Chapter 408: The Curtain Falls

Within a day, most of the celebrities involved had made their stance known, with only four continuing to play dead.

Stabbing Sect leader Du Chun, the head of the four guardians Li Chen, the troublemaker Yang Zi, and Huang Jue, the former rumored boyfriend of Zhou Xun.

In this incident, Du Chun was the most disgusting; the others could at most be considered as having picked the wrong side and offering support online.

This guy spent 24 hours sparring with netizens, speaking with absolute certainty, desperate to finish off his "good brother" as if he were terrified he wouldn't die.

He was also the biggest beneficiary of this incident, successfully taking over the endorsement for Hailan Home that had belonged to Yin Xiaotian.

Li Chen was his usual stubborn self, never mentioning the Stabbing Sect affair; years later, this guy would even sue netizens—a real oddity.

As for Yang Zi, although he did not come out to apologize, Huang Shengyi posted on Weibo, and considering their relationship, it could be said that he had softened his stance.

As for the last one, sorry, Wei Jin really didn't know; his popularity was too low.

Setting aside these four idiots, the matter seemed to have reached a satisfactory resolution.

But the entertainment industry is cruel; although Yin Xiaotian was the victim and was in the right, losing is losing, and the lost benefits cannot be reclaimed.

The most ridiculous part is that because he lacked a background to support him, Yin Xiaotian still had to stand up and magnanimously state that he would no longer pursue the matter; otherwise, he might have faced pressure from Huayi, leading to even greater losses.

At this moment, the artists at Starry Sky Culture felt incredibly fortunate to have a boss who protected his own; they might not be able to walk sideways through the industry, but at least no one dared to use underhanded tactics to frame them.

Many artists without strong backgrounds were considering heading toward Boss Wei, which was something the latter had not anticipated. Regarding the Stabbing Sect matter, Wei Jin did not pay too much attention, nor was it worth it; he was currently receiving the director of Coming Home, Tian Xiaopeng.

Pretending to flip through the film's script and animation storyboards, Wei Jin smiled slightly.

"Director Tian, let's talk about your original creative intent first."

The bespectacled Tian Xiaopeng was slightly nervous; upon hearing this, he tidied up his thoughts a bit and began to answer.

"President Wei, back in '95, I served as the production supervisor for the animated series Journey to the West. Even then, I had the idea of bringing this story to the big screen, but it wasn't mature yet, not until 2008."

Following Tian Xiaopeng's explanation, Wei Jin basically understood the cause and effect, and sighed inwardly—another one chasing a dream.

According to Tian Xiaopeng, the project had currently reached the point where they couldn't even put food on the table.

At the start of the project, the production cost for Coming Home was estimated to be around 30 million.

Tian Xiaopeng raised 10 million himself, and for the remaining portion, because of his good relationship with China Film Group, he found Han Sanping to pull in 10 million in investment.

Subsequently, under Han Sanping's introduction, he found Hengdian Entertainment Group and Ludong Film and Television, both of which supported 5 million each.

With that, the filming funds were secured, and Tian Xiaopeng started the project full of ambition.

Unfortunately, after filming began, progress was very slow, far exceeding Tian Xiaopeng's estimates.

It took two years, yet only 40% of the production was completed, and the 30 million in startup capital had long since been spent clean.

Tian Xiaopeng had no choice but to take the initiative to find Wang Changtian, requesting that Enlighten Media take over.

Old Wang was quite decisive; upon hearing that the film was already more than half finished, he immediately supported them with 10 million.

But, it was of no use.

The 10 million was spent in less than half a year, and not even a shadow of the finished film could be seen.

Later, Enlighten chose to withdraw; Han Sanping was already in too deep, so he had no choice but to continue adding an investment of 5 million.

With this, the production cost of Coming Home reached 45 million directly.

He had thought he would see the finished film soon—even if the film didn't make money upon release, it would be better than this slow torture—but Han Sanping was clearly disappointed.

In just half a year, Tian Xiaopeng had spent the money again, and there was still 40% of the progress left until the film was finished.

At this point, Old Han didn't dare to invest anymore and told Tian Xiaopeng directly to find a way himself.

Just like that, the project fell into stagnation.

Wei Jin knew that if he hadn't appeared, Tian Xiaopeng would have started begging for money everywhere, to the point where the final number of investors for Coming Home would total nearly a hundred, becoming a unique oddity in film history.

It was just that Wei Jin was curious: had Tian Xiaopeng never thought of coming to Shanhe Media to pull investment?

When he posed this question, Tian Xiaopeng gave a bitter smile.

"President Wei, I actually did come..."

Listening to Tian Xiaopeng's explanation, Wei Jin was also left between laughter and tears.

It turned out that as early as when Starry Transformation was being broadcast online, the team for Coming Home had come to make contact.

Unsurprisingly, the unknown team of Tian Xiaopeng was rejected directly.

Although he was a bit speechless, after a little thought, Wei Jin understood.

From a risk perspective, there were no successful cases of animated films in the country at the time, and the investment for Coming Home was not small; out of consideration for profit and loss, the animation production department's rejection was quite reasonable.

After all, not everyone had foresight like Wei Jin.

Fortunately, Coming Home still ended up in the hands of Shanhe Media after all the twists and turns.

However, this matter also served as a reminder to Wei Jin: he could ignore external investments, but he needed to re-verify the rejection list to avoid missing any hidden gems.

Putting away his complex thoughts, Wei Jin looked at Tian Xiaopeng.

"Director Tian, how much money is still needed at the moment?"

"President Wei, the film is currently 60% complete; at most 30 million is needed to wrap up."

Upon hearing this, Wei Jin tapped his index finger on the desk, lost in thought.

He definitely had to invest; although Coming Home was an animated film, a box office of nearly 1 billion was no joke, and the profits involved were simply too huge.

The problem now was that there were already several investors; if Shanhe Media entered with only 30 million, the share they held wouldn't be much, which didn't align with Wei Jin's intentions.

Just as Tian Xiaopeng held his breath, waiting for the verdict, Wei Jin spoke.

"Director Tian, listen to my proposal..."

Two hours later, watching Tian Xiaopeng leave the office with a look of joy, his assistant Huang Mengying was somewhat puzzled.

"Boss, he only needed 30 million; why did you want to invest 65 million?"

Facing his assistant's confusion, Wei Jin smiled without answering, instead pulling her onto his lap to sit, playing with her beautiful legs wrapped in black silk and her breasts that were nearly bursting out of her slim-fit shirt.

Regarding this investment, Wei Jin was, of course, not foolish with too much money.

On one hand, there were flaws in the production of Coming Home; after all, to show results to other producers, Tian Xiaopeng's team inevitably had to rush, so Wei Jin hoped that by increasing the investment, they could perfect the flawed parts.

On the other hand, it is also to hand over the special effects work to Shanhe Ink, striving to make *Monkey King: Hero is Back* a milestone for domestic animated films.

Most importantly, through this investment method, Shanhe Media directly becomes the largest investor, with a share exceeding 60%.

As for whether other investors will worry about not recouping their costs? Wei Jin wishes they were afraid, and then withdrew from the project. Wei Jin even intends to include subsequent promotion and distribution expenses in the investment costs to increase his share as much as possible.

After all, this film, under the stumbling production of his past life and with zero promotion, was still able to achieve a result of nearly 1 billion.

Now that it is controlled by Shanhe Media, with the special effects support of Shanhe Ink, sufficient production funds, and powerful promotion and cinema support.

Wei Jin believes that the box office will definitely reach a brand-new height, and the higher the share, the better, naturally.

It is just that this plan is not for outsiders to know.

Withdrawing his thoughts, Wei Jin looked at his Assistant, who was already flushed and had eyes full of passion, and reached out to pinch her pretty face; the latter understood immediately.

Huang Mengying stood up and leaned forward slightly, extending her index finger to slowly slide down Wei Jin's chest, arriving at his dantian.

Feeling her boss's heat, she slowly squatted down.

While enjoying the tenderness of his Assistant, Wei Jin browsed through film news.

*Qian Xuesen* and *A Simple Life* have both been released.

To tell the truth, Western Film Group really put a lot of heart into the production of *Qian Xuesen* and put in great effort; otherwise, the "suspected of leaking secrets" incident from before would not have occurred.

The film is indeed excellent, very textured, and interprets a great man's patriotism and family sentiments to the fullest.

Whether online or among industry insiders, the reviews for the film are also very good.

But some films are truly difficult to recoup costs; even though Wei Jin already helped promote it on Weibo, the first-day box office for *Qian Xuesen* only reported less than 800,000.

By comparison, the performance of *A Simple Life* is much more eye-catching, raking in 14.8 million at the box office on its first day in Mainland China.

It was released simultaneously in Hong Kong, and the box office performance was also not bad, with 4.1 million Hong Kong dollars on the first day.

For an art-house film, this result is already quite rare; after all, Zhang Yimou's *Hawthorn Tree* back then only had this result.

Wei Jin paid special attention to *The Sword Identity*, which was shortlisted for the Venice Horizons Section last year; the director is the Beijing Film Academy teacher Xu Haofeng.

It is a pity that although this film has good word-of-mouth, the box office is very unsatisfactory; it has been released for a week now, and the total box office has not yet broken one million, and the screen allocation from cinemas is already less than 1%, destined to not finish its theatrical run.

After sighing, Wei Jin patted his Assistant's pretty face; the latter gently released him, stood up, and posed seductively to cooperate with her boss.

"Oh~~~"

"Mm~~~"

As two low sounds rang out, the music party in the office began; Zhang Yimou's efficiency is quite good; he has had the script for over a month and has finally thoroughly understood it.

Perhaps because he just joined Shanhe Media, Zhang Yimou actually brought over the storyboard he had finished.

"President Wei, you are the screenwriter; take a look and see if these match your vision."

Honestly speaking, this is the film in Wei Jin's mind most suitable for Zhang Yimou, a very realistic piece.

This story is unfortunate, the characters are miserable, and the ending is sorrowful, but this is reality.

"Director Zhang, very good, very profound; the script has exactly this flavor."

In a few minutes, Wei Jin finished looking at the storyboard; handing this kind of subject matter to Zhang Yimou is absolutely no problem.

Even the construction of certain scenes and the use of the camera are better than the finished film in Wei Jin's mind.

"I wonder how you are considering the actors, Director Zhang?"

"For the male actor, what do you think of He Bing?"

Wei Jin thought for a moment and nodded; He Bing was born in '68, and first of all, his age is more or less the same as the male lead in the script.

Secondly, He Bing comes from the People's Art Theatre, so there is absolutely no problem with his acting skills; last year, he co-starred with Chen Daoming in the play *The Comedy of Sorrows*, which refreshed the 60-year box office record of the People's Art Theatre; the media reported on it for quite a while at the time.

"I think he is quite suitable, but we can consider more; what about the other roles?"

"For the female lead, I actually want to invite Gong Li, but she has some personal circumstances, so it's not very convenient..."

Looking at Zhang Yimou's somewhat regretful expression, Wei Jin felt secretly happy; if he had really called Gong Li over, he would have been in a difficult position to say anything, as in terms of character fit, Gong Li is indeed quite suitable.

However, seeing that Zhang Yimou didn't have any other ideas yet, Wei Jin spoke up.

"Director Zhang, what do you think of Ceng Li?"

Regarding Wei Jin's suggestion, Zhang Yimou thought it over repeatedly and still nodded in agreement.

This is not necessarily just giving Wei Jin face; Ceng Li does indeed fit this role; whether it is the rural woman in *Lurking* or the imprisoned mother in *Room*, she actually tends toward these types of roles.

As expected, when Wei Jin told Ceng Li this news, the latter was full of surprise; when the two were intimate that night, she was incredibly gentle.

After the intimacy, Ceng Li remembered one thing.

"By the way, Xiao Jin, Yin Xiaotian asked someone to find out my phone number; he wants to thank you. Do you think you should call him back?"

Not many people have Wei Jin's private phone number, and these people will not easily give the number to others without Wei Jin's consent.

Therefore, wanting to contact Wei Jin by starting with the people around him is a relatively conventional approach.

Yin Xiaotian happens to be a student from the Central Academy of Drama's '94 class, counting as Ceng Li's senior; passing a message through this layer of school relationship doesn't seem abrupt.

Thinking about it, Wei Jin took Ceng Li's phone, found the number, and dialed it.

"President Wei, thank you so much..."

Through the phone, Wei Jin could feel Yin Xiaotian's sincerity.

It is no wonder; for Wei Jin, this was just a small favor, but for Yin Xiaotian, it was an immense debt of gratitude.

Although he lost endorsements and acting contracts, he is a talented actor after all; as long as he is not targeted subsequently, there will be a day he can rise again sooner or later.

What's more, being able to see that group of people personally come forward to apologize—however aggrieved Yin Xiaotian was before, he is that much more grateful to Wei Jin now.

"Mm, you're welcome."

After some comforting, Wei Jin hung up the phone and did not take this matter to heart.

For one, Wei Jin has no friendship with him, and this intervention was only because he couldn't stand to watch it.

For another, Yin Xiaotian is also someone who can take it and let it go, or rather, reality forced him to let it go.

Wei Jin remembers having seen Yin and Du complete a "century reconciliation" on a variety show ten years later.

From a realistic perspective, Wei Jin could understand; after all, to make it in this line of work, one had to accept being a coward if one lacked a background, but that did not mean he liked this way of doing things.

After all, Wei Jin had stood up for him, so if he were to turn around and reconcile with the other party, it would make people feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Simply put, Wei Jin did not chat with him much more, sticking to the matter at hand; how things developed subsequently had nothing to do with him. (End of chapter)