Chapter 115: Why are you throwing yourself at the door on New Year's?

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(Though the weather is hot, to thank everyone for their support of "Black Car," I am releasing an extra chapter today. It will be posted tonight. Many thanks to you all!)

Admittedly, that wet kiss had a rather strong flavor—a passionate kiss rich with the scent of chives. But that didn't matter; it wasn't the first time the two of them had tasted such a flavor, so it had no impact on their passion. Besides, it was New Year’s Eve. In such a situation, would Wu Xiang really just settle for a kiss?

"It’s definitely not small!" When Wu Xiang, after some effort, finally managed to capture a soft morsel, he confirmed his earlier assessment.

"Hey—don't—" Although she said that, Hai Qing felt her whole body go limp. She had never experienced such a feeling before. At first, she had been resisting, knowing exactly what that big pervert Wu Xiang was up to, but the rascal was too cunning—he had used a diversionary tactic!

Well, we won’t go into which "east" he was distracting her from, but the result was certainly good.

Huff, huff... kissing and grinding, both of their breaths began to grow heavy.

Wu Xiang didn't want to wait anymore. The situation had his carnal desires boiling over. Where were they? This was the Film Academy! This was the "land of bliss" that countless losers had fantasized about. Wu Xiang had actually been quite pure before; although he had fantasized too, he knew it was practically impossible. If you really wanted to do the deed, you had to leave campus, otherwise, you'd be dead if caught!

But now, there was no one around, it was a holiday, and both of them were on the verge of losing control. What was there to wait for?

Wu Xiang reached in, used some force, and tackled Hai Qing to the ground. With this position and this angle, he began to undo her clothes!

"No! No!..." Hai Qing was still struggling. Her original intention today had truly been to bring Wu Xiang some food. She had seen how hard he was working and felt sorry for him, which is why she hadn't gone home and had stayed behind to keep him company. She never expected things to escalate to this point.

"Qing'er, give yourself to me." As he moved, Wu Xiang tried to seduce her with his gentle tone, hoping she would fall into temptation with him.

*Snap, snap.* Buttons were undone. Her coat was on the verge of being useless. Wu Xiang was impatient himself; he wanted to strike at the heart of the matter.

"No! No! No!"

*Bang!* "Ouch!" Wu Xiang took a punch to the eye socket.

At the final moment, Hai Qing seemed to regain her senses. She saved herself with her own fist, scrambled up, and quickly retreated out of Wu Xiang’s reach.

Huff, huff... both were panting, both a little...

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Hai Qing was the first to apologize, seeing that Wu Xiang seemed to be quite badly hurt.

"That... I'm sorry too. I was a bit too impulsive." As the heat subsided, Wu Xiang also felt he had been too hasty.

"That, I, I..." Hai Qing stammered.

"Xiao Hai, you don't look down on me, do you?" Wu Xiang certainly didn't want this incident to ruin his chances of being "hasty" in the future.

"I, I'm sorry, I hit too hard. But, it's not that—it's just, I... I'll give myself to you after I graduate..." By the time she finished, Hai Qing’s head was bowed as low as it could go, her voice barely a whisper.

So shy! This woman was so shy!

Faced with such a bashful woman, what could Wu Xiang say? What could he do? Force himself on her?

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Forget it, let’s be a good man...

After the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Teacher Zhou returned to work early. She had kindly come to help Wu Xiang with the editing, but when she saw him, she was immediately puzzled.

"Wu Xiang, what happened to your eye?"

Faced with Teacher Zhou's question, Wu Xiang had already prepared an answer: "I accidentally ran into a door."

"You child, how can you be so careless? Running into a door during the New Year?"

"Yes, I was muddled by the holidays. And that door is unreasonable—it’s in the wrong place!"

Having said that, Wu Xiang had to apologize to the innocent door; it had become a scapegoat once again.

But he couldn't blame the door, because Hai Qing had run back to her hometown the next day to celebrate the New Year.

Once again, he entered a state of single-minded focus. Aside from his daily routine of exercise and eating, the rest was devoted to the editing work. It wasn't until May 2001 that Wu Xiang finally finished editing his first big-budget film, *Emperor Wu of Han*.

It had indeed taken a lot of time and the efficiency hadn't been high, but there was no helping it; with so much film shot, the workload was immense. Furthermore, Wu Xiang had also produced a promotional trailer, so the efficiency of the editing work was acceptable.

In these few months, a great many things had happened.

The box office champion for the New Year period ultimately went to Big Brother Long’s *The Accidental Spy*. Although many complained that the film wasn't that great, it was still better than a slew of domestic films. And this was achieved even after pirated discs had flooded the market.

It wasn't easy; truly not easy. Big Brother Long’s appeal was unquestionable.

Of course, the failure of mainland films was mainly because everyone was fighting for the same release window. Who knows what they were thinking? It was just like the saying: if you don't court death, you won't die.

Furthermore, at the Hong Kong Film Awards, the Best Newcomer award went to Qin Hailu. While this wasn't a huge event—just a small blurb in the entertainment world—Qin Hailu knew Wu Xiang, so naturally, she had to tell him and celebrate.

Zhang Ziyi still didn't win Best Actress, losing this time to Maggie Cheung for *In the Mood for Love*. Wong Kar-wai's film was indeed quite excellent.

Then there was the topic sparked by a film called *Guasha*, starring Jiang Wenli and Nick Cheung. The box office wasn't very high, but the issues it reflected drew widespread attention.

It was about the clash between Eastern and Western cultures. Of course, that’s the more artistic way of putting it; to put it plainly, it was about Americans not trusting the medical practices and customs of the Chinese.

An old man went to the United States and, seeing his grandson had a cold and fever, performed *guasha* on him. As a result, the old man was sued for child abuse, and the child was separated from his parents.

This sort of thing happened frequently in the U.S.; it wasn't an isolated incident. The consequences of *guasha* were a small case; there was once a case where a Chinese father was shot to death by American police just for giving his daughter a bath.

These weren't isolated events, but many Chinese people didn't know. Before this film was released, many truly believed the United States was heaven.

This film won the "Most Popular Film" award at the Beijing College Student Film Festival, which said a lot. It was then that people finally began to pay attention to the conflicts and contradictions between the two cultures.

Our culture, they couldn't understand. Likewise, we couldn't fathom why the judgment of whether parents love their children should be left to total strangers.

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The topics raised by this film hadn't even ended when another major event occurred: the South China Sea collision on April 1st!

We must pay tribute to the hero who defended the motherland's maritime borders with his life!

After this, the U.S. didn't dare to be so arrogant. But our strength was still a notch below theirs; we had to endure until the day we surpassed them in every respect!

As a transmigrator, Wu Xiang naturally knew about this event. Combined with his earlier experience as a student leader, these were important reasons why he was driven to film *Emperor Wu of Han*.

He had planned this from the start; that was why he insisted on investing so heavily in such a large-scale historical epic—to use history as a mirror.

Speaking of the College Student Film Festival, there was nothing for Wu Xiang this year, but *Up the Mountain, Go* did receive a Special Jury Prize, which was worth celebrating. Of course, Wu Xiang didn't go; editing the film was more important.

Another matter involving Wu Xiang concerned Japan. Don't forget *Not One Less* (Note: The source text refers to *Postmen in the Mountains*), which Kazuo Fukazawa was managing. That film had started screening in Japan, and their approach was very peculiar.

After participating in the Tokyo International Film Festival, this beautiful rural-themed film was arranged to be shown at a single cinema—the famous Iwanami Hall—and only that one.

That’s right, it was screened in just one theater. Moreover, Japanese cinemas are mostly small; everything there is small. This film was placed in a tiny screening room with only about 100 seats. However, the duration of the screening was very interesting.

It was scheduled to run for half a year. Regardless of whether it was a hit or not, there was no worry about it being pulled for that half year.

No matter how you looked at it, in this day and age, doing things this way was very strange. But Kazuo Fukazawa was very confident, and judging by the current box office figures, it was a huge success. In just one month, it had already grossed over 20 million yen!

That was just from one theater; that data was truly terrifying.

But unlike that film, Wu Xiang’s own work was about to be released—*First Intimate Contact* was preparing to officially land in Japan. However, the operating method was completely different; this film was set for a wide release, and it had undergone a certain amount of promotion beforehand.

The negotiations had been arduous, primarily regarding the promotion. In the end, Yu Dong conceded 5% to Kazuo Fukazawa, and only then did the old fox agree.

Looking at the completely different ways these two films were handled, the Japanese certainly had some things worth learning from.

*Postmen in the Mountains* was a purely warm and beautiful film, but it was very unfamiliar to Japanese audiences—as it was to the Chinese. Thus, Kazuo Fukazawa’s team chose a "long-running stream" approach, building a reputation through this method and slowly cultivating the market.

*First Intimate Contact* was different. It was a romance film, a genre Japanese audiences were easily receptive to. Furthermore, the novel was already on sale, meaning there was a market foundation. It was better to operate with bold strokes and fully develop the film’s market.

It must be said that the Japanese truly have a knack for market development. They were very clear about which methods were suitable for which films; they had already found a path that worked for them.

And we, too, must find such a path!

Only at this moment did Yu Dong truly understand what Wu Xiang had meant before...

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