Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 246 Piracy Crisis
"Brother, what did the Third Master say?" Wang Zhonglei saw Wang Zhongjun coming out of the door of China Film Academy and hurriedly went up to him and asked.

"Let's talk in the car." Wang Zhongjun did not answer directly, but got into the car first, and Wang Zhonglei followed him in.

Wang Zhongjun waited until the car drove out of the parking lot of China Film before he said, "Mr. Han kept saying one thing: 'I don't want to see the release of Your Name affected.'"

Wang Zhonglei was surprised and said, "It's really this... How could such a small matter alarm him? China Film Group produces so many films a year."

As the largest film group company in China, China Film Group Corporation produces, imports, invests in and distributes nearly 200 films of various types every year, accounting for 80% of the country's annual box office.

Although "Your Name" has a significant impact, it is an imported film and an animated film, which accounts for a very small proportion of the large plate of China Film. As the helmsman of China Film Group, it is reasonable that he should not have noticed it at all.

But he not only noticed it, but also called Wang Zhongjun to discuss the matter.

Wang Zhongjun said with a gloomy face: "Mr. Han San said it very clearly. The feud between Huayi and Zhang Chao is between us. He doesn't want to get involved. But "Your Name" is a project that China Film spent real money on."

Wang Zhonglei was not convinced and said, "Who doesn't get real money? Our movie was released in their theaters, so what he received was not real money? The box office of "The Banquet" was so bad, but he didn't say a word. This "Your Name" hasn't even been released yet, and he is already protecting Zhang Chao?

Besides, even if he is the king of the world, how can he control who the audience likes to watch? "

Wang Zhongjun glared at his brother and said, “You can say this kind of thing in front of me, but if you let half a word slip outside, we’ll prepare to close the door.”

Then he added: "Of course, Master San is not so petty. If "Baby Project" can beat "Your Name" in the market, he will naturally have nothing to say. But..."

Wang Zhonglei knew what his brother omitted after the "but". After all, he would be in the wrong if he said it. After a long while, he asked, "What should we do? Should we kowtow to Zhang Chao?"

Wang Zhongjun said calmly: "What can we do if we have anything? Whatever else we need to do, it will be done by Boss Yang from Hong Kong. What does it have to do with us?"

Wang Zhonglei asked, "What about Hu Saner?"

Wang Zhongjun said, "As for Hu San'er, have someone send some money to his family to keep his mouth shut. If you can release him, send him to the south to hide for a while."

Wang Zhonglei nodded, and then asked in a tone of near despair: "Are we really... unable to deal with Zhang Chao?"

Wang Zhongjun sighed and said, "To discredit a person, it's nothing more than four words: 'money', 'sex', 'fame' and 'profit'. 'Money' and 'profit', Zhang Chao is so young, and his annual royalty is more than the profits of most listed companies.

As for sex, he is young and has the protection of being a writer. If you send a female star to seduce him, it will be like throwing a meat bun at a dog. As for fame, we did try it the day before yesterday. What was the result?

Even if you find a few kids to hug his legs and call him "Dad" like in Mark Twain's "Running for Mayor", people will believe it, right?"

Wang Zhonglei murmured, "Young...young...can young people really do whatever they want?"

Wang Zhongjun said: "Being young means he has much more time than us. If we lose these films, the release of these films may be delayed for several years, or even not be released at all.

As for him, even if he is embroiled in scandals, fails at the box office, or even loses his reputation... he is only 21 years old. For him, everything will pass, and everything can be repeated. For us brothers, the past is the past. Is there a chance to start over?

It's not like those messed up online novels where you can travel through time after being struck by lightning, or become invincible after eating two sweet potatoes."

Wang Zhonglei was stunned: "You are still looking at this?"

Wang Zhongjun said unhappily, "Don't underestimate online novels. Many stories are very suitable for adaptation into movies. This year there is an action-adventure novel called "Ghost Blowing the Light". I think it's good. We have to find a way to buy the copyright..."

The "big and small kings" were in trouble, and Zhang Chao was not much better off.

When he woke up yesterday evening, he was not only hungry, but also had a lot of missed calls, including calls from relatives and friends, reporters, and many numbers whose names he didn't know.

Zhang Chao cooked dumplings for himself and ate them while picking them out and answering phone calls and text messages. He was busy until after 8 o'clock in the evening.

After eating, I turned on my computer and browsed around major portals and forums. Sure enough, my experience had attracted widespread attention, and I was definitely a hot topic generator.

Looking through the news content and comments, the evaluation of him is about 80-20, with most netizens smelling a conspiracy from the photos taken at the scene and the interviews of reporters with onlookers.

Especially Hu Saner's method of scamming people is so common that many netizens have suffered losses from it.

The remaining 20% ​​of negative reviews are mostly about his "luxury car". Although he has treated this BMW like a slave for the past two years, he usually leaves it at the company as a company bus when he doesn't drive it on long trips, and he doesn't take good care of it, so it looks half-new.

But the blue sky and white clouds logo still easily arouses the disgust of some people. These people think that Zhang Chao, who has gained fame and fortune at a young age, has never thought about giving back to society or donating to charity. Instead, he indulges in luxury, drives luxury cars, and dates female stars, which is simply a very bad example for contemporary young people.

After all, the numbers on the Forbes list are too abstract, while Zhang Chao's young face standing next to the BMW is much more concrete.

[If literary creation is just a tool for Zhang Chao to gain wealth and show off his fame, then we should not be surprised why he is always embroiled in controversy and scandals. …]

[Zhang Chao repeatedly claimed that he was "passively engaged in the fight", but never reflected on whether it was his flamboyant style that caused the friction and conflict. As the saying goes, "flies don't bite eggs without cracks"...]

[I wonder if Zhang Chao ever thought about the many out-of-school children in the country who were waiting for him to lend a helping hand when he was sitting in his BMW. …]

[Those entertainment stars know how to give back to society by establishing charitable foundations and donating to build Hope Primary Schools, but Zhang Chao lives a life of luxury, luxury cars, beauties, and extravagance. …]

[It is said that he has moved to the most luxurious modern mansion in Yanjing. The cheapest apartment there costs 300 million. …]

Zhang Chao just wanted to give a thumbs up to the Wang brothers. Even though the situation was ruined, they were still spending money to attack public opinion, and these negative comments about him were pushed to the top of the replies of many news and topic posts. It was the first time that Zhang Chao had seen a warrior who was willing to fight a public opinion war with him in an unfavorable situation.

In fact, he misunderstood. After the Wang brothers knew that Hu Saner had entered the police station, they had a premonition that something was wrong and were ready to stop.

But the initial costs have already been invested, and the tasks have been subcontracted to a large number of water army studios through agents. It is not just his words that will make them spit out the money and eat the posts back.

What's more, many water army studios edit the posts and then use scripts to set up a mechanism for automatic posting and replying. So why would they care what instructions you send them in the middle of the night?
As a result, when "Mr. Han San" was talking to Wang Zhongjun, Zhang Chao's first wave of counterattack came. From the title to the content, it was still a familiar formula and familiar taste - "Things without seams are called steel pipes, not eggs"

The article pointed out in a sharp tone that the public opinions accusing him of "having beautiful cars and beautiful women" and "moving into a luxury house" were all attempts to confuse the fact that he was a victim:

[…Many old sayings make sense at first glance, but make no sense when you think about them carefully, such as this one: “A fly won’t bite an egg without cracks.” An egg must have cracks. An egg without cracks is called a steel pipe, and it can’t hatch chicks. …]

[…But even if it’s a seamless steel pipe, if someone smears some shit on it, flies will definitely bite it. So how can it be the egg’s fault if it’s bitten by a fly? …]

[…If this old saying makes sense, then this “new saying” must also make sense—“A mad dog won’t bite a calf with pants on”]

[…The suspect in the hit-and-run case is still in the detention center awaiting the results of the police investigation; the saints on the Internet have already put me in the prison of morality. …]

[…Driving a BMW is wrong, living in a luxury house is wrong. According to this logic, if someone scams me, it must be my fault. If I didn’t drive a BMW, he wouldn’t have taken the path of crime! …]

[…It is precisely because there are people in this world who believe in the perverse logic that “flies don’t bite eggs without cracks” that the shit-smearers dare to throw dirty water on innocent people unscrupulously. …]

Many old enemies who had had literary and verbal battles with Zhang Chao became furious when they saw this. They called people "shit smearing" and "flies". Who was he scolding?
However, Zhang Chao did not continue to talk big, and soon turned his attention to the "mastermind" behind the porcelain case:

[…By the same token, if I hadn’t pushed hard to bring in “Your Name” and hadn’t spent a lot of money to have more than a dozen colleagues learn advanced animation technology, wouldn’t what happened the night before have happened?]

No one expected that Zhang Chao would point out so bluntly that he was being scammed because someone had instigated it. When people in the "circle culture" encounter such things, whether they eventually consider themselves unlucky or retaliate, they will never break the surface harmony.

But Zhang Chao was not interested in playing this kind of circle game with them. To be honest, as things developed to this day, he regretted getting so close to Huayi, a dirty guy in the entertainment industry.

Who knows if I keep getting entangled with him, I might end up waking up suddenly on the bed in a strange hotel room one day, with a man in cross-dressing who is taller and stronger than me, and whose pants are bigger than mine, sitting next to me, and then the uncle in the hat will suddenly break in.

Although he didn't drink and rarely attended social events, he couldn't guard against thieves all the time. If he didn't beat Hua Yi up and scare him, he might not be able to get rid of him for a long time.

I am not Liu Zhenyun, and I don’t have such a strong need for film and television adaptations to increase my wealth.

A stone stirred up a thousand waves.

The conflict between Hua Yi and Zhang Chao has been an open secret in the media circle, but both parties are people with powerful resources, and no TV station or newspaper dared to report it before their attitudes were clear.

Now that Zhang Chao had torn off this veil of tenderness, everyone naturally followed suit and charged forward.

News reports about whether Zhang Chao’s fraud was caused by “a leading domestic private film and television company” occupied the main pages of major media within two days.

[If we talk about Zhang Chao's introduction of "My Name", the biggest influence is undoubtedly a costume movie adapted from Shakespeare's famous play "Hamlet" that was released some time ago. It is said that the film company and the director have high hopes for the box office of this film. ...]

【Due to the huge response and extensive discussion caused by "My Name", this costume blockbuster has also been controversial. In particular, the column report published in "Popular Movies" severely criticized the mentality of costume blockbusters to fawn on foreigners, which was generally recognized by the audience. ...】

[The box office expectations for period films have also been lowered from 2.5 million to less than 2 million, which is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the production companies. …]

[As for why Zhang Chao turned against the private film and television company with which he had always had a good cooperation, it is said that the problem may be due to his rumored girlfriend, actress Song Jia. As a popular actress who just won the Best Supporting Actress Award at the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival, she did not play any role in this costume blockbuster with an investment of 1.2 million yuan...]

[It is said that Zhang Chao once tried his best to help his rumored girlfriend get performance opportunities, but failed, and the two sides became enemies. …]

"Huh? What the hell is this?" Zhang Chao frowned when he saw the report. What does this have to do with Song Jia? Besides, he had already openly admitted their relationship on a Hong Kong TV show, so what was the point of calling her a "rumored girlfriend"?
But this is the characteristic of entertainment news - everything is about the relationship between men and women first! I can't control it.

Just when Zhang Chao was thinking about how to write the second article, the QQ notification sounded. He opened it and saw that it was Ma Boyong who sent a seed to him and said, "Hurry up and download it!"

Zhang Chao was stunned. Although he and Lao Ma did not have a clear hierarchy like ordinary bosses and employees, it seemed that they were not familiar enough to share seeds, right?
With a skeptical mood, Zhang Chao used "BitComet" to open the seed file. When he saw the download content, Zhang Chao sweated -

"Your Name is Your Name HD Version.rmvb"

Is this a pirated version? Pirated versions are not surprising these days. Zhang Chao was a resource expert in his previous life, claiming that there was no seed he could not find.

But if it is ordinary pirated, what is Ma Boyong worried about? The most important thing is the file size.

In 2006, the fastest download speed of home broadband was only about 1 megabyte, and most of the time it was only a few hundred KB. However, this movie file was more than 900 megabytes in size, far exceeding the size of pirated movies of that era.

Because the so-called "high-definition version" now has a maximum resolution of only 720P; ordinary computers have difficulty decoding 1080P. Many pirated movies are even 360P or 480P.

A movie like this would take about 80-120 megabytes. After all, the size of a mainstream desktop hard drive is only about G or G.

Suddenly, a real "HD version" of almost 1G appeared. No wonder Ma Boyong was nervous. If he didn't know where Zhang Chao's new home was and whether it was convenient, he would have taken a taxi with a mobile hard drive.

Zhang Chao looked at the progress bar of "Bit Comet" and felt uneasy.

(Two chapters combined into one. I got home late today, so there are fewer chapters. I will update more tomorrow.)
(End of this chapter)