Chapter 666

The entertainment industry's "Yin-Yang Contract" tax issue instantly ignited the entire internet, and issues like P2P and illegal fundraising were also exposed all at once.

Song Chengxian was now universally reviled, with everyone shouting for him to leave!

But this wasn't over—it wasn't fierce enough. The janitor kept spilling the beans: "The small contract for producer and planner was 2 million, the big one was 7.48 million plus 900,000, plus a sack of cash. This isn't even top-tier; one top-tier male star took 60 million—50 million from the big contract, 10 million from the small one;"

Though this wave didn't name names, it was even fiercer and more explosive than before, implicating more people, stars, and behind-the-scenes creators and crews.

This wasn't an isolated phenomenon—it was a collective one; not just one star, but a group of stars, with behind-the-scenes players involved too.

Of course, the stars took far more—often tens of millions, as if money meant nothing—making netizens feel the enormous wealth gap, and this gap ignited a "fire" in their hearts!

So many netizens began speculating which star it was; some guessed Xie Biwang, others Liu Ye, Chen Daoming, and so on.

Chen Daoming also appeared in this movie.

Someone asked the janitor: "Is it Chen Daoming?"

The janitor replied: "No! He cherishes his reputation—he wouldn't do this."

This was intriguing, but since no name was given, it was hard to confirm who it was.

Some questioned whether he was spreading rumors, daring him to use his real name; the janitor replied: "I will meet with the General Administration of Taxation!"

Clearly, this was real—and no star had come forward to deny it, causing many to feel intense imbalance.

Especially those stars, who on screen appeared so kind, noble, almost saintly, yet behind closed doors were so filthy.

They earned so much money and still stole taxes; look at ourselves—we work day and night for meager pay, contributing to our country, while they drag us all down.

They stole taxes even while fundraising—who could tolerate this? The incident exploded into a nationwide uproar, triggering intense negative emotions and hatred toward the entertainment industry.

"Actors ruin the nation! Hope the state investigates thoroughly!"

"Tax evasion is illegal, no escape from punishment—money-grubbing circles, guilty beyond pardon—vermin and rats, uproot them all!"

"Must investigate thoroughly—see if there are other hidden secrets. Don't let them collect money from investors and then from audiences."

"Great! Finally someone exposed these unreasonable phenomena!"

The fire burned hotter and hotter; netizens' emotions were successfully ignited, and the entire internet erupted in demands to condemn them.

No matter how powerful the capital or influence, no force could suppress this tidal wave—it was a matter of right and wrong, of public accountability, not mere business rivalry.

Due to the massive negative social impact, the State Administration of Taxation immediately issued a statement:

"The State Administration of Taxation attaches high importance and has ordered the tax authorities in Jiangsu and Shanghai to investigate the tax issues surrounding the film industry's 'Yin-Yang Contracts.' Actor Song Chengxian will be the key focus of investigation."

The General Administration directly named Song Chengxian—he was the trigger, his primary target; someone had to be the scapegoat and outlet for public anger.

Clearly, all his domestic activities and appearances would be erased—his career was utterly finished.

Hunan, Anhui, Dongfang Satellite TV, and others deleted his scheduled programs; he could only slink back to Korea.

The General Administration seemed to feel the pressure wasn't enough, or perhaps something else—after an hour, it issued another statement: "Tax authorities have been organized to launch a legal investigation; if any violations of tax laws and regulations are found, strict legal action will be taken."

Two statements in quick succession were reprinted and reported by Fazhi Daily Daily, Xinjing, and others—clearly, the top leadership took this seriously. But the scale and scope of the investigation remained ambiguously worded.

Would they investigate only the "Big Bombardment" crew and investors and participating stars? Or only Song Chengxian? Everything remained unknown.

Suddenly, stars across the entertainment industry were on edge, each fearing for themselves, scrambling to contact connections to find out the authorities' stance—how far would the investigation go?

If they were included, would they be blacklisted? No one knew.

But how could they be told the truth—that the top leadership hadn't even reached a consensus yet?

This incident had happened too suddenly, and during a holiday.

As a film once said: "If you don't take it, how can I take it? If I don't take it, how can Director Geng take it? If Director Geng doesn't take it, how can you and I advance?"

This logic applied to any industry—no one could trust you to keep quiet if you didn't join the corruption.

So the circle was tightly sealed—no one was clean; it was hard to join unless you were trusted. No one wanted an outlier; everyone had to be reliable. Even if one person got caught, they wouldn't betray another.

Say your "younger brother"—do you still want to survive in this circle?

Fan Xiaopang, terrified the fire might reach her, called Fang Hong: "Principal, please don't do this—I'm so scared!"

"What are you afraid of? I don't understand," Fang Hong pretended ignorance.

"Our cooperation started out so pleasant, didn't it? I've always respected you, didn't I? Whatever you asked, I never refused, didn't I?" Fan Xiaopang spoke with surprising understanding.

"Don't let people misunderstand—we're clean. As for this matter, don't make a fuss, don't stir things up—handle it properly," Fang Hong couldn't be too explicit.

He hung up without saying more.

Fan Xiaopang stared at her phone, her face filled with confusion.

Not only Fan Xiaopang called—Zhang Jingying, Huang Jiaozhu, Tang Yan, and others also called Liu Tianxian, trying to extract useful information from her.

Even Yu Pangzi contacted Fang Hong: What exactly are you doing?

In truth, observant people could sense it was the Principal behind this—but no one had proof.

But asking the Principal for guidance was still wise—no one knew how far he intended to go.

Fang Hong gave them nothing but a finger—go pay your taxes properly!

After the scandal broke, Huayi faced immense pressure and issued a delayed statement: "Our company had only a short-term agency agreement with actor Song Chengxian and never signed a formal long-term contract. We will fully cooperate with relevant authorities in their legal investigation."

This statement desperately distanced itself from Song Chengxian—Huayi didn't want any association with such a massive scandal.

But it was useless—Huayi's stock price plummeted immediately; not just Huayi's, but all entertainment and film industry stocks fell.

This wave had indeed struck the entertainment industry.

"Damn it, this is definitely the Principal's doing," Xiao Wang, the General Manager, cursed.

Targeting Song Chengxian was clearly aimed at them.

This added another black mark to their ledger, and they didn't know how the authorities would investigate them—they were utterly overwhelmed.

But the full force of this hadn't yet shown—Huayi hadn't collapsed yet; it could still hold on.

Not just him—everyone in the film industry was cursing the bastard who exposed their dirty laundry; even Da Zui openly declared: "If he finds anything, I'll destroy him."

This guy was always Da Zui—he'd never changed.

And he was furious for a reason—he had invested in "Big Bombardment," was its overall coordinator, and his wife was one of the film's lead actresses, who had taken a large share too.

But the cat's owner came out with another leak: "Someone said they want to wipe me out, so let me leak one more thing — there's an actor couple in showbiz who took 750 million, hired Zuoshandiao as producer for 97.38 million, gave Li Lianjie 55 million to reserve a filming slot, and these two people were completely unaware the whole time."

In other words, this couple used these two people's names to siphon money. As for who this couple is, it goes without saying.

There are smart people among the netizens — they immediately pointed out that this couple is the Shoehorn Couple.

"Saying you'd silence people in front of our 1.3 billion citizens — you're simply lawless!" some netizens howled under the Shoehorn's Weibo.

It also racked up hundreds of thousands of likes, drawing wave after wave of cursing from netizens.

This was another fierce round of leaks, making people realize it's not just the Big Bombing — other film crews have the same situation.

Netizens even believed the entire showbiz circle was rotten through, and urged the higher-ups to investigate this circle quickly.

This can truly be called the will of the people!

The Shoehorn had no choice but to come out and clarify quickly, the gist being: "I have never threatened anyone. If anyone carries out illegal acts in my name, I reserve all rights to pursue legal accountability."

He also declared: "My company and I have never signed a 750 million Yin-Yang Contract, nor have we ever had any cumulative transactions of such a large amount with any entity. The two film rights we hold have also not reached agreement with the investors."

This person quickly backed down — it had nothing to do with him in the first place, yet he insisted on jumping out.

Reporters also sought confirmation from Zuoshandiao, who stated: "I have not signed any producer contract for a certain film with any company, let alone received a producer's fee."

Li Lianjie, however, did not respond to this matter.

This matter kept raging fiercely on the internet. The continuously exploding showbiz tax-evasion incidents kept adding fuel to the fire.

Self-media didn't care — they reported crazily, simply because this matter had traffic and comments.

This matter also brought massive traffic to Bilibili, Jinri Toutiao, and Douyin, simply because video media is replacing traditional image-and-text media.

In two months, Douyin's daily active users jumped from 10 million to 20 million, and monthly active users broke through 90 million — a staggering surge.

This benefited from the holiday — users were active before the Spring Festival, combined with an explosion of content.

These results slightly surpassed Kuaishou, but not by much — both video apps were in expansion mode.

It's just that the user bases of these two apps don't overlap: Kuaishou's users are in rural township areas, while Douyin's users are in first- and second-tier cities.

On top of that, after all these years of development, Bilibili's daily active users also reached 23 million; Jinri Toutiao, through red packet campaigns, broke through 80 million daily active users.

And this sharply increasing daily active traffic also seized the public opinion battlefield for Fang Hong, conducting 24-hour non-stop bombing reports on tax evasion and "Yin-Yang Contracts," making sure everyone knew about it.

The public will to clean up showbiz reached boiling point.

January 4th. It should have been a day off, but New Year's Day happened to connect with Saturday and Sunday.

The Central Propaganda Department, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, State Taxation Administration, and General Administration — five ministries and commissions jointly issued a "Notice: Requiring the strengthening of governance over issues such as exorbitant pay in the film and television industry, 'Yin-Yang Contracts,' and tax evasion; controlling unreasonable pay; promoting lawful taxation; and fostering the healthy development of the film and television industry."

At the same time, supervision over film and television authorities must be strengthened, and regulation must be carried out over film and television stars participating in Variety entertainment programs, parent-child programs, reality shows, etc.

Television stations, film and television production institutions, theater chains, internet audiovisual websites, and private film and television distribution and screening companies must not engage in vicious competition or drive up prices to purchase and broadcast film and television programs, and must resolutely correct the unhealthy phenomenon of inviting stars at high prices and competing for stars.

Government funds, tax-exempt public welfare funds, etc. must not participate in investing in entertainment-oriented, commercially strong film and television dramas and online audiovisual programs, or fuel excessively high pay.

The "Salary Cap Order" and "Child Restriction Order" came out one after another, and the parent-child programs that had caused such an uproar before were killed off.

This round of notices is another strengthening of supervision over showbiz.

But this is only the public claim — internally, showbiz faced an even more iron-fisted crackdown, requiring all star artists to self-inspect and voluntarily come forward to pay back taxes.

The meaning is simple: either you come forward on your own, or I come to your door personally — you choose.

Of course, the same operation applies to the film and television production industry — a retroactive review of all film and television dramas shot in the past ten years, checking for inflated costs and underreporting — everything must be investigated.

Same saying as before: either you investigate and pay back taxes yourself, or I come to your door personally — you choose.

Mainly, the scale is too enormous, the matters too complicated to investigate thoroughly — the workload is impossibly vast.

For example, when a crew uses a car or has a meal, there must be corresponding amounts, but they can't provide these — there aren't even small receipts.

So each film and television company could only find ways to make up for it!

Although this industry's output value isn't large, it's definitely an industry that can reach the heavens.

Because it's closely tied to people's spiritual entertainment.

Letting you exist is so you can provide positive energy, but now you've stirred up such public outrage — if we don't deal with you, who will?

As the leading company, Huayi was in a state of agony — even if it only made five films a year, that's fifty films in ten years, and Huayi actually invests in more than ten films large and small each year. This workload is simply massive.

Even hiring professional accountants, it's still no small workload, because many don't have very detailed receipts.

Actually, the higher-ups also wanted to cut through the chaos with a sharp knife, quickly stabilizing showbiz.

The breadth of stars involved and the depth of the crackdown were unprecedented — even capital began to ebb, triggering a series of funding crises.

This wasn't targeting a certain person or company, but a reshuffling of the entire industry.

When the verdict came out, many stars breathed a sigh of relief — paying back taxes was fine, as long as they weren't blacklisted, they could still play the game.

They had it relatively easy — they just had to work hard and keep grinding.

But those film and television companies had it rough — film and television stocks fell across the board, some even hitting the daily limit down directly.

(End of this chapter)