On the fifth day of the lunar new year, Kang Mu Cheng flew back to He Ping city.
He brought Jian Jing several souvenirs: a wool shawl, coffee, amethyst crystals, and an exquisitely beautiful model toy house of the Skeleton Band, as if replicating the scene in Coco, delicate and vibrant, with the skeletons' expressions lifelike.
Jian Jing loved the toy house. She immediately set it up in the study and showed it off on WeChat Moments.
Kang Mu Cheng: "..."
Kids do like doll houses after all.
After distributing the gifts, he got straight to work on the publicity for The Rose, the Gold, hurrying the publicity department at home every day to work overtime on proposals.
Jian Jing: Utterly heartless.
Then Kang Mu Cheng said: "You have an assignment too."
"Really?" Jian Jing was baffled.
"I asked the editor to coordinate with you," Kang Mu Cheng said. "Small stuff - several Weibo posts for publicity, an online magazine interview."
"..."
"I'll give you until the eighth day [of lunar new year]," he made allowances for her. "Start on the ninth."
Jian Jing: *sighs*
With a deadline, the holiday suddenly didn't seem long enough. She had only lain around for two days before having to get back to work, bidding farewell to Lunar New Year.
Coordinating with the editor, doing some advance publicity for The Rose, the Gold, she scheduled a text interview. The questions had all been vetted by the editor. As long as she gave standard answers, it would be fine.
The main questions were inevitably about her thoughts on adapting the TV series and movie.
Jian Jing's answers were conservative, standard.
At this time, New Year's movies had not yet been taken out of theaters. The hottest movie already had over 2 billion RMB at the box office, and even the worst had over 100 million RMB.
Well, it was New Year's after all.
And with New Year's movies still in theaters, Valentine's Day movies were already eyeing their spots, ready to start publicity.
The two holidays have always been close, sometimes even overlapping, so whether Valentine's Day movies were scheduled for New Year's or for Valentine's Day itself needed to be considered carefully each year.
This year, they were separated.
The hot movies were: The Rose, the Gold, and the Assassin, A Lifetime Promise, My Lover, Reunion After Sixty Years.
Five films, with The Rose, the Gold and A Lifetime Promise adapted from novels.
A Lifetime Promise was about a couple - the boyfriend got cancer and insisted on breaking up with his girlfriend, but the girlfriend stuck by him and married him in her wedding dress, fulfilling their marriage pact.
Kang Mu Cheng commented: "Women are the main consumers for Valentine's Day box offices. Plots like this don't sell well anymore."
Jian Jing strongly agreed.
In addition, the movie attracting significant attention was Reunion After Sixty Years.
It was a documentary, chronicling a true story: last century, when war raged through the homeland, the female protagonist had just gotten married when she was separated from her husband, losing all trace of each other for sixty years without meeting again.
Sixty years later, she found her long lost husband. But he had already remarried and had children and grandchildren surrounding him. Faced with the woman who had waited sixty years for him, he was struck dumb, only saying "I thought you were dead."
It turned out beliefs could shatter in an instant.
White-haired now, she realized her whole life had been wasted on meaningless waiting. So she decided that for the last few years of her life, she would live for herself for once.
She was like a kite cut from its string, setting out on aimless road trips, going everywhere, seeing everything.
"I'm afraid he'll come back and not find me," the old woman said. "I never went farther than a step away, waiting for him to come back from battle."
With the camera, the documentary director recorded the last years of the old woman's life, her and the mountains and seas, her and memories from the past, her and the fruitless love that spanned sixty years.
True feelings touch the heart most.
Jian Jing had seen the trailer and felt this movie would be strong competition.
But Kang Mu Cheng said: "It won't have a high box office."
Each Valentine's Day movie interprets love in its own way. It's just that most people walking into theaters that day would probably rather watch the story of the woman marrying her cancer-stricken boyfriend than the one who has a revelation sixty years later.
With prophetic certainty, he determined: "Prospects are very good for The Rose, the Gold."
On February 14th, Valentine's Day, The Rose, the Gold premiered at midnight.
Jian Jing was invited to attend the premiere.
Very similar to when The Hide and Seek Child premiered, the lobby was filled with invited media, creative staff, and relevant friends.
Everyone chatted lightly about industry gossip and news, the atmosphere relaxed.
At 11:59 PM, the lights dimmed and silence fell all around as a message of welcome appeared on screen: "Welcome to the premiere of The Rose, the Gold, and the Assassin."
Then the opening credits rolled, going into the opening scene.
The opening was actually a comic, in a storybook style reminiscent of Le Petit Prince. Only the color palette was gloomy, with the female protagonist's face covered in vertical shadows, the tones depressed.
The female lead's voiceover sounded: "When I was twelve, my parents died."
The pages flipped quickly, with shadowy figures flashing swiftly across.
"A group of people charged into our home and killed them."
Comics have an advantage in that violent and bloody scenes are less shocking than real people, making it easier to get past censors, while still allowing the addition of sufficient details.
On the pages, her parents' corpses lay on the ground, like shattered dolls.
"I hid on top of the air conditioning unit and survived."
On the cold exterior wall that night, the little girl had curled up in the shadows of the AC unit.
Her eyes glinted with an icy light, like those of a cat.
"From that day forth, I swore revenge."
In a flash, the gloomy comic dissolved, connecting with the real world. The TV was broadcasting news about the gold robber. The anchor said, "Police found a strange note on one man..."
A photo of the note appeared on screen - it was a string of bizarre symbols.
This was the rose code that features throughout the film.
The first twenty minutes were solo scenes of the girl. She tries to crack the code and find the millions in gold the robbers had hidden, with clever touches in several shots - as she brushes past a bus on the street, the assassin's profile takes up half the bus window; when searching walls for rose symbols in alleys, on the windowsill above is the assassin pruning dead flowers from a pot.
There is little dialogue from the girl in this part, mostly inner monologue explaining her reasoning and the code.
In other words, all the emotions need to be conveyed through body language.
The actress playing the female lead was only 18, having just gotten into drama school this year, but had many years of acting experience. Director Mei had a hard time finding a suitable actress before deciding on her.
Her skills aren't polished, but she has bright eyes full of spirit. And having gone through misfortune herself, she exudes an innate air of silent resilience. Overall, she matched the protagonist very well.
When the girl finally finds the gold, as the dazzling gold appears on screen, she curves her lips into a sweet smile.
The story reaches a climax here.
But the ensuing question is, how will she utilize this money to get her revenge?
This is where the assassin comes in.
When the girl finds the assassin, he is...repairing a computer.
White t-shirt, khaki pants, messy hair. Takeout boxes cluttering the desk as computer parts are strewn across it, disassembled.
Confusion flickers in the girl's eyes - is this an assassin or a nerd?
Jiang BaiYan leaned in to whisper in Jian Jing's ear, "I learned how to repair computers specially to shoot this scene."
Jian Jing: *coughs*
He goes silent.
The girl implores him to help her get revenge. The assassin refuses.
Jiang BaiYan reenacts his audition performance. His tone is mild and gentle. Not cold or ruthless, he turns her down as casually as if rejecting a weekend movie invitation.
No reason given, no hard feelings, no difficulties - just an ordinary refusal.
The girl is baffled for a second but persists stubbornly: "Why? I have money."
"I'm not short on money," he says.
The girl appeals to his emotions and explains rationally: "My mom and dad were murdered. They never committed any crime but died just like that... I have to avenge them no matter what."
He glances at her curiously and says, "What does that have to do with me?"
The girl grits out, "What will it take for you to help me?"
He says, "I'm not interested, go home."
The girl leaves dejectedly but doesn't give up. She returns the next day with a gold brick.
The assassin shakes his head.
On the third day, she voluntarily looks after his dead plants and teaches him how to do potted gardening.
He remains indifferent.
On the fourth day, she doesn't say a word, just follows him wherever he goes and declares, "If you don't agree, I won't leave."
The assassin doesn't care.
The girl had her own persistence. Since she decided to take revenge, she had encountered many difficulties along the long road of revenge. She would not give up until she reached the end, otherwise she would never get there.
"Yes, I have encountered difficulties, but I can and must overcome them," she said to herself late at night in bed.
On the seventh day, she went to the killer again and told him clearly: "If your reason can convince me, I will stop pestering you. But you rejected me without any reason, which I cannot accept."
"Why can't I reject you without a reason?" he asked.
"If you don't have a reason to reject, why don't you agree?" she retorted.
The killer thought for a long time but couldn't figure out why he didn't want to agree — because of what? Boredom? Or fear of death and consequences?
He was like walking in a foggy street, unable to see where he came from or where he was heading.
"Alright then," he agreed.
Because, "I want to know why I don't want to agree."
— From this moment on, his soul awakened.
After the movie screening, many film critics mentioned this scene and commented: "Unlike many plots that add challenges to the heroine, here we can clearly see that the key is not the persistence and perseverance of the heroine — although they are indeed demonstrated — but the director wants to express the killer's self-awakening.
"Only when people question their own origin and destination, can they realize their self-worth. Their souls stand out from others with their own glow..."
As the killer started looking for his own answers, the girl fell into the abyss of revenge.
After locking onto the enemy and investigating the truth behind her parents' murder, the girl finally learned that her parents were killed because they witnessed a conspiracy.
As the case unraveled, the truth gradually emerged, and the mastermind behind the scenes surfaced among many suspects.
This segment of reasoning was formulaic, with no major flaws. The evidence was complete and self-consistent, not perfect 10 but still decent 7.
The budding romance was much more impressive.
Unlike the restrained text, Director Mei was more uninhibited here. Although there was no confession, the eye contacts between the two and their involuntary interactions implied the change in their feelings.
Keen yet discreet caring on the bustling street.
Walking past the shade of the chinaberry trees in the summer dusk.
Talking about the past by the distant and tranquil river.
At some point, one would have the illusion that this was a youthful romance movie.
However, revenge soon returned to disrupt the peaceful fantasy.
With the truth revealed, the girl hoped to kill the enemy with her own hands to avenge her parents' death.
"Only this can quell my hatred," she told the killer.
At this moment, the killer suddenly realized why he had refused and also foresaw his own destiny.
Once hands are stained with blood, they can never be washed clean. For the rest of their long lives, they would bear the weight of lives and move forward with difficulty.
Why did he refuse her? Because money, fame, power could not stop him from falling into hell.
He longed for redemption and hoped to leave the abyss to live in the sunlight.
But in this life, that was too much to ask for.
Fortunately, he could still save her.
"Before watching this movie, I thought it would be a clichéd redemption story. I was half right. It is a redemption story, but not with the sunny girl breaking into the sinister killer's heart and love giving him new life.
"On the contrary, it was the killer who saved the girl and redeemed his own soul. He understood his own mistakes and rediscovered the preciousness of life. His self-sacrifice spared the girl from the sin of murder and brought peace to his own heart. It seems tragic but is the opposite.
"Is this a love story? Yes, I believe the killer and the girl liked each other, but it was just love. Directors and original authors have been emphasizing one thing: what is beautiful is not the loved one, but love itself," said a famous film critic on Weibo.
More sensational media directly printed a shocking headline the next day: "The Best Romance Movie in a Decade, Interpreting the Essence of Love: Redeeming Oneself."
On the third day of screening, the real-time box office for "Rose, Gold and Killer" reached 780 million RMB.