Chapter 367: Spreading the Reputation

At the meeting, the core creative staff spoke freely, each laying out their ideas and difficulties—some bought equipment, some brought in technology, some solved problems.

Sometimes it's not that the technology can't compete with Hollywood; it's just that the ideas haven't reached that level.

After the collision of ideas, it became much simpler for the actors—they didn't have to face the confusion of green screens, nor perform too many physical movements; the computer system could control and achieve it.

This added a sense of realism to the actors' performance and also solved the filming difficulties.

This discussion meeting was just the General Manager's meeting—requirements were put forward, and each department below would hold its own departmental meetings to solve problems.

For example, making a large Light Box—for a particular scene, the actors and the photography system would film inside such a big box. This idea was quite good.

But making such a large box required coordination among multiple departments, plus it had to be designed, and then a manufacturer had to be found to produce it.

This was just putting forward requirements and solving problems.

Anyway, it made it simpler for Liu Tianxian to shoot this film—it was impossible to rely solely on the actors' performance; wherever technology could be relied on, rely on it.

An actor's performance is the most unstable thing.

This preparatory meeting lasted a whole day. Departmental meetings and coordination meetings would continue to be held one after another—problems would always exist.

There was another important matter: they needed to communicate and coordinate with the higher-ups about blowing up the Tiangong—they didn't know if the higher-ups would agree.

Let's leave it at this for now—communicate with Zhang Hongsen and see if it can be filmed this way. If not, then build one ourselves and name it Yutu, to distinguish it from that name.

It's not like we're really going to blow it up—it's just how the film portrays it. Those people up top are rather sensitive; they feel that people's IQ is very low, and if it's filmed this way, they'll really think it's going to be blown up like that.

In mid-August, the loan that had taken a full month finally showed signs of progress.

Fang Hong and Liu Tianxian stood in front of the gate of Chang'e Technology, with Finance Officer Gao Zhun, Executive Officer Zhang Lidong, and Operations Officer Zhang Nan standing beside them.

These few were all core decision-makers—such a major matter couldn't bypass them.

Moreover, loans and financing were perfectly normal and wouldn't give rise to any sense of distrust.

"This role feels hard to play—so helpless, so desperate." Liu Tianxian flipped through the script in her hand. Fang Hong had just given it to her, telling her to mull it over first.

"You have to keep breaking through yourself. What if you play it well, right?" Fang Hong said.

"Everything you say is right." Liu Tianxian closed the script—she'd read it when she had time.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a high-end business car approaching from afar, and pointed: "Here it is, this is the car."

The others looked in the direction of the sound and saw the car stop in front of them.

Several sharply dressed high-end individuals got out of the car—one of them was Liu Tianxian's uncle, and the other two should be the bank president from Wuhan and the person in charge of credit business.

"Hello!"

"."

The few exchanged greetings and brief introductions, then entered the Chang'e Technology building.

The uncle took note of the environment here and the spirit of the staff—the environment design had quite a tech feel, and the staff looked bright and polished.

"The environment's not bad. It's just that these staff all look quite young."

"Young people have vigor and fresh ideas—perfectly suited for a tech company like ours." Zhang Lidong said.

He didn't mention that the company was newly founded and most of the staff were new hires—saying so would make people lose confidence.

"How many people do you have now?" the uncle asked.

"Nearly five thousand. This year we plan to recruit ten thousand. It's almost September and we still haven't filled all the positions—the main issue is that it's hard to recruit truly professional technical talent." Fang Hong replied.

Ten thousand?! The uncle did a quick mental calculation—if each person earned ten thousand in wages, just wages alone would cost a hundred million a month.

He'd heard programmers' salaries were quite high.

Even losing this much money, he hadn't heard of any situation where they couldn't keep the pot boiling.

"Isn't there campus recruiting?" the uncle said.

"Recruiting casually is no problem, but recruiting people with a certain level of technical skill isn't easy—right now all the major internet companies are scrambling for talent." Zhang Lidong explained.

This was precisely the era of great internet expansion—Tencent, Alibaba, Meituan, Xiaomi, JD, NetEase were all expanding frantically.

And emerging internet companies like ByteDance, Kuaishou, Meitu, Ctrip, YY were also expanding and scrambling for talent.

Hearing this, the uncle roughly understood and suggested: "Try donating some money to those universities—they have plenty of talent."

"Huh?!" Fang Hong didn't quite understand.

"Schools are the places that cultivate talent. All the high-end talent in society comes out of schools. If you donate money to them, your reputation will instantly spread among the intellectual community—they can help you connect with alumni resources, and you can share in their research achievements."

The uncle put his arm around Fang Hong's shoulder and whispered in his ear: "You can also offset it against corporate income tax—it's equivalent to you donating money and gaining alumni resources, and also sharing in some of their achievements."

Having said that, he patted Fang Hong on the shoulder and gave him a look, signaling—you know what I mean.

The trick had been told to him; how to operate it was up to him.

Fang Hong stood there in a daze, with a sudden realization. No wonder some people, as soon as they start a business, have so many people following them—their starting point is already faster than others. Wang Xing was like this, Zhang Yiming was like this.

That was alumni resources helping. Just like when he founded Yutu, besides money, it was also the alumni resources of Beijing Film Academy at work. Without these alumni resources, it would have been very hard for him to pull together the founding team. Although those people were led by him personally, others also looked at his identity as a Beijing Film Academy person—this was very important.

Now he didn't have this resource anymore—he could only use money to buy this resource, spread his reputation to attract talent.

But then again, no wonder those rich people don't even glance at beggars on the roadside who haven't eaten, squeeze the workers who work for them to the bone, yet donate hundreds of millions or even billions to schools without batting an eye.

It's really because this resource is very tempting, and the tax offset is also very attractive.

What benefits can beggars and workers give them? Beggars give nothing in return, workers can't create the value of high-end talent—the return isn't proportional.

Actually, celebrities are kinder than them—at least celebrities seek a bit of fame, put on a show. Those rich people don't even put on a show—do you even know who I am?

"Hey!" Liu Tianxian patted his arm: "What are you thinking about? Let's go in."

By now they had arrived at a high-end conference room, and Liu Tianxian urged Fang Hong to go in.

"Oh, wait for me outside." Fang Hong came to his senses.

"Mm, I'll go to your office—come find me when you're done." Liu Tianxian nodded.

She wasn't going in—this matter on her end was already done. How to take out the loan, how to borrow money, the business between Chang'e Technology and her uncle's bank—she didn't need to be involved.

When the time came, she only needed to sign a guarantee agreement.

This was still a corporate loan—only Fang Hong was using his Yutu equity as collateral.

As for the issue of Chang'e Technology's insufficient time since establishment, Uncle also helped reduce it to one year, which is legal.

They entered the conference room, personnel from both sides took their seats, spread out their documents, and began negotiating the loan.

Fang Hong had originally only wanted to borrow 5 billion, but with Liu Tianxian as guarantor and the added effect of Uncle's connection, his credit line was raised to 6.3 billion.

That is, a 900 million USD financing loan.

This was because Liu Tianxian had initially opened her mouth wide and demanded 7 billion, afraid he wouldn't have enough — either don't give, or if giving, give more.

Playing extreme operations — any problem would lead to total loss, too dangerous.

This not only excited Fang Hong, but also Zhang Lidong and Zhang Nan — which startup company could have such a large credit line!

If so, their Chang'e Technology wouldn't be so strapped, with funds stretched so tight.

They could only adopt conservative development, not daring to go all out.

Not only that, the annual interest rate was lowered to the 3% standard, meaning 189 million in interest per year.

When Yutu originally borrowed, it was 6%, so this was directly cut in half.

However, there were conditions — the loan term was 5 years, and during these 5 years, prepayment was not allowed; only after paying the bank 945 million in interest, roughly 1 billion, could repayment be made.

They lent you so much money, gave you such low interest, you got through the hardship and have money now, you want to repay all at once, not wanting to pay extra interest.

Then the bank would feel it's a loss, equivalent to not making money.

The Chang'e Technology decision-makers not only didn't mind, but gladly accepted — this was equivalent to giving them a five-year buffer for development, which was beneficial to them.

What they needed was time, time was too important to them.

It can be said Liu Tianxian put in a great deal of effort in this — not only helping Fang Hong secure the loan, lowering the interest rate, but also giving buffer time.

Of course, Uncle's tremendous help was also a factor.

Disbursement will begin next month, 2.1 billion per month, spread over three months, meaning the full 6.3 billion will be disbursed before 2014.

Banks also have targets for disbursement, and the process requires review, so some time is needed.

The negotiation went smoothly; the bank didn't raise any harsh conditions, just requiring them to pay interest on time each year.

After all, the bank also needs to make money — earning over 900 million in five years is a pretty good deal.

The only worry is if they can't repay, that would be tragic.

However, with connections and guarantees, the conditions were still relaxed.

After everyone finished negotiating, Zhang Lidong, Zhang Nan, and Uncle continued discussing related details and entertained them.

Fang Hong went to his office.

Liu Tianxian was using a pen to annotate the script, looked up and saw him, stood up from her seat: "How did the negotiation go?"

Fang Hong spread his arms, walked up and pulled her into his embrace, holding her tight.

Seeing this gesture, Liu Tianxian knew it was done, and said happily: "Very smooth, right?"

"Very smooth, thank you." Fang Hong held her shoulders, kissed each of her cheeks, then aimed at her lips and gave a "smack."

This not only solved a major problem for him, but also gave him a large sum of startup capital — his heart was excited, thrilled, and grateful.

6.3 billion! He had worked so long without ever seeing so much money, and so much money would soon lie in his account.

"Smooth is good, no need for thanks, I didn't do much either." Liu Tianxian was also happy for him.

(End of this chapter)