Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 252: On the Eve of the Domestic Entertainment Earthquake
Xiao Liu was still watching the live broadcast of Wenjie Video in the study room of the courtyard.

After all, the camera was still on Boss Lu, and the little girl was reluctant to move her butt away.

But the fat soldier next to him looks so annoying!

The scene changed, and a Chinese face in scantily clad clothes appeared on the screen. He walked over and hugged and greeted the main creators of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" one by one.

The time spent holding Boss Lu was particularly long.

"Eh? Isn't this Bai Ling?"

Liu Xiaoli, who came in to bring her fruit, said in surprise.

"Mom? Who is this? It says they're the judges for this year's Golden Bear Awards."

Liu Xiaoli leaned in closer to confirm: "Bai Ling! It's Bai Ling, for sure."

"You probably don't know this, but she was a star of our time. But...tsk tsk."

Xiao Liu had never seen his mother with this expression before, and he asked curiously.

"She was originally an actress from Sichuan Province and had performed at our Wuhan Opera House."

"After that, I couldn't make it in China by giving random speeches, so I went abroad and started making a living in Hollywood."

"It's just that I only played roles like prostitutes and sluts, and my reputation wasn't very good."

Boss Lu and Liu Xiaoli at the scene felt the same way: this guy was really disgusting.

The suffocating smell of perfume made him feel sick.

This bastard is the kind of guy who can't make it in China by making outrageous remarks, so he goes abroad to smear the country in order to win the favor of foreigners.

At the beginning of this year, Bai Ling publicly stated that she was willing to apologize for her ignorance when she was young and wanted to return to the mainland to develop and film. It is said that she has received the understanding of the General Administration.

Also speechless.

In fact, Lu Kuan heard about this person's misdeeds as soon as he arrived in Berlin yesterday.

The spotlight on "sex" at the film festival was obviously stolen by this Chinese American who served as a judge for the competition films.

She appeared at the welcome reception in revealing clothes, shocking countless media and audiences. After the reception, the film festival guests and judges gathered at the ADAGIO Hotel downstairs from the main venue.

Under the influence of alcohol, someone urged Bai Ling to do a table dance, but there was no table.

Unexpectedly, she immediately jumped up on a chair and started posing coquettishly.

"International Screen" even said that she was the most pornographic judge in the history of the film festival. Even the other female stars on the judges turned their heads away and pretended not to know her when taking photos with her.

How shameful.

The key point is that this guy has a Chinese face, and foreigners will hate him for no reason, which is a disgrace to his own people, and that is why Boss Lu and others are the most disgusting.

"Lu, nice to meet you."

Bai Ling was obviously not very self-aware and could not see the disgusted expression on Boss Lu's face at all.

Boss Lu said indifferently, "Thank you, goodbye."

This was said in Chinese.

Bai Ling looked at him turning around and leaving with Zhang Manyu and Fan Bingbing, her face showing annoyance.

She can accept that foreigners look down on her and mistreat her, so why should you, a Chinese director, accept this?
Most banana people probably have this mentality.

Bingbing glanced back briefly and said, "She seems to be scolding you."

"Ignore her, bitch."

Bingbing looked at the young director beside him in surprise. It was the first time he heard him speak of a woman in such harsh words.

Bai Ling's fingernails were about to dig into her palms, and she was determined to trick him at the review meeting!
This time, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was nominated for awards such as the Golden Bear and Best Actor.

That’s right, Boss Lu’s Li Ming is also quite recognized.

If he wins the Golden Bear for both leading actor and director, it will be unprecedented in the history of the three major European awards.

It’s just that this “unromantic” mainland director has been targeted by the Banana People!
Just wait for me!

"Okay, Xiaolu is no longer on the screen. Let's turn it off quickly. Guests are coming."

Liu Yifei turned around and said dissatisfiedly: "Mom, don't talk nonsense. I was watching the film festival. What does it have to do with Lu Kuan?"

"Yeah, that's right, the guests will be arriving if you don't leave soon. It's very rude."

"I understand. I'll just change my clothes and go."

Following Boss Lu's example, Concubine Liu Yi also hosted a banquet in the courtyard today.

The Spring Festival Gala ended on February 2th. Today, she invited Jay Chou and Mei Jie, who were performing on the Spring Festival Gala again, to have dinner together. Together with Boss Lu who was far away in Berlin, they had the full lineup of last year.

Of course, today there is still one of the studio’s first artists she needs to conquer, Liu Shishi.

From this point of view, it is obvious that this dinner is not just a simple gathering, and Xiao Liu also wants to take advantage of the situation.

It’s dirty, really dirty, you’ve learned it all.

"Mom, what do you think of my outfit today?"

"puff!"

Liu Xiaoli nearly choked to death. Is this still an eighteen-year-old girl? Twenty-eight, perhaps?
"Where did you get this outfit? It makes you look like the director of the Women's Federation!"

"Haha, this is the effect you want!"

Liu Yifei put on her small leather shoes again. "The clothes are from Siwei's old school club. I have to convince Liu Shishi's parents today, so I have to look more mature!"

Liu Xiaoli was speechless. Her daughter was really different now.

When it comes to the whole job, the old sow’s bras are not enough.

ten minutes later.

"Hello, uncle and aunt! I am Liu Yifei."

Liu's father and mother were a little reserved, but they still came with New Year gifts in a very polite manner, after all, it was the first month of the year.

It's not appropriate to visit on the second or third day of the Lunar New Year, but they invited me with all their sincerity, and it's for my daughter's future, so I can't refuse!
Liu Xiaoli is still very stylish, especially since her daughter has been developing rapidly in the past two years, and she has basically handed over all matters to Yang Siwei.

I usually enjoy doing beauty treatments and going shopping, and I only accompany Liu Yifei when I am with the group.

"Please come in, Master."

"Hello, auntie!"

It seemed that Liu Shishi had become familiar with Liu Yifei, and the two of them walked in hand in hand intimately.

Father Liu still had the airs of a householder: "Ms. Liu, thank you for helping Shishi terminate her contract."

"It's our fault as parents for not doing our best. We didn't realize our daughter was suffering so much over there."

Liu Yifei borrowed the country's top entertainment lawyer from Wenjie.

The so-called entertainment lawyer is a full-time lawyer who specializes in handling entertainment businesses such as television, movies, and music, and his service targets all practitioners and companies in the entertainment industry.

The senior lawyer used the clause that forced minors to engage in improper activities that were detrimental to their mental health as an excuse to terminate the contract without paying a penny in compensation.

Liu Shishi only reached adulthood in March this year and is a few months older than Liu Yifei.

Even if this first step is successful, the goal today is to sign her in.

Concubine Liu Yi immediately began to introduce her advantageous resources to several people.

"Don't worry about TV and movies. Our studio is a strategic partner with Wenjie. Travel Channel knows about this, right? We produce thousands of episodes of TV series every year. Shishi will definitely have a chance."

"Music? The music path is even easier. I have two guests later. Uncles and aunts, you will understand at a glance!"

"Yes, yes, yes! The actress who plays Xiaoyu is my best friend Su Chang. I was the one who arranged for her to join the industry."

Xiao Liu was halfway through his words when he suddenly flipped open his phone: "Hello? Brother Zhuang Xu, Happy New Year!"

"It's okay, you're welcome. Last time, you asked Blog.com to help me organize a vote. I have to thank you for it. That's it. Bye~~~"

Liu's father and mother looked at each other, including Liu Shishi, who already had some understanding of the entertainment industry.

Blog network?
She still has this resource!

Didn’t Shishi’s popularity soar before thanks to voting?

The two were a little moved.

Liu Yifei put down the phone casually: "Uncle and aunt, what do you think?"

"I'll have Siwei hand over the full plan to you tomorrow, but you also need to carefully consider the terms of the contract."

This is an unpleasant thing to say upfront.

After all, she knows best how many resources she has, so there is no reason for her to give Liu Shishi a high percentage of artist commission.

This 80% can be considered as the fee for her to change her tone and call me "cousin"!

Isn’t this how Lu Kuan convinces others?
To be honest, Liu Shishi was already moved.

The key is that she trusted this "righteous girl" who was able to lend a hand and take her to see a Chinese doctor and help her terminate her contract when they were in different camps at the time!
Liu's father and mother were a little embarrassed. This ratio was indeed too low, almost like a sugar man.

But after all, they are a big company that has been famous for many years and has best-selling works.

"Sissi."

"Xiao Liu."

Two top celebrities from Hong Kong and Taiwan walked in from outside the door, and Liu's father and mother turned around suddenly to look at them!
Are these the two guests from the music industry you mentioned?
Forget it, just give in.

Liu Yifei played the role of a part-time agent, but shocked another senior agent at the Beijing Huayi headquarters.

"what?"

Wang Jinhua replied speechlessly, "Okay," and hung up.

"what happened?"

"It's like a joke."

Wang Xiaolei became even more curious after hearing this: "Did something happen to Cai Yinong?"

"Well, there's a problem. I asked my assistant to talk to her about Liu Shishi's online casting. She..."

"She said that Liu Shishi has terminated her contract with Tangren."

Wang Xiaolei suddenly realized: "Wenjie poached him?"

"Mr. Wang, you're only half right."

"She was poached by... Concubine Liu Yi."

"what?"

Wang Xiaolei was amused: "Where can we go to seek justice? It's Chinese New Year and something like this happened."

Wang Jinhua smiled bitterly and shook her head. Every family has its own problems, and her life was not easy either.

"Mr. Wang, don't watch the excitement. I have an opinion that I must reiterate!"

"For this production of 'The Banquet', we must consider the artists under our control, otherwise I really won't be able to lead the team."

Wang Xiaolei flattered: "Sister Hua, didn't you let Nara do it?"

"Jang Nara? How long has Jang Nara been in the company? I have dozens of good actors under me. What kind of actors can't I choose?"

"Hey, my brother and I have mentioned this to Xiaogang before, but 'The Banquet' is a blockbuster film that will be released overseas and globally!"

Wang Xiaolei's competitor, Boss Lu, gave an example: "Look at 'Alien Land'. Lu Kuan only had a few thousand dollars, but he still had to bite the bullet and hire Leonardo DiCaprio."

"The investment in The Banquet was a whopping $2500 million. If we don't find a big name that's well-known and well-known, there's no guarantee we'll recoup our investment!"

Wang Jinhua was not willing to believe his lies, and she acted like the best agent in the country and slammed the table!
"Boss Wang, Huayi can't do things like this!"

"Oh, you can invite big names, even if they're from abroad, we have no objection."

"But what's going on now? Feng Xiaogang would rather use Zhou Xun and Zhang Ziyi from Rong Xingda than use our two Bingbings. Is that reasonable?"

"Let's not talk about Zhang Ziyi for now, but how is Zhou Xun any better than them at the box office?"

Wang Xiaolei remained silent.

In fact, it is a very contradictory thing for a film and television company to have both brokerage business and film and television business.

Because the positions of the two departments are inconsistent.

A film director only wants to make a good film, and the first factor to consider is definitely the actor's suitability and box office appeal.

After all, the movie lost money and they were the ones who suffered.

But the agency will try every means to squeeze its own actors in, regardless of whether they are suitable or not.

They also need to eat?
If an agent can't even get a film produced by her own company, how will the artist view her?

The reason why such a problem did not occur in the entertainment industry was because Lu Yao, following Boss Lu's instructions, planned a development path for each artist.

At this stage, Hu Ge is more interested in ancient costume dramas and TV series, and occasionally makes a cameo appearance in a movie;
You, Su Chang, are the ones who are suitable for chick flicks and roles in CCTV and Travel TV dramas. If not, just focus on studying the basic skills at Beijing Film Academy.
There was also the binding of Ning Hao, Huang Bo and Xu Zheng, and Zhang Songwen's accumulated strength. Wang Baoqiang was even sent to Huayi, where he had a good relationship at the time, to get a role.

This year's "A World Without Thieves" was a huge hit, and his image of Sha Gen also went viral. He received three or four endorsements in the first quarter alone.

Of course, Wenjie's use of his soldiers to perform in "Single Men and Women" is ostensibly an exchange of interests.

After all, it's not always about fighting and killing.

Generally speaking, there is no shortage of high-quality film and television works in the industry, so every artist can find his or her own development position.

The industry does not force them to work like slaves to generate income for the company, but trains them step by step.

Later in 2005, Wang Jinhua was poached by Orange Sky. The conflict in "Night Banquet" was the fuse, but it ultimately came down to a problem with the company's business philosophy.

In fact, it is a good thing for Huayi that Wang Jinhua takes the artists away. If Boss Lu were to make the choice, he would actually hope that Wang Jinhua would not leave.

After she left, Huayi broke the home-workshop management model in its brokerage business and established a modern management system. Instead, it prospered and was successfully listed a few years later.

In the early 1990s, Wang Jinhua graduated from the Central Academy of Drama and worked as a clerk in a travel agency.

Here she met the benefactor of her life, Zhang Jinglin, who was also her classmate at the drama academy.

This Zhang Jinglin is Qingwen in the 87 version of Dream of the Red Chamber.

Qingwen's husband Su Yue was the head of the Hong Kong-funded Tianxing Records. She introduced Wang Jinhua to the company, where the latter learned the training model for Hong Kong and Taiwan artists, who were leading the domestic entertainment industry for many years at that time.

That is a typical family nanny-style agent.

For example, Huo Wenxi to Nicholas Tse - in Nicholas Tse's eyes, Huo Wenxi is almost like an older sister.

Wang Jinhua’s first client was Chen Daoming, who had just won the Feitian Award for his performance in Fortress Besieged.

But Chen Daoming was a bit aloof, and communications with investors and colleagues on the set were often unpleasant.

Wang Jinhua has high emotional intelligence and quickly won him over. Later, she met Li Binbin in the hit TV series "No Regrets Chasing".

Li Binbin fell into the trap and introduced her to Ren Quan, followed by You Yong, Hu Jun, Liu Wei and so on.

At that time, Wang Jinhua was the only one in the domestic entertainment industry who could handle the tricks of Hong Kong and Taiwan agents, and she became famous because of this!

The nanny-style agent system she pioneered was subsequently imitated by many people until it was replaced by the modern agent system, and domestic entertainment began to align with international standards.

What is a nanny broker?
Write down the requirements and habits of each artist, prepare everything in advance, and ask about everything from diet to bath water temperature.

Around 2000, with the introduction of Li Binbin, Wang Jinhua and Wang Da and Wang Xiao agreed that each party would contribute 75 yuan to establish Huayi Taihe Cultural Brokerage Company.

All artists under Wang Jinhua changed their contracts to Huayi.

But this honeymoon period passed quickly, just like a couple in a family with different economic conditions and social status, there will always be some distance between them.

Although Huayi has been struggling with the industry in the past two years, it has generally been developing steadily and steadily.

Especially recently, under Zhou Jun's manipulation and the combination with Internet capital, the contradictions between the two sides have become increasingly prominent.

Zhou Jun aims to quickly build Huayi into the first listed entertainment company in China.

This requires that brokerage business be group-based and standardized, and that the past nanny-style and agency-style practices be abandoned.

Even if it is not changed now, it will be forced to change during the listing guidance process, at least in form.

"Where's my son?"

"Zijian is learning chess at the Children's Palace."

Dong Zhihua took the green goods his wife had just bought from the market.

He married Wang Jinhua in 1993. He also graduated from the Central Academy of Drama and once filmed action movies with the famous Hong Kong director Chang Cheh.

In Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu", he played the "You Zao Gui" who wielded the Wu Lang Bagua stick.

"Boss, I feel something is wrong."

Dong Zhihua paused while picking vegetables: "What?"

"These two brothers...there's something wrong."

"Especially after Zhou Jun came, he had a lot of private contact with my artists. This time, the "Night Banquet" made the scene so ugly again."

Dong Zhihua frowned. "Wang Xiaolei asked you out today, right? I think you should talk to Da Jun. He's more stable than his brother."

"It's not the same thing!"

Wang Jinhua shook the water off her hands and was about to pick vegetables with her husband, but her face changed drastically and she walked into the living room to pick up her cell phone.

"No, they did it on purpose!" "I want to know clearly!"

Dong Zhihua was a steady man and snatched the phone she was about to dial.

"Who are you asking?"

"Wang Dajun."

"Since you said you did it on purpose, then there's no need to do that. It would only alert the enemy."

Wang Jinhua was a little upset: "What should I do then?"

Dong Zhihua sighed and pulled out a business card from under the glass plate:
Wu Kebo of Chengtian Entertainment.

"I think you should learn from that road width."

"Let Huayi instigate and secretly deal with Jiahe."

"There's no friendship between these two brothers. Huayi Brothers, Huayi Brothers, they're the only two brothers in this company."

"First, contact Wu Kebo and see if the conditions he offered last time can be raised. Then, get the two Bingbings. With four Dans, two Bings, and one Concubine, you will at least have two cores, right?"

Dong Zhihua smiled and handed the phone to his wife: "Don't panic, talk slowly."

Wang Jinhua felt relieved to see her husband, who had always been humble to her, so calm and composed.

No matter how strong a woman is, there still needs to be a man at home who can remain calm and take charge in times of crisis.

"Oh, it's really tiring sometimes. Let's work hard for another six or seven years. When Zijian reaches adulthood, we can focus on training him."

Dong Zhihua waved his hands and returned to his main battlefield, the kitchen: "You are reluctant to leave. You are used to being the star and you don't want to step down again!"

Berlin time is 6 hours behind Beijing time. When Bingbing received the call in Berlin, he had just finished a physical fight with Boss Lu.

After hanging up the phone, she excitedly put her arms around the young director's neck and said, "You were right! It's Sister Hua calling! She asked if I wanted to go with her."

Although he had a superstitious worship for the man beside him, Bingbing was still unusually excited when events developed exactly as he had expected!

Who doesn’t want to have a guide who can plan everything for them as they move forward?

Boss Lu wondered, "It's a bit early. Maybe Zhou Jun is putting pressure on those two brothers."

"He can't wait any longer and wants to list Huayi as quickly as possible."

Bingbing wondered, "Then why force Sister Hua to leave?"

"If Huayi wants to go public, it must change its Eastern paternalistic management model and transform its brokerage business into a cold and ruthless machine."

"If it works, go on. If it doesn't, leave. There's no such thing as forcing a patriarch like Wang Jinhua to come forward and talk to the director just to get a role."

The most typical example of this ruthless model is TVB, where artists are employees and work for the company.

Heavy workload and low income are the norm for TVB artists, which is why we see an actor appear in various Hong Kong dramas.

In fact, their pay per episode is not high, and many of them are even employee-type actors who receive a fixed salary.

Fan Bingbing giggled: "It seems that Huayi wants to learn from Wenjie?"

Seeing that she was quite interested, Boss Lu talked to Bingbing in more depth and started to cultivate her business thinking.

As a public relations company, he is very familiar with the artist management model.

"Eighty percent of domestic agent models are currently nanny-style, and the next step will be to transition to a studio system."

"Studio? You mean like Liu Yifei?"

Fan Bingbing tested it cautiously. She rarely mentioned this name in front of Lu Kuan.

The main reason is that I am a little sensitive.

"Her group could barely be considered, but it's too small. Seven or eight people are all serving her alone, and there are no other artists."

Boss Lu didn't know that Xiao Liu, whom he had "carefully cultivated", had successfully poached Liu Shishi from Tang Ren.

"The studio system is where entertainment companies assign each artist to a tailor-made team consisting of a major agent, a minor agent, an artist assistant, a publicity officer, etc. Artists are built like brands."

Bingbing was shocked when she heard this. She followed Wang Jinhua, and apart from an assistant and a makeup artist, she had basically no other services. She just relied on the general policy that everyone had.

This resulted in the situation where only the crying child got milk, so when she first debuted, she obediently recognized Wang Jinhua as her godmother.

It’s just that in this life, she has Lu Kuan as an external aid, who has helped her carve out her own path in the fashion circle.

“There are a lot of benefits to studios, like more autonomy and flexibility for stars.”

"It's more convenient to sign contracts and issue invoices for projects in the name of a studio than to go through a large agency. You can refuse commercial performances you don't like, instead of just following the company's arrangements."

"Also, the studio is a sole proprietorship, so there's no limit on registered capital, no need to set up accounts, and the tax system is also very simple."

"But if you want to set up a limited liability company, you have to establish sound financial statements according to the company's accounting system. There are many different types of taxes to pay, which makes management very troublesome."

Boss Lu paused and asked, whether intentionally or unintentionally, "Who handles your taxes?"

Bingbing exclaimed, "Ah!" He hadn't expected him to suddenly bring up this topic. "Sister Hua has a very good relationship with a certified public accountant. She will help us with our accounting and tax avoidance."

"Find one yourself. If you can't find one, I'll ask Li Shanshan, the financial officer at Wenjie, to find one for you."

"You have to be careful with taxes. You don't need that little money right now."

Bingbing didn't know the seriousness of the matter: "Oh, doesn't everyone do this? After all, it's the money I worked so hard to earn, and this is..."

As soon as she looked up, she saw Boss Lu's stern expression and began to stutter, feeling somewhat at a loss.

“Some things weigh less than four ounces if they are not weighed on the scale, but if they are weighed, they would weigh more than a thousand pounds.”

"Don't take any chances on this matter. No matter what others do, just do what I say."

Bingbing was afraid that he would be angry, so he gently put his head on Boss Lu's chest and said, "I know. I'll do whatever you say."

She sensed a certain solemnity in the atmosphere, and not knowing what was going on, she cleverly changed the subject: "What about the future of the studio's diversification?"

"Diversity? Diversity is complicated. You won't understand even if I tell you.

There are many forms of diversified studios, such as the partnership studio of Fan Bingbing and Yang Siwei in later generations.

The background for the emergence of this partnership is the introduction of the salary cap order for radio and television.

Generally speaking, in Hollywood film and television works, even for top-paid actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, their salary will not exceed 25% of the total project.

But since then, when hot money from coal bosses to Internet capital began to pour into the domestic entertainment industry, the income of celebrities has become abnormally high, and there are many examples of them accounting for 2/3 of the revenue in a project.

The salary cap order was introduced in this context.

But every policy has its countermeasures. The emergence of diversified studios has effectively circumvented this restriction by converting artists' pay into investment equity.

Let me give you an inappropriate example:
China used to promote money-driven football and later implemented salary caps. In order to pay high salaries to the foreign players in the team, Evergrande boss Xu would arrange positions for them in the club or group.

The contract is $8000 million, and the salary on the team is $1000 million.

But he was hired as the head of a department of Evergrande Group with an annual salary of 7000 million US dollars!
This adds up to circumvent the salary cap order.

Boss Lu was reluctant to talk more with Bingbing on this topic because she was too smart.

If you teach her these despicable and opportunistic methods too early, she might repeat the same mistakes as in her previous life.

Bingbing thought about Wang Jinhua's phone call again: "What should we do next?"

"What should I do? Of course I should be a bad guy, backstab my godmother, and surrender to Wang Xiaogou and the others!"

"Li Binbin's last scandal hurt him, and now you're even more popular. I'll arrange for blogs to continue promoting you."

"If Wang Jinhua wants to take you away, you should tell Huayi in advance that you are determined to stay and squeeze Li Binbin and her sister out!"

The two Bings in the previous life both stayed in Huayi, and with the addition of Zhou Xun later, Bingbing became so angry that he set up his own company after his contract expired.

The situation in this life is very good. Of course, I raised my arms and shouted when Huayi was in "internal turmoil", and occupied the position of the number one sister by being loyal to the king, so that I could get more shares later.

As for Zhou Xun, of course he has become Boss Lu's insider.

Later, in mid-2005, her contract with Rong Xingda expired and was not renewed. She then switched to Huayi, the producer of "Night Banquet", in which she played a role.

There are many different opinions as to why the contract was not renewed.

Some say that Li Shaohong and Li Xiaowan are harsh towards others;
Some say that Rong Xingda thinks Zhou Xun's rich romantic experience has affected her business;

It was said that Zhou Xun's relationship with a second-rate makeup artist, Li Daqi, seriously damaged her reputation and angered Li Xiaowan.

Ultimately, the issue of interests was not discussed.

Of course, the two insiders, Zhou Xun and Bingbing, were unaware of each other, which was in line with our party’s safety rules for underground work during special periods.

A top-notch player, his moves leave no trace.

Amidst the turbulent domestic entertainment agency circle, Huayi's iron wall in front of outsiders seems like a big sieve full of holes in the eyes of Boss Lu.

Bingbing, Xun Ge'er, and Big Beard, these are iron nails.

Huang Xiaoming refused to reveal the truth to him.

And Zhang Guoli can be used as a bargaining chip to grab the fence-sitter when the time comes.

And his biggest killer weapon: Xinlang Shares.

Play chess in silence, speaking only when you have checkmate your opponent.

The domestic entertainment industry is in turmoil and is full of noise. Various rumors are rampant, and most of them are related to conflicts between celebrities and their agencies.

At Huayi headquarters, Wang Dajun hummed a few times into the phone, offered words of encouragement and praise, and then hung up the phone with relief.

"Brother? Yes..."

"Hey!"

Wang Dajun patted his thigh, stood up and closed the door of the president's office.

"No one would have thought that the first person to tell us the truth would be Bingbing."

"what?"

Wang Xiaolei was also a little surprised. He thought it was another Binbin on the phone just now.

Family members know their own business. The two brothers knew very well that they had previously wanted to promote Li Binbin within Huayi, and resources were relatively tilted towards him.

However, in the past two years, Bingbing seemed to have suddenly come to her senses. In 2002, when Huayi and the entertainment industry were still at peace, she starred in Lu Kuan's movie and won the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Then, she relied on her courage and hard work to carve out a path for herself in the domestic fashion circle.

In addition, Li Binbin was tortured by scandals and negative news some time ago, and now Bingbing has the aura of being the number one actress of Huayi.

Zhou Jun flicked the ash off his cigarette and said, "This Bingbing, is he the one who recognized Wang Jinhua as his godmother?"

He always felt that this matter was going too smoothly.

Wang Dajun laughed and said, "It's a joke in the entertainment industry, what's the godmother or not? She met Wang Jinhua because Li Binbin introduced her to him."

"In terms of her relationship with Wang Jinhua, Li Binbin is better than her."

"This woman is not simple, she is very smart." Zhou Jun frowned.

"Right now, with rumors swirling around, she was able to make a judgment immediately and decisively come to you and me to express her stance. Not everyone has this kind of courage."

He watched the live broadcast of the premiere of "Ask the World" on the screen in his office. Fan Bingbing, Zhang Manyu and others walked on the red carpet and exchanged greetings with Chinese and foreign reporters. The scene was very lively.

Zhou Jun suddenly felt something was wrong.

"She also went to the Berlin Film Festival with Lu Kuan's crew?"

Wang Xiaolei turned around and said, "Yes, she played the role of a Japanese spy's wife in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

"Aren't you worried that he and Lu Kuan might get too close?"

Wang Dajun pushed his glasses up. "I had such suspicions before, but we just renewed our contract with Bingbing a year ago, and she readily agreed to the hefty 2000 million yuan penalty."

"Also, the last time the two families had a dispute, Lu Kuan almost had Xue Xiaolu fire the scheduled lead actor, Bingbing."

Zhou Jun's face was gloomy: "Then why did you still perform in the end?"

"It's just that they have a mutual grudge. Haha. At that time, Wang Baoqiang was still on the set of 'A World Without Thieves'."

"If he doesn't agree, we'll marginalize Wang Baoqiang. Lu Kuan is just being cautious and doesn't want to see both sides suffer losses."

This explanation was reasonable, but Zhou Jun's frown never relaxed.

He claimed to be a favored child of heaven, but he was defeated miserably in the first game against Wenjie, which forced him to be more alert to deal with it.

Wang Xiaolei has already begun to look forward to the bright future of Huayi after the "burden reduction" with some complacency:

"I have already started arranging people to contact the artists in Wang Jinhua's team."

"Among the four actresses and the two ice skaters, we already have Shuang Bing and Zhou Xun. Among the four young actors, I'm also in contact with everyone except Huang Xiaoming."

"The next step is to unwaveringly build Nara into a rising star on par with Liu Yifei. This way, Fan, Zhou, Huang, and Zhang, as pillars of the entertainment industry, can still stabilize the situation."

Good man, three of the four pillars under your command have been or are about to be turned against by Boss Lu.

Speaking of this, Zhou Jun couldn't help but laugh and said, "Xiao Lei, your suggestion to start with "Night Banquet" and force Wang Jinhua to rebel in advance is quite wise."

"Public opinion kills people, and we are only fit to appear as victims."

"If she doesn't leave, Huayi's agency business won't get back on track, and it will never be able to catch up with the industry in film and television production."

He shook the box office data that had just been released yesterday in his hand: "Xue Xiaolu is now a youth film director who can be ranked alongside Ning Hao in terms of Lu Kuan's production."

"Yesterday's Valentine's Day release, 'Single Men and Women', grossed 350 million on its first day. Low-budget films are incredibly stable these days."

"What about us? We only have Xiaogang who is worth mentioning, and that Lu Chuan..."

Wang Dajun pondered and said, "Lu Chuan is still a promising talent. The key is that his father has influence and voice, which can also be regarded as a weapon of public opinion for us."

"Then help him develop properly and make some decent films instead of doing those things that just seek fame and reputation."

This is about "Kekexili". Not only did he not make any money, but he also did not win any awards and was caught by Lu Kuan and got into trouble.

Zhou Jun himself didn't think much of Lu Chuan, but considering Lu Tianmin's value, he just regarded his son as a human being!
Wang Xiaolei suddenly said, "Brother, I heard from Xiaogang that someone recently came from Tangshan and said they want to make a film about a major earthquake."

"Well, Xiaogang is interested, but the Night Banquet hasn't even started yet, so I'll have to decline."

"Let Lu Chuan take it. This kind of serious film is his forte, and he has Lu Tianmin cheering him on."

Zhou Jun's face was serious. "I suggest you be cautious. A movie about earthquakes involves special effects, so the budget must be quite high, right? Are you confident in handing it over to him?"

The atmosphere in the office was suffocated.

The three of them watched the live broadcast of Wenjie Video in silence. The high-spirited young director was introducing his new film "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" on the stage with ease.

They themselves know very well that no matter how many conspiracies and intrigues they engage in, as a film and entertainment group, the most important thing is to improve their competitiveness in the field of film and television production.

How can one not feel powerless from the bottom of one's heart when seeing one's opponent, who is a top director with a strong output of content, wielding power on the world stage?

"Well, spring flowers and autumn moons each have their own merits, so let's not always encourage others."

Feeling that the atmosphere in the office was a little low, Zhou Jun decided to reveal some news to cheer up Hua Yi and the others.

"I asked someone to check Lukuan and Zhuang Xu at Blog.com."

Wang Xiaolei turned his head suddenly with an ecstatic look on his face.

The last time we blocked blog.com for three days, we had already achieved some initial success. If we could really take down blog.com...

Zhou Jun looked at his expression with a mixture of laughter and tears, then waved his hands. "Don't overthink it. Blog.com is now a benchmark company in China. It's consistently recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for awards and excellence, and a recipient of various Torch Programs. It can't be easily moved."

"What Jun Ge means is..."

"Blog.com was too easy for Lu Kuan to control, and Zhuang Xu was previously just an employee in CICC's investment banking department. The time he founded Blog.com coincided with Lu Kuan's entry into the entertainment industry."

"I suspect they have a private agreement, even saying..."

"Blogging itself is a lucrative industry!"

Wang Dajun was also getting a little impatient: "In fact, we have suspected this matter for a long time, but suspicion is far from enough."

"It has to be brought to light, so the higher-ups can see that he has so many tools of public opinion at his disposal. If he gets a little off..."

"The impact on ideology is enormous, isn't it? Especially since he's had confrontations with Liu Zeyu and others, which gives him a lot of leverage!"

Wang Xiaolei looked embarrassed. "He wants to push Zhuang Xu to the forefront and set up a proxy holding agreement to hide behind his head. What can we do?"

"It's not illegal, and blog sites have very good relationships with official media."

"This is easy." Zhou Jun stood up slowly and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.

"Internet companies like Blog.com burned a lot of money when they were first established. Before the ringback tone industry boomed in 03 and 04, how did they make a profit?"

"If Lu Kuan is the actual controller of Blog.com, the two companies must have had large-scale fund lending transactions. Otherwise, with the traffic of Blog.com, it would not survive for more than three months and would have closed down."

"Besides, don't you find it strange? Why has Blog.com always been reluctant to accept venture capital investment?"

"Are you afraid that the details of your actual controller will be exposed?"

Zhou Jun grew increasingly excited as he spoke, instinctively realizing he had uncovered Boss Lu's most pressing secret: "Use the tax authorities to check the accounts of both parties and uncover the shady Lu Kuan!"

Wang Dajun suddenly realized: "That's right. When the time comes, we can start from the surface and pay attention to the ideological and public opinion security of the companies he actually controls, and force him to cut off his own arm!"

"If you want Blog.com, quit Travel Channel, and vice versa!"

Zhou Jun smiled and nodded at the two brothers who had learned from their experience without saying anything. The three of them then looked at Lu Kuan who was about to start the premiere on the screen.

It seemed that he was not so indestructible anymore.

(End of this chapter)