Chapter 325: The Imperial Concubine is Drunk Again

Silicon Valley has many core hub cities.

Apple is in Cupertino, Yahoo is in Sunnyvale, and HP and Tesla are in Palo Alto.

The headquarters of Weibo and the merged Twitter were established in Mountain View, adjacent to Google.

The internet product of the two companies after the merger is still called Twitter, because when the decision to merge was made on New Year's Eve, Twitter's 400,000 users were higher than Weibo's.

Furthermore, the transformation of the domestic Blog Network has only been a matter of the last two or three years; the name "Weibo" can be reserved for later use.

At 7:00 PM, the group of core management, having finished a light meal, gathered at the Twitter center in Mountain View. This was the first internal meeting after completing the various merger procedures.

Lu Kuan and Liu Yifei chatted and laughed as they walked inside; an old acquaintance had been waiting for a long time in front of the office door.

"Mr. Lu, Miss Liu!" Sun Wenwen looked at their figures, feeling a surge of emotion, almost to the point of tears welling up in her eyes.

Counting from the time she began plotting against Zhou Jun in August, it had been nearly half a year since she had hidden her identity in North America and completed the investment immigration process.

From the initial days of panic and uncertainty to gradually getting used to life in a foreign country, she had also smoothly entered the core of Twitter, existing as a role for Boss Lu to balance the local ethnic Chinese management.

Looking at the young man and woman before her, Sun Wenwen felt a thousand emotions in this instant.

Boss Lu smiled: "Is life going well?"

"Thank you, Mr. Lu, everything is fine." Sun Wenwen, still with her ear-length short hair, replied with her hands clasped in front of her and a slight bow.

Her attitude remained respectful, without a trace of the casualness found in Western workplace interactions.

Starting from 2002, when she entered a company that only had Lu Kuan, the finance person, and herself, Sun Wenwen had witnessed with her own eyes the rise of this entertainment aircraft carrier, Inquiry Realm Holdings.

One misstep had caused her to squander all the efforts of the past four years.

A survivor of a catastrophe, this high-achieving student who had grown step-by-step from a small-town test-taker to the right-hand assistant of an industry giant, felt a mix of extreme respect and fear toward the person before her.

Looking at Liu Yifei, who was smiling sweetly beside him, Sun Wenwen, after tossing and turning upon first arriving in North America, could only secretly rejoice that the person she had originally attempted to bet on was this girl.

As the former chief housekeeper, Sun Wenwen could see that she had special significance to the boss, and she would definitely protect her.

And the current situation, at least, was not too bad...

Liu Yifei was also very happy to see her: "Sister Wenwen, I have been waiting for you to come over in Chicago."

"Now you don't have to; with your previous work experience at Inquiry Realm, Twitter is your best stage."

Sun Wenwen nodded: "Thank you, Miss Liu, I originally wanted to join you and be your assistant."

"But Mr. Lu gave me another chance, and I will work hard."

Boss Lu did not stint on encouragement: "You saw with your own eyes how the Blog Network utilized the strategies of entertainment stars, grassroots stars, and cultural stars to grow."

"You also coordinated and participated in this; similarly, Twitter is not much different."

"Here, you represent me; bring out the posture and confidence you had at Inquiry Realm Holdings!"

Sun Wenwen's nose felt a bit sore; with red-rimmed eyes, she nodded heavily.

The previous big stick had almost crushed her into fragments, and this honeyed date had instantly made her a high-level executive of an emerging North American internet enterprise.

Liu Yifei observed his demeanor and rhetoric from the side, unable to tell for a moment whether this was a genuine outpouring of emotion for an old subordinate or a way of buying people's hearts, different from Harvey's sycophancy and bullying.

Boss Lu walked into the conference room first; Chen Shijun, Huang Anna, and the other three stood up immediately, looking at him and Liu Yifei with respectful attitudes.

"Mr. Lu!"

"Boss!"

"Everyone, please sit down. Why are you being so polite? Did you think we were back in the country?"

Huang Anna, Chen Shijun, and the others just smiled.

Thinking of Deng Wendi's disarray and the endless scandals of News Corporation, they all knew that this person was far from the elegant and noble figure he appeared to be on the surface.

However, following such a boss provided a sense of security.

"Good, today is the first meeting after the merger of the two companies. You are not strangers to Miss Liu, right?"

Chen Shijun smiled: "Boss, the merger is a good idea. Maybe we can mooch off Crystal's Chinese food more often in the future!"

Huang Anna also exclaimed: "I really didn't expect before that our biggest competitor was Crystal; it's so surprising."

"Alright, flattery can wait; let's chat about some things simply." Boss Lu interrupted them with a smile.

Everyone sat up straight. It was Liu Yifei's first time participating in an internal meeting of Lu Kuan's company, and she curiously watched as everyone took out their notebooks with solemn expressions.

Whether it was the regular 7:30 PM off-work time or this workplace hierarchy that prioritized the superior, it was full of Chinese characteristics.

"Everyone knows that Twitter's operations are much more refined and complex than Mytube's; this is not a product for quick monetization for us."

"On the surface, Twitter belongs to Miss Liu's mother, Madam Liu Xiaoli, as the chairperson, but the actual company operations still rely on Shijun and Wenwen. Anna will coordinate some specific affairs of Inquiry Realm in North America and provide you with financing and legal support."

"Wenwen, first report on the website's current operating data."

Sun Wenwen responded and opened the projection.

"Based on some data characteristics from the early development of the domestic Blog Network, I have classified Twitter's data indicators into roughly three types, reported as follows."

"The first is user growth data."

"Currently, our month-on-month growth rate of monthly active users is relatively low, only 5%. This month, new registered users exceeded 100,000 for the first time, and the total registration volume after the merger is close to 700,000."

"The second is user activity data."

"The ratio of Twitter's daily active users to monthly active users is currently stable at around 22%..."

Boss Lu interrupted: "Wait a moment."

"Shijun, in the first three months of Mytube's development, I remember this activity data was around 40%, right?"

"Yes, Boss. Mytube's start was very smooth, beginning with the Oscar live broadcast; within the first three months, many top bloggers had already appeared."

Chen Shijun's morale was slightly low: "Boss, we are still working hard and will come up with measures."

"The gap is indeed not small, mainly because the current topic marketing is relatively singular, with only interactions for 'Twilight'." Huang Anna added.

The young director remained silent, suddenly turning to Liu Yifei, who was listening with her ears pricked up.

"Liu, you are the founder of Twitter; talk about your own views. How do you evaluate this data?"

"Hmm..."

The young girl was suddenly cued and quickly organized her thoughts: "Although it looks like there is a large gap compared to Mytube's 40%, I don't think this data is fair to Twitter."

"I think this data is not a failure, but temporarily distorted."

Failure, distorted.

Except for Boss Lu, who remained expressionless, the others looked at her with strange expressions.

Including Sun Wenwen.

She had known Liu Yifei for a long time, but it was the first time she had seen her demeanor in a business setting.

Liu Yifei said confidently: "Just like the evaluation of a movie, art films have art film evaluation standards, and commercial films have commercial film evaluation standards."

"Similarly, for such an emerging internet product, comparing it with Mytube is distorted in terms of data."

"Just like some tool-based websites, user activity data is bound to be very poor because users only think of it when they need it."

"But whether it's shopping websites like Amazon, entertainment video websites like Mytube, or social networking websites like Mspace, including Twitter."

"Different website types have different evaluation standards; evaluating and perceiving data outside of those standards is unreasonable."

Liu gave an example to prove her point: "Last year, I saw a set of Amazon data in a class at Booth School of Business; their daily active users were only about one-third of their monthly active users, and it would be abnormally high on some discount days."

"From this perspective, Twitter's activity is not satisfactory, still because there is no good content filling at the current stage; after all, unlike Mytube, one video might be worth hundreds of Twitter blog posts."

Huang Anna and the others nodded frequently; this analysis of failure versus distortion was reasonable.

Corporate decision-makers must have the ability to assess the situation and make reasonable judgments about the market trends behind the data so as not to distort operational actions.

"Liu said it very well." Boss Lu nodded: "The reason I interrupted Wenwen here is to remind everyone not to be boxed in by empiricism."

"From the day Mytube was founded, our strategy was to expand the user scale and sell a cake that looked perfect on the outside to those giants who were interested."

"Therefore, in terms of operations, we were relatively eager for quick success, eager for instant benefit, and pulling up seedlings to help them grow, but Twitter is different."

"For this 22% data, we must look at it dialectically."

"Currently, website operations have only continued the topic marketing work of 'Twilight'; to be honest, this data is not pessimistic, and we should be more fortunate about the potential behind it."

Liu Yifei felt a little proud that he had affirmed her point of view.

Knowledge gained from books is shallow, one must practice to truly understand.

She was a top blogger on Mytube, still using this account to exert her influence among North American ethnic Chinese, and was also an entrepreneur who had started Twitter from scratch.

Although she did not have the experience of running an enterprise like Huang Anna, Sun Wenwen, and Chen Shijun, her perspective had a natural advantage.

This stemmed from observing Lu Kuan's operations over the past few years and from the top-tier business thinking learned at one of the world's top three business schools.

Such a start was advantageous for an enterprise operator.

With thoughts unified, the next step was to propose countermeasures and go full throttle to accelerate Twitter's development.

Boss Lu arranged several tasks.

The first was the further in-depth development of the big IP "Twilight".

The movie adapted from the bestseller, which had already started filming and was scheduled for release in the summer season, was becoming increasingly popular. Boss Lu required every actor in the crew to register with their real names and interact with users.

Promote and drive traffic on Twitter according to the established copy, capture all the millions of book fans in the North American market, and trick them into coming in to kill!

Tightly grasping "Twilight" as a gold-medal marketing tool was an absolutely correct strategic choice, it's just that the original Twitter hadn't done it deeply and thoroughly.

The first "Twilight" was published at the end of 2005, and by the beginning of 2008, it had sold nearly 30 million copies in total.

This number, even if only a few million users were converted today in 2006, was an incredible achievement for an emerging website.

Fan economy is always the aphrodisiac for internet products.

"Second, after the meeting, Huang Anna will connect with Evans from the Disney media office; some of Disney's classic animations, voice actors, and friendly Hollywood stars will cooperate to move in, continuing to win over opinion leaders through multiple channels."

"Yes, Mr. Lu."

"In addition, I suggest the website launch two functions: one called topic tags, and one called private message grouping."

"Topic tags can be said to be tailor-made for 'Twilight' fans, making it convenient for fans to quickly find collections of content they are interested in, and also conducive to the spread and discussion of hot topics, increasing interaction between users and the aggregation of content."

"Private message grouping is to manage private messages by grouping different types of contacts, improving the efficiency and convenience of private message communication, and meeting users' diversified communication needs."

Liu Yifei smiled: "This is stealing business from Facebook and Myspace!"

Huang Anna agreed: "Our specialty is stranger social networking, but the undeniable social networking of acquaintances and privacy needs also exist; private messages will be a very good supplement."

The meeting lasted for two hours.

Unify thoughts, come up with countermeasures, and set sail.

The only thing that might bring shackles was the funding problem; given the current situation of the young director burning money in several businesses in North America, Twitter's Series A round would likely arrive relatively early.

Boss Lu concluded: "The situation is roughly like this; finally, I announce a decision."

"Everyone also knows that in addition to the option pool for you core management and core employees below, Twitter chairperson Madam Liu Xiaoli holds 85% of the equity on behalf of me and Liu Yifei."

"This part of my voting rights is now delegated to Madam Liu Yifei to exercise."

"You four today plus her are the core decision-making team for Twitter from now on; if there are any major problems, come find me."

Liu Yifei turned her head to look at him with a face of surprise: "Me?"

Boss Lu asked back: "You can't?"

The young girl raised her eyebrows: "Of course I can!"

"That's good."

Since the boss had made the decision, others naturally had no reason to interject.

For Lu Kuan, the various lines of Inquiry Realm Holdings in the country had basically stabilized and were worry-free.

Expanding and iterating step-by-step, with various subsidiaries and composite talents like Dong Shuangqiang, Chen Zhixi, and Zhong Lifang sitting in charge, he didn't need to worry too much.

The most core business abroad was Twitter; in a sense, the importance of this public opinion tool was self-evident.

Unlike Mytube's low-profile development, even if he retreated behind the scenes on the surface, potential enemies like News Corporation and Deng Wendi could not be deceived so easily.

Coupled with the foreseeable public opinion war and slanging match with pro-Japanese media in the West before and after the release of the massacre movie, the loyalty of Twitter's core management must be guaranteed.

Even if the equity was firmly in his own hands, he still had to put the people he trusted most in core positions.

Judging from today's performance, Liu Yifei acting on his will, with Sun Wenwen assisting from the side, should be a suitable choice.

In the heart of this public relations company boss, Lu Kuan, the public opinion tool of the Fourth Estate was a strategic weapon that could bring him a sense of security.

He had handed the Blog Network to Zhuang Xu, and he had handed Twitter to Liu Yifei, who still had to go to school in North America.

Gaining the trust of such a suspicious person was truly not an easy task.

This kind of thing, I believe Fan Bingbing has deep experience.

It was nearly nine o'clock when they came out of the Twitter headquarters in Mountain View; it seemed there was no need to rush back to Los Angeles today.

Liu Xiaoli was in New York, and Huang Anna sent someone to accompany her to handle a series of procedures regarding naturalization and offshore company registration, becoming the owner of Twitter on the surface.

Afei drove the two of them to stop at the entrance of the Rosewood Hotel in Menlo Park, took out the two room cards that had already been processed, and went to park the car himself.

Boss Lu took them; they were two high-end luxury suites adjacent to each other on the seventh floor of the hotel.

Tsk tsk, wasteful.

The young girl carried her light bag and followed behind the man into the hotel lobby, where several pairs of blonde beauties with big breasts were hugging bespectacled men in plaid shirts.

"See that? These are all female hunters like Deng Wendi; these Silicon Valley elite men are the perfect prey."

"Why?"

Boss Lu teased: "Silicon Valley is the holy land for internet elites; every few months, a batch of programmers become millionaires because their startups go public."

"These gold-diggers are investing."

"Think about it; the programmer group is mostly science and engineering men, dealing with code all year round, good at logical analysis, and most of them are clueless about male-female relationships and interpersonal relationships."

"How can they withstand the coaxing and deception of these blonde ladies? Once they find a good target, they marry and then divorce, and it's a windfall."

The young girl covered her mouth and giggled, tapping him lightly: "You have the heart of a villain; can't you allow people to have true love? Not all women are Deng Wendi."

"True love?"

The two entered the elevator; Boss Lu turned his head and wanted to tease her a few words, but found that he could say this to anyone, but not to this young girl.

This was the real 24k pure love party, Don Quixote Fei; the nineteen-year-old girl's sense of conviction was terrifyingly strong and could not be lightly insulted.

Otherwise, it might very well invite a severe beating.

The young man and woman walked to their respective room doors; if it weren't for each taking out a card, outsiders would really look like a young couple opening a room.

Looking at rooms during the day, opening rooms at night, but they were opening rooms separately.

Boss Lu suddenly issued an invitation: "Going to sleep just like this? There is red wine in the room; accompany me for two glasses?"

Liu raised her eyebrows, her pretty face slightly red: "You washing machine, what do you want to do?"

"Hey! I can't beat you anyway, what are you afraid of."

The young girl poked her head to look at the room's layout: "Alright, I'll forgive you for not having that courage."

Running around all day was actually quite tiring, not to mention working overtime in Mountain View until nine o'clock; drinking two glasses of red wine to help sleep was a good choice.

US federal law stipulates that people under 21 cannot purchase or consume alcoholic beverages. But state regulations vary, and in such a top-tier luxury hotel, no American police officer would be idle enough to check this.

Liu kicked off her high heels and lay on the armrest of the chair, watching him pour wine with interest.

In the high-end hotel suite, various facilities and equipment were fully equipped; Boss Lu took out a bottle of Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon with a market price of about 600 US dollars, looked at the label, and opened the wine.

He held the neck of the wine bottle with his right hand, placed his index finger lightly on the bottle body, and clamped it with his thumb and middle finger, trying not to touch the wine body directly.

Liu Yifei wondered: "Is this to prevent the temperature from changing and affecting the taste?"

"Yes!"

"There is still some temperature difference indoors and outdoors in Los Angeles in March; the temperature of the hand for this quality of red wine is too high, and touching it for a long time will affect the taste."

Liu sneered: "You are just poor and particular, never treating yourself badly."

Boss Lu poured the wine into the decanter and sat back on the sofa: "Living in this world, if you have the conditions, enjoy it; if you don't have the conditions, endure it; it's all the same."

"You have also endured?"

"Of course, I have endured many times."

"I don't believe it!" The young girl pouted, then immediately thought of a question.

"When you were doing Mytube abroad and Inquiry Realm Video in the country, it was to prevent people from plagiarizing and cutting off, right?"

"Then this time you started doing Twitter in North America, why is it not synchronized in the country?"

Boss Lu explained: "The objective conditions are different."

"At the beginning of the year, Nielsen in the United States released data that the penetration rate of broadband users has reached nearly 80%, the internet backbone network is constantly upgrading, data transmission speed has increased significantly, and it can support larger data transmission and more complex internet applications."

"Therefore, internet products like Mytube, Mspace, and Facebook have room for vigorous development."

"But the broadband penetration and penetration rate in the country are still relatively low; at the beginning of the year, the national Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized the creation of the China Broadband Fund, with the first round of financing nearly 200 million US dollars."

"Objective conditions determine that the soil for internet products in the country is not fertile enough, but our infrastructure capability is unquestionable, and the catching-up speed will be very fast."

"The reason Inquiry Realm Video was launched early was to grab cabbage-priced copyrights from competitors; now it is not yet time for it to play a role."

"As for micro-blogs like Twitter, we can wait a little longer."

Liu Yifei folded her jade hands on the armrest, resting her chin on the back of her smooth hands and looking at him.

Lu Kuan sank into the sofa, pillowing his arms, and the two chatted across the air.

"Why did you suddenly think of this?"

Liu Yifei frowned: "Siwei called me yesterday and said that Yanda Huayi, Yahoo China, and Xiangtai want to co-host a variety show and invited me to be a guest."

Boss Lu pretended not to know: "What show?"

"Yahoo Search Star, Yahoo China invested 30 million to sponsor the talent show, will invite 3-4 big directors to sit in charge, and compete in groups."

The young girl further explained: "I am not concerned about this variety show; it's just that I heard Siwei say that Ali sponsored this variety show, and Yahoo China itself is also an Ali shareholder; it seems Ali's Ma Yun also intends to invest in Yanda Huayi."

"Inquiry Realm's advantage is that the internet and entertainment industries rely on each other; now it's Ali, later it might be Penguin, Sina, etc.; they should all be your competitors, right?"

"So I was thinking, Penguin's traffic is higher than the Blog Network, and Ali's scale seems to exceed Inquiry Realm Mall."

"If these internet competitors all flood into the cultural and entertainment industry, how should Inquiry Realm Holdings maintain its competitiveness?"

Boss Lu nodded: "It's very good to be able to think of these."

"Being able to look at the user activity numbers dialectically in the office today, and being able to dig out such information behind this entertainment news, you have made progress."

Liu Yifei rolled her eyes at him proudly: "Stop flattering, you haven't told me the answer yet; you should have thought about these long ago, right?"

Boss Lu stood up leisurely to pour the decanted red wine: "What's the point of telling you the answer."

"You can think about it like playing a game; just treat it as a main quest."

Liu Yifei took the goblet: "Homework again? I haven't finished the last one yet!"

Boss Lu smiled: "Great people say, struggle with heaven, the joy is infinite! Struggle with earth, the joy is infinite! Struggle with people, the joy is infinite!"

"Your insights as a top actor in the future will be obtained from the process of these social lives, interactions, and insights."

"All successes and setbacks will make your soul fuller and your mind more mature; these are all wealth."

The temperature in the room rose; Liu Yifei's skin was white and moist, her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were watery as she squinted at him, her tone coquettish: "Master Lu, stop chanting!"

The young director raised his glass: "Accompany Tang Seng for two glasses; if you get me drunk, I won't chant anymore."

"Hee hee, cheers~~~"

The next day, Liu Yifei woke up leisurely from the luxury suite at the Menlo Park Hotel that cost 8,000 US dollars a night.

The faint sunlight passed through the thin window gauze and stopped on her pretty face.

The Imperial Concubine was not drunk last night, just a little tipsy.

Coupled with the white goose down-filled Duxiana pillow in the high-end hotel and the Italian Frette luxury mattress, the comfortable environment made her sleep especially sweetly that night.

The young girl rubbed her sleepy eyes, and the mobile phone by her ear vibrated non-stop.

"Hello?"

"Awake?"

Liu looked at the time and it was already ten o'clock: "Why did I sleep so long?"

Boss Lu teased her: "Last night I said drink two glasses and go back to sleep, but you wouldn't let me, wanting to compete with me."

"As a result, you drank too much and sang and danced; I recorded it all for you, I'll send it to you later to see."

"What! Really or fake?"

The young director was serious: "Of course it's true; you felt hot and desperately took off your clothes; fortunately, I pressed you down, threw you on the bed, and covered you with a quilt."

"I! You!"

Liu suddenly lifted the quilt, only to find that she was still wearing her outer pants; no wonder it was so awkward.

"Washing machine! Hurry up and delete the video!"

The evil woman's roar was quite loud; Boss Lu took the phone further away in the car: "I will fly to Beiping later; Mia will go to pick you up back to Chicago."

"Prepare yourself for these few months; it is expected to start filming before the end of the year."

The voice on the other end of the phone stopped abruptly.

Knowing he was leaving, it was estimated that they wouldn't be able to meet for a few months again.

Liu instantly felt as if her throat was blocked by something, not knowing what to say.

"Got it, have a safe trip."

"Good, hanging up."

The cold ringing tone of beep-beep-beep came; the young girl leaned against the head of the bed, feeling inexplicably empty in her heart.

——

On March 12, 2006, Boss Lu arrived in Jin Ling with Inquiry Realm's core filming team and Huo Tingxiao, the art director borrowed from Old Mouzi.

Just like the street construction before the filming of "Tangshan" and the collection of various period props, historical films like this consume a lot of time in preliminary preparation.

Especially in the newly revised script that had just been filed for review, because plot scenes reviewing historical facts such as "Rabe's Diary" and "Vautrin's Diary" were inserted, the requirements for the authenticity of historical scenes were even higher.

Jin Ling specifically sent a team composed of the Municipal Education Commission, professors from the History Department of Jin Ling University, members of the Massacre History Research Society, and logistics support departments such as public security and fire fighting to serve the crew for a long time.

The current main set location is the Shi Jiao Film and Television Base, which is also the filming location for the later "The Flowers of War".

In addition, there are Jin Ling Women's University, Rabe's house, including the survivor residences visited by Zhang Chunru in Jin Ling around 1995.

Ten years later, most of the survivors interviewed by Zhang Chunru had passed away, and many houses had been demolished, all of which needed to be rebuilt.

Although troublesome, this part of the effort could not be saved.

Because in the process of Lu Kuan collecting materials and writing the script, whether it was talking to her in person or from Zhang Chunru's notes and diaries, it could be clearly known.

This visit to the hometown was an important turning point in her book-writing process.

This ethnic Chinese female writer, born into a high-ranking Kuomintang family with parents who were both high-intellectuals from Ye Lu and Harvard, was greatly touched during her trip to Jin Ling!

Seeing that many survivors and their descendants were poor and living a hard life;

Comparing them with those beasts who committed war crimes, yet were still receiving high comfort money and pensions from the Japanese government.

How ironic!

It was also from this trip back to the country that Zhang Chunru, after being touched, changed from a writer exploring historical truth into an angel of justice and a human rights fighter.

She began to cast aside all concerns and spared no effort to seek justice for the 300,000 souls of that year.

In a few days, the group visited historical sites such as Jin Ling Women's University, Rabe's house at No. 1 Xiaofenqiao, the International Committee headquarters at No. 5 Ninghai Road, the Japanese Embassy, the Overseas Chinese Hostel, and Gulou Hospital.

The young director tirelessly took art director Huo Tingxiao and the construction person in charge to measure almost the entire Jin Ling with their feet.

Especially in the main scene—the set of the Jin Ling Safety Zone in 1937, a professional team of more than 30 people, including historical consultants, art directors, set designers, and prop masters, wrote tirelessly, carefully recording the director's requirements.

Everyone could feel Lu Kuan's importance and seriousness toward this movie, and he would do his best to do it well.

At 10:00 AM on the 14th, the crew held a rather low-key project launch press conference at the Jin Ling Hotel.

The reason it is said to be low-key is that neither the first little flower of the mainland, Liu Yifei, nor the Oscar winner Tom Hanks, nor Julianne Moore were present.

Due to the large scale of the crew, other characters with faces and lines in the play were still in private casting.

The subject matter of this film is special, in order to avoid giving excuses to the Japanese right-wing association, media, and bought public intellectuals after the release, Boss Lu made full preparations from the beginning of the project.

The filming funds were solely invested by the private enterprise Inquiry Realm Holdings;

The set construction in the Jin Ling area was not supported by the local government like "Tangshan", and was all counted in the total investment;

There was also Dong Shuangqiang's suggestion, like the later "The Flowers of War", to put the project launch and opening ceremony in the CPPCC Auditorium and the Great Hall of the People, which was also rejected by Boss Lu.

The goal was only one: to prevent this film from being given a handle by the right wing from the moment it was born, so as not to be attacked later as a government propaganda film, etc., and to give Western audiences a false impression.

Based on the nature of the film, the layout in the Jin Ling Hotel was simple and the atmosphere was serious.

Under the applause of the media reporters who were notified in advance, the young director took the microphone and went on stage.

"Hello, reporter friends, today is the project launch ceremony for our film, which uses the book 'The Rape of Nanking' written by Ms. Zhang Chunru as a clue to restore real historical scenes."

"Given the reason for the film's subject matter, this project launch press conference is simplified; today I will give a brief introduction and accept questions from media friends."

"China Film Report": "Director Lu, may I ask what the general idea and theme of the film script are?"

"Using Ms. Zhang Chunru's book writing as the main clue, starting from the 'Rabe's Diary' she discovered, combined with the content of 'Vautrin's Diary' to restore real historical scenes, exposing the crimes committed by Japanese fascists in Jin Ling in 1937."

"As for the theme, first is to defend historical truth, call on people to respect historical facts, and be vigilant against historical nihilism."

"Secondly, it is to remember history and cherish peace."

"And, through the perspective of Ms. Zhang Chunru, promote justice and courage!"

Applause broke out from the audience, and many Jin Ling locals who came spontaneously stood outside the cordon at the press conference site, their expressions extremely excited.

The reporter from "China Film Report" continued to ask: "Director Lu, why choose 'Rabe's Diary' and 'Vautrin's Diary' to restore historical scenes?"

Lu Kuan said solemnly: "The audience for this film is facing the world; from this perspective, choosing historical materials widely recognized in the West will have stronger credibility."

"'Rabe's Diary' has been recognized by Harvard's modern Chinese history professor Kirby, Ye Lu Library's Martha Smalley, and others."

"'The New York Times' has also reported on 'Rabe's Diary', pointing out that this diary provides rare third-party records of the atrocities of the Jin Ling Massacre, allowing people to understand the deeds of Rabe, this German businessman, in protecting the people during the Jin Ling Massacre."

"'Vautrin's Diary' is the same, first discovered and exhibited by Ye Lu University Divinity Library, and has extremely high historical value."

A reporter from "Film News" asked a question that everyone was more concerned about: "May I ask Director Lu, have the candidates for several main actors in the film, including the roles of Rabe and Vautrin you just mentioned, been decided?"

"Ms. Zhang Chunru will be played by Miss Liu Yifei, Rabe will be played by Tom Hanks, and Vautrin will be played by Julianne Moore; we will gradually announce the remaining roles."

There was an uproar in the audience.

Most of the people present today were professional film media.

Except for the salary of the little flower Liu Yifei, the remaining two Hollywood stars were not low, and Tom Hanks was firmly in the 25 million US dollar club.

Was this film, which was obviously an art film, going to make such a big battle?

A reporter from "Yangtze Evening News" asked: "We all know Miss Liu Yifei's previous role types; besides ancient costume beauties, they are youthful and lively girls."

"From this point of view, is Director Lu worried that her role image does not match Zhang Chunru herself?"

Boss Lu explained: "Biographical films, or historical films, usually pay attention to both form and spirit in casting."

"Whether it is Tom Hanks or Julianne Moore, their age and image in 1937 are similar to the historical figures; Tom Hanks even has German ancestry."

"As for Liu Yifei, whom you mentioned, choosing her is first because her age and appearance are close to Zhang Chunru, who was about 24 years old around 92-94."

"Secondly, Liu Yifei has lived in the United States for several years, and her experience and language are close to those of Ms. Zhang Chunru, an ethnic Chinese; these are all casting elements that biographical films focus on."

"Finally, choosing Liu Yifei is also because she is very dedicated; she has prepared for nearly half a year for this film, observing and imitating Ms. Zhang Chunru's habits, demeanor, body movements, accent, etc.; this is the most critical point."

The reporter from "Yangtze Evening News" was from Jin Ling; before the young director finished speaking, he applauded, and in his excitement, he almost knocked off his glasses.

The whispers of the reporters gradually grew louder, and the audience at the scene gradually began to boil.

Compared with the big flowers and little flowers in the domestic entertainment industry who were still tirelessly pursuing status, popularity, and pomp, this "Yifei", who was unique in terms of economic value and traffic popularity, was once again so different.

Not to mention going to North America to recharge after emotional injury, and spending nearly half a year for a historical biographical film—

If you count the subsequent filming time, it was almost a year of dedicated preparation.

Such professional attitude could only be seen in Li Xuejian who played "Jiao Yulu" and Zhao Dan who played "Lin Zexu" more than ten years ago.

In the increasingly impetuous domestic entertainment industry, after this film, perhaps for this nineteen-year-old girl, using the title of actor instead of star or little flower seems purer.

Of course, this was not a bad thing for entertainment companies like Chentian, Yanda Huayi, and Yinghuang who were persistently pursuing a share of the little flower track.

Even for Lu Kuan's film, they didn't think such a subject matter could bring Liu Yifei much economic value improvement.

Wasn't this just a good opportunity for everyone to chase and overtake on a curve?

Yang Mi's Xuejian in Yanda Huayi's "Sword 3", replacing the later Li Man to play Jiang Chan in "Curse of the Golden Flower";

Huang Shengyi's Liji in Chentian's "Red Cliff", including Tang Yan's Zixuan and the heroine in "Rob-B-Hood" from Yinghuang.

Because Liu Yifei's popularity and economic value were stronger than in the previous life, it also pushed the resource tilt of major entertainment companies toward little flower artists in disguise.

Including Liu Shishi, who had already disappeared, the changes in the acting careers of these female stars in this life could be considered a major impact brought by Lu Kuan's butterfly wings.

The reporter from "Beijing Youth Daily" asked the last question, which was also a question that had been ignored by everyone.

"Director Lu, what is the name of this film?"

"'The Sky of History'."

He had thought about the name of this film for a long time.

"Zhang Chunru" was not suitable, because what was praised and depicted in the film, besides Ms. Zhang Chunru, were international humanitarian friends such as Rabe and Vautrin;

He originally wanted to use the name of the memorial hall in Zhang Chunru's hometown in the later life—Angel of Justice, but always felt it was not grand enough, without the vicissitudes and accumulation of historical years.

After thinking about it, he decided to combine an important image in the film: the sky of different eras, and used this film name that was easy for both Chinese and foreign audiences to understand.

This press conference, which was lower-key and simpler than Lu Kuan's first film "Whiplash" when he first started, ended quickly.

It's just that the scene was low-key, which did not affect the explosion of topics.

In the domestic entertainment industry, his and Liu Yifei's names were the biggest topics, not to mention this historical biographical blockbuster with a budget as high as 360 million RMB.

In addition to the articles from various media, the film's lead actors Liu Yifei, Tom Hanks, and Julianne Moore all opened accounts on the domestic Blog Network, and together with Twitter abroad, synchronized interactive promotion.

Liu posted a photo of herself and Zhang Chunru on the blog; the bare-faced face shape was indeed quite similar to this ethnic Chinese female writer who was under forty.

The accompanying text only had four words:

Angel of Justice.

Happy New Year's Eve! Book friends, sleep until you wake up naturally, count money until your hands cramp!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 326 =====