Chapter 656: Hormonal Influence

Mango TV has changed its leadership; the former director Ouyang has retired normally, and Zhang Hua is now the number two figure at Mango TV.

As for which faction he belongs to, it has nothing to do with Fang Hong; Fang Hong deals with him on interests and collaboration.

Whoever attacks them, they will definitely strike back.

The two sides reached an informal agreement to blacklist Huayi artists—no written notice was issued, no public commotion occurred, it was merely an oral understanding.

How could such matters be spoken of publicly? The top leadership simply understands it internally.

Mango TV reacted swiftly: Feng Shaofeng's appearances on two variety shows scheduled for late October and November were canceled.

One was "Happy Camp," the other was "Day Day Up."

This left Feng Shaofeng's entire agency team stunned—they weren't even notified beforehand; the artist's appearances were simply canceled.

That meant losing hundreds of millions in appearance fees.

Additionally, Da Baobei's New Year's Eve performance and the promotional activities for "Micro Love" on "Happy Camp" were also canceled.

This movie is funded by Huayi and set for release in the New Year Slot, starring Chen Chichi; without Mango TV, a young platform, exposure would drop significantly.

Mango TV naturally attracts a young audience, and many films use it for promotion.

Da Baobei's cancellation of the New Year's Eve show means at least three million yuan in lost appearance fees—this makes it impossible for her to fulfill her bet.

"What should I do, husband? I've been blacklisted by Mango TV—I won't be able to fulfill the bet and will lose a lot of money." Da Baobei began pestering Huang Jiaozhu again; only Huang Jiaozhu could help her.

Huang Jiaozhu was also deeply troubled: "Sigh," he sighed deeply, "I'll go negotiate with Mango TV."

But Mango TV refused outright—even if he offered to appear with his wife on the New Year's Eve show for free, they still refused; the blacklist was total, they didn't need a star like him.

The movie's promotion through Mango TV's platform was even more impossible.

Who told you to flirt with Huayi?

Huang Jiaozhu had no solution—he had exhausted all his personal connections trying to promote his wife; neither the Principal nor Mango TV were people he could afford to provoke.

So they could only endure it themselves until the competition ended.

This made Da Baobei very dissatisfied; she subtly implied Huang Jiaozhu was useless.

Huang Jiaozhu had grievances he couldn't voice!

Not only Da Baobei, but Da Heiniu's two Mango TV shows, "Happy Camp" and "I Am a Singer," along with his New Year's Eve performance, were also canceled.

These were resources Fan Xiaopang had secured for him—unexpectedly, Mango TV and the Principal had teamed up.

This left Da Heiniu deeply frustrated; he could only stay idle at home and prepare for his "Sky Hunter," with no choice—he was targeted by the Principal and blacklisted by Mango TV, with virtually no resources left, forced to rely solely on acting.

Everyone knew he was caught in the crossfire of this struggle, his value plummeting, his fame and exposure declining sharply.

Fan Xiaopang could only comfort him: "Don't worry too much—just endure this period."

"Who knows how long this fight will last?" Da Heiniu was deeply frustrated.

Not just these people—artists affected included Zheng Kai, Jing Bairan, Yao Dazui, Zhang Hanyu, Feng Kuzi, and others linked to Huayi.

All these artists' appearances on Mango TV were canceled, and Huayi's films "Mr. Six" and "Bad Guys Always Die" were also restricted.

Without Mango TV, a major traffic platform, exposure would drop drastically.

These were all casualties of the two sides' struggle.

Those slots vacated by Huayi artists were seized by other agencies and artists: Tang Yan, Xia Jie, Zhang Han, Zhang Yixing, and others replaced them.

The entire entertainment industry was affected by this storm.

Of course, Yutu's artists were also affected—Zhao Xiaodao, Yang Yang, Nazha, among others, saw their exposure and show appearances restricted, with many offers reduced.

Simply because they too were caught in the struggle's vortex.

Alibaba and Tencent must have intervened behind the scenes—they have capital and platforms.

But Yutu can withstand it—just let them act; for example, Yang Yang and Nazha will star in the idol drama "A Little Thing Called Love."

Fortunately, Chang'e Technology has its own online platform; otherwise, they'd truly be restricted.

After nearly a year of refinement and development, Douyin's online and offline platform promotions now boast over five million daily active users and over twenty million monthly active users.

This user retention rate surpasses all other platforms, proving its recommendation algorithm has an advantage.

Douyin is currently rapidly breaking out of its niche, precisely because the "C-Li C-Li Dance" and "Gestural Dance" have gone viral, sparking nationwide imitation.

Douyin's nature is to create internet celebrities and viral content.

Currently, over 60% of Douyin's content ecosystem consists of music and dance videos; it's finding its identity, with users primarily from first- and second-tier cities, gradually expanding downward.

Of course, this app is still criticized for copying and imitating a software from the United States.

But Douyin currently has no revenue—information flow advertising hasn't launched yet; it just needs to capture the market first.

So it still relies on games to sustain it; fortunately, "Hero Glory's" annual global Grand Finals ended in Ouzhou, once again igniting massive global attention.

Globally, 334 million unique players watched the four-week tournament, with 14 million viewers online simultaneously, totaling 360 million hours of viewing time.

This represents nearly a 50% increase compared to last year's data!

This month, "Hero Glory" averaged over 27 million daily active users, with approximately six million paying users.

Revenue once again hit a peak—this month alone surpassed 200 million U. S. dollars, equivalent to 1.4 billion yuan in revenue, just for this month.

Of course, this month is the peak promotional period, the most intense and popular time for this game—every year it's the core explosive period, driving global content explosion.

But investments in venues, propaganda, and other event expenses mean profits didn't increase much.

As long as there's cash flow, it's manageable—you can use the money upfront; what's worst is no cash flow at all.

After over a year of operation, "Honor of Kings" surpassed 150 million U. S. dollars in revenue, with daily active users exceeding fifty million.

The second half of the year is naturally the peak promotional season; such results are normal.

These two games contributed 350 million U. S. dollars, roughly 2.45 billion yuan in revenue this month—enough to repay debts, ensure stable operation of all platforms, and fund the Data Center's construction.

The 5-billion-yuan investment in the Data Center has already been launched.

The local Huailai County government awarded Chang'e Technology a banner reading: "Outstanding Enterprise!"

After all, such a massive investment was made locally—they only need to maintain public order and ensure power supply; nothing else requires their concern.

Currently, Honor of Kings has no serious competitors domestically; All People Super God has already been abandoned by Tencent.

But Tencent has launched another MOBA mobile game, Hero Trace, to challenge it; this game will enter public testing on November 26 and is currently in testing.

This game resembles Honor of Kings—frankly, it's copied—and that's precisely Tencent's strength: if you can't beat them, buy them; if you can't buy them, copy them.

But Chang'e isn't those weaklings of the past; this company rose through storms and hardships in fierce competition.

Swan Castle is gathering evidence to sue Tencent for infringement; if it's worth fighting, fight it—playing ostrich won't solve anything.

If we don't strike back proactively, this game might actually knock Honor of Kings out; after all, they have WeChat and QQ's massive traffic pool.

"I really want to slap the Principal twice—he's gone too far," Feng Kuzi slammed his fist on the table, furious.

Even he was blacklisted, and the propaganda for his starring film Mr. Six was blocked; the movie still has over a month until release.

He also signed a bet agreement, and reduced appearances have hurt him badly.

The two brothers ignored him, only talking tough behind his back—have the guts to actually slap him, we support you.

Xiao Wang, the General Manager, sighed worriedly: "This is going to be trouble—the Principal and Mango TV have teamed up, causing our artists' exposure to plummet, our talent agency revenue to crash, and our film and TV projects to suffer heavily."

We can't help but worry—right now it's the New Year Slot, the best period of the year, and we're being blacklisted by these two giants.

If this continues, our funds might really collapse!

With income shrinking and debt expanding, a default is imminent; remember, we've pledged over 80% of our equity to finance expansion.

Where else would we get so much money to build film towns, invest in the internet, and bet on stars?

We had no choice—without pledging, we couldn't afford the acquisitions and investments; signing bet agreements with those stars cost us nearly two billion.

These are real, tangible sums—even a giant like Yutu would hesitate, let alone Huayi.

These two brothers are too aggressive—they've staked all their equity; if the market cap keeps falling and hits the margin call line, they'll have to add more collateral.

Otherwise, financial institutions will forcibly sell their pledged equity to repay debts.

The margin call line is a stock value threshold—below it, institutions forcibly liquidate to repay debts.

For example, Huayi's stock price is 20 yuan; the brothers' pledge ratio is 80%; the typical margin call ratio is around 130% to 150%.

Taking the midpoint of 140%, that's 20 yuan multiplied by 80% multiplied by 140%, so 22.4 yuan is Huayi's margin call line.

Once this line is breached, financial institutions may forcibly liquidate and sell Huayi's pledged equity to repay debts.

This triggers a chain reaction—since even financial institutions lack confidence and start dumping, it signals Huayi's debt hole is massive, and the market rushes to flee.

If this happens, Huayi collapses, and the two brothers could lose control, as financial institutions sell their pledged equity.

Of course, Fang Hong doesn't know Huayi's exact margin call line, but he can estimate it—he has financial experts around him.

He also knows the brothers' shareholding ratio is around 22% to 26%; Alibaba and Tencent each hold about 8%; the secondary market holds 30% to 40%.

The rest is held by funds and institutions; stars like Feng Kuzi and Da Heiniu also hold some.

But their holdings are small, at most 5%!

So Alibaba and Tencent are Huayi's second or third largest shareholders—even though Jack Ma has sold shares multiple times, that's personal.

This is why Huayi declined after 2018 in its past life—the reason it became a debtor forced to sell assets.

Back then, Huayi's stock fell below the margin call line, but financial institutions didn't forcibly liquidate; we don't know why—maybe no one wanted to take it over; it was a mess of a company.

"We should've thought of this earlier—we've offended Mango too badly," the older Wang said, troubled.

Actually, the two brothers didn't want to fight the Principal, but they were backed into a corner—you don't fight, they force you to; even if you don't strike back, you have to.

They're being forced to respond—they're trying to drain our funds and resources.

And we never intended to go this far—we never expected we'd kill Dad Where Are We Going.

We targeted only the Principal, but the entertainment industry's capital didn't care—they used us as a weapon.

If we can kill the Principal, great; if not, we still don't lose—best case, both sides are crippled.

"What do we do now? Apologize to Mango and say we only targeted the Principal—we don't want to be their enemy," Xiao Wang said.

Mango's threat is greater than the Principal's—they control a TV station and have long-term demand for stars, offering high appearance fees.

The Principal poses little threat—he's already cut off, never had much contact.

As for platforms like Toutiao, Bilibili, and Douyin, though they can cause impact, it's minor—we still have Weibo, WeChat, and Kuaishou!

Before Douyin rose, it really had little impact.

"If a few apologies would work, they wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to blacklist our artists and films," the older Wang said.

"Then what should we offer?" Xiao Wang looked at his brother.

"Offer what? Co-produce a movie?" the older Wang said.

"Yes—they've always wanted to enter film. Let's share Fang Long's movie Iron Road Tigers and collaborate with them," Xiao Wang said.

"Will that work?" the older Wang doubted it—the movie isn't substantial enough.

Who knows how much box office it'll make? Fang Long's films have been declining in performance, no longer as strong as before.

If it only earns a few hundred million, after costs, there's barely any profit—it wouldn't even cover the pocket change of Dad Where Are We Going.

Dad Where Are We Going had too much impact; we must offer something to fill this hole—without ten or eight good films, it's impossible.

"Let's try it—if it fails, we add more. We're not just holding one movie, and this isn't our doing—we're victims too, pushed along; they'll understand," Xiao Wang thought optimistically.

"Alright, let's try first," the older Wang agreed.

First, resolve Mango TV—even if we don't fully resolve it, at least get them to ease up; if they blacklist our films too, it's too damaging.

"What about the Principal? We can't let him off!" Feng Kuzi, silent until now, looked furious.

His blacklisting caused Huayi's stock to keep falling—he suffered heavy losses too.

"Of course we won't let it go—we'll get back at them," Xiao Wang's eyes turned sharp.

Fang Hong didn't know how the two Wangs would respond, but Huayi's stock was now volatile and unstable.

The blacklisting was secret, not public, so it hadn't caused panic in the stock market; the media and public didn't know about it.

This wasn't ready to explode yet—it needed waiting, needed patience.

Huayi is, after all, a seasoned enterprise with years of accumulation; it can't be crushed overnight.

As for negotiations between the other side and Mango TV, he didn't know, and they wouldn't tell him—but Mango TV had not lifted the ban on Huayi's artists.

They had merely relaxed restrictions on movie promotion, allowing Huayi to use Mango's channels for publicity—in other words, Huayi had offered concessions, and Mango had taken a step back.

The two sides could never reach an agreement; Huayi couldn't make up for the losses from Dad Where Are We Going, but out of respect for the movie, they lifted the ban on films while keeping the artists banned for now.

They were all banned; many shows had already confirmed removing them; bringing them back would look like capricious policy shifts.

Anyway, Fang Hong wasn't overly reliant on Mango TV; he still had to rely on himself—others couldn't be depended on. All he needed to do was lower the value of those key stars so they couldn't meet their bet obligations.

The rest would wait for the New Year Slot; Huayi had several movies scheduled for this period, and if they lost money, Huayi's stock price would inevitably plummet.

Movies were Huayi's core business—and high-investment at that.

"Hey, honey, you were on CCTV's finance program." Liu Tianxian sat on the sofa, eating an apple while reading the newspaper.

She suddenly spotted Fang Hong's name and got excited, waving him over immediately.

Liu Tianxian had been idle lately—either eating and sleeping, or sleeping and eating. Her belly hadn't grown yet, so she just lay flat.

"Really?" Fang Hong hurried over and sat beside her, looking at the newspaper in her hand.

Liu Tianxian no longer used her phone, fearing radiation; she read the newspaper every day, though she never liked phones to begin with.

"They're selecting this year's Top Ten Economic Figures of the Year, and you're one of the candidates," Liu Tianxian pointed to the list of names.

There were Jack Ma, Pony Ma, Lao Wang Zong, Lei Bus, Dong Dama, and about thirty other well-known figures, from whom ten would be chosen.

"Not bad, but I don't know if I'll win," Fang Hong replied, uninterested.

Back in 2013, he had also been a candidate for Economic Person of the Year—that was the time Lei Bus and Dong Dama made their bet.

That time, though he was a candidate, he didn't win!

After that, the "Economic Person of the Year" award was discontinued and never held again.

The reason for its cancellation, it was said, had something to do with one man's arrest—he controlled the two most influential lists: the Annual Economic Figures selection and the March 15 Gala.

He would punish enterprises with one hand and favor them with the other, funneling benefits to multiple companies and amassing vast wealth.

This year's "Top Ten Economic Figures of the Year" was not initiated by CCTV, but jointly created by People's Daily, Sina Finance, The Paper, and Wu Xiaobo Channel.

Its influence naturally couldn't match CCTV's, so Fang Hong felt rather indifferent.

"Wu wu wu," Liu Tianxian suddenly burst into tears.

"Why are you crying?" Fang Hong was speechless.

"I just think about you being a runner-up and not winning, and it makes me so sad," Liu Tianxian sniffled.

"Being a runner-up is fine—why cry? It's not some huge prize," Fang Hong comforted her, pulling out a tissue to wipe her face.

She was acting oddly—sometimes crying out of nowhere, imagining all sorts of things.

One day, when Fang Hong came home from work, he found her crying. When he asked why, she said she was afraid he'd get hit by a car on the road—what if he died? What would happen to them, a widow and orphan?

The more she thought about it, the sadder she became, the more unbearable it felt, until she cried uncontrollably.

It left Fang Hong utterly baffled.

After consulting doctors, he learned it was normal—hormonal changes during pregnancy.

(End of Chapter)