Chapter 423: Ms. Chu Attends the Premiere of “Breaking the Ice”!
Inside the entourage van.
The tablet in Sun Zhou’s hand glowed, lighting up his ashen face.
“Screening slots are out.” Sun Zhou’s throat was dry, “Fifteen percent.”
Lin Wan turned to stare at Sun Zhou, eyes icy, “You said how much?”
“Fifteen percent.” Sun Zhou handed over the tablet. The red bar representing Icebreaker was pitifully short.
The Hollywood special-effects blockbuster Mecha Frenzy 4 had 40% of the screenings.
The all-star New Year comedy Laughing All the Way had 35%.
The rest of the time slots were parceled out among a few animated films,
and what Icebreaker got were all the scraps nobody wanted—either eight in the morning or midnight showings.
“Have the people at the cinema chain lost their minds?” Lin Wan slammed the tablet onto the seat, “Jiang Wen’s film, Jiang Ci as the lead, and this is the treatment?”
“It’s useless.” Sun Zhou pushed up his glasses, his tone drained, “They say anti-drug themes are too heavy, no one wants to suffer through that during the holidays. And besides…”
He glanced at Jiang Ci in the back seat with his eyes closed, then lowered his voice:
“And the industry is saying Jiang Ci is now a variety-show guy, he can’t carry box office anymore. The critics’ promo articles are already written, the headline is ‘The Twilight of Traffic’.”
Only the sound of tires rubbing the road filled the cabin.
Jiang Ci opened his eyes.
He didn’t look at the grim numbers, nor did he get angry.
The playful, clowning energy he showed on variety shows was completely gone.
“Book tickets.” Jiang Ci said.
Sun Zhou was stunned, “Book what tickets? For the premiere?”
“Book a flight back to Star City first thing tomorrow morning.” Jiang Ci turned to the silent Chu Hong, “Mom, have Sun Zhou send you home.”
“Aren’t the two clivia plants at home still alive? They haven’t been watered for days, they must be dry.”
Chu Hong gripped the strap of the camouflage canvas bag tightly.
“I’m not going back.” Chu Hong stared straight ahead at the driver’s nape, her voice hard as iron.
“Mom.” Jiang Ci reached to take her hand, which felt ice-cold, “You’ve been tired these past few days.”
“The premiere’s not worth watching, it’s a chaotic scene, and there will be formalities.”
He was lying.
He didn’t want his mother to see that pitiful turnout.
It was his selfishness as a son.
“Jiang Ci.”
Chu Hong turned her head suddenly.
Hearing his full name made Jiang Ci’s heart skip.
“That character, Jiang He, right?” Chu Hong asked.
Lin Wan froze with her hand halfway to the water cup, Sun Zhou dared not breathe.
The Icebreaker script was confidential; aside from the core creative team, no one knew the protagonist’s specifics.
Jiang Ci had never told his mother the details of the role.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he avoided his mother’s gaze. “It’s just a name the screenwriter made up…”
“You’re my son.” Chu Hong cut him off.
She loosened her grip on the canvas bag, reached into a compartment, and pulled out a crumpled photograph.
In the photo, Jiang Ci had just crawled out of the mud, his face smeared with blood, his eyes fierce yet carrying an indescribable sorrow.
“The year your father left, he had the exact same look.”
Chu Hong’s fingertip traced over the photo, rubbing across Jiang Ci’s dirty face.
“The night he went on that mission, he smoked at the door all night, looking at me with that look.”
A tightness gripped Jiang Ci’s chest.
No one knows a child like his mother.
“I’ve already seen the trailer.”
Chu Hong slid the photo back into the bag with deliberate motions that nonetheless carried resolve, “That Jiang He is him. Isn’t he?”
Jiang Ci bowed his head, pressed his hands to his face, his shoulders trembling slightly.
After a long while, a single word squeezed through his fingers: “…Yes.”
Lin Wan looked away, staring out the window, her eyes rimmed red.
Chu Hong did not cry.
She exhaled slowly, using the breath to ease decades of tightness in her chest.
“Then I absolutely cannot leave.”
Chu Hong straightened her collar and sat up.
At this moment,
she was no longer the market hag bargaining over two cents,
nor the joking “Empress Dowager” from variety shows.
The toughness of a policeman’s wife rose within her.
“Your father was a cop his whole life.”
“Honors and medals were for others. He never even got a big red flower.”
“He couldn’t put his photo on the wall, his name couldn’t appear in the papers. Even when he died…”
Chu Hong paused, her voice a little hoarse,
“there wasn’t even a decent farewell ceremony, for fear of retaliation. They didn’t even dare put his photograph on the tombstone.”
“He lived like a shadow.”
Chu Hong turned to Jiang Ci, her eyes frighteningly bright.
“Now his son is playing him.”
“If it’s acting, then no one can stop us.”
Chu Hong gave a bleak smile, “I just want to go to the premiere and see.”
“I want to see what he looks like standing on the big screen, standing in the light.”
“You expose the face he couldn’t show.”
“You listen to the applause he never heard.”
Jiang Ci lifted his head.
He looked at his mother’s face, no longer young, and tears fell without warning.
He had always thought he was protecting his mother, keeping her away from those painful memories.
But he had forgotten.
This woman was ten thousand times stronger than he’d imagined.
She was the hero’s wife, and the hero’s mother.
“All right.”
Jiang Ci wiped his face hard, the hesitation in his eyes gone.
“We’ll go.”
…
Online, the battle for the May Day release window had already started early.
Mecha Frenzy 4’s trailer racked up hundreds of millions of views, the feed flooded with “mind-blowing” and “insane effects.”
Laughing All the Way’s publicity was everywhere, half the entertainment industry reposting and hyping it.
Only Icebreaker
had a single lonely release announcement on Weibo, flooded with mocking threads from marketing accounts.
[ToxicFilmV: Fifteen percent of screenings, is this how a top star is treated? Hilarious, how many people did Jiang Ci offend?]
[Better switch to sketch comedy, variety shows are his comfort zone.]
[FilmObserver: Too heavy a subject, destined to flop. Films like this are made for awards, not audiences.]
[RandomUser: I heard he plays an undercover cop? With his build? Don’t be ridiculous, he should stick to singing and dancing.]
Yet surprisingly,
the typically combative “Jiang fans” were unusually quiet this time.
Jiang Ci’s Super Topic pinned post was replaced with a black-background, white-text announcement:
[Viewing Notice:]
[1. This film is about drug enforcement; please watch with reverence.]
[2. No light boards or glow sticks allowed in the theater.]
[3. No loud talking, meme-playing, or screen-recording in the cinema.]
[4. Don’t attack other films over screening slots. Good films will speak for themselves.]
This uncharacteristic move left those ready to gloat baffled.
“Did these fans change? Or were they scared into silence?”
Just as the whole internet was writing it off,
a few inconspicuous blue-verified accounts quietly reposted Icebreaker’s release announcement.
[BorderAntiDrug]: The long night is hard to illuminate; some risk their lives to light the lamp. Retweet to distribute tickets, please go see ‘their’ story.
[BorderGuard]: A tribute. Also, that salute was very proper.
[SomePoliceUniversityCommittee]: The seniors’ story at last captured on film. Organizing a full-school screening.
Those accounts had few followers and rarely any traction; their reposts and comments had single-digit engagement.
No one noticed that a silent storm was brewing.
At eight that night.
Lin Wan received a call from the Cinema Manager.
“Director Lin, I’m really sorry.”
The other side sounded perfunctory, “For tomorrow’s premiere, Hall One is gone to Mecha, Hall Two went to Laughing All the Way… How about Hall Four?”
Lin Wan’s hand holding the phone went white with veins.
Hall Four.
It was the most tucked-away screen in the cinema, with a small display, poor speakers, and fewer than a hundred seats.
It was usually reserved for artsy films nobody watched or older titles about to leave theaters.
“Fine.” Before Lin Wan could explode, Jiang Ci took the phone.
Jiang Ci spoke into the receiver, calm.
“Hall Four it is.”
After hanging up, Jiang Ci looked out at the glittering nightscape.
Neon lights flickered, making the city glow like daylight.
“Mom, press my suit for tomorrow.”
Jiang Ci turned back and smiled at Chu Hong, “Tomorrow, I’ll dress a little nicer.”
He would stand in for the man who had never shown his face, step into the spotlight, and accept an honest moment of recognition.