Chapter 665: One Small, One Big—A Pair of Contracts

Outside the world was freezing cold, but inside the bedroom the central heating made it warm as spring; Liu Tianxian knelt beside the bed, wearing a loose pink silk nightgown.

Fang Hong stood right beside the bed, on a phone call.

Liu Tianxian heard him telling the other party to call him "daddy" and "mommy," so she pursed her lips and patted his shoulder.

She certainly wasn't old enough to have such a grown son!

The two brothers on the other end of the line also turned ugly at the Principal's words—it was simply too insulting.

Xiao Wang was even more furious; he'd only laughed twice before getting snapped at by this man, and now this again—who could stand for it?

"Principal, you've gone too far," he said coldly.

"Gone too far? If Jack Ma can be your daddy, why can't I?" Fang Hong's voice was flat.

"Do you have what it takes? Can you even compare yourself to Jack Ma? What kind of person are you, and how much ability do you actually have—don't you have any self-awareness?" Xiao Wang fired back, his tone laced with mockery, his anger roused by the Principal.

No idea where that confidence came from, comparing himself to Jack Ma.

Da Wang sighed helplessly—his little brother's temper was just too hot-headed.

"Hah, I have no ability? If I had no ability, would the two of you brothers have made this call to me?" Fang Hong met him head-on.

The fact that they made this call proved they had already lost.

"I made this call to tell you—no matter what cards you still have, we won't be afraid of you. If you want to fight, we'll fight; we'll see it through to the end," Xiao Wang said, fighting spirit soaring.

"Well then! Good, you've got spine," Fang Hong's voice suddenly rose.

This made Da Wang's heart jolt—did the Principal still have cards to play?

He spoke quickly: "Principal, I just don't understand. After all these years, why must you keep targeting our Huayi? Even if we offended you before, that's all in the past. After so many years, shouldn't it be over? Is there really any need for this life-and-death struggle between us?"

"Then let me tell you—listen carefully. My wife doesn't want to see Huayi, so Huayi must disappear from her sight." Having said that, Fang Hong hung up the phone directly.

Listening to the "beep beep beep" of the busy tone, the two Wangs exchanged a glance—the Principal was here to avenge his wife, dead set on taking down their Huayi.

"Looks like the Principal really does still have cards. We need to prepare early," Da Wang said with a worried face. If they didn't respond, their Huayi might really collapse.

Once the market opens tomorrow, the stock was likely to fall again.

"Then let's pledge all our stocks, including those of the other subsidiaries," Xiao Wang said, now calm.

"That won't amount to much money either," Da Wang said.

Many of the other subsidiaries were half-dead, worth practically nothing—not only worthless, but a drag on the company.

"There's no choice now, we can only tough it out. The Principal never planned to let us off. Even if we bow our heads and admit defeat, we'll still be humiliated by him. Better to gamble everything on one throw," Xiao Wang said, melancholy in his voice.

Don't be fooled by the tough talk he'd just been firing off—in truth, he had no confidence at all. Who knew what other cards the Principal still held?

Da Wang nodded, feeling his brother had a point. To lose the fight and lose face too—that was deeply humiliating.

"Brother, our top priority right now is to get the money back from Warner. Every extra yuan gives us more confidence," Xiao Wang added.

"These Hollywood companies are really rotten to the core, bullying us beyond reason," Da Wang fumed.

It was plain as day—they just wanted to swallow their money.

On the other side, Liu Tianxian, seeing he'd hung up, said: "Hey, when did I ever say I didn't want to see Huayi?"

"Didn't you? Maybe I remembered wrong," Fang Hong pretended to be blank.

"Don't go making things up in my name, talking nonsense now," Liu Tianxian said with a smile.

Fang Hong wrapped an arm around her soft waist and, lifting his chin, said: "I just blew a little bit of hot air, that's all."

Liu Tianxian said nothing, just smiled prettily and nodded, feeling those words sounded rather pleasant to the ear.

Just like the famous Rothschild family quote: "If my wife does not wish there to be war in this world, then there will be no war in this world."

What a badass line that is—but there are always people in this world who won't listen to them, like the mysterious Dongfang Satellite TV.

So this world cannot always go as they wish.

"Still want to eat hotpot?" Fang Hong asked.

"Yes! Go, go quickly," Liu Tianxian gave him a push, telling him to hurry out and buy hotpot to bring back.

Fang Hong put on his down jacket, grabbed his phone, and headed out the door.

"Be careful on the road, come back quick," Liu Tianxian called after him.

Fang Hong waved his hand and left without looking back.

Liu Tianxian waited happily, but as she waited and waited, she fell asleep.

Late at night, when Fang Hong returned, travel-worn, with the hotpot, he saw Liu Tianxian already fast asleep; he called her name a few times but got no response.

Pregnancy is a very grueling process.

So the hotpot would go uneaten. He got into bed, and in her half-awake state, Liu Tianxian turned over and snuggled up against him.

The next day, Huayi was as usual—even though the stock price was still falling, it seemed unaffected.

They hadn't even issued a single statement.

One must remember that Huayi had endured a string of failed gambling deals, the delisting of Mr. Six, and hundreds of millions in trapped funds—yet Huayi held on without collapsing, which surprised many.

For an ordinary company, it would have collapsed long ago—after all, not everyone knew Jack Ma had given Huayi several billion.

That was known only to people at a certain level!

But a leader is a leader—there's real depth there. Let's just see what both sides do next.

At least stronger than Bona back then, which got acquired by the Principal in no time.

Recently, Yu Pangzi had also been closely following the competition between the Principal and the two Wangs—essentially, a competition with Alibaba.

In truth, his feelings were complicated: he both hoped the Principal would win and hoped he wouldn't.

He hoped the Principal would win because he was now on the same side as the Principal, and a win would benefit Bona too; he didn't want the Principal to win because he hoped Alibaba could beat the Principal down, forcing him to loosen the grip on Bona.

"Sigh," he let out a breath—anyway, it was complicated.

Right now, everyone in the entertainment circle was waiting to see the Principal's next move—especially the bigwigs, waiting for him to play another card, to see if he really could take down Huayi.

Of course, some were also guessing whether the Principal still had any cards left—and if so, what those cards were.

For example, someone asked Zuoshandiao: "What do you think the Principal will play next?"

"The Principal has already played all the cards he should play—I don't know what he'll play next," Zuoshandiao shook his head, unable to tell.

Even if he asked his own daughter Han Jia_nv, Han Jia_nv didn't know either—she wasn't involved in such core matters at all.

Chen Zhixi didn't know what the Principal was thinking either.

Huayi didn't stop; it launched negotiations with Warner in the United States, seeking to reclaim the 600 million yuan—that is, to withdraw investment—because Warner was too despicable.

But Warner would never give it back; of course it refused, even when Huayi demanded an audit, it denied access.

So Huayi assembled a legal team and applied to a California court to freeze the producer's accounts and DC copyrights.

It also demanded Warner publicly disclose the cost details of Aquaman to expose Warner's vile face to the media.

Demanding a freeze on DC copyrights was brutal—it meant DC films like Wonder Woman and Justice League couldn't be released.

After all, Aquaman was also a DC copyright branch.

This would truly prevent the film from being made, possibly affecting other IPs, and it would hurt Warner significantly.

This was their premium project—they couldn't afford not to make it.

Of course, Warner had its counterstrategy: it dragged things out using "jurisdictional objections," hoping Huayi would collapse under the pressure.

Such lawsuits were extremely costly, let alone cross-border ones—millions of dollars could vanish with a single move, far beyond what ordinary people could bear.

In the past, they often used this method to crush rivals; Nvidia had even used it to weaken competitors and then acquire them—these big companies' tactics were all despicable.

The two sides began biting each other like dogs.

General Manager Wang, to reassure investors, assured them: "We are actively communicating with Warner—we will definitely get our money back. Even if the film releases, they must still give us our share—this money won't vanish."

Injecting cash into the account to reduce debt stopped Huayi's stock from falling further.

They could only believe him—there was no better option.

Jack Ma also didn't sit idle; if Huayi truly failed, no force would remain to check the Principal, signaling the complete decline of the Beijing circle.

Then the Principal would face Jack Ma directly in the entertainment industry—and it would become extremely difficult to restrain him again.

Through powerful capital tactics, he issued an ultimatum to all film and television producers: "Choose one—those who cooperate with Chang'e Yutu cannot cooperate with Alibaba Group."

This included Bona—this shocked everyone in the film industry; those who had wanted to watch the show were left speechless.

Between these two giants, everyone had to choose!

The Legend of the Condor Heroes immediately broke ties with Bona and sided with Ma Baba.

Along with it, July and Ansheng also sided with Ma Baba, including parts of the Hong Kong circle.

This caused Bona's project count to plummet; Yu Pangzi was desperate—he knew following the Principal would lead to this, and now it hurt him deeply.

Fortunately, Operation Mekong was controlled by Bona, so it had no choice but to cut ties with Alibaba and partner with Tu Piaopiao.

The Wandering Earth, directed by Han Han, hesitated between Alibaba and Chang'e Yutu.

Many TV dramas and web series, originally planning to cooperate with Chang'e Yutu, now had to reconsider whether to work with them at all.

After all, Chang'e Video had long collaborated with other companies and studios on TV dramas and web series; with Alibaba's "choose one" ban, small and medium film companies had to either side with Chang'e Yutu or Alibaba's Youku.

Both were giant capital forces—these small players had no choice and couldn't afford the wrath of either side.

Jack Ma's intentions were malicious: he aimed to completely sever Chang'e Yutu's content resources from the outside. Everyone knew Fang Hong had originally held the Web Drama Conference, opened up IPs, and supported numerous small studios precisely for content.

At the time, they didn't have enough money to buy all production houses outright, so they relied on cooperation—and after these small studios grew, they supplied content to both sides.

Now, the "choose one" policy would inevitably push many film companies and studios to side with Alibaba—like Linghe Culture, the company that produced The Nine Gates, which chose Alibaba.

Daylight Entertainment also chose Alibaba.

No other reason: Alibaba's strength and funding far surpassed Chang'e Yutu's by more than a little.

And film production was an extremely costly endeavor.

"Principal." Chen Zhixi sensed the crisis and came to find Fang Hong.

"I know what you're going to say—say nothing, I understand," Fang Hong stopped her.

Right now, he didn't want to hear any bad news—he had to hold firm to his confidence.

At that moment, Fang Hong's phone suddenly rang; he glanced at the number—it was Zhang Nan calling—and he hung up immediately, replying with a message: "I am aware!"

This incident hadn't yet greatly affected Chang'e Video—the "choose one" policy hadn't shown its full power in the short term.

Lao Wang and Xiao Wang, seeing Jack Ma step in, also breathed a sigh of relief—now they might have it easier!

"This is getting interesting," Lao Wang Zong smiled, watching the show all along.

On January 1, 2016, a certain newspaper reported: "The investors of The Great Bombing are suspected of raising 15 billion yuan, harming over 100,000 people!"

The figures and number of victims were staggering, instantly sparking a storm of outrage!

And this film had just finished shooting, precisely when it was attracting attention.

Soon after, media published more detailed reports: "The investors packaged The Great Bombing as a premium asset to attract investment; after raising funds, part of the money was diverted to cover losses in other projects."

That is, after inflating production costs, the funds were used for other purposes.

Suddenly, topics like "production cost exceeded one billion yuan" and "funds involved in financial cases" exploded everywhere.

This forced The Great Bombing to hold an emergency press briefing—no media questions were allowed—but it obtained a joint signature from the production crew and main creatives.

Netizens also voiced their opinions: some claimed they were being framed and manipulated, supporting the creatives; others cursed the film as heartless—there was no consensus.

Public opinion was chaotic; Xiao Wang Zong was curious: "Is this the Principal's doing? Is it related to us?"

Lao Wang Zong shook his head, equally confused—it seemed like the Principal's doing, yet it didn't seem like his; but it didn't appear related to them either.

The Principal suddenly exposing this made no sense—it couldn't harm them.

Even many big names and stars in the film industry were puzzled: was this sabotage, or just an accidental leak?

Why did The Great Bombing suddenly erupt in the middle of Chang'e Yutu and Huayi's rivalry?

Then came the real climax: a big V named "Shi Shi Guan" posted several contract images and leaked an unsigned authorization letter.

These contracts directly pointed to an actor named Song Chengxian, with a caption: "Guess why one person signs two contracts for one film? Industry jargon—this is called the 'small and large dual contract.'"

"The minor one isn't afraid of exposure, claiming to be worth tens of millions, while the major contract is twenty million yuan—this actor took thirty million in three days."

This couldn't be more obvious: this actor was hiding his true income here, evading taxes.

For a time, "Song Chengxian" was shouted down by Wangyi, nailed straight to the pillar of shame; since he's a foreign-nationality artist, it even stirred up a wave of national enmity and family hatred.

"Die, you stick bastard, get out of China!"

That fellow could be said to have been cursed terribly.

This film's books show 1.5 billion in expenses, while the shooting costs at most 150 million—where did ten times that money go?

Apart from what the investors took for other projects, the rest was divided up by the production crew and the actors.

(End of chapter)