On stage, the sudden change on the big screen caused the leaders, guests, and movie stars present to look up.
The curtain flickered with light, and a piercing static sound came from all the speakers in the venue.
"Screech—"
Leaders and guests involuntarily covered their ears.
The next second, traditional Dragon Country music filled the venue, and the flashing screen began to display images.
On the big screen, two celestial cranes, accompanied by the calls and dances of traditional music, bloomed with pale red lotus flowers and dark green lotus leaves beneath their feet.
Suddenly, a lifelike golden dragon soared into the sky, its earth-shattering roar breaking through the clouds as it soared above the celestial cranes.
The classic Dragon Country ink wash style opening was both elegant and powerful!
As the traditional music ended, the image changed.
The majestic golden dragon circling the screen transformed into two characters: "Dragon Country."
The celestial cranes standing on the lotus flowers and leaves became four characters: "Fei He Films."
The font, amidst the clashing sounds of heavy metal, sparked and rearranged itself.
Six dragon characters, burning with flames, ignited the screen.
"Dragon Country—Fei He Films."
Below, a small foreign language translation accompanied it.
Rumble!
Instantly, all the leaders, guests, and movie stars in the venue erupted in applause, the sound like an unending tide.
The enthusiastic applause was the highest praise for this stunning opening.
As the "Fei He Films" logo from Dragon Country faded, the promotional short film for "Black and White Edge" officially began.
First, the prelude to the theme song "Hero in the Dark" (a past life song, "Lone Brave") began to play.
Then, the lonely figure of Gao Fei appeared on the screen.
A ray of sunlight shone on the left half of his body, from head to toe, depicting his attire as an undercover agent.
On the other side, his right half was hidden in darkness, showing him in his police uniform.
This novel opening highlighted the theme and simultaneously captivated the attention of the numerous guests in the venue.
The subsequent clips were edited from the exciting plot of "Black and White Edge."
There were fighting scenes, gunfights, and scenes of youth...
The two-minute promotional short film, accompanied by the passionate theme song, finally concluded.
Applause erupted again, with most of the foreigners clapping enthusiastically for the film's trailer.
Wang He, Jin Qiqi, and Director Liu Weiqiang from Fei He Films, along with others, stood up and applauded, deeply moved by the sudden appearance and conclusion of the promotional short.
Zhang Zhiwei and others from Huanqiu Films, and Ms. Hu Yuan from Paiwei International Films, though feeling a little disappointed to see "Black and White Edge" on the screen, still stood up to applaud and encourage Fei He Films.
Before the applause in the entire venue subsided, the image on the screen changed again.
The promotional short for Huanqiu Films' "Breakthrough the Siege" appeared on screen and began to play.
In the backstage control room.
George, the associate director of the film festival's opening ceremony, watched the second promotional short film about to be played in the venue with extreme anxiety.
He looked at the technical staff in front of the computer and demanded loudly, "Why haven't the projectors been turned off? Why?"
"Mr. George, the control console's computer has been hacked. I'm currently fighting for control and will resolve it soon."
The technical staff, sitting under the air conditioning, was sweating profusely and replied urgently.
Upon hearing about the hacking, Associate Director George's brows furrowed, and he prayed silently that the technical staff would win.
After all, tonight was intentionally targeted at Dragon Country. If Dragon Country's three promotional films were allowed to play completely, his position would be at risk.
Huanqiu Films' "Breakthrough the Siege" promotional short had already been playing for twenty seconds.
The technical staff was helpless against the intruder.
Finally, with a one-second lag on the computer, he was defeated.
"I'm sorry, Mr. George, I'm no match for the hacker. They won."
The technical staff withdrew their hands from the keyboard and sighed in resignation.
Seeing the promotional short still playing, Associate Director George was about to unplug the computer's power when he was stopped by the chief director who had just entered the control room.
"Forget it, George. Let the promotional short play. If we pull the power now and terminate the broadcast, the film festival in Jiada Country will become a laughingstock of the world this year."
"But... Director Brut, you know why Dragon Country's films are not being shown tonight. If the promotional shorts are allowed to play, I will be expelled by the Jiada Country Film Association."
George worried about his future. If he was expelled, he would be completely out of the Jiada Country film industry.
Chief Director Brut patted his shoulder reassuringly, "It was a sudden incident, and it was a hacker intrusion. I will explain the situation to the higher-ups. Don't worry."
The people in the control room, seeing the computer being hijacked, could only let the intruder operate.
After the promotional short finished playing, they would immediately pull the plug.
In the venue.
As the promotional short for "Breakthrough the Siege" ended, the promotional short for Paiwei International Films' "The Last Battle" began to play.
Seeing the three promotional shorts for Dragon Country's films playing in sequence as scheduled, the guests from various countries in the venue believed that the host's earlier statement about the lost Dragon Country promotional videos was just a lighthearted joke.
However, the leaders of Dragon Country, and the guests who were specially "taken care of" by the organizers, knew exactly what was going on.
The loss of Dragon Country's promotional videos was no joke.
Tonight, first there was the special targeting of the film screening times.
Then, the organizers intentionally excluded Dragon Country's guests, arranging their seats in a corner of the venue.
Finally, there was the deliberate refusal to play the promotional shorts.
All signs pointed to a veiled attempt to target Dragon Country.
It was just that the leaders and guests of Dragon Country hadn't expected the promotional shorts to suddenly appear on the screen.
Furthermore, they noticed the expressions of the host on stage and some of the on-site staff; when the promotional shorts suddenly appeared, everyone looked incredibly shocked.
Director Zhou Shihua glanced at the incredulous leader of Jiada Country beside him and whispered to Lu Zheng, "The sudden broadcast of our country's three promotional films seems to have surprised these people from Jiada Country. It looks like someone intentionally helped our Dragon Country, but we don't know who."
"Jiada Country didn't expect someone to catch them off guard and help us out of that awkward situation. If we knew who it was, we would definitely reward them handsomely. Even if it's a foreigner, we should quietly present them with a medal," Counselor Lu Zheng said with a sigh of relief.
As the two were talking, Zhou Shihua's phone vibrated lightly twice.
He looked at the text message on his phone, which was from a domestic number.
Upon seeing the content of the message, Director Zhou's eyes sharpened, and he stared in stunned disbelief.
Noticing Zhou Shihua's expression, Lu Zheng curiously turned his eyes and asked, "Old Zhou, what are you doing? You're spacing out while looking at your phone?"
With that, Director Zhou handed him the phone.
After seeing the content of the message, Counselor Lu was also stunned for a moment, then smiled, "Our young comrade, despite being in the country, is still concerned about overseas matters. We are truly fortunate he intervened tonight."
In the text message.
The content was a six-line acrostic poem that only Chinese people could understand.
The first six characters combined meant "Gao Fei has already made a move."
It indicated that Gao Fei, in China, used hacking technology to help the Dragon Country people attending the film festival resolve their awkward predicament.
This message was quickly deleted by Zhou Shihua, and neither he nor Lu Zheng intended to inform others from Dragon Country about the reason for the sudden broadcast of the promotional films.
After all, revealing it would affect diplomatic relations between the two countries.
However, even though the two didn't say anything, Jin Qiqi and Wang He had already vaguely guessed.
The promotional shorts that were told they couldn't be shown suddenly reappearing should have something to do with Gao Fei, who was far away in China.
The two exchanged glances and smiled knowingly.
As the three promotional films for Dragon Country concluded, the opening ceremony gala of the Jiada Film Festival was drawing to a close.
After the three films' promotional shorts were screened, Associate Director George in the control room quickly pulled the plug, and the computer screen immediately went black.
The big screen on the venue's stage also went dark, leaving no trace of the power being unplugged.
With the unexpected situation resolved, the male and female hosts returned to the stage.
After they congratulated the three Dragon Country films as required by the chief director, they invited celebrity guests to perform songs.
After three guests performed their songs in rotation, the opening ceremony gala of the film festival finally concluded.
All the guests orderly exited the venue. Some guests did not leave in a hurry after exiting.
This was because the films they brought would premiere in the later time slots.
The Jiada Film Festival organizers had set up eight screening halls for the twenty-four films scheduled for premiere.
The twenty-four films were divided into three different time slots for their premieres.
The first batch of eight films included three from the United States, three from South Korea, and two from New Zealand.
The films from all three countries were scheduled for prime time at 11 PM.
The gala ended at 10 PM, so they only had to wait an hour to watch the premiere.
Dragon Country's films and films from other countries were scheduled for midnight premieres.
Many movie stars and directors left the gala venue and rushed to their hotels to rest, preparing to stay up late to watch their films' premieres at the film festival.
As for the Dragon Country delegation, after the gala ended, they exchanged greetings and then dispersed.
Wang He, along with Jin Qiqi, Liu Weiqiang, the actors, and the crew members, went to find a place to have a late-night snack.
Their group had only arrived in Jiada Country today. After checking into their hotel upon landing, they rushed to attend the film festival.
Although they had eaten something on the plane, by the time the gala ended, the entire group was ravenous.
Since "Black and White Edge" was scheduled for a 2 AM premiere, the Fei He Films contingent did not return to their hotel to rest. They planned to eat, then go to the beach to set off some fireworks before heading to the film festival screening hall for the premiere.
Just as Wang He had booked a Chinese restaurant by the sea to treat his company's employees, Gao Fei, back in China, was still awake.
It was 10:30 PM in Jiada Country, and 4:30 AM in China.
In the Ziguang Mansion villa area in the capital.
Gao Fei sat in front of his computer, with five empty coffee cups placed beside him.
Looking at foreign entertainment news websites, he had no desire to sleep.
"South Korea, Japan, Belarus, do you guys like to be sarcastic? And Jiada Country, do you like to be disgusting? I'll crush you!"