Chapter 583: Chapter 574: The Wen Siblings Come to Visit
Time flew by, and it was already the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. For many, their holiday was more than half over, but Su Qing felt like he had just started to relax.
After fermenting overnight, the reputation of Wandering Earth began to rise, and it started to spread by word of mouth.
A quick browse online would reveal numerous videos recommending the movie. This time, it wasnāt videos released by the official Wandering Earth account, but rather from countless movie fans, critics, and film commentary bloggers.
Although their main purpose wasnāt to promote the film but to gain followers for themselves, it indeed had a promotional effect.
Right now, the internet was filled with chatter about Wandering Earth. The two newly released films on the first and second day of the New Year had good reputations as well, but they couldnāt compare to the effect of Wandering Earth.
The pressure was immediately on the films set to be released next.
After fermenting overnight, Wandering Earthās score astonishingly reached 9.8. Although this score might decrease over time, thereās no denying that once the screenings end, it will still be a high-score movie, ensuring both box office and reputation success.
Su Qing was exceptionally happy about this; it was the only piece of good news he had encountered in the past few days.
Because of that, after breakfast, he purposely spent two hours on the sofa browsing his phone, checking online news, and casually responding to some comments in his comment section.
"Wow, resurrected! Da Qing replied to me, Iāve made it!"
"Qingzi, look at me, look at mama!"
"You sneaky fellow, how much money have you made?"
"Youāre making money, and still not giving Da Huang a chicken drumstick?"
"When will you recommend another stock? Please, I can barely afford to eat!"
"You have time to browse videos but not update?"
"Investor Qing, notice me. Can I be an extra in your next movie? Iāll pay to be there!"
"Da Qing, look at mama. Can I be in your next movie? I can accept special rules [flying kiss]"
"Wow, look, thereās a pervert upstairs!"
"Wait, mother and son... I think Iāve seen this somewhere before!"
"Borrowing a couch to talk!"
Among all the video bloggers on the internet, he was considered one of the few aloof ones and rarely responded to comments from netizens in the comment section. Today, he was so happy, it was as if he had stirred up a hornetās nest.
He wasnāt the small-time blogger he once was; he was now a multi-million-followers influencer across the entire internet. However, he never endorses products or accepts advertisements, hasnāt even enabled any shopping links, and his only livestream was on Su Heās account, let alone participating in money-grabbing PKs with other bloggers. So, his comments were quite thrilling for people.
In these rare leisure moments, Su Qing felt very comfortable, thinking that as long as he didnāt have to go out and suffer, it was a good day.
He felt he had too little energy to handle energy-consuming events or people.
He preferred nearly non-existent friendships, in simple terms: five minutes of socializing, two hours of rest. Call me if thereās something, ignore me if not, seeing each other once and then not contacting each other for more than half a monthāthe kind of social interaction he thought was just right.
After what happened with Ding Qiang, he felt he needed a long time to rest and recover; in any case, he was pretty exhausted now and didnāt want to move at all.
This might be a common illness among young people today; a kind of half-dead social life, preferring to be alone.
It was suddenly ten in the morning, just as he was wondering whether to order takeout for lunch or go home, there was a knock on the living room door.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Daddy, Su Daddy, Daddy, are you at home? Iām here!"
Suddenly, the voice of a little girl came through, and Su Qing was taken aback, immediately got up, and upon opening the door, saw a little rice dumpling wrapped up tightly, carrying a small backpack, knocking on his door.
She was wearing a mask, with only her bright eyes showing. It was little Wen Yun.
The landlordās wife was standing right behind her, and most importantly, Wen Jingqi was there too.
Seeing this, Su Qing couldnāt help but show his delight, picked up the little girl, and said, "Sister Wen, Brother Wen, why are you here? Come in!"
"Oh, wasnāt it last night that Xiao Yi called me and said you seemed to be in a bad mood and really tired, so she asked me to come over and check on you? Now it seems like youāre doing well?" the landlordās wife said with a smile.
Wen Jingqi chimed in: "Just so happens you called me the day before yesterday, so I thought Iād stop by. Hope thatās no bother?"
Upon hearing this, Su Qing quickly replied, "Oh, what are you saying, how could you be a bother!"
The three of them changed their shoes and entered the house while talking.
"Dear, arenāt you going to wish your uncle a Happy New Year?" the landlady suddenly said.
Upon hearing this, the little girl he was holding quickly bowed with both hands: "Happy New Year, Daddy!"
"Good, haha, good, Little Yun is good too!" But after saying this, Su Qing felt awkward; he had no money on him, the only red envelope he had was given to Su He.
No matter what, this was the first time the little girl wished him a Happy New Year and even called him dad, he should have acknowledged it somehow.
"Uh... well, you came suddenly, and uncle didnāt bring any money. Wait, Iāll go and get some for you."
Having said that, Su Qing put down the little girl and was about to go downstairs when the landlady quickly grabbed him with a smile, saying: "Look at you, thereās no need, really no need, didnāt we come by unexpectedly today? We can discuss it later, donāt make it seem like weāre here to ask you for money."
"Exactly, little brother, take a break, is there any water? Pour me some, Iām thirsty!" Wen Jingqi chuckled.
At their level, some rules naturally werenāt taken too seriously, especially since they came to visit Su Qing without notifying him first, so it was normal for him to be unprepared.
After all, there arenāt many people with cash on hand these days.
Feeling somewhat embarrassed, Su Qing shook his head: "Alright then, Iāll make sure to make it up to you next time."
Su Qing bent down to pat the girlās little head, then turned around to get a kettle and poured some water for everyone.
"Sister Wen, big brother, have some water!"
Shortly after, Su Qing returned and the few of them sat down on the couch.
"Haha, little brother, you did well, I saw the news online, the movie you invested in did well at the box office, now your movie is all over the internet, you must have made a good profit this time!" Wen Jingqi said with a sip of water and a smile.
The landlady chimed in with excitement: "Exactly, this morning Xiao Tang even called me, saying she gave up a chance to get rich, and she sounded so aggrieved."
Listening to their words, Su Qing shook his head with a smile: "Itās not as impressive as you think, it just did well on the first day at the box office, as long as I donāt lose money, Iām content. Besides, I only invested eighty million, the total investment is around 340 million, most of it wasnāt mine, so I just made a little."
This wasnāt an exaggeration, after all, as an investor, there are many intricacies in the box office revenue share, with a significant part going to national cinema chains, and after taxes, what the film side really gets is limited, not to mention he was just one of the investors.
"Youāre being humble, Iāve heard from Xiao Tang, with this momentum, just from the box office, you wonāt earn less than what you did playing the stock market last time, not to mention other derivative incomes from the movie. So this time youāve really hit the jackpot, tut tut tut, how did Xiaoyi get so lucky, spending 800 yuan to find a boyfriend worth billions."
The landlady looked at him with amazement, hearing this, while Wen Jingqi, though maintaining a calm face, was internally shocked.
His current real estate business seemed to involve considerable investment, but his net profits were just around a small target. Since it was a government project, the profit wasnāt huge but it was stable, ensuring there wouldnāt be losses.
Yet such a significant project didnāt earn as much as someone could easily make from investing in a movie, which undoubtedly was a huge revelation for him. No wonder his father regarded it differently.
"Letās hope so, it would be great to earn that much," he didnāt refute, although, according to the commentary on the box office, this time he should indeed earn quite a bit, so he was quite happy inside.
"By the way, have you been into any trouble recently, Xiaoyi was so worried that she specifically asked me to check on you?" the landlady asked, her eyes gleaming across his face, trying to discern clues.
Wen Jingqi also added: "Is it about the trouble you mentioned the other day? Relax, little brother, donāt worry, itās the New Year and everyone I know is on holiday too, once everyone returns to work, Iāll help you check it out."
Upon hearing this, Su Qing immediately remembered what he needed to discuss, and quickly said: "Letās set that aside for now, big brother, thereās something I want to ask you."
"Eh? What else is going on?"
"Itās like this, suppose you encounter an accident while doing a project, resulting in a workerās death, how would it generally be resolved, and how much should the compensation be?"
Discussing project construction matters with Wen Jingqi, now this was what you call professionalism.
Having been in construction engineering for so many years, and with Elder Wen also in the same line of work, over the years, theyāve likely encountered such incidents numerous times.
Since they had encountered it, naturally theyād know how to resolve it, and through Wen Jingqi, Su Qing could learn about the responsibilities the construction party in Ding Qiangās fatherās case would need to assume and understand any tactics they might employ for early prevention.
Upon hearing this, Wen Family siblings exchanged looks, and the landlady hesitantly asked: "Brother... could it be that your project..."
"No, our project hasnāt officially started, where would the accident come from, Xiao Su, do you mean a relative..." Wen Jingqi quickly denied.
If there had been such an accident in their project, thereās no way he wouldnāt know.
"Itās not a relative, itās a classmateās father, an accident happened on a construction site in Xining and he passed away, and they ended up offering just 500,000 for everything, including hospital fees, isnāt this bullying?
I want to know generally how we handle this on our side, and roughly how much the compensation would be, there needs to be a baseline."
...