghost-exorcism scenes was criticized to pieces. He just can't stand it." Zhong's mother sighed.
Zhong Jiu said: "If you ask me to be the director and give me half of the investment, "Record of Keeping the Righteousness" will be better than it is now."
"Who said it wasn't?" Mother Zhong took advantage of Father Zhong's unconsciousness and pinched the back of his hand hard.
Zhong Jiu said: "..."
"Please stand here." Mother Zhong greeted Zhong Jiudao.
Zhong Jiudao leaned over and stood still, and Zhong's mother took out her mobile phone to take a photo of the three of them.
Mother Zhong: "Okay, go back to your room and rest. When you've rested enough, we can leave tomorrow."
Zhong Jiu said, "It seems very unfilial to leave my father like this before he wakes up."
Mother Zhong sighed, "I'm afraid he'll be too embarrassed to see you when he wakes up and get even sicker. If you leave, I'll show him the photo of you coming back, and he'll curse at the photo and feel better."
I understand. If he doesn't come back, his father might get so angry that he has a heart attack. If he comes back, his father will be so ashamed to see him that he will also get a heart attack. Only if he comes back to visit and doesn't let his father see him, will it help his father's health.
After chatting with his mother for a while, Zhong Jiudao went to the guest room to rest. Because he ran away from home, his family had sealed his room and did not allow him to live in it. After all, that was where the future heir of the Zhong family lived, and it was the best location in the entire Zhong family in terms of feng shui. Sitting in the room and memorizing books was more effective than in other rooms. Since he was no longer the heir of the Zhong family, he naturally had to give up the place.
Most of the guest rooms are for people who come to the Zhong family for help. The fee details are posted directly in the guest rooms: Heart-clearing talisman 50,000 yuan/piece, exorcism talisman 50,000 yuan/piece, and soul-suppressing talisman 100,000 yuan/piece...
For example, the Five Thunder Talismans that Zhong Jiudao had used to deal with Fu Yue cost 1 million each. After all, this talisman was extremely powerful, and even a fierce ghost like Fu Yue could be killed with one strike. Even in the Zhong family, there were only a few people who could draw such a talisman, and it would take two people working together to gather enough magic power to draw it. Only a few people were like Zhong Jiudao who threw the talismans out like blank paper.
In recent years, the Five Thunder Talismans used by the Zhong family to the outside world were all drawn by Zhong Jiudao in the past, and it is unknown how many are still in stock.
Thinking of this, Zhong Jiudao crawled out, took out the talisman papers from the guest room, and drew on them one by one.
He took advantage of this night to draw more and put them in a box. Tomorrow, his mother would collect them when she saw them and take them out to use when the Zhong family encountered difficult ghosts. His father always thought that they had enough stocks, but he didn't know that these were the paintings that Zhong Jiudao drew every year when he returned home.
After drawing spells all night, Zhong Jiudao didn't feel tired until dawn. He fell asleep and slept until the evening, when he was woken up by Zhong Hongyan.
"Jiudao, come quickly! The master of the family seems to be waking up. Let's leave home quickly. If he wakes up and hears you at home, he will definitely pull out the IV and pick up the peach wood sword to chop you." Zhong Hongyan said.
For the sake of his father's health, Zhong Jiudao had to leave in a hurry.
He had been very busy recently and had stayed up all night last night. He was still groggy when he got on the bus and slept all the way until he entered the city. He woke up only when he opened his phone to see if there was any message.
Luo Huai took out his wallet. Zhong Jiudao was worried that he might encounter an accident, so he set Luo Huai as an important contact so that he would not miss Luo Huai's call even if his phone was on silent mode.
The phone was silent that day. I guess Luo Huai was busy and didn't send him a message. So it must be nothing important...
Looking at the 99+ unread messages on his social media account, Zhong Jiudao felt that he was too early to be relieved.
Luo Huai indeed did not send any message, and Qian Duoqun had been crying from noon to night.
Qian Duoqun: I just received the news that our movie has been banned and will be taken off the screen tomorrow!
Pang Xinhao: Director Zhong, I’m so sad. Why do you treat us like this
Ji Pan: I have asked someone about it. They claimed that "The House of the Fallen" did not meet the standards for theatrical release, but in fact, someone was interfering. It seems that the investors of "The Record of Keeping the Righteousness" did it. They have strong connections, and my people can't help much for the time being.
"Was it done by the people from "Shouzhenglu"? " Zhong Jiudao was not as sad as the others. He had already earned enough from this movie, and the share of the box office was enough for him to invest in new movies. He was calm, but he felt that this matter was a little strange.
"What has "Shouzhenglu" done?" asked Zhong Hongyan who was driving.
"'The House of Fallen' was forcibly removed from the shelves." Zhong Jiudao said calmly.
"What!" Film editor Zhong Hongyan slammed on the brakes.
The car stopped on the side of the road, and Zhong Hongyan turned around and said, "Why? There are a lot of bloody scenes in "Record of Keeping Integrity", right? Why do you ban us but not them?"
Zhong Jiudao thought for a moment and said, "In fact, I have always felt that "The House That Fell" should not have made so much at the box office. Horror movies are different from comedies and special effects movies. After all, they are not suitable for everyone. There are still many timid people who dare not watch them. It is already good to make 50 or 60 million yuan a day. One thing we must admit is that it was the poor performance of "The Record of Keeping the Righteousness" that attracted many viewers to watch "The House That Fell". "
Since the two movies were released at the same time and both were released under the new regulations for horror and suspense movies, netizens could not help but compare the two movies.
How many people criticize "Record of Keeping Integrity"? How many people praise "The House of Fallen"? It is normal for people to criticize one and praise the other.
"The House That Fell In Love" did not receive enough publicity in the early stages, and its counterattack in the first half of the year was largely due to spontaneous publicity from the audience, but this was still far from enough compared to the overwhelming publicity of "The Record of the Righteous One".
When netizens are slamming "The Record of Keeping Right" and praising "The House That Fell Down", it is inevitable that many people who have heard of "The Record of Keeping Right" will go to watch "The House That Fell Down". It can be said that even without "The Record of Keeping Right", "The House That Fell Down" would still be successful, but it would not be successful to this extent.
"They just don't want us to continue making money by keeping to the right path." Zhong Jiudao said calmly, "It just doesn't meet the theater standards and can't be released at the moment, but the review of online movies will be relaxed accordingly. We can re-edit it and remove some bloody scenes that are not suitable for teenagers to watch, and we can still strive for online screening."
"I have no problem with the new editing, but the Patriarch is too much this time!" Zhong Hongyan was still indignant, "You can't beat me and ban me, isn't that cheating?"
Zhong Jiudao shook his head: "I don't think it was my father who did it."
The old man cares about his reputation. If he loses, he loses. He would rather be so angry that he vomits blood than engage in unfair competition.
"That's right. The head of the family has been in a coma for a day and a night. He should not have the energy to do these things. The person who is temporarily acting as the head of the family is from the second branch... Do you think they did it?" Zhong Hongyan asked.
"I can only say that he is a suspect." Zhong Jiudao said.
"How despicable!" Zhong Hongyan felt a headache and heartache when he thought about the fact that the movie he had worked on for so many nights and lost so much hair to edit was forcibly taken down and had to be re-edited.
He had originally been shaken by Zhong Jiudao's invitation last night, and now he was struggling fiercely in his heart.
Seeing Zhong Jiudao's gloomy face, Zhong Hongyan was not afraid of such a big thing, and urged him to drive to the railway station as soon as possible so that he could go back and deal with the matter. He couldn't help but ask from the bottom of his heart: "Why aren't you angry or anxious?"
Zhong Jiudao asked back: "Being angry and impatient won't solve the problem. Being too emotional will only give ghosts an opportunity to take advantage of you. The more critical the situation, the more you need to stay calm. We have been taught this since we were young. You should be used to it, right?"
"You are probably the only one in the Zhong family who can do this!" Zhong Hongyan said, "If the elders in the family could be as calm as you, they wouldn't have been so defeated that they banned "Falling House"."
Looking at Zhong Jiudao's calmness at this moment, and thinking about what the elders of the Zhong family have done, Zhong Hongyan feels more and more that this family has become rotten.
"Forget it, I'm not going back either!" Zhong Hongyan took out a backpack from the car door, "My ID, household registration, cell phone, and computer are all here. I'm just going to work with you. You must pay me more!"
Although Zhong Hongyan had rejected Zhong Jiudao's invitation before, he had always been thinking about this matter in his heart. When he went out, he somehow brought his ID with him. It seemed that it was his fate.
"Okay, it will definitely be higher than the top salary in our company!" Zhong Jiudao promised.
Since he had decided to leave the Zhong family, the car was no longer his. Zhong Hongyan parked the car in the railway station parking lot, asked the driver to pick it up, sent a message to his family saying "I ran away from home and hung out with Jiudao", turned off his phone, and bought tickets with Zhong Jiudao to get on the train.
Zhong Jiudao did not sit idle along the way, but contacted several online platforms that had previously wanted to purchase the film broadcasting rights to inquire about matters related to online broadcasting cooperation.
The platforms that were quite enthusiastic at the beginning became indifferent and no longer planned to take over this movie. Only one platform was willing to give it a try, but the fee was not high and it only wanted to sign a VOD profit-sharing agreement.
"The profit sharing from on-demand streaming is no problem." Zhong Jiudao agreed without hesitation.
"I can raise the percentage of the profit if you review the new editing," the person in charge of the other party said, "but I hope Director Zhong can promise me one thing."
After hearing the other party's request, Zhong Jiudao said, "Let me think about it."
"What's the matter?" Zhong Hongyan leaned over and asked.
Zhong Jiudao patted his shoulder and said, "It's great that you come to help me at this time! Let's talk about it when we get there."
Confused, Zhong Hongyan followed Zhong Jiudao to the hotel where Qian Duoqun and others were staying. When Qian Duoqun saw Zhong Jiudao, he started crying: "It's gone, it's gone! So much money is gone!"
"Stop crying. Where is Luo Huai?" Zhong Jiudao asked.
"He was still recording the last program. The one before that was cancelled, so he can take a rest now." Qian Duoqun said with a sad face.
His tears fell "crackling" and dripped onto the eyeballs hanging in his arms. He looked at Qian Duoqun without blinking, and his eyes did not seem as indignant as before. Instead, there was a kind of comfort in them.
Qian Duoqun met Yanzhu's sincere gaze and realized that at this point, the only person who could comfort him was Yanzhu. He hugged Yanzhu and burst into tears.
Zhong Hongyan: “…”
No, what is that thing on the chest of the producer of their company? When he saw those eyes, he was so excited that he almost pulled out the peach wood sword!
Zhong Jiudao knew that Qian Duoqun was just sad about the money he didn't get, so he just cried. He stayed in the hotel for a while and saw Luo Huai and Pang Xinhao coming back. Pang Xinhao looked like he wanted to kill someone, but Luo Huai was fine, but he was in a very low mood, and the three lights in his body were almost extinguished.
However, what was darker than Luo Huai was the wallet in his hand. Zhong Jiudao saw that the talisman on the wallet was bright red, but the Yin energy inside was getting weaker and weaker. Through the gaps, he could see that the white paper man was turning a little red. It should be that when Luo Huai was drawing the talisman, he accidentally dripped paint onto the opening of the wallet, and then flowed onto the white paper man. If Zhong Jiudao came back a day or two later, Luo Huai's colleagues would be in danger.