I really don't want to make bad movies!

"Yang Xianghua!"

As soon as the meeting began, Wang Hui's shouts echoed throughout the conference room.

"You confidently promised that 'The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4' would sell 500 million copies, but at the current rate, even 200 million is unlikely!"

"Are you going to sell your house or your company shares to make up the shortfall of 300 million?!"

He looked at Hu Jia, the marketing operations director beside him, and raised his voice: "And the rating! Before we got off the plane, it was 6.5 points, but after we got off, it became 6.4 points! What kind of operations team did you do?!"

Hu Jia, sweating profusely, said, "President Wang, I dare not continue controlling the comments! If the data collapses, and we keep pouring money into reputation management, it'll truly become a bottomless pit, impossible to fill!"

This statement shifted the blame back to Yang Xianghua.

Yang Xianghua looked around nervously, his small eyes scanning the surroundings, while all the senior executives tacitly looked away.

In a situation like this, who would dare to speak up for him?

"Yang Xianghua, speak up!"

Yang Xianghua had no choice but to speak up: "President Wang, I'll try my best, I'll try my best..."

"Work hard my ass!"

"Can your efforts change the production and storyline of 'The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4'? Can your efforts salvage the reputation of 'The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4'? Can your efforts make Tencent stop its promotional efforts?!"

The collapse of "Sword and Fairy 4" not only means the loss of a large amount of revenue from new members, but also the planned sales of merchandise, copyright distribution, and financing for the second season's production may all go down the drain.

The most critical issue is the severe decline in viewership and retention rates, which poses a risk of failing to meet the GG business performance targets.

The show has twelve episodes, but the number of views dropped by two-thirds by the sixth episode, and the retention rate was less than 50%. How can they explain this to their sponsor, GG?

Even with a negative return on investment, Wang Hui genuinely had no idea what kind of financial statements he would submit to the board of directors at the end of the year.

"Xuke, what happened with the short video section being dragged into this mess?"

Hearing this, Yang Xianghua, as if grasping at a lifeline, quickly interjected, "Huang Xuke is going too far! It's bad enough that he's inserting short video promotions into our drama segment, but he's even promoting a Tencent-funded drama!"

"What do you mean?" Wang Hui was completely confused.

"Tencent's commentary video for 'The Swindler' is being streamed right next to 'Chinese Paladin 4'," Yang Xianghua said, getting more and more excited. "Mr. Wang, tell me, how can the data possibly rise when they're siphoning off the traffic from our serious drama like this?"

"Mr. Yang, isn't it a bit petty of you to attribute the failure of a 300 million yuan project to a short video?"

Huang Xuke sat at the end of the conference table and calmly smiled, "Is the 6.4 rating on DB for 'The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4' also due to short videos?"

"Is it because of short videos that there isn't a single 'Chinese Paladin 4' topic in the top 20 trending topics on Weibo?"

"When you asked me for promotional resources, I poured all the traffic in the entire section into 'Chinese Paladin 4,' causing all the supported creators to lose a total of 4.2 million followers. Did I blame you?"

"I finally managed to promote a top-tier blogger, and within three days, their views exceeded ten million, and their likes surpassed one million. Then you just took the video down across all categories! How am I supposed to manage short video categories now?"

Huang Xuke operated the computer and projected the report that Xiao Cheng had compiled:

"Mr. Wang, this is the data for all the bloggers supported by the Star Map Project since the establishment of our short video section. You can see how many new followers there are, and you can also see how fast this account called 'Sun and Moon Commentary' has gained followers."

Wang Hui looked up at the PPT on the projector.

Riyue Commentary gained nearly 300,000 followers after releasing only two videos.

A video titled "849 Bureau" was throttled.

A commentary on a scam has been taken down.

"Look at the kind of content your accounts are creating! Lu Chuan even threatened to send our platform a lawyer's letter before, and you still haven't learned your lesson!"

Unfazed, Yang Xianghua straightened his back and loudly retorted, "If the copyright holder of 'The Swindler' issues another warning, can you afford to pay compensation?!"

Huang Xuke laughed and projected his WeChat interface onto the screen.

"Mr. Yang, have you forgotten that the film 'The Swindler' was directed by my junior? He has already contacted the copyright holder, 'Quan Quan Films,' and granted the rights to Riyue Commentary."

"You!" Yang Xianghua was choked and couldn't speak for a moment.

"If Xu Ke hadn't brought it up, I would have almost forgotten about it." Wang Hui frowned, suddenly remembering that the topic of the sudden emergence of "Mao Pian" had been discussed in the meeting a few days ago.

His business trip these past few days made him forget about the matter for a while.

"Mr. Yang, you once said that a low-budget production like 'The Swindler' couldn't possibly surpass 'The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4' in terms of reputation. Shouldn't you take responsibility for what you said?"

"When your junior from Xuke approached us to ask for investment, you were the first to object, weren't you?"

Wang Hui brought up old grievances in front of all the senior executives, leaving Yang Xianghua dumbfounded.

Didn't you oppose it back then?

However, he was indeed the first one to stop the investment, and no matter how Yang Xianghua explained at this moment, it was useless.

Huang Xuke even vouched for the quality of the script, and there's also the prestigious reputation of producer Jiang Wen.

"Mr. Yang, you were the one who said we couldn't tarnish the reputation of the TV drama division, and that quality should be the top priority. But you ended up with the worst production ever, while letting go of a masterpiece. What do you mean by that?"

Huang Xuke displayed the fearlessness of a newborn calf, his leg dangling under the conference table shaking incessantly.

"I--"

Yang Xianghua's chest heaved, and he could only grit his teeth, unable to utter a single word.

"I heard that Tencent only spent 20 million to acquire 'The Swindler,' but who would have thought that Xia Ming initially asked Kiwi for only 10 million?"

These words caused some agitation among the executives present.

They certainly knew about the popularity of "The Swindler".

However, no one knows the copyright price and production cost of "The Swindler".

Only after Huang Xuke revealed it did everyone realize how terrifying the return on investment for "The Swindler" was.

If Yang Xianghua hadn't caused trouble back then, and Kiwi had acquired the rights to "The Swindlers," wouldn't it have created a peak year-end box office success with both high viewership and quality?

"The Swindler only sold for 20 million?" Wang Hui was incredulous.

Although he was busy, he would still take some time to observe the quality of popular content on rival TV channels.

For a web series of that quality to only cost 20 million, how much must the production cost have been reduced to?

What is our 300 million yuan investment in "Chinese Paladin 4"?

Seeing Huang Xuke's nose practically pointing to the sky, Wang Hui stepped in to smooth things over: "Yang Xianghua, you are not allowed to interfere with the short video section in any way from now on."

"But..." Yang Xianghua hesitated, unable to finish his sentence.

Wang Hui raised his hand to interrupt: "I do have an idea. Since that Riyue commentator's videos are so popular, let him continue commentating on 'Mao Pian' here."

"Why?" The other executives were puzzled.

Isn't this diverting traffic to enemy channels?

Wang Hui explained, "First of all, Xuke's report on the new short videos is indeed very good; it should be the best-looking report we can submit by the end of the year."

"As I said before, we shouldn't let the failure of this TV drama division decision affect the development of the short video industry."

He took a sip of water and continued.

"Let's take a long-term view. Since we've already lost the rights to the first season of 'The Swindlers,' let's find an opportunity to acquire the rights to the second season."

"Those viewers who watched the first season's commentary will be able to watch the second season here."

"Our vice president of the short video section and the director of 'The Swindler' are from the same school, so why not make good use of this relationship?"

"Xu Ke." Wang Hui waved to Huang Xu Ke, "Contact your junior, or invite him to the company. We can talk about the second season of 'The Swindler'."

Huang Xuke smirked, leaned back in his leather seat, and shaved his stubble. "Mr. Wang, this is tough."

"What's the problem?" Wang Hui frowned.

Huang Xuke looked at Yang Xianghua: "I'm in charge of the short video sector. How could I possibly handle a project worth tens of millions? This is a TV program job, only Mr. Yang can do it."

Yang Xianghua was taken aback upon hearing this, and then glared angrily at Huang Xuke.

"Hey, Mr. Yang, don't worry, I can still offer you some help."

Huang Xuke pressed the keyboard, and numbers appeared one after another on the projector.

"Here, this is Xia Ming's phone number. Go and beg him yourself."

"Tencent Capital is using the first season of 'The Swindlers' to build up its reputation. If they also get the rights to the second season, we'll be overshadowed by them next year."

"Mr. Yang, you know what to do. Watch your attitude!"

Without giving Yang Xianghua any chance to object, Wang Hui made the decision directly.

"Xu Ke is right, President Yang. It's time to do something practical for the company."