Chapter 57: We Are Selling the Authorized Zhengban!

August 6.

Early morning.

The sky was overcast.

Deng Hairong, wearing a mask, followed the lawyer and hurriedly walked into the audio-video sales area of Zhongguancun.

Although it was still early...

the Dingjin Electronics City in Zhongguancun was already bustling with people at this very moment.

They squeezed left and right through the crowd, at one point so packed they could barely breathe.

Finally, as they squeezed into a stall named "Audio-Video Little World," they stopped.

He saw that on the "Audio-Video Little World" stall, an acrylic board had been erected, and written on it were the words "Superman 2 Authorized Zhengban," which stood out very prominently under the lights.

A sea of people, crowds everywhere coming to buy discs...

They walked into the stall.

They saw a series of messy discs arranged on the stall; in the most prominent spot sat a "Superman 2 Authorized Zhengban" disc.

There were many people in this area; young people holding banknotes, rushing to buy the "Superman 2" Authorized Zhengban discs...

Listening to the murmurs around them, they heard that the "Superman 2" Authorized Zhengban discs, having just entered this stall for only about an hour, had already been snatched up and sold out.

What remained were just a few discs for rental, not for sale.

Such explosive sales figures should have made Deng Hairong happy, but at this very moment, Deng Hairong's heart grew colder and colder.

Yesterday, many people from Tianyu Company conducted open and covert investigations at major audio-video stores, but ultimately arrived at a data point that made people furious.

In fact, the sales data from many audio-video stores showed that "Superman 2" sold extremely well, far exceeding the figures reported to them by the DVD agents, but the final reported data was merely 50,000 copies.

According to the conclusion drawn by the data department, "Superman 2" was completely flooded with pirated copies in the market; while 50,000 Authorized Zhengban copies were being sold, at least 100,000 pirated copies were being sold!

Besides the pirated copies being sold...

what was even more infuriating was!

In the market, the terrible film "Zhengban Tiao Ren 2," which was riding on the coattails under the guise of Authorized Zhengban, was even leeching off "Superman 2."

"Boss, the 'Superman 2' is sold out. Should you consider 'Zhengban Tiao Ren 2'? The movie 'Zhengban Tiao Ren 2' is very popular online, and it is also officially Authorized Zhengban..."

Deng Hairong stared fixedly at the smiling face of the boss of "Audio-Video Little World," and then secretly slipped him a copy of "Zhengban Tiao Ren 2"...

"Here's 15 yuan, that's about right. Underneath the Authorized Zhengban 'Zhengban Tiao Ren 2,' there's a bonus easter egg..."

"..."

Deng Hairong stared at "Zhengban Tiao Ren 2"; although his heart was burning with rage, he finally nodded, spent fifteen yuan, and bought a copy of "Zhengban Tiao Ren 2."

Half an hour later, when he returned to the company and opened that Authorized Zhengban "Zhengban Tiao Ren 2"...

When he saw the so-called bonus easter egg!

His eyes widened!

What did he see?

He saw that inside the "Zhengban Tiao Ren 2" disc, there was attached a poster!

On the poster, what did he see?

He saw a close-up photo of a sexy female superhero wearing a plastic bodysuit that accentuated the perfect curve of her buttocks!

Then, below it was written a line of text: 【"Zhengban Tiao Ren 2: Reboot," coming soon with a shocking impact!】

Wait!

This is the so-called bonus easter egg.

After a long silence, he lowered his head and stared at the data above!

August 4, 2003.

After the Authorized Zhengban DVD of "Superman 2" entered the market, countless discs claiming to be "Zhengban Tiao Ren 2" Authorized Zhengban emerged overnight in major DVD and VCD sales areas across Huaxia.

Because the primary market was subject to official supervision, all audio-video stores there were fully compliant; the titles of "Superman 2" and "Zhengban Tiao Ren 2" were written very clearly, with distinctions between "Superman 2" and "Zhengban Tiao Ren 2" noted and highlighted, making it clear at a glance...

But...

what shocked Deng Hairong was!

Even though it was labeled so clearly, the number of people coming to buy "Zhengban Tiao Ren 2" in the primary market was still not small...

On August 4, "Zhengban Tiao Ren 2" discs sold 8,000 copies, of which the primary market accounted for over 2,100...

On August 5, this figure had risen to over 15,000 copies; the primary market sold nearly 4,500 copies, and people bought them knowing full well this movie was not "Superman 2," knowing full well it was a terrible film...

After seeing this set of data, Deng Hairong's face was darkened to a terrifying degree.

"These people know it's a terrible film, a pile of shit, yet they still want to see just how terrible it is? Are these people crazy?"

"President Deng, Huaxia has over a billion people; even the most niche movies have a certain base... especially a group of novelty-seekers. Even some disgusting discs that we can't bear to watch, let alone eat, have people secretly buying and secretly watching them, let alone..."

"..."

Deng Hairong stared at the barrage of criticism in the "Movie Home" section of the internet, then took the data report and looked at the box office for "Sun Wukong Battles Superman 2" over the past two days!

A total of eight cinemas nationwide screened "Sun Wukong Battles Superman 2"...

These days, almost every cinema had some novelty-seeking movie fans coming in.

Every day, they contributed several thousand, or even over ten thousand, in box office revenue...

He then looked at the reviews on "Movie Home."

"I went to the cinema to watch it; indeed, it's terrible enough!"

"Damn, it's so terrible it's insane!"

"Damn... it's really terrible; netizens really didn't lie to me!"

"..."

Looking at group after group of comments.

Deng Hairong closed his eyes.

At this moment…

A knock came at the office door!

Immediately after…

A young man from the Data Department rushed in!

"Director Deng!"

"The sales of Zhengban Tiao Ren 2 on the secondary market have gone insane! Some places are selling it for more than our Authorized Zhengban version, damn it!"

"…"

Deng Hairong stunnedly took the data!

After seeing the figures, his pupils shrank sharply!

Secondary and tertiary markets!

Mostly small counties across the country.

Authorized Superman 2 sells for twenty yuan per disc.

Yet Zhengban Tiao Ren 2, falsely labeled as authorized and promising bonus hidden scenes, is shamelessly selling for twenty-two yuan per disc!

And worse, a huge number of people actually bought it, stupidly!

After reading it…

Deng Hairong leapt to his feet!

Slammed his fist on the desk, face ashen!

He knew!

If this continued!

The entire Superman 2 project would be ruined!

"Legal Department!"

"Give me a draft lawyer's letter!"

"I'm suing them!"

"I'm going to sue them to death!"

…………………………

"Friends!"

"Time is money!"

"Speed, speed!"

"Remember, we are a legitimate, lawful business!"

"We must feel no guilt—speed, speed!"

"But beyond speed, we must closely monitor every move of Superman 2—website traffic, news, real-time data, box office figures, project team decisions, market feedback…"

"They move fast—we move faster!"

"We need more aggressive posters for the hidden scenes!"

"I've already seen the online comments—everyone thinks this promotional poster is awesome!"

"But we must not grow arrogant—we must keep improving!"

"Yes, we don't do pornography, but we can legally edge close to it—the closer, the better; the more aggressive, the better!"

"…"

【Xuanshi Entertainment】!

Li Dongqiang sat with a group of young pirates in the office of 【Xuanshi Entertainment】.

They watched Zhou Yang, spitting saliva as he held up the Authorized Zhengban Tiao Ren 2 disc, explaining the upcoming "tactics" for Zhengban Tiao Ren 2.

At this moment…

A series of knocks came at the office door.

Immediately after…

Director Shen Long, who was filming Zhengban Tiao Ren: Reboot, rushed in from the set, breathless, carrying a lawyer's letter.

"Boss Zhou, it's bad—they're suing us!"

"…"

Zhou Yang took the lawyer's letter and frowned slightly.

Then, he asked Shen Long a completely unrelated question.

"Director Shen, our Zhengban Tiao Ren: Reboot releases on August 15—is there any problem?"

"No, Boss Zhou, I follow your lead—we've been pouring money into it, equipment is fully ready, and we've got a detailed shooting plan. The issues shouldn't be big… As for VFX, we have three teams working almost daily. It's not top-tier, but it's definitely better than Sun Wukong vs. Superman 2… Boss Zhou, this movie won't be garbage!"

"Good!"

"Boss Zhou, what about this lawyer's letter?"

"Don't worry—keep filming. We live in the light; the Public Security Bureau is right nearby—no one dares touch us!"

"But we…"

"Remember—we are legitimate!"

"…"