Law of the Jungle continued its successful theatrical run, and the KULA magazine featuring Xiao He and Liu Zehang released their latest issue, riding the wave of the film's promotional heat to gain significant attention.
The magazine cover alone was enough to attract casual viewers.
In the cover photo, the two men slightly tilted their heads upward to gaze at the camera. Against the extreme contrast of black and white, they exuded absolute dominance and aggression. The pure black tones and gray-white shades interwoven with light made them appear like superior beings looking down on their prey, maintaining an arrogant demeanor even when positioned at a visual disadvantage, as if they had discovered prey behind the lens and were filled with mockery.
This created an extremely powerful visual impact.
Moreover, during the photoshoot, Xiao He and Liu Zehang deliberately adhered to their respective character personas from the film, so this magazine issue perfectly complemented the currently screening Law of the Jungle, strongly stimulating audience and fan purchasing desire.
The moment KULA's official website put the magazines on sale, their prepared stock of 100,000 copies was instantly sold out.
Fans who loved Law of the Jungle were not having it.
[KULA Magazine, who do you think you're looking down on? I'll give you a number - immediately restock another 100,000 copies.]
[What? Only 100,000 copies? Cowards! KULA, give me 500,000 copies right now! Otherwise I'm worried I still won't be able to get one.]
Under the fans' intense dissatisfaction, KULA Magazine immediately released another 100,000 copies the next day, which were again instantly sold out.
[???Did you even restock? I didn't even see a shadow of them, are you tricking me?]
[I didn't see any, I'm penalizing you to restock again.]
[What's going on? Is everyone a demon? With such fast clicking speed?]
[Sorry about this, but I need these two handsome guys to feast my eyes on.]
[Stop snatching them all, stop! @KULA Official, hurry up and produce more.]
It wasn't until KULA's official website released another batch that this terrifying purchasing frenzy finally slowed down.
Law of the Jungle had once again solidly proven the terrifying power of fan economics.
And when traffic and genuine talent combine, complementing each other, this power becomes even greater.
As Xiao He prepared for his overseas trip and was about to join the No Bait production team, Law of the Jungle, which had been screening for three days, had already reached 100 million yuan at the box office.
Don't underestimate this 100 million - last year's Festival slot champion only earned 100 million, and now Law of the Jungle, as a niche genre film, managing to accumulate 100 million yuan in box office revenue before Qingming Festival was already quite astonishing.
It was expected that by the official Qingming Festival period, word-of-mouth would continue to spread, leading to a box office peak.
However, Xiao He didn't know the final box office results yet.
Before leaving, Xiao He heard several pieces of good news.
After many days in a coma, Cheng Hongwen finally regained consciousness and provided police with an account of the incident, successfully identifying one of Dong Zeng's drivers.
Coincidentally, at this time, Dong Zeng's assistant Xiao Chai also provided crucial evidence proving that Dong Zeng had instigated murder and was the mastermind behind this homicide case.
Additionally, he provided recorded evidence of Dong Zeng's previous attempts to harm Tong Junhui, and testified that Feng Zhengyang had been privately selling controlled substances, engaging in drug trafficking, while also encouraging addiction in others.
It was only then that Xiao He finally understood why, during his previous investigation, he had accidentally obtained from Dong Zeng's young assistant a recording related to Tian Heng intentionally selling drugs to Tong Junhui years ago in an attempt to ruin him.
So this assistant had also been an informant, collecting criminal evidence against these people all along.
His betrayal was just too sudden and abrupt, completely shattering Dong Zeng's illusions and sending Dong Zeng into a furious rage while clutching his colostomy bag, powerless in his anger.
However, the assistant Xiao Chai, whose real name was Shi Yichai, simply smiled, placing his handcuffed hands on the interrogation table with a calm and composed expression: "I was just repaying a kindness, that's all."
Who would have thought?
Feng Zhengyang's wife Zhang Yun, who was usually charitable and kind-hearted, was a genuinely good person.
Having lost her son early in life and then her fertility, she frequently engaged in charity work during her lifetime, caring for children in orphanages, and Xiao Chai was one of the children she had supported.
But before he could repay her kindness, Zhang Yun mysteriously disappeared.
At that time, mainland media might not have been as well-informed, but in Hong Kong, basically everyone suspected Feng Zhengyang was behind it, especially after the script copyright incident where Feng Zhengyang had caused quite a stir and lost considerable face when forming production teams in the Hong Kong entertainment industry.
Nobody believed that Zhang Yun's disappearance had nothing to do with him.
Including Shi Yichai.
But what could they do? Feng Zhengyang served as one of the Chen family's public white gloves in Hong Kong, with substantial background and powerful influence. Even the police couldn't uncover anything, so what could they do even if they guessed the truth?
Shi Yichai had no choice but to remain in the shadows, constantly looking for opportunities—until finally, Dong Zeng, the producer who frequently collaborated with Feng Zhengyang, wanted to change assistants. As a top student at the time, Shi Yichai used every means possible to get close to Dong Zeng, and ended up staying for six years.
During these six years, he gradually gained Dong Zeng's trust, had even helped Dong Zeng with some shady deeds, while secretly gathering substantial evidence of economic crimes involving Feng Zhengyang and Dong Zeng. But he never obtained evidence or clues about Feng Zhengyang murdering his wife—until a few years ago when Hong Kong experienced turmoil, and authorities began strict internal investigations, gradually focusing on the Chen family and suspecting they had problems.
The Chen family, who indeed had issues, vaguely sensed the danger.
The family head, Old Master Chen, began making contingency plans.
Since the Chen family had used the entertainment industry to legitimize themselves after establishing their fortune, and had developed a quite successful entertainment company, they believed they were very familiar with the entertainment industry tactics, capable of navigating both Hong Kong and mainland entertainment circles.
So Old Master Chen sent his son Chen Cong, along with the renowned director Feng Zhengyang with whom they had frequently collaborated, to the mainland entertainment industry, planning to use their resources for one last major operation.
Originally, Feng Zhengyang didn't want to come, but since he had asked Old Master Chen for help covering up his wife's murder, the Chen family always held evidence of his crime.
So Feng Zhengyang had no choice but to come.
Seeing hope, Shi Yichai immediately contacted Shanghai police and used a recording he had saved over the years to persuade Tong Junhui, who had been trapped in pain and regret after losing his last remaining family member.
With police assistance and Tong Junhui's participation, they worked together from inside and outside, successfully uncovering evidence of Feng Zhengyang and Dong Zeng's crimes.
The only regret was that they still hadn't found definitive evidence of Feng Zhengyang murdering his wife.
But since Old Master Chen had already been arrested, obtaining this information was likely just a matter of time.
The only variable in all this was that Xu Youyou was remarkably skilled, having genuinely developed some real feelings with Chen Cong. Before his arrest, Chen Cong gave Xu Youyou an account book, hoping she would seek out his father to rescue him.
However, Xu Youyou fearlessly approached Dong Zeng, attempting to extort a large sum of money to leave China. She neither considered using the account book to seek Old Master Chen's help in Hong Kong to rescue Chen Cong, nor thought about handing it over to police for protection and sentence reduction.
This ultimately brought disaster upon herself and nearly got her agent Cheng Hongwen killed.
Xiao He felt deeply moved by the stories behind these people.
So everything, in the end, actually traced back to Feng Zhengyang's murder of his wife.
He had thought Tong Junhui was already quite impressive, but it turned out there was someone even more remarkable, enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens all these years, just to repay a kindness.
Perhaps in the mysterious workings of fate, it truly reflected that old saying about good and evil eventually receiving their due rewards...
Airport.
"Stop looking at your phone for now, we're boarding soon."
Liu Rulan reminded him quietly from beside him.
Xiao He looked up at the flight display screen ahead and slowly put away his phone: "Okay, got it."
The matter had passed, and the truth would eventually come to light.
Compared to the headaches the police had to deal with, perhaps he should focus more on considering what posture to use when paying homage to the wealthy people's island once they arrived at Director Zhuang's private island.
It always came back to that same thought—
Why can't I be more wealthy person!