Chapter 89

Originally, Xu Tongjun didn’t dare to go up against a senior figure in the legal field.

But who made his doctoral advisor have just a tiny bit of history with this senior figure?

Hearing that his beloved student had been confronted by an old rival, the advisor immediately flew into a rage! The old man never even thought that this whole thing was caused by a flame war over two movies. He simply felt that the other party was making indirect attacks, appearing to teach the junior Xu Tongjun a lesson about lacking insight, but wasn’t this really aimed at him as the teacher?

“He’s cursing at you, and you don’t have a mouth or hands? Curse him back! Working in our field and not knowing how to argue – is that proper?” The advisor called overnight to give his student a thorough scolding, and after finishing, still not satisfied, he remotely taught many flame war techniques that aren’t shared outside the legal field.

Thus, this flame war spread from the legal field all the way to fan circles, and finally caused even many passersby who don’t usually watch movies to develop some curiosity about these two films.

Anyway, there wasn’t much to do during the New Year holiday, and two movie tickets didn’t cost much, so many people simply went to see both films.

After watching, good heavens! Even more netizens were cursing “Three-Child Mobilization.”

What was even funnier was that originally “Daji Reborn” was just a standard popcorn New Year film, but with the morally corrupt “Three-Child Mobilization” as comparison, it suddenly became righteous and noble!

Common people don’t think about “deep social issues” – everyone votes with their eyes, simply feeling that “Daji Reborn” was more satisfying to watch than “Three-Child Mobilization”!

In the 110-minute movie, there was a legal plot twist that slapped faces on average every ten minutes. As they say, I generally don’t hold grudges because I take revenge on the spot – wasn’t this plot setup just too satisfying?

What “Daji Reborn” brought to audiences was exactly this kind of extremely satisfying hilarious New Year film, while conveniently using methods that ordinary people could understand to tell everyone how regular people should respond when encountering such legal problems next time.

This movie was really too joyful. Even the only “villain” in the entire drama – Wei Sheng playing the fox uncle – although initially full of traditional women’s virtue ideology, later after experiencing those morally destructive things in the film crew, also proved that sometimes, women being more conservative and “traditional” in society is actually a form of self-protection.

“I originally quite disliked this fox uncle, but seeing the fiancés he selected for Daji – either from prominent families or young talents – I want to say, only real family would do all this for you, right?”

“As someone who’s been there, the fox uncle really represents the type who’s tough on the outside but soft inside. He verbally disdains Daji as a money-losing proposition, but actually secretly prepared lots of dowry for Daji. The fiancés he picked for her were all selected according to the standards of choosing a son-in-law for his own daughter. Some biological fathers might not even be able to do this much, right?”

“Actually, thinking carefully, the uncle’s words, though they don’t sound pleasant, make quite a bit of sense. When girls are young and don’t know how to cherish themselves, blindly giving and paying, they’ll most likely encounter scumbags who abandon them after having their way. For specific examples, refer to Wang Baochuan who dug wild vegetables, and Zhuo Wenjun who sold wine.”

“Wei Sheng’s acting is quite good. When he was spouting women’s virtue ideology earlier, it really made people want to smash stinky eggs in his face! Later when he unprincipled trusted and favored Daji in the film crew, he was really so cool!”

Accompanied by the audience’s one-sided praise for “Daji Reborn,” the originally highly praised “Three-Child Mobilization” that had been lifted to the skies by various big V accounts wasn’t so lucky.

Audiences who were tricked into buying tickets, after watching “Three-Child Mobilization,” not to mention women, even many male viewers couldn’t help frowning.

This director was just too disrespectful to women, wasn’t he?

Clearly the wife was an elderly pregnant woman, yet in the movie, from the screenwriter to the male lead’s family, almost everyone took it for granted that educating children was the wife’s responsibility, taking care of the family’s daily life was also the wife’s responsibility, and even the educational problems with the two children due to pregnancy neglect had the mother silently crying and blaming herself…

Excuse me? Don’t these two children have a father?

Your wife is risking her life to give you a third child! For just this one year, couldn’t you take care of the two children? Hire an extra nanny for the house to lighten your wife’s burden?

And that joke about “the eldest son is in middle school and his own father doesn’t even know” – it made audiences roll their eyes. They didn’t know what was funny about this joke.

Probably only the director and screenwriter found this joke amusing?

They just felt this female lead was pitiful – having a husband was worse than being widowed.

At least widowed single mothers know they have no man to rely on, so they’ll arrange for a confinement center in advance, and don’t need to have a whole family waiting for her to serve them while heavily pregnant…

In comparison, even the feudal and old-fashioned fox uncle next door in “Daji Reborn” knew that when female foxes in the clan got pregnant, all their work should immediately be stopped, giving them three years of super-long parental leave with full pay, plus an extra monthly nutrition allowance – learn from him!

This is the correct way to encourage having three children, okay?

Because of this, Wei Sheng unexpectedly gained a large batch of “employee fans.” Many female employees of childbearing age who were planning to get pregnant and have children expressed that Wei Sheng’s fox uncle character was the best boss in the world! No exceptions!

If they could really give female employees of childbearing age three years of paid parental leave, letting them accompany their children until they could attend kindergarten, never mind a second child – even a fourth child wouldn’t be impossible~

With this polar reversal of public opinion, on the third day of the New Year, the box office of “Daji” and “Three-Child” still had “Three-Child” crushing “Daji.”

By the fourth day of the New Year, “Daji’s” box office began catching up, only a few million behind “Three-Child.”

On the fifth day of the New Year, “Daji Reborn” officially kicked over “Three-Child,” becoming the number one daily box office ranking for the New Year season.

From this day on, until the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, “Daji Reborn” never came down from the top spot. It even gained the peculiar attribute of having upright values while providing legal education, causing many parents to bring their rebellious children to watch this movie, hoping to use the fox uncle’s sharp tongue to scold these rebellious little brats awake!

The fox uncle showed great power, temporarily becoming the film and TV character that rebellious teenagers most wanted to assassinate.

Just at this time, the national TV movie channel extended an olive branch to the “Daji Reborn” crew.

“What? Cooperating with the movie channel for a special interview? Yes, yes! No problem!” After hanging up the phone, Zhou Mingxing’s mouth was almost reaching the sky.

This kid Wei Sheng really brought him such honor!

Originally when taking on this resource, Zhou Mingxing was somewhat reluctant. It was only because the producer was his own TV station that he had to cooperate in the performance. Actually, at first Zhou Mingxing wanted to just bury this magical big movie full of ridiculous vibes.

But facts proved that this kid Wei Sheng might really have some legendary “Purple Star” constitution.

Even a resource like “Daji Reborn” that looked like a predetermined flop could be made this popular?

Others didn’t know, but Zhou Mingxing was watching “Daji Reborn’s” box office performance like a hawk every day, from initially only a few million or ten-plus million per day, to later fifty million, eighty million per day… The numbers soared faster than Zhou Mingxing’s blood pressure.

When the daily box office broke one hundred million, he knew that Wei Sheng’s big screen debut was secure!

With such impressive box office performance, even if it was just a popcorn New Year film, it could definitely be bragged about.

As an actor, no matter how many awards you win, nothing beats the four words “can carry box office.”

Not to mention that now, even the national TV movie channel actively invited them to record a show!

Everyone in the industry knew that movie channel interviews had always only invited the most popular stars.

Although the theme the movie channel wanted to do was about the legal education role of film and television works, that didn’t matter! What mattered was that his Wei Sheng was going to appear on national TV again!

Everyone was ecstatic with joy.

The only one who wasn’t happy was probably just Wang Qun.

After the New Year, the “Retracing the Path of Poverty Alleviation” program crew was about to start recording new content. They had already chosen the location, but Wang Qun wasn’t quite satisfied with the script that the planning department had produced.

Originally he was thinking of having Wei Sheng help revise the script while the program crew hadn’t departed yet, but now this was great – how could his small arm wrestle with the thick thigh that was the national TV station?

“Get in line, get in line! Our Teacher Wei is no longer a newbie you can order around at will.” Zhou Mingxing pushed Wang Qun’s big face aside with a look of disdain, and announced some “bad news” –

“”Daji Reborn” was a huge success, and now I have at least thirty-plus scripts in my hands, all specifically requesting Wei Sheng to participate.”

“So?” Wang Qun suddenly had an ominous premonition.

“So, from now on you’re not allowed to have Wei Sheng help you revise scripts! If you want his help, pay more money! Add his name to the credits! Not one less will do!”

This was his final stubbornness as an agent.

Wang Qun: o(╥﹏╥)o

A few days later, the main creative team of “Daji Reborn” officially appeared on the national TV movie channel.

Broadcasting together with the interview were the movie “Daji Reborn” and some exclusive behind-the-scenes footage.

Because this movie had so many comedic moments and was very educational, that evening countless families turned on their televisions, and whole families sat in front of the TV to rewatch this laugh-filled New Year film.

What was even funnier was that because this movie had so many legal jokes, especially in the film crew segment, it implied countless domestic and foreign celebrities who had scandals and fallen from grace over the years. From that year on, whenever anyone’s reputation collapsed, the movie channel would definitely rebroadcast this “Daji Reborn: Entertainment Industry Chronicles,” with maximum sarcasm skills!

So much so that years later, when busybodies tallied up the New Year films with the most rebroadcasts on the movie channel over the years, this low-budget popcorn ridiculous New Year film “Daji Reborn” actually made the list!

Because of the excessive rebroadcasts, not only did the male and female leads of this movie become popular for a long time, but even a bunch of minor supporting actors became famous.

Many children might not be able to call out Wei Sheng’s name, but upon seeing his face, they would definitely blurt out the familiar nickname “Fox Uncle.”

Audiences called out in unison, hoping that all members of the “Daji Reborn” crew would obey the law and be good people! If this meal-time movie got taken down because of them, the audiences would never forgive them even as ghosts…

“I’m scared of you all~ I’ll go to the countryside to steal vegetables later!” Wei Sheng muttered while climbing into the car, preparing to follow the program crew to film the latest episode of “Retracing the Path of Poverty Alleviation.”

This time, the impoverished group they were going to focus on was one that even Wei Sheng had never encountered before!

(End of Chapter)