Chapter 189: Reflections on Watching

In September, the Zhang Zhang Jizhong version of *The Return of the Condor Heroes* began its second round of broadcasts on several regional satellite channels.

It was not long before sharp-eyed viewers spotted a familiar name in the cast list.

Seeing Lu Kuan?

Is this Seeing Lu Kuan that Seeing Lu Kuan?

Fans of Liu Liu Yifei, who loved to stir up trouble, took photos of him playing Yin Yin Zhiping and photoshopped them in every way imaginable, uploading them to Tianya, Mop, and the most heavily trafficked blog sites.

They even compared him to the Yin Yin Zhiping from Jin Yong's novel—before the name was changed—calling them both scum who desecrated the goddess.

They branded him with the "infamous" title of "Long Qishi Director."

What the fans didn't know, however, was that the goddess Lan Xiaolong Maiden in the novel and their own goddess, Little Liu, would later, quite dramatically, become the same person...

From then on, besides "Tumble Dryer," Boss Lu happily acquired a second nickname: Long Qishi Director.

The gossiping masses were keen on stirring up trouble, but the Bearded One, who had just greenlit *The Return of the Condor Heroes*, was currently worried sick!

Ever since Seeing Lu Kuan burst onto the scene, he had actually been an old acquaintance of Boss Lu's from their humble beginnings, and they had always supported and cooperated with each other.

He never expected that picking the wrong side once would leave him filled with regret.

Previously, Liu Liu Zeyu, in order to ensure he could securely swallow Cheng Jing's equity, had worked on both him and Liu Liu Xiaoli.

He gave Liu Liu Xiaoli two highly tempting film contracts.

He gave him the opportunity to sign with Yanda Huayi and even acquire shares; later, when Yanda Huayi went public, he received 2.16% of the shares because his studio was acquired, and his net worth skyrocketed.

But times were different now: the bizarre reversal of the Red Star Dock incident, Wenjie obtaining the operating rights for Travel Satellite TV, and Seeing Lu Kuan rolling out top-tier commercial film projects.

One after another, these things made the Bearded One beat his chest and stamp his feet in the middle of the night.

What a good game of chess he had ruined himself!

Boss Lu hadn't explicitly cast him as a mortal enemy, but the fact that he wasn't invited to Wenjie's grand press conference was already telling enough.

In the vanity fair, do some things even need to be spelled out so clearly?

Now, the Bearded One faced the same problem as the director of the *Happy Camp* program team at Hunan TV: how to redefine Liu Liu Yifei's role?

Looking at her own value, she was undoubtedly quasi-first-tier, so the resource allocation and cooperative attitude she should be given were non-negotiable.

But what if one considered the attitude of Seeing Lu Kuan and Wenjie?

Considering the recent war of words between the two sides' fans and the trend of public opinion?

He was considering whether to still use Liu Liu Yifei as the female lead for *The Return of the Condor Heroes* as previously decided, or whether he should subtly reach out to Boss Lu to sound him out and curry favor.

Seeing Lu Kuan was naturally not an investor and had no right to interfere with the casting of the female lead.

But for Zhang Zhang Jizhong, Boss Lu already had the faint trend of becoming a capital tycoon in the domestic entertainment industry.

*The Return of the Condor Heroes* was also the only bargaining chip he had left to offer up to curry favor. (Note 1)

The Bearded One racked his brains for a long time before helplessly calling his trusted deputy director, Liu Liu Guohao.

"Tell Yang Yang Siwei that the previous promotional plan for Liu Liu Yifei as Lan Xiaolong Maiden is suspended."

Liu Liu Guohao was stunned: "Director Zhang? The advertorials for online media and print media are all prepared, this..."

"Alright, say no more, just do as I say!"

The Bearded One hung up the phone directly and dialed Song Xiao Qian, the chairman of the Golden Eagle Festival Organizing Committee.

"Old Song, it's me, Zhang Jizhong!"

"Haha, doing great, doing great. Let me ask you something? For the Golden Eagle TV Festival at the end of the month, you said you were inviting Director Lu to be an award presenter—is that set?"

"Haven't heard back yet? Okay, okay."

"Psh! Of course! My relationship with Director Lu—he started out from *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*, we're tight!"

"Don't worry, don't worry, I'll help you invite him! I'll definitely bring him over for you, hehe."

After some insincere pleasantries, the Bearded One hung up the phone with a gloomy expression.

If you can't even invite him, where am I supposed to invite him from?

Sigh, one wrong step, every step wrong!

Over there, Yang Yang Siwei followed Yao Jia to meet Ouyang Ouyang Changqing, who naturally wouldn't give her any answer to her face, only telling her to stay calm and wait for notification.

When she returned to Beiping, dejected and soul-crushed, and received Liu Liu Guohao's call, she felt like she wanted to die.

September 15, 2003, Gongjian Gongjian Hutong, Liu Liu Yifei's residence.

Yang Yang Siwei lay listlessly on a lounge chair in the courtyard.

"Sister Xixi, this world is too realistic. I feel like I'm not even suited for this line of work anymore."

Liu Liu Yifei was busy tidying things up everywhere and didn't respond to her.

This Sihe Academy was bought at the same time as Boss Lu's courtyard; Xu Kai had already handed it over months ago, but they hadn't come to live here until now.

Recently, Liu Liu Yifei had been going to the Beijing Film Academy for classes, so she simply stayed here.

She stood on a stool with great leisure, stretching her lotus-root-like arms, laboriously reaching to prune the branches of the crabapple tree.

The small sliver of snow-white waist that was exposed was dazzling to Yang Yang Siwei, who was lying listlessly under the tree.

"Sister Xixi, say something at least!"

The young girl was somewhat ignorant and fearless: "Let them be, there will be a time when they regret it!"

Yang Yang Siwei looked at her with a strange expression; the more she looked, the more she resembled her former boss's temperament.

She helplessly calculated how to explain things to Liu Liu Xiaoli, who would be home soon.

How did the situation suddenly deteriorate to this point?

The entertainment industry is just a small society and a large workplace; there are too many people who act according to others' moods.

In the system, if a leader is dissatisfied with someone in the morning, the whole unit knows by the afternoon, and there are plenty of sycophants ready to trip them up.

Seeing Lu Kuan didn't even need to say a word or give a look; there were plenty of people eager to kiss his feet and curry favor.

The *Happy Camp* director and Zhang Zhang Jizhong were the best examples of this.

After bustling about for a while, Liu Liu Yifei stepped on the stool again, huffing and puffing as she pruned another pomegranate tree.

She suddenly kicked Yang Yang Siwei's chair in surprise: "I can see the second-floor garden of Seeing Lu Kuan's house from here, Yang Siwei, shall we go over and mooch a meal?"

The agent was speechless. What time is it, and you're still thinking about mooching a meal?

"Aren't you angry at him for making you a stunt double?"

"That's why I want to go and eat him into poverty!"

Yang Yang Siwei gritted her teeth: "Sister Xixi, why don't we tell Boss Lu about this?"

Liu Liu Yifei turned her head, her willow-leaf eyebrows arched: "You are not allowed to tell him!"

Having been reduced to being a stunt double for someone, if she were to go and cave in now, wouldn't she be teased to death by him?

She certainly had some backbone.

But just because she didn't tell him didn't mean Seeing Lu Kuan didn't know.

The *Chinese Paladin* cast went on *Happy Camp* as a group, and Hu Ge had long since become the big boss's inside man.

The moment the program planning revision notice reached the crew, he had already disclosed the situation to Seeing Lu Kuan in minute detail.

Under the Media Operations Department, a first-tier agency of Wenjie Media, there was a small department directly under the President's Office called the Online Public Opinion Monitoring Center.

In this era, this was a business line that no other film and television company or studio possessed.

In an era without big data, the Online Public Opinion Monitoring Center relied entirely on the public opinion information provided by the blog site itself and other sites they crawled, which was then summarized.

This was used to provide decision-making support for leaders at the level of business unit general manager and above.

Especially regarding media promotion for artists and company works.

Seeing Lu Kuan got the news from Hu Ge and made a direct call to Xu Bo at the monitoring center.

Xu Bo graduated from the Communication University of China in 1990 and went to Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Computer Science for further studies.

After graduation, he joined Disney's media public relations office, responsible for work related to media public opinion.

He was a talent Seeing Lu Kuan had entrusted Emir to dig back to the country, and he single-handedly took charge of building Wenjie's online public opinion office.

"How is the online public opinion regarding Liu Liu Yifei recently?"

"Everything else is fine; there hasn't been any organized smear campaigns or rumor-mongering, it's just that Zhuo Wei's post has a relatively large influence, saying that she and the company..."

Boss Lu interrupted him: "Mm, I see."

"Also, who does Liu Liu Yifei interact with the most and have the best relationship with online?"

"Anita Mui, Su Chang, and Jay Chou are a bit more frequent, as well as the actors from *Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils* and *Chinese Paladin*."

"Got it, that's all for now."

As if suddenly remembering something, he made another call to Lu Yao.

"I heard there are new developments in the casting for *The Return of the Condor Heroes* in the industry recently?"

"Yes, Boss. Originally, wasn't it set for Liu Liu Yifei? But now Zhang Zhang Jizhong might be..."

He hesitated on how to say it.

It sounded like his own boss had turned into a landlord bully, using the influence of capital to bully a lonely, helpless sixteen-year-old girl.

Seeing Lu Kuan laughed in spite of himself; this Bearded One really was a genius at picking sides!

Was he trying to curry favor with him by suppressing Liu Liu Yifei?

Logically, he could either handle this or not; at most, it would be to debunk the bad press about him bullying a little girl.

But the studio income of Liu Liu Yifei for these two years, excluding her own operating funds, had to go to Wenjie!

What are they all trying to do?

Chop down my money tree?

Boss Lu already had a bit of that Cheng Jing flavor.

"Your department should study it and go sign Su Chang to Wenjie."

"Huh?"

"Huh" what? One look and I can tell you've never dated in high school or college. Don't you know that if you want to trick a girl, you have to start with her best friend?

Seeing Lu Kuan was bewildered by his boss's wild imagination.

A Fei knocked and entered: "Boss Lu, Miss Liu and the others are here."

Boss Lu walked into the courtyard like a wealthy landlord: "Oh, rare guests!"

Although she had resigned, Yang Yang Siwei still didn't dare to overstep in front of him, so she obediently greeted him.

Liu Liu Yifei didn't eat his rice or spend his money, and though she had just said she was coming over for a free meal, she felt annoyed again when she saw his lazy appearance.

Seeing Lu Kuan found her haughty expression amusing: "Little Liu, why are you looking at people through your nostrils?"

"Hmph!"

Boss Lu felt he still needed to give her some mental guidance, so he gently patted her arm.

"Come with me."

"What for?"

"You'll know when you get there."

Seeing Lu Kuan led her toward the small courtyard next door, where the gym and media room were located.

Liu Liu Yifei had visited before, but back then everything was still in the early stages and the equipment hadn't been fully installed.

"Wow, an Integra? Did you bring this back from the United States?"

Seeing Lu Kuan teased: "Not angry anymore? Willing to talk to people now?"

Liu Liu Yifei didn't answer, just curiously fiddling with the home theater system, which wasn't very common in the country at that time.

She had seen it in New York, so she recognized the brand at a glance.

Seeing Lu Kuan took a disc out of the storage niche, adjusted the lights and sound, and told Liu Liu Yifei to sit down first.

"*Sissi*?"

"Mm, watch it first. This is the first one."

The two stopped talking and began to enjoy this 1955 Austrian classic.

This was a typical royal period piece; the film used linear storytelling and was faithful to historical facts. Even after nearly 50 years, it still held high aesthetic value.

Boss Lu collected this classic because he felt the film's artistic structure was extremely ingenious.

It blended and contrasted the Emperor's romantic affairs with the historical background of Austria in turmoil, possessing a unique, expansive sense of the era and the joys and sorrows of the common people.

He had the sudden whim to have Liu Liu Yifei watch it today just to cheer her up.

After the movie ended, Liu Liu Yifei was still savoring the beautiful eyes and charming smiles of this peerless Austrian Empress.

"How do you think the lead actress, Romy Schneider, compares to you?"

"Are you insulting me?"

Liu Liu Yifei's pretty face turned frosty: "My nickname is Sissi. I know this movie, and I know Romy Schneider."

"You know the movie and the actress, but you don't know the story behind it."

In this day and age, there were no information websites like Baidu Baike, so many minute details were impossible to verify.

"Romy Schneider was an artist whose name will remain in film history. Her life was brilliant yet short, and she dedicated almost all of it to the role of Sissi."

"Little Liu, your life is actually somewhat similar to hers."

Liu Liu Yifei looked at him curiously.

"Romy Schneider's parents were both actors. Before she was ten, her parents divorced, and she lived alone in a boarding school."

"At fifteen, she was taken by her mother to appear in the film *White Lilacs*, stepping onto the big screen for the first time."

Touching upon her own painful memories, the young girl's face tightened, yet she couldn't help but fall into the life of the other Sissi he spoke of.

"When she debuted, she was known for her innocence and sweetness, which is why she got the chance to play Sissi. When she became the top star of the time because of this film, she was only sixteen."

Liu Liu Yifei was a bit surprised; wasn't this just herself in another world?

Boss Lu guided her step by step: "You are also only sixteen now, and you already have one foot in the core of the entertainment industry."

"Frankly speaking, the level of development in the entertainment industry of this era is not on the same dimension as the 50s. You could easily live comfortably in your own comfort zone."

"Roles like Zhao Linger, Wang Wang Yuyan, or even the mute girl in *Kung Fu Hustle*—if you want to play them, you can grab a handful of them, and you'll gain both wealth and fame."

"But does that have any meaning for you?"

Liu Liu Yifei pursed her lips and said nothing.

Having been spoken to so bluntly, she naturally understood the young director's subtext.

At the residence of Anita Mui in Xiangjiang, she had sworn to Seeing Lu Kuan that she wanted to be an excellent actor.

"So what happened later?"

"After Romy Schneider became a huge hit in Europe, she met the great Milanese director Luchino Visconti and grew rapidly under his strict acting training."

Liu Liu Yifei's heart stirred at this, and her phoenix eyes sparkled as she looked at Seeing Lu Kuan, who was still playing the role of a teacher.

Hmph, you dog, aren't you just my Visconti...

"Visconti" didn't realize it and continued to output his views.

"After being tempered by different roles and long-term strict acting training, she won the César Award, the highest honor in French cinema, three times by the age of thirty with films like *The Old Gun* and *That Most Important Thing: Love*."

"France is the birthplace of cinema and was the center of world film art at the time. You can understand this award as one of the highest honors in the international film scene today."

Liu Liu Yifei listened, mesmerized; she had already projected herself into the life of the other Sissi in a different time and space.

She remembered attending the Venice Film Festival with the *Drummer* crew last year, watching with envy as the Best Actress, Julianne Moore, was crowned.

How wonderful it would be if she could stand in that place one day!

Liu Liu Yifei pouted: "I get it. I wasn't throwing a tantrum, I was just very frustrated."

"I've worked so hard for so long, I'm not willing to just be at the level of a stand-in for others."

"Eh? That's not right, is it?"

The young girl's aggrieved expression suddenly changed.

"Shouldn't you be telling me to take roles that pay more? I've been working for you for the past two years, haven't I?"

She suddenly thought of a possibility, feeling sweet inside, her eyes flickering as she stared at Seeing Lu Kuan.

Boss Lu didn't share the sentiment that "a girl's blush is better than any love confession" and ruthlessly struck her down.

"With your current market value, what would those peanuts be enough for?"

Liu Liu Yifei was furious!

"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river! Just you wait, there will come a day when you can't afford to hire me to act in your movies!"

Saying this, she stormed out, then remembered the main purpose of her visit today.

"We're here for a free meal! Where is your state banquet chef? Call them over to prepare dinner immediately."

"And this old locust tree in your courtyard, can it be transplanted? Can you move it to my courtyard?"

"I think you're dreaming."

The group sat down on the stone benches in the courtyard.

"Yang Yang Siwei, how is the negotiation for the endorsement deal for Little Liu going?"

Thinking that the money earned would go into Boss Lu's pocket, Yang Yang Siwei reported it with helpless resentment.

"Lenovo is basically locked in. Next month there will be a signing ceremony called 'Lenovo 1+1, New Digital Vitality'."

"It's for a brand image ambassador, not a single product endorsement. I negotiated 7 million for two years, with activity fees calculated separately."

Around 2000, Lenovo began to enter the consumer electronics field from being a pure IT manufacturer.

The current target audience for their main products is mainly between 15 and 25 years old, including digital cameras, MP3s, and mobile storage.

Boss Lu looked at her with new respect: "Not bad? Who endorsed Lenovo before?"

"F4. Their contract has expired. Because the ratings for *Meteor Garden 2* were so poor, their popularity in the mainland is worse than it was two years ago."

"Plus, Sissi's age and image are a better fit for Lenovo's current product audience."

"The promotional photos have already been taken; we're just waiting for the commercial."

Liu Liu Yifei said haughtily: "Little Lu, do you want an MP3? As the spokesperson, I can give you the latest MX8610 next month!"

Seeing Lu Kuan deliberately annoyed her: "No thanks."

"I'm a Long Qishi and a washing machine now; if I want to hear songs, I can find a female star to sing for me anytime!"

Liu Liu Yifei suddenly thought of how she had used her 【Road Roller】 account to like posts calling him a Long Qishi, and she stuck out her tongue guiltily.

"There's also Sanlu milk powder, the endorsement fee is 3 million a year..."

Seeing Lu Kuan interrupted her: "Don't take the Sanlu deal."

"Why?"

Boss Lu said righteously: "It clashes with Little Liu's horoscope."

"I'm sure you've heard of my hidden profession; listen to me and you won't go wrong."

Liu Liu Yifei giggled: "Yang Siwei, then don't take it. Anyway, the endorsement fees earned all go to him."

"Besides, I definitely don't get along with the 'Lu' horoscope. One 'Lu' is already hard enough to deal with; I can't handle three 'Lu's!"

"One Lu's" face turned dark.

He suddenly looked at Liu Liu Yifei: "By the way, you're familiar with Su Chang, right?"

The young girl's mind jumped wildly, and she instantly became vigilant: "She's the same age as me; doing that is against the law!"

Boss Lu was a bit frantic: "What on earth?"

"Wenjie is short on female artists; I'm considering signing her."

"Ask her now if she has time. You and she are coming with me tonight to attend the premiere of *The Thief*."

Yang Yang Siwei's eyes lit up; she did not believe that Seeing Lu Kuan, who was always so perceptive and attached such great importance to online public opinion, was unaware of Liu Liu Yifei's current situation.

Doing this was a disguised way of sending a signal to the domestic entertainment industry!

Damn it, why did the post scheduled for tomorrow get published directly? I'm running out of drafts again.

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(End of chapter)