Chapter 727

It must be said that *A Chinese Odyssey* is indeed a super big IP, and Liu Zhenwei can be considered to have milked this IP to death.

And look, early in the morning, the large-scale ancient costume mythological romance drama *A Chinese Odyssey: Love You Ten Thousand Years* held a grand opening ceremony "online."

Liu Zhenwei directed it himself, and the promotional press releases were bought all over the internet. Plus, it had top traffic star Huang Zitao playing the Supreme Treasure and Sun Wukong, and "Yuan Hua" Yin Zheng playing the Golden Cicada and Tang Seng...

With the addition of traffic from these many sources, it was overwhelming, almost reaching the point where everyone on the internet knew about it; those who didn't know might have thought Stephen Chow was coming out to play the Supreme Treasure again.

Mm, and don't say it, Liu Zhenwei did indeed praise Huang Zitao profusely in front of the media;

Saying that the latter's audition effect could completely benchmark Stephen Chow's *A Chinese Odyssey*, and even perform new ideas and contribute surprises!

"I've finally figured it out: if you want to make money, you have to be shameless, or at least have the ability to swallow your own spit. Just like this 'great director' Liu Zhenwei—is he insulting Stephen Chow, or is he insulting himself?"

On the first day of *See You Tomorrow*'s public screening, Zhu Yawen came to visit the set. This guy leaned against the door frame of the dressing room, teasing Liu Zhenwei.

And inside the dressing room, Liu Yifei, wearing a uniform and having just finished filming the nightclub scene, was removing her makeup, while Lin Nan was on the side helping her pass towels.

Ning Hao, Xing Aina, and Shen Teng were all in a lazy state, lying on a row of canvas chairs a few meters away, incidentally participating in the gossip.

"Who cares who he insulted. Making money, licking the fans of top traffic, it's not shameful. Besides, hasn't Liu Zhenwei always been like this these years? He previously said Han Geng's Supreme Treasure would also become a classic."

Liu Yifei took the towel and wiped her face. Only then did Lin Nan turn around and tease with a smile.

"Without box office appeal, and unable to play art films, if you don't let others shamelessly stir-fry cold rice to make money, how else can he live? He's even started filming TV dramas now, heh..."

"Oh right, that *A Chinese Odyssey 3* seems to be released in two months, right? I wonder if it will continue to lose money this time?" Ning Hao couldn't help but tease as well.

"Then you're overthinking it. Liu Zhenwei's foundation is very solid; although his films have been very bad these years, he is a major shareholder of Emperor Motion Pictures, and many big-name actors from Hong Kong and Taiwan have their film and television contracts there."

"Wong Kar-wai's company?"

"Mm, that one."

Lin Nan nodded. These people had eaten too many dividends of the era; those years in the Hong Kong circle were too prosperous, and any company with a great director was a big mountain!

"Alright, I would have forgotten if you hadn't mentioned it. It's indeed like that, a great director alliance!" Ning Hao realized it afterward.

Regarding the gossip about these great directors in the industry, Shen Teng, Guo Jingfei, and others couldn't get a word in and could only support the scene with smiles on the side.

Not long after, nearing 11:30, all the main creators changed into casual summer clothes, and everyone left the crew's backstage area together and got into their respective cars.

Because the afternoon opening time would be pushed to after 4 o'clock, everyone could just go out for a meal at noon.

However, just as Lin Nan and Liu Yifei had fastened their seatbelts, the little assistant from Red Star Dock ran over in a hurry to knock on the car window:

"Sister Yifei, the company called, saying that people from several more TV stations have arrived, but no time was scheduled beforehand, and they didn't say it was today..."

Liu Yifei didn't take the assistant's phone but looked at Lin Nan inquiringly. It was about the first-round broadcast rights for *Eternal Love*.

"Is Director Jiang in Red Star Dock right now?"

"Not in the company. She should already be receiving those from Mango TV, but the meal shouldn't have started yet." The assistant answered immediately.

"Go notify Director Jiang now, and then bring these few over too. She will handle it well. There are many wolves and little meat, which is just right for 'competition'." Lin Nan pondered and gave a solution.

"Let's do that. Go." Liu Yifei nodded in agreement.

Ten-plus seconds later, several high-end business vans sped away, heading straight for the private kitchen restaurant.

It had been vaguely spread in the circle that a certain third-tier artist had offended Angelababy and offended Master Huang;

And the woman's studio had already passed the word out, the meaning of which was self-evident.

This "effortless" matter spread and diffused rapidly along Huang Xiaoming's network, hooking up with the capital of more than half the film and television circle. The latter gave face one after another, almost all responding...

Lin Nan Pictures.

After Yue Jun hung up the phone, a look of contempt couldn't help but appear on his face.

He really hadn't expected that Angelababy would call personally, and the words were "begging" for a favor in the name of the two of them as a couple.

"Director Yue, how should we handle this kind of thing? It seems that the actor also appeared in Director Guo's *Time Traveler*, as a supporting role." The assistant was also watching the fun on the side with a smile; it had been a long time since such a thing had appeared in the circle.

"It's not a big deal, just an actor, and it's not our company that wants to ban him."

"And after that?"

"Give Master Huang some face. Besides, there are so many actors in the circle, countless second-tier ones, and even more third-tier ones. One more isn't much, one less isn't much. Who isn't usable?"

Yue Jun said this very objectively. There was no need to reject Huang Xiaoming's face for a third-tier artist with whom there were no favors. Just pretend not to know there was such an artist. Not actively making things difficult for him and not kicking him while he's down is the greatest kindness of a bystander.

"Do we need to talk to Director Jiang and Director Lin again?" The assistant reminded.

"One of them is busy negotiating TV drama copyright for Red Star Dock these days, and the other is busy filming. There's no need to disturb them with such sesame-sized trifles; it's a complete waste of time and energy."

Yue Jun waved his hand and said casually. In his view, this was a very insignificant matter.

"Director Yue, then I'll give the order like this?"

"Mm, let's do it like this. We won't actively make things difficult for him, and we won't kick him while he's down. If he comes to audition... just implicitly ignore him...

He's also someone with bad luck, happening to offend a woman, and a woman who uses the fox's power to intimidate the tiger at that."

The night scene last night was filmed a bit long, so it was really impossible to get out of bed this morning.

Then Lin Nan and Ning Hao, two big men, communicated with grunts on the phone and immediately hit it off: notify the executive director, temporarily give the crew the morning off!

And when Lin Nan tiptoed back to the room and just crawled into the quilt, preparing to have warmth and fragrance in his arms, that damn phone vibrated again.

Fine, the great Director Lin was kicked out of bed by Liu Yifei, her mouth filled with dissatisfaction with a slight nasal tone.

"I'm telling you, Chairman Wang, you can't do things like this! How many times has it been, calling early in the morning, isn't it immoral..." Lying on the sofa, Lin Nan's morning grumpiness was ignited.

"Sleep, sleep, sleep, at a young age, how much sleep can you have?"

"It's precisely because I'm young that I have so much sleep. When I reach your age, even if I want to sleep, my physical condition won't allow it; I'll be old." Lin Nan retorted directly. Old people have less sleep.

"I'm only in my early fifties, what old?"

"If you have something to say, say it quickly. After you finish, I can continue sleeping. Last night's scenes were filmed until two in the morning." While urging, Lin Nan couldn't help but yawn again.

"There's wind coming out from LeTV. You wouldn't dare to imagine it: a listed company with a market value of tens of billions actually has a broken capital chain! To what extent must the fraud be to have a broken capital chain?"

In an instant, Lin Nan was awake. "News from the CSRC investigation team?"

"No announcement has been issued, but... the news is absolutely true. The speed of this matter spreading in the circle is very fast, very fast.

A listed company with a market value of tens of billions, if the capital chain can break, it means the time of financial fraud won't be short, and the scale of the fraud must be very, very large... The CSRC should have already started investigating backward by now..."

Ten-plus minutes later, Lin Nan hung up Wang Changtian's phone. He didn't have a hint of sleepiness anymore, so he simply sat up and flipped through the news online.

Sure enough, as Old Wang said, the relevant hot searches were being removed and suppressed. One second Lin Nan saw LeTV-related news on the hot search list, and the next second it was replaced by film information.

Yesterday, *See You Tomorrow* and *For a Few Bullets* were released on the first day, and today's data reported 33.4 million and 15.68 million respectively.

And *Big Fish & Begonia* and *Cold War 2* were slightly affected, with daily receipts falling to 23.11 million and 26.46 million, but it looks like they will rebound later, because there is still a lot of stamina.

Only *Rock Dog* died as dead as can be, with a daily box office of 860,000, which was as "eye-piercing" as a pile of shit, disgusting Huayi!

In the morning, although there was no relevant news about LeTV online, everyone in the circle who should know, without exception, knew it all!

Especially those twenty-plus celebrity shareholders in the film and television circle who were originally LeTV Pictures and now LeTV, and were shareholders after increasing their holdings—these people were already completely like ants on a hot pot.

Within a short two or three hours, one by one, they were all anxiously contacting Zhang Zhao. If one call didn't get through, they made a second, a third, a fourth... some individuals even wanted to go straight to the LeTV building.

"Still can't get through? Still on the line?"

Chen Ting looked at Zhang Yimou, whose face was full of gullies, pale and ugly, as if cold as frost, and asked in a low voice.

In the latter's phone, a busy signal came out: Please do not hang up, the number you dialed is currently on the line...

This sentence had been repeated for more than an hour. The great Director Zhang and she had also listened for more than an hour!

"That is all the savings of so many years, all inside..." Zhang Yimou murmured tremblingly, his whole person as if he had lost his backbone, his spirit and state were a bit wrong.

"Don't overthink it. Maybe it's not as serious as we think. Such a large listed company, it's impossible to have big problems..."

Chen Ting looked at it, and her heart suddenly became a bit anxious. She was truly worried that the mental state of Zhang Yimou in front of her would have problems; after all, he wasn't young, and there were three children below.

At this moment, the great Director Zhang had already closed his eyes, he gritted his teeth, the veins on both sides of his forehead protruding... his mind was full of memories of these years:

He cooperated with Zhang Weiping for more than ten years, and he was deceived for more than ten years; after they broke up, he was snatched by many capitals in the industry, and only then did he truly know his own value;

He chose carefully, and it was not easy to determine a new partner. He originally thought he could hold the shares and do movies smoothly in the future, do good movies, but today this kind of thing happened again!

"Director Zhang? Sorry, there are too many rumors outside today. I've been dealing with it all morning, and I haven't had a chance to answer your call..."

Suddenly, the phone connected, and Zhang Zhao's voice came from the other side!

Zhang Zhao's greeting and laughter were undoubtedly a ray of light in the darkness for Zhang Yimou and Chen Ting at this moment, a glimmer of life and hope when they were suffocating.

"President Zhang, is what is being spread outside true or false? Will the shares in my hand be affected?"

Without the calmness and composure of the past, Zhang Yimou grabbed the phone as if grabbing a straw, and asked directly. There was still a slight tremor in his voice, but it was obvious that he himself should not have noticed it, only caring about LeTV's affairs.