Chapter 21 A Monday Reluctant to Work

February 21st, another Monday that people didn't want to go to work.

Over the weekend, Pei Qian was deeply traumatized by the Touching Fish Internet Cafe Complex in Lin City and spent two days lying at home like a corpse.

Of course, he wasn't completely idle during those two days. He continued to monitor the situation of the Touching Fish Internet Cafe in Lin City and the Study Tyrant Come Quick App.

But the more he observed, the less optimistic he became. The situation seemed to be spiraling out of control!

The Touching Fish Internet Cafe in Lin City was even more popular on the weekend. ROF PC assembly and Touching Fish takeaway showed no signs of slowing down. In short, it was raking in the money!

And the Study Tyrant Come Quick App project was just as bizarre. Its popularity was soaring, making Pei Qian's heart palpitate. He felt like it was about to go public any second.

Of course, Pei Qian knew that a company had to operate normally for three years before it could go public, but if this project kept expanding like this, it wouldn't do at all…

Pei Qian was desperate. Over the weekend, he had been considering where to spend all this unexpected money.

Open dozens more Backlit Stations in Lin City?

Or perhaps, give Zhang Yuan's yet-to-be-formed esports club a lot more money?

Ugh, what a headache!

Pei Qian spent the entire weekend thinking about this, but he couldn't come up with a good solution, so he had to give up for the time being.

When Monday came, he still had to drag himself out of bed early, dry his tears, and move forward.

Because he had something even more important to do today.

The movie was going to be released tomorrow, and President Pei was completely unsure of its fate.

If only there were screenings. If the screening reviews were terrible, Pei Qian could set his mind at ease ahead of time.

But he was also worried that if the screening reviews were very good, and even the first day's box office exploded, the movie's screenings would increase, creating a vicious cycle.

Wouldn't that be a regrettable mistake?

So, after considering everything, it was better not to have screenings.

Since he had chosen the awkward date of February 22nd, it meant he had already decided to go for a one-shot deal. On the day of release, both the reviews and the box office would be disastrous. Afterwards, the screenings would decline and the box office would plummet…

That was the scenario President Pei had envisioned.

"I've been too busy lately and haven't had time to pay attention to the movie's progress. I wonder how the preparations are going."

"The movie introduction and screenings should be available on the ticketing apps, right?"

"I left all these things to Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce. I wonder if they've done things to my liking."

"Logically speaking, these two are both newcomers and don't have many resources. They shouldn't be able to secure many screenings, and the promotion shouldn't be very strong, right?"

"Well, then I should be able to rest assured."

"Still, I should take a look and see how strong the other movies being released at the same time are, and whether they can put up a fight."

Pei Qian hesitated for a moment, but decided to download the Gou Yan App ticketing software.

He mainly wanted to check three things:

How the promotional materials for *Tomorrow is Beautiful* were prepared.

What the screening rate for *Tomorrow is Beautiful* was.

Which movies were being released at the same time, and whether they could put up a fight.

As long as he confirmed these three things, he could roughly tell whether the movie would be a flop.

He opened the Gou Yan App Professional Edition and clicked on the "Coming Soon" section. Sure enough, *Tomorrow is Beautiful* appeared.

But Pei Qian paused slightly, suddenly feeling like something was wrong.

*Tomorrow is Beautiful* was ranked first in the "Coming Soon" section, and it had a small tag: 37,000 people want to see it!

In other words, among all the movies being released recently, *Tomorrow is Beautiful* was getting the most attention!

Pei Qian instantly felt that something was wrong!

But President Pei, who had seen countless battles, quickly calmed down.

He quickly scrolled through the movies behind it, and found that they were all movies that didn't look very good.

Romance movies, comedies, animated movies, dramas… they were all there, but they were the kind that you wouldn't want to watch just by looking at the posters and names.

Normally, there should be a chance of running into Hollywood blockbusters being released at this time, but there weren't any.

"What a pity, why aren't any Hollywood blockbusters joining in on the fun!"

Pei Qian was beside himself with regret.

"To look on the bright side, getting the most 'want to see' votes on this App doesn't mean anything. After all, the movies competing are all duds. Beating them doesn't mean that *Tomorrow is Beautiful* will definitely be a success…"

"Wait."

"The movies being released at the same time are all duds, which doesn't seem like a good thing…"

"Doesn't that mean *Tomorrow is Beautiful* has no competition???"

"No, no, there are still movies that are currently being released."

Pei Qian quickly clicked on the "Now Playing" tab to view the movies that were currently being screened.

Currently, the movies from the Spring Festival and Valentine's Day, two popular movie-going periods, were still being shown. Compared to these movies, *Tomorrow is Beautiful* immediately seemed less prominent.

Pei Qian quickly scanned the few movies that were currently playing.

*Crazy for Love*, a teen idol romance movie, with a score of 7.1, released for 8 days, first-day box office of 18.4 million, total box office of 127 million, estimated total box office of 190 million.

*Dangerous Partner*, a European action movie, with a score of 7.5, released for 10 days, first-day box office of 14.46 million, total box office of 87.77 million, estimated total box office of 135 million.

*Legend of the Dark Night*, with a score of 6.8, a domestic action movie adapted from a well-known IP, released for 15 days, first-day box office of 17.68 million, total box office of 124 million, estimated total box office of 138 million.

There was no need to look at the ones behind it, as they weren't comparable to these three movies.

Seeing these three movies, Pei Qian felt a little relieved.

A teen idol movie, a Hollywood blockbuster, and a domestic action movie adapted from a popular IP, each had their own strengths, and all looked much more reliable than *Tomorrow is Beautiful*.

These movies had already been released for some time, but their box office numbers were still good today, which meant they should create a lot of difficulty for *Tomorrow is Beautiful*. Pei Qian was relatively satisfied.

Pei Qian then clicked on the promotional page for *Tomorrow is Beautiful* to see how the promotional materials for the movie were prepared.

*Tomorrow is Beautiful*

*tomorrowisbeautiful*

Movie Sci-Fi Suspense Drama 2D

Lu Zhiyao, Zhang Zuting, Lin Ruyi, Zhu Xiaoce

Releasing on 2011-2-22, 93 minutes

There are 2 Easter eggs that appear at the end of the credits

Synopsis

In a future world, technology is highly developed, but the living standards of ordinary people have declined sharply. Life consists only of fast food, 3 hours of freedom to go out, and ubiquitous video ads. A loving couple (played by Lu Zhiyao and Lin Ruyi) are unwilling to accept such a life. They decide to resist this unfair fate and bravely pursue their dreams. However, they have no way of knowing what fate awaits them…

Below were the cast and crew list, trailers, stills, etc.

It was worth mentioning that Pei Qian actually found his name in the cast and crew list as the screenwriter of the movie, but there was no picture.

"Hmm… the movie's synopsis doesn't quite meet my requirements, but it's close enough. I guess not many people will read the synopsis anyway."

Pei Qian had originally wanted to mislead the audience as much as possible when promoting the movie, such as using taglines like "Sci-Fi Romance Epic" or "Healing", so that when the audience went to the theater after the movie was released and found out they had been deceived, they would definitely curse, leading to the movie's reviews collapsing.

But it seemed inappropriate for President Pei to personally handle such a small matter, and he forgot about it while he was busy.

But looking at the current tags and synopsis, it shouldn't be too attractive to the audience, and it seemed too late to change it now.

He could only leave it like that for the time being.

Pei Qian continued to scroll down the page to view the audience's comments.

"With Lu Zhiyao, one star guaranteed."

"Fried Pork Cutlet is good at picking movies. This one should be good too, looking forward to it!"

"Sci-fi fans are cautiously optimistic about domestic sci-fi movies."

"Second-rate director, box office poison, forcibly蹭 sci-fi themes, I guess Zhang Zuting alone can't carry it, flop guaranteed!"

"A foreign-themed movie made by Chinese people, and with English audio and Chinese subtitles? Excuse me? What kind of divine operation is this?"

"The cast is still pretty good, the box office won't explode but it shouldn't be too bad either, 100 million should be stable."

"It's hard to imagine what this movie will be like, with such a strong promotional campaign, I'm afraid the investors will lose everything…"

Looking at these comments, Pei Qian was sometimes happy and sometimes sad.

The movie hadn't been released yet, so the current scores wouldn't be counted, but everyone could rate the movie based on the trailers, posters, cast, and other content.

The most talked-about thing about *Tomorrow is Beautiful* was still Lu Zhiyao.

Although Zhang Zuting had won the Best Actor award, he was past his prime after all, and wasn't considered a big star in the eyes of mainland audiences. And although Lu Zhiyao was known as "box office poison", his status as a first-tier idol was still solid.

But it was precisely because of Lu Zhiyao's reputation as "box office poison" that many viewers didn't have high expectations for this movie.

There were even people who wished the investors would lose everything, which made Pei Qian very happy when he saw it.

These ratings before the release didn't mean anything, but they could roughly show that the audience wasn't particularly optimistic about this movie, which was good news.

"Thankfully, as long as the reviews for this movie are bad, the box office will definitely not be good either."

"With an investment of 30 million, the box office has to exceed 100 million to not lose money. That's impossible."

Pei Qian breathed a slight sigh of relief.

He was about to close the App when he suddenly remembered that there was something very important.

Check the screenings!

If the screenings were very low, combined with the current reviews, then it would really be stable.

Pei Qian quickly clicked on "Real-time Box Office" to check the screening percentage for tomorrow.

But when he opened it, Pei Qian's expression instantly froze.

*Tomorrow is Beautiful*, screening percentage 37.7%!

Looking at the movies below, *Crazy for Love* had a screening percentage of 24.6%, *Dangerous Partner* had a screening percentage of 19.7%, *Legend of the Dark Night* had a screening percentage of 9.2%, and the rest were just odds and ends.

Pei Qian refreshed the page to confirm that this 37.7% screening percentage was correct, and that he wasn't seeing things or looking at the decimal point in the wrong place.

WTF???

In shock and confusion, Pei Qian seemed to understand one thing.

Why did *Tomorrow is Beautiful* have 37,000 people who wanted to see it?

It shouldn't be possible.

Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce, and even the entire Fei Huang Workshop, shouldn't have that many resources to promote the movie to this extent.

If they looked for other companies to promote it, the other party would definitely propose various harsh conditions, and Huang Sibo and the others shouldn't have been able to avoid reporting it.

Now, seeing this screening rate, Pei Qian instantly realized that the movie's promotional work was definitely not done by Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce. There was no way they could have gotten such a high screening percentage!

Big problem.

There must be a mole working from the inside!!