Chapter 661

No matter how Hua Yi and Yutu clashed in the entertainment circle, it did not hinder the circle from operating as usual.

At the end of November, the Golden Horse Awards ended; this year's ceremony was less lively than last year's, because last year Liu Tianxian and Gong Huang publicly criticized the Golden Horse Awards, causing its reputation to plummet.

Many people complained that the Golden Horse Awards were a watered-down prize, heavily biased by region.

This year's Golden Horse Awards included Gravity among its nominations, and Liu Tianxian was nominated again for Best Actress.

But she didn't attend, because the chair of this year's jury was Chen Guofu, former director of Hua Yi; going would only mean being a runner-up.

Because they gave the Best Actor award to Feng Kuzi in Mr. Six, which hadn't even been released yet.

Feng Kuzi, full of swagger, fired again at reporters: "I really want to slap some people's faces!"

Damn, it's always the same line year after year.

A netizen shouted: "If you've got the guts, go ahead and slap them!"

Of course, he only yelled it—he dared not go. When Yutu was still across from Hua Yi, he wouldn't even stand outside Yutu's gate, afraid of getting beaten; the other side was all young people.

Feng Kuzi's rage stemmed from Principal's actions, which cost him a lot of money, since he was also a shareholder of Hua Yi.

If Hua Yi suffered, he suffered too.

While the two sides fought, other media and film companies watched like spectators, hoping both would die so the market would open up.

Of course, whoever won would be recognized as the top dog.

After all, whoever could defeat Chang'e Yutu or Hua Yi's backer Alibaba could already dominate this circle.

But Wanda still existed, controlling theater resources, making both sides feel like bones stuck in their throats.

December entered the New Year Slot; the first films released were Bad Guys Must Die by Hua Yi, The Missing Bullet by LeEco, and Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe by Yutu.

And some other small-studio films.

All three films flopped completely, becoming cannon fodder, with daily box office under ten million yuan; Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe, despite its foundation from the earlier Tongtian Yaota, was labeled a trash film.

It was viciously trashed even before release, screening slots were restricted—of course by Wanda—but Yutu also had its own theaters and limited Hua Yi and Wanda's screening slots too.

Everyone was competing, making each other miserable; since they'd already gone to war, no one could avoid meddling.

This was Yutu's first loss-making film since its founding, but Yutu could afford it, could bear it.

Hua Yi could afford it too, could bear it; their entire focus was on Mr. Six, pouring all resources into this film.

Propaganda was everywhere; nearly all resources and promotional funds were channeled into this film.

They aimed to break the deadlock with this film and ease Hua Yi's stock pressure.

The next film to release was Light Entertainment's Fall in Love Like a Star, starring Da Mimi and Li Xiaocao.

Li Xiaocao's resources really were abundant right now.

Then came LeEco's From Heaven, New Li's Du Lala's Marriage, and others.

These films all shared one trait: they starred popular young idols; the film industry had clearly shifted toward traffic-driven casting.

But box office was low for all—no film achieved high earnings; all became cannon fodder.

Next came Huace's The Incredible, Youku's Master, then as mid-December approached, Youku's Surprise again.

It seemed Youku had pushed hard this year; if they had to check their accounts now, it would be painfully sweet.

Yet on this same day, Yutu released Mojin: The Lost Legend, and its release reversed the sluggish box office trend of the New Year Slot.

It earned 112 million yuan on its first day, about 50 million less than in its previous life, suggesting Alibaba and Wanda's joint blockade still worked.

Alibaba restricted online traffic for this film and smeared Principal and Yutu; Wanda restricted theater screenings offline, giving it only one-tenth of the slots.

Most screening slots went to other films.

But the passion and immense influence of the Ghost Blows Out the Light book fans couldn't be stopped; plus, this film was directed by Guo Fan, whose storytelling and special effects were better than Wu Ershan's.

Its opening score of 7.7 was highly appealing.

Yet on this day—December 19—Yutu suddenly announced the withdrawal of Lucy.

That is, Liu Tianxian's Lucy would not participate in the New Year Slot.

This move shocked everyone; Liu Tianxian's fans immediately grew restless, flooding Lucy's official website and Liu Tianxian's Weibo asking why.

"Why? We waited so long just for this movie!"

"Don't do this! If you pull it, what will we watch? Other films are terrible—we only want to see Liu Tianxian's movies!"

"What's the reason? Is Liu Tianxian pregnant, so she can't promote it, hence the withdrawal?"

Liu Tianxian had never appeared for promotion of this film, so many, including fans, suspected she was pregnant.

The sudden withdrawal only fueled suspicion that it was her doing.

But Yutu quickly clarified: "Due to technical issues, fearing a poor viewing experience, we decided after consultation to withdraw the film; rest assured, we will resolve it soon."

This explanation clearly failed to convince the public, but without a reason given, audiences could only complain.

Industry veterans had another interpretation: Lao Wang Zong believed: "Yutu has too many films scheduled for this slot—it's overcrowded and risks self-cannibalization. Combined with our obstruction, withdrawing and shifting dates reduces risk."

They released four films at once; the first flopped, the second underperformed—it was a special effects blockbuster after all.

If they didn't withdraw the third, losses would be catastrophic.

This was the view of most industry capital bosses: they thought Principal feared losses, couldn't withstand Alibaba, and had retreated.

After all, Hua Yi's stock had risen again, reaching 59 billion yuan; with Alibaba's backing, other capital had confidence.

Only Da Wang Zong, with his sensitive instincts, questioned: "Why did Lucy suddenly withdraw? Could Principal be plotting something?"

He feared Principal was scheming against them, especially with Mr. Six about to release.

"What plot could withdrawal have? It's just fear—we've got Ma Baba funding us; Principal knows this. He's just afraid of massive losses." Xiao Wang Zong was confident.

With Ma Baba backing them and Wanda teaching Principal a lesson, of course Wanda wasn't on their side.

Sometimes Wanda even restricted their films.

"Still, be careful. Keep watching Principal's movements—I feel uneasy." Da Wang Zong sensed something big was coming, but couldn't say what.

Just because Principal had been unusually quiet this past month—was it strategic patience, or had he truly run out of options?

Hopefully it's the latter — I'm really out of options.

"I know. I've had someone keeping an eye on the Principal's movements. Recently he's been at Chang'e's company, focusing on the gaming side, no unusual moves." Xiao Wang was confident, but also cautious.

Recently the Principal hadn't gone to Jade Rabbit, and had been staying at Chang'e Technology's Swan Castle.

The reason was that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, after several months of testing, launched its Early Access version on the Steam platform on December 12.

First-week sales broke 500,000 copies, making it that week's global sales champion. At $29.99 a copy, using a one-time-purchase model, it has so far sold $14.95 million — a result crossing the hundred-million mark.

This price was mainly aimed at players in developed European and American countries; Steam had little audience domestically this year.

It was just that active players were concentrated in developed European and American countries. In the previous life, the reason this software could be so popular domestically was precisely because of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

Domestically, Steam had the nickname "chicken-dinner launcher," but Swan Castle wouldn't let that platform snatch away the domestic market share.

Instead, it would build its own proprietary platform, integrating Hero Glory, the Honor of Kings emulator, and Absolute Survival into it, and would also lower the price.

After all, selling on someone else's platform means sharing revenue with them. Steam uses a tiered revenue split.

For the income bracket from ten million to fifty million US dollars, the split to Steam is 25%; above fifty million US dollars, it's 20%.

In other words, the current $14.95 million means roughly $3.73 million has to be split with Steam — still quite high.

This fee includes the transaction fees for WeChat, Alipay, and overseas PayPal and credit cards — meaning no additional fees need to be paid, and you handle your own taxes.

But if a player requests a refund, then that transaction fee has to be borne by the developer, so if the game is bad, it could end up at a loss.

Right now it's only the Early Access version — essentially an internal test opened up to overseas, recouping costs and building hype along the way. After all, with no promotional spend, building up buzz takes time.

Promotion relies on Steam's recommendation mechanism: if it sells well, it naturally gets exposure; if it doesn't, it blends into the crowd.

Actually, the reason Fang Hong suddenly pulled Transcendence wasn't for any other reason — he had obtained PC information on a certain school heartthrob, so there was no longer any need to adopt the strategy of blocking Mr. Six.

Instead, he would just make sure that film couldn't get released.

His original thinking was: if he couldn't get the information, block it; if he could, pull one film out. Releasing a cluster of films at once really would be unfavorable to Jade Rabbit.

"Principal, the target you picked was indeed right. This person has done it before — he's a repeat offender, and very cautious too, always going door-to-door, using cash. It took us an enormous effort to finally learn about it from a high-end prostitute." Lu Dabo was very excited.

But what he said was well-organized, expressing the Principal's wisdom, the enemy's caution, and his own difficulties all at once.

Looks like he's grown — not like before.

"Well done." Fang Hong praised.

In his previous life, he had heard that this person had done it not just once, but many times — it was only that year, when he got caught, that it came out. After all, he was almost thirty; how could he have no needs.

Lu Dabo was delighted, then said worriedly: "Although we know his situation, the trouble is there's no evidence. Should we just expose it directly?"

Fang Hong heard this and lowered his head in thought.

Right now, this was only what they had learned from a high-end prostitute — in other words, the person Zhuo Wei had been tailing.

But he hadn't captured any solid evidence. Going in and out of someone's home doesn't count as evidence — no matter how capable Zhuo Wei is, he can't just barge into someone's bedroom to take bed photos!

In other words, he had only found the target, but hadn't found any related recordings, photos, or anything — just word of mouth.

"Don't expose it. Don't do anything. What you need to do is make this person turn himself in, or get caught, so that she voluntarily gives up the school heartthrob. Can you do it?" Fang Hong said, looking up.

"That's easy. Wait for my word." Lu Dabo felt this was too simple.

All you had to do was make the high-end prostitute financially secure — doing that work was all for money. If she had a sum that made her financially free, who would still do that work and be someone's plaything, with no dignity?

A person like that, once she had money, the next stage of her life would be to find an honest man and marry him.

"Come back."

Seeing Lu Dabo about to leave, Fang Hong called him back and said: "To be cautious, you should also file an anonymous report."

He was afraid something unexpected might happen, and that the time for investigation and evidence-gathering would drag on too long. First, set the nature of the case and apply pressure — after all, the core objective was to keep Mr. Six from getting released.

"No problem." Lu Dabo indicated he understood.

"Wait until the New Year, let your sister-in-law give you a red envelope." Fang Hong patted his shoulder.

"Thank you, Principal!" Lu Dabo understood what he meant.

(End of chapter)