Chapter 1648: 1648

Monday .

In the morning .

On the third day since the movie opened .

The International Celebrity Rankings Index was refreshed . The index saw yet another astonishing change of the rankings . Zhang Ye advanced from the 59th place on the international C-list rankings by seven places and was now ranked 52nd after his international popularity grew tremendously .

It had to be said that Zhang Ye’s international popularity had not moved at all prior to this . Furthermore, this was the third day since Wolf Warrior 2 had premiered . In fact, even though Wolf Warrior 2 was given a “global” release, its showtimes overseas were as good as negligible, and it could be considered as having only released in China . Yet that was still enough to increase Zhang Ye’s international popularity by a lot, so it could be seen just how great of a feat it was for a Chinese movie to defeat a Hollywood movie in the past weekend’s global box office rankings . It had completely shocked everyone around the world!

The whole world had their attention on this!

The media outlets of many countries were reporting about it!

Something about a world-class director .

Something about an international action star .

All kinds of titles were attached to Zhang Ye .

At this moment, the attacks from Hollywood started .

“The final box office earnings are still not confirmed . ”

“World-class director? That’ll depend on the gross box office earnings the movie gets . It has only been two days . ”

“I won’t acknowledge that he’s an international action star!”

“It’s clear as day that Zhang Ye’s physical fitness is atrocious, so how can he be called an international action star? That’s actually too professional a term to use for him . Actors who can be labeled as action stars are all very good at fighting . They have to do it for real and not just shoot a few action scenes to be called an action star . Neither would having a slightly better global box office performance earn them the title of being an international action star . Just look at Zhang Ye . Does he even look like he’s an actor who can fight? Don’t mention fighting, just based on his physical fitness alone, I doubt he can even run a mile, heh . ”

The barbs were all pointed at Zhang Ye .

The purpose of Hollywood’s attack was obvious . It was to stifle the bluster of Wolf Warrior 2’s performance to affect their box office earnings . Even now, they were still hopeful that Commando 2 would be able to beat Wolf Warrior 2 and that their own box office earnings would surpass their rival’s by the end of the day!

…

In China .

Shanghai .

Outside the airport, in a van .

Zhang Ye and several actors were on the way to a promotional tour stop . For the next few days, the main members of the film crew would be traveling the entire country to promote their movie . This was also their way to express their sincerity and help push Wolf Warrior 2’s box office earnings to a new high .

Ha Qiqi said, “Why is there a traffic jam?”

Zhang Zuo said anxiously, “There are news reports of major traffic jams happening all over Shanghai . ”

“This is bad . ” Sophia kept checking her watch . “The tour starts at 9 AM, but it’s almost 8 . What if we don’t make it on time?”

Honk honk honk!

Honk honk honk!

There was the sound of honking all around, but the traffic wasn’t moving at all!

Zhang Ye couldn’t sit around and wait anymore . “This show is our first stop and is crucial to our box office earnings, so we must not be late for it . How many kilometers are we away from the theater?”

Yao Jiancai said, “We’re still more than 20 kilometers away . ”

Ha Qiqi checked the GPS . “The entire way is congested . ”

Boss Qian Jr . let out a curse, “Fuck . If I knew it would’ve been like this, I would’ve asked my dad to buy a private helicopter . This traffic is delaying us! If we arrive late to our stop, those Hollywood bastards will surely seize the opportunity to attack us and claim that we don’t respect the audience! The entire world is looking at us under a microscope . If there is even a small mishap, they will definitely exaggerate and blow it out of proportion!”

They waited another two minutes .

The traffic was still not moving .

Zhang Ye looked out to the roadside . “Where’s the bike share 1 ?”

The several people in the car were taken aback . “What’s a bike share?”

Oh right .

That didn’t exist in this world yet .

Zhang Ye took a deep breath and did not say anything . Suddenly, under everyone’s puzzled gazes, he took out everything from his pockets: his cell phone, his wallet, and his keys . Then, he undid the buttons on his suit and took it off . Then he reached out to open the car door and said without looking back, “I’ll head over first!”

The several of them were dumbfounded .

“You’ll head over first?”

“But there’s a traffic jam!”

“H-How are you going there?”

At the next moment, they saw Zhang Ye sprinting forward!

The people in the car were all stunned!

Sophia nearly fainted . “Where are you running off to?”

Boss Qian Jr . exclaimed, “The fuck! It’s more than 20 kilometers away!”

Yao Jiancai shouted, “Did you drink this morning? You won’t be able to get there even if we gave you a day!”

Ha Qiqi and the others nearly vomited blood . They wanted to stop him but couldn’t, so they watched as Zhang Ye disappeared running through the traffic!

Jacques could not understand Mandarin and was still looking bewildered by what just happened . “Where is the director going?”

Boss Qian Jr . facepalmed and said, “He running to the theater . ”

Jacques was stupefied . “What?”

…

On the way there .

Countless people lowered their car windows .

“Oh my God!”

“Everyone, look at who that is!”

“It’s Zhang Ye!”

“It’s really Face-smacking Zhang!”

“What is he doing?”

“Is he jogging? But this is the highway!”

…

At another section of the road .

“Ah!”

“Zhang Ye?”

“Damn, I just saw a celebrity!”

“Ah, Zhang Ye is jumping off the bridge!”

“Damn, he really leaped over and jumped down!”

“What’s he in such a rush for?”

…

On Weibo .

A headline began to trend on Weibo .

The Weibo headline was called: The Running Zhang Ye .

“The coordinates are in Shanghai!”

“Zhang Ye is still running!”

“Wow, I saw him too! He’s run to where I am!”

“Where’s he heading?”

“Isn’t the first stop for the movie’s promotional tour happening today?”

“Oh yes, there are traffic jams everywhere in Shanghai today . C-Could he be fucking thinking of running to the theater?”

“Huh?”

On this morning, Zhang Ye was all over Weibo .

Passing through the various sections of the highway, netizens took pictures of him and provided real-time updates on Weibo .

…

At 9:30 AM .

The promotional tour stop event had begun half an hour ago .

The traffic in Shanghai started easing up .

Ha Qiqi said to the driver, “Quick, drive, we need to hurry!”

Zhang Zuo asked, “Did you spot Director Zhang?”

Sophia kept her eyes on the road as the car drove . “No, I can’t see him at all!”

“Who knows which way he went!” Yao Jiancai also had his face close to the car window as he looked for any signs of Zhang Ye . “He couldn’t have run off too far ahead in one and a half hours . I guess he must have been running blindly and took a wrong turn somewhere . Since he left his cell phone in the car, we can’t reach him either . We’ve almost reached the destination, so he might as well have just stayed with us and been late by only 40 minutes . ”

Sophia said, “What will we do if the director is not there with us?”

Ha Qiqi said, “We still have to do it . We have to try to hold out for a bit . ”

Jacques sighed . “I guess that’s the only way . ”

Zhang Zuo said, “When we get there, let’s apologize first”

Ten minutes later .

The car reached the entrance of the movie theater .

The crew jumped out of the car and fast walked inside .

Upon seeing one of the event staffers, Ha Qiqi and the others hurriedly apologized, “Sorry, we were late due to traffic . ”

The staffer said, “It’s fine . Go in quickly . ”

Ha Qiqi said, “Everyone must be getting impatient, right? It’s our fault . Director Zhang also encountered some problems and will probably not be able to make it in time for the showing, so—”

The staffer said startled, “Director Zhang?”

Zhang Zuo said, “We’re sorry about that . ”

But the staffer said, “Director Zhang arrived long ago . ”

Everyone was stunned to hear that . “What?”

The staffer pointed inside and said, “Director Zhang has already arrived . In fact, he even got here at five minutes to 9 . ”

Sophia’s legs nearly gave way!

Yao Jiancai stared with wide eyes . “Impossible!”

No one could believe it, and they rushed inside to have a look .

In the end, they saw Zhang Ye in the theater, holding a microphone and laughing as he said confidently, “If everyone likes this movie, then please show us some support . As for the slander from those people in Hollywood, just pretend that you didn’t hear it . Consider it nonsense from those bastards . ”

The media and audience laughed .

At this moment, Zhang Ye spotted Ha Qiqi and the others . He smiled and said, “Alright, the main crew and actors have arrived . I’ll leave the rest of the questions for them . ”

Sophia stared in shock!

Boss Qian Jr . looked like he had seen a ghost!

What the hell!

You’re here already?

How did you manage to run here?

Did you fucking fly here or something?!

…

On the same night .

The news broke .

“Wolf Warrior 2’s first tour stop is successfully held!”

“Major traffic jams across Shanghai, Zhang Ye runs to the theater!”

“What is professionalism?”

“Zhang Ye really lives up to the people’s expectations!”

“Running a half-marathon to get to a tour stop?”

“Zhang Ye’s crazy run in Shanghai tops the trending list of searches!”

Some of the nosier media outlets even used the times and geolocation information of the netizens’ Weibo posts to write a detailed article and tracked the distance and time of Zhang Ye’s run on the highway to the theater . If they hadn’t counted it, it wouldn’t have mattered . But now that they did, it gave the entire world something to be shocked about!

For the entire journey, Zhang Ye had actually run 22 kilometers in total!

How long is a half-marathon? 13 . 1 miles! Converted to the metric system, that would be 21 . 1 kilometers!

In other words, the distance that Zhang Ye ran was actually one kilometer longer than a half-marathon . And the time that he took to run to the theater was a shocking 59 minutes and 18 seconds . Upon checking the results of this year’s international half-marathon races, everyone was shocked to discover that Zhang Ye had run the best time in the world this year . Even the professional marathon runners were not as fast as him!

This conclusion was frightening!

It was so frightening that the world was astonished!

…

The Web blew up!

An American netizen: “What?”

A Japanese netizen: “That’s too fast a time!”

A UK netizen: “Is that the best time this year?”

An Indian netizen: “How is this possible!”

A Canadian netizen: “This is the level of an elite athlete!”

A French netizen: “Didn’t Hollywood claim that Zhang Ye’s physical fitness was atrocious? That he wasn’t qualified to be called an action star? H-How is that fucking called having atrocious physical fitness? Just how fit is he really!”

A Korea netizen: “Did you guys see the photos? His clothes and shoes!”

A collared shirt .

And dress pants .

Paired with leather shoes .

He didn’t wear any running apparel!

Even like this, he was still able to run the best time of the year?

People around the world didn’t know how to react .

Only the Chinese netizens were laughing .

“Did you guys just find out?”

“This fellow isn’t human to begin with . ”

“Teacher Zhang has smacked Hollywood in the face again!”

“Right after Hollywood speaks, Face-smacking Zhang slaps them in the face!”

“Zhang Ye’s physical fitness is atrocious? This is a joke that can make me laugh for a 100 fucking years!”