Chapter 298

The 2013 Spring Festival Gala was again directed by Ha Wen, continuing last year's visual feast with 3D technology and holographic projection.

They also invited international artist Celine Dion to perform a song.

This year's Gala was later called by netizens the best Spring Festival Gala ever.

There's no help for it—later Galas were just terrible!

Originally, Fang Hong had been invited to attend, since he was the most successful entrepreneur in the cultural field this year and for several years prior.

But Fang Hong politely declined, choosing to stay home with his mother.

As usual, although the house was decorated festively, the two of them spent the holiday quietly and simply.

"Mom, let me pour you some red wine—this wine is good for beauty and youth, it'll keep you forever young." Fang Hong opened the red wine Liu Tianxian had bought and poured it directly for his mother.

He didn't bother decanting or any of that—no such refinement.

Xu Liyun laughed softly: "This wine is so expensive, I feel bad drinking it."

"Why feel bad? You buy it to drink, not to collect. If you leave it untouched, she won't buy it next time." Fang Hong said carelessly.

"That's such a waste of money," Xu Liyun said.

"She makes hundreds of thousands on a single event—by saving for her, you're hindering China's GDP and obstructing our national economic development." Fang Hong joked.

Xu Liyun burst out laughing: "Hundreds of thousands? That's so little! Doesn't she work hard?"

"Work hard? Hundreds of thousands in a few hours—on a full day, she makes over a million." Fang Hong spoke like he knew the figures by heart.

Xu Liyun was silently stunned—ordinary people couldn't earn that in a lifetime.

Meanwhile, Fang Hong had his mother laughing happily.

At Liu Tianxian's house, it was lively too—besides her mother, her grandparents, aunt, and uncle had all come.

The whole family sat around the dining table, enjoying each other's company.

"Grandpa, Grandma, eat some dishes."

Liu Tianxian stood up, served dishes to her grandparents, then to her aunt and uncle: "Aunt, Uncle, please eat too."

"Our Xixi has grown into such a beautiful young lady," Aunt Zhou Wenqiong teased at the table.

Everyone else laughed heartily—they all knew why they'd come.

They'd seen the boy in photos—he wasn't particularly handsome, but not bad either; as long as Xixi liked him, they didn't care what he looked like.

"Oh Auntie, don't tease me!" Liu Tianxian blushed and playfully swatted the air.

"Tell us—what's he like as a person?" Aunt Zhou placed both hands on the table, feigning serious attention.

"As a person? He's neither good nor bad—but he's very good to me. He thinks for me, considers my feelings, tells me everything, we get along well, and he's sincere with me." Liu Tianxian spoke seriously.

Sincere with her, but full of schemes and tricks toward outsiders—like this time, pretending to be serious when he was just bluffing.

"As long as he's good to you, that's enough—we don't ask for more," Grandma said kindly.

"I know, Grandma," Liu Tianxian nodded.

Liu Xiaoli placed her hand on Liu Tianxian's arm and said to the others: "I've met this boy a few times—he's quite good, has ideas, acts decisively. We don't need him to be a good person to outsiders, just good to family—that's enough."

She was defending Fang Hong, because she'd watched him closely these past years.

Though he had flaws, she still approved of his actions as he walked beside her daughter.

"Exactly—living your own life well is what matters; others can't live it for us," Aunt agreed.

Liu Tianxian listened as her family spoke one after another, their words always centered on her well-being, and she felt comforted.

That man never said it, but he'd always acted this way.

After they finished eating and chatting, the family gathered for mahjong—this was typical for the New Year: either playing mahjong or sitting together eating sunflower seeds and talking.

On the other side, after dinner, Fang Hong was immediately pressured about marriage: "Son, don't just focus on your career—I see that girl is good for our family, she's hinting at marriage."

"I haven't even met all her family yet—marriage is too soon," Fang Hong said.

From the beginning until now, he'd only met Liu Tianxian's parents, and even then, he'd barely glanced at her father without saying anything.

"Then seriously court Xixi—you've been dating this long, it's time to make plans for the next step," Xu Liyun urged.

"I"

Fang Hong was about to speak when his phone vibrated—he picked it up and saw "The Liu Person."

He shushed his mother.

"You should come over tomorrow!" Liu Tianxian spoke first, sounding eager.

She was in her room, lying on her bed, having just finished chatting with the elders—she'd only come upstairs now that they were playing mahjong.

"Even if you didn't say it, I was going to come anyway," Fang Hong replied.

His mother leaned closer, straining to hear their conversation.

"Wear something nice tomorrow," Liu Tianxian said.

"Even if you didn't say it, I was going to wear something nice," Fang Hong repeated the same line.

Xu Liyun slapped her son lightly: "Speak properly—stop repeating the same line."

"You're asking for a beating," Liu Tianxian scolded him.

"I'm just joking—I'm curious. You never invited me over for New Year before—why this year?" Fang Hong asked.

In past years, he'd always awkwardly shown up at Liu Tianxian's house to pay New Year visits; this year, she'd invited him first.

"I'm taking you to meet someone," Liu Tianxian said bluntly.

"Meet who?"

Fang Hong was startled and glanced at his mother.

Xu Liyun's face turned serious; she moved closer, listening more intently.

On New Year's, "meeting someone" meant relatives or elders—nothing else. Outsiders wouldn't visit homes on this day; everyone visited family.

Besides, if you were meeting outsiders, you wouldn't specifically mention it.

"You'll know once you get here." Liu Tianxian played coy.

"Fine, but let me be clear—I don't meet just anyone, you know how distinguished I am." Fang Hong joked.

"Pfft, I don't care how distinguished you are—if you misbehave, I'll suppress you." Liu Tianxian said playfully.

"Suppress me how? By putting your leg on top of me?" Fang Hong laughed.

"I'm going to put my leg on top of you." Liu Tianxian said.

She slept restlessly, constantly bending her leg and pressing it onto whoever was beside her.

After the two of them started sharing a bed, their relationship became much more intimate—saying anything was fine, and if Xu Liyun weren't here, the conversation could easily have drifted into dirty jokes.???? Xu Liyun listened to the two of them chatter for so long, all nonsense, and lost patience, too lazy to keep listening.

Liu Tianxian didn't hang up and continued chatting: "Hey, what are you doing now?"

"Chatting with my mom." Fang Hong said.

"Oh, your mom's there too?" Liu Tianxian's voice suddenly got quieter.

"Yes, want to say a few words?" Fang Hong handed the phone to his mom.

"."

Before Liu Tianxian could speak, she heard a rustling sound and knew the phone had reached Xu Liyun's hand.

She also heard Xu Liyun's voice: "Xixi, Happy New Year."

"Auntie, Happy New Year to you too."

Liu Tianxian was polite, then continued: "I have guests at home today and really can't come over to keep you company, sorry about that."

"No worries, I have Honghong keeping me company, you go ahead with your things." Xu Liyun was understanding, then added: "I also drank the red wine you bought today."

"Eh, was it good?" Liu Tianxian was surprised.

"Can't really tell if it's good or not, feels no different from ordinary wine." Xu Liyun said.

"Did you not let it breathe? It should taste better after breathing."

"Let it breathe? What's that?" Xu Liyun didn't understand.

"Fang Hong should know how, didn't he let it breathe for you?" Liu Tianxian said.

"No, he just poured it straight." Xu Liyun said.

Liu Tianxian was speechless: "He doesn't know a damn thing, next time I'll come pour it for you to drink."

"."

The two of them could chat about a single bottle of wine for ages—Fang Hong sat beside them watching his mom laugh "hehe" nonstop, not knowing what they were talking about.

Not long after, the call ended, and Xu Liyun asked curiously: "Son, who did she say she wants you to meet?"

What she cared about was still this.

"It's either relatives from her dad's side or her mom's side—I reckon it's her mom's side, since her mom and dad have been divorced for many years now." Fang Hong analyzed.

Liu Tianxian's relationship with her mom's side of the family was much better than her dad's side—they often took group photos and such.

Her dad had his own family now, which was somewhat inconvenient; having lived with her mom for so many years, she was naturally closer to her mom's relatives.

"Son, put on a good show." Xu Liyun was happy and patted her son's shoulder.

Who would have thought—whatever you think of comes true.

Tomorrow was the day *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons* would be released.

And at exactly six o'clock that evening, Yutu issued an announcement: "*Now You See Me* has been pulled from the schedule due to technical reasons."

A very simple sentence, with no extra explanation.

This news didn't cause much of a stir outside, but it blew up within the industry.

Everyone was incredibly shocked—the Principal actually fired a blank, actually played it this way, what an eye-opener.

Wang Zhangtian, Yu Pangzi and other film and television bigwigs couldn't help cursing out loud: "This is just too shameless."

They had always assumed the Principal wouldn't be this low-key, that he must have a follow-up move, just like when he brought in feminism to fight before—the early stage was also calm and peaceful, but they didn't expect he just wasn't going to play.

Let you spend money, let you give rebates, let you promote!

Even Manager Lei of China Film Group, who had always been on good terms with Fang Hong, couldn't help cursing "shameless."

Previously he'd told him that this time he'd let Tut Piaopiao handle distribution so as not to trouble China Film Group—he hadn't expected there was never any intention to release the film at all.

But this was business warfare, nothing could be done about it.

Zuoshandiao shook his head too, but could only let it be—now it was a free market, whether or not China Film Group was involved, they could still contact theaters for distribution, as long as they had the channels.

"Holy shit, the Principal's eighteen generations of ancestors." Xiao Wang was cursing up a storm in the Huayi office.

They'd been busy for over a month—running around theaters nationwide doing promotions, giving theaters rebates—all to get them to schedule more screenings of *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons* to deal with the Principal.

To make the Principal bite the dust in the Spring Festival Slot—you claim to have invested 300 million? Then we'll let you lose money on it, infinitely compressing your screening schedule.

Not only does Yutu lose, Tut Piaopiao loses too!

They could at least earn something—who would have thought the benefits had been given out, and the Principal actually wasn't playing with them.

"Twelve points! We gave the theaters a full twelve points!" Xiao Wang said excitedly to his brother.

That meant, adding the theaters' original share, they had to give the theaters 67%—after taxes and funds, they could only get 25%, and that had to be split among so many investors.

And costs still had to be deducted from this, leaving little profit to distribute.

The exact box office was unknown, but ten billion should be there—it could be estimated, but with the Principal pulling this stunt, they lost at least 120 million minimum—how was that any different from killing someone's parents?

This money didn't have to be lost in the first place.

"You just took him too seriously." Big Wang was also indignant.

"The current Yutu is a far cry from before—even the old Yutu could go a few rounds with us, let alone now." Xiao Wang said excitedly.

"You should have had more confidence in Xing Ye—even giving fewer rebates, we might not have lost." Big Wang said.

"I was afraid the Principal had a follow-up move!" Xiao Wang said.

Big Wang fell silent—now Yutu Film and Television had double hits, plus the previous battles, the Principal had genuinely given them a trauma, mainly because they'd never won a head-on fight and wanted to win one for once.

Xing Ye was also wistful—he'd lost so much money for no reason.

Unless one was unafraid of offending the theaters, like the Principal, and pulled the film, voiding the rebate promotion agreement.

But he didn't dare—doing so would utterly alienate the theaters.

Everyone else had already arranged screenings; if you refused to let them show the film and then took back the agreed-upon profits, they'd hate you to death.

Only Jack Ma sneered: "Now that's interesting."

This incident truly let the entire film and television circle see the Principal's audacity—daring to publicly fire a blank, and Alibaba was in there.

So what if it's Alibaba? Fang Hong doesn't rely on them. Does Alibaba control the movie theaters? Or the channels in the entertainment sector?

They don't even have a video platform right now.

The theaters didn't care—as long as there were films for them to show, it was fine. Two giants fighting was actually good for their scheduling; they didn't have that many resources, so losing one was just right.

That was that. Fang Hong didn't care about the reactions from all sides either. Reforms were underway above, and the film and television circle would be liberalized from now on.

The entertainment circle would be a battlefield for capital competition in the future!

On the first day of the New Year, Fang Hong dressed neatly and set off on the road to his mother-in-law's house.

(End of this chapter)