Chapter 284

Li Bingbing and her younger sister returned to her joint general manager office.

"Sister Hua has left; this office will be yours from now on."

"Sister, Bingbing is not easy to deal with."

Li Xue did not respond to her words, sitting on the sofa with a rather worried expression.

The ones who understand an enemy best are always their enemies.

The reason Li Xue was able to rise to power after Wang Jinhua left was that, at the moment Li Bingbing was hesitating, she dragged her to declare their stance to the two Wangs and transferred their management contracts under her own control.

But what she didn't expect was that, before her, a female artist had actually beaten her to the punch and raised the banner of defection first.

Is this still the same Bingbing who was neither hot nor cold no matter how she tried in the past?

Li Bingbing smiled bitterly and shook her head: "I know, you saw it just now too."

"I don't know what medicine she took wrong these past two years; it's like she suddenly had an epiphany. Now, things are truly different from the past."

"Could it be related to Lu Kuan?"

"What do you mean?"

Li Xue analyzed: "Lu Kuan sought her out for his second film, *Shoplifters*."

"Feng Yuanzheng is an old partner, Zhou Xun is an old acquaintance, but Fan Bingbing? No acting skills, no status—why would he seek out Fan Bingbing?"

"Also, the 'washing machine' theory that Zhuo Wei relied on to become famous had hinted at the ambiguous relationship between Fan Bingbing and him."

Li Bingbing hissed, unable to stop herself from tracing the roots and recalling the development trajectory related to Fan Bingbing ever since Boss Lu burst onto the scene; there were indeed suspicious points.

But they were merely suspicious.

Given the scenes of Lu Kuan and the two Wangs fighting to the death, if Bingbing had something obviously wrong, she should have been warned or dealt with long ago, right?

"Sister, to put it bluntly, you have no chance of winning against Fan Bingbing right now, not to mention that there is still a Zhou Xun coming."

"But with me here, many things can be turned around."

"Our goals are, first, to seize more internal resources, and second, to obtain more internal subscription shares."

Li Bingbing was someone without much of an opinion of her own, always following her sister's lead: "Xiuxiu, then what do you say we should do?"

This was Li Xue's childhood nickname.

"Don't worry about it, I'll find someone to probe her bottom line first."

"Let's go, let's go sit in Wang Zong's office for a while."

"I heard that before this listing allotment, the company will conduct an internal subscription for core artists first."

Li Xue's information was correct; in later generations, before the large-scale subscription, Yanda Huayi, in order to stabilize the situation after Wang Jinhua's departure, first extended olive branches to Li Bingbing, Zhou Xun, and Huang Xiaoming.

It was just that Zhou Xun politely declined.

She pulled her sister up and walked to the front of Wang Dajun's office, where she heard a burst of laughter coming from inside.

"So, you brat didn't succeed either?"

"Sigh! My own girlfriend was snatched away by that Lu Kuan; what success or failure is there to speak of."

"Alright, go handle the handover first. We'll all be in the same trench from now on; we'll communicate again if there's a need."

"Eh, yes, yes, I'll go first."

Chen Sicheng pushed the door open and came out, running head-on into the Li sisters; he nodded and smiled before leaving.

Wang Dajun glanced at the two people in front of the door: "Come in and sit, why are you stunned?"

"Who is that, Wang Zong?"

"Oh, a male actor newly signed by the company. You've seen *Soldiers Sortie*, right? He's an important supporting character in it."

Not knowing if he remembered something, Wang Dajun chuckled: "The person has quite a bit of spirit; he can be considered clever."

The office door was closed, and Chen Sicheng, who had walked far away, looked back for two seconds and gave a dark laugh.

It could be considered a success.

This step was the right one; even if he might have to take some risks, what he exchanged for was the opportunity to join Yanda Huayi!

The condition was merely to appear and speak out at the right time, tearfully accusing his girlfriend of being subjected to the hidden rules of the entertainment industry's dark forces in front of the media and cameras!

A certain well-known director with a human face but a beast's heart!

——

At Huabin Golf, Boss Lu was gorging himself on a table full of seafood.

"Is it delicious?"

"Mm! Quite good!"

Boss Lu's table manners were still considered elegant, but his eyes glanced over two dozen oysters, his face showing dissatisfaction: "Why get so many oysters? What a waste!"

Bingbing rested her chin on her jade hands, watching him with fascination: "If you don't want to eat them, then don't. These things won't last long, so let's just finish them all."

"Is that so? Forget it, can't waste them, I'll eat a few."

The great actress only ate a few bites of the garlic meat from the steamed turbot, while the man opposite had already pried open a dozen oysters.

"Hehe, not bad, not bad."

Bingbing giggled: "Glutton."

"By the way, as you expected, everything is proceeding according to plan, and they should be talking to me soon; there will be a round of non-public original share subscriptions."

The great actress picked up the Qingdao prawns on the plate and patiently peeled the shells and removed the veins for him: "But Li Bingbing actually stayed behind too; perhaps it's related to her sister."

"Oh, it's fine, just defeating them is enough, simple."

Boss Lu didn't take it to heart; with himself, a bug-level external aid, bullying a 'Thin Bing' was surely a sure thing.

However, the Bingbing of later generations had indeed suffered quite a bit at the hands of these two sisters.

After the film industry had class and status divisions like the Four Great Actresses and the Two Bings, the artificial siege effect became prominent.

The great actresses exhausted all their means to value and protect their status in the industry.

Under these circumstances, the artists in Wang Jinhua's hands gradually split into two factions.

One faction consisted of artists who had no ambition, were single-mindedly developing towards becoming artists, or were not good at and did not like socializing.

But the other faction, the "female flowers" who had ambition and means and had already begun to expose each other's shortcomings, hype, and fight for the sake of rising to the top, were gradually dissatisfied with her nanny-style manager model.

In later generations, when Wang Jinhua left, Yanda Huayi allotted shares to Li Bingbing and Huang Xiaoming, causing Bingbing's dissatisfaction.

Immediately after, Bingbing, unwilling to be outdone, did two things.

One was to expose Thin Bing's financier, Shi Tao, revealing her privacy of clinging to a big shot.

The latter's public relations method was to find her close friend Ren Quan to hype a CP, and whenever there was nothing to do, they would be ambiguous to block the public's talk.

The second was, just like Boss Lu last year, to poke the intimacy between her and Zhu Xiaotian under the camera so that everyone knew, completely destroying her image as a pure jade girl.

The two people's moves went back and forth, and with the help of her sister, Thin Bing also frequently released fierce material about her opponent.

Plastic surgery, involvement in prostitution, kicking reporters...

Just like Li Xue's analysis to her sister after the meeting ended today, this shrewd and capable Yanda Huayi joint general manager, the future Yanda Huayi vice president, was already prepared to take action.

This kind of internal infighting, speaking of it, was no different from the moves Lu Kuan and Zhou Jun had made over the past two years, and it was even more commonplace within the entertainment industry.

The cake was only so big; one had to kick others away to rise to the top, and if one didn't fight for it, one would drop in status.

The two were chatting, and Bingbing was very much enjoying this kind of different warmth, when suddenly Afei's scolding came from outside the house.

"Stop! I'm going to take action!"

"Don't, don't! I'm not a bad person."

Immediately after, there was the sound of a little boy crying loudly.

Boss Lu ate the small lobster without moving a muscle, having no desire to go out and watch the show at all.

Professional matters should be left to professional people to do.

If Afei couldn't handle it, he would come in to ask for instructions and report; there was no need for him to go out and add trouble for nothing.

"What's wrong?"

Lu Kuan looked at Bingbing's complexion opposite him, which was a bit off.

The great actress's pretty face was tangled and pale, and looking at the two casual inquiring gazes of the man opposite, she felt a bit guilty in her heart.

"It seems... it's my mother and younger brother..."

Lu Kuan frowned: "Ah?"

Bingbing stood up in a panic, seemingly not wanting to bring him trouble: "I'm sorry, I'll have them leave right now."

Lu Kuan habitually raised a trace of suspicion, still peeling shrimp shells in his hands, lifting his eyes to look at the great actress with a smile, observing her micro-expressions calmly.

It wasn't until Bingbing's complexion was anxious as if she were about to cry, wiped her hands clean, rushed to the door, and pulled it open violently to go out.

"Wait, I'll go take a look with you."

The young director didn't seem to notice anything wrong, following her with his hands behind his back in a leisurely manner.

"Man'er! It's me!"

Afei blocked Zhang Chuanmei and her 5-year-old son inside the villa courtyard gate, observing something all around.

"Mom, why did you come?"

Bingbing almost rushed forward, then looked back at Lu Kuan with a difficult expression, afraid of angering him.

She knew very clearly that she didn't seem to have received permission to introduce him to her family yet.

Moreover, how was she to introduce him?

Such an accidental meeting would undoubtedly increase the risk of exposure and affect his plans for Yanda Huayi.

It was dark, and even though Zhang Chuanmei borrowed the street lamp by the villa, she couldn't quite see the appearance of the man not far away, only curiously stretching her head.

"No, I came to see your villa here, and I couldn't find the place for a moment, then I saw your car parked here, so..."

Bingbing had also bought a set at Huabin Golf; usually, when she and Boss Lu were intimate, Afei would consciously go there to eat and sleep.

Didn't expect a blunder today.

Lu Kuan stood on the steps and observed for a few minutes; Bingbing, with her back to him, was anxious, clenching her fists one moment and gently pushing Zhang Chuanmei to walk out the next.

Looking at it, it didn't seem intentional, so he walked over calmly: "Hello, Auntie, I'm Bingbing's colleague."

"It's too late, why don't you send your family back? On the road..."

A faint clicking sound rang out, and Afei turned his head violently, darting out like a cheetah, heading straight for the man taking pictures outside the fence!

Bingbing, with her back to the man, almost closed her eyes in despair, her legs going soft as if she were about to collapse to the ground...

"Man'er! Man'er!"

"Mom, I'm fine, a stone got into my slipper..."

Bingbing's heart was near despair; she didn't count on the assistant she directed to be able to dodge Afei's pursuit.

At this moment, she was just explaining to her mother in a panic, and even more so to Boss Lu behind her.

To tell the truth, Lu Kuan was already suspicious.

Fan Bingbing's panic in the room and pushing her mother to walk out after coming out—he could understand the purpose of not wanting to expose himself; this was fear of angering him.

But the appearance of the paparazzi who had already been pinned down by Afei gave this tension another explanation.

Was the paparazzi her arrangement?

Did she want to find someone to take pictures of herself with him, Zhang Chuanmei, and Fan Chengcheng together?

Why?

What was the use?

Boss Lu squinted his eyes and walked down the steps, attempting to turn to the front to observe the great actress's expression; no matter how well one could act, one couldn't escape the sharp eyes of a hall-of-fame director.

Bingbing's hands were tightly gripped by her mother Zhang Chuanmei, already oozing fine sweat, her throat rolling, swallowing saliva unconsciously.

The man behind her lifted his feet to walk this way, looking like he was about to walk around to see her expression clearly!

"Wa!"

Fan Chengcheng didn't know what spell he was under, suddenly crying out loud!

Zhang Chuanmei, facing the young director, clearly saw the trace of pain and struggle on her daughter's face close at hand...

"Boss, the person has been brought back."

Bingbing knew that if she didn't admit her mistake now, she would never have to admit it again, turning her head violently to look at Lu Kuan, her peripheral vision catching the sneaky-looking paparazzi...

"Xiao Yu?"

"Xiao Yu! What do you want to do!"

One "Xiao Yu" was surprise that it was actually Xiao Yu?

Another "Xiao Yu" was ecstasy that it was actually Xiao Yu!

It was Li Bingbing's previous driver!

The great actress seemed to have been injected with 10mg of adrenaline in an instant, blue veins appearing on her smooth, fair forehead.

"Did Li Bingbing or Li Xue call you here?"

Saying this, she turned back and pushed Lu Kuan: "You go back first, I'll handle it, I won't cause you trouble."

Immediately after, she whispered: "He is Li Bingbing's driver."

How could Boss Lu let go of these clues, his gaze like a falcon's circling among the people present.

The astonished Zhang Chuanmei, the wailing Fan Chengcheng.

And the extremely suspicious Fan Bingbing.

But with Xiao Yu's capture and the exposure of his identity, it seemed that the previous suspicion could be temporarily put to rest, holding a reserved opinion.

No matter how she designed it, she couldn't direct Li Bingbing's driver, right?

Next was just letting Afei check his camera and identity.

"Afei, wait in the car."

Boss Lu didn't even want to enter the villa again, walking directly outside the guardrail to get in the car.

Behind him, the steaming heat and popular delicacies on the dining table in the house seemed to become a cold background.

How could Fan Bingbing have the mood to care about Xiao Yu? Her pair of charming eyes stared fixedly at the direction he left, the panic she had just suppressed in her heart rising again...

He didn't speak to her.

Afei's movements were fast; he deleted the photos, returned the camera, and took a close-up photo of his face before letting the person leave.

Soon, the sound of a car engine came from outside the fence, gradually moving further away with Afei's departure.

Bingbing couldn't hold on anymore, collapsing to the ground on her butt.

When Zhang Chuanmei went to help her daughter up, she saw that her back was already soaked through with cold sweat.

The great actress suddenly threw off her mother's hand like a madwoman, rushed into the house, took out her mobile phone, and dialed the number with trembling hands.

Beep, beep, beep...

What a cruel and long three seconds.

"Hello? Where are you?"

"I... I'm in the bushes next to Building 13, can I come out now?"

Bingbing nervously ran to the second-floor terrace again, confirming it was safe: "Come over quickly, now!"

She let her mother take her younger brother into the inner room and not make a sound, nervously handing over to the assistant Zhang Siman, who was wearing a peaked cap and had taken the photos.

Zhang Siman had followed Bingbing since her debut and naturally had no motive to betray her employer; it was just that the bodyguard who looked like a cheetah just now had scared her enough.

Also scared enough was Bingbing.

If it weren't for the fact that the fake Li Gui Xiao Yu had mistakenly taken the blame, today could almost have declared the death of her credibility in Lu Kuan's heart.

The infiltration of Yanda Huayi was the transaction condition they had agreed upon when the two first had relations.

To put it uglier, this was her greatest value and meaning of existence to him.

If she couldn't even be of this bit of use, then there was no need for her to explain the reason for arranging this farce at all.

Apart from this body of hers that had already been dedicated from the inside out, which might still make him linger, there was no other special value.

Zhang Chuanmei was still in the room coaxing her son who was throwing a tantrum; Bingbing poured herself a glass of cold boiled water, gulping it down her throat, attempting to extinguish the panic that was somewhat rekindled in her heart.

Admittedly, everything tonight was her careful arrangement.

Liu Yifei wanted to bow into the game; with her attitude of "rather be a broken jade than a whole tile," what reaction Lu Kuan would have at that time, Fan Bingbing couldn't predict, nor could she guarantee.

But one thing was certain: if the two were to succeed, it would be the most unfavorable situation for her.

She would forever lose the opportunity to rise to the top.

The great actress knew better than anyone in her heart the trace of partiality that man had for Liu Yifei.

The men's products placed in the wardrobe of the courtyard were her arrangement; with her understanding of Zhang Chuanmei, the latter's curiosity would inevitably be unstoppable.

A phone call arranging ingredients, through Auntie Li's mouth, pointed out the clues for her mother to probe and clarify her daughter's love affair.

As for Fan Chengcheng, with the habit of Zhang Chuanmei taking him out for a walk every day these past few days, she would likely bring him along; even if she didn't, it wouldn't have much impact.

Or rather, even if nothing was photographed today, it wouldn't have much impact!

At worst, give up this opportunity.

In treating Lu Kuan, she would never stop at the greatest caution and care; she would rather miss out than dare to do wrong.

At this moment, Bingbing couldn't say what she was feeling; she only felt that the god of fate was favoring her. It just so happened that today, Li Bingbing and her sister, who had a conflict with her, attempted to catch her handle and sent the former driver Xiao Yu, who had already resigned, to spy and steal photos.

The great actress looked happily at the photo with the tricky angle in the camera:

Her mother Zhang Chuanmei holding her hand, four-year-old Fan Chengcheng wailing on the side, and Lu Kuan, who had just walked over and hadn't had time to observe her expression, slightly bent over.

With a little modification and guidance, this was a family portrait!

Fan Bingbing didn't have much contact with Liu Yifei, but from their time together in the *Zhu Xian* crew, her usual deliberate observations, and the rumors behind people's backs.

She knew this was a girl who seemed cheerful and optimistic, but once she made up her mind, she wouldn't look back.

Since Liu Yifei was already prepared to use such means to urge and promote a relationship and connection that didn't seem to match well now to finally bear fruit;

Then if she saw such a photo that made her heartbroken and misunderstood, what reaction would she have?

For Bingbing, the best result would be that because of Liu Yifei's pride and independence in her bones, she would give up this relationship in despair.

The worst result would at least allow this plot, which could be called an "adventure" for both Liu Yifei and Bingbing herself, to pass first, right?

As long as she didn't confess on the spot, at least the young director didn't have the awareness and motive to cut off relations with her immediately.

Just thinking about it, Bingbing felt her whole body trembling with tension, supporting herself on the chair arm to stand up and walk around.

Xiao Yu's innocent scapegoating just now could be considered to have provided her with a perfect "alibi."

There was one more thing that made her feel fortunate, and that was the information gap between her and Lu Kuan:

Lu Kuan would certainly not know that Liu Yifei was going to confront him at her eighteenth birthday party.

Even if this photo caused an impact, the despairing Liu Yifei would not bring up the old matter again and reveal her own scars again.

At that time, would the two people who were drifting further apart still sit calmly facing each other, reviewing all the accidents and emotions on the field one by one, and then discover her flaws?

This probability was too small.

Even if they did! That would be in the future, and now she had to get through this hurdle first!

What was placed in front of Bingbing now could be considered a seemingly optimistic situation.

From beginning to end, Zhang Chuanmei came voluntarily, the paparazzi Zhang Siman would not be known to him, and Xiao Yu's photos had already been deleted by Afei.

If it leaked again, the only possible explanation was that Yanda Huayi didn't just send one person to spy on the relationship between them.

And this, she had already given a face-to-face warning after that car accident of Lu Kuan: she had already been suspected by Zhou Jun.

The whole logic chain was seamless; Bingbing didn't feel there would be too much risk of exposure.

Moreover, for that man now, how to let her explain the incident tonight clearly to Yanda Huayi to get rid of suspicion was the most important thing, right?

Because the share allotment for core actors was about to begin, and this was the top priority in his heart.

Bingbing didn't doubt at all that the Li Bingbing sisters, who hadn't taken photos, would go to the big and small Wangs and Zhou Jun to gossip and stir up trouble.

But...

Facing his consistent strategy of being prepared for everything, even if she had cleared her suspicion on the surface, did she really dare to use this photo?

The great actress fell into endless struggle in her heart.

"Bingbing?"

Zhang Chuanmei walked out on tiptoe, closing the door so as not to wake Fan Chengcheng, who had just fallen asleep.

"Tonight..."

"Mom, I'll explain to you later."

Bingbing stepped forward and held her mother's hand: "You just remember one thing I say."

"Tonight you didn't see anything, you didn't know anything, just treat it as if nothing happened, okay?"

Zhang Chuanmei hoped her daughter would be famous and help the family and her young son.

But just now outside the villa, seeing her pitiful appearance, nervous to the point of almost collapsing to the ground and sweating all over, which mother wouldn't be moved?

"Man'er, don't make yourself suffer; your brother doesn't need you to worry either."

"Mom doesn't want you to be so tired."

Bingbing hugged Zhang Chuanmei with red eyes, wholeheartedly feeling and absorbing this pulse of family affection, her throat rolling, only murmuring in her mouth.

"It's okay... I will succeed... it's okay..."

She didn't know if she was persuading her mother or convincing herself.

The great actress didn't sleep all night.

For the next few days, Lu Kuan didn't take the initiative to contact her either.

She had the heart to give Lu Kuan a call, but was afraid that doing more would lead to more mistakes, and that she would appear guilty, so she gave up.

A small interlude, seemingly ordinary, but under the tug-of-war of all parties, it kept expanding and fissioning, about to transform into a thunderbolt.

Among the parties in the tug-of-war, the two Yanda Huayi brothers and Zhou Jun had a slight dispute.

The cause was naturally Li Bingbing and Li Xue's accusation; even without photos, the former driver Xiao Yu's personal testimony could at least count as a witness, right?

Zhou Jun used this to corroborate his previous conjecture, but Wang Dajun and Wang Xiaolei didn't think so.

Do you wish to repeat Zhang Nara's mistakes?

In their eyes, Zhou Jun's behavior had already deviated from basic corporate competition, completely targeting Lu Kuan himself, and this was not consistent with the brothers' stance.

Just like before setting off for Cannes, Teng Huatao pretended to be drunk to help the two brothers change roles, cracks had already appeared within Yanda Huayi.

"Brother Jun, this thing, I don't think we can believe it entirely."

Wang Xiaolei was adamant: "In our line of work, these things are all commonplace."

"Li Bingbing and she are in a competitive relationship; although we don't support or encourage such mutual attacks internally, it hasn't been uncommon in the past."

"Just based on the empty words of her former driver, you want to reduce Bingbing's resources and share allotment? This... is unreasonable, right?"

Fan Bingbing was the female star who generated the most revenue for the company among Yanda Huayi's female artists now, and she was the first to declare her stance after Wang Jinhua left, playing a great role in stabilizing the situation.

Especially the resources she had carved out in the fashion circle herself would not be lost because of Wang Jinhua's resignation, and this was a benefit to other artists in the company!

Zhou Jun had recently worn a pair of gold-rimmed glasses to cover up the increasingly uncontrollable murderous aura.

"I don't oppose artists and core directors allotting shares."

"But the lesson of Sina changing hands recently is right before our eyes, and I think we still need to be cautious; at least in the consideration of actor loyalty, we still need to put in some effort."

Seeing that his younger brother couldn't persuade him, Wang Dajun shook the company's internal semi-annual report in his hand to help out.

"Zhou Zong, in the first half of this year, among our four major sectors of advertising, film, television, and artist management, the revenue from artist management was around 42 million."

"Among this, Bingbing's advertising endorsements, commercial performances, and film salary commissions accounted for nearly one-sixth."

"Wang Jinhua signed with Cheng Tian yesterday and will hold a press conference tomorrow; this time node..."

"Should we stabilize for a bit?"

Zhou Jun's substantial gaze circled between the two brothers; in the past, they would definitely not have spoken to him like this.

The Zhang Nara incident had dealt a significant blow to his own right to speak and credibility within Yanda Huayi.

You find financing and internet capital for Yanda Huayi, leading everyone to grow bigger and stronger and go public; we admire you, and we are willing to give you dry shares.

But because of personal grudges, you want to drag Yanda Huayi, this broken donkey cart still in the development stage, to collide head-on with Lu Kuan's Mercedes, not hesitating to perish together...

Then even if your background is strong and your voice is loud, there's no such reason even if you talk until the sky breaks, right?

You have people, and Yanda Huayi has people behind it too.

Wang Xiaolei laughed: "Aiya! Brother Jun, you don't understand Bingbing as a person."

"Let's not mention whether what Li Bingbing's driver said is true or not, even if it is true!"

"That's also Bingbing's personal socializing and resource expansion."

"Two years ago, she went around Xiangjiang, and these two years she went to find fashion resources herself, carving out this path; if it weren't for this spirit of hers to go all out, she wouldn't have been able to stand out, right?"

Wang Dajun also smiled: "Bingbing is the most daring and fighting female star; I think it's at most resource exchange with Lu Kuan, body for opportunity."

"Actually, if you are suspicious, Zhou Xun is much more worth examining than Bingbing? She has had a friendship with Lu Kuan since her debut."

The reason the Wang brothers were indifferent to Zhou Jun's suspicion was also because of the huge information gap that existed in between.

Even if Yanda Huayi went public in later generations, the total amount of shares allotted to all artists would not exceed 15%; if it weren't for Lu Kuan having already secretly bought shares in Sina, just relying on the shares in the artists' hands wouldn't be able to ruin their affairs.

Even if they had already bought shares in Sina now, they still had to do more planning.

The two brothers said one sentence after another, almost leaving Zhou Jun speechless.

But he really couldn't produce any solid evidence to corroborate his judgment.

Except for the witness testimony of the competitor Li Bingbing's former driver, and this kind of isolated evidence was obviously not enough in terms of proof.

Let alone internal corporate governance, even if taken to court, it wouldn't even meet the standard of high probability, let alone the level of excluding reasonable doubt.

"Zhou Zong, this is what I think."

Seeing his gloomy complexion, Wang Dajun also made up his mind to just speak plainly today.

"Actually, we and the Inquiry Realm were still coexisting in competition and cooperation before."

"*A World Without Thieves* used Wang Baoqiang, *Shoplifters* used Bingbing; even if there were some rifts on the surface, they were still suppressed within a reasonable range."

"But using Zhang Nara to fight Liu Yifei... that really provoked everyone's anger."

Wang Xiaolei lifted his eyes to look, thinking to himself that his own brother's words were also about to provoke Zhou Jun's anger.

Wasn't the subtext of this saying that Zhou Jun had turned normal commercial competition into a political struggle of life and death?

With Zhou Jun's family background and insight, how could he not hear the implication in this?

He couldn't help but sigh in his heart that this time he had truly stepped into a quagmire and couldn't extricate himself.

At first, he just wanted to use Dong Shuangqiang as a middleman to plan the path of buying shares in the Inquiry Realm, going public, and cashing out.

As a result, because of Boss Lu's firm refusal, he became angry from embarrassment and turned to Yanda Huayi, supporting them to set up a ring to fight the Inquiry Realm.

Apart from conventional commercial competition, it was finding Zhang Nara to replicate Liu Yifei's path to fame, attempting to use some off-field moves to replace her and create Yanda Huayi's traffic-sucking tool.

It was just that the two sides went back and forth, and Yanda Huayi lost repeatedly.

To this day, even if the two brothers Wang Dajun and Xiaolei didn't want to get involved in this personal grudge that had evolved, Zhou Jun had to find a way to get back his ground and face.

Otherwise, he would become a laughingstock in the circle behind him.

Accelerating the promotion of the hunt for Zhuang Xu and cutting off the connection between Lu Kuan and the Olympics was an urgent goal to be achieved.

"Good, as you wish, our goal is always consistent, which is to make Yanda Huayi go public as soon as possible."

Zhou Jun lifted his glasses and stood up leisurely: "From now on, we will divide the work well; you don't need to worry about Lu Kuan's affairs, and I won't ask about the company's management."

"However, I hope that after I bring so many resources, you can make good use of them."

Dajun and Xiaolei looked at each other; although they both heard the dissatisfaction of the noble descendant, things that should be insisted upon must always be insisted upon.

They were businessmen, not politicians.

Time entered the end of July, and the domestic entertainment industry was surging; one after another, astonishing news was rampant, and entertainment reporters and paparazzi fell into a carnival.

Yanzi and Young Master Wang broke up and began to look for the next target; Huang Yi, who was accused of being a third party, was a guest on the Sina Entertainment live broadcast room to discuss this matter and made no comment.

Diva Wang Fei and Xie Tingfeng secretly obtained a marriage certificate at the Civil Affairs Bureau of Dihua in Xinjiang Province, and invited relatives and friends to a small-scale gathering at a hotel in Beiping, marrying in a low-key manner.

The popular group S. H. E from Wan Province held their first concert in Beiping since their debut four years ago, and ticket pre-sales had already exceeded one million.

Among these, what made the major entertainment newspapers in Beiping crazy was the mutual poaching and personnel changes among several major domestic entertainment companies and management companies!

First was the breakup between Zhou Xun and Rong Xingda.

Li Xiaowan spoke through the blog network, saying that the contract had expired and would not be renewed, insisting that there was no conflict between the two sides; this year was the tenth anniversary of Rong Xingda's establishment, and they would continue to work hard.

The company's artist department currently had sixteen signed actors, such as Chen Kun, Huang Jue, He Lin, Jia Ni, Zeng Li, Shen Chang, etc., who were all on the front line of film and television shooting, and were developing towards a more mature, standardized, and large-scale stage.

Immediately after, when Huang Shengyi was promoting the new film *Tears of Heaven* in Yangcheng, she lost control of her emotions when facing reporters' questions about whether she had been shelved by her management company.

She cried to the media that she had been intimidated and threatened by Starry Night Company and claimed that she wanted to terminate the contract with them.

The matter became a huge uproar; big shots in Xiangjiang who were at odds with Zhou Xingchi jumped out, accusing Xingzai of being greedy for money and forgetting righteousness, calling him a disgrace to Xiangjiang.

Zhou Xingchi did not respond, but Cheng Tian, which had Hong Kong and Japanese capital backgrounds and was planning behind the scenes, did not intend to let him go just like that, pressing forward step by step.

In the end, both sides terminated the contract, and Cheng Tian signed Huang Shengyi.

Young Master Yang from Baoding successfully saved his white moonlight, and Wu Kebo, who had been coveting the domestic entertainment industry for a long time, finally had the traffic flower template he had been thinking about.

Immediately preparing, he began to replicate Liu Yifei's path to fame.

Just when the melon-eating masses were feasting their eyes and had endless topics of conversation after tea and dinner, the biggest thunder in the domestic entertainment industry this year was also detonated.

Yanda Huayi, Wang Jinhua leaves!

*Beiping Daily*, *Beiping Entertainment News*, *Star Bigstar*, and other related newspapers all published two announcements from Wang Jinhua and Yanda Huayi on their front pages.

The tone was different, but the general idea was the same.

It was nothing more than mutual gratitude, blessings, and wishing everything well in the future.

Among them, Wang Jinhua also stated her next plan: she would not set up another stove and would take the artists under her banner to join Cheng Tian Entertainment, which had the background of the Japanese enterprise NEC.

Chen Daoming, Xia Yu, Hu Jun, Zhou Yun, Guan Zhilin, Liu Jialing, Wu Junru, Yang Ziqiong...

One after another, astonishing star big names left one after another.

The melon-eating masses all broke into a cold sweat for Yanda Huayi, not knowing how Yanda Huayi, which had already suffered heavy losses due to Zhang Nara's retirement, would survive this disaster.

Obviously, there was still a huge information asymmetry between the fun-seekers watching the show and the insiders of the entertainment industry.

Yanda Huayi immediately held a press conference, thanking Ms. Wang Jinhua for her contributions over the past 5 years, but Yanda Huayi would also travel light and forge ahead.

Immediately after, at the boot-up press conference for Xiaogang's *The Banquet*, former Rong Xingda artist Zhou Xun "attended the banquet" and officially announced joining Yanda Huayi.

Huang Xiaoming accepted an interview with reporters on the set of the unit drama *Strange Tales of Liaozhai* and officially announced that he had negotiated the termination of his contract with Xiangjiang Century Elements and joined Yanda Huayi.

There was also a new generation flower, Yang Mi, who had just emerged, who appeared at the press conference; given that Ms. Zhang Nara had voluntarily withdrawn from the filming of *Xian 3*, she would fill the role of Xue Jian.

Insiders know the ropes; they know this was another flower-route female star Yanda Huayi was setting out to create, similar to Cheng Tian's Huang Shengyi and Yinghuang's Tang Yan, still aiming for Liu Yifei's path.

The Chinese people have a very strong ability to imitate; even if they can't drink the first soup on this track, by drawing a scoop according to the gourd, there will always be an audience to pay for it.

Up to this point, the domestic entertainment industry's semi-annual reshuffle had been completed, and a pattern of one super and many strong had gradually formed.

Inquiry Realm Holdings stood firm, which was the one super.

The many strong had different backgrounds:

Cheng Tian poached Huang Shengyi to cultivate as a traffic flower, and poached Wang Jinhua's team to enrich the artist team, and relied on solid capital to begin planning film and television production businesses.

Yanda Huayi merged with internet capital TOM, Sina, and Yahoo China, and opened up an international vision through the China Horizontal Company.

Added to the already rising Bingbing, the newly joined Zhou Xun and Huang Xiaoming, and the remaining Thin Bing, Ren Quan, and others, their strength had not been damaged, but rather more refined.

Hunan TV's variety shows this year, such as *National Ball Ceremony*, *Super Girl*, *Happy Camp*, and *True Feelings*, were still popular, and they recently continued to increase the introduction of Korean dramas to counter Travel TV's *Zhu Xian 2*.

There were also Yinghuang standing tall in Xiangjiang, Bona focusing on the film industry, Fiber Optics just preparing to go to sea, the steadily developing Horse Galloping, and the veteran veteran Rong Xingda...

Overall, just like the speech by Director Qi of the Cultural Industry Research Center of the Reform Commission at the *Forbes* 2005 Entertainment Forum in March this year:

The domestic cultural industry after the pomegranate is a blue ocean; head industries including the film industry have all been untied, comprehensively lowering market thresholds from production, distribution, and screening.

Welcoming private capital, foreign capital, and the original state-owned capital to take root and deepen on the basis of complying with national laws and regulations, injecting more vitality into the domestic cultural industry!

On July 31, 2005, one week after the release of *Seven Swords*, *Bad Genius*, co-produced by Inquiry Realm Holdings and China Film, held its premiere ceremony in Beiping.

Preparing to launch an impact on this blockbuster with a collapsing reputation.

In the Bentley Arnage car, Lu Kuan flipped through the *Beiping Entertainment News*, reading through the various major events in the domestic entertainment industry recently.

Because of the flapping of his butterfly wings, the plot direction had changed slightly, but the big industry, big guidelines, and big policies were still moving forward along the established route.

The curtain of the domestic entertainment industry could be considered to have just been pulled open, and the "one super and many strong" jokingly called in the newspapers were all still concentrating industrial capital.

Including his own Inquiry Realm Holdings, with the deepening of the heavy capital expansion progress of Inquiry Realm Jiahe, the primary task in the second half of the year was to find venture capital for Inquiry Realm Mall to raise funds.

But Boss Lu knew clearly in his heart that from now until 2008, it would be the three years for domestic entertainment film companies and entertainment companies to lay foundations and take deep roots.

Three years later, everyone would welcome the "big test" of capital hot money:

The coal bosses were about to enter the market.

In 2008, the financial crisis struck, the global economy fell back, and the demand for coal plummeted.

Coupled with overcapacity and the frequent occurrence of mine disasters, Jin Province took the lead in starting the major reorganization of coal enterprises.

In this process, many coal bosses sold their mines to state-owned enterprises and other large enterprises, becoming behind-the-scenes shareholders themselves or simply exiting.

Standing at this historical turning point, the coal bosses held huge transfer payments and compensation, not knowing where to go.

Thus, liquor, real estate, and automobiles all became targets for capital pouring, and of course, there was the film and television industry.

In 2009, Director Jia's office in Beiping was often crowded, and coal boss fellow villagers shouted with a local accent: "Director Jia, what should we do? There's too much money and we can't spend it all; do you have any movies to shoot?"

"What? The budget is only 50 million? Hit 100 million first to spend!"

Boss Lu knew very clearly that the "self-admiring" one super and many strong and small companies in the domestic entertainment industry today would all face a fierce competitive situation when facing the influx of huge amounts of capital at that time.

This kind of competition was not just survival of the fittest, but more like bad money driving out good money.

Because the capital brought by the coal bosses entering the market was irrational to a certain extent.

While meeting the huge supply-side demand of the industry, it also brought about ecological imbalance.

Such as the inflation of actor salaries, the disruption of market order, the prevalence of creative bandwagoning, and the increase in shoddy production.

Even the high-quality content of Inquiry Realm Holdings might be affected.

Of course, for a prophet like Boss Lu, the good use of this industry hot money could allow Inquiry Realm Holdings to rise to a higher level.

Such as the creation of capital-intensive theme parks, the establishment of Inquiry Realm's own film and television shooting bases, etc.

"Boss, we're here."

Afei's words interrupted the young president's contemplation; he pushed open the car door and walked into this giant-screen cinema of Inquiry Realm Jiahe in the Guomao business district.

(End of chapter)