A New Type of Relationship

2019 was the last hurrah for China's internet giants, especially Goose Factory. ByteDance couldn't yet threaten their position, and Goose Factory was like a watchful Leviathan across the country.

The interactive entertainment sector within Goose Factory held a significant position, capable of mobilizing vast resources.

However, the film industry's investment-to-return relationship wasn't strong, leaving Goose Factory to watch helplessly as Ali Pictures consistently produced a hit every year while they had no counter-strategy.

The failure of big data analysis combined with the film distribution model left Goose Factory's film business somewhat adrift.

In fact, Kuala Lumpur Affairs was a coincidence. Before The Wandering Earth was released, they, as industry insiders, heard the film's effects were excellent, so they chose Guo Fan as the director in the final selection.

Goose Factory anticipated The Wandering Earth would be a hit, but they never expected it to reach 4.6 billion at the box office.

Therefore, after The Wandering Earth exploded, Goose Factory internally raised the rating of Kuala Lumpur Affairs. After the finished film was screened internally at Goose Factory, it was given an S-level rating.

As for Chen Yuanguang's achievements, it was also a pleasant surprise for Goose Factory.

Before the film's release, Goose Factory's publicity machine went into full swing. The public's admiration for top students in China further fueled the promotion.

"Hello everyone, I am Chen Yuanguang. This is my Weibo. My sci-fi mystery novel Kuala Lumpur Affairs has been adapted into a movie and is about to be released. Feel free to leave any questions under my Weibo. I will pick some to answer every day before the movie's release."

Under Goose Factory's arrangement, Chen Yuanguang's Sina Weibo was verified for promotional warm-up.

After this Weibo was reposted by big Vs, the replies from netizens quickly exceeded ten thousand.

"As a research dog, what I want to know most is how to publish in Nature consecutively?"

"Read more articles, think more. I don't have a better method for this."

"Scientists and writers are completely different paths. I want to ask how God of Light would choose?"

"Probably balance both, mainly doing research and writing in my spare time."

"I heard a Nobel Prize winner wanted you to be his doctoral student, and you refused. Is this true?"

This matter was spread by Guo Wei because he was present when Chen Yuanguang met with Levitt.

He told his friends about this as a rumor in CD City. At first, no one believed it.

Only after Chen Yuanguang published his second Nature article and it was widely publicized by Goose Factory did Guo Wei's friends believe it, and then the WeChat chat records were spread everywhere.

"Yes."

"Why refuse a Nobel Prize winner?"

In a formal setting, Chen Yuanguang didn't want to reveal his true purpose: "Because I'm not very interested in his research direction."

From the questions under the Weibo, it was clear that most people were more interested in Chen Yuanguang's research experience and not so much in the movie or his identity as a writer.

"I want to ask if God of Light has a girlfriend?"

"Yes," Lin Jia pursed her lips and thought for a moment, then answered directly for him.

After real-name verification, this Weibo essentially became a work Weibo. Plus, Chen Yuanguang hadn't used it much before; he registered it simply to be able to browse Weibo.

So both he and Lin Jia used this Weibo.

When Lin Jia saw this answer being liked and pushed to the front, she subconsciously answered for him. After answering, she screenshotted it and sent it to Chen Yuanguang via WeChat:

"I answered 'yes' for you to block some unnecessary unwanted attention."

Chen Yuanguang felt helpless seeing this. She was even jealous of this kind of thing. However, after becoming famous, the private messages in his Weibo backend were indeed full of exciting content from beautiful women, though he didn't know if they were using online photos or top-tier Photoshop skills.

"Are you very pleased with yourself? Becoming a celebrity?" Lin Jia was a bit unhappy.

Since the movie's release was still some time away, this period was essentially the pre-release warm-up.

The marketing activities planned for Chen Yuanguang hadn't even started yet, and Jiang University's graduation ceremony was about to begin, so both Chen Yuanguang and Lin Jia had returned to Jiang City.

The apartment he had rented near Jiang University before hadn't been vacated; he had kept it.

Chen Yuanguang still wanted to find out who had placed the Matrix helmet outside his door back then.

"Not pleased. Where did you get the idea that I feel that way?" Chen Yuanguang felt bewildered.

Lin Jia's mindset was contradictory. Honestly, if Chen Yuanguang had remained in his original status, maintaining a relationship beyond friendship would have been fine, especially since she didn't plan to get married due to her father.

But now, Chen Yuanguang's social class had risen by more than one level, and his potential was visibly limitless. Lin Jia wasn't sure if Chen Yuanguang would still be willing to continue this entanglement with her and not marry anyone else.

Lin Jia explained, "It's not that I got the idea, but because it's human nature.

In modern society, fame is also a social resource. It must feel great to have thousands of comments and likes on a Weibo post, with everyone responding to your call, right?

When Weibo first became popular, countless celebrities joined because it satisfied the need for respect."

Chen Yuanguang thought for a moment: "I was only happy at the very beginning, and that happiness wasn't because of achievement, but because of novelty.

I experienced many things I hadn't experienced before, like adapting my work, filming movies, publishing in Nature, studying abroad, etc. I was happy because I unlocked new achievements in life.

Of course, being famous is also a feeling, and it's not bad. Becoming a celebrity, having everyone respond to your call on the internet.

But the problem is, I've experienced this before. When I was updating on Qidian, I still had over a hundred thousand readers and tens of thousands of paying users. It was the same, everyone responding to my call. Every time I updated, some people praised me, saying God of Light wrote well, and some cursed me, saying Light Dog took leave again.

So I've already experienced this feeling."

Lin Jia looked steadily at Chen Yuanguang, a smile like melting ice appearing on her face. "Okay, it seems I misunderstood you."

Lin Jia asked, "What do you think of our relationship?"

Chen Yuanguang roughly understood that Lin Jia felt a sense of crisis. "I think things are pretty good as they are now. In the future, we can still be like this, a relationship of friends plus collaborators."

Lin Jia asked again, "Just friends?"

Chen Yuanguang was helpless. "Sister Lin, we tried being together before. Didn't you feel it was weird being together? Couples always break up, but friends can stay together forever, right? Is that why we went back to being friends?"

Lin Jia scratched her head. "It seems so. The problem is, if we're just friends, I can't stop you from having a girlfriend, and I don't want to see you have a girlfriend."

Chen Yuanguang replied, "No problem. We'll still maintain this relationship that's more than friends, and it's good that we have our own space, unlike couples. As for marriage, you're afraid of it because of family reasons, and so am I."