Chapter 413: Off to Antarctica

The Macau Film Festival has been pretty quiet online—netizens basically don't pay attention to a film festival like this.

Even when they do notice it, they roast it for being watered down: "What kind of award is this? You call this an award? Trash."—basically all mockery and contempt.

That's also why ordinary celebrities don't go: winning an award here does nothing for them and only invites ridicule.

It only damages their reputation and prestige, with zero positive value.

That's the current state of the Macau Film Festival—no buzz, negative value, zero influence, so the stars don't come.

Like right now: clips of Liu Tianxian winning an award at the Macau Film Festival have been edited out by some netizens and posted on Bilibili.

Under the comments, nobody talks about the award. What they say is—

"She looks just like a fairy—so gentle, so beautiful, so noble, so elegant. Ah, I'm dead."

"Look! She's glowing."

"How can anyone be this gorgeous!"

"."

And then there's this: an otherwise ordinary clip of Liu Tianxian's speech at the Macau Film Festival awards ceremony was pulled out on its own and hyped up.

#Liu Tianxian Thanks Principal for His Company! #

A trending topic like that instantly blew past hundreds of thousands of views, hit over a million, and shot up to the top of the entertainment section's hot search.

The picture is a photo of Fang Hong and Liu Tianxian both holding awards at the Macau Film Festival, photoshopped together into a matching pair.

Some netizens even put together a compilation, carefully listing all the photos of the two of them together over the years at various occasions—attending events side by side.

Some show Fang Hong talking while Liu Tianxian laughs happily beside him; some show the two of them chatting quietly with heads bowed; some show them holding hands walking the red carpet together; some show Fang Hong shielding his wife and shoving Ceng Aizi aside; some show them with arms around each other's shoulders.

There are so many. Photos like these, spread out over a few years, don't seem like much—not that many—but strung together, they suddenly make you realize: they really are together.

"Don't hold me back, I'm going to kill the Principal!"

"The Principal's no good, he doesn't deserve my Xianxian. My Xianxian deserves someone better."

"Just break up already, this guy's no good."

"Why are so many people wanting them to split? The Principal's pretty great—he's made so many movies for Tianxian."

"They haven't even confirmed they're dating, and here you are spreading rumors. Maybe they're just really close friends."

"It's already this obvious, and they still won't admit it."

"Dating is perfectly normal, right? They're about the same age, and they're both grown adults."

"Principal, go die. Don't you touch my Xianxian."

"."

Nobody cares whether Liu Tianxian won an award or not—they only care about her gossip, whether she's really dating the Principal.

For a while the hype was pretty high; this could count as the last big piece of celebrity gossip of the year in showbiz.

There are other melons in showbiz too—like Hao Lei recently going on a show and talking about taking her second-marriage civil-servant husband to watch a banned film.

The one she starred in, "Summer Palace"—the censored bits were leaked; can't make sense of these people's thought processes.

Liu Tianxian and Fang Hong have made no response to the hot topic being stirred up about them online.

Fang Hong is understandable—he never responds, just lets netizens say whatever they want; Liu Tianxian doesn't even post on Weibo, just lets the hype die down on its own.

They've already returned to Beijing; the two families are sitting together discussing the trip back to Hubei.

This matter's been dragged out for four months now—long enough.

"This time when we go to Wuhan, bring Xiao Fang to meet your grandparents—meet them all. Auntie Xu will go with you too," Liu Xiaoli said.

The whole family needs to know about this, otherwise it would seem disrespectful; and if they're really getting married, they need the elders' blessing.

"Ah! Auntie Xu is going too?" Liu Tianxian looked surprised—she'd thought it would just be her and Fang Hong.

"Just meet your dad, sit down together and have a meal, no need to make such a fuss," Liu Xiaoli said.

Meaning just bring Xu Liyun to meet Liu Tianxian's dad—equivalent to the elders meeting; nobody else needed.

"Okay," Liu Tianxian said, understanding.

Liu Xiaoli asked, "Xiao Hong's mom, is there anything else you need to arrange on your end?"

"I'll spend one day in Wuhan, then head back to my old home. Nobody's lived in the old house for years—I need to go back early to tidy it up, otherwise there won't even be a place to stay," Xu Liyun explained.

That old house hasn't been lived in for years and is already falling apart; with the whole family going back, they need somewhere to stay.

"Cleaning is such a hassle—can't we just stay in a hotel?" Liu Tianxian said.

"It's in the middle of nowhere, where are you going to find a fancy hotel?" Fang Hong said.

Liu Tianxian is a big star—if she reveals her identity without security, an hour after she checks in, a horde of reporters will catch wind and come swarming to interview and report on her, the kind you can't even block.

Small-town hotels don't have that many rules or security, and they don't want to be disturbed on this trip—they just want to quietly get things done.

"Is it really desolate?" Liu Tianxian turned and asked.

"Not really, there are still plenty of households there. You'll see when we get there," Fang Hong didn't know how to explain.

With Liu Tianxian's frame of reference, she simply can't imagine what a real countryside looks like—she's never been, and even if she had, it was always with a whole entourage around her; she's never experienced it.

"Just listen to Xiao Hong," Liu Xiaoli said.

"Oh," Liu Tianxian nodded.

Getting married is pretty troublesome too—either going here or going there, meeting this person or that person.

Actually, marriage is the merging of two families—you blend into me, I blend into you, each blending into the other's family, so naturally you have to go through the whole process.

"Bring plenty of clothes, it's very cold over there," Xu Liyun didn't mention that there's no heating either.

The south generally has no heating—you just tough it out through winter.

They need a few days to prepare—clothes, daily necessities, documents, all have to be brought; the old home might not have anything, which is rough. Just as they were preparing to return to Hubei, the film market was still in an uproar.

"Police Story 2013," starring Fang Long and Jing Tian, has been released, and the box office numbers are out—6.845 million on opening day, dropping to around 50 million on the second day.

On the third day it collapsed straight to around 30 million.

The movie also drew nothing but criticism, but it was propped up by Fang Long—his influence this year was not to be underestimated.

Jing Tian was enduring the same ordeal Liu Tianxian had faced, being savaged by netizens.

"Tian Tian didn't let me down—she still firmly holds the throne of Queen of Bad Movies." — netizen comment.

Everywhere in this New Year Slot, there were complaints; audiences were forced to swallow garbage, not a single good movie to be seen—not even one that could make them feel entertained.

Moreover, on the 28th, another film, *The Voice of China: Turning for You*, was released, simply riding the popularity of the Variety show, which was also wildly popular.

This movie was produced by Canxing Culture—yes, the Canxing you're thinking of—and distributed by Guangxian.

Fortunately, *The Voice of China* didn't spark any reaction; its first-day box office was only 600,000 yuan.

It collapsed before New Year's Day—completely and utterly.

Audiences might be idiots, but they knew this was clearly a money-grab.

The film market has become a chaotic circus—everyone, good or evil, wants a share, but what can you do? Movies turn into cash fast.

Think about it: shoot a film in a few days, and within days it earns hundreds of millions—where else can you find such a deal?

First came *Dad Where Are We Going*, then *The Voice of China*; industry experts, scholars, and filmmakers collectively spoke out: "We must reflect on the soil of cinema."

Someone even posed a soul-stirring question: "Where have all the great directors gone?"

Chen Daren fell silent, Lao Mouzi went idle, Feng Kuzi only raged—great directors seemed to have collectively fallen into a Black Hole.

But it didn't matter—what would happen would happen; the market was now commercialized.

Even Zuoshandiao couldn't help but shake his head: "Ah, the film market has already become foul and polluted; it's hard now to make a serious film."

As the film market grows larger, everyone is using it to make money; if this continues, no one will want to make good films.

Manager Lei also sighed but said nothing.

None of them could stop this situation—the higher-ups wanted prosperity, data, and global reach; they didn't care what you filmed, as long as you didn't cross the line.

And after the New Year, Zuoshandiao would retire; a new era was coming—like how *Dad Where Are We Going* and *Beijing Love Story* weren't even offered to China Film Group for distribution.

They didn't even notify China Film Group—they just silently excluded it, because China Film Group was already a thing of the past.

The future film market: commercialization! Capitalization!

The other two films, *Personalized Customization*, were still hovering around 20 to 30 million yuan in box office; with Christmas just around the corner, such results were normal.

Even if this movie never earned another cent, it had already made a profit—the producers had recovered their costs through advertising before shooting even began.

So no matter the box office, Huayi was unaffected—it was pure profit.

Meanwhile, *Dad Where Are We Going* still had 40 to 50 million yuan in box office, and after Christmas, its 8-day total exceeded 500 million yuan.

If you calculate a 30% share, the profit exceeded 150 million yuan.

For a film's cost and production time, this was super-profitable—a 150-million-yuan profit in one month; even among A-share listed companies, fewer than two had such returns.

Of course, this movie was utterly trashed, still being trashed today, and Feng Kuzi still called Fang Hong a "Nazi."

It was normal—the box office hadn't stopped, the hype was still alive, and criticism was inevitable.

But Tianyu and Mango TV bore the blame—they couldn't make good films, so they'd never get good box office again, and thus abandoned cinema out of desperation.

Because later, audiences refused to buy in—they'd been too damaged, no matter how big your fame.

This New Year Slot was treating audiences like idiots, feeding them nothing but garbage; everyone was feeding the audience garbage—Yutu, Huayi, Guangxian, Bona, Tianyu, Emperor Entertainment—all of them, without exception.

If the film market turns rotten from now on, everyone here is to blame.

But Fang Hong had long anticipated the film market would rot—he was, in fact, the chief instigator.

Let it rot first; if everyone else is rotten, him standing out would seem too odd. Unless audiences were hurt, they wouldn't realize these people treated them like idiots—they'd still pay for bad movies.

To ensure *Gravity* achieved absolute box office success and to establish Yutu as supreme in the entire film industry, you must destroy first, then rebuild.

Yes, Fang Hong was already paving the way for *Gravity*—by letting the entire film market rot, then unveiling this film.

When people realize the whole world is making bad films, and a domestic sci-fi movie emerges, decently made, it will win public support.

Just a little better is enough—only a little better.

*Wolf Warrior 2* was exactly that "a little better" performance!

The film market was chaotic, and internet competition was equally dazzling—the A-Q battle was just as intense.

Tencent issued two internal emails, emphasizing the importance and urgency of mobile internet, highlighting:

"When the mobile e-commerce wave explodes, we must either lead it, or the entire e-commerce system will be ready to capture the explosion's benefits."

In other words, Tencent was preparing to go to war with Alibaba in mobile e-commerce, which made Alibaba uneasy—so the social app "Laiwang" suddenly appeared.

This app was 80% similar to WeChat—calling it a copy wasn't an exaggeration—and Jack Ma personally endorsed it, causing user numbers to surge to tens of millions.

Jack Ma also openly declared war on Tencent in the internal forum: "Today, the weather has changed. The penguins have left Antarctica—they're trying to adapt to scorching heat, turning the world into a climate they can endure. Rather than wait to be victimized, we should storm Antarctica. Go into their homes, smash what needs smashing, and smash it hard."

Look at how this article is written—full of murderous intent!

As the two giants clashed, Baidu wasn't idle either—it was expanding, having acquired Nuomi and moving into the lifestyle sector.

Of course, Fang Hong knew this company had no future—it could make products, but its leadership was far too shortsighted, nowhere near Jack Ma or Tony Ma.

The three giants were all competing and expanding everywhere—what was Chang'e doing? Of course, it was lying flat. At this point, Chang'e couldn't possibly affect the giants.

There was no choice—too little accumulated experience. Zhang Yiming was constantly refining algorithms, updating them nonstop; Toutiao and Bilibili both needed algorithmic support.

And he was continuously expanding the technical team.

(End of Chapter)