Chapter 133: The World Has Changed
Li Chen turned on his phone after getting off the plane.
Countless missed call notifications and text messages flew in like dandruff.
Liu Yifei was in the same situation.
Li Chen read the message from Yang Siwei and remained calm.
He carefully recalled what he had said that night; it didn't seem like anything was out of line.
"See! You still said it was nothing?" Liu Yifei held her phone in front of Li Chen's eyes.
Xue Xiaolu and the others nearby still didn't know what had happened.
"What's wrong, Li Chen?" Xue Xiaolu asked, puzzled.
Li Chen smiled: "It's nothing, Sister Lu, there should be quite a few reporters ahead."
"Yifei and I won't be going with you all."
Li Chen didn't let Tang Yan follow.
He left her in the capital to study piano so that she wouldn't be criticized when filming genius gunner.
Shen Teng laughed: "Director Li, are you taking the VIP exit? Give me a ride too, I've never been through there!"
Li Chen chuckled, ignoring Shen Teng's attempt to be chummy.
He made another call to the driver, then Li Chen and Liu Yifei, along with two assistants, parted ways with the rest of the crew.
The entertainment reporters waiting at the entrance were greatly disappointed when they didn't catch Li Chen and Liu Yifei.
On the other side, after Li Chen and Liu Yifei got into the car, they started replying to calls and messages.
Li Chen first called Gu Yongkeng back.
He had thought it was something important, but it turned out Gu Yongkeng wanted to interview him.
Li Chen told him to arrange for someone to interview Yang Siwei, as he didn't have time now.
He was his investor, not his tool, what was he thinking!
He could give him some juicy scoops, but he couldn't accept his arrangements.
Gu Yongkeng's enthusiasm was halved; how could Yang Siwei compare to Li Chen?
Then Li Chen called Han Sanping back.
Han Sanping had already calmed down by now.
"I said, why are you clashing with old Wu again, kid?"
"Han Dong, I said you can't play favorites. You've seen the exposé, you know who started it."
"I don't care who started it, I'll talk to him! You stop making trouble on your end."
"Alright, no problem on my end. If there's nothing else, I'll hang up first."
Han Sanping's idea was good, but unfortunately, plans can't keep up with changes.
Zhang Jiazhen, the producer of red cliff and Wu Yusen's partner, immediately spoke out publicly, refuting Li Chen's statement that Wu Yusen couldn't make historical epics.
This was equivalent to indirectly confirming the authenticity of the exposé.
A long-winded statement, which boiled down to two points.
It was nothing more than emphasizing the glory brought by Mission: Impossible 2.
Wu Yusen was also the first Chinese director to leave his handprints at the Chinese Theater in the US.
His talent was unquestionable; could he not make historical epics just because he hadn't taken history classes?
Many directors in Hong Kong, including Wu Yusen, hadn't even finished high school.
Yet, they still made many successful and acclaimed films.
Furthermore, he repeatedly stated that Wu Yusen never looked down on mainland actors.
Li Chen was completely slandering him maliciously.
When Li Chen arrived at the company, Yang Siwei and Wu Bin had already been waiting for a long time.
Seeing Li Chen emerge from the elevator, the two quickly stepped forward to report on the situation.
Li Chen listened and nodded.
The two receptionists maintained their smiles and bowed to the company boss walking towards them, greeting: "Director Li."
Li Chen nodded slightly.
After the three walked past, the two receptionists started gossiping.
"General Manager Yang and General Manager Wu both looked serious, but Director Li was so relaxed. Did you see just now, Director Li even smiled at me?"
"I'm not blind, of course I saw it. The big boss is truly the big boss; even if he's nervous, he won't show it in front of us."
Actually, Li Chen also didn't want to keep getting entangled with the red cliff crew.
Because this would undoubtedly be indirectly promoting red cliff.
If he talked about it too much, when red cliff was released,
Many people would definitely go to increase red cliff's box office to verify Li Chen's prediction.
This was like when The Promise was cursed to the heavens.
Yet, some people still refused to believe that a great director like Chen Kaige could make a 'well-known' bad movie.
They would willingly pay for tickets to see it for themselves.
And Wu Yusen was more famous than Chen Kaige.
Zhang Jiazhen jumping out to refute him might very well be a tactic to leverage the situation and hype up red cliff.
This person was already quite similar to Zhang Dapao, a master at marketing and hype.
Wu Yusen's ability to break into Hollywood back then was largely due to his efforts.
Wu Bin reported to him that soldiers sortie had already wrapped up, but not many people were paying attention.
The script for china partner had also been submitted, and Xu Xiaoping raved about it.
Hearing that Rongchen Film and Television would be producing it, and the release date was after their planned Nasdaq listing,
Their last bit of worry disappeared.
Wu Bin then smiled: "Director Li, I've set the casting for those three plays for the 25th."
Li Chen nodded. He had already decided on the main characters; the supporting roles would be left to Wu Bin to choose.
He would just review the results at the end.
Li Chen then said to Yang Siwei, who was beside him: "Siwei, reply to the media."
"Don't mention red cliff again. We are not obligated to promote red cliff."
Yang Siwei had also matured a lot in the past two years. Her first impression when Zhang Jiazhen jumped out was that he was using the opportunity to hype things up.
Who wouldn't want to piggyback on her boss's popularity?
"I understand, boss, I'll get right on it."
Li Chen nodded: "Also, whether they are hyping it up or not, they can hype, and so can we!"
Yang Siwei's eyes lit up, and she smiled and nodded, thinking to herself that her boss was right.
You do your thing, I'll do mine, each going our own way.
You use this opportunity to hype red cliff, and I can also use this opportunity to build momentum for those years!
Immediately after, Yang Siwei, representing Rongchen Film and Television, spoke to the media.
She then instructed her subordinates to 'get moving'.
"Observe their words, listen to their actions. Whether they look down on mainland performing artists is not something that can be convinced by just a few words."
"Regarding the online exposé, it is indeed true, but Rongchen Film and Television and Director Li will not be responding further to this matter."
This made the 'netizens' even more agitated.
"A hero falls for a beauty, Shen Jiayi appears, Ko Teng's combat power explodes!"
"For Li Chen's values, I'll buy two extra tickets for those years!"
"Brother Chen is truly Brother Chen, he says he won't invest in Violent Wu's movie, and he doesn't. I'll buy tickets too!"
"Li Chen is too honest, how could he speak about Wu Yusen like that!"
"The future world is yours, and it's ours, but ultimately, it's ours!"
"Xiao Qiao chose a thirty-year-old old model? Zhang Jingchu, Fan Bingbing, who isn't better than her! And they say they don't look down on mainland artists, they're truly shameless!"
Netizens online were overwhelmingly critical, with only a small number of Hong Kong netizens speaking up for Wu Yusen.
Zhang Jiazhen made a series of phone calls in Hong Kong.
As a result, from Wong Jing, who had been confronted by Li Chen, to Zeng Zhiwei, who was more recent, all politely declined his request.
In a suite at the Junyue Hotel in Taiwan.
Zhang Jiazhen hung up the phone and exchanged glances with Wu Yusen, who was sitting with his legs crossed and a grim expression.
"Wong Jing said he couldn't speak out; someone must have already spoken to him!"
Wu Yusen intertwined his fingers, his two thumbs moving back and forth, without saying a word.
He hadn't expected Li Chen's influence to be so great that even his good friend Wong Jing didn't dare to speak up.
Wu Yusen didn't need to think to know who had spoken to Wong Jing.
Zhang Jiazhen, unwilling to give up, made a few more calls, then completely lost hope.
TVB also wouldn't speak out in support of Wu Yusen.
Chen Kexin directly stated that his daughter had just been born, and he didn't want to cause trouble!
Wu Yusen stood up: "Forget it, let's not mention this matter again."
"Consider it giving Han Sanping some face!"
In fact, Wu Yusen knew in his heart.
Those words were just for show, talking to himself.
If his own people in Hong Kong didn't support him, what was there to say?
He didn't want to end up like Zeng Zhiwei, disgraced and humiliated.
Furthermore, what bothered him now was that once the casting for red cliff was announced, people would surely accuse him of looking down on mainland artists.
Because, among the main characters currently cast, aside from Chow Yun-fat playing Zhou Yu,
He indeed intended to find the other roles in Taiwan.
He didn't know how Li Chen's eyesight was so sharp, seeing through his pretense at a glance.
Wu Yusen and Zhang Jiazhen were unaware that as soon as this matter was reported,
Xiang Huaqiang had already warned Zeng Zhiwei and others who had grudges with Li Chen.
Besides Xiang Huaqiang, Emperor Entertainment also released word that they would not get involved in the dispute between Wu Yusen and Li Chen.
Emperor Entertainment was still hoping to secure the father's love is like a mountain 2 project from Rongchen Film and Television.
Why would they help Wu Yusen in a thankless task?
Ms. Zhen, a senior executive at TVB, received instructions from her boss not to bother with Zhang Jiazhen and his associates.
In fact, even without her boss's instructions, Ms. Zhen would not have spoken out to help Wu Yusen and his group.
They were still strategic partners with Rongchen Film and Television.
If they got into a dispute with Rongchen Film and Television, their competitor, Asia Television (ATV), would certainly be happy to see it happen.
In this era where copyrights were like toilet paper,
Aside from Rongchen Film and Television, there was probably no other company willing to pay high prices to purchase TVB and Asia Television (ATV) dramas.
Recently, for the popular War and Beauty, although a mainland video website company also wanted to purchase the copyright,
However, in front of the rich and powerful Rongchen Film and Television, it was simply not enough.
Laymen watch the excitement, while experts watch the intricacies.
Netizens only saw Li Chen's sharp words and strong style.
But insiders knew that all of this stemmed from his strength.
If someone else had dared to challenge Wu Yusen like that, it’s unlikely that Zhang Jiading would even need to speak up.
Others would have already done Wu Yusen’s bidding.
The unresolved status of Rongchen Film and Television’s three projects made the film and television companies in the industry extremely envious.
Emperor Entertainment was desperate to get "father's love is like a mountain 2."
Orange Sky Entertainment had a large number of unemployed actors who were starving for work.
Yu Dong of Bona Film Group even directly stated that he was willing to guarantee 200 million for the distribution rights of "painted skin 2."
This truly astonished the industry.
It was only recently rumored that a film merchant was willing to guarantee 200 million for the distribution of Zhang Yimou’s "full city of golden armor."
However, the specific film merchant remained unknown.
Many people in the industry believed this was Zhang Dapao creating hype.
But for "painted skin 2," Bona Film Group had genuinely made an offer.
The onlookers initially thought that Li Chen and Wu Yusen would have a peak showdown.
However, both parties involved fell silent, as if they had each been dealt a heavy blow.
In the past, when such incidents occurred, the Hong Kong filmmakers who took sides seemed to have their vocal cords collectively go on strike.
No matter how the entertainment reporters asked, these people refused to discuss the topic further.
In China Film Group Corporation Han Sanping's office.
Han Sanping was a bit distracted; he had watched Li Chen grow from nothing, step by step.
It could be said that he had not contributed much to Li Chen's rise.
Instead, Li Chen had helped him greatly.
Han Sanping was filled with emotion; in just three short years,
Li Chen's influence had grown to a point where he could no longer ignore it.
It had developed to this stage, subtly and quietly.
Even Director Wang had greeted him.
Unconsciously, he had brought together Shanghai Film Group, Wanda, Enlight Media, Emperor Entertainment, China Star, and TVB.
His reach extended across the Two Shores and Three Regions, while Daylight Entertainment, which he had invested in, had also established connections with CCTV.
China Film Group Corporation was also an investor in "crossing the guandong," but he hadn't exerted much effort himself.
Hou Hongliang had handled everything on his own.
CCTV's own production, "Legend of the White Snake," had just aired on CCTV-8.
And "crossing the guandong" had already been confirmed to air during prime time on CCTV-1.
This truly made Han Sanping feel like, upon looking back, the world had changed.
His daughter's words yesterday were very true: he couldn't take the wrong side and disappoint this young man.
Moreover, how Wu Yusen's "red cliff" would fare still needed to be tested by box office and critical acclaim.
But Li Chen had truly never disappointed him; he had a treasure mountain but didn't even realize it!
Han Sanping picked up his phone and called Li Chen.
Li Chen, who had hung up the phone, was a bit puzzled.
Why had Han Sanping suddenly changed his attitude?
He told him that he had already spoken to Wu Yusen.
If Wu Yusen caused any more trouble, he would stand by him!
Li An, the other of the three parties involved, was also exasperated at this time.
The exposure of this matter also brought his "lust, caution" to public attention.
Liu Yifei might not be interested, but there were plenty of people willing to sacrifice themselves for art, even if it meant truly 'doing it'!
Countless people contacted his company, all hoping that Li An would consider them.
But Li An politely declined them all.
Many actresses in the industry were absolutely mad with envy and jealousy towards Liu Yifei.
Among them was Jiang Yiyan.
It truly was a case of some dying of thirst while others drowned.
To be cast in Li An's film, don't even mention asking these actresses to spread their legs and lie down.
What if they had to entertain Li An for a week?
Liu Yifei really didn't want to discuss this topic with Jiang Yiyan.
However, Jiang Yiyan kept chattering, insisting on getting to the bottom of it.
"Did you really reject Director Li An's offer?"
"Yiyan, can we not talk about this? If you have nothing else, I'll hang up. I still have several announcements to rush to."
"No, no, no, I won't talk about it anymore, okay?" Jiang Yiyan sighed.
Liu Yifei didn't ask her why she sighed, which made Jiang Yiyan extremely awkward.
She could only confess without being asked: "Yifei, what do you think of me for the role of Zheng Wei in 'so young'?"
Liu Yifei also sighed softly. Jiang Yiyan wasn't the first person to ask her.
Shu Chang and Jiang Xin had both asked her, and her answer was always the same.
"Yiyan, that role has already been given to Yang Mi. I'm sorry, I can't help you."
"What about Ruan Ruan? Ruan Ruan should be fine, right?"
Liu Yifei was helpless: "I can try to get you an audition opportunity."
Jiang Yiyan was greatly disappointed, feeling that Liu Yifei was being perfunctory.
Director Li even got angry for you.
As the official girlfriend, you can't even decide on a supporting role; no one would believe it if you told them.
"Yifei, I've never asked you for anything. Please help me."
Liu Yifei was fed up. After a few seconds of silence, she said, "I'll talk to him for you, but I don't guarantee anything."
"Mhm, mhm, thank you."
After hanging up, Shu Chang, who was sitting nearby, teased with a smile.
"Chen Ge is hard to be, and Chen Ge's girlfriend is also hard to be."
Since the last time Li Chen scolded her, she had become much more well-behaved.
She no longer dared to casually switch roles and didn't call Li Chen 'Director Li' when she saw him, directly calling him 'Chen Ge.'
Liu Yifei pinched Shu Chang's cheek hard: "You're so annoying."
"Let go, you're hurting me, Xixi," Shu Chang cried out, continuously slapping Liu Yifei's hands.
"What are you doing here today!"
"Alright, alright, stop bothering me. You got me a role, so I had to come and treat you!" Shu Chang said affectionately, leaning closer.
Although she didn't get a role in "so young,"
it was still good that Xixi helped her get a role in "genius gunner."
Including the upcoming "the deer and the cauldron," she had made a good income this year.
While Liu Yifei was having a get-together with her best friend, Li Chen also had an engagement.
In the Sanyuan private room of Chang'an Club.
Li Chen, Wang Changtian, and Cao Guowei were seated.
"You're not spending the weekend with your girlfriend, but instead, you're asking the two of us out for tea. Is this still Director Li, who got angry for a beauty?"
Wang Changtian and Cao Guowei teased.
Cao Guowei smiled and didn't respond. The two didn't know why Li Chen had arranged this meeting today.
"General Manager Cao is about to take over. Let's celebrate General Manager Cao in advance today."
Cao Guowei's eyes lit up, and he smiled, "Did you arrange an undercover agent in our Sina?"
"Hahaha, you guys at Sina are allowed to arrange paparazzi to follow me every day, but I'm not allowed to pay attention to you?" Li Chen laughed heartily.
Wang Changtian and Cao Guowei also laughed.
"Later, I'll introduce a friend to you two. I'm sure you both know him, and he was even General Manager Cao's competitor before."
Wang Changtian and Cao Guowei exchanged glances.
"Gu Yongkeng?" Cao Guowei said.
Li Chen smiled and nodded.
"Brother, your actions are getting bigger and bigger. Guowei and I can barely keep up with you," Wang Changtian said meaningfully.
These were his heartfelt words; Li Chen's series of actions were dazzling.
Especially investing in Gu Yongkeng to create a video website, which was purely a money-burning endeavor.
At least for now, video websites were in a fierce competition, with no one emerging victorious, and no one had found a profitable model.
The two of them had discussed Li Chen's purpose in doing this in private, but they couldn't see through it.
"You two, please help Gu Yongkeng as much as you can. I thank you in advance," Li Chen said with a smile.
"Brother, it's rare for you to ask. We'll definitely give you this face. I also want to see how far Gu Yongkeng can take that Heyi.com," Wang Changtian said.
Cao Guowei didn't speak, his eyes flickering, but he was thinking about how he should navigate his future path.
Li Chen secretly mused that it wasn't the time for Sina to launch Sina Weibo yet.
At least, he had to wait until Cao Guowei had settled in and gained the right to speak.
Cao Guowei was about to take over as Sina's CEO, and Gu Yongkeng's side had just started.
Li Chen couldn't let him feel neglected.
That's why he arranged this gathering today.
He hoped that Gu Yongkeng's Heyi.com could partner with Enlight Media and Sina.
They could exchange resources and lay the foundation for future cooperation.
Gu Yongkeng didn't know why Li Chen had invited him today. He was quite displeased that Li Chen had refused the interview that day.
You're the major shareholder of Heyi.com, and you won't even agree to such a small request.
Upon arriving at Chang'an Club and seeing Wang Changtian and Cao Guowei, Gu Yongkeng instantly understood.
He didn't need Li Chen to explain; he knew what this gathering meant today.
Thank you to all the readers for your votes and support, especially reader Qiufengshaoluo who cast 10 votes. I thought only 5 votes could be cast. Thank you, thank you. Although there's no bonus for less than a thousand votes, seeing the monthly ticket reminders pop up on my phone every now and then makes me happy. At least it means people enjoy reading it. I hope we can break a thousand monthly tickets this month, and I'll draw a prize too.