Chapter 236 Recording and Retiring from the Entertainment Industry

2007, New Year's Day.

It had been snowing in Beijing for several days, but today it was sunny for a rare time.

Such good weather on this special day will undoubtedly arouse people's desire to go out.

But for Liu Zhou, it made no difference whether the weather was good or not. Even if the king of heaven came, he could not disturb his sleep.

Previously, Liu Zhou had been on the road for more than ten days to promote the movie "Red Cliff". In order to increase the box office, he also set an example this time.

The final result was that Liu Zhou was exhausted when he returned to the capital.

But before Liu Zhou could fully recover, Zeng Li came back from abroad.

Her father is abroad. Although Zeng Li lives with her mother, she does not disconnect from her father. On the contrary, Zeng Li's father loves her very much.

This time, Zeng Li's father fell ill and was hospitalized, so she went abroad in person and took care of her father for a while. She returned to Beijing on the last day of 2006.

It can be said that the two have not seen each other for two or three months.

Liu Zhou was previously filming a movie in the United States, and when he returned to China, it happened to be the wrong time for him and Zeng Li to return because she had gone abroad.

So until now, the two have not met again.

Needless to say, the two of them were immediately attracted to each other and ignored their physical fatigue. They fought directly from 2006 to 2007.

The fighting lasted until after three in the morning, when both men were exhausted and the fighting ended.

So, on New Year's Day, Liu Zhou slept until noon before waking up.

Liu Zhou looked around and saw that Zeng Li had already gotten up, and then he couldn't help rubbing his eyes.

At this moment, Liu Zhou felt his mind was particularly clear. He stood up and opened the curtains, and the warm sunlight immediately shone in.

Looking at the snow scene outside, Liu Zhou couldn't help but stretch.

Before Liu Zhou finished stretching, the door suddenly opened and Zeng Li walked in.

"I thought you were still sleeping, and was just about to wake you up. Now that you're up, go wash up and get ready for dinner."

"You finished the meal so quickly?"

"You think I'm you? You're sleeping like a pig. I've been up for two or three hours."

After Liu Zhou simply washed up, he came to the restaurant and saw three dishes and a soup already placed on the table.

"I haven't eaten your cooking for a long time. It smells delicious."

"If it smells good, eat more later."

Liu Zhou took the rice from Zeng Lisheng and immediately turned into a foodie.

After consuming so much last night and not having had breakfast, Liu Zhou was already very hungry.

"By the way, Lizi, I forgot to ask you last night, how is your dad doing?"

"It's nothing serious now. He's just a little weak and a little anemic."

"Then he needs to rest well and take more supplements. Let him put aside the business he is doing for the time being."

"I talked to him, but he refused and there was nothing I could do. I couldn't persuade him."

"It's understandable, after all, this is the career he built with his own hands. If he really has to give it up, he will definitely be reluctant to do so."

"You men are all the same. You don't care about anything for your career."

After hearing Zeng Li's words, Liu Zhou immediately stopped talking and started eating seriously.

Recently, Liu Zhou has been busy with filming movies and company matters, and has indeed neglected her a bit.

But now Liu Zhou's career has stabilized, and he just needs to follow the plan step by step.

Liu Zhou won't be so busy in the future and can spend more time with her.

"By the way, Zhou Zhou, I haven't congratulated you yet. This time, it should be no problem for Red Cliff to break the box office record of Titanic, right?"

"It should be fine."

As of now, "Red Cliff" is about to end its third week of screening, with a total of seventeen days in the theaters, and the box office has exceeded 300 million.

Although the daily box office revenue has decreased a lot now, it is a foregone conclusion that the box office record of 3.6 million set by "Titanic" will be broken.

Now everyone is looking forward to whether "Red Cliff" can become the first movie to break 400 million box office after being postponed for one month.

Liu Zhou feels that there is still great hope, because there are almost no movies released in the nearly two months between the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival.

Only one film, "Swords of Legends 2", will be released on the first day of the Lunar New Year, but there is still more than a month away.

"You guys are really amazing. You have finally saved the face of us mainland filmmakers."

Back in the late 3.6s, when a box office of tens of millions in mainland China was considered a huge success, "Titanic" came out of nowhere and directly brought the box office to million.

At that time, mainland filmmakers were not only shocked by the movie "Titanic" itself, but also by the box office of the movie, and even felt powerless.

Many people think that this record is impossible to break.

It was not until the appearance of "Hero" that everyone saw a little hope. Although the box office of "Hero" stopped at 2.48 million, it was still more than million away from the record of "Titanic".

But at least it proves that domestic films can also get high box office, unlike before, when the highest box office was only around tens of millions.

After Hero, several years of attempts to break the record ended in failure.

Now that "Red Cliff" has finally been a success, most mainland filmmakers are happy, regardless of whether it is related to this movie or not.

After all, in South Korea, the highest-grossing movies in their country are all domestic movies, only in mainland China, they are still foreign movies.

No matter how you look at it, it's a shameful thing.

Now, I won’t be ridiculed by Korean filmmakers because of my box office records anymore.

"In fact, don't be too happy too soon. It's been almost ten years since Titanic was released, and we just broke the record. Who knows, there might be another blockbuster movie coming out of Hollywood that will break the record of Red Cliff again."

"Isn't this possible?"

"There's nothing that can't be done. Who knows?"

Historically, mainland movies have never broken the record of "Titanic" until 09, when it was broken by "Transformers 2".

But soon afterwards, the box office record of "Transformers 2" was broken by James Cameron's "Avatar".

What makes mainland filmmakers even more desperate is that "Avatar" directly raised the mainland's box office record to the billion level.

But no one expected that in just two or three years, the record of "Avatar" would be broken by a low-budget comedy.

Since then, the mainland's movie box office record has never been lost and has always been firmly occupied by domestic films.

At this time, Liu Zhou felt full, put down his bowl and chopsticks, and asked seriously:
"Lizi, do you remember what I said to you when we were together?"

"Of course I remember. You said you would make her the most famous actress in China." Zeng Li replied with a smile.

"Lizi, in the past few years, besides making movies, I have been busy with other careers. Now that several companies have stabilized, I can finally take the time to fulfill what I promised you."

Although Liu Zhou's words sounded a bit childish when he first said them, they were truly from the heart.

It was fine at the beginning. Through the two movies "My Sassy Girl" and "Only You", plus her stunning performance on the Spring Festival Gala, Zeng Li became one of the most popular female stars in mainland China at that time.

Even among the four major actresses selected, she is still ranked first.

But later, as Liu Zhou focused on his career, Zeng Li did not produce any hit works, so her popularity gradually declined.

Up to now, among the four major actresses, Zeng Li’s popularity is not as good as Zhang Ziyi and Zhou Gongzi.

Maybe he is only slightly better than Boss Zhao, who has many scandals surrounding him. Even the two Ice brothers have caught up with him.

Now that Liu Zhou has time to spare, he plans to continue to personally help Zeng Li become the most popular.

However, Zeng Li, who was expected to be happy to hear his words, shook her head and said:
"Zhou Zhou, I'm very happy that you still remember what I said. It's enough that you have this thought. I think your current status is pretty good. If you are really that famous, you will have a lot more troubles."

This is also what Zeng Li really thinks. She is not a person who is too obsessed with fame. What's more, she has been very popular before.

The most important thing to her now is Liu Zhou, not her own acting career.

In the past two years, Liu and Zhou have been very busy and the two have had few opportunities to meet.

Zeng Li believed that Liu Zhou had the ability and strength to do what he said. If she really became that famous by then, she would have even less time to spend with Liu Zhou.

This situation is fine in the short term, but if it lasts for a long time, there will definitely be problems in the relationship between the two.

Zeng Li has been talking with Liu Zhou since college, and has long regarded Liu Zhou as her closest person.

Compared to her own acting career, Zeng Li feels that Liu Zhou is much more important in her heart.

Moreover, Zeng Li had sensed early on that Liu Zhou actually didn't want to show up in public.

But because he loves himself, Liu Zhou also respects his career and even tries his best to help himself.

Now she has become famous and has got some pretty good roles, and she has lived up to what she learned in four years of college.

Therefore, Zeng Li plans to focus on her life and gradually retire from the entertainment industry.

If I ever get the urge to act in a drama in the future, I can also act in a drama, or occasionally play a role in a film or TV series.

The only regret is that there is no Best Actress trophy with a higher value.

"Lizi, hasn't it always been your dream to be an actress? And you should know that I can now fulfill my original promise."

When Zeng Li heard Liu Zhou's words, she stood up and sat on his lap, put her arms around his neck, and said with a smile:

"Of course I know you can do it, but my dream now is to live with you forever. Nothing else matters."

Afterwards, Zeng Li also shared her thoughts with Liu Zhou.

After hearing this, Liu Zhou couldn't help but tighten his grip on Zeng Li's waist and said:

"Lizi, are you really willing to gradually fade away?"

"I am willing. From now on, I will prepare meals for you every day and wait for you to come back. Then we can have a child. We can also act in dramas occasionally. I think this kind of life is what I want most."

Looking at Zeng Li's shining eyes, Liu Zhou also smiled and said:
"Okay, I'll come back every day for dinner from now on."

(End of this chapter)