Chapter 157

Old Jiang, are you acting in a movie with me here?

You're dragging out your words.

So, because I didn't give you a free fortune-telling session just now and didn't lay out a path for you to help your ex-girlfriend out of a jam, you weren't planning on telling me?

Boss Lu felt very aggrieved.

"Someone doesn't want to see you win an award in Cannes, so they asked me to target you in the film festival voting."

Before Boss Lu could get to the bottom of it, Jiang Wen hurriedly waved his hands.

"Don't you dare ask me who it is; I definitely can't say. I never intended to do what they asked anyway."

Boss Lu pondered intently, his expression dark and unreadable.

He already had an answer in his heart.

"Director Jiang, it's fine if you don't tell me. I'll just go back tonight and post on my blog, writing it like this!"

"'To that certain someone: you didn't let Director Jiang vote for me, I've got my eye on you!'"

Jiang Wen nearly spat out a mouthful of water.

"You kid are truly vicious!"

Boss Lu chuckled: "Director Jiang, I know even if you don't say it. This matter doesn't even need calculating; it's very simple."

Having just listened to his rambling, Jiang Wen couldn't deny that this was a meticulous and extremely clever young man.

But he truly didn't believe that he could analyze the cause and effect just from that one sentence.

"Don't believe me? Want to make a bet?"

"Heh, sure. You set the rules."

Boss Lu was confident: "If I'm right, you act in a movie for me for free. If I'm wrong, I'll invest 20 million in your next film."

"Deal!"

Old Jiang was very spirited; as someone who was always going over budget, few investors dared to get involved with him.

Yanda Huayi had never touched a Jiang Wen film after *Devils on the Doorstep*; they even gave up on the widely recognized good project *Let the Bullets Fly*—they had trauma.

In later generations, even his close friend Boss Dong invested in *Dying to Survive* during the same period as his film, abandoning his *Hidden Man*.

Except for the big sucker Li Shoucheng, one wonders where that persistence came from.

It's likely that by then, the White Dragon King and Uncle Chen were both gone, and he had no divine calculator to assist him.

Boss Lu began to analyze it for him.

"Targeting me? I have very few personal grudges. I see it as targeting *Shoplifters* instead."

"Then we look among the films that clash with my domestic release window. Those with similar strength and heat to mine are only *Heavenly Warriors* and *Cell Phone*."

"*Cell Phone* is still filming and has nothing to do with you, so that means Yanda Huayi is using *Heavenly Warriors* to make an issue of you, right?"

Jiang Wen smiled noncommittally.

"Admirable. I hope you can find me a good script."

Boss Lu picked up his lemonade and toasted him; the bet was fulfilled.

Jiang Wen hadn't wanted to reveal this, but Boss Lu's free public relations training was quite decent.

He disdained helping capitalists do such immoral things, but he hadn't planned on exposing their ugly faces either.

After all, he hadn't intended to do it anyway.

He was a very stubborn person; he could open his heart to those he liked and recognized, but in his eyes, mediocre people were nothing, not even worth a second glance.

Jiang Wen and Yanda Huayi were both from the Beijing circle, but the former was vaguely independent, transcending the circle.

He was a fascinating person.

Boss Lu returned to the room; Fan Bingbing was removing her makeup.

"Did you drink with Jiang Wen?"

Boss Lu sat on the sofa shirtless: "Yeah, and I heard some bad news."

Fan Bingbing stopped what she was doing.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know if it was a big dog or a small dog that passed the word to Jiang Wen, telling him to target *Shoplifters* in the voting."

"There's such a thing?"

Fan Bingbing smacked her lips: "But that sounds like their style; it's so low."

Boss Lu pulled her into his arms, trapping her.

"Why aren't you worried?"

The young lady giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck: "Aren't you here? Is there anything you can't solve?"

As she spoke, she suddenly felt shy and slapped Boss Lu's chest: "Stop it! We're talking."

"What are you planning to do?"

Boss Lu touched her all over: "Steam, fry, boil, or roast—we'll settle old and new scores together and give them a hellish set meal."

Instigating Liu Zeyu to snatch *Chinese Paladin*, targeting *Whiplash* in Venice, along with this secret sabotage.

Did these people think he didn't know they were doing bad things behind his back?

The lustful woman in his arms was enjoying it immensely, only feeling an inescapable itch surging through her body...

When she originally offered herself, it was just a desperate gamble.

She hadn't expected to truly find a way out, watching as he led her step-by-step to Cannes, to the red carpet.

A man's power and money were a woman's aphrodisiac; the big star was burning with heat, reaching out to take the vital point.

She lay on Boss Lu's shoulder, quietly biting his ear.

"It's safe today, you can..."

Boss Lu laughed: "Let's just whet our appetite today; wear the red carpet gown tomorrow night."

"You're annoying!"

At dawn, Fan Bingbing withdrew from the battlefield, leaving Boss Lu tossing and turning alone.

It wasn't that he had anything on his mind; it was purely jet lag keeping him awake.

Recalling the conversation with Jiang Wen that night, the reason Yanda Huayi was targeting him was also very simple.

In this day and age, the domestic film market was simply too small, and Boss Lu's *Shoplifters* had declined their investment.

And in the second half of this year, besides imported films, the only one that could compete with Yanda Huayi's *Heavenly Warriors* and *Cell Phone* was *Shoplifters*.

Boss Lu's creativity in film marketing and distribution was known to all; if he were allowed to successfully gain something in Cannes, it would inevitably be another successful replication.

With the blessing of two major titles, Boss Lu's personal IP would undoubtedly surpass the current Feng Kuzi, who only knew how to shoot New Year films, and his film's box office would rise accordingly.

Everyone was eating from the same pot, and the domestic film market was only so big; if they didn't target him, they would have a hard time surviving themselves.

Coupled with the recent development of the Inquiry Realm entering the fast lane—recruiting talent on a large scale, acquiring novel copyrights, and finding artists to sign—it also put a certain amount of pressure on Yanda Huayi.

Boss Lu checked his watch; it was exactly 9:00 AM in Beiping, so he might as well arrange to give them some trouble.

For someone with a cheat, especially one holding public opinion resources, targeting Yanda Huayi was very simple.

But just creating some dirt on them verbally, with both sides engaging in a spitting match, would be too painless.

He made the first call to Zhuang Xu.

There weren't many people he could trust to do dirty work.

Boss Lu arranged for Zhuang Xu to spread the connection between the *Cell Phone* script and Cui Yongyuan on blogs and other online media.

This case became famous in later generations.

From *Cell Phone 1* to *Cell Phone 2*, Feng Kuzi and screenwriter Liu Zhenyun very unethically used this host as a prototype to write a story about a mistress.

To a certain extent, Fan Bingbing was also implicated in this matter, exposed by Cui for the yin-yang contract incident, which triggered the avalanche of the entire domestic entertainment industry.

*Cell Phone* was currently filming intensely in a hotel in Qingdao; the later host Cui also openly bombarded Feng Xiaogang only after the film was released.

Feng Kuzi was very cunning; before filming started, he even looked for host Cui, inviting him to play Yan Shouyi, but was politely declined.

How could Cui Yongyuan have imagined he could do such a thing? He hadn't read the script and didn't know it was a story almost traced directly from him.

Boss Lu, on one hand, arranged for online trolls to promote it, letting this wind blow so that host Cui would be ashamed and angry before the release.

On the other hand, he also sent a set of materials to host Cui.

Detailing how Feng and Liu conspired to use him as a prototype for amusement, and what kind of impact it would have on him after the film's release, describing it with added embellishments.

Host Cui was a public figure of some standing in this day and age, and his words still carried some weight.

Even if it didn't, with the enthusiastic citizen Boss Lu creating momentum for him on the blog, he had to bite a piece of meat off these ingrates, right?

This move, at best, would make Feng Kuzi have to change the script and reshoot. According to the estimated progress, the film should wrap in June, so he would launch it next month, making Yanda Huayi's crew waste more film and costs.

At worst, it would directly cause the entire film project to collapse because the subject matter was found to be non-compliant by the Film Bureau.

Of course, this was relatively difficult; currently, the relationship between the flat-top and them was still relatively close. After all, Kuzi was promoted by Han Zong, and *Cell Phone* also had investment from China Film.

He made the second call to Zhong Lifang.

Instigating Cui Yongyuan to cause them trouble was just a small test; to truly hurt Yanda Huayi, he had to snipe them from the industrial logic.

Unfortunately, Yanda Huayi's development path clashed with the Inquiry Realm—regarding the distribution business sector.

As mentioned earlier, when Boss Lu was looking for a distributor for *Whiplash* in 2002, Yanda Huayi didn't have distribution capabilities.

So when did this entertainment giant fill this shortcoming?

It was in this year's *Heavenly Warriors* project; Yanda Huayi reached an agreement with the partner Western Film Studio and acquired the latter's distribution company during the Western Film Studio's share reform.

But current national policy didn't allow private enterprises to hold a controlling stake in state-owned factory distribution. In the end, Yanda Huayi took 44% of the shares of the Western Film Studio distribution company.

In the full industrial chain Boss Lu envisioned around film, cinemas and theater chains started from the acquisition of Golden Harvest; he might as well snatch Yanda Huayi's target for distribution.

Currently, the Inquiry Realm's cash flow was very abundant, coupled with the 2.4 million copyright income from *Blind Shaft* in Berlin, sniping Yanda Huayi, which didn't have internet capital investment yet, wasn't a problem.

The third call didn't need to be made yet; it needed to wait for an opportunity.

In October 2003, the white man Luo Si, a financier for the *Heavenly Warriors* crew, died in a car accident.

In the same car was the producer of Yanda Huayi and Lu Taro's new film *Kekexili*, who also encountered a car accident.

Regarding the role Yanda Huayi played in this, gossip flew everywhere.

Even if Boss Lu didn't lead the rhythm, they would have a hard time when the time came.

Coupled with the fact that *Heavenly Warriors* was already collapsing and losing money.

With three combination punches, even if it didn't beat the big and small dogs to a pulp, it would definitely slow down their path to listing for a year or two.

They say the world isn't just about fighting and killing; Yanda Huayi was, after all, a relatively strong force in the Beijing circle, with complex relationships.

If he could stab them in the back or set a trap secretly, he would keep harmony on the surface; otherwise, if he beat the small dog, a bunch of old dogs would come out to shout and argue with him.

It would be annoying.

At worst, he still had the beautiful agent Fan Bingbing, who might play a fatal role at some point, cooperating with him to completely dismantle this entertainment giant.

(End of chapter)