Outside the theatre, people kept coming for exotic reasons and bought tickets. The directors and actors on stage noticed something unusual about those newcomers coming in through the movie theater doors; old grannies, young girls, and other people who look as if they don’t normally watch this kind of film, all came in to watch.
As a result, the vacant seats were all filled up at an unprecedented speed. The audience below were quite enthusiastic. They even applauded at the dull jokes of the film, and the atmosphere was warm and welcoming.
By the end of the premiere, all of the seats were full. At this point, the director felt as if he were in a dream.
Backstage, his suddenly cell phone rang. Upon answering it, he heard his assistant’s excited voice: “Director Wang! Listen to me! All 12 theaters in the city replied to us and said our premier was full! Almost all the seats were sold out at once this past 20 minutes! Not only that, our pre-sale tickets for the next few days are also on a hot sale! I’m looking at the data! 20%, 40%, 70%. WTF! All the tickets for the next week will be sold out soon! Is there something wrong with my phone, or am I dreaming?”
The director’s hand tightly gripped his phone as the voices around him seemed to fade into the background. He couldn’t help but stare at the leisurely mother and son sitting at their seats backstage.
The director’s face turned white from uncontrollable excitement. His leg trembled as he turned to Qiao Moyu with tears in his eyes: “Master!”
……
Ever since earning her first pot of gold that day, Qiao Moyu was finally able to pay back her credit card and resolve her worries concerning the future.
The movie exploded in popularity online and its grateful director settled the income everyday and remitted it to Qiao Moyu’s account. So these days, she received text notifications daily on her bank records.
The film was the center of discussion online. In one night, the number of movie theaters that agreed to air the film were a dozen a day, and the release time was directly extended to a month.
In an interview with the reporters, the director smiled calmly in front of the camera: “In fact, I don’t know what made the film successful; I believe I must have been blessed by a divine man!”
At first, people thought he was simply being modest. However, someone from the background uploaded pictures of two young Taoist priests on Weibo, causing the discussion to shift to a whole new direction.
Everyone began asking about the identity of these holy priests, but no one knew.
Some people approached Director Wang to inquire, but since he was already forewarned, he disclosed none of Qiao Moyu’s contact information. All he said was that if anyone ever needed to ‘open the light’ all they had to do was go to an abandoned Taoist temple at the northern outskirts of the city. If they leave their contact information and requests at that temple, perhaps the holy Master will choose a few and them and dial their numbers.
No matter how popular the ‘Taoist Priest’ was becoming, Qiao Moyu had no care for it. That’s because ‘First Light of Dawn’ was finally beginning its shooting.
True to his usual style, Director Feng announced the list of all participating actors and put up a poster of the cast on the official website just the day before.
On the poster, Qiao Moyu and Ye Peicheng stood side by side in their military uniforms. Both of them had guns in their hands with cold gazes, but each of them had their own unique temperament.
