The opening was scheduled for the morning of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Soon after, news was released that it was the first cinema in the Qi Cang Kingdom, along with a brief explanation of what a cinema entailed. The people were astonished.

Because the news was released in advance, and on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, wealthy people from Daqing City, another large city adjacent to the prefectural city, heard the news and some brought their families to Qingshan City, intending to see the novelty.

The shop sign is up—Wonderful Cinema.

One side of the first floor has a stall selling popcorn, cola, and juice—essential for watching movies. Of course, all the food was taken directly from the villa's mini-supermarket by Wang Simeng.

On opening day, children under 10 and seniors over 55 can watch movies for free. Families who come to watch a movie will receive a small gift box of Taolili mooncakes when they leave.

The gift box was packed in a red kraft paper shopping bag. The bag was also printed with an intricately carved cloud pattern, and the words "Wonderful Shop Mid-Autumn Festival Special" were written in gold foil. It looked very high-end.

The day before the opening, Wang Simeng sent five invitations to her good friend Ling'er and her family.

An hour before the opening, Wang Simeng groggily woke up. It was already dawn. She got up, washed, ate a hand-pulled pancake, and changed her clothes. Then she had her servant drive the carriage to the cinema. The house Wang Simeng bought was usually only a short carriage ride (about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea) from the cinema. But today the roads were incredibly congested. The journey, which should have taken about a cup of tea, took half an hour, with the carriage constantly stopping and starting.

Wang Simeng had the carriage driven to the back door, and she entered the movie theater through the back door.

Wang Simeng signaled to the shopkeeper that it was time to open for business.

The shopkeeper walked to the entrance of the cinema and said, "Hello everyone, today is the grand opening of Wonderful Cinema. We are offering great discounts. Customers who want to watch a movie, please line up and follow our staff in. The staff will help you with the voting."

Wang Simeng chose to screen four movies during the Mid-Autumn Festival: "Havoc in Heaven," "Mulan," "Flirting Scholar," and "The Eagle Shooting Heroes." Each movie is approximately two hours long.

The price in the main hall is 100 coins, in the middle hall it's 300 coins, and in the small hall it's a family screening room, which is more expensive at three taels of silver.

After entering the hall, the movie will start on time.

At first, everyone was quite curious about the characters and scenery changing back and forth on the screen. The discussion continued non-stop, with everyone chiming in.

Gradually, as the plot unfolded, the discussions subsided and eventually disappeared. Only the sounds of people eating popcorn and the movie itself could be heard inside.

When the movie reached its most exciting part, cheers and applause rose in waves.

The movie lasted only an hour. When it ended, everyone looked like they wanted more.

Under the guidance of the staff, the first group left, and the second group entered. More than a dozen screening rooms were showing different movies.

Wang Simeng reserved a family room for Prefect Wang and his family. When the business opened, all four members of Prefect Wang's family, except for his eldest son who was still in school, came.

Wang Simeng had informed the staff at the entrance in advance that if anyone with an invitation came to watch the movie, they should immediately notify her and take the guest to her private family screening room, number 6.

Wang Simeng sat in screening room number 6, pulling out a variety of snacks from the mini-supermarket in the space: popcorn, potato chips, sachima (a type of Chinese pastry), AB calcium milk, cola, orange juice, peach juice, and apple juice. Everything was ready.

Upon hearing from the staff at the door that the person with the invitation had arrived, I quickly prepared to go out and see what was happening, then invited the four people into the screening room.

"Uncle Wang, Aunt Wang, Ling'er, you're here. Come in quickly," Wang Simeng said with a smile.

"Sister Meng," Wang Ling'er said happily.

"Hello, Sister Meng~" A five-year-old little dumpling, showing two cute little tiger teeth, said with an embarrassed smile.

"This is my younger brother, Wang Muwen, nicknamed Xiaobao. Hehe, my older brother Wang Qingwen is in class at Qingshan Academy today, so he couldn't come along." He said this while handing over the gifts prepared by the family of four.

"Little Bao is so cute~ Everyone come and sit down."

The group greeted each other and chatted on the sofa before the movie was about to start.

Wang Simeng chose "Havoc in Heaven" for the four of them.

Two hours later, the movie ended. The lights on the screen went out.

Xiao Bao clapped his hands excitedly. He went from a shy little dumpling to a talkative one. He sat next to Wang Simeng the whole time, asking her all sorts of questions out of curiosity.

Wang Ling'er would occasionally chime in with a few words.

Prefect Wang and his wife were also amazed by the incredible nature of the film.

After seeing the four people off, Wang Simeng returned to her residence.

Even after the Wonderful Cinema closed, the excitement of the crowd hadn't subsided. People on the street were discussing the movie's plot, and many children who had seen "Havoc in Heaven" were imitating Sun Wukong, holding small wooden sticks and pretending to fight each other with the Golden Cudgel.

Many teahouse and bookstore owners are already planning to adapt these films into picture books, hoping to capitalize on the films' popularity and make a fortune.

Those who make sugar figurines even imitate the appearance of characters from movies, and the sugar figurines are selling like hotcakes.

Many students even drew each of the characters from the movie.

The costumes and designs of the characters in the movie became incredibly popular. For a while afterward, you could see characters dressed up as the movie everywhere you went on the street. Sun Wukong costumes were the most common; nine out of ten children were dressed as Sun Wukong. But that's another story.

Those who couldn't buy movie tickets on opening day simply sent their servants overnight to reserve seats at the cinema entrance.

The mooncake gift boxes given away by cinemas during the Mid-Autumn Festival were well received by the public. Some people even privately approached the shopkeeper, asking to sell some.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!