Chapter 867: A Hundred Billion?

Cao Bao's review of the call with Lin Nan had been Wang Wang Changtian's running commentary the whole way here. His covetous expression and tone were utterly naked, completely undisguised.

"…The 'Burning Heart' series, a collection of films grounded in realistic themes! Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it will undoubtedly mirror 'The Burning Heart,' perfectly poised to compete for awards at film festivals…"

"Wang Dong, stop muttering already, we've arrived." Through the car window, Lin Nan saw the crew members who had come to greet them, and further beyond, the barriers set up around the crew's perimeter.

Because of the Magnolia Awards and the Magic City International Film Festival, the crew of 'How I Lived a Life' had almost no entertainment reporters or paparazzi coming to bother them;

Even the ones who had been around before had all gone off to the TV festival and film festival these past two days, so today this side was especially peaceful, very pleasant to look at.

"Wang Dong, Lin Dao, the crew is currently filming." Li Li Xiaoping came up with a smile.

"Is the shooting going smoothly?" Lin Nan nodded and asked, returning the greeting.

"Mm, not bad. According to the shooting schedule, after this afternoon's wrap the crew will start their break, so that Miss Jing Tian and the others can attend tomorrow's opening ceremony red carpet and the subsequent film festival events, as well as the closing ceremony on the 26th… In the end we'll wrap in mid-August, with the shoot taking a total of three months on and off…"

Lin Nan and Wang Wang Changtian kept walking, passing through the perimeter barriers at a small side gate that had been opened separately, while Li Li Xiaoping walked alongside them, briefing them on the crew's work arrangements.

Ten meters away, Miss Jing Tian and Lei Lei Jiayin were rehearsing a scene.

Her privileged family background allowed Miss Jing Tian to bring out her own temperament even more in this film; once the role fit close to her, it was undoubtedly a fish-in-water performance, playing to her natural strengths.

"Have to admit, Lu Zheng's original development path for Miss Jing Tian was a very big misstep. If at her debut she'd first acted in one or two decent film scripts, she'd definitely be in an even higher tier right now."

Wang Wang Changtian couldn't help but offer his commentary too. The status Miss Jing Tian had now was almost entirely thanks to the help and resources from Lin Nan's side — the result of single-handed support.

"How many 'ifs' are there really? Besides, isn't she developing quite well right now?"

Su Lun called "Cut," and gestured toward Lin Nan and Wang Wang Changtian's direction to Miss Jing Tian and Lei Lei Jiayin; the supporting and extras in the scene all immediately turned to look over eagerly.

Amid the rising and falling waves of greetings, one "Brother Lin" stood out as uniquely distinctive. So much so that Lei Lei Jiayin was a little "sour" about it — on paper, he was the one from Lin Nan Pictures!

"Your Liu Yifei-Zhou Jie asked me to tell you along the way: tomorrow you walk the red carpet with her and the others, you don't need to go with the crew here."

"Got it, Brother Lin." Miss Jing Tian nodded with a face full of smiles — she'd been prepared for this since early morning.

After giving Miss Jing Tian his instructions, Lin Nan finally turned to look at Lei Lei Jiayin, who was standing beside him grinning cheekily, and said, speechless: "As for you, tomorrow you stick with me."

"You got it, this arrangement of yours is top-notch. Such a big occasion — if I didn't get the chance to swagger around on someone else's coattails, I'd be absolutely miserable, hehe…"

Good lord, Lei Lei Jiayin's gift of the gab was getting more and more polished, almost catching up to Zhang Yi; the two of them were each more shameless than the other, textbook veteran slippery customers!

The 'How I Lived a Life' crew didn't have that many supporting actors, so this set visit by Lin Nan and Wang Wang Changtian naturally didn't take up too much time or energy.

Over the course of nearly an hour, the two watched the shooting of several scenes and also chatted quite a bit with Yu Yu Hewei, Tao Hong and the others, until 11:30 in the morning…

Wang Wei's message finally came through, and immediately Lin Nan and Wang Wang Changtian got up on their own, and were seen out of the crew by Miss Jing Tian, Lei Lei Jiayin, Li Li Xiaoping and the others.

They had no plans to eat with the actors; the lunch venue for the two of them was a high-end hotel just one street away from the crew — Wang Wei was waiting over there.

That's right, the meeting with Wang Wei at noon today was the real main business; visiting the crew was secondary and on the way!

12:00 sharp, inside the private room on the 15th floor.

Standing before the floor-to-ceiling window, Lin Nan could still faintly look down on the crew's situation;

A few crew members were helping unload goods from a van — basket after basket of fresh fruit… Lin Nan's small gift for visiting the set and picking up the tab.

"These past few days, Tudou has already secured online broadcasting rights for 32 TV dramas; of those, 4 are exclusive buyouts, 12 are dual-platform rights, and 16 are Tudou's single-platform revenue-sharing model… The original-drama business division has also completed its setup…"

"President Wang, stop reporting all this, save it for Tudou's big meeting or the celebration banquet after a successful IPO, won't you? What I care about, you should know best, right?"

Wang Wang Changtian said with a laugh, complaining as he cut off Wang Wei, who was looking smugly pleased with himself.

The latter, on hearing this, said nothing, but rather teasingly kept Wang Wang Changtian in suspense for a few seconds with great interest, before finally slowly nodding at him and laughing:

"Wang Dong, it's done. The modifications and approval of the documents Tudou previously submitted have already been completed over at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange!"

"It really worked?" At this point, even Lin Nan couldn't help turning around, asking to confirm.

Earlier, when Wang Wei had arranged for him and Wang Wang Changtian to meet at noon today, he'd guessed it was about this matter — he just hadn't expected it to actually come together in time, and successfully at that!

"Yes, Lin Dao. It's just that wrapping up this matter took a bit of extra time, otherwise I wouldn't have delayed sending you two a message until almost 12 today, would I? Lin Dao, Wang Dong — are you surprised or what? Hahaha…"

"A little surprised, yes, with a bit of a fright mixed in." Lin Nan answered with a smile.

"Issue price 55 — that's Hong Kong dollars, right… 63 yuan?" Wang Wang Changtian's eyes were shining, muttering to himself, no longer in any mood to pay attention to Wang Wei's "surprised or what" question.

"Exactly, Wang Dong! Right now, the question we've been most looking forward to and most anxious about should be: on the day Tudou lists, can it break a thousand… RMB?

After all, the revision of the issue price has already caused a change in the initial market cap — it went up 10%, even though we did intentionally try to keep the market cap a bit lower before." Wang Wei picked up the thread, his tone also uncontrollably excited.

Because the current period is the peak season for financial-market listings, and Tudou is the platform with the largest market share domestically, with the team and major shareholders almost all coming from capital backgrounds in film, television and media… Timing, location, and people — Tudou has all three; there's no reason it can't soar!

"Over a thousand… billion?" Lin Nan repeated softly.

"Lin Dao, Wang Dong, whether it can break a thousand — this point is hugely significant. Because to be precise, domestically there isn't yet a single proper, legal and compliant film-and-TV internet platform with a market cap of a hundred billion. Let alone breaking a hundred billion on listing day!

Before today, LeTV was once the most glamorous company of its kind on A-shares, but now? It's already dead. And its peak market cap of nearly 170 billion in '15 was entirely 'faked' by itself… No, looking at it now, LeTV's market cap was almost entirely fake from start to finish — it has no reference or comparison value!"

Wang Wei was emotionally stirred, continuing to talk at length.

Tudou was once the first film-and-TV internet platform in China to take the plunge, and as its founder, Wang Wei naturally knew very well just how much significance and how much hidden resource the words "the first" represented.

For example, it could help Tudou continue to massively strengthen its market influence, to the point of being deeply rooted.

So Tudou had to become the first film-and-TV internet platform with a hundred-billion market cap. Of course, adding the gimmick of "breaking a hundred billion in market cap on listing day" would undoubtedly be even better!

"There's still 11 days — build momentum normally according to plan. Also, raise the standard of the listing-evening banquet on the 27th to the highest level; take advantage of the Magic City International Film Festival to invite another batch of top-tier guests…"

At some unknown point, Lin Nan had already sat down at the table. With his arms braced on the tabletop and his hands crossed in front of his eyes, he spoke in a low, serious tone.

"Got it!" Wang Wei responded.

Previously, the guest invitations had been extremely strict, almost entirely from capital circles.

As for now, momentum mattered too, and top-tier filmmakers and A-list actors and stars could perfectly serve as the garnish to achieve that.

…………

"Last night at eight o'clock, the 23rd Magnolia International TV Festival held its grand awards ceremony at the Magic City Oriental Art Center…"

"From over 500 entries submitted by more than 30 countries and regions worldwide, the American drama 'Outlander' won the Best Foreign Drama award, American drama…"

Zhang Yi won Best Actor with 'Feather Flies to the Sky', Yin Tao also won Best Actress for the same drama… 'In the Name of the People' contributed two Best Supporting Actors…"

When the Magnolia news flooded Weibo early in the morning and drew the whole internet's attention, Lin Nan was still lounging in bed.

Last night he'd led Liu Liu Yifei, Watching Shu Chang and Han Jianu into the inner venue to watch the awards ceremony, and had almost been dragged up on stage at the last minute to present the award to Zhang Yi.

Regarding this kind of thing, Lin Nan of course refused sternly, after all it would be easy for people to gossip if he presented the award to Zhang Yi... So, in the end, he was dragged by Ren Ren Zhonglun to present the award to Yin Tao!

Speaking of which, middle-aged female actresses nowadays really are willing to go all out — one actually boldly took the opportunity right there on the spot to recommend herself to Lin Nan, hoping that the great director's films could give an actress like her a chance...

Setting aside whether it was abrupt or not, Lin Nan did acknowledge Yin Tao's acting, and in the end very formally gave her a line: "Remember to come audition in the future!"

"Still sleeping? The red carpet for today's film festival opening ceremony is at noon, it starts at eleven..."

Looking at Liu Liu Yifei standing at the door in a pink chest-high floor-length gown, fierce-faced, Lin Nan smiled instinctively and teased:

"You yelling at me in that gown doesn't look fierce at all. Ah no, it's milky-fierce! Hehe..."

"Just you wait, I'll go change into something else and come back to kick you..."

"No, no, I'm getting up right now. I don't need styling or anything, can't I lie in a bit longer? Every day it's 'only the officials are allowed to light fires, the common folk aren't allowed to'... I was wrong, shh..."

Lin Nan hurriedly admitted his mistake in a low voice, because he heard rustling laughter — it must have been from the stylist and the assistants.

After all, the room he and Liu Liu Yifei were staying in was the most luxurious suite in the hotel, over a hundred and fifty square meters, with a huge living room and an even bigger dressing room... they were probably all over there.

Before long, Lin Nan, in a T-shirt and knee-length shorts, came out to the living room, only to see Han Jianü, Watching Shu Chang and a few others there, all of them already done with their styling.

Unlike Miss Liu in her pink chest-high floor-length gown, Watching Shu Chang was in pure white, and paired with her shoulder-length short hair, she gave off a particularly pure and fresh vibe.

As for Han Jianü, the less said the better — Lin Nan had never seen her wear a gown, and today, sure enough, she was in a women's casual suit again!

"Don't look at me like that! Today's identity of mine is Director Han Jianü — only dressed like this can I show my aura, mm, a swift and decisive film director!" Little Han raised an eyebrow and said to Lin Nan.

"Hurry up and go change, the suit was delivered two hours ago." Liu Liu Yifei pointed at the suit nearby, then pouted her lips to tell Lin Nan to check the time himself. It was only just half past nine, not that late.

"Okay, right away."

While Lin Nan was changing, the assistants of Miss Jing Tian and Dilireba each called — they had finished their styling and were ready to set off... to meet up before the red carpet.

……

At exactly 11 a. m., the red carpet for the opening ceremony of the Magic City International Film Festival officially kicked off in front of the Magic City Grand Theatre.

Yang Mi, in a silver-thread gauze gown, was surrounded in the middle of the "Reset" crew and stepped onto the red carpet first... Gui Lunmei in a purple deep-V backless dress was the second to appear... Xu Qing in a black cape, arm in arm with Jiang Wen...

……Wu Jing hand in hand with Yu Nan……Wang Wang Zhongjun, Wang Wang Zhonglei, Ye Ning, Feng Feng Xiaogang and the "Youth" crew represented the Huayi Brothers contingent……

The "Legend of the Demon Cat" crew not only had high prestige, but also numbered as many as thirteen people...

Over a dozen Japanese and Korean crews and several dozen Japanese and Korean actors drew screams from the fans... film people and crews from Europe, America, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia and elsewhere didn't get this kind of treatment!

Zhou Xun's outfit was passable — the form-fitting dress showed off some of her figure's curves, but the makeup was poor — it made her look a bit old!

Gong Li, Little Zhang Zhang Ziyi, Fan Li Bingbing, Li Li Bingbing and others almost all walked the red carpet solo... each one looking like a queen.

It wasn't until half past twelve that Liu Liu Yifei's group finally stepped onto the red carpet, and the host gave a detailed introduction:

"Now walking onto the opening ceremony red carpet are: internationally renowned actress and producer Liu Liu Yifei, currently popular top-tier actresses Watching Shu Chang, Miss Jing Tian, and Dilireba, director and screenwriter Han Jianü, producer Jiang Jiang Xuerou...

The unreleased films they represent are: 'Marriage Story', 'Huan Tao 2', 'Pacific Rim 2', 'How I Live Without You', 'Dying to Survive', 'A Cool Fish'..."

"Ladies first, gentlemen behind. The all-male lineup from Lin Nan Pictures, represented by Lin Dao Nan and Director Lu Yang, follows closely behind...

'Operation Red Sea' is still filming, 'Detective Chinatown 2' is currently casting, actor Lei Lei Jiayin plays two roles in the 'How I Live Without You' crew... Director Yue Jun is known in the industry as the big copyright holder, the top hunter..."