Chinese entertainment industry has been booming since 2008.

Chapter 188 I've Made Up My Mind

Inside a private room at a highly private club in Beijing.

Ye Weiming leaned back on the leather sofa, swirling a glass of whiskey in his hand, the amber liquid rotating around the ice puck.

Taking a sip of his beer, Ye Weiming sneered, "That old bastard Zhang Dahai is really tough. Stopping production for rectification, recalling products, huh? Does he really think he can revive Xuewei Beer like that?"

Sitting opposite him was a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses named Wu Wenbin, who had been Ye Weiming's strategist for many years, specializing in handling matters that were inconvenient to handle openly.

"President Ye, Zhang Dahai's move was indeed unexpected."

After saying that, Wu Wenbin pushed up his glasses: "Normally, when a company encounters such a scandal, its first reaction is to suppress it, hire a public relations company to handle it, and issue a statement to deny it. But he did it, jumping into the fire himself."

"That was a great jump!"

Ye Weiming put down his glass, his eyes sinister: "The more he jumps around, the faster Xuewei will die. Once consumer confidence completely collapses, I'll use my connections to pull some strings, and Xuewei Beer will be liquidated and bankrupt."

The thought of Xuewei Beer going bankrupt brought a cold smile to his lips, but the thought of Zhang Dahai still struggling made him somewhat irritated.

"That old bastard Zhang Dahai really doesn't know what's good for him. Because of his actions, even if we accept Xuewei Beer, we'll only be taking over an empty shell."

"So you mean..."

""

"Add fuel to the fire."

Ye Weiming leaned forward and lowered his voice: "Don't they want to give consumers the impression that they can admit their mistakes and correct them? Then we'll grant their wish. We'll find a few media outlets and dig deep into Xuewei's dark history over the years. If we can't find anything, we'll make it up ourselves. Whatever, tax evasion, environmental pollution, labor disputes, whatever. Anyway, I'm going to make Xuewei beer stink."

Wu Wenbin understood: "Understood, I'll arrange it right away. Also, regarding Zhang Yang..."

Mentioning Zhang Yang, Ye Weiming's face darkened even more. He gritted his teeth and said, "That little bastard, an actor, relies on my family's wealth to make a name for himself in the entertainment industry, and he dares to challenge me? Does he think he's someone important just because he dumped Yan Yalun and said a few nice words?"

He recalled a dinner party a few days ago where several business owners talked about Zhang Yang, and their words were full of admiration.

What infuriated him even more was that someone mentioned Zhang Yang's scandals with several A-list actresses in an ambiguous tone. Ye Weiming sneered, "An actor is just an actor. What else can he do besides sleeping with female stars?"

But the evil fire in his heart burned ever brighter.

Why should he? A good-for-nothing trash like him has money, fame, and women.

Ye Weiming, on the other hand, has a family background that surpasses Zhang Yang's, talent that surpasses Zhang Yang's, and looks that surpass Zhang Yang's, yet he still lives such a tiring life.

To keep everything he has now, he not only has to be mindful of those old guys' attitudes, but also incur a lot of favors for a run-down brewery.

unfair.

This is fucking unfair.

Ye Weiming suddenly laughed, his smile full of malice: "Zhang Yang wants to endorse Xuewei Beer, right? Then let's help him promote it properly, find some online trolls, and dig up all his old dirty deeds."

Make up some more news stories, including stories about diva behavior, sleeping with fans, and sexually harassing actresses—don't leave any out.

They then found several so-called industry insiders to leak information, claiming that Zhang Yang made movies to launder money and seduce female celebrities.

Wu Wenbin hesitated for a moment: "President Ye, Zhang Yang actually has a pretty good reputation in the industry, so doing it this way... might have limited effect."

"limited?"

Ye Weiming scoffed: "That's exactly what I want. I don't expect to ruin him all at once. I want a long-term, steady approach. Today I'll say he's arrogant, tomorrow I'll say he's sleeping with fans, the day after I'll say his movies are bad... Public opinion can be devastating, and eventually, even falsehoods will become truth."

He stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the scenery outside: "I want Zhang Yang to understand that in China, money is useless. If you want to live well, you have to learn to be a dog for the powerful and wealthy."

Wu Wenbin said no more and nodded: "President Ye, I understand. We'll take a two-pronged approach: deal with Xue Wei on one hand, and Zhang Yang on the other."

""

"Yes." Ye Weiming turned around, his eyes icy cold: "I want the Zhang family father and son to know what the consequences are for offending me, Ye Weiming."

In the following days, new developments indeed emerged online.

First, several financial media outlets conducted in-depth investigations into Xuewei Beer, uncovering a number of old stories: a branch factory was fined for exceeding wastewater discharge standards, a tax audit in a certain year discovered accounting problems, and workers collectively petitioned during a labor dispute... Although these were all fabricated news stories, they were widely spread online by online trolls with sensational headlines, making them extremely damaging.

"So this is what 'conscientious brewing' means?"

"Direct discharge of sewage—is this what Zhang Dahai calls a sense of responsibility?"

"Xue Wei has a whole host of scandals; this hygiene incident is just the tip of the iceberg!"

Meanwhile, negative information about Zhang Yang began to appear in the entertainment gossip section.

An anonymous account claiming to be a former staff member of the "My Love from the Star" crew revealed that Zhang Yang made the entire crew wait for him for three hours while filming "My Love from the Star," and even made a script supervisor cry.

Another industry insider revealed that Zhang Yang's first TV series, "My Love from the Star," was able to be broadcast on satellite TV because he slept with a female producer.

Even more outrageous, some people photoshopped Zhang Yang's normal collaborative photos with actresses such as Fan Bingbing, Liu Yifei, Jing Tian, ​​Yang Mi, and Wang Like into intimate photos, and spread them everywhere with vulgar titles such as "Zhang Yang's Harem" and "Sleeping with one actress in every film he makes".

Most of these revelations are riddled with flaws and cannot withstand scrutiny, yet they spread extremely quickly.

Many uninformed passersby believed the headline at first glance, and with the help of online trolls stirring up trouble, the comment section quickly became a chaotic mess.

"As expected, actors are just actors; they appear glamorous on the surface but are despicable on the inside."

"No wonder he worked so hard to create a persona; he had something to hide."

"There's not a single good person in the Zhang family. The father is heartless, and the son is promiscuous."

The public relations department of Xingchen Entertainment was extremely busy, and Liu He was so busy that he didn't even have time to sleep. So when Zhang Yang arrived at Xingchen Entertainment, Liu He had dark circles under his eyes.

"Mr. Zhang, this wave of accusations is coming on strong and is clearly organized and premeditated."

As he spoke, Liu He placed the report on Zhang Yang's desk and continued, "Although we have sent a lawyer's letter and contacted the platform to delete the posts, the effect has been limited. The other party is very well prepared. The accounts are all newly registered, and the IP addresses are spread all over the country, making it difficult to trace the source."

Zhang Yang flipped through the report, his expression calm. He had long expected this day to come.

"Ye Weiming has made his move, even more urgently than I expected."

Although Zhang Yang did not show any dissatisfaction, Liu He was in this line of work, so naturally he had to do things. Otherwise, what was Liu He supposed to do, just eat rice?

"Mr. Zhang, should we retaliate?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yang shook his head: "If a dog bites you, you can't bite back. What we need to do now is to focus on our own business."

"From now on, the public relations department should not focus on fighting against smear articles, but fully cooperate with the promotion of 'Gu Jian Qi Tan' and shift netizens' attention to the TV series."

"But Mr. Zhang, the current online climate is very unfavorable for us. Wouldn't promoting 'Gu Jian Qi Tan' at this time...?"

""

Zhang Yang chimed in, "Won't we be accused of using this for publicity?"

Before Liu He could say anything, Zhang Yang continued, "Even if we get criticized for hyping it up, it doesn't matter. We need to give those netizens who have nowhere to vent their energy an outlet. Let them criticize 'Gu Jian Qi Tan,' and we'll give them hundreds of millions to vent their anger. It's also a good way to promote 'Gu Jian Qi Tan.' It's a win-win situation."

Looking at Zhang Yang, Liu He suddenly understood something. Zhang Yang, the big director who stood at the top of the Chinese entertainment industry pyramid, was more clear-headed and more resilient than he had imagined.

"I understand, Mr. Zhang. I'll adjust the promotional strategy right away."

After Liu He left, Zhang Yang took over the film and television projects that Xingchen Entertainment was investing in.

"Monkey King: Hero Is Back" is still in production, and the team for the star effects has been initially assembled. The auditions for "The Voice of China" are still ongoing, but they are nearing their end.

"Brotherhood of Blades" is still in production, and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" has passed script review. Under Chen Rui's leadership, StarCraft Games has finally set up its framework.

"Lost in Thailand" is also in preparation. The director has not yet been selected, but the assistant director position has been given to Tian Yusheng. This can be seen as an encouragement to him, since simply making empty promises will generate resistance.

Giving Tian Yusheng the position of assistant director is a way to put his mind at ease and get him to work properly for Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang had someone go to Japan to buy the copyright for "The Bottom-Tier Hot Girl," but unfortunately, they couldn't find a similar novel. Helpless, Zhang Yang could only tell them the general outline of the story and then hand it over to Shengtang Studio to have them refine it. This was considered doing right by Yang Mi.

The copyright for "Flowers of Evil" still hasn't been found, so Zhang Yang has given the outline to Sanctuary Studio and asked them to write the script.

In addition, Zhang Yang also purchased the copyrights to Liu Cixin's "The Wandering Earth" and "The Three-Body Problem". At the time, Liu Cixin had already made an offer for the copyright of "The Three-Body Problem" with someone else, but when Zhang Yang offered 500 million yuan for all the copyrights of all the works, Liu Cixin was immediately moved by Zhang Yang's sincerity.

It's worth noting that Liu Cixin's fee for writing articles for Science Fiction World magazine was only 150 yuan per thousand words, and the total fee for the first part of The Three-Body Problem was only 3 yuan.

500 million? How many books would he have to write?

Liu Cixin wasn't a time traveler; he had no idea how valuable the copyrights of his novels would be in the future.

Of course, Zhang Yang's offer of 500 million was a low price, but from a business perspective, this price was already very generous to Liu Cixin. Besides, in the future, he could also ask Liu Cixin to be a screenwriter or something, and give him a high salary, which would be a way to make up for it.

In addition to Liu Cixin, Zhang Yang also contacted Gu Man and purchased the copyrights to her novels "Silent Separation" and "Love O2O". He also reserved the adaptation rights to her three future novels.

In Zhang Yang's view, getting Gu Man's novels on board is very important. After all, the TV series adapted from Gu Man's novels are all very successful. "My Sunshine", "Love O2O", "Boss & Me", "The Sun Is Like Me" and "You Are My Glory" are all huge hits. He has so many women. If each of them starred in a TV series, he could arrange five different women for the show.

The "Running Man" show is also in preparation. Zhang Yang ultimately plans to give the female MC to Nazha. After all, her acting skills are not very good. Letting her take the route of a variety show personality is a good idea. At least, her appearance is enough to attract attention.

However, Gulnazar is currently spending time with her father and preparing for her college entrance exams for arts, so Zhang Yang hasn't seen her recently or talked to her about "Running Man".

At the same time, Zhang Yang also gave the "Wandering Earth" project to Guo Fan, who was initially confused.

He never expected that accompanying a friend to an interview would lead him to join Star Entertainment in a daze, and now he would be in charge of the first hard science fiction film in the domestic entertainment industry, which made him both excited and worried.

He was excited that he could finally realize his ambitions, but worried that he might mess it up, after all, Zhang Yang had a production budget of 5 million.

5 million! Many movies don't even gross that much at the box office. Zhang Yang is spending so much money to make a sci-fi movie. It's absolutely insane.

Of course, the 5 million was not all allocated at once, but rather in installments. However, regardless of how it was allocated, the final production budget for "The Wandering Earth" was 5 million.

So at the beginning of 2010, Guo Fan felt a bit unreal and dazed, to the point that his family almost had to take him to the hospital.

On the Miaoyan platform, Zhang Linqian's work is also progressing well. With the strong support of President Ma, the platform construction has been completed and is currently being tested. However, problems occur from time to time during testing, and it will still be some time before it is officially launched.

Zhang Yang plans to promote the Miaoyan platform together with PUBG. In that case, the game, the movie, and the Miaoyan platform can all benefit from it, which means spending one amount of money to do three things.

After reviewing all the company's projects, it was lunchtime, so Zhang Yang went straight to the staff canteen for lunch.

The food in the staff canteen is pretty good; it's a standard buffet. Of course, it's not free, and many people don't appreciate free things.

However, although they charge money, the price is not high, only five yuan per person, which is not even enough to cover the cost.

After finishing his meal, Zhang Yang returned to his office and continued working.

His phone vibrated right after he signed a document.

Zhang Yang opened the text message.

"Director Zhang, this is Zhang Tong. I've made up my mind. If it's convenient for you, I'd like to talk to you in person."

Zhang Yang looked at the screen, a slight smile playing on his lips. He checked the time; it was a little past one in the afternoon. Zhang Yang immediately replied with a text message.

Come to Starry Sky Entertainment to find me at 5 PM today.

At 4:30 p.m., Zhang Tong arrived at Xingchen Entertainment.

Xiao Zhao at the front desk smiled and led her to the meeting room, where she was served hot tea.

Zhang Tong held her teacup, looking around. Several modern paintings hung on the wall, creating a tranquil and elegant atmosphere.

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves.

At five o'clock sharp, the door to the reception room was pushed open, and Zhang Yang walked in wearing a simple gray sweater.