Chapter 113 Cannes

Opening the chat app, all I saw were messages of congratulations.

Even Zhu Xiaoce and others sent over short video clips of the scene, filmed haphazardly, showing a large group of people seemingly shouting and cheering.

Pei Qian was silent for a moment, deciding to first understand the most basic question.

What exactly *was* the Jury Prize?

Pei Qian usually watched movies, but he hardly paid attention to these professional awards ceremonies, knowing at most about the Oscar statuette.

At this time, he could only turn to Qian Du for help.

Two minutes later, Pei Qian understood.

The Cannes Film Festival had many awards, the most important of which was the Palme d'Or, like the Golden Bear and Golden Lion awards at the other two film festivals, all of which were the highest international awards in the film industry.

The last time a domestic film won the Palme d'Or was in 1993, and that was the only time.

The Jury Prize, on the other hand, was considered the second-highest award.

The last time a domestic film won this award was back in 2000, which was why the news headline read "Honored Again After Eleven Years."

After reading the information on Qian Du, Pei Qian didn't know whether he should be sad or happy.

Fortunately, it wasn't the Palme d'Or, just second place.

Pei Qian was afraid that his Emperor-like luck would strike again. If he had really won the Palme d'Or, things would have blown up!

It wasn't entirely impossible. After all, the more professional the film critics were, the more likely they were to read too much into things. Who knew what those European and American film critics would imagine after seeing a film like "A Beautiful Tomorrow!"

But the current situation was already frustrating enough for Pei Qian.

Even if it was second place, it was still difficult to get!

Domestic films had been trying hard for eleven years. Almost every year, they sent films to Cannes for premieres, but most of them just went along for the ride. Getting even second place was impossible.

And yet, he had made a film, originally just wanting to poison the audience and lose a little money, but the domestic box office exploded, and now it even won an award at the film festival?

Something must be wrong with this world...

...

Pei Qian silently got up, washed up, and went to the office.

On the 16th floor of Shenhua Haojing, all the employees were working hard, creating a peaceful scene.

Pei Qian breathed a sigh of relief, secretly rejoicing that he had put Fei Huang Studio into suspended animation. Otherwise, if all the employees of Fei Huang Studio had blocked his office door to congratulate him today, who could have handled that?

At least he had ensured that his own base was safe.

However, just as Pei Qian stepped into the office, he heard a "pop," and the cork of a champagne bottle flew into the air!

At the same time, the sounds of firecrackers and ribbons went off, and the entire office area instantly became lively.

"Surprise!!"

"President Pei, congratulations!"

"’A Beautiful Tomorrow’ won an award, and Director Zhu Xiaoce even thanked you specifically! Could we have an interview? How do you feel right now?"

Everyone stood up from their seats in unison, some holding firecrackers and ribbons, some clapping, and some pouring champagne.

Pei Qian looked blankly at Assistant Xin, "This..."

Assistant Xin explained with a smile, "President Pei, everyone considered that the employees of Fei Huang Studio are on vacation and the main creative team of the film is still abroad, so they prepared this celebration on their behalf."

"After all, how could we let such a celebratory event pass by casually?"

Pei Qian: "..."

You guys are so thoughtful.

But I don't need this kind of celebration, damn it!

Someone handed over champagne, with a glass for everyone present.

Pei Qian could only silently pick up his glass and drink it all in one gulp.

Hao Yun, standing beside him, was a little confused and asked, "Uh, President Pei, shouldn't you say a few words first?"

Pei Qian put the glass on the table next to him, "It's all in the past, what's there to say? Okay, everyone, hurry up and get back to work!"

Celebrate?

Celebrate once now, then celebrate again when Huang Sibo and the others come back? Did they want him to suffer twice?

No way!

After President Pei entered his office and closed the door, Assistant Xin smiled slightly and said to everyone, "President Pei's personality has always been like this. Okay, everyone, let's get back to work. It won't be too late to celebrate properly when Huang Sibo and the others come back."

Wu Bin, on the other hand, was quickly recording in his notebook.

"As expected, after so long, President Pei's personality hasn't changed."

"I heard before that President Pei was like this when ‘Fortress at Sea’ was a huge success. He just symbolically took a sip of champagne to celebrate and immediately threw himself into the next job."

"When I heard about it from Bao Xu, I thought it was just artistic exaggeration."

"After all, even if those successful people don't rest on their past laurels, they wouldn't skip even a short celebration, right?"

"Now it seems that it's true. There's no exaggeration at all. President Pei is just that kind of person."

"Hmm... This passage seems like it can be written into the annotations of the Tengda spirit and sent to Cui Geng to consider how this material should be used."

...

In the office, Pei Qian took out his phone and started looking through the 99+ unread messages.

Most of them were congratulatory messages, all with the same content, so Pei Qian silently ignored them.

He couldn't possibly reply to them all, and if he did, the other party might take the opportunity to start a chat and praise "A Beautiful Tomorrow," wouldn't that be a second injury to President Pei?

Therefore, Pei Qian was considering posting a message on WeChat Moments later, saying that he was very grateful to everyone, but there were too many messages to reply to individually, and then muting the new messages in Moments. That would be the end of it.

As he scrolled, he suddenly stopped.

His gaze landed on a message sent by Lin Chang.

"President Pei! Congratulations! You have to treat me to a good drink when I go to Jingzhou in a while! Although winning an award is due to the excellent quality of the film itself, I managed to get your film submitted to Cannes, so I should get some credit, right?"

Pei Qian: "???"

He quickly typed a reply: "You submitted the film?"

Not long after, Lin Chang replied.

"President Pei, why are you only replying now? Were you too excited last night and got drunk?"

"Of course, I found someone to submit it. Cannes always favors films that premiere at its own film festival. Without connections, the judges wouldn't even accept it."

"But President Pei, I'm not asking for credit. I'm being very honest. I didn't expect ‘A Beautiful Tomorrow’ to actually win an award. I just saw that the film's box office was too dismal overseas and helped out with a small favor."

"Being able to win an award is mainly because your film is well-made, completely conquering the jury. Otherwise, even with the strongest connections, it wouldn't have worked."

Pei Qian: "..."

I've caught the culprit!

So it was you who was playing tricks behind my back!

Pei Qian seriously considered whether he could find a way to arrange Guan Peisheng to work within Shenhua Corporation.

For example, arranging him to work in the president's office of Shenhua Film and Television?

He had indeed figured out what was happening within the company, but he was still blind to what was happening outside the company!

"You're too kind, but as far as I know, it seems that ‘A Beautiful Tomorrow’ is performing so poorly overseas that it will soon be withdrawn, right?" Pei Qian replied with a dark face.

He was mainly worried about two things. First, the profit-sharing contract he signed with Aili Island. Now that the film had won an award, a lot of new viewers would definitely go online to watch it, resulting in even more revenue. Second, he was afraid that foreign video websites would spend a lot of money to buy the overseas online rights to "A Beautiful Tomorrow."

As for the overseas box office, "A Beautiful Tomorrow" was released at the beginning of the month, but the screening rate was not high and the box office performance was not good, so it was estimated that it would be withdrawn soon.

Lin Chang: "Withdrawn? Latest news, ‘A Beautiful Tomorrow’ has gone viral in overseas media after winning the award! Major cinemas have extended the screening period by one month, and the screening rate has also been increased."

"A film like this that has won the Jury Prize has good commercial prospects. How could it be withdrawn? The theaters also want to take advantage of this popularity to make more money!"

Pei Qian: "..."

Why did I have to ask that question?

It never rains but it pours!

He originally thought that the overseas release of "A Beautiful Tomorrow" was a false alarm, but now, after one film festival, the situation had completely changed!

Pei Qian felt extremely melancholic. The pressure had increased sharply this cycle.

What happened to making a bad film to burn money?

This film, earning money domestically, earning money overseas, earning money in theaters, earning money online... When would it ever end!

Pei Qian felt that this was simply his most failed investment.

Uh... no, maybe it was the second most failed.

The honor of being the most failed should always belong to "The Lonely Desert Road" and that 50,000 yuan.

Lin Chang continued, "Also, President Pei, in a couple of days, the second round of interpretation of your film should begin. Are you ready to be bombarded with flattery?"

Pei Qian: "?"

Lin Chang: "Sometimes, when good things go abroad, everyone has one opinion of them. After they go abroad, it's another opinion."

"I'm especially curious now. Before, many people thought that ‘A Beautiful Tomorrow’ was made in a nondescript way, that Chinese people didn't like it, and foreigners didn't like it either. But now that ‘A Beautiful Tomorrow’ has won an award at Cannes, what will they say?"

"Okay, President Pei, you continue to be happy. Remember to treat me to a drink when I go to Jingzhou!"

Looking at his chat history with Lin Chang, Pei Qian fell silent.

This was really making him bald!

...

At the same time, at the Handong University branch of Mo Yu Internet Cafe.

"Hello, I'm Xiao Peng, the person in charge of Mo Yu Internet Cafe. And you are?"

Liang Qingfan shook hands with Xiao Peng, "My name is Liang Qingfan. I'm the designer of President Pei's Sloth Apartments project."

"Oh! Please, have a seat."

Xiao Peng and Liang Qingfan sat down in the coffee area by the window, and the waiter brought over two cups of coffee.

After a few pleasantries, Liang Qingfan explained the purpose of his visit.

"President Xiao, I'm wondering if you're interested in changing the decoration style of Mo Yu Internet Cafe?"

After completing the Sloth Apartments project, Liang Qingfan had been traveling around Jingzhou, collecting inspiration, waiting for President Pei's next instructions.

But after waiting for a long time without any news, he felt a little bored.

Then, Liang Qingfan decided to first scout the territory.

President Pei had so many businesses under his control, including Mo Yu Internet Cafe, Mo Yu Takeaway, Managed Gym, Sloth Apartments, and so on, all of which needed decoration.

If he could take on all of these projects and design several popular and well-known cases, it would be crucial for improving his reputation.

What's more, he knew very well that Tengda's departments were not short of money, so he definitely wouldn't be at a disadvantage when it came to design fees.

Therefore, he strolled over to Mo Yu Internet Cafe today to meet Xiao Peng, preparing to get to know him in advance so that it would be more convenient to work together in the future.

Xiao Peng thought for a moment, "Not for the time being. The consumer acceptance of Mo Yu Internet Cafe 1.0 and 2.0 is very high, so rashly changing the style may be inappropriate. As for Mo Yu Internet Cafe 3.0, it's currently under renovation, so it's temporarily inconvenient to modify."

"Of course, if we want to launch Mo Yu Internet Cafe 4.0 in the future, I will definitely contact you as soon as possible."

"However, I do know a place that needs help. Why don't you go to Thriller Paradise to take a look?"

"I'll give you the phone number of the person in charge there. His surname is Chen. Just contact him directly."