Chapter 62: Is He Planning to Hold in a Big One?!

“I’ve always personally been strongly against piracy—piracy harms the interests of legitimate products!”

“Although our movie DVDs have sold nearly 200,000 copies so far,…”

“And we’re the ones suffering the most from piracy…”

“Exactly!”

“Why?”

“These past few days, our film ‘Sun Wukong vs. Superman 2’ has been blatantly repackaged by unscrupulous pirates as ‘Superman 2’—deceiving countless movie fans…”

“The reason [Tianyu] sent us a legal notice is twofold: first, we did make some mistakes; second, those unscrupulous pirates have pulled all sorts of Li Kui and Li Gui tricks to maximize profits, causing [Tianyu] to misunderstand us completely!”

“Yes, we admit we may have seemed to pay homage to ‘Superman 2,’ but homage is homage, piracy is piracy—these are completely different concepts!”

“Yes! We’re truly the victims—our controversy is no less than ‘Superman 2’!”

“I have a friend—no, not me, I really have a friend’s friend—they came looking for our ‘Sun Wukong vs. Superman 2,’ but ended up buying a pirated copy of ‘Superman 2.’ The video quality was terrible enough, but the worst part? The pirated disc would suddenly show a standing figure mid-playback—all recorded in abysmal quality…”

“My friend’s friend was furious and filed a complaint, but no one could be found!”

“I firmly support cracking down on piracy!”

The media outside [Tianyu’s Beijing Film Division] gradually dispersed.

But outside [Xuanshi Entertainment], a huge crowd of reporters now surrounded the entrance—the road was completely blocked.

Yang Bo, the site manager of [Movie Home], was shoved around in the crowd. After finally securing a decent filming position, he widened his eyes in disbelief—surely he’d misheard!

He stared blankly at Zhou Yang, who was giving an interview on [1819], visibly indignant.

Fuck!

What the hell did he just hear?

He heard the same Zhou Yang—who made a fortune in the DVD market by riding trends and fooling users—say he was utterly against piracy?

Wait…

Is this the kind of thing this guy could say?

This is insane!

“Yes!”

“If possible, I hope to join forces with multiple entertainment companies to crack down on piracy and restore integrity to the DVD market!”

“Right! Though we came from the streets, we still have patriotism—we support positive energy, and our future films will be positive!”

“…”

Nearby.

The sun set.

Zhou Yang’s figure in the sunset looked especially profound, even more righteous.

A breeze blew, leaving Yang Bo stunned—he shook his head violently!

Wait…

Positive energy?

Damn it!

If he hadn’t bought that one [Beast vs. Superman 2] DVD—cover blatantly suggestive, borderline pornographic, but content utterly shocking—he might have actually believed this guy!

He’d have believed the bastard’s lies!

According to his latest confirmed info, when ‘Sun Wukong vs. Superman 2’ sold DVDs, it was fucking collaborating with those unscrupulous pirates!

And almost certainly, every shitty DVD on the market Dazhe ‘Superman 2’ to grab attention? All of them came from Zhou Yang’s hands!

And now, this man is standing there, solemnly talking about cracking down on piracy and promoting positive energy?

What the fuck is this?

When a man becomes utterly shameless…

Yang Bo didn’t know what to say anymore.

Just as he was about to leave, his phone rang.

He answered it.

On the other end, his colleague excitedly reported [Movie Home]’s data!

“[Movie Home]’s registered users have surpassed 35,000!”

“All of them are about Zhou Yang!”

“Quick, quick—do an exclusive interview with Zhou Yang, now!”

“Yes, yes! His Redu is sky-high—it’ll draw tons of people to come Ma him!”

“Yes! Whether we hit 40,000 registered users these two days depends entirely on this special feature!”

“…”

“…”

His colleague’s excitement stirred Yang Bo.

He turned back to look at Zhou Yang, hesitated, then charged into the crowd, excited.

“Zhou Zong! Zhou Zong! I’m Yang Bo from [Movie Home], the site manager. [Movie Home] is China’s only film review website—you have countless fans there who all want to know about ‘Tiao Ren: Reboot’!”

“Yes, yes!”

“I’d like to do an exclusive interview with you!”

“Yes, they’re all eagerly awaiting ‘Tiao Ren: Reboot’!”

“…”

Traffic.

It’s a strange thing.

Yang Bo had always thought of himself as an upright person, but thinking about [Movie Home]’s future traffic and buzz, he suddenly felt anything but.

40,000 traffic!

A website attracts minor capital attention.

If it grows steadily, investors might come—and with capital, [Movie Home] won’t stay a small studio.

Thinking of the future…

Yang Bo excitedly pushed through the crowd, shoved the microphone beside Zhou Yang, and began speaking words he himself found disgusting!

…

“Here it comes, the interview’s here!”

“Hurry!”

“Good! For post-production, just edit the footage—no need to retouch the images! Zhou Zong was very cooperative, the angles were perfect, extremely controversial!”

“Good!”

Around 9 p.m.

In a rented apartment near Zhongguancun, Beijing, bearing the sign [Movie Home].

A knock came at the door.

Immediately, Yang Bo rushed in and uploaded Zhou Yang’s interview—photos and text—to [Movie Home]’s homepage, pinning it at the top.

Then, a group of young people stared in excitement at the rising numbers on [Movie Home]’s backend…

“It’s moving! Moving! Registered users broke 36,000!”

“The special feature hit a thousand clicks in twenty minutes—new record!”

“Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

“…”

………………………………

August 10.

Zhou Yang…

Had become famous overnight!

An Xiaoshi stared blankly at the [1819] segment on TV.

She saw Zhou Yang again—yesterday, he’d apologized outside [Tianyu]; today, he was on [1819], passionately ranting about piracy, acting as if it were the greatest evil.

Wait—wasn’t this guy making money by scamming people with pirated DVDs? How the hell did he suddenly change?

An Xiaoshi, confused, logged online.

Then she saw people online accusing Zhou Yang of eating the rice bowl and smashing it…

Some even exposed how he used countless DVD titles to ride the ‘Superman 2’ trend.

The details were so precise, it felt like they’d witnessed it firsthand…

Then!

She saw the movie forum on BBS.

【SHOCKING! This bastard made another movie?】

【Same old tricks! After apologizing for ‘Sun Wukong vs. Superman 2,’ he immediately drops ‘Tiao Ren: Reboot’!】

【Movie industry’s mudslide, movie industry’s vampire! ‘Superman 2’ hits new box office low—possibly because of this guy!】

【…】

Every post was full of insults.

As she read, she found one titled 【Leak: ‘Tiao Ren: Reboot’!】

For some reason, she clicked it—and found herself redirected to a website called [Movie Home]…

After seeing the link to the Movie House website…

She was even more shocked!

The homepage of this website was entirely about Zhou Yang…

She had even thought it was his personal site!

The movie “Tiao Ren: Reboot” hadn’t even been released yet—no one even knew what it was about—and it already had a combined lowest rating of 1.5!

Over twenty thousand people had rated it…

She opened the “Tiao Ren: Reboot” page and read the movie’s synopsis…

【Blood boils like a volcanic eruption, passion surges like an endless ocean, desire stretches into an abyss with no bottom】

【Ascend the path to heaven, march to the rhythm of song, flick your fingers and blot out the sky!】

【…】

【The world’s first epic masterpiece, a heartfelt offering from a Hollywood master director!】

【A brand-new version never seen by 6 billion movie fans worldwide!】

【…】

What the hell is this?

Brand-new version?

Isn’t it supposed to be “brand-new version”?

Wait a minute!

Is this movie really this lazy? So lazy that even the synopsis has a typo?

She looked at the comments below…

And found every single comment was an insult!

Is this movie even worse than “Sun Wukong vs Superman 2”?

How insane could it possibly be?

She called Zhou Yang.

But she discovered…

Zhou Yang hadn’t answered the call.

After a moment’s hesitation, she left the room and drove toward Zhou Yang’s company.

But she found that although reporters were gathered outside Zhou Yang’s company…

Yet…

Zhou Yang was nowhere to be seen, and no one was left inside his company.

…

“What the hell? Is this guy in seclusion?”

“What’s going on?”

“He said he’s doing artistic creation? Directing two movies at once?”

“What’s he holed up for? Storing a giant pile of shit?”

“…”