After returning home from the theater, Pei Qian flopped straight onto his bed and buried himself in sleep.

What? The movie was wildly popular?

What? The premiere had a great response?

Illusions, these were all illusions!

Pei Qian kept telling himself that after a good sleep, everything would be fine!

He slept until noon the next day before reluctantly opening his eyes.

He took out his phone to check the time and, sure enough, there were many unread messages.

Huang Sibo, Zhu Xiaocai, Lin Chang… all kinds of people had sent greetings.

He could guess what they were saying without looking.

Pei Qian didn’t dare to check, carefully ignoring these messages, afraid he might accidentally tap one and have it pop up.

Afterward, Pei Qian ordered Slackin’ takeout.

Sitting in front of his computer, he felt melancholic, as if life had become somewhat flavorless.

After a long internal struggle, Pei Qian finally picked up his phone with a complicated expression and opened the DogEye app.

He clicked on “Today’s Box Office,” and there, listed in first place, was unmistakably “Beautiful Tomorrow.”

Today’s box office: 7.84 million, projected box office: 21 million!

“Damn it…”

Pei Qian felt his vision darken, almost smashing his phone on the spot.

It was too desperate, this feeling was too desperate!

This fucking movie had only been showing for half a day, and the box office had already shot up to nearly 8 million!

Originally, Pei Qian thought that since the movie cost 30 million to make, according to the profit-sharing ratio, it would need to earn at least 100 million at the box office to break even.

How could this kind of film possibly earn 100 million at the box office??

However, the DogEye app’s prediction slapped him in the face in real-time, forecasting a box office of 210 million!

The filmmaker’s projected share: 75.347 million!

This prediction was based on comprehensive factors such as the film’s screening ratio, attendance rate, box office trends, and so on. Although it would fluctuate due to various uncertainties and might not be completely accurate, it was generally in the right ballpark!

Looking at the other three films, their current daily box office was only hovering between 1 million and 2 million.

Pei Qian was furious.

Useless! All of them were useless!

They all seemed capable—a romance film, a Western action film, and even a major domestic IP—how had they suddenly all wilted?

Try harder, steal all the screenings from “Beautiful Tomorrow”!

Hurry up and spend some money to hire internet trolls to trash “Beautiful Tomorrow,” spend as much as needed, it won’t cost that much!

Pei Qian almost wished he could find the investors of these three films and offer to personally roll up his sleeves and get involved.

Finally, trembling, he clicked on the rating for “Beautiful Tomorrow.”

8.8 points!

Pei Qian hastily threw his phone aside.

Illusions, these must be illusions!

No, he needed to calm down.

His poor heart couldn’t handle this kind of shock…

On the DogEye app, 8.8 points wasn’t considered a particularly high score. Many classic blockbusters could even achieve high scores like 9.5 or 9.7.

But the problem was that “Beautiful Tomorrow” wasn’t that kind of flashy popcorn blockbuster. It didn’t have any exciting grand scenes. Although the plot had some depth, many ordinary viewers might not understand it.

In a situation where they didn’t understand, many viewers giving low scores would be normal; giving high scores would be abnormal!

But now with an 8.8 score, it meant that this movie wasn’t tedious even for ordinary viewers. Even if they didn’t understand some of the content, it still stirred their emotions and maintained a strong attraction for them!

Pei Qian was very distressed.

The bad news kept coming, continuously battering his psychological defenses.

And based on the current situation, it was probably unrealistic to expect theaters to reduce the number of screenings for “Beautiful Tomorrow.”

The movies currently showing were fragile at a touch, none of them could compete, and those about to be released didn’t seem to pose a threat to “Beautiful Tomorrow” either.

In this situation, the more screenings theaters gave to “Beautiful Tomorrow,” the more money they could make…

Pei Qian was speechless.

Shortly after, the Slackin’ takeout arrived.

Pei Qian took the food, and after a few mouthfuls, he seemed to regain some energy.

“Stay calm, especially in adversity.”

“The situation probably hasn’t reached the point of no return yet…”

Pei Qian wolfed down another mouthful of food and began to think of countermeasures.

“From the current situation, it seems viewers have been misled by Zhu Xiaocai’s techniques.”

“This special editing method has temporarily made viewers overlook the toxicity of this movie. It’s like a sugar-coated pill that tricks viewers into swallowing the poisonous core whole, without realizing its bitterness.”

“So, I need to find a way to expose the true nature of this film—there aren’t that many complex elements; it’s just a poisoned movie!”

“So… who should I find to expose this fact…”

“And how should it be exposed…”

He had found the direction, but when deciding on the right person, he fell into confusion.

Hire internet trolls?

The trolls under Hu Xiao were quite professionally competent, but if Pei Qian wanted to use system funds for reimbursement, he could only give them hints rather than explicit instructions.

Pei Qian couldn’t be sure if there would be distortions in the communication process. If a mistake occurred, it would be very awkward…

Moreover, internet trolls couldn’t take the leading role; they weren’t opinion leaders, they could only follow trends and create momentum.

Pei Qian felt he needed to find a more influential film critic to trash this movie, pierce through the truth, and then let the trolls swarm in. Then the big goal could be achieved.

Of course, completely turning the tide was impossible.

In any case… deterring one viewer was still something.

As for how to specifically operate, that was also a problem.

Pei Qian felt he needed to learn from the lesson of hiring trolls for “Turn Back to Shore” and not let them improvise again.

He had to give them very clear directions.

But explicitly saying to trash “Beautiful Tomorrow” didn’t seem appropriate either. On one hand, the system wouldn’t reimburse it; on the other hand, if the criticism was too forced, it might trigger reverse psychology.

Moreover, it was genuinely difficult to find flaws in this film.

“Wait, trigger reverse psychology?”

“I’ve got it—pay people to excessively praise this film, kill it with praise!”

“Force praise for all those far-fetched aspects as well, creating an impression among netizens that all the positive reviews for this film are from paid trolls!”

“At the same time, such mindless forced praise will trigger antipathy in some people, and they will naturally devalue the film to worthlessness.”

“In this way, with both sides constantly abusing each other, wouldn’t that achieve the effect I want?”

“Yes, that’s what I’ll do!”

Having made up his mind, Pei Qian began to search online for well-known film critics, especially those who had already published reviews of “Beautiful Tomorrow” with less than favorable ratings.

Then he would pay them directly to change their reviews!

This way, wouldn’t everyone see that they had been paid, and subsequently associate this with the fact that “Beautiful Tomorrow” had hired trolls?

“Let me see, which film critic is so fortunate…”

Pei Qian became much more energetic and began patiently searching for his prey on Weibo and various film websites.