The King of Soft Rice in Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 282 Traffic
The 59th Venice Film Festival opened as scheduled, and the scene was quite lively, with countless reporters setting up their cameras and microphones, crowding the area outside the Palais des Festivals.

However, Xu Jiuyang didn't walk the red carpet at all; that's the job of actors and directors. What would a screenwriter like him do there?

After all, he acted in two TV series, but hasn't appeared in any of them yet.

However, it was also interesting to observe from the sidelines. Perhaps because she was more confident in this life, Fan Bingbing dressed conservatively and showed no lingering interest on the red carpet, completely lacking the style of her previous life.

Hao Lei is the same; it's unclear whether he's just following the trend or if he received instructions from the big boss.

That's right. Now, everyone on Angela's side calls him "boss" and Angela "big boss," which is similar to how Secretary Sanjin and the Japanese maid call him "sir."

Zhao Yan, on the other hand, although dressed in a flamboyant manner, it was immediately obvious that she had the makeup of a disciplined ABC (American-born Chinese) and made people want to shake their heads.

"You want to walk the red carpet too?" Xu Jiuyang asked, noticing the envious look on Li Xue's face.

After hesitating for a moment, Li Xue admitted, "Yes, it's very glamorous after all."

"If you work a little harder, walking the red carpet as a top screenwriter and producer is inevitable in the future," Xu Jiuyang said with a smile.

“But…” Li Xue pursed her lips.

Xu Jiuyang knew what she was worried about, which was nothing more than the issue of age. However, he did not think it was a difficult problem: "You and your sister are both people that Angela values ​​highly. As long as you complete the tasks she gives you step by step, you will definitely succeed."

This is obvious. Just look at Li Xiu's performance last night. Not only did she cooperate with him exceptionally well, but she also helped to make Li Xue cry out in pain. If Angela didn't value her, why would she have put in the effort to train her to be almost as good as Hao Lei?

"Boss, will you help me?" Li Xue asked, putting on a pitiful expression.

Xu Jiuyang thought for a moment and said, "You need to have the ambition to become a strong woman. Even if you're not very capable, I'll accept it."

“I’m quite capable!” Li Xue retorted immediately. “Boss, tell me yourself, what did I do wrong last night?”

Why do you guys always bring up that topic so easily? Xu Jiuyang was speechless. Luckily, no one else was around, otherwise it would have been incredibly awkward.

“Tell me about it, boss,” Li Xue rolled her eyes, “Miss Fan isn’t here.”

"Oh? So they're trying to sow discord now." Xu Jiuyang raised an eyebrow. Wasn't he being very polite to Fan Bingbing before?

Just like when they met up to prepare for their flight to Venice, Fan Bingbing met Li Xue for the first time at the same time. But there was no dramatic scene; the two of them greeted each other very politely, which was completely different from how they used to speak sarcastically to each other in their previous life.

However, it seems that Li Xue is not entirely without resentment. At least Xu Jiuyang knows that after Fan Bingbing soared to great heights, she dragged Huo Siyan along to make progress, taking away many opportunities that originally belonged to her.

Otherwise, with her relentless work ethic, she could have easily become an ordinary celebrity after changing her name. With Li Xiu's help, she might even have achieved what she did in her previous life—in fact, her name should have originally been given to Li Xiu.

"Alright, if you're going to have this kind of energy, why don't you think about how to make a name for yourself with 'John Wick' and 'Falling'?" Xu Jiuyang slapped her on the butt.

Li Xue reached out to grab it, but missed, and looked annoyed. But she was quickly overjoyed because someone whispered in her ear, "Call Hao Lei tonight. You two sisters have to give it your all." "No problem!" she readily agreed.

Oh dear, I've fallen even further into decadence. Despite this inner lament, the person's emotions didn't fluctuate much. That's just how some things are; once you get used to them, they're just like that.

The opening ceremony was lively, but it became quite quiet afterwards. Of course, this quietness is relative. Every year, the film festival is a peak tourist season, and even though the Berlin Film Festival is held in winter, it still attracts a considerable number of non-film enthusiasts.

However, when the three major European cities are compared, the differences become clear. Venice is indeed very established, but Cannes is better at promotion and is also particularly quick-witted.

Putting aside other things, as Hollywood special effects blockbusters began to conquer the world, the French keenly realized that film festivals were about to decline.

However, it was impossible to change course and embrace purely commercial films, otherwise the prestige would be completely lost. So after internal discussions, they immediately began to change course, relying on the clause that participating films must premiere in Cannes. The Cannes Film Festival is already the world's largest and most famous film trading market.

After all, it was a notorious usury empire more than a hundred years ago. No one dared to lend money to the Russians except for French bankers. And even if the Russians defaulted, they would still make a profit.

In short, even though Venice is teeming with tourists, it still pales in comparison to Cannes.

However, domestic media didn't care about this and praised the entry "The Dark Side" extensively, almost to the point of calling it a model of Sino-US cooperation—the director is American, the actor who plays the role of the director in the film is American, everything else is from mainland China, and the funding also comes from both sides.

While Angela certainly played a part in this, it also reflects the attitude of traditional media in mainland China.

As a result, Fan Bingbing's blog, which was already very popular, became even more popular and surpassed Li Yunxin's blog in popularity for the first time.

She didn't actually write anything; she just posted a few photos from Venice with some inspirational captions, neither political nor sexually explicit.

Unfortunately, in this timeline, she is Little Swallow, and before her, Li Yunxin, and Gao Yuanyuan, no one had thought of using a blog to do this. Faced with the tide of the internet age, everyone was still cautiously exploring how to gain traffic.

This situation should have only become clear to people next year, after a certain American published an XX diary on a blog, that this is how it can be done!

However, this trend was started by Fan Bingbing and Li Yunxin. The former is a national idol and the latter is the little princess of Samsung. Both of their identities have been verified. They also take photos from time to time to prove themselves and even interact with some netizens in the comment section.

At this time, netizens had never seen such a routine before. They were surprised that Little Swallow and the Third Princess were so approachable, so they naturally flocked to support them, causing Qingning's blog traffic to surge.

In this situation, if Fan Bingbing takes a few photos of the Venice Film Festival and posts a message saying that she played a supporting role in the film and asked everyone to support her when it is released in China, the comment section will definitely be full of support, and the related reports on major portal websites will also get a surge in traffic.

If someone were to further fuel the fire, such as Xiaoli's online army, or Angela's connections with China, etc., the popularity of "The Dark Side" would soar in China in various ways.

The most direct impact of this hype is that Tian Zhuangzhuang, who also participated in this year's Venice Film Festival to show her dedication, received very little coverage in China.

Of course, it can't be seen in China, but we still have to interact with it in Venice. In any case, even though the director is American and the film has American funding, "The Dark Side" is still a mainland Chinese film in terms of its production company.

What's more... Fan Bingbing is also his student.

(End of this chapter)