Chapter 409: Kill the Principal

On the second day of the 14th CCTV China Economic Person of the Year, Caijing. com released the list of winners.

This was reported by CCTV News, Caijing Network, Universal Network, Sina Network, and other mainstream media.

They also released the top ten new economic leaders of 2013, all of whom were private enterprise entrepreneurs.

First, of course, was Jack Ma; second, Lei Bus; third, Tony Ma; fourth, the Red-Clad Sect Leader; fifth, Wanda Old Wang; sixth, Baidu Li Yanhong; seventh, Suning Zhang Jindong; eighth, Huayi Big Wang; ninth, Sina Cao Guowei; tenth was Fang Hong.

After years of effort, Fang Hong barely ranked tenth, even below Huayi Big Wang—not only was he inferior, but even Sina was above him, which was hard to bear.

Of course, this was just for show and could not serve as substantive reference.

After all, Fang Hong was slowly dominating the film industry, something anyone could see; it wasn't about market value or hollow titles like "first cultural industry stock" that could change the facts.

General audiences don't watch financial channels, so the viewership wasn't broad.

But now it's the era of internet new media, and netizens edited videos of Fang Hong, Jack Ma, Dong Dajie, Lei Bus, Lao Wang Zong, and others and posted them online.

Bilibili had them too, other video platforms had them too, and Bilibili even had the full versions.

"Huge misunderstanding—Xiaomi has a research team."

"Dong Dajie is right—technology is most important; Gree, made in China, reaching the world."

"Lei Bus is deliberately irritating people—ugh!"

"Dong Dajie is the pride of women; Gree has core competitiveness."

"Jack Ma's analysis was thorough and profound—his level is truly high, and his mouth is incredibly impressive."

"It feels like Jack Ma is targeting Lei Bus—do they have some personal grudge?"

"Supposedly, Jack Ma once asked Lei Bus for investment, but Lei Bus didn't invest." False.

"You're openly gambling huge sums on CCTV!"

"."

Today's netizens can't see the future, so they can't make hindsight comments; later, everyone unanimously said Lei Bus had the last laugh, and Gree couldn't keep up with Xiaomi.

Now, Lei Bus's reputation isn't good; many netizens see Xiaomi as a brand without technology, without factories—a triple-zero known only for marketing.

It's normal—sometimes netizens forget what they themselves once said; they're fickle.

Lei Bus actually responded to this—he said betting with Dong Dajie was one of the stupidest things he'd ever done, as he was too arrogant at the time.

Once he reached a certain status, he went silent and refused to speak of it again.

When a person reaches a certain level, their mindset changes—Dong Dajie no longer occupies his position, so there's no need to care.

Just like Jack Ma now ignores Fang Hong, and Fang Hong ignores Gu Yongjiang.

This was the video before Fang Hong appeared; after he showed up, the tone of comments changed.

"Didn't expect the Principal is also quite articulate."

"What he said isn't wrong—if you've worked hard and suffered, you should enjoy yourself; but I think the Principal must have bought counterfeit phones and hates them deeply, haha."

"It feels like Jack Ma had nothing left to say and just kept nodding."

"Jack Ma: mmp!"

"Jack Ma: I'm talking business with you, and you keep calling me a cold-blooded capitalist."

"Hahaha!"

"This segment of the award ceremony was the most brilliant—everything else was boring."

".."

Ten years later, when netizens returned to comment on this video, the scene was different—some people had vanished, disappeared.

While others still stood at the peak!

Liu Tianxian also appeared briefly at this economic personage award ceremony—the camera caught her for a few seconds, then moved on.

That was enough for Liu Tianxian to instantly trend: "Liu Tianxian appears at CCTV's Annual Economic Personage event."

Self-media influencers reported this, but mainstream media didn't; yet video evidence existed.

It trended because people prefer watching celebrities.

"Wow! My Fei is so beautiful."

"The Principal is here too—I told you two are involved, attending the same economic event together."

"Looks like they're real—oh! My wife was stolen, give me back my wife."

"That doesn't prove anything—maybe CCTV invited her; they didn't come together."

"Such events don't invite celebrities—look, which celebrity showed up? The Principal must have brought her."

"I dislike the Principal—he has a dirty background."

"Everyone's guessing, but there are other people nearby—why assume it's the Principal?"

"The Principal should just die already!"

"."

Online, speculation ran wild—everyone said different things—but Liu Tianxian's fans basically guessed she was with the Principal.

This wasn't the first or second time—everything pointed to them dating.

They'd appeared together too many times, and Liu Tianxian mostly used Yutu's resources—it was obvious. But Liu Tianxian was their white moonlight, their goddess; the thought of their goddess having a man, being fucked, being used, made them feel like the sky had collapsed.

They couldn't get past that mental barrier—they wanted to kill the man, so they hated the Principal with all their hearts.

Of course, these were extreme fans; most fans stayed rational—if Liu Tianxian didn't officially announce it, they assumed she was single.

If she announces it, kill the Principal!

Liu Tianxian was busy attending brand events and taking artistic photos—these events were usually for brands she endorsed, but she still got paid.

That is, endorsement fees were separate; participating in events, appearing on stage, all required extra payment.

You couldn't possibly rely on a few tens of millions in endorsement fees to last two years!

That's why celebrities scramble for brand endorsements—during the endorsement period, they earn a substantial income; if it's a big brand, it even boosts their image value.

Some big brands even hold events, invite socialites and rich wives, then have male celebrities do the selling and take a commission on the sales — a few drinks, a little touching, and several million in sales are raked in.

Chang'e Video has also been revamped and become much cleaner — at least the ads have been cut down a lot. It's a buffer period, so wherever page ads can be removed, they're removed.

Long-video platforms don't rely on ads; they mainly rely on memberships, because memberships create stickiness — once someone opens a membership here, they'll keep watching here, otherwise it'd be such a waste.

And once memberships are opened, the number of people watching ads will decrease accordingly — that's normal, and the buffer period has already made the appropriate adjustments.

On the first day Chang'e Video's membership system went live, it drew 220,000 people to sign up, with sales of 4.378 million yuan — 19.9 yuan per membership.

The second day it surpassed 500,000, and for several consecutive days it grew by tens of thousands each day — the growth was fairly slow, not that explosive, because most people still chose to freeload.

There were no organized new-user discount events; it was just the normal price.

The reason the growth was slow is that the membership didn't lock episodes behind VIP for regular viewers — it wasn't like only VIP members could watch certain episodes. This membership was simply an ad-removal feature.

Once you open it, you don't have to watch the opening tens-of-seconds pre-roll ads; the content itself can still be freeloaded — just watch a few more ads and you can.

No way around it — people who paid money should enjoy different treatment; those without money can just spend a little time and still watch everything.

This membership growth is still not as good as E-Factory Video's.

You can't lock episodes behind VIP right from the start — that would look too ugly. Wait until next year, when there's plenty of new film and TV content, then lock episodes behind VIP — non-members won't be able to watch early. That's when it'll surge. For now, just leave it like this.

Recently Feng Kuzi has been very active in the film market, going on shows and doing roadshows everywhere, all to promote his film "Personal Tailor."

He also takes every chance to blast "Dad Where Are We Going," saying: "Filming a movie in five days — can it possibly be a good movie? I'll put my words right here: this phenomenon is extremely harmful, and will lead to no producer being willing to continue investing in a serious film that took great effort."

The filming situation can't be hidden from industry insiders.

He also said: "'Dad Where Are We Going' is garbage — it's made for garbage to watch!"

And he didn't forget to drag Principal along — when reporters asked him how he would rate Principal, he said: "That person's heart is rotten, rotten through and through!"

He just had to curse Principal — damn it, he insisted on targeting him, releasing "Dad Where Are We Going" on the same day as him.

And "Dad Where Are We Going" is once again a roaring sensation, so he's feeling very guilty.

During this period, just watch him firing off everywhere — going "rat-a-tat-tat" all the way, charging from south to north, from north to south, a true "big cannon" in name and in fact.

But this guy also has the suspicion of clout-chasing.

Nobody pays him any attention, nobody argues back with him — a dog that really bites doesn't bark; a dog that barks doesn't bite.

So in Fang Hong's eyes, and in Chen Zhixi's and Long Danning's eyes, this person has no threat, and there's no need to bother with him.

If it were people at the level of Jack Ma, Tony Ma, or Lao Wang coming to attack, then they'd definitely have to respond — and they'd be fighting to respond.

Amidst all this commotion, "Personal Tailor" launched a sneak attack and suddenly announced it was moving up one day.

That is, it would release on the 18th — and on its opening day, it raked in 71.49 million yuan. Terrifying.

"These people are so underhanded — feint east, strike west," Chen Zhixi said.

There's nothing to be done about this kind of thing — you can freely insert yourself into a release window, and others can freely change theirs. Our film market is just this absurd.

But the other side can't change to any other date either — pushing back would clash with Fang Long's "Police Story 2013," and moving forward there's a pile of films currently in theaters, so they can only move up by one day.

"Releasing early is also good — it can divert some fire away from 'Dad Where Are We Going,'" Fang Hong said.

"What do you mean?" Chen Zhixi asked, puzzled.

"You know it too — our 'Dad Where Are We Going' is bound to face a barrage of criticism when it releases. So we muddle the waters and attack the other side first, getting the condemnation in first," Fang Hong said.

"Great idea." Chen Zhixi clapped her hands with a "smack."

Cursing the other side for being a cash-grab first can also divert some fire from "Dad Where Are We Going" — they've already prepared themselves to be criticized for this film.

Anyway, if it's going to be bad, let's all be bad together — don't let all the fire concentrate on them alone.

"Let Tian Yu pay for the Propaganda Department fees — don't let us pay," Fang Hong said, seeing Chen Zhixi about to leave.

"Got it!" Chen Zhixi understood.

So on the first day "Personal Tailor" was released, "cash-grab movie" flooded every major social internet platform.

"Feng-style comedy is just a cash-grab business!"

"A super outrageous movie — it hasn't even been released and it's already recouped its costs, pocketing eighty million in ad fees!"

"Master Feng Kuzi, why are you also making a bad film to cash in?"

"'Personal Tailor' cash-grab — who does it disgust?"

"."

All the major self-media big Vs had headlines exactly like this, with "cash-grab" on their lips, slapping the "cash-grab" label directly onto Feng Kuzi — after all, he's the director.

(End of chapter)