Chapter 323: Fists Strike Chengtian, Kicks Kick Sina, the Bustling Month of August

The open turmoil at Chengtian was quickly suppressed; no company, no matter how incompetent, could allow its own artists to publicly insult each other.

Yet this suppression did not resolve the underlying issues; instead, the outbreak of conflict intensified the hidden currents within.

Seeing Yan Li didn't need to trigger the system's intelligence, nor did he need to deliberately inquire—Qin Lan and Dong Xuan continuously fed him information.

Qin Lan's Poodle sisterhood—Ma Yili, Li Xiaolu—and Wen Zhang were all at Chengtian, well-connected and informed.

Dong Xuan's close friend Guan Yue's husband, Tong Dawei, was Chengtian's top star; Yang Xue, though now signed with Yi'an, had spent years at Chengtian and maintained her own network.

Not to mention Wang Jinghua, whose loyal subordinates, even if not loyal to her anymore, still owed years of personal ties—passing along a message was nothing.

Truly, you don't realize it until you count—and then you're stunned.

Previously, Seeing Yan Li thought Huayi had been deeply infiltrated by him, but in reality, Li Bingbing and Hu Siyen were essentially open cards; the Wang brothers knew full well and had taken some precautions.

Now, Chengtian was completely riddled through like a sieve, with "traitors" everywhere; Boss Wu couldn't even contain it.

This not only revealed Chengtian's internal management problems, but also showed that Chengtian had utterly failed to win over its artists, with minimal loyalty or trust toward the company.

Forget Yi'an, which strictly enforced management in this regard—even Huayi was far superior to Chengtian.

Li Bingbing and Hu Siyen had their reasons; most Huayi artists still leaned toward their company and wouldn't casually spill company secrets to outsiders.

But it was understandable: Chengtian's artist management had previously been under Wang Jinghua's control; now that they'd broken ties, her loyalists naturally held grievances against Chengtian.

Meanwhile, many of Chengtian's core artists had signed only recently, mostly within the past one or two years, with limited emotional ties.

More importantly, beyond promoting a few people through "Red Cliff," Chengtian had scarce film and television resources; its artists mostly took roles in outside productions.

Without real, tangible resource support, unable to film their own company's projects, expecting artists to be deeply loyal was pure nonsense.

According to the information Seeing Yan Li received, the atmosphere among Chengtian's artists had become extremely tense, with factions forming.

For instance, Tong Dawei had aligned with his close friend Wen Zhang, along with Li Xiaolu and Ma Yili, who had starred in "Struggle"; Hu Jun and Xia Yu gathered several of Wang Jinghua's loyalists.

Yuan Li, Hao Lei, Mei Ting, and others each had their own cliques and power bases; rumors said Yuan and Mei had clashed, seemingly over the post of top female star after Chen Hao.

Currently, the top contenders for Chengtian's number-one female star were Yuan and Mei; both were considered core artists, Mei had more seniority, while Yuan was Chengtian's major new acquisition—their relationship resembled that of Li Bingbing and Zhou Young Master at Huayi.

When fighting for the top spot, conflicts are inevitable.

It seemed Yuan Li had suffered a setback and had been holding in her anger; seizing this opportunity, she unleashed it, exposing many explosive details about Mei; Mei Ting's temper was actually fairly mild, but she was pushed to fury by Yuan, and the fight spiraled out of control—even Boss Wu couldn't stop it.

Good heavens, Seeing Yan Li was truly impressed—Yuan Li was even more of an undercover agent than an undercover agent.

Although Seeing Yan Li had many "moles," aside from the impulsive Li Xiaolu who dared to sneak around and stir things up, people like Tong Dawei and Ma Yili could at most pass along a message.

But Yuan Li? She openly fought, tore the company apart from within—Chengtian's current chaos owed her an undeniable debt.

This served as a warning to Seeing Yan Li: in the future, he must screen artists more carefully for personality.

Bringing in such erratic and unhinged individuals was like planting landmines in his own backyard.

Seeing Yan Li wouldn't just watch Chengtian's hidden currents—he'd fan the flames and ignite the fire where needed.

Chengtian's internal chaos might require effort, but externally, internet and media analysis posts about Chengtian kept emerging endlessly.

Boss Wu was right about one thing: Seeing Yan Li was indeed skilled in public opinion warfare, and moreover, he now held a major weapon—Weibo.

A lie told a thousand times becomes truth; so does a rumor.

Many people surf the internet without thinking, lacking clear subjective judgment of online information; they believe whatever is said and are easily swayed.

Even ten years later, many still behaved this way, let alone in 2008.

Rumors like Zhou Jie stealing instant noodles in disaster zones or Liu Tianxian being transgender had entire crowds believing them.

Not to mention the current posts about Chengtian, which Seeing Yan Li personally guided: good news was glossed over, bad news was amplified, mixed with truth and falsehood, yet all appeared reasonable and well-supported on the surface.

This tactic would make even the five permanent UN members collapse immediately, let alone a single company.

So the effect was obvious: many now knew Wang Jinghua had stolen assets, "Red Cliff" had lost money, and the acquisition of Shaw Brothers was a "dead move" akin to drinking poison to quench thirst, and so on.

In short, Chengtian had suffered a crushing defeat and was bound to collapse.

Under Seeing Yan Li's public opinion assault, Chengtian's chaos extended beyond its artists—it also unsettled other departments within the company.

At this moment, Huayi seized the opportunity to strike.

Not only did it repeatedly block two of Chengtian's projects, but it also subtly sabotaged Lu Chuan's new film "Jin Ling, Jin Ling."

Chengtian had invested slightly in this film and used some of its artists, such as Hao Lei and Jiang Yanyan.

Lu had previously been with Huayi, then left; now he was entangled with the enemy, and the Wang brothers couldn't stand it, so they took the chance to retaliate.

Lu Chuan was truly unlucky.

"Jin Ling, Jin Ling" had faced constant turmoil since its inception; funding had collapsed multiple times, forcing him to beg everywhere, eventually securing support from Star Media by helping Chengtian promote its projects and assigning roles.

Even so, it was bumpy; before the crew wrapped in June, they were surrounded for eight days due to unpaid wages or other reasons, and had to be rescued by police.

Just as post-production began, Huayi intervened and directly halted the project.

This halt varied in form, but the most direct was denying the film its release permit—the official certification required for public screening.

"Jin Ling, Jin Ling" had significant investment, backed by Star Media and others; Huayi had the power to cause trouble but wasn't powerful enough to outright ban the film—otherwise, no other company could survive.

Thus, for other Chengtian projects, Huayi merely delayed them or forced them to cut losses and withdraw, draining Chengtian's manpower and resources and disrupting its cash flow.

But Lu Chuan's project bore even greater blame on his own part, partly due to Seeing Yan Li's influence.

This brings us to last year's New Year film "Assembly" and the earlier "Lust, Caution"—relevant authorities had suffered enough losses and tightened censorship on related themes to the point of "better to err on the side of rejection."

After all, if they made a mistake, they didn't lose money; once the storm passed, negotiations could still happen.

But if something went wrong upon release, and they shifted stance so quickly, with the sixtieth anniversary coming next year, the consequences would be enormous.

So even without Huayi's interference, Lu Chuan likely wouldn't have passed review; with Huayi's meddling, it became all the more inevitable.

Huayi's actions were not loudly publicized, since such tactics were not fit for public display.

But Chengtian's suffering was obvious, and many had already sensed that Yi'an and Huayi were joining forces to suppress Chengtian.

With the two industry giants joining forces, the rumors of Chengtian's decline became reality.

The most direct feedback was that some projects now refused to cooperate with Chengtian, fearing collateral damage.

Some of Chengtian's artists, unable to hold on any longer, chose to leave.

The first to act were Zhu Yuchen and Zuo Xiaoqing, who successively announced their joining of Wang Jinghua's "Shi Ba Culture."

Both were Wang's direct protégés, personally cultivated by her, yet their decision to leave Chengtian stemmed not merely from their deep bond with Wang.

Among Chengtian's male actors, there was Big Brother Tong Dawei, and rising stars Wen Zhang, Zhou Jie, Xia Yu, Chen Xiaodong—all ranked above Zhu Yuchen.

Zuo Xiaoqing was the same; she belonged to the post-1975 generation, and competitors like Yuan Li, Mei Ting, Ma Yili, Wang Yan, Xiao Songjia, and Hao Lei were roughly her age—competition was fierce.

They had no chance of breaking through at Chengtian anytime soon; better to follow Wang Jinghua, the veteran agent, who had treated them well.

Wang Jinghua did not disappoint them, immediately arranging relevant resources.

She herself had strong connections and resources, plus Seeing Yan Li's promised compensation—enough to attract someone like Tong Dawei, a top-tier star, perhaps not, but easily enough to lure Zhu and Zuo.

Zhu and Zuo's departure directly shook Chengtian's internal morale.

More importantly, besides Wang Jinghua, several other companies were also reaching out to poach talent.

Huayi was the most aggressive, contacting multiple artists, eager to strip Chengtian bare to avenge past humiliations.

Another aggressive player was Bona; Boss Yu realized the star strategy was useful for IPOs and began establishing Bona's artist management division, recruiting talent.

Bona already had Huang Yi, Gao Hu, Yuan Quan, Yu Xiaowei, and now aimed to poach hot, battle-ready stars like Hu Jun, Xia Yu, and Yuan Li.

To be honest, Huayi and Yi'an's attack on Chengtian delighted Bona the most.

Bona had strong name recognition but weak actual strength, with overly narrow operations; Chengtian's rise threatened only Yi'an and Huayi, but dealt a massive blow to Bona, which had always ranked below them.

When the top two fight, they don't necessarily want to kill the third—but the one who most wants the third dead is definitely the fourth.

Without any prompting from Huayi or Yi'an, Boss Yu charged forward eagerly, desperate to dismantle Chengtian entirely.

Yi'an also sent emissaries to make contact; Seeing Yan Li had little interest in Chengtian's artists—his key goal was to disrupt and keep Chengtian unsettled.

With the big companies leading the charge, smaller firms followed, drawn by the scent of opportunity.

Chengtian was still a giant; their appeal was far weaker, but they still swung the stick three times even if there was no fruit—maybe they'd get lucky.

Boss Wu was overwhelmed by Chengtian's chaos.

Both Yi'an and Huayi struck hard; in practical effect, Yi'an's blows were clearly more devastating.

They threw Chengtian's artist management business into utter chaos—don't underestimate artist management; its impact on Chengtian was enormous.

Because Chengtian planned to go public via a backdoor listing next year, it needed stars to execute its star strategy and hype its stock price.

Now, Chengtian's artists were disloyal, many had already fled, and others were preparing to leave—what use was the star strategy? The market wasn't stupid; Chengtian's chaos would directly reflect on its IPO plans and stock value.

Boss Wu wanted to cease hostilities and seek peace, but neither Huayi nor Yi'an responded.

At this point, letting them off would be a waste of effort.

This wasn't like past conflicts, where neither side wanted to tear the facade, and a simple apology sufficed.

This was real, hard-nosed business competition—the goal was to cripple Chengtian, ideally kill it.

Especially Seeing Yan Li—he understood perfectly: Chengtian had never held back in scheming against Yi'an; now it feared and wanted to surrender and cease fighting—why should good fortune come so easily?

Since no overt suppression occurred, only subtle weakening and sabotage were used, and the authorities did not intervene.

Business competition was inevitable; as long as it didn't become excessively outrageous, cause severe negative impact, or involve national or public interests, relevant agencies wouldn't easily step in.

To the authorities, Chengtian was merely a minor sideshow; Seeing Yan Li's real excitement lay in the "Weibo War" with Sina's Sina Weike.

…

In August, the Olympics began, and Sina Weike launched.

With features nearly identical to Weibo, plus lingering grudges from the Bloggate scandal, the two sides quickly clashed, launching the Weibo War.