This Friday at midnight, ‘Fallen Home’ awaits you.

 

The official Weibo account for the film Fallen Home had been registered long ago, but it had never posted anything. It had only a few dozen followers, more than half of whom were cast members following it with their alternate accounts.

On this day, after Zhong Jiudao learned the release time, he immediately uploaded several posters and announced that Fallen Home w2ould premiere at midnight this Friday. He also @-mentioned several of the main actors and the director.

The true protagonist of the film did not have a Weibo account. Only a few supporting actors and members of the crew could repost the announcement. Zhong Jiudao switched to his director account and reposted it, receiving two-digit numbers of reposts and comments, all from his former university classmates and friends.

Qian Duoqun’s Weibo reposts and comments outnumbered Zhong Jiudao’s, reaching three digits. After all, he knew many extras, and these extras had accounts too. Upon seeing that Qian Duoqun had actually become a producer, they hurried to repost the announcement and wish the film great success, which at least helped Qian Duoqun put on a decent show of support.

Luo Huai’s Weibo, as well as Xiaoyan and Xiaoyun’s, also received only a handful of comments and was not much better than Zhong Jiudao’s.

Only Pang Xinhao’s Weibo received more than ten thousand reposts and comments. Unfortunately, they were all filled with abuse, with people cursing Pang Xinhao for ruining yet another movie, saying that this film was bound to be terrible, and that after its release they would watch a pirated copy just so they could curse it.

The abuse left Pang Xinhao extremely withdrawn. He ran to the production group chat and wailed bitterly, saying that he had dragged down the film’s reputation and that now, as soon as everyone heard that he was in it, they would be even less willing to watch it.

Luo Huai comforted him warmly: “Don’t cry. It’s only a little over ten thousand people. Even if every one of them went to see the movie just to curse you, it still wouldn’t amount to much box office.”

Pang Xinhao replied, “You really know how to comfort people. Wuwuwu.”

Luo Huai’s consolation did not have much of an effect. Pang Xinhao cried even harder, and the group chat was filled with sobbing.

At that moment, Zhong Jiudao, the backbone of the entire production, sent a message: “Our movie is trending on the hot-search rankings.”

Everyone immediately wiped away their tears and rushed to check the trending topics, only to discover that it was not just one—it had shot straight onto four at once!

#Ji Pan Says She Is Looking Forward to Qi Wanlian’s New Work#

#Ji Pan Likes the Film Fallen Home#

#Ji Pan Says She Will Watch the Premiere of Fallen Home#

#Who Is Qi Wanlian#

There were four trending topics in total. Three were ranked near the top and were all linked to Ji Pan, a top-tier celebrity with enormous online traffic. The final #Who Is Qi Wanlian# was ranked near the bottom and had practically no heat at all.

When Zhong Jiudao officially announced the film, he had not informed Ji Pan, and Ji Pan had not followed anyone from their production team either. Yet the moment Zhong Jiudao posted on Weibo, Ji Pan immediately reposted his post, saying that she greatly admired the film’s protagonist, Qi Wanlian, and was extremely looking forward to Fallen Home.

The film, which had originally attracted no attention whatsoever, immediately became the focus of public interest. The three trending topics related to Ji Pan each surpassed one hundred million views, and the highest-ranked one even reached five hundred million!

Every move made by a top celebrity attracted attention. Previously, even a video of Ji Pan casually picking up a tissue that had fallen onto the ground and throwing it into a trash can had been played backward, edited, and turned into countless GIFs and reaction images. Trending topics such as #Ji PanLitteringAnywhere#, #Ji PanPickingUpTrash#, and #BrandOfTissuesUsedByJiPan# had appeared. Ji Pan’s official team had no choice but to purchase the original video and post a clarification on Weibo. Then there would be new trending topics such as #JiPanEnvironmentallyFriendly#, #JiPanCallsOnEveryoneToKeepTheCityClean#, and #TissueBrandIsMouYing#.

Given Ji Pan’s current level of public attention, if she accidentally coughed twice and someone happened to record it, it would not be long before a trending topic like #JiPanSuspectedOfHavingATerminalIllness# appeared.

As a result, Ji Pan’s Weibo had not posted anything unrelated to work for a very long time. Every day, it was either advertising endorsements, variety-show collaborations, film collaborations, or holiday greetings. When she had first debuted, she had often shared the ugly little yarn dolls she made herself, and her Weibo had had the feel of an ordinary young girl’s account. Now, however, it had become extremely official and cold.

Today, Ji Pan had unusually posted something unrelated to work, and she had specifically mentioned this actress named Qi Wanlian. Whether they were fans, casual passers-by, or marketing accounts, everyone became intensely interested in the film Fallen Home.

The public carefully went through Zhong Jiudao’s Weibo post and the posters, only then realizing that the film’s posters were unexpectedly beautiful.

The first poster showed Qi Wanlian in a white qipao, holding a candle and gently closing her eyes. She looked pure and beautiful. Behind her stood another version of herself dressed in a black qipao. The Black Lotus held a dark-red flower, her expression obscure and unreadable.

The second poster showed Qi Wanlian and Fu Yue together. The Qi Wanlian dressed in black embraced Fu Yue, who wore red. Her movements were gentle, but the sinister malice in her eyes could not be concealed.

The third showed Shen Leshan and Qi Wanlian. The Qi Wanlian dressed in white stood on the second floor, looking down. The handsome Shen Leshan gazed up at her. One gloved hand reached toward Qi Wanlian, while his other hand, stripped of its skin and dripping with blood, was hidden behind his back so that Qi Wanlian could not see it.

After that came various combinations of several human supporting characters, and the final poster was a group photo of the entire cast and crew.

Every single poster had been personally designed and composed by Zhong Jiudao. He had seen far too many hallucinations from childhood to adulthood, and he naturally had his own images in his mind. The posters possessed a kind of unsteady beauty, perfectly displaying the actors’ looks while maximizing the tension between the characters. Every single poster was so exquisitely made that it was impossible to find any flaw.

[When I saw Panpan strongly recommending a little-known movie, I thought she was just returning someone’s favor by reposting it. But looking at the posters, the actors are actually pretty good-looking.]

[Pretty good-looking? That’s an understatement. I’ve already imagined so many scenes of “Sister, step on me from the front.” [Nosebleed]]

[Where did this movie find so many good-looking actors I’ve never seen before? I just searched for Qi Wanlian, and I can’t find this person anywhere!]

[Luo Huai is Qianyuan Ming from The Sword Tomb! My devoted little Yuan! He was my favorite character in the original novel!]

[The actors all look pretty good, but why is Pang Xinhao in it too? Does the director have no eyes? Can’t he see his acting?]

[I hope Pang Xinhao doesn’t have too many scenes. Otherwise, this movie will be impossible to watch, with his facial features flying all over the screen.]

[Wait, seriously? This movie is a Chinese horror film?]

The moment the words “Chinese horror film” appeared, the netizens’ expectations immediately plummeted to rock bottom. Everyone knew what the reputation of Chinese horror films had been like in recent years: each one was worse than the last, relying on sex appeal and sound effects to lure in a tiny audience, while their average ratings online never exceeded 3.

Chinese horror films had long since become synonymous with terrible productions, and absolutely no one had any faith in this movie.

[Ji Pan must have reposted that Weibo post to return a favor, right? Looks like she knows the female lead, Qi Wanlian?]

[Panpan, if you’ve been kidnapped, blink twice.]

[No matter what, I’ll definitely go see any movie Panpan recommends. I’m even going to see the premiere.]

[You really think Ji Pan is some kind of saint? She definitely got paid for the promotion. She’s just tricking her fans into buying tickets and fleecing them.]

[How many fans could she possibly have? Three hundred thousand altogether? Even if they all went to see the movie, that wouldn’t even make a million in box office.]

[I’m already looking forward to the film-reviewing UP creators having a group roast.]

[Don’t you think you’re being a little too pessimistic about this movie? I’m a fan of the Fallen Home short-video account. Their short videos are really high quality. I believe the movie probably won’t be that bad either, right?]

At this point, someone on Weibo dug up Zhong Jiudao’s short-video account. A group of people followed the trail to the short-video platform and watched his older videos, only to discover that they were unexpectedly addictive!

Seeing the sudden surge in views in the account’s backend, Zhong Jiudao knew the time had come. He began methodically releasing one new video every hour.

Over the past few days, he had filmed quite a few videos about ghosts from the old society coming to the modern world. He had originally planned to upload them all as soon as they were finished, but after learning that the film was likely to pass review very soon, he decided not to upload them for the time being. Instead, he would wait until the film was given a release date and then release them directly as advertisements.

These past few days, Zhong Jiudao had been using videos of Fu Yue making clothes to deal with his fans’ demands for updates. His fans had all been asking whether he was planning to switch careers and start selling clothes. If the clothes were of the same quality as those shown in the videos, they asked him to please post a link because they were willing to buy them.

Although some of his original horror-loving followers had left, many new followers who loved handicrafts and hanfu had joined. His total number of followers had actually increased.

The netizens who had come over from Weibo were repeatedly watching the videos when they saw that Zhong Jiudao had uploaded a new one. They immediately clicked on it.

In the video, a beautiful woman holding an oil-paper umbrella stood in the rain, exuding the ancient charm of Jiangnan in the misty rain. She wore a qipao as she walked down a street filled with the distinctive features of Republican-era China. After stepping through a doorway, the scenery around her suddenly changed completely. In front of her stood high-rise buildings and a bustling stream of traffic.

Curiously, she walked into a shopping mall and stopped in front of a poster. The woman on the poster looked exactly like her.

“This… is me?” the woman asked hesitantly as her finger slid over her own image on the poster.

“Miss, would you like to buy a movie ticket? The movie Fallen Home premieres this Friday,” a voice came from outside the camera frame.

“You people are really bold,” the woman said as she turned toward the camera. Behind her was the movie poster, and her face was positioned next to that of the film’s protagonist. For a moment, it was impossible to tell which one was the person and which one was the poster. “You actually dare to watch my movie?”

She reached a hand toward the screen, a trace of something eerie hidden within her smile. Her voice became low and sinister as she said, “Let me see who dares to come.”

At the same time, the figure on the poster behind her suddenly began to ooze red blood. The entire poster seemed to melt, transforming into a sea of blood that completely engulfed the woman. The entire screen became drenched in red.

The blood on the screen formed a line of words:

Fallen Home, this Friday. We look forward to your arrival.

By this point, the more timid netizens had already been so frightened that they threw their phones away, while the account’s longtime fans were delighted.

[You’re finally back! I thought you were going to switch careers and start selling clothes.]

[You made a movie too? Holy crap, I’m going! I’m going right now! Watching short videos these past few days isn’t enough to satisfy my curiosity anymore. I really want to watch a movie on the big screen!]

[Go, go, go! I’m buying tickets for the midnight screening right now. I’m buying ten. I’ll give the other nine to my enemies and scare them to death, hahaha!]

[I hope there are daytime showings. I wouldn’t dare watch it at night.]

[Holy crap! I only found out today that this account is actually the official account of a movie!]

The netizens who had come over from Weibo were surprised to discover that the short-video account’s followers were extremely optimistic about the film, completely unlike their own view of it.

The expertly produced short videos gave the netizens a little hope for the movie, but not many people actually thought this way. After all, the manpower and resources required for a ten-second-plus short video were completely different from those required for a feature film lasting more than an hour. Moreover, it was easy to condense a sense of excitement and stimulation into a dozen seconds, but stretching it out over more than an hour would not produce the same effect.

Everyone thought that one promotional video would be enough. After all, that video had already received several hundred thousand views in less than an hour, which was a considerable amount of publicity.

Who would have thought that an hour later, another video appeared?

Fu Yue sat in front of a sewing machine. As she operated the machine with her foot, she looked toward the screen and said, “You thought this was how my clothes were made?”

“Nope.” Her tone suddenly changed. She took out a pair of scissors and cut a sheet of white paper into a paper garment.

Fu Yue gently flicked the paper garment in her hand, and a ghostly green flame instantly burned it to ashes. The entire screen plunged into darkness. Behind Fu Yue appeared a row of clothes racks, while the flame in her hand had long since transformed into a bright-red wedding dress.

Fu Yue hung the wedding dress on the rack, pointed toward the row of clothes, and said to the screen, “These clothes… do you dare buy them?”

“If you want to buy them, Fallen Home awaits you this Friday at midnight.”

The netizens who had watched Fu Yue’s previous clothing-making videos drew a sharp breath. So this was what she had been waiting for all along!

They had foolishly believed that the content creator really was going to switch careers and sell clothes, never expecting such a twist!

After watching this video together with the previous ones, the netizens could never look at the clothes Fu Yue made in quite the same way again. At the same time, however, they became even more eager to see the movie.

The two consecutive viral videos quickly climbed to the top of the short-video platform’s daily trending list.

But was that the end?

Of course not. Zhong Jiudao had accumulated plenty of short videos.

An hour later, the handsome Shen Leshan appeared in the video. He covered his mouth and waved his hand, looking as though he could not speak.

At that moment, someone outside the frame handed him half a piece of luncheon meat shaped like a tongue. Shen Leshan stuffed it into his mouth, and only then was he able to speak.

“This movie was so difficult to make. When we were filming the kissing scenes, the female lead ate several of my tongues.”

“What, you don’t believe us?”

“This Friday at midnight, the truth awaits you in Fallen Home.”

Shen Leshan pointed at the camera as he spoke.

With Ji Pan’s repost, the expertly produced posters, and several consecutive viral promotional short videos, Fallen Home’s publicity reached its peak in no time. Some film-reviewing content creators also posted updates, saying that they would be the first to go to the cinemas to “test the poison”, and challenge a Chinese horror film once again.

Just as the netizens’ expectations had reached their peak, Friday finally arrived, and the major cinemas and ticketing platforms opened ticket sales for the film.

Time: Late-night screening, midnight to 2 a.m.

Showtimes: One screening per day

Auditorium: The smallest auditorium in the cinema

The netizens: “…”

I’ve got my money ready, and this is the screening you give me?

No matter how much publicity it received, this was ultimately still a low-budget Chinese horror film released ahead of schedule, with a completely unknown director and cast who had no drawing power whatsoever. The fact that it had even been given one screening was because hardly anyone usually came to see movies during this time slot, so it would not occupy the cinema’s prime hours.

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The author has something to say:

Zhong Jiudao: “Tonight, I’m taking the whole company to see a movie.”

Inside the cinema, there were only Luo Huai and Zhong Jiudao.

 

Translator : DarNan