Brother Dao Took the Entertainment Industry by Storm, Fans Beg Me Not to Kill Anymore

Chapter 725: Good News! Thief Catcher 2 Hits Theaters!

"I just know they went back to Beijing."

He Wenming looked at Liu Rulan. "As for other things, I'm not too clear."

Liu Rulan also didn't have the time to pay attention to this matter, so she pressed Xiao He: "Did you notice something strange?"

"Oh, no, not really. I was just asking casually." Xiao He scratched his head. "I just noticed Screenwriter Qin hasn't been around lately, so I was concerned about him."

"Oh, oh, they're usually pretty busy."

He Wenming wasn't surprised at all. Honestly, screenwriters like Qin who stayed with the production team the whole time were already in the minority.

Many screenwriters had other jobs too. After handing over their scripts to the production team, there wasn't much need for them to report to the set every day. They usually only came when something came up. Most of the time during filming, you couldn't necessarily find the screenwriter on site.

So He Wenming didn't think this was anything unusual.

"I see..."

-

After they had their fill of food and drink, Liu Rulan and Xiao He personally saw Shu Han and his team off from Hengdian.

On the way back, Liu Rulan discussed the upcoming May Day arrangements with Xiao He.

This year's May Day, Xiao He had a new work hitting theaters.

- That was Thief Catcher 2.

Thief Catcher 2 was a project Xiao He had wrapped up around last December. The entire production team then rushed to complete filming before February. Under Lin Yipeng's relentless push, the finished product successfully obtained approval for release before May arrived.

Actually, everyone was pleasantly surprised that Thief Catcher 2 was making it to theaters this time.

After all, the first Thief Catcher was just an online movie, released directly on streaming platforms for pay-per-view. It never even qualified for cinema screening.

But now, things were finally different.

Thanks to the blessings of the Thief Catcher actors, especially the supporting actor Xiao He, the movies he starred in at theaters this year had performed quite well. Major theater chains had made a killing off them, so naturally they held higher expectations for any work featuring Xiao He.

So when Lin Yipeng approached theaters with Thief Catcher 2 to negotiate distribution deals, many theater chains offered favorable terms. Even with the timeline set against the fiercely competitive May Day season, they generously provided relatively good screen allocation.

This screen allocation referred to the time slots and number of screenings, as well as the overall percentage.

A good movie naturally got screened at prime time slots and had multiple showings per day - this was an excellent opportunity to maximize box office revenue.

This also made the public subconsciously choose these relatively "popular" movies to watch, further driving box office growth.

So good screen allocation was absolutely essential.

After Lin Yipeng finalized the deal, the Thief Catcher group chat was filled with praise for Xiao He.

Although this second installment featured Lin Yipeng's mother, the goddess Qu Qiuyan, and had Pu Rong, who had decent national recognition, as the lead actor, and the first installment's release performance and revenue sharing were both quite good, everyone knew the direct reason major theater chains made this decision was Xiao He.

After all, look at Xiao He this first half of the year - from the bloody Spring Festival battles to Qingming Festival, the man's face appeared on the top movie posters in theaters.

Without even discussing whether Xiao He really had that good an eye for casting, from the theaters' perspective, it was that Xiao He this golden goose was really something special. Movies with Xiao He simply couldn't go wrong!

When it came to making money, believing in a little metaphysics never hurt, right?

So now Xiao He had successfully landed in the May Day season too. Barring any surprises, he was really going to be fighting bloody battles in theaters all first half of the year!

Others who knew about this couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

This Xiao He guy was absolutely terrifying!

As for Xiao He himself, upon hearing the news, he was very calm, completely unsurprised. The only thing that pained him was his upcoming lost vacation: "So my one and only day off during May Day is gone too, isn't it?"

Liu Rulan shrugged and said very tactfully, "If you want to ask Director Chou for a few more days off, I wouldn't mind."

Xiao He: ...

Heh, as if you need to tell me that?!

Asking for a few more days off was practically like asking for Director Chou's life.

Oh, no, if he actually asked for leave, it would probably be his own life on the line. When he came back from vacation, he'd definitely face crazy schedule adjustments to make up for lost progress.

- Can't afford to mess with that, can't afford to mess with that!

Xiao He shook his head frantically, expressing his firm stance.

Liu Rulan actually looked a bit disappointed: "Alright then. For the premiere promotional event on May Day, I'll contact Director Lin to make arrangements. We'll leave most of the promotion to the operations team. It just so happens that the photos Chadley took of you last time have been packaged and sent to us, so we can release them together as part of the promotion."

Xiao He's main responsibility would be the offline promotion that day, which wouldn't require much of his time.

"Oh, Chadley's photos finally arrived?" Xiao He was very excited, but then hesitated. "But that outfit was American street hip-hop style, completely different from Thief Catcher 2's ancient Chinese style."

These were practically polar opposites.

"No problem, we'll just set those aside for now and use them for marketing later."

Liu Rulan waved her hand casually. Xiao He, on the other hand, was already looking forward to the photos: "When will you send me a copy of the photos? Don't forget."

"Don't worry, I won't forget. I've already sent them to your email. You can log in and see them. And I even sent a copy to Teacher Bai."

"Huh?"

Xiao He immediately sat up straight and stared at Liu Rulan, his eyes nearly popping out: "Why did you send that to my mom too?"

Oh god, American street style, dressed like a delinquent thug, with a face that looked ready to pick a fight...

Xiao He only needed to recall it and he was already breaking down.

"Sister Liu, why did you send that to them?"

Even if it was for work, couldn't they be selective about what they showed to parents?!

Liu Rulan looked innocent: "Teacher Bai called me yesterday specifically to ask about your situation. She heard you went to the United States and came back, but hadn't really contacted them much, so she wanted to know your latest news. Then coincidentally, Chadley sent Xiao Chen the photos yesterday, so I just packaged them all up and sent them over."

After all, she really liked those photos too. Quite a cool and cocky young man, full of spirit - it was something the parents could see!

Xiao He closed his eyes and slowly lay back down.

Great, time to start destroying the Earth.

-

Meanwhile, at the Xiao household.

Father Xiao had just gotten home from work when he saw Mother Xiao organizing their son's latest set of photos - that American street thug style.

In the photos, the young man wasn't wearing his clothes properly, his pants had a big hole torn in them, and his neck and hands were cluttered with jingling accessories, giving off a pretty strong non-mainstream vibe from the last generation.

The always proper Father Xiao saw this and the veins on his forehead started bulging.

He really didn't understand what was wrong with young people these days, liking to wear these tattered and torn clothes.

But what could he do? Now that their son's career was getting better and better, Teacher Bai had retired and was living it up, and he was the only one left in the house still drawing a fixed salary at an ordinary job, forcing Teacher Bai to stay here with him. His family status just kept sinking lower and lower.

So Father Xiao could only tactfully remind her: "Didn't Manager Liu say these photos shouldn't be circulated for now? Where did you get these pictures from?"

"Of course I know that!"

Mother Xiao immediately got excited. She walked back into the room and pushed out a small printing machine. "This was a gift from the partner our son endorses! Some phone brand, I think? Hey hey, let me tell you, it's pretty useful. I've been planning to sort things out these few days, print out all of our son's photo shoots, collect them, and display them in the new house!"

Father Xiao: ...

Son, as you can see, you're about to have a new house filled entirely with your photos!

Just didn't know if Xiao He would get a shock when he went back and saw it.