Chapter 73: Liqueur Chocolates

November 11th.

The Double Eleven online shopping festival arrived right on schedule!

At the stroke of midnight, a fierce wave of “cut-hand” frenzy swept across the land of China in an instant.

Tens of millions of netizens unleashed a year’s worth of pent-up shopping desires all at once! It was as if a raging beast had burst out of Pandora’s box, breaking all sorts of sales records with unstoppable force and shaking the world.

This irresistible tide of online shopping fever set both merchants and customers ablaze with enthusiasm!

Many employees of Kunlun Culture were so fired up in the early hours of the day that they went all out, as if injected with adrenaline. Still, none dared to stay up too late, for by seven o’clock the next morning, every employee had to assemble at the company.

At eleven o’clock that morning, “A Corpse of Rare Beauty” would officially premiere.

Before that, they needed to split up and carry out the day’s promotional efforts for the film’s launch.

That morning, Huang Guokun convened a motivational meeting, promising that if “A Corpse of Rare Beauty” became a hit, every employee would receive a red envelope at the end-of-year party next month so generous it would move them to tears!

It had been ages since Huang Guokun made such a golden promise. The veteran staff knew well that whenever President Huang made such a pledge, he always delivered!

If he said he’d move you to tears, he would absolutely make it happen!

Such tangible promises stirred the employees’ fervor far more than any empty words.

After the rally, everyone dove into work with gusto.

Some directed the online water army to flood major forums and create buzz for the film’s release;

Others contacted entertainment media and social influencers to send out press releases for the new movie;

Still others called on friends to reach out to celebrities and internet personalities, paying them to promote the film on social media.

Huang Guokun himself led the creative team to Nanluoguxiang for the most crucial street-level promotion.

They’d booked a prime-location movie salon—essentially a tea house—hung large promotional posters along the street, and invited tourists in for free to interact with the creative team.

Visitors to the tea house not only received complimentary tea, but also a themed cultural T-shirt for “A Corpse of Rare Beauty.”

This movie salon was the centerpiece of the promotional campaign for “A Corpse of Rare Beauty.”

The owner of the tea house was a junior schoolmate from the Film Academy, Huang Guokun’s close friend. Thanks to his assistance in providing the venue free of charge, Huang Guokun and his team were able to pull off this event.

That morning, all Kunlun Culture employees wore the promotional T-shirts for “A Corpse of Rare Beauty” over their clothes.

Yet, the cultural shirts distributed earlier to relatives and friends weren’t much seen on the streets that morning.

After all, there was nothing in it for those people; asking them to wear such a T-shirt over their clothes on a chilly day was just too embarrassing—few would swallow their pride for such a favor.

On the contrary, the high school students from Experimental Secondary School found it amusing. Quite a few wore the “A Corpse of Rare Beauty” shirts out that day.

Bai Yao had previously shown the shirt to Zhang Liang and others, explaining that all the film’s music was composed by Huang Guolun, which greatly piqued their interest.

They all vowed to see the movie to support Teacher Huang and promised to wear the film’s T-shirt to promote it over the weekend.

And they truly did as they said.

Zhang Liang not only wore the shirt out on his adventures, but also posted photos to his social circle, calling on his WeChat friends to support Teacher Huang’s film.

Bai Yao rarely posted on her social feed, but that morning, she made a rare post—a cool photo in the promotional T-shirt, cheering for the movie.

Huang Guolun himself was no exception.

He too posted to his circle of friends, rallying them to see the new film proudly produced by Kunlun Culture.

He had never before advertised anything produced by Kunlun Culture.

He found such things a bit vulgar and was reluctant to do it.

But this time, he was personally involved in the film, and the company was at a crossroads of life and death, so he threw all caution to the wind, doing everything he could to promote the movie.

“Yay, yay! I finally get to see Bubbles again! Yay, yay!”

That morning, as Huang Guolun drove Huang Tao and Bai Yao to the zoo, Huang Tao was beside himself with excitement. The “Bubbles” he was referring to was a young orangutan.

Anyone familiar with MJ (Michael Jackson) should know that MJ had a world-famous pet orangutan named Bubbles.

A year ago, Huang Guolun had taken Huang Tao to the zoo and, in the orangutan enclosure, told him the story of MJ and Bubbles.

As a lover of pop music and someone formally trained in it, MJ held an irreplaceable place in Huang Guolun’s heart.

He not only admired MJ’s music, but also deeply respected MJ’s noble character.

MJ wasn’t just a musician, dancer, and songwriter; he was also a great philanthropist, humanitarian, and pacifist.

MJ’s contributions to the world far surpassed those of ordinary pop artists.

When telling Huang Tao about MJ, Huang Guolun focused on MJ’s profound charitable heart.

As for MJ later being falsely accused, vilified, and driven to despair until his tragic end—Huang Guolun certainly wouldn’t share those details with Huang Tao.

But MJ’s ordeal left Huang Guolun with a sobering lesson.

A figure like MJ, with such extraordinary character and talent—almost godlike—was slandered and then mocked and ridiculed by the world. It was deeply disheartening.

MJ spent the latter part of his life suffering, sustained only by painkillers.

He was only truly vindicated after his death.

Because of MJ and other artists who suffered injustice, Huang Guokun kept his distance from the entertainment industry.

He didn’t want to mix in those circles himself.

Nor did he want Huang Tao to ever enter that world and endure such pressures.

But if Huang Tao really possessed the prodigious musical talent of someone like Djawadi or MJ, and was determined to walk that dazzling, irreversible path, then Huang Guolun would stake his life to protect him, serving as his strongest shield.

After telling Huang Tao the story of MJ and Bubbles last year, Huang Tao immediately took MJ’s charity for African children to heart.

He vowed then and there to become a great philanthropist like MJ when he grew up!

He wanted every child on earth to be able to eat snacks whenever they pleased!

He wanted to send unlimited snacks to every family struggling to buy treats for their children, so every child could eat snacks until they laughed in their sleep!

He wanted to become the true Snack President!

He even named a young orangutan at the zoo “Bubbles,” declaring that when he grew up, he would adopt it just like MJ.

Huang Tao’s charitable wish for every child to enjoy snacks like him was commendable, but Huang Guolun couldn’t help feeling something was off. If he really did become the Snack President, half the kids in the world would probably turn into little chubby ones like him...

“Dad, did you drink? Why do I smell alcohol?” Huang Tao suddenly asked halfway through the drive, catching a whiff of alcohol in the car.

Huang Guolun replied, “Of course not. I’m driving, how could I drink?”

Bai Yao, sitting next to Huang Tao, whispered, “Maybe it’s from me? I ate two chocolate liqueurs this morning.”

Hearing “chocolate liqueurs,” Huang Tao’s eyes lit up and he asked Bai Yao, “Sister Bai Yao, do you like chocolate liqueurs?”

“They’re alright,” Bai Yao answered. She usually didn’t eat snacks—her life was frugal and she rarely had the chance. The chocolate liqueurs her grandfather occasionally brought home were among her sweetest childhood memories.

Even now, Bai Yao rarely ate snacks, with chocolate liqueurs her only real interest.

But only when she was in a particularly good mood would she treat herself to a few.

Huang Tao licked his lips and asked, “Sister Bai Yao, do you have any more chocolate liqueurs? Give me one to try?”

Bai Yao replied awkwardly, “I don’t have any now, but there are some at home. I’ll let you have one when we get back.”

“No need to wait—we can just have Dad buy us some later!” Huang Tao eagerly petitioned Huang Guolun, “Dad, Sister Bai Yao wants chocolate liqueurs! You need to find somewhere to buy them for her!”

Bai Yao was mortified.

Huang Guolun laughed, “You just want them yourself—don’t put it on your Sister Bai Yao.”

“I don’t! I want everyone to eat them together, hehe. Dad, you should try some too after we buy them!”

“I can’t. I’m driving, and I can’t touch any alcohol.” Huang Guolun took the opportunity to educate Huang Tao, “Remember for life: Don’t drink and drive, don’t drive after drinking!”

Huang Tao raised an eyebrow and asked, “Why can’t you drive after drinking?”

Patiently, Huang Guolun explained, “Because drinking makes you dizzy, and driving like that is dangerous—easy to cause accidents!”

“But I saw in the news that twenty percent of traffic accidents every year are caused by drunk driving, which means the other eighty percent are caused by sober drivers. So, doesn’t that mean driving sober is more dangerous than driving drunk? Drunk driving is safer, right?”

Huang Guolun was flabbergasted and hurried to correct Huang Tao’s faulty reasoning, “That’s not how it works!”

“Why not?” Huang Tao counted on his fingers, “No matter how you look at it, accidents by sober drivers are several times more than those by drunk drivers!”

“You have to include all drivers! There are far, far more sober drivers than drunk ones. So even though sober drivers cause most accidents, it’s because... um... Bai Yao, you explain it to him. I can’t make it clear.”

Huang Guolun’s math was so poor he gave up in frustration.

Bai Yao laughed—her teacher was simply adorable. In music, he was a genius; in math, he was like an elementary schooler!

He couldn’t even explain such a simple probability problem—clearly, fate is fair to everyone.

Bai Yao quickly clarified for Huang Tao.

He finally understood, “Oh, I see! No wonder so many police officers check for drunk driving every night. I used to think they were just bored, stopping cars and having drivers blow into that alcohol tester.”

He continued, “Wang Xiaoshan’s dad from my kindergarten got detained by the police for blowing into that tester.”

Huang Guolun asked, “Why? Was it drunk driving?”

“No, it was apparently obstructing official duties.”

Huang Guolun was curious, “How did he obstruct official duties?”

Huang Tao took a piece of candy from his pocket, popped it in his mouth, and happily recounted, “I heard that one night, Wang Xiaoshan’s dad was driving home and got stopped at an intersection. The police handed him the alcohol tester, and he started blowing into it, saying: ‘Our family’s net worth is a billion! We have over eighty apartments! Three Range Rovers! Six Rolls-Royces! More than a dozen Ferraris!...’ The officer saw he was just talking instead of blowing, so said: ‘I told you to blow!’ Wang Xiaoshan’s dad suddenly understood, quickly blew into the tester, and said: ‘This is a lie detector—a special tool for American agents! Imported! Super expensive!...’ Before he could finish, he was taken away by the police for obstructing duties. Later, I heard he was really upset, saying the officer told him to blow, so he did, and still got arrested. He felt very wronged.”