In a hotel in Shanghai.
Dong Zeng was furious as he looked at the uninvited guest before him.
"Do you have any idea how many eyes are watching us from behind you? How dare you come find us at this critical moment?" Dong Zeng stared at the woman before him, extremely angry.
Xu Youyou had long lost the triumphant aura she once had as a big star. Now she was emaciated to the bone, her face that once captivated with youthful beauty had lost all collagen, appearing dull and sunken instead. Even her eyes lacked their former purity and innocence, filled only with malicious scheming and the desperation of someone with no way out: "You have to help me."
"How dare you—"
Having been in the gang world, what kind of person hadn't Dong Zeng encountered? He had dealt with self-righteous women like Xu Youyou before—the blood that had splattered on his hands exceeded the blood in Xu Youyou's entire body. Faced with her sharp words, he showed no mercy, immediately backhanding her across the face.
Xu Youyou was extremely thin now, her physical condition very poor. Dong Zeng's slap sent her tumbling onto the hotel room's red carpet, unable to get up for quite some time.
But Dong Zeng had no intention of letting her off. He grabbed her by the hair and lifted her from the floor, a ferocious smile appearing on his face: "Since you managed to escape from the police, you should lay low and behave. These are troubled times—if you dare cause trouble for us, I'll throw you next door to sell your body."
Blood streamed from Xu Youyou's nose and mouth from the slap, but she showed little expression of pain. Instead, she gave Dong Zeng a provocative smile: "Brother Dong, you might not know this, but Young Master Chen actually quite likes me. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had people outside pay my astronomical fines and help me escape conviction."
Dong Zeng's pupils contracted slightly, then his expression finally darkened: "What do you have?"
"Nothing much."
Xu Youyou lifted her head, looking coldly at Dong Zeng as she slowly smoothed the hair by her cheeks, her tone calm, "Just some little notebooks with numbers, that's all."
Dong Zeng immediately flew into a rage, throwing Xu Youyou to the ground: "Are you f*cking messing with me?"
"Think whatever you want." Xu Youyou said, "Give me five hundred million and get me out of the country."
"Five hundred million? Are you worth that?"
Dong Zeng laughed in anger.
"Hehe, my value at my peak was more than that, but because of you people, I don't even have that much now." Xu Youyou gave a self-mocking smile.
"Stop pretending! Playing the innocent after being a whore?" Dong Zeng sneered coldly, "I've seen plenty of women like you—always best at playing the weak card in daily life. Clearly things you want to say, you make people around you say them; things you want to do, you make it seem like others forced you."
"Back then, your career was damaged because of the relationship scandal, and you wanted to use Chen Cong's capital power to climb back up. But in the end, you made it seem like we forced you. You were the sales champion for pushing those drugs—what? Not taking them yourself but selling them to your close friends, even deliberately selling to former competitors and people who offended you? Did you think we didn't know about your little schemes?"
Xu Youyou's face turned deathly pale.
"And that time when you lost the goods during your first sale—I heard an addict broke into your room and held you hostage, then overdosed and died suddenly. I'm guessing what actually happened was he discovered you had the stuff and tried to threaten you, but you deliberately lured him into taking it and poisoned him, right?"
"It wasn't me!" Xu Youyou desperately defended herself.
"That stuff's effects are intense—that idiot mixed substances and dared to swallow it all? Do you think I'm stupid?"
Dong Zeng gave a cold laugh: "Although I don't know how you tricked him, it was probably just hinting that this stuff could work as painkillers in critical moments. I heard he had a rib kicked broken at the time—must have been in terrible pain. With your 'kind' reminder, he naturally followed through immediately."
"Tsk tsk, and afterwards you bore no responsibility, since you were just 'kindly,' 'casually,' 'caringly' reminding him." Dong Zeng said with sarcastic mockery.
Xu Youyou's expression twisted for a moment, then quickly calmed.
"I don't care what you speculate, I just want to leave this place."
Xu Youyou's tone was firm, her attitude cold.
"I heard 'Silent Search' is about to be released. You wouldn't want all your efforts to go to waste at this point, would you?"
Dong Zeng took a deep breath, a flash of killing intent appearing in his eyes, though a smile surfaced on his face: "Fine, fine, alright then. Wait for it. I hope you're not lying to me."
"Hehe, I can wait. I just hope you won't get busted right at the finish line."
Xu Youyou stood up with a cold laugh, carefully straightened her coat, then skillfully put on her hat and mask. She gave Dong Zeng a slight nod, forcing herself to maintain her last shred of pride as she slowly walked out of the hotel room.
After Xu Youyou left, the sound of objects being smashed and a man's violent cursing came from the hotel room...
-
The next day, after discussions, "Law of the Jungle" still chose to follow "Silent Search's" lead, releasing promotions and a trailer for "Law of the Jungle."
There was no other choice—no one had expected "Silent Search" to also target the Qingming Festival slot, and to even beat "Law of the Jungle" to the punch with their promotion.
They were already one step behind. At this point, even if they didn't want to compete with "Silent Search" on promotion, they had no choice but to brace themselves and proceed.
So that same day, "Law of the Jungle" also released related news and a trailer.
Unlike "Silent Search" which focused on promoting big celebrity names, "Law of the Jungle's" trailer leaned more toward plot and content.
A black forest, running youths, a rabbit in a cage being lifted by a large hand and placed on a chopping board.
In the shadows, a pair of eyes watches the prey in the jungle.
"Prey in cages never have a say."
"You want money? Fine, but dare you bet your life with me?"
With intense drumbeats, Lin Yu'an throws down the card in his hand—the rabbit side falls on the table. The previously tense player leans forward, then bursts into laughter—
"Hahaha, I thought it was something special, but it's just a rabbit!"
"Hah, what are you trying to prove, dumbass? This is too funny—"
"BAM—"
The laughter cuts off abruptly as Xu Ning grabs the edge of the table with one hand and flips the entire card table over!
Lin Yu'an's voice sounds simultaneously: "From now on, I make the rules here!"
...
At the end of the trailer, large red text appears:
"Law of the Jungle, survival of the fittest, identities uncertain, outcome decided—"
"April 4th, 'Law of the Jungle,' see you there."
Indeed, when the release date announcement for "Law of the Jungle" came out, the entire internet exploded.
From a certain perspective, these two films—one a zombie film, one a battle royale—both belong to niche genres that are also relatively new concepts imported from abroad in recent years.
The former is very popular overseas and quite eye-catching. Even neighboring countries have several notable zombie films, while this area remains almost completely blank domestically. There are plenty of zombie films in online movies, but they're mostly small-scale productions. Real capital has never focused on this area, and there are virtually no domestically produced zombie films that audiences can actually name.
The latter film genre also comes from abroad. "Battle royale" primarily centers on survival competition, highlighting life-and-death games under extreme rules—a concept that entered China from overseas in previous years. But so far, very few domestic directors have been able to produce films of this type. Only Director Ren of "Law of the Jungle," Ren Changwen, had previously created a successful battle royale work that gained market recognition.
So in terms of configuration, "Silent Search" is undoubtedly very impressive—it would probably be difficult to gather such big stars together again in the future. But judging by past achievements, Director Ren definitely has the upper hand, having relevant track record that guarantees quality.
Therefore, these two films became same-period releases of similar genres competing against each other.
Never mind whether the two films actually wanted to "fight"—the marketing accounts that noticed this situation immediately jumped in, creating tension and opposition between the two production teams, even guiding many neutral observers to take sides.
[April Festival slot clash—which film are you most optimistic about?]
[Death aura descends on April—which niche genre do you prefer?]
["Silent Search" VS "Law of the Jungle"—both explore human nature, who will come out on top?]
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