Chapter 432: Putting a Sack Over the Principal's Head

Everything was fine, but suddenly the cat peed on Fang Hong's head. Liu Tianxian noticed too, let out a "Yah!" and quickly took the cat off his head.

She saw his head was covered in water.

Fang Hong hurriedly stood up, head lowered, and caught a sharp, pungent stench — cat urine, a veritable biochemical weapon.

He said angrily, "Didn't you say your cat had just gone?"

"Hahaha, I forgot it had peed a few hours ago." Liu Tianxian still found it funny, tugging at his clothes. "Quick, quick, let me wash it for you."

"You're such a scatterbrain," Fang Hong said.

"Alright, alright, calm down." Liu Tianxian was quite embarrassed too.

The cat, however, was squinting its eyes, looking languid and unconcerned, as if the matter had nothing to do with it.

The two went to the bathroom — spacious and luxurious. Fang Hong crouched on the floor with his head bowed, while Liu Tianxian bent over and rolled up her sleeves, revealing fair, white arms.

She rinsed his head with warm water on the side, then lathered on some shampoo with her hands.

"I wonder if the urine smell is still lingering," Fang Hong grumbled.

"How could it be? Smell how fragrant this shampoo is." Liu Tianxian's fair, slender hands worked over his head.

Fang Hong's scalp felt quite comfortable, but his mouth wouldn't let her off easy: "That stinky cat of yours — I'll give it a beating later. I want revenge. How dare it poop and pee on the Principal's head."

"Why bicker with a cat? What does it know," Liu Tianxian said.

"I'm not bickering with the cat, I'm bickering with its owner. Will you let me give it a beating?" Fang Hong said.

"You try it and see." Liu Tianxian's little milky voice carried a faint threat.

Fang Hong, bold as ever, raised his hand and smacked her on the perky butt, even giving it a squeeze — plump and soft, very satisfying.

"Don't you dare get handsy with me," Liu Tianxian warned.

"You're the one who told me to hit. I'm just following the lady's wishes — it's the law, you know. Not following a lady's wishes is illegal." Fang Hong talked nonsense.

Liu Tianxian grabbed him by the back of the neck and shoved him hard toward the floor.

Fang Hong couldn't lift his head, almost making intimate contact with the ground: "Hey, hey, fair lady, spare me."

"Are you still going to talk back to me?" Liu Tianxian's little milky voice was quite threatening.

"No more, never again," Fang Hong begged for mercy.

But Liu Tianxian didn't let him off — she brought up an old grievance: "Let me ask you, who was it just now that called me by my surname Liu?"

"No one, you misheard," Fang Hong denied.

"Hmph! Don't treat me like a fool." Liu Tianxian snorted coldly.

"Aren't you?"

The moment that quip left Fang Hong's mouth, he immediately went "Ehh, ehh, ehh": "I was wrong, I was wrong."

His head was pressed hard by Liu Tianxian, only a few centimeters from the floor, and the position was very uncomfortable.

Liu Tianxian wasn't really trying to shove him into the ground — after a little lesson she let go: "Serves you right for running your mouth."

Then she continued helping him lather his hair and wash his head.

Just as the whole country was bathed in a jubilant atmosphere, with everyone celebrating the Spring Festival.

Chen Zhixi had already begun to act.

A netizen posted on Weibo showing off their movie ticket: "I wanted to watch 'Monster Hunt,' but the cinema printed me a ticket for 'The Monkey King,' and said they're the same? What kind of operation is this?"

The ticket showed the film title, the location, and the cinema — Wanning Huaying Cinema in Hainan Province.

"This is box-office theft!"

"Holy crap, so disgusting — they're stealing 'Monster Hunt's box office."

"Awesome, I got a ticket like that too."

A flood of netizen comments followed, and other netizens had also gotten tickets like that.

Then one after another, netizens kept posting their tickets, saying they clearly bought 'Monster Hunt,' but the ticket showed 'The Monkey King.'

Some netizens even posted that they bought 'Monster Hunt,' but the ticket showed 'From Vegas to Macau.'

The ticket sellers told them it didn't matter — either ticket worked.

These continuous incidents instantly exploded online, fermenting at breakneck speed.

Right after, Chen Zhixi, on behalf of Jade Rabbit, posted a statement: "Certain cinemas and groups stealing box office, please take it easy. By the way, the Film Bureau is cracking down on examples lately, and the fines are pretty heavy, ha."

Major media outlets and reporters, like sharks scenting blood, 大肆炒作 this matter.

"Explosive! 'The Monkey King' steals 'Monster Hunt's box office!"

"Box-office theft in the Spring Festival Slot — 'Monster Hunt's box office stolen?"

"'Monster Hunt's box office stolen, Jade Rabbit General Manager Chen Zhixi warns: take it easy!"

For a moment, such headlines blanketed everything.

Reporters also interviewed celebrities for their views on the matter.

According to the famous film critic Song Ziwen's disclosure to reporters: "Box-office theft is a common phenomenon in the film industry. China's film industry currently lacks a mechanism and lacks supervision, so anything can happen —同行詆毀, ticket-swapping, and so on."

He also said: "Now many distributors are trying every means to ensure their films don't have their box office stolen, and even to steal box office from others. There's a famous saying in the distribution world: to have high box office, first rely on hype, second rely on theft."

Reporters then interviewed the cinema chains. As cinema-side representatives, the relevant people in charge at Wanda Cinema Line and China Film Xingmei Cinema Line also said: "One rat dropping ruins the whole pot of soup!"

Of course they had to distance themselves.

The matter suddenly blew up out of all proportion, with people from all sides chiming in, hyping it up fiercely.

This made those box-office-stealing cinemas rein themselves in for a time, though Jade Rabbit didn't target the majority — steal if you want.

Jade Rabbit only sent lawyer's letters to a dozen-odd cinemas that had aided the enemy, and even exposed them online directly.

According to the Morning Post, a total of fifteen cinemas were exposed, including Laizhou Cinema, Linfen Times Warner International Cinema, Weifang Qingzhou Tianma International Cinema, and others. Named and shamed — whoever dares aid the enemy will be destroyed!

Of course there were many more hidden and undiscovered, but the scare forced those cinemas to rein themselves in, no longer daring to steal box office for 'The Monkey King' and 'From Vegas to Macau.'

The Principal really wasn't joking. And this matter wasn't just about facing Jade Rabbit's crackdown — they also had to face the Film Bureau's crackdown, which they simply couldn't withstand.

The Film Bureau's Zhou Chuzhang spoke up: "The Film Bureau has already grasped some violation facts, and after the holiday will handle the violating theaters according to the recently issued Notice's spirit."

In other words, whoever gets exposed gets handled.

The Jade Rabbit's handling of this matter can be said to be swift and decisive, the response super timely; under such an atmosphere, on the third day The Monkey King took a straight plunge, only 46.3 million.

From Vegas to Macau also dropped to 16.54 million.

The two films combined didn't reach a hundred million, very normal — they spat out all the box office they'd swallowed.

Journey to the West's box office rose again, breaking 191 million, ferociously off the charts, just a hair short of 200 million.

On the fourth day, The Monkey King dropped again to 43.57 million, this is back to normal level, after all this film has many investors behind it.

Not only Hong Kong capital, but also China Film Group.

And From Vegas to Macau at 17.87 million, also back to normal level.

Journey to the West ultimately didn't break 200 million, only 169 million, dropping twenty to thirty million, no way around it, the viewing base is still limited.

Total box office broke 662 million, but this still hasn't broken even — too much was spent on Propaganda Department fees, needs to clear 800 million at minimum.

Although the box office returned to normal, the box-office theft scandal was still raging; Yu Pangzi's heart was bleeding, and he couldn't help saying: "This is hype, there's no such thing as box-office theft at all."

"Fuck your mother." Fang Hong cursed directly on the Toutiao media platform.

"Hahaha, even the Principal couldn't hold back!"

"Steal other people's box office and you should admit it — with your trash film you still have the nerve to show off, without Fa Ge nobody would watch."

"There's already evidence, and you're still stubbornly denying it!"

"."

The audience unanimously sided with the Principal, only because Journey to the West really is a masterpiece, worth every penny of the ticket.

And those other two Hong Kong films are garbage among garbage.

Seeing the Principal speak out, Yu Pangzi immediately wilted — he'd always been a bit intimidated by the Principal.

On the other side, several Hong Kong investors in The Monkey King were very anxious, and immediately went to China Film Group to find Zuoshandiao; among them Star Film's boss Wang Haifeng said: "What do we do?"

He was one of the most important financiers of this film, a chubby fellow; another was Zheng Qiangfei, also a Hong Kong-side financier.

Of course they were all financiers behind Fa Ge.

"There's nothing I can do about this either — box-office theft was caught with evidence by the other side, and they want to handle you this way." Zuoshandiao waved his hand, looking unenthused.

This made the few exchange glances; Zheng Qiangfei said: "This kind of thing isn't very common? Everyone does it."

"The person you've run into is the Principal — even if you don't know this person, you should have heard of him. He fought his way up like this, fighting every year. Now he's got the principle on his side, found evidence of you stealing his box office — what can you do?" Zuoshandiao's meaning was to accept fate.

"Is there really no other way?" Wang Haifeng was unwilling to give up.

Damn, he'd invested over a hundred million; now it clearly looked like he couldn't recoup costs.

This film cost three hundred million, the lineup was too powerful, and it was also a Best Special Effects film — although those effects were done terribly, they were still special effects, and there was also the Propaganda Department push.

Such a huge sum of money — they had the heart to kill the Principal!

"No. Let me give you the bottom line: the Principal made a direct phone call to the Film Bureau, so stop trying this kind of thing — no theater will cooperate with you either." Zuoshandiao told them to give up on this line of thinking.

The Film Bureau was working during the New Year and spoke up — after the holiday they'd handle these violating theaters; who would dare touch this bad luck right now?

This counts as sabotaging the film environment, and it's very serious!

But how can they give up? Everyone here had invested tens of millions or even over a hundred million — so much money going down the drain is like killing their parents.

Wang Haifeng and Zheng Qiangfei exchanged glances again, killing intent faintly appearing!

"Also, this is Neidi — don't play your Hong Kong tricks here." Zuoshandiao warned.

He knew these people too well; some of them had come from the underworld in the eighties and nineties, they'd just washed their hands clean and gone legit now.

Anyway, China Film Group is a state enterprise, it can take the heat.

As for these Hong Kong guys, let them go to hell — they make such terrible films and still have the nerve to yap.

Director Zheng Baorui was also in the crowd, not saying a word — he had the least right to speak, his skill was simply terrible beyond belief.

The next three days, The Monkey King kept continuously dropping — 42.69 million, 37.18 million, 34.04 million; after the seventh day, 24.42 million.

Total box office barely broke three hundred million — this film cost three hundred million to make, so tell me how it makes money; everyone's going back to work later, the number of moviegoers will only keep decreasing.

As for From Vegas to Macau, there's nothing much to say about this film — it kept hovering between ten and twenty million, half-dead.

And Journey to the West's last three days of the Spring Festival all broke a hundred million; only on the eighth day did it drop to eighty million, and now it's already exceeded 1.1 billion — it's making money.

This film had a very low investment, just a few tens of millions; the bulk went to Propaganda Department fees.

The Propaganda Department fees alone equaled the cost of one The Monkey King — absolutely terrifying.

Anyway, the大势 was gone, no match for the Principal at all.

Those people could only accept fate — unless they could beat up the Principal, which they'd be very happy to do.

But right now was just after the leadership transition; who would dare do such a thing?

They accepted fate, but Fang Hong wouldn't — he still had no intention of letting them off. On the eighth day, first day back at work, he directly filed a lawsuit: "The Monkey King and From Vegas to Macau films violated regulations and damaged Journey to the West's interests — we demand they be taken down."

Simply put, not only will we not let you make money, we'll take your films off the shelves.

This made Bona's Yu Pangzi, Star Film's boss, Oriental Film's boss, and the Hong Kong capital furious — they wished they could put a sack over the Principal's head and drag him into a ditch to beat him up.

So damn infuriating!

(End of this chapter)