After returning from the cinema, Flying Melon sat in front of the computer, staring at the screen full of private messages and notifications that had reached a terrifying number.
He lit a cigarette, slowly puffing on it, not knowing how much time had passed. He felt he should do something.
Flying Melon extinguished the cigarette butt, opened a text document, placed his fingers on the keyboard, and rapidly typed a line of text.
‘I didn’t expect my casual rant to become a hot search, and I never thought so many people would pay attention to me. I’m a little overwhelmed by the attention.’
‘I’ve received a lot of private messages, most of which ask me, as a film critic, whether the movie “Thriller Circus” is good or not. My answer is: it’s not good.’
As he typed those three words, an inexplicable sense of guilt arose in his heart. He recalled the scenes from tonight’s screening, the images from the movie floating before his eyes, causing an involuntary shudder.
Irritably raking his fingers through his hair, he tried to continue writing but found himself at a loss for words. As a film critic, he usually had no trouble commenting on movies, but today, for some reason, he couldn’t type out what was already in his mind.
Alright, although he disliked watching horror movies, from a professional film critic’s perspective, this movie, despite being heavily commercialized, was of high quality among commercial films.
If he could still see many flaws and immaturity in “A Farce” and “Chasing the Light,” it would be difficult to find the mistakes Ye Zhou had made in “Thriller Circus.”
It’s not that the movie had no flaws; if one were to nitpick, one could find bones in an egg. For instance, in this movie, Ye Zhou boldly cast amateurs, and the actors’ performances were unmistakably raw and amateurish, at times even exaggerated.
These would undoubtedly be shortcomings for an art film, but for a commercial film, neither the audience nor the critics would dwell much on the acting. They would focus more on the plot, special effects, and overall impact.
From these aspects, Ye Zhou handled them remarkably well, even exceeding expectations.
Well-balanced, high-quality, and without obvious weaknesses, this was enough for a low-budget commercial film.
Even though Flying Melon disliked Ye Zhou, he had to admit that “Thriller Circus” was an outstanding commercial film.
It was true that he was afraid of horror movies, but other audience reactions in the cinema had proven the success of this film. What was most remarkable was that this movie was not just about blood and violence; it even had a core.
Which is more terrifying, ghosts or the human heart?
Although it was a good film, for Flying Melon to say it was a good movie would be like slapping himself in the face.
Thinking of the consequences, Flying Melon vigorously shook his head, gritted his teeth, and typed out a review criticizing and belittling Ye Zhou and “Thriller Circus,” deleting the previous text.
In the past, he would proofread his reviews several times before publishing them, but this time, he didn’t even have the courage to read it over once. With a decisive click, he published it, closed the computer, and buried himself under the covers, trying not to dwell on it.
Flying Melon was troubled, but what was the other protagonist of this incident, Ye Zhou, doing? He was playing games.
The lights were on at Mr. Jiang’s grand villa.
Ye Zhou and Jiang Tingyuan each had a laptop, seemingly engaged in a crucial moment of the game. Ye Zhou appeared excited as he called out to Jiang Tingyuan, “Hey, hey, hey, Jiang-ge, save me!”
In the game, Ye Zhou’s character was surrounded by the enemy team. Jiang Tingyuan’s position was not far from Ye Zhou’s. Logically speaking, with fewer players, rescuing Ye Zhou in this situation would be impossible; abandoning his teammate and fleeing would be the rational choice.
Although Jiang Tingyuan’s position was not far from Ye Zhou’s, his character had acceleration and displacement skills. If he wanted to flee, the opposing team would have a hard time catching up, especially since all five enemies were focused on Ye Zhou, ignoring him completely. He could easily escape.
Given Jiang Tingyuan’s personality, he would typically weigh the pros and cons and choose the action that would be most beneficial to him. However, all rationality and composure crumbled before Ye Zhou’s simple “Jiang-ge.”
Jiang Tingyuan barely hesitated before maneuvering his character to turn around. A white flame flickered at the tip of his staff, which he hurled at the group attacking Ye Zhou.
He played the role of a Paladin, or what players in the game called a mage. Mages were known for high damage output but low health and flimsy defenses—they could deal immense damage but were equally fragile.
The five opponents were initially focused solely on Ye Zhou, dismissing the mage. But the mage unexpectedly approached and taunted them by throwing a fireball. How could they tolerate this?
After a brief voice chat, three of them immediately charged at Jiang Tingyuan like unleashed wild dogs. Jiang Tingyuan calmly cast two slowing spells and said to Ye Zhou, “Find an opportunity to activate your immunity and run.”
To quickly take down the mage, the three attackers were damage dealers. The two supporters harassing Ye Zhou remained, intending to stall him while the three damage dealers quickly killed the mage before returning to finish off Ye Zhou.
However, they clearly underestimated the mage’s skill and Ye Zhou’s mobility. Jiang Tingyuan’s movements were incredibly elusive, narrowly dodging every incoming attack. What they expected to be a battle lasting mere seconds dragged on for two minutes without defeating the mage.
Meanwhile, Ye Zhou wasn’t idle either. As Jiang Tingyuan occupied the three damage dealers, one of the two supporters guarding Ye Zhou grew impatient and wanted to help. Seizing this opportunity, Ye Zhou activated his immunity, charged through the remaining supporter, and successfully escaped.
Jiang Tingyuan’s mage was ultimately fragile, losing health with the slightest graze. Although his maneuvers were impressive, after fending off the three damage dealers for so long, he was left with a sliver of health.
Seeing an opportunity to easily finish off the pesky mage with a single ability, the three damage dealers grew excited. Some even eagerly unleashed their ultimate abilities, eager to devour Jiang Tingyuan.
However, just as the mage’s health bar was about to deplete, a faint black mist enveloped him. Abilities hit the golden shroud, absorbed by the black mist, leaving the mage unharmed. Instead, Ye Zhou’s undead knight, hiding behind a stone wall, lost half its health bar.
“Damn!”
“Crap!”
“F*ck!”1They just said f*ck three different ways.
The enemy voice chat erupted with curses at that moment.
Ah, the reason was that the ability used earlier was the Undead Knight’s ultimate – using its soul as armor to take damage for an ally, transferring 100% of the damage to itself.
Ye Zhou’s Undead Knight had originally been swarmed by five enemies, its health critically low. But Jiang Tingyuan bought him enough time to restore health, allowing the undead knight to protect the mage’s sliver of health at the last moment.
The armor lasted five seconds. Killing the Undead Knight would transfer the armor to the devourer, but Ye Zhou was particularly sly. He intentionally hid behind a stone wall in a visually busy area without exposing himself.
Earlier, to kill the mage, these damage dealers had nearly depleted their resource bars. Now they could only helplessly watch the barely alive mage simply walk away.
The game was played vigorously. When the words ‘Victory’ appeared on the screen, Ye Zhou couldn’t help but whistle loudly.
His bright eyes gazed at Jiang Tingyuan, as if wanting to say something, but before he could open his mouth, Jiang Tingyuan kissed him first.
It had been over half a year since the two confirmed their relationship, and Ye Zhou grew accustomed to such intimacy. His ears reddened slightly in respect, and once he reacted, he tried to regain control by passionately kissing back.
The kiss was fierce like a storm, tongues touching, breaths mingling until Ye Zhou finally couldn’t take it, letting out a couple of pleading “mmm”.
Mr. Jiang released him, smoothing his slightly disheveled hair. Unable to resist Ye Zhou’s reddened lips from the kiss, he cupped his chin and leaned in for another kiss.
Unlike the previous passionate one, this kiss was soothing, filled with tenderness and gentle restraint.
After the kiss ended, Jiang Tingyuan ruffled his hair and said, “It’s getting late, go to sleep.”
Dazed from the kiss, Ye Zhou nodded obediently and headed toward his room. However, after two steps, he paused and abruptly turned around.
“No, I need to wait for the midnight box office report!”
“I also need to wait for Melon’s review. I don’t know if I succeeded in reforming him tonight. With his personality, if not tonight, he’ll definitely post a review by tomorrow at the latest.”
There was quite an uproar online today. Ye Zhou was eager to see the day’s box office numbers, which was why he was still up past 11 PM playing games with Mr. Jiang.
Jiang Tingyuan’s expression remained calm, but his tone lacked the usual coldness and indifference he displayed publicly, instead carrying a gentle, homely warmth. “Go to sleep first. I still have a few documents to review, so I’ll keep an eye on things and wake you if there’s anything unusual.”
Ye Zhou wasn’t very sleepy, but Jiang Tingyuan’s words made him feel a bit drowsy. He stretched lazily, brought his bed quilt to the sofa, and said to Mr. Jiang, “Then I’ll keep you company while you work overtime.”
Somewhat resigned after failing to persuade Ye Zhou otherwise, Jiang Tingyuan could only let him have his way.
Although Ye Zhou claimed to accompany Jiang Tingyuan while he worked overtime, he lay on the sofa for only a few minutes before his vision began to blur. Ten minutes later, he was completely asleep, oblivious to the world.
Worried the soft cushions would strain Ye Zhou’s neck, Jiang Tingyuan carefully repositioned his head and pillow onto his lap to support his neck before reopening his laptop to continue his pending work.
Working overtime wasn’t a lie. With the company’s recent busyness, everyone, including Jiang Tingyuan, the president, had to work overtime.
Time was already scarce, but he wanted to reserve some for Ye Zhou, so he had to work late into the night.
Jiang Tingyuan was highly efficient and remarkably able to multitask. He worked while keeping his promise to Ye Zhou by monitoring the box office numbers and online trends.
Thanks to Flying Melon’s buzz from yesterday’s hot search, by midnight, the day’s box office had reached 50 million. Combined with the 30 million from the first three days, the current cumulative box office was nearly 90 million.
The movie had only been out for four days but had already grossed 90 million yuan. If the popularity and discussion continued or spread further, its final performance might not be inferior to “Chasing the Light.”
Ye Zhou seemed adept at reaping great rewards from small investments. None of his movies – “A Farce,” “Chasing the Light,” or the current “Thriller Circus” – had a budget exceeding 50 million yuan.
Yet these films with less than 50 million investment kept delivering one surprise after another, creating astonishing box office numbers.
As for the final box office of ‘Thriller Circus,’ even the shrewd Jiang Tingyuan couldn’t predict it accurately, because no one could guess the strange ideas in Ye Zhou’s mind.
Just when you thought it was the limit and that the situation was set, he would pull off an unexpected stroke, turning the tide and breaking boundaries.
Yes, his Ye Zhou was just that outstanding, and Mr. Jiang couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride, which even sped up his pace in handling work matters.
The next morning, as soon as Ye Zhou woke up, Mr. Jiang, who had also just woken up, shared two pieces of news with him.
“The good news is, yesterday’s box office broke 50 million yuan, not including pre-sales.”
“The bad news is…” Jiang Tingyuan looked at Ye Zhou regretfully, “Your Melon failed to reform.”
Ye Zhou: “True to himself!”
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Please consider supporting the author directly.
You can also follow me on Ko-fi to get the latest updates on my translation progress and new projects. I appreciate your love and feedback.
