In the entertainment industry, everyone has been reborn, but who will be their servant?

Chapter 96 Let's Be Naval Commanders Together
"I put this ticket on you, you better get it off me!" Qin Xuan said in Guizhou dialect, wearing a yellow reflective vest and a blue long-sleeved shirt.

Wearing a police hat, he angrily knocked on the car window.

"You son of a bitch, how dare you curse me? Get out of the car!" Qin Xuan pulled on the car door, but couldn't open it.

Fan Wei locked the car door, cursing and swearing in his dialect: "If you want me to get out, I'll get out. Who do you think you are?"

"You son of a bitch, just you wait."

The two actors' performance was quite funny; it was, after all, a comedy.

The filming wrapped up quickly, and Fan Wei removed the tissue from his nostrils. Qin Xuan then helped open the car door.

"You almost caught me." Fan Wei was as witty as ever, referring to a scene from a movie.

"How could I dare to arrest you, sir!" Qin Xuan laughed.

The two were chatting humorously, while Rao Xiaozhi was organizing people to move equipment and prepare for a change of location. That's how it is when filming a movie; changing locations takes a lot of time, just like moving house.

The production team has added a new actress named Chen Yao, who is only 14 years old and still in school. She plays Fan Wei's daughter, while the original actress was Deng Enxi.

Chen Yao lives nearby in Panzhihua, Sichuan, which borders Guizhou. She can get there by car.

Chen Yao is quite pretty and well-behaved now, but she didn't grow up to be as attractive as she got older, which explains why she's not famous—her looks just aren't quite what they used to be.

This year's May Day holiday is special, with only three days off.

"12 Citizens" has been in theaters for a month and is gradually being taken off the screens. The film exceeded Qin Xuan's expectations and grossed 408 million yuan at the box office.

This box office result is a small profit. After deducting the fund, taxes, and cinema fees, there is still 154 million. Of this 154 million, Wanda will give 23 for distribution and another 30 for publicity.

I don’t know if they spent that much on advertising, but Qin Xuan was too lazy to calculate it with them. The new force only made about a million.

Even if this money is distributed to the investors, it won't amount to many decimal places. It will probably be multiplied by 9 and distributed among them. However, Wanda won't be able to get the money back so quickly; they will have to wait a while.

The end of this film also signifies the end of the new era of crowdfunding and the beginning of a new era of investment and production.

Qin Xuan asked his aunt Cai Mei to discuss with Shen Ao and the others about forming their own post-production team. They would gather manpower first, and then buy equipment and such once the money came in.

Anyway, filming for "The Nameless" is about to wrap up, and "Nanjing Photo Studio" is also going to be shot, so it's a good time to set up my own post-production team.

"The Forbidden Kingdom" is still a hit, but its box office has fallen below eight million and it will soon be overtaken by "Iron Man". This movie is pretty awesome in this era.

As the movie gradually came to an end, Liu Yifei's scandals also intensified, with online media already hyping up her rumored relationship with Chen Jinfei.

They've brought up her coming-of-age ceremony at the state guesthouse, her pre-arranged relationship with Little Dragon Girl, and the ambiguous relationship between her and her godfather, and the situation is escalating.

Therefore, Chen Jinfei had to come out and accept an interview with a reporter from Southern Metropolis Daily to clarify: "The two families are old friends. He recognized his daughter as his goddaughter when she was five years old. The relationship is very pure."

He himself is barely able to protect himself, yet he still has time to come out and clarify things for Liu Yifei. There are reports that he has been put on the list of dishonest persons by the court because of real estate.

Anyway, it would have been better if he hadn't come out. Now that he has, it has aroused the curiosity of countless netizens.

People started saying all sorts of things: capital operations, climbing the social ladder by relying on one's father, sharing a husband, and all sorts of nasty things.

It spread widely on various social media platforms and forums. Liu Yifei felt very upset because her actions had not only harmed her godfather but also her mother.

And that wasn't the end of it. One wave subsided only for another to rise. On the 10th, while she was attending Harper's Bazaar, the media again hyped up the idea that she and Yi Jianlian had fallen in love at first sight.

Multiple media outlets reported on the relationship extensively with headlines such as "Liu Yifei Admits to Relationship." Some even went so far as to claim that "Yi Jianlian airlifted a million-dollar bracelet to win the heart of the beauty."

Liu Yifei's pure image has been severely damaged by the wave after wave of rumors and gossip. She's always been linked to men, whether it's the Godfather or Yi Jianlian.

This trend is aimed at destroying her niche, since female celebrities dating is considered a major taboo in this era.

Moreover, it's a major taboo to be with one man after another, as it creates a very bad impression.

These rumors will be hyped up for a long time, because they're really capable!

Liu Yifei is different from Qin Xuan. Qin Xuan can hide and not show up, after all, he is behind the scenes. You can criticize him as you please. I guess some people don't even know what he looks like and have no interest in criticizing him.

But Liu Yifei is different; she relies on popularity and fame, which can have serious backlash.

Just like Jun'er later, those who rise to fame through online traffic will face a backlash when faced with overwhelming criticism, which those with a weak mentality simply cannot withstand.

Those with bad tempers would have already started arguing!

Qin Xuan was scolded and reported, and he was so angry that he wanted to take a knife and go to Huayi's headquarters. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been trading stocks like crazy.

The only way to relieve this kind of distress is to get rich (and take revenge)!

Qin Xuan remained the same, continuing to trade stocks with Liu Xiaoli. This time, Liu Xiaoli had no suspicions. Qin Xuan told her to buy whatever he wanted, on what day he wanted, and to close the positions whenever he wanted, strictly adhering to his instructions.

This time, they shorted a company, American International Group, which is also a Fortune 500 company.

This company defaulted on more than $441 billion in loans, and its stock price plummeted. However, on May 9, it suddenly experienced a technical rebound, with the stock price rising 6.7% against the trend to $50.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Liu Xiaoli, who had made prior preparations, went all in on Qin Xuan's $1190 million and her own $50, though she kept some money on hand.

This operation is a bit complicated. It involves combining traditional financing leverage with option leverage. Anyway, Qin Xuan doesn't understand it. He only knows that the 12th is a day that has attracted worldwide attention.

Aminternational Corporation's stock price plummeted!

Qin Xuan heard from Liu Xiaoli that his total profit from short selling and options trading reached $1432.6 million, which was equivalent to doubling his money again. In just three days, he made 1 million.

His total wealth reached $2532 million.

Qin Xuan isn't investing long-term now; it's all short-term. After all, his initial capital is too small, and waiting several months for a long-term investment wouldn't be worthwhile. But Liu Xiaoli reminded him on the phone, "Having too much capital will attract attention. You can't always go all in on one stock; you need to diversify."

If someone goes all in on a single stock with tens of millions of dollars and makes a fortune, people will definitely pay attention. You'd better spread your money out and buy multiple stocks.

It didn't matter if I had little money before, but now I have more money.

Qin Xuan thought for a moment and said, "Let's go all in one last time, on the 15th, Lehman!"

After going all in this time, the money can be divided into several investments, which will coincide with the peak of the financial crisis.

"So you've invested all that money, does the online marketing company you asked me to inquire about still have any money left?" Liu Xiaoli couldn't help but ask.

She wanted Qin Xuan to build an online army, since her daughter was being cyberbullied and she could at least help them.

"Have you made a decision?" Qin Xuan asked.

“I have my eye on a few, namely Erma Interactive in Shanghai, Chenmo Network in Beijing, as well as Bosizhiqi Public Relations, Huameng New Media, and Lao H, etc. These are all currently the most famous online operators.” Liu Xiaoli was very attentive and had looked at so many companies.

They call it online manipulation, but it's just a bunch of paid online trolls.

Qin Xuan actually remembered these companies quite well. Erma had orchestrated the "pin-for-villa" scheme; Chen Mo had orchestrated the "steamed bun-themed mother-in-law/daughter-in-law war."

Bosizhiqi is disgusting. They spread negative content everywhere on Baidu Knows and various other platforms. The Yili fish oil incident and the Mengniu defamation incident were both done by this company. Of course, they later suffered retaliation from these two companies.

Companies like Huamengxin and Lao H use QQ groups and forums to hire part-time online trolls to spread messages on various platforms such as Tianya, Mop, and blogs, charging a certain amount per message.

Both of them are related to the entertainment industry, so these two companies must have taken orders from Liu Yifei.

The saying that Liu Yifei supports many people is true; she gets paid for every message she posts. Many netizens, despite their righteous online personas, will speak out against anyone who is morally corrupt.

But they only make demands of others, never of themselves. If you give them 5 yuan to spread a rumor, they'll be more enthusiastic than anyone else.

"Take me with you, I want to be a paid online commenter too!" This kind of joke is often seen in some comment sections.

However, Qin Xuan doesn't have much money right now, so he can't take out the US dollars from there. That would reduce his capital and slow down his speed in drawing the sword.

We can only operate with the existing funds. The money from the new forces needs to be used to build a post-production team, which is untouchable. The only money we can use is the tens of millions of yuan in salary for "Nanjing Photo Studio" and the royalties from "The Hunger Games".

Book royalties are settled annually.

"How about this, Auntie? You contact them first and tell them that the Qin Dynasty wants to invest in them. I'll meet with them when I get back in a while." Qin Xuan still wants to maintain a navy and become its commander.

New players aren't an option, so local companies are better; Qin Dynasty is registered in Hong Kong, which is more convenient.

Online trolls are inherently skirting the edge of the law, but Qin Xuan currently has no choice but to rely on them.

The existing funds are simply not enough to build a social platform. Don't even think about starting a platform without preparing three to five hundred million US dollars, and you will also face the risk of competition.

If the competition goes wrong, the money could be wasted.

Online trolls are currently the most cost-effective option because: firstly, internet management is lax; and secondly, the internet is chaotic and has not yet formed a few dominant players.

Later, public opinion and social media were basically controlled by Tencent, Douyin, and Alibaba, but it's still very chaotic now.

"Okay, so where did you get the money?" Liu Xiaoli asked again.

After all, Qin Xuan's money from the 15th was all going to be used to short Lehman Brothers, and if he withdrew it tomorrow, it would only be in his hands for one day before it was gone.

"I'll figure something out..."

Qin Xuan suddenly paused, "Don't you have money? You invested 500,000 US dollars this time and made several hundred thousand, right? How about we cooperate?"

The subtext is: Let's become the commanders of the online troll army together!

"You silly child, you just had to drag me into this!" Liu Xiaoli couldn't help but laugh.

Indeed, she earned nearly four million this time, which is the converted amount. Adding that to her original five hundred thousand dollars and three million dollars, she now has about ten million dollars in hand, enough to qualify as the leader of an online army.

Those online troll companies aren't expensive; you can gain control of the narrative for a few hundred thousand or a million. Some cost tens of millions, like Erma, which is valued at thirty to fifty million and has a large organizational scale.

Of course, there are also companies with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. These companies have their own advertising networks, deep cooperation with portals, and have formed a systematic approach with their own search engine marketing and detection and analysis systems.

However, Qin Xuan couldn't afford to buy them, so he could only build his own naval warships step by step.

"If you don't get in the water, I can't row by myself!" Qin Xuan laughed.

Liu Xiaoli only considered it briefly before agreeing: "Okay, we'll talk about it when you get back."

Since making money is an investment anyway, it's okay to gather some "online trolls".

The current online trolling industry is highly profitable, unlike later when it was replaced by technology and is still largely operated manually.

Erma took on Wanglaoji's order, with a marketing budget of 2.6 million yuan, it's that outrageous.

Just as the two finished their conversation and were about to hang up, Liu Xiaoli suddenly asked, "I heard you live near Sichuan, is that alright?"

"It's alright! We're in southern Guizhou, quite far away," Qin Xuan said.

The earthquake occurred in the northern part of Sichuan and Chongqing, some distance away.

"Be careful, the earthquake is still raging," Liu Xiaoli said with concern, then added, "Qianqian has already passed away."

"Yifei went to Sichuan?" Qin Xuan asked in surprise.

(End of this chapter)