Chapter 171: Taking Another City and

On February 18, the Berlin International Film Festival drew to a close. As Wei Jin expected, both *The Equation of Love and Death* and *Love Is Not Blind* returned empty-handed.

The Huaxia legion was almost completely wiped out; only Wang Xiaoshuai's *Left Right* took home a Silver Bear Award for Best Screenplay, which could be considered a consolation.

After the Lunar New Year, Liu Yifei returned home with some reluctance. In this one week, Wei Jin had already been deeply etched into the depths of her memory and body.

But there was no help for it; Liu Xiaoli was already on her way back, and Liu Yifei had not yet figured out how to come clean.

Unexpectedly, however, Liu Xiaoli's previous reckless maneuvering actually ended up helping her. — "What? You've already signed with Huayi?"

Inside the villa, Liu Yifei looked at Liu Xiaoli in disbelief. Could such a big matter not even be discussed with her? "Xixi, don't be anxious. It hasn't been signed yet; it was just a verbal agreement. We agreed to sign it after the movie is released."

Liu Xiaoli's gaze was somewhat evasive. In order to help her daughter secure the role, she had acted on her own authority.

"That's only a month or two away. What do you plan to do after that?"

"Drag it out for now. With your godfather's connections, I assume Huayi wouldn't dare do anything."

Liu Xiaoli sounded somewhat fierce but weak inside. In fact, Huayi had brought it up many times over the past period, and she had always used various excuses, leaving her feeling frazzled.

The most important thing was that there were also problems on Chen Jinfei's end, and he was no longer able to help much.

"You're thinking about this too simply." — The next day, Wei Jin met Liu Yifei, whose eyes were slightly red, and the haggard-looking Liu Xiaoli in his office. The mother and daughter had argued about this all day yesterday.

"Brother Wei Jin, what should I do now?"

Seeing Wei Jin, Liu Yifei seemed to have found her backbone, and no longer caring about anything else, she threw herself directly into the man's arms.

"Don't cry, I'm here for everything."

Wei Jin comforted the little beauty in his arms, pulled her to sit down, and then greeted Liu Xiaoli: "Auntie, sit down first."

Seeing the situation between the two, Liu Xiaoli also realized that her own little cabbage had been arched, and her expression became even uglier.

"Auntie, have you ever thought about what to do when Huayi asks you to fulfill your promise?"

"At the time, I thought I'd just drag it out. Anyway, Huayi definitely wouldn't dare act recklessly before the movie is released. With so much time, there would always be a way. Who knew..."

Liu Xiaoli did not continue her sentence. The backer she relied on could no longer be relied upon. At the beginning of last year, Chen Jinfei had already run into some trouble. She had thought that with some time it would improve, but it ended up sinking deeper and deeper.

If Huayi really wanted her to fulfill her promise, she truly did not know what to do.

"I can tell you for certain that once you don't sign the contract when the time comes, all sorts of dirty tricks and even a ban will follow. With Huayi's size, that is not hard for them to do."

"They wouldn't be that overbearing, would they?"

"Heh, overbearing? Do you think there were no pushers behind the smear campaign on the internet before?"

Wei Jin was also somewhat impressed by Liu Xiaoli's train of thought; she was truly damn proficient at playing the "empty-handed white wolf" game. She had already played it once with *Chinese Paladin*.

"Tangren is not as strong as Huayi and couldn't enforce a ban, yet even then, they fanned the flames behind the scenes. Just like that, Yifei endured quite a lot of gossip. Do you still want her to go through it again? Don't you feel heartache?"

Wei Jin's words made Liu Xiaoli feel somewhat embarrassed, but she also understood this logic. Tangren and Huayi were completely incomparable; Huayi's counterattack would surely be even more ferocious. Could she and her daughter really withstand it?

However, her long-standing pride still made her unwilling to bow her head in front of a young man like Wei Jin, so she stubbornly said: "At worst, I'll take Xixi to develop in Hong Kong. There will always be a way out."

Wei Jin was almost laughed to anger. It seemed that in his past life, Liu Yifei going to mix in the Hong Kong Circle was exactly how it happened.

"The Hong Kong Circle can barely protect itself; it's a setting sun. How is this any different from joining the Nationalist Army in '49?" Taking a deep breath, Wei Jin stopped being angry with Liu Xiaoli and turned to look at Liu Yifei. At this moment, the young girl was tearful, truly a sight to behold.

He gently patted Liu Yifei's hand to signal that it was fine, and Wei Jin offered a way out:

"Alright, Auntie, we are all doing this for Yifei's sake. Leave this matter to me to resolve."

In fact, for Wei Jin, this matter was very easy to resolve. The reason he had to make things clear was merely to give Liu Xiaoli a wake-up call, to make her understand the rules of the circle so she wouldn't pull any more reckless stunts in the future.

Taking out his phone, Wei Jin stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, calling Wang Zhonglei directly.

Seeing that Wei Jin was willing to step in and help, Liu Xiaoli's expression softened, and she then looked at her daughter, her gaze somewhat complex. — "Alright, let's treat this matter as if it never happened, and Huayi won't pursue it."

After a few minutes of conversation, the matter was resolved. To avoid similar things from happening again, Wei Jin offered a suggestion: "However, Auntie, I suggest you arrange a professional Agent for Yifei. Your understanding of this circle is too shallow."

Although she didn't know what price Wei Jin had paid, Liu Xiaoli also knew that she ultimately had to accept the favor. Hearing this, she did not refute him, but instead began to reflect on her own actions all along the way.

Thinking that because of her own reasons, her daughter had suffered so much gossip and personal attacks, Liu Xiaoli actually felt a bit of regret, and for a moment, she couldn't help but feel dispirited.

"Forget it, Xixi has grown up too. She should have her own ideas. In the future, I'll just be her Assistant. Leave the rest of the matters to you. Wei Jin, don't bully Xixi."

"Don't worry, Mom, Brother Wei Jin is very good to me."

Seeing that her lover and her mother were no longer at daggers drawn and that the troublesome matter had been satisfactorily resolved, Liu Yifei's little face broke into a smile, and she leaned affectionately against Wei Jin's shoulder.

Even though she knew Wei Jin was not a perfect match, seeing her daughter's happy expression, Liu Xiaoli could not say anything else.

"Auntie, rest assured, I will give Yifei everything that is best."

Wei Jin gave his promise. Aside from that certificate which symbolized more than it had practical meaning, everything else was not a problem. — On the other side, after hanging up Wei Jin's call, Wang Zhonglei sat slowly in his boss chair and began to calculate the gains and losses.

For *The Forbidden Kingdom* back then, Huayi actually didn't have the right to cast. That Liu Yifei was chosen was naturally because she met the director's standards.

But he couldn't stand the outside perception, so Wang Zhonglei simply went with the flow, intending to trade with Liu Xiaoli to play the "empty-handed white wolf" game and gain a popular female artist for free to alleviate the impact caused by Wang Jinhua's departure.

It was just that he didn't expect Liu Xiaoli's intentions to be impure as well; the matter was dragged out time and again, and she was actually harboring the same idea.

He had already planned to teach this stupid woman a lesson once the movie was released, but who would have thought that when one door closes, another opens—Wei Jin had actually stepped in.

From *Those Years* to *Zhu Xian*, and now this matter, it seems Wei Jin really is a romantic seed.

This actually makes things easier. The thing the circle lacks the least is beautiful women; he should put more effort into this aspect in the future.

This trade not only gave Wei Jin face but also secured a role in *The Message*, which could be used to promote his own artists. It could be considered a fruitful harvest.

For a moment, Wang Zhonglei only felt that he had won big. — *CJ7* has finished its theatrical run, with a Mainland China box office of 224 million and a Hong Kong box office of 51.44 million. Zhou Xingxing has once again proven his drawing power and has officially stepped into the 2 Million Director Club.

But the film's word-of-mouth shows extreme polarization; many people do not like the film's style. Zhou Xingxing's path of transformation is long and arduous.

At the same time, *Bodyguards and Assassins* has officially announced its cast list: Zhen Zidan, Wu Jing, Wang Xueqi, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Liu Yifei, Bingbing, Li Ming... The Hong Kong star content in the original movie was too high. In Wei Jin's version, it is naturally impossible to use Xie Feng and Chun Ge again.

The former is naturally due to the influence of the "door" incident, and the latter is purely because Wei Jin looks down on them—what kind of acting was that?

In addition, other male and female roles with fewer scenes were also arranged for company artists to make cameos, basically turning it into a co-production path.

The most important thing is that it is impossible to let Zhang Hanyu play Sun Yat-sen again. He found a look-alike actor directly. Why look for trouble when you can find something cheap and easy to use?

As for the producer, it naturally wouldn't be the turn of that big pit-faller Chen Kexin. The second update of the day. I implore all book friends to reward me with subscriptions, follow-up reads, and collections. Please flip to the last page for the follow-up read, thank you everyone! (End of chapter)