Martin hadn't expected that his mere cameo would spark such massive discussion among fans.
He couldn't help but wonder if he should star in a film himself, as an actor.
In the small villa in Beverly Hills, Liu Yifei was browsing online comments.
"Hehe, so many people like the costume Martin designed for me!"
"So I look that good in leather pants!"
"That mask is great too—very mysterious. Hehe, I think so too."
She suddenly thought of something.
Liu Yifei screenshot the comments one by one and sent them via Instagram to Yang Mi back in ChingChong.
A moment later, she got a reply—just one word: "Smug!"
Hahaha!
Liu Yifei laughed happily.
"Feifei, come for breakfast."
"Ah, coming, Mom."
...
The promotion for Suicide Squad was in full swing.
The presidential race was equally heated.
Hillary's attacks on Trump were a series of combo punches.
Just after mocking Trump's "brainless" statements, she shifted targets to Trump's wife.
Trump's current wife, a model from Slovenia, had added plenty of glamour to Trump with her beautiful face and figure.
But soon, someone pointed out that her speech at the Republican convention plagiarized Michelle Obama's 2008 speech at the Democratic convention—though the similar parts were only two or three sentences, with matching structure and wording.
In the internet age, feeding a script into plagiarism software easily checks similarity.
Trump's wife's speech had only a 7% similarity, and normally under 10% is considered highly original.
But Democratic media acted like they'd struck gold, launching a mockery frenzy.
Where was the plagiarism? Why plagiarize? What was the plagiarized content?
Related reports immediately dominated front-page headlines.
Even more ruthless, the Democrats arranged for Michelle Obama to give a public speech, projecting Trump's wife's speech video on a big screen for comparison.
From the big screen, Trump's wife, a former model and recent immigrant, spoke English with an accent, her expressions stiff, her voice whiny—clearly amateur level.
Michelle Obama, a Harvard Law graduate and lawyer, had done countless political events and given endless public speeches.
In her delivery, her expressions were engaged, gestures powerful, voice passionate—standard enough to rally the crowd at a convention.
In terms of speech quality, the two wives weren't in the same league.
The next day, Democratic media blared headlines: "This is the difference between professional and unprofessional."
Not only mocking Trump's wife's unprofessional speech but implying Trump wasn't a professional politician either.
Of course, Trump wasn't one to take hits without fighting back.
His counter was swift and sharp.
The day after his wife was mocked, he compared his and Hillary's speeches at the two parties' national conventions, ridiculing Hillary for too many slogans in hers.
On Twitter, he mocked Hillary's speech word for word:
"What's with that expression? Looks like she's constipated."
"Tsk, speeches aren't about yelling."
"Eyes on the camera—30 million viewers watching."
"But it gives hope to all bad speakers worldwide: One day, you too could run for president."
...
Finally summarizing: "Through comparison, we finally see the issue. Democrats always say our Republicans favor the rich, but in my speech, I repeatedly mentioned the forgotten working class; while the Democrats, who always claim to favor the grassroots, had plenty of wealthy donors at their convention."
"In my finale speech, I said, 'I've made enough money; now I want to serve the country and people.' Hillary discussed, 'Well, I'm old enough in credentials to finally become the first female president.' So, folks, who should you choose?"
Trump countered Hillary on Twitter, but he didn't expect Hillary to steal his thunder.
July 29th.
Fifty influential Republican foreign policy and national security experts jointly penned an open letter condemning Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and vowing not to vote for him in the November election.
The letter stated: "We believe that in the Oval Office (the US president's office nickname), he (Trump) would become the most reckless president in US history."
Among the 50 signatories were many from the Bush Camps, including CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden, former DNI and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Eric Edelman, two Homeland Security Secretaries from the little Bush era—Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff—and former World Bank President, US Trade Representative, and Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.
Facing this backstabbing within the party, Trump was furious.
His campaign team responded in a statement that the signers of the joint letter should be criticized for "turning the world into a dangerous place."
And besides the joint condemnation letter, media reports claimed some Republican higher-ups were actively plotting to push Trump to withdraw and find a replacement.
Trump responded toughly: "Some weaklings have surrendered, but I won't; some greedy folks have compromised, but I won't. I won't withdraw from the race. I believe I can become US president; I don't need their support at all."
Meanwhile, as a Trump supporter, Martin said in an interview: "I know the Democrats are launching a new, broad 'unification' campaign, aiming to persuade those Republicans unfriendly to Mr. Trump to cast a vote for Hillary."
"In fact, some Republican tycoons have switched sides, even lobbying fellow Republicans to help Hillary; some Republicans have formed groups like 'Republican Women for Hillary,' publicly boosting her."
"Honestly, this is rare in all of US election history."
"But I don't think Mr. Trump will bow to pressure and withdraw. His love for the spotlight, plus the strong heart from years in business, will help him weather all this."
"Most importantly, changing generals mid-battle not only creates huge procedural pressure but risks thoroughly splitting the Republicans, turning original Trump supporters toward the Democrats. This would be a massive blow to the Republicans as a whole. I believe the sober majority in the Republicans will make the right decision."