Chapter 283: Xinghe Bay, the Prelude of Two Soldiers, and the Water Margin Film City

The first thing Fan Xiaopang did after returning from Zhuozhou was drag Seeing Yan Li to visit her new home in Xinghe Bay.

This apartment exceeds 450 square meters and was only delivered two months after the Spring Festival.

After various planning, design, and revision rounds, it has only just entered the renovation phase.

Considering the size and Fan Xiaopang's high renovation standards, the renovation will take at least several months, and with subsequent furniture installation, detail finishing, and ventilation, moving in by next spring would be good—though for safety's sake, it might take even longer.

Although there's still time before moving in, Fan Xiaopang is very attentive, and whenever she returns to Jingcheng, she makes time to come over and take a look.

She can't afford to be careless—she spent nearly fifteen million on this house, the renovation quality is high, and with furniture and everything else, the total cost will be close to twenty million.

Remember, this is 2007—homes in the million-yuan range still crushed countless families.

Even if this price isn't the ceiling, it's an unreachable, almost unimaginable sum for countless people.

Fan Xiaopang is in the top tier of artist incomes, and without Seeing Yan Li's help, she could've only afforded a down payment and would've had to cut her renovation budget.

She's not unable to afford twenty million… well, that's debatable.

After all, she's only been making big money these past two years, and she spends just as much—she couldn't possibly dump all her money into one house.

If it weren't for wanting a new love nest and having such high standards, she wouldn't have spent heavily on this Xinghe Bay mansion.

Now that the house is bought, fully paid for, and renovation has begun with luxurious standards, Fan Xiaopang is naturally delighted and happy, already mentally planning how to show it off.

Such an expensive, such a fine house—just living in it would be a waste; it must be flaunted.

Seeing Yan Li isn't as childish as she is, but he too feels some anticipation.

He's been to and lived in even larger mansions, but those were other people's properties—this is his own home, a completely different matter.

Still, urban apartment living feels a bit lacking—if it had a pool and a small garden, it'd be more comfortable.

That's out of the question for this building; even ordinary villas would be hard to get—it'd have to be a top-tier mansion or buying land to build yourself.

Seeing Yan Li prefers to build himself—troublesome, yes, but more aligned with his tastes.

He'd previously heard several entrepreneur friends discussing plans to acquire land in Xishan or Yuquan District, build a batch of villas for sale, and keep some plots for themselves to construct their preferred villas or estates.

Seeing Yan Li thinks this idea is good; besides Xishan, he's heard the villa district in Shunyi is thriving—he'll look into it later.

Both locations are a bit farther than urban districts, but not excessively so, within acceptable range, with more convenient configurations and facilities.

But all that is for the future.

Right now, Seeing Yan Li doesn't have enough spare cash for such luxury—he'll first transition through Xinghe Bay, Fuli City, and other places.

No matter how much he likes this house, it's still just a raw shell under renovation; Fan Xiaopang took two photos as mementos, then reluctantly left with Seeing Yan Li.

On the way, they found a restaurant for dinner, and Fan Xiaopang ordered heavily on meat dishes, leaving Seeing Yan Li stunned.

Didn't the Red Cliff crew provide meals?!

Fan Xiaopang grunted twice: "Every day on set I eat crew meals—I'm about to throw up."

Seeing Yan Li understood: Fan Xiaopang's "crew meals" weren't the standard boxed lunches, but custom nutritionist-prepared meals tailored to her personal needs.

They offer benefits like maintaining figure, preserving skin, ensuring nutrition, and boosting metabolism.

The taste isn't bad—in fact, eating one occasionally feels quite nice—but eating them daily is torturous.

Especially since Fan Xiaopang has a bit of a sweet tooth and prefers bold flavors; sticking to long-term meal plans isn't pleasant for her.

Sometimes, she finds ways to reduce the number of these meals—this time, her unusually disciplined eating on Red Cliff has only one reason—

Sister Zhiling!

Seeing Yan Li picked up a piece of fatty beef and placed it on Fan Xiaopang's plate: "Aren't you not taking her seriously?"

Fan Xiaopang bit into the beef: "As for my face, I'm confident—but this woman is too thin, too tall, like a bamboo pole—she makes everyone else look better."

She isn't afraid of competing on looks, nor does she fear competing on figure, but tall, slender women like this can sometimes truly undermine her.

"This bitch really has some tricks—only I feel slight pressure, and I can still hold my own; if it were Xiao Yanzi, she'd probably get crushed."

Fan Xiaopang, unwilling to lose face, turned to belittle her old rival.

Seeing Yan Li, listening to her brag, couldn't help but ask curiously: "I saw a news report the other day—lots of local villagers drove tractors to the set to see stars, and you were especially popular."

"Of course."

Fan Xiaopang was proud—in the Red Cliff cast, her star power might not be the highest, but her national recognition? Few can match her.

Lin Zhiling?

Ask on the internet, and few people even know her, let alone local villagers.

Liang Chaowei is at least a familiar face from Hong Kong films—people who've seen pirated discs recognize him; Jin Chengwu, Zhang Zhen, and others aren't as popular as supporting actors like Guo Tao, You Yong, and Hou Yong.

As for Fan Xiaopang? Get to know The Return of the Pearl Huanzhu Gege.

Jin Suo may be her inner shame, but as of now, it remains her most influential and widely recognized role.

It's not that other roles aren't good—it's that The Return of the Pearl Huanzhu Gege was too popular, and it's rebroadcast every year, constantly reinforcing its impression.

Of course, Fan Xiaopang hasn't been idle all these years.

Roles like Golden Rat, Tie Xinlan, Five Fairies, Su Daji, Xue Bing, and Lian Nishang have all had some impact, plus countless TV, print, and street ads—her face is thoroughly familiar.

Thus, Fan Xiaopang is unquestionably the most adored actress by local villagers during Red Cliff's filming.

The news Seeing Yan Li saw was a real report, though Fan Xiaopang's team certainly added a bit of spice.

Without exaggeration, during Red Cliff's filming, Fan Xiaopang's exposure level was in a league of her own.

Not only was Lin Zhiling, the female lead, utterly overshadowed—even Liang Chaowei and others were stolen from the spotlight.

So much so that some annoyed media and netizens joked that Red Cliff should be renamed The Legend of Sun Shangxiang.

Fan Xiaopang didn't care about this controversy—she was playing a supporting role; if she didn't win back attention off-screen, she'd truly become just a ladder for Lin Zhiling's fame.

The only regret was that Sister Zhiling was too fragile—her base was in Taiwan, and she wasn't famous to begin with; their clash was like Tyson beating up a little girl.

Far more exciting was the neighboring Kung Fu Hustle—Jet Li and Jackie Chan sparred, and Li Bingbing and Liu Tianxian occasionally clashed.

Speaking of which, Fan Xiaopang couldn't help mocking: "Those two sisters are really useless—they can't even handle a little girl. Total trash."

In Fan Xiaopang's view, the Li sisters had home advantage, were veterans, experienced, and should've easily crushed Liu Tianxian—but now Liu Tianxian was calmly unfazed, even issuing press releases to march into Hollywood.

Don't underestimate Liu Tianxian.

Seeing Yan Li shook his head; Liu Tianxian wasn't Lin Zhiling—she came with her own team and background, high national recognition and popularity, and a whole arsenal of gimmicks.

The Li sisters weren't lacking in ability; they just had reservations.

Besides Huayi, you also need to watch out for Cheng Long and Li Lianjie—they're over a decade older, and if they go head-to-head, winning would be dishonorable, losing even more humiliating.

"And…"

Seeing Yan Li couldn't help laughing: "She's not directly competing with Liu Tianxian; no need to fight to the death. Better save your strength for you."

The clash between the two Bings is the biggest draw and the greatest exposure.

Without the project "Hua Pi," the Li sisters might have gone head-to-head with Liu Tianxian.

But now that "Hua Pi" exists, no matter how much they fight over "Kung Fu King," they can't escape Cheng and Li.

Since starring in this film achieves the goal of leveraging the two kung fu superstars to break into Hollywood, don't waste energy—stay in shape and wait to face Fan Xiaopang.

"She's holding back to take me down—I want to take her down too."

Fan Xiaopang took a big gulp of water; she didn't know if Li Bingbing held back, but because Lin Zhiling was so weak in "Red Cliff," she and her team held back plenty of strength—they'd give those two sisters a real surprise.

"Has the start date for the 'Hua Pi' shoot been set?"

"Soon—filming will begin in September to October. You both have other commitments, and it's too hot to shoot anyway."

Shooting period dramas in summer and winter is extremely grueling, so spring and autumn are best—neither cold nor hot.

The plot of "Hua Pi" isn't complicated, and extensive prep work has already been done; actual shooting time is estimated at around two months, plus or minus half a month.

That's the advantage of films—limited runtime. If all preparations are thorough and shooting goes smoothly, the pace is much faster than TV dramas.

Compared to shooting, the post-production of "Hua Pi," with its heavy special effects workload, will likely take a long time. Yi An is preliminarily considering a summer or National Day slot.

In the past two years, domestic films have performed poorly in summer slots, causing Hollywood movies to flood the market.

With "Hua Pi" as a domestic fantasy blockbuster, it's not a smart choice to directly compete with Hollywood productions costing tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars.

Seeing Yan Li didn't like Hollywood, but he wasn't some blind anti-foreigner who did nothing but hate foreigners.

If you know something is unwise and it will harm your own interests, stubbornly pushing ahead is foolish. Seeing Yan Li must be responsible for "Hua Pi" and all parties involved.

So, we'll definitely need to observe the schedule and secure a more favorable release window for "Hua Pi."

At this stage, domestic blockbusters are few; aside from the Lunar New Year slot—the most fiercely contested period—other release windows can be coordinated.

Even if you don't want to coordinate, the Film Bureau and China Film Group will help arrange it.

The country's annual box office total and growth rate directly affect many people's political achievements.

"Besides the ones you mentioned—Light, China Film, Bona—what other companies are involved? How much of the pie can we get, and how much have we invested?"

Fan Xiaopang still had the mindset of a mistress—not only did she care about the film's preparation, she cared deeply about how the money was split, even obsessively so.

The family just bought a house and urgently needed to make money.

Two other companies provided resources: one offered funding and overseas rights operations, had Xiangjiang ties, and gave Shanghai Film a stake, requiring them to provide theater and distribution support in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, or even southern China.

As previously mentioned, projects like "Hua Pi" become popular before release and never lack money.

Seeing Yan Li himself was an expert at raising investment; tens of millions meant nothing to him.

The biggest investor in "Hua Pi" was an investment company named 【Juxin】, specializing in film and television investment.

Juxin was a company jointly founded by Seeing Yan Li and several familiar investors.

Seeing Yan Li contributed effort, others contributed capital; the company was managed by Seeing Yan Li, and profits were shared among all.

"Ju" meant cooperation, also implied gathering wealth; "Xin," with its three golds, needed no explanation.

Seeing Yan Li owned only 25% of the company, but held full managerial control.

His equity stake wasn't large; he never counted on this company to make money—his goal was to bind certain investors and capital to his film projects, even other ventures, for ongoing funding.

Negotiating project by project was too exhausting!

With this company, Seeing Yan Li could raise money directly through it, guide investments himself, and not waste breath over whether any project lost or gained—just settle the final accounts.

After Juxin's founding, Seeing Yan Li's film investments became far more flexible and abundant, greatly benefiting Yi An's development.

Of course, saying it was easy didn't mean the coal tycoons were easy to deal with.

The reason this company succeeded was Seeing Yan Li's reputation and credibility built over years of leading them to profit; anyone else trying to launch such a company would face far greater difficulty and couldn't match Juxin's scale.

Currently, Juxin had no shortage of funds, with over 60 million yuan in available capital.

As the company expanded, Juxin would accept new shareholders or outside capital, distributing dividends annually or by other agreed models.

Seeing Yan Li wasn't afraid of losing control—it was merely a pool of capital; how it operated and which projects it funded remained entirely in his hands.

If anything changed, as long as the books were clean, he could walk away anytime and start another similar company with new partners.

Since its founding, Juxin had invested in three projects, with "Hua Pi" receiving the largest share—40 million yuan, securing 30% of the equity.

Yi An invested 20 million yuan, plus production and distribution, taking 40% of the equity.

The remaining 30% was split among multiple companies, raising 20 million yuan and various resources.

For example: China Film and Shanghai Film provided theaters and distribution; Bona handled distribution; Light provided marketing and promotion; the Xiangjiang company managed overseas distribution and funding, and so on.

From this ratio, it was clear that aside from Yi An, as the controlling party, gaining some advantage, resource contribution clearly outweighed pure financial investment.

Now that the scale had grown, Seeing Yan Li wasn't as greedy—he emphasized long-term cooperation; otherwise, Juxin's share would have been cut further.

An 80-million-yuan budget was sufficient in Seeing Yan Li's calculation.

The cast of "Hua Pi" was primarily mainland-based, including the two Bings, and their film fees were low; moreover, the two Bings had both offered some friendship discounts.

Compared to other blockbusters, this saved a fortune—because in many big films, the main expense was the stars' salaries.

Take "The Warlords" as an example: rumors claimed Li Lianjie earned 100 million, Liu Tianwang 16 million, Jin Chengwu 12 million, Xu Jinglei 2 million—that alone reached 140 million, half of the rumored 300-million budget.

Salaries were saved; special effects were saved too.

Here, credit must go to Seeing Yan Li's intelligence system—special effects post-production has always been a high-risk gray zone in filmmaking.