618: Bonus Chapter 2: Where did this man come from?

On the first day Lin Zhaotang was born, Yanzi announced it to the whole world.

"Great news: Little Xingxing is born! I'm a dad! Most importantly, both mother and daughter are safe! Thank you all for your concern and well wishes."

Wu Yue had said to protect the child's privacy and not to write her name. Lin Chuyan followed his advice readily.

However, the netizens didn't care about that; the gossip they had been following for half a year had finally settled, and they all expressed their satisfaction.

It really was a pregnancy! She really did give birth! And it's a daughter!

"Great news! Congratulations to Brother! Congratulations to Sister-in-law!"

"My god, these two are real doers. I could tell from the moment they officially announced they were dating..."

"Wuwuwu, in the blink of an eye, my brother already has a child, while I'm still single..."

"So good, it's so good [Crying]"

However, the netizens were clearly happy too soon.

What followed was that the Yanyu couple shifted their life's focus entirely to their child and never appeared in the public eye again.

A diva is a diva; her main trait is being willful. Lin Chuyan was the same; he stopped directing movies, and he didn't accept any roles others invited him to play. Whenever asked, the answer was always that he had a daughter...

Netizens: "Wait, what? You two can't be serious, right? Are you completely retreating into family life? Then what about us? Huh?"

Fans were quite helpless about their behavior and could only hope that Lin Chuyan would at least balance it with his work on the mythology universe.

The Chinese Entertainment Industry without the Yanyu couple was boring, but fortunately, a year later, things finally changed.

Over the past year, although the new dad and new mom were indeed a bit flustered at first, fortunately, baby Lin Zhaotang, born with a silver spoon in her mouth, grew up healthy and strong without any illness or disaster, and was considered well-behaved. The couple finally felt relieved and had the energy to return to work.

"Teacher Lin Chuyan! Teacher Ruan! Look here!"

"Ruan Xingyu! Lin Chuyan! Long time no see!"

"Everyone, please calm down! The press conference is about to begin!"

Lin and Ruan, who hadn't appeared in public for a long time, finally took the initiative to hold a press conference.

The moment they appeared, it immediately ignited the emotions of everyone at the scene.

The media reporters, a small number of fans, and the host at the scene were all talking; the cheers mixed with applause, and for a moment, it was unstoppable.

Yes, the Yanyu couple, who had been silent for a year, still had unrivaled popularity.

Besides popularity, the press conference itself had enough hype—Director Lin had said he would officially announce many new film projects.

This also completely stirred up the emotions of the audience watching the live stream.

"Holy crap, Chinese Entertainment Industry! Your king has returned!"

"The Yanyu couple is returning to their careers; the Chinese Entertainment Industry can finally be fun again."

"nezha 2! I want to see nezha 2!"

"What about the next crazy stone? It's time to bring it out!"

Lin and Ruan attended in formal attire today, and the audience instantly found the feeling of mr. & mrs. smith.

Also attending were the "Two Kings and One Queen" under Starfire, and Director Yang Xiaozhou of Yanyu Animation; the old group were all their own people.

Besides that, sharp-eyed netizens also saw many guests sitting off-stage:

Li Mujian, Zhang Wentang, and Director Chu Dong were also there—these were friends and family who came to show their support.

Even Director Du Qiyu and Director Mu Sheng came—could it be that there's another Hong Kong film to be made?

Plus, many familiar faces of artists and directors from the Chinese Entertainment Industry were also invited...

This was a big production.

Except for Lin Chuyan standing on stage, everyone else sat in the front row one after another.

As soon as the venue quieted down, someone off-stage shouted: "Director Lin, if you've rested enough, hurry up and get to work!"

The atmosphere at the scene was joyful.

Lin Chuyan: "Ahem, what do you mean rest? Raising a baby is quite tiring, okay!"

This guy was suffering and happy at the same time. Don't look at him complaining; in reality, you could faintly see the corners of his mouth curling up.

Well, he clearly loved his daughter to death.

The most important part of the press conference was still talking about work.

Lin Chuyan started by clarifying one thing: "Many people think I haven't been working this past year, but how is that possible? This year, besides overseeing the development of various merchandise for my previous works, most of the time I've been reading scripts and pushing forward the pre-production work for many projects. It is precisely because these tasks have made great progress that we have this press conference."

Next was Lin Chuyan's personal speech time.

First was Hong Kong cinema, starting with a big move.

The big screen behind Lin Chuyan lit up.

On it were two large characters: Exiled.

"This is Director Du Qiyu's brand-new work, and also the spiritual sequel to the mission."

The camera panned to Director Du Qiyu off-stage.

"I originally wanted to let Du sir speak, but he thought I did a good job, so I'll continue."

"the mission is side A, and Exiled is side B. the mission is high-spirited, while Exiled is romantic and melancholic, but they are both Du-style Jianghu."

"It is said that this time, Du sir drew inspiration from my married life, so everyone should see that even hitmen have started getting married and having children."

The big screen behind him changed scenes, and the name of another movie popped up—Running Out of Time.

"Also a movie by Du sir. What can be confirmed about this one right now is that both I and Xingxing will be starring, playing 'lovers'."

This was another explosive piece of news: these two are continuing to show off their affection, right? And, Ruan Xingyu is finally making a comeback to Acting.

No joke, previously Ruan Xingyu always gave people the feeling of "coming to the film industry just to play around and incidentally pick up a Best Actress award." Plus, now that she has a baby, everyone was really afraid she wouldn't act anymore.

After introducing these two movies he invested in and acted in, next were the films from Lin Chuyan's own company.

First was nezha 2, which everyone had been looking forward to before the press conference began.

"Everyone, after ne zha, Yanyu Animation will continue to release new movies. The first phase consists of three films, which are ne zha: The Sea-Churning Demon Child, Tale of Sanxiao, and Yang Jian: Awakening of the Heavenly Eye."

"Among them, the Yang Jian series will be directed by me, barring any surprises." Lin Chuyan looked at Director Yang Xiaozhou off-stage. "The other two will be completed by Director Yang Xiaozhou."

The big screen behind Lin Chuyan continued to light up.

All the viewers were finally able to catch a glimpse of some early concept art for these three films.

The most eye-catching part of this was definitely the character design of Yang Jian—I don't know if it's an illusion, but I always feel like Erlang Shen's face looks a lot like Lin Chuyan himself?

Regarding this design, the comments were unanimously in agreement that it was reasonable.

"The face model of Erlang Shen from black myth: wukong + the Erlang Shen from lotus lantern himself, if you changed it to another face, I wouldn't be used to it."

"Not only that, who remembers the fleeting Erlang Shen in summer of the little monsters?"

"Congratulations to Lin Chuyan for joining the mythology universe (manual dog head emoji)"

"Currently, the screenwriting for these three films has been completed. There's no need to say much about nezha 2; I have high expectations for it and hope it can surpass mr. & mrs. smith to reclaim the top spot on the domestic box office chart—let me state a number, a 'small goal' isn't too much, right?"

Director Lin's exclusive unit of measurement, the long-lost "small goal," was back. How come there's a strange sense of familiarity?

"As for Tale of Sanxiao, the reason for releasing this one in the first phase is very simple: I want to see more female characters, or rather, female heroes."

After introducing Yanyu Animation, next was Starfire.

"After crazy stone, Director Li Hao will release the sequel crazy racer. The script for this one is also finished; everyone can look forward to it. I personally think it's more brilliant than the first one."

"Brother Bo will be the male lead of this one. And..."

The big screen behind him continued to change.

Director Lin took the opportunity to introduce: "He will also be the male lead in bullfighting. I think after these two films, everyone in the Chinese Entertainment Industry will remember his name."

Of course, Wang Yongqiang also has a new movie coming out.

"Many people are curious about what Wang Yongqiang can play besides characters like Xu Sanduo in soldiers sortie. I can answer this question now: Wang Yongqiang's Acting range is far wider than everyone imagines. Next, he will play the second male lead in the road comedy Lost on Journey."

From military films to comedies, it's time to let everyone see what an Acting genius is.

After finishing with Starfire, it was finally time for the "Director Lin Chuyan's Works" segment.

"Yanyu Film has acquired the rights to the novel A World Without Thieves, and will later adapt it into a movie of the same name. A World Without Thieves, Director: Lin Chuyan. Starring: Lin Chuyan, Ruan Xingyu, Wang Yongqiang."

In other words, Wang Yongqiang has at least two new works coming up.

"Comedy, action, drama, crime, animation... These nine films cover various genres. Of course, this is not enough."

Lin Chuyan smiled slightly: "The last one I want to introduce is a science fiction film."

Media guests at the scene: "..."

Netizens watching the live stream: "..."

Everyone still knows how many domestic science fiction films there are.

Lin Chuyan naturally knew everyone's reaction, but he didn't care at all: "Remember hunting blue star, right? Don't forget that I'm someone who has acted in a science fiction film. That one flopped, so it's reasonable to seriously shoot another one to redeem myself, right?"

Reasonable, very reasonable. You've already had a child with a diva; what else is unreasonable?

It's just that the netizens were confused by him: We weren't planning to bring up the hunting blue star incident, so why are you picking at your own scars?

The comments also couldn't hold back.

"Getting up from where you fell, right?"

"How many years do you plan to film it? Even if the script is done, filming it now and waiting until release will take at least three years, right?"

"Holy crap, today's press conference... it wouldn't all be just empty promises, right? After all, Director Lin's ability to draw pie in the sky is invincible."

"Who doesn't know that Lin Chuyan is currently addicted to raising his child and has no heart for work? Shooting a sci-fi film? When would that get finished? The workload is too big, right?!"

A sci-fi film? Lin Chuyan's fans were naturally looking forward to it. But amidst the excitement, they sensed something was wrong.

Regarding this behavior, everyone finally summarized it in two words: Empty promises.

However, Lin Chuyan's next sentence directly blew up the entire press conference venue and the live stream comments.

Someone said nonchalantly: "Oh right, I've already finished filming the sci-fi movie, done the post-production, and am ready to submit it for review. This should also be the only film among the projects announced today that will meet everyone very soon."

Except for a few people who knew the inside story, everyone else at the scene couldn't sit still: Wait, what, how is it already finished? We are all insiders, how come we didn't know? When was it finished filming?

Director Lin's work was entering the market again, so other companies naturally became vigilant, fearing they would clash with his release schedule.

The netizens watching the live stream were even more unable to understand.

"Hasn't Lin Chuyan been at home raising Little Xingxing? Where did he find the time to make a movie?"

"No, even if he hadn't had a baby and had been filming the whole time, how long has it been? You finished filming in over a year?"

"This isn't even a question of whether there was enough time; the problem is that we never heard of this project..."

"Sci-fi film: refers to having a daughter with a diva. Let's disperse, let's disperse."

Fortunately, Lin Chuyan also knew everyone had a head full of question marks, so he took the initiative to clear things up for them.

It was better not to say anything; saying it made it seem even more "shocking."

"Everyone, rest assured, I just took time out of raising the baby to shoot this movie. I only shot this film for about 10 days, and the total cost was about 100,000 yuan."

The big screen behind Lin Chuyan lit up again, and the movie's name appeared.

"The Man from Earth."

...

The bigger amusement came after the press conference.

10 days, 100,000, a sci-fi movie? Coming out soon? What are you talking about?

Soon, some "marketing events" that Lin Chuyan deliberately spread were passed around as "inside information."

"It's said that this movie was shot in a room Lin Chuyan casually found, with a few people just chatting nonsense in the room, basically without any exterior shots! 10 days is an exaggeration; it actually wrapped up in just a few days!"

"It's said that this movie is to be released abroad. Except for Lin Chuyan, all the other actors are foreigners and aren't famous; it all relies on him alone to carry it."

"It's said to be soft sci-fi, but the content is very explosive, even involving religion, challenging religious beliefs and historical authenticity. To put it plainly, it's shot for foreigners to watch."

In short, the more it spread, the more mysterious it became.

More and more people were curious about what kind of tricks a sci-fi film rushed out in 10 days could pull off, after all, Director Lin's reputation from previous years was there. Also, it was said to be a film to wash away his shame, so it couldn't be a flop, right?

However, it wasn't until after it was released that everyone knew how much fun this movie really was.

What? Jesus is Chinese?

What? Lin Chuyan is Jesus?

Good grief... You're showing this to foreigners, right?

As expected of you! Lin Chuyan!

But don't say that, the foreign reputation was unexpectedly good. Foreigners didn't think it was any "blasphemy" at all; on the contrary, they thought it was very cool.

The collision of ideas between a man who claimed to have lived for 14,000 years and a group of scholars, this novel story immediately sparked heated discussion and sharing.

Countless professional Hollywood film critics gave it high praise.

"This is a feast of thought! In a limited setting, relying on the dialogue full of sparks of wisdom between characters, it deeply explores grand themes such as human existence, faith, and time, achieving extreme complexity with extreme simplicity. It is breathtaking."

"Lin Chuyan broke the convention of sci-fi films relying on special effects. By narrating the experiences of the immortal, he guides the audience to deeply reflect on the meaning of life. It is a rare masterpiece."

"Director Lin Chuyan cleverly integrates complex philosophical thinking into a seemingly simple story. The dialogue between several characters in a room is like a bloodless but thrilling ideological confrontation, showing unparalleled speculative charm!"

"An excellent low-cost, high-standard sci-fi masterpiece. It uses brilliant dialogue to interweave knowledge from multiple fields such as religion, history, and science, bringing an intracranial orgasm to the audience, making people immersed and unable to extricate themselves."

When Director Lin makes a move, it's extraordinary.

He can shoot art films, he can shoot commercial films with 1 billion investment, and he can also shoot sci-fi films with 100,000 cost... The latter is even the one with the highest Douban score among the three; just ask yourself if you're convinced?

Domestic and foreign fans were, in any case, admiring him to the ground.

Faith is established step by step like this.

And Lin Chuyan just felt that all of this was very interesting.

The sci-fi film that the predecessor flopped was called hunting blue star, and now this one is called The Man from Earth.

It just so happens that he doesn't come from the Blue Star.

Lin Chuyan held the cute and jade-carved Lin Zhaotang in his arms: "Good daughter, tell me, is it fun or not?"

Baby Lin Zhaotang looked at her father, her big eyes blinking, opened her mouth, and popped out a sound full of vigor: "Fun!"