Chapter 377: The Making of a Tyrant

Regarding the acquisition of Shengda Literature, the basic terms have been settled; the follow-up details will be handled by Zhang Lidong, Hua Wei, and Zhang Zhun as a team.

Let this matter proceed for now—once finalized, Fang Hong just needs to sign the contract.

As long as the acquisition price stays below five billion, it's acceptable; if Tencent raises the bid, Fang Hong will walk away—let's see what Chen Tianqiao thinks.

But things didn't go as people imagined: Liu Zhiping, at Tony Ma's request, arranged to meet Chen Tianqiao, only to be outright refused.

He went to visit and met Chen Tianqiao, who said: "Are you sending me off like a servant?"

This left Liu Zhiping speechless—Chen Tianqiao was clearly furious, and this wasn't about five or five billion.

Five billion won't make Chen Tianqiao calm down or erase past grievances—not even worth considering—unless you add ten or even dozens of billions; a few hundred million means nothing to him.

Chen Tianqiao is currently selling assets and could easily fetch a three-digit billion sum, so he doesn't care about a few hundred million.

What he wants is face, to prove a point—at least the Principal must promise him that Wu Wenfei and others won't take control.

If Tencent acquires it, Wu Wenfei and his crew will still take over—then what was all his struggle for? Was it all for nothing? Was all his anger wasted?

Now he's groveling like this—how can he have the nerve?

Their conflict has become extremely bitter, almost irreconcilable, solely because Fang Hong has entered the picture.

Without him, Chen Tianqiao would have eventually compromised—he wouldn't let Shengda Literature become worthless, not when money's involved.

Now it's valuable, and the acquisition prices are roughly equal—why not choose the one that makes him feel better inside?

This frustrates Wu Wenfei—he never expected a wildcard to appear out of nowhere; their original strategy was to corner Shengda Literature before acquiring it.

They had previously discussed acquisition, but the deal fell through over price—now they've failed to steal the chicken and lost their rice, doing the work for someone else.

Chen Tianqiao now wants to sell and has lowered his price—but not to them.

"It's no use—he won't even see me," Liu Zhiping sat again across from Tony Ma.

"Looks like the fight got too fierce, stirred up real anger. Doesn't matter—Shengda Literature isn't that impressive. Good if we get it, fine if we don't," Tony Ma said indifferently.

Actually, Tony Ma truly didn't care—they were already building their own literature division: WeChat Reading on WeChat, QQ Reading on QQ, plus the Genesis Platform—it already rivaled Qidian.

And these two platforms are the highest-traffic ones; everyone's in literature now, all scrambling like demons—no one knows who will win or lose yet.

We've just entered the mobile internet era, and Qidian is still a blank space here.

All we have is reader and content accumulation—just give it time, nothing major.

Shengda Literature only has Qidian that's decent; everything else is weak. To buy the whole Shengda Literature just for Qidian? Tony Ma must weigh it carefully.

This is now a three-way standoff—Chang'e Technology can't directly confront Tencent; everything hinges on Chen Tianqiao's resolve.

It's quite passive, but there's no choice—we're weak.

Recently, Shark Beach, imported and distributed by Tu Piao Piao, premiered nationwide on September 9.

As an imported film, its screening schedule wasn't ideal, and Tu Piao Piao didn't promote it much—just posted promotional posters in major theaters, sparking some online discussion.

Additionally, they ran a splash ad on Tu Piao Piao's platform and a rotating banner on the homepage.

Tu Piao Piao currently has several million monthly active users, plus over twenty million users driven over by Meituan.

So Tu Piao Piao is now a promotional channel—no need for ads; as long as people buy movie tickets, they'll see what's playing.

After burning money for years, there must be some results.

However, Shark Beach's opening-day box office was low: 6.88 million, second day: 5.57 million, dropping day by day.

Later figures won't even reach one or two million, maybe two or three million—just hoping the total exceeds one hundred million, no expectations beyond that.

Moonlight premiered in 48 countries worldwide; its first week in North America earned only $401,000—pathetically low.

The UK, France, and Germany didn't fare better—each earned only tens of thousands in its first week.

This film earned sixty million dollars in its original timeline due to prolonged political correctness screenings—from September through next March, playing for half a year—what other film could do that?

And February and March each year are when the Oscars are held, giving this film tremendous momentum.

Now, too, the moment this film premiered, major media universally praised it and declared it Oscar-bound.

Its Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating hit an unprecedented 100%.

Against this backdrop, the film gained unique value—political correctness, you know what that means.

Fang Hong didn't care about this film—let it play out as long as it wants, even until the Year of the Monkey.

Universal didn't care either—as long as it screened, they'd get paid; they didn't care, and everyone knew the film's true situation.

No overhype, no involvement.

Only Yu Xian was frustrated—this was his lowest-grossing film; it looked like he wouldn't recoup costs anytime soon.

If you want awards, you can't demand too much—you can't have it all; that's not how things work.

This year's National Day holiday box office remains fiercely competitive.

Among the films preparing for release is Huayi's Shen Du Long Wang, scheduled for the 28th—this film was originally meant to be a decoy for Tu Piao Piao.

Unexpectedly, Tu Piao Piao didn't take the bait—go ahead and release, I'm not afraid—so Huayi had to sulk and retreat.

Also, Bona's Escape is set for the 30th; both are big-name actors and directors.

Others like White Fox and Heart War are just Hong Kong trash—no need to mention. Also, a cheap imitation of the "Jiong" series, Along the Way, starring Bao Beier and one other actor, is utterly terrible.

In the original timeline, it starred Bao Beier and Chen Sicheng; in this timeline, Chen Sicheng didn't participate—he's too busy with his own affairs to waste time on trash like this.

This film was made by the Hong Kong team: Wen Juan and Ye Weimin.

Hong Kong's creative level is this poor—no wonder audiences stopped buying tickets later.

All these films have locked their release dates; if they didn't, Tu Piao Piao wouldn't have released anything—this time, Tu Piao Piao is releasing Lucky Key.

The director of this film is Guo Fan; the actors are Xiao Yang and Yu Hewei.

Originally, Guo Jingfei and Liu Yijun were cast, but they were deemed too upright—didn't look like comedy actors—so the Producer swapped them out.

Xiao Yang was self-suggested; after watching his Old Boys short film, they felt he was perfect and cast him.

Xiao Yang's acting style now carries a touch of absurdity—he has comedic talent, and his performance avoids awkwardness or breaking immersion, which is rare.

To play absurd comedy without being cringey—there aren't many in the industry who can do that.

He and Yu Hewei are nine years apart, the age is suitable, the two of them can be both handsome and funny, and they're both acting-school types — it just depends on what kind of chemistry they can produce.

The female lead is Wan Qian and Song Jia, it doesn't matter, any woman can act in it, it's not limited to who takes the role.

As long as the looks are decent.

Because this film is all newcomers, the box office is uncertain, but the subject matter is fresh — identity swap — and it carries comedic elements.

This subject matter doesn't exist on the market, so it won't be like the previous life where they said South Korea and Japan filmed it first, and the audience lost the sense of novelty.

This subject matter now belongs to Jade Rabbit as an original, the audience hasn't seen it.

The filmed plot is about the same as the original, both are identity swaps, with emphasis on romance, adding fun elements.

Actually, in the previous life the gap between the Chinese version and the Korean version wasn't big, Xiao Yang even acted better, so why didn't the box office explode?

There are many reasons, at least the audience had no sense of anticipation, they already knew what the plot of your film was.

As for the deeper reasons, can't go into detail!

In this life everything is still unknown, the actors have changed, the director has changed, the behind-the-scenes creators have basically all changed.

And "Lucky Key" launched a full-platform propaganda campaign, resources like Rabbit Ticket, Bilibili, Chang'e Video were all utilized.

Social platforms like Weibo, Qzone, Tieba, and portals like Sina, NetEase all activated propaganda mode.

This was launched by Chen Zhixi, the fact that she could launch such a large-scale propaganda proves this film has merit, has its bright spots.

Whether it's good or not, actually before release the Producer knows clearly, whether it can explode, there's an account in the heart too.

At least Chen Zhixi's eye for talent has no problem.

And Fang Hong seems to not be managing Jade Rabbit's affairs at all, recently he's been busy with Chang'e Technology's matters.

This day he welcomed another person called Zhang Yiming, introduced by Zhang Lidong, this person Fang Hong has to receive personally, he's a big shot.

In the future 2024 he even took the richest man position, an awesome figure.

"Hello, hello!"

Fang Hong and Zhang Yiming shook hands, exchanging greetings.

Zhang Yiming has a baby face, wears gold-rimmed glasses, appears relatively short, looks like a high school student.

Right now he's very young, that's just how it is.

"Let's sit down and talk."

Li Lidong gestured for them to take their seats.

The three didn't sit together, but split into three sides, forming a triangle.

Actually the reason Zhang Lidong could introduce Zhang Yiming over was that Zhang Yiming had poached him, originally he was going to go to ByteDance, felt staying at Chang'e Technology was pointless.

Because he felt the Principal didn't seem like someone who got things done, many things he didn't seem to understand, and also lacked enough boldness, felt like he was hesitating about everything.

Management was also chaotic, indecisive.

This was his initial view of Fang Hong, but Fang Hong's piece on the Partner System made him change his mind.

Only because the Principal was willing to let go, could cut flesh and share power, this shows boldness, makes the upper ranks full of drive, this is a qualified leader.

Added to that, for the sake of acquiring Shengda Literature, the style of stopping at nothing to reach the goal, very much the makings of a hegemon.

Actually Fang Hong has always been like this; it's just that after staying with Liu Tianxian for so long, he was influenced into looking kind-hearted.

Most importantly, Chang'e Technology pays more, go to ByteDance and do a few rounds of fundraising, who knows how much you'd have left, having 1% would be good.

So he pulled Zhang Yiming to Chang'e Technology instead.

(End of this chapter)