The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 709 Gambling
The next day, Tianhe Airport.

"Wake up!"

"Hmm~" Liu Shishi leaned her head on her boyfriend's shoulder and made a nasal sound in a daze.

Lu Yuan pinched her nose, but was pushed away. That was fruitless, so he tried to push her head away, hoping to loosen up his sore shoulders.

The flight from Xiamen to Wuhan took more than an hour. He didn't move at all and his shoulders were almost numb. Unexpectedly, as soon as he pushed away, Liu Shishi started whining and holding onto his arm and wouldn't let go.

"Don't sleep anymore, we're already there, hurry up."

After a long while, Liu Shishi rubbed his eyes and looked out the window. The plane landed smoothly and arrived in Wuhan.

The 29th Golden Rooster Awards ceremony is about to begin.

Lu Yuan rubbed his shoulders. "What's going on? We went to bed at the same time last night. I went to the crew to film in the morning, and you were catching up on your sleep in the hotel. Logically, I should be more tired than you in terms of physical exertion or other aspects, but why do you look more sleepy than me?"

"I don't know." Liu Shishi yawned.

"Okay, go down first."

The two walked out of the cabin, and Liu Shishi habitually touched his pocket: "Hey, where's my phone? How come it's gone?"

"It's in my pocket. It fell out when you put it on your lap while you were sleeping."

Liu Shishi took out a cell phone from his pocket, and suddenly her eyes fixed, puffing her cheeks, staring at him suspiciously.

"Confess and you will be treated leniently. Resist and you will be treated severely. Tell me the truth. Did you shamelessly peek at my WeChat chat history while I was asleep?"

"Who wants to look at you?" Lu Yuan curled his lips, and seeing that she seemed relieved, he said again.

"Next time when you talk to Guo Xiaoting and Liu Xinyou, can you stick to the facts and not exaggerate? I am a human, not a machine. That little break time is not enough. You are exaggerating. It will be awkward when we meet next time."

"Ah!" Liu Shishi was furious: "You said you didn't see it!"

"I saw a little bit."

"Don't read even a little bit of it. I wrote it all by accident."

"If you can post it, I can read it. Besides, you are still making up rumors about me."

"Ahhh, I'm so mad."

The young couple left the airport playing and laughing. Some passers-by recognized the couple and when they saw Liu Shishi making a fuss being ruthlessly suppressed by Lu Yuan, they shouted that they had never seen them before and took out their mobile phones to take pictures.

Lu Yuan smiled towards the camera: "Pay attention to your image."

"If you have the guts, let me go." Miss Liu's neck was clamped under his armpits, unable to move. She was so angry that she wanted to bite someone.

As one of the favorites for this year's Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor, there were many reporters waiting to block Lu Yuan's way, so the two of them took the VIP channel this time.

"Lu Yuan!"

Someone called out from behind, Lu Yuan turned around and saw Zhang Guoli approaching quickly. He quickly let go of Liu Shishi.

The nominees for Best Actor at this year's Golden Rooster Awards are Sun Weiming for "Four Days and Nights of Mr. Zhou", Zhang Guoli for "1942", Tao Zeru for "A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix", Huang Jue for "Falling City", and Lu Yuan for "New World" and "Chinese Partners".

There are two popular candidates, namely Lu Yuan and Zhang Guoli.

"Teacher Guo Li, what a coincidence." Lu Yuan greeted him, and Liu Shishi stood obediently.

Zhang Guoli's eyes moved between the two of them: "Looking at your backs from a distance, I feel that you two look a bit alike. Why are you still bullying her?"

Liu Shishi seemed to have found external help and stretched out her fingers to pinch the dog's thing quietly.

"Oh, I'm just playing. Don't be fooled by her quiet appearance. She's actually very fierce. Ouch, look, she's pinching me again."

Lu Yuan grabbed her hand, and seeing that Zhang Guoli was in high spirits, he changed the subject and congratulated her: "Teacher Guoli, it is often said that people feel refreshed when good things happen to them. This has been fully verified in your case. Congratulations." Zhang Guoli had made a fortune recently.

In early September, Huayi spent 9 million yuan to acquire 2.52% of the shares of Zhejiang Changsheng Film and Television Production Co., Ltd.

The legal representative of this company is Zhang Guoli. The company was established on May 2013, 5 with a registered capital of 23 million yuan.

It is a new company with only two works: "Love is the Most Beautiful" and "Locust Tree Flowers Bloom".

Just three months after its establishment, 1000 million turned into more than million.

Even taking into account Zhang Guoli's personal brand, the transaction represented a 36-fold premium for Changsheng, far exceeding the industry average.

However, after being learned about by the outside world, some professionals analyzed that this transaction was suspected to be a sale of holdings by the Wang brothers to cash out.

In the details of this acquisition, of the 2.52 million yuan in cash that Huayi paid out, 1 million yuan was paid directly to Changsheng Company.

Zhang Guoli must use the remaining 1.52 million yuan to purchase shares of Huayi Brothers held by Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei.

The final result was that Huayi used the money of the listed company to buy Zhang Guoli's company.

Zhang Guoli received 1 million yuan in cash and shareholder status of Huayi Brothers, while Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei received 1.52 million yuan in cash.

Zhang Guoli smiled and shook his head: "Compared to you, it's far behind. The pay for My Love from the Star alone is over 100 million. If you include Faraway Media, who in the industry can earn as much as you do?"

Lu Yuan waved his hand modestly.

Zhang Guoli continued, "Don't listen to those reporters' random reports. They don't know the inside story at all. 2.52 million sounds like a big number, but in fact, I signed a five-year bet agreement with Huayi. There is a requirement for net profit after tax every year. If the target is not achieved, my old bones will be in trouble."

Although he said this, he seemed very confident.

Lu Yuan was stunned. He had not known before that this acquisition included a gambling agreement.

Among the older generation of actors, he believes that Zhang Guoli is more financially savvy.

He established his own company very early. One of the co-producers of the "Iron Teeth and Bronze Teeth Ji Xiaolan" series was his National Changsheng Film and Television Culture Company in Beijing.

In 2003, Feng Xiaogang left Huayi after his contract expired, and he and Zhang Guoli each invested 500 million yuan to establish a company.

The two of them didn't even agree on who would be the chairman. They were equals and both served as executive directors.

Their plan was great. Zhang Guoli would make two TV series a year, and Feng Xiaogang would make one or two movies. Someone would definitely come to invest, and the company would be listed in a few years.

There were indeed many investors, but there were also many scammers. When they set up a project and solicited investment, they were stood up. Only then did the two realize that they were not capable of running a company.

Feng Xiaogang returned to Huayi in disgrace.

It is precisely because of this that Lu Yuan cannot understand why Zhang Guoli has the confidence to sign a gambling agreement if he has this kind of brains.

Once the bet agreement is signed, it means that Zhang Guoli will lose his freedom in the next few years.

In the past, you could selectively wait for a script or a role you liked. If an event or advertisement was not good, you could refuse it no matter how much money it offered and just rest when there was no work.

But once the bet is signed, in order to meet the annual KPI, you will probably have to take on all kinds of work and be productive, but the quality will definitely not keep up, and your reputation will be ruined.

Capital can make people less human.

But he didn't say much. Zhang Guoli must have his own considerations for signing. After all, he was an outsider, and saying too much would only annoy people.

Zhang Guoli seemed to see through his thoughts and said, "In fact, many years ago, Xiong Xiaoge and Shen Nanpeng from the capital circle wanted to invest in me, but the returns they wanted were too high, so I didn't agree. This time it was Xiaogang who persuaded me that Huayi's conditions were relatively more suitable."

At this point, he looked at the young man in front of him and sighed: "Before Huayi went public, Wang Zhongjun also invited me to join. But I was so busy filming that I didn't see the future. You don't know how much you and Xiaogang were envied when Huayi just went public. Xiaogang cashed out nearly 200 million, and you also cashed out more than 100 million."

Lu Yuan understood that Zhang Guoli truly regretted not investing in Huayi when it went public.

(End of this chapter)