Chapter 164: Liu Tianxian Who Got Bitten by a Dog

After the two of them saw Song Dai off, they returned to the office.

Liu Tianxian lay sprawled on the desk, chin propped on both hands, looking at Fang Hong sitting across from her: "I'm leaving. Will you be happy?"

"What would I be happy about? I'm the one who can't bear to part with you." Fang Hong's face was expressionless.

"No one will be watching you every day now, no one will be beating you every day, you can let yourself go — aren't you happy about that!" Liu Tianxian waved her hand as she spoke, voice and expression both vivid.

During this period she came every day, turning down many publicity drafts, wanting to downplay the matter between her and Zeng and resolve it peacefully.

To put it bluntly, she was just free.

"Then don't go, I beg you, please watch me every day, okay?" Fang Hong pressed his palms together and bowed.

This made Liu Tianxian laugh; she struck a pose: "I'm not your housekeeper, why would I watch you every day."

"Sigh, Confucius really said it well — only women and petty men are hard to deal with." Fang Hong sighed.

"What do you mean?" Liu Tianxian was puzzled.

"Be a little nicer to her, let her go realize her ideals, and she complains; let her get closer and stay by your side, and she turns wild and untamed." Fang Hong said.

"Get lost, who did you learn that from, honestly." Liu Tianxian raised her hand as if about to hit him.

Might as well just call her a petty person outright.

Fang Hong let out a "heh," then said seriously: "Honestly, be careful over there. I heard it's pretty chaotic."

"Mm! I'll just make a quick round and come back, I won't stay long." Liu Tianxian nodded.

Southeast Asia is right at the doorstep, it's not far.

This way she could boost her international fame and land endorsements from big brands.

Right now Liu Tianxian didn't have that many big brands on her — only France's Garnier was somewhat famous.

The rest were just some gaming and domestic clothing brands.

The gaming ones were always mocked and cursed at by people, saying she was lowering herself, so desperate she'd take anything.

Every day the two of them just chatted like this, bantered a bit, and in the afternoon Fang Hong would drive Liu Tianxian home, then go home himself.

The next day, when Fang Hong went to work, Liu Tianxian didn't go to Yutu, but instead drove a flashy red Ferrari and parked it at his doorstep.

She had once promised Fang Hong she'd come visit when she had time.

This whole year Fang Hong had been running to her place constantly, yet she hadn't come even once.

The front gate wasn't closed, so Liu Tianxian pushed the door right in, looked around and couldn't find anyone, and only spotted Xu Liyun's back in the yard, seemingly digging at the soil.

"Auntie!" Liu Tianxian called out.

"Woof woof woof!"

Before Xu Liyun could turn around, Heizi, who had been lying beside her with his tongue out, suddenly leaped up and charged at Liu Tianxian, barking furiously.

The stance looked like he wanted to tear her apart.

This scared Liu Tianxian so much her face changed; seeing the dog about to bite her, she turned to run — it was too fierce.

But how could she possibly outrun a dog.

"Heizi, get back here." Xu Liyun planted her hoe on the ground with a loud thud.

Hearing his master's voice, Heizi turned around and ran back, very fast — fortunately she called out in time, otherwise Liu Tianxian wouldn't have been Liu Tianxian anymore.

She would have been Liu Tianxian-who-got-bitten-by-a-dog.

But this dog doesn't actually bite people, just barks; if he really bit people, Xu Liyun's shout wouldn't have been in time — that speed was too fast.

Liu Tianxian patted her little chest, looking like she still had lingering fear.

"Yifei, you're here." Xu Liyun put down the hoe and tapped Heizi on the head twice.

No sense of discernment at all, biting just anyone.

Heizi wilted and lay on the ground, no longer imposing.

Being a dog isn't easy either — you have to protect your master and also recognize your master's friends.

Xu Liyun wiped the dirt off her hands, her face kind, and walked up to Liu Tianxian: "Yifei, I didn't scare you, did I!"

"I'm fine!"

Liu Tianxian said it politely, glanced at Heizi behind her — too scary, he used to be afraid of her, now he wasn't afraid at all.

Completely unlike before when he saw Xiaoxiao and still had a bit of a cute look; now he was half a person's height on her — time really flies.

She added: "What are you doing here?"

"Winter's coming, you know, planting some chives."

Xu Liyun was happy to see Liu Tianxian, a smile staying on her face the whole time: "Come inside and sit, I'll pour you some tea."

"You're too kind, the weather's really nice today, I came to keep you company." Liu Tianxian said.

"Alright, then I'll change my clothes." Xu Liyun thought they were going shopping.

"No need, no need."

Liu Tianxian, not minding the dirt, looped her arm through Xu Liyun's: "Just walking around this yard is fine, your vegetables look great, and I haven't actually seen how vegetables are planted — teach me, won't you?"

This yard was lush and green, full of all kinds of green vegetables, very well tended, and quite a pleasing sight.

It could ease the mind, no need for such a fast pace — like Fang Hong, who was always at a fast pace.

"Alright!" Xu Liyun was touched.

While Liu Tianxian was at Fang Hong's home, Fang Hong and Chen Zhixi had already gone to China Film Group to renegotiate the revenue split.

In other words, they wanted first-tier top-director treatment — why could directors and film companies whose box office wasn't even as good as theirs get 5% lower, while Yutu had to be 8% higher?

Only after meeting certain standards could it be 6% — why? Just because they had awards?

You have to realize, 1.6 billion — even calculated at 8%, Yutu earned China Film Group 128 million, and that wasn't even profit.

China Film Group's total net profit for the whole year was only 194 million, a bit less than Huayi.

Although the accounts aren't calculated quite that way — they have their own targets — it could still reflect that state-owned enterprises aren't the only dominant players.

During the negotiations, Fang Hong hinted that if the share wasn't lowered, he'd learn from Zhang Weiping and bypass distribution to go straight to the cinema chains — go to Wanda, go to Enlight, whatever works.

Of course he couldn't put it that bluntly; he was very tactful about it.

Anyway, everyone's making a fuss now, so Jade Rabbit joining in doesn't hurt — they're not leading the charge.

Manager Lei looked at the two people who used to grovel before him, whom he'd had to sweet-talk just to get them to distribute his films, and he could only laugh bitterly inside.

What good kids they used to be — how did they end up with such mercenary faces?

"You should be uniting to go to the cinema chains and demand lower shares, not coming to us. Coming to us at this critical moment — isn't that infighting?" Manager Lei said helplessly.

All the producers are uniting to resist the cinema chains taking too much, yet these two run off to find the distributors instead.

Distributors count as producers too — they should be on the same side.

"I didn't want to come either, but I just couldn't sleep, the more I thought about it the more unbalanced I felt. Tell me, where is our Jade Rabbit worse than those old-line film companies? Where is it worse than those big-name directors? Why should we get unfair treatment?"

Fang Hong glanced at Chen Zhixi and winked at her: "Right?"

"Yes, I've been thinking about it for a long time and still can't figure it out. Our Jade Rabbit has the box office, has the production volume, has never made China Film Group lose money — every single film hit its target. So why do we get a smaller share than those big-name directors?" Chen Zhixi backed him up.

"In the end, it's just that you've got a grievance in your hearts, right!" Manager Lei figured out what they were after.

"Manager Lei really understands us." Fang Hong said.

Manager Lei laughed — this guy really knew how to climb the ladder.

Essentially, giving the big-name directors that share was because they were a guarantee — relying on their fame, the box office couldn't get too bad no matter what, hoping they could hold up Chinese cinema.

But that wasn't fair to the younger generation of up-and-coming directors.

Nothing to be done — that's how it's always been played. Wanting to change it now isn't something that can happen overnight.

And Fang Hong could be considered a famous director, nicknamed "Principal" to boot. For over a year now, not a single film lost money — every one turned a profit. Honestly, he was qualified for a reduction.

"How about this — you two go back first, we'll look into it." Manager Lei said.

"How long will this 'looking into it' of yours take?"

Fang Hong didn't buy the need for any deliberation — Manager Lei could decide on his own.

It was nothing but a stalling tactic, stalling until the Film Bureau saw how the negotiations with the cinema chains turned out.

But they didn't know that this time the higher-ups had only resolved the issue of "The Flowers of War" being screened, and hadn't solved the fundamental problem — they still needed to make an even bigger fuss.

Namely, all distributors and producers boycotting the cinema chains.

Only this was kept rather hush-hush — anyone outside the industry basically didn't know.

Because later there was no Zhang Weiping with his big mouth shouting it everywhere.

"Very soon — once there's a result, we'll naturally notify you." Manager Lei was well-versed in the art of stalling.

Fang Hong thought for a moment: "How about this — I won't make things hard for you either. Let's both take a step back. I don't want the big-director treatment either; you give me 6%. But I have one condition."

"What condition?" Manager Lei asked instinctively.

"I started this thing called Rabbit Ticket — it's a ticketing platform. Could you ask the China Film Group Cinema managers to be accommodating and let Rabbit Ticket's ticket machines enter the various theaters smoothly?" Fang Hong said.

There are too few movie theaters in Beijing and the surrounding area — expand the regional coverage.

"Actually, we have a ticketing platform too — it's called China Film Movie Pass, been running for a few years now." Manager Lei said.

This one was jointly set up by China Film Group and the Projection Association — Manager Lei was the Vice President of the Projection Association.

Only this software later didn't have many people knowing about it.

Without capital burning money everywhere, who would know about this thing.

This thing was basically a piece of software that connected all the theaters under China Film Group.

"That's great then — can we integrate with it?" Fang Hong said.

If so, then it wouldn't be such a hassle. Don't be fooled by the current chaos in the ticketing market — in the future, anyone wanting to integrate with the National Film Data Platform would need approval.

With China Film Group's backing, it would still be quite easy.

"Sure — integration fee is 200,000 yuan a year." Manager Lei said.

Many outside ticketing platforms have integrated with this China Film Group software. That way the third parties don't have to go through all that trouble — the ticketing directly connects to all the theaters under China Film Group. Very simple.

"You — you're charging me for this small amount too!" Fang Hong looked at the man suspiciously.

"Weren't you haggling with me over one or two percentage points of the cut?" Manager Lei also looked at him suspiciously.

The old and the young stared at each other with strange looks.

That's it for tonight — adjusting my schedule, going to sleep.

(End of chapter)