Please Cherish Your Bad Habits

October 3, Thursday, morning.

Lin Chuan was currently staying in his rented apartment.

Ever since he had acquired the telekinesis skill, Lin Chuan often found his fingers itching to try it out.

He was always tempted to make a pen float in midair.

It was fine if Ren Hang or Xiao Hei saw him do it once or twice. He could brush it off as a magic trick.

But if they saw it ten or eight times, they might start getting suspicious.

So Lin Chuan rented an apartment outside the school.

It cost four thousand yuan a month and was a little over a hundred square meters. The furnishings and electronic appliances were all fairly complete, so Lin Chuan felt right at home there.

Don't ask why Lin Chuan wasn't going back to his family home for the National Day holiday.

How could staying at home compare to the comfort and freedom of being out on his own?

At the moment, Lin Chuan was stretched out on the sofa, watching Balloon.

It was currently showing the scene where a Head Balloon attacked a high school girl.

The girl was chased by the Head Balloon and fled into an alley, her face pale with terror.

A brave soul stepped forward, raised a crossbow, and shot an arrow straight through the Head Balloon.

The Head Balloon promptly deflated, shrinking rapidly.

The high school girl linked to it also shriveled up at once. Her eyeballs and organs spilled out, leaving behind a heap of human skin.

Lin Chuan watched with rapt attention, even eating two extra pieces of chicken breast.

Oh, the chicken breast was floating in the air, lining up to fly straight into Lin Chuan's mouth.

All Lin Chuan had to do was open his mouth.

Ever since becoming a director, Lin Chuan's threshold had risen.

Naturally, he had lost interest in many of Blue Star's entertainment products.

Whenever he wanted to watch a decent piece of entertainment, he would turn one on and find he'd made it himself.

With a snap of his fingers, the TV switched off on its own.

Lin Chuan called out to the system in his mind. "System, do you have any new missions or rewards?"

"I'd like to take it easy this morning, so don't assign me anything like making a movie."

A translucent system screen appeared before Lin Chuan:

[The total number of followers on the host's social media accounts has reached 11.53 million. The host has been awarded a total of 1,100 Stamina Value.]

[The host may continue to gain followers on social media.]

11.23 million?

That many already?

Lin Chuan was a little surprised.

After the press conference yesterday, he'd only posted Happy Family's promotional song on Weibo and Bika Net.

Go Home and See Often.

After posting it, Lin Chuan had glanced at his follower counts on Bika Net and Weibo.

Combined, they had only been around six million.

It had only been a day, and his followers had increased by five million overnight?

Lin Chuan logged into Bika Net and found that interview clips of Director Hou, Teacher Xu Xiu, Teacher Ma Wei, and the others had gone viral.

Each video had averaged around 500,000 views.

The viewers' comments were full of enthusiasm:

"What does it mean to be a good actor? Just watch Director Hou's interview. A truly good actor is willing to sacrifice the image of their character for a role!"

"Teacher Xu Xiu nearly made me cry! A mother really is the most devoted audience member in your life."

"Teacher Ma Wei made some really fair points, too."

"This is the first time I've felt so sorry for Ren Hang. Acting alongside a whole group of veteran actors like that would put anyone under immense pressure!"

"Why didn't I see any pressure on Director Lin's face?"

"Maybe it's just me, but I feel like Lin Chuan put the other actors under pressure. In the name of acting, of course."

Lin Chuan opened Dog Eye as well and checked Happy Family's real-time box office.

He saw that Happy Family had already earned 145 million.

Three days after Happy Family's release, its box office had surpassed 100 million.

In just half a day, it had climbed by another 40 million or so.

At this rate, it had a good chance of reaching 200 million within five days!

The speeches at the celebration had brought Happy Family's box office more attention.

A high box office had, in turn, brought in more buzz.

It was only natural that interview clips of the cast had gone viral as well.

Lin Chuan checked the Bika Net accounts of Director Hou and the others.

He found that Director Hou and the others had passed 500,000 followers.

Teacher Ma Wei had 200,000, while Teacher Xu Xiu had surpassed a million.

All three accounts featured vlogs promoting Happy Family on their home pages.

They had each shared their experiences of going to see the movie.

The bond between teacher and student touched Lin Chuan deeply.

All three accounts had been newly registered.

Lin Chuan knew that someone as old as Director Hou rarely used a video platform like Bika Net, where most of the users were young people.

Registering an account had probably taken quite a bit of effort.

They had promoted Happy Family, and the movie had brought them more attention in return.

To give a plum and receive a jade pendant in return was also part of the bond between teacher and student.

The interview clip with the most views was still the one where a female reporter interviewed Lin Chuan.

His line, "If people suspect you have a weapon of mass destruction, you'd better actually have one!" had become a viral quote.

"Audiences aren't obligated to walk into a movie theater!"

For a while, it became a catchphrase online.

A lot of people remarked, "Some directors treat the audience like suckers, just trying to fleece them for all they're worth."

"But other directors treat the audience like friends."

After checking Bika Net, Lin Chuan logged into Weibo.

He found that the top trending topic was unexpectedly #South Korea's Suicide Bridge Incident#.

Lin Chuan clicked on the topic and read the news.

As it turned out, Mapo Bridge in South Korea was a popular spot for people considering suicide.

A few days before Happy Family was released, the South Korean government had tried to change that.

They put a number of uplifting slogans along both sides of the bridge.

[Do you remember what you were worried about three years ago?]

[What about a year ago? What about six months ago?]

[Your current worries will soon be in the past, too.]

[Every moment when you feel tired will pass like the river.]

The slogans were uplifting, full of positive energy.

The result was that six people jumped from the bridge within a week of the slogans going up.

Plenty of netizens weighed in on the incident:

"Talk about fiction becoming reality."

"When I watched Happy Family, I wondered if anyone would really jump off a bridge because of a slogan."

"I never thought South Koreans would give me such a harsh lesson in reality!"

"Well, they can't exactly tear down the bridge, can they?"

The original version of Happy Family from Earth didn't have a suicide bridge scene.

Lin Chuan had added it on a sudden inspiration while filming.

He hadn't expected it to spark such a heated discussion among netizens.

"Before watching Happy Family, I might have thought that people who took their own lives were just too fragile."

"After watching Happy Family, I believe they must have had their own troubles."

"There's an old Chinese saying: Better to live a wretched life than die a good death. It's always better to be alive!"

Lin Chuan had always disliked South Koreans in his previous life.

The country was arrogant and conceited, and liked to call itself the Land of the Universe. That was bad enough.

It also stole Chinese culture left and right.

It had even tried to claim the Dragon Boat Festival as its own, and say that Qu Yuan was one of its countrymen.

But later, Lin Chuan heard about a South Korean police officer who had died trying to save an elderly Chinese man from drowning.

That made him change his attitude toward the people of that country somewhat.

Every country had good people.

Lin Chuan had always felt that no one would take their own life unless they were truly at the end of their rope.

They hadn't chosen to take revenge on society or make life difficult for those around them. They had simply chosen to end their own lives. That was all.

As far as Lin Chuan was concerned, if Happy Family could help audiences feel compassion and understanding for people who had died by suicide, that would be enough.

Even if those people were South Korean.

It would still count as a small, insignificant thing Lin Chuan had done.

The second trending topic was a clip of Lin Chuan making a pen float at the celebration.

After gaining the gift of telekinesis, Lin Chuan had finally been unable to hold back.

At the celebration, he used magic as an excuse to put on a little show for everyone.

Although some netizens had seen through it and thought Lin Chuan was performing real magic under the guise of a magic trick, everyone else treated it like a joke.

When he made the pen float in midair, Lin Chuan had felt an incredible sense of accomplishment.

The third trending topic was a prediction of Happy Family's box office.

Lin Chuan counted the trending topics.

He found that Happy Family-related topics accounted for six of the top ten.

No wonder Happy Family's box office was climbing so quickly.

No wonder Lin Chuan had gained five million followers on social media overnight.

Mystery solved. He'd found the reason his social media following had soared by five million overnight.

Lin Chuan decided to give Happy Family's buzz another push.

He would partner with Weibo to hold a writing contest.

After a brief discussion with Weibo's staff, they tentatively set the prize pool at one million yuan, with twenty winners.

Once they'd worked out the details, Lin Chuan posted on Weibo:

[Everyone, I saw the news about the suicide bridge in South Korea. What can I say? Please cherish your bad habits. They may be the main reason you love life.]

[I told you earlier that I was planning to hold a writing contest. It starts now.]

[Entries can be fan fiction based on Happy Family, or a small thing that moved you. As long as it doesn't violate any laws or regulations, you can enter.]

[For details, please contact @Weibo Official.]

The post went live, and the buzz kept building.

Lin Chuan's post resonated with a lot of people.

Two hours after he posted, he had gained another 400,000 followers.

Along with the extra followers he'd had before, that earned Lin Chuan another 100 Stamina Value.

Many netizens left comments:

"Please cherish your bad habits. They may be the main reason you love life. What a classic line!"

"After a whole day at work, I feel so happy when I can go to KFC on Thursday and order a family bucket!"

"So even though I'm broke and don't have a girlfriend, staying up every night playing on my phone keeps me from getting depressed!"

"To the person above, web novels have the same effect."

"I've already decided to start writing!"

"I can't imagine how happy I'd be if I won!"

Seeing how enthusiastic the netizens were about the contest, Lin Chuan felt reassured.

He left the details of the contest to Weibo's staff.

Lin Chuan would check in from time to time to make sure Weibo wasn't doing anything improper, like favoring its own people or giving them extra votes.

But overall, Weibo was a major platform. It wouldn't risk provoking Lin Chuan for a tiny bit of profit.

With over a thousand Stamina Value in total, Lin Chuan was full of energy and stayed close to his peak condition almost all the time.

Of course, Lin Chuan's stamina was far beyond that of an ordinary person, but his strength was only a little greater than average.

He still couldn't lift a one-ton stone with his bare hands.

So, after posting about the writing contest, Lin Chuan felt that he'd rested enough. It was time to get back to work.

He spoke to the system in his mind:

"System, give me a new mission. Hmm, this time, make it just a little harder than earning 100 million at the box office."