Chapter 200: The United Front of the Anti-Didi Alliance

The atmosphere in the VIP ward of Jishuitan Hospital was deathly oppressive.

Aside from Zhang Zhang Ziyi, who lay on the bed with a pale and haggard face, only Zhang Zhang Yimou, Lu Kuan, and her brother Zhang Zinan were present.

The attending orthopedic expert, Zhu Yun, cast a surprised glance at Lu Kuan, who had just walked in with a livid expression.

He knew this man was a famous young director from the mainland, but why was his attitude toward the patient like this?

Not only did he not bring a flower basket or a fruit basket, but he didn't even react when the patient greeted him.

Zhu Yun reported the final examination results to Zhang Zhang Yimou: "Director Zhang, the patient has been diagnosed with a hip fracture. Because she was brought in quite promptly the day before yesterday, the current situation is optimistic."

Zhang Zhang Yimou asked with concern: "It must require surgery, right?"

"Of course. There is basically no condition for conservative treatment; surgery is the only path. We even have to consider whether to use a steel plate fixation plan or direct artificial joint replacement."

Zhang Zhang Ziyi, on the bed, could no longer hold back and burst into tears with a wail.

She wasn't scared by the fracture; she was scared by Lu Kuan's expression...

That's right, she had concealed her true schedule when joining the *Foreign Lands* crew.

*House of Flying Daggers* was set to start filming in October, with the crew heading to Ukraine for location shooting first; the actual start of filming was at the end of October.

Yet, Zhang Zhang Ziyi had already passed the casting for *Foreign Lands* in September.

On one side was Zhang Zhang Yimou, who had discovered her, and on the other was a red-hot young director and a Hollywood blockbuster.

Helpless, Zhang Zhang Ziyi could only think of maneuvering and playing the time difference.

She planned to film with the *Foreign Lands* crew for a month and a half first, then coordinate after *House of Flying Daggers* officially began filming.

However, after filming a few scenes for *Foreign Lands* and seeing so many authoritative Hollywood film media outlets coming to interview and visit the set every day, her mindset changed again.

Looking at this momentum, *Foreign Lands* obviously had a higher priority!

Just the number of reporters coming daily—both invited by the crew for hype and marketing, and those who came spontaneously—was huge. Being able to appear in the same frame as Leonardo for interviews every day, where else could she find such a good thing?

Perhaps she knew Zhang Zhang Yimou would never agree to her request, or perhaps she was ashamed to make such an unreasonable demand to this great director, so she went directly to Zhang Zhang Weiping and offered to lower her own salary.

In *House of Flying Daggers*, Liu Liu Dehua had the highest salary at 7 million USD, Zhang Zhang Ziyi had 3 million USD, and Jin Jin Chengwu and Mei Mei Yanfang received 1 million and 2 million USD respectively because they had the fewest scenes.

She confessed to Zhang Zhang Weiping that she was willing to lower her salary to 1.5 million USD, only asking him to coordinate with Zhang Zhang Yimou and give her another two months.

According to the current progress, she would definitely be able to finish filming *Foreign Lands*.

As mentioned before, Hollywood has long preparation times and short filming times because the cost of feeding people and horses is several times higher than domestically.

Domestic films usually have longer filming cycles; *Hero* took nearly 6 months, and *The Medallion* took nearly a year.

For this cost saving of over 10 million RMB, the director Zhang Zhang Yimou might not be able to wait, but the businessman Zhang Zhang Weiping certainly could!

Isn't it just moving her scenes later? Zhang Yimou, you just need to listen to me!

Zhang Zhang Ziyi's logic was sound; Zhang Zhang Weiping was just a man who saw money and forgot himself. To add entertaining sex scenes into such a serious film subject for the sake of the box office of *The Flowers of War* was simply brain-dead.

Including the later explosion of conflict between him and Zhang Zhang Yimou, it all boiled down to a matter of interests.

Zhang Zhang Ziyi knew how to calculate; the salary loss she gave up could be earned back through advertising fees once *Foreign Lands* was released, and perhaps even much more.

After all, by then, she would have the status of a lead actress in a Hollywood blockbuster, and her standing and treatment in all aspects would be greatly improved.

It was just that Zhang Zhang Weiping took the money but didn't handle the matter well; for several days, he dragged his feet, not daring to tell Zhang Zhang Yimou.

Seeing her arrive on set as usual with a normal expression, Zhang Zhang Yimou assumed she had communicated with Lu Kuan, so he began filming as normal.

Zhang Zhang Ziyi, while urging Zhang Zhang Weiping, was also brushing off the pressure from North America, and could only bite the bullet and cooperate with Zhang Zhang Yimou first.

Just yesterday, during a horse scene in Shidu on the outskirts of Jingcheng, Zhang Zhang Ziyi, due to days of rushing about and the exhaustion of her spirit and physical strength, accidentally fell from the horse's back.

She was sent to Jishuitan Hospital, which currently had the best reputation for orthopedics in Beiping, for examination and treatment, which was when the hip fracture was diagnosed.

Once surgery was performed, it would take at least 3 months, or up to 6 months, regardless of whether *House of Flying Daggers* and Zhang Zhang Yimou could afford to wait.

He, Lu Kuan, truly could not afford to wait, and would not wait!

Zhu Yun gave some more medical instructions to the patient's family member Zhang Zinan and left the room. Only then did Zhang Zhang Ziyi apologize to Lu Kuan with a sobbing voice.

"Director Lu, I am truly sorry. I really didn't know such a situation would occur, wuwuwu..."

Zhang Zinan wiped his sister's tears with a livid face, his heart aching as he watched her snot and tears flow.

Zhang Zhang Yimou, not wanting to get involved in Lu Kuan's affairs, patted his shoulder and walked out.

One had to give people space to speak clearly, after all.

"Zhang Ziyi, I previously thought you were a very professional actor who shouldn't make such low-level mistakes."

Hearing this, Zhang Zhang Ziyi felt even more panicked. She even harbored a fantasy of whether she could sell a sob story to get Lu Kuan to grant her another two months to recover!

Even if she took a symbolic salary, even if she paid her own way to the United States to participate, even if her body hadn't fully recovered by then.

She really didn't want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

"Director Lu, could you please give me a little more..."

Lu Kuan had already completely given up on her; people without credibility were not worth wasting time on.

"Alright, Zhang Ziyi. I called you twice, and you didn't tell me the truth. There's no need to say anything now."

"Rest well and recover. With your qualifications, even if this collaboration doesn't work out, it's not like there won't be opportunities to enter Hollywood in the future."

After saying this, he turned and left. A-Fei, who was at the door, looked at his boss who had pushed the door open and walked out in surprise, then quickly followed.

Zhang Zhang Ziyi cried her heart out in the room, almost throwing her tonsils out!

"Brother, hurry and help me stop Director Lu, help me plead for mercy... wuwu..."

Zhang Zinan sighed, stuffed a tissue into his sister's hand, and chased after him.

"Director Lu! Director Lu!"

Lu Kuan stopped and turned around, his expression indifferent, waiting for him to speak.

It was nothing more than pleas and regrets; it wasn't worth listening to.

This time, Boss Lu had actually guessed wrong!

"Director Lu, judging by what you just said, you intend to have Zhang Ziyi withdraw from the filming, right?"

"Then you must pay triple the salary as compensation, which is 1.5 million USD. Not a single cent less."

Zhang Zhang Ziyi's salary for *Foreign Lands* had been suppressed by Lu Kuan; not to mention 500,000 USD, if he had asked her to perform for free, she probably wouldn't have been able to disagree.

This was an opportunity many dreamed of, a top-tier resource.

Now, not only was Lu Kuan dumbfounded, but even A-Fei looked at him as if he were looking at a hero.

Holy shit, this guy really had guts; it was his first time seeing someone dare to shamelessly extort his boss like this.

Lu Kuan didn't even bother to explain, swept a glance at him as if looking at an idiot, and turned to leave.

Zhang Zinan was anxious and reached out to grab his shoulder.

Unexpectedly, the young man who looked like a driver beside him used a swift and incomparable grappling move, directly slamming his face into the floor.

"You... let me go! I'm going to call people! I'm going to call the police! I am Zhang Zhang Ziyi's brother!"

Boss Lu reprimanded helplessly: "Zhang Zinan, if you still have a brain, go back and look at the contract. I'll just pretend you were farting just now."

"If you spout such nonsense again, I will have my lawyer ask her for triple the salary in compensation. We can go to court and discuss slowly whose fault it was that filming couldn't proceed!"

Mentioning money, Zhang Zinan seemed to have been injected with stimulants. Ignoring the fact that he was still being controlled by his bodyguard, he roared again.

"Lu Kuan! Are you even human? Zhang Ziyi is hurt like this because she was filming your movie, and you're just going to abandon her like this?!"

The crowd of onlookers nearby grew larger. Zhang Zinan, acting like a dog relying on its master's power, quickly seized the moral high ground to establish an image of the weak.

"Come here! Look at this Lu Kuan's face. He's a so-called genius director, but he's a heartless beast! A beast who exploits actors!"

Boss Lu said nothing, smiled with a sinister look in his eyes, and signaled for A-Fei to leave.

Why waste breath on such people? Just let Zhang Zhang Ziyi tie up her dog.

Fools have foolish luck, but idiots do not.

The sky grew dark, and the end of October in Beiping was increasingly cold. Boss Lu slept on a lounge chair, wrapped in a blanket.

Zhang Zhang Ziyi's injury was a black swan event. It not only seriously affected the film's shooting progress and post-production quality, but crucially, it affected his counterattack against Harvey and the others.

In his plan, he was waiting for this group of Jews to jump out and rebel, so he could then take advantage of the situation to harvest them and easily eat the 12 million USD advance payment.

But now the situation was different.

If he waited until Harvey and Disney tore up the pre-sale agreement under the banner of the film's quality not being up to standard, and with Tang Mu Cruise's endorsement, the film's reputation would plummet.

People are the sum of social relations. Harvey, Tang Mu Cruise, and others were all top-tier figures in the Hollywood industry, and Disney was one of the Big Six.

These people held rich public opinion resources, just like the mouthpieces of the television stations and blog networks he had laid out in the mainland.

If he could have previously relied on his own connections to raise money or independently find global distributors.

For example, finding Lionsgate for the North American market, Takeshi Kitano for Japan, and Lu Lu Kebei for Europe.

But now, with the absence of the only Chinese actress currently recognized by Hollywood, would such a strategy still work?

Or, if he really let Harvey and the others jump out to smear *Foreign Lands* and sing its downfall, could the reputation still be saved when *Foreign Lands* was truly released?

This situation was like using a potent medicine to treat a weak patient; it could indeed cure the illness, but the patient might also die because the medicine was too strong.

By the same token, he could indeed counter-kill Harvey and get that 12 million USD in pre-sale funds, but he had to risk the danger of the film being killed by the "potent medicine."

Even if it wasn't fatal, even some negative effects that were hard to remove would have an adverse impact on the film's box office.

It really was a dilemma.

He paced back and forth in the courtyard with some agitation. The radio of an old man walking his dog at the gate began to play *The East is Red*.

The East is Red, the sun rises...

Boss Lu smoked a cigarette, thinking of the opening of the first volume of *Dragon Slayer*.

Who are our enemies? Who are our friends? This question is the primary question of the revolution.

From the preset position that this world is either black or white, Harvey, Tang Mu Cruise, and Disney were all enemies.

But was that really the case?

He taught us to unite all forces that can be united, and this three-party camp was not an unbreakable relationship, after all.

Harvey alone was enough for Boss Lu to make a big deal out of him.

In other words, he was a target who could be turned through interests, and all he needed to do was cast out bait or use intimidation to force a submission.

"A-Fei, book the tickets now, the earliest flight back to Los Angeles."

"What about tomorrow's celebration for *The Thief*?"

"Just say something came up at the production set, and I have to head back first."

Zhang Zhang Tianshuo had a big mouth; he had already tasked Sun Sun Wenwen with handling this matter, ensuring he was silenced.

Otherwise, once Harvey and the others in North America got wind of it, they would likely "raise the banner of revolt" immediately.

Zhang Zhang Ziyi was also furious after learning from Zhang Zhang Yimou that her brother had spouted nonsense and even twisted the truth in front of Lu Kuan, cursing him for ruining her big opportunity.

Sealing off the news for the time being was not a difficult task.

On October 22, 2003, Lu Kuan and Harvey met at the office of the American film circle.

"Lu, your venue is too shabby. Next time we talk, I suggest a strip club!"

Harvey laughed heartily before Lu Kuan could finish, recalling a little episode from the night the contract was signed where he had played a trick on Lu Kuan.

The Fifty Shades Club in Queens, New York, had brought in a dancer from Thailand, and Harvey had her pose and perform a passionate, erotic dance in front of Boss Lu, then suddenly pull something out from her short skirt...

It startled Boss Lu so much that he kicked her far away, nearly scaring him into impotence.

It was just a pity that the current Lu Kuan was not in the mood to chat and laugh with him.

"Harvey, your scheme has been exposed."

"What?"

"I said, your conspiracy with Disney and Tang Mu Cruise has been exposed."

Lu Kuan calmly pulled out a pack of American Kent cigarettes and tossed one over to him: "I'm here to save you."

Harvey rolled his eyes, his face full of mockery: "Are you trying to start that mysterious, spooky act of yours again?"

"It's just a pity that I don't believe it, nor do I understand what you're talking about."

Boss Lu smiled: "Is the fact that I saw through your psychological price point for *Hero* in Venice not enough to make you respect the mysterious religion of the East?"

"Don't try to peddle these pathetic tricks to a rational Jew; that will only make me look down on you, Lu."

"You are a genius, but you shouldn't try to fool me like an idiot."

Harvey was still quite confident because this was his home turf, and because he had used similar methods to successfully entrap others time and time again.

There was no shortage of "smart people" who were as conceited and clever as the Chinese director in front of him.

There was also more favorable evidence: this Chinese director was actually stupid enough to take over that doomed-to-be-shelved *Fahrenheit 9/11* for 9.5 million dollars?

This joke should be enough to sustain his happiness for a year.

Boss Lu's expression was stern: "To be honest, I really don't like your blasphemy against my beloved religion, just as I would dislike it if I were to light a fire and roast a suckling pig on your Sabbath."

"Lu! Stop your rudeness. What kind of madness are you spouting today? Why aren't you rushing to finish your movie?"

Harvey felt slightly flustered inside, but the meticulousness of his plan made him worry little about changes.

In other words, even if you see it, so what?

He had used his connections in the Chinese film circle to investigate Lu Kuan's background.

It was indeed as he had said; his qualifications and background were so mediocre that he had to spend a huge sum of money to buy *Fahrenheit 9/11* for political speculation.

And the film company under his name was a small workshop that didn't even have a movie with a budget exceeding 3 million dollars.

The only thing worth his attention was *Paranormal Activity*, which had risen to fame in the last two months; perhaps it would bring some decent revenue to his company in America.

But so what?

Compared to the massive sum of 25 million dollars, as well as the loss of tax rebates from countries like England and Germany after the pre-sale agreement was torn up, he didn't believe Lu Kuan had enough capital and connections to handle this chain of attacks.

Lu Kuan didn't want to waste time with him; for every extra second of delay, the situation became one point more difficult to control.

"Sign the contract. Once the contract is officially notarized and takes effect, you, Disney's Buena Vista, and Tang Mu Cruise will tear up the pre-sale agreement together and announce the failure of *Exotic Land* in the industry."

"Then, force the completion bond company to compensate all parties involved in the financing, and finally transfer the project to you at a low price. It's nothing more than that, right?"

Harvey's expression shifted from mockery to a ferocious grin; even though his wolfish ambition was laid bare, he still didn't show the slightest panic.

"Smart people usually don't live long, Lu. Your mistake is that you are too smart."

"In Hollywood, facing greedy wolves like Miramax and Tang Mu Cruise, perhaps the best choice is to bend over and take it."

"That's right, everything you said is correct, but do you have a way out now?"

Lu Kuan looked at his fat face with a sense of disgust.

"A-Fei, bring over my laptop."

A-Fei handed over Boss Lu's "lobbying materials," categorizing the documents for him to admire.

"This is the memorandum of understanding I signed with Lu Lu Kebei's EuropaCorp regarding the film's distribution in the European region."

"This is Korea's CJ, this is Japan's Toho, and this is..."

"Furthermore, most importantly, this is the loan agreement I made with Morgan Stanley using the shares of my subsidiary as collateral, though it has not yet taken effect."

Boss Lu watched Harvey's brilliant expression and tossed out a sentence lightly.

"Because I feel this money might not necessarily be needed, and that depends on whether you, Harvey, are smart enough."

Harvey showed no signs of anger; his sinister face simply stared at Lu Kuan like a venomous snake.

"It hasn't even been a week since we signed the contract. You really were well-prepared."

"Lu, I take back what I just said. You are not only a smart person, but the smartest Chinese person I have ever met."

Jews seemed to be born realists; perhaps knowing that flipping out and arguing now would be of no use, he was looking for an opportunity for reconciliation.

"You could have chosen to strike first, but why invite me here in advance instead of Tang Mu Cruise and Disney?"

Zhang Zhang Ziyi's situation couldn't be hidden for long; replacing the lead was a 100% certainty, so Lu Kuan had to lay everything out for Harvey now.

This wasn't showing weakness, but rather putting the most realistic chips of both sides on the table to avoid strategic misjudgment by the other party, which would instead cause him to lose his own tactical advantage.

Besides, he still had many ways to trick and manipulate this Jewish white pig.

"The Chinese lead actress of *Exotic Land*, Zhang Zhang Ziyi, is injured and cannot fulfill the contract, which is a huge blow to the production!"

"What?"

Harvey exclaimed, then sighed secretly in his heart—just one step away! Just one step away!

If he had known this news in advance, he could have forced Lu Kuan to submit by using the damage to the film's reputation as an excuse; even if he ditched Disney and Tang Mu Cruise, he could have taken a huge bite of fat off *Exotic Land* himself!

Now, all of Lu Kuan's countermeasures were seamless; if he insisted on going his own way, it would only result in a lose-lose situation.

He, Disney, and Tang Mu Cruise wouldn't gain any benefits, and Lu Kuan would also lose the good reputation *Exotic Land* currently enjoyed.

"What do you need me to do? What can I get?"

"Cooperate with me to embezzle the 12 million dollar pre-sale agreement advance payment from Disney. After it's done, we split it 50-50. I will cooperate with you on the distribution points to cook the books and return this profit."

"Additionally, you and Tang Mu Cruise must work together to clear the name of *Exotic Land* and eliminate any smear campaigns Buena Vista might conduct!"

Harvey's heart fell into a battle between heaven and hell.

He was indeed greedy for those six million dollars; after all, it was easy money, not to mention he could continue to handle the North American distribution for *Exotic Land*.

Even though he had previously promised distribution point fees far below the market rate to trick Boss Lu.

However, was it worth offending Disney for this?

The filming time of *House of Flying Daggers* was magically altered.

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(End of this chapter)