Chapter 337: You Worry for Me Too

The May weather was warm. Fang Hong and Liu Tianxian shamelessly flirted, then found a spot and sat down together.

Liu Tianxian fed a preserved plum into his mouth.

Fang Hong asked, chewing, "How's the filming going?"

"Not great. The emotions required are too delicate—every expression, every glance, that kind of subtle feeling. Even using every trick I have, I can't act it out. I can only slowly grind away, slowly searching for the feeling."

Liu Tianxian puffed out her cheeks: "And you said this role was in my comfort zone. Who knew it'd be this hard to play."

"Take it slow. This film is a kind of training for you. If you play it well, you'll have the experience." Fang Hong took her delicate little hand and toyed with it.

Actually, he hadn't planned to bring this script out for Liu Tianxian to act in this early; he felt she still hadn't been honed enough.

But Liu Tianxian had that desire, so he let her try. If one film didn't work, there'd be another—no big deal!

"Mm, but luckily Director Xue is really nice to me. He doesn't say anything bad about me, and he'll give me guidance, give me time to slowly mull it over." Liu Tianxian said.

"That's good then!" Fang Hong said.

Xue Xiaolu had a delicate mind and was well-suited to directing this kind of nuanced romance film. If Fang Hong were to direct it, he couldn't pull it off.

His style clashed too much with this film!

Liu Tianxian rubbed his hand: "Aren't you very busy? How come you have time to come by today?"

"Sigh, just taking a breather. Work never ends. Better to get out and walk than sit around overthinking." Fang Hong sighed.

"What is it? Did you run into some difficulty?" Liu Tianxian watched his reaction; he seemed to have something on his mind.

Fang Hong shook his head and said nothing.

"You men just have too much pride, always insisting on carrying things yourselves." Liu Tianxian patted his hand.

The male lead in the script was the same way—rather suffer in silence than share his troubles with the female lead. Just too much pride, lacking communication, causing the conflicts to deepen.

"Even if I told you, you couldn't help me. Better not to say anything, so you don't end up worrying for me too." Fang Hong said.

"How would you know I can't help if you don't tell me?" Liu Tianxian countered.

"I'm thinking about where to get a sum of money." Fang Hong said.

"How much do you need? I've saved up a bit these past few years. If you're short, you can take it to use." Liu Tianxian went along.

She'd been very popular these past two or three years, her commercial value constantly rising, and she'd accumulated some wealth.

"At least five billion. Do you have it?" Fang Hong said.

"What?!" Liu Tianxian was dumbfounded.

That amount of money, for her right now, was still a very distant figure—her net worth might not even be that much.

Net worth and income are two different things. Net worth refers to a person's market influence, a personal value, an intangible asset.

"See, I told you it was better not to say anything. Now you're worried too." Fang Hong spread his hands.

"No, why do you suddenly need so much money?" Liu Tianxian didn't understand. That much money could buy out a whole company.

In her impression, Fang Hong rarely went in for acquisitions.

"I've set my sights on the Shanda Entertainment sector and want to acquire it. I just don't have the money, and I don't know how to negotiate with them." Fang Hong explained the reason.

Recently, reading the news, he'd seen that Tencent had set up Genesis Chinese Network, constantly poaching people from Shanda—many screenwriters and authors.

Even a big shot like Mao Ni had been poached.

Of course, it wasn't just Tencent poaching. The four kings of online literature—Xue Hong, Yanyu Jiangnan, Yun Tiankong, and Jiu Tu—were all poached.

To grab the big-name authors, they even offered a payment of 4,800 yuan per thousand characters—utterly outrageous!

This enraged Shanda's top brass, who began to fight back, comprehensively raising author benefits to retain them.

A certain site still had no money and specialized in poaching big names. Genesis had money and traffic and was out to dig up Shanda Literature's roots, launching an even better guarantee plan and poaching 151 top-tier authors in the industry.

When the online literature circle goes to war, it gets pretty fierce!

These days, Tencent is competing and expanding everywhere—not just in entertainment and film, but also in 360's security sector, Alibaba's payment and e-commerce sectors, Baidu's search sector, Weibo's social media sector, Pig Factory's gaming sector, Meituan and Ele. me's group-buying sector, and so on.

Right now, Tencent hasn't taken a stake in Meituan—Alibaba did first. Later, for some reason, Alibaba pulled out and Tencent went in.

Anyway, there's too much competition to count. Whatever others have, it must have too; whatever others don't have, it wants as well. Its tentacles reach in every direction, every sector.

In this environment where everyone is an enemy, stirring up trouble everywhere—even novels wouldn't dare write it that way; if they did, they'd get torn apart.

That's why many companies refuse Tencent's investment.

ByteDance, miHoYo, for example—flat-out refused!

Later, Game Science, the developer of Black Myth: Wukong, also refused several times, saying only if Tencent didn't interfere with product decisions and daily company operations would they agree to take Tencent's money.

Those founders had originally come from Tencent themselves. They'd made "Asura" into that sorry state through operations, so of course they knew Tencent's ways.

"Is that thing really that important? Fifty billion?" Liu Tianxian didn't understand how much use online literature could be.

Even if it could be adapted, it'd be better to buy some classics—novels with real artistic merit.

"It's useful. It can curb Tencent's Big Entertainment Plan. We need to put some checks on that company, or it'll be too terrifying later." Fang Hong didn't hide it either.

Tencent did get pretty terrifying later. Shanda Literature was like a literary treasure trove, able to continuously supply IPs, forming a chain of adapted film, Animation Department, and games.

Of course Fang Hong had his eye on it too!

"Are you so sure they'll sell to you?" Liu Tianxian asked.

"The Shanda boss has already lost the heart to keep running it. He'll definitely sell, but there aren't many companies that can buy it. They're in the middle of a fight right now, so if I make a move, I'll definitely have some advantage. After all, Shanda and I have no grudge—my impression will be a bit better." Fang Hong said.

Among internet companies, aside from BAT, no one could afford to buy Shanda Literature.

Because in this era, only BAT had money. Companies like ByteDance, Pinduoduo, and Xiaomi hadn't risen yet.

Alibaba definitely wouldn't shell out that kind of money—better to do it themselves, especially since the mobile internet era had arrived, so they'd get into mobile reading.???? Baidu didn't need to; they had their own Zongheng!

Only Tencent took it over. In the previous life, the exact price Tencent paid wasn't known—rumor had it 4.5 to 5 billion.

That was why Fang Hong was asking for 5 billion!

"I can't help you with this either. I don't have that much money. If you needed a few hundred million, I could scrape it together for you, but five billion is terrifying." Liu Tianxian was also helpless.

She didn't understand Fang Hong's business strategy, but with this matter she really couldn't help—she didn't have that kind of money.

If there's money, she'll definitely help.

"It's fine, I'll figure something out myself. I'll see if I can borrow from a bank. If I can't afford it, worst case I'll just do without." Fang Hong said it lightly on purpose.

This matter he had only ever told Liu Tianxian; he hadn't told a single soul.

"You, your ambition is just too big. Take it easy, be content, and you wouldn't be like this." Liu Tianxian said softly, trying to persuade him.

"You don't understand. Sometimes it's not that I want things a certain way—people just won't let me off. If I don't get stronger, all I can do is take the beating." Fang Hong said.

Liu Tianxian understood what he meant. With one arm she hugged his shoulder and gave it a comforting pat: "Don't overthink it."

"."

The two chatted softly here, while over there the crew began setting up the scene and lighting again, preparing to shoot once more.

An Assistant happened to come call her, so Liu Tianxian went to touch up her makeup—her earlier sweet moment with Fang Hong had left her makeup and hair a little mussed.

When shooting resumed, Fang Hong sat down next to Xue Xiaolu, watching her act.

"There'll be narration here, to convey her state of mind at this moment, that sense of unease." Xue Xiaolu explained from the side.

Fang Hong nodded, said nothing, just stared at the monitor.

On the monitor, blue sky, white clouds, green grass, sunlight spilling over Liu Tianxian—bright and lovely, yet she carried a faint, lost feeling. It was a long shot of her back, not a close-up.

They didn't dare shoot a close-up, afraid it wouldn't convey that feeling—after all, on the big screen, expressions get magnified.

What Liu Tianxian was playing here was atmosphere and mood.

At this moment the male lead happens to appear, his mood bright and clear, much like the weather.

"Tianxian, I want you to give me a tangled, anxious state, radiating from within." Xue Xiaolu called "cut" once more.

"Okay, I'll try." Liu Tianxian said.

Xue Xiaolu had just raised her hand, ready to shoot again, when Fang Hong pressed down on her arm and stopped her.

"You two, come here." Fang Hong signaled Liu Tianxian and Bai Yu to come over.

He then had a nearby Assistant bring two small stools, and when the two arrived, he gestured for them to sit.

The four of them formed a circle. Liu Tianxian and Bai Yu looked rather bewildered.

"You two listen to my take on the male and female leads' state of mind. Teacher Xue can point out anything wrong." Fang Hong said.

Xue Xiaolu nodded, gesturing for him to go on.

"The female lead is someone with a delicate mind, who cares about details. When something happens, her state of mind is fear of losing him—will the male lead fall for someone else later? Are the two of them really right for each other? Can they make it to the end? So the female lead's mindset is worry." Fang Hong explained.

Xue Xiaolu nodded. What he said was quite right; she thought so too.

Liu Tianxian and Bai Yu said nothing, just listened attentively.

"But the male lead treats love like an optimist, not as delicately minded as a girl. People like that only think about dealing with things once an emotional crisis has already appeared; they don't think about prevention. So his mood is happy, playful—he won't overthink it."

Fang Hong analyzed the inner journey of the male and female leads, then went on: "Actually, men's and women's views on love are different. What a woman wants is companionship, wants to be cherished.

A man approaches love with anticipation—the moment they start dating, they've already thought through building the relationship, moving in together, marriage, family. To put it another way, when a man dates it's like fighting a boss—he's heading toward clearing the game, and unlike a woman from the start he doesn't think about what happens if he fails. A man has never thought about failure."

"Well said. Whether it's marriage or dating, women carry this anxiety about the future. It's not unique to any one woman—women are naturally in the weaker position in society, marriage, and family, so there's a natural sense of insecurity." Xue Xiaolu said.

These words were clear enough. Liu Tianxian and Bai Yu listened and could roughly grasp that mindset.

But understanding is one thing—acting it out is hard.

"Tianxian, watch me act it out for you." Fang Hong walked to the Performance Department area, signaled the cameraman for a close-up, right in her face.

Theory was done—time for the real thing to step up.

The three stared at the monitor.

They saw Fang Hong, expressionless, lifting his head slightly, sunlight falling on his face, pupils slightly contracted as he gazed into the distant sky, as if carrying a kind of worry and unease about the future.

That sense of worry, though faint, came through clearly.

Add a filter for atmosphere and it would be even stronger!

Bai Yu stared at the monitor and felt this person's acting was better than his—he could bring out that kind of fine detail.

With Fang Hong's demonstration to help her, Liu Tianxian couldn't help but feel she knew how to play it now—after all, the answer had been written out for her.

"Aiya, if only you were a girl! The female lead would be you." Xue Xiaolu said playfully as she watched Fang Hong walk over.

"If I were a girl, my suitors could line up from here to France—how would other girls survive?" Fang Hong looked at Liu Tianxian and said: "Right, Miss Liu?"

"Yes yes yes, if you were a girl, I'd chase you." Liu Tianxian said with a smile.

"I wouldn't want you!" Fang Hong said.

(End of chapter)