Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 189: My Thoughts on "Sissi"
In September, Zhang Jizhong's version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was broadcast for the second time on several local satellite TV stations.

Many sharp-eyed viewers saw a familiar name in the cast list.

Is the road wide?

Is this road wider or that road wider?
Fans of Liu Yifei who like to play pranks photoshopped photos of him playing Yin Zhiping into various shapes and uploaded them to Tianya, Maopu and the blog site with the largest traffic.

He also compared him with Yin Zhiping, who had not changed his name at that time, and said that both of them were scum who blasphemed the goddess.

Give him the "bad reputation" of Dragon Rider Director.

What the fans didn’t know was that the goddess Xiao Long Nu in the novel and their goddess Xiao Liu would later become the same person in a very dramatic way…

Since then, Boss Lu has got a second nickname besides the washing machine: Dragon Knight Director.

The spectators are keen on making fun of it, but the bearded man who just started the project of "The Return of the Condor Heroes" is very worried recently!
Since Lu Kuan suddenly appeared, he was actually an old friend of Boss Lu who knew him from a humble background, and they had always supported and cooperated with each other.

Unexpectedly, he would regret it so much after standing on the wrong side.

Previously, in order to ensure that he could firmly acquire Cheng Jingfei's equity, Liu Zeyu had done some work on both him and Liu Xiaoli.

Give Liu Xiaoli two extremely tempting film contracts.

He was given the opportunity to sign a contract with Huayi and even acquire shares. Later, when Huayi went public, he acquired 2.16% of the shares because his studio was acquired, and his net worth skyrocketed.

But things are different now. With the bizarre reversal of the Red Star Wood incident, Wenjie has obtained the operating rights of Travel Satellite TV, and Lu Kuan has launched a top commercial film project.

One by one, the bearded man would beat his chest and stamp his feet in his dreams at midnight.

I ruined a good game by myself!
Boss Lu didn't say that he would put him on the side of his mortal enemy, but the fact that he was not invited to the high-profile press conference was enough to show his intentions.

In the world of fame and fortune, do some things need to be stated so clearly?

Now Da Huzi is facing the same problem as the director of the Hunan TV Happy Camp program: how to redefine the role of Liu Yifei?

Judging from her own value, she is undoubtedly a quasi-first-tier star, and she deserves the resources and cooperation she deserves.

But what if we take into account the width of the road and the attitude of the community?

Considering the recent war of words and public opinion between fans of both sides?
He was considering whether to still use Liu Yifei as the previously decided female lead of "The Return of the Condor Heroes", or whether he should communicate with Boss Lu in a subtle way and flatter him?

Lu Kuan is naturally not the investor and has no right to interfere with the casting of the female lead.

But for Zhang Jizhong, Boss Lu has already shown signs of becoming a major capital tycoon in the domestic entertainment industry.

The Return of the Condor Heroes is now his only bargaining chip to curry favor with his superiors. (Note 1)

The bearded man racked his brains for a long time, and finally had no choice but to call his direct deputy director Liu Guohao.

"Tell Yang Siwei that the previous promotional plan for Liu Yifei's Little Dragon Girl has been suspended."

Liu Guohao was stunned when he heard this: "Director Zhang? You've already prepared soft promotional materials for online and print media, this..."

"Okay, stop talking and do what I say first!"

The bearded man hung up the phone and called Song Qian, chairman of the Golden Eagle Awards Organizing Committee.

"Old Song, I'm Jizhong!"

"Haha, that's great, great. I have a question. At the Golden Eagle TV Festival at the end of the month, you guys said you'd invite Director Lu to be the guest of honor. Has that been confirmed?"

"No reply yet, huh? Okay, okay."

"Oh! Of course I am close to Director Lu. He was originally from The Legend of the Condor Heroes. How could we not be close?"

"Don't worry, I'll invite him for you! I'll definitely bring him over for you, hehe."

The bearded man pretended to be polite for a while and then hung up the phone with a gloomy look on his face.

If you can't even invite me, where else can I invite you?

Alas, one wrong step leads to all wrong steps!
Over there, Yang Siwei followed Yao Jia to meet Ouyang Changqing. Naturally, the latter would not give her any answer in person. He just asked her to be patient and wait for notification.

When she returned to Beijing in a daze and received a call from Liu Guohao, she almost wanted to die.

September 2003, 9, Gongjian Hutong, the residence of Concubine Liu Yi.

Yang Siwei lay dejectedly on the lounge chair in the yard.

"Xixi, this world is too realistic. I feel like I'm not suited to this job."

Concubine Liu Yi was busy packing things and didn't talk to her.

This courtyard house was bought together with Boss Lu's yard. Xu Kaitong has been in possession of it for several months but has never moved in.

Recently, Liu Yifei often goes to Beijing Film Academy for classes and simply lives here.

She stood leisurely on the stool, stretching her arms, trying hard to reach the branches of the crabapple tree.

The exposed small part of the snow-white waist dazzled Yang Siwei, who was lying dead under the tree.

"Sissi, please say something!"

The little girl was a bit ignorant and fearless: "Let them be, they will regret it one day!"

Yang Siwei looked at her with a strange expression. The more he looked at her, the more she resembled his former boss.

He helplessly wondered how to explain this to Liu Xiaoli who would be home soon.

How did the situation suddenly deteriorate to this extent?
The entertainment industry is a small society and a big workplace, and there are too many people who act according to others' moods.

In this system, if the leader is dissatisfied with someone in the morning, everyone in the unit will know about it in the afternoon, and some of them are lackeys who are trying to trip up the leader.

Lu Kuan doesn't even need to say a word or give a glance, as there are people who fawn over you and try to curry favor with you.

The director of Kuaiben and Zhang Jizhong are both outstanding.

Concubine Liu Yi worked for a while, then stood on a stool and started pruning another pomegranate tree.

She suddenly kicked Yang Siwei's chair in surprise. "From here I can see the small garden on the second floor of Lu Kuan's house. Siwei, why don't we go there for dinner?"

The agent was speechless. What time is it now, and you are still thinking about eating for free?
"Aren't you mad at him for making you a stunt double?"

"So we have to eat him out of his money!"

Yang Siwei gritted her teeth and said, "Xixi, how about we talk to Mr. Lu about this?"

Concubine Liu Yi turned around and raised her eyebrows: "Don't talk about it!"

You've already fallen to the point of being someone else's stunt double. If you continue to give in, won't he mock you to death?

She is an ambitious person.

Just because she didn't say it doesn't mean Lu Kuan doesn't know.

The crew of "Chinese Paladin" appeared on Kuaiben together, and Hu Ge became the boss's accomplice from the beginning.

As soon as the crew was notified of the program plan revision, he revealed the situation to Lu Kuan in detail.

Under the media operations department of Wenjie Media, a first-level organization, there is a small department directly under the president's office called the Internet Public Opinion Monitoring Center.

This should be a business line that no film and television company or studio has in this era.

In the era without big data, the Internet public opinion monitoring center relied entirely on the public opinion information provided by the blog network and other sites that it crawled and then aggregated.

Used to provide decision-making basis for leaders above the level of general manager of business unit.

Especially the media promotion of artists and company works.

Lu Kuan got the news from Hu Ge and called Xu Bo at the monitoring center directly.

Xu Bo graduated from Communication University of China in 1990 and went to Carnegie Mellon University to study computer science.

After graduation, he joined Disney's media and public relations office, responsible for media and public opinion related work.

He is a talent recruited by Emir Lukuantuo and is responsible for the construction of the Internet Public Opinion Office of Wenjie.

"What's the recent internet buzz about Concubine Liu Yi?"

"Everything else is fine. There's no organized smear campaign or rumor-mongering. It's just that Zhuo Wei's post was quite influential, saying that she and the company..."

Boss Lu interrupted him: "Well, I understand."

“Also, who does Liu Yifei interact with the most online and have the best relationship with?”

"There are more actors from Mei Yanfang, Su Chang, and Jay Chou, as well as actors from 'Tian Long' and 'Chinese Paladin'."

"I understand. That's it for now."

He suddenly seemed to remember something and called Lu Yao again.

"I heard there's been some new developments in the casting of 'The Return of the Condor Heroes' recently."

"Yes, Boss. Originally, Liu Yifei was chosen, but now Zhang Jizhong might be..."

He hesitated about how to say it.

It's like the boss of the company has transformed into a landlord bully, using his capital influence to bully a helpless sixteen-year-old girl.

Lu Kuan burst out laughing. This bearded man is really a genius at picking sides!
Is this another attempt to please himself by suppressing Concubine Liu Yi?
Logically, it doesn't matter whether he cares about this matter or not. At most, he is trying to dispel the bad reputation that he bullied the little girl.

But the income of Liu Yifei's studio in the past two years, except for its own operating funds, has to be given to the world!
What do you all want to do?

Cut down my cash cow?
Boss Lu already has the flavor of Cheng Jingfei.

"Your department should research it and sign Su Chang to Wenjie."

"what?"

What? It's obvious that he's never been in a relationship in high school or college. I wonder if he wants to cheat on a girl, so he starts with his best friend?

Lu Yao was confused by his boss's wild imagination.

Ah Fei knocked on the door and came in: "Mr. Lu, Miss Liu and the others are here."

Boss Lu walked into the yard like a wealthy landlord: "Hey, what a rare guest!"

Although he had resigned, Yang Siwei still didn't dare to overstep his bounds in front of him and greeted him politely. Liu Yifei was now not eating your rice or spending your money. He had just said he was coming to eat for free, but when he saw his lazy look, he got angry again.

Lu Kuan found her arrogant look funny: "Xiao Liu, why are you looking down on me?"

"Humph!"

Boss Lu felt that he still needed to do some ideological work on her, so he patted her arm gently.

"Come with me."

"what?"

"You'll find out when you come."

The wide road led her to the small courtyard next door, where the gym and audio-visual room were located.

Concubine Liu Yi had visited here before, but at that time everything was in disrepair and the equipment had not yet been fully equipped.

"Wow, it's from Intregta. Did you get it back from America?"

Lu Kuan teased, "Are you not angry anymore? Are you willing to pay attention to me?"

Liu Yifei didn't say anything, but just curiously fiddled with the home theater system, which was not very common in China at that time.

She had seen it in New York, so she recognized the brand immediately.

Lu Kuan found a disc from the storage compartment in the alcove, adjusted the lights and sound systems, and asked Liu Yifei to sit down first.

"Sissi?"

"Well, let's watch it first. This is the first one."

The two stopped talking and began to enjoy this 1955 Austrian classic.

This is a typical film about royal nobles. The film has a linear narrative and is faithful to historical facts. Even though almost 50 years have passed, it still has high aesthetic value.

Mr. Lu collected this classic because he thought the film's artistic organization was extremely ingenious.

The film blends and contrasts the emperor's romantic affairs with the turbulent historical background of Austria at the time, giving it a unique sense of the broad times and the joys and sorrows of the lower-class people.

Today I suddenly had the idea of ​​letting Concubine Liu Yi see it, just to comfort her.

After the movie was over, Concubine Liu Yi was still savoring the beautiful eyes and charming smile of this peerless Austrian queen.

"What do you think of this heroine, Romy Schneider, compared to you?"

"Are you humiliating me?"

Concubine Liu Yi's pretty face was frosty: "My nickname is Sissi. I know this movie and I also know Romy Schneider."

“You know the movie and the actors, but you don’t know the story behind it.”

In those days, there were no information websites like Baidu Encyclopedia, so many details were impossible to research.

"Romy Schneider is an artist who left her mark on film and television. Her life was brilliant but short, and she dedicated almost all of it to the role of Princess Sissi."

"Xiao Liu, actually, your life is somewhat similar to hers."

Concubine Liu Yi looked at him curiously.

"Romy Schneider's parents were both actors. Before she was ten, her parents divorced and she lived alone in boarding school."

"At the age of fifteen, she was taken by her mother to star in the movie "White Lilac Blooms Again", which marked her first appearance on the big screen."

The little girl's face was tense as she recalled her sad memories, but she still couldn't help but fall into the life of another Sissi that he described.

"When she debuted, she was known for her innocence and sweetness, which is why she got the chance to play Princess Sissi. When she became a top star at the time thanks to this movie, she was just 16 years old."

Liu Yifei was a little surprised. Isn't this herself in another world?
Boss Lu patiently said, "You are only sixteen years old, and you have already established yourself at the very heart of the entertainment industry."

"Frankly speaking, the entertainment industry today is not as developed as it was in the 50s. You can just relax and enjoy yourself in your comfort zone."

"Roms like Zhao Linger, Wang Yuyan, and even the mute girl in 'Kung Fu' are readily available if you want to play them, and they bring both fame and fortune."

"But does that mean anything to you?"

Concubine Liu Yi pursed her lips and said nothing.

Speaking so bluntly, she naturally understood the young director's implication.

At Mei Yanfang's house in Hong Kong, she vowed in front of Lu Kuan that she would become an excellent actor.

"What then?"

"After becoming a European sensation, Romy Schneider met the renowned Milanese director Luciano Visconti and quickly developed under his rigorous acting training."

When Concubine Liu Yi heard this, her heart moved, and she looked at Lu Kuan, who was still trying to teach others, with her sparkling eyes.

Humph, you bastard, you are my Visconti...

"Visconti" is still unaware of this and is still expressing his opinions.

"After honing her skills in various roles and undergoing long-term rigorous acting training, she won the César Award, France's highest award, three times at the age of 30 for films such as 'The Old Gun' and 'Night Blindness'."

"France is the birthplace of film and was the center of film art in the world at that time. You can understand this award as one of the highest honors in the international film world today."

Concubine Liu Yi was fascinated by what she heard. She had already put herself into the life of another Sissi in a different time, space and region.

She recalled attending the Venice Film Festival last year with the crew of "The Drummer" and watching with envy as Moore was crowned Best Actress.

How great it would be if I could stand in that place one day!
Concubine Liu Yi pouted: "I know, I'm not angry, I'm just frustrated."

"I've worked so hard for so long, but I'm still unwilling to be just a stand-in for others."

"Eh? That's not right?"

The little girl's aggrieved expression suddenly changed.

"Shouldn't you let me play roles that pay more? I've been working for you for the past two years, haven't I?"

She suddenly thought of a possibility, and her heart felt sweet, and she stared at Lu Kuan with twinkling eyes.

Boss Lu did not empathize with the girl's feelings, saying that "a girl's blush is better than any love words," and he attacked her mercilessly.

"With your current wealth, what good are those little things for?"

Concubine Liu Yi was furious!
"Thirty years in the east, thirty years in the west. Just wait, sooner or later there will be a day when you can't afford to hire me to act in your movies!"

After saying this, he walked out of the door huffing, then remembered the main purpose of his visit today.

"We're here for a free meal! Where's your state banquet chef? Call him up and prepare dinner."

"Also, can you transplant the old locust tree in your yard? Could you move it to my yard?"

"I think you're more beautiful than you are."

Everyone sat down on the stone benches in the yard.

"Yang Siwei, how's the endorsement deal for Xiao Liu going?"

Yang Siwei thought that the money earned would go into Boss Lu's pocket, so he reported it helplessly and angrily.

"Lenovo has basically secured the deal. Next month there will be a signing ceremony called 'Lenovo 1+1, New Digital Vitality.'"

"I signed a contract to be a brand ambassador, not a single product endorsement. I negotiated a price of 700 million for two years, and event expenses are calculated separately."

Around 2000, Lenovo began to move from a pure IT manufacturer to the consumer electronics field.

The main products currently launched are mainly targeted at consumers between the ages of 15 and 25, including digital cameras, MP3s, mobile storage, etc.

Boss Lu looked at her with admiration: "Is it possible? Who was the spokesperson for Lenovo before?"

"F4's contract has expired. Because the ratings for Meteor Garden 2 were so poor, their popularity in mainland China has declined compared to the previous two years."

"Plus, Xixi's age and image are more in line with Lenovo's current product target audience."

"The promotional photos have already been taken, all that's missing is the commercial."

Liu Yifei said proudly, "Xiaolu, do you want an MP3 player? I can give you the latest MX8610 next month!"

Lu Kuan deliberately angered her: "No, thank you."

"I'm a dragon knight and a washing machine now. If I want to hear music, I can always find a female celebrity to sing for me!"

Liu Yifei suddenly remembered that she had liked the comment on [Road Roller]'s account that scolded him as a dragon knight, and she stuck out her tongue guiltily.

"There's also a Sanlu milk powder, whose endorsement fee is 300 million yuan a year..."

Lu Kuan interrupted her: "Don't answer the third line."

"why?"

Boss Lu said righteously: "My horoscopes clash with Xiao Liu's."

"I believe you have heard of my hidden profession. It's right to listen to me."

Liu Yifei smiled sweetly and said, "Siwei, don't take it then. The endorsement fees earned will be his anyway."

"Besides, I definitely don't get along with Lu. One Lu is hard enough, but I can't handle three Lus!"

"Yi Ge Lu"'s face turned dark.

He suddenly looked at Liu Yifei: "By the way, are you familiar with Su Chang?"

The little girl's mind raced wildly, and she instantly became alert: "She's the same age as me. What you're doing is illegal!"

Boss Lu was a little mad: "What the hell?"

"The industry is short of female artists, so I'm considering signing her."

"Ask her now if she has time, and you and her can go with me tonight to attend the premiere of 'Thief'."

Yang Siwei's eyes lit up. She didn't believe that Lu Kuan, who always paid great attention to online public opinion, didn't know about Concubine Liu Yi's current situation.

Doing this is a disguised way of sending a signal to the domestic entertainment industry!
　Damn, why did I send out the draft scheduled for tomorrow directly? My saved drafts are almost gone again.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)