Chapter 417: Pass a Message, Domineering CEO

A long time ago, the Hong Kong circle had always mocked mainlanders for being uncultured, looking down their noses at them.

Even to this day, most of them still haven't shaken that habit — or rather, they simply can't be bothered to change.

It's just that they no longer say it out in the open; they've moved it behind closed doors, though it still gets reported from time to time.

But these past two days, the entire Hong Kong film circle has embarrassed itself all the way to Hollywood.

*Transformers 4*, which started filming at the beginning of the year, still hasn't wrapped.

These past two days, the great director Michael Bay brought the *Transformers 4* crew to Hong Kong to shoot on location.

Normally, when a foreign film comes to Hong Kong to shoot on location, the Hong Kong Film Workers' Union handles reception and assistance throughout — but in the end, something still went wrong.

A world-famous sci-fi director of such stature was bullied several times in Hong Kong by a bunch of "triads."

On the very first day of location shooting, the crew was provoked and picked on by a group of thugs who looked like they were high on something.

In Michael Bay's own words during a media interview, that crowd was just like the zombies in *World War Z* — they even bit people.

Things got even worse later — while the crew was filming, they were hit up for "protection fees," with the demand being a cool US$100,000.

Figuring they had already paid the locals for the use of the location, Michael Bay flatly refused to hand over any "protection money."

The great director never expected the "triads" to be so unreasonable.

Half an hour later, the other side came charging at the crew with "weapons," and a full-on brawl broke out.

A globally renowned director nearly got beaten up by a mob.

The crew members, under the protection of security, only barely held on until the police arrived.

Fifteen police officers, at the cost of three injuries, finally used force to subdue the gang of "triads."

This news was impossible to keep under wraps — by now it had already spread all over Hollywood, Hong Kong, and the mainland.

Li Li Bingbing also posted on Weibo, saying nothing else except that she had been well protected and was not hurt.

The internet was in an uproar, with all kinds of mocking and bitter comments flying around.

"Still saying we're uncultured? Their 'culture' is so refined it extends to extortion on the street?"

"When extortion failed, they switched to outright robbery? Is this how they treat international guests?"

"Now the truth's out! They've embarrassed themselves on the international stage — really shows how hypocritical those people are."

Faced with criticism from Hollywood media and mockery online, the Hong Kong circle was caught somewhat off guard.

A flood of top-tier stars and artists came out of the woodwork, apologizing, condemning the lawlessness, and trying to salvage the image — for a while it was absolute chaos.

…………

Day-one box office: 21.6 million. Day two: 25.2 million. After the opening weekend's three days, *Special Identity* had raked in a total of 68.6 million.

Compared with *Kung Fu Jungle*, this box-office haul was worlds apart.

No one knew whether Lu Zheng had paid for it, but quite a few "industry professionals" had published articles.

All of them were hyping it up, saying that at *Special Identity*'s current money-grabbing pace, breaking 300 million at the box office was a sure thing — worth a watch.

What they completely failed to mention was that the film's reputation had already collapsed in an avalanche — it was scraping by on terrible word of mouth to goose the box office.

Just like *Switch* back in the day — the more people trashed it, the better it did. A textbook case of the bad-movie effect.

But *Special Identity* was still a bit different — it couldn't match *Switch*'s distinctive flavor of badness.

Naturally, at the box office, it couldn't hold a candle to the latter either.

The industry had assumed that after *The Sorcerer and the White Snake* finished its run, Brother Yang's Julai Pictures was finished for good.

After all, not only had it offended Jet Li, but Enlight had also "played" the company's pillar, Huang Huang Shengyi, into the ground.

A single "Heaven on Earth" meme had taken out an A-list actress — even by entertainment-industry standards, that was rare.

But who would have thought that, after a few quiet years, Brother Yang and Julai had hopped back out again.

Brother Yang personally showed up to hype a newly signed actress for Julai Pictures, and the titles heaped on her were quite something: "Beijing Film Academy campus beauty," "the new Huang Huang Shengyi!"

It had the whole industry in stitches. Other people's "Little 【X】" nicknames all piggyback on actresses who are actually somewhat famous — "Little Liu Liu Yifei," "Little Yang Mi," "Little Zhang Zhang Ziyi"…

But Brother Yang, bless his cotton-picking brain, signed a new artist and insisted on tying her to a washed-up, third-tier star like Huang Huang Shengyi — as if he was worried the newcomer wouldn't flop fast enough?

Beijing Film Academy campus beauty? Why pick any old "campus beauty" — why did it have to be Beijing Film Academy?

Which actress from the film academy would dare market herself with that title?

Just on the strength of that title alone, this new artist at Julai Pictures was already finished — she'd offended a whole crowd of people!

…………

Yue Jun had attended Alibaba's banquet yesterday, and this morning he couldn't wait to come tell Lin Nan about it.

"That Chairman Ma asked me to pass a message to you…"

"Huh? Why does that line sound so familiar?"

Lin Nan frowned, trying to place it — he was sure he'd heard something like that somewhere before.

"Never mind, go on."

"I guessed right — Alibaba really is using shares in that Shangshi Company to win over people in the industry. I heard that after the handover is complete, it'll be renamed."

At this point, Yue Jun paused:

"They seemed very confident they could make everyone money. Some industry folks were clustered around Chairman Ma, and Zhao Zhao Yanzi was the most conspicuous of all, chatting and laughing away.

Chairman Ma asked me to pass this message to you: if Director Lin is interested, he could buy some shares in Cultural China — now's the time. Once the handover is done and trading resumes, the stock price is guaranteed to soar. Later on, you could be one of us…"

Lin Nan swallowed, shook his head firmly, and said with a smile, "I'm fated not to make that kind of money. By the way, did a lot of people go?"

"Quite a few went — all the well-known film and TV companies in the business were there. But most of them were somewhat resistant to Alibaba.

After all, everyone has their own circle of interests, and they know pies don't fall from the sky. But as you know, not everyone can resist — they're just toooled too much money…"

Lin Nan nodded. The three words "too much money" really could solve a lot of problems.

It wasn't until some time after Yue Jun had left the office that Lin Nan finally caught on.

"Good lord — now I remember — 'The Imperial Army asked me to pass you a message!'"

………

When he returned home in the afternoon, Liu Liu Yifei was kicking off her flip-flops with her bare fair-skinned toes, and she stuffed an invitation into Lin Nan's hands.

"Here. Someone from Zhu Zhu Yawen's studio delivered it personally to Red Star Village. I only just got my hands on it."

"This guy — I was at the company all day too. How come no one delivered one to Lin Nan Pictures?"

Grumbling as he spoke, Lin Nan opened the invitation, and then he understood why he hadn't received one.

That rascal Zhu Zhu Yawen — one invitation for two people, and he even had it delivered specifically to Red Star Village. How thoughtful of him?!

Still, this behavior — how does it remind me a little of that guy Tom?

"The wedding is on the 10th of next month? That's fine. Holding the wedding right here in the capital, not thinking about going off to the Maldives, Bali, Phuket or any of those places — saves everyone a lot of hassle."

Lin Nan said, nodding. The main thing was, this date didn't conflict at all with his later schedule, which was perfect.

"I'm guessing by then, all our classmates will go, right? Quite a few of them I haven't seen since graduation, even though we're all still in this industry."

Liu Liu Yifei suddenly sighed sentimentally. A few figures really did pop into Lin Nan's head, and then he gently shook his head.

………

Although he hadn't attended the Bazaar Charity Gala this year, that evening Lin Nan and Liu Liu Yifei still sat in the living room and watched the livestream.

After all, Miss Liu had gone for five years running. Not going this year suddenly — she still wasn't quite used to it.

Among the giants of the film and television companies, only Wang Wang Zhonglei and Yu Dong went. No one else bothered.

The same went for top-tier stars — only a handful like Jackie Chan, Li Li Bingbing, Fan Li Bingbing, and Little Zhang Zhang Ziyi. Not a single top director!

This year's gala really was a bit shabby.

Among all the stars, the most eye-catching was the Peacock Princess that Yu Dong brought along. This was effectively a full public reveal to the industry — the woman had successfully climbed the ranks!

Plenty of actors and artists took the initiative to go curry favor and chat, smiles they couldn't contain plastered on their faces.

When the auction officially began, this Peacock Princess — invited for the first time and actually qualifying to attend — really did behave just like a "peacock," except one with its tail fanned out.

She kept raising the bid, as if using this method to proclaim that her status today was a far cry from what it used to be!

"The ones shelling out the big money are still basically Big Brother Jackie Chan and the rest of them. But with so many guests this year, I'd guess the total amount raised should go up."

Lin Nan speculated aloud, but he wasn't a hundred percent sure.

………

The next day, news about "The Crossing" suddenly appeared in the media.

Apparently something had gone wrong on set — they'd hit a wall, just like the endless disasters during the filming of "Red Cliff." Maybe even the heavens didn't want Johnnie Woo to keep shooting?

Just like that, Huang Huang Xiaoming was allowed to leave the set first, to rush off and shoot another TV series.

During an interview, Huang Xiaoming — the "Leader" — came across a little worked up.

He chatted with the reporter about that "Glory of Tang Dynasty" — you could tell he really liked the script.

"I play an overbearing business association president and gang boss in it.

"Although he comes across as cold, shrewd, and heartless, on the inside he's actually a warm-hearted guy — a perfect character, you might say. But with the girl he likes, he runs into rejection again and again…"

When Lin Nan saw this news at the company, he was completely dumbfounded.

"Well, isn't that something! I just called you over to shoot 'Taking Mount Mount Weihu,' and the next thing I know you've taken on an overbearing CEO role?"

Huang Huang Xiaoming's description of the character — wasn't that exactly the setup of an overbearing CEO?

The protagonist is perfect in every way; the only flaw is a girl he likes who doesn't like him. And in the end he has to go through all kinds of trials before they can finally be together!

This is the textbook definition of an overbearing CEO — couldn't be more textbook if it tried!

"Speaking of which, are these kinds of TV dramas really that addictive?" Lin Nan was genuinely baffled.

Back when Huang Huang Xiaoming went to star in "Summer's Desire," he had the exact same look on his face as he does now chatting about this "Glory of Tang Dynasty."

His face was pure excitement and anticipation, without a shred of attempt to hide it — just like a lecher eyeing a beauty.

………

(End of chapter)