Chapter 255: The Round-Up

That morning, Lin Nan hurried to the company, ready to take a look at the finished cut of "Space Passenger."

Quite a few employees were chattering away, gossiping about something.

A group of people grew more and more animated as they talked, even enthusiastically debating whether it was true or false.

The work atmosphere at Lin Nan Pictures had always been pretty good — as long as work efficiency wasn't affected, Yue Jun never cared how they chatted or relaxed. Lin Nan supported this too.

That was also one of the reasons the employees felt such a strong sense of belonging to the company. Of course, the pay and benefits mattered more.

"What's the gossip this time?"

Lin Nan walked out of his office holding the storyboard for "Space Passenger" and casually asked.

These people always managed to get their hands on the freshest gossip from the entertainment circle.

"Lin Dao, you don't know yet? Well, makes sense — they're too low-tier to even reach your line of sight…" kanshu. la

"Everyone's picking sides on Weibo. A huge bunch of first- and second-tier actors and stars are ganging up on one person. It started last night — it's like a group beatdown, super lively…"

……

One person after another chimed in, and Lin Nan finally got the picture.

He took the elevator up to the Tiangong Color floors. The vibe among the employees here was much more normal — they were discussing technical stuff…

He turned on the computer and looked at the news online and in the circle that had already blown up into a frenzy.

This had to be one of those rare "round-up incidents" in the entertainment circle — a whole crowd against one person.

Last night, just past nine, some "insider" posted on Weibo claiming that on the set of "Gun Forest and Rain of Bullets," a male actor had gotten into a dispute with a female actress and then hit her.

The male actor had also thrown his weight around, been overbearing and unreasonable, and bullied the female actress. In the end, the post named the male actor outright: Yin Yin Xiaotian.

Less than ten minutes after that post went up, the "party involved" — the actress Bian Bian Xiaoxiao — reposted it.

And from a moral standpoint, she "in tears" accused Yin Yin Xiaotian, sobbing about how she'd been grabbed by the hair and beaten, bullied, and cursed…

In the end, she even "elevated" things, reminding all women, all her female compatriots, to be sure to protect themselves when going out to work.

From last night till now, neither side's Weibo had stopped — a new post every ten minutes, half an hour, the whole night without sleep!

By this morning, it had become the top headline in the entertainment circle, generating extremely high buzz.

Many first- and second-tier actors and stars personally waded in, though ninety-nine percent of them stood on the woman's side.

The man had practically become a target for everyone.

No matter how he and his agency tried to reconstruct the scene, claiming there was surveillance video that could prove his innocence, that he hadn't hit anyone, and that it was he who'd been cursed out by the woman's side — still, no one believed him, and he couldn't defend himself no matter what he said…

Lin Nan couldn't help clicking his tongue in amazement. These people acted as if they'd all been on set and seen it with their own eyes, each one so sure of themselves.

Du Chun: "I've already got the evidence — I've seen the on-site surveillance video. I feel ashamed to have a friend like this. I demand the man apologize immediately, right now…"

Li Chen: "Worked with Bian Bian Xiaoxiao before, I trust her character! Called her yesterday, just wanted to say, Miss, please don't cry."

Bao Bao Jianfeng: "Directors, when you shoot films in the future, come to me. One, I don't hit people; two, I don't throw my weight around…"

Jia Jia Nailiang: "…The thing about him hitting people is completely true. My classmate was on the phone sobbing uncontrollably, crying her heart out. Is no one willing to step forward and stand up for justice? Then I will — I'll be the cannon fodder!"

Li Xue Xiaolu: "Liang, the eyes of kind-hearted people are sharp as snow — just like you, just like me."

After that, Wang Wang Luodan, Xue Jianing and others also chimed in with their support.

Whether it was "adding flowers to brocade" or "blindly following the crowd," in any case, in an extremely short time, a large number of first- and second-tier artists one after another took a stance, lining up to support the woman.

……

The most outrageous was still that guy Yang Zai — he actually posted a blurry, hard-to-make-out screenshot from the surveillance video, and directly @'d Yin Yin Xiaotian, telling him to apologize to the woman.

A huge crowd of netizens and fans of the artists looked on, with over eighty percent following the celebrity brigade in condemning Yin Yin Xiaotian.

Only a small number of netizens were shouting for Yang Zai to release the video publicly, to see what the truth really was!

As a result, that guy Yang Zai's reply was just shameless: "It's my duty to try to break up the fight, but it's not my duty to release the video!"

……

Lin Nan spent twenty minutes reading through all this messy business. There was also a video interview of the woman sobbing away.

To sum it up in one sentence: it was just like rounding up a "criminal."

The man's side was also miserable — there really were very few people in the circle supporting him, only Nie Yuan, Gao Princess Xixi, Han Shen, and a few others like Yang Zi. They went to the set to ask for the surveillance video and got the door slammed in their faces.

"Sigh, have their brains all rusted? Just call the police! Who's right and who's wrong, just wait for the result!"

Lin Nan couldn't help leaving a comment in the comment section, using his own Weibo account.

Just in the time he was commenting, both sides were still going at it — a complete waste of time.

……

The finished cut of "Space Passenger" ran two hours long.

Lin Nan and Yue Jun and a few others finished watching it quickly. He felt the opening of the film still needed some adjustment.

"Put the cameo actors' hibernation pod shots at the very beginning of the film.

The camera starts with Chairman Han and ends with a freeze-frame on me and Liu Liu Yifei — total runtime three and a half minutes.

This is also when the opening credits roll. Nothing else needs changing."

With this small adjustment from Lin Nan, the editor could re-cut it in two hours.

"So this afternoon, I'll send someone to deliver it to the Film Bureau?"

Lin Nan nodded at Yue Jun. "That works. Also, those people must be asking pretty often, right?"

"Ha, of course. Right after we wrapped, plenty of brands were already asking about the accompanying ads. There are only a handful of directors in the country who get this kind of treatment!"

"Then let's screen them. Same as before — only three."

Unlike Feng Feng Xiaogang, who could take on twenty-plus accompanying ads and product placements in a single film. Even a film like "Aftershock" had product placements.

Unlike him, Lin Nan only accepted pre-roll ads and strictly limited the number.

So don't be fooled that it's only three — it more than matches Feng Feng Xiaogang's twenty or thirty ads, and it's even pricier!

……

The Oscars are about to be handed out in the next couple of days, with one gathering of film people after another.

Tang Mu sent Lin Nan a few photos — they showed him puffing out his big belly, posing for group shots at the party.

The key thing was, two of the women in the photos were people Lin Nan knew: Little Zhang Zhang Ziyi and Li Li Bingbing.

The former was one of the Oscar's thousand-odd voters; the latter had been invited to walk this year's red carpet because of *Resident Evil 5*.

Each of them was wrapped around the waist by Fat Tang Mu, smiling broadly — not a trace of displeasure to be seen.

Looking at these photos, Lin Nan didn't even know how to describe his own feelings.

It felt like Tang Mu had gotten one over on him, like a fox borrowing a tiger's menace — as if Crystal Pictures were this guy's own company. And he sure was living the high life!

……

Last time, Lou Ye's first post-ban script had been sent back, so he cursed the Film Bureau without holding anything back.

The result was that his scripts got held up for a full half year in a row.

No one knows who gave him a talking-to, but the guy finally softened up, and his script passed review in the last couple of days.

The invitation to the start-of-production press conference was even delivered to Lin Nan's side.

But he really had no particular relationship with this fellow, so he had someone pass along his thanks and politely decline.

Still, word was that not many people went to show support — even fellow awards-bait directors like Jia Jia Zhangke, Wang Wang Xiaoshuai and others had found excuses not to go. That really made one wonder about Director Lou's people skills; they were pretty lousy, to say the least.

…………

On Xu Zheng's end, preparations for *Lost in Thailand* were about to wrap up. There were only a few days left before the early-March start of shooting.

Lin Nan had just pulled his car into the villa's garage when his phone rang.

He muttered, "Wang Wang Zhonglei? Seems like I haven't had any contact with him lately…"

"Hello?"

"Lin Dao, *Lost in Thailand* is about to start filming, right? If there's anything I can help with, just say the word…"

Lin Nan found it a bit baffling — what was this guy trying to do?

The only connection between this film and Huayi was Wang Wang Baoqiang, but hadn't Wang Wang Baoqiang's contract expired and left two months ago?!

"Mr. Wang, if you have something to say, just say it. No need to beat around the bush."

Sure enough, hearing that, Wang Wang Zhonglei on the other end got straight to the point.

"It's that thing online, Lin Dao. Could you not get involved? It's just a small matter between artists…"

"Get involved in what?"

Lin Nan's tone sharpened a bit — was this guy here to pick a fight? Saying nothing but nonsense.

"It's the thing with the *Gun Forest Rain* crew…"

Wang Wang Zhonglei put it very delicately. But Lin Nan felt this guy was going a bit far — he hadn't gotten involved at all, and now the guy was reaching all the way over here.

After casually brushing off Wang Wang Zhonglei, Lin Nan went grumbling and muttering over to Liu Liu Yifei's place.

……

"You were pretty impressive today — one little comment, and you got a bunch of industry people moving."

Miss Liu was wearing a white hoodie on top and slightly loose jeans below, curled up lazily against the sofa.

She munched on fruit while scrolling through the news, the curve of her hips and rear on full display, and her plump little toes were quite the eye-catcher…

Seeing Lin Nan, Liu Liu Yifei laughed and teased him right away.

"What's up? Let me see."

Lin Nan walked over and took the laptop from Miss Liu's lap.

Well — now he finally understood why Wang Wang Zhonglei had contacted him and run through that whole baffling speech.

Lin Nan's comment from that morning had already been followed up on by quite a few industry artists.

They were all saying: "Lin Dao's right — call the police. Who's right and who's wrong, we'll just wait for the result!"

Even one of the parties involved, the man, had @-ed Lin Nan to thank him and said he would go to the police.

Still, plenty of people were being snide about it — like those few Huayi artists. They said the truth of the matter was that the woman was the victim, and calling the police wouldn't change that fact.

"See? Aren't you something — you carved out a whole 'call-the-police faction' right between those two opposing groups…"

Liu Liu Yifei draped herself over Lin Nan's shoulder, watching the news together, laughing with no conscience whatsoever. No need to guess — she'd probably been home loafing around all day again, either reading gossip news or playing online games!

Suddenly, Lin Nan seemed to get it — he hadn't thought it through before, but now it clicked.

"No wonder Wang Wang Zhonglei called me. These people — aren't they mostly all Huayi artists!"

Lin Nan scanned the list — Du Chun, Li Chen, Jia Jia Nailiang… Xue Jianing…

These were basically all artists signed to Huayi; even the ones who weren't Huayi artists were Beijing-circle actors with good ties to Huayi.

Of course, Yang Zai — that little stirrer — was the exception.

"They're all second-tier front-runners, hovering right at the threshold of first tier. Are they competing, throwing up obstacles? Knock one off, and there's one less rival!"

The more Lin Nan thought about it, the more it made sense. Yeah, that's exactly how it was!

Plenty of people probably thought it was just a run-of-the-mill piece of gossip, but in reality, where do that many coincidences come from?

A third-tier actress tearing into a second-tier-front, first-tier-threshold male actor — no matter which way it goes, somebody's making money off it.

"These people — they really play dirty!"

…………

(End of chapter)