Chapter 28

July 10

Early morning, the sun shone brightly.

【Tianyu】.

Deng Hairong, who had just walked into the office, had barely sat down when he heard a knock on the door.

Immediately after, an assistant approached with a set of the latest data, his expression somewhat complex.

"The situation regarding 'Superman 2' has been roughly clarified!"

"What situation?"

Upon hearing this, Deng Hairong hurriedly took the documents.

In recent years, the popularity of VCDs and DVDs across the country had led countless crooked street vendors to spot a business opportunity and begin endlessly duplicating pirated discs.

Without exaggeration, as long as a movie was released, the next day, or at the latest the third day...

you could see pirated discs of that movie in second- and third-tier small counties across the nation.

Last year, the movie 'Qin', which swept the nation and grossed nearly 180 million RMB, saw piracy so outrageous that pirated discs appeared on the market just four hours after its premiere.

Afterwards...

Tianyu compiled a set of data: while the TV discs of 'Qin' sold nearly 30 million copies nationwide, pirated discs accounted for a staggering 20 million!

Calculating at a price of around 10 yuan per disc, the profit from pirated discs approached over 200 million RMB!

If this sum of over 200 million RMB were counted as box office revenue, then 'Qin' would likely have topped the global box office charts!

In fact, last year, our 【Tianyu】 had joined forces with multiple film and television companies to resist and crack down on the spread of piracy through relevant departments.

But in the end, the results were minimal...

It was manageable in big cities, but with so many second- and third-tier cities and small counties across the country, truly investigating layer by layer would be exhausting and costly, simply unbearable!

Moreover, most piracy sources came from all over the nation; to put it bluntly, anyone who could burn discs and make covers could produce piracy; facing such wild growth from home workshops, how could you possibly hold it back?

But!

The previous piracy!

All occurred after the premiere, but damn it, the movie 'Superman 2' hadn't even premiered in any formal setting yet; how did they get the source material?

"According to the latest data, 'Superman 2' is currently screening in a total of eight cinemas across the nation, specifically in the Huaxia Beijing area; these eight cinemas are basically very remote and on the verge of closing..." After the assistant finished speaking, he paused, his eyes becoming even more complex: "As of this morning, none of these cinemas have received the source material for 'Superman 2'!"

"They haven't received it?"

"Yes, we investigated thoroughly; they simply never got the source material, and these small bosses are very anxious... Also, I received a message that isn't entirely confirmed: the so-called movie 'Superman 2' is still in post-production... However, a total of over 2,000 movie tickets have already been sold..."

"Can you even pull off a stunt like this?"

Hearing this, Deng Hairong was instantly shocked; after a long while, his expression gradually grew complex: "Could these people be running a scam? Planning to make a final grab and run?"

"That is a possibility!"

"I was saying, how could the source material for 'Superman 2' possibly leak..."

"Should we continue to monitor this?"

"Forget it!"

"Alright!"

…………………………

July 10, evening, exactly six o'clock.

Only fourteen hours remained until the premiere of the movie 'Sun Wukong Battles Superman 2'.

But...

The final version of this movie

still had not been edited.

The version submitted for review was an extended cut; in reality, the editing required trimming the extended cut further...

The Huaxia Film Review Group had regulations stating that no new plot could be added to the final reviewed version, but there were no regulations against cutting plot from the reviewed version.

Sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating the dim room.

An old computer case radiated waves of heat, emitting a 'whoosh whoosh whoosh' sound; accompanying these sounds, the entire room was like a giant oven, roasting everyone inside.

Shen Long licked his dry lips, his eyes bloodshot, staring fixedly at the WIN2000 computer system interface stuck on the boot screen!

Damn it!

This broken computer, the system is damn stuck again.

This computer was borrowed from the neighboring 'Love Ferris Wheel' film crew specifically for computer post-production.

But, the configuration wasn't very high; it often lagged, and every time at critical moments, he couldn't tell whether he had edited a repeated action or if the computer lagging was causing the action to repeat continuously.

Just damn it!

It was like watching a pirated disc with cracks scratched across the back; once inserted into the DVD, it lagged to an infuriating degree!

After rebooting for over ten minutes, once this broken computer finally returned to normal, Shen Long took a deep breath.

He swore that if he ever made money in his life, he damn well would buy a brand-new computer costing over 8,000!

……

After hastily eating dinner...

Shen Long, shirtless, panted heavily as he continued editing the so-called movie 'Sun Wukong Battles Superman 2'.

Not far away, by the bed...

The cinematographer, Zhang Yunyi, was wearing multiple hats!

Not only did he have to do cinematography, but he also had to handle post-production special effects...

At this very moment, Zhang Yunyi's hair was messy, his body radiating waves of sweat smell, his gaze staring blankly at the computer, occasionally flipping through 'The Complete Guide to Computer Special Effects', which he had bought from the Xinhua Bookstore the day before yesterday.

Yes!

Zhang Yunyi had just started learning everything from scratch!

Through the screen, he stared at the special effects created using visual illusions and the visual effects generated by the computer.

After watching it once, Zhang Yunyi suddenly grabbed his hair, feeling that he had completely lost faith in life.

"Damn it!"

"What the hell!"

"..."

"I'm not doing this anymore!"

He suddenly smashed the computer onto the floor, his body and mind completely collapsing.

Damn it!

What the hell is this thing I've been making!

When Shen Long heard these words, his body trembled slightly, too afraid to do anything...

Just at that moment...

The door to the rental room opened.

Zhou Yang, dressed in a suit and leather shoes, walked in.

"What's wrong?"

"President Zhou, I'm not doing this anymore! If I keep making this damn garbage, I'll go crazy... I don't want the wages for these days of filming, not a single penny!"

Seeing Zhou Yang in his suit and leather shoes, Zhang Yunyi, with tears and snot running down his face, pointed at the computer: "President Zhou, I can't do it, I really can't. Look, what the hell is this crap I've made! How about you hire someone else?"

Zhou Yang leaned over to the computer and took a look...

Then he adjusted his glasses, his eyes full of appreciation: "I think it's not bad at all. I think it's full of creativity and artistic sense..."

"Not bad? President Zhou... this is a pile of crap!"

"I think you can do it!"

"I can't. I... are we running a scam?"

"I'll repeat it once more: we are not!"

"But..."

Just as Zhang Yunyi collapsed into voicelessness, he saw Zhou Yang take out a stack of red envelopes from his pocket and place them before him.

Staring at the bulging red envelopes, Zhang Yunyi was startled!

Damn it, these red envelopes must be worth several thousand!

"Tonight, after the post-production is done, I'll give you all big red envelopes!"

"The red envelopes are right here; you can take a look..."

"I have another stack of similar red envelopes here!"

"..."

Zhou Yang straightened his clothes, opened his briefcase, and revealed a huge stack of bulging red envelopes!

"Once you finish tonight, all the money here is yours!"

"If you finish before 8 AM tomorrow, you will still be the great heroes, the great heroes of this battle!"

"I'll wait right here and stay up with you!"

"..."

When Shen Long heard these words, he leaned over, saw the stack of big red envelopes in the briefcase, and immediately widened his eyes!

Zhang Yunyi's spirit also surged, his mind going blank. After seeing Zhou Yang's sincere expression, he gritted his teeth, and a moment later picked up the mouse from the computer, inserted the ball into the mouse, and continued to work bitterly on the special effects: "President Zhou, I'll give it a try!"

"President Zhou, I'll give it a try too!" Shen Long also nodded, returned to the computer, and continued to do the most soul-crushing work of his life while collapsing and gritting his teeth!

As for Zhou Yang, he moved a chair over...

Silently sat in front of the two, feeling a bit bored under the dim light, then casually picked up a copy of "Introduction to Directing" from the rental room and started reading.

Ten hours later!

4 AM.

Shen Long drained his last bit of strength and finally finished the editing.

After handing the footage to Zhang Yunyi, who was still working bitterly, he immediately collapsed into the chair.

This lousy movie had sucked his soul right out of him.

At 5 AM, Zhang Yunyi finished the final material integration, finally produced a movie, and then bitterly handed the copied data to Zhou Yang.

"President Zhou!"

"These are all yours! For the subsequent films, you'll get a share of the profits!"

"..."

After seeing the copied data, Zhou Yang briefly reviewed it, then took out all the red envelopes from his briefcase and handed them to these two "Loong and Phoenix" geniuses!

After the two saw the heavy stacks of red envelopes...

They were instantly so delighted that their minds went blank!

After watching Zhou Yang quickly take the copied data and disappear into the vast night...

They couldn't wait to open the red envelopes!

A moment later...

When they saw that inside these dozen or so bulging big red envelope boxes were all five-yuan and ten-yuan bills, and even some red envelopes had a single one-yuan bill stuffed in them in a heartless manner...

The smiles on both their faces gradually froze...