Chapter 1467
Under Control?
The next day, Zhang Yuan invited Dapeng to come over for a chat.
We originally agreed to meet outside, but he said it would be more convenient for us to come to his house.
Zhang Yuan understood that it was probably because they were afraid of being seen by people they knew.
We arranged for him to come over with meals, and he took time to handle other matters.
First, I called Shu Chang. With the end of the year approaching, I needed to get her to lead the audit team to collect the debts.
Each company has to make an appointment in advance, receive guests, and inform them of any problems beforehand.
“Okay, anyway, I’ve already cleared my schedule for the end of the year, and I’ve turned down some offers for roles,” she replied cheerfully.
Zhang Yuan scratched his nose. Was he targeting me?
They sacrificed many opportunities to make money in order to help me with my work.
As for maintaining one's reputation...
Zhang Yuan knew that without him, Shu Chang would have fallen behind the times by now, given the efforts and troubles their family had caused, coupled with her own limited perspective.
It's getting difficult to land a leading role in a big-budget TV drama.
You can't say that to someone, it will hurt their feelings.
“You are like this.” He thought for a moment.
"In a while, I'll have other good investment projects, and I'll ask you to invest with me."
"I guarantee you'll earn more than you would from acting in movies in the future."
"You have to think about the future, because actresses, unlike actors, don't last long."
"Besides, filming is tiring, and I'm never home."
In terms of filmmaking, he already has enough people under him to make money for him, so putting Changchang in an administrative position would be more valuable.
"Okay, I'll do as you say."
She replied in a very gentle tone.
He then brought up his younger sister, asking him to visit her when he goes to North America.
“I give her so much money every week… I understand.” He found it troublesome, but since it was her wish, he would do it.
"Oh, I just remembered, do you know Wasu Media?"
"I think I've heard it before..." Shu Chang hesitated for a moment.
"It's okay, anyway, this company has invested in a lot of TV dramas, some of which you've acted in." Zhang Yuan told her not to think about it if she couldn't remember, it wasn't important.
Wasu Media plans to go public through a backdoor listing.
"That shell company is called ST Jiarui."
This company originally produced plastic products, such as PVC pipes. Anyway, the business was not doing well. In 06, it wanted to go public because, like many listed companies, it would go bankrupt if it did not go public and raise funds.
This is why it's basically wishful thinking for stock investors to make money in the A-share market.
It was blocked in 06 and finally went public in 07. After making a splash, it still didn't work out and was then targeted by Wasu.
Wasu Media also encountered some minor problems during its IPO, but it has a strong background.
This company is affiliated with Zhejiang Radio & Television and Zhejiang Culture & Media Group; it is a state-owned enterprise.
They possess all the licenses for media, including television, film, variety shows, the internet, and telecommunications. They're incredibly powerful, with a background resembling tungsten alloys.
Once a successful restructuring and backdoor listing, the returns can multiply dramatically.
He remembered the company because of two things.
First of all, he also bought A-shares in his previous life... so he still doesn't like the color green.
Wasu Media is the top brand for the entire next year.
Its stock price increased by more than 600% after listing.
The biggest individual investors each made tens of millions.
Needless to say, the major shareholders also made a fortune, with even the smallest ones raking in hundreds of millions.
Another thing is that his people are in talks with Zhejiang TV about the production and broadcast of "The Voice of China," which is already in the later stages.
The other party then suggested that the program's telecommunications channels should be handled by Wasu.
That's why he remembered this.
"You go on a shopping spree, buy as much stock as you can of this shell company."
"I reckon you won't be able to buy many; most of them will probably be eaten by their own people."
He did some quick calculations and figured it would take another year. There should still be some loose stock left, but definitely not much.
"I'll go and ask around at Zhejiang TV to see if we can spare some of it."
Basically, I'm giving up some profits so that Shu Chang can make some money.
"Remember to keep it a secret, don't tell anyone," Zhang Yuan instructed again.
"This stock is not a quality stock for long-term holding. Remember to sell it later and cash out as soon as you can."
If she does this job well, it'll be worth three years of her work.
"There's one more thing. I told you before to keep an eye on Yu Zheng's side."
"This time, you should pay special attention to him and go find him to settle the accounts first."
"The stricter the better; not a single penny can be lost."
"Especially with the recent popularity of 'Palace,' his company's accounts have transactions worth at least tens of millions of yuan. We must investigate this thoroughly."
"Tell me if you have any questions."
The other party immediately replied that they understood and would expedite the process.
Then I received a call from Liu Shishi.
"My show has aired, have you seen it?"
"I watched it, I watched it, you acted very well." Zhang Yuan didn't have time to watch it, and just praised him casually.
"Then what do you think was a good part of my acting?" the other person pressed.
"The emotional scenes were portrayed very delicately," he said, trying to find a way to avoid criticism.
Unexpectedly, it landed right on the other person's lung.
"Ah... are you still bothered by this?"
"I haven't had any further contact with him; I've even deleted his number."
"Please don't be angry anymore, okay?"
"No, what I mean is that you've improved a lot. When filming emotional scenes, you're not just going through the motions, and you can slow down the pace. You're much more stable than before."
Zhang Yuan sensed from the other person's tone that she seemed to be mentally ill, becoming very cautious whenever the topic came up.
I repeatedly assured her that I wasn't angry and said I would watch the show, and it took a lot of effort to coax her back.
"Scarlet Heart" has also been broadcast... Thinking of this, Zhang Yuan called Jia Shikai.
"Cai Yinong instructed you before to expose Yu Zheng's 'Palace' for plagiarizing 'Scarlet Heart'. You were the one handling this matter, right?"
Upon hearing this, Jia Shikai's anus tightened.
Now that "Scarlet Heart" has just started airing, my boss is bringing up old grievances with me.
"I have now turned away from darkness and embraced the light, and decided to abandon the past and carry out positive publicity work with a firm attitude," the man quickly replied.
"Then it's useless?" Zhang Yuan replied.
Jia Shikai: ...
"I need you to abandon the light and embrace the darkness, and continue doing what you do best."
"Take out the plan you prepared before, the one to attack Yu Zheng."
"Let's give 'Scarlet Heart' another boost in popularity."
In Feng Xiaogang's early film "The Dream Factory," there was a scene where Xu Fan played a big star who got tired of her work and life, and as a result of the main characters' actions, she really became a has-been.
Finally, after learning that the other party wanted to make a comeback, the protagonist played by Ge You gave the following explanation...
"Why don't you sue us?"
"Suing a celebrity is sure to make you famous."
Suing is a shortcut to generating buzz, and it works quite well.
Cyber rallies are more effective online.
Ideally, this would spark a major online battle between fans of "Palace" and "Scarlet Heart," and then bring out the real online presence of Yang Mi and Liu Shishi's fans. That would be perfect.
"Do you understand?" He explained his idea to the guy.
“Even if you don’t argue, you have to create an alternate account online to provoke them into arguing.”
"Only in this way can we catch up to the next level and add fuel to the fire."
"Is this appropriate?" Jia Shikai thought to himself, "Isn't Liu Shishi your girl...?"
"Have you ever heard the saying, 'You can't catch a wolf without risking your cub, and you can't get a lot of money without risking your pride'?"
"Just go ahead and do it, use your strengths." "I'll handle any problems that arise."
Jia Shikai put down the phone, thinking to himself that when it comes to ruthless people, it has to be my boss.
They're really going all out.
Zhang Yuan roughly calculated that "Palace" and "Scarlet Heart" could earn a lot of money.
"The Legend of Zhen Huan" hasn't aired yet, but once it does, it'll cost a fortune.
They can make a fortune just from TV dramas.
The movie "Painted Skin," which I invested in before, has also been released, grossing over 100 million yuan, which is not bad.
Even after factoring in copyrights from various regions and deducting costs, they could still earn tens of millions, making the accounts of film companies on both sides of the Taiwan Strait look much better.
In addition, releasing "Fast & Furious 5" can also make money.
The couple working on the greenhouse arrived on time, even though they were busy until evening.
"Excuse me, we have other guests today. Let's have dinner together," Zhang Yuan said as he led the group in.
"Who is it?" Dapeng asked nervously, fearing it might be someone he knew.
"Do you know Director Kong Sheng?" Zhang Yuan asked with a smile. "He's the director of 'Crossing the Guandong'."
"Oh, a famous director." Da Peng knew it as soon as he heard the name "Crossing the Guandong".
A wildly popular drama, truly remarkable.
"Come on in, let's get to know each other."
The couple entered the restaurant and saw three men: two tall and thin, and one short and fat, who looked rustic.
This rustic-looking guy is Kong Sheng. If you didn't recognize him, you'd believe he was a farmer. His attire and appearance are quite simple, just like Zhang Yimou's.
Cheng Hao was also there, chatting with the three of them in a Shandong dialect.
"Let me introduce you, this is my buddy's greenhouse."
Have you all seen "Dapeng's Ramblings" on Sohu Video?
"I know you, you interviewed me." Director Hou Hongliang, with long hair and a tall, thin frame, recognized him.
"That would be even better. We're all friends, so let's sit down, eat, and chat."
The dishes were served shortly afterward, and Dapeng took a look at today's menu.
The treatment seems to be much better than last time.
Last time he came, he ordered all Northeastern Chinese dishes.
But today's meal—braised sea cucumber with scallions, braised chicken feet, scallops in broth, stir-fried pork kidneys, sweet and sour carp, braised pork intestines… it's incredibly tough.
"Today's dishes are all Shandong cuisine. I don't know if you'll like them."
"This... how could I not like it? It's too good! I can't afford to eat like this outside," Dapeng said, half-jokingly praising the food.
"Come often in the future, and we can try different cuisines. Today, we're mainly treating Director Hou, Director Kong, and Director Li, so we've prepared some hometown dishes for them."
The three of them were very polite.
I specially invited Cheng Hao to prepare this dish today, because all three of them are from Shandong.
Cheng Hao is also a Shandong woman, so I explained it to her early on to make it more friendly.
Hou Hongliang, Kong Sheng, and Li Xue are all directors who are preparing to start their own company.
After acting for so many years, always following other people's ideas, I'm now middle-aged and want to be my own boss, taking advantage of the current trend of starting my own company.
These three can be considered part of the "Shandong Gang." They all come from the same place, which is why they can talk and act together.
Just like Zhao Benshan's ability to manage greenhouses, half of the reason is that he's from the same hometown.
This Li Xue is not Li Bingbing's younger sister, but Kong Sheng's younger brother. She carried equipment for Kong Sheng when filming "Crossing the Guandong", and now she is also working with him as a director.
If there were no sense of kinship among fellow townsmen, why would anyone take you along?
Later works like "The Disguiser" and "Yu Huanshui" were also starring Li Xue, and she did quite well in the television drama industry.
Cheng Hao was speaking fluent Shandong dialect just now, trying to build rapport with them.
It's not very approachable for Zhang Yuan to do it all himself; women are sometimes more effective than men at handling certain matters.
With familiar dialects in their ears and hometown dishes in front of them, and a few drinks in between, plus the fact that Zhang Yuan had once invested in "Crossing the Guandong," which already created a connection, the group quickly warmed up to each other.
And the company these three are about to form is even more remarkable—it's the renowned Daylight Entertainment!
In the TV drama industry, this company is incredibly successful.
That's a 100-year-old cow, incredibly old and awesome.
"Nirvana in Fire," "Ode to Joy," "The Story of Ming Lan," "All Is Well," "Like a Flowing River"... these shows that could win the title of TV series of the year were all created by these few people.
Moreover, these individuals are quite pure; they only act and don't do anything else.
Later, he even abolished the artist management department himself. At the time of the abolition, there were still popular artists like Wang Kai. He changed the business model to company-to-company cooperation.
It belongs to the top-tier TV drama production companies that are worth over a billion yuan even without being publicly listed.
The key point is that these three are only in charge of filming; they don't have a large amount of capital.
Therefore, even after starting a company, external investment is still needed to maintain production costs.
They plan to open an office in Hengdian.
Those TV dramas made me a lot of money, so I need to spend some of it.
In addition, Yu Zheng and I are not on the same path, so if he is gone, I will have to find someone else to replace him.
"I think it would be better to do this: I'll cover the shortfall in funding for this production."
Zhang Yuan made a grand promise, patting his chest as he spoke.
"I trust Director Kong."
"There's no need to rush to get this money back. We can invest it as shares. You said you wanted to establish a company, so why don't we do it that way?"
"How much money do you want, and how many shares do you want? Give me a proposal."
"It just so happens that I am also working with Zhejiang TV."
The show they're going to film is called "A Family in Wenzhou," and both the local Wenzhou Radio and Television Station and Zhejiang Radio and Television Station are funding it.
After all, it's a story that celebrates and tells the tales of Wenzhou businessmen. Wenzhou businessmen are indeed very powerful; they were so good at real estate speculation that even unseen forces intervened to crack down on them.
At this moment, the three of them wanted to break free from the constraints of ordinary nouveau riche investors and gain more decision-making power in their work.
As for how much money they would make or how successful the company would become, they didn't have much of a thought or concept about it.
Therefore, I think Zhang Yuan's statement is quite appropriate.
In addition, Cheng Hao, a fellow villager, coaxed him, and Zhang Yuan also had a reputation for being consistently generous in the industry.
They said they would go back and consider it.
They drank and chatted happily, having a wonderful time.
Thinking about the money he could earn, Zhang Yuan bought several more large white coins.
But their joy was short-lived, as disappointment soon followed.
His phone rang; it was Shu Chang, whom he had only contacted recently, calling him.
He made an excuse to go to the restroom and ran out to answer the call.
"what happened?"
"Are stocks hard to buy?"
"No, I haven't had time to check the stocks yet," Changchang said with a hint of helplessness.
"I just contacted Dongyang Huanyu, that is, Yu Zheng's side."
“I said I needed to settle the accounts, especially those related to ‘Palace’.”
"The other party's attitude... well, they didn't seem too happy about it."
“You’ve encountered this situation before, haven’t you? It happened the same way last time.” Zhang Yuan didn’t take it too seriously.
"I'll call Yu Zheng in a bit, you can just go directly there."
After hanging up, he immediately called Yu Zheng.
"What's wrong? Director Yu has been quite busy lately."
"They're so busy that even the company's finance department went to the film set to help out."
Yu Zheng felt a little flustered when he heard his voice.
After all, that slap in the face often aches faintly when I wake up in the middle of the night.
"No, it must be a misunderstanding by the people below."
"I'll go and explain."
"Don't worry, you don't need to come in person... and your assistant doesn't need to come either," he specifically instructed.
It seems they don't remember what they eat, but they do remember what they get beaten.
That jerk just needs to be taught a lesson… Zhang Yuan stuffed his phone back into his pocket, strode back with an air of complete confidence, and continued drinking… (End of Chapter)